Civic Duty

Hello all you fine, friendly farmgirls! It’s finals week here at Alaska Pacific University, and because of that…I’m sleep deprived. It happens to the best procrastinators among us year after year, generation after generation. When some people say they are sleep deprived, they are probably surviving off of just a few hours of sleep here and a few hours of sleep there. Since I’m fairly child like, sleep deprivation for me means that I’m getting less than eight hours of sleep per night for several nights in a row. The least amount I’ve slept has been five hours, and I kind of feel like a zombie. I know, it’s rough. How can I hope to be a farmer some day if five hours of sleep leaves me feeling less-than-human? I don’t know, that’s a question for another day.

Anyway, I digress. One reason for this sleep deprivation is some forced civic dutiness I was assigned to complete for a graduate level environmental law class. We had to write and submit an official public comment to a governmental agency regarding our stance on some bill, act or other decision that is recently being decided upon. Of course, this had to be regarding something related to the environment.

Evan and I enjoying a spring ski. It should be a civic duty to enjoy state and national recreational areas on a regular basis.

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  1. MaryJane says:

    Thank you for this thoughtful, important post. When my children were young, I took them to many a public hearing on any manner of things. When it was my turn to read my prepared comments, my children would get out their crayons and coloring books. Looking back 30 years, I do in fact know, our voices made a difference, and my children now benefit from some of the decisions made because of the efforts so many of went to back then. Let our thoughtful, educated voices be heard!

  2. Tina Hart says:

    the words ‘super weed’ freaks me out and scares the heck outta me alone!

  3. Adrienne says:

    I live in California and was very unhappy that Proposition 37 didn’t pass because Big Ag threatened labeling of GMO foods would raise prices on produce. Monsanto is the culprit leading the fight for their Roundup-ready seeds and I fear the farmer who raises food organically will be forced to use their seeds. My friend has been suffering from pesticide poisoning after-effects and there is no cure. Thank you for what you’re doing to inform and enlighten.

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The Greener Side of Life

It’s the winter that keeps on giving. Maybe it’s just the winter that needs the last word, when everyone is too caught up in the impending spring and summer to retaliate against the shoveling and plowing anymore. We just give in. We put on our boots and cram our heads into our hats and head out into the white abyss without a dismissive word about the darn winter or cursing the yet-again snow-covered porch. We’ve become complacent with the winter world around us.

The only animals that seem to be protesting are the chickens. They have left their coop exactly once per day for the last five days to eat and drink. Egg laying has all but ceased.

The spring tease a few weeks ago had me excited about sitting on the GREEN grass, hiking in the GREEN wilds and strolling through the farmers market, checking out the GREENS. Im supposed to start a new farming gig in a few weeks, and it seems like the season may be off to an extended indoor start.

To compensate for this lack of natural green, this Farm Girl has been taking in some green news. Some of it has been great, some of it has been not-so-great; but the most interesting of it has been GREEN.

Does a green filter make this shot (from April 6) seem any less wintery?…No. The answer is no.

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  1. Joan says:

    Well now Alex, I can somewhat relate with your winter. I live somewhat on the plains of CO. – WIND/DUST/DRY/BEAUTIFUL. We haven’t had nearly as much snow – sure could use some wet but oh my the COLD and WIND have been our nemesis for many months – now that Spring is here – well so we are told – we are still having blizzards/whiteouts and the bulbs are very buried. BUT hope is always in my thinking and soon all this cold will be gone and I will probably be mentioning how HOT it is. Hope your weather clears soon and the GREEN will follow. Well best get back to one of the quilts I am making – I do hand sewing mostly and all hand quilting so it takes me a long time. God Bless

  2. Merrilyn says:

    This is absolutely a very long winter. I thought when we moved to Soldotna from Palmer it would be warmer. The major difference is we still get lots of snow but no wind to blow it away. How have the winds been this year? Keep your chin up. Everywhere seasons go through their up and down cycles. We just seem to be in the down cycle for the last couple years. We can always count on Alaska being beautiful in the summer. We live in a beautiful state. Keep writing..
    Your Alaska sister
    Merrilyn

  3. lara says:

    Thanks for the post. It’s great that you don’t let the white weather lower your positivity. Keep it up.

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