What is success?

We live in a world of rampant consumerism where doing the right thing, be it ethical treatment of other people, animals or the environment are weighed against their impact on economic growth and return on investment. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't we be asking ourselves "what will be the impact of my economic activity on my fellow human beings and the planet we all call home?" How did we come to this place where it is OK to tear the earth open and leave her bleeding all so that people are provided  with cheap power, and someone's pockets are lined a bit in the bargain? How did it become normal to poison and deplete soil and water in order to produce excesses of corn, beef, pork and soybeans? All of them, by the way, foods that have been linked to cancer and obesity. 

I believe one of the fundamental problems is that over time we have developed a deeply flawed definition of success. Today success is measured by how much you have; how much stuff, how much influence and of course... how much money you have to buy it all. 

If we could redefine success, perhaps we would stand a chance of coming to some agreement on issues such as climate change, fair and equitable distribution of the worlds resources, alternative energy and a host of other issues that plague our people and our planet. What might that definition look like? I think Ralph Waldo Emerson had a pretty good idea. This is how he defined success:

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To give of one's self; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - This is to have succeeded.

I couldn't have said it better myself. So I will say no more (for now).

Revolution Day 10 and Major Website Overhaul

My latest adventure in local living was signing up for a CSA Share. My first. I signed up with Wolf Pine Farm in Alfred, Maine. I chose this CSA because they consolidate products with several other Maine farms to produce a share with a great variety of veggies and other farm produce. If you aren't ready to start growing your own veg, or if you don't have the time, space or skill set yet to produce all the veg you need, consider taking part in a CSA. This helps to support local farms and puts fresh healthy food on your table. 

The chickens got into the neighbor's yard and I spent a cold half hour rounding them up and getting them corralled in the back yard away from the property line. Hubby spent most of the day installing new insulated garage doors. Once we add insulation to the ceiling over the top floor and take care of a few cosmetic issues we'll be ready to but those great recycled banquet tables in and get down to a real king sized potluck with friends and neighbors. That's one great way to do local entertainment!

Other than that not a lot to report today saving a major overhaul on the website Sustainable Me. I added many new links and gave the site a new fresher look and flow. Check out Places We Shop and Today's New Links. You'll find new links to permaculture principles and more. 

I hope you like the new updates. Keep coming back as I have a lot of new content ready to post in the next few days. And stay tuned here for more adventures in local living. 

Oh for home made bread...

This morning I enjoyed 2 tiny little eggs courtesy of the friendly girls out back. You can see those little cream colored eggs in the photo below. I wish I had a photo of the gorgeous yolks, but my camera was not handy and I didn't want them to get overdone. They were bright orange! Along with my eggs I had a cup of locally roasted coffee from the coffee roaster just a short trip down the road from our place. The aroma! And some toast. This was the one disappointment in my morning. The toast was made from some store bought bread that we had in the freezer. We had to clean out the freezer to make room for all the stuff from our garden and the wonderful turkey from Spruce Creek Farm. The whole time I was eating my breakfast I kept thinking about the delicious home made bread that Hubby made last week with the organic wheat flour from Misty Brook Farm. It was a sensory experience for eyes, nose and mouth. The store bought bread was rather bland and crumby and I pined for that homemade bread.

Some days, as we are out working around, Hubby says, tongue-in-cheek, "Let's have a farm, he said. It'll be fun....." the monologue continues. The point of the monologue being that it's a bit of work this farming business. But I can tell you that the sense of satisfaction that you feel when you see your plants growing and thriving and your property being improved, and when you sit down to a meal of delicious food that you have grown and prepared yourself it is well worth every bit of labor you put in. And the work itself gives more satisfaction than almost any other kind of labor.

There are sacrifices to be made to live locally and sustainably, but I think that once you have adapted, you wont think of them as sacrifices so much, or you just wont think of them. You'll be too busy enjoying the fruits of your labor.

"What is local?" or "I Haven't Started Making My Own Pet Food... Yet"

So just exactly what is local anyway? Is it the distance you can drive and return home on one tank or on one gallon of gas? Is it how far you can travel by bicycle or on foot comfortably? Does it mean within your own town, or within a specific radius of miles? I think you see where I'm going with this. It can be a complicated equation. And I'll throw another variable at you. Does it have to be the same for everything you are sourcing? 

I'll be completely honest with you. I haven't started making my own pet food..... yet, nor am I buying  it from someone who does at prices rivaling a New York strip steak. But I have stopped buying it from the grocery store and started to buy it from my local family owned feed store. At least that way I know that profits on the purchase will stay in my community. So my pet food purchase is advancing one of my localization goals. It is improving the health of my local economy. But economic health is not the only goal of localization. I personally think that too much focus on the economy is the cause of many environmental, social and humanitarian crises around  the world. 

So I'll get to the point.. In considering what is local I want to think about how far it has traveled, if it was produced ethically (meaning humans and animals were not harmed or exploited in its production), and if it was produced in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner. I'll look first in my own town and neighboring communities, next I'll try to keep it within my own state or region if possible and if I can 't find it there I will see if I can find a reasonable substitute (like substituting prunes for raisins). Before I go much farther afield I'll ask myself if I can do without it. I'm betting that in most cases I can find a reasonable substitute or do without, but there may be some times that I need to go a bit further. At each step it is important to remember to look for products that are ethically and environmentally produced. 

One example of a real challenging product is coffee. Since there is no coffee grown in the continental US, what does one do if they just can't seem to give up their coffee habit?  I've found a pretty good substitute for coffee that is made with a mixture of herbs and spices, but some folks don't have my taste for it and sometime I want a real cup of coffee myself. I'm fortunate in that we have a coffee roaster here in town. So you find yourself the nearest coffee roaster that roasts organic free trade coffee and you drink a bit less of it, because it does cost more than the other stuff and because, after all, you are trying to reduce your carbon footprint. You sit back and enjoy your locally roasted, organic, free trade coffee and you are happy because you made a decision not based purely on how much it cost YOU, RIGHT NOW but on what it will cost the planet and its current and future inhabitants if you don't stop to think before you spend. You sip and you smile. You did good.

No I haven't started making my own pet food yet but, at some point, I probably will, once I work out my own food storage plan and can make a little room in the freezer. I hear you asking, "why would you do that?" Well, I'll tell you... in another post :-) 

My pet. He's definitely cute enough to deserve home-made pet food

Day 5: Local Photo Shoot

Well folks, it has been another very long day. 9 hours at the office and an hour of commuting followed by dinner and housework and yet more apple peeling. I'm exhausted. No energy for a lengthy post tonight, but I will share with you some photos of our recent activities that haven't made it onto the blog yet. I hope you will find them in turns amusing and inspiring. So, without further ado, on with the photo shoot!

I only wish you could smell this! These spices came home yesterday whole from the bulk bin at the local health food store.

Hubby ground them up this evening and made them into a most delicious chai which I am drinking even as I type this. 

The inside of the nutmeg. I thought it was just gorgeous on top of smelling heavenly

Step One: spiced apple and pumpkin wine 

Nora nibbling on some greens in the garden while we were putting it to bed and planting the winter rye. She snacked on her fair share of seed as well. Gladys and Mama Cass got in on the action as well

We don't begrudge them their few treats, as they provide us with these delicious eggs.

Just one of many dozen's of apples we peeled. The pies and sauces we'll enjoy this winter will be ample reward.

A happy apple. Yes it has a few spots but it has never been exposed to pesticides or chemical fertilizers, that makes it happy and makes me happy too.

After looking at these photos, I bet you can see why I said yesterday that my general happiness level has improved already. Well that's it for my photo shoot.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll be able to get up that post on "what is local" that I've been promising myself and you that I would get in here. 

Local Arts and Entertainment

When we ask ourselves that age old question, what shall we do tonight, how many of us answer with the predictable "dinner at -insert your favorite chain restaurant here- and a movie at the nearest megaplex cinema"?  It's not that these restaurants are bad, it's just that as it is a chain or franchise you know that a large portion of the profits from your meal are being shipped directly out of your community to corporate share holders. You don't know where the ingredients in your meal came from or what their environmental impact is.  When you eat at a local mom-and-pop type restaurant your dollars stay in the community and continue to circulate in the community making it more vibrant and economically stable. You can also get a pretty good idea of if the owners support local farmers and if they select natural wholesome ingredients. 

The same goes for that movie at the megaplex. Once again your dollars are being shipped out of your community, but you probably haven't stopped to think about the impact you could have if you supported the arts locally by attending a local art show, local stage production or took in a second run movie at the refurbished theater in the next town. These businesses need our support if they are to survive and thrive. Unfortunately, so many of them have already gone by the way-side. Every time we loose one of these local businesses we loose a bit of our freedom of choice.  

One of the driving concepts behind One Earth Revolution is to get us all thinking and once we've started thinking to remind us that we have choices. We have choices in everything we do, in every purchase that we make and every service that we pay for. These choices, once made, have far reaching impacts on our lives, the lives of our children, our communities and our planet.  We don't all have to follow the same set of guidelines but we should all be thinking about what are the guidelines that direct our decisions, and we should stop and refer to them before making blind purchases without stopping to think about their overall impact. 

Since I've started this experiment, I stop to think about every purchase I make and after I've made my purchase, if I decide to purchase, I am very satisfied with the result. I can honestly say, that already, in just four days, I've seen an overall improvement in my general happiness level. So that I can answer the question posed by this great piece I picked up at a local art show. I know the direction I'm going and I'm certain it's a good one!

Lucky in Where I Live

When it comes to living locally, it doesn't get much better than this little corner of southern Maine. I've been impressed by just how lucky I am since I woke this morning. We have local goat's milk soap and even a factory that makes all-natural toiletries less then 30 miles from our home. We have one of the greatest little breakfast restaurants that serves the freshest gourmet breakfast at prices comparable to the big franchised places and we have great neighbors. Today just for crossing the street and asking we were blessed with the opportunity to pick our own apples for free. They are some of the sweetest most delicious apples I have ever tasted and they are completely organic. 

Here is my darling husband picking apples.

Here are those beautiful apples

And  here they are being prepared for a tasty pie that will be served at our fabulous banquet table. Actually there are two. The first obtained from the local Habitat for Humanity store (proceeds from sales go to support the work of HFH), the second came from the free-cycle shop at our local transfer station. They are a matched set! 

Yes we are truly fortunate in where we live. The great thing is that we can all be this lucky. It takes some effort and some time, but the rewards are more than worth the work and the sacrifice. The steps you take will vary depending on where you live, but the end result will be the same. You will never feel more fulfilled than when you are able to provide for the needs of yourself  and your family right in your own back yard and your community without spending a great deal of money and while meeting interesting new people, making new friends, reconnecting with old friends, and learning new skills. 

This has honestly been one of the most wonderful and blessed weekends I have spent in a long time. I'm looking forward to the new discoveries this coming week holds in store.