THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER . . .

Neighbor's lawn

Hallie & Nick's lawn

Daughter Hallie wrote: “Our grass has some brown spots--it gets to where it's not worth trying to keep up with watering. [The neighbors] didn't even try. We're almost the only people whose grass is mostly green.” I had to chuckle to myself since she was saying the grass is greener in her yard than the other fellow’s.

Hallie and Nick are remodeling an old Tudor, built in 1929, in a traditional Seattle neighborhood. That set me to thinking about my growing up years in small town America. Our neighborhood was also established in the 1910s and ‘20s when residential areas were designed with a grassy parking strip between street and sidewalk. I guess that was the vision for the ideal community in those days. The parking strip technically belonged to the city, but it was the responsibility of the homeowner to maintain it.

Family home, 1959 -- note brown spots in parking

Back in the day, having a lovely, lush green lawn was the homeowner’s goal. I would go so far as to say that keeping one’s lawn green was a responsibility of home ownership. We wondered about people who let their lawns turn brown in summer. That said, I do remember Mother explaining that we didn’t own the parking strip but had to water it anyway, and it took a lot of water to keep it green.

Especially in the day when most people didn't have sprinkler systems, brown spots were bound to develop in the yard. No matter the type of sprinkler you used, it would miss certain spots -- undetected at first -- which would then turn brown. As a girl, I was assigned to take a hose and water the brown spots, so I know from experience that it took a lot of water to turn a brown spot green. In fact, even as a child, I wasn't sure it was worth my time and effort -- or the water. But – we lived on a river and thought water was plentiful. Of course, we paid the city for the water, but again, we accepted that obligation.

When Mike and I married (1975), we also lived in a well-established old neighborhood with lawns, sidewalks, and parking strips, but attitudes were changing. The world was learning about water as a precious resource. Cities were charging more for it, rationing it, and begging us to conserve it. Some homeowners began to complain -- even rebel -- about watering the parking strip they didn’t really own.

A neighbor two doors up the street demanded that the city pay for the water to maintain their parking strip – or else. Of course, the city said no, and didn't care about the "or else," so our neighbor ripped out the grass, filled the strip with gravel, and built two raised bed planters out of railroad ties in the space. Their comment was that it took too much water to keep the strip green. (Hmmm. How much did it cost to build the planters, plant with annuals, maintain, etc.?)

I myself thought the planters were an eyesore, but our elderly next-door neighbor's comment caught my attention. “I don’t like it,” she said of the planters. “I like to look down the street and see the continuous green of the parking strip.” Her point was that the planters interrupted the consistent flow that drew the eye, a bit of the vintage design for life right before our eyes. Well, that was the old community plan, the old vision – beautiful but already past its time. 

Mike & Kathy's drought-tolerant landscape

Today we build neighborhoods without parking strips and often without sidewalks. And some conservationists encourage opting for landscapes that take less water than grass. KW

EARTH DAY: RE-USING TEXTILES

My Grandmother Portfors (Mother's mother) used to say, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." In other words, your finished product will be inferior if made up of inferior elements. My mother would quote that adage from time to time to justify the expense of quality materials for her projects. Mother hardly ever re-made a garment or re-used fabric. She loved new fabric of good quality -- and was keyed to it by touch as well as sight.

Into every life some mending must fall, but Mother also had her take on that: "A hole can just happen, but a mend is premeditated poverty," her point being that mended clothes make a statement. Mother taught me to darn socks, re-stitch seams, and make new pockets, but if a garment was torn, she didn't patch. Patching I learned on my own when my boys were little and I had to make their jeans last as long as I could.

When my mother-in-law visited us, she would check Mike's shirts and turn any frayed collars. It was wonderful of her to do so, and Mike was so pleased by her conservative efforts. But, my thinking was (and is) that when a shirt has a frayed collar, it's worn out, especially if you're a "white collar" worker. Also a shirt with a frayed collar is undoubtedly showing other signs of wear, such as sleeves worn thin at the elbows. Mike has a different view on the preservation of clothing. I mean – this is a guy who was still wearing his Boy Scout pants – and proudly boasting about it -- when he was 50. Believe me – most of Mike's jeans and several shirts sport mended holes.

As you can see, I'm not quite at ease with the subject of textile preservation and re-use. A part of me screams, "New is great!" and "Where is our pride?" Yet how can we reduce the textiles in our collective garbage pits if we don't give thoughtful consideration to this subject and act upon it. Here are some ideas I've seen for textile re-use:

• Use a vintage tablecloth to make shopping bags, purses, aprons, napkins, placemats, gift bags, whatever. I hate to see a beautiful, usable tablecloth cut apart, but it's another thing if it's stained and worn. (These same ideas might apply to bedspreads.)
  
• Felting, involving the deliberate shrinking of wool by means of washing in hot water and then drying in high heat. The resulting product can then be cut like fabric and sewn into slippers, glasses cases, handbags, etc. I have never done felting and am not convinced I want to start. (And this idea works only for wool -- not polyester or blends.)
  
• Unraveling of sweaters, afghans, etc., in order to re-use the yarn. I have a lot of respect for the time spent in knitting or crocheting, and I treasure the final product. However, when I see the many afghans available through Goodwill, rummage sales, and consignment shops, I have to admit the disposal of these things is a problem.
  
• Cutting fabric into strips to make "rag rugs," hot pads, etc. Now here's something I might consider. When I was a teen-ager, Mother and I cut some old nylon (rayon?) nightgowns and underwear into strips and crocheted a rug. Personally I think this is a rather practical idea. Yes indeed! I'd forgotten about this, but I even have some patterns for crocheting strips of fabric . . .
  

Textiles wear out. They rot if left in the sun; they wear out with use; they even wear out as they are stored. I gently washed some napkins from my mother's collection and one of them came apart. I had to reconsider a long-cherished plan to make dolls from my hand-embroidered pillowslips when a number of them split in the washing. Now I ask you, what can I do with those, apart from making them into rags?

Back in the day – quite a ways back – people re-used textiles to make clothing, quilts, curtains, etc. These days we don't so much. Today's quilter is particular about fabric; new cotton is recommended. Re-use is not so much encouraged. Are we going too far with that concept? Could we still make a serviceable quilt from used, discarded fabric?

Mike says he never has enough rags for his work in the shop. When we moved to this modular home from "the big house," I loaded two big boxes with bedding and towels I never wanted to see again and told Mike to get rid of them. I confess I meant for him to haul them to the landfill. "Did you take those boxes to the landfill or are they under the house?" I asked him later. "They're under the house," he replied. When he complains that he never has enough rags, I remind him of the boxes under the house.

I have just one more observation, a rather sad one. Any effort that we make as consumers is great – and we should do so. But – the worst offender is industry. Where can we place our efforts so that we make a difference?

[The pillowcases and shirts pictured above are basically worn out. I embroidered the shirts in the '70s and have kept them this long because of the embroidery work. Can the embroidery work be salvaged for something other than rags?] KW

GO GREEN!

I love "R-E" words: reduce, reuse, recycle, and to that we can add renew, renovate, remodel, refurbish, reorganize, rehabilitate. Well, you get the picture. To me they denote action that is the outcome of thought. They imply starting with what we have, who we are, or where we are, and making us better. They apply to conservation – making over, making do, improving. The old adage is "waste not, want not." Mike and I do the best we can to follow environmental guidelines and live conservatively.

First on the list – we limit the intake of plastic shopping bags. At first it was really hard. Even if I had my "green bags" in the car, I would forget them when I went into the store, but this year I seem to have "turned a corner" on that. I keep cloth bags in the car and actually carry them into the store. When it comes time to discard plastic bags – there will be some accumulation – I take them to recycle bins or share them where they can be re-used. Also, when I pick up some small item at the store, I simply say, "I don't need a bag."

"These 'green bags' are great," said the young man packing my groceries, "but they're sorta flimsy."

"You have to make the corners first," chimed in the cashier. "Then they work fine."

"I have a goal to make my own shopping bags," I added. We speculated on whether mine would be sturdier, and I think they would be. The cashier said he knew of one woman who had made her own.

Second – separation of recyclables. Clarkston does not have curbside pick-up of recyclables, so we separate cardboard, catalogs / magazines / newspapers, and plastic containers and carry them to the recycle station ourselves on a bi-weekly basis – or whenever the spirit moves us. This year I added tin cans to the effort, and I was amazed to discover how many we use! They say you don't have to clean them, but I always do to eliminate odors. We also save aluminum cans separately and turn them in for whatever little money we can get.

Third – composting. I have been composting for a number of years. I have a big black barrel on the farm where I toss table scraps, scrapings, and leavings of a vegetable nature. It's hard for me to come up with the recommended balance of compostable matter, but I keep trying to get it right.

Fourth – water conservation. Here in town we landscaped with rock and planted a xeriscape of drought-tolerant plants, aka perennials (glorified weeds?). It seems to work well in this environment – at least, the overall effect is okay. We eliminated maintenance of a lawn which requires water and mowing, but effort is required to maintain the plantings and we have to weed. Some years the beds seem to come back well; other years – like this year -- more is required of us to manage the plantings. On the farm, we use water collected in the old cistern to water plantings near the house. We don't water the lawn.

Fifth – textiles. They say textiles are clogging our landfills. While this is probably caused mainly by industry, they say that Goodwill and other dealers in used textiles have been known to throw them into the landfill. Ideas are presented to the consumer for re-use of textiles, but that's another post. KW

FISH AND GAME VISITS THE HOMESTEAD

One morning last January I was still in bed listening to our clock radio as Mike was getting ready to go to work. As a regular feature of the "wake-up" program, they interview a spokesman for Idaho Fish and Game – pretty much not ever interesting to me. But I suddenly became aware in my half-awake state that the combination of words was interesting. "So, if you have a field or a pond that you would be willing to devote to habitat development, give us a call at Idaho Fish and Game." I told Mike what I thought I'd heard, and he said he would call the local Fish and Game office. What I heard proved correct and the wildlife biologist was indeed interested in our property. Problem was, due to the snow and winter conditions we would be unable to host his visit until sometime into the spring. That appointment occurred today.

As we waited well past the appointment time, I remarked to Mike -- "He's the Fish and Game guy! He can't be lost."

"You live in the sticks!" said the biologist as he climbed down from his pick-up. Odd comment from a Fish and Game guy, I thought. Don't those guys mostly deal in the sticks? I can think of other places I call the sticks – not someplace ten miles out of a reasonably-sized settlement like Orofino. Or maybe I should revise my thinking.

He and Mike spent two and a half hours hiking the property with the result that the biologist is interested in beginning some work right away. First we have to discuss with our farmer to be sure these plans don't interfere with the agricultural interests. We'll keep you posted on progress.

After lunch at the farm, we drove back to Clarkston. I thought you might enjoy seeing these photos of a storm this morning. And the last photo is of a dejected Nellie as she waits for Mike and the biologist to return. KW

PLANTING AREA

To show you where we planted most of the trees:



I took this from a high point behind the grove. If you enlarge the picture you should be able to see the yellow cages.



On the left you see the house and the grove. We're planting trees on the back side of the field where you can see a few mature trees.







This last photo shows the snow on the Clearwater Mountains. The picture doesn't do the scene justice. The snow was glowing in the afternoon sun.

MISERABLY COLD AND WET

By the time we went to bed last night the wind was blowing. All through the night it howled and shrieked around the corners of the house, occasionally lifting and dropping the pieces of metal roofing Mike placed over the wood to keep it dry. When we woke at 5:45, there was white stuff on the roof, but that quickly dissipated. Nevertheless it was a cold and rainy day.

But – we came here with trees to plant – and plant we did. I kept thinking that a team of professionals would have 100 trees done in 10 minutes. I kept thinking that "Uncle Dan the Tree Man" would not choose today to plant. But it seems like here on the Camas Prairie it's either wet or dry. Looking at the worsening weather report we decided just to go for it and get it done. It's been a long time since I've been so cold, wet, and miserable. With the exception of one leftover tree, we finished the job.

I'm grateful for hot soup in the crockpot and a hot fire in the fireplace.

[It was not a good day for taking pictures. Mike plants a tree in the grove behind the house. I wait in the rain for him to take the picture and get back to work.] KW

WORLD WATER DAY, MARCH 22

Today – Saturday, March 22 – is World Water Day. Sponsored by the United Nations since 1992, the purpose of World Water Day is to raise awareness of the need to protect and improve access to clean water supplies. According to the article I read, only 2.5% of the world’s water is drinkable. This would be ample if the water were clean and available when needed – but it’s not. 1.2 billion of the world’s people lack access to safe drinking water. 2.6 billion lack proper sanitation (adequate sewage disposal). 1.8 million children worldwide died in 2006 due to tainted water supplies, not to mention those who became ill. Uncounted numbers of women still carry water. What can I do against such odds? Yet, as a citizen of the world, I see it as my obligation to know something about our water.

We have given some thought to this issue since we didn’t have hot and cold running water on the farm prior to remodeling the house. In fact, for the Dobson family there was not a viable source of drinking water near the house and water had to be carried from springs or from town. The spring water was probably of questionable quality. Now that we have a good deep well, our water supply is still dependent on the supply of electricity to the pump and the storage tank. It’s easy to take water for granted until for some reason we don’t have it.

Mike and I are concerned about water conservation wherever we are, but I admit to being a consumption offender when I shower. Mike on the other hand is a study in shower efficiency. Quickly wetting himself in extremely hot water, he then turns the water to a trickle while he lathers. He rinses in hot water and then turns the faucet to cold for a final blast. He has done this forever. When we remodeled the farmhouse, the contractor and the plumber just didn’t understand why they couldn’t interest me in anything but a small functional stall.

I’m sure I’ve spoken before of our drought-tolerant garden here in town. Plants in our garden must be perennial or self-seeding, deer resistant, and drought tolerant. One of our main interests in establishing such a landscape is the conservation of water – which brings me to the next issue, a conservation problem. In this little modular home, it takes forever for the hot water to come through. In other words, when I want to draw a sink of hot water, I probably run two gallons of good fresh cold water down the drain before the water coming through the tap is hot. It’s even worse in the master bathroom because it’s that much farther from the hot water tank. We have wondered how we can improve that situation. We thought of some sort of auxiliary hot water heater under the sink. We thought of catching the cold water and carrying it to the plants – an idea that applies only in the warm weather months. Let me know if you have any ideas on this subject.

I guess for the millions of people whose water is contaminated, these issues would seem frivolous. But wherever we are, we should be thinking about our water – its quality, its quantity, its future. KW