by Dawn | Sep 22, 2015 | family, parenting, sustainability
It was decided that the trans-hen-der chicken-that-is-really-a-rooster could not go be sent to the crock pot without a revolt from this vegetarian and that little boy. Then it crowed at 6:10AM, waking the boy again. I started thinking. Humans have eaten animals for...
by Dawn | Sep 17, 2015 | family, food, sustainability
All is quiet. It’s 4:30AM. The boy is asleep. I write. I drink coffee. It’s my favorite time of day, the time when silence fills the soul with enough peace to survive the next twenty-four hours. At precisely 6:10AM, the hen begins to crow. The boy...
by Dawn | Jul 5, 2015 | food, nature, sustainability, Zen
Every year I plant the garden. Every year I kill half. It’s a cycle. I’m okay with that–I’m getting old enough to do what I want to do in life, no questions asked. I have a system–I project out for harvest and compensate for my...
by Dawn | May 19, 2015 | simplicity, sustainability
Chicken Day is here. We went to the Putnam Farmer’s Co-op to pick out the birds a couple days ago. Putnam is an old Connecticut mill town in “The Quiet Corner,” the Northeastern part of Connecticut now famous for antique shops, formerly where...
by Dawn | Nov 19, 2014 | food, gratitude, sustainability
“Mom, I promise I’ll eat the bananas.” Declan put two large bunches in the cart. “Are you sure? That’s a lot of bananas.” He’s a picky eater, cycling through egg whites one week, apples the next, scoops of peanut...
by Dawn | Nov 3, 2014 | gratitude, sustainability
“What’s a paper towel? said little Declan at a holiday meal. A member of the extended family asked for one. I passed around a stack of cloth napkins. “It’s one of these made of paper.” Declan laughed. When he saw his first paper napkin in...