The Shinn Digs

Admittedly I haven’t done much research on this … just watched this video. You should too. It is a worthy question to ask ourselves … how will we take a stand in making changes? Will we go to this extreme? Probably not … but are there changes we will make? Many think we won’t have a choice … we will have to make some changes. I’ve got go … the goat is chasing Zak and Kins has her hand stuck in the new hand cranked clothes wringer.

Here it is … what you’ve all been waiting for … a new post! Both my parents and Garth’s have commented to us that they miss reading what’s happening at the Shinn household, and really … two months is long enough to not have anything to say. I hope this doesn’t disappoint (and someone - please comment that you wish Garth would blog … he has a password, username, and everything!)

If you drive by our house you may notice a light shade of green emanating from the property. I’ve found that once I gain a bit of knowledge about something, it’s difficult to ignore complacancy or injustice in that area. So, as I’ve done a bit of reading, enjoyed conversations with friends, and done some web research, I’ve found there really are (and probably should be) some small changes we can make to be more aware of our choices and the impact it makes on God’s creation.

Some small (and in some cases minute) changes that we’ve attempted to make are:

• using cloth/canvas grocery bags
• carrying our own coffee mugs (some former FCA Huddle Leaders - you know who you are - are still adjusting to this concept, though others we’ve converted very quickly!)
• not using bottled water (we’ve not yet graduated to the stainless or aluminum bottles, but maybe those will be in our future)
• walking to the grocery and Lane Farms
• composting (this experiment is still in it’s evaluation period)
• Garth is driving slower and tailgating big rigs in an effort to get better gas mileage
• I’m biking to campus as much as possible
• Planning errands to coordinate with kids’ after school activities to be more gas conscious
• Line drying clothes (this makes me feel like Laura Ingalls a bit, and I’ve now got some statistics that show this only saves $.14/load, so I don’t know this is something we’ll keep doing … imagine my disappointment!)
• Replacing light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (thanks to someone’s vision of installing our entire house with recessed lighting, we have A LOT of bulbs, and therefore must do this gradually … yes - I’m the guilty party!)
• And lastly, our latest experiment … our “garden”

I put this in quotes, because I don’t know that you can yet consider what we have a going an actual garden (it’s a puny comparison to what my Dad & Mom and several of our friends have). But, if you’ve been to our house, you know there is VERY LITTLE free space to put a garden. The swimming pool in the back yard (and the concrete that fills the ENTIRE back yard) render that area not optional. We did have a few thoughts of taking out our front lawn and making a garden, but we opted for a smaller scale experiment.

After a bit of research, we decided to do what Mel says … Mel Bartholomew is the author of All New Square Foot Gardening and we are now disciples. This gardening method uses small spaces to gain the most productivity and variety possible (as opposed to the typical row gardening method). So, we built our garden in a space in our driveway that is basically dead space. We built three 4′x4′x6″ boxes and placed them two feet apart. In square foot gardening, you square off each box (we used string to do this) to form 1′x1′ squares. So there are 16 spaces in each box. You plant a different crop (or flower) in each square. We have mixed in some seeds, and some starter plants, along with some flowers. We figured since it’s right in the front of our house, it would be nice if this was somewhat aesthetic! It’s been a long time since I’ve gardened, unless you count the bumper crop of tomatoes from last year! We don’t really have any idea how much our garden will produce. Just this morning I spotted our first sprouts of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. We’re looking forward to seeing how it goes. We have future expansion possibilities in mind … another available space on our property would be a roof top garden on our carport! I’ve added a new category (gardening), and we’ll update as things grow! Here are the very first pictures on Day 1 of the garden. The cardboard squares are supposed to keep the little seedlings from baking in the sun, but as of today I’ve removed them as (mainly because May Gray has officially set in and there is no sun!) Here’s to the possibility of some locally grown food in our future!

We’re all in Minnesota … Kinsley and Keaton have spent the entire summer at their Nana and Papa’s enjoy their time with them, riding horses, water skiing, and visiting their family. Garth and I flew here on Tuesday … I’ve been visiting one of my best college buddies, Julie Fredeen (whom I always call “Fredeen”) … and Garth has been meeting with clients and visiting with friends and family. It’s been a great trip! It was so fun to be together again and “squeeze the life out of” the kids (that’s what we call those really great big, bear hugs! Fredeen lives on the opposite side of the city from where Garth and the kids were staying, so as I sit here enjoy my last Caribou Coffee for awhile, I’m really looking forward to meeting up with them at the airport for our trip home!

Yesterday was quite an experience … the Minnesota State Fair, or as I will now refer to it, “The Fat Fast.” This is not a reflection on those who attended, but rather on the potential outcome if you spent more than one afternoon scanning the food selections. I am serious when I say this … every food you can think of can be found at the fair - with one catch … it was fried! I’m just going to list the foods Fredeen and I ate (sorry … I realize this is slightly disgusting):

• Pronta pups (corn dog - batter around a hot dog dipped in batter … and fried)
• 1919 draft root beer (ok - not fried)
• cheese curds (little bits of cheese dipped in batter … and fried)
• roasted corn on the cob (not fried, but lots of butter)
• deep fried pickles (a giant dill pickle cut in slices, battered, and fried)
• deep fried snickers bar (a snickers bar dipped in cake batter, and fried)
• Dole whip (a sorbet-like dessert - not fried … I needed a break)
• we sampled some Kashi brand food at a booth (again - we needed a break. Plus we got free canvas grocery bags!)
• Lefse (not really fried, but sort of like a crepe)
• One more stop at the 1919 root beer stand

Now … this is a lot of food! But what we passed by was unbelievable!

• a bucket full of Sweet Martha’s chocolate chips cookies
• deep fried Twinkies (the thought is nasty!)
• Tom thumb mini-donuts (fried of course)
• Deep fried corn fritters
• Fried green tomatoes
• Pork chop on a stick
• spaghetti on a stick (I don’t quite understand it either)
• Alligator on a stick
• Ostrich … on a stick
• Hot dish … on a stick (who knows!)
• Chocolate covered bananas … on a stick

Thus … The Fat Fest. We walked for about 5 hours, and about 20 minutes of that time we didn’t have food in our hand. It was nasty … disgusting … delicious … extravagant … and I need some vegetables when I get back to CA!