gifts of sustainability

This year our Valentine's Day gifts to each other reflected a huge shift in our priorities towards living a more sustainable life. One of the things we have been working on is establishing a sort of "permaculture" at our house. When we moved into this house, there were already two pomegranate trees, a grapefruit tree, a lemon tree, and a key lime tree. We now have six laying hens, have started composting on-site, grow our own herbs in a beautiful large pot in the front yard, and have a raised vegetable garden bed in the backyard. For Valentine's Day, I gave Kirsten a gift of more permaculture. We had two more fruit trees planted by a local nursery (Civano's): a Pink Lady apple tree and an Asian Pear tree. With all the rain we're having this month, they might just fruit next year...

Another thing we've been working on is reducing our waste stream. This was started with recycling first, then adding our non-meat food waste to the compost, now we are working on "pre-cycling" where you don't use or buy things that are packaged excessively or with materials that are non-compostable or non-recyclable. To that end, Kirsten gave me a very cool gift. A stainless steel "to-go food" container. Similar to this, although I'm not sure where she ordered my actual gift: I love it! It's perfect for to-go situations, and even just for taking a lunch or snacks on the road. Awesome gift honey!

Valentine's Day kisses

Happy Valentine's Day! The boys got candy lip thingies that made them look so funny, I just had to post this pic... so cute!