"Various Shades of Green"

Our Herb & Flower garden

We all have to start somewhere right?  Here at UrbanFarm we haven't always been so green and often are just varying shades of green depending on who we compare ourselves to.  But instead of feeling guilty or not living up to someone elses' standards, we try to remember it's more about the journey of  "becoming better".

Once when I was trying to limit (OK, eradicate) our garbage disposing I hid our kitchen can and proclaimed that we weren't going to produce garbage anymore.  I wasn't quite prepared for the near mutiny that almost occurred.  After two days I decided that it wasn't worth my children learning "new" words every time their father opened the lower cupboard to throw something away.

Earthworms!

Next up were the earth worms.  They are quietly living under the kitchen sink (behind that garbage can) eating our leftover food scraps.  We've had them for a year now and all 100,000 are still undetected (and no, they do not smell!).

Rain catchment system

Over the past few years we have had compost bins (two, which have been decommissioned for the past 6months because we are moving to a farm, eventually).  We even sold our 550 gallon rain catchment system (again, that farm thing).  Just recently a wholesaler asked us to send pictures of our farm.  I said that we did "literally" live on an urban farm in the suburbs.

So being "green" doesn't mean you have to live in the country or sacrifice the garbage can-you can be as green as you want and we're OK with that.  Heck, we'll even share our earth worms with you.

Come visit us at www.UrbanFarmNaturals.com and see what we are doing when we aren't feeding the earthworms.

Saying "YES!" to life...

It's been a crazy few weeks for us here at UrbanFarm.  While we aren't what we consider impulsive folks, we have been lately.  You see, we have been experimenting with the word "Yes".  Kind of like the movie "Yes Man" minus the Red Bull.  The places that is has taken us as a result have opened new doors to unusual experiences and gathered us new friends.

It really started about 3 weeks ago when we were trying to fly from Seattle to Atlanta, then on to Paris.  Seats were oversold (we fly Standby, which often means we "standby" and watch the plane leave the gate without us) so Jeff said, "You want to go to Amsterdam?"  Within an hour Darby and I were on the plane (without Jeff).  I do admit that I didn't know exactly where Amsterdam was other than in Europe and I was nervous being on my own with an 8 year old flying to a country that I didn't know much about (other than tulips & other certain plants that aren't supposed to be grown legally here in the States).  Darby & I saw life sized Rembrandt's, Anne Frank's hideout, ate yogurt made from pure cream, sat on park benches for hours listening  to the Church bells, and rode the Canal buses. We even made a few new friends with the flight attendants Don and Rich.

On a Wednesday evening my Mom and Aunt Sue said "yes" to attending a "Fashion Feud" (we didn't know what that was) in Seattle .  We watched our friend Tina and another artist compete as they designed and sewed a dress in one hour after given a mystery bag of material.  Tina won and we had the most enjoyable evening.  We all decided that we would say "yes" more often to things we weren't familiar with.

Jeff and Darby decided at the last minute on a Friday to go to Madras Oregon for a Horse Drawn Carriage Auction & Swap (we weren't sure where Madras was either).  While we don't own horses (or plan to), Jeff's family has several old horse buggies and wagons, even a cool late 1800's Hurst.  He wanted to see if there was much of a market for the wagons.  What was surprising is there is a whole lifestyle that we were only faintly aware of.  People actually still farm with draft horses and old fashioned implements.  And live life simply.

It is easy to become comfortable with our everyday life styles and routines.  While it isn't always easy to step outside of that comfort zone, the rewards that we can gain by having an open mind to adventure is saying "YES!" to a happy, fulfilling life... but please don't ask me to ride my Cannondale naked in the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade.

Tell us about some of the things you've said "yes" to lately!

Visit us at www.UrbanfarmNaturals.com and see what we do when we aren't saying "YES!" to things we know little about.

Creating the Handmade life.....

In our pursuit of a more "natural" lifestyle and because Jeff & I originally chose aviation as a career (which essentially means resigning 3/4 of your adult life to poverty), we had very little money to spend most of the time so became pros at dumpster diving (yes really-just not food!) and yard sales (or "tag" sales as Martha would say).  Now that it has become somewhat hip to recycle everything, we are now officially "cool", or so we tell our kids.

Over the last decade we have been preparing for higher oil prices & anything else that we don't want to say out loud for fear of being labeled “paranoid” (and I do know a little about paranoia, as I once worked with 30 Paranoid Schizophrenics).  It used to be that we just made almost everything ourselves-with all four hands.  However, as life became increasingly hectic and we would meet people at Farmers Markets & craft shows, we were introduced to the coveted term "trade friendly"! Kolt & Darby have become quite skilled at trading our soaps for Shower Art, Handmade Dolls , ... and Tweets' Toffee.

While envisioning eventually paying $20 a gallon for gas, we have set up a network close to home. We get our eggs from Chris, organic vegetables from Garden Treasures, coffee/tea from Fiddlehead, and clothes from Tina at Glam Spoon. For special occasions Robyn bakes a German chocolate birthday cake for Grandpa  and sews sweet aprons for any little girl’s birthday party we're invited to.  Our company photos come from the amazing Molly and Angie teaches Darby how to felt, knit & make a loom.

We figure  ~80-90% of our purchases are recycled (Thrift Stores/Yard Sales/Craig's List/generous friends), made from companies that are here in the USA, or handmade by us or friends. I doubt we will ever make the 100% mark as I have yet to find anyone that can make socks or underwear that my family will wear.

Besides the benefit of supporting products that are actually made here in the United States & local Artisans, it's really more about building relationships.  We know exactly where most of our food comes from and the people that cultivate it.  I find tremendous pleasure in using, wearing or eating something that a good friend has created or grown with their own hands...We would love to hear how you are creating your own handmade life!

Visit us at www.UrbanFarmNaturals.com  and see what we do when we aren't eating German chocolate cake from our multi-talented friend Robyn.

Waiting for the UrbanFarm....

It's been 14 months now since we first saw the house on 5 acres that we knew was "The One". Granted, the house was only 18 years old, although it looked 50. But the bones were good. We knew that we could scrap the undesirable layers of outdated purplish brown and dull beige paint along with the smells of too many cats & 2 big dogs away.

That was 14 months ago, 2 closing dates scheduled and now past, numerous drive-byes (it's vacant), and countless emails to Realtors, a Short Sale specialist (trust me, there is "nothing" short about a "Short Sale" except patience) and a grumpy attorney.

I can't even begin to go into detail regarding all the obstacles because I would hate to cry all over my new mac keyboard. I can say that we do have all the colors, flooring, fruit trees, acre of blueberries, vegetables & flowers all picked out and places to put everything planned. But then we are in a perpetual "holding pattern"-literally. In a past life I used to teach (mostly) foreigners how to fly airplanes, so I am painfully familiar with holding patterns and the lack of control one feels while in one-which is even more painful for those of us that are "control freaks", but deny it publicly. Bottom line, we are at the mercy of "The Bankers" (aka, Lien Holders). There is no logical way to understand their thinking. We gave up on that 9 months ago.

So the UrbanFarm family is not so patiently waiting for our future "UrbanFarm". It's going to be perfect because we have faith and hope and are really good at "holding patterns", even if it's in the air!

visit us at www.UrbanFarmNaturals.com to see what we do when we're not waiting around for the UrbanFarm to materialize.