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Christmas Time

It's that time of the year again..I'm glad

we waited until Thanksgiving was over to embrace our Christmas decor.

I'm blessed to have a wonderful wife

that enjoys the Holidays just as much as I do.

She took a day off to relax and she

'Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash..'

It all looks so amazing in our new 'Ole home.

She never ceases to amaze me with her ability to mix and match.

I admire her ability to turn what looks like

lots of random pieces, to me, into 

these magazine cover pages.

Here's to you my little Elf..

I Love You

From the ground to the table

Well, I've decided to try gardening again this year. Last year I planted a mature tomato plant and it yielded several tasty 'Better Boy' tomatoes. Today, I was driving on my way home and I was listening to one of my favorite radio stations, WFCM - Murfreesboro, TN - Moody Radio. They had 'America's Cheapest Family' on 'In The Market with Janet Parshall'. Having heard the Economides's talking about Gardening on other broadcasts, I knew I wanted to hear what they had to say.

They were discussing the best gardening practice techniques and how to get started. I've always wanted to produce a good amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, but I've never really had the space or time to. Hearing today that fresh produce from the Market will be increasing over the next few months was the last straw for me. I've toyed with idea of really gardening for sometime, but I've always made excuses. I'm tired of making excuses. Today, I ordered a revision of a book that the Economides's highly recommended, 'All New Square Food Gardening' by Mel Bartholomew.

I did my research on this book and I can only find great reviews and for about $13 bucks off of Amazon, it's a cheap investment even if it fails. I have high hopes for this project, but I know that this transition must be made incrementally. I look forward to writing about my experiences with this concept, both good and bad. But, hopefully more good than bad.

One last thought, Mrs. Parshall brought up a very good observation. She mentioned that the garden holds many scenes throughout the Bible. From where God placed man (Gen. 2:15), all the way to the establishment of the New Jerusalem (Rev 22:2). And as we draw nigh to Easter Sunday, it was in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus spoke to his father in private on Earth for the last time (Matt 26:36). Shortly after he spoke to God, he was then met by Judas and the Roman guards, like he had predicted.

Let's prepare our hearts and our minds for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

God Bless,

Michael

Is going Green really that green?

When you start talking about going "Green", everyone has there own unique understanding of this concept. The Free Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, defines going green as Environmentalism.

"Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the state of the environment. Environmentalism and environmental concerns are often represented by the color green."

This evolving movement is every where you go now. If you asked John Doe when did this movement start, depending on his age you would get one of two answers. If Mr. Doe is 40 yrs. or older, then he would tell you it started in the 60's and 70's. If John is less than 30 yrs. old, then he would tell you something like "Al Gore, EPA, etc."

Although there isn't a precise date for the origin of this movement, it started way before the 60's. Theodore Roosevelt was one of the very first vocal advocates for conservation, here in America. That's right; much of the ideology that comes from Environmentalism is shared by Conservationism. These camps have their differences, but have similar fundamental ideas. In 1910, Teddy gave a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas where he discussed conservation. He was a propionate of the discreet use of natural resources. He also successfully secured around 230 million acres of American soil for national forests, parks, and monument.

I'm very cautious when I hear "Green", "Eco-Friendly", or "Environmentally Safe". I don't care what company it is or what they're selling, it's all about an Angle; Profitability. This means that any one can make gains off a Trendy Topic. My capitalistic sense applauses them while my conservation side digs past the initial cover. No matter what someone is selling it's all about timing and marketing. Now is the time to market Green products and services, instead of the 80's.

This post is to make the audience more self aware of the techniques companies will pursue to exploit this movement. If a company can make a simple positive environmental change to an existing product or service, they'll implement that change (no matter how small the change) and Slap on that Ole' Eco-Friendly label. Don't get me wrong, some companies are really achieving milestones and making an impact on the environment. But for every company that exceeds the standards, who knows how many are taking advantage of their successes?

These CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) light bulbs are environmentally, sort of. Let's toss around some figures, guys like to see results. According to the Census Bureau, in the good old US of A we have about 129,969,653 households. Assuming that half of these households use CFL light bulbs this puts us at 64,984,827 households. According to Popular Mechanics, the average household has 45 light bulbs. If half of these light bulbs are CFL lights that puts our overall consumption around 1.5 million lights. The average life span on these little efficient guys is close to 5 years. Each CFL contains about 4mg of Mercury. That means that every five years, Americans are putting approximately 132,000 pounds of Mercury into our soils. That means this is going into our ground water through leaching. This is multi-dimensional issue. Wildlife will drink that water and so will we.

The last quick topic that needs to be addressed, Green vehicles. Even when we get to the point of self sufficient vehicles, they will still be made by those same Coal fired plants that so many fight against. It's what made America so Great, the industrial age. Those same Coal fired plants will charge these new eco friendly cars. I heard a report that the new rechargeable cars, when charging, use as much energy as a house.

When the power goes out or a natural disaster occurs, you can always count on those primitive methods of fuel to survive.

Just something things to think about.

The Madness of March

NCAA March Madness

It's that time again...

Over the years,
I've followed the NCAA Basketball March Madness Tournament, off and on. This year I got the "Bracket Bug", again, the day before the tournament started. I mentioned to my wife that I wanted to fill out my PERFECT bracket again this year. Her response took me by surprise...

"I've never filled out a bracket."

*

Let's take a quick side-step...

I

My wife likes sports just as much as I do.

I'm glad that she filled one out this year.

II

In my family, we Enjoy a little thing we like to call

COMPETITION.

We always try to keep it friendly, but we all make mistakes.

*

After I discovered that my wife had never experienced the joy

of filling out a bracket, I knew what I had to do.

So, I created a NCAA Bracket League. I invited my Mother-in-law,

who always gets everyone pumped up about sports and the neat sideline stories,

that are sometime even more unbelievable than their athletic feats.

We filled out our brackets the other night and have followed

the scoreboards since then.

I'm currently in second place, to my Wife.

Confession:

I'm a very competitive person, just ask anyone that knows me.
I hate to lose.
My Wife has helped me channel my over-competitiveness.
Every challenge is a challenge...an opportunity to make the right decission.

Recap:

* NCAA March Madness Tournament = Quality Family Time

* Bracket Challenge = Healthy Competition

* CBS Scoreboard Widget = Knowledge is Power


Have a great weekend

Remember Family time is the Best time...Happy Birthday Dolly and Duke (Our Dogs)!!!