Feathered Friends

As an Alaskan, I love nature. Birding is a major part of that. Like most people, I didn't always know that. Before I started birding about six years ago, I knew only about 15 birds. Now my life list is looking healthier with more than 50 birds on it. Of course, it will take a lot to catch up with my mother-in-law's list that has 150 birds since she has been birding all her life. Even a classmate of my daughter Sara has 70 birds on his list.

So what is so important about birding? Birds are the most abundant and accessible wildlife in God's creation. So much is missed when we don't notice the birds everywhere around us.

Birding has created so many memories for our family. Abby, my middle daughter, and I seeing a vagrant purple martin once in Selawik. The Yellow Warblers trying to distract us from the nest that was somewhere nearby on the tundra. Watching the sandhill cranes graze with my mother-in-law. The Sabbath afternoon we saw the loon through binoculars. The boat trip with the Arctic tern flying over our heads. The Canada geese family we saw with my sister and her son. I could name so many more.

Sharing a love of nature with children is such pleasure, they catch your enthusiasm so easily. Abby is especially absorbed in it and Miriam isn't far behind. Abby is often at our dining room window watching the chickadees, nuthatches, and other birds at the feeders we have in a tree just outside. She also enjoys getting up close under that tree. She knows difference between a boreal and a black-capped chickadee at least as well as I do. Sometimes she will point out a bird I hadn't noticed.

Recently we are working on a birding project that requires the girls to have know 30 birds and me to know 60 birds. In my research, I found more benefits to bird-watching than I had previously thought, particularly for children. Here are some activities for very young children that I wish I had thought of.

Two tools we use to help us are National Wildlife Refuge Bird lists and iBird Pro.

Now all we want is a new bird. (On our life lists, that is.)

Tundra Sunset

Tundra Sunset
is tropically sweet
full of desire and desire
ever drinking, never quenched
voice of God calling me
in aching tones of love.

What's New

Sara just made her first phone call. She called to see if her friends Bethany and Brianna could come over. Unfortunately, they were at the basketball game at the gym. Sara loves to write letters to her Grandmas.

Abby's sewing skills are improving and she is beginning to led Miriam in their devotions. Abby also learned how to use our camera to take a picture of her new stuffed giraffe and has mended that same giraffe.

Miriam is always up to something. This week she has improved her writing and is trying to write letters to Grandpa. She used a drawing book to draw a squirrel. She is also working on dressing herself to go outside and play in the snow.

Happy Trading

Sometimes things come together so perfectly it has to be God. We are enjoying a "new" snowgo that will be easier to maintain.

We have been using Warren's brother Dan's machine which likes to race. It has been having problems with coolant freezing in our sub zero temperatures.

Our neighbor Bert suggested that he might want to trade machines with us. Bert's machine was fan-cooled, which we prefer for reliability in cold weather. But what Bert actually wanted was his mechanic friend Doug's three cylinder machine, which was working (though it isn't quite so fast as ours).

Bert talked to Doug and Doug was interested in our machine. So Bert helped Warren haul our machine to Doug, Bert got to drive home with Doug's machine, and Warren got to drive home with Bert's machine. Now everyone has a just right machine and just in time so we were able to haul water since our plumbing was frozen also. Amen.

Created To Live And To Know

I have just finished watching Privileged Planet again. I am in awe of our Creator who is so wise.

How wonderful that the same things that support life allow for discovery of the workings of the universe. God made us to explore and learn as well as live and love!

Green Voyage II - The Hidden Green

In my research of organic food, I heard a lot of talk about how organic food is expensive and some of it is. However, a lot of it is not so expensive.

We live in the Arctic where produce is hard to get, so for two years we have been subscribed to a CSA farm which sends us a box a week by plane. So nearly all of our produce is organic. We have virtually eliminated processed food and have become more vegan since we moved to the Arctic, so even where food is VERY expensive our food budget for five is between the USDA Thrifty Plan and their Low-Cost Plan. (It really doesn't take that much work either, I spend about the same amount of time processing produce a week as I do making bread, sauces, and beans, etc.)

I did an extensive calculation of our monthly food usage by ingredients and weight and discovered that we can eat about 60% organic for less than 50 dollars more a month. Most of the other 40% is not even available organically. We are waiting to see if we will be able to switch to a closer CSA. If we do switch, we will probably save at least $50 a month, so it really will not cost us extra after all. Of course, if we could have more than a postage stamp garden...

Eating organic really doesn't have to be that expensive if you eat unprocessed, vegan food.

Saving the earth is not such a cut and dry issue. So it is comforting to me that Carnegie Mellon reported in 2008 that eating vegan one day a week has more impact than eating local every day since transportation only accounts for 10% of food's greenhouse gas emissions. What is good for your heart is good for the earth.

It bothers me that so little talk about being green includes thrift stores, yard sales, home canning, and not eating meat and dairy. These have a greater impact than things that satisfy people's love of spending, convenience, and gluttony. (Meat eating has always been a luxury until this last century.)

Yet the greatest issue to me is people. Though the Bible tells us God cares about how we treat the earth. He told the Jews to let the earth rest (Lev. 25) and castigated them for not doing so

(2 Chr. 36:21). He also says in Revelation 11:8 that he will destroy those who destroy the earth.

But God cares more about people, they are the ones he gave his life for and are the only ones who will be left when the earth is destroyed when he comes. So while, I am not going to ignore environmental issues, I need to devote my energy to my family and the people around us and just enjoy God's green earth and its bounty.

A Green Voyage

Since the beginning of this year I have become more and more concerned about improved our impact on the environment. The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico only heightens my desire to be very green. But over the past few days, it has struck me that the average American who starts from the perspective of wanting to save the world often misses the boat.

Why do I say that? Because even though I have only recently become serious about being a good steward of the world God gave us, one of the carbon footprint tests I just took calculated our family's carbon emissions to be 33 tons a year. The average American by contrast gives off 130 tons of emissions, four times as much. The site stated that the world average is 27 tons, so we still have some work to do, but we have already done a lot with even trying.

How we did it was by trying to save money and eat more healthy. We have long bought most of our clothes used, in other words, recycled. So when I was researching organic cotton and finding it too expensive, I was happy to see that all of our used clothing makes a greater impact. I still hope that the price for earth-friendly underwear and socks will come down, but for now I will continue to buy recycled stuff. Our energy use is low as we try to walk more to be healthy and use less electricity to save money.

Where we live our own recycling options are limited, so fortunately our bulk buying and unprocessed food choices make it a minor issue. Our most processed foods are saltines, graham crackers, pasta and tortillas. I have ketchup, salsa, taco sauce, and spaghetti sauce recipes that I am going to be using as we eliminate those from our pantry. Take it from a lazy person, making your own breads, sauces, and spreads is not that hard.

I have been researching a switch to more organic foods over the last week. Nearly all our produce is already organic, thanks to a weekly CSA shipment and not having much produce available locally. In my research I discovered that much of the organic food industry food growth has been in over-packaged processed food, meat, dairy and poultry products. This does not help the problem and may be making things worse as some say it takes more land to farm organic animal products.

People need to save themselves from their debt-ridden, unhealthy lifestyles first before they try to save the earth. They will be far more effective and feel better if they do.