ADVICE FROM A MAN IN HIS 80's: "JUST BE LUCKY!"

My son Calder is now 8 months old! He was born two weeks early, and probably would have cooked a little longer, but given I was giving birth to him at home without drugs and he was already almost 7 pounds, I felt very comfortable "naturally stimulating" him to arrive early. He was unbelievably strong right off the bat anyways. Time does fly when you are having fun, and we have been having a blast. He is a very happy, strong and curious critter. He loves the outdoors, gardens and animals. It provides endless entertainment and adventures to keep him busy in his waking hours. Experiencing it through and with him adds magic to the expience for me as well. We are working on sign language and it is crazy how much he is soaking up! Mommy did the Triathlon...yahhh! Now I am obsessed with yoga, slowly getting back into surfing (overcoming fears from my big surf accident), and loving a little frisbee golf up on the mountain now and then. Here is a little update on the garden, chickens, pets, "whole baby" strategies and the pursuit of health and happiness.

The garden is booming! Currently we have: every herb you can imagine, potatoes, asparagus, corn, zucchini, squash, green and purple beans, a variety of greens (kale, Swiss chard, arugula, mesculin, lettuce), radishes, beets, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, a variety of tomatoes, turnips, lemongrass, eggplant, chili peppers, green peppers, onions, garlic, shallots, flowers, galangula, ginger, turmeric and artichoke. I think that pretty much covers it.

We also were lychee farmers this year, harvesting 12,000 pounds! It was a whirlwind but a good experience.
Our flock of chickens has expanded and keeps expanding. My husband Dan is in love with his chicks. I'm in love with their eggs. Every size and color and the yolks are so yellow and they taste amazing. Yes, you can taste the difference. It was kind of difficult raising organic chickens. We lost a lot when they were young. Now that they've graduated into "hens" they are healthy as can be and happy with their free range, compost and organic feed. Our only trouble is egg snatching dogs and mongooses. The mongooses were another problem we faced, but now that our flock in older and larger we only fear for the eggs. It helps to have the dogs around as well. Our cat is so miniature she fits into the flock more than bothers it. I'll catch her lounging with the birds of a sunny day.

I have to write a note to my faithful and wonderful 9 year old yellow lab. She likes to still the food scraps we give to the chickens, but she is the best dog ever and can't get into trouble since she is on the senior citizen program.

My beautiful son Calder is growing so fast! He is mellow, methodic, happy and strong. He crawls like s mad man, stands and cruises on furniture and is so playful and fun! It is the best time of my life. Cloth diapering has been a breeze! I feel like I'm cheating the cloth diapers are so easy these days. I use cloth wipes as well and it is much simpler than it sounds! If there are any mamas that want details or reviews please let me know! I have done so much research on products and I try my best to provide the healthiest and most wholesome life for my child. My latest project is trying to eliminate plastic as much a possible. But mainly from items he puts in his mouth (everything). I got him a lot of wood toys, silk, wool, cotton and natural rubber from the rubber tree teethers (they have binkies too!). I enjoy researching and everything I learn gives me incentive to improve my families quality of life!

Choosing whole products ( wood, ceramic, clay, steel, glass, cotton, wool etc) is very important to me and I'm always aware now of what things come in from ketchup to what clothes are made of. The other important lifestyle improvement I've always tried to implement, but now I've completely, no exceptions, conquered is not buying bottled water...always having a glass or steel water bottle on me (tap water is more regulated and bottled water is a huge corporate scam and major pollutant!) and always using my ceramic coffee mug as well. I just keep it in my car always. A couple awesome documentaries I watched which were very informative on these subjects are: Tapped and Plastic Planet. I highly reccommend both! Vaccine Wars and the Business of Being Born are a couple other interesting and much more controversial documentaries I recommend. We love to end the day as a family in the garden. Playing in the grass is Calder's happy place.