Another Product of the Industrial Food System

I saw this on my way in to work recently.  If you look closely that huge tanker truck says "Chicken Blood" on it.  Just another by-product of our wonderful industrial food system!  The irony is that this truck is probably heading to the Tyson plant in Monroe and when I saw this I was reading The Meat Racket by Christopher Leonard which is about the industrial meat industry, specifically Tyson Foods because they created the CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) system that all industrialized meats use.  I went to junior high and high school in Monroe and we knew tons of people who were industrial chicken farmers for Tyson.  You constantly saw the trucks full of live chickens on their way to the Tyson plant in Monroe where they would be processed.  At the time I felt sorry for the chickens, but didn't really connect that to the chicken I ate.  Now, seeing this tanker truck full of (or soon to be full of) chicken blood my first thought is "Thank God for small-scale local farmers who give other options than this."  I am SO thankful every week when we go to the farmer's market and talk to the farmers we buy from.  We tell them about our garden and ask questions about their farms and they KNOW us.  We KNOW them - we've visited some of them and know there are no tanker trucks full of blood because they do things on a smaller, sustainable scale.  It's nice to know that as Joel Salatin advises you CAN "opt out" of the industrial food system and support your "local, lunatic farmers" - especially when you see this driving down 485 one day.

2014 Garden

We definitely learned a lot from our garden last year - the first in our new house.  But, there is ALWAYS something to learn when it comes to gardening!  This year Chad built a cold frame for us to start our seeds and I don't know why, but none of the seeds came up - not even one!  We re-planted directly in the garden and everything came up.  But, something was eating our okra seedlings as soon as they came out of the ground.  We couldn't figure out what it was.  Finally we caught the okra culprit - slugs!  By then only a few plants had survived and we were out of seeds.  I'm hoping that the few okra plants that made it will be successful since that's my favorite vegetable we grow.  So, far the other plants are looking great and we even have lettuce for the first time!  Here are some pictures of the beginnings of our 2014 garden:

Mother's Day and Father's Day 2014

My parents were both 21 when I was born - my Dad turned 21 only 3 days before I was born.  It really didn't hit me how young they were until I was that age and married myself, but without kids.  I had a great childhood and appreciate everything they've done for me.  This year for Mother's Day and Father's Day I posted some old pictures on Facebook that I thought I would post here too.

This picture is 4 generations of women on my Mom's side.  My grandmother Rosa Lee, my Mom Susan holding me at a few months old, and my great-grandmother Mittie.  These 3 women have been hugely influential in my life.  My great-grandmother set up an education trust fund that paid for my undergraduate and graduate degrees 100% - that is such an incredible blessing to not have any student loan debt at all.  My grandmother spent tons of time with me and my brother as kids driving us all around Wilmington when we would visit and doing whatever we wanted to do.  She is now 88 and still going strong!  Of course my Mom has been a huge influence and she and my Dad sacrificed financially for her to stay home with me and my brother.  We may not have had a ton of money, but my Mom was great at getting really thoughtful gifts that we loved and always doing special treats and things for us when we were growing up.  I'm very thankful to have had all these women in my life!

For Father's Day I posted these two pictures of me and my Dad.  The top one is at his college graduation from Appalachian in August 1981 - I was almost 2 years old.  The bottom one is us at my college graduation from UNCC in December 2002.  My Dad always stressed the importance of an education - it's something that can NEVER be taken away from you.  His mother worked outside the home when he was growing up and that was very rare for that time.  He and his sister were the first ones in their family to go to college and he definitely expected the same from me.  Even though my Mom stayed home with me and my brother, my Dad wanted to make sure I had options.  He saw the value in both a working mother and a stay-at-home mother.  I minored in Women's Studies in college and I definitely appreciate that my Dad wanted his daughter to have options and an education.  I know he is so proud that I not only graduated from college, but also have a master's degree.  I am so thankful for my Dad and all he's taught me!

May 2014 Adventures

We had a busy month in May.  We went on the Know Your Farms Tour and visited 3 farms, Cackleberry, Big Oak, and T&D.  We also hosted our niece Karissa's 13th birthday party at our house.  Here are some pictures from May:


The Know Your Farms tour is really fantastic. We went for the first time last year and I didn't realize until this year that it actually happens twice a year - in the spring and in the fall. The Cackleberry farm was kind of a let-down, but we REALLY enjoyed visiting Big Oak and T&D. T&D was one of the first farms we bought our meat from when we started getting all our meat from the farmer's market. We had also visited them on our own a few years ago, but it was really nice to get the whole tour. This tour is a great way to get to know where your food comes from and find some great local farmers to support. Here are the pictures from the May 2014 Know Your Farms tour:



This year both of our nieces want to have "bonfire" birthday parties at our house. Since we don't have kids and we have a great outdoor space we were happy to host. We did the party a few weeks after our niece's actual birthday and they had a really great time. It was a little stressful, but overall it went much better than I anticipated. The kids were great and really enjoyed the party, even though they weren't as interested in the actual bonfire part. I'm glad that we could host Kariss'a party and we're looking forward to hosting Kathryn's later this year. Here are some pictures from Karissa's party:

14th Wedding Anniversary

Chad & I celebrated 14 years of marriage this year!  I swear it goes by so fast - I can hardly believe we've already been married for 14 years.  We didn't do anything super exciting for our anniversary since we're going to Hawaii this summer.  We went out to eat at Outback, which is wear we ate after our wedding, and Chad got me some beautiful roses.

The beautiful roses Chad got me.

On our wedding day at the Latimer House in Wilmington.

Wedding pictures at Wrightsville Beach.

April Coupon Savings!

In April I got everything pictured above at Harris Teeter for $32.50 and SAVED $40.00 with coupons and sales!

Spring Cat Pictures

Here are some pictures of the cats this spring.  I love these cats so much and they are so sweet and really enjoy spending time together.  Although Roxy does like to get into trouble - you'll see in the pictures what she got into recently!  Here are some pictures of Sandy & Roxy from this spring:

Spring 2014

We had a pretty cold winter this year, so it was nice to finally see Spring coming!  Here are some pictures around our house this Spring:




We also did some projects around the house this spring. We had a few trees taken down to get more sunlight in the garden. While I kind of hate to take trees down, we have a LOT of trees and need more light for the garden. Chad also built a few new things for our garden too. Here are the pictures of our spring projects: