Pics from Earth Day festival

David and me, he loves snapping these self portraits plus me. Lol We have a lot of them, and they are some of the best photos of us together.

Sophie, Katy and me at the Earth Day festival in town. A big turnout, we enjoyed the day, Emily took this one.

Sophie cuddling a much too young to be cuddled by humans, lamb. So adorable!

What did you do for Earth Day?

So what did you do? Here is a little sample of what we did. We went with the kids to the civic center park, the one that hosts the Earth Day event each year. We cleaned up the stream. It wasn't too bad where we were, but we did get two trash bags full. And there was a strange large copper wire thing lying in the stream. Sophie and David and Jonathan enjoyed catching and releasing minnows, crayfish, and salamanders. Joshua spent a lot of time in the trees and I enjoyed cleaning up and resting under the beautiful old oak we were picnicking by. Sophie also had a good time at the playground with her dad. Back at home we got the gardens ready for planting and found that our compost bin was very busy over the winter and we have about 8-10 gallons of beautiful, black, sweet smelling compost to add to our gardens. Woo hoo! Gotta love those worms too, there were many HUGE ones in the compost. Lovely. More on the gardens coming up. I hope you all had a wonderful Earth Day and that you did something special for the original mother~Mother Earth. Blessings.

Earth Day Festival & an Organic Farm

Look at this face. :) At the Earth Day Festival in our city last Saturday, Sophie had such a good time. Te petting zoo was there and she was in heaven. Newborn baby goats to hold and cuddle everywhere!

The Purple Paper Eater, Waste Connections, and the Tennessee Volunteers waste and recycling trucks.

The city fountain made a great impromptu wading pool for some of the children that were at Earth Day.

Of course, our gang prefers the real thing. The creek that runs through the park was a huge hit with kids and adults alike. They found crawdads (cray fish), minnows and unfortunately, some trash too, which they very happily cleaned up and tossed in the recycling or trash containers that provided around the park.

Down by the playground, a man was blowing huge bubbles for the children. They enjoyed them very much. Very impressive too!

As for learning about eco living, environmentalism and saving the planet, there was a lot of that too. Our city's 2ND Earth Day event beat out the Knoxville Earthfest that is in its 10th year. There was so much more for families and children to do and see. Not so much commercialism and more fun.

Plus, I found out that we have an organic teaching farm right next door in Rockwood! It's called Broadened Horizons Organic Farm!

I met the owner, Leaf Myczack at the festival and spoke to him about his farm. They grow and sell fresh brown free range eggs, honey, figs and in season vegetables. They also teach sustainability and rainwater harvesting and organic gardening. I bought these gorgeous heirloom organic bean seeds. I cannot wait to get them planted. They are:

Christmas Limas, Black & White Lima, Jacob Cattle, and Hutterite Soup Beans. These will add an interesting addition to our gardens. We are planning a visit to the farm soon!

Do check them out and support local farmers. They are our future.

Earthfest 2009

Wow, its been over a week since I posted. Time flies when we are so busy, we have also ha continuing problems with our wireless internet. Ugh! We've been so busy with the garden and spring, oh so nice.

On Saturday we went to the 10th annual Earthfest in Knoxville. It was pretty nice, though it didn't have a lot to actually "do", it was very informational and a bit too much commercialism for my taste, but I guess it has to be paid for somehow. lol







Here is one of several awesome painted rain barrels that were up for auction.















It was held again at the beautiful campus of Pellissippi State College.















Emily snapped this of me having a rest by the water.















May people came out, it was very festive and there was continuous live music.















Sophie and David creating at the Montessori school's tent.



















My own credit union had this cool guy set up.















A glassblower/farmer from North Carolina, had some gorgeous glass balls.















David and Sophie digging for worms in the compost!




These little guys were folowing their mama and papa around on the pond. A sure sign that spring is here!



This coming Saturday is the Oak Ridge Earth Day event and I am really looking forward to it. It promises to be bigger and better than last year. It is advertised as kid and pet friendly.

Earthfest 2008

On Saturday we went to Earthfest. This is an annual event that has been held since 2000. They have had to move to a larger venue every other year or so, because it keeps growing. How wonderful! This is held in Knoxville, which is the closet "big city" to us. We have not missed a year of going yet. Here are some pics from our afternoon there.


Sophie very much enjoying some smoked corn on the cob.

A great poster made by some school kids.

A booth of hippie tye dyes.

A booth on the Clean Water Coalition

GreenWorks for your business "greening"

Awesome local band, the MacDaddies

Rolling in the"green" fun.




Semi trailer loaded with plastics of all kinds.

"Green" car of the local nature center, Ijams Nature Center.


The Purple Paper Eater of the Knoxville Recycling Coalition. All in all, we had a lot of fun and learned alot too. Next year I hope to have a booth myself, 'Sunflower Designs', selling my handmade, recycled patchwork skirts and tshirt shopping bags. Yeah!

Happy Earth Day

We had a fabulous Earth Day together. This morning David & I took Sophie to the library where we tried, not too successfully to find Earth Day related books. Our library is small and the ones that they actually have were already checked out. (Note to self, don't wait until "the' day to look for books) However, they do have, brand new, "Green Housekeeping" which I have put on hold for myself as soon as its available. Yeah!

We spent the rest of the day outside and after we picked up the other kids from school, we went to the marina for some Frisbee and goose watching. Amazing! We were all mesmerized by the beautiful Canadian Geese and Mallards and one very strangely out of place, white domestic goose. There were even six little Mallard ducklings. So sweet and cute. (Unfortunately, there was some trash, but we picked up what we found, even in the edges of the water.)

After dinner, Sophie, the boys and I walked around our neighborhood and picked up trash and recyclables. Sophie truly is a budding environmentalist. She is very conscientious about litter, alerting us to it wherever she sees it.

We ended the day with a reading by dad of 'The Lorax'. Never out of style or favor, even my 11 and 13 year old boys listened raptly.

I hope every one's Earth Day was fun and successful and that you took even a moment to appreciate and love our Mother Earth. Blessings.

Earth Day Festival!

We had a good time at the Earth Day Festival. It is our city's first year holding an event like this so it will take them awhile to get it just right. But it shows signs of being a good beginning. They tried to have a waste free event, having recycling bins for paper, plastic, aluminum, & glass, every hundred yards or so. There were many vendors of the type that held demonstrations and gave out literature on the various ways and reasons for such things as; recycling, hybrid and bio diesel cars, solar and wind power, global sustainability,several state parks, many environmental groups, ET Vegetarian society, US Green Building Council, many artists that use recycled materials, wilderness planning, plants and herbs from various areas, magic mulch;which is organic compost, there were a couple of hybrid and bio diesel vehicles and even a bus. And many more things. We learned a lot and were very happy to see such a great turnout. I look forward to next year's event being even better with a little more diversity even. Photos include; Garbage Can Band,(think STOMP), Sophie planting pumpkin seeds in a newspaper cup, Joshua at the top pf the climbing wall, & Sophie and David making side walk art. I realized of course, once I got home, that I didn't get any photos of the "eco" related items, just family shots, so I will do better at the Knoxville event. Sorry. We have another event, Earthfest, a much bigger event, in the next town, Knoxville, on the 26TH. More on Earth day then.....