Why I do it isn't because I'm cheap!

Yesterday I worked all day hanging out laundry on the clothes line (my solar clothes dryer!) and worked at weeding the garden and filling in seeds where they hadn't germinate. A thought came to me: Am I doing this because I'm cheap or is there another reason?

Immediately I realized that it wasn't because I was cheap. If I were doing it because I was cheap, we would be eating macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. I can't tell you the last time we ate that in our home.

One reason could be because I like the fact that we are decreasing our carbon footprint. The fact that when we grow our food in the backyard, it doesn't have to be trucked half way cross the country to get to my table. Food trucked in trucks that are fueled by diesel which is fuel processes from oil. The oil derrick fiasco in the gulf of Mexico that is currently crippling the tourism and fishing in Southern Gulf States reminds me that having a backyard garden makes good common sense.

By not using the dryer I am decreasing the necessity of our electric company from having to burn more coal to keep every one in electrical power. This coal comes from deep shafted mines where miners daily risk their lives simply so I can run my dryer? I prefer to forgo the luxury.

Having a garden and a clothes line helps me spiritually as well. I am connected to nature, the Creator and the creation. Rather than ignoring the weather conditions by simply throwing my clothes in the dryer, I am compelled (because I like dry clothes)to know what the weather will be before I do laundry. If rain is likely, I save laundry for another day. If the day is sunny, I do all the laundry I can do that day because it might rain the next.

There's so much each day that the garden helps with me spiritually. Creating and using the compost pile reminds me that everything goes somewhere and that it is best to recognize that wastes in one area is a prized commodity in another. This philosophy can be carried into so many areas of our lives.

It's said that the best fertilizer for a garden is the foot prints of the gardener. Perhaps that is what this garden called earth misses most.