It's Easy Being Green

I’ve always had a respect for families who schedule a “family night”, one night out of the week where everybody stays at home and hangs out together. Several friends of mine in high school had family night and I often had to work our extra-curricular fun around their schedules. At the time I thought it was lame. Now that I’m a parent, I can definitely see the merit behind a night at home with all the kids!

For now, every night is a family night with our two darling daughters. Since Everly is a toddler and Adalyn is still an infant I guess you could consider them a captive audience but they tire out early. Homestead Hottie and I recently stayed up late though and had the privilege to catch a sneak preview of a new movie perfect for a family night this Friday.

Game of Your Life revolves around character Zach Taylor, a teen graduating from high school who gets the chance of a lifetime to attend a prestigious video game design school. For Zach, the chance to leave home and make a bright future for himself is all fun and games until he is soon confronted with a big dose of reality.

Surrounded by friends and classmates who often spend more time making tough life decisions in a virtual world, Zach is snapped back to reality as he is forced to choose the path his life will take: the easy greed driven route that leaves his friends and school career behind or one that allows him to overcome the temptation and choose the door that will lead him in the direction his heart wants to go. Game of Your Life will air Friday, December 2 on NBC at 8pm ET/7pm CT.

It has been awhile since I’ve taken in a “made for TV” movie but I immediately noticed the quality of Game of Your Life is much better than the average after school special I grew up with. Sure, at times the dialogue can be corny and the constantly driving, royalty-free dance music that rubber bands in and out can be a distraction. In the end though, Game of Your Life presents a real life scenario most young adults will face based around a theme ever present in their electronic lives. It’s a feel good flick the whole family can enjoy this Friday night, December 2 on NBC at 8pm ET/7pm CT.

Make sure to check out the Family Movie Night website for more information on Game of Your Life and other family night ideas. You can also head over to their Family Movie Night Facebook page.

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

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It’s exciting to see that the Home Depot has brought back one of my favorite programs for the fourth year in a row: their annual Eco-Options Christmas Light Trade-In Event. Bring in any old incandescent string of Christmas lights (working or not) and receive a $3 to $5 credit toward the purchase of a new, energy efficient light strand. You can get a credit for up to 5 strands and you have until the 13th of November to participate.

What is exciting about this year’s trade-in is that they are allowing the credit to be used on all three major collections of LED lights they’re carrying including the Martha Stewart brand. Last year I was disappointed to find my Home Depot stores cleaned out of the few options they actually allowed for trade so props to them for expanding the program this year.

Are you wondering why you should trade up to LED Christmas lights? Click here to read more. If you’d like to know more about what Home Depot does to those old light strands once you trade them in, they produced a quick video this year explaining the process. Now go get your energy efficiency on this Christmas!

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Frosty windows, glinting grass and foggy ponds overtly demonstrated the seasonal change this morning. Tri-Staters, if you didn’t catch the word yet, tonight we’re getting our first freeze warning of the year. That means you gardeners will have some work to do if you haven’t planned ahead.

We did and last night marked one of my favorite nights when it comes to the kitchen garden. It’s what I have affectionately dubbed the Hustle Harvest. This hurried effort is brought on once a year, every fall, when the forecast calls for the first frost of the season. When the call for frost is finally made by the National Weather Service, we bundle up and hustle through the garden harvesting every bit of tender produce that will be ruined by frost. Tomatoes, peppers, basil and other tender herbs that are still hanging on need to be picked.  Even all those green tomatoes will ripen over the next few weeks inside your home. You might even have delicious, bright red homegrown tomatoes to share at your Thanksgiving feast.

Last night was no exception. Talina and Everly had picked most of the tomato plants clean by the time I got home and had quite the wagon load waiting for me to haul in. I bundled up and with the fall nip descending as quickly as the sunset, hustled around picking a load of late season peppers and trimming down the basil plants. We ended up with abouts 30lbs. of green tomatoes that will ripen inside over the next couple of months, 2lbs. of bell and banana peppers and several bushels of fresh basil. The kitchen smells wonderful…that heady spicy scent of basil filling the air.

True, the Hustle Harvest means the end to another gardening season. This one was not quite so productive but it means the beginning to a new gardening year is just around the corner. The anticipation will last all winter.

Hustle Harvest 2011 netted about 30lbs. of green tomatoes, another large bushel of basil for drying and a handful of bell and banana peppers.

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Here at the Half-Acre Homestead we take a lot of time to watch what we eat. Organic products get the green light to jump into our shopping cart at the store but we’re very mindful of everything else, especially foods that contain Genetically Engineered or “Modified” ingredients (often labeled as “GE” or “GM”).

Based on our research, we firmly believe GM or GE foods are not only a danger to our health but also to our ecosystem. The contamination issues alone are worrisome as genetically modified strains of plants begin interacting with the natural environment and with non-GM varieties. I don’t eat food with pesticides applied to it so why on earth would I want to eat food that creates its own pesticide inside the very plant I’m consuming? It’s abhorrent to think about. Add to that the track record of big agribusinesses who tinker with nature for their own profitability (like Monsanto) and you begin to see the big picture.

Here is a funny little video out right now encouraging consumers to contact the FDA and let them know you’d like your food to be labeled properly, alerting you if you’re buying something with GE or GM ingredients. I have no problem believing a majority of consumers will just continue down their blind pathway, buying a cart full of crap-tastic food and not thinking about the future consequences. I however would like to know what is going into my family’s body and would hope you do too.

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In case you missed it, NPR’s Science Friday with Ira Flatow had a great little teaser this past week about their latest SciFri video. Flora Lichtman recently paid a visit to a geodesic dome home built in “Long Guy Land”, New York. The piece is fantastic and gives a tiny glimpse into a life less dependent on the man or the machine.

I won’t give too much away but I have to give props to former NYC firefighter Kevin Shea for taking an arm-chair idea and running with it. I find it especially funny that his neighbors just don’t get it and actually detest the idea. You can be sure though they would be the first ones knocking on Shea’s looking for refuge or help. Special thanks to the crew at Science Friday for bringing this story to light! Watch the video below and then share your thoughts. Would you live in a geo-dome? Do you have an unconventional home that is easy on the environment and your pocketbook?

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We’re getting a crisp taste of fall here at the Half-Acre Homestead. We swung from the century mark down to about 60-degrees and all within a few hours this past weekend. We’re now donning light jackets to sneak out and take our evening stroll through the garden and I definitely am having to zip up when I go out and make the nightly rounds with our crazy menagerie of animals outside.

Despite feeling extremely sick to her stomach for reasons we'd later understand, my Homestead Hottie climbed right in to apple picking.

Looking for a break from the daily routine with our toddler and newborn, Homestead Hottie and I decided we wanted to get out and enjoy one of the fall activities we’ve come to really enjoy: picking apples. The first year we moved here we went to a u-pick apple orchard located in the middle of town. It was the staple of many family traditions in the area. We pulled up into the dusty parking pad to find three children and a horse hanging out in a small plywood shelter. After paying our money we were handed our two picking bags and off we went.

At some point during this excursion, walking up and down row upon row of this apple orchard, we came to the conclusion Homestead Hottie was pregnant with our first Darling Daughter. She looked greener and greener around the gills with each passing moment and at one point thought she was going to pass out. Needless to say, this apple picking excursion was the beginning of our realization we were headed down the path to parenthood. Memories were made and so was a lot of applesauce.

Instead of climbing, I took aim at the tops of the apple trees with one very handing wooden stick and would catch my results as they fell.

Fast forward three years and we’ve been super stoked to see our friend Joe Engelbrecht working on getting his fourth generation orchard up and running. While we couldn’t u-pick at his orchard last year, we bought plenty and plenty of apples from his farm store and turned them into preserved apple slices and several canning jars full of apple butter. In my opinion, they are some quintessential treats of fall.

This year, Joe’s u-pick orchard is up and running and we didn’t hesitate to jump in the first weekend we could. We know the longer you wait in the season to pick, the harder it is to find some good quality fruit so we didn’t want to drag our feet. After purchasing our picking bags at Joe’s store (he was charging $1 per pound and you got to decide between 5 or 10 pound bags), we were given directions on how to access the gravel trail meandering through adjacent corn fields and to the orchard laid out nicely on the slope above the store.

Pulling up to the rustic red barn marking the entrance to the orchard, you could begin reading the signs marking each row of apple trees. Much to Homestead Hottie’s excitement were a row or two of Jonagold apples. These are her favorite “everyday” eating apples and a variety our family chiropractor turned us onto when he discovered Talina didn’t like the texture or taste of most apples.

The orchard was overloaded with apples when we paid a visit with plenty still in our Darling Daughter's reach.

We quickly filled up a 5-pound bag of Jonagold apples after walking just one or two trees deep down the row. I wanted to get a mixed bag of a few of the other varieties Joe has to offer including Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and Braeburn. These three varieties aren’t quite at their peak of ripeness yet but I’m sure several days on the counter will help them get there.

Everly had a blast sprinting from tree to tree and gazing at the trees, overloaded with one of her favorite fruits to snack on. She even had a few apples that were within her short reach that she was able to pick and this made her quite proud. In fact, one of those apples didn’t even make it into the bag but instead landed firmly in her mouth. It was her picking fuel and the ultimate test of the quality of Joe’s apple crop. Everly definitely approved because aside from a shared bite or two, she downed that thing. Baby Adalyn slept the entire time we off-roaded her stroller up and down the orchard rows so she must have been enjoying herself too.

If you’re looking for a fun family activity to do one of these fall weekends, I would definitely recommend heading to Joe Engelbrecth’s Fourth Generation Orchard to pick some fresh apples. Not only are you supporting a local farmer by doing so, you’re supporting a unique local business. Joe and his wife are carving a very unique niche for themselves in the Evansville area and hopefully will find further prosperity here in the future. Happy picking!

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My Homestead Hottie did it: another amazing labor and delivery at  The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee. Two and a half weeks of high-anticipation ended at 2am Tuesday morning when baby Adalyn finally decided to show her face to the world! My wife once again did it with the most surreal zen-like confidence and calm.

We’re so excited but exhausted. Talina streamed the birth live over on her blog at Harvest of Daily Life and if you’re interested, you can catch a recording there too. This has been another amazing stay at The Farm, a place where we are considered part of one large but tight-knit community of like-minded people. Special thanks to our midwife Pamela Hunt for her grace and assurance as she brought our second daughter into the world.

Once things calm back down, I’m sure we’ll piece together our birth stories. Three posts back you can find a link to our birth story with Everly from two years ago. It was another amazing experience and one that will forever connect us with these1500 acres in the middle of the Blackjack Oak woods in the middle of southern Tennessee.

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