Nyah Hawley

This week for my community ecochallenge, I chose to get out of my house and into the community. Something that I have really been looking for recently is a community that I belong to. Being Black in a predominantly white area is very isolating, so I turned to another big part of my identity-my queerness LOL. I figured this was the perfect time to go explore something in the Salem LGBTQ+ community, and I went to my first drag brunch. While at brunch, I met a few new people who I opened up to about my inexperience with LGBTQ+ events/the community. These amazing humans offered me their socials and told me that they are very involved in the community and they could help me a little with getting more involved. It was amazing! I also got to support some amazing divas who blew me away with their personalities and performances. Getting out into the community, especially one that is a lot bigger than I thought it was, was really nice.
My transportation ecochallenge was more difficult this week. I was going to ride the bus to go to the drag brunch and the store, but, in the end, I was too intimidated by the idea of figuring out bus routes, that I just drove to the brunch instead. Since I was already there, I also spent time walking around downtown Salem after the brunch, looking in different shops, finding new places, and I bought a few things that I needed from the store anyway, which saved me a carbon-emitting trip to the grocery store. I'm going to keep exposing myself to more of the bus routes and system, to get comfortable enough to ride it somewhere, but it's probably going to be a slower integration. I would love to get to this point sooner rather than later though, because I could save money on gas, doing other things while on the bus, and cut my carbon emissions from driving.

Today i went outside to say good morning to Ernesto and Judd (my tomato plants) and I noticed that they grew new leaves at the bottom of the stalk! I took some pictures because I'm so excited to share this. I've been worried that I wasn't taking care of them right, even though they are pretty low effort, but they actually look really good, in my opinion. On the downside, the spider webs gross me out, but I'm leaving them alone because, apparently, spiders are beneficial to protect my plant babies LOL. I'm excited to see what they look like at the end of the season...

This week for my ecochallenge, I was going to go to a local farm called Olson Stuart Farms. However, I got two tomato plants from Learning Gardens on Wednesday, so I changed my plan. I instead wanted to focus on my tomato plants, Ernesto and Judd. I planted them, and they seem to be doing good. I spent a few hours in total looking through information about how to grow tomato plants and getting everything set up. By planting these tomatoes, I'm hoping to grow some beautiful heirloom tomatoes that we can use in my house. Doing this can mean that, at least for a bit, we can use homegrown tomatoes instead of the tomatoes from the grocery store. My tomatoes won't have all of the emissions, pesticides, or miles that store tomatoes will. Tomatoes are one of the dirty dozen from EWG's list, which means high levels of pesticides. My tomatoes will be pesticide free, although I have spiders trying to build webs and I HATE spiders. I want to leave them alone but I also don't know if they'll hurt Ernesto and Judd. And I really hate spiders. I plan on finding natural remedies if it does get too much.