For my waste eco challenge, I tried to pay attention to how much trash I make in a normal week. I noticed a lot of my waste comes from food stuff, like takeout bags, plastic cups, wrappers, and random packaging. This week I tried to use my water bottle more, use reusable bags, and eat more food from home instead of getting fast food.

Water- The best water I have ever tasted comes straight up from my well. My family drinks more water now than ever! We do use a lot of water on our animals, especially the ducks. I do not collect rainwater, but I know I need to. It is on the list to get started this summer before the wet weather hits again.

For my nature adventure assignment, I chose to take a technology break while walking around Mt. Tabor. Since I'm going to use this walk as my action this week, I wanted to reflect on it a bit differently here.

I went on my walk around Tabor during one of the most stressful weeks of this term, with multiple term projects due, graduation approaching, coordinating with family traveling to Portland, and my elderly dog recovering from being attacked the night before. I hoped that walking through Mt. Tabor would help me feel calm or grounded, but in the moment, I mostly felt tense, restless, and distracted. I wanted to interrupt the pattern of rushing, worrying, producing, and managing everything. I wanted a sense of control or peace, but as I walked, it seemed I would inevitably keep circling back out of my environment and into thought.

Finally, I sat. But I was still anxious, still distracted. Waiting for the time and space I've made for my nature adventure assignment to deliver me a feeling of relief. After almost a week, I realize that may have been the point. The walk did not make my problems or my stress disappear. What it did do was show me how much I was carrying. It gave me enough distance from a more familiar space and routine to notice what I was carrying mentally, and that's what made the walk worthwhile in the end. In the moment, it didn't feel peaceful. I didn't feel as present in that environment as I had hoped. I didn't feel less stressed, but it gave me a chance to stop running alongside my stress for a little while.

We buy a majority of our produce at the Hood River Farmer's Market. Most of the vendors are local (within 20 miles of HR) and a couple are a little further away. Not all of them are certified organic, but I believe all are pesticide-free and are working toward their certification. All of the produce we buy is amazing, and we go through a lot of produce! If we can't find it at the FM, we have a tiny market that we go to called Treebird. They are very specific with their produce and try to keep local as much as possible. The farm community out here in the Gorge is so great. I've never experienced produce and farmers like these in my entire life!

I'm usually pretty good about taking a couple walks down the road to the family barn everyday. One trip down and back is a mile and most of the time I take more than one. I've been very busy this last term though, being my last term before graduating. I fell out of the habit and could defiantly feel the difference. Being outside is one of the main ways I relive stress, so taking less walks has a big impact on me. Over the past week I've gotten back into the habit and I've been feeling a lot better.

I took a picture similar to this last year and I ended up getting it tattooed on my hand. This is happening right now. The moon headed to set behind Mt Hood is not something we see often, but it is spectacular when it does. The tattoo has a lot of meaning to me and my family, but I will spare y'all the details. The pic of my hand isn't the best but you can see the moon near my thumb. This is my forever home. My paradise.

I have been throwing my old chicken bedding out into the chicken run for about a year now. The birds love it. They roll around in it and scratch in it, and it just becomes part of the soil. This past weekend I was going to do the chicken bedding and I decided to take a shovel to the soil to see how it looked underneath a few layers of old bedding "soil." Y'ALL!!! I have the most incredible manure/soil! It doesn't stink like I thought it would. There is so much life underneath the top layer or two! I only scraped part of the run and got a small trailer full. I took it down to the proposed future garden site where I used to haul the old bedding, and was able to cover it generously. Oh, and the old bedding has quite the life underneath as well. I do still compost most of the food scraps, or they get divvied up between the pigs, chickens, and goats. When I do get this garden going, it is going to produce some gangbusters produce, hopefully!

My solar setup is pretty rad. (Sorry for the technical terminology there.) I can check the status of my batteries, generation, use, and so on. I wanted to share with y'all what the impact of living off grid looks like. This particular system was installed less than 2 years ago. I do need to let everyone know that I am a stickler for turning lights off! I am that dad who goes through the house asking if we are trying to light up the whole neighborhood. The family just laughs at me because our nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away.

I want to circle back to the food post. We do primarily focus on sustainability for ourselves, for our future, but I saw this live action going on the other day and it really got me to thinking about the sustainability of the life we don't see, or we think is creepy. This was a real struggle. That snake wanted that lizard as a meal. Period. It fought with all its might, yet the lizard eventually escaped. That wasn't the end, though. The chase that ensued right after the escape was amazing! The struggle to eat is real in the world all around us, and we take it for granted or refuse to see it. You don't have to watch Nat Geo to see it. Pay more attention to the little critters around you, fighting to stay alive.