October happenings

I've been pretty discouraged lately about the state of the mainstream American food system. (More so than usual, I mean.) Maybe it's that the Colorado growing season is nearly over, so my easy access to local, organic food from PPUG is ending. Maybe it's that I read too many articles about pesticides, GMO labeling, resource use at factory farms, etc. (Most recently, this article about conventional fruits and vegetables has been on my mind.) But more likely, the largest reason for my discouragement is that we're a Service Adventure household living on a very limited food budget. Which we're very good at sticking to -- but that's because we're buying predominantly cheap, conventionally produced, often heavily processed food. And I'm not a big fan of saving money by slowly poisoning myself. At least I can dream about building a big garden in our backyard in the spring, but at the moment spring feels like a very long time from now.

This morning I needed a little extra happiness in my life, so I stopped by our neighborhood natural foods store and bought myself a few organic apples and my favorite kombucha. (With my own money, obviously, not the household funds.) And while I was there, I stopped by to talk to the lady sitting at the Bernie 2016 table outside the store. "Are you a Bernie supporter?" she asked. I nodded yes, a bit redundantly, I thought. I had just ridden my bicycle to a natural foods store -- of course I'm a Bernie supporter.

I finally got registered to vote in Colorado, something I've been meaning to do since we moved here in July. Some people are of the opinion that it's not worth it to vote in local, non-presidential elections. (Not to mention names, but one of them has lived with me for the past two years.) I heartily disagree, so I'm glad to be getting involved in the CO political scene.

In other news from this week....Daniel and I spent a day volunteering at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp. They've been having problems with the spruce beetle, so our main task was to take down infested trees in the forest so they don't lose all the spruce trees.

It was a tough day -- chainsaws and killing trees aren't really my thing -- but I always love the chance to spend time at this beautiful camp. (Plus there were Scotcharoos for dessert at lunch, so everything was worth it.)

Probably my favorite part was chopping limbs off the trees that had already fallen - axes being the only part of this operation I was previously familiar with, due to my years as a camp counselor chopping firewood.

The fallen, stripped tree trunks were hauled off to a lumberyard.

Our church congregation blessed us with a food shower this week! This is a very, very, very small portion of what we've received so far, but it represents one of my favorite parts: the Equal Exchange tea.

We also had fun at a celebration of Beth-El's 59th birthday, put on by the church youth group.

Highly anticipated in the week to come: the Rocky Mountain MCC Relief Sale!