Category Archives: My Life

Biking with babies

After a bit of initial research on biking with babies, I was somewhat resigned to spending the first nine to twelve months postpartum traveling either by foot, p-trans, or car, except for the rare occasions I ventured out without baby.  The idea that a young infant could not be safely transported by bicycle, when we give no thought to putting them in cars, seemed quite ludicrous to me, but I couldn’t find much information on safe options.

Then I saw the “Cycling with Children” post on Simply Bike, which inspired me to dig a little deeper.  The author and I are both pregnant with our firsts, and we’re at about the same stage in our pregnancies.  S linked to an article in Momentum magazine, which featured this great quote:

Todd Litman, founder and executive director of the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute. who started cycling with his oldest son when he was just days old, addressed the risk.  He said: “There is no reason why, if a child is able to be carried in a car, they shouldn’t be able to be carried in a bicycle trailer.  A lot of people overlook the risks and stresses associated with driving, but make a big deal about bicycling.”

Finally, a voice of reason!  Now the question is not if, but how.  So far, these resources seem helpful:

And there is a decent chance a new bike purchase may be in our future, as most sources recommend some form of cargo bike rather than just adding a trailer to a regular bicycle.

Three cargo bikes I’m drooling over:

I’m not 100% sold on a cargo bike over a trailer, and I still have lots of questions, but at least I’m more hopeful that baby and I can get around by bike this fall, which makes this mama-to-be quite happy 🙂

Update (March 2, 2013)
Check out these posts to see our current set-up for biking now that our little dude is part of the picture:

Surviving the gardening blitz

Going into it, I honestly wasn’t sure how I would hold up during Saturday’s garden blitz.  We had one shot to get in our potatoes and spring crops — one day where the soil was dry enough (barely), we had a tiller, and all of the stars aligned just so = tons of work!

With only one tiller and three helpers, I spent I good bit of the morning waiting for the ground to be ready to plant.  Matthew and Pam did all of the tilling — there’s no reason I couldn’t have joined in, but the machine scared me a bit.  I did help spread some soil amendments, including lime, gypsum, and some alfalfa-based fertilizer.

 

That's not just dirt you're looking at -- it's four rows of potatoes, plus a bed of garlic!

Once the soil was prepped, we planted six rows of potatoes, a bazillion onions, some cruciferous seedlings (sadly, we had to buy these, as ours bit the dust once again, but we have a plan of attack for next time), and artichoke seedlings.

 

Artichoke!

Other than playing photographer (and a little help with clean-up), planting the artichokes was my last garden-related act for the day.  After that, my aching lower back and I retreated inside to bond with a yoga mat, while Matthew and Pam toiled for a couple more hours, planting peas, carrots, and more onions.

From left to right . . . far upper left corner: artichokes; then seeds: carrots, lettuce, peas; potato rows; the biggest green things = Egyptian onions; then rows of onion starts; a cage of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower; our low tunnel.

They finally called it quits when dusk turned into full dark, and the raindrops grew a bit more insistent.

We finally arrived home, feeling more zombie than human.  A hot shower and a hot meal (PTL for leftovers!) only slightly eased the zombified state for me.  I finally made it into bed, and despite not-so-great sleep, I woke up Sunday feeling surprisingly good.

How I survived:

  • Hydration
  • Frequent snack breaks
  • Frequent breaks
  • Stretching my back at the end of the day
  • And, last but not least, being the gardening slacker — from skipping some garden days altogether, to taking it easy when I’m there, between the three of us, I win the slacker award, hands down 😉  Matthew and Pam are the garden super heroes!

Ding dong, the books are gone!

After a weekend of waiting and wondering if the rescued math books would find a new home, I peeked outside late Sunday afternoon to an empty front porch!  🙂

I know this is just a small drop in the bucket, but these books will be helping kids learn math skills instead of just sitting in the landfill for the next eleventy hundred years.

I’m still on edge every time I take trash out to the dumpster (which, fortunately, is not all that often), afraid of what I’ll feel compelled to rescue next.

In which a crazy pregnant lady goes dumpster diving

It all started out innocently enough.  With the warmer temps, I spent some time cleaning our sun porch on Friday in preparation for being able to use it again soon.

In the process of breaking down a cardboard box for recycling, I pulled off the packing tape, and since I was already outside on my way to the recycling bin at that point, I decided to put the tape directly into the trash dumpster.  I opened the dumpster lid and saw a bunch of brand new looking books.

Unable to just close the lid and go on with my life knowing that some perfectly good books were headed for the landfill, I started pulling them out and piling them on top of the dumpster.

I found about 20 middle school teachers’ guide math texts that looked like they’d never been used.  In the dumpster!  I was tempted to just leave the books piled on top of or next to the dumpster and hope that someone would come along and rescue them, but, realistically, people only tend to pick up furniture and other large objects.

If I left them there, they would probably just sit and end up getting water damage from rain, and then they really would be trash. So I brought them inside in two huge armfuls, found a box in the basement as a temporary home, and posted them on ReUseItStLouis (formerly known as FreeCycle).

They had not generated much interest by Saturday, when I made the mistake of visiting the dumpster again (with another small trash item).  Guess what?  More books!  Same topic and condition as the books from Friday — clearly the same culprit.

My shoulders sagged in defeat.  I could (and did) pull out these books, but this is one dumpster, in one alley, in one city, and I’m one person.  Every day, all across our country, perfectly good and usable items, like these books, get sent to the landfill.

I understand that taking the time to find new homes for items we no longer want does require some effort and can be frustrating, we just went through it with our couch, but taking the time and effort is part of being a responsible consumer.

In this case, the books I rescued would be perfect for a math tutor or a family that home schools.  While this story is not finished yet, I received two emails about the books, including one from a person who seemed very interested.  If all goes well, the books may have a new home by the end of the day, which would turn my distressed expression in the photo into a smile.