Why I started this blog

I started this blog because my son cries when he thinks about the damage that humans are doing to the earth and he wants us to not just do things in our personal lives but to inspire other people to live more sustainably as well. I have been an activist of all kinds for many years and I will continue to be an activist but I also feel drawn to help inspire/teach people how to live differently through my writing.

I am not an ecological superstar - I'm not perfect but I try to always learn and change. I am immensely inspired by permaculture - I just completed Earth Activist Training with Starhawk which was an amazing life experience. My calling, I am starting to realize, is being an activist and advocate for and participant in urban agriculture.  A lot of this blog will focus on environmental education of children, my family's gardening experiences, and my attempts to become an urban farmer.

My family is also car-free (and neither adult even knows how to drive) by choice which I think is unusual for families in my medium-sized city. This blog will be a place for me to write about what it really means to be a car-free family - how we shop, how we get around the city, how we travel, and, the trickiest of all, how we camp!

We are an unschooling, co-parenting family. Unschooling means the kids are not in school but are free to pursue their interests in thier own way, at their own pace. Their dad and I provide guidance and resources and help our kids to live a full, rich life. Co-parenting means that their dad and I are not a couple but instead we are co-parents. We live close to each other, share custody of the kids, and most importantly, we are friends. My family includes myself, my kids,and my co-parent (and our two bunnies, my co-parent's cat, and 100s of red wriggler worms).

I want this to be a public blog but I don't really want to use my kid's real names. So, my 4 year old daughter will be refered to as Earth Girl (EG for short), My 8 year old son will be Earth Boy (EB), my co-parent is Zen dad (ZD), and I'm Earthy Mama (my real name is Becky!).