Leslie

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Knee-Deep Farming

The cows are back!!

Well, technically they’re cattle… (in this case) cows and steers destined to be T-bone steaks and meatloaf. Forgive me if I call them all cows; it’s just easier.

For the past 18 years, we’ve lived on five acres just outside the city limits, across the street from a good-sized piece of undeveloped land. While our property is mostly Ponderosas with some grass, the spread we look out on is mostly short-grass prairie with a few trees. It’s been owned by a series of developers. I’m sure they have plans for high-density housing and strip malls, but one good side of the bad economy is that no bulldozers have yet arrived to spoil the peace and quiet of our country spot.

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Are You Sure, God?

I sold eleven greeting cards last week.

I realize this isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, but it was a significant milestone for me. You see, last week was the “grand opening” of my new business, Mountain Plover.

I am offering my services as a writer and speaker, and am working hard as a photographer of God’s fingerprints in nature. I finally have some pictures I’m pretty pleased with, and I had a dozen of them made into 5 x 7 photo greeting cards, blank inside, with blurbs about the subject and about me on the back. Paired with an envelope and stuffed into a plastic sleeve, these are for sale at $4 each. (See my “Card Store” page above.)

Last week a friend and I presented a program on native plants to the Colorado Springs Garden Club. I took the photos and put together the PowerPoint while she researched the plants and did most of the talking. The Garden Club graciously allowed me to offer my cards—pictures of flowers and birds—neatly arranged on a table in the back of the room, with my logo (thanks, Teri!) and pricing displayed on some stand-up signs. Twelve people attended the meeting. And I actually sold eleven cards!

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www.compost-blog.com

I’m announcing a new name for my blog!

My kids are going to be so relieved. I will no longer be pestering them for inspiring names, names that subtly indicate this site’s awesomeness. After much soul searching and months of intense contemplation, I am changing the name to… Compost.

I can hear the thundering silence. “Huh?” you say, “Compost??”

Too late. I’m committed. I already spent my $9.98 for the domain name www.compost-blog.com and I can’t afford to change my mind.

Besides, it fits. For one, I’m a gardener. Compost is a big part of my life. Well, a significant part, at least. And compost is a good thing. You take leftovers—veggie parings, weeds, frost-killed flowers—and turn them into something valuable. Most gardeners would give a lot for a big pile of finished compost.

In the same way, I’ve had good and bad things happen in my life. What amazes me is that God is able to take my past—all of it—and turn it into something sweet-smelling and life-producing.

That’s what I want this blog to be. Fun, helpful, instructive, but most of all, life-producing.

So please change your bookmarks or RSS feeds, the three of you who actually regularly read my blog. Just don’t go away. The only thing changing is the name.