Is Having a Garden in the Front Yard Illegal?

March 17, 2013 23 Comments

Ever wonder what it would be like to dig up your entire front lawn and plant an edible garden instead? Check out this video of  Josée Landry and Michel Beauchamp’s beautiful 2012 front yard kitchen garden in Drummondville, Quebec.

front yard garden{photo credit}

There was actually a big controversy over the garden and the city had planned to make all front lawn vegetable gardens illegal. You can read the whole article about illegal front yard gardens from the Huffington Post. Talk about crazy!

What do you think? Is this an eyesore or eye candy?

~Mavis

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Friday Night at the Movies – Alone in the Wilderness

March 15, 2013 9 Comments

I have watched Alone in the Wilderness on PBS at least 20 times {no joke}.

It is soooo well-made, I just can’t get enough of it.  I always get a little giddy when I see it’s going to be on.  It is about a man, Dick Proenekke, who decides at age 51 to see if he can, well, live “alone in the wilderness” of Alaska. Dick films his adventures himself, and keep in mind, it is done in the 1980′s, so it is a little gritty at times, but he is smart, well-spoken, and resourceful.  Every time I watch it, a little piece of me wishes I could go off of the grid and live off the land myself.

alone in the wilderness book

If you can’t find it on your local PBS station, Alone in the Wilderness is available on Amazon in both book and video format.

Happy Friday,

Mavis

 

 

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Friday Night at the Movies – Growing Farmers

March 8, 2013 1 Comment

Growing Farmers (Complete film 2012) from Peconic Land Trust Film on Vimeo.

Tonight The Girl and I will be watching a short film called Growing Farmers.  It’s about the Peconic Land Trust, an organization founded in the 1980′s to help New England farmers, whose families have owned the land for many, many generations.

Basically, it highlights the high cost of farming with growing technology, the high cost of inheritance taxes for multi-generational farming, and the near impossibility of starting farms if you don’t already have the land.  The Peconic Land Trust tries to counter all of these obstacles by helping local farmers continue and start farming.  Go Peconic Land Trust!

The entire short film is available for FREE.  Yippee!

Check it out and let me know what you think…

Happy Friday,

Mavis

 

 

 

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Friday Night at the Movies – The Real Dirt on Farmer John

March 1, 2013 1 Comment

Tonight The Girl and I are watching The Real Dirt on Farmer John.  It’s a PBS documentary about a man, who after years of struggle {it appears both internal and external}, is able to rally and evolve from traditional farming into a thriving Organic CSA Food Co-Op farmer {sheesh, that’s a mouthful}.  Farmer John is described as quirky and unique–hmm, I don’t know where I’ve heard that before?  Ha!

The film, although, a little bit older, got great reviews, and apparently, Farmer John has gone on to write a cookbook, The Real Dirt on Vegetables, which is also getting great reviews on Amazon.

the real dirt on farmer john

Amazon Prime Members can watch The Real Dirt on Farmer John for $2.99.

Let me know what you think if you watch it!

Happy Friday,

Mavis

More Friday Night at the Movie Videos

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Friday Night at the Movies – Hungry for Change

February 22, 2013 9 Comments

I know a lot of us grew up eating whatever we wanted {or at least I did}, without a second thought. Luckily The Girl Who Thinks She’s a Bird is much more aware of what she eats than I ever was, but now matter how much you already know, appreciating  the value of good, healthy whole foods is something I think we all need to be reminded about.

So if your looking for an eye opening documentary on the subject of food Hungry For Change looks like a good one.

Plus, as an added bonus, Jamie Oliver appears in this documentary.  I remember watching his show the Naked Chef a long time ago and I LOVE what he has done for the kids’s lunch programs in the US and Britain.  And, it doesn’t hurt that he is pretty cute either.

hungry for change

How about YOU? Do you ever worry that your kids don’t have the information they need in a heat-and-eat world? Have you seen this yet?

~Mavis

You can watch Hungry for Change with Amazon Instant Video, or view it instantly on Netflix.

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Friday Night at the Movies – Queen of the Sun

February 15, 2013 2 Comments

Tonight the Girl and I are going to feed my new bee fascination with the documentary, Queen of the Sun.  The movie goes into detail about the collapsing bee colonies due to mono-culture growing practices and chemical pesticides.  It also discusses the impact on the whole ecosystem, should the bee population continue to decline.

If this doesn’t motivate me to get into the bee keeping game, I don’t know what will.  Besides, I immediately loved the man who tickles the bees with his mustache, so at the very least, I’ll get to watch more of him.

queen of the sun

So, have you seen it?  Will it change the way I look at bees?

Happy Friday!

~Mavis

Amazon Instant Video has Queen of the Sun available for $3.99 HERE, and Netflix has it for FREE right now.

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Dream Big. Be Happy. Be Yourself. Get Out There and Enjoy Life.

February 11, 2013 24 Comments

I think I might be in love.

This morning I woke up and logged into facebook to find a message from someone named Sabrina.

Sabrina: Hello. Based on your blog/videos I can envision you doing this. 

And then there was a link to the above video. The Girl and watched, smiled, and then viewed a few more SoulPancake Videos.

This one made me cry.

This one made me smile so wide, my face still hurts.

Dream big. Be happy. Be yourself. Get out there, and enjoy life.

~Mavis

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Friday Night at the Movies – The Garden

February 8, 2013 4 Comments

Whoa, am I glad it’s Friday!  Tonight the Girl and I will be watching The Garden.  It’s a film from 2008 {how have I not heard of this before now?} that chronicles the power struggle between low-income families and land developers over a community garden in South Central Los Angeles. When I watched the preview, I was reminded a little of the Front Yard Garden post from a couple of weeks ago.  It should be an intense watch.

Make sure to leave your opinion if you decide to watch it!

Have a great weekend,

Mavis

the garden movie

I’m not sure if Netflix has The Garden available {someone please let us know in the comments below} but The Garden is available on Amazon Instant Video.

 

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Friday Night at the Movies – Food Matters

February 1, 2013 7 Comments

Tonight the Girl and I will be watching Food Matters.  It’s a documentary on the relationship between food and health.  I think we all know that food effects our health, but after watching this preview, I wonder, do we all know what bad food actually does to our health?  I’m interested to see how much I really know about nutrition {or scared to see how little I know!}.

Let me know what you think if you watch it.

Happy Friday,

Mavis

food matters dvd

I’m not sure if it’s on Netflix, but Amazon has Food Matters on  Instant Video.

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Friday Night at the Movies – Ingredients

January 25, 2013 7 Comments

This week, the Girl and I will be taking the suggestion of one of my readers and watching Ingredients. {Thanks Kate!}  Ingredients is a documentary that exposes the shortcomings of our industrialized food system and follows the growing movement toward the grow-local ideal.  The film is supposed to highlight the ever-changing demands on farmers {I always love getting the farmer’s perspective} and highlight cities that have learned to integrate locally grown cuisine into their businesses and restaurants.

Ingredients is available for free for Amazon Prime members.

Should be an interesting watch.  Let me know what you think if you decide to give it a go…

Happy Friday,

Mavis

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