Synergia ropes course( Nadia is just 12yrs old)

This ropes course was really challenging for Nadia. We camped out too in these adobe building which was fun.

Project old and new made by repurposing "trash."

Old and new projects made from found objects. Everything from, old tiles to toilet paper roles, containers, and broken toys. Repurposing can be cool.

Homeschooling through the years part two

Halloween 2003, Our trip to Oregon and Leo's old homeschool friends from Marin County.

Homeschooling through the years

Nadia's old homeschool friends from Marin, in a recycled art class making a day of the dead altar.


We have been homeschooling for many years now. I think its been around ten years now. The other day I was trying to list all the field trips and experiences we've had starting with Nadia.

We've taken many trips to farms to learn about bee keeping, ice cream making and tasting, farm cheese tasting, strawberry picking, pumpkin picking, potato picking, bottle feeding calfs, learning about composting, and many other things.

My first recollection was of a farm where their main goal was how they could live their lives more sustainable. They had rabbits and used their poop for the garden. They sold some of their produce and herbs in town. This was the first time we had seen a cob oven too. There was an out door bedroom too. It was great seeing how much fun the kids had just being free to roam around and explore.

What's going on in your garden?

Well, it's been kind of a crazy year for us here at the Raymer Ranch and I have been neglecting my garden. Since we don't know if we'll be here next year, I have let the chores in the garden go a bit. I didn't think there was much going on in the garden until I saw this gigantic monster green spider on the raspberry vine. Being the big wimp that I am, I jumped about ten feet in the air when I saw this critter. After regaining my composer, I decided to pull out the camera and snap a few photos of it. Anyway, anyone know the name of this spider?

Earthday celebrations around town

Hello everyone, Earthday is full of fun free activities this year. Here are some festivals that are being hosted by Glendora and Claremont California.

Earthday Festival in Glendora

This event takes place on Saturday, April 17th 2010 10am-3pm
It will start with a community bike ride through beautiful mountain views of the
San Gabriel Mountains. Afterwards there will be many vendors like The Fine Arts Academy which is an art studio out of an old historic church. They offer classes in everything from sewing to making mosaics, crocheting, and ceramics.
Another vendor that will be at the festival will be Lotus of Light. They are a wonderful place that offers massage, yoga classes and breastfeeding support. They will be having free demo classes(15 min.) at the festival.

The other fun festival will be in Claremont, California 10am-3pm
This event will be on Second St. and in the plaza near the Laemle Theatres.
Many vendors from the Green Market will be there selling things like homemade granola, fresh milled oats and grains, organic cotton, bamboo clothing and handmade soap.
I will be selling my handmade plastic crocheted art and some gardening signs with seed packets there.

Earthday with the EcoEtsy team

This is from the EcoEtsy team blog. This is our second year of fundraising for a cause. If you are interested in knowing more about it, go to www.ecoetsy.blogspot.com



Earth Day is turning 40 years old on April 22nd.

In celebrating it's awesome birthday, Team Eco Etsy will be having some rocking parties to promote our mission of spreading eco-love and promoting the team.

First, we are going to repeat our successful event we had last year called "Green Share"

Green Share is an idea conceived by the members of the EcoEtsy Team in 2009. It is hope - it is our promise to spread the green idea within our own communities, all over the world. The idea is to pass on and share a gift of seeds to classrooms, local businesses, neighbors, friends and family. The gift can be anonymous or can help show your business or organization’s commitment to Eco-Friendly living.

Many EcoEtsy members will participate in Green Share, but anyone can participate really! The benefits of participating are numerous:

* All the materials you need to get started are free - just download and assemble. This makes a great classroom project, or something to do with your kids for Earth Day.

* Giving within your own community helps support change at the heart of where we live. Supporting our community has nothing but positive benefits - especially when green growing things are involved!

* Businesses and organizations can gift Green Share seed packets & planters as a way to get the word out about their own efforts.


At the top of this post is a sample of one of the awesome seed packets past co-leader Lolaness designed.



You can download this free template and others for print, or you can recycle any paper, like brown grocery bags, to make your own design like Rikkianne did. Either way, it's a great way to send a message to your community and share some eco-love.



Second, we would like 100% participation from Team Eco Etsy for the next event. We will be sponsoring a silent auction and donate the proceeds to charities in celebration of Earth Day.

Team Eco Etsy

I have been part of an eco artist group called The Eco Etsy team. If you haven't heard of Etsy, it is a website where you can buy handmade stuff. There are thousands of artists with their own shop page and everything you can imagine. I get inspired just looking at peoples art work. Anyway, within this Etsy website there are many groups that have formed to support each other and network. Eco Etsy is a group of artists that re-purpose things to make art or somehow try and create things with the idea of being eco friendly in some way.

Crocheting with plastic

Seeing how I've been wrapped up with my gardening, I didn't want to ignore my recycled art.(especially because this hobby brings in some cash) Recycled art is still one of my passions and it's fun talking to people at farmers markets about why I do it and the problems with the amount of plastic that is produced everyday. I do hope to run out of bags at some point but unfortunately that isn't going to happen any time soon. In fact, I joke with my kids about who I am going to will my collection of plastic bags to.

Crocheting with plastic bags has been an adventure because I'm never quite sure of how my project will come out. I know I should be writing down my pattern, but I do like the fact that each fish is a little bit different. My work is constantly evolving and my plan is to start making bigger more sculptural figures. Here is a few pictures of how I go about crocheting with plastic.

A year in the garden.

I can't believe that in April it will be two years since my friends from "Claremont Food Not Lawns" came and helped me put in the garden.
I spent many months thinking about what kind of garden I wanted. I had decided that the lawn must go and a beautiful edible garden needed to take its place. My husband was a bit weary when I started talking about tearing out the entire lawn. I strategically gave him little bits of information like. "Did you know that there is a family in Pasadena that grows most of their own produce?" That saves a lot of money. Once my husband let me have free reign of the back, I knew I had to work fast. Naturally, I started to rip out the garden with just a shovel. This proved to be grueling work not to mention hard as hell. My husband being the nice person he is saw how hard it was for my wimpy arms to even break the sod and said he would help. The part that I took out was about one fifth of the lawn. It also took me about the same time as it took him to do the rest of the lawn. Men are so lucky that they have the upper body strength they do. As for me, I look like sponge bob trying to lift two marshmellows on a stick. Not impressive. So anyway, it just so happened that while we were taking the lawn out, I met a couple that had started a group called "Food not Lawns". When I went to a meeting and they said that one of their goals were to help people convert their lawns to gardens, I almost squeeled with happiness. Seeing how I was getting overwhelmed by all the planning and work that this would take, meeting these two was like hitting the lotto. I also met so many people that helped me know what and how to plant my garden. Two years later, the garden is still teaching me that this will always be a work in progress with me learning as I go. If you want to know more about "food not lawns", here's Claremonts link to it. www.claremontfoodnotlawns.com