The dude who lives on the other side of Mr. Obsessively Mowing hadn’t mowed in a long time–longer than it had been for us.  So on the weekend, he mowed his yard. . .with a riding mower. . .then used a weedwhacker. . .then used a leafblower. . .then mowed again. . .while smoking.  Way to cancel out your lack of pollution, dude.

Bill mowed too–with our reel mower, of course.  He is much faster at that than I am.  It’s nice to have all the leaves to enrich our soil.

We drove about 40 miles in an old pickup to go on a bike/trike ride.  The colors were beautiful, we got to see some cool stuff, and it was a blast!  In the beginning I was pulling the kiddo and was having trouble keeping up with Bill, but on the way back he pulled the kiddo and I got up in the 20 MPH range three times (I wouldn’t be utterly shocked to learn I was going 30 the first time, although it was probably more like 25).

We had a picnic.  It wasn’t completely environmentally friendly, but we did pretty well.  I used baby food containers to hold the pumpkin seeds we scooped out of our pumpkins when we made jack-o’-lanterns.  We have two kinds of seeds–salted and sugar & spice.  We took pudding (containers are recyclable), applesauce (organic, again in a baby food container), sandwiches (reusable containers), juice (in reused juice bottles), tap water (in Klean Kanteens), baby food (recyclable containers), organic chocolate, not-so-organic chocolate, fruit strips, granola bites, and I don’t know what all.  It was an awesome feast, if I do say so myself.  I did take a Ziploc bag to hold the silverware so it wouldn’t get the picnic bag messy.  We used one recycled napkin.

I gave my son one of my old toys this weekend.  Well, really it’s more like four of my old toys that are compatible.

We went to Goodwill to donate a whole bunch of stuff.  Clothes, chairs, cookware, drinkware. . .so now there’s more space for the stuff we’ll actually use, which is nice. . .especially in the cookware department.  Led to some interesting discussion:

Bill:  Why did we get rid of the silicone brownie pan?

Karen:  Because we have two glass ones now, so we don’t need to use something that gives off a smell when I use it.

Bill:  But we kept our silicone muffin pan.

Karen:  That’s because that’s the only one we have left, so if we give it away and I have a cupcake emergency, I’m in trouble.  Don’t worry, there’s an iron one on my Christmas list.

Bill:  That sounds light.

Karen:  But good for us!

Bill:  Until somebody drops it on a toe.

Karen:  Well, would you rather have a broken toe or cancer?!

Bill:  Well. . .either one would take a long time to heal. . .

He does raise a good point.  Our gorgeous stainless steel pots and pans are pretty lightweight, but the other stuff we’re converting to is all pretty heavy.  I have trouble holding my terra cotta roasting pan steady in one hand (it weighs about nine pounds), which makes it hard to scrape stuff out of it into a container.  The glass stuff isn’t too bad, but the iron stuff is heavy and slightly complicated to take care of, since it can’t go in the dishwasher and has to be seasoned.  Still, I’m sure it’s worth it.  I’ve been smiling a lot in the kitchen lately.