Ryan’s Wordsmithery

That’s right folks, you read it correctly.  I’m quitting my job…and becoming a FARMER!!  Ok, I’m not really quitting my job, but I thought that title might make you more interested in reading a post about my garden than a title like “Check out my cool garden”.  Let me ’splane it to ya…

As you may know, a couple of months ago I decided it was about time to put in a garden.  The main reason why I wanted this house in the first place (instead of others we looked at) was that we would have a yard big enough to actually have a decent garden, and we haven’t done anything until now.

So I looked on craigslist to see if anyone had any free organic dirt.  For some reason, no one had any, nor any free gold, diamonds, or signed velvet Elvis paintings.  Go figure!  But I did find a landscaping company selling dirt for $14 a ton (including delivery).  That was less than half what other places wanted, so I called them and ordered 5 tons.  They had FREE tree mulch too, which they threw on with no additional cost for delivery, and brought it that day.

I got home from work to a couple of mountains almost as tall as I was in the street (I should have gotten a picture).  “Sweet!  That’s gonna be fun to move!”   So the next morning I moved the rocks and paver border (which was a job in and of itself) and began moving the mulch.  I think the company wanted to get rid of the mulch, cause they gave me probably twice as much as I had asked for.  I was expecting to put down about a 3″ layer of mulch, but ended up with 6-8″.  Luckily I had several people in the ward volunteer to help.  Then we put the dirt on top.  You can see the progression in the collage below.  After the dirt, I put down some cow manure, put up a fence to keep the kids out (didn’t have a dog at the time), and put out a soaker hose.  The next week I hooked the soaker hose up to our sprinkler system (another job in and of itself).

Then finished with the pavers and rocks, and was very proud when it looked like this:

The kids had fun planting the seeds with me, and we all liked to look and see what new had sprouted every day.   I was pretty proud when it looked like this  (this is with tomato starters, in the middle):

BUT LOOK AT IT NOW!!!!:

I know what you’re thinking, and NO, I did NOT photoshop in a bunch of pictures from South American rainforests.  This actually a SWEET garden in VEGAS!

We have:

• Corn
• 5 types of tomato (~30 plants)
• Sugar snap peas
• Radishes
• Celery
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Spinach
• 3 types of lettuce
• Carrots
• 3 types of onion
• Zucchini
• Cantaloupe
• Peppers
• Cilantro
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Strawberries

Look at this lettuce!  In Vegas!!!  Did you know anything could be this green in Vegas?:

Like I said, we have 3 types of lettuce, and so for dinner we just go out, and pick the outside leaves of a few, and leave the heads.  They just keep growing, and we just keep eating.  We’re probably eating healthier now than ever before!

As you can see below, the kids love the garden (almost as much as I do) - especially the corn.  Rebecca and I each have childhood memories of playing in our grandpas’ rows of corn, so we understand their excitement.  (We’re going to plant a “sunflower fort” tomorrow - plant sunflowers in a circle, and when they get tall, tie their heads together and let the kids play in it).  Top right - Midnight also likes the garden, especially the onions.  For some reason she will just go and sit in the onion patch, and chew on the tops of the onions.  Weird!  Lower left corner shows the extra chicken wire fence I had to add when Cujo learned to climb the “not ugly” one I put in (grumble, grumble).  In the lower right corner you can see what Cujo did to my lettuce when he got in today (Sunday) since I had the fence partially down to put in a gate yesterday and didn’t finish.   I was NOT happy, and he got in BIG TROUBLE!

All in all, we’ve spent $400 on the garden, including dirt, hoses, fences - plural , manure, and seeds.  That even includes about $20 for about 5 months worth of Miracle-Gro, which I spray weekly (with some liquid hand soap mixed in to keep the bugs away - dries them up!).  We may not make that money back in this first season, but I think it will pay for itself after a couple of seasons.

But if not, the other benefits are well worth it.  Like I said, we’re eating healthier.  It’s also nice to come home after a stressful day and be able to go out in the garden with the kids and see how much bigger everything has gotten in the last 24 hours :)  And I love seeing the fruits of our labor, er, vegetables.  And it’s helping teach the kids to work too.   (That’s TOTALLY worth $400!!)

I hope this doesn’t sound braggy.  I’m just really excited about this garden (as you can tell).  I didn’t expect it to turn out this well.  All in all, I really believe that we’re seeing the blessings of paying tithes and offerings.  I’ve had ideas, and help , and “good luck” along the way that I believe are a direct result of the Lord “rebuking the devourer” and “opening the windows of heaven”.  I also think we’re going to have so many tomatoes that we “won’t have room to receive them”.  :)  So come visit, and come hungry!

Here’s what I commented on Erik’s blog about Prop 8. Thought I’d post it so that everyone could see it if they didn’t read the comments to his blog:

One thing to comment on. I agree with everything you’ve said. Like you’ve pointed out, the “No on 8″ arguments cannot stand up to logic. They are fairly childish arguments, and the people who are protesting are acting like a bunch of little children who had to give a toy back to the kid that actually owned it.

But the scary thing is that Prop 8 barely passed. The logic is so clear to us, but it BARELY passed. So while their arguments are childish and illogical, they are also ingenius and extremely calculated. They are playing off of people’s emotions, not logic. They are succeeding in calling good evil and evil good. The world’s perceptions are changing, in spite of the logical arguments to the contrary. THAT is scary.

It shows that there is a mastermind behind it all, and he is very old and very experienced. As I understand, he was able to bring down the Roman Empire with the same sort of issues. He is very good at changing and corrupting laws. He is skilled at changing people’s views and hearts. And he has brought down nation after nation, people after people.

How do you fight against something like that? Logic doesn’t necessarily work when you’re dealing with people’s emotions. I’m not sure what the answer is. It may have something to do with teaching to both the HEART and the MIND - the way the Spirit does. That can involve both emotions and logic.

I think we have to keep our guards up. We have to safeguard ourselves and our families, and follow the truth. We have to guard our hearts and minds. We know who’s side we’re on, and He knows the beginning from the end, so we have nothing to worry about, as long as we stay the course.

Let’s keep up the fight for right.

So yesterday I was relaxing in our new “Family Room” (I”ll blog more about that later) and I heard the kids playing. They had gone towards my bathroom and Sariah said something like “Ben thought he took medicine, but it was poison!”

I was about 99 percent sure they were just playing, but decided to check, in case they did have some bottle of medicine or something that they shouldn”t be playing with.

As I came around the corner, I saw Benjamin lying on his back on the ground near the stairs, with his arms spread out (i.e. appearing “dead”). Sariah and Elizabeth were on their knees around him, looking concerned.

Elizabeth said something about needing to kiss him to wake him up (a little Sleeping Beauty or Snow White in reverse??). So she leaned over him slowly and gave him a kiss on the lips, and gently sat back up to see the results. (And I tried not to laugh.)

After a couple of seconds, Ben quickly popped his head up and said, “NOPE! DIDN”T WORK!” and popped his head back down, eyes closed.

Ya gotta love kids!

Well, it’’s been over a year since I blogged last (I know, I know, you ladies are wondering how I survived the withdrawl pains…it was rough, but I got by), so I figured I”d give it another go around. Erik suggested that I post the email that I wrote to National Geographic the other day, so here it is. I already BCC”d all you guys with my email so you”d be aware of it. I know that their picture was a relatively minor thing compared to what is being said about the Church in other media, but I figured if I didn”t write them, no one would.

Here it is…see you again next year…

To The National Geographic Magazine Editor:

I have loved your magazine since I was a child. I”ve always loved the pictures and the interesting articles. I”ve always felt like your magazine strove to present accurate and unbiased (to the degree possible) information about the world.

That is why I was surprised to see a picture of a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon church) at the end of the article about light pollution in the November 2008 issue. (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/light-pollution/richardson-photography)

The picture was overexposed for effect (as rightfully explained by the caption), greatly exaggerating the lighting. Since the picture was at the end of an article on light pollution, the subtle unspoken message that your magazine seemed to be trying to convey was that the LDS church and its members are irresponsible or uncaring about the environment. Neither of these is true.

I lived across the street from the LDS temple in Las Vegas for a time, and every night after everyone has left, at around 11 p.m., they turn off the lights. I don”t know if this is standard practice everywhere in the world, but it is the practice at the Las Vegas LDS temple. Thus in the city that is probably the most well-known, blatant light polluter, the LDS temple turns out it’’s lights at night!

There are only around 130 or so LDS temples in the entire world, and even if all of them had lights blazing like what your overexposed photo showed, all night long, it would still represent a negligible contribution to the light pollution problem.

I would like to think that your intentions were benign, but I cannot think of a benign reason why you would associate an exaggerated picture like that with an article about the negative effects of light pollution, creating a negative association in the minds of your readers. Therefore I am left to wonder why you would want to subtly defame the LDS church and its members.

I have been a member of the LDS church my entire life, and have also been very concerned about environmental issues my entire life. I do not appreciate your magazine making this negative association with the LDS church, a church that does nothing but show concern for the world, and the people and other life that God has placed on it.

If you would like more information about things that the LDS church has done around the world you might find the following link interesting:

http://www.newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/background-information/humanitarian-services

As you can see, the LDS church is doing a lot to help out in world issues that are probably far more critical than light pollution.

Indeed, might I suggest that you write an article about the contributions that the LDS church has made to the many disaster victims all over the world, especially the most recent disasters. The church is constantly sending millions of dollars of relief to disaster victims throughout the world, irregardless of religion. In fact, about a billion dollars worth of cash and material aide has been sent by the church to those in need since 1985 (see http://www.newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/statistical-information).

I think that this would make a very interesting article for your readers, and would more accurately convey what the LDS people are all about. I”m sure that your photographers have already run into the relief sent by the LDS church countless times as they have documented the aftermath of various disasters throughout the world in recent years.

I would be happy to help in any way possible if you chose to write such an article.

Respectfully,

Ryan Briggs
Las Vegas
mountain@byu.net

Alright peeps…every year about this time we all send out emails about getting fit, and many of us jump on the bandwagon, only to fall off a few weeks later. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had basically the same weight loss goal for the past 5 years…and I’m sick of it. If I had just stuck with it any one of those 5 times, I’d be super svelte right now (that’s svelte, not smelt)

So I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re going about it wrong. We’ve tried contests, diets, teaming up, and various things to motivate each other to lose the maximum amount of weight possible before the end of the year. We then sprint, and soon are tired and quit, and sit down and eat bon bons.

So I propose that we forget about stuff like that, and try to just change our lifestyles to be healthier. Basically change ourselves slowly to make permanent changes in the way we eat and exercise. I think part of the reason we always fail is that we’re trying to change too fast, and make things too hard and too complicated so that we burn out.

The most successful weight loss goal that I ever had was the one that the Beckys both mocked me for – calling it “way to go, aim low”. But hey, it worked. I basically said forget about losing the maximum amount of weight, I’m shooting for just 1 pound a week. And I dropped somewhere between 10-12 pounds, as I recall.

So I’m inviting everyone who is interested to join me in aiming low. I’m going to just focus on eating better and exercising. I’m going to have an easy goal of losing 1 pound a week, so that I have a measuring stick. I’m going to record everything I eat, but only for 1-3 weeks. I hate recording what I eat, it’s a pain in the butt and contributes to me not sticking to it, so I’m going to do it for 1-3 weeks so that I have a good idea of what I am eating, and what I should be eating. I figure that if I made a goal to record what I eat, I would fall off the wagon in 3 weeks anyway, so why not just make it part of my goal to quit after 3 weeks. Aim low!

I’m going to use a computer program we learned about from Beck and Andrew – Diet Assistant, which you can download for like $20. You put in what you ate, and how much, and it tells you the calories, etc. You can also put in a goal, and it will tell you how many calories you should have a day. So 3 weeks should be long enough to give you a good idea what you are eating, and what you should be eating. And since it takes 3 weeks to form a habit, you can continue the habit if you want, but I’m just planning on stopping.

There are like 9 weeks left in the year. And while losing 9 pounds probably doesn’t sound like much, and might not seem like a challenging goal, wouldn’t you rather weigh 9 pounds less at the end of the year, rather than stay the same (or go up). And if I do it, I will be at my lowest weight that I’ve been at in like 7 years or so. (But if I set a goal to lose 15 pounds by the end of the year, I’ll burn out in 3 weeks, and weight the same at the end). But really, the number isn’t so important. What’s important is to live healthy, not weight a certain amount.

I’m also planning on reading the book “Losing It” again between now and the end of the year. It is a good book that you can get at Deseret Book, which basically is a Word of Wisdom based book, and does a great job of explaining what you should eat, and how much, etc. It’s really informative, and I highly recommend it. (No, I’m not getting any royalties from it or anything).

So, in summary, here’s what I’m going to do:

-Goal: slowly and easily change my lifestyle by eating healthier and exercising more.

-Measuring stick: lose 1 pound a week

-Record what I eat for 1-3 weeks

-Exercise 3 times a week minimum

-Read “Losing It” by the end of the year

And these are my minimums. If I lose 2 pounds a week, that’s great, but my goal is only 1. I’m going to try to exercise 5-6 times a week, but my goal is only 3. Setting goals like 2 pounds a week requires me to be “perfect”, since that’s the maximum they recommend losing. That means that the moment I’m not perfect, I just threw off my goal completely, and have no motivation to continue. That’s the reason for “aiming low”. And my goal is to lose 1 pound a week, not lose 9 pounds total. That way if I miss it one week, my goal starts over the next week, and I won’t feel extra pressure towards the end of the year if I’m a couple pounds short.

I’m posting this on my blog, and I’m inviting all of you to join me. No pressure, and no contest, just an attempt to help motivate each other to change. Please respond on my blog so that we can all read it. If you have any ideas of how I can “aim lower” let me know. I’m thinking of just setting a new years’ resolution to GAIN weight next year…:)

Ry