Camera Considerations

One of Matt's big dreams is to get better at photography. I also feel like I need to get better at photography to be a better blogger. Therefore, we are looking into options for purchasing a fancy camera.

Our friend takes amazing photos, and he uses a Nikon. Here's what he says about it:

I have the Nikon D60 camera body only (the link has an included lens, but you can find body only prices).

Note that the D60 cannot take video. You can do this with the new D90. If you want to know why I chose a nikon over a canon. There's this great saying about the essential difference between the design approach by the two companies:

Canon makes the best camera as designed by engineers.

Nikon makes the best camera as designed by photographers.

Not sure how true it is, but I've used both and they're both great, so don't fret over it too much.

Here are two of the lenses I got from Amazon:

Sigma 30mm f/1.4

This is the only lens of the ones listed here that will let you do decent low light photography without a flash. It's a great portrait lens and people do use it for multiple purpose stuff if you don't mind not needing zoom action (just walk up to your subject) and aren't going to be doing lots of landscape photography. It is the equivalent of a regular film 50mm fixed lens.

Sigma 10-20mm

I use this for landscape, architecture and catching an entire room in a small space (also nice in cars). 10mm is as wide as you can get without resorting to a fisheye lens.

I also have a third zoom lens that I think is a Nikon 70mm-300mm.

For a memory card, I use this SDHC card.

Be sure to get a class 6 because that means it does the fastest kind of memory transfer.

However, if changing lenses isn't for you, this one is definitely the one to get.

I recommend this option to almost all of my friends that aren't as interested in getting hardcore right away but still want to get a wide variety of images. It is a bit expensive but it does go from relatively decent wide angel to a nice zoom and pretty much replaces using three different lenses. While the 18 - 55mm lenses you see most commonly packaged as a kit with the d60 is a mediocre lens, it won't be terrible.

If you're interested in a very easy to understand introduction to using a digital SLR, I highly recommend The Digital Photography Book.

After all that is said and done, there is a new type of camera that isn't as bulky as traditional SLR but still can use interchangeable lenses and do great video. For about the same cost, it can do some amazing stuff (low light images are amazing with their F1.7 lens and ridiculous ISO). Here's a great review done as a travelogue showcasing images from the camera.

http://craigmod.com/journal/gf1-fieldtest/

I am actually considering getting this camera as a much lighter alternative to my Nikon when I'm on the go.

I've been stalking a few of my favorite blogger/photographers to see what they use (cakies, Lovely Morning, Superhero Journal, and fresh365). I definitely want to get a refurbished model of whatever we decide on, since that will be better on the budget and the earth...

Any recommendations from your experience?

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Backyard Beautifiation Part I

Our backyard fence is finally done! Woo-hoo! It has been a serious pain in the neck for the past two months. It actually only took a week to complete, but we've been trying to coordinate its creation for what feels like a long, long, time.

I am so relieved that the chickens can roam freely without hopping into the Rottweiler's yard next door (which happened to Little Joe--may she rest in peace).

Now it's time to create our backyard sanctuary. I just went back to my list to make sure I'm not getting ahead of myself...(oops, I need to hang our chalkboard mirror, get an ironing board cover, and add the chlorine filter to our shower).

I need to order our backyard furniture. Well, before we do that, Matt and I need to clean up our backyard! It's pretty trashy right now (for example, our chickens love grapefruit, so the old rinds are lying around everywhere). It would help to build our potting area at the same time, so we could get all our pots and dirt put away.

I'm so inspired by this project that Kristina found in Sunset magazine (see picture above). I think I could inexpensively cobble together something similar from my favorite antiques store. I'm going to try and go this weekend!

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Eggs!

Finally! Our precious chickens started laying eggs. Well, one of them has. We're not sure whether it's Clem or Hop Sing. We've had them for five months, and we have waited for this day with bated breath.

If any of you are thinking about getting chickens for eggs and pets, I highly recommend it! I didn't think I would like them as much as I do. I am seriously attached to them.

Whenever we open the door, they come running toward us (hoping to get some grapefruit). They are silky soft, and they try to come in our house whenever the weather is nice enough to leave the back door open.

Because we opted for the Eglu (expensive but worth it for urban chicken-raisers), they are very low maintenance. Matt moves it around the yard once a week, slides out the tray, and empties it out. (He's in charge of the chickens because I take on more responsibility related to our dog, Hoss).

We are so happy to have expanded our family from three to five!

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Tracking My Menstrual Cycle

I've been trying to diligently track my menstrual cycle ever since I skimmed Taking Charge of Your Fertility last year. For some reason, however, I have yet to be very successful with it. Something always seems to get in the way: waking up at inconsistent times, traveling and changing time zones, getting bored in the middle of my really long cycles, using a thermometer that only went to the tenths place and learning that I should get one that goes all the way to the hundredths, trying to use a tracking system that is too complicated--blah, blah, blah.

Well, it's time to get serious with my tracking because a) I'm going to need the information to share with my doctors/acupuncturist if I have fertility problems and b) I'm going to need the information to help Matt and me be strategic with our timing once we are trying to conceive.

I've tried using Fertility Friend (for free!), which I think is a really helpful tool (thank you, Julia, for suggesting it!). However, I find that it takes an extra step because I have to record the temperature first thing in the morning and then transfer it onto the website later in the day.

I tried just using a sticky note in the bathroom, but then I couldn't really see the pattern and the spike.

Finally, I copied a fertility chart (out of this book--but it's similar to all the other ones I've seen) and taped it to the inside of my bathroom cabinet (right below the list of two-letter Scrabble words I aspire to memorize while I brush my teeth--which, incidentally, I rarely look at!). I keep a pencil in there, too. So all I have to do is record the temperature while I'm waiting for the shower to heat up. Voila!

I'm hoping this new system will help me be more consistent!

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Dreaming Big: The Course

If you decide to enroll in a Mondo Beyondo course, please click through from my website! I will earn $20 that will go straight into my Dreaming Savings Account (sorry for the shameless self-promotion!)

Last month, I enrolled in Mondo Beyondo, an online course about dreaming big. Unfortunately, a few things conspired to make my experience less than fruitful:

1. I should have waited until my calendar cleared a bit before tackling a new and ambitious undertaking (in Mondo Beyondo speak, we call this "making a clearing."). March was frenetic and frazzled. I traveled four times and had something on my calendar every single day except Tuesday, March 23. Egad!
2. One or two of the initial exercises didn't resonate with me, and I used that as an excuse to procrastinate. For example, it's not helpful for me to think back on my childhood dreams because I'm already living those dreams (being a teacher and a writer) and I'm still yearning for new landscapes. Also, I didn't do well with freewriting my Mondo Beyondo list. After twenty minutes of it, I was staring at a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.
   
3. I didn't realize there was an online discussion area chock-full of incredibly inspiring and creative people until the very last week. Duh! I would have been much more motivated if I had been interacting with others all along.

The good news is that all is not lost! The incredible course creators will leave the materials up for a while, and the community discussion area will be open as long as it's being used. Plus, a bunch of us have decided to work through the course again together. Ya-hoo!

This time, my list is formulating in my mind already. This past weekend, I helped Matt formulate some big dreams for himself (related to photography and running), and we hammered out some shared goals: lots of vacation time, a summer cabin in the mountains, work that brings us meaning/joy and benefits the world, [to be continued].

My own goals have been difficult to formulate because I want to get them right. I only want to add things to my list that bring me closer to authenticity; I don't want to do things that merely impress others or earn me affirmation and affection.

I've also been struggling because my most immediate big goal is to have a healthy baby, and that's not something I can plan or coordinate. When I do get pregnant, I want to have time to nourish the baby, myself, and our family. I want the revolution to start at home. I don't want to be so engrossed or embroiled in other projects that I'm frantically running from thing to thing and not immersing myself in the joy of life.

On the other hand, I don't want to focus all my attention on the baby. I want to pursue other aspirations and interests. I've been trying to figure out how to balance my long-term goals (starting an infant to 8th-grade public Montessori charter school) with my more immediate baby goal (which may or may not be immediate, depending on how the conception process goes!).

I've been trying to identify other projects that align with my ultimate school goals without completely commandeering all my time/energy.

Phew!

The one thing I am pretty sure about is my desire to work with other people to create a small neighborhood of 6-8 homes that balances independence with interdependence. We would own and live in individual homes, but we would share communal areas (like an organic garden, natural pool, art studio, ping-pong table, etc.). All of us would embrace and actively embody interdependence, health and wellness, environmental stewardship, conscious consumption, and kindness.

There's a four-foot fence around the entire property (so Hoss and his doggy friends can run freely), and the path around the outside is a gravel driveway and running trail. The big building in the center is a communal area. The bottom floor has a banquet size table (there will be one outside, too), which we will use for communal dinners once a week or so. Upstairs, there's a studio apartment for an artist-in-residence (who receives free housing in exchange for art lessons), and the other half of the upstairs is a shared studio space.

I'm excited to immerse myself more fully in the Mondo Beyondo course this time around!

What dreams are brewing in your head?

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Blood Work Results

I am so thankful to have a general physician who believes in yearly physicals and recommends blood tests to gain greater insight into her patients' overall health.

Here's what the results say from my recent test:

Your blood sugar, electrolytes, kidney, thyroid, liver, and blood counts are normal. Your iron studies are normal. Your lipid panel/cholesterol is normal. Your female hormone test (progesterone, FSH, LH, and estradiol) is normal and implies at time of testing you were in "follicular" phase of cycle. Pap smear is normal.

Phew! I'm especially relieved to know that have normal iron and protein levels. As a vegetarian, it's something I worry about. The delightful and insightful Kristina of Lovely Morning recommended that I try brewer's yeast as a way to inject more protein into my daily routine. How is it that I've been a vegetarian for nine years and have never even heard of it? Do any of you have experience with taking it?

Additionally, I really want to start making green smoothies to beef up my vegetable intake, but I honestly don't know how to begin. Do I have to purchase a fancy blender? From your comments, it sounds like the answer is yes. What's the cheapest fancy blender I can get away with? I have so many items on my to-buy list and Christmas is oh-so far away...

Kristina has also informed me that Vitamix blenders can be used to make baby food. That is a very compelling argument. (But they are so expensive!) Perhaps there will be one on Woot one of these days?

Once I have my fancy blender, I really want to buy the book: Green Smoothie Revolution. I really am such a fruit person; I would definitely benefit from eating more vegetables.

It's still not clear to me what the results say about my menstrual cycle. I was in Day 5 when the blood work was taken, so I'm not sure if those hormones are right or if the stage is on track.

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Avoiding Home Improvement Overload

Pictures of our house from the real estate website

Taking on home improvement projects can be a bit daunting. And the truth is, Matt and I bought a 1930s bungalow that had recently been completely updated, so we didn't have as much to do as the average old-house homeowner might have.

Even still, our "to-do" list is long. Here's what we've already accomplished in the two years that we've been here:

1. Refinished a mailbox and hung it
   
2. Hung window coverings on every window
3. Attached a hose to the side of our house
4. Bought furniture for our front porch
5. Made cushions for the front porch swing
6. Closed off our house with a gate
7. Had a chain-link fence removed and another fence completed
8. Added a rain collection system (gutter + barrel)
9. Bought a dining room table
10. Installed a pole for growing tomatoes upside down
11. Redesigned our front walkway
12. Had a new backyard fence built (in process)
13. Bought a chicken coop and chickens
14. Added lattice to close off the bottom of our house
15. Added insulation to attic
16. Had a security system installed
17. Added motion detector to side of house
    

I think one strategy for preventing complete home improvement overload is to keep an ongoing list and reprioritize it every time a new idea gets added. That way, we can tackle one project at a time, with full confidence that we're tackling the most important/relevant thing at a given time. With that strategy in mind, here is our current list:

• Hang chalkboard mirror
  
• Add chlorine filter to shower
  
• Get a new ironing board cover
  
• Purchase backyard furniture
• Put together a potting area in our backyard
• Landscape area around backyard tree
  
• Organize closet
  
• Get a new couch
• Get a new coffee table
• Get a new chair for the living room
  
• Make new cushions for the front porch swing
• Get ceiling fans
• Redo driveway

One project at a time...

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