posts tagged with 'suburbs'
outdoor learning in the suburbs
One of my favorite things about learning at home is how much time we get to spend outside. Tons of playing, of course, and educational play opportunities like when the kids spent an hour last week picking wild grapes and then made grape lemonade. But also the chance to do more traditional schooling stuff out of doors amidst the beauty and decay of the early fall garden. All the fresh air makes those math brains work better! The only problem with outdoor learning in the suburbs is that you have a good chance it's going to be hard to hear each other. Because pretty much, as long as it's nice out someone's going to be busy with loud gas-powered lawn care.
the joys of garden school
I don't keep records, but it seems to me that the same thing happened last week at the same time. At least the lawn-service guys know their business and get in and out pretty quickly so we only had to deal with the obnoxious drone of the mowers, trimmers, and blowers for about 20 minutes—and it was only too loud to hear each other talk for about half that time. Then they left, and we were able to converse easily again... at least when there weren't airplanes buzzing overhead on their way to land at the airport a mile away.
As for our own lawn care, I'm proud to report I haven't contributed one bit to the noise pollution of the neighborhood in the past couple months. I'm so impressive, using the push reel mower exclusively ever since my gas mower stopped working!
let's walk
Apparently Americans don't walk very much. That's actually not really news to me, and not only because the article I linked there is a year and a half old; monitoring the sidewalks around town makes it clear that most people in Bedford, at least, don't like to use anything other than a private automobile for purposes of transportation. That doesn't mean that people aren't out and about: there are plenty of joggers, dog walkers, and couples taking romantic strolls. But all that is recreational; whenever folks want to get anywhere—even if it's the Whole Foods less than a mile away—they hop in their cars.
Though I suppose I can't blame them. According to famous walkability-rating website Walk Score our address comes in at 43, which is defined as "Car-Dependent". "Most errands require a car", the report tells us. Whether that assessment defines or reflects people's behavior, they're going to be driving most places. Which is kind of silly, because as well as the Whole Foods we can also walk to another grocery store, a library, a post office, a wide variety of restaurants (including an excellent ice cream store), playgrounds, and swimming, all in under a mile and a half. What else? Hardware store, office supplies, two TX Company clothing stores, even auto parts are within striking distance of our little suburban home. Sure, a mile and a half takes up to half an hour each way, but think of all the interesting sights you'll see as you stroll. And if things were any closer, it'd feel like we were living in the city. We don't really want to live in the city, see, and we'll walk a bit more if that means we can keep our big yard.
Not that we always have to walk. Thankfully, we also have bicycles, and today saw an important first for our family: we took three bikes out on an errand. Harvey is as yet limited to not much more than two miles round trip, and to the sidewalks and bike paths (he's also not really a fan of big hills right now—though, to be fair, neither is Leah when she's hauling both boys), but that's enough to get him some useful places. Even better, the rack on his bike lets him bring things home with him—today his cargo was only a real-estate flyer, sure, but the concept is sound.
Even with a four-year-old moving under his own power our cycling speed beats walking (to say nothing of the reduction in effort required), and when he's riding with Leah our rate and range is obviously improved tremendously. That means that, contra Walk Score, we don't require a car hardly at all; as it is we largely only drive to the cheap grocery store the next town over, to church, and to outings in the country. "Only"—it still comes out to an outing by car at least every other day, enough that I don't have any desire to join the ranks of the "car-free". Plus, how would we go on vacation?! Which is all good, because I recognize that my own limits are just as arbitrary as those of my neighbors who want to drive around the corner. I could do without a car altogether, but it would make my life harder; they probably feel the same way about walking to Whole Foods. Totally fair—to each his own. I'm just glad we live in a place that makes it so easy for those of us who want to to buck the non-walking trend.
yard waste
Out here in the suburbs, it's always good to be a landscaper. If any one time is busier than any other for those fine sons of the chemically-fertilized soil, however, it's the fall. Sprinkler systems to pump out, lawns to aerate, and bags and bags of leaves and grass clippings to haul away. Bags and bags. The leaves are one thing: I suppose if you don't have a little corner of woods to toss them in, it can be pretty tiresome finding a place to dispose of them all (though if you have enough lawn that you can't just chop and compost the whole batch, why not plant some trees for your own little corner of woods?!). The grass is another matter. Oh how it pains me to see all that vegetable matter, carefully tended and grown with so much applied nutrients and water, being hauled away as trash. Do you think I could maybe ask them to dump a little of it in my compost pile?
In unrelated farming news, I pulled up the last of the carrots today, because their leaves were all eaten by varmints and I didn't want to risk losing track of them. The carrot crop was wonderful beyond all my expectations, and I will be planting even more carrots next year. I might even try some full-size varieties, so I can go for length as well as girth.
Also, I ate a cherry tomato this evening. It tasted wonderful. I think it was the last one; all the others got moldy. I would have given Leah the privilege of consuming it, since this year I finally got her liking tomatoes, but I worried that it might have been past it's prime. If anyone was going to spoil the memory of a delicious summer of tomatoes by ending the season on a sour note, it was going to be me. That said, this afternoon I picked one more green Early Girl from the plant by the south-facing wall and under the heating vent, so maybe we can get that to ripen up and extend tomato season into November!