dens leonis, Organic, & my daughter

Dandelions. Lions tooth, is what they call it, I guess, because of the jagged shape of the leaves. There were about 100 little patches of them in my front lawn until about 9:30 tonight…pulled out each one by hand, along with the milky white root that keeps them connected the earth.

We’re venturing our way forward with a chem-free lawn. I know… Birkenstock wearin’ hippie…but it’s true…nothing but a combo of chicken crap, corn gluten, hard work, and a few years of all of that before we get a lawn that looks half as good as our neighbors. Click the chem free lawn link to find out why.

The past 2 years or so, Jaime and I have been moving more in the direction of tree-hugging environmentalist than I ever thought I would…I won’t speak for Jaime, but my eyes have definately been opened a bit to the consequences of one’s perspective on the world. Are we “just passin’ through?” Or have we taken the comand to cultivate the earth as seriously as other things? Along our journery has been the switch to Organic Milk…then to Organic fruits and veggies…now it’s grain fed free-range Amish chicken from an Ohio farm…and a lawn that the neighbors, I am sure, scoff at. Our grocery budget is about 30% more than what it used to be, and the neighbors yards are green, and ready for the golf swing.
I have a friend who spent most of his life in Denmark. We were talking about the lifestyle that is required to uphold the purchase of Organic foods. It’s expensive, however, his remark was that food in Denmark and most of Europe takes as large, if not more, of a chunk of one’s paycheck as does Organic food here. “You Americans are just used to cheap food,” he said. I think he is right.

I spent the time digging up dandelions, with my daughter, Rayli. She was out there with, rake in hand, dirty knees, and a phrase that held our time together like you hope for as a father that went something like, “daddy, I helping you…” …and she was. She was helping me live and love and pray. She was helping me enjoy. She was helping me understand why God has given us this earth…to till and cultivate and the dirt to get under our fingers. We did it together. I’ve got fresh grass seed down…which she trampled. And yes, using her plastic rake from time to time slowed the process…but it was nontheless the cultivation of many things, in me, in her, not least somewhere inside both of us. It’s why I buy organic food…not just because it’s good for me, but because somewhere in this country, or some other country, somebody is getting dirty, and the water, the rivers, the land—it’s staying clean. Somebody is working hard…working with the land and not against it…praying for rain, perhaps.

Half-way through tonights project, Rayli brought me a “white dandelion.” The kind you blow. That’s how dandelions spread, by the way. That’s the seed for multiplicaiton. I spent an hour or so digging up the roots of a hundred (probably more) dandelion plants and my daughter wanted me to blow the fuzzy kind and spread the seed. I blew hard, and she laughed. She brought another one, and I blew again…and laughed with her.