Alternative Giving

Once in a while I am stumped for a gift or I know who I am gifting to has it all - or at least doesn't need anymore "stuff". Years ago I worked at a generous company that gave all its employees $500 at holiday time to give to a charity of our choice in the company's name (the company I currently work for DOES NOT do this or anything close).

During this time I found Heifer International which is an amazing, and reputable, non profit where you can buy livestock for a village or community in a Third World to provide them with a sustainable food source or income. Its hugely successful and very "give a man fishing pole vs. give a man a fish" type of giving.

There are many other entities out there that do this type of giving, you can give in other people's name for them and I have adopted animals through Defenders of Wildlife, particularly for the little ones, and you can even get a stuffed animal of the animal you give for the little one.

Or if you want to help offset a loved one's carbon footprint (particularly if you know its rather large, yes there will be some of my friends reading this that will received this for the holidays as HUGE HINT!) you can buy offset packages at TerraPass. Or check out Carbon Fund, same premise and I have used both .

So these holidays,think twice about hitting Target or Toys R' Us for those

disposable gifts that will be forgotten in a week or sold at the next yard sale and think about an alternative gift that will benefit our environment or others that don't have as much as we do. If this recession has taught us anything, its that we can live with a lot less and we need to appreciate what we do have. As our economy recovers, let's kick the wave to start spending like crazy again....

Birthday Card

My mom just sent me the best birthday card ever, seems like just yesterday Mr Ziggy would have said this with this exact look on his face...I love it!!

Its going to be a hectic next few weeks as my mom and I are driving her two dogs, Grady and Puzzle back here to CA from VA. They will all be out here for about a month, so we will have 5 dogs here. Its pretty much why we bought land in the country so we could all hang out together, doggies and all. It will be great fun to see Ziggy, Grady and Denali all ripping around playing and the two oldies, puzzle and Wolf hanging on the porch watching the youngsters.

So stay tuned as the mayhem ensues.

The San Juan Home

We have to finish our vacation with an enormous thank you to the wonderful people who brought us here, showed us this part of the world and made this possible - Rick, Marcia and Kathy Brandt. They are such wonderful people, so kind and generous to open their beautiful home to us. Never having been out here, we have seen another corner of our country that has taken our breath away. The San Juan Islands are truly spectacular and unlike anything else anywhere in the country. They really have a piece of heaven up here and we are so appreciative of their hospitality letting us experience it. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to the Brandt Family, you are the best.

Last Days in San Juan

Vacation is winding down, we went to Orcas Island and up Mt. Constitution yesterday which was fabulous but socked in with clouds. Today was some utterly jaw dropping views of the Olympics - what a amazing array flanking the south side of San Juan, and then to look the other directions to see Victoria, B.C.

We had a hail storm last night that was quite impressive, we got soaked to the skin running back from grabbing clam chowder (42nd bowl since we got here) to the ferry and then nearly missed the ferry as we were in the wrong lane with no ticket. We are still learning the ropes.

Today we climbed Mt. Young, Kyle had to summit something while here so the 650ft peak had to do. It was gorgeous at the top with a pillow topping of moss so thick and lush you could have kipped out right there and been comfier than at home. The views were awesome too and Ziggy had a blast running around and climbing tress ( I climbed one too).

As well as visiting an Alpaca Farm here on the island, we also went to a Lavender Farm here, which is a feat as Lavender like dry and alkaline soil, not the glacial acidic soil and constant wet conditions here on the island. But they are stunning and beautiful addition to this peaceful island. Got us thinking about our farm at home.

San Juan Islands

It was a gorgeous day on the island today, all blustery and cold, fabulous to walk all over this end of the island, which is what we did. We came across an amazing sculpture garden that was a natural setting to tons of brilliant art pieces that covered all different mediums and styles. I loved this one of a tree falling out of its surrounding. Both Kyle and I liked the wind chimes, of which there were many.

This one was a fantastic installation, we really thought it was ingenious.

Ziggy wasn't happy with the fox, way to realistic and

gave it a couple of growls but it didn't take long for him to make friends. This fox meant no harm.