That’s really not the best question, as it turns out. The “who” is easy to answer. If you can read inflammatory words about Ron Paul and not smell the fear from the establishment at his grass roots popularity, do some research. Ask one question: Why? Why are they trying so hard to make him look bad? Keeping you misinformed is in the best interest of those currently making up the rules in this country – those that left so many people without homes or jobs, as they bailed themselves out. Look beyond what they are trying to sell you and dare to ask what they have to gain by doing so.

Why did the Republican Jewish Coalition ban Ron Paul from their debate? (Hint: it has almost nothing to do with his thoughts on Israel.)

Well, I’m neither Republican nor Jewish nor a member of a Coalition, so the immediate event is not my call (though I do believe that dissonance is more illuminating than seven-part harmony). That said, this seems to me more of an attempt to draw boundaries around acceptable policy discourse than any active concern that President Dr. Ron Paul would be actively anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. The fact that he is a political outlier on an effectively bipartisan U.S. foreign policy that has become increasingly expensive and unpopular strikes me as a count in favor, not against.

Though media is ignoring Ron Paul to the greatest extent possible, this message cannot be silenced in a society where communication and information is available at our fingertips. In a world where Twitter can make the difference in the Iranian elections and social media can unite people from all backgrounds and beliefs, an “idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government.” This is that time.

(BTW – it was announced today that Ron Paul won the California straw poll. Are people waking up across America? They are indeed.)

Most people know the one place you have to visit in Asheville, NC is the Biltmore Estate. Indeed, with 8,000 beautiful acres, a luxurious inn, winery and a 250-room French château built by George Vanderbilt in 1895, Biltmore is a must see. But once you’ve seen Biltmore, is it worth returning to Asheville for another visit?

Here are just a few reasons why we believe the answer is a resounding: yes!

The Great Outdoors. Asheville is situated within the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Trail (AT) runs near Asheville and offers a variety of day hikes to enjoy a section of this 2,175 mile trail. The more daring “thru-hikers” will hike the entire trail, beginning in Georgia, ending in Maine. Check out National Geographic’s documentary on the Appalachian Trail for a thorough overview.

In addition to the AT, Asheville offers a number of parks with a variety of activities. One such nearby place is the Waynesville, NC Park and Recreation Center. With a greenway, disc golf park, multipurpose room, softball, volleyball, pool, tennis and running track it would be tough to run out of things to do here! A stream runs through the disc golf course and the area is dog friendly, which makes for a day of fun for the whole family!

Downtown Life. There is no shortage of cafes and eateries in Asheville, like any other city. What is somewhat unique however, especially for a city in the southeast, is the myriad of options to enjoy organic and locally-sourced food and drinks at restaurants in Asheville. One really great option is Posana Cafe.  Beyond the commitment to high quality, freshly made ingredients, even the beers are gluten-free. The food and drink selection is fresh and unique. One beverage fitting the description is the Zen-tini, which includes house-infused Lemongrass Vodka, Ginger Agave, Raw Ginger and Lime Juice, making it perhaps the most perfect drink of the summer. With indoor and outdoor (pet-friendly) dining, Posana serves up perfection in the setting of your choice.

Zen-tini at Posana Cafe

Posana  is located on Historic Pack Square, a 6.5 acre park given new life over the last decade thanks to Pack Square Park Conservancy. Pack Square offers a place to relax, visit and enjoy Art in the Park, Shindig on the Green, Greek Festival and many other events throughout the year.

Local art. Asheville is rich with local artists and artisans. A walk through downtown offers original shopping options both in locally-owned stores and from artists selling their handcrafted pieces outside on the sidewalk.

These are but a few of the gems Asheville offers outside of the Biltmore and are alone great reasons to visit this off-beat, funky city and stay a few days! Why do you visit Asheville? What is your favorite thing to do or place to visit?

The first accidental tomatoes have emerged. I’m so excited! Not only are tomatoes one of my favorite things about summer time, but this is also the first time I’ve ever grown a tomato. And to think… it all happened on accident!

Two baby tomatoes popping out!

Here are a few photo updates to the accidental garden that appeared in our back yard. What started as vegetable plants from no effort have now invoked lots of work on our part. We strung up the netting all around to give the plants something to grow up, and now Ryan has taken to researching how to pollinate the squash flowers ourselves to ensure they all become little squashes! We’ll have to see how that process goes!

Main bed with first squash growing, plus tomato plants

Second squash plant growing by itself

A smaller plant, all alone. Jessie hypothesized this might be a melon. Time will tell...

Newly planted bed in back yard

As mentioned in the last post, six weeks ago some dear friends helped us landscape our yard. In the process we built a new bed along the back fence. The monkey grass used to border the bed was planted using soil from our composter. This was the first time we’ve made use of the soil we’ve been accumulating for over a year now and we were excited to put the fruits of our labor to work for us!

What happened next was… well, surprising (to us).

Above is how the new bed looked just after completion, six weeks ago. We tended to it daily, watering, weeding as needed, etc.

Then one day I noticed a number of “weeds” had cropped up in the monkey grass. For some reason I decided to just watch these for a few days (maybe I was just being too lazy to walk down the stairs and pull them). The day I went to pull the first one I noticed it was growing a pretty yellow flower and I couldn’t decide what it was. Pause here to understand that I’ve never grown anything edible besides herbs in planters before. Uncertain what it was I decided to just leave it for now, until my friend Jessie, the organic gardener, was over again. On her next visit she was showing me photos of her garden at home. Suddenly I saw a picture that looked identical to one of my weeds. I made her go back, asking what it was.

Same bed, squash and tomatoes growing through monkey grass

Darned if she didn’t tell me it was squash. I said: I think that’s what’s growing in the monkey grass!! Sure enough, Jessie went down to inspect. Not only are we growing multiple squash plants. We are also growing about 10 – 12 tomato plants, plus something else she said looks like melon. I could not believe it! How was this possible.

Then Jessie reminded us we had used the compost and it must have grown from our seeds in the compost. Ryan of course was ecstatic to hear all his hard work composting was paying off, until Jessie enlightened him that vegetables growing out of the compost soil was a sign that we’d been composting incorrectly.

Well, I don’t care if it IS a result of our poor composting skills, I’m pleased as punch to be growing vegetables (especially tomatoes), and purely by accident! Jessie suggested we string up netting and give them a place to thrive. So that’s just what we’ve done. We finished the last of the netting Thursday before leaving town. By the time we returned Sunday we had our first squash growing like a… well, a weed!

P.S. If you’d like to know how to garden on purpose here’s a post from Jessie on growing veggies from seed.

Without hesitation I can say I have the greatest friends on earth. I know, everyone thinks they do, but seriously, check this out. About a month ago two of my friends, Carolyn and Jessie, spent the weekend with me and Ryan putting in two long days completely landscaping the front and back yard of our home. Last weekend, even though Ryan was gone, they came back and stained the entire deck with me. I’m talking about a second floor, 31×14 deck with more spindles than you notice until you are meticulously staining each one. We worked 11 hours Saturday and another 9 Sunday.

By the way, I hired Vince Henry to oversee the project and to do all the “ladder work” around the outside of the deck (plus all the other stuff we didn’t want to do). The four of us were like the dream team. Vince did an outstanding job and I highly recommend him if you need work done. Also, if you need to improve your golf putting game, check out his patented golf putter.

Before/after below:

Great article below from ezine on how to solve the pervasive struggle with exercise plateaus (in this case targeting resistance training/muscle building, but applicable everywhere). How can you apply the concept of muscle confusion to your cardio/weight loss routine? Change it up!

If you are used to walking/running, spend a week biking, swimming, playing tennis, or other type of cardio. Your body will eventually settle into the routine of whatever your primary method of weight loss/muscle building. Keep your body guessing by constantly throwing new things or new ways of doing old things its way. Do you normally walk a moderate pace on a flat surface? Find a steep incline and give it all you’ve got. Find a stair case and climb/descend repeatedly. The article is below:

A friend was recently sharing her frustration with me over a situation at work. She was grumbling about getting a negative response from senior management on a proposal she had initiated. As I helped her tease apart the various aspects of the process she went through, it became apparent that her frustration stemmed not from the message itself, but from the delivery of the message.

Far too many leaders underestimate the value of “leading” over “managing” and this discrepancy can be responsible for driving high performers out the door and on to different organizations. When enough high performers are gone, the company is left with a large group of middle performers and a “larger than average” group of low performers. Management may convince themselves that the organization is packed with bright, talented high performers, and without contrast, it’s easy to assume that your top performers are, in fact, high performers.

Back to my friend. She had submitted a proposal to initiate a cost savings effort to benefit the organization. It would have required a time investment on her part and some resources from the organization but she was willing to spend extra time and to demonstrate ROI. Senior management had agreed to meet and discuss her proposal. Following the manager’s meeting Sarah had to track down one of the management team to inquire if her proposal had been approved, or was at least open for further discussion. She received an email saying her proposal just couldn’t be justified and someone else would follow up with her. That ‘someone else’ she also had to track down. The message was delivered curtly and directly, leaving her feel deflated and demoralized. How likely is Sarah to take initiative again in the future with this organization?

In The High Cost of Poor Communication Chip Wilson provides a great overview of the issues surrounding poor communication and the need for formal communication training for leaders in organizations.

Formal communication training is often overlooked when training new managers.  Seventy-one percent of employees feel that their managers do not spend enough time explaining goals and plans.  On the other hand, many leaders avoid necessary communication because they fear negative results.  For example, it was recently discovered that 38% of performance feedback actually hinders employee performance.  This statistic could easily change if companies would invest in basic communication skills training for their managers.  Understanding and removing communication barriers is vital for managerial success.

With this in mind, I think we can effectively remove the “message” from the heart of my friend’s problem. Approached differently, let’s imagine how the same message could have yielded much better results. Let’s assume first that initiative was taken by a manager to reach out to her once a decision was made, in order to provide Sarah with the results:

Sarah, first I want to say that we all have great respect for your willingness to take initiative and create a proposal to help our organization improve. ACME places high value on taking ownership and responsibility, and the entire management team was impressed with your proposal. It is this kind of proactive approach to your work that shows you are not only a high performer but also will do well here at ACME, and we hope that you will be happy with us for many years. Unfortunately, we were not able to approve the resources needed to move your project forward at this time, though we do think the idea has merit and we’d like to put it on the list of projects up for approval in our next budget year. When we are able to get this approved we would like for you to help us spearhead the effort, of course. Thank you again for your great work here at ACME. We welcome all of your ideas. This is what helps us improve our organization – employees like you!

When I pitched a response like this to Sarah I could see her immediately relax and her entire body language change. She admitted it was true – in fact a “no” would have been perfectly acceptable, had she simply been communicated with clearly and directly, and made to feel like a valued, respected member of the team.

Changing the approach with Sarah would have cost her employer NOTHING extra, and would have shifted Sarah’s feelings about her company from those of hurt to those of great trust and respect, even though the message was the same. As Chip Wilson states:

Feedback connects people and their behavior to the world around them.  It gives everyone the chance to realize how their behavior influences the success of their organization.  Effective feedback will reinforce positive behavior and correct negative behavior.  The ability to give and receive feedback is a must for leaders who wish to have honest and direct relationships with employees.

Is it odd to anyone else that we have to put actual effort into figuring out how to eat the same way that people have eaten for thousands of years?

A week or so ago someone told me about The Night Owl Cafe, located in Old City, downtown Knoxville. He said they use all locally sourced and organically grown foods, which made me wonder how I haven’t heard of it sooner.

Some more research told me that it’s still fairly new, and apparently they don’t try real hard to be found. As best I can tell they unabashedly have no phone, and apparently no website, though they are on Twitter and Facebook. And there are plenty of rave reviews. Sounds like the owners of The Night Owl focus on doing one thing and doing it well: providing good, fresh food. I’m not going to write a review though, because I still haven’t been there. Yet. If you have, please let us know how you liked it!

Looks like they get at least some of their food supplies from Organicism Farms, which posted the below list on their Facebook page. I’m sharing it here, so all the non-Facebook users can access as well.

Thanks to all the local Knoxville businesses who support not just us but all the local organic growers: The Night Owl Cafe, Chez Liberty, The Tomato Head, The Orangery, Rouxbarb, Aisle Nine Grocery, Three Rivers Market, Benefit Your Life, Natural Products Market, VGs Bakery, Sun Spot, Java, and Spoiled Pet Cafe.

Eat fresh. Eat Local. Eat Organic.