Senator Becky Schmitz (Iowa Senate District 45) has provided a form on her website for her constituents to offer feedback on important budget decisions in the coming months.

Here is one of the sections from the survey to give you an idea of the areas our legislators are examining:

Difficult choices will have to be made by lawmakers in order to balance the state budget. Which areas of the budget do you feel can least afford to be cut?

• Iowa Power Fund (Development of Alternative/Clean Energy Sources)
• Education (K-12, Community Colleges, State Universities, Early childhood)
• Agriculture (Farm to School, Farmers Market Program, DNR)
• Human Services (Child Abuse Prevention, Mental Health Facilities, HAWK-I, Veterans)
• Public Safety (State Patrol, Drug Enforcement, Fire Marshall)
• Unemployment Services (Unemployment Insurance, Regional Workforce Development Centers)
• Tax Credits (Including Individuals, Non-profits and Businesses of all sizes)
• Transportation (Roads & Bridges/Infrastructure Spending)
• Economic Development (Grow Iowa Values Fund, Workforce Development, State Parks)
• Small Business Incentives
• Other (please specify)

The survey also provides space for you to add your own feedback and opinions and the opportunity to leave your email if you would like to be contacted with a summary of the results.

Iowa State Senators

I hope that other Legislators around the state are providing such accessible ways for their constituents to offer input on important issues!  But even if they don’t have a web form, the questions Senator Schmitz is asking may help you figure out what input and questions you want to communicate to your legislators by phone or email.  This page provides links to contact info for all members of the Iowa House and Senate.

One thing to keep in mind is the Iowa Senate and Iowa House Districts cover slightly different territories and have different district numbers.  For example, while Fairfield residents are served by Senator Schmitz and Representative Curt Hanson who both live in Fairfield, Senator Schmitz serves Iowa Senate District 45, which covers Jefferson, Van Buren, Washington and parts of Wapello and Johnson Counties.  Representative Hanson serves House District 90, which covers Van Buren and parts of Jefferson and Wapello Counties.

If you aren’t sure who your legislators are, this page on the Iowa Legislature website will allow you to look them up quickly.  The results page will also provide you with all the contact information you need to get in touch with your Senator and Representative (both State and Federal).

There are some tough decisions coming up, make sure your voice is heard!

Here is another great opportunity for local gardeners new and experienced to learn more about growing their own food!  As part of his internship in the Iowa Master Gardener program, MUM Sustainable Living professor Alex Kachan is offering a series of workshops on various aspects of small-scale, organic gardening to the entire community for free.  The only requirement is that you register at least one week in advance because each workshop is limited to 15 participants.  If Alex gets more than 15 requests for a workshop he will schedule a repeat for the overflow members.

I had the great pleasure of both attending one of Alex’s lectures on Vermicomposting (using composting worms to biologically break down organic matter) and working with him at the Ecovillage CSA two summers ago.  He is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about growing food sustainably from every step in the cycle, so I am sure these workshops will be not only informative but inspiring.

Here is a brief listing of workshop times and topics.  Email Alex at the address below for complete descriptions and to reserve a spot in the ones that interest you.

Sunday, March 14th, 2010: Starting Seeds
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: SL Dept., room 111 & SL greenhouse

Sunday, April 18th, 2010: Making your bed – the art of Double Digging!
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: MUM Community Garden

Sunday, May 30th, 2010: Compost – learning to grow soil!
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: MUM Community Garden

Sunday, June 13th 2010: Compost Tea – pampering your soil & vegetables!
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: SL Dept. room 111

Sunday, June 20th, 2010: Garden Q&A’s
Workshop length: 2:00– 4:00 PM (2 hours)
Location: MUM Community Garden

Sunday, July 11th, 2010: Seed Saving
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: SL Dept. room 111

August 15th, 2010: Vermicomposting
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: SL Dept. room 111

Workshops will be filled on a first come, first served basis.  To register, choose the workshops you wish to take and send their titles, dates & your name to Alex at: akachan @ mum.edu

Click here to download a flyer providing more details on the workshops.

There may still be snow on the ground, but the days are getting longer, the temperatures are creeping up and if you listen, lots of birds have returned from their winter journeys.  That means it’s the perfect time to start planning your garden!  For anyone thinking of starting a garden for the first time, or who wants to learn some new tips and tricks, the At Home Store is hosting a new garden planning series this spring.  Starting next week is a two-part class called Planting a Garden with guest lecturer Moni Hayne.

Here is the information from the At Home Store’s Facebook event page (click to RSVP):

Moni Hayne will be joining us to share her garden knowledge. An organic gardener, with lots of experience gardening in the Midwest, Moni will be lecturing on Garden Planning, and Beneficial Insects. Learn tips on how to plan your garden, how to start seeds (and how many to start!) and how to work with beneficial insects to make a healthy garden.

The first class will focus primarily on garden planning, and the second class will focus on beneficial insects of the garden, and how to enlist their help!

The first class is on Thursday, March 11th from 6:30 to 8:00pm.  The second class is Thursday, April 8th. Cost is $10 per class, or $15 for both classes.  The At Home Store is located at 52 North Main Street, on the Fairfield square.

Once again, here is a link to the event page if you would like to RSVP.

Here is the At Home Store page on Facebook.

Stay tuned to Fairfield Voice for more gardening tips and resources coming soon!

Polished Nail Spa

Ah, the strip mall. I remember traveling down near Atlanta and seeing them EVERYWHERE. And while the shops in each one varied slightly, every single one seemed to have a dry cleaners and a nail salon. I remember wondering if there was actually enough population out there to keep all those dry cleaners and nail salons in business. We joked that maybe the real purpose was to launder something other than clothes.

Take Fairfield though, and the number of both strip malls and nail salons have sat at nothing for years. Now there’s a little strip mall out South Main Street, and another one over on Burlington seems to be gaining tenants as well. While there are places in town you can get your nails done, none of them are dedicated solely to nails. So when I was traveling out towards Hy-Vee and glanced over at the little blue strip building just past the Dairy Bar earlier this summer and I noticed the simple yet pretty sign that said “Polished Nail Spa”, I was curious but didn’t have time to stop.
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Care2.com, the popular web destination for all things green living, animal welfare,  human rights and more, has partnered with the Local Harvest directory website of all local farms, farmers markets and other local food sources, to sponsor a contest for Farmer’s Markets!  The winning market gets $5,000 and every week a market is drawn at random to win $250.

The Fairfield Farmer’s Market is in the running with 58 votes so far.  I’m sure there are quite a lot of improvements the Farmer’s Market could make with that $5,000 if they won.  The link below should take you to the voting page where you enter some basic info and a comment about why you love the Farmer’s Market.  (You can comment anonymously if you wish.)  It only takes a minute, and every vote counts!  Plus it’s neat to see what everyone else has been saying about the Farmer’s Market.

http://www.care2.com/farmersmarket/4150/?refer=20169.13.1245536068.070435

If for some reason the link doesn’t work either by clicking or copy and paste, you can always go to the home page and look up the Fairfield Farmer’s Market.

After you’ve voted – spread the news!  The voting site has some easy buttons to post links back to the contest to Facebook, Twitter, etc.  At the time of this writing, the leading market is Durham, NC with 260 votes, so we’ve got a ways to go to catch up!

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I’ve been hearing about it for a while, that there’s this amazing Sunday brunch at Top of the Rock.  My friend and local musician Sharon Bousquet has provided live music for it on several occasions and each time I somehow have either had something else going on or I missed the window of time where she was playing.  Last Sunday was her last time to play there for a while so I really tried to make it but I was foiled by circumstances once again, showing up at 1:30 when she had stopped playing at 1pm.  I was hungry though and the brunch menu was available till 2pm so I decided to try it anyway.

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Last night I made my way over to Cafe Paradiso hoping for a relaxing evening out after a long day and I was not disappointed. Fairfield musician David Seagull’s solo acoustic show was perfectly suited to the intimate cafe setting. He played mostly down-tempo, bluesy folk originals with a few upbeat songs thrown in. Another of Fairfield’s talented songwriters Sharon Bousquet gracefully transitioned back and forth from behind the counter serving drinks to the stage to provide beautiful harmony vocals on a sprinkling of David’s selections. Continue Reading

I was just grabbing some food to go at Noodle House and saw a sign on the counter by the cash register with a full sushi menu. If I understood correctly in my rush to get to my next appointment, he said that they were going to be starting on the ArtWalk, his daughter was in charge of it and they were planning to expand into the Somebody Cares space eventually, with sushi on that side and Noodle House food where it is. Fingers crossed it turns out well!