Like a lot of people here in the Kansas City Metro, I'm very interested in how I can reduce my carbon footprint, increase my self-reliance, and lastly help out our native plants.  

All that being said, over the past few years I've built a nicely-sized urban garden of multiple raised beds, and have also taken to raising my own chickens.  Although my dogs aren't big fans of the hens (well, they are in their own way!), they produce fresh eggs as well as a great source of amusement for us.  Despite being the real life 'angry birds', they seem to enjoy their quiet life in our backyard and also enjoy the occasional tomato fresh off the vine from our garden.  We ended up building a completely enclosed garden for my raised beds not just because of the area squirrels, but also because the hens were interested in getting in there, too!

One of the other small projects I'm passionate about is saving our friends the monarch butterflies.  I've started a butterfly garden in my front yard and am very dedicated to my milkweed plants in particular--so much so that I even put netting around the plants to protect the caterpillars once they arrive!  Each year I try to defend these critters, though sometimes my success is limited.