As Nature Does

This very green part of our grass lies directly underneath our crabapple tree. Every fall, it is covered with decomposing crabapples. The rest of the yard does not get this special treatment.

As you can see, that organic material really does the job.

Our plan is to reduce the lawn in the back by creating vegetable & flower beds all around the perimeter. So far, though, we've focused most of our efforts on the front yard. (Click that link to see a photo how-to of sheet composting.) Here's what the flower patch looks like today.


We put wildflower seeds down so our neighbors didn't have to look at a yard full of hay all summer (hay is the top layer of the sheet composting). Also, some of the seeds we planted are cover crops with good strong root systems that should help to loosen up the soil.

And the pumpkin plants that have come up out of the compost are growing well. I'm sure lots of people wouldn't find this to be a good thing. But I'm thrilled.

As you can see, I enjoy a bit of chaos in the garden.

Hi-freaking-larious

I've been working on an army of fabric grocery bags, but don't have any pictures yet, so I'll tell you about this site instead, because it makes me laugh.

It's called Threadbared and if you haven't already seen it, you have got to go over and take a look. Basically, Mary and Kimberly post a bunch of vintage patterns and write snarky captions for them. I immediately liked them when they used the word 'snarky'. Here's an example...

You Go Guy!

I have to admit to being a tad ignorant and socially insensitive. I had no idea that Vogue made patterns for men who want to wear women's clothing. Now that I have been elightened, I think it's lovely. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to find a flouncy blazer that will both accomodate your broad shoulders and disguise your beer belly. Not to mention, dress gloves to fit your man hands. Kudos to Vogue for helping out the transvestites.
-By Kimberly

And another one...

“If You Don’t Come To Bed Right Now I’ll Be Ever So Cross With You, Mister.”

When a man gets through with a hard day there’s nothing better than going home to his sweet little wife.

She’s loving.

She’s cheerful.

She’s wearing a negligee that makes her look like a 36-year old Shirley Temple.

-By Mary

And my favorite...

Look At Me When I'm Talking To You.

HEY!

I SAID, if it looked "so gay" when I tried it on in the store why didn't you tell me that then? Hmm? HMM? Before I got it home and cut the f-ing tags off?

And wipe that stupid smirk off your face. Like you ALWAYS make the best fashion choices, right? Mr. Fuchsia Spandex Cycling Shorts. OH, I KNOW all about those!They're on the top shelf in your closet! Don't even ACT like I haven't seen them!

I am SO not talking to you anymore. Like your silly striped tunic is ALL THAT.

God, you can be such a bitch sometimes.
-By Mary

And the best part, I found a pattern that my mom actually owned and used to make aerobics leotards for me and my sister. Man, we were so cool.

Green Week- Last Day

So, I don't have any pictures today, just some important thoughts.

Working to help the environment is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Even taking one small step is better than doing nothing at all. Sometimes, the problem seems so overwhelming, that it is easy to do nothing. But doing nothing only makes it worse.

If you make one change, though, it will encourage you to make another and another and then many more. Until this week, I didn't realize how many things that I regularly do to help the environment; they are changes I implemented purposely to help, but now they are routine and they are easy. There is still a lot to do, though.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead


With that in mind, you might want to consider taking the following important steps...

1-Contact your politicians. This is difficult at first, but becomes easier with time. You can type emails, handwrite letters or even call the offices personally. I, myself, have made several phone calls to various politicians (including the president's office). This is the hardest one to do, just making the call. Every time I do it, I get all excited and my voice shakes, but I don't hang up until I've said my peace. I enjoy doing this because I think it is good for me personally. It is good to speak your mind to power, even if only to remind yourself that they are only powerful because they are serving us.

Once, as we walked to the mailbox, my daughter (who was 4 at the time) noticed that the letter we were sending was to the president. She demanded to know why I was writing to him. I explained that he worked for all of us and that I didn't like the way he was doing things and that it was my job to let him know that. I felt so strongly that I had to do it. She literally tried to take the letter away from me. She wanted to know if I would be arrested if I sent it. How on earth does a 4 year old learn these things? How does she know that it *could* put my life in danger if I lived in any one of the many other, less free countries?

The following links have some good tips about writing letters (they're Canadian sites, so you may have to adjust for where you live. I didn't find so much info about doing this in America. Strange.)...
Canadian Parks And Wilderness Society
Sierra Club Canada

With the availability of information on the internet, it is not terribly difficult to find out what letters, emails or calls need to be made and when. Which brings me to the next option...

2- You can check various environmental websites to see what actions they are taking and join in. Here are my favorites (I've linked directly to their action pages, but check out their home pages if you're interested)...

Sierra Club
Environmental Defense
Working Assets - a liberal phone company "that fights global warming, supports organic farming and saves endangered species." We've got both our long distance and cell phone through them. In turn, they donate money to the following environmental organizations... Defenders of Wildlife, Global Greengrants Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Organic Consumers Association, Rainforest Action Network, Rocky Mountain Institute, Union of Concerned Scientists, Vote Solar Initiate as well as groups involved in Civil Rights, Economic & Social Justice, Education & Freedom of Expression, Voting Rights & Civic Participation and Peace & International Freedom. See the entire list here.

And here is a good Mother Jones article that advises how to evaluate Environmental non-profits. It also lists many groups that have misleading names suggesting they are working to help the environment, but in actuality are working against it.

3- Be proud of being an environmentalist. Make it look fun, easy and stylish. Honestly, setting this kind of example can change the opinions of many more people than you realize.

To that end, please send me links or pictures or just emails of whatever FUN, EASY or STYLISH environmentally responsible project you may be involved in. I'll post them on my site with links to your site. If you don't have a site, contact me anyway. I'll get your stuff up here. Maybe I'll call it Our Green Life. So keep my address and email me whenever you do it, even if it's months from now.

Let's be that group of "thoughtful, committed citizens."

Namaste

Green Week- Day 5 (In the Kitchen)

Ooops, didn't get this up yesterday.

Here are 3 things that I do to help the environment when I'm in my kitchen.



The first is that I'm currently in the middle of a project of re-purposing our empty beer bottles into water bottles for parties. I'm using these dishwasher safe paints and writing both Water and Tea is various languages. I can then fill them up before parties with either filtered water or iced tea. I'm going to recap them using home-brewing supplies.

We usually go through lots of water when we have people over and plastic bottles are bad, bad, bad for the environment. Peter Gleick (a water expert) claims that each bottle requires so much energy to produce, fill and transport that "It would be like filling up a quarter of every bottle with oil." We do put out pitchers of water and that is good, but these bottles are kind of fun and I think it would get some people thinking about how bad plastic bottles are for the environment.

The next environmentally friendly thing we do is use our pressure cooker. Lots.



I love this thing. Really and truly I do. It can cook anything (like this Indian vegetable soup) in almost half the time. I cook whole chickens and pot roasts that turn out really moist and tender. It works wonderfully for all dried beans and lentils and stuff like that. I even cook brown rice in there (because I cook it like pasta and drain off the water). It is the best money we've ever spent on anything.

We use it at least twice a week. Sometimes twice a day. I use it to cook Kitchari, which is made from brown rice, red lentils and Indian spices. You can find the recipe here, but I double the amount of dried spices; it's a bit bland otherwise. I just made this for craft day and everyone loved it.

Which leads to another thing we do... eat low on the food chain. The more of your diet that is grains, vegetables and legumes, the smaller your impact on the earth. It just takes more energy to grow a cow than a soybean. We aren't vegetarians, but we do try to make the majority of our meals plant based, not animals based. Speaking of, here is another one of my favorite recipes that's super easy to do with a pressure cooker (and not too bad without one, if you're interested)... Enfrijoladas by Rick Bayless. We do the version that doesn't use the avocado leaves, but uses the chipotles in ancho sauce instead. This uses chorizo sausage, which I absolutely love, and they carry at Whole Foods. It adds so much flavor, but doesn't make up the majority of the meal.

Because we cook this way, I have lots of mason jars filled with various grains, pastas and legumes. I'm currently writing the weights of these jars on the bottom of each, so I can use them to fill directly from the bulk bins. The cashier can tare them and ring me up. No bags wasted in transporting it from store to my kitchen.

Worm Composting (2)- Some other thoughts

I thought I would add another picture of my worms, just for the ewww factor. They rarely look like this; I had to dig them up to get them to the surface.

I would also like to point out that this is an excellent project for kids. For the past two years, I have brought them in to my daughter's class to do experiments. There was only one kid, the entire time, that wouldn't touch them. Everybody else got over their squeamishness quickly.



So in addition to the set up instructions found here, I'll include these following tips.

SOME OTHER THOUGHTS

• Worms are comfortable at the same temperatures that we are. They will die if they freeze or get too hot.
• Don’t add meat, bones, dairy, oily foods, pet wastes, diapers, anything that doesn’t biodegrade or anything that has been sprayed heavily with pesticides.
• Each redworm should produce one tiny, lemon shaped egg capsule every 2 to 3 weeks. Each capsule contains a dozen or so baby worms.
• Worms like the dark, so keep the lights off or the lid on.
• If you run out of coconut fiber you can get more at garden centers. I buy mine at a local Hydroponics store.
• If you would like, you can use shredded leaves, shredded white office paper, shredded newspaper or shredded cardboard as bedding. Don’t use anything with colored inks. I find these materials harder to get to the right moisture level, so I rarely use them alone, but they will work. I do sometimes add a layer of wetted, shredded office paper or leaves in the middle of the bin along with the regular coconut fiber under it and over it. It’s a good way to recycle these materials and mixing it with the coconut fiber gives a greater margin of error.
• This particular type of worm, Eisenia fetida, needs huge amounts of organic matter to survive. They don’t do well in regular garden soil because there just isn’t enough organic matter for them.
  

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Related Posts-
Worm Composting (1)- Setting Up the Bed
Worm Composting (3)- Harvesting The Castings
Worm Composting (4)- Troubleshooting
Using Eggshells
Why You Need Worm Poo

Green Week- Day 4 (Trying Something New)

After reading various suggestions from the Green Week group, I decided to try the following things...



I tried showering with a bucket to collect water. It was really awkward (probably because the bucket is big- but I wanted to have as much surface area as possible) and didn't really collect all that much water. Our shower head *is* low flow and it comes with a little button so I can shut off the water when I don't need it. Maybe that's why I didn't get too much.

Also I almost tripped a couple of times. If you're going to try this, get a smaller bucket. Myself, I plan to look into how to install an automatic graywater system.



The second thing I did was to hang our laundry on the line to dry. I have to admit that I took it down when it was still slightly damp and ran it in the dryer for 5 minutes. I really hate how stiff line dried laundry is. There isn't enough fabric softener in the world to soften up those towels. If you want to save energy, but hate stiff fabric, this is definitely the way to go.

The final thing that I did was to work on fabric grocery bags. I don't have a picture of mine, because, well, um, yah... they aren't really finished yet.

I thought it would be fun to invite lots of people over today so we could all work on them together. Yah, too bad I've only got one sewing machine.


I spent a lot of time helping the other's sew theirs, so I've only gotten as far as ironing my thrifted sheet.


(Note 1- that's my energy star dryer in the background. Love it! I knew I'd get a picture of it in here. Note 2- By far, not the best picture I've ever had taken, but I thought it was funny, with my nephew on my hip and one of the 6 little girls in the foreground.)

So I guess instead of saying that the bags aren't really finished, I should say I haven't really started them. Well, I haven't started *mine* at least. I am glad that we did it, though, because not only am I changing my behavior, but helping others to live cleaner as well.

And it was really fun to hang out with my friends. That's always good.

Green Week- Day 3 (Energy)

So for those of you just tuning in, I've joined a Green Week group over on Flickr for the week.

At our house, we don't have air conditioning. Many people in the neighborhood cannot believe that we can survive without it. Here are the things we do to help with the heat. Even if you have A/C, these tips should help reduce the amount of time you run it.



1- Use ceiling fans. We have 5 of them in the upstairs of our house and if we're in a room during the summer, there is a fan on. These only work to cool an individual person, by evaporation; they don't actually reduce the temperature of the room. So make sure to turn them off when you're not in the room.
2- We recently installed huge sun shades on our West facing cement porch. This keeps the afternoon sun from hitting it directly and creating a heat sink. And they only cost us $20 each. BTW, this is exactly the effect that works beneficially when a builder uses passive solar design. If we ever build our own house, this will definitely be something we do.
3- I open and close windows based on the heat inside versus outside. When I get up at 5 to exercise (it happens occasionally) I open everything up. We close it all back up when the temp outside equals that inside. Joey has learned when it is time to do this and will announce that it's time to shut the windows.
4- We spend lots of time in the basement in the summer. It is so nice and cool down there; you can feel it as you walk down the stairs. When we had cable installed the workmen commented that they'd like to spend the rest of the day in our basement.

I would also like to mention a few other things we do to save on energy.

We bought an energy-star front-loading washer and dryer. I love these things! I had to restrain myself from adding a picture of them. I've been known to show them to visitors.

Also we've set the computer so that it automatically goes on standby (very low power consumption) when it is unused for more than 5 minutes (for our computer there's a setting on the Control Panel called Power Options). This doesn't close down any of the programs, it just puts everything on hold till you want it again. When you turn the computer back on, it doesn't go through the entire start up again and you don't need to reopen any of the programs you already had going.

We have pretty much replaced all the lightbulbs in our house with fluorescents. But remember, when those need replacing, you can't just throw them in the trash because they contain mercury. This is something they don't really tell you when you buy them, but by law, you're required to dispose of them properly.

And now I'll quickly mention our environmental wishlist...
-More deciduous plants/trees on the south and west side of our house
-SunTubes
-Solar Panels
-Tankless Waterheater
-Hybrid Car

As long as I'm dreaming, I'll add the following...
-Wind Turbine
-Neighborhood that is within walking distance to shops, entertainment, etc.
-A butt that doesn't get really sore after riding a bike. (I had to sleep on my stomach for 3 days after riding in Moab- I know, I'm a wuss!)