A Year of Earth Days

How To Redecorate With What You Already Have

2011-10-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

So its time for a home spruce up. I’ve been working the Flylady system for a while and have done some major decluttering. I’ve also started relooking at our home and rethinking what goes where etc. Since we have zero budget (and also want to keep the rampant consumerism down) it is largely a lot of moving furniture around. At any rate, I’ve had to do a little learning about interior design. Apparently its not just about coordinating pillows.. who knew? ;)

So here goes: how to redecorate with what you already have.

KEEP THE THINGS YOU LOVE and let the rest go:

A friend of mine that works as an interior designer says you should keep what you love and let the other things go. Somehow the things you love will work together and create your personal style. Sounds good to me. So decluttered down to just things we use or that make me smile? Check.

LOOK AT THE ARCHITECTURE of the room:

So after you have removed the stuff you don’t love or don’t use, the next step is to determine the function of the room, and assess any weaknesses that should be hidden or worked with etc. At this stage you should also remove all the “jewelry”. Accessories are the jewelry in a room. So take out photos, baskets, lamps, chatchkis, take out furniture you don’t use. You can always put it back if you decide you love it enough that it doesn’t have to be useful. You also may have to do this before you can see the room clearly enough without all the bling bling. ;)

WHAT DO I DO IN HERE?

Keep in mind that the function of the room should drive the entire design. Some rooms like a bathroom, the function is already fairly sorted out, but for other rooms, ask yourself, what do I do in here? Is there anything that looks or feels awkward that could be rethought? Is there a room that has no defined purpose and you end up just never spending any time in there (or worse yet, treating it like a dumping ground and using it to store homeless things) this is the time to figure out what to do with it. Do you have enough lighting in an area that you read in? Make sure to note you will need a lamp or other additional light source there.

In our case, our living room and dining room are all one big rectangular room, so we have to think about flow, and how to separate the areas so that they still feel like specific areas. You need to think big picture here - look at the room, the furniture and how you use it. Also look at scale – are the pieces of furniture in the room too big or too small? Is there something in another room (for instance a chair) that could have the same function but fit into the space better? So we have a space for watching tv, a space for dining, and a sitting area near a large window for reading or working.

WHAT COLORS AM I WORKING WITH?

After you have a basic flow (the bones of your design), look at the colors that remain. Is there a palette there? Do you have a couple of colors that are present in what you are keeping? Does what you have in there look like it belongs together, or does it clash? Is there a way to tone down anything that clashes by painting it, or staining it (or covering it, say with a tablecloth or a slipcover). Can you replace something that’s clashing (or too big or too small) with furniture from another room that works better? Once you see what you have, start bringing back some accessories, a little at a time. Remember just like your mama told you, less it more, no need to over gild the lily right?

WHAT CAN I USE AS A DESIGN GUIDE?

See if there’s a particular accessory you love (for instance a pillow) and use it as your design guide. If something clashes with the pillow or whatever you are using as your guide, leave it out. You can also find color combinations in magazines that you like, and see if any of them would work. You can hold up something to the picture and if it clashes, you know it won’t work.

Something I learned on an HGTV program- if your glass, ceramic or metal accessories aren’t the right color, you can always paint them- not sure I’d want to, but its nice to keep my options open.

ASK FOR HELP

If you have a friend who is an interior designer, or just someone who has a beautiful home they decorated themselves so you know they have an “eye” – ask them if they would come over for coffee and share their talent with you. Sometimes an outside eye (especially if it’s a good one) can show you things you don’t see because you are used to things the way they are. My brother in law has a fantastic eye, I asked him to come over and tell me what he thought and he moved a few things around and it made a huge difference. He also said I had so many things on surfaces that it looked “like a shop” to him.. now mind you he’s a man, so they like less stuff, but he did have a point in that I was just putting things out, I wasn’t thinking about how they related to each other or to the space where they were, and there were so many things it was hard to enjoy the individual pieces.

TAKE A PHOTO

Another good “eye” is your camera. Take a photo of the room with your camera, and see what it looks like. Somehow the camera gives you the distance to when its not working.

DEVELOP YOUR EYE

Look through design magazines (or just regular magazines) and start tearing out pages of rooms or designs you like, even if they don't apply to your home. Keep a little folder with these pages- as you collect more of them it will help you see what you like and what you don't like. My style is kind of bohemian modern cottage.

LESS IS MORE

I read a book about some of the best interior designers in the world-one thing most of them agree on was that with accessories, less is more. If you have five items out, take away two. When people stage houses, the first thing they do is lose almost all of the “stuff”. However you don’t want to make your house look staged- it doesn’t feel lived in, and while it looks new and neat, it often doesn’t have character. What we are trying to do is keep the character without making it look schizophrenic. ;) Also, a good design tip is to place accessories in odd numbers (3, 5, 7) as odd numbers are more restful to the eye.

I hope this is helpful. I’m learning as I go, and will post more as I learn more. :)

the great dandelion paradigm shift... aka dandelions are delicious

2011-03-14T13:36:00.000-07:00

Like most folks, I grew up picking dandelions for little kid bouquets, blowing the puffballs and making wishes, and then learning that the cute little golden flower was a detested weed to be eradicated by lawn lovers everywhere.

However several years ago I took a wild foods class through a local community college with a lovely lady named Hilla Futterman, who sadly is no longer with us. She led us through beautiful areas of the Santa Monica mountains teaching us about both indigenous and imported edible and medicinal plants found growing wild. Imagine my surprise when she pointed out dandelions and explained that they were brought to the New World by early European immigrants who valued the plant not only as a food plant for the honeybees they also brought with them, but for the dandelion's nutritional and medicinal qualities.

It turns out dandelions have an even longer history, they’ve been used as edible and medicinal plants by many cultures since prehistoric times; they have been prized as folk medicine in North America, Mexico and China; and dandelion leaves and buds have long been a part of traditional Sephardic, Chinese and Korean cuisine.

Dandelions contain vitamin C, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, thiamin, riboflavin, beta carotene and fiber. Many fruits and vegetables you can buy in the grocery store don’t even come close to containing the nutrition you find in dandelion leaves.

And if that doesn't change your mind about the benefits of having this plant in your garden, the dandelion's long tap root breaks up compacted soil and helps bring up nutrients for shallower rooted plants. Their pretty yellow flowers attract beneficial pollinating insects, and release ethylene gas which helps ripen fruit- so if you don’t have any dandelions in your backyard orchard, you should.

The common wild dandelion that is ubiquitous in lawns and by roadsides is Taraxacum Officinale subspec. Vulgare. You can identify it easily from its similar looking neighbors (for example, the also edible Sow Thistle) as it is the only variety that has an unbranching stem from a rosette of leaves. There are a few cultivated species bred for longer leaves and less bitterness- if you want to grow one of these you could try French Dandelion a.k.a Vert de Montmagny Dandelion, Amélioré à Coeur Plein Dandelion, Pissenlit Coeur Plein Ameliore Dandelion, Improved Broad Leaved Dandelion, Arlington Dandelion, or Improved Thick-Leaved Dandelion a.k.a Dandelion Ameliore.

Dandelions are bitter – let’s be clear about that -but there are ways to get around the bitterness. You can decide you love bitter things ;) you can also try growing them in the shade or manually blanching them by covering the plants a few days before harvesting, although this will result in slightly less vitamins and minerals. You can grow one of the cultivate varieties mentioned previously. Leaves are less bitter in the winter, and young leaves are milder than older leaves. You can try some of these ideas for ways to prepare them to reduce bitterness.

The internet is full of recipes for dandelions and since I have a crop of them in my front yard, I'm going to start trying a few out. I've already included dandelion leaves in salads, and now I'm ready to try out some new ways to add dandelion into our diets.

So the paradigm shift is complete, I now covet dandelions and have removed my lawn ;)

For more great info about dandelions and growing them, please make sure to check these links:

YouTube video by Green Deane/EatTheWeeds about identifying and eating dandelions

Plants For A Future: Taraxacum Officianale

Growing Dandelion Greens

Wikipedia article on Dandelions

I am an urban homesteader

2011-02-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

our edible landscape in our front yard -
herb spiral in foreground

I am an urban homesteader, I have an urban homestead, and I practice urban homesteading. There I said it. Up until a few days ago, it was okay for me to be loose and undefined about it.

I also practice edible landscaping, semi-concious parenting and homemaking (working on full conciousness, but let's face it there's laundry involved and who wants to be conscious for that), chicken herding, zero wasting, and etcetering. :) I say practice because believe me I need to get better at all of it. But its a lot of fun. When I started this blog, I was trying to take little baby steps, every day, to live in a less toxic way in the world. I can't say lessen my impact, because we impact the earth just by being here, but I could make the impact a more positive thing. What I didn't bargain on was the fact that living this way resulted in my feeling more connected, and valuing everything so much more. And I found I was happier.

sorrel

For me, urban homesteading is a big part of that- a big part. Let's look at an "official" definition:

From Wikipedia: According to UC-Davis, "an urban homestead is a household that produces a significant part of the food, including produce and livestock, consumed by its residents. This is typically associated with residents’ desire to live in a more environmentally conscious manner."

We don't raise all our food as we've only started our garden in the last two years, but in that time we have a perennial edible garden in our front yard in which we grow:

Boysenberry's fall colors

Lemons, limes, nectarines, tangerines, oranges, figs, a fuyu persimmon, strawberries, daylillies (did you know that you can stirfry the closed buds? very popular in Asia where they call them Golden Needles), nasturtium, dandelions, sow thistle, malabar spinach, new zealand spinach, purslane, miners lettuce, lemon grass, mexican marigold, grapes, blackberries, boysenberries, tomatoes, golden currants, oregon grape, upland cress, aloe vera, sorrel, onions, garlic, tree collards, lemon verbena, strawberry spinach, saffron crocus, lotus, as well as various edible flowers like borage, calundula, pansies and violets. We also grow our own cut flowers: allium, tuberoses, honeysuckle, statice, irises, pink jasmine, sweet peas, bird of paradise, lavender and calla lillies.

our herb spiral when first planted

herb spiral later in the season

Also in front we have an herb spiral where we grow cilantro, basil (purple, holy, lime, and sweet), salad burnet, parsley (flat and curly leaf), asian cilantro, pennyroyal, oregano, sage, thyme, garlic chives, onion chives and stevia (the stevia is my kids' favorite!).

our Easter Egger hens

In our backyard we have mainly grass that makes up a large portion of our two laying hens diet, several fruit trees (4 in 1 plum, fig, orange, apricot, apple, pomegranate and a pineapple guava) and what I like to call Mint Gone Wild. If anyone wants mint, drop me a line, I made the mistake of putting it in the ground - luckily I like mint tea, mint sauce, mint mint mint. ;) Also society garlic. It's supposed to keep gophers at bay - unfortunately no one told the gophers. But on the bright side, I can use the flowers in salads.

We also have some plants in pots, either because that's the best place for them, or because I can't figure out where to plant them yet! Culinary ginger, blueberries, two serviceberry trees, a Moringa tree, a prickly pear cactus, an apple cactus, various dragonfruit and a banana plant. I don't have raised beds yet - right now we're just using some old window boxes that we put up on blocks to keep the bunnies out- but in them we grow carrots, radishes, beets, peppers and lettuce.

Next year I think I've got to add in some calorie crops, like potatoes, and definitely jerusalem artichokes. I love sunchokes, especially stir fried in olive oil with a little garlic.

We haven't done solar, we're still kickin' it old school and just try and turn everything off when not in use, and we try not to waste water. At some point we'll do grey water, but right now we do what we call "poor man's grey water" we basically put a bucket under the tap while we wait for the water to heat up, then use that to water any plants that need it. We do have two rain barrels in the front yard. They don't hold that much, just 50 gallons each, but it takes some time to use up that water.

When I started out several years ago, I didn't know about any of this. I just knew what my father had taught me as a child, which I think he must have learned growing up in the aftermath of the Great Depression. You grow a tree or a plant that makes food. The food you grow tastes great, much better than what you can buy (especially tomatoes and strawberries). To this day I can't drink orange juice that's not fresh squeezed- it just doesn't taste right.

You don't waste things. You appreciate what you have, and what nature does so effortlessly. You say thank you.

strawberries

So what can I say except, by current definitions, I have an urban homestead. I am an urban homesteader. I practice urban homesteading. And as someone named Paula Kaye Colarusso said on the Take Back Home-steading(s) facebook page you can't trademark making the world a better place. :)

shopping my garage, and the chicken run is almost up and running

2011-01-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

So last night one of the crappy hoses that came with our rain barrels developed a hole. It was only a matter of time, but still annoying as it was too dark to really fix it, so we jimmied the almost full rain barrel so that any leak wouldn't go right by the house and hoped that we would only lose a little over night.

This morning the barrel was almost empty :( but its still rainy season here in So Cal so there's hope that we can get it full again before the dry season when we need it. Anyway, I posted an ad on my local freecycle for a garden hose to replace the one that split, but by the time I'd posted it my DH had already found an extra hose in the garage - duh.

It's interesting how much our mindset has changed - it used to be, "it broke, quick run to the store and buy a replacement" before we even thought about it (aka automatic knee jerk response). Now its oh no, it broke so A) do we really need one B) if we do, do we already have one somewhere in the house or garage that we've forgotten about or C) can we borrow it if we don't need it very often or D) if we do need it often can we buy it used. But A) and C) are big favs now.

So we have chickens. Only two, but they are sweet chickens, and we live in predator central so I've only been letting them out of Coop Knox when I'm at home and can watch them in our little babyyard and chickenwire tractor. But I feel bad keeping them cooped up when I'm not home, or if I have to go out somewhere most of the day. So DH built a run for them out of some left over lumber from his brother's deck project. We had to buy some fitting and the hardware cloth, but everything else was recycled or leftovers. I had this old dresser handle shaped like a dragonfly that I've kept just cause I liked it so much - didn't know what to do with it, but liked it. I'd actually forgotten about it in the garage (do you see a pattern here) and DH found it and now its the handle for the door of the run. :) Anyway, its almost done, we attached it to the coop this afternoon, but we're having a little problem with the door from the coop to the run - its pretty stiff and hard to open and close. Once we get that sorted out, we'll cut the door out and then we'll be ready to let the chickens into their new run.

Less Consumption Begins At Home

2011-01-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

Today its raining. I love the rain, my only regret is that I haven't enough rain barrels ;)

As I may have mentioned, I joined the Compact. I was pretty successful with christmas this year in that all the presents we bought for the kids were preowned (and often unused) from a consignment sale in November. Also, DH and I decided that we didn't need "stuff" to have a nice holiday and we both decided we didn't need a present, and that christmas should be for the kids. Since I already have more than enough stuff (in fact regaining space in the garage has been a long standing challenge) I don't want anything that takes up physical space. If its a book, I can get it from the library. The only exception I made is that I went to an event at the LA Arboretum and bought a couple of books from Rosalind Creasy and from Homegrown Evolution (they were both speakers) and had them signed. I could probably get these books used, but in this case I'm supporting people that I think are doing very valuable work, and I will definitely use them as reference. If I ever do want to let them go, the library will be a great place for them and they will reach the most people.

But I digress. :) As the topic of this entry says, less consumption begins at home. When I first started buying used, I was amazed at how much cheaper everything was, and well, I got a bit excited and bought things that were great, but that I didn't end up using. Especially at the studio wardrobe sales. For instance I bought a bunch of hardly worn or never worn designer high heels, thinking I could go back to my carefree stiletto youth, but every time I wear them my back starts to hurt. So now I have a bunch of truly beautiful shoes that I won't wear because I draw the line at pain. So alas I guess I'm now at the "sensible shoes"stage. Bleh.

When I told my MIL there were tons of great shoes at the sale and did she want any, she said, "oh if they aren't wedges no thanks". Wish I had followed her example. Oh well, someone else will enjoy them!

So now, the idea is I'm not going to even buy anything (even used) until I get A LOT more space in my house. When I see something I really want, I'm going to put it on my wish list. When I finally get to the point when I feel like I've decluttered enough, then I will look at my wish list and see if anything still applies.

I'm much better at not buying spontaneously, but every once in a while I get carried away, like when a month ago I decided I had to buy some saffron crocus bulbs for the garden. I did have to plant them a month ago, but I don't even cook a lot with saffron, and it could have waited a year, and then I had to buy the right kind of pot, I couldn't put them right in the ground like I was planning on.

So now we're going to make it a plan-I'd say New Years resolution, but we know those are usually not going to pan out, right? :)

Happy New Year!

Chickens! violets! garlic!

2010-12-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

So I am back. I don't think I will post every day as that = burn out and/or failure :) because I have so much on my plate, writing every day was just too difficult. So what's happened since the last time I was posting? We have city chickens, our edible landscape in the front is done and beautiful, and I've met new friends and don't feel so alone anymore. :)

Our two chickens are EEs (Easter Eggers, which means they should lay a blue or green egg) - they aren't laying yet - hopefully in February. :) They're both sweet birds though, and they are partridge colored, which is an added benefit since we have a lot of hawks and camouflage is a nice thing. We made a sort of chicken tractor out of a baby play yard, chicken wire and a PVC pipe so that when we aren't outside they have a safe place to hang out, and its so light it can be easily moved. They also have a small coop, but its pretty small, so we're working on adding a run to it. I want to see what color eggs they lay, then I'll add a few more chickens - maybe a Black Copper Marans for the beautiful dark colored eggs.

It's winter now, so our front yard doesn't look as fantastic as it did this summer, but we're really happy with it - I'm still able to go out and pick fresh herbs, limes, and we had a few satsuma tangerines already. We also got a couple of fuyu persimmons in the fall. Some weedy sow thistle is coming up - last year we had one type that wasn't bitter so I let it seed itself and we'll have fresh greens whenever we want them. My lettuce patch is coming up too.

In addition, I discovered that we have a lot of Toyon and pyracantha in our property. Not really that edible, but the native americans in this area used to use dried Toyon berries for pemmican, and you *can* make a jelly out of both. I just used some for a flower arrangement, as another name for Toyon out here is California Holly. So instead of buying holly etc., I just cut a bunch of branches and decked the halls with it!

One of my oldest friends lives in alabama and she gave me a garlic bulb, which I planted and its coming up. I love including plants from friends gardens- an extra nice surprise was that I had some violets that came from my father's house- we always had a naturalized patch of violets in our yard when I was growing up so a lot of memories there-anyway I thought I'd lost my little plant as it disappeared, but it came back up - so I quickly transplanted it to a place where it will be happier and its doing great.

Day ?: still here, still sustainable

2010-02-25T22:07:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't been posting every day like I planned, although every day I have continued to try and keep my promise to live a more sustainable life. So far we've continued to work on our food forest (and now there are strawberries, potato onions, garlic, and echinacea. I've got raspberries, blackberries and boysenberries all ready to plant up against the low fence, and the nectarines are just starting to bloom.

I received tree collard cuttings in the mail yesterday which I have to root. Just a bit busy today! But its coming together. I had a baked potato with chives from my garden yesterday and it was great :)Publish Post

Day 299: birthday parties

2010-02-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

So my kids are back on the birthday party train - basically when your kids are in preschool they get invited to all the birthday parties and you find every weekend at a certain point there is at least one (and sometimes several) birthday parties to go to. This is a little bit difficult for me because of the disposables issue - disposable plates, cutlery, juice boxes, etc. and then also buying birthday presents for the birthday child. So I've conquered the disposables by bringing my own and subtly using them instead of the disposable plates - for instance we don't sit right next to the birthday girl or boy so our reusable animal plate doesn't mess up the photo of their little one with all the coordinated colored plates and cutlery etc. If anyone notices they know I'm green now (since starting the green committee at school I've come "out" LOL) so they probably chalk it down to that.

So what's left. Birthday presents. If I can regift a great toy that's been given to us (but for whatever reason isn't appropriate, like if my kids already have one or if its not something our particular kids would be into) then that's what we do first. If not, I try to buy something new that's of less impact on the environment. And I always use gift bags. I never have to buy them, because we get them at christmas and birthdays so I just reuse them.

Nothing I can do about the favors our kids get - I just try to go with the flow on that one...!

Day 298: soapnuts from far away is actually a good thing

2010-02-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

Since I am trying to be sustainable, I thought I would try to find a way to plant a soapnuts tree in our yard, but I've been having very little luck. I have a seed, but they take a long time to get to the stage where I could get soapnuts from them if I grow them that way. The reason I wanted to grow my own is that I'm using soapnuts for my laundry, and they come all the way from Indonesia or India or Nepal so I was feeling like the fuel costs were the one negative to using them. But I just read that by buying soap nuts we are actually helping preserve rainforests because the nuts come from mature trees (they take approximately 9-10 years before they start fruiting and the nuts are actually the fruit of these trees) and also encourages developing nations to want to preserve these trees, rather than cutting them down for wood. So at least that's a big plus rather than a negative now :) It would be nice if they were also fair trade, but I know this is a new business. I'll ask the company I buy from now if that's in the works, I know they are already trying to be as environmental as possible because they switched their packaging to be completely compostable/recyclable...

Day 297: DD birthday party plan

2010-02-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

I want my DD to have a great birthday. But she's two and I don't feel like having a party and inviting all 25 of her classmates is really necessary (but that's what a lot of the other parents do) Also I feel like we have too much stuff and we don't need all the presents from her classmates. We really don't. We need fun, and sharing, and playing - not stuff. So I spoke to her teacher, and decided that we're just going to have a little fun day at the school. We'll invite the grandma that's here in town (the other grandparents live outside the country) and daddy and her brother and have cake and dress up and stories at school with all her friends. And presents from family members only later at home. So the experience will be the most important thing. :)

Day 291: my brother is coming to visit in a couple of months!

2010-01-29T09:26:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited, my brother will be coming to visit us in April or May! Since the last time he came out for a visit I told him our house would be all edible landscaping by the time he came to visit next time I'm excited about having a deadline to get things moving. The only problem with sustainability is everything takes so gosh darn long ;) there's planning, and considering the best way to do things etc. But I'm going to do what I can so that what we have will be a lovely place to stay a while...

Day 288: Repair!

2010-01-26T21:04:00.000-08:00

So I have a box of things I need to repair which eventually I WILL get to (I will!). But in the meantime, the velcro on my DS's shoes wore out and wouldn't keep his shoes closed anymore. In the old days I would have just gone out and bought him another pair of shoes, but this time I took them to a shoe repair place and for $10 got them fixed. Which is great because they still fit and are in great shape (other than the velcro). New shoes would have cost between $30-$60 so its great for my bank balance too :)

Day 287: baby stepping to get the word out

2010-01-25T13:56:00.000-08:00

So today I went to my local Henry's for something that turned out to be out of stock, and even though I should have gone home and got to work I stopped and spoke to one of the employees there- I'd mentioned to her about Sustainable Works the last time I was there, and when I asked her if she'd had time to check it out she remembered the first class was tonight and said she'd almost forgotten it was tonight but would definitely go to it as she'd looked at the website and decided to check it out. So even though I made a trip over there and didn't end up getting what I came for, I hope it makes a difference in their life like it did with mine. :)

I also went to WF and the checker there said it would be cheaper to buy flour in the package rather than from the bulk bin and got a (polite) earful about how unnecessary packaging costs more in the long run. He was really nice and said he thought what I'm doing is great. Sometimes I feel like Sisyphus pushing a rock up a hill, but when I see how much impact I'm making on our trash, and the lack of it, I know I'm getting somewhere. It's just a little sad when I see all the people at the bulk bin taking the plastic bags that most people don't even reuse, and I'm hoping that when they see me using my reusable containers that maybe they'll start seeing that as a possibility. Neither my local Henry's or my local WF have signs by the bulk bins saying that customers can bring their own bags. If I don't have enough reusable bags I usually take a small paper bag, reuse it as much as possible, before recycling it.

I have to write a little "green tip" for my kids schools monthly newsletter so that's one more way I'm trying to put the word out. This is the toughest part, because even though I've been writing in this blog for the last 287 days I don't feel I'm very good about getting the point across....

Day 286: back into gDiapers

2010-01-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

My daughter hasn't been staying dry at night and getting up at least once and sometimes 3 times a night, not to mention doing loads of laundry isn't working. Initially when we day trained her she refused to wear diapers at night as well, so I put up with getting up with her but she still had accidents. So I finally decided to try the diaper thing again, and we put a disney princess sticker on the diaper cover and it worked, she wore them! So the last two nights have been the best I've slept in a LONG time :)

We're composting the diapers- so with the exception of the plastic bag the diapers come in, there's no trash involved -

Day 285: getting outside and being neighborly

2010-01-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

Today we drove out to Frazier Park. With the storms of the last week, there is a lot of snow in the mountains - so we drove about an hour away and had a couple of hours of sledding by the side of the road. It was fantastic! Especially when at the end of it you sit in the car with your family and enjoy some hot cocoa- we make it by combining milk, honey and cocoa powder. I can buy the cocoa powder in bulk at Henry's :) Delish!

Also, I have to do a shout out to our neighbors. We have some great neighbors across the road who are the adventuresome sort, and we happened to see them as we were driving out. We had planned to go to Angeles Crest, but because we stopped and were neighborly even though we thought we were running behind schedule :) they told us Angeles Crest was closed and we should go to Frazier Park. If they hadn't told us we would have lost the chance to play in the snow as we would have driven out there and not been able to get down the roads. So always stop and say hello, you never know when it will make a difference to your day.

Day 284: the rain barrels are full, and we could have had a lot more of them

2010-01-22T10:39:00.001-08:00

Well we have tons of water in our rain barrels. We had full rain barrels the very first day it rained- and now I know why the landscaper said that the two 50 gallon barrels we set up wouldn't save as much water as we could get off our roof. We could have had 10 x these number of rain barrels and we would still have filled them up. But at least we are saving some water, I've been using it to water the plants outside, some of the indoor plants etc. You can't drink the water, but every little bit helps here in drought ridden So Cal!

Day 283: office sustainability = remanufactured toner cartridges?

2010-01-21T11:37:00.000-08:00

I've got a cold AGAIN. Ugh. My mom says I should take a multivitamin, which means more plastic bottles, but I do remember I never used to get sick when I took a multivitamin but I also didn't have two kids in preschool bringin' home da germies.

I've also run out of toner for my Brother printer, and its pouring outside. Worst storms since 2005, and I am enjoying them, here in California water is A REALLY GOOD THING, even if it does show up all at once. So instead of running out and buying toner, I am surfing to see if I can order it and have someone else get it to me so I don't have to enjoy the rain from outside. ;)

Staples has something that could be greenwashing, but also looks promising. They are selling a remanufactured toner cartridge for my printer called ReMan Sustainable Earth. I usually buy the ones Brother makes, and I always send back the toner cartridge to Brother who will recycle it. So now I'm wondering if Brother's toner cartridges are remanufactured already, and Staples is trying to capitalize on the fact that Brother doesn't advertise this, or if this really is a good alternative if Brother is just selling me new toner cartridges. This is what Brother has on their site. I am going to send an email to them, but there doesn't seem to be anything on their website about how much material they reuse. I spoke to a Staples rep online and she said that I can just drop off the Staples toner cartridge at any Staples when its empty and they'll recycle it.

I also just googled remanufactured toner cartridge and found a company called SaveOnInk.com - if you send them your old cartridge they'll refill it for you for half of what a new one will cost and give you a one year warrantee - I really like this idea - :) What I might do is buy the Staples remanufactured toner, and then send my empty Brother toner cartridge off to SaveOnInk.com. Their FAQ page says toner cartridges can be remanufactured 3-4 times, after which I'll just send it back to Brother for recycling but in the meantime, I've used the toner cartridge as many times as possible before returning to the manufacturer.

Day 282: finding like minded parents at school

2010-01-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

When I originally spoke to the President of the Parents Association at school, she mentioned to me that there was another mom who was trying to get an e-waste recycling program going. She told me who it was, and she's a mom that I know very well, and it turns out both her parents are very pro-sustainability so she grew up in this environment. I had no idea. I spoke to her and she was interested in the green committee I'm setting up, so I now have two other moms (there's one I had already spoken to that I knew was "green") who want to work on this. Once I start talking about it, I'm hoping more come out of the woodwork and we can start making some positive changes.

Also the President wants me to write a short "green" tip to include in the newsletter, so I have to write that up. My other friend who is greening her kids school says once a month is not enough, and she sends a tip out every week - I'm going to ask her if she can come to a couple of our committee meetings and help us get started. She's done some amazing things at her school already.

Day 281: beginning a green committee

2010-01-19T14:25:00.000-08:00

So the president of the Parents Association emailed me and asked me to speak at the parents meeting on Thursday about starting a green committee. I have to admit, I'm a bit nervous -I'm not usually a leader or even a joiner... I usually just mind my own business. But I feel so strongly about this that its going to spill over. And the most important issue is education. I think most people want their kids to grow up in a beautiful world, not a trash heap. Anyway, I guess I made an impact on the President, as she's pushing me to do it :) wish me luck!

Day 280: happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2010-01-18T14:19:00.000-08:00

Well Gandhi said, be the change you want to see in the world - and that's where I started - with myself - with changing myself and my family. Now I've started thinking about MLK- he found a positive way to make a massive change in the world and changed millions of people's worldview at the same time. It's only 50 years later and we have a black president. :) He started with inspirational, compassionate speeches/sermons- not with hate or anger, or violence - although some people to him responded that way - but with an unwavering belief in mankind's ability to do the right thing.

I want to find a way to bring that kind of positive change into the world. I think most people want to be good humans. They want a beautiful place for their children to grow up in and have grandchildren in. They love the planet. They just don't know how to show it (yet).

We left Big Bear this morning - it was just starting to snow. We brought back THREE bags of recycling (too much for me to be happy about, but it was for 6 people, and my in laws are just learning about precycling and my MIL did most of the shopping prior to our heart to heart so mucho packaging). We threw away one large bag of trash. I'm sure that big bag of trash would have been 1/3 the size if I'd been able to compost the organic material, but I have to content myself with the fact that we didn't throw away a lot of recycleable stuff. And it showed me how far my family has come - we were only in Big Bear for three days and had four bags of stuff - here at home we have a tiny bag of trash for an entire week, and a lot less recycling.

Day 279: you win some, you lose some

2010-01-17T14:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, first, the win: I mentioned in a previous post that I finally cracked and spoke to my MIL about using plastic bags unnecessarily (she'd put bananas in a plastic produce bag). Well today when we went shopping she asked me if I could find her some paper bags so we wouldn't use the plastic produce bags. Luckily they had some, and they were 100% recycled paper. So she's trying to think about it, which is a big win in my mind.

On the losing side, we've been staying in a cabin in Big Bear for a couple of days, and I can't compost here. If I am being honest, I could compost, but I'm chicken, because it would involve freezing all the compostables in the freezer and then trying to get it all home. I'm not sure my in-laws are ready for this because they still see it as trash - so to them I'd be putting trash in the freezer, which would bother them.

Ah well, baby steps baby steps...

Day 278: Big bear and pancakes (and using what you've got)

2010-01-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

It's really beautiful up here- as a California girl I'm always amazed when I drive up into the mountains and there's SNOW!

We tried to take up as much of our own food to the cabin we're staying in as possible - for instance I could see us forgetting a particular spice and MIL saying, no problem, we'll just go to the store and buy a whole container of it (even though I have a full container at home) So we packed food. We packed spices. We packed staples like flour and sugar. This morning I wanted to make pancakes, but MIL was concerned that we had enough milk for breakfast cereal etc. My FIL drinks rice milk, and they couldn't find a smaller carton of it so they bought this huge carton. Good news for me, as I found this great vegan pancake recipe and made some fantastic vegan blueberry pancakes using rice milk instead of regular milk. :) My husband likes that I try to use what we have, and recipezaar.com and supercook.com are fantastic websites for this - recipezaar lets you search by ingredient, and supercook.com lets you input what ingredients you have and then pulls up recipes that you can make with them. :)

I think my MIL is impressed that I'm not wasting food, especially food she makes, I always find a way to take leftovers and either eat them or use them in another recipe.

My daughter (who is too young to go sking) made a nifty snow princess out of icy snow and leaves and sticks. She wasn't pretty, but she was biodegradable! LOL

Day 277: Big Bear ski trip

2010-01-15T20:20:00.000-08:00

So we're going to Big Bear this weekend, in fact we're driving up today. I was successful in borrowing or buying second hand everything we needed except:

-snowboots for me and both kids (I could have borrowed some boots for my son, but we ran out of time and truthfully, he has big feet so the ones I could have borrowed probably wouldn't have fit anyway) I couldn't find shoes to borrow for me and DD that fit.
- a helmet for DH - we probably could have found this used, but inlaws bought it for DH before I had time to look for one.
- chains for the car - I tried to borrow some, but chains are all so specific for this car or that car, I couldn't find anyone who had chains that would fit our car.

All skis etc. were rented. All it took was a little planning, we saved money and we also saved space as we can give the borrowed stuff back! Now we can just enjoy our trip- !

Day 276: finally talked to my in-laws

2010-01-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

So my MIL came over with her shopping, and had a bunch of bananas in a plastic produce bag. That's when I got to the point where I needed to say something. There is no reason in the world that bananas need to be in a bag. The only reason you need to put produce in a bag is 1) to keep it clean and 2) if you have a bunch of them and the checker needs to weigh them. Neither reason is a very good reason as produce can be washed and weighed without using a bag. And there is never a good reason to bag bananas.

Anyway, I explained politely about the reason that produce bags were bad for the environment, and the state of our landfills and my concerns about their grandkids having a nice world to live in in 30 years and they listened. I'm not sure if it will make a difference or not- but they listened and seemed to understand it. I kept it short, and stopped as soon as I could so that I wouldn't overstate it. We'll see what they take away from it, if anything other than their DIL is an environmental nutjob (as my BIL put it a while back) LOL.

Day 275: DH's birthday

2010-01-13T20:19:00.000-08:00

It's my DH's birthday and he wants me to make dinner instead of going out. :) I love that my husband likes my cooking! I'm cooking for his whole family, and his mom made her famous cheesecake and we put a couple of candles on it. I asked him what he wants as a gift, and he said he wants a class taught by christopher nyerges. I really love that my DH understands and even wants the same things I want - to simplify our lives, and have more space and time to enjoy our lives because we're not running around trying to keep up with the Joneses or having to buy buy buy buy buy all the time just to distract ourselves. A while ago I said to myself I want to have more than enough money. I thought winning the lottery would do it. Now I look back and think, wow its strange how life works. We now have more than enough money because we found a way to want LESS. But we actually have MORE.

I don't watch Oprah all that much but I do TiVo her show and when she has something interesting on I'll watch it. She recently had a show on how women in other countries live, and they interviewed some women living in Copenhagen. They lived almost spartan, they lived in less space and spent more time outdoors. They felt very safe. One woman's husband commented (when Oprah said you have three children and yet you have very few belongings and their house was so tidy) that they have less stuff, more space, more life.

I am not complaining, I know how blessed I am. I have a wonderful husband, two great kids and I know I live in an area of affluence, and I live in the United States which is naturally more affluent than many places in the world, even in our poorer sections. But I want to live in better harmony with the earth, because I realize that the way we are living in the country is causing a lot of problems, and the only way I can help is to learn as much as I can about how to conserve resources etc.

Day 274: ebaying for kids stuff

2010-01-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

My daughter needs new shoes. I can buy new, but she's 2 -she's going to end up needing another pair soon enough. Found a great gently used pair on ebay, along with a really cute sweater dress! So we're set - can't wait til the stuff gets here!

I am going to need to sell some stuff on ebay soon as I'm decluttering - I've been freeycling, but there are some things I want to sell and put the money in the college fund...

Day 273: car washing at home :(

2010-01-11T12:55:00.000-08:00

So my BIL who's a bit down on his luck right now through bad circumstance wanted to wash his car a while back at our house, since its not very easy to do where he lives and he didn't want to pay for a car wash since he's trying to save money. At that point, knowing that if he goes to a car wash at least they have to clean the water by law, I offered to pay for him to go through a drive through car wash down the street, but at that point he said no. It was only a measly $6 but he still turned it down, I guess because he didn't want to take the handout. Anyway, when he came by yesterday he wanted to wash his car here again. Maybe because I've been weakened by illness or whatever I said fine, but gave him a hose attachment that shuts off the water while you're not holding it down, so at least it would keep from wasting water.

But he took a few rags from my stash, and gave them back to me after he'd washed his car. I threw them in the washing machine thinking they were just dirty. NOPE. One of them he'd used to clean his oily wheels, and now there was big oily ring around my washing machine. It came off fine with a Magic Eraser but the idea of the oily goo going into our septic system and then out into the environment really bothered me. Next time I'm going to treat him to the drive through car wash.

Day 270: I have the stomach flu

2010-01-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

My kids have had it the last several days, and they got better just in time for me to get it... one blessing is that at least we all didn't have it at the same time.. my wonderful DH took both kids out for me so I could get a nap as I'd been up all night throwing up. I'd like to say I thought about sustainability today, but truthfully all I thought was where can I lie down. I am actually posting this the next day, since there was no way I was getting on the computer the way I felt...

Day 268: joined the Compact

2010-01-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

There is a yahoo group called The Compact that has been getting crazy amounts of numbers. Apparently they've been around for a while, and according to an article written in 2007:

This group was formed to go beyond recycling to try to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of American consumer culture and to resist global corporatism. Members support their local businesses and farms whenever possible. They purposefully reduce clutter and waste in their homes and generally follow a path to simplify their lives.
Here's the description from the Yahoo page:
We are a group of individuals committed to a 12-month flight from the consumer grid (calendar year 2010).

The Compact has several aims (more or less prioritized below):
To go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of disposable consumer culture and to support local businesses, farms, etc. -- a step that, we hope, inherits the revolutionary impulse of the Mayflower Compact.
To reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er).
To simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)
We've agreed to follow two principles (see exceptions etc. on our blog).
#1 Don't buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc.)
#2 Borrow, barter, or buy used.
Yep, right up my alley. :) I've been feeling a bit alone in this -although with the economy "cratering" there's been a lot of people rethinking the "American way" ie. rampant, uncontrolled consumerism-but suddenly there are thousands of like-minded folks a mouse-click away. I love the Internet.

Day 267: Dr. Bronners shampoo soap

2010-01-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

I bought some Dr. Bronners soap to try as shampoo as a salesperson at my local Henry's said she'd tried it and it worked for her as a shampoo bar. DH tried it and loves it. Me, I found it too waxy :( So right now I'm using the kids shampoo. I might try going to to the baking soda/vinegar rinse.. but when I've used baking soda to dry any oil in my hair it worked great, except that then whenever I touched my hair, there was this residual baking soda smell etc. which I'm not keen on... but Beth Terry at FPF uses baking soda mixed with water in a bottle. So maybe that's the trick. If that doesn't work, then I'm going to see if I can buy California Baby shampoo and conditioner in a gallon bottle, and just refill the small bottles I have - at least it would be less packaging, and a gallon container might last us a whole year if we're careful about portions.... but its expensive. Do the shampoo companies really think you're going to shampoo, lather, rinse and repeat? Does anyone really do this? Sounds like marketing to get me to use up my shampoo that much faster....

I also spoke to that same salesperson at Henry's about Sustainable Works, and she wrote down the name because she was going to see if she could get Henry's to sponsor a workshop :) Hope that pans out!

Day 266: Food forest DVD arrived!

2010-01-05T12:55:00.000-08:00

I asked my DH for two things for christmas - a renewal of my membership to the CRFG (California Rare Fruit Growers) but instead of going with the traditional subscription where they mail you a magazine I asked for electronic only so they'll send the magazine to me in my email as a .pdf. :) I also asked him for a DVD by Geoff Lawton, who is a famous permaculture designer and educator. The DVD is called Establishing a Food Forest. I checked the library to see if they had it, but they didn't and I also tried to see if I could borrow it - but no go. I figure since they don't have it in the library that once I'm done with it I can always donate it. :) Anyway, it had to come from Australia, but it finally got here today - I'm excited to watch it and see what else I can learn and apply to our garden.

Day 265: borrowing is better

2010-01-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

We're planning to go to Big Bear soon- but I don't have any snow clothes. In Laws first thought was, let's go BUY some BRAND NEW EXPENSIVE SNOW GEAR! But with our new philosophy of buying used, I wanted to try and buy used. So I checked Craigslist, no go. Then a local store that sells used sports gear, nope. Then I started thinking.. wait, why do I need to buy anything? So I posted at the LAReuseIt yahoo group. In the meantime, I called a couple of friends, and so did DH. So I get two separate people who emailed me from LAReuseIt with some gear, but my DH hit the jackpot as one of his friends has the full kit, and she's about the same size as I am and willing to loan it to me :)

This experience taught me a lot about how I think. I don't think about community first, I think where can I go to buy this NOW - the instant gratification. It's a little more work to borrow but I'm not putting extra stress on the system, and I'm reaching out to other people, and I don't have to put money out for something I may never use again, and I don't have to store it...if I do start going up to the snow regularly I'll buy some used gear, but for now, this is perfect.

Day 264: beef and bravery

2010-01-03T20:49:00.000-08:00

I'm not eating beef. Well actually, I better be honest, I'm not eating beef unless my MIL makes it for dinner. I'm kind of filing it under the "getting along" thing.. I feel like if I stood up and said "hey we don't eat beef" when she's making it for the entire family (DH's brothers as well) it would cause a stink and well I just don't have the nerve to do it.

I have this friend (we were friends before, we lost touch and then discovered each other had 'gone green" at her christmas party - best gift I got this year!) but she's fearless. She tells everyone and anyone how she feels about the environment, and makes no bones about it. I'm not that brave but the truth is we need a lot more people like her - she has already created committees for her kid's school to go environmental, and she's telling everyone that they've got to get with the program. All I've done is try and talk to the principal of my school about a worm bin.. and they still don't have one six months later. :( Ah well, at least now that we're friends again, maybe she can teach me to be more proactive...

Day 263: Beginning, and shampoo soap

2010-01-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

So today is the second day of the new year. I have a pretty card that I hung up on the wall of my home office - it has a butterfly on it, with the words "BEGIN". I thought it was a good saying, but at the time, I didn't understand that it would really mean something to my life, I just thought it would be a way to get myself motivated a la the "just do it" Nike campaign... basically to remind me to begin and stop procrastinating. Now I realize that I began to transform my lifestyle and my way of thinking.

On a slightly different note, neither my local Henry's nor Whole Foods carry a "shampoo bar", so I've asked DH to go to a local "green" store called Green And Greener in Valley Village and pick one up, as they carry one brand with quite a few scents, hopefully he can find one he likes. I've read a lot of mixed reviews about bar shampoo, so I'll have to weigh in later once we have the shampoo bar "en casa".

Day 262: Happy new year, and this years resolutions

2010-01-01T19:15:00.000-08:00

I resolve to be a good human, as much as is humanly possible ;)
I resolve to waste less, and teach as many people as I think I can get away with how to use less as well.
I resolve to try to learn more every day how to live in a healthier way, for me, my family and the earth.

Day 261: shampoo

2009-12-31T08:34:00.000-08:00

We're almost out of shampoo and conditioner.. so I'm trying to decide what my options are.

So here's the list:

Shampoo bar (hopefully with no packaging, or recyclable packaging) I found Dr. Liggett's on Amazon and I think they sell it at my local Henry's Farmers Market store, so I think this is probably my best bet. The only thing that gives me pause is my kids, as I don't want them to get soap in their eyes and have it sting..but then I think the organic shampoo I'm getting right now doesn't have any "non-sting" so maybe that's not an issue.

Baking Soda and Vinegar (I might try this for myself, but not sure if the kids or DH would be game).

Bulk kids shampoo and conditioner from California Baby, which would still be plastic jugs, but one plastic jug of each would last a long time, and would be for the whole family. I think its also non-sting so that's a plus, and I know my DH has tried it and can use the kids shampoo.

I'm a little wary of going without conditioner, but its worth a try and the reviews of Dr. Liggetts state that I won't need it. So I guess next time I'm at Henry's I'll start there.

Here's an interesting article about the difference between shampoo and soap which explained to me why I can't just use soapnuts soap or regular soap as shampoo.

Here's an interesting article about the history of shampoo and soap, along with instructions on how to make soap.

Day 260: Bonterra rocks again

2009-12-30T07:28:00.000-08:00

So I bought some Bonterra chardonnay and well, I know its a little thing, but I'm impressed again. They changed from cork to metal screwtop. Since corks aren't really all that recyclable (I'm currently recycling corks through WholeFoods recork program, which takes old corks and recycles them into containers for wine bottles) I haven't been all that sure what to do with them. I can probably compost them, but I love it when I don't have to worry about it anymore because Bonterra have created a completely recyclable bottle now :)

Day 259: javalogs or cordwood?

2009-12-29T07:27:00.000-08:00

I used to buy the greener version of a Duraflame firelog - Whole Foods carried them, they were basically corrogated cardboard boxes that they made into logs that burned. Lately I haven't been able to find them anymore, WF has switched to something called JavaLogs. I've decided to look them up, and according to the Pine Mountain website (their parent company) they sound pretty good in that they divert 12 million pounds of coffee grounds from landfills per year(!) they emit 78% less carbon monoxide and up to 66% less creosote than cordwood fires, and they feature renewable all natural-based waxes. Since I'm a coffee drinker and I know a lot of Starbucks junkies out there, I like the concept.

Now I think there is probably no way to burn a completely clean fire. So environmentally they are never going to be a great idea - but I also think that crackling fires are not going to go away. Human beings love the whole experience of sitting next to a crackling fire, its almost primeval.

According to this great article on TreeHugger.com, manufactured logs are better for the environment than cordwood, hands down. But any fire is bad during days of poor air quality because, well, obviously the smoke is not good for local air quality. Since we only burn fires in the winter when air quality is better, and we only use manufactured logs- we aren't racking up that much air pollution and we are keeping material out of landfills.

Day 258: Avatar

2009-12-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

Well DH and I (thanks to babysitting grandparents) went out and saw Avatar last night. It was stunningly beautiful, I especially loved the scenes where they are walking through the forest at night and all the plants are luminescent. It has a strong moral, and unfortunately a naive one in my opinion- but I still loved the film. It was basically pretty similar to Dances with Wolves (another fantastic film) - but on another planet and in the future. We can definitely learn from it, but would we ever be able to return to that period where we lived in such low technology that we lived in harmony with nature? Even some of the Native Americans hunted certain animals into extinction... but its unfortunately a fantasy to think that people are going to give up their plasma tvs, even for flying dragons.. ;)

But his core message of sustainability in this film is a powerful one, and if it makes people think about how we're destroying beautiful mountains in Appalachia for coal to burn in our power plants, or to help people imagine a different way to live that would be healthy for everyone, or just to think about it what we might be losing by eating beef that came from rainforest country than Cameron has done a wonderful thing. He gave us something beautiful, and also made us think.

Day 257: locating plants

2009-12-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

Now that we finally have the plan, I have to see how many plants I can get for free. We have to get a lot of plants, and since everything ended up costing more than I thought it would, I want to get what I can from cuttings, seeds etc. I posted a LAReuseIt ad looking for some of the plants and a few people responded.. so I'm going to at least get some of them that way. The landscaper also told me which ones I can just plant from seed so I'm going to try that as well. The bonus is obviously I avoid all those plastic plant containers, tags etc.

I also bought some plants from the Theodore Payne Society (native grapes) they're going to be beautiful in the front. My MIL asked me what she could get me for xmas and I said plants for the garden, so I drove up there on Christmas Eve and luckily I got in there right as they were closing so I didn't have to leave empty handed. They also said they would love to have all the empty plastic pots in the sideyard that DH wants me to get rid of... :)

Day 256: trying to catch up

2009-12-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to catch up on my blogging here - I have quite a few posts that I started and didn't finish that I still have to post... but I've been working a lot this month, and unfortunately this job is demanding all my time and between my inlaws being here (MIL is wonderful and likes to do all the cooking and everyone ends up at our house...and...well she uses our compost pail but still buys *everything* in plastic... ) and this demanding job I haven't been able to stay on top of everything :(

But it goes along with living in harmony in the world, I can't change anything by beating everyone over the head with it, I have to just keep doing what I can do, consistently, and try and do my best.

Day 255: Merry Christmas...and shopping your home instead of a store

2009-12-25T18:12:00.001-08:00

So instead of shopping for stocking stuffers for my kids, I remembered have a box that I put things in that, well, we get from kids birthday parties, or the kids got them at school for some event or another...anyway, they usually bring them home and completely forget about them in about 2 seconds. They have too many things any way (we have the only grandchildren in the family so they get completely spoiled) so I just started to throw them in a box for a "rainy day". Well when it came time to get a few things to stuff the stockings with, I just opened the box and threw a few of the things in there - it was perfect, and I didn't even have to leave the house!

They also LOVED the presents we got them that were "preloved"- and every day up til now would look at the traffic going into the mall parking lot and think thank god I'm done with my unshopping... LOL.

They still got way too many new gifts from the grandparents (except my mom, bless her she played along and let us give the kids some secondhand gifts I'd picked out, and she gave us a netflix subscription for christmas - I love that even if she doesn't understand it completely she'll still play along and..well she tries to understand) and from the Uncles... however I got two preloved gifts for the kids to be from my brother who lives in India so I guess at least half the family was doing more sustainable gifts :) I tried to get the family to buy experiences instead of "stuff" but that didn't go down that well with DH's parents. My mom's good with contributing to the "fun fund" and some of the Uncles are too, but the Grandparents on DHs side DON'T GET IT. ;)

I also bought candy but in foil (gelt, and a Lindt santa and snowman) so the packaging was recyclable, even if I wasn't sure if it was fair trade or not...

My MIL was wanting christmas crackers (English thing) and voila! I already had some left over from last year that I needed to use up, no new shopping.

And last but not least, my MIL has domain over the christmas dinner (so unfortunately there was packaging involved, no heritage turkey etc...) but I always do the table. In previous years, I always went out and bought flowers (usually roses) and cranberries for the flower arrangement. This year I realized that if I wanted to be truly sustainable about the flowers they should come from my own yard, and I should only use things I already own. Luckily there was a nice variety of things outside: nandina berries and pyracantha berries for color, holly leaves, and narcissus. The only thing is none of my roses were in bloom :( ...so I cheated a little. My next door neighbor has iceberg roses, and they let me have a few :). I threw some plastic pieces that are supposed to look like ice that I bought a couple of years ago for an arrangement. Since we already had a tablecloth, cloth napkins and candleholders (and I had some beeswax votives) we were good to go, and best of all I didn't have to drive anywhere, or spend any money!

Day 254: cool ideas I wish I'd had two weeks ago

2009-12-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

I have no idea if the wood is sustainably grown as I haven't had a chance to really look this website where I can get the unpainted wooden figures yet, but I love the idea of these little wooden people which remind me of the clothespin dolls I remember making as a child. I think I may order some of these and make little painted dolls sets - my daughter's birthday is coming up, maybe I'll make her a "my family" set and paint it to look like our family :) Or if I run out of time (which these days I'm trying not to do, but still happens) I can always order a custom set from this website, thought I think it would be much more fun to make our own. I also think it might be a fun project at my children's preschool - ...they can make a doll of themselves, and can use fabric scraps for the clothes.

It also might make a good gift for the kids I have to buy birthday presents for- I could make them a doll or themselves, or a family set...I have had a problem of trying to find sustainable gifts for preschool kids that aren't wrapped in plastic etc.

Day 253: life in the fast lane = less sustainability

2009-12-23T22:56:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that since I've been working on this particular job I'm on at the moment that I have a lot less time as its been pretty completely encompassing and sucked up all my available energy etc. And I've noticed that when I have no time and I am exhausted I definitely start slipping up on the whole sustainability thing. Luckily I'm still making my own bread etc., but last night the frozen pizza came out (my emergency rations) which I don't like to use in general as the pizzas come in a plastic bag inside the chipboard box. I want to learn how to make my own pizza dough., but right now NO TIME. So that's what's wrong with modern culture, we've discovered how to keep ourselves so busy that we don't have time to think about what we're doing. We just do it, and never ask where the trash goes etc. And even if we think about it, we're in too much of a hurry to figure out what to do about it...

Day 252: we are fringe

2009-12-22T23:02:00.000-08:00

So my in-laws are visiting and I get the feeling that we are starting to look like fringe wackos to them...my brother in law made a joke about my having to make the laundry soap, and I have no idea how its going to go over when we give our kids second hand gifts from Santa...

Anyway, my kids are young enough that gifts are gifts to them, soon they'll be old enough to know what second hand is, so for now we are going to give them preloved gifts and hope the extended family understands, or if they don't understand, at least maybe they won't make any comments about it -!

Day 251: Happy Winter Solstice

2009-12-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

Well today is Winter Solstice, a date connected throughout time with nature, and fittingly the landscaper came by today and showed us how to build a stacked stone wall (or at least he showed my DH how to build it, and then we walked around and went over the design for the front yard). I had a few questions, but he had good answers for all of them- one of the plants he wants to use is a native called Hummingbird Sage - I wasn't sure about it, but its really beautiful in pictures, and the more I've reviewed the design, the more excited I am about getting moving on this project.

My DH is doing a fantastic job on the wall as well - I can't wait til its done and I can start really planting everything!

Day 250: coloring pages for the kids

2009-12-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

So my daughter, like all the other 2 year old girls in the world, loves Disney princesses. My son loves dinosaurs and Spiderman. Me, I am trying not to buy into the mass marketing and rampant consumerism, which is everywhere. I have bought sticker books, but a lot of the pages are plastic or plastic coated, so I try to recycle what I can out of the books when the kids are done with them, but there's usually still the plastic pages that (probably) aren't recyclable.

But now that I've switched to 100% recycled paper I realized I can just print out coloring pages for the kids- there are a lot of great princess pages here, and a google images search can find me coloring pages for just about anything. I have switched to washable pens (as opposed to crayons, which are petroleum products and because of the wax, render the paper unrecyclable) so once the kids are done with their drawings, and if its not something museum worthy, I can a) print on the other side with my printer, and then b) recycle them.

Day 249: Science Center

2009-12-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

My son took a kiddie science class today (he loves science) at the California Science Center in downtown LA. It was a two hour class, so while he was in the class me and DD wandered around some of the exhibits, which were really interesting... they have several of the space capsules from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space missions - which were aweinspiring to say the least. There is something different in an astronaut to allow them to be shot into space in a tiny incompletely tested capsule, they are truly men and women made of stronger stuff.

We also walked around some exhibits all about (surprise) sustainability; energy and water conservation, proper landfill use etc. The landfill display was interesting, they basically built a display to look like a landfill (sans food items of course) and then pointed out stuff that didn't need to be in there (e.g. this shoe could have been resoled, this plastic cup could be recycled etc.). They also explained about the Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle). Once you are aware of the problems and solutions it seems like there have been all these people and places around you trying to get you to see it all along...

Day 248: old friends are on the same road

2009-12-18T23:43:00.000-08:00

Well we got invited to a christmas party thrown by the parents of our DS's used to be best friend. Basically they left the preschool we're currently at, and since I'm not that great at keeping up with the playdates and all, we kind of lost touch about a year ago. But they sent an email invite to us to their christmas party, and as we really didn't want to lose touch it seemed like a great way to catch up over eggnog, right? Plus my DS was really excited to see his friend.

We get to the party, and they have chickens, and greywater, and a vegetable garden, and they are GREEN. Awesome!!! Finally some friends who already "get it", and don't look at me funny when I whip out the cloth napkin or ask for a real plate or glass. They were still using plastic disposable plates etc., which I thought was well, not so good, but I'm still driving a gas guzzling mini van so who am I to judge, right? We all do what we can do when and how we can do it...

Anyway, this is the best christmas present I'll get this year, I'm sure of it. :)

Day 246: haircuts for the kids

2009-12-16T11:42:00.000-08:00

Well one of the problems I had with haircuts is that when I took the kids to get their hair cut at a kids haircutting place there was all this retail sales going on, and it was all aimed directly at my kids. I want my kids to have a haircut, not candy, and toys etc. that they also want me to buy. I'm already spending $$$ to get my kids haircut, and they want me to buy stuff as well. The toys especially were complete junk.

I feel the same way I do about those places like CVS who make you line up (and its usually set up to be a long line) right next to a huge display of candy. (one caveat, CVS also has self checkout, which usually has NO line, and its no where near the candy, so I don't want to totally bag on CVS.) It's really awful, especially when you see the rates of type 2 diabetes going up and up.

So when a friend of mine told me she knew of a lady who would come to your house and cut your kids hair I thought, great idea. My kids can play with their own toys while their waiting for their haircuts. :) Now she still has to drive to my house which is a little far for her, but I found a way around that too...she lives very close to my brother in law, so when we go to his house to visit, I'll kill two birds with one stone and get haircuts at the same time. Did I mention she's also half the price of the kids salons? And since we cut the kids hair outside on the patio, the hair just ended up in the garden and not in a landfill....

Day 245: getting along

2009-12-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

So my in-laws are coming to visit. I love them, they're fantastic.My MIL likes to micromanage, but smart and pretty tactful about it (at least with me, not so tactful with DH). My FIL pretty much just keeps up, but loves the grandkids. They don't get the sustainability thing. If something breaks, don't fix it replace it. If you don't like it, throw it away and get another one. Everything just goes "away" right? Uh, nope.

They do compost while at our home, and they look at our "in-transition" (a polite way of saying not done yet) food forest front yard and well, I know they don't understand why we don't just pay someone to rototill it and plant it with some pretty water guzzling flowers... but they say nothing, which is nice of them.

So I don't point out that they buy potatoes (which were grown in dirt) packaged in a plastic tray wrapped in shrinkwrap. And I know that there are billions of people doing exactly the same thing... its sad. But I can't blame them for doing what other people are doing, I'd rather give them the same (or more) respect that I give total strangers. I just hope maybe they'll see what we're doing and eventually get it.

Day 244: Emailed greetings

2009-12-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

So I decided that if I actually get my act together, I would send out holiday cards. But obviously not paper cards. Not cards that would have to involve more fuel etc. Instead I will send out email cards, and the way its going they may be happy new year cards rather than christmas cards...!

Day 243: we have the landscaping plan

2009-12-13T11:40:00.000-08:00

So the landscaper finally finished the plan for the front yard. So far it looks really exciting, its a mix of edible and standard plants - there's berries (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries), alliums, herbs, native grape, edible flowers, tuberoses (I love them) standard roses, some native plants and pollinators, malabar spinach, sweet peas, some medicinal plants etc. all set up like a food forest. So with the fruit trees we should have a lot of things to put on our table soon!

Day 242: hanukkah!

2009-12-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

So tonight is the first night of hanukkah. And yes, we are a two holiday family, my DH grew up in England and although he is Jewish he grew up celebrating Christmas as a holiday as well. I converted when we got married, so I even though I am Jewish now I am happy we still get to have a tree. We tend to do presents on Christmas and give gelt to the kids each day of hanukkah. Luckily gelt are packaged in foil, and I feel happy I can recycle the packaging so easily (unlike *shudder* halloween ;))

I have done away with regular candles for shabbat by replacing them with my ancient lamp that I burn using olive oil (cheaper than beeswax and more fun in my opinion), but I have no idea how that would work for hanukkah so I went out and blew $25 on beeswax hanukkah candles from Big Dippers Wax Works out of Seattle Washington. I could have found them from a local honey company, but I ran out of time and got them at Whole Foods. At least Seattle is on this coast... and beeswax candles smell amazing...

Day 241: purple potatoes and scallions

2009-12-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

So I bought some purple scallions and a few purple potatoes (do you sense a theme here?) at the Woodman Ave. Farmers Market. I bought the scallions as they were so beautiful with the purple tinged bulb and I had wanted to plant up some scallions anyway as a friend of mine said she did that and now she always has green onions whenever she wants them - she said they are super easy to grow.

I had bought two purple potatoes because I thought if I made mashed potatoes out of them my kids might eat them (they don't like regular mashed potatoes). But well, the potatoes never got eaten, and they started to sprout so I decided to give them a chance to live again. :)

I have one that I put into a repurposed jar half full of water (the old toothpick trick) and the other is going to go into a pot outside full of soil. The scallions will go out side into the ground, maybe in the front yard.

Day 240: No Impact Man screening!

2009-12-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

So we FINALLY did the No Impact screening. We had about 15 people, and we had it at Joy's apartment's community room and just screened it on a wall using a projector her boss loaned her. She made some cookies and I made a cobbler from fruit from the farmer's market, and flour, sugar etc. from bulk bins- and brought satsumas and persimmons from the Farmers Market for snacking. I also bought some organic wine and some tap water (of course). My DH couldn't make it because he had to watch the kids (I did offer to get a babysitter, but he said he'd already seen the movie, so he said he was fine to stay home).

At the end, everyone loved the movie, and though it felt like a huge struggle getting here, we made it happen. :)

Day 239: shaving soap!

2009-12-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

So I ordered lavender shaving soap from Honeybee Spa on ebay, and asked them if they could not shrinkwrap it, since I noticed that their soaps are sold that way. The person at HBS said she could wrap it in tissue and avoid any plastic packaging, so I went a head and ordered. The package came quickly, and with the exception of some plastic packing tape, was predominantly plastic free. We found a little cup to keep the soap in that we already had and weren't using. DH went in to shave, and afterwards he had an amazingly close shave. He really liked the soap! so no more shaving cream in plastic tubes or aerosol cans... :)

Day 238: DH and the straight razor :(

2009-12-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

My DH has already gone to a barber once before to try the straight razor experience, and it wasn't great, the barber told him he'd be better off using his old disposable head razor. But he wanted to try one more time, and so went to one other place called Floyd's in Encino for a shave.

He came home all scraped up. :( I don't know what the deal was, but the first person he went to definitely didn't scrape him up like that. So for now we're keeping his Mach III razors... maybe he'll check into vintage safety razors, that might also be an option. At least the razors he uses aren't completely disposable, he just has to buy the heads.

And the shaving soap I ordered is supposed to be here soon, so we'll see if that works better than the straight razor experience DH has been having.

Day 237: Christmas Trees are green

2009-12-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

So we got our Christmas tree today. I wasn't sure what the "greenest" way of celebrating the holiday was (besides not have a Christmas tree to begin with)- new plastic tree from China, used plastic tree from China, live rented tree, or real cut-down tree. I have some artificial boughs that I bought several years before, but I have always liked the smell of a real tree. When I was growing up we always had a "Christmas Branch" - my dad would shinny up one of our huge pine trees and cut down a huge branch, that we'd put up and decorate like a regular tree. It always looked a little Charlie Brown Christmas, but me and my brother didn't care- and there were presents under the tree to distract us.. course they were either wrapped in the Sunday funnies, or tin foil, or sometimes even wallpaper remnants... ;)

So I don't want to buy an artificial tree, even a used one...it just doesn't "feel right" to me... but what about real trees? According to TreeHugger.com, they're still the best option. :) I bought mine from Tina's Trees, but I didn't check to see if they're organic...and they're probably not... but at least they're local so we're putting our money back into the economy. Then again, the trees probably came from Oregon... :/

We also keep our tree base and keep having them put the same one on every year- and we always call California Christmas Tree Recycling to take our tree when the holidays are over - they even donate to Tree People. Cool.

Day 236: cleaning supplies

2009-12-06T11:36:00.000-08:00

So I've pretty much converted to green cleaning products now as the old stuff has been used up and been replaced by the new stuff :)

We use Bronner's Castile soap (in a plastic bottle, but at least its a largish plastic bottle), along with baking soda, vinegar, bon ami and tea tree oil.

Floors (wood and stone): soap and water

Countertops: soap and water, maybe some vinegar on the kitchen counters, baking soda if I need to scrub

Toilets: vinegar and a few drops of diluted tea tree oil

Sinks: bon ami (although I could probably switch this to baking soda)

Dusting: slightly damp cloth as all our furniture is finished, why I thought we needed Pledge all these years is beyond me, and shows the kind of commercial brainwashing that's going on... why do we need to polish finished furniture? Maybe once in a while if the furniture is getting dry, but considering that we have central air- so no big fluctuations in temp- and mostly (let's face it) inexpensive furniture there's absolutely no need for a polish.

Laundry: soapnuts and 7th Generation dryer sheets (all is compostable)

Dishes: 7th Generation liquid dish soap (in a plastic container, but I'm watering it down 50% so it takes longer to use it up, AND it washes off faster so I don't waste a lot of water trying to wash off the undiluted soap...) and 7th Generation Dishwashing Powder for our dishwasher. I'm not using a rinse aid, but I might see if vinegar would work...

I also make a glass cleaner using vinegar, water and ethyl alcohol (as isopropyl alcohol is a petroleum related product). I might be able to lose the alcohol, but it does make it seem more like traditional glass cleaner as it dries pretty fast (so less streaking).

I use a loofah scrubby, along with a plastic dish brush that we bought before we changed over. We are using Skoy cloths instead of paper towels, and we only use paper towels now when we have to clean something that is super greasy (or when my in-laws are visiting, they seem to love paper towels :( but we buy the unbleached ones so we can compost them as long as they aren't greasy.

We also use SOS pads, but as they aren't recyclable I cut them in half and freeze them so they don't rust - makes them last a LOT longer. Big lesson learned, we use more product than we really need most of the time, so start by using less (dilute, cut in half etc.) then add if you find you need it.

I am also still using Nature's Miracle. I have a little one who still has accidents, so it comes in handy. :)

We are still trying to use up the following:

Cooktop Magic ceramic stove top cleaner

Woodblock mineral oil (for oiling cutting boards) this is by-product of the petroleum industry, so probably don't want to use it anymore. Will replace with some other kind of oil, not sure what yet I'll have to figure it out. The problem with using green products is sometimes the not-green products actually work better but the truth is the conventional products are not sustainable and may actually harm your health - since no one prints the ingredients to the cleaning supplies as its a "trade secret" and no one regulates safety on them until there's a problem, who knows what's really happening long term?

Clorox disinfecting wipes (don't even know where these came from, In Laws perhaps?

Folex- when I still had my kitties this came in handy as it really removes stains from carpet and fabric (like magic, I'm serious). However although it does say non-toxic, there are no ingredients listed on the bottle... so once it gets used up I don't think I'll replace it.

Several probably ancient spray bottles of pesticide residue cleaner for produce which I won't need to replace as I'm buying mostly organic produce or non-spray from the Farmers Market.

Day 235: what to do with sweaters

2009-12-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

I am currently trying to deal with my garage. And when I say deal, I mean begging and pleading it to get clean. ;)

The stuff in my garage breeds like bunnies. I am trying to get it out of my house, and not bring anything new in, but I swear, it just keeps getting more and more compacted in there. Actually my garage may have had quite a lot to do with my being green, as it led me to FlyLady, and FlyLady led me to voluntary simplicity, which led me to edible landscaping, so you see where I'm going with this.

Some stuff is in there because I feel guilty about throwing it away, so I don't. Case in point, I have a pretty pink cashmere wrap that has developed some holes which I don't know if they came from moths, or just catching on things. Since I don't lose a lot of sweaters to moths, I'm betting on snags.

However, I just notice on LAReuseIt that someone posted up a sweater that can be used by knitters who reuse yarn, and someone has already claimed it. So guess where my sweater wrap is going. Yep - LAReuseIt here I come.

Now if I could only find homes for the other three billion things stuck in my garage....

Day 234: taking stock

2009-12-04T22:49:00.000-08:00

So one of the things I do now is I make my own vegetable and chicken stock. I used to buy chicken stock in tetrapaks, then I started buying it in cans (because cans are more recyclable than tetrapaks where I live), then after I learned that all the aluminum cans were lined in BPA containing plastic to keep us safe from the aluminum I just threw up my hands and started to make my own. Now I can't understand why I didn't do it before. Its super easy to make your own stock, you're using up veggies that might look past their prime, or the bones of a chicken left over from dinner. And that means that you are wasting less as well. You can make veggie stock with just about any leftover veggies, some people even just keep peelings or ends or whatever and freeze them - when they get enough they make stock. I also found this recipe that's pretty good for vegetable stock.

For chicken stock, here's a great recipe that uses up the bones. I wish I could compost the bones after I'm done with making stock like I do the veggies, but I can't figure out how to compost them without attracting all kinds of wildlife I don't want to attract to my compost pile.

Day 233: curbside xmas shopping

2009-12-03T08:29:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I was on my way to pick up my kids from school, and there was some kids stuff piled up in front of a neighbor's curb. Normally I don't stop because I usually needed to be somewhere 5 minutes ago, but it looked interesting so I did. Wow glad I did too. Because whomever's child had outgrown the stuff they left on the curb, they must be very like my DS because its all stuff he's going to love. There was a little reptile/bug cage, a microscope (complete in its case), a electrified car track, and a little kids tennis set- daddy plays tennis so its only a matter of time before he gets sucked in! There was also a Salton yogurt kit, but I make my yogurt in glass and I have no interest in cooking it (even at a low temp) in plastic so I passed it by.

Anyway, I think this stuff is going to be from Santa. And I like to think Santa freecycles. :) Now of course its my turn to let go of some of the things my kids have outgrown -so off to Goodwill I go!

Day 232: greening my man's shave

2009-12-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

My DH just walked in and said, I'm almost out of shaving cream and is there anything you can recommend that might be more environmentally friendly than the tube or canned shaving cream he currently uses? And previously he actually (somewhat inspired by No Impact Man Colin Beavan) went and got a shave by a barber using a straight razor to see if he could switch to using one and get away from disposable razor blades. However because he has such a heavy beard to shave, the barber said he didn't recommend it for him as he would get a better (and safer) shave with a regular razor, and so we'll look for something like a preserve razor or a safety razor etc. at any rate something better for the environment than his current razor (but that's another post, since he's fine with what he has at the moment). Right now, we're looking at shaving cream replacement. :)

So my first question is, can I make it myself using ingredients I'm already buying or having in my home?

Here's one that looks promising-Elizabeth Seward’s recipe:
1/2 teaspoon of sunflower oil
1/4 cup of unscented glycerin soap
Double boiler
A cup or mug for the cream

1. In your double boiler, melt chunks of the glycerin soap.

2. Stir in the sunflower oil.

3. Move the mixture into a mug as soon as all of the glycerin chunks are melted.

I have the sunflower oil already, but I'd have to buy the glycerin. Since the glycerin probably comes in plastic, that might be problematic for me as I'm trying to avoid disposable plastic. Here's an additional page that has the above recipe and others.

Here's another recipe but it uses lye, which is in my opinion since I don't really make soap, a special ingredient, so its out for now. Here's one more, but like the one before, I need clay, and a basic understanding of soap making, which I don't have currently.

I also found this youtube video that advocates using olive oil for shaving- but they demonstrate it on shaving legs so I don't know how it would hold up with a manly man's beard ;) but my guy uses shaving oil as well, so it would probably make a good alternative to that.

So what other options are there? Well if he wants a shaving cream, Tom's of Maine used to make a shaving cream with an aluminum tube which is recyclable, but the cap (like the toothpastes) is still made of plastic, and according to this posting the cream was discontinued in August of this year :(.

There's also this nifty shaving bar kit but he only needs the bar he doesn't need the other stuff, and I'd like to be able to buy it in Whole Foods, however Whole Foods say they don't carry shaving bars anymore due to lack of consumer interest.

I also found some great reviews of Honey Bee Spa shaving soaps and here's their store on eBay. I'd want to check out their ingredients and whether they use "fragrance" which is often phthalates or if its based on natural oils...I think I'll shoot them an email and ask :) If I get an answer I like I'll order from them. The only other consideration is they are in Massachusetts which isn't local so if I can find a local soap company at the farmer's market maybe they make shaving bars, I'll have to see next time I go.

And I just found this link to a safety razor that after some additional research might become a nice xmas present for DH....the reviews are outstanding! Of course, these guys all have different opinions about the best razor for a heavy beard, so as I said before, this is going to take more research time which I will save for another post!

At the end of the day, he could just STOP SHAVING. But as I've seen photos of him with a beard from before I knew him, and well, he looked a little um, terrorist chic as it were, that might not be his best option in a post 9/11 world...;) I can tell you we'd probably get searched at airports a lot more LOL.

Day 231: gas mileage

2009-12-01T22:08:00.001-08:00

We just finished watching the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car" last night. Made me kinda sick to think they had a way 10 years ago to reduce our dependency on petroleum and reduce smog and well GM and the other car manufacturers decided to just destroy all the cars and pretend it never happened.

So it got me thinking about gas mileage. My 2007 Honda Odyssey gets pretty blah gas mileage (17 city, 20 highway or 19 combined) as opposed to a 2007 Toyota Prius (48 city, 45 highway, or 46 combined!). I've been trying to hypermile, but the bottom line is I've got a big non-efficient van and it eats a lot of gas, and thus creates more smog, etc.. I never really understood about how hybrids like the Prius are so much better with the mileage, I knew they were more efficient but I had no idea they got better than DOUBLE what I got in my van. I don't drive that much, but geez that's crazy.

So tonight I signed up with Fuelly.com, and I'm going to see what my gas mileage is now that I'm trying to watch my driving. And when its time for DH to get a new car, its going to be a hybrid or electric I think. I'll post my results once I figure out what my true gas mileage is!

Day 230: repurposing containers

2009-11-30T22:09:00.000-08:00

Today I took all the glass jars I've been saving from things I've purchased - spaghetti sauce, or pickles, etc. any good glass container actually -and I soaked all the labels off and started putting dry goods from the bulk bins in them. I now have rice, pasta, beans, almonds, etc. all in these repurposed jars. I really like being able to see what's in the cabinet right away! And I feel good knowing these containers are being reused...

Day 229: call first, and shopping online

2009-11-29T22:08:00.000-08:00

One thing that I admit I was prone to is shopping by car. I would just drive somewhere to see if they had something I needed, instead of calling ahead first, especially if calling was difficult (for instance, Home Depot, where you'd be on hold forever). Now I call first, and use speakerphone if there's a wait and then I can do other chores while I'm waiting on the line. Saves on driving somewhere and using gasoline when you don't need to, and also less time wasted. I also am doing more shopping on the internet, because I've heard it takes less fuel to have something shipped to you than to get in your car and drive across town.

Day 228: 100% biodegradable bags- what do I do with them?

2009-11-28T22:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's my quandary - a while back I bought two klean kanteens for my kids. Well they came in these bags, which are marked 100% biodegradable. So I emailed them asking what I should do with them, and here's the response:

---

Thanks for your interest and support of Klean Kanteen!

The Biodegradable bags are made from corn (starch) instead of polyethylene which is a major advance in environmental technology. They are 100% compostable, the bags will soon have that printed on them. Thank you and let me know if you have any other questions. Take care,

Emily Smith

Customer Service Supervisor

---

So into the compost bin they go! Hooray for Klean Kanteen :)

Day 227: Buy Nothing Day :)

2009-11-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, I celebrated Buy Nothing Today by not buying anything we had to take home with us. We did go out for lunch and we also went to Griffith Park and we purchased some tickets for pony rides for the kids. And I just met with the other person planning the No Impact Man screening (very cool to meet you Joy!) and I bought a coffee which I put into my reusable cup. So no black Friday for me, and no crowded stores and no more STUFF. Just a lovely day with my family. :)

Day 226: Happy thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

DH, his brothers, my mom and the kids all celebrated thanksgiving today with a really nice lunch. We ended up with a *21* pound heritage turkey as we had tried to order an 18lb thinking we'd have some leftovers but when my BIL went to pick it up at Bristol Farms, all they had left was the 21 pounder, but they gave it to him for the 18lb rate. So here's the menu..

-Mary's Heritage turkey, brined using this recipe.

-Maple glazed carrots (local, organic and crazy colors - they were orange yellow and PURPLE)

-Brussel sprouts from the farmers market with imported chestnuts (the chestnuts were not local, being from France which is well, pretty non-local!, but I was in a hurry and just grabbed the jar and didn't realize where they were from until I was already home..)

- Stuffing made in the crockpot with fresh sage from a friend's garden, and with bread cubes from my own homemade bread.

-Cranberry sauce, whole foods brand. Cranberries aren't local, so I figured if I got the sauce in a can at least it would be better than buying fresh cranberries in a plastic bag and making my own since the can is more easily recycled.

-Bon Terra chardonnay

-potatoes from the farmers market, roasted in local olive oil with rosemary from my backyard :)

- my BIL brought a premade pie from Henry's, which was great and the packaging was *mostly* recyclable.

We all had a nice time, and several of us were felled by triptofan and took naps (unfortunately not the kids LOL).

Since today is thanksgiving, its time to say grace again...

I'm thankful that we have enough to eat, and clean water to drink

I'm thankful for teachers both near and far

I'm thankful that my family understands what I'm trying to do, and support me

I'm thankful that I love my family and my family loves me

I'm thankful that my family likes my cooking

I'm thankful that it was such a beautiful day today

I'm thankful that my DH just came over and serenaded me on the bass guitar (he plays drums but the bass playing ain't half bad...)

I'm thankful that my mom helped me wash so many dishes!

Day 225: cool stuff from Whimsy Ranch

2009-11-25T22:29:00.000-08:00

Whimsy Ranch have a booth at the Studio City Farmer's Market. I originally bought my DD a little ballerina outfit from them like the one in the photo because it was so adorable, but I didn't know that they use recycled materials at the time. However I just noticed on their business card it says "Recycled bedspreads, curtains, aprons and other unique textiles are used to create a handmade one of a kind whimsical story." Cool! My DD has received a lot of compliments on her outfit, and its one of her special favorites. Glad to know that Marie from Whimsy Ranch is repurposing textiles so beautifully!

Day 224: Laundry during off-peak hours...

2009-11-24T10:39:00.000-08:00

So one thing I learned in the Sustainable Works workshop was that we should avoid running appliances like the dishwasher or the washer/drying during peak hours of 12pm-6pm. I'm good with the dishwasher as we like to run that at night while we sleep, but the laundry is usually one long slog for me and so I start in the morning and might be done sometime in the afternoon. Lots of laundry to do with two small kids, and having given up paper towels I have to wash the napkins and rags etc. that we use instead which means more laundry. So now I am basically doing laundry after 6pm, I run it until I go to bed, and then if I still have laundry I pick it up again the next morning. But it has been a bit tricky to avoid the 12-6 timeslot. We don't have the newfangled Energy Star frontloading washing machines, so I try to always run a full load or make sure the water level is appropriate for the load, and now I am trying to use energy outside of peak hours. I'm also trying to use my drying rack for napkins, or anything else I can fit on there so at least I don't use the dryer for every load.

Day 223: heritage turkey, anyone?

2009-11-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

One of the books I read that started me down this path was Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. As is often true, I almost didn't pick it up and read it, I was in an airport and it kinda sounded interesting, but I wasn't sure. So I didn't buy it. When I got home, I decided to see if it was available from the library, that way if it wasn't my cup of tea, I could just return it and go on with my life. Well I read it and it really changed a lot of the way I thought about things. Especially turkey. If you've happened to read the book, you know exactly what I mean by that.

So when I discovered that we could order a heritage turkey from Bristol Farms I spoke to DH and his brother and everyone agreed that (although $$$$ for a turkey) Thanksgiving only happens once a year, and it would be a good thing to order one and support the people trying to bring back the breeds, as well as eating turkey that was more ethically raised and wouldn't be part of the hell of factory farming. I already buy all my turkey and chicken from Mary's, who are more responsible poultry farmers who are local as well, and t he heritage turkey we are ordering is from them.

Day 222: trying to get No Impact Man screened

2009-11-22T21:48:00.004-08:00

Well I've been working with another girl to try to get No Impact Man screened at LA Valley College. Tonight it looked like it wouldn't happen but once we had a long talk and I think we found a way to do it, we just don't know whether it will be on December 7th or not. We would like to time it to be on the first day of COP 15, but if we do manage to get this screening going that will be enough. Hopefully this will pan out :)

Day 221: vegetable activism

2009-11-21T21:48:00.000-08:00

I was invited to a meeting of a group who are advocating planting at least half of your yard with edible and/or medicinal plants- they were saying that there are only 2 days of food per person in any grocery store, as all not many grocery stores keep anything in the back anymore, all the inventory is computerized and they don't order anything until their inventory is almost out. Which means that we don't have much food security if something should go wrong.... now I'm already on the edible landscaping bandwagon, but I heard a great story about how a neighborhood started a food exchange -they all got together and divided up anything they had in their garden and exchanged everything. I think that's fantastic, and I'm going to try and get one going in Sherman Oaks. I know that there are groups that harvest public fruit (for instance if a branch is hanging over the fence) like Fallen Fruit, and I know there are others that harvest unpicked edible landscaping plants, like fruit trees, and give them to food banks. When I see fruit trees where its obvious no one is picking I just think what a waste - so I'm glad to know people are finding a way to keep it from just ending up in the trash and where it can help someone in need.

Day 220: trying to use the Kill-A-Watt

2009-11-20T21:47:00.000-08:00

Well I guess I'm having trouble with the instructions, as I am having a hard time using the Kill-A-Watt meter to see what's causing our power to be consistently 1500-2500 kwh over a 2 month period. I am very interested to see what our bill will be like this time as I have been faithfully turning off lights, and not using any power that I don't need to have on (unplugging any appliances, tvs etc. that are not in use). I also looked at our power bills over the last six years we've lived here, and they are pretty consistently in that range, although we've made changes over that time in our appliances, we redid our kitchen etc... We changed our appliances to Energy Star in 2004, but we still have to switch to CFLs- we have a lot of can flood lights. Anyway, I think I need to learn how to use this thing, I guess I'll have to ask the person who loaned it to me with Sustainable Works on Monday night...

Day 219: 3 minutes! holy cow!

2009-11-19T21:01:00.000-08:00

So just for fun, I decided to time my shower. I would time it as a navy shower (i.e., only when the water is actually running, and not counting the water I use before the water heats up, which is captured in a bucket and is used to water my plants.) So surprise, surprise, because I turned the water off while shaving and shampooing my hair, and only turned it on to get wet and then rinse off, the actual water I used was only 3 minutes. So with our new Waterpik EcoRain that uses 2 gallons a minute, and I only used 6 gallons of water for my shower. The average shower in the United States, using non-low flo showerheads, uses 15-25 gallons. So I'm going to be excited to see our water bill this month :)

Day 218: Wake up and smell the coffee

2009-11-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

I'm a coffee girl. My DH being English likes tea, and I do too, but if you put me on a desert island and only let me choose one, it would be espresso, baby! I have been buying coffee beans in bulk and reusing the bags, and I do buy from Whole Foods who seem to have some ethical backbone as compared to a conventional grocery store. But when I went in to try and buy shade grown, fair trade coffee in bulk it didn't seem to be an option. Now I don't want to buy in packaging, in fact I was buying instant coffee in glass jars with plastic tops and switched to using a Bodum French Press I already owned but never used so I could forgo the packaging. I know bulk is still packaged in large plastic bags, but its less packaging, and there's nothing I can do about it except stop buying coffee and you know how I feel about that :)

So who makes the coffee beans that I buy in bulk right now- the company is called Allegro according to the signs - so I went to their website..and it looks like they were purchased by Whole Foods a while back, and there's no fair trade certification on their website (although in Whole Foods several packaged were stamped rainforest alliance and the French decaf was stamped Fair Trade. Anyway, time to google and see what my choices are:

GroundsForChange.com - coffee that is Shade Grown, Organic and Fair Trade...and certified Carbon Neutral...what? Well it looks like this company purchases carbon offsets through carbonfund.org to offset the carbon they are still generating through their commerce. From their website:

To get a product certified CarbonFree®, a company must submit the item for a detailed Life Cycle Analysis, a third-party process that formally scrutinizes the carbon emissions associated with every step in production. The resulting analysis accounts for all carbon dioxide emissions starting with a coffee plant and ending with an empty bag of coffee.

This comprehensive "crop to cup" analysis includes the following steps:

Organic cultivation of coffee plant
Non-mechanized harvest of coffee cherries
Pulping and washing of cherries (to extract beans)
Sun drying of coffee beans
Transport of beans to dry mill for hulling
Burlap bags used to contain finished green coffee
Transport to port city in country of origin
Ocean transport from origin to US west coast ports
Warehousing in US port cities
Transport to Grounds for Change roastery
All energy used in roasting processes
All energy used in operations and business travel
Coffee packaging materials, labels and shipping boxes
Transport of finished coffee to customer
Customer disposal of empty coffee bag

So far I am seriously considering switching to these guys...its convenient to pick up bulk coffee at WF, but from Allegro's website they are not doing nearly as many of the positive things GFC is. And I am trying to support companies that are making the effort to change the way we consume resources. After reading their mission statement, I'm super impressed and these guys might have a new customer... except that it looks like they use the small non-recyclable resealable PLASTIC bags :( I will email them and see what my options are. Maybe they sell in bulk in my area...or they have a compostable bag.. worth asking anyway.

UPDATE: I just spoke to Wendy at Grounds For Change on the phone and explained my problem, love what GFC is doing but is there anything I can do about the packaging - She was really nice, and she told me that while the packages they use are not recyclable or compostable due to issues with making sure the coffee doesn't dry out etc., (paper lined with plastic) they are working on it. And she gave me some names of coffee shops in Los Angeles that buy from them in bulk so maybe I can just go in there and bring my own. :) So Grounds For Change, you've got me!

Day 217: walking in Los Angeles, and keeping the curb clean

2009-11-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

Today I decided to get out of my car. I needed to drop it off for service anyway as I needed an oil change. But... my DS was with me as he'd had a fever the day before and he wasn't allowed back into school until he'd been 24 hours fever-free, so I had to take that into consideration. So I checked it out, and I could drop off my car, and then have the courtesy van drop us off at a restaurant that I know my son likes - The Blue Dog - which was exactly 1.8 miles from the car service place. So we had lunch, I brought a stroller, and me and DS proceeded to walk back the almost two miles to pick up the car. It took me an hour to walk the same distance that driving would have taken 10 minutes, but I got some exercise, my son and I had some nice time together and I found out that I CAN WALK in Los Angeles ;). I could have walked both ways but I thought my DS would have gotten too bored (and that was true, he was ready to be out of the stroller by the time we got back to the dealership) and when I dropped my car off it was lunchtime and I thought the combination of walking almost two miles on an empty stomach would have been too much for both of us.

The only thing that was annoying was that you couldn't walk four feet without seeing trash in the gutter, and this street crosses the LA River so you know that all this trash is going right into our oceans. I think if I can get organized about it, I wouldn't mind doing a trash pickup near the LA river in my hood. I think it would be fantastic though if we could have a Keep Your Side of the Curb Clean act - where if your property faced a curb you would be required to clean your section of it. Can you imagine if everyone just went out and picked up their own curbs and sidewalks how much cleaner LA would be? And how much less would end up in the ocean?

Day 216: investigating green energy

2009-11-16T12:39:00.001-08:00

I am checking into trying to purchase green energy from the LA DWP - on the website it says that if you bill is $150 then to buy 20% green power it would only be an additional $3 a month- but we want to buy 100%- but the DWP rep couldn't give me an answer so she gave me the phone number to the Green Power Program. I left a message asking them to help me figure out how much our bill would be if we went to 100%- hopefully it will be reasonable and we can do it. :)

UPDATE: I spoke to the Green Power Dept for LA DWP today about the cost of Green Power. They told me the way you can calculate how much it will cost you on top of your regular bill is:

For 100% green power, take the number of KWH on your bill and times it by 3 cents. If you do less than 100% (i.e. 20%, 50% etc.) then you take your KWH total for the month(s) and divide by 20% or 50% or whatever percentage and then times that by 3 cents. So for example, you used 100 KWH in one month, that would be $3.00 on top of your conventional power bill for 100% green power. However, if you wanted to do 50% green power then you would just multiply 3 cents by 50 (50% of 100) and the amount you'd pay on top of your regular bill would be $1.50.

The LADWP then takes all the green KWH that were paid for and buys green power with it (currently wind power). So for example, if they had 5000 KWH paid for as green power by various subscribers, they would then buy 5000 KWH of wind power from whomever they are buying it from.

Day 215: birthday party!

2009-11-15T21:14:00.001-08:00

Today we went to a birthday party for a friend of DS's at school and although we weren't perfect we are getting better at this -we brought real cutlery, and even though the kids ended up with plastic plates (which i brought home to recycle) DH and I just ate finger food and avoided the plates. We gave the kids the metal cutlery (avoiding the provided plastic forks etc.) and one of the other moms asked me about it and when I answered that we were just trying to live more sustainably she said that it was commendable and even expressed interest in taking the Sustainable Works class (which I've been recommending to people as its such a great resource). At any rate, we couldn't avoid the dreaded juice box without embarrassing and public tantrums from both kids, but DH and I drank water from our kleen kanteens. When I wanted a piece of cake I just reused my DS's plate. :) I also made sure my kids finished their juice boxes, as they'd drank some and then just left them. I put them in our car for later, and the kids drank them when they were thirsty again.

After the kids went off with DH to do the events at the party, I helped the birthday boy's dad clean up, as there were areas to recycle cans and bottles I carefully picked up all the cans and bottles, emptied them and put them in the recycling bin so they wouldn't accidently end up in the trash (I'd seen a mom earlier throw her can in the trash can).

The other great thing was that this birthday party was held at Underwood Family Farms, and after the party we all went picking and got some fantastic carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, and spinach. We had DH's brothers and my mom over for dinner and we had roast chicken with cauliflower and carrots and potatoes. There is nothing like eating veggies you picked three hours ago - they were fantastic!

Day 214: the low flow shower head is a go!

2009-11-14T11:09:00.005-08:00

So DH tested out the new Waterpik EcoRain showerhead and CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE. And actually, neither can I. Fantastic!

I'm really interested in seeing how much water we've saved this month. I also think we're going to switch to CFLs. We have a lot of recessed lighting. I mean about 30 of them, of which about half are dimmable. We're going to start by buying a bunch of them that aren't dimmable because they're cheaper, then change over the dimmable ones next. I found the best price on the lights I need so far at Staples (have to buy 12 but we'd need them anyway, and less packaging).

Day 213: Food Inc. and a nice veggie curry recipe

2009-11-13T23:05:00.000-08:00

So we rented the film Food Inc. I've always been resistant to reading Fast Food Nation (as I've met way too many people who went vegan after reading the book, and so I worried that if I really knew what I was eating I would go vegan too. I also was vegetarian for a while in my 20s, but I eventually went back to eating meat. Now DH and I have been reducing our meat quite a bit, and are really trying to eat more vegetarian, so I thought okay, I've committed to this, I'm going to have to learn about the horrible reality of the factory farm situation. The film wasn't as hard core as I was afraid it would be, but it was very eye opening. I had already cut out eating fast food largely because of the packaging issues, but now I'm going to make very sure that if I do buy meat, I know where its coming from. According to Farm Inc. I think about 80% of meat produced in the United States comes from one of four companies, all of which factory farm and treat the animals horribly. Not that eating meat is ever going to be truly humane, but it can be better to the animals. I'm going to make a list of the places I currently buy animal products from and try and research them (or if they're close enough, visit them).

On a different subject, for dinner we had this great vegetarian curry made with sweet potatoes, spinach and chickpeas. We had to double the spices (we like stuff spicy) but it was *really* good.

Day 212: green sangha-a kinder gentler activism

2009-11-12T11:09:00.000-08:00

I just learned about Green Sangha from Beth Terry's blog Fake Plastic Fish. It's been bugging me when I go to my local farmer's markets and there are so many people taking so many plastic bags. I know some of the farmers markets in Northern California have banned plastic bags including Berkeley, and my own original home town, Los Altos, and I wanted to help that happen at our markets as well..so I noticed that she went out with a group called Green Sangha who basically advocate activism that comes from love of the planet rather than out of anger at what people are doing to it. They meditate and then meet about how to bring more environmental change though peaceful actions. I love the whole concept, I wish they had a branch out here, but they seem to be only in Northern California... but I'm going to try and include as much peace and love into my action as I can :)

So I haven't included gratitude in a while, so here goes:

I'm grateful for my wonderful husband and family.
I'm grateful that Al Gore says in his new book that we have plenty of solutions to the climate change problem, its just a matter of getting involved to make it happen.
I'm grateful that there are organizations like Green Sangha that can teach me by example how to be an activist without anger.
I'm grateful that I have good friends who trust me.
I'm grateful that I have the ability to make changes in my life that will allow me to be part of the solution.
I'm grateful that its such a beautiful day today.

Day 211: driving to be more car-free

2009-11-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

So today is Veteran's Day, and since I am sometimes, um, not with it, I drove the kids to school not remembering that its a school holiday- duh. But I've been trying to figure out a way to drive less as I have a larger car (minivan) so I feel like I should at least make the effort and besides I need the exercise! So instead of just driving right back home, I noticed that there's a great separated bike path next to the Metro Rapid Transit but I wasn't sure where it went. So I followed it west and it runs from Balboa Park all the way to Canoga...and then I turned around and followed it east and it looks like it goes all the way to Balboa Park and possibly all the way to Sepulveda but I'd have to bike it to make sure.

Now the stumbling block has been that biking down from our hillside home on a narrow road with two kids in a burley carrier is not ideal since its dangerous. Neither my DH or myself feel like its a good idea to do it. But- there's a lot of park and ride lots for the Metro, so I could drive the 3 miles to the lot, park and take the kids to school on the bus. Now a lot of the time I do my grocery shopping on the way home from dropping the kids off at school, and things are pretty crazy in the morning trying to get them to school on time.. but I thought to get my feet wet on the days my DH drives them, I can pick them up from school using the metro.

And if I can find a bike and a bike trailer, I can also park at Balboa Park and then bike to my kids school, pick them up and then bike back to balboa park. So there are definitely ways to drive less. Now I just need to figure out where I can get a used bike and bike trailer :) Craigslist and LaReuseIt here I come -

Day 210: office vampires

2009-11-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

So I made a list of everything in my office. All in all between myself and DH we had 16 things plugged in ALL THE TIME. I made a list and listed everything and checked off whether it could be on a powerstrip (which I can shut off when not in use) or had to be on all the time (like cordless phones, modem, wifi). Now I'm sure the modem and wifi could be shut off, but it would be super annoying to have to wait for it to go back on and a lot of the time it requires some tinkering to get it to work again, so those stay on.

So out of sixteen things, only four of them actually needed to be on 24/7 - my office phone, the house phone, the modem and the wifi. Everything else went onto powerstrips, and they are shut off until needed. So the office vampires are gone, and no garlic required :)

Day 209: the results of spreading the word

2009-11-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

So one of the friends that I told about the Sustainable Works green living workshop that was starting today signed up for it, so we went together since I have to make up a few of the classes. She said that she learned a lot, was excited about the workshop, and even bought a compost pail at the place where the workshop is being held (The Green Life) in Santa Monica. I'm so happy, and I'm hoping some of the other people I told will sign up at some point, a lot can be done as individuals, but if we're going to make changes on a larger scale we've got to find a way to involve a lot more people. The nice thing about this workshop is sometimes I think people perceive sustainability/green/environmentalism as being extreme and guilt inducing, and this workshop isn't like that at all. It just explains the issues that exist and discuss solutions (from the super easy like turning off light while not in use to the more difficult like how to become less car dependent). No guilt, no telling you what you MUST do, just showing you tools so you can choose what works for your particular situation, and open your eyes to ideas that may not have occurred to you yet.

Day 208: redecorating without buying anything new

2009-11-08T21:49:00.001-08:00

Well I wish I'd taken before and after photos, but the bottom line is my house has lots of hotspots (as Flylady puts it) basically places where there is "stuff" that if you don't get it put away it grows and grows until its way too big aka forest fire LOL. I have been making an effort to not bring anything new in, especially while I am in a place where I need to let things that are no longer useful to me go on to bless someone else.

Anyway, my bedroom has lots of things in in it that, well, aren't conducive to a restful environment - think sewing machine I use rarely, desk I used when my inlaws were visiting and staying in our office/guestroom, etc. and then my DH said he needed me to bring in a folding chair so he'd have someplace to sit while he put on his shoes in the morning -because although we have a perfectly comfortable chair in there it was useless to him as it was usually covered in clothing that I hadn't had a chance to put away. So... first step, take everything out that shouldn't be in my bedroom to begin with, then put anything away that should be put away. Then move a few things around and get a groove going... and hey, its so much nicer now, and it feels like a bedroom...and I didn't need to buy anything, I needed to take things OUT.

Day 207: Too many earths

2009-11-07T21:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I just tried to calculate my carbon footprint again - I've been working really hard at it, but I feel like I've been on a diet and when I got on the scale I'd actually GAINED. I know it had to be much worse before I started this, but http://www.ecofoot.org/ has me at 5.1 earths and myfootprint.org has me at 3.71 earths. Either way, I'm still *way* over my carbon ration.. ! Does this mean I have to live in a hut with no electricity, no car and eat grass to be carbon neutral? ;) I'm a little depressed about it. I do still eat meat, but we've cut it way down- and I do drive a minivan, but I'm being so much more careful about the way I drive, driving less, planning my errands etc., and I'm much more aware of my energy/water use -its very hard to get rid of my car or carpool with children this age and living at the top of a hillside- we can walk, but its a lot for the kids. I took a test that said my neighborhood wasn't a good walking neighborhood - we're "car dependent" - that's LA though.

Oh well, still have a lot to learn I guess. And some of it is beyond my control, our culture is set up in a very unsustainable way. But I'll keep doing what I can.

Day 206: making our own marble run

2009-11-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

My DS loves this toy they have at school, its a marble run, you put the marbles in and the marbles travel down a tube etc. So I found some marbles at the Goodwill, and my DH was saying we should look around and try and buy a marble run used, but then I found this neat "make it yourself out of paper towel tubes" marble run- I like the idea of making it from stuff we'd just recycle, and my DS will enjoy building it as he likes building things anyway. And its extra family time too :)

Day 205: talking about it

2009-11-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

So I can only do so much, and I know that we have to all work together if we want to make the shift to living more in harmony here. So I've been telling as many people as I can about the SustainableWorks green living workshops. We're lucky to have an organization teaching this stuff for so little money (free with a suggested donation), and it's an easy way for busy people to learn how to live more sustainably in a short amount of time. And if I can get at least one person to sign up, then I've doubled the good I'm doing -

Now, this in itself is big news, as I am NOT a person who tells people about things and tries to get them involved - I'm not a promoter or a convincer. Even things I think are great, and especially not things that make people uncomfortable like changing your habits to be greener. Most people hate change, and if they think the change is going to make them have to give something up (even something bad for them like smoking) they react by shutting down. So I usually just say live and let live, if they're interested they'll ask me about it, I'm content with just keeping my side of the street clean. But this is too important, and my friends, especially the ones with kids need to know this stuff- its important to do everything we can to keep the future viable for our kids. And we can't clean up the world alone, we have to work together.

Day 204: green(er) photo paper

2009-11-04T09:09:00.000-08:00

So in a previous post I mentioned that I'd switched over to 100% recycled content copy paper in my home office. Anyway, that got me thinking... I also use photo paper to print my photos, and for other projects. So I checked to see if it was recyclable, and so far it looks like it isn't. However I can improve the situation slightly by using this photo paper - its photo paper made from recycled paper. So even though I may be contributing to landfills, I am cutting down less trees in keeping my memories.

Day 203: office footprint revisited

2009-11-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

So I've been taking a second look at my office - I really started out with a low footprint anyway, but there's always room for improvement, right?

So here's what I do use:

copy paper- I've reduced a lot by not printing out everything, or saving it to file as a .pdf etc. I also print on both sides of the paper before recycling as often as possible, and any paper that comes into my life (from my kids school, or as a flyer on my car etc. ends up in the "print on the blank side" pool. However, I've been using paper that was only 30% recycled content, so I just switched to 100% recycled content.

printer ink - I haven't found a way around this, except that I use my printer sparingly. I did do a search for a printer that printed with soy or vegetable based inks, and I coudn't find any that weren't for heavy commercial use (and hence mondo $$$$$)

toner ink- same as above, no environmental substitute yet.

energy - I haven't switched to LED or CFL in the office I work in, but since my kids are in school during the time I work, I usually work in whatever room is the brightest and just leave the lights off. I also shut off my printers and other electrical items when not in use (I used to leave them on all the time). I used a laptop, so my energy use is pretty low there. However I do need to look at any phantom power that's being used, I just looked under my desk and there's a whole lot of energy vampire plugs down there... I know I need to have the following things plugged in and on during waking hours - my airport, my modem, and my cordless phone, and my DH's cordless phone, but that's all - yet there seems to be a LOT of other stuff down there - must investigate. :)

phones - I do use a cordless phone, which I have to keep plugged in all the time, but I only have one. We also have a cordless house phone in there.

environment - again, I tend to work in whatever room is the most comfortable, but in the summer I keep the blinds down to keep the room cooler, and in the winter, I open them. We have just planted a lot of trees in front of our house (the room I use as my office faces the front) and they are deciduous so that will help with passive cooling etc.

Day 202: hypermilin' it!

2009-11-02T12:15:00.000-08:00

I haven't figured out a way to get out of my car more often, but I'm working towards that. Even though I work form home, I drive my kids to school, and on the way back I do any errands so I don't end up going home then going out again. But I'm sure I can do better in my driving, so hypermiling sounds like it might help me drive more efficiently when I do have to be in the car. Here's the how tos from Wikihow-

Drive as if you don't have brakes. Stopping and starting kills gas mileage. Increase the amount of distance between you and other vehicles, don't race to red lights or traffic obstructions. Coast as much as possible. On newer cars (Manual Transmission) if the car is in gear and your foot is off the accelerator, the injectors shut off completely, creating FREE mileage at the cost of some minor engine braking. Engaging the clutch and/or putting the car in neutral causes the car to idle, using up gas as opposed to using none. Coast as often as possible, because if you're smart enough with your coasting, your acceleration won't even cause a hiccup in your cruising mpg.

This may be frustrating and difficult, however, if other drivers keep cutting in front of you. You should keep your foot ready to use the brake so that if you do need to stop suddenly you can react quickly. If using this technique at night, make sure you have clean headlights and that they are working properly. Obviously, you still need to obey all traffic laws and common sense. For example, you wouldn't roll through stop signs; the increased risk of a car accident and/or traffic ticket is not worth a few extra cents saved in fuel costs.

Be gentle with the accelerator. When you slam down on the gas pedal, it pushes more fuel into the engine, making it run faster (and lowering the fuel economy and increasing your output of pollutants). Push the pedal down slowly, and lift it up as soon as you know you're going to need to stop (when you see a red light, a stop sign, or brake lights from the car ahead of you) so that you can coast the rest of the way. You should never need to push down the pedal by more than an inch (2.5cm).^[2] Some cars are even being designed with pedals that "push back" when you're accelerating too aggressively!^[3]

If you have a choice between various routes, go for the one with the least number of stops; country roads are good because you don't have to stop (and go) as much and you don't have to accelerate/brake to get on/off (like with the highway).

If you're driving on sloped roads, it's useful to think about where you should come to a full stop because that'll affect how hard you need to accelerate:

Fuel efficient vehicles actually generate better gas mileage when a "brisk" acceleration method is used. Acceleration makes for terrible mileage, so get the acceleration out of the way so that you can cruise (excellent mileage!) Slow acceleration will yield less mileage on efficient cars.
Avoiding stopping on an incline heading upwards. Starting from a dead stop on a hill is the worst scenario in terms of fuel economy. Stop at the top of the hill, or stop before you climb the hill (if it's safe).
When coming down a hill and faced with a red light at the bottom (where it levels out), try to stop well before the light so that you can use the remaining downhill slope to your advantage when you need to move again.

Avoid idling. Turning off the engine when you stop for more than one minute can improve fuel efficiency by 19%.^[4] In cold weather, letting your car idle to warm up reduces fuel economy and creates additional pollution; all you need to do is drive gently for 5-10 minutes^[5] and if you're following the previous two steps, you're going to be driving gently all the way anyway.

If you have multiple stops in one trip, plan it so that you go to your furthest destination first and make the rest of your stops on your way back. By taking your longest drive at the beginning, you give the car enough time to warm up for the remainder of the trip; if you took the short trips first, your car would take longer to warm up (because of the brevity of each trip). Since engines do not operate efficiently until they are warm, taking your longest drive first increases fuel efficiency.

Go slower up hills, and faster downhill. Going uphill slower allows you to use your momentum to help keep your car from using extra gas to get up the hill. If you plan for a hill by going faster you'll get further up the hill before you need to use extra gas. While going downhill you can go faster using less gas, as such don't lay off the pedal completely, use it until you're going a little faster than normal. If you combine the two in areas with small hills you'll see much higher mileage.

Minimize the engine load. Generally, it's better for your fuel economy if you maintain a steady speed, which is why using cruise control and driving at or below the speed limit is an important part of hypermiling. If you're driving on a hill or any kind of varied terrain, however, you need to consider how much work the engine is doing. Sometimes, a steady speed means unsteady strain on your engine, which lowers fuel economy. Let's say you're approaching a hill. When you go up the hill, you should slow down, or else your engine will have to do extra work to maintain your previous speed. Practice with caution as you may annoy other drivers.

Park for easy departure. Instead of searching for the perfect spot close to an entrance (which will involve stop and go driving, especially with pedestrians involved and other drivers pulling in or out of their spots) pull into a spot that's further away from the entrance. Look for the parking spot with the highest elevation and park face-out so that when you start the car and the engine is cold (at the lowest efficiency) you can use gravity in your favor without having to spin your car around

Check tire pressure regularly. If the tires are incorrectly inflated, then there will be excess drag, or not enough surface contact with the road. The car therefore suffers a drop in efficiency.

Reduce the junk in the trunk. The more weight you're carrying, the more the engine and drive-train have to work. Removing all of that unused junk in the trunk increases efficiency.

In a hybrid, Pulse and Glide. If you own a hybrid car, you can increase your mileage by learning to pulse and glide. Pulse and glide is a technique that can dramatically increase your mileage, but is best when you are on a road where there are few other people around. ^[6]

"Pulse" or accelerate up to a speed that is the higher end of a range of speeds that are appropriate. Do this using one of the sweet spots for mileage/power ratio on your car. For the prius these spots are ~15mpg and 25mpg, and correspond to times at which the gas engine is powering the car and charging the battery.
"Glide between acceleration, but use the accelerator to provide electric assist. This requires knowing how hard to push and in which circumstances, but is very easy to see on the consumption screen. Get used to the maximum electric assist you can use and you'll go further between pulses, further increasing your mileage.

So I do a few things - right now when I take my kids to school I take the freeway (which is usually moving well) and set my cruise control for 55. Since gas mileage goes down the higher speed you go over 55, and since 55 is pretty much the speed limit anyway, it works fine, except that no one else goes 55- everyone else appears to be driving 65 or 70 :( so I just try to stay in one of the slower lanes and so far no one has made rude finger gestures at me ;).

I also shut off my engine at long lights, and don't let it idle.

My car has an Eco light that comes on - since I have a minivan I try to drive as economically as possibly, and the Eco light goes on when it switches to 4 cylinders from 6- so I try and watch that light and stay at 4 cylinders as much as possible.

I have taken out all the excess baggage I had in the trunk.

I have to learn to check my tire pressure. DH does it already, but I never got mine checked. Guess its time to learn!

Day 201: conserving water in the shower...

2009-11-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

So today its fix it day and I need to replace a broken faucet in our second bathroom. I went to Home Depot to find another one. I'd try and find one used, but I think DH wants a new one since we don't want to have to replace it twice, and you never know with a used one. Anyway, I stopped at Lowes because they were on the way back from DH's brothers, I wanted to see if they had the one we want- we'd seen a faucet that would work in The Great Indoors, but the nearest one is in Burbank which is a bit out of the way. I also need to buy aerators for our faucets (2 bathrooms and kitchen sink) but I wasn't sure which kind I needed so I have to check and go back for those.

Anyway, I brought back a low flo shower head- the Waterpik EcoRain since we already have a rain style showerhead that we both like a lot, also made by Waterpik, but not low flow. To my surprise, my normally gung ho DH wasn't happy about it-he thinks its not necessary. And since he's been great about using the bucket to capture water in as the shower warms up, I can see his point, he's already conserving a lot of water by not letting it run down the drain. However as I'm having a bit of resistance to navy showers (I have tried it, but not my favorite way to enjoy a shower), I kind of want to try a low flo showerhead so I won't feel guilty if I take a standard-issue shower.

Anyway, I know he had a tough day helping his brother move, so maybe he's just tired of me bringing home another green thing, even if it is a good idea. It's a lot to make so many changes in such a short amount of time, and sometimes it really feels like we're giving up things - for instance we both also really like the current showerhead we have on there, so I'm really hoping that if we try this EcoRain that we won't feel like we're in a sauna rather than a shower... LOL. They also have this neat calculator to see how much money you can potentially save if you switch to a low flo showerhead- cool.

Day 200: halloween!

2009-10-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

Boo! Okay, so you knew that was coming. So how green was my halloween?

- Me and DH reused costumes from previous years- check
- Kids wore preowned costumes from goodwill- check
- jack-o-lanterns made from local pumpkins from Tapia Bros, and (except for some seeds we are going to roast and eat) the innards composted - check
- treat bags and flashlights reused from previous years - check
- tons of candy in unrecyclable wrappers- UGH. That is the most frightening thing about halloween- between the uncontrollable kids on sugar highs (mine) and the expanding waistline (mine) and the wrappers (well everyone's) it does get pretty scary.
Oh well, can't win them all.. happy halloween!!!

day 199: gratitude

2009-10-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

Last week I was doing a google search and somehow I found this person's blog and (of course now I can't find it to link it here) but I absolutely love that she posts what she's grateful for as well as what she's been up to. Considering how overwhelming the environmental problems we have are now, its still important to think "gratefully" and to come from a positive place. I think one of the reasons we're in this mess is we took the planet for granted, so I'm going to start trying to include some gratitude into my posts. Can't hurt, and as Colin Beavan says "the most radical form of activism is optimism". I'm sure gratitude helps too :)

So what am I grateful for today:

I'm grateful for my wonderful husband and two great kids.
I'm grateful that I can work from home.
I'm grateful for Sustainable Works, they are teaching me learn more about living more sustainably, and they are a fantastic organization.
I'm grateful I had my lovely kitty for 16 years.
I'm grateful my mom is healthy and happy.
I'm grateful my brother is following his bliss.
I'm grateful I have a wonderful home to live in, in a safe neighborhood.
I'm grateful my children's school is trying to be more sustainable.
I'm grateful for the fact that there are complete strangers out there trying to stop global warming, so that my kids and all of the children around the world will hopefully have a better future.
I'm grateful for my friends who tell me they're proud of me for not using straws, even when I know they don't really understand it (yet).
I'm grateful for the beautiful blue sky.

Day 198: crayola crayons = global warming????

2009-10-29T08:38:00.001-07:00

Um yes. I made crazy crayons for my kid's birthday party because I wanted to keep them out of landfills, we get tons of them for free every time we go to a family friendly restaurant or a birthday party etc. They are ubiquitous and when they get broken they get thrown away which seems like a waste. However, according to this Wikipedia article, they are made of paraffin wax a.k.a. petroleum. So my kids have unknowingly been contributing to peak oil, global warming and war (but they would have anyway, since plastic, another petroleum product, is also ubiquitous)

Geez.

That also makes me wonder if I really want to compost them, which is what someone else suggested when I said I didn't know what to do with all the crayon drawings my kids make - my DS is a budding artist (he's actually REALLY good considering he's 5) and he LOVES to draw. Crayons were great because they didn't get all over the place (or if they did the marks were easily removed with another petroleum product, WD-40) and they are inexpensive etc.

Okay, so I guess I'm officially making myself crazy about this - but I did see some Clementine Art natural soy crayons in Whole Foods the other day, and I just found these cool soy crayon "rocks" online, so I guess if I ever run out of the crayons I already have there are alternatives..they look like fun too :)

Day 197: a zero waste meal for the family

2009-10-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

Well today's challenge was the last minute dinner for my DH's brothers. I had planned to make Chicken Cozumel tonight. The recipe calls for salsa, and I've been buying jars of salsa when I make it, but as I'm trying to cut out packaging (even salsa jars, which are glass and metal require energy to make and to recycle) I decided to make it from scratch this time. I bought all the veggies from the Farmers Market, the raisins, almonds and spices from bulk bins, and the chicken I got at Whole Foods and had them pack it in my cellulose bags in lieu of waxed paper or plastic. The great thing about the cellulose bags is I can just compost them when I'm done with them and I can also use them as freezer bags. :) We served it over rice which I'd purchased from a bulk bin. Dessert was bread pudding made from some raisin bread my MIL had bought while she was here in September and no one got around to eating. I put it in the freezer and decided the next time I need to make dessert I would use it up, and it made GREAT bread pudding.

One of the best benefits to this new lifestyle is that I'm saving money, and I feel good when I'm not wasting food...I have to say, I'm sure my meal from scratch was much healthier than using the high sodium store bought salsa. And its true that local tomatoes are just so much better tasting!

This was a completely zero waste meal (with the exception of the wine bottle which is completely recyclable- Bonterra has no plastic, just glass, foil and a real cork which Whole Foods are recycling right now in one of their programs). And my DH and both his brothers all had seconds, and there's only one serving left which I've got in the fridge and will have for my lunch so zero waste here too. :)

Day 196: green preschool project

2009-10-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

My kids' preschool is in the process of trying to "go green" which is fantastic. I've told the director there I would be happy to help any way I could, so as I just received an email from Sustainable Works about their workshop in November, I mentioned it to the director and she sounded very interested and wanted me to send her the information, which I did. I also did a websearch to see if I could find any "green" preschools - there aren't any in Los Angeles per se (at least not that I found in a google search) but there was some good information out there from Australia and Hong Kong which I sent to her. There was also a really good article which said we have to be careful to not scare small children about global warming, we need to make sustainability something we do because its fun and the right thing to do, not because there's an emergency going on (even if there is). I've also offered to go get the worms for the first worm bin which they are going to bring in in November. :)