Tag Archives: it’s not easy being green

Earth Month: Day 3

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From Earth Month Challenge: 30 Easy Actions:  

Today’s action is easy: turn off the tap when brushing your teeth. Fellow green-conscious types probably already do this. Folks who brush their teeth twice a day can save up to eight gallons of water this way.

Handle the challenge the way you might if you were camping. Grab your cup full of bottled or boiled water, and use that to rinse after brushing. Task accomplished – without wasting treated water down the drain unnecessarily.

Try it, folks. We can make a difference.

Stay tuned for more eco-friendly actions throughout April – or go to Treehugger yourself!

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April is Earth Month!

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April is Poetry Month, too, but I’ll focus on environmentalism here. My school district used to have Earth Week and Earth Month activities for students and staff. I usually found the staff activities, well, dull. Wimpy. Boring. Been there, done that, already on that track type of feeling. I’d fill out my calendar, get the tee shirt, and shrug my shoulders. If it helps move a few people toward a greener lifestyle, yeah. Okay, participation is worth something.

Treehugger, one of my absolute favorite websites, set up an awesome challenge for April this year. It’s called Earth Month Challenge: 30 Easy Actions.

This is a challenge I can accept. Each day has an action, for beginners or green freaks (as Amigo tends to call me). I’m going to dive in and see if this works for me.

April 1: Unsubscribe from 5 unwanted emails. Apparently email newsletters generate a carbon footprint of their own, even if they’re unread. Instead of zipping through my inbox and hitting delete, I’ll take a little time and make the inbox itself leaner.

Stay tuned for more eco-friendly actions throughout April – or go to Treehugger yourself! Subscribe to their e-newsletter. It’s one of the few that I always read.

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Water, Water Everywhere

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So, Daisy, how’s the water catchment thing going?

Very well, thanks. Too well, if I’m honest. I ran out of containers, so I had to dump several buckets in the backyard, which was actually the original plan. The shelves in the back hallway are full. The kitchen table is covered with bottles and jars filled with water. Three water bottles and a two quart pitcher (full) sit on the counter waiting to be poured into the coffeemaker one of these days. I have a box full of cider bottles now full of water. We must use this water before cider season arrives!

I’ve got Chuck trained reasonably well now. He grabs a bottle of This Water for cooking before he turns on the tap. He drinks This Water most of the time, except for the batch that somehow developed a metallic taste. Overboiled in a metal pot, perhaps, is my theory.

The next question in the Water Catchment Saga is this: how long will the water last? We need to use up enough of it to make the containers available for vegetables in June, and all of the actual bottles by October for cidering.

The forecast is promising (temps in the 40s, no new snow), so I felt confident putting the buckets in the garage. If the back door icicles reappear, I’ll drag the buckets out again.

And the water saga will continue.

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Ice Melt and Springtime. Ah, Water.

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It happens every year. The icicles near the back door take over my life. The dripping makes the area by the door very wet, which freezes overnight, and the ice just piles up and gets slipperier and slipperier. I spend all kinds of time chopping the ice and spreading sand and salt on it to protect the family from sliding and falling. This corner doesn’t get any sun, either.

Sigh.

This year, I had a brainstorm. (Chuck would say I watched too much of a Homestead Rescue marathon, and he wouldn’t be wrong.) I thought to myself, what if I captured this water instead of letting it freeze in this inopportune location? Based on that thought, I grabbed a few five gallon buckets, positioned them under the icicles, and collected water. Lots of water.

My original plan was simply to dump the buckets into the grate at the end of our driveway. The water would go to the river with the rest of the rainwater and snowmelt that goes that way. But Chuck said, hey, why don’t we keep it? Set the water aside and use it? (Haha, yes indeed, he did watch quite a bit of Homestead Rescue with me.)

Just to be safe, I strained the water through a clean towel and then boiled it. After the pots cooled, I filled canning jars and extra bottles and a few pitchers with this lovely, cost free, potable water. Now I have water that’s already boiled if I need to use my sinus rinse. I have water for cooking, making coffee, and more. All that, and I’m on a good quality municipal water system, too. The ice melt we collected is all bonus. All extra.

Best of all, I’m not slipping on the ice every time I walk out the door.

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Why Amigo and Chuck do the Grocery Shopping

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Amigo and Chuck have been doing the family shopping for a long time. By now, we consider it routine. They rarely take me along, which is okay, I guess. Maybe. Why?

  1. Chuck worked in grocery stores in the past; he knows the tricks of the trade.
  2. Chuck knows how to bag groceries. When I do it, it’s a mess.
  3. They make the list in order according to the store layout.
  4. They’re fairly efficient and cost-conscious.
  5. Chuck is a good cook; he’ll look through the departments with menus in mind.

But the main reason they take on the shopping without me is this: I’m a closet prepper. When I see something we use and it’s on a major sale, I tend to buy a  lot. Like, “Ooh, baked beans are marked down! I think I’ll buy six cans.” Or I might think, “Jello? We don’t use much jello. But then again, if we’re sick we don’t want to make an extra trip to buy jello and chicken soup. I’ll grab a few boxes – like, maybe, five.”

Then there are the loss leader prices: the ten for $10 deals. I’ll reach for the shelf and hear Chuck saying, “Dear, you don’t have to buy ten to get the good price.” And I’ll shake my head, think “Busted! again,” and only get a few.

In support of my own contributions, I’ll remind you that I’m both gardener and canner. We rarely buy vegetables at the store because we buy veggies in season at the farmers market all summer and fill our freezer. I make and can pickles, tomatoes, tomato sauce, jams, and more.

So, readers, how does grocery shopping shape up for you? Who is the main shopper, and why?

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Compost Bins are the new TP

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My compost tumbler fell apart. It developed a bend and a hole alongside the handle and stabilizer for tumbling. We’ll temporarily combine the contents with the large stationery bin in the backyard, and I’ll look for a replacement.

I like to have a smaller compost bin nearer the house to use in winter. I can fill it all winter long, and then when summer comes I’ll just turn/tumble it now and then to help the contents decompose. When fall arrives and I’m putting the garden to bed, the compost from the tumbler will get layered on top of the raised beds.

Except – none of the usual stores have compost bins or tumblers in stock. Nobody. Nowhere. Not even online.

It seems (I’m guessing here, but just be patient and follow my logic for a bit) that the gardening craze spread like a virus (haha, not funny, I know) this season. One of my favorite seed stores announced on their FB page that they were running into shortages and advised gardeners to order sooner rather than later. Good thing I make a habit of ordering seeds in January.

Let’s see: people panic bought toilet paper, then panic bought baking ingredients like flour and yeast. Pasta shelves went through an empty phase, too. The interest in baking from scratch at home leads naturally to growing food in the backyard, doesn’t it? I thought so. And along with the garden comes the compost. Hence, compost bins are the new TP.

I’m going to hope I can find a small to medium bin or tumbler by September so I can ready it for Season 2: The School Year. I’ll keep monitoring Habitat ReStore, among other places. Readers, where else can I look? What do you recommend?

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‘Tis the Wrapping Season

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My Facebook post reads: 
“Just finished the annual task of cutting up old Christmas cards to become gift tags. For the record, I haven’t bought gift tags in at least 35 years. At least.”

I followed up with a few comments on the use – or not – of wrapping paper. I didn’t need to write a new post on the topic; a search for “wrapping” came up with several. Here is is, folks, a reprise of the No New Wrapping Paper philosophy.

It’s time to remind myself (as if I needed the reminder) of my personal rule: No New Wrapping Papers. I give in on ribbons, invisible tape, and a few other basics. But as for wrapping paper, I dig in my heels.

Wrapping paper is:

  • rarely recycled
  • even more rarely recyclable
  • not suitable for fireplaces
  • wasteful (as in it fills the garbage bin)
  • a waste of money

I am lenient on the  re-use of gift bags – key word, re-use. I stuff the aforementioned bags with reused and reusable tissue. Sometimes we even decorate a plain bag with small scraps of re-purposed wrapping paper.

Keep sending the old fashioned snail mail holiday cards! Besides enjoying them, we reuse many cards as gift tags. I cut circles out of cards to make decorative tops for canned goods (pickles and jams, especially).

My family still gives me a hard time when I carefully unwrap big packages in order to re-use portions of the paper. That doesn’t stop me from doing it.

I ran into a dilemma yesterday. What about buying wrapping paper at a thrift store? Well, that kind of purchase doesn’t waste as much money, and the purchase price often goes toward a good cause. However, gift wrap purchased elsewhere is still rarely recycled or recyclable, and still not suitable for fireplaces. It’ll still fill the garbage bin, too. I decided not to buy it.

Readers, can you help me expand on the environmentally sound wrapping wisdom? Comment if you can.

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Market Day with a Missing Kitchen

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it’s Farm Market season again!

Lettuce, spinach, parsley, strawberries, blueberries, peas, kettle corn (for me!), pomegranate lemonade (for me!) – did I miss anything?

It’s Saturday, and it’s the first Saturday of the downtown farmers’ market. It’s also hot. Hot, muggy, steamy, sweaty. I heard several little kiddos complaining that they couldn’t walk anymore or that they were hot and sweaty. I saw even more young ones with beverages in hand. Families were smart and kept themselves and their kids hydrated.

But other than that, it was a normal and pleasant market. I got a good parking space in my usual ramp, there was still time on the meter, and I grabbed my rolling bag and headed out to stock up on good food for the family. I may have come back with more food than planned and a lighter wallet (dropped tips in three buskers’ cases), but it was a good First Market of the Season.

However, prepping is a challenge because we have no kitchen. I have no sink. Half of the colanders and bowls I usually use are stored in the basement. My favorite knife for shelling peas is also stored somewhere – where, I wish I knew. I rinsed the lettuce and spinach in big colanders with the hose – yes, you heard me, the garden hose. The peas were small enough to rinse in the bathroom sink. I had to set aside the strawberries and the asparagus – just no time to figure out how and where to get them cut up and cleaned.

The next few days may be ridiculously hot. I can spend my time inside, prepping strawberries and asparagus.

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It’s a Garden. Period.

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During WWI and WWII, people grew Victory Gardens. It was a good PR move, helping people feel like they could ease the burden of feeding the country by growing food of their own.

In 2008, the term Recession Garden came about. Planting a garden in the backyard, on the apartment balcony, or anywhere there was room for a container helped provide fresh food for the family, even if the country’s economy was shaky.

And now, just when I thought I’d heard every trendy excuse to grow your own tomatoes, there’s a new term: a Climate Victory Garden. By tilling – or not tilling – a small plot, gardeners have a chance to use their efforts as a force for change.

It isn’t my original idea; the concept comes from Green America by way of Mother Nature Network. I like their philosophy; they encourage composting, planting perennials (does my rhubarb count?), avoiding chemicals, and covering soil with mulch to maintain temperature and moisture.

As I said, it isn’t my idea. In fact, I hesitate to put another trendy label on my containers and the approximately 32 square feet with mostly vegetables growing there. Victory Garden, Recession Garden, or Gardening for Climate Change, it’s a garden. It’s not dirt, it’s soil. It’s tilled, compost added, watered, mulched (well, when I get time). But don’t call my little backyard effort anything trendy. It grows vegetables. It’s a garden. Period.

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Demo Day!

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This kitchen project has been consuming us since…since…oh, at least since December. And finally, finally, it’s happening. The guys were here today. They hung a plastic tarp so the dust didn’t fly all over the house (it only piled up in the dining room), and they did demo. Big time. I can show you better than I can tell you, though.

Here’s one angle.

Here’s another way to look at it.

And that’s that. Nothing left. No sink, no stove, no dishwasher. And that’s where my good old Girl Scout ingenuity came in. We might go to paper plates sooner or later, but Daisy the Compostermom isn’t ready to go there yet. I washed dishes the way I learned at Girl Scout camp, minus the dunk bag.

One bucket with water and dish soap, one with hot water for rinse.

The result?

Air dry for a bit, and then we’re done.

And Chuck was surprised I found the dish soap under the bathroom sink? Hah. I’ve only just started to show my coping skills.

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