Planning for Spring

I want to plant a vegetable garden next spring.  It will take a lot of work, but I think the end results will be worth it.  Jonathan requested potatoes, green beans. I want tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and zucchini.   I’m not going to plant anything we don’t eat.  I wonder about carrots…

I will need to invest some money upfront.  I’ve already decided I want a raised bed.  We have crappy sandy soil, so I’ll have to buy good soil.  However, I wanted to start composting anyway.  I’ll need a “composter for dummies” and I’m still weighing my options.  I think I may ask for gardening supplies for christmas this year.  Like my rain barrels.  I think it’s time to update my wish list. 

Earth Day – April 22, 2008

Earth Day is upon us. Here are some things you can do to help minimize your eco footprint and save our earth.

1. Use reusable grocery bags. If you go to Kroger.com and design a bag, you get a coupon for a free Kroger reusable bag. I use those and I also just bought some Envirosax.

2. Switch to paperless billing. I now get ebills from 5 of my monthly bills. Those are the only ones that offer it. I’ve already been paying bills online for years. I hardly ever write a check anymore.

3. Calculate your Eco Footprint. See where you can trim waste in your life and your usage.

4. Don’t buy bottled water. Get a reusable water bottle and fill your own. If you don’t like the taste, buy a water filtration pitcher – like a Britta filter. Our refrigerator has a filter in it. Most bottles are not recycled.

Product Review – Kiss My Face Obsessively Natural, Vitamin A & E Moisturizer

Part of my resolutions is to go “green” where I can. We’ve been doing this for a while now, but I really want to start using bath and body products that are biodegradable and natural. So, having tried the Kiss My Face Shower Gel and Foaming Hand Wash, I thought I’d give the lotion a shot too.

Because I have really dry skin, I bought the Obsessively Natural, Vitamin A & E Moisturizer. I really like it. The bottle is nice (and recyclable). The lotion absorbed quickly, left my skin soft, but not greasy. It has a very light fragrance, in fact I found it hardly noticable. I’ll keep you posted on continued performance. The drugstore.com reviews are mixed 50-50. Lots of comments about using it on the face. I don’t plan to use it as a facial moisturizer, but I might give it a try. Usually breaking from current routine ends up with me breaking out in spots.

UPDATE: I used my new lotion yesterday morning right after my shower and my skin was still moisturized when I went to bed. I still felt hydrated and really soft. I’m using it all over my body, but not on my face. Also I just found some info over at the Mayo Clinic which says:

Avoid vitamin A derivatives if you’re pregnant or may become pregnant because they increase the risk of birth defects.

Save CO2

I found a handy little app called CO2 Saver. It’s a power manager for your computer. The coolest part is that it shows you how much you’ve saved. It doesn’t seem to eat up my resources so that’s good. I installed both at work and at home.

No Impact Man

I only just discovered this website, but I’m fascinated. This New Yorker and his family decided to go No Impact for a year. Not that I could ever do that, but it’s still interesting to see what aspects I can incorporate into our lives. (Though, my recent shoe buying trip is not in keeping with the less consumerism trend I’m working towards…ouch!)

He has a post with links to sites with some great information. I wanted to pass it along.

Lists of 10 Things you can do

Union of Concerned Scientists
10 Things from Climate Crisis
10 Things from Sierra Club
Action Items from Stopglobalwarming.org

My favorites, and things I can reasonably do:

Drive Smart! – A well-tuned car with properly inflated tires burns less gasoline—cutting pollution and saving you money at the pump. If you have two cars, drive the one with better gas mileage whenever possible. Better yet, skip the drive and take public transit, walk, or bicycle when you can.

No public transportation options for me. First, there is no public transportation where I am. Secondly, biking in my area of town is dangerous. No shoulders on most of the roads and few sidewalks. So I’m going to have to keep my car. But I do keep it maintained regularly. And I drive as little as possible.

Support clean, renewable energy – Renewable energy solutions, such as wind and solar power, can reduce our reliance on coal-burning power plants, the largest source of global warming pollution in the United States. Call your local utility and sign up for renewable energy. If they don’t offer it, ask them why not?

I’ve already switched us to the renewable energy plan with our electric company.

Use compact fluorescent bulbs – If every household in the United States replaced one regular light bulb with an energy-saving model, we could reduce global warming pollution by more than 90 billion pounds over the life of the bulbs; the same as taking 6.3 million cars off the road. So, replace your incandescent bulbs with more efficient compact fluorescents, which now come in all shapes and sizes. You’ll be doing your share to cut back on heat-trapping pollution and you’ll save money on your electric bills and light bulbs.

Check. We’re replacing them as the old ones burn out. I’ve found that Sam’s Club is a great place to buy these inexpensively. You can sometimes find them on sale at a hardware store, like Lowe’s or Home Depot. They really aren’t so expensive, though, and definitely last longer.

Energy Star Label – Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances or visit their website at www.energystar.gov to find the most energy-efficient products. If each household in the United States replaced its existing appliances with the most efficient models available, we would save $15 billion in energy costs and eliminate 175 million tons of heat-trapping gases.

Yup. Always do this.

Eat Local Food.

This is something I’m trying to do, but its proving to be difficult. The farmer’s market is a long way into town. The local farms with stands are only open part of the year. And most of the fresh food in the grocery store isn’t labeled with it’s original location.

I’m going to see what other changes we can make. See what changes you can make.

Buy Greener Gas

I live in Texas. In Houston, for that matter. There’s no way I can get around without a car. (Ok, I could, if I moved into a highly unsavory neighborhood near work, and even then my husband would still need a car.) I’m not giving up my car anytime soon. And truthfully, a hybrid is out of my price range. Oil companies don’t have a reputation as being green, but surely some are doing better than others. Sure enough, the Sierra Club did some research. Check out this great article. Here are the rankings, according to the Sierra Club.

Top of the Barrel
* BP
* Sunoco

Middle of the Barrel
* Royal Dutch Shell
* Chevron
* Valero Energy Corporation
* Citgo

Bottom of the Barrel
* ExxonMobil
* ConocoPhillips

Organic Guidelines

There are lots of labels for organic, natural, healthy food right now. But don’t be confused. Only products with the USDA Organic Seal are regulated. I found a great article discussing what it really means for a product to be organic. It’s timely in my life because I was just explaining all this to my parents. Here’s the full article.

How organic labeling works:

* Products displaying the USDA Organic seal must consist of at least 95 percent organically produced ingredients.

* Processed products that contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients can use the phrase “made with organic ingredients” and list up to three of the organic ingredients or food groups on the front of the package. However, the USDA Organic seal cannot be used anywhere on the package.

* Processed products containing less than 70 percent organic ingredients cannot use the term “organic” other than to identify the specific ingredients that are organically produced in the ingredients statement.

Check here for more information on Organic farming.

Bookcrossing, or Reading Green

I stumbled across this cool website, called Bookcrossing.

The basic premise is this:

The “3 Rs” of BookCrossing…

1. Read a good book (you already know how to do that).
2. Register it here (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book.
3. Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, “forget” it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records a journal entry for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!

Join now if you are interested!

Thinking of Christmas

Yes, I know it’s July, but I am one of those who get their Christmas shopping finished by Thanksgiving. So I have to start planning now. I’m already working on my spreadsheet though I haven’t bought anything yet. (And, yes, I am so anal that I have a spreadsheet I track my gifts in.) I think this year we’ll try a green Christmas.

I’m kind of leaning towards getting eco-friendly gifts for all my friends. I don’t know what the reaction would be, though. Do we really need more stuff hanging around we don’t use? So I lean towards giftcards, because of the lack of packaging, and the fact that they can get what they want. It does sometimes feel like a cop-out.

But I’ll be honest, I’m tired of having stuff in my house I’m not ever going to use. That is why I always buy from a wedding registry and never buy newlyweds or new parents stuff not on their list! (We got a few non-registry gifts that will never get used, and will probably get donated to charity before the end of the year.) Also, for my blogging friends, if you have a wish list, either on your blog or on amazon, I’ll gladly buy off that. Just keep it updated!

I was also thinking about the Green Book, or maybe animal adoption, or maybe just Sigg water bottles. I really like the donating to charity thought, however. The hard part is to come up with something everyone will like and use, and not come across as a rabid granola crunching hippie.

The Move to Wind Power

Our 3 month contract was up with Spark Energy this month, so I’ve taken a big step in going green. I renewed to the 12 month 100% renewable energy plan. It uses 100% Wind power.

I got a little panicky after I signed up, since there is a termination fee. What if it is way more expensive? What if Jonathan freaks out when I tell him? (Which I still haven’t FYI. He usually leaves this kind of stuff to me, but I consult him before doing anything on it.) Are we going to go broke next summer? How can I get him to turn off lights when he leaves a room? (Oops, different topic!)

I just keep telling myself that I’m helping the environment. Plus, after some research at Powertochoose.org, I can tell that the rate is a good one for a green plan. In fact, one of the cheaper rates. It’s not much more than what I was paying already, only 12.9/kWh instead of 12.8.