Going Green

Confession

vickivb — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:20:27 +0000

Okay, so I have to confess something here. If you read these blogs, you might get the sense that I’m hippie and love the earth and a liberal. Most of these of are true and accurate. Unfortunately, I have realized a truth about me and I don’t like it. I like technology, but I have always been of the mind that it needs to be limited, and we most certainly can’t be enslaved by it. Technology should be used to make the world a better place, and we need to find a way to recycle or reuse all of this technology that we quickly fall in love with. Go ahead and check your closets. How many cell phones do you have lying around? All technology has a lovely little emblem on them, “Do Not Throw in the Trash.” The line over the trashcan. Our new skull and crossbones. (As you can see, I’m not quite ready to confess yet and admit my problems.) I’m back at school in an intensive program where you hole away and study and write and come out at the end all pasty and squinty eyed. Like vampires. I pulled out my almost never used cell phone to call and tell my husband that I made it safely. No reception. I pulled out the lap top and looked for wi-fi–inconsistent at best. I pulled out my ipod — not a strong enough signal to do a quick email. My immediate reaction was what is this 1897? I started to panic a little. How was I going to stay in touch. Then after a moment, I realized. I didn’t have to stay in touch. I didn’t have to be readily available to anyone. I relaxed, pulled out a cord and used the LAN. (How archaic?) and sent off an email to my husband telling him about the cell phone and we decided to use skype to make calls. It will take some getting used to, but I think I might be ready to shed this addiction….

boxes,boxes, oh my

vickivb — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:48:06 +0000

Yesterday, I finally delved into the closet that I have been meaning to clean out. I turned on some music and started to pull boxes off the shelf. I started going through boxes and realized we had so much paperwork that we didn’t need to keep and boxes that we didn’t need to keep. I found 10 boxes that were empty or had manuals in them. We need to force companies to get better about their packaging. All boxes must be recyclable and they should encourage it on their box. The same thing with paperwork. In this digital age, we have ways of keeping information so that we don’ t need to paper copies of everything. The IRS now even accepts scanned receipts. If the IRS is okay with it, we should be too. No my closet is a little more organized, and I feel better because it looks nicer in there. Now my compost is filled some shredded paper, and the insects were eating it up.

A change in the air

vickivb — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:12:44 +0000

Lately, I have been reading about gray water. I would love to use gray water to water my lawn. When people watch any national weather program, they often see a sun and rain clouds over the great state of Florida. People assume it’s warm and rainy. True, it’s warm, but it isn’t rainy. Actually our state is in a severe drought. We have water regulations and can only water on certain days. In our household, we conserve water. We have a rain barrel. Any excess water such as ice cubes go on the flowers or lawn. We turn off the faucet when brushing our teeth. We keep showers short. We teach our son that water is a resource that can disappear, and we must protect it. Another thing I could do is to use gray water from our kitchen sink, shower, bathtub, and washer. When I started to look into it, I couldn’t believe all of the local ordinances. I understand that I”m not supposed to poison my lawn. I already use phosphate free dish washing liquid and laundry detergent. Most of the time, I have phosphate free shampoo but occasionally I will have the stray bottle of regular shampoo. I can easily amend this. Our laws need to encourage green living. We need to speak up and changes these laws.

Pots and Food

vickivb — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:03:43 +0000

Living in Florida, growing food can be difficult. Our growing season is different. I have my big garden in the fall, which means I have to plant it during the terrible, awful sweltering weather. Because our soil isn’t terrific, I have to grow a lot of my food in pots. I have grapes, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, raspberries, blackberries, a mango tree, and potatoes. I grow more in the garden, but half of my food uses pots. Anyone can grow their own food. It doesn’t matter where you live. If you have a patch of sunlight, you can grow some food. Lettuce is surprisingly easily to grow. I stumbled across a website that had an article “The 100 food you can grow in a pot.” I am going to try growing a cherry tree next. I don’t exactly have a green thumb, so if I can grow food, probably most everyone else can too. With the rising prices of food, ( I can’t believe how I spend on groceries now.) we all need to learn to grow our own food. In end, we will be healthier and spend less money. The single most important thing is that you will know where your food came from with a pretty big feat in our modern world.

The dilema

vickivb — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:21:14 +0000

This past weekend I went to an aquarium which was having a special event called One Oceans. This event was to celebrate environmentalism and the ocean. One of the things I find interesting what all of the waste that was at the event. They had activities for children like making paper magnets and crowns. They had games where the kids could win little plastic toys. There were plastic water bottles every where. One of the biggest problems facing the environment and our oceans is our trash. I appreciate the fact that we are becoming more and more aware, and these events help people to learn more. The events planners need to become more green and stop taking the easy way out. We need to promote how to live without hurting the earth. The idea is that we need to be models, especially at these events. Instead of offering wasteful plastic toys- let’s give the kids nothing. Let them win the game and give them a high five. Or at least find toys that are made out recycled plastic. Let’s show the kids how to recycle most everything and have a game where they reuse items to make something new. I went to a similar event at a local place that offers organic gardening classes and has a communal food garden where you can pick whatever you need. They called it a day camp. One activity that my son particularly enjoyed was making a mobile of common objects. We took a stick that holes pre-drilled and put shells, rocks and other every day objects. It looked wonderful and is hanging from one of our trees. Another activity that he was a little too young for was tree painting. Since we have palms that shed bark, it’s pretty easy to find these pieces of long bark. The summer camp has a painting station where kids could paint the bark. One particularly creative child turned her piece of bark into an elephant. I think these type of events are more helpful and informative because we are practicing what we are preaching.

Baking sodas and lemons

vickivb — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:33:30 +0000

After much googling and reading, I have discovered that baking soda, lemons, and vinegar will clean just about anything. I have been using organic cleaners for a few years now, but now I’m ready to embark on the truly organic. I have found some simple and effective receipes for cleaning solutions. Try this site for the recipes :http://greenlivingideas.com/2008/04/27/natural-cleaning-recipes/

If I can do this, then I will be taking my green living up a notch by eliminating the store bought cleaners and the plastic that they use. Hopefully, it will also help my spending because I unfortunately like a clean house. It took me a while to accept the fact that a clean house doesn’t have a smell. It took a few articles and documentaries for to stop buying bleach– which will never come into my home again. All of this modernity is hurting us. I know for a fact that my grandmother used baking soda and vinegar for most of her cleaning because she couldn’t afford to buy cleaning products. We need to get back there. We need find our way back to the safe and natural ways of living. We have indeed lost our way.

Living in the Dark

vickivb — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:45:14 +0000

The light bulb– I once read an article about how the light bulb ruined the world and us. Our sleep patterns are off, and we are ruining our health. I think he’s only half right. I do agree that the light bulb has changed how we view the world. The light bulb has made activities like surgery safer. Because during the summer it is so hot here, we keep the curtains drawn during the day. I even use the curtains that are meant for winter time. They keep the heat in; I use them to keep the cool air in. I try use as much natural light as possible. I wish more home builders would think about this when they designed homes. Buildings can be built so that they really no artificial lighting during a sunny day. We are lucky to have some strategically place windows. It’s not perfect, but we don’t have to turn on the lights until it’s dark—which in the end does count down electricity we use. All the little steps we take do add up.

Green Cleaning Products

vickivb — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:53:59 +0000

As I was going through some previous posts, I reread the one about the Shakelee products. To let you all know, I am still using the products that I brought almost 3 years ago. This is proof that using the Shakelee products are definitely cheaper in the long run. I will have to buy a new bottle of the organic super cleaning concentrate. Definitely look up the website and check out their products. Again, you will pay more up front, but you aren’t buying as much or using as much plastic–which is just as important. I am still very happy with the Shakelee products and will recommend them to anyone.

The electric car

vickivb — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:46:52 +0000

I just read that oil was over 100 dollars a barrel again. Why isn’t our gas sky rocketing again? Oh that’s right, the oil companies are the devil and have a plan. I had read once on the internet briefly that the oil companies have a cycle of prices. That every few years that slowly raise the price of gas. The American public is outraged. For around 3 months we suffer, and we wonder just how much more we can take. Then the prices begin to fall again and go back down. Not to what they were when they started to raise them, but down 50 to 60 cents. Then we think “Oh, thank goodness. At least gas isn’t 4.15 any more. ” We willingly accept the 3.50 a gallon with a smile. This is their cycle.

This will age me, but I remember when gas was 99 cents a gallon, and I could often buy a couple of gallons with the change in my car. I remember when gas shot up to 1.75 in 1999 and I and a friend started to car pool to work to save on money. Well, look at us now. After hearing this was a business model for the oil companies, I picked up the phone and called my father who had seen 25 cent a gallon gas and asked him how prices roses when he was young. He described the very same cycle. Every couple of years, the oil companies used events and the news to justify rising prices, but then never lowered them to their starting prices. Now this is all accidental research, and I’m sure I could definitely go find a documentary.

I’m done. With this cycle of prices, I think they have hit their ceiling. People need to be able to go places in order for our country to work. Everyone relies on the ability to go from point A to point B. We as a society can’t handle the rising food prices, the disappearing social services. Think about it. What happens to ambulances when gas becomes 7 or 8 dollars a gallon? What happens to our police and fire departments?

I am making a statement. I done with gas. I have several eco-goals: a solar hot water heater, solar power, wind power, gray water, and an electric car. After looking at the list, I have rearranged and looked at what I could reasonable do. The 2 eco goals I can achieve now are the solar water heater and the electric car. Two cars are now on the market that I can afford: the Nissan Leaf and the Ford Fusioin (2012). I figured out that when my son goes to preschool and kindergarten, I can afford the payment on an electric car. The amount I pay in day care each month is the amount of a car payment for an electric car. We have one more year. I am going to save like a madwoman and get a sizeable down payment of at least 7000.00 and get that electric car.

We should all do this. We should all make a list of eco-goals that we can reach- whatever they are. Rain barrels, new windows, growing food. Whatever each one of can do, we need to do. If we all take small steps, we can make major changes. We need to take at what is important– by switching around my money, I found that I could afford an electric car. Now if I could just get off the grid and provide my own energy, I would be in green heaven. One step at a time, right.

compost

vickivb — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:55:40 +0000

Composting is super easy, and everyone should give it a chance. I have been composting for a year and half now and seen great rewards. Each summer, I have fresh healthy dirt to revitalize or to plant to new flowers or veges. People automatically think that it smells or is a hassle. It’s neither. I live in Florida and it reaches 90 degrees by 10 am sometimes in the summer and there has never been a smell from the compost. I do use a composter. I have two of them. One of them is an previously used garbage bin. Our county gave us new ones so I used the old one. I drilled some holes in each side and put dirt in the bottom. After so many layers of food (never meat or diary), I layered more dirt. It worked great. No smell, no pests. Just great organic dirt. I bought a composter at Sam’s club because it was on sale and did the same thing. The run one problem I ran into was fire ants. I had to let go of a year’s worth of dirt thanks to the fire ants. Now I know that they don’t like nitrogen. I plan on using coffee grounds and ammonia to keep them away. Other than compost is the way to go. You can get rid of food scraps and get great planting dirt. Most importantly, the amount of food you put into the landfill. Try it.