My Oil Spill Rant

Oil Spill -

I know everyone is tired of hearing about the BP oil spill. Forgive me for the cynical view: This spill won't get us to change our habits or dependence on oil.
Even people who think it is awful and are willing to boycott BP, won't change their habits in a way that will drive less, buy less plastic, eat locally, depend less on climate control (a major convenience), moving toward natural gas is not going to help us… we need independent energy solutions that are renewable and safe.
Fact: Wind energy does not pollute; Solar Energy does not pollute; S&W energy are affordable & safe

On the other hand, oil & natural gas cannot claim those same points. Is the claim to fame tradition, cheap energy, & money changing hands behind the scene (big biz - gosh, I hate big biz)

What is the problem people? I just want to scream it at the top of my lungs. We are so dependent on convenience? Myself very much included in the direction of my disdain. I drive a cross over, commute more than 25 miles to work, forget my reusable shopping bags, and don't always have the forethought to buy locally grown food (especially meat, which we are trying to cut back)

Politically this is really pissing me off. I absolutely cannot believe Obama hasn't stepped up with demands about climate change, energy independence, and our way of life. He promises so much HOPE and it has really been disappointing. He just spent crazy amounts of money and hasn't really changed anything. I know change takes time, but I am an environmentalist. That is my passion & claim to fame. That was the main reason motivating my presidential vote. I am disappointed.

We have to deal with the spill even though it is inconvenient. We have to keep it top of mind even if we are tired of hearing about it. It is tremendously sad and heartbreaking. I wish we could turn back the clock and enforce regulations (that may or may not exist) that would prevent what is nothing short of an indelible catastrophe.


82 days since the spill. 82 days of oil spewing. Spewing! Into the gulf. The body of water I grew up visiting, enjoying, and playing in. In my family we don't call it the ocean. When your parents grow up on the gulf, you become a snob about the gulf. (surely, some sociological/antho theory can explain that) It is currently being PERMANTENTLY destroyed! Just heartbreaking & sickening.

What can we do? How are you willing to change? How am I prepared to change my life to lesson or eliminate (gasp) our dependence on fossil fuels?

My Green Goals

I originally started this space to chronicle my adventures as a tree huggin' event planner. It has morphed into a catch all space for my journey to greeness, event planner aspirations, and goal setting. Today, I have goals on my mind. I would definitely classify myself as a good Capricorn, a goal setting, ambitious, and forward thinking individual.

I have so many goals to become more sustainable & self sufficient that I end up getting completely overwelmed. So, let's break it down to this week.

This week/weekend:

1. Start lasagna composting w/ newspaper & cardboard boxes. This will expand my garden space for the fall and spring of next year.
2. Clean out garage: take recycling to the center, organize my "tools" (gardening, storage, etc), donate whatever clutter we don't need, and use what we can in our projects.
3. Blog about my gardening challenges, with pictures. This is a good promise for better blog posts w/ examples of the bugs/issues we encounter.
4. Explore LLC filing procedures & take atleast 1 step forward.
5. Turn compost pile.

I once ran across someone that gives herself 3 goals per day. They were as simple as laundry, work, and make dinner. With this idea in mind, I have decided to make the list shorter than all the things running through my head. Even as I finish up this post, I am thinking of things to add. Keeping it short, though, will help better set me up for success.

What are your goals for this week to live a more sustainable lifestyle? And how will you be enjoying the weekend?

How were you green today?

Everyday I try to be conscious of my actions and the impact those actions have on my immediate environmental surroundings and the whole planet. I try to eat locally grown foods (easier in the summer). I try to drive slower and less aggressively. Although, I cannot cut my miles, I can carpool with my husband (when I wake up on time), and use less gas getting to and from work. Today, we skipped the meat in dinner, I brought my own reusable shopping bag, planted pumpkin and spinach seeds for our fall crop, tended to my garden. I drank tap water, and brought my breakfast in a reusable container.

I fell short in many ways today. I shopped at a chain store purchasing toiletries in plastic bottles, laundry detergent in plastic, and picked up dry cleaning..... Obviously, I have quite a bit of room for improvement. Now, I am a big fan of perfection, but understand that perfection is not possible 100% of the time. Hopefully, making an effort is more important than being perfect.

How were you green today? Do you fall short sometimes, like me?

Reading List

A couple months ago, I obtained a library card. I checked out a ton of books, and ended up reading a few pages of each, non too happy. I didn't return them on time and had to pay a small fee. Well, I decided to give it another shot. I just happen to be driving by my local library one evening on the way home from work. Likely to happen on the ONE DAY I want to stop by the library and get a short list of specific reads, the system was down! I searched for a couple titles for about 1/2 hour and picked up some other interesting or pretty books. Some more vain than others, like Skinny Chicks vs. Food Rules.

The list: Food Rules, Michael Pollan. Eat Drink & Be Gorgeous, Esther Blum, A Green Living book, based on the Fine Living tv show, Skinny Chicks, (author). Not so ambitious this time, for sure.

Food Rules is probably the most informative with simple ways to eat better and in doing so lessen environmental impact. It is amazing how much energy goes into processing food that isn't even that good for our bodies. His tag is, "Eat food, not too much, and mostly plants." Simple, right? Trying to get away from processed food, not made by corporations is hard. It is even harder, in our sustainably glam lives, to do this while on the go adding in local, fresh, and things our great grandmother would recognize. That is the ultimate goal in sustainability, though. Eat things that come from the Earth, are locally grown, which in turn means, seasonal. Go-gurt is his example of a foreign food. In my other readings of Pollan (a couple assigned chapters of Omnivore's Delinma) he basically points out the science of how we, as humans, have digested our food since the beginning of time coupled with the point, now our food comes from corporations that market enhanced, processed food based on marketing packaging. For instance, tomatos are best digested with olive oil. Or better said, there are nutrients in each that work together to absorb more good stuff better. (eloquent, huh).

Eat, Drink, and Be Gorgeous: I am several pages into it and looking for nutritional facts that are going to make me feel better. Life, how to get protiens without eating meat. My goal there is not to be accomplished, other than animals I have found 2 sentences that provide this info. One on whey protien, and the other on mixing legumes with brown rice. Hmm.. I could use some recipes for the latter, and may have to get another book on my next trip to the library. I am really looking forward to the section on supplements, but also plan on doing my research about different companies. Rumor has it (listening to rumors is always a bad idea) that some vits have lead in them.. Def need to research that!

The Seven Stones of Simpler Living | Lighter Footstep

I ran across this article/blog a while ago... It really describes my priorities, and somewhat my goals. When I go out into the world, these are the things on my mind...good stuff, if I do say so myself.

The Seven Stones of Simpler Living Lighter Footstep: "The Seven Stones of Simpler Living"

Simple living reduces your ecological footprint. In addition, peace of mind can hold infinite value.

Eco Local Vendors - 790 The Zone Music Festival

Part of being good to the planet is finding stuff locally. I am in NE GA, and love it here. Yesterday, I went into the city (ATL, locals call that ITP-inside the perimeter) to help the Sierra Club, Green the Governor campaign. There was a green zone and 2/3 of the vendors there were environmentally conscious in some way. I found home made soaps, bottle caps re purposed as earrings, buttons re purposed into rings, vintage broaches re purposed into rings & earrings. Purses, clutches, and make-up cases, made of wrappers and organic cotton. Some really cool stuff.

Well, since I believe local is better, I am going to plug some of these vendors. I haven't necessarily purchased from them, but I have held their products and plan to support them. Couture Recycle: She makes T-shirt w/ sweet sayings like, recycle air..plant a tree, recycle pets, adopt an animal, etc. Check it out! http://www.couturecycle.com

Freshwater Gardens, an Atlanta based body care company, gave away sample soaps. I grabbed the oatmeal, milk & honey body bar. The ingredients are listed as: Coconut oil, palm oil (they assured me it was the "good" palm oil), rice bran oil, olive oil, Castor oil, Shea butter, glycerin, ground oatmeal, fragrance, ground cinnamon. Hmm. Castor oil? Fragrance? Could those be bad? Are any of these petroleum products? I will have to do my research to find out. http://www.freshwatergardens.com/members/freshwater

Garden Update

We are about half way through our first growing season, and even though it is painfully obvious we are beginners, I am fairly pleased with the results and progress thus far. Our container garden is growing well after a few initial hiccups. Our raised bed garden is producing some food. Our compost bin is acting as a trash receptacle and not a soil producer (so far still to go, and it seemed so simple at the beginning) I transplanted a peach tree that is still in shock, and has me concerned. Also, we have a fig sapling in a container on the patio that seems to be thriving. Maybe next year we can transplant him into the ground, and expect figs the year after.




When we originally transplanted our seedlings, we didn't think they would grow. This picture was taken a few weeks ago and the garden is even more crowded now. Valuable lessons learned about planting too many crops in a relatively small space. The package wasn't kidding when it said to plant the squash 4 feet apart. Too bad we didn't listen, we may have had more to eat...

We are mostly organic this year, with absolutely no pesticide. As a result, some sort of worm/caterpillar organism has attacked our broccoli and cauliflower plant. I ripped the cauliflower out. The light green plant on the right is the broccoli and the leaves look like Swiss cheese. Since this pic was taken, I have put tomato cages on the peppers to keep them upright. The most fruitful crop of the season is definitely the cucumber.

Topsy Turvy is probably a gimmick, but it seems to be working out well for us. We keep it well watered and have 4 green tomatoes currently. (not pictured) I am hoping to get a few more before the season it out, but I haven't grown tomatoes before....

Last night, I started pumpkin and spinach mustard seedlings, only to have my pups destroy the container this morning while they were waiting to be fed. I have to start all over again tonight when I get home. I really want a pumpkin for Halloween. I have pea seeds to plant as well, but am going to wait a few more weeks. I researched and found they like the cold weather and I want to build a trellis like support for them to grow on.

Yesterday, one of my pups got ahold of a chipmunk or other rodent that was in the garden. I am very concerned about this. I could tell something was getting in there because of the teeth marks on some on my squash, zuch, & cukes... I called the pest control company, would like to be able to protect our property without paying them, and in a more natural way. Always open to suggestions.

How is your garden going this summer? What do you have planned for the fall crop? How do you keep critters from eating your veggies?

75 Things You Can Compost, But Thought You Couldn't : Planet Green

Composting!

One major benefit is keeping material out of the landfill. Another is providing good cheaper fertilizer for plants. Still having so much to learn, I am not sure our compost pile is as productive as it should be, but we are only 5-6 months into the whole process. Besides basic food scraps and yard clippings, there are so many things you can keep out of the landfills and this article is a good list. It is informative and creative... I have a whole bag of dryer lint to take out there today.

Also, I am pretty sure I am going to cover my compost "bin" with another pallet to see if it keeps the heat in better in order to accelerate the process. Suggestions?


75 Things You Can Compost, But Thought You Couldn't : Planet Green

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Updates: My To Do List

My original list is as follows:
I want to
1. get active more, preferably outside.
~I have been running and cross training. 3 5k's so far this season with the goal of a half marathon in the fall. Unfortunately, I am not so into running outside yet. I just find it easier on the treadmill. Not so sustainable, but at least I am getting healthy and giving towards good causes for races.
2. plant a late summer garden.
~This didn't happen last year, but the garden is up. I harvested my first few leaves of Bibb lettuce today, and removed some worm things from the Cauliflower. I have big plans for the back fence with Blueberry, Raspberry, and grapes. I am already thinking of my fall garden crops.
3. start a compost pile.
~Pictures coming soon! We have this up in the back. I turned it today, but haven't seen the progress I would like. I am thinking I need to get some worms?!?!
4. install a rainwater barrel. (engineered out of used materials)
~After a long time of falling short looking for non-plastic re-purposed rain barrels, I have redirected my efforts to reclaiming some food grade drums from good manufacturers.
5. reduce the amount of plastic in my household.
~One way we did this is by making our own laundry detergent. We are still in the beginning stages (I finished the recipe today), so I hope it goes well.
6. reduce our meat consumption by half.
~We do Meatless Monday's, especially in the summer. This is a hard one for my hubs (and myself) because I have been trained my whole life that even spaghetti needs meat to be a meal.
7. change the water heater to a tank-less or geothermal model.
~The only thing hold us back from this is $. Hopefully, the solar panel co I met with last week will be the right avenue for this goal.
8. insulate attic with denim insulation.
~Ditto above, $.
9. install low flow water fixtures.
10.plant some trees on the property. (magnolia and dogwood)
~I have changed my mind and decided to get peach, pear and possibly Apple. I would prefer to get a twig to be rooted than purchasing a plant, and just learned how to make my own root hormone. Thanks Kate!

Working, homemaking, tending to my 3 lovely pups and wonderful husband has made progress on becoming sustainably self sufficient a slow process. Don't forget cash flow. These projects take money or time to hit people up on freecycle.org (which doesn't always pan out). I hope over the late spring and summer to keep planting, harvesting, and coming up with new ideas to reduce our energy consumption.

Other things I would like to look into include:
1. clothes line - it must be where my neighbors can't see it as they are strictly prohibited in our subdivision.
2. baking my own bread
Stay tuned as the list will continue to grow.

Been a minute...

Wow! I had no idea it had been this long since my last update. So many things are happening with the new house and our quest to live on this planet while making the most minimal impact possible. We are moved in and settled. I have been working for a computer recycling company where I implemented a recycling program.

We have worked on the house weatherizing, composting, and recently finished building our first raised bed garden.

After living here almost a year, we have a good base line for our energy consumption through the seasons. Our natural gas bill is not anywhere close to where I want it, but I am working on reducing and possibly eliminating our need for natural gas by next fall/winter. With is fueling only our furnace, I am hoping it will be a simple solution.

I reclaimed some pallets from our roof repair and grabbed some broken leftovers from work (with permission, of course). We set it up on the sunny side of the shed and loaded it with yard clippings, leaves, and our daily food waste (remember no protein in the compost pile). After encountering the grossness (and sadness) of rats in a bucket, we no longer leave the bucket out back to fill with rain and old veggies. No procrastination allowed here! It seems to be going well. I need to go out and turn it, and maybe add some worms. - Here is a picture of our garden. In the background against the shed is the compost station.


Most recently, we build a garden. Unfortunately, we didn't reclaim materials and hit up the local Home Depot for most of our supplies. Looking back, we could have been way more efficient reusing different materials. We started with an 8'x8' square, staked together landscaping posts and filled it with soil. Before setting up the wood, I tilled the ground, and then tilled again once the soil had been dumped into the space. We planted transplants of squash, Zucchini, cucumber, red, yellow and green bell peppers, banana peppers, Bibb lettuce, red onion, broccoli and cauliflower. Since it is our first year, I am anxious and apprehensive regarding our yields. I hope we have enough food to make it worth it and not too much to make it wasteful. With only two of us in the house, the best case scenario would be to have a plethora to give away.

Well, I have to run, I have a meeting in the morning with a company that installs solar panels. Then, after work I will be headed to the fundraising committee meeting at the GA Chapter of the Sierra Club.