Been a While...

Wow, it has been a while since I posted, but hey, that's what the Holidays will do! I just wanted to share a different project I've been working on - it's called Cre8 and Re-Cre8. It's a blog about making useful stuff and making stuff useful. Let me know what you think!

Wrap Rage

I went to Amazon.com today and found a messgae from Jeff Bezos right there on the front screen addressing "wrap rage". I was so excited to see that they have acknowledged this is a problem and are doing something about it. I hate these clamshell plastic packaging. I always end up cutting myself trying to get them open. It also really sucks to try to get a kid's toy out of the packaging while they are standing next to you harassing you and you have 50 million little do-dads to unravel. Not to mention the useless waste from this packaging. Now COSTCO needs to just follow suit. They are really the worst offendor.

A Lesson and Hope in These Tough Times

"Somewhere along the way, we, as a society, got lost. We thought that having it all would lead to happiness. Truth is, having it all only erodes the value of having. It leaves you with less. Less satisfaction. Less understanding. Less meaning. And less joy." - Green Bean

I just read this quote over at The Green Phone Booth. It really struck a chord with me. I can see this so much in children. The more toys they have, the more they seem to destroy them and treat them poorly. they do not find value in their toys. They are not "special".

The more we have, the more we want. It becomes an unquenchable thirst for things. I remember growing up the wonder and excitement of going through the Sears Wish Book, daydreaming about the toys I might have and what I might do with them. But, it was the dreaming and fantasizing that was the great thing. It reminds me of another quote. This one is from the kids movie "Escape to Witch Mountian". The older sister (what's her name?) tells her brother: "If we have everything we could ever want, we would have nothing left to wish for." Okay, I'm paraphrasing here. That always stuck with me.

Having things comes with a price. You have to manage these things and worry about them. Things tie you down. You give up a little piece of freedom and a little piece of time with each possession.

Choosing to have fewer things this year and choosing to buy more food locally and make more food from scratch has truly been a wonderful experience for us as a family and for me in particular. I appreciate my raspberry much more knowing that I can have it fresh only within a certain season. I appreciate my basil spice, fresh from my own garden. I am more sensitive to where these things come from and the cost to the society to create them.

Lord knows, I have so much further to go. By most standards, I don't live simply. It is only in comparison with the way I used to live. But with the little steps I have taken, with each thing I let go of, the more full my life feels.

34.4

That is the average number of kWH of electricity usage for the month of August. I was floored by the energy bill this month. That is way below the usage at any season over the past 3 years. I’m giddy with excitement.

So, I thought I’d list the specific things we have done to cut back on our energy usage. We must have been so wasteful before.

• Temperature. First and foremost, was using the heat and AC less. We lived with a temperature of 78 F instead of 76 F this summer. It was totally bearable.


• Thermostat. Bought a programmable thermostat and scheduled it to adjust the temperature of the house when no one is there and in the middle of the night.


• Fans. Opened the windows on cool nights and used a fan. If the temp was below 78 F at night, we opened the windows and turned on some fans to circulate the cool air. This week has been a great example. It got in the mid 80s during the day, but went to the low 70s at night. The kids actually wanted blankets at the breakfast table in the middle of August!


• Timers. We put many devices that are constantly draining energy (such as cable boxes, digital picture frames, wireless router) on timers. These things don’t need to be on in the middle of the night or the middle of the day when we’re not home. So, we used our Christmas Light timers to manage them. It’s been working really well and we never have to think about them.


• Clothesline. We installed a clothesline to run the dryer less (dryer is a huge energy hog). I especially like it for sheets and stuff that take a long time to dry.


• Lights. Turn them off. It is so basic, but I have always been the worst at this. I am 33 yo and still scared of the dark (especially a dark basement). But I have been MUCH more diligent about this.


• Bulbs. Switch to compact fluorescent (CFL). We just have to make sure that we dispose of them properly as they do contain mercury.


• Weather Stripping. We’ve been making sure the weather stripping around the doors is in place. Next step will be to revisit the insulation.

I think winter is still going to be a challenge. The HVAC cools much more efficiently than it heats. We have a whole slew of other ideas to try out for the winter, but hopefully our efforts will continue to pay off.

We've Got Worms!

... and this is the good kind of worms! In our "year of improvement", DH and I have really started composting. We've had a composting bin for years, but we didn't know what we were doing with it. We had it next to the shed in the shade and we only put yard clippings in it.

So, as our gardening was going so well for us, we thought we were ready for the next step of composting. We moved our bin to the sunlight. We started collecting kitchen scraps, old cardboard boxes, along with the yard waste to balance out the bin. DH religiously waters and turns the compost. At first, it was a pile of garbage (surprisingly, not too smelly). Now, it is a beautiful pile of rich topsoil that we can use for next year's planting. Yeah.

And, we've got worms. I think this is the holy grail of composting. Many people will purchase worms to help make their composting successful, but ours came of their own accord to feast on the glorious coffee grinds, banana peels, and junk mail. Oh, glorious day!

Composting gets two thumbs up from me. Here's my top ten list for why composting is great.

10. Lots of free pet worms!

9. A chore little kids love - adding their banana peels to the composter.

8. Makes it fun to clean out the refrigerator. The moldier the better for the compost.

7. Switch to fewer garbage pickups and save money.

6. Organic fertilizeer for your landscaping.
5. Less waste has to go to waste processing facilities which saves energy.

4. Use fewer plastic trash bags.

3. Great free topsoil for the garden.

2. How often can you get excited about dirt?

1. No stinky food trash smelling up the garage.

Interested in composting? Here are some good resources:
Nature.org
HowToCompost.org

So...

So, we got our next electric bill and it was our lowest usage to date! Even as the weather has gotten hotter. I think it may have something to do with the fact that the kids are in day care rather than being watched in the home, but I'll celbrate anyway!

Some Truly Geeky Anticipation…

My husband and I are eagerly awaiting the delivery of our latest energy bill from Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE). We don’t have a gas line, so all of our energy usage is found in our electric bill. I literally keep clicking on the site to see if it is available (today they will release it).

“What is so exciting about our electric bill?” you may be asking yourself. Well, under the fearless leadership of my husband, we have been seriously trying to minimize our energy consumption (as many American families seem to be these days). It’s actually turned into a fun game for us - putting power strips on timers, finding our absolute tolerance for heat and humidity, measuring the wattage of all of our appliances...

As you can see from the pretty line/bar graph below, our 2008 daily usage (in blue) is down from our 2006-2007 daily usages by ~20kwH a day (with the exception of January when our heater was not working correctly). So, naturally, you can see why it is with eager anticipation that we await the delivery of our July electric bill. Is our trend continuing? Will we have our lowest energy usage ever?! We’ll have to wait to find out.

Getting Kids In Touch with Nature

Having 3 little boys and witnessing the effect that television can have on them, I have become pretty gung-ho about making sure they experience nature and gain an appreciation from the natural world. I find that if you spend two hours exploring the outdoors (be it in my back yard, at a park, or camping) they are much happier kids than after the same two hours of being inside watching TV or even just playing with toys.

Unlike previous generations when you went outside to play at the first chance and came inside "when the streetlights came on", it is an effort to get these kids to spend time outside. I found a great new resource that is just starting out called "Nature for Kids". It is a blog and a discussion forum and additional resources all about just activities to do with kids in Nature. I just love the concept and I hope that it gets much more participation!

May I Have Your Weeds, Please?

I don’t know whether it is my quest for a simpler life or the pain of the economy, but I have become very fascinated with the idea of foraging for food in my own back yard – or other people’s back yards as the case may be. I have discovered that all kinds of yard “weeds” are edible and also have a lot of nutritional benefits. There are even organizations that are just dedicated to promoting this as a practice good for the environment.

For example, naturalist “Wildman” Steve Brill has a whole website dedicated to it. He includes tons of information on identifying plants that are edible and is working on a book for foraging with kids. An organization called Plants for a Future has a searchable database of edible plants with all kinds of information on uses of the plants and any hazards or warnings about their usage. It is an excellent free resource.

Some of the weeds I’ve tried so far…

• Purslane – This is an exceptional weed. I love the taste of it (it is juicy and citrus-like). The leaves are high in Omega-3 Fatty acids and the stem is high in Vitamin C. I spotted some Purslane in a friend’s yard and transplanted it to my herb garden (as pictured). I would be very excited if it took off in my own yard! I’ve eaten this right off the stem and put it into my “Garden Weed Pesto”.


• Dandelions- Everything about the dandelion is edible. The greens are even sold in stores like “Whole Foods” for use in salads or to be cooked like spinach. The flowers can be eaten in a salad or used to make wine. I also used the greens in my “Garden Weed Pesto”.


• Wild Blackberry – We have some of this in the back yard (as well as the local park). The kids gathered some black berries and we tried to eat them with whipped cream. The flavor actually wasn’t that great. Maybe they weren’t ripe enough. I’m going to see if they are better cooked or in a fruit smoothie.

Things I’m going to try soon include clovers and oxalis. We have a ton of this and I’ve read you can cook it up the clover as you would spinach (oxalis should only be eaten in small quantities). Maybe I could make a nice weed quiche.

Some words of caution… There was just a story on the news today about a whole family that got sent to the hospital from poisoning due to insecticide on their mint leaves.

1. Don’t eat any foraged food that is from an area that may be exposed to insecticides, road salt (from snow), or any foreign chemical substances that you don’t know about.


2. Make sure to clean anything that you pluck from your yard thoroughly.


3. Make sure you can absolutely, positively identify something before you eat it. Many plants in your yard are poisonous.

I’m not sure that my neighbors appreciate the encouragement of clovers and dandelions in the yard. Good thing we don’t have a home owner’s association!

One More Thing - A Book Thing

This one is in the spirit of life simplification. As I have been trying to find good home for books I am ready to let go of, I came across this organization in Baltimore, MD: A Book Thing. It seems that the main point of their organization is to give books away for free to people who want them. What a great idea! They need book donations, especially children's books. They also need plastic grocery bags - and I'm always looking for a new home for those as well (although I have started using BAGGUs for grocery shopping to cut down on the use of plastic grocery bags).

Accolades for Thrift Store Shopping

Thanks to my wonderful sisters, I had the chance to rediscover my passion for Thrift Store shopping this weekend. DH was happy as well because the bags I took out of my house to drop off were bigger than the bags I brought into the house J. We all had our reasons for going – reducing our carbon footprint by reusing, looking for that clothing item that cannot be found in stores today, or just looking for a good bargain. I was specifically on the look out for replenishing my supply of turtlenecks and skirts.

I spent $50 total (thanks to tax-free DC day) and this is what I got:
· Camel-colored cotton turtleneck from the GAP
· Oatmeal wool turtleneck sweater from Old Navy
· White Wool turtleneck sweater from Limited
· Tweed wrap skirt from Express
· Wool-cashmere long gray skirt from Old Navy
· Long plaid pencil skirt
· Pair of Banana Republic Khaki Pants
· Pair of Carter’s athletic pants for my son

Back in my high school and college days, I got almost all of my clothing from Thrift Stores. Granted, it was in the days of grunge. But, what I loved about it is being able to find something that is fashionable, but that everyone else isn’t wearing right now. I love the hunt. I love sifting through endless racks of minimally sorted merchandise in order to find that item that is just right for my wardrobe. I love finding a classic vintage item that with a few simple alterations can be brought up-to-date and become a one-of-a-kind unique apparel.

And although I have not done this yet, on my list is to find not-so-great sweaters that are made out of great yarn and recycle the yarn to support my knitting and crochet habit. I found some great instructions online. I especially like the picture on the instructions because for some unknown reason, it has the VHS of “Some Kind of Wonderful” in the photograph, which is one of my favorite movies.

Happy Hunting!