Vacation

It's almost time for vacation. I do not plan on getting back onto a computer again until January 3rd. As I spend at least 8 hours a day on the computer during the work week, this is the best holiday gift that I can give myself and my weary eyes!
We will be out of town for vacation and to keep the energy use down in the house while we're away we will be turning the thermostat down to 56 degrees (it's recommended not to go below 55 so the pipes won't freeze) and I will be unplugging all appliances except the refrigerator.

We have found some local grocery stores and a Whole Foods at our vacation destination so we can continue to purchase local/organic produce while we are away.

Though, we are flying (not great for the environment) we do have a direct flight. Why does this matter? It’s not just because we are traveling fewer miles. It’s because as much as 50% of airplane carbon emissions come from takeoff and landing!

Stay Green! Happy Holidays!

Holiday Survival Guide - Sierra Club

Check out this entertaining Guide to challenging environmentally charged conversations that may come up over the dinner-table this holiday season.

Holiday Survival Guide - Sierra Club


Cheers!

Holiday Giving

The Holidays are fast approaching. It is apparent by the frigid temperatures, the bountiful amount of snow on the ground, the lights up on my neighbor's house, the music being played on the radio, the amount of cookies and candy in the office and of course the full parking lot at the mall.

I love the holiday season. I love drinking hot chocolate (and peppermint schnapps), I love walking in the snow, I love my broken Nutcracker that sits on the bookshelf, I love Charlie Brown's Christmas Special, I love candy-canes and the holiday lights and music and spending time with friends and family.

One part of Christmas that I don't celebrate much anymore is the gift purchasing madness. For the first 28 years of my life we had loads of presents under our Christmas Tree at home.
For my entire life, I would ask my father what he would like for Christmas and he would respond "Save your money all I want is World Peace" (or Whirled Peas...depending on the mood he was in). So each year I would search the stores to try and find something to buy him because though he said he didn't want a gift, I couldn't buy something for everyone else in the family and leave him out. It was usually a sweater or socks or as I got older a gift-certificate to Gander Mountain. These gifts weren't special and given the number of sweaters that I purchased and never actually saw my father wear, it was unnecessary. It probably made my father feel bad to receive a gift he knew he wouldn't be using and it made me feel bad to wander the stores knowing that nothing I found would be what he had asked for...because you can't buy World Peace.

My family doesn't exchange holiday gifts anymore. We stopped exchanging gifts when the state of the economy changed in 2008. With cash a little tighter in everyone's pocket we decided it didn't really make sense to purchase gifts that year. Along with the shift in the economy, a shift was occurring in my family and we began to think more about our belongings and our needs. It was harder than ever to answer that one simple question..."what would you like for Christmas?".

This year the members of my family will be purchasing a goat for a family in need through Heifer International. http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.195980/
Through Heifer International, one can purchase live-stock, trees, bees, etc. that will be given to families in need across the world. Heifer provides training which allows the families to maintain their livestock as a source of food and income. Heifer calls these animals "living loans". In exchange for the livestock and training each family receives, they agree to give one of their animal's offspring to another family in need. Now that's a gift that keeps on giving! From their website- Heifer International has helped over 70 million men, women, and children across the world on the road to sustainability. Providing livestock and training is the helping hand you can extend this holiday season with your gift. The organization allows people to purchase an animal, like our goat ($120), or a share of an animal (usually around $10.00). People can also purchase a flock of ducks or chicks for around $20.00.
This allows for the opportunity to contribute at any level!

Though the adults no longer purchase gifts for each-other in my family we do purchase gifts for my two young nephews. This year my gift is not something tangible. I've gotten my sister's family a membership to the Madison Children's Museum. http://www.madisonchildrensmuseum.org/
So they will have one year of free admission and reduced parking.
I know there are days, especially in the colder months when my sister is home with the kids and they just need to get out of the house, so hopefully this will provide a place she can take them without spending any money! It sure beats walking around Target drinking a Starbucks coffee with the kids in the cart, just so that they can get a change of scenery.

This year, if gift-buying is unavoidable, think about some non-tangible gifts.

Here are some ideas;
- A donation to offset your loved one's carbon footprint. http://store.terrapass.com/store/c/18-carbon-offsets.html
- A donation to your loved one's favorite charity (or purchase your loved one a goat or some chickens through Heifer International).
- Tickets to a show or concert.
- A State or County trail pass (biking, skiing etc)
- A State or National Park pass
- Membership to the local zoo, museum, aquarium etc.
- Membership to a local co-op grocery store.
- Gift Certificate to a restaurant or coffee shop.

Happy Holidays!

Synopsis

We recently received a break-down of how we are doing in the Eco-Challenge.

Here is a brief overview:

Driving- 40% below the Madison average for one person is around 650 miles per month. Our miles per month were 677 mil/month, 879 mil/month, and 670 mil/month is August, September, and October. Now this is above our goal for one person however there are two of us driving the car, so individually we are well below.
Perhaps we can get 40% below the average of one car-driver. That's our new goal! It will be interesting to see if we drive more or less in the winter months. I think a lot of our trips are actually high-mile trips out of town to do different activities like camping and kayaking. So, since we aren't making those trips in the winter, it may drop down. I guess we will see!


Trash- The goal for trash per month should be no more than 82 lbs (40% less than the Madison Average). We keep track of our trash generated for one week of each month. We have generated 2.5lbs/week in August, 3.5lbs/week in September, and 6lbs/week in October. Each month we were well below the 82 lbs/month mark. So we're doing pretty well so far but I would still like to reduce this amount by purchasing more items in bulk from the co-op.

Electricity- Our goal is 360 Kwh a month (40% of Madison average of a 2 person house-hold.) We used 321 Kwh in August, 320 Kwh in September and 233 Kwh in October. I'm hoping to purchase a wall clock - and run it on rechargeable batteries so that we can unplug the microwave when not in use since that is our main source of telling time and it's pulling unnecessary energy. We are continuing to use task-based lighting in the kitchen to help reduce our energy use. Also, two light-bulbs have burned-out in the bathroom and we haven't yet replaced them...so this might help bring it down even further. The goal for a one-person household is 222kwh-it would be awesome to see how close we could get to this number!


Food- We have been eating a lot more than 40% local and organic which is great! Typically we are anywhere between 80-90%. We are also striving to make more conscious decisions when eating out, by going to restaurants that purchase meats, cheeses and vegetables locally. With Willy Street Co-op on the west side of town, I think the amount of local and organic products we are buying will only increase!


I plan on researching some new ways to help reduce our electricity! Also as the temperatures drop (and they've sure dropped today currently 10 degrees, feels like -4) we have turned on the heat. It will be interesting to see in the next few months where we rank in gas-use.

I'm curious how the other families are doing.....

Handkerchiefs and Snow

The lack of recent blogging has to do with an unfortunate cold/virus sweeping through my tiny house-hold. Perhaps I should have attempted to blog this week while deliriously fighting a fever, drinking Nyquil and swallowing Sudafed tablets. That may have made for some entertaining ramblings.

I must say that when fighting a cold, my attention diverts away from trying to lower my environmental impact. I noticed myself leaving some lights on, cranking the heat and of course going through boxes of tissues.

I do admire those individuals who carry a handkerchief to wipe their wet noses. However I wonder if these folks use them when fighting a pesky virus? That would be one interesting load of laundry, full of sticky handkerchiefs.

We are on the mend and feeling better around here and just in time for a delightful snow fall! Madison got 3-5 inches last night and it's still coming down. There were multiple instances overnight where one of us jumped from bed to peek out the window and see how things were coming. We woke early with anticipation and by 8am we were outside shoveling the driveway and sidewalk...hopefully without waking our neighbors.

I've only recently become so excited about the snow-season in Wisconsin, after finally accepting the fact that I live here....and not somewhere tropical. In the past I would walk around in the winter with a light weight coat and leather clogs, complaining about how cold and miserable I was. After some initial investment in some "real" winter gear and some awesome winter toys, I'm ready to play outside! Granted it took me almost 30 years to figure this out.

This afternoon Mike and I took a nice walk in the snow to the Babcock Dairy Store for some lunch. http://www.babcockhalldairystore.wisc.edu/
Babcock Dairy is the University of Wisconsin's Dairy Plant that is mostly staffed by students and covers 100% of its costs through the sale of the ice cream, milk and cheese produced. Unfortunately for us, the store doesn't serve lunch on Saturday, so instead we purchased some fresh cheese and ice cream! I suppose that is about as local you we can get within the city when it comes to cheese and ice-cream production. It's delicious, locally produced and within walking distance.

To the gentleman leaving Babcock this afternoon with two bags full of ice cream and an ice-cream cone in his hand - Right on man! It's never too cold for a Babcock ice-cream cone.

Attitude of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you enjoy your day!

Here are a couple of simple tips to help make this Thanksgiving a green one.

If possible try choosing organic and locally grown or produced items for your meal tomorrow!

Try an Organic Turkey from a Local Farm. If you haven't picked one up yet and you're in the Madison area, Willy Street Coop has fresh, all natural, free range turkeys from Bell & Evans
http://www.bellandevans.com/index.cfm?act=about_us
and frozen organic birds from Organic Prairie
http://www.organicprairie.com/?gclid=CLmBjp3xuaUCFQNrKgodpWzHZg.

Plus you don't need to pre-order so even if you haven't planned ahead you can swing by and pick up your bird for tomorrow!

Make a Homemade Pie with local ingredients! It should be easy to find some local pumpkins and apples. My mom is making our homemade pumpkin pie today. I'm so grateful!
Here's a simple recipe to try!
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/real-homemade-pumpkin-pie/Detail.aspx

As always if you can, get your vegetables local and organic. I'll be making my creole roasted yams tomorrow with organic olive oil and yams!

If possible, visit your local bakery today to grab some locally made items like rolls and bread for stuffing!

Save your leftovers! I don't eat turkey but I can still remember how much I loved cold turkey sandwiches the days following Thanksgiving.
Pack your leftovers in your empty containers (your #5 plastics that you've been saving to drop off at Whole Foods perhaps) and send them away with family and friends.

If you are throwing away leftovers, try to pitch them in the compost bin instead of the garbage. According to the EPA, food scraps, yard trimmings and wood waster are the largest component of our trash and make up over two-thirds of the solid waste that ends up in landfills.


Got plans for the day after Thanksgiving? How about celebrating Buy Nothing Day! According to the BuyNothingDay website, the Friday after Thanksgiving is your special day to unshop, unspend and unwind. Relax and do nothing for the economy and yourself, at least for a day!

http://www.buynothingday.org/buynothing.html

Buy Nothing Day, is an international day to protest consumerism. The first organized celebration was in 1992.
Take some time for yourself, stop, breath, and examine your consumption. I plan on taking a yoga class and cleaning my house on Friday. My sister has planned a day to decorate the house for the holidays with her kids (ages 2 and 4)
She has prepped herself with some good music and champagne for a morning mimosa. Sounds divine!

Plastic State of Mind - Love this!

Seriously

I just wrote Mike an email that began: "Hey Mike, Hope your day is going well! It was nice biking into work with you today...even though it was really cold and windy and otherwise unpleasant."


It is not nice outside. Truth.
November 19th and we are still biking into work. Styling the gloves, warm wind-breakers, skiing socks and on some days the long underwear (long-johns).
In my opinion Gore Bike Wear carries some of the best biking gear available.
http://www.gorebikewear.com/remote/Satellite/HomePage

If you're not looking to shell out a lot of cash, Bike Nashbar is a great websites for deals.

Bike Nashbar: http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/TopCategories_10053_10052_-1?cm_mmc=Google-_-Non%20Brand-_-G_Nashbar_Official_Site-_-BikeNashbar


Today I was lucky enough to ride in with Mike since we were leaving for work at the same time. He is stronger than I am and the cold doesn't seem to faze him as much as it does me.

As we biked along he said, "your biking fast." I laughed and replied, "because it's cold out!" After another minute or so he said, "do you think it's in the the 40s?" And I exclaimed, "It's 32 degrees!".

I'm not sure how long I'm going to make it!

_______________________________________________________

My office building is very bike friendly and we have numerous options for bike parking. I choose to park my bike at the designated bike racks in the parking garage. It's so nice to know that if it's raining outside my bike is protected. Today as I was heading towards the door from the parking garage to the building I could smell cigarette smoke. Someone was smoking in the parking garage, and not just in the garage but right next to the door.

I was asking myself who would smoke right next to the door like that..and why?! Probably because it's too cold to smoke outside.

Seriously...If people can bike to work when it's 32 degrees, work outside when it's 32 degrees, and the unfortunate homeless population in town can sleep outside when it's 32 degrees, than one would think people should be able walk 25 feet away from the building and stand there for 2 minutes to enjoy their cigarette. I know and love several people who smoke, so I'm not judging this personal choice ..however, have some respect people!

I was fortunate enough to ride the elevator up with the perpetrator and had my face not been completely frozen I might have said something to her directly.
Though, I've never been good at confrontation and I probably wouldn't have said anything. So instead I will post my dissatisfaction here today and maybe later I'll file a complaint.

Co-op Grocery Stores

It is common today to walk into a standard grocery store or super-market and find vegetarian, vegan, natural, local and organic options. Thirty years ago things were a little different and thus Food Cooperatives were established to help make natural and organic options more affordable to members. A Co-op can purchase larger quantities of these goods and supply them at a discount.

I've grown up a co-op member. As a child, my mother would frequent both Willy Street Co-op and Mifflin Street Co-op with my sister and I in tow.

Willy Street Co-op, http://www.willystreet.coop/, affectionately and simply referred to as Willy Street or just The Co-op by many has been a landmark on Williamson (Willy) Street in Madison since the 1970s. It has changed locations several times in the last 30+ years but has always remained on Willy Street and has grown into probably the most successful business in the neighborhood. My mother would take us to The Co-op when it was located at 1202 Williamson Street (currently the Social Justice Center). The aisles were narrow but the space was bright and lively. I remember being excited to help pick snacks from the bulk bins...sesame sticks were my favorite. I wonder if perhaps this was a favorite snack of mine because I associated them with Oscar and my other friends on Sesame Street. Even at this smaller location the Coop offered a corner for children to play while their parents wondered the aisles.

The Mifflin Co-op opened in 1969 as a grassroots way of taking back the food supply. And though it was a neighborhood gem for decades in Madison it unfortunately closed 5 years ago due to financial struggles. I have fond memories of this Co-op as well...it was cozier than Willy Street and offered different items, like candy. I remember one trip in particular. I was begging my mom to buy me some chocolates that were wrapped in colorful aluminum foil. The chocolates looked like shiny coins in pink, yellow and purple! Oh my my! Now, I wasn't the type of child to throw a fit, but I desperately wanted to enjoy some of these fabulous shiny chocolates. My mother didn't buy us traditional sweets, so I knew that if we were going to get some candy it would be some "healthy" candy from the co-op. After begging and pleading my case my mother had to finally explain to me that the object of my 10 year old desire, these shiny coins were not chocolate candies but shiny condoms. I'm sure I argued, surely this was candy and my mom was trying to pull a fast-one on me. She was clearly making this up. After that episode and the conversation to follow, my sister and I stared in awe at those shiny coins every time we went into the Mifflin Street Co-op.

...That was then and this is now.

Mike and I currently belong to the Willy Street Co-op and the Regent Street Co-op, http://www.regentmarketcoop.org/?page_id=30. The Regent Street Co-op was founded in 1998, but the store has been a grocer since 1924. I love this neighborhood co-op. It does carry a lot of organic and natural items, but not specifically. You can still find Heinz ketchup and Lays Potato Chips if these are items you enjoy. The Regent Street Co-op's strength is definitely in its deli. The deli offers fabulous meat and fish options and if you stop by on a Saturday morning you may be able to see one of the oldest butchers in town. Stop by, say hi and grab one of his wife's homemade brownies before they're all gone! This is still truly a neighborhood grocery store!

Willy Street Co-op, has just opened its second location in Middleton!
I'm very excited for the new Willy Street location. It is located at 6825 University Ave. at the corner of Park and University, in Middleton. Hopefully the new location will help ease traffic and parking concerns at the original location and gain even more members on the West side! Our home is right in between the two Willy co-ops, so we'll have options now! Willy Street's strength is definitely its bulk section and I'm driven to start buying more in bulk to help drive down our waste (cans, jars, bags) and help drive up our percentage of local and organic groceries.


From sesame sticks to shiny condoms, I have a soft spot in my heart for co-op grocery stores and I always will.

Nic Marks: The Happy Planet Index | Video on TED.com

Nic Marks: The Happy Planet Index | Video on TED.com

Eating Local

What a nice weekend! The weather in Madison has been absolutely unbelievable. It has been in or near the 60 degree range for the past 4 days. I could get accustomed to this kind of weather in November.

Last weekend was REAP's Pie Palooza.
I had a wonderful time volunteering and met up with friends after my volunteer shift to try some pie for myself! I tried a delicious slice of spinach quiche and a fabulous slice of sweet potato pie. Our two pieces came with salad, beverages and an added bonus...Sassy Cow Creamery Ice Cream! http://www.sassycowcreamery.com/Index.htm

Mike and I also went to a dinner party this past weekend where we were fortunate enough to eat a wonderful Mexican meal made with local ingredients. Our friends grilled local venison meat and we had home-made salsa from locally grown tomatillos, peppers and tomatoes. What a treat indeed!

In Wisconsin we are getting ready for a long and cold winter (though recent temperatures don't show it). As the temperatures dip and the days get shorter the growing season ends.
So what can we do to ensure that we keep eating local?

1. CSA Winter Shares. I just realized that some CSA farms have a winter option that extends your CSA season into December. Winter shares typically include cold-hardy crops like spinach, broccoli, and kale, as well as storage crops like carrots, potatoes, squash, onions and garlic. I will definitely be looking into a winter share next year!

2. Indoor Farmers Markets. Many farmers markets move indoors in the colder months. It may take some research to find out what is available in the area, but it is well worth it!
In Madison, the Dane County Farmers Market moves indoors this weekend to the Monona Terrace. Some items that are likely to be found are;

Fruits (Apples Cider, Jams, jellies, and preserves; Pears; Pear and apple butters; Raspberry products), Stored Vegetables (Carrots, Garlic, Potatoes, Shallots, Turnips), Fresh Vegetables (Chard, Greens, Kale, Lettuce, Micro-greens, Radish, Spinach, Tomatoes), Meats Beef, Bison, Brats and sausage, Chicken), Cheeses (Flavored cheeses, Goat cheese, World-class aged cheeses, Fresh cheese curds) and Baked Goods (Biscotti, Cheesecake, Pastries, Cinnamon rolls, Breads) Specialty Items (Mushrooms, Maple syrup, Wool products, Candles, Honey, Pesto, Vinaigrettes, Eggs, Hot sauces, Flavored sea salt, Goat milk soap, Salsa, Yarn, Sheepskins, Hides and leather, Soups, Pasta sauce, Fresh-ground whole wheat flour, Herbal vinegar)

3. Preserving: Canning/Pickling/Freezing/Drying. If the proper equipment is available preserving is a wonderful way to extend the use of local vegetables and fruits. Meats, fish, and berries can be easily stored in the freezer. Herbs, mushrooms and some vegetables can be dried using a dehydrator. Fruits and Vegetables can be canned and cucumbers, carrots and beans can be pickled. I'm not a "canner" but here is a link to helpful tips. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/

4. Think beyond locally grown. Don't forget to focus on locally produced and supplied items in the winter. Even though our growing season is limited, there are plenty of companies that produce breads, sauces, salsas, pastas, milk,(etc.) all year long!


The challenge to eat local will increase in the next 6 months but I'm excited to see what kind of things Mike and I can come up with to keep our local/organic percentage as high as possible.

REAP's Pie Palooza Brunch

This Sunday - November 7th, REAP (research, education, action and policy on food group) is holding their annual Pie Palooza at the Goodman Community Center in Madison!





I've never been to this event, but this year I'll be volunteering and hope to sit down for brunch after my shift.

Local chefs and bakers create recipes for pies that range from very savory to very sweet! Some of the local chefs and bakers come from my favorite Madison restaurants. Hubbard Avenue Diner, Monty's Blue Plate, Crema Cafe and Lombardino's are all on the list of contributors! From the pie varieties on the REAP website, I'm hoping I can try the Autumn Harvest Quiche (w/ squash, onion, parsnips, spinach, and sweet potatotes) and the Pumpkin Pie (with hickory nuts and caramel)!

http://www.reapfoodgroup.org/Programs-Events/pie-palooza.html

Tickets are $16.00 and can be purchased online. Pie is served in three separate seatings; 9:30-10:30am, 10:30-11:30am, and 11:30-12:30pm.

All proceeds support REAP programs in Southern Wisconsin. REAP is a local non-profit organization that supports sustainable agriculture. Their local programs help bring fresh local produce to classrooms and link farmers with business owners to get local produce into our restaurants. Events like this one help our community build a sustainable food system!

Sounds like a perfect way to warm up on a chilly Autumn morning!

Today

Update: I broke down this morning and I turned the heat on. I did so for two reasons;

1. it is going to get cold tonight (25 degrees F)
and
2. it is my birthday. And damn it, I deserve to be comfortable on my birthday.

It's set at 56 degrees..but it is on today. I will contemplate turning it off tomorrow.

Community Supported Agriculture

Buying Local:

Our grocery bill has increased in the last few weeks as our CSA has ended for the year. If you're unfamiliar with a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture it is (from Wikipedia) a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit in a vegetable box scheme, sometimes including dairy products and meat.

This was our second year buying a CSA share from Young Earth Farm. http://www.youngearthfarm.com/
We went with Young Earth as our CSA provider because they deliver their produce boxes to the co-op grocery store a block from our house. Typically Farms will offer a full share and half share option. Some farms deliver produce boxes every week and some farms have a twice-a-month option. Mike and I have gone with the half-share which delivers every other Thursday from the end of May to the beginning of October.

Joining a CSA, is a great way to help local farmers, feed your family fresh organic produce, save money and try new foods! Most of the local CSAs in Dane County range from $300 for a half share to $700 for a full share. This may seem like a lot of money but I've determined that the amount of money I would spend if I bought all this produce locally and organically would far exceed my investment in the CSA. For example, in the middle of August we are usually surprised with two large bags of tomatoes in our CSA box. It would cost me probably over $75 to purchase the equivalent in organic tomatoes from the grocery store!

Also, a lot of health insurance companies will reimburse you a portion of your expense! Mike and I get reimbursed a total of $200 through our separate insurance companies, so we're left only paying $100 out of pocket for boxes and boxes of fresh, organic produce!!!





I must admit that on occasion, we were left scratching our heads looking at some of the items we receive in our CSA. I am not a fan of beets or brussel sprouts and even when reading the recipes provided by our farm, I still don't want to prepare and eat them. Luckily, most of the foods we receive are standards that we would purchase in the store anyway and the odd things we try to give away to family and friends.

It makes so much sense to try and purchase local vegetables when possible, not only from an environmental perspective but also a nutritional perspective! Research continues to prove that the more fresh a vegetable is, the more nutrients it contains. Some research shows that as soon as you pick a vegetable or fruit it begins to lose it's nutritional value and other research shows that as soon as you cut a fruit or vegetable it begins to further lose it's nutritional value.

To me it just makes sense that if we don't have the space, time or ability to grow our own vegetables...we should be getting our vegetables from our neighbors!
Now that the growing season has come to an end, we are left with rummaging through the grocery store aisles, reading labels to ensure that our vegetables are organic and if possible from a country closer than Syria.

Next year if you're in or around Dane County and interested in finding a farm to support, check out MACSAC, Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition.
http://www.macsac.org/index.html
Here you can look up farms, prices, and drop-off sites. They also host an open house every spring where people can come out and meet the farmers, ask questions and sign up for their CSA.

Here comes the Challenge

Drive Less:

Brrrr. It's cold this morning. 28 degrees with frost on the grass and the car when I left the house. It was the kind of morning when I spend 15 seconds debating whether to wear my bike helmet or my knit winter hat. Only 15 seconds because the obvious choice this morning was the winter hat!

It is obvious to me today that this Green Faster Challenge is going to become a much bigger challenge in the up-coming months. It's easy to stand tall and declare, "I bike to work everyday", when it's 75 degrees and sunny. It is a bit harder to do that with a smile on your face when the temperatures dip below 35 degrees in the morning. Luckily today it should hit 65 for the commute home...so my cold-weather bike challenge is cut in half, as only one leg of the ride is uncomfortable. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to continue biking to work, but I'm going to try to go as many days this fall and into the Winter as possible. I'll keep you posted. :}

My co-worker, Aaron, is trying to promote winter biking in Madison. Chicago has an established community of winter bicycle commuters who promote winter biking by holding frequent meetings and workshops. They also put on fun events like the "Santa Rampage", in which bikers dress in their finest Santa inspired costumes and bike around down-town Chicago on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. http://bikewinter.org/main.php
Chicago's group is quite intense and it seems that Milwaukee has a decent size group as well. However Madison, which has been coined one of the best biking communities in the country hasn't established itself as a powerful winter bicycling community. My co-worker Aaron is trying to help change this and he has set up a kick-off meeting on November 3rd. Check it out! See the Madison link on this page. http://bikewinter.org/




Reduce Energy Use:

We've not yet turned on the heat, which has lead to some cold mornings getting ready for work. Again, the day will warm up and the house will be comfortable when we get home, so it hasn't been too much of an issue to date. Mike and I haven't discussed yet exactly when we will turn on the heat this year, but I'd like to try to make it through October at least without! I'm tempted to turn it on to a minimum of 55 degrees or so just to keep my sanity.

I received our MGE utility bill on Wednesday and was surprised to see that it was $20.00 less than it has been all summer! We only used 233 kwh last month, where we had been standing strong at 320 kwh each month this summer. I think the power-strips have been paying off! (plugging multiple appliances into one strip and shutting the whole strip off when not in use). We have also been unplugging the television when it's not on to kill the small light. . Another thing we've been working on is using task-based lighting in the kitchen. When I'm working at the stove or kitchen sink, instead of turning the over-head kitchen light on, I will work with only the stove light or the kitchen sink light on. As the sun sets earlier in the evening...the lighting challenges in the house will begin...but I think we're ready!

Bike Racks

Drive Less

Long time..no blog. Mike and I were out in California visiting family last week. We had an amazing time, beautiful weather, surrounded by wonderful people. Now we're back to the grind in Mad-town.

I weighed our garbage today for the week...and I was shocked that we had 10 lbs of garbage and 9 lbs of recyclables. I'm not sure how that happened....but this coming month we will be focusing on Wasting Less! We've done some things to decrease our waste production, like eliminating paper towels completely and eliminating plastic zip-lock bags. I guess those two items don't weigh all that much though so we haven't seen a big decrease in garbage weight.

Last month our challenge was to drive less. It has been really easy for the past 8 months with the early spring and beautiful summer now turning into a beautiful fall. We haven't had any rainy days this month to prevent us from biking into work. Soon enough though I know it will get cold and it will start snowing and we will be challenged. I will be taking the Madison Metro Bus to work this winter. For some, the thought of sitting outside waiting for a bus when the wind is gusting and the temps are freezing does not sound like a great way to start the day. I know it's not my favorite way to start the day!! Madison Metro has some helpful tools on their website to reduce wait time. My favorite is the real-time bus tracker!


http://www.cityofmadison.com/Metro/planyourtrip/transitTracker.cfm

I just choose Stop Tracker (Using Dropdown Menus) and choose my route, my direction and my stop and it gives the next 3 bus arrival times.

**Make sure that when you've got your bus arrival times to check that it is for the right direction! Sometimes it's unclear, but when you have the 3 arrival times it should tell you which direction the bus is heading.

I have bookmarked two links on my phone. One is my bus route from home to work and the second is my bus route from work to home.

When I'm getting ready to leave, I pull up the appropriate link that I've saved on my phone to see when the next bus will be arriving. If it's really cold or wet outside I refresh the link right before I walk out the door to ensure that the bus is still "on time".

This tool has made bus commuting much more enjoyable for me but I must admit that I've missed a few buses by being too confident and cutting it too close!

The Madison buses also have bike racks on the front of all buses. I've posted a video above!

Happy commuting.

September Updates

Just a quick update on some of the small things we've done in the past month or so to reduce our "foot-print".

1. Dish-washing: We've changed our dish-washing habit to conserve water. We don't have dish-washer so we were using the method of constantly running the water and washing and rinsing the dishes one-by-one and putting them on the drying rack. This method became apparent to me when I bought my first soap dispensing sponge.

It seemed like such a great tool at the time...but I didn't realize that the simplicity of it encouraged me to waste water.

We have now moved to the old fashioned dish-washing method of filling up one tub with water and soap, washing the dishes, putting them in the other tub, and then rinsing them all together. It has helped us save water and also save soap. So win-win..we're saving money too!

2. Power-Strip: Many of the items in the home stay "on" even when we've turned them "off"! Obviously anything with a clock (micro-wave, stereo, etc.) but also things like chargers and tools pull energy even when they are not engaged. This is commonly called "phantom-energy". Learning this, we've installed an inexpensive power-strip to the outlet where we have two stereo's and a computer. When we are not using the computer or stereo we simply turn of that item and then we switch the power-strip to completely disengage them. I would like to get another power-strip for the television because it has a small light that is always on, which is obviously powered from somewhere..and that somewhere is my electric bill!

3. Bread crumbs: What the heck do I mean by Bread Crumbs. Well Mike and I typically do not like to eat the two end pieces of our loaves of bread generally referred to as "end-cuts". I don't know why...I just shy away from these oddly shaped pieces. We were in the habit of throwing them in the garbage after we were onto our new loaf of bread. What a waste of food...So I decided that I would freeze the end-cuts until I had a fair amount and make croutons. I let the pieces thaw on the counter and then cut them into small squares. I mixed olive oil with black pepper, salt and Italian herbs (rosemary, basil, oregano, etc.) in a large bowl. I rolled the cuts of bread in the bowl until they were slightly coated and placed them on a backing sheet baking for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. I was afraid they would turn out too hard but after taking them out of the oven I put them in a ziplock bag and they stayed perfectly crunchy for weeks. I'm so happy we aren't throwing away any more food! And win-win...saving money because we aren't buying croutons from the store anymore..which I couldn't find a local variety of anyway!

Now if I could just learn how to make banana bread so I can use all of the too-ripe-to-eat bananas in the freezer.

"What's Wrong With Our Food ..." 11-year-old Birke Baehr

Oregon Trip Trifecta

I was so impressed by the public transportation options in Portland! I was dropped off at the Oregon Zoo in Washington Park and after spending a few hours with the animals (here's a baby elephant), I decided to hop on the Trimet (train) to downtown. There's an option from Washington Park to hike a couple of miles and than hop on an Aerial Tram down to a Trolley and than into downtown.

http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files/trailtramtrolleytrain.pdf

Now, I was thinking of taking on this adventure but the clouds were looking a little dark and after spending several days in the rain decided I would rather be in the midst of downtown if it rained than in the middle of another hike. So I got on the Trimet and after a ten minute ride I was downtown. Since I wasn't exactly sure where I would get off, I decided to eye-ball the stops until they looked promising. When I saw a Nordstrom store, I decided it was probably safe to get off the train! To my surprise...even more exciting than Nordstrom..I found the Monday Farmers Market! And I was just in time..with only 45 minutes until it closed, I ordered some quinua from a local stand and an oatmeal cookie. I sat and enjoyed the sight of people purchasing locally farmed goods in the midst of the booming city.

I walked through the city and noticed that some of the bus-stops had plasma flat-screen televisions telling me when the next bus would arrive. The trains had the same deal!
The buses had bike racks on them and the Trains had special bike designated areas to hang your bike! How cool!

After meandering around the city for several hours, I got back on the train for the airport. I noticed a gentleman seated in front of me working on his computer...minutes later he put his bike helmet on, grabbed his bike that was hanging up behind me and off he went into the universe. By Bike, Trolley, Train, Tram or Bus...Portland is doing it!

Now, Madison has a great bus system..though a little difficult to figure out but I'm excited to see if Madison will ever incorporate some more options for public transportation. It seems that in our society of instant gratification, unless it's fast and easy, nobody want's anything to do with it. I've heard many people say "if I have to get on a bus that will take me further away from my destination, just to get on another bus to get to where I need to be.. it's just not happening". As much as I want to say that I would raise my voice and say "I would", I know that I wouldn't either...well maybe if we had the time..right!?

More public transportation options in Madison could make things faster and easier for us! However, I won't hold my breath..just yet.

Portland Oregon Trip, Take Two

I find that I'm always more inspired to reduce my impact on the environment when I can immerse myself in nature for a few days. When out in Oregon, I met up with my funn friend Heather who is currently living in Washington State. Last Saturday we drove about 45 minutes West of Portland to visit Tillamook State Forest. We did a day hike up Elk Creek trail and around to Elk Mountain Trail. It's a 3,000 foot climb to the "summit" of Elk Mountain, which I know isn't the biggest of accomplishments, but I'd say climbing it in the rain with running shoes on makes for a bigger challenge. So with that said...after a few "false summits"...I was at the real summit of my first mountain last weekend.

What a beautiful hike, full of mossy trees, Elk scat, large slugs, and beautiful views. And after slipping and scurrying down from the mountain on a trail that after all the rain we had been hiking in started to look like a stream bed we were safe and dry and enjoying the warmth of a local pizza establishment, watching MTV's the real world in Tillamook, OR.

The next day we made it to Rockaway Beach and Haystack Rock as we drove north up the coast. I saw the largest sea stars I've ever seen (they aren't fish so we're not supposed to call them starfish..tell your kids.) I also and learned that puffins nest on the coast of Oregon from April through August...darn it we missed them by only a few weeks!

So next time I visit the coast, (which will hopefully be soon) I want to make sure I see these awesome sea birds! Go Nature!

Portland Oregon, Take One

What a week! I have a lot of things to post so they will be coming up short and quick. I was in Portland Oregon this past weekend and what a beautiful, liberal, green, forward thinking city! I was impressed by so many things that I saw in the city as I meandered through the down-town streets with my backpack on and the smell of several days of camping on my bones. I will post several things this week that I loved about Portland and my 3-day trip to visit my good friend Heather or (as some of us like to call her, H-Bag)

I was about 5 hours into my solo exploration of the downtown area yesterday when I decided I wanted to check out the Old Town/China Town District. It was neat to see the Chinese lanterns on the street and some statues sprinkled here and there along with what looked like some amazing Asian restaurants, but it definitely didn't rival the China Town of San Francisco so I wasn't so impressed.

Lucky for me though I happened by an eco-friendly store called Seven Planet right in the midst of China Town.

http://www.sevenplanet.com/index.php/

As I had some serious time to kill...I'd say another 5 hours before my red-eye flight to Chicago, I went in to take a look. There are a lot of different things going on when you walk through the doors oft his cute little store. There is the tea-shop... I was greeted by a well-dressed gentleman who offered me some complimentary fair-trade tea. I politely turned him down..as I already had consumed 2 large coffees prior to my arrival and we all know too much of some things is just not a good thing, especially when wondering aimlessly through a foreign city without a bathroom in sight, but I digress. Aside from the tea-shop the store sells fresh flowers, jewelry, clothing, house-hold goods, pet-goods, soups/lotions, food and books.

Everything in the store had the same eco-friendly labeling and the jewelry was made mostly by local artists. Most of the artists had used reclaimed materials in their jewelry, such as scrap leather, scrap fabric, pages from old books, rubber from tires and copper from old appliances. I really wanted to purchase some earrings from one of these old copper appliances, but after making my selection remembered my slight skin-sensitivity to copper. And it seems to me that reclaimed appliance copper could potentially be even more of a skin irritant than perhaps it's purist copper cousin. So..instead I bought myself a bracelet made from reclaimed belt leather...I will post a picture later!

I also purchased Mike and I each a Lunchskin to aid us in packing "green" lunches for work!

http://www.lunchskins.com/home.php?cat=



According to the LunchSkin website,
more than 20 million sandwich bags from school lunches go into landfills in the US each day! Yowsa! These fashionable Lunchskins replace those pesky sandwich bags...they can be washed, reused and they have a nice velcro closing to "hopefully" keep things fresh! I'm excited to give these a try and report back on how they're working!

I made my purchases and spoke briefly with the gentleman taking my money. I asked him if he could recommend a locally owned restaurant that was known for using locally grown ingredients. He pointed me to a place down the street called the Davis Street Tavern. The menu was a little pricey for a solo street wanderer on the end of her 3 day vacation like myself but I was lucky enough to walk in during Happy Hour! Horray! I believe my server may have thought I was off the street when I appeared backpack in tow and probably smelling like a wild mountain creature from having camped the past two nights in the rain...but regardless of the serious dreadlock that was forming on the back of my head, I sat in luxury, sipped my wine and sampled some great local fare on the corner of Davis and 5th in the lovely "green" city of Portland. I ordered myself a tasty Caesar Salad before digging into the best Fish Tacos I've ever tried.

Cheers to you Portland, I give you, your "green" store and your "local" fish tacos a thumbs up.

Hug a Polar Bear

The Nissan Leaf is here! It's 100% electric and according to the commercial I saw last night, if you buy one you'll get to hug a polar bear. (okay maybe not)


http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/index?dcp=ppn.39666654.&dcc=0.216878497#/leaf-electric-car/

It appears that you need a garage so you can install the charging dock/fueling station at your home.

I don't have a garage.
But once I have a garage....watch out..because I'm going to be hugging some polar bears.

Since it will likely take a few years for us to see exactly how this car will operate on the road and if there are many performance deficiencies, I think I can wait until I have the garage. I only hope that people do buy this car so Nissan continues to make them and other car companies compete..which would only result in the best electric cars possible on the market.

Don't forget the General Motor's EV1 of the 90's that sank horrifically. I recommend this documentary if you haven't seen it. http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/

To Live Simply

It seems to me that in some ways being environmentally conscious and economically conscious go hand in hand. Being frugal is an act of sustainability. As a frugal being one gets by on less and thus makes a smaller impact.

Growing up, I was often embarrassed when going into a second-hand store or garage sale with my mom. I could never quiet understand why it seemed everyone else I knew shopped primarily at the mall and my family did not. I would get angry and ask "why can't I just have this or that". I think it's natural to get caught in this race of course as it is how our society operates...bigger is better. I know that growing up we got by on less for economic reasons but by today's standards we would have been perceived as a very "green" family. I have wonderful memories from childhood and I know that the principles that I stand firm on are grounded on what I learned and experienced early on. We went to the farmers market, we used canvas bags, we shopped at second-hand stores, we had a garden, we lived in small houses, we didn't travel far for vacation, we camped, we turned off lights, and we had a clothing line. I grew up eating vegetables from our garden, fish from Wisconsin lakes and venison from local deer. Do I think I had a perfect childhood..well No. (does anybody?) Do I think I had a happy childhood...Yes, very. I have a lot to learn about being sustainable and environmentally conscious, but I feel fortunate to have had such a good start.

We were not the "Joneses".
To not "keep up with the Joneses" could be perceived as social and cultural failure. Unfortunately for so long, "keeping up with the Joneses" has lead to a lot of waste. Too many cars.... gas guzzling cars. I curse the Hummer driver...unless you are in a war zone what is the point of your big inefficient vehicle. And there are big houses that require too much gas to heat and electricity. Clothing that lasts one season and is then tossed aside, not to mention the amount of food prepared and then thrown away.

Now I'm not saying that I don't respect and sometimes envy the people who live in their dream homes and drive their dream cars. They have worked very hard to be successful and everyone deserves to do what they wish and be happy. When I walk by beautiful houses in my neighborhood, I do marvel at their greatness. And mostly I think, how wonderful it is for the people who live there. It may be that someone finally purchased their dream home and I for one am not opposed to people achieving their dreams. Plus, I need to remember that there are people who live luxurious wasteful lifestyles but who donate thousands of dollars to charities, adopt and foster children or make other amazing contributions to society. To these people we should all be very grateful, however I am opposed to people who forget that there are other people who live on this planet or who say "why should I care what happens to the planet in 100 years, I'll be long gone".

Luckily for us, a lot of manufacturers have jumped on the GREEN bandwagon. Since it is unlikely that society is going to stop trying to "keep up" we now have options to help reduce our impact on the environment. There are wonderful cars on the market now that are gas-efficient and they're not just hybrids. There are Energy-Star appliances that use less energy and front-load washing machines that use less water. Plus, there are so many sustainable materials for building and decorating homes now!

Here's a nice website that links to sustainable Home Furnishings
http://www.sustainabilitystore.com/index_home_furnishings.html

I too need to remind myself that when I have the urge to splurge I should be looking at local and responsible goods and since being GREEN is "in", there are a lot of clothing stores that have moved to more sustainable materials.

I know that Patagonia has long been an environmental champion.
http://www.patagonia.com/us/environmentalism?netid=2

And I've had my eye on FAIR INDIGO, a socially responsible fair trade clothing store.
http://www.fairindigo.com/about/

I'll leave you with a quote that I love, often attributed to Ghandi
"Live simply so that others may simply live"

Let us try to tread lightly my friends.

Bike the Drive (Car-Free, Care-Free)

Mike and I participated in Ride the Drive this past Sunday here in Madison. I wish I would have had my camera because we could have gotten some really awesome photos. Here's a link to Channel 3's photo page.

http://www.channel3000.com/slideshow/news/24805441/detail.html

Ride the Drive is a free community event that closes some of the city's most busy downtown streets and opens them up to bicyclists, skaters, walkers, strollers , etc.
Here's a link to the website and the route.

http://www.cityofmadison.com/transportation/ridethedrive/route.cfm">>

The closed streets make a 6 mile loop and you can join the loop at any place along the way. This is the third time the event has been held in Madison and we've been lucky enough to be in town for it every time. My favorite part of the stretch is John Nolen Drive and biking through the tunnel under the Monona Terrace. If you catch it at the right time you can be biking under the tunnel while a local musician is playing...and the acoustics are truly amazing!

Along the 6 mile loop you can stop and purchase drinks and food from vendors, get your bike tuned up, listen to music, and talk to people about biking or environmental issues. There's even a music stage purely powered by people peddling bikes. This year they also had hula hoop making, face painting, bike demo's and more. It's such a great way to get people out downtown on a Sunday!

This year was especially exciting because Lance Armstrong was in town to help promote the event! Over 50,000 people came out to join the fun! I didn't see Lance Armstrong specifically but I did see the two police escort motorcycles riding the loop with a huge group of bicycles following as everyone tried for a chance to "bike with Lance". So I saw the huge group of bicyclists and he was undoubtedly in the middle of that crowd. I'm not a huge cycling fan and I don't necessarily follow the Tour de France, but I did find myself getting a little excited at the thought of catching a glimpse.

There were a lot of people out to see Lance and praise him for all that he's done to promote cycling in this country as well as people who were excited to see him as a cancer survivor and someone who has made an impact personally on their lives. I saw a lot of LiveStrong jerseys buzzing by me, a lot of smiles but also some tears. It was very touching and not something I had expected as I biked along the loop.

I hope this event only grows in Madison and that it continues to help promote bike-commuting in downtown. My only complaint is that it was hard to find recycling bins along the route. It was a shame because a lot of vendors were selling Gatorade and water bottles.

Clothing Line Conundrum

We put up the clothing line Monday night!

And it hasn't been used yet..see last night I was faced with a challenge. I ended up staying in the office later than I had anticipated to get a couple of things done at work. This left me scurrying and racing home on my bike so that I could make it to my yoga class on time.

I had promised Mike that I would switch the laundry before I took off for class because he needed something dried. My intention was to come home and hang the laundry on the line (with the new plastic clothing pins I just purchased at Shopko Tuesday night) but I was now running out of time.

Ah!
What do I do! I had 10 minutes to get my yoga bag together, change clothes and get back on my bike!
Here were my options.

a. quickly put the clothes in the dryer so I have enough time to bike to class.
or
b. take the time to hang the clothes on the clothing line and get in the car and drive to class.

I'm not sure what the best environmentally friendly option was...but I decided to put the clothes in the dryer and bike to yoga. So I used unnecessary energy to dry the clothes but didn't burn any gasoline to get to yoga.

Now I'm not neurotic and I didn't lose any sleep over this ...but this whole challenge has me thinking much more about my choices. bah!

I must also express my disappointment in the fact that Shopko didn't carry wooden clothespins. What's with the cheap plastic ones? I want the real deal!

Bike Camping

There's just something about being able to get out of town for a weekend, get out into nature and camp without ever turning on the car.

Mike turned me on to the idea of Bike Camping a few years ago before I even had my bike. We rented a bike from Budget Bicycle near our home, packed up the bike trailer and biked out to Blue Mounds State Park. As I didn't own my own bike or bike regularly it was a challenging ride and left me with a very sore behind but I loved it!

If you have a bike, some means of carrying your gear and a destination in mind, I think it's about as easy as any camping trip can get.

The Military Ridge State Trail is perfect for this type of adventure! You can hook up to the trail from the Capitol City Trail in Madison and the trail takes your through Verona, Mt. Horeb, Blue Mounds, Barneveld, and all the way to Dodgeville. http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/specific/militaryridge/pdfs/mrtmap04.pdf It is one of the Rails to Trails systems with a fairly level grade and smooth limestone and asphalt surfaces.

In the last few years we have tried to make it out to Blue Mounds for a bike-camping adventure at least once a year.

Last year we decided to do a two-night trip and take the trail out to Governor Dodge State Park. We took off on a Friday night after work for the journey. The weather was questionable but after I had told most of my co-workers about the trip I felt obligated to see it through. We got a slow start and ended up biking at least half of the ~25 miles in the dark. I didn't complain. When we hit Mt. Horeb about 6 miles away from our first campsite at Blue Mounds...my bike light went out. I had to bike right behind Mike so that I could follow the beam of his bike light and see where I was going. I couldn't complain. At about the same time the bike light failed it started to rain. We pulled into our campsite at about 10pm on Friday night and had our dehydrated Pad Thai dinner sitting on the wet picnic table in the dark. It was an adventure especially dodging some unrecognizable nocturnal creatures on the trail.

This year the weather was nicer and it was the first time we could talk other people into joining us for the trip. We had two other couples bike with us on Saturday to Blue Mounds.
We met up on the Southeast Bike Trail near our house and proceeded to the Military Ridge. 3 bike trailers and several saddle-bags helped carry our camping equipment and other necessities for the evening.



We stopped off at Tulavu Coffeehouse in Verona for some iced beverages and met up with another couple who were going to ride along for a short part of the trail. After getting our caffeine buzz for the morning we continued down the trail and through some beautiful wetlands. Our plan was to stop at Riley's Tavern about 7 miles from Verona for the infamous Riley Fest for live music lunch and some beverages however they were charging $15 just to get into the festival. We decided our intention of staying for an hour and having a drink didn't justify a $15 cover-charge so we pushed on to Mt. Horeb another 6 miles away.

Mt. Horeb is a quaint suburb of Madison WI. In the 1800s more than 75% of the community was Norwegian so signs entering the city read Velkommen (Welcome)! The city has been dubbed the Troll Capital of the World and you can find trolls everywhere when driving or biking through town.

We ended up having our own festival like fun at the Grumpy Troll Brewery with some pizza, beverages and shuffle-board. The second floor of the brewery was recently converted into a pizzeria and the pizza is delicious as are the bloody mary's! http://thegrumpytroll.com/

After a short walk around Mt. Horeb to walk off lunch we found ourselves at the Mt. Horeb Aquatic Center. We enjoyed the water slide and diving boards and surprisingly a competitive game of pool basketball!

We got into Blue Mounds around 6pm and set up camp at the State Park. Blue Mounds State Park has created bike only campsites that are accessible right from bike trail.

Yesterday we packed up the campsite by 9am and headed into the Town of Blue Mounds for breakfast. We stopped at the Hooterville Inn for breakfast (this was also our stop Saturday night for dinner). Don't let the name confuse you...this is nothing like the well known Hooters restaurant. If you leave a tip over $5.00 the servers will pull something similar to a train horn and the restaurant fills with a lovely hoot-hoot-hooting noise! The food is good too!

We all made it back into Madison in one piece. There may have been a sore behind or two...but no accidents, no popped bike tires and no complaints!



Plus to keep in the environmental theme...we didn't burn any gasoline!
We did burn calories though...fueled by pizza, french fries and burgers.

Here's thanks to the strong guys who hauled the trailers!

Sneak Attack

We had our August Green Faster Challenge Meeting last night at a lovely home on the Near East Side in the Williamson Neighborhood. We will be having one meeting a month to go over what each family has been doing to reduce their impact and discuss challenges, goals etc.

We will also be reviewing the ENACT book.
Available online here: http://www.enactwi.org/index.php?page=download-the-pdfs

The first chapter is titled "Conserve Energy" and Mike and I will be leading the discussion next month. We are thinking about making several dioramas using old shoe-boxes to bring this chapter to life! (Diorama-a small model of a real-life scene that has lifelike details and a realistic background). When was the last time you made a Diorama!

I must say that I'm very impressed and a little intimidated by the other families who are competing with us.

One of the families composts underneath their sink all year using worms. Another family only produces a small plastic grocery bag full of garbage a week. And another family eats almost 100% local or organic, buying and freezing local fruit and vegetables to use in the winter.

Here's a link to the ENACT website and the short family bios. http://www.enactwi.org/index.php?page=greener-faster-challenge-participants

It was interesting as we were discussing all that we have done so far in the challenge, nobody divulged how they stand against the Madison average. It was simply not discussed! It seems nobody wants to share their statistical information..and I like it this way. We are all simply trying to improve upon what we each do individually. Mike on the other hand thinks this should be public knowledge and he intends to argue for full disclosure at the next ENACT meeting.

I think that we will have to come with the sneak attack approach and surprise everyone in the end!

The Story of Our Garbage

As living beings we are bound by a cycle of consumption and disposal. However if we make educated decisions about what we consume and how we dispose we can reduce our negative impact.

One of the challenges this year will be to reduce the amount of waste that we produce at our home. Last week we weighed our garbage and recycling. Our recycling came in at 7.5 lbs. for the week.

I asked Mike to guess how much our garbage weighed when he came home from work that day.
He took his bike helmet off before saying "20 lbs"
I perked up and yelped "20 lbs?!?"
He looked at me again and said "25 lbs?".
Nope..not even close! Our garbage weighed in at 2.5 lbs. It consisted of mostly tissues and floss. This may not be our typical garbage production in a single week...so I'm curious and will be weighing our garbage this week too. Stay tuned!

Recycling can sometimes be so daunting, especially when one city may recycle a certain material while others do not. The rules seem to change often too, so it's important to remain educated to fully utilize the resources at hand and ensure that our refuse ends up in the correct place.

That being said, I've done some research. The City of Madison has recently expanded the products that they can recycle, which will help us reduce our garbage production even more!

From their website, Madison recycles the following products if placed in the recycling cart.

PAPER: In addition to newspapers, magazines, catalogs, and corrugated cardboard, you can recycle these paper products:

* Junk Mail
* Paper Grocery Bags
* Envelopes
* Office and Computer Paper
* Phone Books
* Cereal and Cracker Boxes
* Soda Cases etc.
* Paper Egg Cartons
* Paper Milk and Juice Cartons
* Juice Boxes and Other Aseptic Packages

PLASTIC: The City can recycle the following plastic containers:

* All plastic bottles (except Motor Oil bottles)
* #1 Peanut Butter and Condiment Jars
* Plastic Frozen Juice Containers

Basically anything with a screw top. And the City can now recycle the lids and caps from water-type bottles...just make sure they are sealed tightly or they'll fall off and get screened out and thrown away. - I learned this from ENACT!

OTHER: The City does recycle the following:

* Glass Bottles and Jars
* Aluminum Cans
* Aluminum Foil Pans and Pie Plates
* Steel/Tin Cans
* Empty Aerosol Cans


So, we have a lot of options for recycling but what are some common items that the City cannot recycle?

The city of Madison does not recycle the following plastics:

* Tubs and Containers
* Frozen Food Containers
* Microwave Dinner Plates

So all of our sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, yogurt tubs cannot be recycled by the city! I know..shocking! So what do we do?
Well, I've recently learned that Whole Foods collects other plastics for recycling, mainly #5 PP containers. We will be dropping off our first load tonight.

According to the City, 8.3% of the material put into Madison's recycling cannot be recycled. Common things that cannot be recycled but typically end up in recycling carts include; paper or plastic cups, plastic blister packaging (from electronics, batteries etc.), styrofoam, broken glass, light bulbs, and rigid plastics.

Now that I have the correct information, I'll be able to make more educated decisions about what items I purchase and what items I throw away. Here's the City of Madison website for more information:

http://www.cityofmadison.com/streets/index.cfm

Utility Bill Breakdown

Below is a portion of an email that Mike and I received from ENACT this week. It breaks down our Gas/Electric/Water from 2009 and so far in 2010 and tells us how we're doing so far. ENACT has also given us a goal for the upcoming Year-of-the-Challenge.

_________________________________________________
Gas:

Average Madison Gas Usage: 856 therms/year

Your 2009 Gas Usage: 254 therms/year

Your 2010 Gas Usage: 210 therms/year (if you were to continue doing what you have done this year so far)

Congratulations! Your gas bill is very impressive. You are 71% better than the Madison average starting off. Sonya and I are very impressed and we can tell that the two of you have done a lot to make your place more sustainable. Keep up the good work!

Electric:

Average Madison Electric Use: 7200 kWh/year

Your 2009 Average Electric Use: 5,934 kWh/year

Your 2010 Average Electric Use (Continuing what you are doing now): 5,124 kWh/year

Good Job! According to your numbers in 2009 you are 18% below the Madison average. This is really great but Sonya and I think you can do better. Your goal kWh for the year should be 4,320. This means that coming into the fall your kWh/month should not be more than 360. Make sure you unplug those appliances when you are not home!

Water:

Average Madison Water Use (for two people): 47,450 gal/year

Your 2009 Water Usage (per person breakdown): 28,257 gal/year

Ok so the good news is that no matter how you break it down you are right around 40% below the Madison average. You you are 41% better than the average for Madison! You guys are doing great, but imagine how much you can do by making some simple changes.
__________________________________________________


So given these numbers I'm very happy with our gas use...though I'm sure it's so low because of the size of the condo and the fact that we have only turned on that air-conditioner twice this summer. I'm a little concerned with our electricity use but I'm not sure how much we'll need to do to reduce it. I think we are pretty good about turning off lights when we're not in the room, except for my bad habit of leaving the bathroom light on all morning when I'm getting ready for work. In my defense I'm in and out of the bathroom a lot in the morning...but luckily I have Mike to remind me of this wrong-doing and surprisingly even Mike's dad. Thanks guys, now I know what you two gents say about me when I'm not around! It's great though because now I'm making an effort to change my ways.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

In addition, I've noticed that after I cleaned the refrigerator coils, some of the food was too cold...ice cold... frozen even! Shockingly, I think cleaning the coils actually worked! We've turned the cooling system up...umm...wait or is it down? Either way the food is no longer frozen and I hope that means that the refrigerator is not working as hard and saving us some electricity. Mike also turned down the temperature on the water-heater which should help. I suppose we will see if there is an improvement when we get our next electric bill.


In other news, we have purchased our clothes line and it should arrive next week with plenty of good weather left in the summer to use it!

We purchased this one off of Realgoods.com :


http://www.realgoods.com/product/home-outdoor/household/laundry/retractable+clothesline.do

I know that a cheap rope would have done the trick, but as we share the backyard with seven other lovely earthly beings, we thought the retractable line would be more considerate! Bring on the sunshine and the wind...and the scent of freshly dried clothing off the line!

And so it begins....

It's officially August so the Challenge has begun!

Mike and I will have to begin attempting to reduce our electric/gas consumption, water consumption, and waste production. We will also begin attempting to reduce the miles we put on the car and increase the percentage of organic and local foods that we purchase. ENACT has given us some spreadsheets to monitor our progress. The electric/gas and water will be easy to monitor. As for the other areas we will have to analyze our grocery bills and weigh our garbage and recycling. Luckily we only have to do this one week out of the month. In August we are picking the first week of the month. I went grocery shopping yesterday and chose the foods that I normally would have gotten except I did swap in a can of organic black beans instead of the conventional and I purchased the organic eggs. 75% of my grocery bill went towards organic or local goods. I think that's a pretty good start!

Usually I purchase the eggs labeled "cage-free" even if they aren't labeled organic. There's a lot of controversy over the labels on egg cartons these days as more people are becoming aware of the terrible conditions chickens have to endure in many factory farms across the country. The standards that farms need to meet to label their eggs "cage-free" or "free-range" are very loose. To maintain a "free-range" label, I've read that farmers only have to prove that they've given their chickens access to the outdoors, even if there are hundreds of chickens in a barn with only a small outdoor access door. A majority of the chickens probably never had access to that door but the farmers are allowed to label their eggs this way. To label eggs "cage-free" a farmer must allow their hens to walk, spread their wings and lay their eggs in nests. This sounds lovely, though according to the Humane Society of the United States the cage-free hens still live in large flocks that may consist of several thousand birds who never go outside. Most of these birds still have portions of their beaks burned off (painful mutilation) to prevent the birds from hurting each other since they live in such close quarters. I believe that purchasing organic, free-range, cage free eggs is still better than buying the conventional however I should look into local options like purchasing directly from a farmer. My parents previously raised happy chickens on their hobby farm and I used to get my eggs there but that's not an option for me anymore. I wonder if the Regent Street Condo documents would allow for a chicken coop in the back yard...or more importantly I wonder if Mike would allow it.

I marked the first day of the challenge by doing a once over on the refrigerator coils (see previous blog) and by making our new cloth napkins. Well, I guess "new" as in old and tattered cloth napkins. They are indeed nothing spectacular but we will give them a try. I used a cloth bed-sheet and cut it into about 20 napkins. There's a lot of sheet left for more napkins but I thought we'd try it out before I put too much more energy into this project. I do not know how to sew so we will see how they hold up in the washing machine as the ends are already frayed from the butcher job I did with the scissors.


I guess if I can wipe my hands with a cheap paper towel I should be able to wipe my hands with a tattered napkin made from an old bed-sheet. We don't typically carry out our domestic affairs in a regal manner so I don't think this will be a problem. I guess unless we suddenly decide we'd like to do some formal entertaining...but until we own more than 2 spoons I don't think that will be happening!