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.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, October 22, 2010
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!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
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.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
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!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, September 10, 2010
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/
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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.
Monday, August 30, 2010
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.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.
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.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
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!
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!
Monday, August 23, 2010
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!
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