Mowing the lawn the old-fashioned way

Have you seen one of these before?  I only have seen a couple in my life.  It's a push reel mower.  You push it, the blades spin, and the grass gets cut.  Simple, no?  We got this mower off of Craigslist for $60, and we will never ever have to buy gas for it!  Lawn mowers are notoriously bad polluters because there are fewer regulations for lawnmowers than for cars.  For our 0.21 acre lot, it works just fine!

As an added bonus, it is amazing exercise.  It was pretty challenging the first time, actually.  That might be because I painted, packed, cleaned, and moved on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  It also might be because the lawn really should have been mowed a few weeks ago so it was kind of long in a few areas.  It got done though!

Happy Spring to everybody!  May your lawn mowing be equally fulfilling!

Daily Decisions - Clothing

Goal: Reduce clothing waste
Problem:  Inevitably, socks get holes.
Solution:  Darn those socks!  Actually, I don't think I'm technically "darning" our socks, but I'm taking a needle and thread to them.  If it's a nice clean hole without much wear around it, usually a lasting fix is to just sew it up.  I'm finding that some of my socks are so threadbare at the point that as soon as I sew one hole, a new one rips right next to it.  I'm going to take one of my most beat up socks and start using it to make patches.  The ball and heel wear out while there is still so much good fabric elsewhere!  Doing this I think that I can get our socks to last a good, long time.

WORMS!

I've been thinking about worms for a long time...

Most of Matthew and my waste these days comes from the leftovers from our produce; rinds, cores, and the like.  I know it seems like this is innocuous stuff to send to the landfill because it's totally biodegradable, but unfortunately it's not.  In short, the conditions in a landfill are not those such that food waste can biodegrade.  (For more information about this, you can read about it here and here.)  What's worse is that because the waste is in an anaerobic environment, it ends up producing a lot of methane which is a major greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.  (Which is another reason to consider eating less beef, since cows are amazing methane producers, but I digress...)

In Corvallis, we did our best to keep our food waste from going to the landfill by hauling most of each week's scraps to church on Sunday and handing them off to a family who owns goats and chickens who eat said scraps.  If you happen to live in Corvallis, you might be interested in their municipal compost heap.  They have "green carts" that you can put in all kinds of plant and food matter along with paper towels and certain paper plates/cups.  (You have to verify that the plates/cups that you use do not have a plastic coating on them which many of them do... You may think it's wax, but it's probably plastic.  Look for plates that say they are compostable, or contact the manufacturer and ask them what the coating is.  Or, better yet, just use reusable plates.)    We were unable to participate in this awesome program, though, because we lived in an apartment that didn't have a bin.  I considered asking our manager to get one, but I realized that based on what I found in the recycling bins, I didn't think that the people in our apartment would use the green cart properly.  I digress yet again...

Now that we are in Aloha, we know no farmers, have no green cart, but still eat fruits and veggies!  We also have a little outdoor storage closet... Enter the worm bin.

I found directions about how to set one up here and found fairly local worms here.  I bought my plastic tub at Goodwill for $2.99, and I used our drill to put holes in it for ventilation and draining.  As I was walking home with my container (seriously... who walks 1.7 miles hauling one of these things?  I do.), I remembered that worms don't like light, but I had just bought a clear plastic container.  I remedied this by using some random spray paint that we have.  (For the record, I hate spray paint.  It is full of nasties, as your lungs will attest as you spray it.  From here on out, I'm only buying canned paint and use a brush when we need to paint... preferably the low-VOC variety.)  I happened to have pink, so I painted on a worm.  Or a "W".  Or whatever your imagination says it is.  My wormies arrived in a little box in the mail today, and they were still wriggling, so they're alive.  I prepared their bedding, and I placed them in it, and then I tossed in the few scraps that I managed to save today.

Make worm poop, young pinkish wrigglers!  Then make more worms!  Then I will steal your lovely worm poop and throw it at plants!  It shall be MARVELOUS!

Rethinking laundry

Part of what has come with this move is rethinking all of our old solutions to "problems".   As we took steps to become a more simple, sustainable home, we had to consider how we would do things that would work in our apartment.  Well, we have a new apartment now, and it's time to solve all of the same problems... again!

In our old apartment, I'd wash a load of laundry in a common washing room, and then I'd haul it out to the balcony and hang it on our wooden laundry rack and our clothesline.  Once the days stayed below the 60s, I would use the dryer again.  Our apartment stayed cool, and in the Pacific Northwest you just can't leave damp things around in the winter!

Upon arriving at this apartment, we noticed that one of the rules is that we are not supposed to put laundry on our patio (any at all, I am assuming).  I quickly realized that the clothesline is going to take an extended vacation, and I started drying our clothes on the drying rack inside in front of the sliding glass door where there is a fair amount of light.  However, a full large load of clothes doesn't fit on the drying rack, and the clothes just don't dry as quickly inside, so they sometimes smelled a bit sour.  That's just not going to work for me.

Fortunately, we have our own washer and dryer, so I can be a bit more flexible about their use since it isn't a flat rate of $1.00 any time you want to turn the thing on.  I also decided to break the rules.  I'm putting the drying rack outdoors whenever it is warm and dry enough.  I am sticking it in the back corner, and I'm placing our outdoor chairs in front of it, so I am hoping that nobody even notices it.  If the management says something,  I'll bring it back indoors.  I'm also considering writing to the property management company to suggest that they rethink their rule and perhaps at least allow drying racks although I'd understand if they don't want clotheslines or clothing on railings.  Must.... fight... ridiculous rules....

Anyway, about being flexible with washer and dryer use...  I used to do absolutely full washer loads because I read somewhere that the motor used to run the washer worked just about as hard for a medium or small load as for a large load.  I haven't been able to find that again, and I'm not even sure it's true; however, that was my working assumption.  Here, if I do a large load there is just no way to dry it without using a dryer.  I figure that the dryer is more of an energy hog, so I have started doing medium loads.  This size of load fits on the laundry rack, and I can (sneakily) dry it outside if it's warm enough.

For all of the frustrations and backward stepping here, I have found a way that this whole thing might actually break even or come ahead energy and possibly even money-wise.  Since I can run the dryer for as short of a time as I'd like, I've decided to employ a "finishing it off" method to drying.  Unless somebody complains, I think I can continue to dry clothes completely outside during the summer.  However, now when it's cold, I plan to wash clothes in the morning, let them hang dry in front of the glass door until early evening, and then finish them off in the dryer using as little time as they need.  Sound good?

How to make vegetable broth...

... because it's really ridiculously simple.

1) Save vegetable scraps.  Freeze them if you need to!  (I did...)  I used bits of potato, carrot tops, onion skins, zucchini tops, bits of brocolli stalks, garlic tops and skins, and probably some other things that I'm not remembering.  I also tossed in some fresh oregano that I have growing, and I added some pepper and a couple of bay leaves.  You can look up other vegetables to see if they go in broth if you are uncertain.  The only thing that I know you don't want to add is leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, and kale.

2) When your bag is full, get ready for broth time!  Defrost your veggies and throw them in a stock pot then add some cold water.  (Apparently, it's somehow better if you start with cold water.  Vegetable magic, I'm sure.)  Theoretically you are supposed to have about one parts water to one part vegetable matter.  I'm pretty sure you'll be OK as long as you have a decent amount of vegetable matter.

Nom nom nom... Looks delish!

3) Now turn up the heat, and get this pot of goodness simmering!  You don't really want it to boil, but you do want it to simmer.  Once it's simmering, put it on a heat that will keep it simmering, and let it go for at least an hour!  I stirred mine every once in awhile, but that might not be totally necessary... I might have just wanted to admire my broth.

4) After around an hour, your kitchen probably smells great, and your broth is also probably done.  It's time to strain out the squishy plant matter and save the broth.  Remember, this isn't pasta... you want to save the liquid and get rid of the solid stuff!  (I only say this because this part of the process felt incredibly backward to the pasta-eater in me.)  Set your strainer in a bowl or another pot, and pour your liquid in.

It looks delicious and nutritious!

5) Let your broth cool off, and then store it in containers to freeze or use.  I used some cottage cheese containers that I've collected over the year.

My almost full gallon bag of veggies gave me about 12 cups of broth, I think.  I already used two cups when making rice yesterday, and it added a nice flavor (and probably some nutrients!).

So there you have it!  A very inexpensive, resourceful way to have some broth around.  Enjoy!

Silly Sun Hat

 It's summer.  It's Corvallis.  Thus, the sun occasionally makes an appearance!  Last year I learned that most sunscreens on the market contain ingredients that scientists believe cause melanoma (!!!).  This made me not want to put on sunscreen so often anymore.  I try not to spend too much time in direct sunlight, but it does happen on occasion.  This summer we gave away our collection of old sunscreens on Craigslist (if they're going to buy the same stuff anyway...), and we got a tube of Badger sunscreen which uses zinc oxide (but NOT nano-particle!) as the active ingredient.  This stuff seems to work well, and non-nano zinc oxide is believed to be safe, from what I've read.  Plus, the sunscreen has some cocoa in it, so it has the added benefit of smelling kind of chocolate-y.

Despite finding a decent sunscreen, it's still fairly expensive and it comes in a plastic tube.  Clearly I needed a HAT!  Not just any hat, but a slightly silly looking sun hat!  I found instructions here, and I made this super simple hat using leftover fabric from an apron and from a dress that I made.

The hat is reversible, which is kind of cool.

You can add a bow for ornament...

And there's nothing like making silly faces while wearing a silly hat!

I don't blow my nose on trees anymore...

Why?  Maybe because I like hugging them.

Actually, that's not the reason.  Although, hugging that tree would have been a lot more gross if someone had blown their nose on it.

Honestly, I can't keep up with the politics of tissue making.  I know that Kimberly-Clark (the makers of Kleenex) has gotten a lot of flack about their practices.  I think they were chopping trees down in an unsustainable manner and in a way that was harming habitats and such.  Regardless, even if we find a good way to source the trees, there is still a water-wasting, energy-intensive, chemical-filled process that turns a chunk of brown wood into a fluffy, bright white cloud for your nose.

I avoid keeping up with the politics and the chemicals by avoiding tissues altogether.  I have been struck down by a ridiculous head cold these last few days (the kid who gave it to me might have gotten extra homework when I tutored him yesterday...), and I have been blowing my nose on cloth.  I have used a few handkerchiefs that I used to use to pull my hair back during middle school when it was still fashionable (I think?).  I also made a stack of handkerchiefs out of the scraps of the sheet that I used to make drawstring bags.  Finally, I have even been using a small stack of real, bona fide frilly hankies that I got my hands out.  Nothing is too good for my nose goo.  Except maybe trees.

To rinse them out, I leave them in the sink for a while and we wash our hands over them.  Then they are ready to go in the laundry, get cleaned, dry in the sun, and then be used again!

Hooray for being sick!  No...  I don't think I mean that.  I mean, hooray for avoiding disposables even when being sick!

I Heart Produce Bags

This is my latest, greatest version of a reusable produce bag.  While I have made a number of drawstring bags, I like this style because it is easier to see the produce inside of the bag.  It is also very fast to make thanks to the fabulous properties of knit shirts.  I made this out of scraps of a shirt, and it took about 10-15 minutes.

Here are the instructions.  It's a very forgiving process.  Enjoy upcycling your worn out shirts into produce bags! :)

That's Garbage!

I don't think I have talked about how we deal with our waste, so I decided to do a post sharing what we've been doing in that area.  We have done a drastic reduction of waste this past year by changing how we purchase food.  Almost everything that we buy now comes from the bulk section or the produce section in the co-op.  We use cloth bags or reused containers to put our food in, which causes us to have virtually no waste from food.  I also learned that Allied Waste takes plastic film/bags for recycling, so I keep a bag of those under the sink to keep them out of the landfill.  (Note:  As I have mentioned before, plastic recycling isn't that great, and there isn't necessarily even a market for soft plastics right now, so recycling is not a sufficient reason for us to continue being OK with using more soft plastics.)  Looking through the soft plastics bag, I see that we primarily have cheese wrappers and cereal bags from the giant bags of cereal that we still buy at Winco.  While we both eat bulk oatmeal half of the week, and I have started making quick breads and scones for myself, Matthew still eats a few bowls of cold cereal each week, so we generate about one to two big bags per month.  I'd still like to figure out another way for him to get his cold cereal cravings satisfied without Winco cold cereal, and I'll probably work on that over this summer.  With all of these changes, I have found that our waste is now primarily fruit peels and vegetable trimmings.

I came to the realization months ago that buying a plastic bag whose sole purpose is to hold stuff that will be thrown away seems silly to me.  So I stopped using plastic bags.  Enter in this solution:

 For months, we have been using this milk jug for almost all of our waste.  We take it out every few days and empty it into the apartment's dumpster which is actually good because it never gives banana peels and cantalope seeds a chance to smell terribly gross.  However, the plastic has gradually absorbed odors and become pretty gross even with regular rinsings and washings, so we bought this stainless steel container that I found used:

 It should be a lot easier to keep clean!

While I have been speaking about garbage waste, I also want to talk about recycling waste.  This is another area that we have drastically reduced in the past year.  A couple of years ago, I found a container to put our recycling in that holds about as much as a paper bag from the store would.  Until a year ago, we would empty a full container every week.  These days, we take out our recycling maybe once a month, and a lot of that has been because we've been cleaning out school papers, so I am looking forward to seeing what happens now that we are done with school!

Our co-op does a couple of really cool things that can help people reuse instead of recycle.  For one thing, all of the plastic containers used for dairy products like yogurt, cream cheese, and cottage cheese can be reused in the bulk department.  Not only can you bring in your own to reuse, but they also accept containers that they will sterilize and make available in the store.  They even allow you to tare the container so that you don't pay for the container's weight.  Matthew and I try to avoid buying new plastic containers, but we currently buy one container of cottage cheese each month and two containers of cream cheese.   (I'm interested in learning how to make these things as well, but that has not been one of the things that I have done yet!)  It's nice to know that we, or somebody else, can reuse the containers, though.

Another cool thing that the co-op offers is milk in merlons.  This particular merlon is from Lochmead Farms in Junction City.  There is a refundable deposit on the bottle, and the co-op recollects the bottles and sends them back to the farm where they clean them and refill them with milk.  Pretty nifty!

So, that is where we are at right now.  In the near future, I hope to continue to reduce our use of new plastics.  I also hope to build a worm bin to turn our food waste into wonderful compost.  Fruit peels certainly aren't bad for the planet.  However, unfortunately, waste that goes to the landfill doesn't have a chance to get in the dirt and break down properly, so it instead rots and emits a lot of methane which is a greenhouse gas.  Since this is the case, it would be good if we could give our waste a chance to do its thing and turn into a lovely dirt.  I've looked it up, and it looks like a simple thing to build and maintain, but we might be moving soon, so I'm waiting until we have our next place!

Good drying rack vs. Bad drying rack

 Recently, I wrote about our flimsy plastic drying rack that finally cracked in a way that made it unusable.  We went through a process of deciding what time of drying rack would be best.  We considered chrome because we thought it would be sturdy and long lasting, but from reviews that we read, the ones on the market seem to be fairly cheaply made, and they tend to rust. Instead, we decided to look for a sturdy wood drying rack.  Instead of relying on Amazon.com for one of these, I  found this website and liked what I saw.  We got the small size rack, and it holds about the same amount of clothing as my old one.  At the bottom of this post you can see the old drying rack and the new drying rack.

I like the fact that the rack is lightweight but feels like it won't break.  It is fairly narrow and probably could blow over if it's pretty windy, but I think that in general it seems like it will stand up well to regular use.  It was pretty expensive, but I think that it was a good investment that will last far longer than the three years the old $15 plastic drying rack lasted.  Additionally, from what I could tell, the money was going to a small business instead of a large company, which I find appealing.

My only "complaints" about the ordering process was that the man we ordered from did not notify us when our order shipped, even after we emailed him asking if it had been.  However, it came a week after we ordered it, so it really was not a big deal.  The other unfortunate part was the fact that it was shipped with a styrofoam wrapper around it and a fair amount of additional plastic.  Fortunately, you can always find someone on Craiglist looking for free packaging materials, so I know that we won't have to throw it all away, but it was a downside worth mentioning.

All in all, I'm pleased with our purchase, and I feel like I can recommend this product!

How to dry laundry without a dryer... and how not to

 It's a lovely spring day here in Corvallis, and we had laundry to do!  I stopped line-drying our clothes sometime in late October, I think, and this has really been my first chance to use the line since.  I was pretty excited...

You can see our laundry happily waving in the sun and the breeze!

The clothesline is my favorite way of drying clothes.  One lesson I learned this year, though, is that you really should bring in your clothespins during the winter even if they are under cover.  Mine mildewed this past winter.  No great harm done, but it took some time to clean them with vinegar water and an old toothbrush...



Unfortunately, we have only so much room on our balcony for the clothesline, so I also use a drying rack.

Drying racks are a great idea.  I've used mine inside and out.  It is compact, and it gets the job done.  However, I bought this drying rack about four years ago, and I'm kicking myself for buying a plastic one.  Please don't make my mistake!!!  Mine actually broke the first day I used it, but it was in a way that I could keep using it.  Today one of the plastic pins snapped when I bumped it gently (after I had put all the clothes on it, of course!), and, as you can maybe see in the picture, it is now precariously leaning to one side and being propped up by a chair.  In short, it just needs to be replaced.

I looked online for drying racks, and I found a wooden one that seems to be sturdily built.  I'll try to remember to update when we've received it and used it!

Food - It's what's for dinner

It's also what's for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  I'm kind of enthusiastic about eating well.  I like putting good stuff into our bodies, and I try to do it in a way that has the least amount of impact on the planet.  In this post, I want to describe what we eat.

In General...
We buy almost all of our food at our local co-op.  Most of it is certified organic, and we try to eat in season and as locally as possible.  We spend about $300 a month total on food and household items for both of us.  Usually we spend less.  This is about $5 a day per person.  We eat out about six times a year, so we really do not spend much more than this.  I try to buy every bulk item that I can to reduce the amount packaging used to get our food to us.  Bulk is also almost always a cheaper route monetarily, which is a nice bonus.  For example, to avoid canned food, I buy bulk dried beans and make batches of beans in my crockpot when I need them.  Extras can be frozen for later.  I also try to make my own foods (like yogurt) to avoid packaging.

Breakfast
We don't always have a lot of time in the morning, so it is generally cereal or oatmeal with milk.  We buy oats in bulk.  We always eat a banana at breakfast.  I make enough oatmeal on Saturday to reheat a few days during the week.  It is easy to make oatmeal exciting by adding one or more of these ingredients: frozen or fresh berries, bananas, peanut or other nut butter, spiced apples, applesauce, raisins, cinnamon, sliced fruit, maple syrup, nuts, etc.  The cold cereal is an off-brand cheerios that is not organic and comes in a large plastic bag.  I'm not thrilled with this.  I'm working on alternatives.  I'm thinking about breakfast bars or a quick bread, perhaps.

Lunch
Each week I bake either bagels or bread from scratch.  I bake enough for two weeks, so I freeze something each week.  From these, we generally eat peanut butter (ground in the bulk section) and jelly (homemade freezer jam) on bread or cream cheese and sprouts on a bagel.  I'm working on getting us to use yogurt cheese instead of cream cheese since it will be cheaper and will keep us from bringing plastic containers in the house since I make my own yogurt.  Sometimes we eat leftovers from dinner at lunch.  Additionally, we always have a fruit and vegetable (usually cut up carrot sticks).  The fruit depends on the season.  Finally, yogurt and granola or a bit of cottage cheese is often also on the menu.  I want to eventually make my own cottage cheese, too.

Dinner
Our plate at dinner is generally half to two-thirds covered in fruits and vegetables.  The fruit again depends on the season.  We have salad every day with mostly lettuce during the summer and mostly kale during the winter.  Brocolli is a favorite side vegetable of ours, but other veggies make appearances.  We eat only about one pound of meat each month between the two of us, so our meals are mostly vegetarian.  We menu plan each month, so here's a list of some of the things we've eaten in the last two to three months:

• Homemade pizza
• Potato cheddar soup
• Taco lasagna  (made with beans, corn tortillas, etc.)
• Quinoa with sweet potatoes and mushrooms
• Black bean and rice enchiladas
• Stir fry (with tofu)
• Tofu stroganoff
• Chicken pot pie
• Homemade macaroni and cheese (with brocolli added in)
• Fettucine alfredo (homemade sauce, with brocolli added in)
• Black bean vegetable burgers
• Spaghetti with tofu balls
• Crockpot chili
• Vegetarian lasagna

Snacks
We both munch throughout the day to keep our energy up.  I bake granola bars, crackers, and a quick bread (like banana bread) from scratch each week.  I also make granola in the crockpot, and we eat this with milk or homemade yogurt.  I like frozen berries on top.  We froze a bunch of berries last summer.  Sometimes leftover bagels or portions of dinners make it into the freezer, and these are available for snacking.  I also bake a big batch of English muffins once every few months, and we eat these occasionally as snacks.

Desserts
On baking day, I generally make a batch of cookies, so we eat a few homemade cookies just about every day.  I cut down the butter and sugar in my recipe, and I added more flour and oats.

What we aim for...
We try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.  We try mostly use whole grain flour, and we eat a lot of oats.  We try not to overload with wheat but rather eat other grains and legumes.  I make recipes healthier by cutting down on excess oils and sugars.  I generally use butter in cookies, but most other recipes I substitute in  vegetable oil for butter.  If we dislike a recipe, we avoid it because there are so many that we like!  By making so much of our own food, I have a sense of appreciation for my food that I didn't have before.  I enjoy my food.  In the future, I really would like to grow a lot of my own produce.  I want to can, freeze, dry and store food to eat throughout the winter.  I'd also like to make more of my own dairy products directly from milk.  I'm excited to try some new things and see where things go!

How to eat less meat

Matthew and I started eating less meat for a few reasons.  First, the life animals live on factory farms is torturous, so we are trying to avoid supporting this practice.  (Please read books like Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser or Food, Inc. edited by Karl Weber for more information about this and other food issues worth knowing about.)  Second, even animals that are raised in a more healthful, kind way are still expensive both to the consumer monetarily and to the environment.  Our response to all of these issues is to each eat less than a half of a pound of meat per month.

Whatever your reason is for wanting to cut some or all meat out of your diet, here's what has worked for us!

Attitudes
1) Know why you are doing what you are doing.  Whether it is for health, for the animals, or for the environment, know your rationale so that you can stay motivated.  Additionally, decide exactly how much and what type of meat you are willing to purchase and/or eat.
2) Learn about how you will make up for the nutrients that you once got from meat.  The American Heart Association has a nice page about nutrients that a vegetarian (or near vegetarian) should watch out for.
3) Recognize that "meat substitutes" (tofu, tempeh, etc.) will not taste or feel like meat.  Your experiences eating food will change!

Steps to Take
1) Decide what you will actually eat that will keep the right nutrients in your diet.  It is certainly possible to do, but you should be careful to make sure that you are eating foods that give you the nutrients that you need.  As mentioned above, the American Heart Association has a page about these nutrients.  After seeing the key nutrients listed, do a search for foods that contain them and make sure that you will eat some of them!
2)  Figure out a list of go-to breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas.  Many of your old meals can be made vegetarian.  For example, make tacos out of pinto beans instead of ground turkey or beef.  Make a veggie lasagna.  Make burgers out of black beans.  I think I will be posting in the near future about the food that we currently eat...
3) Make your food, and enjoy it!  It's really not so difficult, and you can still eat a lot of delicious food.

I do want to add a note about eating socially because the issue pops up with us since we eat with others regularly.  When eating with others, I avoid eating meat when there is an option.  However, I don't ever make a fuss because, in my opinion, my eating meat one day will not be as harmful as my being insensitive to the hospitality of whoever is offering me the kindness of a meal.  How you handle the situation is your decision, but I think it is worth mentioning that if you act judgmentally, you have a good chance of scaring people away from seeing your point-of-view in a positive light.

Eat well!

I get to wait for the bus...

Yet another reason to adore Corvallis: They just made bus service free. They created a citywide fee to pay for it, and for just a couple of dollars per family a month, anybody can ride the bus anytime. How cool is that?

Public transportation is pretty sweet. It can be very fuel and energy efficient, and I think it can save people time (when a good system is in place and utilized) because it certainly could reduce the amount of traffic on the road. The only problem is that our country is kind of slow compared to other developed countries. We seem to think that it is our right to drive around our personal vehicles without a thought to the consequences for our environment and our wallets. (You may think that gas prices are high now, but did you realize that additionally our government heavily subsidizes the oil? You're paying even more than you think.) We seem to be pretty convinced that our own convenience should be our number priority.

I admit it certainly isn't always convenient. I've had to wait for a bus for over 30 minutes on the rarest occasion when it is that late during the evening rush hour. I could have driven our own car or walked in that amount of time. But I stood there stubbornly. Why? Because I get to wait for a bus. It is a privilege to be able to be part of something bigger and better. Because if more of us support our bus system and use it, the stronger and more reliable it will become. Because our children and grandchildren are more valuable than my convenience.

Do you get to wait for a bus?

Shampoo Update

I talked about making household products here, and I said I was trying a castile soap shampoo. I'm not going to lie; it really didn't work for me. Fortunately, I've found that an even simpler "shampoo" works nicely for my hair, so the castile stuff will be used for body wash instead.

What I use now is baking soda and water. I put about 1 Tbsp of baking soda per cup of water in an old shampoo bottle. When I shower, I shake it up and squirt it along my scalp, massage, and then rinse. I still use the vinegar rinse.

I kind of missed the enjoyment of good smells while cleaning my hair, so I added a couple drops of essential oils. Currently I'm using lemongrass, and I smell like lemonheads right after I shower. :)

Homemade Household Products

After learning how many harmful chemicals are allowed in shampoos, soaps, lotions and the like, I felt motivated to go out and find alternatives. There are some natural options in stores, but even those sometimes have sketchy ingredients (not to mention an expensive price!) I went online and did some searching, and here are some of my findings.

First of all, most of these recipes will have castile soap in them. This is a simple soap primarily made from vegetable oils. I buy Dr. Bronner's castile soap.

Soap

We like using liquid soap to wash our hands, so I found a simple way to make bar soap into liquid soap. Bar soap is cheaper and uses less packaging, so this seemed like the way to go.

Ingredients: 4-5 oz. bar of castile soap, 1 gallon water, essential oil (optional)

Instructions: Find them at http://www.casasugar.com/DIY-Eco-Liquid-Soap-1734577

Lotion

I've really enjoyed this simple lotion.

Ingredients: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup emulsifying wax, essential oil (optional)

Instructions: Find them at http://www.wabisabibaby.com/blog/2008/how-to-make-an-all-natural-lotion-with-only-3-ingredients/

Shampoo

I just started using this a few days ago. The first day my hair felt really weird and kind of oily. I read that some people go through an adjustment period as you stop stripping your hair of its oils by using standard shampoo. Each day since then my hair has felt better and better though, so we'll see. I hear castile soap shampoos work just fine for some people, so even if this doesn't end up working for me...

Ingredients: 2 cups hot chamomile tea, 3 Tbsp grated castile soap, 1 Tbsp glycerin, essential oil (optional)

Instructions: http://organic.lovetoknow.com/Organic_Shampoo_Recipes

Another thing I've heard works well is a ratio of 1 Tbsp of baking soda to 1 cup of water. You just pour this on the scalp and work it in with your fingers. I might try this out too and see which works best for my hair.

Conditioner

Vinegar is AMAZING conditioner. The first day I used it I was surprised at how soft and tangle-free my hair was. You just need to put around 1 Tbsp of vinegar per cup of water. I put it in a spray bottle that I had sitting around, and it's super easy! I've used white vinegar so far since that's what I had, but I just bought some cider vinegar since people suggested that it smells better. Speaking of the smell... It will smell a bit while you use it, but I've never been able to smell it after my hair dries.

Laundry Detergent

I used this once so far, and it seemed to work no better or worse than our old detergent. Our clothes looked and smelled clean, and that's all I ask for. :)

Ingredients: 3 cups borax, 3 cups washing soda (NOT baking soda!), 5 oz bar of castile soap

Instructions: Finely grate the soap. Stir all ingredient together. Store in a closed container and use 1-2 Tbsp per load.

I used almond castile soap because I liked the smell, but it doesn't smell very strongly after you wash the clothes anyway.

Simple Living - The Year's End

Near the beginning of the year, I wrote about my frustration with my attachment with stuff. I wanted to live more simply and feel more fulfilled by life and not things. In July, I started reading about how our consumer-driven lifestyle is affecting people and and planet, and I became convinced that I wanted to change even more in my life. When I talked with Matthew about what I was reading and thinking, he supported me and began helping me to make all of these changes. This post is an attempt to compile a list of changes that we made just since this July.

Attitude

We:

• Have decided to change!
• Spend time reading and researching about what's happening in our world and to our world
• Became committed to supporting local farmers and fair trade supporters

Food

We:

• Budgeted more for food so that we could buy as much local, organic, fair-trade, etc. food as possible
• Buy all organic produce
• Buy most other products organic
• Pay attention to where products are created, and buy as locally as possible
• Eat only about a pound of meat a month - chicken or turkey products
• Make even more food from scratch - bread, bagels, crackers, etc
• Grow a little bit of food - sprouts and basil for now...
• Make our own yogurt

Consumerism

We:

• Buy even less than we did before
• Buy anything possible used
• Do research about companies before buying their products
• Try to buy quality, ethically made goods that will last
• Started buying almost all used clothing

Household

We:

• Make sure to unplug cords when things are in use
• Turn off power strips for our computers and their accessories at night
• Cut the top off of a milk jug and now use it for a garbage pail which saves lots of garbage bags
• Started to make many of our soaps, shampoos, lotions, etc out of simple ingredients to cut down on chemicals and packaging
• Sorted through possessions that weren't being used and gave many things away
• Wash laundry with cold water and line dry it when the weather allows
• Use environmentally friendly detergent and cleaning supplies
• I also sewed and started using cloth pads. (Sorry if this is TMI!)
• Started using something close to the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" philosophy (Again, TMI?!)
• Made cloth bulk/produce bags to start replacing plastic ones as they wear out
• Try to find reusable solutions to as many disposable products as possible
• Saved glass jars to use as food storage containers

Transportation

We:

• Avoid using our personal car. It generally gets used to drive out of town.
• Use our bikes and feet a lot!
• Use the public bus

Other

We:

• Try our best to give gifts that people need and will use
• Joined the First Alternative Co-op in Corvallis
• Made a recycling box for my office since there was no recycling option in place
• Learned about danger of plastic and began to try to reduce plastic use and waste

I am sure that I have forgotten some things that we have done to change, but this is a pretty good list! I want to close by saying that making these changes has honestly not brought hardship to us. It has really been an exciting, fun, and rewarding year. I feel like I understand my world better as a result, and I feel like I am living more purposefully and loving more thoroughly. I look forward to making more changes as life continues.

I hope that you can look back on 2010 with satisfaction and that, regardless, 2011 is a wonderful year for you!

Recipes!

I decided to share some of the recipes that we enjoy so much. I tend to change things in recipes a fair amount. I often use whole wheat instead of white flour for much of the flour, and I generally use less sugar than people recommend! Of course, make your own changes, too! :)

Breads:

Bagels

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Bagels/Detail.aspx

Honey wheat bread

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Simple-Whole-Wheat-Bread/Detail.aspx

English muffins

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Traditional-English-Muffins/Detail.aspx

Snacks:

Zucchini brownies

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Zucchini-Brownies/Detail.aspx

Pumpkin, banana, zucchini, or other fruit muffins

Find a base recipe, and try things! I like adding apple sauce and/or sour cream pretty often. I also like throwing in oatmeal and extra spices.

Yogurt (I am actually just trying this as I type... waiting for the milk to cool!)

http://fakeplasticfish.com/2007/12/plastic-free-yogurt-well-almost-plus/

Meatless Dinners

Enchiladas

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-Bean-and-Rice-Enchiladas/Detail.aspx

Veggie fajitas

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Colorful-Vegetable-Fajitas/Detail.aspx

Eggplant parmasan

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Eggplant-Parmesan-II/Detail.aspx

Macaroni and cheese

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Home-Style-Macaroni-and-Cheese/Detail.aspx

Orzo with parmasan and basil

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Orzo-with-Parmesan-and-Basil/Detail.aspx

Orzo with butternut squash

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/winter-squashes-are-here-try-a-butternut-squash-orzo.html

Household products:

Deodorant (This can be tweaked a little to get the consistency how you like it)

Blend together 1 Tbsp baking soda, 1 Tbsp cornstarch, and 1-2 Tbsp coconut oil

Surface cleaner

Mix 1 part vinegar with 5 parts water

Well, that's a good start, at least. Let me know if I forgot anything! :)

Plastic, Plastic Everywhere...

Seriously. Look around you. I bet you can find a bunch of plastic. We buy food in plastic, store food in plastic, wrap things in plastic, chew on plastic (any gum chewers out there?), constantly throw away plastic... Yet, most people don't think about this much, I don't believe. I know I didn't until recently, and now I'm surprised I hadn't heard more about plastic before! I'd like to share some things that I've learned. I give links to give you more to read and consider, but they aren't the only things I have read about these topics. If you are interested, go out and find more!

What is plastic made out of?

According to Wikipedia, the raw materials to make most plastics come from petroleum and natural gas.

Why is plastic such a big deal?

A few reasons. First of all, in our society, we use plastic to store our food in and eat our food out of regularly. The thing is, as far as I can tell, we aren't sure that any plastic is completely safe. Dangerous chemicals can leach into food and then stick around in our bodies. Even plastics that we know are harmful are still used to hold food! For example, the plastic that makes styrofoam is called polystyrene, and it is known to have negative effects on the body. (http://www.ejnet.org/plastics/polystyrene/health.html) Yet, I bet it is the rare person in our country who has never drank out of a styrofoam cup or eaten take-out from a styrofoam container.

The second reason that I will give is that the amount of plastic that we use creates a massive amount of waste. Massive. More on this later.

OK, we use a lot of plastic, but doesn't recycling solve the waste issue?

Unfortunately, no! We view recycling as a closed loop. For example, we buy a plastic yogurt container, use it, put it in the recycling, and assume that the container can be made into another yogurt container. There are two big problems with this. One, plastic is usually "downcycled." This means that when it is recycled, you get a lower quality plastic. In particular, from what I've read, food-grade plastic often does not recycle to be food-grade plastic. That means that a lot of the plastic used to package food is brand-new plastic! Also, eventually plastic is unable to be recycled any more. (http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/green-glossary-downcycling.html)

What problems are there from plastic waste then?

First of all, a huge problem is that plastic is largely not biodegradable. Whether it is on the land or in the water, it just sits there. It may eventually break into tiny pieces, but the plastic is still there. I think that a lot of people realize that our landfills are huge, and they know that it's a sad thing to have piles of garbage around the planet. However, I think that the heartbreaking truth about plastic remains largely unknown. Plastic is showing up everywhere in our oceans. In some places, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (http://www.cdnn.info/news/article/a071104.html), there can even be a trail of hundreds of miles of plastic. People have studied this phenomena, and they have found that regardless of where they are, they can quickly find plastic in the ocean. Sea creatures are ingesting the little pieces of plastic that look close to their natural food, plankton, and we don't necessarily know how these petroleum-based chemicals will affect them or the creatures up the food chain from them (including humans!) Additionally, dead birds are being found with their bellies full of large, and clearly lethal, plastic pieces.

To get a clearer picture of the large problem of trash in the sea, please watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrAShtolieg&feature=related

I'm convinced that this is a problem, but what can I do?

First of all, I'd recommend not getting overwhelmed or panicking. Worrying doesn't solve problems. :) I'll list some basic ideas to consider, and I recommend finding websites that talk about the issue and ideas for solutions. For example, http://myplasticfreelife.com/ is a blog that is dedicated to the problem of plastics. Here are some good first steps:

1) Get a reusable water bottle and reusable shopping bags, and remember to use them! Stainless steel watter bottles are widely available, and there are many options for shopping bags including mesh and canvas styles.

2) Avoid buying packaged food. Head to the produce section for loose produce, and go to the bulk section to be amazed by the options that you have! Of course, these options make the most sense if you take reusable bags that you can make or buy!

3) Buy less and/or buy used. This is good for the pocketbook, too. :)

4) Consider glass as a good alternative when buying packaged food or food storage containers. It is easily recycled, and you will know that plastic isn't leaching into your food. I have started saving glass jars instead of recycling them, and they work great for food storage.

5) Bring your own mug if you get coffee.

6) Consider using cloth diapers and menstrual products.

In general, I think that just being aware of the plastic that you are using will help you to consider what to work on. People tend to be creative! Use your brain, and you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish! Feel free to comment if you have some other good ideas that I failed to mention.

Thanks for reading this, and I hope that you are inspired to live a love-filled, intentional life by working to reduce your part in the problem of plastic.

Simple Living - The Great Food Adventure

About two months ago, Matthew and I started shopping differently. In my post on July 30th, I described the beginning of that change. At that time, I was expecting to do a fairly small fraction of my shopping at the co-op and most of the rest of it at Winco because I didn't think we could afford to buy much of the more expensive, organic goods. However, that's not how it turned out at all! I'd like to share my findings before school starts and things get crazy, so here we go!

First of all, in full disclosure, the budget that Matthew and I set was $300 a month for groceries including household items like dish soap, toothpaste, and the like. In August we easily met this budget (well, we spent less than $225 since we were at camp for the first week of the month). It is also looking like we are going to succeed again in September. Here's what we have been getting for our money...

At the co-op we buy all of our produce except when organic produce goes on sale at Fred Meyer. What we buy is organic, and a lot of it comes from the six counties surrounding and including our own. We also buy a lot of (mostly organic) bulk items including flour, oats, pasta, rice and beans. We buy cage-free eggs and milk from a local dairy farm. We find that we rarely need to buy packaged goods like canned food, but when we do, it is done at the co-op.

At Winco we mostly buy things that are carried at the co-op but are cheaper at Winco. For example, we get Nancy's yogurt and Tillamook cheeses. We also still buy cereal here because we buy big bags cheap, and the co-op unfortunately does not have this type of thing available. Besides an occasional item that the co-op does not carry, this is pretty much all we get here.

If you think that $300 is still a lot of money for food, realize that we only spend about $5 a day per person for all of our meals and snacks. For the quality, reduced exposure to dangerous chemicals, support for the local farmers, good treatment of the livestock that produce the food, support for environmentally friendly practices, and support for fair wages for anyone involved in the process of making products... I think that $5 is pretty amazing.

As a note, one big reason that we can afford to do this is that we cook much of our food from scratch. We generally make two different meals each week, and we eat a lot of leftovers. I also make home-baked breads, and we bake muffins or something else for snacks. However, I did this all before switching to the co-op... Even during the school year when spending 60-80 hours a week working. Admittedly, I do like cooking...

A second reason that we can afford to do this is that we have started to eat less meat. Currently, also at the co-op, we have decided to buy a small amount of lunch meat and 1 to 1.5 pounds of chicken each month. I have successfully used tofu as a substitute a few times, and I also have found a bunch of good vegetarian recipes.

I don't know if more than two or three people read this, but I wanted to share my experiences because I feel like a lot of people would love to eat healthier, organic, local foods but don't think that they can afford it. I encourage you to try it out if you have ever wanted to. I'd be more than happy to share recipes, advice, or any other information that may be helpful.

Thanks for reading!