Resolutions

This year I sat and pondered a whole list of things that I wanted to change about my life and improve. The list turned into a long, meandering one that ranged from petty hopes like “improve my body shape” and “make more money” to more altruistic things like “save the planet” and “achieve world peace”. Of course there is no one, best, course of action. So, I took a look at it big picture and came up with this one: Live Moderately.

Simple, right? At least it seems so on the surface. But applying this concept, across the board, to my life, and the attitudes of this country as a whole, we could begin a wave of change. Think about it. Here’s the first citation for moderate at m-w.com:

1 a: avoiding extremes of behavior or expression: observing reasonable limits b: calm , temperate

So, think, what would happen if, as a culture, we all started behaving moderately? What if we were moderate spenders? Moderate drivers? Moderate meat eaters? Where would we be if everyone drove the most fuel efficient vehicle possible, only spent the money they earned, and only ate beef once a week?

I’m going to try it. Our house is increasing the number of vegetarian meals on the menu, eliminating expenses on electronic entertainment and sticking to our one-teeny-car that doesn’t hold the car seat and a passenger at the same time (this doesn’t sound like much of a feat when you live in Chicago, but in the California Exurbs it’s near impossible). We will also work on the little things like; checking out books from the library instead of buying disposable paperbacks, not picking up printed literature that we will just dispose of later, checking the thrift store first when we’re looking for clothes, and shopping on Craigslist instead of at IKEA.

How about you?

Plastics: Micro scrubbing beads

I love to exfoliate like the next lady...but do you know that many exfoliating face washes have little plastic beads that you are rubbing all over your face and then pouring straight down the drain and into the water way? Oh yes, its true. And more often than not they don't get filtered out of the water system because they are so small, and they go right into the ocean fills as described into the post below.

So one small thing we can do is not to buy these products, and instead buy products with natural exfoliants.

Its ashame that consumers even have to watch out for this...these companies should not even be allowed to sell plastic beads that are meant to go straight down the drain. They know they don't decompose, they know that wildlife are feeding on them, which means we are feeding on them too. In the closed loop world we live in, they are basically permitted to contaminate us in a law abiding way. Oy times a million.

Plastics: the never ending story

Kind of disturbing? There are so many petroleum based products in our lives: most of them in the form of plastics: and many we don't even know or think about! So how can we take care of the massive amount of throw away products that consume our lives, the land fills and the ocean fills if we really aren't aware of how much they define the way we live?

Many of these plastics end up in ocean fills, which are humongous tide pools of current that draw in so much trash that there is a huge floating piles of it thousands of miles wide. The most well known is The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I read about this in The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman. In one terrifying chapter Alan describes that the plastic problem will not solve itself, as they have only been around 50 years or so, will most likely take thousands of years to disintegrate (into what we do not know), and knowing their outcomes is impossible because they will far out last us.

Saran wrap, laundry detergent, grocery bags, chip bags, shampoo bottles, food containers, packaging material, trash bins, cd and dvd cases, records, toothbrushes, micro scrubbing beads in your face wash, toys, pens, cups, bowls, furniture, building parts. so. many. things.

So what to do? It can be kind of overwhelming trying to figure out how to live symbiotically with the earth, when our society is set up on the basis of a disposable culture. My advice is to take care of one thing at a time. First, I did away with plastic grocery bags by getting the Baggu.

Next Step: plastic bags at the grocery store that you put produce in. You can try something like this, or I am sure you can find your own bags at home! Most of the time, I don't even use any bag when getting produce. Sometimes the checkout clerk won't so happy, but do you really need the bag?

What do you do to reduce the plastic in your life?

Chickens are in this year . . .

In Northern California, backyard chickens are the latest accessory. They have by far surpassed the Prius in popularity contests among the eco-conscious housewife set. They make an amusing addition to the household. Happy chickens will give you an egg a day once they are mature. Another benefit - you can feed them all of your veggie table scraps and use the chicken poop for your compost. What a time saver!

Actually, backyard chickens have been around here since the last wave of planet savers came through in the seventies. Here's an article from the la times about a local flock that is creating havoc: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/traffic/la-me-chickens8-2008dec08,0,6832003.story.

I have run across these fellas a few times myself. They're just a few miles away. I find it refreshing when a chicken stops traffic - even if I am in a hurry.

gisele

City Chickens: eggs a la backyard

Some friends and I have been dreaming about having chickens in our backyard for some time now. Can you just picture waking up on a Saturday morning, having a piping cup of coffee and reading the BBC, and then going out back, 10 feet from your door to harvest some eggs, go inside crack them in a pan and golden sunny side up eggs completes the morning. Eggs fresh from the backyard, you know where they came from, you know what the chickens eat and they are so delicious its like wandering through a Haruki Murakami novel in your mouth?

Well, you can legally keep chickens in your backyard in Chicago. Currently there is no blog or website that shows this, but you can attend a class near the city to show you how to care for your new lovelies. And check out this blogger from California that has been following this movement.

Seeing the local agriculture movement break into the city scape is not only giving us some edible landscaping and beauty, but is allowing us to appreciate how our food gets to us from farm, or backyard, to plate.

10 things fungi do for us

BBC says at best, check out the article here.

Do it yourself: laundry detergent...coming soon

I am working on a few projects right now, for some upcoming posts.  I have been thinking to myself what else I can cut out buying at the store, that I can do myself at home?  I have been thinking about this because I would like to be self sufficient.  What if the current industrial manufacturing process just fell apart?  I know this is unlikely to happen, but if it did, I would like to know I could survive, and maybe even have clean clothes.  Leading to my first upcoming project: home made laundry detergent.  

Laundry detergent can get a bit expensive.  Its pricey to ship which is reflected in the price, especially if you buy liquid detergent (you are paying to ship water).  Both laundry and dishwashing detergent can negatively affect your surrounding waterways too; by leaching phosphates.  Phosphates are known to stimulate algae blooms which suffocate plant and animals in the rivers and streams.

So by using a detergent with no phosphates, and less or no surfactants (this causes foam when waterways churn) we will be affecting the water quality less.  One of the biggest peeves I have heard is when 'eco soap' doesn't foam; but soap that foams a little or none does the same thing their foamy peers.