Environmental (& Budget!) Friendly Backyards

My sister, Melissa, asked me to look into this topic for her. She recently moved into a beautiful new house with an absolutely deplorable back yard. The only living thing in it is a Scrub Oak. The poor tree is surrounded by dead grass and dirt all the way to the chain link fence. I agree, she needs help!

Considering the hot, hot summers in Redding, California, it will be important for her to select native plants which will do better with less water than non-native plants. This link has all kinds of information about native plantlife. It also includes information on low-water grasses and tons of pictures. Hey, Melissa! There is even a section titled "Dry Shade Garden (ie planting under oaks or other places that you don't want to water)"
http://www.californiagardens.com/index.html
If you don't live in California, try a Google search for native plants in your state.

This next link has information on drip systems & a sprinkler system that can track the weather and turn off your sprinklers if rain is predicted. http://www.ecomii.com/building/efficient-irrigation

Also, revisit Veronica's post about her rain barrels. http://eroticvulture.blogspot.com/2008/09/keeping-up-with-joneses-eco-style.html They are a great way to use a natural resource more efficiently!

In some areas, you can even get a rebate for purchasing rain barrels. Check with your local water supplier to to find out if they offer this incentive. If it is not offered, encourage them to start! With enough calls, they may see the overall benefit of encouraging citizens to reduce demand for municipal water and preserve the precious groundwater supply.

Click this link to peruse available rain barrels and other environmentally friendly lawn and garden supplies. http://www.cleanairgardening.com/rainbarrels.html

Happy planting!

Freecycle

In some areas, Freecycle is a well know and used part of life. It others, it is just building steam.

When I moved out of S.F., I used Freecycle to give away a ton of stuff. Yes, I said "give away"! Freecycle is all about keeping reusable things out of the landfills by finding others that need them.

Their mission statement, "Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community."

Here's how it works. Those who have things to get rid of post them on their local Yahoo message board. Other members who want to take these items respond and arrange a pick-up. Also, anyone can post a 'wanted' notice, letting other members know of an item they are looking for. Any member who has a wanted item can make contact and arrange to give their item away.

It's all free, so stuff goes pretty quickly. I gave away kid's toys, Halloween decorations, old fish tanks and tools, to name a few. Multiple people contacted me for every item I listed!

Freecycle is a great way to lighten your load in a move, or just clean out your garage. With the holiday season coming up, now is a great time to give it a try. Give others a chance to reduce their holiday spending by making use of your unwanted items. Find that perfect gift for your hard to shop for Aunt Hildy. Make room in your garage for that new bobsled! Save costly and time consuming trips to the dump after you clean out your massively over-packed warehouse (you know who you are ;)

http://www.freecycle.org/

A Vote Lost

Below is a copy of a letter I wrote to the District 10 Democratic candidate for Assembly. This area is a Republican stronghold, and she ended up losing. I threw my vote to the Liberatarian candidate. While I identify myself much more strongly with the Liberatarian party than Democrat or Republican, I usually vote Democrat just to feel like my vote counts for something. I wanted this candidate to know why she didn't get my vote.

Dear Ms. Huber,

I am new to the Sacramento area. This left me having to do a lot of research before election time. It was very difficult to decide which candidates to vote for with no idea of their backgrounds and involvement in local politics.

The deciding factor for me in the race in which you participated was the amount of junk mail I received from your campaign. In less than 2 weeks, I took over 20 flyers, postcards and letters from my mailbox urging me to vote for you. As I am deeply concerned with the impact junk mail has on our environment, there was no way I could give you my vote. I found myself unable to take you and your campaign seriously in the face of such waste and destruction.

Should you choose to run for office in the future, please remove my name and address from your mailing list. I would also encourage you to research the overall effect this kind of mass mailing has on the earth and consider alternative methods for promoting yourself.

Thank you, Jennifer Watson

????

I am running a little low on topics lately. Except for the occasional break for other things, I like to keep this blog focused on ways I try to conserve the earth's resources. After 40 something posts, I am having trouble coming up with new ideas.

Actually, let me rephrase that. I am having trouble following through with new ideas. There are things I want and plan to do at some point, I just lack motivation.

So I thought I would post my list of intentions and then hand the reigns over to you. If you try or have already tried any of these, share your experience here. Help to motivate me, and others, to do more for the environment!


1. Homemade Kitty Litter
2. Reusable Bathroom Wipes (Family Wipes)
3. Homemade Dishwasher Detergent
4. Homemade Peanut (or Sunflower Seed)Butter
5. Canning
6. Cloth Diapers (Especially good sources to get them.)
7. Growing a More Plentiful Container Garden (I need tips!)
8. Freedom From Hallmark Holidays (How to stop buying cards and gift just because the calendar tells us to.)
9. Organic Baby Formula

Thanks!

Tampoline Safety - Veronica Armstrong

Let us take a break from our journey toward ecological enlightenment to consider this public safety announcement.... (jen.)

Used to be, back in the day, our fun-time recreational large toy in the backyard was the soon-to-be rusty and excessively squeaky swing set. The set always included 2uneven swings, one plastic double swing which cracked and broke immediately under drunk Uncle Bill's weight, and one nondescript, u-shaped, completely useless bar. Did anyone ever figure out what that bar was for? I used to hang my Barbies on a rope by their necks when they were "bad." But, I digress.

Kids today are much too fast paced and sophisticated for anything so lame as a swing set. Today, the mighty trampoline stands as the standard back yard toy. Oh, the coveted spring board of death...we hear you call our name. We vow to never again grace your stage after breath-stopping falls, cracked ribs, and broken elbows. We curse you when trying to mow around you. And when we tear our clothes and skin on your sharp, protruding springs, brilliant expletives escape our mouths.

Let us define the trampoline as only Wikepedia can..."a trampoline is a gymnastic device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched over a steel frame using many coiled springs to provide a rebounding force which propels the jumper high into the air. In a trampoline, the fabric is not elastic itself; the elasticity is provided by the springs which connect it to the frame. According to circus folklore, the trampoline was supposedly first developed by an french artiste called Du Trampolin. Aaaah, Wikepedia forgets to mention some very important facts here:

1) "A trampoline is a gymnastic...device." Yes, that is it's original intended use. Trampolines belong in the GYM, with padded walls and floors. Because even seasoned gymnasts will succumb to an unexpected non-trampoline landing. Just because you took gymnastics in preschool and have now had a few drinks in your system, doesn't mean you are qualified to do a back flip on the backyard trampoline situated next to a short, broken chain-link fence.

2) The "strong fabric" is never strong enough to hold big Aunt Gabby and three of her nieces. Oh yes, that fabric attached to the springs is gonna rip. And when it does the nieces will invariably end up under Aunt Gabby's massive buttocks, thighs, upper arm fat, and other various big rolls of her body. A four year old's skeletal structure cannot take the weight of a woman who has been to the "All-you-can-eat Catfish" shack every Friday night for the last 47 years.

3) The "many coiled springs" expand and contract as the jumpers get more and more vigorous with their jumping. And for those who sit on the trampoline, awaiting their turn of fate, the springs provide an excellent site for caught fingers and fleshy areas. Flying children routinely end up in between these springs, which mercifully sometimes half-catch their fall by clamping tight onto their hair.

4) Sitting on the trampoline whilst someone is having a go, can be a precarious situation. A hard jump can make the sitter either fly head-first off the trampoline or head-long into the jumper. Either way, the head or neck is going to need some ice after its collision with another human head or bumpy ground.

5) The trampoline being invented by a French man also sends up flags of warning. These are the same people who warmly welcomed the Nazis into gay Paris a while back, adore mimes, made the Peugeot, and eat snails and frogs. They are gluttons for punishment, we shouldn't trust their ingenuity or engineering skills.

6) And lastly, the trampoline is most popular in our Southern states, home of tornadic activity, many, many mobile homes, and the KKK. Nuff said. If you are very interested in getting a trampoline, have your IQ checked and reconsider that Walmart trampoline special for $49.99.

FAB MORVAN:
The more even-keeled half of Milli Vanilli, who did what Rob told him to do and whose cut, according the former manager Todd Headlee, was only thirty-five percent. (Headlee says the duo stood to make about $4 million for the second record.) The Paris-bred Morvan was a budding gymnast whose whole career was cut short by a trampoline accident. Coach Riggs says that Morvan can also sing a high C but "sometimes forgets his vibrato."

Bad Starbucks! Bad Starbucks!

I have long been an adversary of Starbucks' business practices. Particularly the way they seem focused on overpopulating the planet with stores on every corner. When I lived in San Francisco, I used their store locator to find out how many stores where within a 5 mile radius of my home. The result was 96! When I check the same site today, it tells me there are only 71 in the same area. I guess this slump in the economy has at least one benefit!

Yesterday my husband told me about a news story he had heard. I was appalled and thought you might like to hear about it too.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1771553.ece

For those of us who remain metric system impaired, I used an online calculator to figure out how much 23.4 million gallons is. It's 6,181,626.03 US gallons! Per day! Can you even imagine being that irresponsible?

I prefer to give my money to independent stores who do more than just claim to be green. It is easy to spend a bunch of money talking about how much you care about the environment. It is much tougher to walk the walk.

Election Day 2008

I feel safe saying that most adult voters believe this is going to be a monumental election. New voters have registered in record numbers and lines are long at polling places.

Between this everlasting war and the plummeting economy, people are anxious for things to change. The time has finally come for the process to start one way or the other.

I, for one, am going to have trouble tearing myself away from the radio today. http://www.kgoradio.com/listenlive.asp Oh well, the sun is out and the girls want to go to the park. I guess I can take a couple hours off!!


Don't forget to vote!