Honk If You Compost

I’d like to extend a special word of thanks to PNY Technologies, Inc. and National Geographic for the awesome plastic packaging that accompanied my Compact (note the definition of COMPACT sometime… FUN WITH IRONY!) Flash Drive.

Note that I bought the drive because I have mostly given up using beloved real film cameras in order to be greener. Apparently all those chemicals, paper, and film are bad for the melting ice caps, and so I too have converted to a digital technology that should be simpler and save consumables.

I’m not sure, but I am pretty certain that the INSIDE packaging (see right) that the drive came in was big enough to keep me shoplifting the flash drive in my pocket. But I guess it’s the OUTSIDE packaging that was really necessary for National Geographic to help save the polar bears.

Someone call The Doctor

Do you know what I wish I had? I wish I had a giant KARM-ECO SCALE. What’s that, you ask? A Karm-Eco scale would be a REALLY big scale like Lady Justice has… used for comparison.

However, in this case I could pile up all the nostalgia and beauty created from film cameras, along with all the dusty equipment that exists already but is going to get trashed, and the film, paper and chemicals on one side of the scale.

And on the other side, we’d represent with PNY’s use of this STUPID PACKAGING. Among other blatant karmic offenders. Sure the plastic isn’t that heavy, but I wonder if what the weight of its future implications and thoughtlessness is?

There isn’t any scale like that … not in the 21st century. But I am hopeful. There is one man who might be able to save us!

Meanwhile, I am considering a twist on the “starving children in Ethiopia” routine that my mom pulled on me when I was a kid. There are, after all, dying Polar Bears in the Arctic. Surely they could use a new chew toy?

Before the invention of spinning classes, and before stationery bicycles even existed at all, people used to ride actual mobile bicycles in order to move from one place to another.

Case in point, the utterly fantastic FRED MATHES of Madera Ranchos, California, who at 92, is still riding the Schwinn cruiser he’s had since his days working on the Marshall Islands. His bicycle is older than me, by 18 years.

What is Fred’s take on why riding bicycles is so great?

“(It’s about) the breeze in your face, the exercise, and the constant change of scenery. It’s the frosting on the cake. Plus, it doesn’t wear out your knees and hips.”

At 92, Fred’s seen every state in the Union– except Michigan. He wrote to Schwinn to even tell them about his dedication to their brand for 56 years. They sent him socks.

I say Schwinn owes him a trip to next week’s Michigander Bicycle Tour, so he can complete his collection of the Coffee Mugs of the 50 United States in the best way– in the saddle!

Note: Thanks to CT Post, Diane Marcum at the McClatchy-Tribune and the Fresno Bee for source material.

Hey I know it isn’t cool to brag about the old crap I’ve bought, and hey I know I’m supposed to be doing the “Less is more” thing.

But I’ve got family. Colin’s got family. And we’ve kinda like to get a family of our own soon. So this week I wrangled up two beds (bunkbeds, natch), full bedding and mattresses, for a total of $325. We used Craigslist to buy the used beds and mattresses (a purchase I consider LOCAL, since it didn’t come from China, but Branford, CT), and BJs wholesale for the bedding.

After a nearby bedbug incident in London, I am slightly nervous about bringing strange beds into the house, but let’s face it– you can’t worry all day, everyday. Life is too damn short for that.

By the by, the beds are not perfect (a bit banged up for sure), but they do have a few things going for them: they are MAPLE– not pressed wood. And they came with a dresser, mirror, and ladder. Check out the retail cost of something similar, new. That’s without the mattresses!

Green bedding note: BJs Wholesale had ORGANIC COTTON SHEETS for sale, which I would have bought had they not been only Queen sized. Score one for the box stores!

While ogling an ad for a Sony Vaio this A.M., Colin remarked “We aren’t getting a Sony, though.” No we aren’t I said. We’d already decided. On the anticipated future death of his desktop, we will eventually convert fully to Apple.

I’ve been slowly taking over my husband’s desktop, as my laptop’s letter ‘D’ key has given up the ghost.

Meanwhile, for my next long piece of fiction, I’ll be using my new-to-me manual, 1954 Royal Futura 800 typewriter, purchased on eBay.

“No,” I said this morning, “Let’s just get another typewriter and we’ll be good to go.”

“Yeah,” Colin added, “I just have to figure out how to get the internet connection plugged into the back of typewriter and we’ll be all set.”

Ahh, retro-technology. It’s the wave of the Futura.

Now I don’t want to become considered a poo expert, but apparently my post on Poop bags got the attention of Doody Dangler aficionados.

Here’s a video of the device... I’ve never tried it but in the spirit of reduce, I am not sure it is exactly a necessary device in the world. Also, based on its description, I’m pretty sure it is fully made of plastic and nylon.

Dog owners, weigh in on this: how heinous is it to actually carry the dog poo bag around? Is it absolutely necessary to have a device to get the poo out of your hand? What about the dog? The poo looks to be about nose level for poor Bud here? And I’m thinking about Schnookie, our neighborhood wiener dog who’s leash hardly clears the top of mown grass when she’s walking without ballast.

At the Fairfield County Green Drinks Wednesday night, I chatted with Steve Wortman.

Steve’s an accountant who lives on the CT/NY border. He wore a fabulous tie with lighthouses on it– and seemed to know a bit about the scale of lighthouse building in America.

“Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state.”

It was the sort of fact that, in the context of reading right now probably sounds deadly boring. But Steve, with his plastic-rimmed glasses, pressed work attire and unassuming manner, made me glad he’d introduced himself immediately.

Networking, even among our own sort, can be a deadly dreary game. “So hi, I’m Bill… Nice to meet you Conquistador. And what do you do? OH… you handweave freshly mown grass in natural, biodegradable diapers. What a brilliant idea!… Really? Pampers spies in your treehouse?! Yes, I wonder what our tax dollars are for too.”

There are only so many times that you can say “Yes, well I think I’ll just get another drink.”

Subtle Revelations

Then occasionally you come across people like Steve. “My son is a writer… he’s doing work on comic books online, something like that. How he turned out like that I’ll never know.” Rational, methodical accountant, Steve is asking me questions about how I became a writer when thick-steak details about his son’s writing life appear in the conversation– the way any parent’s will. Steve’s revelations slip away from his son’s life to his own for a moment and I catch a vision of him.

“I was going to be an English teacher, but back in the 70s, they had a glut of teachers, and not so many accountants.” He isn’t looking at me when he is tell me this bit. “So that’s what I do now. Computers make it easy.”

We get interrupted and I don’t get the chance to say “HEY! I think maybe I can guess where your son might get his bent for writing from!”

The Reel Thing

Steve and I split up— there are other people to network with. But when, later, we are gathered by Heather in a circle to say why we are there, Steve’s turn comes around. He is enchanting in his awkward normality.

“I’ve been mowing my lawn with a push reel mower for 28 years,” he tells us. “Finally this year my neighbor across the street started using one too.”

Everyone joins Steve in a laugh, soft and gentle. It’s the sort of laugh that settles us. It reminds me there are people like Steve, regular accountants in Port Chester, mowing there lawn and making quiet efforts.

On What to with A Handful of Dog Poo

After we got finished discussing wine, films, Sex and the City, Myanmar and the general state of the weather at our cozy Southport luncheon, we finally got around to chatting about poo.

It started innocently enough, with a conversation about weaning ourselves off of plastic grocery bags. It evolved from the full-fledged bags to finding a replacement for the produce bags, which I had recently found a solution for.

“But then, you know,” Carol asked, “what do you do about picking up the dog poop?” Carol is nothing if not practical. And she has a Black Lab.

Not to worry: when we aren’t slathering butter on a cob, or pumping it into our gas tank, corn apparently has another brilliant use: biodegradable dog poop bags!

NOTE: The instructions on this product say you can toss the pet waste in the compost heap. DON’T!! Pet feces should not be mixed with normal garden compost that may come in contact with food. For a better alternative, check out Sharon Slack’s Pet Waste Composter.

I just got done dragging the trash barrel to the curb for the evening (one small bag for the week, including litter!) and as I walked to the curb, I pondered once again the amazing array of ways that Colin and I dispose of our disposables.
1. Plain old trash - Much like the cousins you love to impersonate and really wish wouldn’t come to Xmas dinner, this is the genuine article. It’s polystyrene meat beds and plastic packaging and odd-shaped yogurt containers, broken light bulbs (gulp!), #7 plastics, and all other sorts of BAD stuff (mostly man-made) that just can’t be reused, recycled, handed-down– re-anythinged. We’ve reduced, thus far!

2. Recycling - This went out to the curb tonight too! It has its own blue box–well part of it is in a blue box, the glass and aluminum that can’t be redeemed (see number 3) and the plastic that isn’t hopeless (see number 1). BUT as an added bonus, the Mixed-ish paper went out too! (see number 3a).

3a. Mixedish paper - there is no doubt that every town and every recycling policy has its own personality– just like you and me! The Mixed-ish paper that goes to the curb in Stratford is white office paper, and envelopes, magazines and newspapers– that sort of thing. BUT it HAS to be in a paper grocery bag, AND it can’t contain any cardboard or paperboard (see 3b + c). I call it Paper Lite.

3b. Cardboard - If you put cardboard out (even just plain old corrugated) at the curb, guess what?? The TRASH guys pick it up and throw it away… so we found out the worst way with all our moving boxes. NO… in Stratford, cardboard must be DRIVEN ($4.25 a gallon and counting!) to the Transfer Center, where it can be recycled.

3C. Paperboard - See 3b, even though Mixed paper and PAPERBOARD are the SAME THING!

4. Redemption! - That’s the bag on the backporch where we toss the cans and bottles that can be returned for a nickel. Yes, this state is so old and backwards that they still have the 5 cent deposit/refund setup on items that everyone else in the world is just recycling to better save a step!

5a. Food Scraps - Yeah the raccoons don’t bother our trash can. That’s cuz they are feasting off the compost heap in our back 40.

5b. Useable Yard Waste - We’ve got metric tonnes of it, thanks to our maples trees… what we don’t burn we just pile up in heaps in the back 40 and wait for nature to take its course.

5c. Weedy Yard Waste - Yeah, there’s a separate pile for this, so we don’t use it for compost. Because that’s what number 5 is all about: COMPOST it, instead of shoving it in bags that you pay for, just so you can fill them with compostable material that you have to drag to the curb on the third Tuesday after the fourth full moon beyond the equinox.

6. WOOD! Unlike any of the other materials, this is the big stuff that falls from those maples and collects and doesn’t go away. Not unless you burn it. So Colin built a firepit where he could cook a pig if need be, to take care of this problem.

7. Poo + Pee- Yeah, we do those too. Normal toilets, flush away!

8a. Freecycle - Give it away to the neighbors.

8b. Thrift Store - Give it away to strangers.

8c. Paperback Swap - Give books away and get new-ish ones back.

What else? I guess that’s it– an easy and fun look at what goes out of our place– so much that it makes me tired thinking of it!

Colin pulled our first radishes from the garden this week. We thought we would be the first to eat them, but it looks like maybe some cutworm had a nibble first.

Any ideas on organic pest control, other than shouting and banging on the ground nearby?

With Special Guest: Delicious Good Earth Tea

There are three things you need to know when you are reading a review:
1. Why is the reviewer reviewing this product?
2. Why are you reading this review?
3. Who will the review benefit?

So here’s a lesson on reading reviews– an important skill in being green, cuz you can’t just start running will nilly into the muck without some knowledge. As a bonus, you also get a review of one of the many organic teas filling the shelves these days.

Consider the source
Good Earth Tea tastes great– even the green crap

Let’s talk tea. PG Tips sets the standard for me. Sure I love my herbals before bed, but in the end, builder’s brew, well-stooped with a dash of milk, makes my motor hum.

Before living in Connecticut, I spent three years in Great Britain, honing my tea palette. An interesting side effect of that was my gut thanked me, I was less dehydrated and I stopped the caffeine spikes. Also, I acquired a taste for a spot of milk, I grew to love the digestive biscuit, and tea in its blackest form was the capital at the beginning of every sentence, and the period at the end of the day. Black was where it was at and green tea was like the Marlboro Man taking up cloves.

Herbal tea, then, had to TASTE good to me, or it’s like drinking dirt.

Review: So, what do we know about the source? Real world tea experience, expects taste to prevail cost, competitiveness, etc.

Know thyself
When I first started migrating to the herbals, I had a tea crush on Yogi Tea. It started with their DETOX and pretty soon I was buying up a pretty box in every color. Chai Redbush, Bedtime, Royal Vitality. Women’s Dong Quai Tonic. The bloom faded when I discovered Yogi uses the same proprietary mix of spices in every one of their teas. Result: Once you’ve had a Yogi, you’ve had all Yogis.

Individual taste influences how we interact with products, and that starts with their reviews. For some the Yogi spice flavor might be comforting and offer consistency throughout the brand. For others like me, who buy tea like Carrie Bradshaw buys shoes, variety is the spice of tea. Listen to what the review tells you and play the information against the realities of your needs and desires.

Review: Investing in knowing yourself, your buying tendencies and the what you look for in people and in things will remove the guessing and reveal the nuggets of gold in a product review.

Sign Here, please
Good Earth Green Tea, particularly the Mango, Peach, & Pineapple flavored decaf, tastes great. Unlike other herbal teas I drink (or choked down), it is DELICIOUS and doesn’t have the subtle aftertaste of straw and radish salad. I pay a premium price for Good Earth because when I sit down with my steaming smiley face mug, I am not sitting down to consume. I am relaxing and nourishing my soul. Herbal teas do that and Good Earth, based out of Santa Cruz since 1972, has got the goods to live up to that standard.

Review: What’s in it for Good Earth? From my blog, probably a one or two takers. Reviewers isn’t getting paid to write this, or is she?