Closing coal plants, eliminating phone books and green gyms

Last week, I saw this interesting headline in our local business paper:
Xcel takes unusual step to shut down coal power plants
The full article is only available to subscribers, I believe. But the gist of it is that our power company, Xcel, is shutting down two coal power plants, both of which are in residential areas. [...]

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Green convention mania: Is sustainability sustainable?

It’s almost over — the Democratic National Convention in Denver, my home town.
I’ve been quiet this week about the hubbub because I haven’t wanted to deal with traffic, thousands of people, etc. I would have liked to visit some of the information booths, but I was too slow to get on the green blogging bandwagon. [...]

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The library – a big green money-saver

This week is a busy one, so my posts might be scarce, but I wanted to raise the topic of libraries — what could be a cheaper and greener way to take advantage of books, magazines, movies and music than to share them with our fellow citizens?
Our local library has launched a new online tool [...]

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Green break rooms & splurge/scrimp – Friday Wrap-Up

The Green Boot Camp blog had a great post this week on greening your break room (or teacher’s lounge, etc.). She lists a number of great ideas to help business settings cut out waste. Don’t forget a refillable water solution instead of plastic bottles! And of course, pitch in to wash up.
Free Money Finance addressed [...]

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Back-to-school lunch — with less waste

My daughter went back to school yesterday, and it’s time to start sending her lunch in again. Additionally, she takes a water bottle to school daily. So I was on the hunt for more eco- and health-friendly lunch solutions.
Water bottles
Last year, we replaced her cheap plastic bottles and Nalgene (with BPA) bottles with a [...]

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Boxed wine vs. bottled wine – what’s the footprint?

I recently read this article in The New York Times, urging winemakers to produce their wine in boxes instead of bottles to reduce the carbon footprint of transport.
First, I must confess that we often have a glass of wine with dinner, and we often purchase boxed wine. It’s not a big quality downgrade for us, [...]

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Tour our garden

Summer is coming to an end, although the gardening season is just reaching its prime in Colorado. If we are lucky, we’ll have a late frost, and the garden can carry on most of the way through October.
I’ve written so much about our garden here that I thought it might be fun to have a [...]

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12 money-sucking “needs” … and a few more

Last week, MSN published an article about so-called needs in today’s society that become big money drains. Here’s the list and my take on them. See how you rate.
12 needs that suck away cash:
1. Daily latte. Sometimes I’m a sucker for this, but we often use our home espresso maker (an Italian stainless steel stovetop model [...]

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Don’t give up on squash for lack of pollinators

Take a look at your garden. If you’re growing members of the squash family, are the fruit growing? If not, you might need to hand pollinate.

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A furry pest in the garden

I’m starting to think it might not have been the birds that ate our strawberries.
Let’s backtrack.
Perhaps you have heard of our family pet, Schnauzer Cheap.

We’ll call him SC.
SC loves to eat. The highlights of his day are breakfast and dinner. He also loves fruits and vegetables. He happily munches anything we drop on the floor: [...]

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