Posted in Environment, Green Living, Home, Saving, carbon, energy, money, utilities, waste, tagged bunn, coffee, drip coffee, electricity, energy, espresso, fair trade, french press, kill-a-watt on July 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Recently I bought a Kill-a-Watt device to measure electricity usage, and I’ll be posting here periodically about what it’s teaching me.
True confession: We have a fancy Bunn coffee maker that keeps the water heated at all times so we can brew a fresh, excellent pot of coffee (into the dishwasher-safe thermal carafe) within 3 minutes.
We [...]
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Posted in DIY, Environment, Freebies, Green Living, Home, Saving, carbon, crafts, fair trade, recycling, thrift, water, tagged baking soda shaker, braless barbie, chopsticks, contact lens case, recycle, reuse, soap holder on July 1, 2008 | 6 Comments »
In the process of trying to reduce our garbage, I’ve come across several items that I needed and wanted to not buy — and conversely, several items I hated to throw away but couldn’t easily recycle. By reusing these items, necessity meets utility.
Quite some time ago, when I started cleaning everything with baking soda instead [...]
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Posted in Eating, Freebies, Garden, Green Living, Home, food, local, thrift, tagged cherries, fruit, liqueur, neighbors, pie on June 30, 2008 | 6 Comments »
This week, as I’ve been out walking the dog, I couldn’t help but notice a neighbor down the street with a tree full of cherries growing riper … and riper. I remembered my vow last year to ask for fruit that appeared to be going to waste, so I knocked on the door on Tuesday.
Nobody [...]
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Posted in Environment, Home, Saving, energy, recycling, spinning, thrift, utilities, tagged cars, fuel efficiency, bra-powered ipods, ceiling fans, craigslist on June 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Get Rich Slowly this week posted a terrific tip to subscribe to a search on Craigslist. Mwah ha ha, when the right Kromski Prelude spinning wheel comes along, I will be all over it!
It is ceiling fan season — and The Simple Dollar posted a simple list of ways to get your ceiling fan to [...]
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Posted in DIY, Environment, Garden, Green Living, Home, carbon, recycling, thrift, waste, tagged compost, composter, egg, eggshells, fish, giveaway, green daily, shrimp on June 27, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Green Daily is giving away a $300-value composter package for those who comment with what they would compost by July 2. It’s a random drawing, so I am generously decreasing my own chances by letting all of you in on it! Good luck!
Also, our neighborhood newsletter arrived yesterday with a slightly wackadoodle article about composting. [...]
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Recently I came across this cool tool to rate how walkable your neighborhood is (via The Simple Dollar).
You just type in your address and it calculates your “walk score” based on the proximity to grocery stores, parks, libraries, restaurants, bars, services, schools, churches, etc. It has its flaws — it lists Jamba Juice as a [...]
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Posted in Environment, Green Living, Home, Saving, carbon, energy, utilities, tagged alternative energy, clean energy, electricity, energy, oil, peak oil, power, solar, utilities on June 18, 2008 | 8 Comments »
This week, we received our utility bill. It included a newsletter encouraging us to consider solar power, and to do it now to take advantage of a combination of utility company rebates and federal tax credits.
If you are thinking about going solar, note that the federal tax credit for solar panels and solar water heaters [...]
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Check out this post that tells how to use a canning jar on your blender to blend things right in the jar — then flip it over, attach a lid and you’re ready to go!
The post and the comments suggest uses like:
Whipped cream
Chopped nuts
Ground spices
Using Mason mugs for frozen drinks right in the jar
Smoothies, anyone? [...]
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Posted in Garden, Green Living, Growing Challenge, Home, food, tagged bell pepper, birds, Garden, lemon, meyer lemon, okra, potatoes, row cover, strawberries, tomato, wall-o-water on June 16, 2008 | No Comments »
The beets are growing! They finally sprouted and up they came. I don’t have a photo of the green beans, but they are growing (sheltered under row cover, so the birds can’t eat the sprouts), and the second planting (to replace what the birds ate) is coming up now.
Also, here’s a picture of the Meyer [...]
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Posted in Children, Environment, Garden, Green Living, Home, tagged blog, environmental, Garden, lemon, meyer lemon, potatoes, Q&A, questions, recycling on June 12, 2008 | 4 Comments »
I got so many great questions from readers for my one-year anniversary — not to mention all the sweet comments. Thank YOU all for reading and making this blog so much fun. Your being here helps motivate me to keep on keepin’ on — even though things feel a little dark at times.
Here is the [...]
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