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Over 200 years ago the human race made the decision that machines would make life easier, and thus started the Industrial Revolution!  The need for energy to run these machines has indeed made life easier however, it has made survival harder.  OOPS!

The Industrial Revolution was the start of the need for fossil fuels and by burning these fuels we are releasing gasses into our atmosphere that is heating up our planet.  If we continue on this trend the planet may no longer be able to sustain our species.

Now, many believe that this will not happen, as the scope of the reality is too big, it’s easier just to deny the problem and maybe it will go away.  Not gonna happen!  We, as a species created this problem and we, as a species, need to correct this problem.

By using less electricity we can help solve this problem.  Solar Panels are very expensive but are becoming cheaper by the day.  There are many grants and tax incentives out there that will enable the “average Joe homeowner” to achieve the goal of converting to solar power. The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE) website can lead you in the right direction for what is available in your state.

Practice the three R’s; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  Every time that you send garbage to the landfill you are aiding in the production of methane which is a greenhouse gas.  Use your left over vegetable cuttings for making compost or stock for soups and stews. Be creative and find other uses for little things that you are going to throw away .  An example is your toilet and towel paper rolls, I cut them down and make little seedling pots that can be placed right into the ground! Always recycle; many cities and towns have started a recycling program to make this an easy choice for you, use it!

Purchasing Electric Cars can tend to be a very expensive change.  If it is not one that you can afford, take the bus as often as you can, ride your bike up to the store or walk.  The more we use our vehicles, the more we are heating up the planet.  Plan your trips in a manner that will allow you to use less fuel.

Just by making these few simple changes we can help clean up the mess that we created, for the good of the species.

~Wind

Note:  This blog is part of  Blog Action Day 2009 .  If you have a blog and are interested in climate change join here

Some things in your kitchen that normally get tossed in the trash or poured down the drain, could very easily be an extra boost for your spring garden.

1. The tea leaves that are left over from your morning cup of tea contain nitrogen.  Spread them over the soil around your plants and work them into the dirt a little bit, the plants will thank you for it!
2. Any left over club soda that has gone flat in the bottom of the bottle, can provide extra minerals that your plants need.
3. Left over water from cooking pasta, potatoes or eggs provides extra nutrients to your garden.
4. Any left over beer from a celebration can be poured into a bowl and placed in the garden with the lip just slightly raised above the ground; the slugs love this stuff and will stay off your plants! Earwigs will also be attracted to containers that are filled with vegetable oil and beer.
5. Use the rinse water from your dishes (if you do them by hand) for rinsing the leaves on your plants to repel pests.  I just put it in spray bottles; it makes it easier to get the water on the plants.

There is normally a second use for everything that we discard; using our imagination to figuring out the second use is the best part!  Reusing and recycling is not only good for the environment, its kinda fun!

~Wind

Timberland, an eco-friendly clothing store for outside recreation and work, is releasing a line of boots and shoes that are made with recycled tire rubber in July of this year!

Green Rubber , a Malaysian company located on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, may have gotten some bad rap on an investment deal with Bruce Willis back in November of 2008, but since then, has joined partnership with Timberland and is has developed a method for de-vulcanizing old tires! Vulcanized rubber is made by adding sulfur and heat to regular old rubber and in effect, makes the rubber stronger for uses like tires and car bumpers.  Because this rubber is so tough, it is very hard to recycle, in order to DE-vulcanize the rubber, Green Rubber has created a mixture of chemicals that will release the sulfur bonds from the rubber, which in turn, makes the rubber easily recycled.

The added bonus to these types of rubber soled shoes is that once the soles wear out, they can be recycled again!

~Wind

You just finished cooking up your last egg, what can you do with that egg carton? Do you throw it out? Do you pitch it in your recycle bin? hmmmm… Here’s a few ideas that you can reuse that egg carton for:

Cut the top of the egg carton from the bottom half, poke small holes in the bottom for drainage, and use both pieces as seed starter trays.

Cover with a nice piece of fabric and use the cup portion for a jewelry organizer.
You can use the top portion for a way to organize your pierced earrings by just poking them through the container itself.

Cut the top part away of the container from the bottom part and use the cups as a place for different colored paints when painting a project (like a palette).

You can use the egg carton as a storage compartment for different beads and other small craft items.

How about ice cube trays?

or golf ball storage?

There are many possibilities for an old egg carton. Use your imagination…if you can think of anything that I didn’t place on the list, feel free to add your ideas with your comments!

Time to get crackin’ (sorry, I couldn’t help myself)

~Wind

There are several different ways to start your seedlings. One way of course, is to purchase a million little pots to plant each seedling in, yeah right!

Then of course are the seed starting plastic trays that you can purchase in the gardening department of the big box stores or at nurseries! Or…and this is my favorite way, make them yourself out of stuff lying around the house! Yes, it’s true! You can make your own little seedling pots with things that would either get pitched or thrown into the recycling bin!

A two-liter bottle can be cut in half and used for a seedling pot! Take the bottle cut it half, poke a few drainage holes, add 4-5 inches of soil in the bottom of the bottle and add your seeds! Put the top half back on to the bottle and you have officially created your own little greenhouse!

Old toilet paper rolls or the cardboard that holds your wrapping paper are also great ways to start your seedlings! Cut the roll in half and make four quarter inch slices around the outside edge of the roll, this creates four flaps that you then fold down like the bottom of a box. This will be the bottom of your ‘pot’. Fill with potting soil and add your seeds. I particularly like this approach because when it comes time to plant your seedlings into the garden you can plant the whole pot! The cardboard will disintegrate into the soil slowly but surely!

You can take a section of the newspaper and cut it in half, roll about four or five sheets of the paper around a spice bottle (so that it takes on a cylindrical shape, close of the bottom of the cone and secure with tape. viola! Instant seed pot!

I also have used egg cartons, just cut the top of the carton and use both pieces for separate trays. I have used egg shells, (just be sure to crush the shell a little bit before you place it in the garden), yogurt cups, the packaging that your strawberries come in, and cream cheese containers. Be certain to poke holes in the bottoms of anything that is too solid to let the water drain through.

Use your imagination before throwing things away and you would be amazed at how much stuff can be turned into something useful…again!!

Off to plant my seeds!

~Wind

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For the longest time, I would collect all the plastic bags that I brought my groceries home in, bring them back to the store on my next grocery shopping trip, throw them in the recycling bin out front, smile and feel good about myself, because I was recycling and doing the right thing!

One day while collecting my plastic bags, smiling from ear to ear, I was told by a reliable source, (my mate) that it was not ‘green’ to recycle plastic bags! Huh?!? I’m recycling, how am I not being green? Well, as it turns out, he was right, it is very rare that a plastic bag is recycled into another plastic bag! Reason being, that it is more expensive to recycle one plastic bag than it is to make a new one. There was a time that plastic bags were thought to be more environmentally friendly than the paper bags, as it takes 14 million trees to make the 10 billion paper bags that consumers use annually, but as it turns out neither one is good for the environment, at all!

So, what’s the alternative? Bring your own bag! I know that seems like a pain in the backside, but just like any ‘green change’, it’s just as simple as changing your habits! Buy 10 tote bags, if you purchase them at the grocery store itself, they cost a buck each, or you can usually purchase them cheaper at garage sales or thrift stores.

Keep the bags in your car readily available for your next grocery store trip. Now, here’s the tricky part (at least for me), you have to remember to put them back into your car on the way out the door! I know it seems simple, but it really is the hard part!

This is a great alternative to using plastic bags or paper bags, the cost to you is under $10 but the cost for the environment is priceless!

~Wind

Did you know that the amount of sunlight that hits the entire Earth’s surface during one hour produces enough energy to power the entire world for a year?

Cool Earth Solar has found an economically sound way to capture that energy and provide it on a global scale! Their solar power panels, or concentrators, are shaped like a balloon, as opposed to the flat panel of the norm and the main materials that are used, are plastic film (like the kind used for potato chip or pretzel bags), air and a small bit of aluminum. According to Cool Earth Solar, with this type of technology, one 150×150 mile solar plant can produce enough power that all of the U.S. electrical needs would be met through the year 2030!

With only 5 lbs of air, 2 lbs of plastic and wee bit of aluminum, ya’ got yourself a concentrator that costs nearly “15% less than the other solar energy systems that are available” and can withstand 125 mph winds!

Cool Earth Solar also has openings for green jobs, as well! Check it out for yourself at the Cool Earth Solar website!

~Wind
p.s. (the concentrators look like alien ships!)

I don’t know about you, but I’m an avid book reader and collector! I have many more books than I have read! I’ll see a book that I must have, read a few chapters than I see something shiney, end up putting my new book on the shelf and there it will sit…until one day, I find another ‘must have’ book and the cycle begins again!

One way to stop the book hoarding madness is to categorize your books by fiction, non-fiction, reference, ‘books I’ve read’ and ‘books I haven’t read’. Start with your reference books and treat them in the same manner that you would if you were cleaning out your closet! Determine whether or not you have looked back for information through each book over the last year, if not, put in the ‘it has to go’ pile.

Next move over to your fiction and non-fiction books, if you are like me, there are probably plenty of books that you are keeping that you have already read thoroughly. Now ask yourself, why? Why am I keeping them? Do I plan on reading them again? Keeping books on your shelf “just in case” you want to read them again, is an excellent way to watch your collection multiply!

Now for the tricky part, this is the part that takes self-contol (which is always the hardest part for me). Take the books that you haven’t read and determine which ones are books you’ll never read and which books that you just haven’t gotten to yet. The books that you’ll never read, put in the ‘it has to go’ pile! The books that you haven’t gotten to yet, dedicate yourself to reading a certain amount of books before you buy another new book! Say to yourself “I, Wind, will not purchase another book until I read five of my existing books!” It’s kind of a reward system for yourself! Once you read you’re five books, take a trip to the book store and treat yourself, but only with ONE book! Once you’ve finished your five books and purchased your new one, be sure to get rid of the other five, or you’ll find yourself doing this again next year!

Deciding what to do with your ‘it’s gotta go’ pile is easy. You can donate them to a used book store, a thrift store, the hospital or give them to a friend. However, the point of shrinking your book collection is to make you happier, if the thought of getting rid of any of your books makes you unhappy, just accept the fact that you are indeed a hoarder of books, get out the duster, clean your shelves with a smile and curl up with a good book and cup of hot cocoa!

Off to dust my shelves…

~Wind

Now that the new year is here, what are you going to do with your 2008 calendar? You could put them in your recycle bin or you could find other decorative uses for them around the home. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing…

Take the larger pictures from a wall calendar and frame them, you can hang them in your house or give them to Uncle Fred ‘who just loves cats’ as a gift. You can even glue the colorful pictures to old frames for a unique, colorful look.

Make fancy envelopes out of them. Unstick an old envelope for a template if you need one.

Cut them into strips and use them for packing.

Modge Podge them onto gift boxes, or on the bottom of dresser drawers.

On occasions, on the back of wall calendars, you will find smaller pictures of the 12 larger monthly pictures. Cut those out and use them as notecards.

ok…now it’s your turn! What creative ideas can you come up with?

Before you throw your food waste products in the trash, see how creative you can become with you’re recycling techniques!

Pouring bacon grease down the sink will ultimately clog up the drain. Here’s an alternative, take the grease and pour it in a jar add some stale bread crumbs, seeds or grains, place a string in the mixture (leaving enough length to tie) and refrigerate. When the grease has hardened you have a new bird feeder to hang from your tree!

The paper that is wrapped around butter sticks is great for greasing the bottom of pans for cooking. Keep some extras handy in the refrigerator to be used the next time that you’re baking.

Vegetable, chicken, fish and other meat scraps can be used in making stock and what is left over can be tossed in your compost bin.

Cereal bags can be used again as a food storage bag or you can grease it up and use to line the bottom of baking dishes.

Old coffee grounds are great in a compost bin!

As a teenager I used to use my parents old wine bottles as a candle holder, all the different colored waxes melting down the sides of the bottle always looked really cool to me! You can also use them for homemade concoctions as gifts!

Baby food jars can be used for a multitude of things! Fill them full of soy wax and make a candle, they make great gift jars for homemade jams or jellies, or you can use them for storage in the garage by filling them with screws, bolts or nails!

There are many different uses for regular household food items, get a little creative before you pitch them into the trash or the recycle bin! These were just few of my ideas, see how many of your own that you can come with and share them with us!

~Wind

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