So I’ve been neglecting my blog updating lately, but not without good reason, I’ve either been working or I’ve been doing little projects around the apartment to help make life a little more simplified. Nothing too involved, and yes, I am that person who is crazy enough to seam rip open the bottom of a shower curtain liner to soak the plastic strip inside in hydrogen peroxide to bleach out the red tide disease growing in there rather than go out and buy a whole new one. There, so I saved $6. Who’s the crazy one now? But that’s the gist of most of the little projects: taking some silly problem (like red algae) and trying to come up with a solution using what I have on hand to fix it. Would it have been easier to throw a new shower curtain liner in the cart next time I went to Target? Possibly. (Remembering to actually do so might not be so easy…) But the feeling that I know how to fix this problem makes me feel kinda good too. Waiting for a friend to finally remember to bring me a step ladder could take another 6 months, while dragging the coffee table out to the stoop to stand on accomplishes the same thing in seconds. Ditto with getting the building handyman to come by to cover up the greasy ceiling vent over my stove… the piece of aluminum foil I attached may make Martha Stewart roll her eyes, but at least I don’t have fan belt oil dripping in my pasta water anymore. I’ve put too much stuff off on my ‘to-do’ list because I’m waiting for the right tool to magically appear or the moment when I can justify the expense for the quick fix. I’m learning now that with a little patience and a few moments thinking about the problem creatively, I can do it myself for a fraction of the cost.

Homesteading continues...

Well after my first attempt at sweater making, I got more confident and decided I could probably do better than my first attempt (so much so that I've already unraveled that first sweater and I'm using the yarn for another project!) The 2nd attempt I took the lessons I learned from the first version (the yarn I originally chose seemed too thin and I would be more likely to wear a big warm fluffy sweater instead) so First Sweater version 2.o is just such: in my favorite color: grass green, it's a big foofy good for a cool fall day (or an overcast June Gloom Friday as the case may be.) Best part of this project is that I'm really learning to adapt to the design issues I come up against. For example, knitting the sleeves as the pattern called, I ended up with armpits down to my midsection. After unraveling and re-knitting with slight changes to the pattern (4 times!) I finally came up with a solution that seemed to work and makes my project much more likely to be worn outside of the house (in fact I've already gotten my first complement! :)

Homesteading: Part Deux

Finished my first sweater a few weeks ago: and thanks to Knitting Pretty's 'Simple Sweater' pattern it was a piece of cake. And since it was so easy, not sure if I want to save it as a sweater or start unraveling to use the yarn for something else (it's too hot for an alpaca/acrylic sweater now!) But look out... now I'm ready to make more!

This homesteading thing is going pretty well—after being out of town for 11 days and just allowing the crops to get watered by the sprinklers, look at this! I made lettuce! (see it there, it's on the far left) Snap peas are coming up and the tomato plant is about 5 times the size it was when I left. I could get used to this lazy gardener thing.

It seems we have sped right past spring here in LA and are now deep in the throes of summer. (How’s this for weather yoyos, last week I was trying to relight my heater’s pilot light because I was so cold, this week it’s 99º.) But the sun is good for something—first round of crops are starting to spring up: this year’s mini-garden includes lettuce, tomatoes, basil, peppers, strawberries and snap peas. First strawberry of the year consumed: 100 times tastier than anything bought at the grocery.

Today’s mini-dilemma to tackle? How to mail out 4 book-sized birthday presents without any envelopes? I knew this was a challenge I was up to—first, I found in the recycling bin a padded envelope and a small box that I get mailed DVDs in: old addresses covered with new mailing labels, a few staples and some packing tape and they were good to go. Second, I started to fashion a new box by refolding an old cracker box and got so far as gluing 3 sides together before a knock on the door revealed another DVD delivered in a padded envelope. (How the universe provides, sometimes when you don’t need it to!) And finally, the last package was slightly larger but more flexible than the others, so a used Tyvek mailer turned inside out would probably be the best option—the great thing about Tyvek is that it is so tough you can’t rip it, the bad thing is that not many people realize how easy it is to reuse them. And don’t want to use Fedex or Priority Mail for your shipping needs? Just turn them inside out and you’ve got your own generic brand mailer. The ease of this challenge made me wish I had more things to mail out— I could see reusing the tough plastic bags the cat litter comes in as a substitute mailer and I always keep a stash of kraft paper on hand in case I need to wrap a package for mailing. It’s amazing how much one can accomplish if you just take a few moments to work out the problem.

Service Saturday

Today’s service project through Tree People was planting 30 shade trees in a local neighborhood (I have finally learned my lesson that I can no longer participate in any mountain-based projects or face the repercussions of full-body poison ivy again…) and while I was a little fussy about the fact that we were planting trees in one of the most well-off neighborhoods in the valley, (with an impressive most-likely Earth Day related turn out of volunteers) it was explained that anyone can have this type of event organized, it just requires a little community coordination. (Interesting note, met a girl who grew up one town over from where I grew up and went to the same college as I did, both on the east coast…small world) I was also skeptical of the over-eager event leader’s claim that it is a scientific fact that when you give a tree a name it has a better chance of growing healthier, something I was not about to buy into at 9am on a Saturday morning. But scientific proof pending, I did notice how quickly the local residents got into naming the trees near their properties. A man who had to be about 85 or 90 came out in his wheelchair and watched us work and promptly named his nearby tree “Gloria”. Another family named the 3 on their curb “Kelly”, “Ralph” and “Ginger” after dogs that had passed on. And another resident christened “Dwayne”, after Dwayne Allman, of course. I know I’ll be driving by in the future, especially to check up on Gloria, because that hole was a real bitch to dig.

Kindred Spirit Series

Thought I would start a new blog series here about people I come across out there in the that I can totally relate to. So without further ado, please welcome the KINDRED SPIRIT SERIES. Our inaugural spirit is Jenna Woginrich, author of Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life, a great little book about how anyone can homestead, regardless of where you live. Jenna wrote the book while living in apartment in Idaho and beginning her journey into homesteading by accumulating chickens, sled dogs, honey bees and a love for heritage music and instruments. She now apparently lives in Vermont and blogs from her new home The Cold Antler Farm. As someone who always wanted their own sheep and bees, Jenna’s story makes me realize that a connection to traditional ways is not impossible, no matter what your ZIP code is, what your job is, and no matter how much technological and sensory overload invades our lives.

Simple solutions to simple problems

Couple cool realizations this week, all simple, healthy and proven effective!
• After trying a bunch of times to get rid of several years of calcited water on an antique piece of Spode China, after scrubbing and scrubbing, to no avail, just simply submerging it in a bath of vinegar for less than 12 hours, the residue wiped right off. (Saw the same cup and saucer on eBay for $32!)
• Inspiration struck while feeling “facially congested” tonight: My pores feel so stuffed up, that my forehead is literally lumpy! Knowing that sugar is a great facial scrub, I mixed it with about 2 tsps of Dr. Bronner’s soap and made a nice paste to scrub the dead skin away and open the pores. I don’t know why more facialists don’t use sugar in their treatments, your skin never felt so soft!
• Another beauty tip—adding a teaspoon (or two) of olive oil makes any body, hand or foot lotion even better. One use and I already have smoother skin.
• I hate, hate, HATE, cleaning my bathtub—doing the dishes used to be my least favorite chore, but I’ve learned to enjoy the Zen-ness of dishwashing and there’s also the fact that it is a productive chore—you start with dirty dishes, you end with clean dishes. With the darn bathtub, it just never seems to get fully clean, unless you start with all new tiles. So after ripping out the old crusty black grout, I wondered what the best way to keep the new grout looking white and clean. The answer was so simple and there all along: I’ve been a tub squeegee-er for years, but everyone knows that squeegees get most of the water, but not all of the water. The solution, squeegee first, then wipe down with an old towel. So easy, why didn’t I think of it years ago?

No More Plastic Bottles...evuh!

So I've had it. I'm usually pretty good about not buying bottled water, but when I travel it seems to be all one can do. After many trips where my system adversely reacted to the change in minerals in local water, I thought sticking to the bottled stuff was the way to go. But after going through airport security at Burbank Airport, I needed to quench my thirst. None of the news stands carry water any longer, so I was stuck with going to a cafe for my water selection. I picked a small (16.9 oz) bottle of Crystal Geyser and was told "That'll be $2.72."

*GASP* I was floored. Too floored to even storm out shouting, "That's highway robbery," dramatically, with a flourish of my cape. So I handed over my money and drank that bottle of water (at 16 cents an ounce), in 2 minutes flat (it was a 1.5 mile walk from home to the airport) and resolved never again. I headed to the restroom and promptly filled my aluminum bottle and the empty Crystal Geyser bottle with tap water. And you know what? It tasted just fine. I didn't grow gills on the plane.

Spending the week on location in New York, I put my new tap water only theory to the test, where, it didn't matter so much because New York City has one of the most highly rated municipal water supplies in the country. Of course, I was lucky enough to have someone running to the spigot for me every hour to refill my bottle, so first chance I got, I picked up a new SIGG 1 liter bottle... which is almost as light as a plastic bottle, is washable, reusable and a fashion statement and conversation starter. The $25 price tag is small potatoes, especially when I can recoup that cost in less than 10 bottles of airport water.

Reading List: "Greasy Rider: Two dudes, one fry-oil-powered car, and a cross country search for a greener future." (Greg Melville, 2008)

When Greg Melville needed a new car, he and his wife decided to try a greener route: why not buy an old diesel powered automobile and convert it to use 100% vegetable oil as fuel. Once they secured a 1985 Mercedes wagon and retrofitted it with a Grease Car system, Greg grabbed a friend (Iggy) and set out on a cross country road trip (Vermont to California with a few detours) to be (what he thinks) the first person ever to cross the nation in a vehicle solely powered by used vegetable oil. (Seems weird that it’s taken someone this long to come up with this challenge, and even the author prefaces every mention of it with “we think”). Converted Grease Cars are an intriguing idea, as they do keep (usually) older vehicles out of the waste stream and prevent a least one new car from being purchased. But more important is to realize is that they use 100% used cooking oil, (a waste product that most fast food restaurants actually pay to have taken away) to power a car and that is pretty darn cool.
The whole book feels a little thin—it feels that he had to fill it up with a lot of side trips that had nothing to do with the challenge (who cares if a college friend they visit turns out to be gay?) The “errands” that Iggy challenges Greg with are interesting enough (a trip to Google headquarters would make any eco-nerd salivate) but we’re still left wondering what happened to the bio-wagon after the cross country trip. It’s a nice story that does prove it can be done, you just have to WANT to do it; to quote Iggy “…if two goobers like us can actually get in a car and drive across the country without fossil fuels or putting a lot of carbon into the air, the answers for sustainability are easier than people think.”

Weeding the Mountain

So this month’s day of service I spent out with the friends of Tree People literally weeding the forest. I was skeptical at first but figured there has to be a logical reason why we would be pulling up perfectly healthy green plants—in an area so prone to wildfires, why would we want to get rid of something that is not brown and crispy?? The answer lies in the target of our attack: mustard greens and yellow thistles are both invasive plants to our region that are so toxic to the soil that their presence can kill native flora and even some animals. In an area in danger of drought conditions, these nasty weeds also “steal” water from the ground, so they had to go. Tree People insists on leaving the nutrients from the uprooted weeds in situ, so that the nitrogen from their leaves can do some good for native plants. (I’m trying to remain Zen about the fact that I have contracted a poison ivy-like rash all over my arms and legs during the weed pulling extravaganza…)

Reading List: "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (Barbara Kingsolver, 2007)

Continuing with my habit of reading any book that consists of an environmentally-themed personal challenge, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, fell right into that category. Kingsolver (most notably the author of The Poisonwood Bible) sets out with her family to eat only either what they can grow themselves or what was created locally (150 miles seems to be their “local radius”) for one year. Unlike the couple in Plenty (known as the “100-mile dieters”) Kingsolver and clan have a Kentucky farmhouse and enough knowledge of animal husbandry and agriculture to support it. (They also seem to handle issues with each other much better than the Plenty couple did.) Their admirable quest is made even more interesting by their commitment to heirloom varieties. Anyone can throw a handful of agro-conglomerate seeds in the ground and tend what grows, but it takes real patience to hunt down and nurture varieties that are all but extinct and unknown to the average American. (Most notably, instead of raising Broad-Breasted White Turkeys [which is what over 99% of all American turkey meat is] and instead raise Bourbon Reds, an heirloom variety. They must try to re-awaken the mating instinct that has essentially been bred out of the bird due to artificial insemination.)

While she insists that their lives were more than planting, hoeing, weeding, watering, picking and canning, the reader is left somewhat in doubt. (There are just not enough hours in the day to hold down a full time job and support a farm this size.) But for the average American with a small corner of land or room for a few containers for gardening, it is an otherwise inspiring tale of truly creating your own food supply.

Simpler or Too Fast?

So I got this new little toy for my computer… A wireless USB connection card that allows me to be online wherever I want (provided there’s a cell phone signal in the area). After spending the last 10 years dialing up whenever I wanted to be online at home or having to stop at public libraries while driving cross country to check my email, this is a radical change for me. I’ve resisted upgrading for years in order to save money ($20 for a phone line sure beats whatever the going rate for DSL and wireless networks are—over that 10 year period, I’ve easily saved thousands of dollars) but now it’s time to enter the 21st century. I’m a little saddened that I will lose that time that I would spend waiting for websites to load that I would usually get up and move around the apartment, multi-tasking as I waited. Will I fill that time that I don’t need to wait anymore with something productive? Or will I just waste more time online looking for things I don’t really need or want? Will the fact that I got impatient that it took 5 minutes for a page to load before be supplanted by getting upset if a page doesn’t now load in 30 seconds? Will this new technology really make my life simpler or make it go too fast?

Farmers Markets, Food Waste and Getting the Garden Growin'

For a while now, I've been planning on finally 'walking the walk' and getting myself to a farmer's market in the area. Of course, all the procrastinating was unnecessary since there is one right in my town, not 2 miles from my house. Every Saturday morning (rain or shine!) local vendors set out their pop up tents and display their horticultural wares. Some are organic, some merely boast they are pesticide-free, but all are merchants that are hands on participants in their products' creation. (Take that Ralph's produce department!) Okay, so I have some work to do to learn more about where my food comes from, but the farmer's market is the right step in the right direction. After perusing for a bit, I settled on a basket of strawberries (lots of fresh smoothies this week), a basket of grape tomatoes (good in Mexican dishes), and a couple organic pears (which I don't know why I don't eat more of, they are one of my favorite fruits). My fear with the quantities they sell is that I will end up tossing most of what I buy because I'm just one person that doesn't eat it fast enough before it goes south. (The tomatoes are the only thing left, but they're starting to get pretty squishy) So I'm trying to plan out meals before I select a particular produce for some variety. (Strawberry smoothies are great, but 3 days in a row seems to be the maximum amount of time I can stand them). I pride myself on not needing a garbage disposal, mostly because I am very conscious of how much food I waste, and whatever food that starts that detour south before I can eat it goes directly to the worm bin. With any luck this year's garden will start to take root shortly: Pea plants and sunflowers have started to sprout, a few other seedlings have begun germinating (oh why don't I label them better!) and once the worm castings are spread out on the new plants, mystery plants will also start cropping up as well. It is the most wonderful time of year. :)

For a farmers' market near you: click here for the searchable site.

2009 Resolutions: Give a Little Bit

After my trip to Ye Olde Tax Preparer this year, I was stunned to see how little I made in charitable contributions last year. And in this “ECONOMIC CLIMATE” what’s going to suffer most are the organizations that rely on contributions to survive. So this year, I’m going to challenge myself to make at least one donation a month, for 12 months to a cause near and dear to my heart. January I’ve already written about my fated donation to the team behind Gregg’s documentary, but February I think I’m going to select my local YMCA. I’ve been pretty much a lifelong member of one Y or another (back when mom threw me into swim lessons at 6 months of age), and I have seen first hand what a membership can for a person. Bally’s or 24 Hour Fitness may be the place to be if you’re looking to turn your workout into a social event, but the Y is the place to be if you want your membership dollars to directly benefit your community.

Reading List: "Confessions of An Eco-Sinner" & "Where Am I Wearing"

While being waylaid with a chest infection, I’ve had plenty of time to sack out on the couch and catch up on some light reading. Well, and with the absence of any fluffy tomes on my reading list, instead I picked a couple of “where my stuff is from” books. Both “Where Am I Wearing: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories and People That Make Our Clothes” (Kelsey Timmerman, 2008) and “Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff” (Fred Pearce, 2008) give the reader an insight into where and how everyday items are created. Both books covered “sweatshop” conditions but both challenged the notion that “sweatshop” is always a bad concept. Timmerman traveled to China, Bangladesh, and Honduras to uncover how his favorite items of clothing were made. What I liked most about his book was the photographs and stories he included about the real workers. And while the conditions that these workers are exposed to are what we consider low pay, long hours and toxic working conditions, he debates that if there was a boycott on the items that they make, these people would have even less than they have now.

Pearce’s book expands the search from clothes to other consumer goods such as coffee, computers, where his trash goes and even where his wedding ring came from. His book also opened my eyes to things I never knew existed (did you know there is a gold mine in South Africa that has supplied more gold to the planet than anywhere else on earth and that at any time there are 60,000 men working underground?) but also changed my mind on conventional thinking: (they have noted that it takes less energy to make virgin paper from trees than it takes to recycle old paper into new, that if everyone on the planet emitted as much carbon as the average Chinese person, there would be no climate crisis, that around polluted sewage drains there seem to be a higher abundance of thriving wildlife as compared to clean areas, and that if current population rates continue, the only population crisis will be that there are not ENOUGH people to support the human race.)

Both books are good examples on why we should never stop learning about where our “stuff” comes from and where it goes to once we’re done with it.

Doc Review: FLOW: For Love of Water

FLOW is a riveting documentary that covers all aspects of the global water crisis—from chemical pollution that is causing fish and frogs to spontaneously change sexes, to the corporate take over of water supplies, to large scale dams redirecting the natural flow of rivers for greed of the rich, to lack of access to clean and safe drinking water in the world’s poorest communities (where contaminated water kills more people than war or AIDS). “Water=money=power” is evidenced by the fact that only 3 major corporations (Suez, Vivendi and Thames Water) control not only the global water supply, but also created and control the World Water Council, an organization that has taken upon itself to be voice of authority on global water supply. We as Americans rarely think about where our water comes from and where it goes to, but in less than 10 years many American aquifers are in serious danger of being completely drained. Could you imagine having to wait in line for hours with a bucket for the mere possibility of clean water? It may be a reality if drastic changes are not made to our consumption habits. Another staggering statistic: Nestle owns SEVENTY percent of the bottled water brands (such names as Poland Spring, Ozarka, Deerfield Park, and Arrowhead) and supplies these brands by setting up in local communities, extracting the water from the ground and then selling back to consumers. I hope this documentary widens the discussion of who really owns water and how we all need to change our habits to keep it clean and plentiful.
Sign the petition for “the right for water”.

Sometimes the world works in very mysterious ways. During my new conscious habit of being more responsible for my actions, I had a rather prophetic experience. After discovering that a PayPal donation I had tried to make 2 years ago did not go through (I don’t check the account very often and when I signed on recently, I noticed the money back in my account and a “declined” letter waiting for me… dated 2006) I was disheartened, because I had no idea that this happened. I could have just walked away, taken that money and moved on with my life. But instead, this week, I went about making it right. I resent the donation directly to my friends at Greenie Films (creators of A Finished Life, the documentary about my late friend Gregg) with a note of humble apology and fessing up to what had happened. Their response was a pleasant coincidence: the amount I sent was needed exactly at that time to pay for the dub of the copy of the film that will shown on HERE TV shortly. Sometimes the world works in mysterious ways, and I am beginning to truly believe the power of intuition.

The Accountability of Simplicity

Oops. Okay, I’m ready to admit it. I did it. Picked up a wedding present for a friend this weekend (pushing that Emily Post rule about having 1 year after the wedding to come through with the gift or face social rudeness) and promptly proceeded to puncture a hole and scrape the side of the leather ottoman I had just purchased, not 15 minutes before. Sigh. So I ran through the options, #1- I mean it’s not really that bad, right, giving a wedding present that’s slightly damaged? Um, yes it is. Okay how about #2-head back to Tarjay and say that I didn’t notice that it was damaged when I bought it. This seemed like the way to go, but after sleeping on the decision, I remembered something I had written about in my book, which is that returning things that are damaged or that you have bought just to take parts out of is stealing, plain and simple.
So now the ottoman sits in my living room, and I convince myself that it is a nice addition to the space, damage and all. It serves as a reminder to be more accountable for my actions. I’ve also decided that I need to fill it up with a comparable amount of “stuff” to get rid of to justify its arrival. I’m also going to try to save the comparable amount of money spent, since now I still have to get another wedding present!