The Green Challenge – Day 22
Join me on this Green Challenge – Thirty Days of Serious (and Silly) Green Commitments! Each day, I’ll challenge myself to introduce a new green thing in my life, and I invite you to get on the bandwagon to make a difference. If all goes well, we’ll be living a greener life that will continue well beyond this Earth Month!
I’m feeling a bit tired out today and, needless to say, a little uncreative. My green challenge for the day will therefore be simple and low-maintenance: I’m committing to empty the lint trap on the clothes dryer every single time I start a load. I can be a bit lazy at times and just skip that step (more often than I’d like to admit), but this is an important one. It also helps to reduce the risk of fire, so I think I’ll use that as a motivator.
Oh, and here’s an update: I’ve used my solar oven a couple of times now. It’s going to take some time to adjust to this way of cooking because the amount of time required for a regular recipe is MUCH longer than what would normally be required. And I have to move the oven around to track the sun, otherwise the time lag is even longer. But it seems to work not too badly. Someday I’d like to buy a real one with better insulation to see if that works any better.
- Lucy
The Green Challenge – Day 21 Happy Earth Day!!
Join me on this Green Challenge – Thirty Days of Serious (and Silly) Green Commitments! Each day, I’ll challenge myself to introduce a new green thing in my life, and I invite you to get on the bandwagon to make a difference. If all goes well, we’ll be living a greener life that will continue well beyond this Earth Month!
I try not to get wound up about germs, but eating unwashed fruit causes me concern, especially since it may have been touched by dozens of unwashed hands before it arrived in my refrigerator. I used to wash my produce with commercial a produce wash, but this seems perhaps a bit much and it is costly. Instead, today I’m going to test out a recipe for making my own natural produce wash. Here it is:
- A few drops of grapefruit see extract (smells nice and acts like an antibacterial)
- 1 part water
- 1 part vinegar
- 1/16 part baking soda
I’ve put it in an old produce wash spray bottle that still works well, and will use the solution differently depending on what type of produce I’m cleaning. I’ll soak firm fruits and veggies in some of the solution then rinse quickly in water, but will spritz and rinse softer items, like lettuce. I think I may dump the used rinse water outside on the lawn, too. Hopefully it won’t hurt it!
One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.
–Luciano Pavarotti
- Lucy
The Green Challenge – Day 20
Join me on this Green Challenge – Thirty Days of Serious (and Silly) Green Commitments! Each day, I’ll challenge myself to introduce a new green thing in my life, and I invite you to get on the bandwagon to make a difference. If all goes well, we’ll be living a greener life that will continue well beyond this Earth Month!
I’m coming to discover how valuable a family calendar can be. For today’s challenge, I’m working on the issue of tire inflation. My goal in the past was always to remember to check their pressure once every month (which is what most greenies recommend) but I confess, I rarely remember on time. Sometimes three and four months go by without a single look at my tires.
To help me remember, I’ve decided to mark the task of tire pressure testing on the family calendar. I’m choosing days that I won’t likely be going out of the house. I find that when I am on my way out, I rarely have time, so I’m guessing that by choosing a stay-at-home day will work better for me. That way I can do it at some point in the day when it fits into the schedule.
I hope this will work, but if anyone else has an idea for how to remember, I’m all ears!
- Lucy
California fights the Plastic Bag Monster
California is poised to be a leader on the international stage by finally ending the paper vs. plastic debate. State bill AB 1998 tackles the true root issue: Single-use, disposable bags are an unnecessary waste of natural resources and are harmful to the systems that support life on this planet. If passed, the bill would take effect on July 1, 2011.
State bill AB 1998 specifically:
- Prohibits all supermarkets, retail pharmacies and chain convenience stores from distributing single-use plastic and paper carryout bags to their customers at point of sale.
- Does not apply to bags that are used to carry bulk items, produce or raw meat to the checkout.
- Requires stores to make reusable bags available for purchase instead of using single-use carryout bags.
- Requires a report to the legislature on the effectiveness of this policy, including recommendations to further encourage the use of reusable bags by consumers and retailers, and the feasibility of expanding the policy to cover other retail establishments.
Let’s do our part to get rid of the Plastic Bag Man. Make a pledge to stop using one-use bags and Mama will send you a MamasHealth.com reusable tote bag.
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Let’s do this together!
- Mama
The Green Challenge – Day 18
Join me on this Green Challenge – Thirty Days of Serious (and Silly) Green Commitments! Each day, I’ll challenge myself to introduce a new green thing in my life, and I invite you to get on the bandwagon to make a difference. If all goes well, we’ll be living a greener life that will continue well beyond this Earth Month!
I have always wanted to use a solar oven to cook our food—or at least to try it out. In my quest to find low-cost solutions for going green, I did a little searching and found some DIY solar oven plans online:
- Daily Green
- GreenTerraFirma
- DIY Solar
My challenge for today, therefore, is to try out one of these solar oven plans (I’ve got a little time and I think I’ll go for the GreenTerraFirma option since it seems the simplest yet most detailed plans) and begin testing it for a few nights in the remaining weeks of this challenge. Tonight, I’m going to brew up a batch of vegetarian chilli.
I’ll try to report on how it goes. If you are so inspired, please tell me about your solar oven adventures as well!
The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
– Helen Keller
- Lucy
Mama’s Farmers market Giveaway
Mama and her team were very busy yesterday. We gave away 100 Fruit Trees, 200 vegetable plants, and 1000 reusable tote bags at the Pasadena Farmers Market. Mama and her team are very committed to promoting self-sustainability and combating hunger in Pasadena. If you missed the tree giveaway but want a reusable tote bag, make a pledge to stop using one-use bags and we will send you a MamasHealth.com Reusable Tote Bag.
Stay tuned for pictures and a short video!
- Mama
The Green Challenge – Day 16
Join me on this Green Challenge – Thirty Days of Serious (and Silly) Green Commitments! Each day, I’ll challenge myself to introduce a new green thing in my life, and I invite you to get on the bandwagon to make a difference. If all goes well, we’ll be living a greener life that will continue well beyond this Earth Month!
It’s important to me that my children understand where food comes from. As a result, I make it a habit to take them with me to the farmer’s market so that they can mingle with the farmers, ask questions, and see food the way it actually looks when it comes out of the ground—a little dirt is a good sign, in my books. This year, I intend to do a little more, and it started this afternoon.
I am helping my kids develop their green thumbs this spring by having them plant a few seeds. I know, I know, the gardening experts out there are probably screaming at their screens that it’s a little late in the season, but nevertheless it is an important development, even if a bit late! We started with squash seeds and will keep them in the house for the next couple of weeks so that my kids can watch them sprout and grow. I know how much I enjoy the thrill of seeing new life pop out of the ground, so I look forward to watching my children’s reaction in the adventure as well.
Care less for your harvest than for how it is shared and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace.
– Kent Nerburn
- Lucy
The Green Challenge – Day 15
Join me on this Green Challenge – Thirty Days of Serious (and Silly) Green Commitments! Each day, I’ll challenge myself to introduce a new green thing in my life, and I invite you to get on the bandwagon to make a difference. If all goes well, we’ll be living a greener life that will continue well beyond this Earth Month!
I’m a big reader. These days, because I’m pressed for time, I often listen to recorded books. And although I’ve purchased some online, I don’t want to spend too much money on new items, and so I’ve been on a mission to find a greener, cheaper way to read.
Enter the library. I had no idea how many titles my local library has for recorded books! And, I discovered that there are many outlying libraries with which my library exchanges titles, and so the collection is essentially much larger! I pay $12/year for my membership and get unlimited books (printed and electronic) for that price. Plus, by sharing them with thousands of other people, we reduce resources.
The only hitch I can see is the transportation required to circulate the books, etc from one location to another… But then, I also noticed that they have a collection of online recorded books – ones I can download for a specified period of time! So I don’t even need to make a trip to the library and there are no greenhouse gas transport costs either. Nice!
- Lucy
