Polar Bear Teaches Kids to Be Green

If your a parent check out this site: Floe .

On this site your children can adopt their own virtual Polar Bear. They feed and play with the bear by answering questions about environmentally healthy practices Like which is better for the environment. Watching 1 hour of T.V a day on a plasma screen T.V or Drinking one bottle of water a day?

Can you get the right answer? If you can you get a treat or something for your polar bear to play with. It is a pretty cool site for kids. They can check back to see how their bear is doing and earn more treats for the bear.

Getting a handle on your clutter

Ok I don't make spending recommendations often but I am going to make a book recommendation.

The book is called It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff by Peter Walsh.

Where most clutter gurus try to take all your stuff and stuff it into tons of storage solutions (think spending lots and lots of money and just ending up filling the space with more clutter). Peter Walsh focuses on helping you get rid of the unnecessary things cluttering up your life and helping you live the life you want to live. I've been taking it at my own speed and been getting rid of stuff I've holding on to because I spent money on the or I was going to wear again eventually. But I'm not going to wear them or reread all those books (I should have gotten them from the library LOL).

This is a great book to read for those trying to get the clutter out of their life.
Now my first suggestion is to head on over to your local library and see if they have it. If they don't ask your librarian to order it. If you don't want to wait, go ahead and buy it, the money you save on not buying a half a ton storage containers will be worth it.

E-Waste Facts

I was reading this in the Long Island New Paper. They are some interesting facts I though was worth Sharing. There wasn't an author listed so I can't give them credit.

E-waste consists of: cell phones, stereos, copy machines, electronic typewriters, pagers, printers, laptops, keyboards, computer CPU’s, “Gameboys” and other electronic toys, PDA’s, mice, monitors, scanners, televisions, fax machines, calculators, DVD players, VCR’s, fax machines, cordless phones, answering machines, radios and all electronic peripherals.

1. Approximately 220 million tons of E-Waste is generated annually in the U.S.


2. The average life span of a computer today is two years.


3. Consumers have, on average, two or three obsolete computers in their garages, closets or storage spaces


4. According to the EPA, the volume of E-Waste is rising 3-5 percent each year - almost three times faster than the municipal waste stream.


5. The average computer monitor or TV may contain up to 7lbs. of lead, as well as cadmium, mercury and chromium in its circuit boards.


6. Recycling these products removes these toxins from our municipal waste stream.
   

Now what can you do about it. I was going to list a whole bunch of great resources that you can use to reuse and recycle this material but as I was surfing the web on this topic I found this great resource by the EPA with loads of resources already to go. So instead I'm going to give you a quick link right here:
Electronics:
A New Opportunity for
Waste Prevention, Reuse,
and Recycling

Walk Your Kids To School

Hey moms and dads................

Would you like to save money, get in shape, spend time with your kids and make your neighborhood safer???

The Answer is a lot easier then you might think. Walk your kids to school. Now I know this can not be done by everyone. But if you are a stay at home parent a work at home parent or if your schedule allows and you are within a mile of school ............................Then leave the car at home and walk.

If you are not driving your car then you are saving money and helping the environment. A pair of good walking shoes is a lot cheaper then the gallons of gas you waste every month driving such a short distance. (not to mention the idle time when many drivers sit and wait for school to open or get out with their cars running) . Not to mention setting a great example for your kids

Getting in shape well what can I actually say about this that isn't obvious. Yes if you spend more time walking you will be healthier. You will also save money and help the environment here as well. If you need smaller size clothes they are usually cheaper and since they use less materials then you consume less resources making them. You will also spend less time at the doctors because your healthier body will be able to fight off sickness better.

Spend time with your children. This is the most important thing I can think of but with our fast paced society we spend less and less time with our most valuable treasure. Walking with your kids gives your time to focus on them and pay attention to things they have to say and talk to things that you never seem to have time to discuss. You see things together you will not see when driving. When we lived in Tucson my children and I would count the lizards we saw sunning themselves in the morning. The highest we got was 27. Look for birds, spiders, lizards, frogs, squirrels and talk to your kids about the roll they play in your home ecosystem or maybe just how cute they are.

Last but not least it makes your whole neighborhood safer. Two legged preditors don't like to be seen they look for children alone that they can quickly snatch up. Your presence will help keep these creeps from pouncing because they don't want you to see them. It protects not just your children but every walking child out there. The more parents we get out with their kids it will make impossible for these nasty evil people to grab anyones child again.

So how many of you walk?? I walk every day in every weather execpt thunder storms.

Alternative Source of Energy Continued

I guess I should talk about why I think it is a good idea to create energy out of poo.

Well for one thing it's just seems like a smart thing to do with such a possible pollutant. Taking something that is considered waste and turning it into something useful is part of what being green is about.

What really concerns me though is some of the other ways they want to try and create energy. Keep in mind I'm not a scientist so I don't have all the information but some of the things I've seen suggested and some are even in use now make me worry about whether or not we are once again being short sited. There are two methods in particular that make me worry the most. Those are Geothermal and Gulf Stream Turbines.

Geothermal is basically using the earths natural internal heat to turn water into steam which then runs a steam turbine. Now I don't believe this will cause an immediate problem but what about the future? If we start pumping water into the Earth to heat it the natural reaction is that the earth becomes cooler. So isn't it possible that we could do irreparable damage to the earth by cooling it down? Can the Earth get hypothermia?

The second is the Gulf Stream Turbines. The idea is to stick turbines into the is a powerful, warm, and swift river of sea water that starts in the Gulf of Mexico, passes through the Strait of Florida, and flows along the eastern coastlines of the U.S. and Newfoundland then heads across the Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream is part of the Earths Natural Heating and Cooling system along with other ocean currents and the jet stream and to start blocking off part of that system doesn't seem like a good plan. To me this seems like walking up to a healthy person and shoving a clot into his blood stream. If you block of part of it is screws up all the rest.

Maybe it's just me.... What do you think?

Alternative Source of Energy........POO POWER

Has anyone seen the news article on CNN?

The city of SAN ANTONIO, Texas plans to turn the city sewage into energy for the city. They are going to capture the methane gas give off during the treatment of 140,000 tons of biosolids (think POOP) and turn it into electricity for the city. According to the report the city creates enough methane to fill seven commercial blimps or 1,250 tanker trucks each day.

HOW great is that talk about a renewable natural resource. Just think about how much power we could generate if they did that in New York City (or even using the hot air in Washington D.C. hee hee).

Why Buy When You Can Create

When you can't find what you need sometimes you have to get creative. If you use your imagination sometimes you can create what you need instead of going out and buying something new. Now I know these probably aren't the best pictures but I hope you'll find them a good example.



I was making mashed potatoes the other day and I couldn't find my veggie scrubber. I don't think its been unpacked yet. Well lucky for me I had been grocery shopping and had some onions. Now its not the onions I used to clean the potatoes. I'm not THAT crazy! But after dumping the onions into the basket I keep in the pantry I had the bag the onions came in left. I simply tied two of the side together to make a circle.

Then I slipped it over my hand and like a loofa scrubbed those potatoes clean. It worked wonderfully.

I got nice dirt free potatoes and didn't have to spent any extra money.

Now........................which box is that veggie scrubber in...............................

A Day To Remember 9/11

Today is the 7th Anniversary of the attack on America on September 11th. I have no cheap tips, no green savings and no advice on this day. Just a pray for those who lost everything.

Please Visit http://911.navexpress.com/

This is a memorial of 9/11. Stop by and remember those who have been lost.

April

Growing a Organic Garden

Time to start planning for your organic garden. Here are some things you will need and some things that will be helpful but not really necessary.
Things you need:

A place to plant:
Now you may already have a spot in mind. If you do great! Make sure you keep an eye on it while your getting ready to start your garden. What are you looking for things like Drainage, Sun to shade exposure and maybe local visitors such as rabbits squirrels ect. This will give you an indication to what work might be involved and which plants to put in your garden plot.
Seeds
Well DuH!! Of course you need then what else are you going to grow. Why on earth do I need to mention this? I’ll tell you why, NOT all Seeds are organic. Some every have pesticides wrapped around the seed so they won’t get eaten by pests. Some have been Genitical Modified. With nonorganic seeds you don't know what your getting. What was sprayed on the plant before it was harvested for seed? With organic seed what you see is what you get.

Tools
• Spade or garden shovel to turn over your garden, planting large plants and spreading compost, mulch and moving soil around.

• Trowel for digging small holes for seeds and seedlings.
• Gardening gloves to protect your hands. Just about every gardener loves a good
• Hoses, nozzles, and sprinklers to get the water where you want it. Drip hoses are your best bet for getting the water right where you need it. But if you cant afford the amount of hose you need for your garden check out your garden store and find the one that fits the shape of your garden best for minimal water waste.
Fertilizers
While there are many organic fertilizers you can use in your local garden store like Fish or bone meal and dried manure (yeah that’s right POOP for your garden) I think the best fertilizer is compost. Now I’ve made a post before about compost and I have a free video at the bottom from Youtube to help you get started. But if you don’t want to make your own then you can buy that too. Why do I think Compost is the best. Compost is natures way of returning materials to the earth to be reused. It helps your whole garden by supporting the wildlife that helps keep your garden healthy.

Some other items you might want to include in your gardening tools but aren’t really necessary are:
• Hoe to help cultivate between the rows of vegetables and remove weeds
• Pots to start your seeds earlier then if you just plant outside. Also good if you only have a small space and want to do a container garden.
• Hand cultivator are tiny hand held rakes made for digging aound your plants to aerate soil and get rid of weeds.

• Bulb planter if you are looking to do onions potatoes, garlic or any other type bulb plant this tool can help you did just the right size hole .
• A garden cart is very useful if you have a large garden or a large yard. You can use them to haul around your tools, plants, materials for composting small children, and anything else you need to move.

If you want more Here are a couple of great resources to check out:

Organic Food Gardening for Beginners

Organic Vegetable Gardening

Organic Vegetable Gardening At Home.