Renaissance Woman

I was at the local grocery store yesterday with a limited amount of cash in hand and a need to buy three items.  One of those was toilet paper. On the "end of the aisle" shelf, the store brand t.p. was on sale for $4.97 ($2 off regular price).  24 rolls, 140 sheets per roll.  But not recycled, not at all environmentally friendly.  In the regular aisle, the recycled (100% post-consumer fibre type) was $9.99.  Twice as much for recycled paper.  I just had enough money if I got the smaller block of cheddar.  But I just couldn't justify (yesterday - some days I can) buying the non-recyled paper.  So I sucked it up and picked up the recycled stuff. And then, as I walked past the "regular", on sale t.p., I took a closer look.  And there it was.  The stuff on sale had 140 sheets per roll.  The recycled had 280!  They were the same price (and the sheets are the same size).  Okay, the regular t.p. is probably fluffier an...

I rarely do this, although perhaps I should start doing it more.  I just read this blog post, and think it's a really good one for the environmentally-minded as well as the locovores.  This is from a woman in New Zealand who has gone back to the land and is living on Haleltree Farm.  I love how the Internet connects us. Let's share the information.  It's important. Enjoy: http://www.hazeltreefarm.com/2011/06/chicken-eggs-when-home-grown-bounty-is.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Cluttercut+%28Cluttercut%29 *April 13, 2014 - sorry, but this link no longer is active.  I looked on the Hazeltree Farm Facebook page, and they haven't posted anything since 2012 - which is sad.  I hope they are okay.

Recently I made a new friend - a young woman with a shared need to save the environment.  We had a short "chat" on Facebook yesterday - she was feeling frustrated, as we all do from time to time.  Her frustration stemmed from not doing "enough" environmentally.  As a woman in her early twenties with a one-year-old and a full time job, this precious soul doesn't have a lot of time.  She wants to change everything she does right now, but she is bound by her finances, time and relationships.  Nonetheless, she feels like she's failing because she tried to do too much at once. I understand her frustration.  As soon as you know better, you want to do better.  But one simply cannot change everything at once.  Even wanting to make so many changes can cause one to be overwhelmed and subsequently block the action that needs to be taken.  We've all been so overwhelmed that we couldn't get started on a project.  It's the same with maki...

Daniel's class came to our house the other day.  I wanted to show them our composter, the push mower, the clothesline (which allowed us to talk about where electricity comes from, peak oil, energy conservation), how I make my own laundry detergent, etc.  We also made ice cream and I made fresh bread to share.  The kids also got various samplers from the garden - spinach, lettuce and rhubarb as well as some old sunflower seeds from an old sunflower head.  They had no idea what a sunflower looked like when it was old and dried - one thought maybe it was an armadillo. And we read a great book called "One Small Place in a Tree".  Actually, I found a great website with all sorts of environmental books for children:  http://www.childsake.com/ The kids were great.  They asked good questions, behaved very well, and gave me a group hug after we were all done. They also asked for a handout with websites and the recipes for the ice cream and the laundry det...

Lately I've tended to read books about environmental degredation, interspersed with spiritual books.  This morning, they came together in my head, and here's the result ... I firmly believe that we create our own reality.  I've written about the power of positive thinking and prayer/meditation before , and still believe this very strongly - and more.  I think we create the good and the bad - I won't go to the extent of saying that we create our illnesses to teach us something, but I am open-minded to that theory.  Even if you don't believe that we energetically or metaphysically create our lives, I don't think you can argue against the fact that our thoughts do lead to our actions and create the physical world we perceive and live in.  Prayer and meditiation can help us create consciously, as can physical actions, but I'd postulate that most people create their worlds at an unconscious or subconscious level. So how did we go about creating a world ...

I own a push mower.  It was given to me by my aunt and uncle when we moved into our first home - they had bought it for themselves, but found their lumpy lawn to be very difficult to mow with it).  I was happy for the donation to the cause.  I say it was given to ME, because I think my husband has used it twice and refuses to use it anymore - or maybe it's that I refuse to LET him use it because I don't want to hear him complain about it.  And because I don't want him to give up in frustration and go buy an electric or gas mower. His father also used it once, complained incessantly and then I told him that he never had to mow my lawn again (I don't believe I asked him to in the first place). So I mow my lawn.  And I love my mower.  I don't love it because it does the best job ever or because it is the easiest lawn mower to use (it doesn't, and it's not).  I love it because when I use it I feel like I'm doing something good.  I'm getting exerc...

Thursday night, June 2, 2011, I participated in a Twitter forum on plastics.  I was invited to join by Beth Terry of My Plastic Free Life .  Thanks, Beth, for the invite! It was interesting.  Lots of people tweeting at once, so it wasn't so much a conversation as a bunch of individual comments with a few responses - but it gave me a good idea of where people's concerns generally lie.  And they tend not to be as broad-focused as mine (don't get me wrong, there's lots of people out there who are concerned about the effects of plastics on the environment, but not all of them - and I was surprised by some of the comments). It turns out that a lot of the plastic-oponents out there are more concerned about what the chemicals in plastics are doing to their own bodies, as opposed to the planet.  And I get that.  No doubt that the chemicals in plastics are bad for our bodies.  But I see the human body as being a small symptom of what is the real p...

In response to the great comment left by Laura on my last post ("The Eleventh Hour - continued"), I need to clarify a couple of things. There is no doubt whatsoever that corporations such as McDonalds and Starbucks are bad for our environment.  It cannot be denied that fast food outlets (and, yes, Starbucks is a fast food outlet) create tonnes of incredibly unnecessary waste, what with disposable cups (which will at least biodegrade eventually), lids and straws, wrappers, plastic salad containers (which REALLY pisses me off - be healthy, but environmentally irresponsible).  But along with creating a huge amount of waste (which is what we see, and with my focus on plastics is a huge pisser), these types of outlets have had much more wide-ranging and deep-reaching effects.  Just read " Fast Food Nation " to get a good idea of how McDonalds has been a primary driver in creating factory farms, destroying the Amazon rain forest and transforming our food syste...

Noel found a book for me at the Library.  It's called "Eaarth" (yes, that's "Earth" with 2 a's), and the theme of the book is a continuation of "The Long Emergency" and "The Eleventh Hour".  I'm only 15 pages into it and I'm depressed.  But I need to read it.  I need to know what might be coming in the future.  Because I want to survive it in some comfort with the skills that I need in place. Our situation is, truly, dire (if you really want to know the details, read the book - but most people just don't want to know).  And we've allowed ourselves to get here.  Our greed, our inertia, and our blinders (what keeps us from wanting to know) have kept us from seeing the truth - if these guys are right.  And I suspect they are. But, really, even if we don't want to see it, our world is changing.  And if we are going to survive with any quality of life, we have to open our eyes and see it.  Truth be told, my life in ...

Today I went to my son's classroom to talk to them about the environment.  Their teacher knew of my interests in recycling and such, and thought it would tie in well to their current curriculum. It went really well.  I read them The Lorax - that wonderful Dr. Seuss book about environmental destruction at the hands of industry.  It's a fantastic book.  If you have children and haven't yet read it to them, you need to.  If you don't have children and haven't read it, you need to.  (I got the copy from the Wetaskiwin Library, but of all the books I should own, this is one). We talked about all sorts of things - from recycling to single use plastics to alternative items they can use.  It's great because Daniel has been with the same kids for the past 3 years and I'm getting to know them all, so there is a certain familiarity with them.  And they are getting older and were so good at listening and putting their hands up.  I was so proud ...

Beth Terry at www.myplasticfreelife.com is going to be putting this on her blog.  She was asking for help finding a copy that she could post, and after watching it, I felt I needed to share it with you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4r3krs8eEY Please watch this.  It's about Britain's plastic recycling being shipped to China.  But the same thing happens with ours.  Not all of it goes to local manufacturers - as a matter of fact, I'm not sure that all of the plastics we put in the recycling bin actually get recycled at all, but I would have to research this. Anyhow, watch this and then think about it next time you decide you can just recycle your plastics and it will all be fine.  REDUCE is the most important part of reduce, reuse, recycle.

As you could probably guess, styrofoam egg cartons bug the crap out of me.  I usually buy the organic eggs from Safeway and they come in cardboard cartons.  But when we got out to the Hutterite colony I can buy local eggs for less then half the price of the organic.  Problem is, they come in styrofoam cartons. So the last time we went out, I took the old, heirloom egg basket that I acquired from one of my grandmothers, and got the nice Hutterite lady (Sarah) to get me eggs without a carton.  Straight from the cardboard flat, the eggs went into my basket and came home that way. Now, the Hutterites will take the cartons back for re-use, but they can only be re-used so many times before they are worn out.  This just takes me out of the loop and removes my responsibility for that carton.  Remember ... there are always options. P.S. - if you have an option of buying eggs directly from the layers (or their owners) I don't think you need a special baske...

Just tonight I watched Leonardo Dicaprio's enviornmental documentary "The Eleventh Hour". I've also been reading a book called "The Long Emergency". Both are rather depressing.  But only because they are telling us that things have to change.  And, let's face it, life has been rather easy and comfortable for quite a while now, and we don't really want things to change. Want it or not, however, change is coming.  The form that change will take is what is in question.  If we don't each individually make some major alterations in our lifestyles, the change will be much more uncomfortable.  And, frankly, my faith in humanity is such that I suspect that is what is going to happen.  I just can't help but think the vast majority of people (not those of you who read my rantings on a regualr basis, but the seemingly uncaring rednecks that I see on a daily basis) don't pay enough attention and don't think about it enough to realize that w...

This e-mail came across my desk today.  And following it is the reply I sent back. Friends and relatives here is something to think about: In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment." He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day. ...

This e-mail came across my desk today.  And following it is the reply I sent back. Friends and relatives here is something to think about: In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment." He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day. ...

The other day a friend of mine jokingly berated me for ruining his vacation.  He and his wife had gone to the Olympic Peninsula for a getaway.  But as he walked the beaches, all he could do was see the plastic, apparently.  This friend, nearly 20 years ago, had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, and at that time had started to notice the problem of trash in the seas.  Anyhow, I told him I was glad to ruin his vacation, and hoped he would start ruining things for others ... but in reality, I don't consider being aware of a problem as ruining anything.  Isn't it better to know about it, and be able to do somehting about it?  It's like finding out you have cancer - it might be nice to be blissfully ignorant, but in the longrun, you'd rather find out early, while it can be easily treated, than to wait too long until it's lethal. That's how I see the plastic issue.  If we start to fix it now, maybe it won't be a lethal problem. An article came ove...

Recently, Noel, Daniel and I went on a trip.  It was during this trip that I recognized a tragic generation gap and the short-sightedness of an uneducated (on environmental issues) population (or is it an uncaring population?  I'd prefer to think of it as uneducated).  (My apologies to the people who made the statements herein - I'm using this example to try and make a point, not to berate you). At a dinner, where there were several people (not to be named, because I don't want anyone to be pissed off or embarrassed), let's just say that at least one older member was justifying the use of disposable water bottles.  Granted, the available tap water is not drinkable - smells like sulphur - so there is a need for an alternative.  "I do have a water cooler with larger, refillable bottles, but you're not supposed to refill the small plastic ones because they let off chemicals" ... at which point I called bullshit. If you aren't supposed to re-use a plast...

I just read an editorial piece talking about plastics.  I'd ask you to read it, but if you're too busy, here's the long and the short of it.  Plastic isn't evil.  It's necessary and good in many situations.  Just not as a throwaway material. My comment ... DUH!!  Most of the people I have read are really against single-use plastics.  Plastic bags, pop cup lids, straws, lighters, utensils, etc.  I've read of NO ONE who complains about their plastic keyboard or monitor (and although I'd like to see CDs and DVDs in paper sleeves, I do buy movies and occasionally music - thanks Great Big Seas for putting out your last two CDs in cardboard sleeves).  We need re-think plastic as not being disposable because it is too valuable to be - and this is the point that author is trying to make. As far as grocery store bags are concerned, the alternative to plastic is not paper - it is cloth (although in a pinch I'd rather take paper).  Reusable bags ar...

In the past couple of years, we've been looking into ways to eat more sustainably - that means buying locally or at least buying organic. We usually buy 10kg (22lb) bags of flour at the grocery store for something like $12-14 a bag.  It's neither local or organic.  It pisses me off.  So I looked into a couple of things.  Safeway sells 1.8kg bags of organic, whole wheat flour from SunnyBoy, which is a mill located in Camrose - about a half hour drive from our house.  The small bags that Safeway sells cost about $7 and are plastic (!).  So expensive and not good packaging as far as I'm concerned. So I e-mailed the SunnyBoy mill and asked if I could buy the organic flour in something other than plastic.  Sure enough, if you make arrangements, you can buy at 20kg bag from the mill and it comes in paper. The cost is $32 - making it slightly more expensive than the non-organic variety, but less than half the cost of buying it in the small plastic ...

(Karen G., you might not want to read this - I know you love Disney World, and I don't want to ruin it for you - so skip this one - or just read the last 2 paragraphs). Maybe my love affair with Disney is waning.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm still enjoying parts of our trip .  I still like the rides and the Electric Light Parade was cool given that I saw it in 1976 when it first started and am seeing it again 35 years later (a full-circle moment there).  Disney does what they do very well. We've been in Florida now for 4 full days.  We've done the Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios (Harry Potter World), The Animal Kingdom, and Disney's Hollywood Studios.  It's a lot to do in 4 days.  Our 7-year-old would be happier to sit with Mommy and Daddy by the pool - the parks are a bit much for him when he spends full days there.  We've done a few rides - Pirates of the Caribbean is still a favourite, as is the Haunted Mansion.  But there are things abo...