Category Archives: Green Ideas

MP3 player — to buy or not to buy?

That is the question that I’ve been pondering for months.  Months turned into years, and I do not own an MP3 player.  Since I made it through all this pondering time without one, I obviously don’t NEED one.

So why am I considering purchasing an unnecessary THING in the first place?

I have the special inability to do anything other than sit and stare straight ahead when I am in any kind of moving vehicle, be it a car, bus, train, or airplane — no reading, no crossword puzzles, no movie watching — I can carry on a conversation, but I won’t turn my head to look at you while doing so.   That’s correct, my motion sickness is so sensitive that I can’t even read on airplanes.

Fortunately, I don’t spend much time on airplanes (as flying is almost always the least green transportation choice), but a flight in my future always brings up the MP3 player subject.  Now I’m about to make a trans-Atlantic journey, the longest flight of my life, and while I hope to spend a good chunk of that time sleeping, some form of entertainment might be nice, not to mention possibly having a calming effect on my unmedicated self.  (I usually take Dramamine when I fly, which I won’t be using this time due to the pregnancy.)

So what do I have against MP3 players?

An MP3 player is just another THING, engineered, like most things these days, for planned obsolescence.  Most articles tell you not to worry about the non-replaceable battery wearing out, because the battery will last 2-3 years, and by then, you’ll “need” a new player anyway.  Strangely, this reasoning fails to comfort me 😦

Aside from lengthy trips (of which I don’t take many), I don’t know that I would use an MP3 player all that much, which makes it hard to justify the purchase, both in terms of environmental impact and the impact on my wallet.

Well, writing thoughts down can be a great way to take a new look at an issue and find new solutions.  Now I see that maybe “buy” or “don’t buy” aren’t my only options here.  Since I want to use an MP3 player for a specified, finite period, borrowing one would be ideal.

Do you have an MP3 player you want to lend me for a couple of weeks?

Pregnancy thoughts for the week

This week, at least one person, possibly more, found this site through the search engine term “preggo booty.”  I’m not exactly sure who searches for that phrase, but I have some ideas, and I imagine he left this site disappointed.  So sorry!

I have my second prenatal visit next week, and given the condition of our streets after Tuesday’s ice storm, I don’t think I’ll be biking there 😦  However, I don’t plan to resort to the car — walking and public transit should do the trick, it will just require a bit more planning.

I read about Six Items or Less a few months ago — though their focus is not sustainability or the environment, the experiment shows that we probably need far less clothing than we own — and buying/owning less is green!  Now, I am not officially participating in the experiment, but between my [slowly] expanding belly and my winter itchies, my wardrobe is greatly diminished.

I have two pair of “work” pants that still fit, which I pair with my two or three sweaters that are not tight (tight =  itchy) or my two employer-branded polo shirts, so I’m unintentionally pretty close to “Six Items or Less” with my work wardrobe.  It really simplifies things in the mornings, and I plan to go through my clothes and really pare things down, though I will probably wait until after the baby, to see where my shape and weight settle, before getting rid of too much.

Depending on who you consult, my developing baby is the size of a turnip, an onion, or a hockey puck.  The food comparisons are odd, because every individual fruit or vegetable varies so much in size . . . or maybe that’s the point.

The three of us went sledding last night (4th time this season).  Given the current conditions, we renamed Art Hill.  Ice Hill was much more fitting.  The upside was an awesome sled run that took us over a foot bridge at the bottom of the hill — and drew a good bit of admiration from other sledders.  The downside?  Walking back up the icy slope!

Two for two

Sauce Magazine, my favorite StL foodie mag, scores high points for the recipes in its February 2011 edition.  On Sunday night, we made Acquacotta, a delicious and hearty soup, though it left us wondering what kind of Italian peasants can afford 10 oz. of dried porcini mushrooms.  We made it with our homegrown celery, herbs, leeks, and tomatoes, plus some local dried mushrooms — though we did not have 10 ounces!

Last night, Matthew made Navratan Korma, an Indian vegetable dish.  We both enjoyed it and think the leftovers will be even better, as the flavors have more time to meld.   Matthew dug into our freezer for garden/local green beans, carrots, yellow squash, and cauliflower, plus potatoes from our crop and our canned tomatoes.

This is the time of year when all the work of chopping, blanching, and canning, plus Matthew’s work in the garden really pays — in delicious dividends!

Seed starting: Make a functional, affordable heat box

Special guest post by Matthew

Functional, Affordable Seed starting heat source . . . I’ve used this one with great success and reliability for four sets of plants now.  We set our thermostat pretty low in the winter, so the heat box helps keep the seeds cozy (i.e., at an ideal temperature for sprouting).

The basics:

  1. Build a 5 sided wooden box to hold the heat, sized to fit your light source (or your tray size)
    1. Four 1”x4″ s (or whatever wood you want) for the sides
    2. Very thin plywood (or planks) for the top
    3. I left the bottom open, just set it on #3
    4. Nails or screws to join
    5. I made two boxes, each 10.5″ x 32″ x 3.5″
  2. A string of nightlight (4 watt) bulbs (or other incandescent lights) as a variable heat source (screw them in or unscrew some of them to get the soil temperature you want)
    1. Optional: Tack the wire of the nightlight string to the sides of the box to keep the bulbs out of direct contact with the box or radiant barrier –be careful to avoid damaging the wire’s insulation
    2. You may want to add a timer; I only use heat during the 16 hours of light I give my plants
    3. We have a string of lights that have a little metal cage around each bulb, so they sit directly on the reflective material
  3. A sheet of reflective radiant barrier insulation (see photo above) for below the box
    1. I used a scrap left over at the hardware store from someone’s home insulation project

Set your seed starting trays directly on top of the heat box.  When starting with this, put a thermometer into the soil of your seed starting tray and adjust how many bulbs are on in your box until you get the right temperature for your seeds.

Who Killed the Electric Car — A movie review

Who cares???

That was my gut response to the documentary movie Who Killed the Electric Car.  I expressed my skepticism as we sat down to watch it last night.  I don’t care about cars.  I care about bicycling and walking.

Who cares if a car is electric, it still requires ENERGY to run.  Most of the electricity in the U.S. comes from coal (the movie stated that 55% of electricity comes from coal, but I’m fairly certain we’re higher than that in Missouri), which is hardly a clean and green alternative to petroleum.

Despite approaching the movie with a fairly closed mind, I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.  It contains lots of dirty little secrets that the car companies and the government don’t want us to know.  I mentally rallied with the electric car supporters, and shed a few tears of anger and disgust at one point (watch the movie and then guess when).

Though my passion will continue to be active transportation, the movie makes a convincing case for electric vehicles being a viable and superior solution for many mid-range trips.  However, about half of the trips made in urban areas are less than three miles (with about a quarter of total trips under a mile)  — a distance that most people should be able to travel under their OWN power.  While electric cars might be PART of the solution for reducing our energy use and carbon emissions, working toward and promoting communities that support walking and biking is an equally (if not more) important part of the equation.

Conclusion: informative and entertaining, though not exactly uplifting.  A well-done documentary — I give it five stars.