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Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/OnSavingGreen

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089</id><updated>2024-02-06T21:34:42.694-08:00</updated><category term="frugal"/><category term="cheap"/><category term="green"/><category term="budget"/><category term="environment"/><category term="container gardening"/><category term="gardening"/><category term="environmental"/><category term="laundry"/><category term="organic gardening"/><category term="vegetable gardening"/><category term="baking soda"/><category term="compost"/><category term="growing vegetables in containers"/><category term="recycle"/><category term="recycling"/><category term="antacids"/><category term="baking soda antacid"/><category term="baking soda toothpaste"/><category term="balance"/><category term="bookcrossing.com"/><category term="books"/><category term="carbon footprint"/><category term="cheap food"/><category term="chicobag"/><category term="clothes"/><category term="clothes rack"/><category term="colin beavan"/><category term="communal living"/><category term="cooking"/><category term="dancing rabbit"/><category term="disaster relief"/><category term="early germination"/><category term="earthquake"/><category term="eco"/><category term="ecovillage"/><category term="electricity"/><category term="environmental awareness"/><category term="environmental impact"/><category term="food"/><category term="food brands"/><category term="free"/><category term="free books"/><category term="froot loops"/><category term="fruitty wheels"/><category term="garbage"/><category term="generic"/><category term="giving"/><category term="groceries"/><category term="grocery"/><category term="haiti"/><category term="hand wash clothes"/><category term="herbicides"/><category term="home remedies"/><category term="homemade detergent"/><category term="homemade laundry detergent"/><category term="homemade salsa"/><category term="homemade soap"/><category term="homemade toothpaste"/><category term="igny"/><category term="landfill"/><category term="laundry detergent"/><category term="laundry soap"/><category term="leftovers"/><category term="line drying"/><category term="money-saving tips"/><category term="mother nature"/><category term="natural pesticides"/><category term="no impact man"/><category term="no impact man documentary"/><category term="ocean vortex"/><category term="pampa brand"/><category term="peroxide toothpaste"/><category term="pesticides"/><category term="pico de gallo"/><category term="plastic bag movie"/><category term="plastic bags"/><category term="plastic pollution"/><category term="reading"/><category term="repurpose"/><category term="reuse"/><category term="rutledge missouri"/><category term="salsa"/><category term="save money laundry"/><category term="saving money"/><category term="saving water"/><category term="seedlings"/><category term="simplicity"/><category term="sodium bicarbonate"/><category term="sodium bicarbonate antacid"/><category term="store brands"/><category term="store labels"/><category term="trash vortex"/><category term="voluntary simplicity"/><category term="wasting food"/><title type='text'>On Saving Green</title><subtitle type='html'>An indigent environmentalist</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>20</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-6204250994734978513</id><published>2010-05-18T14:45:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-18T23:12:08.135-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="container gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="natural pesticides"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="organic gardening"/><title type='text'>Pests in my container garden</title><content type='html'>Some things are eating my vegetable garden! Most of the plants, anyway; whatever the pests are, they seem to have a particular hankering for the cucumber leaves; the zucchini, not so much. Weird, I think. The way I see it, the two look sort of alike, that should account for something, but apparently not. Anyway, of course I need to get something done about it. Excepting the zukes, everything else is getting chewed up, not just the cucumbers, either. Starting all of the <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/04/container-garden-2010-beginning-seed-to.html">food from seeds</a>, some of the plants are still small enough that I can imagine what are munching away at them could very well eat the whole damn plants! <img style="float:left; margin-right:8px; width: 173px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ2OUmxIkKLZP5UXnG_diMvLuiStAwRIP1N_8BMDdZ5qoD8OPTGsI-UBHC7JgMT7CKvSnwUAM7ADK0kNVDEfIFCST9XdD_5u5L5BXlqGIiTmzAtcU6GPqs5SPnegrI2im2Q475JaZTW1s/s320/bug.gif" />Since my aim is using no chemical whatsitcides of any sort, whatever it is has to be organic but also cheaper than just cheap, basically free from whatever I already have around the house, that's about all I can afford for now. I was going to do that dish soap and water spray thingy I read about, until I realized that what I have is anti-bacterial. With triclosan. Which I didn't know was <a href="http://www.beyondpesticides.org/antibacterial/triclosan.htm">such bad stuff</a>, no good for man nor beast, sucks for the planet, too. Yikes. I used to didn't pay much attention to being very earth-friendly, and I use so little of dish soap, it has lasted for a couple of years already. Just as well to use it up now, I guess. No matter how I could get rid of it, it's still going to wind up somewhere. But it ain't ending up on my garden, that's off limits for sure. But I digress with the triclosan. I was excited reading that planting garlic as companion with other plants can work for a <a href="http://garden-pests-diseases.suite101.com/article.cfm/companion_planting_offers_garden_pest_control">natural pesticide</a>; also basil and oregano, those are supposed to work, too, a perfect mix I would definitely use. That would be a bonus way to stop the little creepers. Never have grown garlic, but I assume I can just jab some cloves down in there alongside. Guess I'll find out. As for the herbs, I'll pick up some cheap seed packs. Until that gets going, though, I think I'll try used coffee grounds that I also saw suggested. I don't know how much, and I'm wary of too much acid in the soil if I overdo it. Trial and error, I suppose; I'm just hoping for as few errors as possible. There's some <a href="http://living.oneindia.in/home-n-garden/beautiful-gardens/naturalpesticides.html">garlic and oil spray</a> concoction, too, to be sprayed directly onto the leaves. We've been having quite a bit of rain lately, with more coming and I'm just afraid any effects from that would be too short-lived, washed away tomorrow or the next day. I'll probably mix up a batch of it, though, for when we have a drier spell. But I really need to do something sooner than later. It's kind of disheartening, after being so (overly, I know) giddy about things growing, to see my little container garden making some nefarious buggers' salad bowls. I really don't want them dead, if I can just get them to keep away, I'll be happier with that. I don't like killing anything, no matter how pestilent; but if it comes down to between my garden and their crawly selves, the bastards are kicking it. Maybe that coffee grounds thing will prove to work, meanwhile the garlic and herbs can start growing. Hopefully, anyway. Hopefully that the coffee might work, and also hopefully the garlic will grow just stuck in there. I should have planned on growing some of that anyway, at least this got me reminded to do so, whether or not it works as a bug rebuffer. And so it goes.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/6204250994734978513/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/05/pests-in-my-container-garden.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/6204250994734978513'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/6204250994734978513'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/05/pests-in-my-container-garden.html' title='Pests in my container garden'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ2OUmxIkKLZP5UXnG_diMvLuiStAwRIP1N_8BMDdZ5qoD8OPTGsI-UBHC7JgMT7CKvSnwUAM7ADK0kNVDEfIFCST9XdD_5u5L5BXlqGIiTmzAtcU6GPqs5SPnegrI2im2Q475JaZTW1s/s72-c/bug.gif" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-6444418182088369203</id><published>2010-05-01T09:05:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-02T00:24:35.337-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="container gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environment"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="green"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="growing vegetables in containers"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="herbicides"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="organic gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="pesticides"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="seedlings"/><title type='text'>Organic Garden Variety OCD</title><content type='html'><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVoR4a-4Bw_9Hugq_T3wGG05-Wes5e7s9-2tyxr6eHrmCLoHb80qs6EbrrMh1_GtMUAiusbYuuDR_VsBMb0_cnzehqLJEiYnS2nC4BQ53sEy3QBJQ-elq2ilwcD1WS-8kox0XzwIgufvc/s400/vegplant.JPG" /> It was probably the worst day of all to do it, but this past Thursday I decided it would be a fantastic idea to go ahead transplanting the bigger of my seedlings into their permanent containers. By happy chance, all went well, but honestly... I don't know what I was thinking, why that would be a good idea, considering the remarkably high winds we had that day! Fiftyish mile per hour <a href="http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KMKC/2010/4/29/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA">sustained max gusts</a>, and with absolutely nothing at all to cut off the wind here, it's a wonderment the little guys could manage holding on without any chance to adjust and for digging in. But they somehow managed and seem to be doing amazingly well. I'm really flaky, though, about constantly checking up on them now, making sure they're still whole and living; it's an obsession, practically a disorder of some sort, probably. <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/03/first-year-container-gardening.html">I've said it before</a> that I am no stranger to gardening; I have been estranged from it, however, for a lot of years... but I'll be damned if I recall ever worrying so much about the stuff I'm growing. It's like when they were in their little starter cups, I felt that they were some way kept safe, and now that I've got them stuck out there on their lonesome without my regular watchfulness, all manner of pestilence might swoop in and desolate my little setup. Because I've never done it the organic way before, that's why. I am seriously oblivious about how to best protect and produce, cides-free anyway: the herbicides, the insecticides, fungicides and pesticides, whatever other sundry biocides I used back when... aside from the chemical varieties, I'm totally ignorant what to do. I have a lot of <del><a href="http://www.cnet.com.au/google-wants-people-to-stop-googling-240091921.htm">Googling</a></del> online searching to do about that, which I ought to have already done, my bad. Particularly I need to educate myself about homemade methods for safeguarding, unsynthetically, my veggie charges, since I'm hardly in a financial position at the moment for buying commercial organics. I'm anxious for them to do well and to provide for me some awesome food later on, and I want to take care of them au naturale, but it's sort of intimidating. I suppose I'll learn as I go, though, and be smarter for it at the end. Most of all I hope to finally get over my garden variety OCD, of course, and naturally.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/6444418182088369203/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/05/organic-garden-variety-ocd.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/6444418182088369203'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/6444418182088369203'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/05/organic-garden-variety-ocd.html' title='Organic Garden Variety OCD'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVoR4a-4Bw_9Hugq_T3wGG05-Wes5e7s9-2tyxr6eHrmCLoHb80qs6EbrrMh1_GtMUAiusbYuuDR_VsBMb0_cnzehqLJEiYnS2nC4BQ53sEy3QBJQ-elq2ilwcD1WS-8kox0XzwIgufvc/s72-c/vegplant.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-6368293041763616798</id><published>2010-04-17T14:19:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-22T06:28:57.123-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="compost"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="container gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="early germination"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="mother nature"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="organic gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="vegetable gardening"/><title type='text'>Container Garden, the Beginning: Seed to Seedling in 48 Hours</title><content type='html'>Now that Mother Nature has stopped being such a bitch all winter long, and gone back to acting more like a proper and friendlier lady, I'm pretty excited about getting <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/03/first-year-container-gardening.html">my container garden</a> growing. The weather has been crazy fantastic here, earlier in the season than is usual for a streak of 80-degree days, the upside of global warming. Yay, greenhouse gases! So anyhow, last Tuesday I got busy repurposing some of my collection of done-with yogurt cups for starter seeding what (hopefully) will end up good eats later on. I suppose I could have just gone ahead planting them in their final resting places; I've got the containers set up and ready to go, it just seemed overwhelming such tiny seeds in such giant buckets! Also it allows me to bring them in overnight if need be, since the Great Mother still occasionally relapses into being spiteful and <a href="http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/mo.html">frosty this early on</a>. As it is typical of me, once I got everything seeded I felt let down afterward, with just so many cups-o'-dirt to show for it. No wonder why way back when I used to do the common sort of gardening (the less creative, stuck-straight-in-the-ground kind), I always opted for starter plants over seed whenever I could; I need instant gratification, terrifically impatient about most everything, and all I had there were some throwaways filled up with muck. It didn't help much that the flipside of the packets said I'd have to wait anywhere from 7 to 14 days for the seeds to germinate. Whatever, par for the course, such a long time to sit tight, twiddling green thumbs. So imagine my surprise when less than 48 hours later, Thursday morning, behold... smidgens of green from the iceberg lettuce, and by early that afternoon, also a couple of cucumber nubbins! By Friday, three days in, the zucchini started taking a stab at daylight.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP45zD9J9nu9oSFagQC2S3feFoIHddmnsqqp4VyXUyf-I1k_NlNGXns9LLfXF7lmVDzJABvcADT1r9MGzXH9R2SaCYr3xPr0sxxbJgB4zeaWy_QQazoYgu3LQ5YL4Mw11DxntEeTXrS5U/s1600/iceburg.JPG"><img style="margin-right:5px; width: 160px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP45zD9J9nu9oSFagQC2S3feFoIHddmnsqqp4VyXUyf-I1k_NlNGXns9LLfXF7lmVDzJABvcADT1r9MGzXH9R2SaCYr3xPr0sxxbJgB4zeaWy_QQazoYgu3LQ5YL4Mw11DxntEeTXrS5U/s200/iceburg.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDOItaKaCdPFd1_s1bhPMlg4m8VZAgjz7vKPSxQ7IChN4rgdKikkidrlkJdS2zXu8KrkVohvrw_IGeG9_m9QHNTTbV5P5eGZP85M_J0sv_sSjaVNbyDDDCsAuWHU33JQzLMQafcEH7xSE/s1600/cuke.JPG"><img style="margin-right:5px; width: 160px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDOItaKaCdPFd1_s1bhPMlg4m8VZAgjz7vKPSxQ7IChN4rgdKikkidrlkJdS2zXu8KrkVohvrw_IGeG9_m9QHNTTbV5P5eGZP85M_J0sv_sSjaVNbyDDDCsAuWHU33JQzLMQafcEH7xSE/s200/cuke.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihwH_Aahu6XZiEr3jhu124L87Hb_iZvVOpnbvNj0fwR8e0-as0myUcS98mRgCKOM5xy_GDVPLjf8cLZKgVkthQHeHc2x1aAan0pXhhEKBz1ACLRABhoPGUcbRtgtLKT8j0ZByeWiHcK48/s1600/zuke.JPG"><img style="margin-right:5px; width: 160px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihwH_Aahu6XZiEr3jhu124L87Hb_iZvVOpnbvNj0fwR8e0-as0myUcS98mRgCKOM5xy_GDVPLjf8cLZKgVkthQHeHc2x1aAan0pXhhEKBz1ACLRABhoPGUcbRtgtLKT8j0ZByeWiHcK48/s200/zuke.JPG" /></a>Of course I am happy about it, actually growing stuff already, but how come so quickly? All I can think to attribute it to is the amazing dirt I dug up for planting, from in the wood behind my home nearby the creek running through it. The regular soil closer to the house is way too clayish; I tried it earlier, and all I managed from that experiment is making too many brick paperweights. <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/02/simple-reading.html">I can't afford</a> buying any good stuff, nor even the not-so-good, being literally "dirt poor" for now, but that out back looked so black and rich I figured I'd shovel it up. I'm supposing it's mostly natural compost, really, what with so many fallen leaves, motley foliage and whole trees, all rotted over umpteen years, plus the cow and horse shit down there, too, <a href="http://www.primalseeds.org/compost.htm#wha">nature's smörgåsbord</a>. A bacteria buffet, a fungal feast, a crawler's canteen, and most importantly, free black gold for me! Judging from such pronto results, I can only hope that this bodes well for continued growth and production, but only time will tell. So far, the rest of the fruit and veg hasn't caught on, but I can be more patient with them, now that I've been appeased for awhile with some already sprouted, closer to ready for their big boy buckets!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/6368293041763616798/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/04/container-garden-2010-beginning-seed-to.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/6368293041763616798'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/6368293041763616798'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/04/container-garden-2010-beginning-seed-to.html' title='Container Garden, the Beginning: Seed to Seedling in 48 Hours'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP45zD9J9nu9oSFagQC2S3feFoIHddmnsqqp4VyXUyf-I1k_NlNGXns9LLfXF7lmVDzJABvcADT1r9MGzXH9R2SaCYr3xPr0sxxbJgB4zeaWy_QQazoYgu3LQ5YL4Mw11DxntEeTXrS5U/s72-c/iceburg.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-4459866006692816616</id><published>2010-04-09T13:44:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T19:48:59.578-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="budget"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap food"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="food brands"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="froot loops"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="fruitty wheels"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="generic"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="groceries"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="grocery"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="igny"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="pampa brand"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="store brands"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="store labels"/><title type='text'>Cheap laughs, Fruitty and Igny</title><content type='html'><img style="float:left; margin-right:5px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKfvekQjp88jwr9Acqo3m4dNjC-D4LbVo9bEN7DvFCoBmI3mHLDsHSaQGBK98ZpbyukbpsrOqGJtpV2kWO860eBkITHOdWeIOlLpgWv9iMWyOJwKX_S4KfYLWLqYCm-mqPTplryqt9lY/s400/fruitty.JPG" height="234" width="275" />The grocery store's dollar aisle! Gotta love it. From one endcap to the other, all the various and sundry foodstuffs with those yellow $1 (or 2/$1 even better!) tabs stuck in the slots underneath. Where this all comes from, I have no idea, everything there is a step below the regular store brands, even. So I bought this here box of cereal, conspicuously a Froot Loops knock-off of sorts, without bothering to pay much more attention than that it was just a buck. Cheap counts to me, it's a good thing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_nazi">linguistic prescription</a> not so much... I didn't notice until only a couple of days ago that I had bought myself some Fruitty Wheels! To tell you the truth, they weren't even so very one-T fruity as far as taste goes, doubling up letters can hardly compensate for that. Then I noticed that cool skater dude also on the box. At least I first thought he was a skater except that he has no wheels, so I think he's maybe supposed to be milk-surfing or something instead. With arguably nonessential knee pads and elbow pads, gloves, too, but I reckon safety precautions can't be overdone. It says his name is Igny, by the way. Igny. I had to Google that before I made too much fun of it, and so far as I can tell the kid's only namesakes are some assorted French towns. According to the Fruitty Wheels box, Igny is a "product of Argentina", so very <a href="http://transnationalfoods.com/productos.html">transnational is the Pampa brand</a>'s target market. Toucan Sam has nothing to worry his pretty avian head about, that's for sure. Fruitty Wheels are a hinky cereal, I can't tell exactly why they suck so bad. But hey, at least I'm only out a single for it, and I'm not disinclined to pay for an occasional amusement no matter how mingy I might be. Clearly it doesn't take an awful lot to amuse me, whatever. I don't get out much.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/4459866006692816616/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/04/cheap-laughs-fruitty-and-igny.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/4459866006692816616'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/4459866006692816616'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/04/cheap-laughs-fruitty-and-igny.html' title='Cheap laughs, Fruitty and Igny'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKfvekQjp88jwr9Acqo3m4dNjC-D4LbVo9bEN7DvFCoBmI3mHLDsHSaQGBK98ZpbyukbpsrOqGJtpV2kWO860eBkITHOdWeIOlLpgWv9iMWyOJwKX_S4KfYLWLqYCm-mqPTplryqt9lY/s72-c/fruitty.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-6445925286612742927</id><published>2010-03-24T11:36:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-03-25T00:03:49.703-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="chicobag"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="green"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ocean vortex"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="plastic bag movie"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="plastic bags"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="plastic pollution"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="recycle"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="recycling"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="repurpose"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="reuse"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="trash vortex"/><title type='text'>Plastic Bag, the Movie</title><content type='html'>I went to the grocery store last Sunday and, once again, forgot to take along my <a href="http://www.chicobag.com/p-16-chicobag-original.aspx">ChicoBag</a>. Probably its dinky, handy size stuffed up inside itself is what makes me forget about it sometimes; I should probably keep it prominently undid somewhere to remember, because I feel bad whenever I leave it behind. That sounds like a plug, but it's really not. I simply don't like using the plastic bags from the store, any reusable would do fine by me; I just happen to have the ChicoBag is all. I had intended to shop on the cheap at the bestest store in the world <a href="http://www.paylessforfood.com/smart-supermarket-shopping-strategies/how-aldis-supermarkets-can-dramatically-reduce-your-grocery-bill/">Aldi</a>, but winter crapped on us last weekend and Aldi is some 20 miles or so away, I opted going to the only store here in town instead. I swear to God, this particular chain of stores must own stock in some sort of plastics affair, because they totally outdo themselves how many bags they can use up! Pathetic, it is, and I was a part of that on Sunday, probably skewing higher the <a href="http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/plastic-bag-facts.html">already boggling stats</a>: 60,000 plastic bags used in the U.S. every five seconds, more than 100,000 marine animals killed off every year, not to mention the unbelievable resources used up just to make the things. The Odessa store alone might very well be solely responsible for that Pacific Ocean <a href="http://planetgreen.discovery.com/travel-outdoors/reduce-pacific-trash-vortex.html">vortex thingy</a>, I could imagine. Yeah, my bad, and I'll try to do better remembering the next time. I do lots of stuff that's not so planet-friendly, I'm sure, but I try my best doing whatever I can, and after watching this movie I think I'll do better remembering my ChicoBag hereafter. <a href="http://futurestates.tv/episodes/plastic-bag">Plastic Bag</a>, the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag searching for its lost maker, the woman who took it home from the store and then discarded it, trying to grasp its purpose in the world. Eventually it winds up in the ocean, a promised nirvana where it will settle among its own kind, letting go the memory of its maker... <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YDBtCb61Sd4&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YDBtCb61Sd4&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object></content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/6445925286612742927/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/plastic-bag-movie.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/6445925286612742927'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/6445925286612742927'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/plastic-bag-movie.html' title='Plastic Bag, the Movie'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-904045529355018278</id><published>2010-03-19T20:20:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-03-19T22:58:28.155-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="container gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environment"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environmental"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="homemade salsa"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="pico de gallo"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="salsa"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="vegetable gardening"/><title type='text'>Picture This: Salsa</title><content type='html'><img style="float:left; margin-right:10px;" height="200" width="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG26HoRoVPlKRDlQlXhAjaVStdr70No62_OCYon90njpEDT0I3J65_NH9L3sze8P9QLkM0JwWyZKWaOMqbnG9P_xkDMNv5zGB5kstv5-0fuN8XP9X5EjSp1dUCIl3KB9RisX60eSojG-8/s400/pico.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450550955705243490" />No excuses, really, for why this picture of a salsa jar on my deck here. I was there, it was there, things happened. I guess the bigger question would be why it was outside with me in the first place. All right, fine, I'm <del>sort of an oddball</del> a total wackjob when it comes to making stuff and putting it in jars, I carry it places with me sometimes, thinking it somehow photogenic. Which it isn't, really. I did have a picture of the salsa unjarred that was quite pretty, actually, dished up with chips and stuff, not all mushed behind glass which could just as easily look like regurge as much as not, but the camera died and I ate it before I had the chance for a do-over. Not the camera I ate, the salsa, I ate the salsa. Also that first one gone wild with chips was not modeled on the deck; that would plainly be wrong. I wasn't kidding, though, what I said putting fresh made food in jars makes me want to take pictures. "Awesome" is a word I say a lot, and I am truly trying to stop that, but for now it is all I can think of, how this whole big-ass jar of deliciousness is not only tastier fresh and preservative-free than your store-boughts, it's, like, virtually cost-free, too. (I'm also trying hard to stop saying "like" like that, you know?) This time of year, and it is still too early for the tomatoes in the grocery to be decent, I stick with canned tomatoes for it. No hatin' on the <a href="http://livinglifereal.blogspot.com/2010/03/ive-struck-red-gold-and-so-can-you.html" target="_blank">wonderfulness of Red Gold</a> (&larr;contest there) or anything, but I opted for the Always Save brand. A 49-cent can went into this one, and I had to buy the head of garlic, an onion and jalapeños, but what? Maybe less than a buck altogether, I am supposing. A couple of cloves of the garlic, couple of peppers and half an onion. Oh, and a lime, I squirted some juice from that into it, too. If I had put in cilantro, that might have put me over my buck budget, but I hate cilantro. Bleh. The fantasticker thing about it, also, is that as cheap and better all around as it is made fresh, once I get <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/03/first-year-container-gardening.html">my garden growing</a> here (still giddy about that, by the way) I can save even the George that this took, plus it will be even fresher. I'm all for the cheap, free is even better, and there is nothing in here that I won't be growing myself. I'm also all in with organic and locally grown, and you sure can't get more local than stepping just outside. Yep, awesome. For now even with this batch, though, notwithstanding some compromise toward the economical and <a href="http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/locally_grown.htm">ecological aspects</a>, it's still a good sight better all around than the alternatives. I don't understand why, even for others less chintzy and less environmentally bent than myself, folks don't do this sort of thing anyway? Get a rope. It's just flat out better, plus it tastes more excellent knowing I made it. I don't even own a food processor, just a really big knife, that risk alone makes me appreciate it more. Plus it's prettier, for taking pictures and such.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/904045529355018278/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/picture-this-salsa.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/904045529355018278'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/904045529355018278'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/picture-this-salsa.html' title='Picture This: Salsa'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG26HoRoVPlKRDlQlXhAjaVStdr70No62_OCYon90njpEDT0I3J65_NH9L3sze8P9QLkM0JwWyZKWaOMqbnG9P_xkDMNv5zGB5kstv5-0fuN8XP9X5EjSp1dUCIl3KB9RisX60eSojG-8/s72-c/pico.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-5169573280041247046</id><published>2010-03-13T12:54:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-03-13T19:53:06.852-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="bookcrossing.com"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="books"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environment"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="free"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="free books"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="reading"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="recycle"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="recycling"/><title type='text'>Free Books and Saving Green</title><content type='html'><img style="float:left; margin-right:10px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD98mqdWpSmo_vK3DLZaS09dTbngkcA6jwk5FOoY6J5ufINHVsDJhGG_5LCtlnq8kgP3uxwLUkq0CmJ9TZrSF153YlahYcnJkfRaKdeIEUAl-mi3b9h1LlaHRjfJ79iR1UKi2-1_gzZmA/s400/recycle_bally.gif" />"Help make the world a library and recycle at the same time." That's what <a href="http://bookcrossing.com">BookCrossing</a> is all about, and I have to say one of the best ever plans for some ordinary chum to come up with. Pretty genius turning an idea so unsophisticated into a process going on for nine years now, as of last month. Like that <a href="http://www.wheresgeorge.com/">Where's George?</a> money-tracking by serial number thingy, only different with books. Stalking George was fun for awhile when I did it years ago, interesting but hardly recycling nor very edifying, really; also characteristically not free, and I've run out of Georges to track anyway. BookCrossing is funner, and just maybe might get people picking up a book once every now and again. Folks don't seem to be book-readers so much anymore, which I find disappointing. Stupid, really, but that's my opinion and nobody asked for it. People do like free stuff, though, and finding a book laid in some random place labeled for free keeps books traveling. Read and release for books: you read one and pass it along, left anywhere at all with a catchy sticker like "Take Me Home" for someone else to find. The first one to send a book on its course registers it online for getting assigned a unique ID number. That persons, and others afterward then, make journal entries about the book... where it was found, where it was left, and any comments about the book itself, whatever. Some end up in impressive <a href="http://bookcrossing.com/hunt">faraway places</a>, too. I'm an idiot, I know. Don't know why that seems so groovy to me (yes, I said "groovy"); I'm not unfamiliar with airplanes nor that people use them to go places and even read there sometimes. Still. I've never had one travel so far, and I admit I would think that was cool. Guess there are not a lot of international travelers where I live. This is awesome for so many reasons, not the least as I mentioned it gets people reading, hopefully. That it is absolutely free is a big perk, also finding a book you might not otherwise necessarily have read but do, that's kind of a neat thing. Unless the book sucks, of course. But then you can say so at BookCrossing's site and send it on its way, maybe to appeal to someone with worser or better taste than you, depending. Anyway, if you love books, check out <a href="http://bookcrossing.com">their website</a>, you can start recycling your own books that you might be done with, setting them loose on others, and also check where books might have been left nearby wherever you are. I love to read, but I really love free, and the recycling part is pretty incredible when you think about it, beyond what you might first think. Get this: of the number of book publishers in the U.S., more than 80,000 of them, <a href="http://www.ecolibris.net/bookpublish.asp">only 250 signed</a> the Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use, committing to improve their ecological footprint. I sure as hell don't want books to go away, for sure, but it seems that apparently more could be done toward making them a bit more earth-friendly than now. So there ya have it, like I said, BookCrossing is just plain awesome for so many reasons.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/5169573280041247046/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-books-for-saving-green.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/5169573280041247046'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/5169573280041247046'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-books-for-saving-green.html' title='Free Books and Saving Green'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD98mqdWpSmo_vK3DLZaS09dTbngkcA6jwk5FOoY6J5ufINHVsDJhGG_5LCtlnq8kgP3uxwLUkq0CmJ9TZrSF153YlahYcnJkfRaKdeIEUAl-mi3b9h1LlaHRjfJ79iR1UKi2-1_gzZmA/s72-c/recycle_bally.gif" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-5154904801955212236</id><published>2010-03-10T19:17:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-03-10T21:11:16.413-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="carbon footprint"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="colin beavan"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environmental"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environmental impact"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="green"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="no impact man"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="no impact man documentary"/><title type='text'>The No Impact Man Effect</title><content type='html'>This guy Colin Beavan's year-long experiment <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TenWays/Story?id=3159955&page=1">going über green</a> is fascinating to me, both for how extreme he went with it and, too, that he managed pulling it off in New York City. I don't know why exactly that would matter any more than someplace else, it just seems to me that where all things are so readily gettable it might be particularly hard bucking temptation. At the start of it, <a href="http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/the_no_impact_e.html">he said</a>:<blockquote>"For one year, my wife, my 2-year-old daughter, my dog and I, while living in the middle of New York City, are attempting to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…"</blockquote>Could just be my own lack of self-discipline is why it impresses me; I couldn't go so far as what they did even from out here in the country. I'm quite certain at some point I'd cave to a trip into town for some non-green thing, like toilet paper maybe. But they managed <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7000991.stm">giving up even that</a>, right there in the Big Apple.
 
I had wanted to see the No Impact Man documentary he made about the experience (trailer down there &darr;) but everywhere I checked for it online today it had been removed, copyright claptrap. I hate it when I'm too late to take advantage of others' violations. FYI, once I blogged about <a href="http://www.furibundum.net/2008/07/death-of-president.html">wanting to see a different movie</a> and a few days later it showed up in my mailbox from an anonymous reader. I'm just sayin'.
 
I really want to read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Impact-Man-Adventures-Discoveries/dp/0374222886?ie=UTF8&tag=impebush-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">the book</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=impebush-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0374222886" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> at some point, too, maybe the library here has it, but I doubt it. I did pick up reading his blog when I first heard of him sometime last year, probably not so different than the book actually. I like the way he started it off toward the beginning of the experiment, though, with <a href="http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/what_you_need_t.html">his first post</a>,<blockquote>"I am just a liberal schlub who got sick of not putting my money where my mouth was. In a way, the whole project is a protest against my highly-principled, lowly-actioned former self. I’m fumbling through, trying to do my best and doing the research as I go along."</blockquote>Maybe not going so radical or for so long a time as they did, but surely there's something to be learned from his and his brood's ordeal, revelation about this or that what we don't even consider effecting our own carbon footprint. Left without the book and the movie (so far anyway), for me <a href="http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/">his blog</a> has been a worthwhile read.
 
Every now and then being more attentive, just occasionally rethinking how we might do a singular thing, could make a better difference; one doesn't necessarily have to be totally nutjob about it. For example, I myself am still buying toilet paper. "Liberal schlub" I might also be, but I'm posolutely not that much of a wackadoodle. 
 
<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z9Ctt7FGFBo&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z9Ctt7FGFBo&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object></content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/5154904801955212236/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/no-impact-man-effect.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/5154904801955212236'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/5154904801955212236'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/no-impact-man-effect.html' title='The No Impact Man Effect'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-3204325194042228457</id><published>2010-03-04T13:48:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-03-04T23:29:07.262-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="container gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="gardening"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="growing vegetables in containers"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="vegetable gardening"/><title type='text'>First Year Container Gardening</title><content type='html'><img style="float:left; margin-right:10px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSMAZKKF2_Kq7_orak-rr95MzQ8kAnycQuozBgdoNj0irfdEQi86BJlN8QTG9J78wjYPMJyWBMOw1oM-qw3KufOel7ZMV0jkVgWC5RTvqra_ivQzxfyXkCU1pQISvgo_7xeE5cue7zMY/s320/tomato.gif" />I have decided to take a stab at container gardening this season, and frankly, I think I am probably more excited about it than I should be, practically giddy at the thought. As likely as not I could blame that on me running on empty. I slept not at all last night and had only a nap this morning. At this point I'm on my third or fourth wind, so I feel sort of crazy hyper anyway. No doubt I should be <a href="http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/important-sleep-habits">going to bed</a> rather than here babbling on about my reckoned on garden, but whatever.
 
So yeah, here's the thing. It's not that I am unaccustomed to gardening, I've done it before so it's not as if I am embarking on some new agrarian adventure. My heredity alone probably would account for a sort of genetic propensity to grow stuff, but <a href="http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/4707/growing-vegetables-in-containers">container gardening</a>, that's new to me. Never thought about it much, I suppose since I never had any reason to consider doing it before now. This year is different without having my own place, I'm just glad I thought of it in time.
 
I'm sure it will be quite different, and I'll undoubtedly screw up some things. For example, I don't know what is the best size of container to use for growing this veg or that one, I'm sure that matters, and can I grow any sort of root vegetable? The thing is, wherever I miss the boat it won't matter much, since the whole experiment will be mostly free from seeds I've saved, or a few cents for the rest. Which makes the grade for poor and penny-wise me.
 
I save all sorts of awesome trash, too, like egg cartons and yogurt cups, which, like Mike Lieberman who is <a href="http://www.urbanorganicgardener.com/2010/03/what-to-use-for-indoor-seed-starting/">my inspiration</a>, I figure seem perfect for starting out some seeds. Also I'm pretty sure those five-gallon buckets people always have stacked somewhere around (maybe I just hang with a weirdo bunch) would be spot on, real gone for growing. 
 
Amazing how long I have rambled on about it, I am aware. I could just have easily summed up this treatise in <a href="http://twitter.com/scorpiokc">one-forty</a>, probably even less, with space left over for a hashtag or two. But I am kind of tingly right now thinking about this, overly charged up; I don't know exactly why, other than blaming it on my circadian rhythm out of whack. I should hit the sack now before my stream of consciousness keeps me going on.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/3204325194042228457/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/first-year-container-gardening.html#comment-form' title='8 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/3204325194042228457'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/3204325194042228457'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/first-year-container-gardening.html' title='First Year Container Gardening'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSMAZKKF2_Kq7_orak-rr95MzQ8kAnycQuozBgdoNj0irfdEQi86BJlN8QTG9J78wjYPMJyWBMOw1oM-qw3KufOel7ZMV0jkVgWC5RTvqra_ivQzxfyXkCU1pQISvgo_7xeE5cue7zMY/s72-c/tomato.gif" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>8</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-8867718306570449367</id><published>2010-03-01T15:30:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-03-04T23:31:34.788-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="communal living"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="dancing rabbit"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ecovillage"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environment"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="green"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="rutledge missouri"/><title type='text'>Ecovillager Wannabe</title><content type='html'>I have said for probably about four or five years now that I want to, more than anything (sheesh, that's a bit much, but I do want to quite a lot), go check out the <a href="http://www.dancingrabbit.org/">Dancing Rabbit ecovillage</a>, here in Missouri. I want to move there, I want to be a Rabbit, I really do. It's not even very far from where I am in Odessa; Rutledge is only just over 211 miles away, three and a half hours. <a href="http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Odessa&1s=MO&1y=US&1l=38.999199&1g=-93.9533&1v=CITY&2c=Rutledge&2s=MO&2y=US&2l=40.313599&2g=-92.088097&2v=CITY">Much obliged, MapQuest</a>.
 
Here's their deal:<blockquote>"[E]cological sustainability is the primary focus of our long-term vision and our daily lives. Residents agree to follow ecological <a href="http://www.dancingrabbit.org/vision/covenants.php">covenants</a> and <a href="http://www.dancingrabbit.org/vision/sustguide.php">sustainability guidelines</a>. We build our homes using alternative techniques such as straw bale and cob, powering them with renewable energy from sun and wind. Vehicles at DR are owned cooperatively and powered by biodiesel. Overall, we eat an ever-increasing amount of local, organic, and in-season foods, including many home-grown vegetables.
 
"We strive to be good stewards of our land, with much of our acreage reserved as wildlife habitat. In the grasslands we are reintroducing native prairie plants to help revitalize our region's biodiversity. We have planted over 10,000 trees to restore our land to its pre-settlement ecology [...] and provide a sustainable source of wood for our community in years to come. 
 
"In addition to being a wonderful home for us, DR is a model for social change. Outreach and education are integral to our mission. Rather than isolating ourselves completely from the mainstream, we promote DR as a viable alternative. We enjoy sharing discoveries and ideas of sustainable living with people who have a wide variety of lifestyles."</blockquote>Since I first heard of the place, I have regularly kept up with some of the folks already living there, through members' <a href="http://www.dancingrabbit.org/related.php">blogs</a> and <a href="http://www.dancingrabbit.org/newsletter/">newsletters</a>, so the yen keeps getting stronger for me to go. It's been bumming me out lately, in particular, since now is the time of every year they start up the tours and <a href="http://www.dancingrabbit.org/social_change/interns.php">work exchange opportunities</a> to go throughout the summer; of course, that's certainly out of the question, me being flat broke and all.
 
Why I never managed to get around dropping in on Dancing Rabbit back when I had money and the chance, who knows? I swear, though, one of these days I will somehow be headed up there, feasibly falling in for the long-term with a community of like-minded wacks such as myself. From what I know about the village and the goings-on, being a part of it would make me very happy. Not to mention <a href="http://www.dancingrabbit.org/humanure.php">making your own humanure</a>, that would be awesome.
 
Bunch more videos at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/drecovillage">Dancing Rabbit's YouTube channel</a>: 
 
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iobyEjlV9AM&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iobyEjlV9AM&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/8867718306570449367/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/ecovillager-wannabe.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/8867718306570449367'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/8867718306570449367'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/ecovillager-wannabe.html' title='Ecovillager Wannabe'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-2402474482796619165</id><published>2010-02-01T18:28:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-02-01T19:32:27.965-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="balance"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="budget"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environment"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environmental awareness"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="green"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="simplicity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="voluntary simplicity"/><title type='text'>Simple Reading</title><content type='html'>You know, I'm the sort of guy that not too terribly long ago never gave a second thought to buying pretty much anything I wanted. Mostly because I had money back then, that helped a lot. But also because I never really processed in my mind whether or not I should reconsider buying something just for the want of it. Being poor makes a guy think about stuff like that.
 
Hindsight and that sort of thing. I keep thinking if I had been even just the bittiest more frugal back then, I probably wouldn't be in such dire straits now and, honestly, could probably plan on getting by just fine for years to come; particularly given my borderline neurosis being so stingy now. 
 
Anyway, for some wiser than myself, it doesn't necessarily take for a bad break to envisage the possibility of re-appraising how they might want to change up their lives for the better; dismissing much of what most of us offhandedly are convinced makes for being happy, mostly just things, has its up side. 
 
<a imageanchor="1" target="_blank" style="float:left; margin-right:10px;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Voluntary-Simplicity-Outwardly-Inwardly-Revised/dp/0688121195?ie=UTF8&tag=impebush-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969"><img alt="Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Revised edition)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0688121195&tag=impebush-20" /></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=impebush-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0688121195" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" />This here book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Voluntary-Simplicity-Outwardly-Inwardly-Revised/dp/0688121195?ie=UTF8&tag=impebush-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Voluntary Simplicity</a>, I have had it for a long time, not for sure how many years. I reckon I bought it because I thought doing that would make me seem more existentially aware or something; clearly I didn't buy it to read since I had forgotten I even had it.
 
But I am reading it now, and it is pretty awesome. Amazon sums it up quite succinctly in the first part of their review, that it is for "those wanting to liberate themselves from enslavement to a job and the pursuit of status symbols". 
 
They also call it a sacred text for those kinds of people... that part of the review makes me feel kind of bad, knowing I had such a venerable primer stashed away in a box for so long. 
 
But whatever, better late than never. I only got it out now because I am more attuned to keeping things as simple as possible (albeit my lifestyle shift did not start out so very "voluntary"), and wanted to read what this Duane Elgin had to say about it. There are lots of personal stories in the book, of those who have vastly improved their quality of living by scaling back, on purpose. 
 
Of course, it follows that being more conservative in our own lives also goes toward conservation of the environment and its resources as well. This book keys in to that interconnection quite a bit, and although a lot of it is nothing one would find startling, no lightbulb moments or anything, having it all laid out and with personal accounts to relate with, it is for a fact affecting. Kind of like Thoreau's Walden, it makes you think different about things. 
 
So that's my recommended reading. I kind of was forced in the beginning to be this way, but I like it and as I've said before, however rich I might get again some day, I don't expect much to change. I'll still be the nutjob handwashing his clothes (however many days in between), tossing them willy nilly somewhere to dry, cracking open a box of baking soda to brush the choppers, all that. 
 
Not that this book goes into that plane of cheap, but still the abstract consideration of scaling back - frugal consumption, ecological awareness and personal growth - as hashed out in the book, makes me feel validated, more confident to tell off anyone who thinks me just plain odd to suck it.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/2402474482796619165/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/02/simple-reading.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/2402474482796619165'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/2402474482796619165'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/02/simple-reading.html' title='Simple Reading'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-2056745886458162</id><published>2010-01-28T17:50:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-28T21:20:43.795-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="compost"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cooking"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="food"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="garbage"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="landfill"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="leftovers"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="wasting food"/><title type='text'>Eating Scraps</title><content type='html'>To be honest, I never really knew what was the big deal about food waste being tossed out into the landfills. I mean, I've heard about it and all, how that it's a bad thing for the environment, I just did not get why. Nor cared enough to bother taking five minutes to Google about it to find out the reason, until now. (Is Google as a verb supposed to be lower case? Haven't troubled myself to figure that one out yet, either.) So yeah. I kind of just took for granted what was being said by the greener people than I am, that our uneaten scraps of food were, like so much other stuff, contributing to the detriment of the environment. I could not reconcile in my own head, however (what little time I did spend thinking on it) why tossing leftovers into our own compost bins is an eco-friendly thing to do, but having it hauled away by others to rot elsewhere was an entirely different and bad thing. Well, consider me educatated now via <a href="http://www.ecowatch.org/pubs/junjul08/whyis.htm">EcoWatch.org</a>:<blockquote>"Rotting food in the landfill releases methane, a green house gas which contributes to global warming. Methane traps 23 times as much heat in the atmosphere as the same amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and the release of methane from landfills accounts for 34 percent of all methane emissions in the U.S., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."</blockquote>I guess even organic trash can be bad news. Which would explain why the composters are forever tossing and fluffing about in their piles, letting in the oxygen that keeps it rotting <a href="http://blog.sustainablog.org/compost-vs-landfill-does-it-really-make-a-difference/">in a better way</a>. Okay, makes sense now why keeping so much from being dumped is a good thing. What is the best way, of course, to not have to deal with so much food thrown away in the first place is to quit doing it so much. I'm seriously amazed since I've started hanging on to what I used to just toss out, not enough to keep, actually turns out to be an awful lot to use up. Sure, that is a fine green thing to do, and a right way to think of it, but you would be surprised also how much less food you need to buy to make it through the week. I know that now. Only fairly recently have I started storing away what little of this or that I have left over, just to see how things added up and if I could remake something out of what I'd normally just chuck. Interesting what you can do with garbage.<a name='more'></a> For example, recently I had not much left of a bag of Chex mix (well, whatever the store brand, you know me) that had gone stale. Certainly no longer snackable, that's for sure. I had also saved a couple of chicken legs (this was my pre-straight-up vegetarian conversion) that I didn't know what to do with. Other bits and pieces I would normally not have kept: just a couple of spoonfuls of green beans I had put in an empty yogurt container, an extra single hamburger bun that had seen fresher days, and a couple of shriveled up potatoes left over from last summer's garden, all sprouted out, eyes all over them. Let me say, I had one delicious dinner that evening made up with my own trashy ingredients! Those Chex mix thingys, I crushed them to a coarse grind and mixed in with some parmesan cheese, a great coating for the left chicken dunked in a little milk and egg so it would stick. Baked it in the oven until it was quite crispy, and a very flavorful coating it made indeed. The green beans that seemed hardly worth keeping when left scattered out in the pot first time around, scooped together and kept were a perfectly-sized portion. The bun, stale or not, with some butter, garlic powder and some parmesan heat up in the oven was a nice toast to go along with the rest of it. I found out that potatoes, no matter how shriveled and rather rubbery after sitting around for so long, they really are not so scary after all, once those alien sprouts are taken off. And they seemed to cook up just fine, sliced up and fried with some onion. Not only was it really, really tasty, but I enjoyed a full-size meal made up almost exclusively from all garbage for virtually free. I didn't have to spend even so much as a buck-twenty-five for a frozen dinner, and ate very well on the cheap. Put all together, a little of this and that made up a pretty full course. Obviously I do not have a garbage disposal (the landfill problem would be a moot issue then) but even if I had one, rethinking those dabs of leftovers not being good for very much, well... you would be surprised what you can actually make of them. Save some coin, keep the noxious gasiness to yourself rather than the landfill, and feel better not throwing away so much food, what with those starving children in China or India or whatever was your mother's country of choice.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/2056745886458162/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/eating-scraps.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/2056745886458162'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/2056745886458162'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/eating-scraps.html' title='Eating Scraps'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-411478127885770007</id><published>2010-01-25T08:40:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-28T21:01:06.349-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="budget"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environment"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environmental"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="green"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="homemade detergent"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="homemade laundry detergent"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="homemade soap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="laundry detergent"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="laundry soap"/><title type='text'>Laundry Soap</title><content type='html'>I probably ought to mention that I haven't always been such a wackadoo about living so cheaply, nor was I one to spend an awful lot of time thinking very much about the environment. It has only gradually progressed to how funny I am about it all now over the last few years, and then only due to a most desperate downward shift in my own personal economy back then. Going from riches to rags can have its advantages in terms of evolving a new and better outlook on things, though. I don't intend to nor would I want to change that, however rich I might end up some day. But it's still relatively new for me, so I do admit that I am in no position to offer up any ground-breaking tips on frugality, as I mention over in the sidebar there; nothing new here. This blog is truly only to document what it is that I am doing now, and as I've mentioned before, to keep track of whatever new things that I will hopefully learn as I go along. It's still an ongoing adventure for me, a gradual one, and sometimes I discover that I am a bit retarded about considering some of the most basic of things. Take laundry detergent, for example. Despite all of my jabbering on about <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/01/washing-clothes.html">this</a> and <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/01/clothes-drying.html">that</a> to do with laundering clothes (however infrequent and in practically primitive fashion) in order to save money and resources, being better for the planet blah blah blah... it never occurred to me about the detergent I was using; that I could be concocting the stuff myself. Duh.<a name='more'></a> Of course, thrifty me has always bought (well, still does for now anyway) the cheapest of the cheaper store brands rather than opt for the exorbitant prices of a better-known name. In fact I just bought a jug of it not very long ago, so I am set for awhile in that department. But when the time comes for needing more, it seems like such a simple and ridiculously cheap thing to make up on my own. And I can hang on to my latest store-bought container to store it in; that'll keep it out of a landfill somewhere, reusing it that way. So I've looked around the Interweb for formulations, and it seems they are mostly the same or very similar with few variations. As a rule a hodgepodge of a handful of just cheap ingredients: washing soda, borax, a bar of soap and water. The proportions seem to be the most different of the lot of them, so I don't know. From pretty much everywhere I read most people highly recommend something called <a href="http://www.felsnaptha.com/">Fels Naptha</a> soap; I have absolutely no clue what that is, and am pretty sure I have never seen a Fels Naptha anything. Others aren't so particular in their recipes for the kind, suggesting to just go with Ivory or even whatever else happens to be cheapest. From the various places I have scoped out so far, one thing is sure that it seems that there are undoubtedly some long-term savings to be had from making up your own. Not to mention, as most often is the case when going about something the homemade way, without those nasty chemicals screwing with the environment later on downstream, always a dandy perk for the planet. So here's throwing it out there to anyone who should perchance make a blogstop here, who might also have experience with making and using your own laundry detergent. I'm on the prowl for recipes from those who have actually made it, used it and thoughts about how everything all turned out. Whatever worked out well, or even not so well, I'm interested in hearing about it!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/411478127885770007/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/laundry-soap.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/411478127885770007'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/411478127885770007'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/laundry-soap.html' title='Laundry Soap'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-1242118089100063336</id><published>2010-01-22T14:55:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-22T15:05:33.324-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="budget"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="clothes"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="laundry"/><title type='text'>Changing Clothes</title><content type='html'>To change or not to change, that's the question; or when is the better question, to change clothes, I mean. I suppose at some point there comes a time you really should, but for me that time usually comes later than sooner. Although I do go further than most folks might be predisposed to even think about, I will admit.
 
I've said before in babbling on about reasons <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/01/washing-clothes.html">why I hand wash my laundry</a>, that I get away with a lot just being single, but it's really not such a bad thing wearing mostly the same clothes more than just once before getting them clean. 
 
I suppose there are some people who actually do manage to get some way dirty during the course of a day. I mean those others who do stuff besides just mostly sitting around, like I do. Other than when I step outside for a smoke I don't do too much, hardly anything that would get me dirty, that's for sure. 
 
Yeah, it seems to me a total waste of the resources required to always be wearing different clothes; water, utilities, detergent or soap, time, effort... for no real reason. I mean, other than the clothing nearest to your most secret of parts, I think you should be able to pull off several days' worth of wear between washings. 
 
Not to mention the clothes lasting longer, not getting roughed up tumbling through the laundry so often. Particularly me and my hand washing my own clothes, along with my lazy streak, it works out well all the way around. Except for some sort of accidental spillage or, God forbid, if I have to do something that might workng up a sweat, I'll let go maybe a week's worth of days without cleaning laundry. 
 
Told you I may stretch it out for longer than most, but come on, even giving half that number of wearings you'll be saving lots. Like Mike Lieberman (his blog feed over there in the sidebar) said about wearing the <a href="http://www.365waystogogreen.com/2010/01/day-140-wore-same-shirt-for-fourth-consecutive-day/">same shirt for four days</a> in a row, he saved quite a bit of wasted water. Not to mention, of course, all of the other resources I've already brought up.
 
So that's what I do. Something to at least keep in mind, wearing your clothes more than once or twice before just out of habit tossing them toward the hamper. Save the clothes, save some work, save some time, save some utilities, save some money. It's really a no-brainer. 
 
Finally, I'd bet it's safe to assume you're not headed out buying new shoes or somehow getting those cleaned after a single wear. And with shoes we're talking feet, people... feet.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/1242118089100063336/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/changing-clothes.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/1242118089100063336'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/1242118089100063336'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/changing-clothes.html' title='Changing Clothes'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-7432555133349834739</id><published>2010-01-19T10:15:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-22T09:13:16.001-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="baking soda"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="baking soda toothpaste"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="budget"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="home remedies"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="homemade toothpaste"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="money-saving tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="peroxide toothpaste"/><title type='text'>Brushing Teeth</title><content type='html'>Again with the baking soda, while I'm at it. Miracle powder is really what it is, I can't figure out why folks don't buy up pallets of this stuff at a time. Of course I don't either; I only get the normal small-sized boxes singly. Ultra-cheap is one thing, but people looking at me funny out in public makes me uncomfortable buying in bulk.
 
I really can't possibly begin to imagine <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0916773418?ie=UTF8&tag=impebush-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0916773418">over 500 uses</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=impebush-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0916773418" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />but I reckon I could come up with at least ten or so right off the bat. And as far as for personal healthful living, in addition to <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/01/stop-bellyaching.html">calming down the insides</a>, baking soda as tooth cleaner can't be beat.
 
By itself with a bit of water is fine, with a splash of hydrogen peroxide instead is even better. Good Lord, over the past fifteen years or so how many of the national brands of toothpaste have come out bragging about now with baking soda? Or peroxide? Or both, if you want to pay a premium nearly five bucks a tube. Which would be stupid when it costs literally just pennies to concoct your own. 
 
Of course, you miss out on what the commercial toothpastes also bring along with, the assortment of mystery chemicals and stuff that might give you pause putting it in your mouth. Even the obligatorily added fluoride, turns out not so good for the choppers after all, not so much harmless as toxic instead; before fluoride was deemed a "cavity fighter," it was used as an <a href="http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/where-the-yellow-went.html">insecticide and rat poison</a>. I think I'll take my chances doing without, thank you. Yikes.
 
Amazing so much stuff from tube to brush to mouth to drain to waterways and finally on out into the rest of the environment... not to mention so many billions of tubes ended up in landfills. <a href="http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/113/1/Toxic-toothpaste.html">All of this</a> avoidable with just mushing up a teaspoon of baking soda with a quarter teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide. That's all it takes for a healthier mouth and a healthier planet.
 
Sure it's not minty fresh, though I don't mind the saltiness of it really; I kind of like it. But I've read from others who have jazzed it up also adding to the mix a drop of peppermint oil or even something to do with orange rinds or extract or whatever. Pretty much anything, I suppose, that makes it more tasty. Me, I'll stick with the basic just two recipe ingredients. It's cheaper that way, but that's just me.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/7432555133349834739/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/brushing-teeth.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/7432555133349834739'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/7432555133349834739'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/brushing-teeth.html' title='Brushing Teeth'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-3317608376971295261</id><published>2010-01-16T17:18:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-22T09:13:41.076-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="antacids"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="baking soda"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="baking soda antacid"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="budget"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="sodium bicarbonate"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="sodium bicarbonate antacid"/><title type='text'>Stop Bellyaching</title><content type='html'>I am one of those people who whines from time to time about quite awful stomach pain, acid indigestion and that sort of thing. I don't suffer quietly, either, even if I only have the dog to bellyache to. So I'm pretty sure he is quite the happy pup that I have gone ahead with this method lately to shut me up from griping.
 
It is certainly nothing cutting-edge, to be sure. Millions of folks have done this for many coons' ages, but for some reason it never occurred to have a go at it until just recently. I'm kind of slow on the uptake about certain things, even though this is probably one of the cheapest remedies of all the things to make me better. 
 
Plain old baking soda and water. Frankly, it works for me anyway just as well as and better than some other fixes I have taken over the years. As cheap as it plainly is on the face of it, I take it even one step further by swapping out the buck or two Arm & Hammer branded box for the 50-cent Dollar General box. Sodium bicarbonate is sodium bicarbonate, I always say. 
 
Either way, it is extraordinarily cheaper than the Maalox and Pepto I used to chug, that's for sure, and works amazingly well. Quick relief, too, with just half a teaspoon of it mixed in to half a glass (4 oz.) of water. 
The <a href="http://www.armhammer.com/basics/magic/#12">Arm & Hammer website says</a> you can take it every two hours up to seven times a day; personally even I really don't need it that often, but just in case, I guess that matters to someone somewhere. 
 
Sure it's not minty nor pink. I'm really not too interested anyhow in paying so much extra for satisfying a sweetness craving when I just simply want the pain to be gone, and fast. And to that end it works great, the baking soda and water mix, for as cheap as you can get without getting paid to take it. I might be getting rich if that were the case.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/3317608376971295261/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/stop-bellyaching.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/3317608376971295261'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/3317608376971295261'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/stop-bellyaching.html' title='Stop Bellyaching'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-3064996719723685866</id><published>2010-01-14T07:05:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-22T09:14:01.530-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="budget"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="disaster relief"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="earthquake"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environment"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="giving"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="green"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="haiti"/><title type='text'>Helping Haiti</title><content type='html'>[ Update Jan 15: Fixed links to support planting a tree for Haiti ]
 
In the wake of the devastation left behind after the earthquake hit Haiti on Monday, there have been the usual calls for donations that follow any catastrophe. Seemingly dozens of disaster relief groups are pleading for contributions to help the survivors and the country get better. 
 
Of course, do your study on whichever aid organization you might be inclined to chip in to support; sadly these worst of times inevitably bring out the scammers in hordes. The New York Times has <a href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/haiti-disaster-relief-how-to-contribute/">an extensive list here</a> of agencies you might consider. 
 
This is clearly no time to be cheap, I know that. Unfortunately many of us are dealing with personal situations right now that preclude being able to give like we once could have, and it is frustrating. However, excepting the most dire of cases, there is something that most of us poor can still do to help Haiti. 
 
Maybe not for the short term. But what the blow of this earthquake has managed to do, is to put international focus on what is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. These are more desperate times than ever, to be sure, but the quake acts to only worsen what was before, and what will no doubt be after, the most dismal economy on the planet; a fact which will most likely be disremembered once the current crisis is behind.
 
<a href="http://www.heritagekonpa.com/Donate%20to%20the%20Trees%20of%20Hope%20for%20Haiti.htm">For one dollar you can plant a tree there</a>, to make a real longer-term positive impact. Admitted it will not provide the immediate shelter, food, water, medical attention that is sorely needed right now to help the people and the country get well from the earthquake. For me and others in similar straits, that will have to be left this time for others to come through.
 
We can though use this opportunity, before our short attention spans get distracted elsewhere, to consider something seemingly so small as planting a tree to help out a country where 80% of the population in normal times lives under the poverty line. A country that's poorest status has been directly <a href="http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/05/10/haitis-poverty-is-directly-linked-to-deforestation-and-habitat-loss/">attributed to the degradation of its natural environment</a>, with 98% of the country now deforested.
 
A country that's loss of tree cover has resulted in deaths and devastation much like the meantime earthquake, 2004's Hurrican Jeanne leaving over 3,000 dead mostly due to the massive landslides wiping out communities without the trees as safeguard. The deforestation's ongoing direct effect on soil erosion in turn has led to widespread desertification, lowering the productivity of the rest of the country. <a href="http://countrystudies.us/haiti/53.htm">And on it goes</a>.
 
So, yeah, it's just a buck and nope, it won't do squat for the situation going on there right now. But for those of us who have very little and for now can't do terribly much, while our attention is still concentrated on Haiti, maybe thinking about helping out our western neighbor for the long haul is also worth considering. And just as important even if it is <a href="http://www.heritagekonpa.com/Donate%20to%20the%20Trees%20of%20Hope%20for%20Haiti.htm">for only one dollar</a>.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/3064996719723685866/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/helping-haiti.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/3064996719723685866'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/3064996719723685866'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/helping-haiti.html' title='Helping Haiti'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-5602567505171515734</id><published>2010-01-12T16:36:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-22T09:14:28.037-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="budget"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="clothes rack"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="eco"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="electricity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="environment"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="green"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="laundry"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="line drying"/><title type='text'>Clothes Drying</title><content type='html'>Seems like a logical follow up to the <a href="http://www.onsavinggreen.com/2010/01/washing-clothes.html">clothes washing post</a> for saving some cash, especially considering that switching up the drying part of your laundering routine is where can be found the lion's share of savings.
 
And it couldn't be any easier done, simpler even than diddling around with the clothes dryer and the perma fluff high heat low delicate whatnot dials and buttons. Personally I always just left mine on however it was when I got it and let it run until the clothes were dry. Never monkeyed around with figuring out the differences, seemed to work out all right. 
 
But yeah, easier still is good old fashioned air drying your washing instead of putting it through the dryer. It uses none of the electricity and sometimes also gas, and requires no special equipment to get the job done. Unless you splurge on a clothes drying rack like the one in the picture (my granny used to have one) or from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%255Fss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dclothes%2520dryer%2520rack%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=impebush-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957">any other style out there.</a><img src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=impebush-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
 
It's a handful of bucks that will save you fists full of dollars over time. Or ante up for some cheap clothesline and string that up outside; nothing is better than line-dried clothes when the weather allows, I'll tell you what. Go really tight-wad like me and hang your washing wherever you find some space, it all works. And it's all free. 
 
The dryer is typically the second-biggest electricity-using appliance after the refrigerator, costing about a hundred bucks to operate each year, give or take depending on how things stack up at your place. Not a bunch taken by itself maybe, but we're thinking big picture here, not to mention <a href="http://www.epa.gov/RDEE/energy-and-you/affect/index.html">helping save the environment</a> has to count for something. 
 
A little on the drying side of things, a bit more on the front end washing and stay tuned, I'm sure we'll discover even more chicken feed to be had in the customary day-to-day groove we all manage as we go along here. Trust me, it all adds up.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/5602567505171515734/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/clothes-drying.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/5602567505171515734'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/5602567505171515734'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/clothes-drying.html' title='Clothes Drying'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-628685838489575997</id><published>2010-01-11T08:45:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-22T09:14:51.940-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="hand wash clothes"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="laundry"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="save money laundry"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="saving money"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="saving water"/><title type='text'>Washing Clothes</title><content type='html'>I will admit some of the things I do that are on the cheap, I do only because I am single. I would never have considered, for example, washing by hand the mountains of laundry piled up back when I did have a family being raised.
 
However, for just one it truly is not so big of a hassle hand washing most clothes. Seriously saving an awful waste of water, electricity and maybe gas (depending on what heats up your water) also comes with saving an awful waste of wampum. 
 
Depending on the variables of where you live, the number of loads and type of machine, of course, how much saved will be different. However, considering that on average a single load of wash by machine uses forty gallons of water, the relative sparing on water alone is significant. Again, good for the pocketbook, <a href="http://www.lowimpactliving.com/pages/your-impacts/water1">good for the environment</a>. 
 
Granting also that a whopping 95% of the energy used by a washing machine could be going just to heat the water, using that much less water extrapolates to that much less cash to heat it up. Of course whether by hand or machine, cold water rinse is a must. Whatever reason this is even an option on the dial is beyond me, temperature has no bearing on rinsing out soapy residue. 
 
I'm not so stupid or committed to the cause as to consider washing sheet sets and bedspreads or whatnot by hand. Been there, done that, and I highly advise against it. There is only so far that I'm willing to go before giving in. 
 
And just like with the family of four, no way the washing clothes by hand thing. Still, being more aware of the impact of doing the laundry on the wallet makes it worth considering how to do it better. Bears repeating, to always always rinse in cold water. Pay no attention to the hot water setting on the dial, too. Generally a pre-soaking in warm before a warm wash is usually just as good or better as hot water with no soak.
 
But for me a single guy, I don't mind hand washing my clothes and it makes me feel good helping save money and resources. It also keeps me from doing it so often, something that might also help for the machiners out there. Except for really dirty people, is it truly necessary to wash everything after a once-wear... or even twice or thrice, depending? Maybe that's too much self-divulgence but hey, like I said, I live alone with no one to impress but myself. 
 
Either way, by hand or by machine, laundry is a to-do on everyone's list and one chore that can be rethought how to do it, lessening, at least, the financial and environmental wallop that goes with. And for those like-minded to follow suit with me and choose to wash by hand, a plunger makes an excellent agitator! A different one, of course, from the other one. 
 
Thanks to <a href="http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/laundry.html">Mr. Electricity</a> for the stats I pilfered to use here.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/628685838489575997/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/washing-clothes.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/628685838489575997'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/628685838489575997'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/washing-clothes.html' title='Washing Clothes'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1337580487967743089.post-1458368877107314891</id><published>2010-01-09T19:40:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-22T09:15:20.190-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cheap"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="frugal"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="green"/><title type='text'>Economical Ecology</title><content type='html'>I've intended to start this blog for awhile now and figured since I have some spare time on my hands, why not now? Not that it's unusual for me having spare time, I just didn't want to come across lazy.
 
On saving green, that's what this is about. I am notoriously cheap, probably to a fault, but seems to me most people chuck out way too much cash when there are often less expensive alternatives. 
 
Extra coin in the pocket is always a perk, and most often cheap is even better for the planet. And since green is in, saving some green is extra cool. 
 
Granted I take things a bit far sometimes, and also granted I don't do nor give up everything I could or should. But take what you will from here, I'll try to learn something new along the way as well, and for what it's worth I'll be back posting once I get things tweaked and ready to go.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/feeds/1458368877107314891/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/economical-ecology.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/1458368877107314891'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1337580487967743089/posts/default/1458368877107314891'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://onsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/economical-ecology.html' title='Economical Ecology'/><author><name>Doug Robertson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07313588070436300205</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACKbrIAR5HWIXVZTLbPhZgBZ9guqRdMZ5C6YTyJmWayHIQYGpIp1EK8MfNCONud-fpyVdkIOTbzUFVdbx9CtChd-0StVAeKAe59rapsfhymruhECze0WlFeY4gNd7_30/s1600/*'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>

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