This is My Life

[Author's note: I'm having major problems with blogger for some reason and can not fix some of the spacing issues on this post.  So sorry for the look of this!  I guess it goes with the topic!]

I happened upon a post today from a blog I visit a few times a month. Chiot's Run chronicles the life of an organic gardener. She does this through her absolutely beautiful photography. Today her post showcased her line-drying laundry. It just so happens that I did laundry and hung it out to dry this morning as well, but I couldn't help but laugh at the juxtaposition of her laundry next to mine.

Photo from Chiot's Run. Note the nice, matching linens, and nice, light-brown clothespins.

Yes, in theory they match since they are all blue - but boy do they have a story to tell! 
Once used during surgery, these "linens" were long ago rescued from the surgery floor 
by my surgeon Uncle who couldn't bare for them to be tossed in the trash after one use.

 Grey, weathered, rusty clothespins.

Holey, stained, fairly nasty - though clean - kitchen & cleaning "linens". 

Yes, this is my life.  Recycled, reused, weathered, stained, and holey.  I'd love to say I wouldn't have it any other way - but I don't know if that is always the truth.  Sometimes we feel sort of junky with all of our various piles of compost, dirt, mulch, chicken run refuse, building materials, logs & sticks waiting to be used in the chiminea, gardening supplies, etc., etc. laying all around our small yard.  While they are in some semblance of order it occasionally hits me - "Is it all worth it?"  

• Is it worth saving every kitchen scrap to be reused somewhere on our property?  
• Is it worth bringing home apple cores left from apples eaten during kid-sporting events - instead of just throwing them in the trash at the ballpark or soccer field?  
• Wouldn't it be more aesthetically pleasing if we finally went out and actually bought some cute kitchen towels?  
• Is it worth gathering discarded items from the side of the road with the thought that 6 months down the road we can use it for something else instead of having to buy brand new?   

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding - YES!  It certainly would be more pleasing to the eye if we bought new kitchen towels - but what's the point?  There is absolutely no need to throw away these perfectly functional surgical towels just so my laundry looks pretty for my neighbors.  I can bring some flowers into the house if I need a beauty-fix.  It's completely possible that Chiot's Run could have just purchased these new linens to replace her way-past-their-prime older linens.  Please understand that I'm not out to disparage Chiot's Run in any way - that's not what I'm trying to get at here.  It was more just the shake-your-head-and-have-to-laugh-or-you'll-cry kind of epiphany when I saw her post.  Here's what I'm trying to say, and perhaps not as eloquently as I thought while it was forming in my head: the positive in all of this is that no matter what the rag - we're both trying to make a difference, no matter how small.  In attempting to line-dry our clothes - something that is idyllic and lovely and a pain in the butt all at the same time - we're doing just one tiny thing to help the environment.  And if this is my life, then I'll take it. -Carrie   

A Better use for Beer Bottles- Recycled Glass Paving

Last semester I was on a field trip to a new constructions site for a drainage class. They were pouring the walkways with a new material. Well, sort of. The material is recycled glass. I was happy to see that they were finding a new purpose for this glass. Unfortunately, the glass had to come from one state over, but the silver lining is that it was commercially feasible. Better yet, it looks great when it's installed!

As a bonus to the environment, this recycled glass walk is permeable. The easiest way to explain this is to think of the way a rice/marshmallow treat is put together. To understand why permeable materials are important check out this post from a few months ago on storm water management, Houston Sustainable Design Competition. -Jason

Recycled glass will take the shape of its container, in this case, a styrofoam cup 

I found which a construction worker used during his lunch.

Here we see the pieces before the epoxy is added to them.

This video demonstrates the porousness of the material.

Deep Litter Method for Chickens

The chickens and I work together to make sure the deep litter in the Aviary gets turned. Several months ago, we called a local tree company and asked them to dump one of their trucks of wood chips on our front yard. Normally, they have to pay to dump somewhere so they were happy to oblige us, PLUS it gives the wood chips new life as opposed to some loads which end up in our landfills.

We've used the deep litter method for several months now and we have no regrets. The chicken poo gets turned in regularly by none other than the chickens themselves. Additionally, we put our kitchen scraps right on the ground. They take what they want and the rest seems to get buried. We have seen them taking sand baths in the mulch, but can't testify to its effectiveness yet. We've never caught a parasite on them.

Featured below is the pile that I make for them and the aftermath. Notice the orange peels they passed on. Enjoy -Jason

Noonish

Aftermath of 6 Hens - Close of Business

$9.96 for a Head of Lettuce?!?!?!?

On Wednesday morning I was perusing the local grocery store fliers when I came across something that made my head spin. I was incensed! Not only have I never used that word in a sentence before, I don't think I've barely even felt that emotion up until 3 days ago! What has happened to us as a culture?

It appears that Tom Thumb (a Safeway brand) has decided to help the American consumer who has no time, no sink, and no ability to pull apart their lettuce by (gladly) offering 6 ounce Romaine, Green Leaf, or Red Leaf lettuce "Singles". Neatly packaged in a plastic bin with a beautiful farm scene on the label (they couldn't get any further from farm fresh if they were trying), they've "Triple Washed" the single leaves to make your lettuce-eating-experience even more pleasant. The cost for all of this convenience? What amounts to $8.32 per head of lettuce when on sale, and $9.96 per head when not on sale. PEOPLE ACTUALLY PURCHASE THIS! A typical head of Romaine at Tom Thumb costs $1.99 when not on sale and weights about 20 ounces. Instead of taking one minute to wash and pull apart a head of lettuce at one's home, people are willing to spend as much as $7 dollars more for not having to deal with a few specks of dirt. Plus, in order to equal the amount of lettuce in a usual head, you'd have to buy 3 & 1/2 of these packs (so more plastic wasted).

Here's my offer to those in the North Oak Cliff area and please tell all of your friends: I will pull apart your lettuce leaves, wash them, and will only charge $5 per head - an amazing savings of $2.00! -Carrie

Quantifying Green Building

Hello everyone,

I have yet another confession for my loving audience. I have fallen in love with the TED.com website. I will often play these talks while going about homework or design. Some are funny, some are eye opening, all enrich you a little more than before you listened. (Every man knows something I do not, therefore, every man is my teacher. - Lincoln)

We often hear a lot of talk, claims, about what is greener than whatever else is on the market. I'm learning at this point in my life that old adage - If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Very true. HERE is a TED talk by Catherine Mohr on building green and quantifying your decisions. It's short, about 6 minutes, but she's funny and so it feels like three. -Jason

I've Been at it Again....

I just got home from taking a load of things over to the Salvation Army. I rewarded myself for paring down some items by taking a swing through our old neighborhood and scouring the parkways because, you guessed it - it's bulk trash pickup week! And wouldn't you know it, I feel like I hit the lottery! After only one street I came across these -

No, not the plastic! What is under the plastic! Are you ready for the big reveal???

Discarded Halloween decorations! Three wonderful, huge bales of hay/straw (I naively have no idea of the difference). I couldn't be happier! Great for the garden beds and the coop, these puppies cost between $10-$15 per bale at the local Feed Store. Needless to say I am quite pleased with the find. These will easily last us through the winter. -Carrie

Lovin' Up on Bulk Trash Pickup Day!

It seems like there is always a neighborhood around here preparing for bulk trash pick up day. For those of you unfamiliar with this (as I was when I first moved here), Dallas has neighborhood bulk trash pickup once a month. Homeowners can leave brush, downed limbs, entire trees, furniture, appliances, etc., on the parkway. The city collects it and takes it to the dump.

People put out the darndest things! I seriously would encourage anyone who lives in a city that does this to take advantage of this free way to find some awesome, completely usable, and sometimes amazing, items. It may feel a little bit odd at first - stopping on the side of the road and going through someone's castoffs - but in time those feelings fade. They are replaced by feelings of resourcefulness (can this be used in a different way instead of putting it in a landfill?) and the thrill of the find. I have never driven around systematically hitting neighborhoods looking for items, but if I come across something while on my daily travels that may look promising, I often stop. The following is a pictorial of some of the better things we've found.

Jason literally spent 10 minutes tinkering with this Dyson Vacuum before he got it to work. This was a great find! We've used it for two years now.

Other than a few minor scratches, this chair is in good condition. I had to fix the bottom of the seat cushion - I ended up just using safety pins to save time! The chair is also missing feet. However, I think unless it was specifically pointed out no one would notice. I originally bought rounded fence post toppers for $4 each from Home Depot to use as feet, but the proportions were a bit off so I returned them. Now I'm just keeping an eye out for chairs or couches set out for bulk trash whose feet I could use on this.

I came across this awesome piece of art about two weeks ago. I couldn't believe my luck! From a distance I first thought it was part of the interior spring system of a mattress, but upon further inspection I realized it was an honest to goodness piece of artsy metalwork!
Set to go to the dump no less! It's about 4' x 18" and really cool.
I plan on putting it on the wall in the next few days.

Metal garden trellis - pretty much self-explanatory

10+ Tomato Cages & Numerous Bamboo Stakes

Some other items we've picked up that are not pictured here include:

• 7 foot tall Wisteria Vines, used to decorate the corner of a room
• Indoor pet gate
• Small Dog Carrier (to be used for the chickens if we ever need to transport them!)
• North Face bookbag
• The beginning materials for what I hope will be our next chicken housing project - a chicken tractor! More on that in a later post...
  

And let's not forget some items we've already written about in this blog, including:

• Square Compost Bin - pictures in this post
• Set of old windows to be used for a mini greenhouse or cold frame, detailed here
• Most of Materials used to make our coop
  

So here's the lesson for the day - someone else's trash can truly be your treasure. Don't disregard it out of hand. I think the vast majority of people would prefer someone be able to re-use their cast offs than just having them go to the dump. So go give it a try! Let us know what diamonds in the rough you discover! -Carrie

Pumpkin Recycling

The Idea
A few weeks ago I was perusing a new-to-me blog, MamaStories, and I had an "Ah-Ha!" moment when I came across this post. One of those so-simple-yet-so-awesome ideas. Are you waiting with bated breath? It's the idea of adding neighborhood pumpkins to your compost pile! Why haven't I ever thought of that? Katrien and her daughter, through a cute little art project, get the word out to their neighbors that they will take any and all pumpkins after Halloween. They then use these as a supplement to their compost piles. Ingenious! Keeps them out of the landfill while building up the soil. I can't think of anything better.

The Email
So I took this idea and ran with it. Instead of making flyers I sent out an email to my local mom's group. It read exactly like this:

"After Halloween, instead of throwing your pumpkins in the trash, consider giving them to me! I will take any & all pumpkins, gourds, etc (both cut into and not) off your hands. Most will be composted. If I have a few that are uncut & still "viable" I will probably bake with them. I will be more than happy to pick them up from anywhere in the north oak cliff area. I just figured it's a way to 1)not put something in the landfill, 2)add to our growing compost, & 3)maybe even get a pie out of the deal!"

The Results
Let's just say I couldn't be happier. Over the last few days, during my usual errands (so I haven't had to drive out of the way), I've picked up numerous spent jack o' lanterns from about 5 families. They've filled the bags in the picture below (and don't worry, almost all of the bags I will be able to re-use). I already placed about half of them in our compost when I turned it on Saturday.


But just yesterday I hit the jackpot! From one house I received enough unblemished pumpkins to fill the entire back of my minivan! I was astonished!


I offered to make the homeowner a pumpkin pie, but all she asked in return was for 2 cups of pumpkin puree. Now I have enough edible pumpkin to last me through the spring - if not the summer. All of these pumpkins would have just gone in the trash. Now they will help to feed our tummies and grow summer veggies. Thanks again for the idea, Katrien! And thanks to all those who donated your pumpkins. We'll definitely be doing this again next year. -Carrie

My Green Conundrum

The Birthday
Towards the end of summer, my youngest son attended a birthday party for a boy from our church. Seeing as the birthday boy was 7 and the other attendees were that or older, I figured I'd stay to help keep an eye on my 3 year old. Fun was had by all. I knew that going to the party would mean trying to find a way to politely decline the use of any disposable tableware - but I felt up to the challenge. Even though paper plates and plastic cups/forks/spoons were in abundance, I was amazingly able to commandeer a ceramic bowl and metal spoon for my son. I think my excuse was something about not trusting him with ice cream on a plate. Which is true, by the way, but I was stretching it a bit. I declined all food and drinks because I didn't want to have to throw anything away.

But something occurred before my eyes that I just couldn't believe. One of my sweet, dear friends (who was also there watching her kids) actually refused a reusable cup - she said she felt bad about it! I guess because it meant that the homeowner would have to wash it instead of just throwing it out. The homeowner pushed for her to take the reusable, but she insisted on the throw-away. How warped we've become that we'd rather use something for literally five seconds and trash it rather than wash it and put it back in the cupboard for use on another day?

The Reunion
As for accumulating "unnecessary" trash during a party, this exact same thing happened to us at a family reunion this summer - but we weren't prepared. We were drowning in a sea of styrofoam and plastic, and the hosts hadn't even set out a bag for recycling cans, either. I wanted to stand up on the tables and scream about it to try and wake people up. But I took the wimpy way out and didn't say a thing - and used the styrofoam and plastic to boot! This was the first reunion for my husband's side of the family in almost 20 years. There were probably about 75 people there and I only knew a handful of them. Everyone was having a pleasant time, and I just didn't want to rock the boat.

The Consequences
But these two stories do show how the vast majority of society still could care less if they're putting needless waste into the landfills. One idea I recently read about is to keep a small stash of plates & utensils in the car for times such as these. I can't think of any other way to deal with it - other than using the "bad stuff" or possibly eating only finger foods. I don't want to ruin everyone else's time by getting up on my soapbox, but I also don't want our family adding anything unnecessary to the dump. Or the ocean for that matter. Ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It's basically two large (and I mean the size of Texas or bigger) floating trash piles (made up of about 90% plastic) that pollute the North Pacific Ocean and take no prisoners. But that's a post for another day.


A wonderful post over at Towards Sustainability discusses this exact topic - how do you broach the topic of creating less waste with friends/neighbors/coworkers/family without seeming crazy? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! - Carrie

[Editor's note: For those loyal subscribers thinking to themselves - "Why does this post seem slightly familiar?" - well, that's because it is. I committed the ultimate blogging faux paux, not once, but three times! This post has already run three times, but in incomplete form. I think I caught it within the first 30 minutes of being posted each time, but it is embarrassing to say the least. So, my sincerest apologies - thanks for sticking with us!]

Save Money by Going Back in Time: Whole House Fans

My grandma & grandpa's house was built in 1953 and like all homes built then, central heat and air was not available. Matter of fact, high-tech for 1953 was Saran Wrap and radial tires, which both made their debut onto the market that year. Also in 1953, the first 3D movie was shown and color television aired for the first time. Air conditioners saw their first milestone when one million window units made their way into homes around the world. These window units were big ticket items then. My grandpa, being a truck driver with a family of 9 to feed, wouldn’t have put much money into this newfangled technology. They knew how to get around heat waves without cool air.

Fast forward 30 years. I remember as a teenager one day sitting in Grandma’s living room on a spring morning and enjoying a cool breeze passing through the house. There was a hum and slight squeak of a motor turning in the background which was abnormal too. I didn’t put two and two together for another twenty minutes and when I investigated found the source of the breeze, it was a HUGE fan mounted between the attic and living space. I had noticed before the louvers which remained closed when the fan was not on. This time, with the fan on, I got my first glimpse of the fan itself. I marveled for a moment at the strength of this thing.

Antique whole house fan like Grandma used to have.

To Buy or Not to Buy?

The whole house fan worked by sucking air through open windows, into the living space and pumping it into the attic. This brought outside temperatures inside and cooled the attic off as well. Earlier this year, I randomly recalled this wonder and decide to investigate this ancient appliance to see if it would fit into our lifestyle change. Step 1, find a serviceable unit somewhere close by which we could turn on and evaluate. Step 1 was short lived. After putting the word out, I found that nobody uses these things anymore. Bummer.

Long story short, here’s what I did learn through the internet.

1. The larger the fan, the more noise they generate.

2. The more blades they have, the less noise they generate.

3. Vibrations travel through the fan and into the frame of the house producing noise.

I ended up purchasing a mid-sized fan for my 1100 sq/ft home. I’ll spare you the installation details, but I will mention that I hung the fan from the rafters to avoid the vibration transfer to the frame! This is the first I’ve heard of this and I haven’t seen anything negative as of yet. You can see the one I purchased HERE.

Fan with louvers closed.

Fan with louvers open.

Suspension system from rafters.

Here’s what we’ve learned from our fan.

1. Hot air outside = hot air inside. (We knew this already, but worth saying again.)

2. Air circulating in a hot house is more comfortable than stagnant air in a hot house.

3. Occasionally, you can get cold and need a sheet to sleep with on a July night in Dallas.

4. My fan is a good bit smaller than Grandma’s was. We get a pretty good breeze with a 24” (4500 cubic/feet per minute) fan, but can only open two or three windows. Strategically, this is ok in most instances because for us, opening a window in the kitchen brings air through the kitchen, dining room, and part of the living room before it moves through the fan. Opening every window in the house creates a very light breeze which does nothing to comfort you. I will go with a much bigger fan next time.

5. The breeze is best by the open window.

6. The two speed option works great. High for daytime use, and low (quieter) for sleeping.

7. Seriously, if you pass gas in the kitchen, don’t expect it to stay in the kitchen. It’ll hit every olfactory nerve between you and the fan.

Side note: It’s currently 101.5° F outside with 25% humidity. I have the WH Fan on, a desk fan on me and ceiling fan on in the living room for Carrie. We are both comfortable. A lot of this has to do with acclimation to the heat and the humidity as we never put the thermostat below 85 and often see temps as high as 89° or 90°.

I do recommend using a Whole House Fan to mitigate the heat. Currently, we use it about 12 hours a day in a Dallas summer. In case you’re wondering, Grandma had her fan removed about 5 years ago in favor of a pull down attic stairway. As far as I knew, it still worked after fifty years. What I wouldn’t give to go back in time and get that from her. That’s the kind of heirloom that’s worth passing down. -Jason

Addendum: Illustrations show the difference between Attic Fans and Whole House Fans, as we know them here in Dallas, TX.

Up To My Ears In Compost!

We love to compost around here. You might even call us composting fools. We can't get enough of the "black gold." Sometimes I feel like we should be the poster family for compost. We currently have four areas devoted to composting in our backyard. What a difference from our non-composting-selves only a year and a half ago! When we started composting in Arlington (read more about that here), I don't think we had any idea how composting would just become second nature to us - to all of us. Our three year old's main job other than helping to clean the bedroom is to take out the compost. Due to our vigilant composting and recycling, the picture below shows the amount of trash our family of 5 generated over a one week period. In contrast, our single next door neighbor more often than not has TWO full trash bins out every week.

One week's worth of trash for our family of five!

We even know gardeners that don't compost! Composting is just such a natural extension of gardening, and helps to bring us to that hallowed closed-loop system you hear so much about these days. You grow the food, to feed your body, and put the food waste products into the compost bin, to make the soil that will feed the food you grow. Perfection! We really started composting as an experiment ("May as well give it a shot!"), but it's quickly become big business around here. I think some people don't compost because when you read some of the manuals (yes, they make manuals!) it can seem very scientific or confusing. Certain percentages of green/brown, etc., etc. We don't follow any special formula. We just throw almost everything into the bin. Garden waste, spoiled fruits or vegetables (no meat or dairy - they attract vermin), straw, hay, leaves, grasses, weeds, sawdust, plain cardboard or shredded paper, chicken poop, and egg shells. We even add a few things some newbies may not have heard of before like dryer lint, ashes from the chimenea, hair (from brushes or haircuts), and even the junk collected out of the vacuum cleaner. Additionally, some grocery chains are starting to print their weekly specials with soy ink on recycled paper - making them completely compostable. I sometimes get their extras at the end of the sale and shred them, place them in the coop as part of the chicken litter, and every few months clean out the coop and add the mess into the compost pile, too.

I figured I'd take you all on a tour of our backyard composting, hopefully spurring some of you who haven't yet tried, or for some reason stopped many years ago and are thinking about beginning again, a nudge. It is truly so easy and is a wonderful (free!) way to make beautiful amendments for your garden beds, container plants, or ornamental landscape beds. You can even put finished compost out on your lawn to help green it up and make it lush. Seeing as we have no front lawn (and the chickens have taken over the small back yard), our compost goes straight to helping produce more food.

Composting for us starts in the kitchen. We've tried out many compost "collectors," but finally settled on an old, large plastic juice jug. It holds about a gallon, and our family routinely fills it up about every two days. It's not pretty, but it gets the job done. We keep it in the fridge so it doesn't start to stink or attract fruit flys.

Kitchen refuse bin

We used to take our kitchen waste and place it straight in an outdoor compost bin. However, now that we have acquired chickens, we're trying out something new. Now this waste goes straight to an area beside the coop. We just throw it right on the ground. The chickens love to scratch through these treats. They eat the vast majority of it. What they don't eat or poop out gets left to decompose. And it does this very quickly. About every other day I go to this area and spend 30 seconds with a rake making it into a pile again. The chickens return to scratch, spreading it out while looking for bugs. My 2 foot wide by 1 foot tall pile gets obliterated in a matter of minutes to just a few inches tall and about 5 feet wide. The chickens have a blast while also reducing our costs for their feed.

Compost by the chicken coop. That bag near the middle is a supposed compostable Sun Chips bag, but it's taking forever - we've had it just over 4 months - probably because the pile doesn't get very hot. In a hotter pile it would decompose much faster, I'm sure.

This small pile sits right next to a much larger pile (3.5' tall x 8' wide) of shredded cedar and hardwood mulch we got for free from a local tree cutting company (note the edge of this pile in the top right of the above photo). I add a bit of this to the "chicken pile" every few days as well. This also decomposes, though slower, and adds some bulk to the kitchen waste.

Free mulch pile slowly decomposing, too.

Note the closeup of the amazing soil being generated between the compost, mulch, and chicken poop.

The last two areas sit on the opposite side of the yard from the coop. This is where we compost larger yard waste (small tree limbs, leaves, dead garden plants, straw, etc - in the wood bin) and other kitchen waste, chicken poop, and the more uncommon vacuum waste, hair, and ashes (in the black plastic bin).

Inside view of wood bin

Inside view of plastic bin. That gross mass in the middle is from the vacuum (ewww!), and yes, to the left of the vacuum mass that does appear to be a beautiful red necklace with a charm attached. I think an older (or younger?) brother has been getting into his sister's jewelry. I need to investigate this!

So that's it, ladies and gentlemen. There is minimal rhyme or reason to our composting madness, yet it indeed turns into compost every single time. It may not happen as quickly as the manuals declare, but it does happen. Don't be afraid. Seriously do it. You'll greatly reduce what you send to the landfill, and you'll potentially save hundreds (thousands?) of dollars over your composting life by not having to go to a big box store to buy it. You won't regret it! -Carrie

Will work for bike

I’m a cheapskate. Sorry to blurt that out to all of creation, but I am. Step 5 of a 12 step program is to admit the situation. Actually, it’s not entirely my fault. I come from a long, long line of cheapskates; though, back in the day they were called other nasty names like ‘Frugal’ and ‘Living within your means.’ It’s in my blood.

We keep our eyes out for various things we need which are cheap or sub-cheap. Of course we hit garage sales, yard sales, estate sales, and the like, but we don’t feel like we have to pay for stuff either in order to realize value in it. You may have seen our previous post about the windows (HERE) we picked up on the side of the road (which also keeps them out of the landfill.) We’ve acquired so many things offered for free or extremely cheap from a mother’s group with 300 families in it, and Craigslist.org & Freecycle.org continue to be great places to find free items from like minded people who see the value of giving things a second life.

Recently added to our inventory are two bicycles which were advertised for sale which I acquired without monetary transfer. I did this by asking the simple question, “Are you open to bartering?” In both situations, I used my skills as a landscape contractor and designer to take care of problems which they had. They got what they wanted, I got what I wanted, and my bank account was no worse for it. One word of caution, based on experience… before a complex barter begins, I would advise establishing the monetary value of the goods and services in case things don’t go according to plan. This falls into the ‘Better safe than sorry’ category and will help keep the trade on an equal playing field. -Jason