My Green Freak

Weekend Green

Always love seeing the huge windmills when we travel. These were somewhere in Kansas during our trek to Colorado from Texas. Very impressive.

Not sure what direction I'm going to take with this blog right now. We're contemplating a move which means a lot of our projects will be taken down and probably not many will be starting. I may not have regular posts as we go through this transition so be sure to subscribe to our feed (left hand side of the blog) so you'll be notified when it's updated. Hopefully I won't lose too much ground, but just in case!

Have a great week everyone!

Vacation

Taking a little break for vacation but I'll be back soon!

Tuesday Tour: Cleaning Supplies

Cleaning supplies are truly the bane of my existance. Everything has to be "natural." We have several homemade concoctions around here, and I'm sorry, but they just don't do it for me. Some of them are "ok" but that's about it. Nothing to write home about. But that doesn't mean that I'm not open to homemade cleaners, I just need to find the right ones.

The one I use most often is like a 409 substitute...just a general cleaner. And I'm okay with that one. But I need a good wood floor cleaner, a furniture polish and a stainless steel cleaner. All the recipes I've tried or found contain olive oil and they leave this funky film on everything. Even if I buff it out really well, it still manages to be kind of sticky and attacts every dust particle in our house. So if you have any good ones, PLEASE send them my way.

Here's the recipe for the general cleaner:

2 cups water
4 T. white vinegar
2 t. Borax (still wondering how that's green)
1/4 c. dish soap
1 t. tea tree oil

Oh, and I found a recipe for a great glass cleaner today but I'm sure it's not green by most standards. But isn't store-bought and it IS homemade so it's green by MY standards. :)

1 cup water
1 cup rubbing alcohol
1 T. vinegar

But if you have one that's more green, send it my way and I'll give it a try!

Weekend Green

Jason finally had a little time this weekend to work on another project. And unlike most of them where I just roll my eyes and let him do his thing, this one was actually kind of impressive. We have a huge flower bed in the front of the house that has been in need of attention for awhile now. We've been trying to get rid of this monkey grass type stuff but it keeps coming back all over the place. Not to mention the weeds. This supposedly will fix that problem. All you need is some brown packing paper and some mulch. Just lay down the paper all around the bed and then cover it with the mulch. Any weeds or plants (like yucky monkey grass) underneath the paper won't get any light or be able to grow through the paper so they will just die. You can still water the soil or around any other plants that you might have surrounded because the water will still seep through the paper. And the paper is biodegradable so it will eventually break down allowing you to replant wherever you like. If you need to replant before then, you can just break through the paper. Pretty cool idea actually. Certainly saves us from having to use pesticides or plastics. And we used recylced paper too. I think ours came from some shipments that I received but I bet you could get some from a local Freecycle group. So all around very good for the earth. Now we just wait and see if it actually works!

F.A.Q.'S

I've had a few questions lately about our AC misters and rainwater collection tank. Instead of answering them individually, I thought I'd post on here for everyone. 

What do the misters on the AC actually do?  My understanding is that the water from the misters evaporates off the hot coils and removes heat which allows the compressor motor to not work as hard. When the compressor doesn't work as hard, it doesn't use as much electricity.

Why doesn't the water in our rainwater tank get all gunky and attract mosquitos? Well, actually it does get gunky and since the tank is a clear transparent color it does grow algae. If it were a darker color and/or protected from the sun, it woudn't grow algae. Supposedly, you can put a capful of bleach in the water to kill the algae and stop any smell if there is any but Jason hasn't tried that yet. Instead, Jason just cleans it out every couple of months. As far as mosquitos go, there is a screen at the opening that keeps leaves and stuff out of the tank as well as not allowing mosquitos to get in to lay the eggs.

If you have any other questions, please let me know! I am in no way an expert on any of these things but am happy to relay what I have learned by asking Jason your questions.

Tuesday Tour: Grocery Bags

One of the things Jason is really good about is using his cloth bags at the store. I try to use them as well but I do forget sometimes. Mostly on the small errands though and not the large grocery store runs. I'm always so rushed on the small ones. By the time the cashier says hello and I get out my debit card, they already have my stuff in a plastic bag. I wish they'd start asking me if I want it in a bag because that would remind me that I have my own. Or they just need to stop talking to me so I can concentrate and remember to tell them I have my own bag. Or wait...better yet, just have Jason do all the shopping so I never have to worry about it. Yep, that definitely sounds like the best plan.

Quick Funny

I don't iron very often if I can help it. I'd honestly rather walk around wrinkled than iron something. But a few weeks ago I had to for some reason. Our laundry room is seriously small and I can't iron easily in there with the little tabletop board that we have. So I moved it into the bedroom, put it on the floor and sat down to iron whatever it was that I felt deserved non-wrinkled attire. Not a fancy set-up but I can't justify spending money on something I hate. Anyway, when I was finished, I turned off the iron and moved on to other things. For weeks after that the iron and board remained on the floor in a corner of the room. I started hearing these weird little random ticks that I couldn't place for the longest time. Finally, after about 3 weeks I discovered that the iron was still warm. Even though I had turned the iron off, it was left plugged in and for some reason didn't turn all the way off. I was mortified thinking how easily it could have fallen over and caught something on fire. With kids in and out of there and pets it's amazing it didn't get knocked over. I wasn't sure I was going to tell Jason because I figured he'd be just as mortified as I had been thinking the iron was left on that long. But I decided to tell him anyway. And he was definitely mortified...about ALL that electricity I wasted! Never mind that the house could have burned down but how dare I use electricity. Seriously...his mind does not function properly. The next time I nearly burn down the house, I'll be sure it's a solar-powered event.

Is this really necessary in life?

This is Jason's backpack. His SOLAR-powered backpack. Yes, those are actually solar panels. He won this in a Yahoo Goes Green/Freecycle contest a while back and sets it outside every few days to charge. What it needs charging for I have no idea. Does it talk to him? Make coffee for him? What? I've heard something about him charging his cell phone but that's really only good if you take your backpack with you everywhere you go, right? I guess using the battery in it is better than electricity but it's still weird. I think my husband (that I love dearly just for the record) might be just a bit of a nerd. I'm just saying.

Tuesday Tour: Hybrids

This has to be the biggest green investment we've made so far...my 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. I was a little nervous at first, but I really love this car. It was a little odd in the beginning as you have to adjust the way you drive just a bit. Apparantly, I like to really push the gas petal from the idle position, so I've had to slow down a little. For those of you that don't know, the hybrid runs on battery for anything under 30 mph. So the longer I stay on battery, the better my gas mileage and thus my bank account. It gets great gas mileage with about 34-35 mpg in the winter to around 30 mpg in the heat of summer. If we weren't in Texas, the summer number might be a little higher. But in 100 degree heat, I keep that a/c cranking! If you're in the market, I'd definitely consider a hybrid.  

Weekend Green

There honestly aren't that many green projects going on here right now. Jason is finishing up his degree this summer and is taking a full schedule. He spends most of his time studying. Plus, it's 110 degrees outside. Not that he doesn't get out and do things, but I don't always snoop around as much in the summer.

But we did manage a great meal tonight almost entirely of veggies from our garden. Why I took a picture of this before it was cooked, I don't know. But it still looks and was very appetizing. Fried okra is one of  my favorite meals and even better when it's your own. That and a great salad with our own tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions and locally farm-raised hard-boiled eggs made a perfect summer meal. That garden thing is turning out to be an okay thing!