My Green Freak

The answer to everything.

I know, that picture is really big. But that's how BIG vinegar is in our house.

I'm not totally convinced it's the answer to everything but I swear Jason responds with the word "vinegar" to every question or comment.

How can we kill these weeds?  Vinegar. How do I get rid of the spots on the dishes? Vinegar. I need a new moisturizer. Vinegar. How do I stop these jeans from fading so fast? Vinegar. Abigail has a terrible sunburn. Vinegar. We don't have any salad dressing. Vinegar.

I'm not sure how you can eat the same thing you use to clean your laundry but supposedly you can. And we obviously do. We buy this stuff in gallon jugs now. No more small bottles that you only use once a year to color Easter eggs. Although you might walk around smelling like an Easter egg depending on how you use it.

Here are a couple of sites that list ways you can use vinegar. It really does seem to be the answer to everything. And at the very least, if you ever get asked a question that you don't know the answer to, you've got a 99% chance the answer is vinegar.

1001 Uses for Vinegar
The Vinegar Institute
Vinegarman.com   

If you have any good suggestions or tips for using vinegar, let me know in the comments!

Weekend Green

When complaining to Jason that he didn't give me much blog material this weekend, he said I just wasn't paying attention. Apparantly, he mowed the yard with his electric lawnmower, cleaned out the rainwater tank, and fed the worms. Oh. My mistake I guess. It's only 110 outside so I don't really follow him around every minute. I did know that he was outside but he's always outside. Besides, how exciting can cleaning a rainwater tank and feeding the worms really be? So my argument still stands...not enough blog material to work with honey. And those worms are still in my kitchen. I'm just saying.

My apologies for the lack of blog posts last week. I was having some technical diffiulties but should be back on track now. Thanks to everyone that continues to read the blog! If you have any questions or would like to see me blog about something specific, please let me know in the comments and I'll be sure and address it.

Tuesday Tour: Timers

One of the easiest things Jason has done around the house is add timers to our TV's. In concept, this is a great idea. TV's, DVD players, cable boxes, etc. continue to draw power even when they are turned off. These are also known as vampire appliances because they continuously suck energy. An easy way to save that energy (and money) is to simply add timers so that the timer actually stops the flow of power. We have an electronic one on our living room TV and simple wall timers in the bedrooms. The electronic ones allow for a little more flexibility so you can change the on/off time by day (since our schedule changes from weekday to weekend) whereas the wall timers set the on/off time the same every day.

However, as I'm sure you might imagine by now, things don't always work that easily in our house. Jason continuously sets the timer in the living room to be off on days when I'm home. Which means if I want to watch anything I have to crawl behind the TV to turn off the timer. Hopefully, I've planned ahead too because it takes about 15 minutes for the sound to warm up on our television (not sure what that's about). But that's ok. It's only a minor inconvenience that even though I don't really understand it, I can live with it.

The real issue is the one in our bedroom shown above. This is plugged into an outlet relatively close to the floor. Right over where the dog sleeps. As she roots around for the most comfortable sleeping position, she always manages to hit the timers. She's constantly changing the times on them. I can hear the little sliders click throughout the night as she moves around. We never know from day to day when the timer is going to go on and off. Unfortunately, there's not another outlet nearby and we certainly can't move the dog from her favorite location. Thankfully, this one is a little more accessible so we can easily switch it on/off according to our needs.

So...the timers are actually good thing. I totally recommend them. It's an easy way to be green. Just keep them away from the dog.

What is that eggactly?

I don't eat many eggs actually. To cook with, yes. To just eat, not so much. I've always had a weird thing about chickens, and I really don't like to think about this whole egg concept. If I think about it too much, I'll just pass entirely on the eggs. So this whole free-range chicken thing is just weird for me. Jason likes to kid me that I don't think eggs from the grocery store come from a chicken. The difference is that you don't have to meet the chicken when you shop at the grocery store so it's easier for me not to think about where they come from. But, I've been trying to get better about this whole local farm egg thing since it's important to Jason. I really do "get it" and support why we want to buy from a local farm versus the store. So...we spend the fourth with some friends that have free-range chickens and they sent us home with some eggs. Very nice of them. Jason's all for it and will love them. And I'm going to try really hard not to think about the chickens when/if I can actually bring myself to use them. I might need a few days first. And I definitely need to stay away from that really light tan one that doesn't match the rest of the eggs. I don't even want to think about what's going on inside that one! Is that even normal? Wait, don't answer that. I might needs weeks rather than days if I find out the truth behind that one.

You say Tomato, I say Tomahto.

So those little tomatoes turned out to be just that...little cherry tomatoes. Not too shabby actually. And they taste GREAT...so very tomatoey!

Oh, and an update on my cans. They have miraculously disappeared today. I think I've finally found the answer. Hints don't seem to work but posting on my blog seems to do the trick. Dang, I should have started this a long time ago.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July everyone!

Why is it...

that men just can't take a hint? One of the things we are absolutely faithful about is recycling our cans. I keep a bag in the pantry to stash them in until it gets full. In theory, at that point, the bag should be taken to the garage and the cans crushed in the fancy can crusher that Jason just had to have. From there, the crushed cans are taken and sold to a scrap metal dealer. Sounds simple enough, right?

Wrong. Once the bag actually gets full, it sits there for a few days because no one else in this house seems to notice that it's overflowing. So I move the bag out of the pantry next to one of the cabinets. Hint Hint. This means the man figure in the house needs to take it and empty it. But there it sits for a few more days as cans are strategically placed on top of one another to avoid falling. But again, no one seems to notice this strange full bag phenomenon except for me. 

So what happens when you absolutely can't stack another can on top of the bag?

Well, it seems they just get stacked on the counter. Hint Hint. This means the wife is about to lose it and the man figure needs to take care of it quickly.

But you know what, no one seems to notice that either. I eventually get fed up and take them to the garage myself. Now, I know you're probably thinking, how hard is it just to take the cans to the garage so let me just state for the record...that is not my job. That falls into the trash, lightbulbs, automotive, and misc. man categories.

I'm sure it's a big conspiracy on his part to get me to do it but I'm not falling for it this time. Nope, those cans are going to stay there for as long as it takes.

Anyone knows an ant can't move a rubber tree plant.

Well, at least not these ants. About this time every year, we get a little influx of ants. Just little sugar ants coming in looking for water. But it's still annoying. Jason's solution? A cotton ball, water, sugar and borax. The poor thirsty ants drink from this and then take it back to their colony to die and kill all their friends. Supposedly, no more ants. Although I see a couple here and there but nothing like the first couple of days. Is it still a green environmentally friendly solution if it ends in death? I'm just wondering.

Tuesday Tour: Rainwater Collection

Every Tuesday, I'll be sharing some of the bigger projects that we've done around the house. 

This is our rainwater tank. It's 150 gallons. Jason has most of the gutters in the back of the house draining into the tank. He has some sort of pump hooked up to the tank that allows us to water the plants, grass or whatever. BUT...supposedly this really isn't enough to do that much good. He's wishing for a 3,000 gallon tank. That's sounds more like a hot tub to me. Which I'm all for but somehow I don't see either one of those happening anytime soon. So basically, we spent money on the tank, the gutters, the gravel/concrete bed for the tank, the pump, and the fencing to fence in the tank to get very little in return. So for anyone planning to collect their rainwater, just go for the big tank right up front. Or skip it all together and just get the hot tub. Or maybe even a pool. There's bound to be something green about a pool.

The Worm Saga Continues.

Jason took Abigail to get more worms over the weekend. I wasn't able to go due to some other plans but I put Abigail in charge of taking some pics to show me what I missed. Such a shame I wasn't able to go. ;)

Homestead Farms is a local farm that provides earth-friendly produce, dairy and meat...and obviously worms.

This is where the worms were kept. Which gives me some hope that the worms living in my kitchen CAN actually live outside...even in this Texas heat. I'll be sure to use that in my next argument to get them out of the house.

Inside of the worm bin.

The chicken house where they raise their free-range naturally-fed chickens. Somehow I thought free-range would be bigger.

They had lots of goats on hand for milk, cheese and soap. I'm kind of thankful none of that made it's way here.

The new worms fresh from the farm.

And now safely in their new home.

Seriously...

I'm getting as bad as Jason. While he may do some crazy things that I don't understand or have a hard time following through with, I do manage to do a few things to try and be more green. I work part-time outside the home and on those days I take my lunch and snacks with me. I use glass containers so that I don't have to worry about the "evils of plastic" when heating up my lunch at the office. I take my own silverware because I don't trust the office ones are clean enough...plus I'm lazy and don't want to have to wash anything while I'm there with the non-green "dangerous" cleaners. And I put it all in a re-used lunch sack that we've stashed away for this very reason and will use over and over until it actually falls apart. Then, of course, it'll head to the recycle bin. The only thing Jason wouldn't approve of is the one plastic baggie that I use to hold things like grapes or pretzels. I admit, I am a fan of the baggie. I don't see the point of lugging around another glass container just for grapes. And since we don't own any plastic, the baggie works for me. But, here's where I hope I make up for it.

I also bring home all my trash. Yes. Banana peel, grape stems, empty Sprite can, even the used napkins get carted all the way home with me to put in the proper recepticle. After all, it would be tragic to let the cleaning crew throw away my trash at the end of the day.

Oh, the things we do for love...because it has nothing to do with the environment. ;)