De-Plasticize Your Home: Know The Codes

More reading on my part regarding the abundance of chemicals in our lives.  This time the culprit is plastics.  When it was considered the newest miracle product of  the 1950s, our grandmothers still largely bought and cooked fresh food: fresh produce, meat from the butcher, and stored left overs in those cute little glass refrigerator dishes that go for a premium at antique stores these days.  Today, most of our food comes pre-packaged in plastic.  And what we don’t consume at one meal, we store in plastic in our plastic refrigerators.

Plastic has changed.  Different plastics serve different purposes and are made from different chemical resins.  Some are stable, some are not and leach into our food.  It’s also in our shampoo bottles, our flooring and our kids’ toys.  Plastic is pervasive, but you can educate yourself and learn which ones to avoid.

We’re all familiar with the recycling code on plastic containers.  That cute little green triangle with a number in the middle.  That number indicates the kind of resin used to create the plastic. 

PET OR PETE (POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE), ALSO KNOWN AS POLYESTER

Typical uses: water and soft drink bottles, prepared salad and spinach containers

Health and environmental impact: intended for single use; plastic can break down and host bacteria; potential to interfere with reproductive hormones

HDPE (HIGH DENSITY POLYETHYLENE)

Typical uses: opaque milk jugs; cereal box liners; liquid detergent bottles; most shampoo bottles

Health & Environmental Impacts: low risk of leaching

PVC (POLYVINYL CHLORIDE)

Typical uses: plastic wrap, cooking oil bottles, toys, plumbing pipes, window and door frames, insulation

Health & Environmental Impact: known as the “toxic plastic”; can cause endocrine disruption, reduced sperm count, testicular atrophy and liver cancer

(Run Forrest, run!!!)

LDPE (LOW DENSITY POLYETHYLENE)

Typical uses: plastic wrap, grocery, garbage and sandwich bags.

Health & Environmental Impacts: not known to leach chemicals

PP (POLYPROPYLENE)

Typical uses: yogurt and margarine tubs, microwavable meal trays,  fiber for carpets, wall coverings, vehicle upholstery

Health & Environmental Impacts: hazardous during manufacture but not known to leach chemicals

PS (POLYSTYRENE)

Typical uses: styrofoam cups, clamshell containers, foam meat trays, plastic cutlery, electronics packaging and insulation

Health & Environmental Impacts: eye, nose and throat irritation; stored in body fat (ooohhhh), can cause cancer to production workers, harmful to marine life (this type of plastic makes up the majority of the huge garbage islands floating in global oceans)

PC (POLYCARBONATE), PLA (POLYACTIDE) AND OTHER PLASTIC NOT INCLUDED IN THE CATEGORIES ABOVE

Typical uses: baby bottles, some reusable water bottles, stain resistant food storage containers

Health & Environmental Impacts: BPA-containing polycarbonate causes endocrine and reproduction system disruption; impaired neurological functions; cancer; cardiovascular system damage; early puberty (OMG), obesity (crap!); chemotherapy resistance

Well, Forrest, I’m about to catch up with you.  Good grief.  In my disgust, I am looking for ways to relieve my household of the abundance of plastic.  I quit drinking out of plastic cups a long time ago, but still have them around and my husband uses them all the time.  Just about all the food I buy, even the organic potatoes and apples I bought today, came in plastic bags.  The trays our treat-ourselves-once-a-week rib eye steaks come packaged in are absorbing plastics that are then stored in our body fat.  And I’m really going to start checking for #7.  Scary stuff. 

So, in the spirit of less plastic, I splurged and ordered some reuseable produce bags to use at the grocery store instead of wrapping my fresh produce in plastic and then bringing it home.  Here they are, from Amazon.

I bought 2 sets of 5 at $11 each.  Perhaps a little pricey, but washable and should last a very long time.  They were transparent enough so that the checker had no problem identifying the contents.   Now I just need to find some alternative storage solutions for leftovers.

Comments anyone? 

Keep it simple, ya’ll.

Clay Pot Irrigation – Part 1

I was recently perusing one of my favorite websites, Little Homestead in the City, and came across a blog post about ollas, or clay pot irrigation.  The whole concept, which has evidently been around for a few thousand years (leave it to me to just be finding out about this), is fascinating. 

The idea is that a porous clay pot is planted in the ground or raised bed and filled with water. Plants are planted around the pot and the roots grow to the source of water.  The water wicks out of the pot through the pores and waters the plants directly to the root system.   A rock (or something like a scrap piece of broken pot) is placed over the hole to keep mosquitoes out.  The pot is refilled as needed depending on temperatures, rainfall, etc. 

According to the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, there are a lot of good things about the method including 50-70% water savings, guards against water stress, does not over irrigate, less frequent watering is required, less weeding since weeds do not prosper as the soil surface remains dry throughout the growing season (interesting!), saves on fertilizer if it is applied as part of the water used to fill the pots (can you put liquid worm fertilizer in there?  must research this!), the soil of the seedbed does not get sealed due to water impact but remains loose and well aerated, and last but not least, clay pots can be installed on undulating ground where surface water runoff might be a problem. 

The Aussies also site some disadvantages such as potential for winter breakage if left in the ground in areas with a winter freeze – definitely a possibility here in Oklahoma and prolonged use is likely to decrease porosity of the clay pot if used in heavy soil. 

Here are a couple of very helpful charts that were on the Australian site.

Sounds to me like the pros outweigh the cons.  As much as I would LOVE to buy the cute ollas found at Peddler’s Wagon, they are a bit out of my price range.  I have three raised bed and will need 4-5 for each.  So after a search for DIY ollas, I made a trip to my local Home Depot for pots.  Let’s just say, I’ll be buying my next round at a local garden shop where I found them the next day for about 1/2 the price!  Here is what I bought for about $45.

Standard UNGLAZED clay pots, saucers, silicone and white paint.   The paint is to seal the part of the pot that sticks up out of the ground to keep water from wicking out the top.  That was a tip I got from someone’s blog that said they learned the hard way.  Sounds like me. 

They were not cheap.  Each pot was $4, saucers were $3.  But I figure if I can get 5 years use out of each pot and with money (and heat stroke) saved from reduced watering, the upfront investment will be worth it.  I also discovered a couple of used pots in the garage that I can clean and use.  One thing to watch out for when buying the pots: I found that a lot of the saucers had what appeared to be hairline cracks and some of the pots did, too.  Don’t know how that would affect the process or the strength of the pot, but just kept looking until I found five pots with no cracks.  Anyway, if I’m paying four bucks apiece, they need to be intact, thank you very much. 

The first step is to seal the saucer and pot together to make one unit.  It takes one bead of silicone on the lip of the pot, squish down, and then a bead around the seam on the outside.  Let dry according to the directions on the silicone.  Mine said 12 hours which was overnight and then some.

It’s not pretty but this part will be underground.  Next came a leakage test.  I didn’t do the test on each pot.  I figured if one sealed, they all did.  Hope I’m right.

No leaks!

Next I painted about 2″ down from the top on each pot as well as the top (which of course is really the bottom of the pot).  The pots will be planted with the saucer down and water filled through the hole.

You can see the water wicking through the sides of my test pot. Pretty cool.

So, this is as far as I’ve gotten.  The weather has been cold and cloudy and the weatherman says we may have one more overnight freeze this week.  I should have already had my onions and lettuce and spinach out, but I’m always slow getting started in the spring.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the pots in the ground Thursday this week and can show you Part 2. 

Until then, keep it simple, ya’ll.

Permaculture Dreams

We’ve had some lovely days here the past week or so, and some really cold, foggy ones, too.  But its obvious spring is fighting to make headway and I’m cheering her on.  I’m mentally more than ready to start planting in the raised beds.  I need to add some manure when the weather warms a bit more and really work it in good.  I’ve got my watering system all worked out – I think.  I won’t really know until I get it all in place.  It will mean having some hoses stretched out in the yard all the time, which will be an issue with the One Who Mows, but in my opinion, its worth having to go out and hold some things out of the way.  Actually, what I’d REALLY like to do is get the backyard full of raised beds so there is no need to mow because there is no grass!  I’d also like to take down the tree in the front – how many times have you read that here – and plant fruit trees. 

My problem is that I don’t want to put a huge amount of effort into this place when there is a very real possibility that we may be moving in a couple of years.  I really really really really really want a little land – a couple or three acres to go hog wild with the permaculture thing.  Graywater system, fruit trees, water catchment, worm composting – and so much more I don’t even have a clue about.   When the Kid graduates from college and is hopefully settled for a while, we can make the decision about whether to sell our suburban home and move out a ways or maybe even leave the state.  I’d so love to live someplace within driving distance of some actual scenery of the mountain variety.   But that means a totally different growing climate and pretty much reinventing ourselves – which I’m okay with.  

I found a couple of new websites I’d like to share and a couple of old ones to inspire you to do the small things every day to live more simply, eat better, do more for your neighbor and get in touch with nature.

urbanorganicgardener.com

naturalhomemagazine.com (evidently they’ve been around for years)

bulgarbugle.com (our local food cooperative founder/also a permaculture guy – need to talk to him…….)

southernplate.com – yummy deep south cooking!

thepioneerwoman.com – Oklahoma girl on the farm

and just to inspire you once again – urbanhomestead.org – the be all and end all for urban organic gardeners wanting to live real

another inspiration – dailyacts.org – the younger generation may be getting it right after all!

This one is really cool – hope to able to use their stuff one day soon!  oksolar.com –

Keep it simple, ya’ll

Wind Generators Mounted to Existing Utilitiy/Light Poles – Let’s Support This Guy!

I have a friend from the food coop who is in the running for a $50,000 grant from Pepsi.  While online voting for Urban Argrarian this morning, I ran across another guy who deserves our daily votes.  His name is Steven Flores and he lives in Owasso, OK.   He has a patent pending for a wind turbine that fits on existing utility poles or light poles or cell towers, etc.  and generates electricity straight to the grid!  This concept challenges the idea of huge wind farms with their huge towers on land that is becoming more scarce and expensive. 

SO…here is the link to the Pepsi challenge voting site.  He is way down at number 281 right now and needs lots and lots and lots of votes to get into the top 10.  You get 10 votes a day, so vote for him and Urban Argrarian both!

http://www.refresheverything.com/turbineflo

http://www.refresheverything.com/urbanagrarian

Audiobooks – Another Way to Live More Sustainably

Okay, you all know how much I’ve griped about my job.  Boring, boring, boring….blah, blah, blah.  I won’t beat that dead horse again.  So, I decided that if I have to be here, I need to find a way to get through the days without harming either myself or anyone else :-).   I’ve never been one to listen to music regularly.  I don’t know.  Maybe its that the radio stations tend to play the same old songs over and over and over and CDs are just too expensive and how many times can you listen to the same one, anyway?   

I am an avid reader.  So I started bringing a book to work thinking I would take short breaks from the computer and read a few paragraphs now and then.  But instead, I find myself cruising the Internet – not exactly in the job description and frowned upon by the powers that be.  Can’t imagine why! 🙂

So, I’ve started listening to audiobooks.  Now, a lot of you will say “well, duh!” to that one, but its something I’ve never done.  I’ve always been a print book reader, even considered a Kindle at one point, but would rather put that $300 towards a new sofa, thank you.   I have spent untold amounts of money on books over the years.  In fact, I recently gleaned those “will-never-read-again” volumes off my bookshelf and donated them to the local library.  You can’t even tell I removed them, there are still so many there. 

And then something else dawned on me.  Paper=trees cut down=tons of fossil fuels used to feed my need to read.  The solution?  Audiobooks!  I’ve made several trips to the library and unfortunately, the selection leaves something to be desired.  But never fear – Audible.com  is here!  I signed up for a 3-month trial and have downloaded a free issue of “Farewell, My Subaru.”  Its great!  I can listen to a book of any genre at work and the time passes much quicker.  I find I am more productive.  I invested $25 in a new set of earbuds and they are worth every penny. 

So not only am I getting through the day in a more agreeable fashion, I am not spending near as much money on books and not feeling guilting about all that paper sitting on my shelf. 

Audiobooks = a more sustainable lifestyle.  I am using my son’s discarded, but still perfectly usable, iPod Nano, so that’s another strike for sustainability.  Reuse, reuse, reuse!   The books on CD I borrow from the library get reused over and over and aren’t cluttering up my shelf space and the downloadable versions are awesome. 

There are lots of ways to live a less cluttered, less environmentally toxic existence.  All the little things really do add up.   Heck, I might even see what it takes to start narrating books myself.    Instead of loaning a book to a friend who may or may not return it, I could give them a digital copy I narrated to my computer.   Sounds like fun! 

Look around.  What can you do to unclutter; what can you repurpose instead of throw away or buy new? 

Keep it simple…….

Sustainability on Film

The local Sierra Club chapter is hosting a week of Sustainability on Film at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in September.  Check the website for details.  www.okcmoa.com/film  Its a great  lineup of films addressing issues such as commercial agriculture and its antithesis, the local foods movement, green building and the origins of Earth Day, among others.   It should be a very informative week. 

I think the information offered in the films will be important for people to know and I hope more then just “the choir” attends the showings.   So often the same folks show up to the same events and the general public still has no clue about the damage that has been done to our food system.  

While I am not a Sierra Club member – a little too liberal for my taste – I am an avid support of local foods and environmental stewardship.   Hopefully I can get my husband to go with me so he see why this is so important to me. 

Have a great day everyone.

Keep it simple.

Great stuff on GMO’s READ THIS!!!

http://www.squidoo.com/nomogmo#module27649182

gotta rush out the door but found this series of articles that looks like good information on GMOs.

Its Not All About the Money

I ran across this video today while checking in on one of my favorite sites: Little Homestead in the City.  Its a great statement on living a life of simplicity and living for what is important, not what big money media tells us should be.

From there I looked to see what else Free Range Studios has to offer.  I watched a few of the videos on The Story of Stuff. 

It just reiterates to me how money minded our culture is.  America is a great country and we have many freedoms here that other countries don’t have, but we are slowly poisoning ourselves and our surroundings and we don’t seem to care or feel powerless to do anything. In the meantime, a few giant corporations are getting rich at our expense.  Nobody seems to be willing to admit to the fact that we have a cancer epidemic in this country  BECAUSE OF ALL THE CHEMICALS IN OUR FOOD and we  just ignore, or worse, cover up, the fact that we are exporting that epidemic to other countries with our toxic habits and fast food. 

The Mouth Revolution video  is a little silly, but points out the major things about our food system that are slowly killing  us.   So “watching your diet” and “you are what you eat” takes on a whole new meaning when you realize how many toxins and chemicals we ingest every single day of our lives.  And the most contaminated food of all according to one of the videos is breast milk.  The toxins we ingest seem to concentrate there and a whole generation of babies are being fed on chemicals like never before.  

Which then leads me to say this: People, we have to stand up for the rights of organic farmers in this country.  They are up against so much from big agribusiness.  And now that the feds have relaxed the standards so that big business can get in on the organic market, organic isn’t what it should be and our labels don’t tell us the whole truth.  

Another labeling issue is with GMOs.  We have so much food that is now grown with genetically modified seeds that actually grow built in pesticides that  its really scary.  Good old Monsanto!  When are we going to wake up to the fact that we are killing ourselves for the almighty dollar?!?    We must insist to our national representatives that our food labels indicate when an ingredient or additive is a GMO.  We should be allowed to control the food that goes into our bodies and not have toxins and pesticides added to our food without our knowledge.  We have to stand up for our health and the health of our future generations.   This way of  life is not sustainable for humans or the planet.  

One issue leads to another and another and another.  They are all intertwined.  But it all boils down to AMERICAN GREED!  ITS NOT ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!!!!  Now more than ever we need to

Keep it simple.

No More Guilt!

I have a collection of canvas bags that I like to take to the grocery store.  I was really good about taking them actually INSIDE the store with me when the enthusiasm was new.  Now they get taken out of the car for one reason or another and not returned or I forget to take them inside with me and am too lazy to walk all the way back out to the parking lot to retrieve them. 

So I end up taking home yet another group of white plastic bags and toss them in the recycle bin.  Better than nothing, right? 

I don’t know how many of you are crafty out there – as in arts and crafts, not sneaky little boogers.  But…today I ran across a website, http://www.myrecycledbags.com.  I think the original link was from Tiny Choices – another site in my weblog that you should really read on a regular basis.   Anyway….this woman crochets reusable shopping bags from strips of cut up plastic bags of all shapes and sizes.  She has instructions on how to make the strips and patterns for the bags.  Now it takes about 40 bags to make 1 bag, but what a great way to use them up!  I haven’t crocheted in years but I just might have to give this a try!  So now when I forget to take in my canvas bags I can go home guilt-free knowing that soon something good will result from my forgetfulness. 

I added the link to my weblog.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

Keep it simple.

Transition Websites – Take a Look Please!

I have spent some time today listening to videos from Peak Moments TV.  I say listening rather than watching, because I have also been scanning endless amounts of artifact slides at the same time.  I simply cannot just sit and listen to the scanner whining and screeching through each slide, so I disobey state mandate for employees and tune into things on the internet.  I know, shame on me. 

The new book group I recently joined will be discussing The Transition Handbook this month and I am educating myself a little on the subject while I am waiting for my copy to come via Amazon.  I know, I should have bought it from a local bookseller, but could not find a copy anywhere in the city.  So, for the full price of the book – which would have to be ordered anyway – on Amazon I got my book plus another on emergency preparedness for the same price with free shipping. 

So, anyway, I ran across a video of Richard Heinberg on Peak Moments TV and from there went to his website.  He is with Post Carbon Institute.  I signed up for his newsletter and read the latest installment.  (Still scanning, still scanning……).  From there I clicked on the link to Transition United States.  Haven’t delved too deeply into it, but am impressed enough with just the home page to add their link and Heinberg’s to my website log on the menu to the right.  Please take a look. 

I am just about finished with Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and will review it soon.  I hope to finish it this weekend in the car on the way to Texas to visit the family. 

Okay, back to scanning.

Keep it simple.