Weekend Links: EcoFriendly Inovations

 Lately I have noticed a few different items I thought were really worth taking a look at.  Obviously we (all of us, but especially Americans) have a lot of steps to take before the majority of consumer decisions are able to be low waste, low energy, and low production input, but each of these products is at least a little friendlier to the environment than its predecessors.

Have you been longing for something a little more beautiful than the typical flourecent bulb? Look out for the plumen. This recent winner of the Brit Insurance Design of the year award for 2011 (the photo source) is coming soon in a 110 volt version (US markets), and already available in a 230 volt version. Visit the plumen website for more pictures and specs. (I discovered this through EcoGeek.)

Bolefloors make the most of trees by using computer programs to decide the best way to cut each log into tightly fitting flooring pieces. Technically it may not "reduce waste", since scraps from typical board making are used to construct particle board, but it would reduce the number of trees necessary per floor, and enable the most beautiful woods to be utilized to their fullest. I think it is also a lovely new design technique; using a modern technology to create something old fashioned and homey looking. I'm a fan. (I also found this through EcoGeek, picture from Bolefloors.)

Last year was a big deal for us composting fans. Why? Because SunChips came out with compostable snackfood packaging. (And compostable in your yard, not just gigantic facilities.) I really liked SunChips even before that, so I was even more excited. Apparently though, some people did not appreciate how loudly the compostable bag crinkled when touched...it was pretty loud. So, this year SunChips has released a new bag, still compostable, but quieter because the material they created is a bit more rubbery. Want to learn more? SunChips has it all pretty well documented, and they even have a video so you can hear the crinkle comparisons for yourself.
   
Unfortunately, they will only be using this bag for the original flavor, and the other flavors will be switching back to plastic because of customer prefrence. Really unfortunate I think.
(I heard about this from the ENN, Environmental News Network. Photo from Our Twenty Minute Kitchen Garden, a fun blog with a nice write up on the whole process/issue.)

I wanted to add a link showing you a compostable toothbrush option, but I am sad to say all of the things I found were astronomically priced and had poor reviews, except for The Environmental Toothbrush (photo theirs). They are only being marketed in Australia, so shipping is a bit pricey, but for $36 plus $12 international shipping you get 12 brushes (in soft, medium, or child soft), or $4 per brush. Not too bad for plastic-free, though I'm not excited about adding world shipping to my toothbrush's footprint.

I would really like to see more options in this market. Toothbrushes come in all kinds of newfangled versions these days, but most of them will do nothing but pile up once we're done with them. Mixing with the soil is a much better option.

Let me know if you have any leads on compostable toothbrushes...or if you plan on visiting me on your way back from a trip to Australia....

Winter is for Gardening

There are our little garlic plants....back at the beginning of January actually. It is so strange to garden through the "winter". It is wonderful, I can't tell you how really wonderful; but between gardening and the weather in general, my internal clock just assumes that we are having the longest April in history. The other day someone told me the birthdays of two people and I made a comment about the birthday in August coming before the one in March.

 

A friend is letting us garden on her land, so back in November and December we measured out a 50 by 55ft plot (which incase you can't envision it, is huge), and slowly began our gardening. Really really slowly at first. We went to a farm and shoveled a whole trailer load of horse manure, but when we got it back to the garden it looked like just a tiny little heap.

Nathanael planted around one hundred garlic before we left to visit our families in December (each planted clove will yield one bulb in late summer), and we also had a neighbor till the soil with his tractor. It was a pretty serious job to break up the turf of what was previously just lawn. 

    When we returned in January we began to dedicate a little more time to gardening. For the first couple of Saturdays Nathanael used a big borrowed rototiller to break up the soil. He went over the entire garden twice (something I admire him for because I certainly would not have had the gumption). I wish I had more pictures to show you just how enormous of a job it was to deal with all the silty soil.

(Watch the gotee, it will disappear.)

Meanwhile, I was in the digging trenches, some of which will serve as the drainage (very necessary) and some of which will be the walking rows. The soil I removed from the trenches became the beds, which I then shaped with a hoe to prepare for planting. It did get a little cold on some Saturdays, and I did wear layers and a scarf, but it was never unbearable to have bear hands.

Even though I kept digging and digging, I usually only dug just more than one trench/row each Saturday. Why? Because 55 ft is pretty long. Yes.

 After a few rows I had a hard time keeping them from becoming curvy, so we put up a network of strings on sticks to help me out.

 So things started looking much more organized.

So we began planting other cold weather crops. First we planted snow peas, and now we have also planted spinach, broccolis (2 varieties), lettuces (4 varieties), carrots (4 varieties, 3 colors!), beets, parsley, dill, and coriander.
Here are some of the seeds we chose for this year (we also have some seeds we will be planting from last year, so this is about 3/4 of the plan). We will have 40+ varieties when everything is planted. We were so excited when this package came in from Baker Creek. I have a picture of Nathanael with his face showing the excitement from that night, but I think he'd rather I just stuck to this picture. (Click to look closer at the fun varieties.)

Since the snow peas were starting to peek out of the soil, we figured we should do something to keep out the deer and armadillos(!), but we didn't want to do something that would be too costly or too much of an eyesore. So Nathanael decided to drive posts in at the corners and string fishing line at 8 different heights to keep the deer out by making them run into an "invisible" barrier which will hopefully creep them out a little. 

Do you see it?

(If you look very carefully you can see a few of the lines on the left. And the levee on the right, beyond which is the Mississippi River. Sorry about the glare, though the strange light is the only reason you can see the fishing line. And yes, that's our car.)

 

Nathanael also put up steaks and twine as a trelis for the snow peas, and eventually we will do the same for the Thai Long Beans (Khew Dok) and Chinese Red Noodle Beans. (He is actually gardening barefoot in this next picture, but I didn't really capture it.)

 

So, now that the tilling and fencing trellising are mostly complete, Nathanael and I are taking turns digging, hoeing and planting. Right now we have about 40% of the garden dug and hilled, and maybe 35% of it planted (and also marked with neat little wooden stakes so we can remember the name of each variety).

We are so excited about our garden. The opportunity to have a garden has definitely been an answer to prayer; it was the main thing we were unsure of as we moved to another urban area, but God has blessed us with a very generous friend.
We are looking forward to sharing our produce with our friends and neighbors, and cooking with each of the international vegetable (and fruit!) varieties which are new to us. We also hope to be able to have some work days with some of our international friends so they can share the joy of gardening with us, especially once things begin to grow. 

Are any of you putting in seed orders yet, or making plans for gardens or potted terraces?

Are you jealous of our gardening hats?

A New Space

 Over the weekend Nathanael built a bed for us. He did a wonderful job of confronting a problem needing to be solved (this one being our short supply of storage space), and not only making plans and starting the project, but also seeing it through.

Without holidays or deadlines to motivate me I have seldom had such drive with my handcrafts. There are bits of almost finished shirts, dresses, and pants in the sewing closets of My Mother, my sister Melissa and now also here with me. But Nathanael has measured, designed, sawed, sanded and worked ceaselessly so that less than five days after we purchased our mattress, we are able to slide our cooler, tent, and winter clothes neatly underneath it. Actually, most of our things probably could fit under there, because he gave it two feet of clearance.

   
 The apartment we are now renting has little in common with the one we were renting a few weeks ago. Instead of plaster walls and wood floors we now have painted cinder block walls and vinyl tile floors like a grocery store. But I am so glad for these features, which are well suited to the moist climate and the prevention of termites and mold. Unfortunately, we no longer have a spacious kitchen and an enormous pantry to store our canned food and dry goods, so I didn't really know what to do with all of those things in our new and smaller kitchen. [We even have one of those baby stoves!] Seeing that I was a little baffled by all of it, Nathanael told me he was up to the kitchen arranging task. He organized my spices, the tea, and then built a small retaining wall for the cookie sheets and cutting boards. And then, since our largest cabinet is the enormous, shelf-less one under the sink, he built a completely amazing canned good case.

The shelves of which I will not be lining with the mushroom contact paper we purchased from the intriguing man running an eclectic garden/hardware/machete shop, who assured us it will work perfectly despite having been in his store since 1970. He actually recommended using it to cover a piece of plywood, and prop the piece up on some cinder blocks, thereby creating an executive desk.
There is your frugal furniture ingenuity tip for the day.

(I can give you directions to plant world if you need any sythes, cast iron cookware, or fascinating stories)