My reasons to be concerned

She was born 12/9/08 @ 3:22am.

There is more of the story and more pictures to come.

As you can see baby and mother are healthy & happy.

Ten Commandments of Eco Gardening

I still don't consider myself a gardener but I am trying to landscaping in a sustainable way and many of the commandments listed below work for me too.

Ten Commandments of Eco Gardening

1. Thou shalt conserve water: gardeners have to conserve as much water as possible. Use a rain barrel to collect run-off rainwater throughout the year and recycle household “grey” water from baths. Watering deeply is better than little and often, as it encourages deep rooting. Only do it in the evening or early morning and direct the water at the soil rather than the leaves. 
   
2. Thou shalt put the right plant in the right place: accept that what doesn’t survive without extra help is unsuitable anyway. 
   
3. Thou shalt not use peat: peat bogs are an essential part of the ecosystem and once they have been harvested, they are gone for ever. There are now so many excellent alternatives to peat that it has become impossible to justify its use in domestic gardens.
   
4. Thou shalt recycle garden waste: composting is the key to successful garden management. 
   
5. Thou shalt reuse non-biodegradable products: re-use those plastic containers.
   
6. Thou shalt minimise the use of chemicals.
   
7. Thou shalt leave a messy bit: a pile of logs, long grass and fallen leaves are an ideal habitat for wildlife, providing bugs and animals somewhere to shelter, hibernate and reproduce.
   
8. Thou shalt use hard landscaping with sensitivity: it is worth considering where materials such as stone, timber and gravel have been sourced and looking at their impact on the environment. 
   
9. Thou shalt use lighting responsibly: light pollution is irritating for neighbours, confuses birds and is a waste of electricity. 
   
10. Thou shalt teach thy children where food comes from: If we are really going to change habits in the future, we have to tempt children away from their computers and televisions and inspire in them a genuine love of nature and respect for their planet. 

More hints here.
Supplies here and here.

I use native plants exclusively and I am contemplating a rain garden (helps with water runoff and becomes a self watering landscaped area).

5 unexpectedly green gifts for baby

This is exactly what we have been talking about. People look at us with disbelief and confusion but we are not crazy.

5 unexpectedly green gifts for baby

We recognize that even in our circle of progressive friends our level of commitment to doing things in a socially & ecologically responisible way is higher than most. Tara and I come at this from from different backgrounds but we both see it as the best way to live our lives.

Sorry for the crosspost...

http://tjandbaby.blogspot.com
http://blackgreenenvironment.blogspot.com/

Recycle

I've been really quiet.

The baby prep is occupying a lot of time and the baby blog is occupying a lot of my words...so for today I present a list of lesser known recyclables I got from Co-Op America

1. Appliances: Goodwill accepts working appliances or you can contact the Steel Recycling Institute to recycle them.

2. Batteries: Rechargeables and single-use: Battery Solutions

3. Cardboard boxes: Contact local nonprofits and women's shelters to see if they can use them.

4. CDs/DVDs/Game Disks: Send scratched music or computer CDs, DVDs, and PlayStation or Nintendo video game disks to AuralTech for refinishing.

5. Clothes: Wearable clothes can go to your local Goodwill outlet or shelter. Donate wearable women's business clothing to Dress for Success, which gives them to low-income women as they search for jobs, 212/532-1922. Offer unwearable clothes and towels to local animal boarding and shelter facilities, which often use them as pet bedding. Consider holding a clothes swap at your office, school, faith congregation or community center. Swap clothes with friends and colleagues, save money on a new fall wardrobe and back-to-school clothes – then donate the rest.

6. Compact fluorescent bulbs: Take them to your local IKEA store for recycling.

7. Compostable bio-plastics: You probably won't be able to compost these in your home compost bin or pile. Find a municipal composter to take them to at www.findacomposter.com.

8. Computers and electronics: Find the most responsible recyclers, local and national, at www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html

9. Exercise videos: Swap them with others at www.videofitness.com.

10. Eyeglasses: Your local Lion's Club or eye care chain may collect these. Lenses are reground and given to people in need.

11. Foam Packing peanuts: Your local pack-and-ship store will likely accept these for reuse. Or, call the Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council to find a drop-off site: 800/828-2214. For places to drop off foam blocks for recycling, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers.

12. Ink/toner cartridges: Recycleplace.com pays $1/each.

13. Miscellaneous: Get your unwanted items into the hands of people who can use them. Offer them up on your local Freecycle.org or Craigslist.org, or try giving them away at Throwplace.com or giving or selling them at iReuse.com. iReuse.com will also help you find a recycler, if possible, when your items have reached the end of their useful lifecycle.

14. Oil: Find Used Motor Oil Hotlines for each state: 202/682-8000.

15. Phones: Donate cell phones: Collective Good will refurbish your phone and sell it to someone in a developing country: 770/856-9021. Call to Protect reprograms cell phones to dial 911 and gives them to domestic violence victims. Recycle single-line phones: Reclamere, 814/386-2927.

16. Sports equipment: Resell or trade it at your local Play It Again Sports outlet, 800/476-9249.

17. “Technotrash”: Easily recycle all of your CDs, jewel cases, DVDs, audio and video tapes, cell phones, pagers, rechargeable and single-use batteries, PDAs, and ink/toner cartridges with GreenDisk's Technotrash program. For $30, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box in which you can ship them up to 70 pounds of any of the above. Your fee covers the box as well as shipping and recycling fees. 800/305-GREENDISK.

18. Tennis shoes: Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program turns old shoes into playground and athletic flooring. One World Running will send still-wearable shoes to athletes in need in Africa, Latin America, and Haiti.

19. Toothbrushes and razors: Buy a recycled plastic toothbrush or razor from Recycline, and the company will take it back to be recycled again into plastic lumber. Recycline products are made from used Stonyfield Farms' yogurt cups. 888/354-7296.

20. Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234. Quantities larger than 25, call 866/33-TYVEK.

21. Stuff you just can't recycle: When practical, send such items back to the manufacturer and tell them they need to manufacture products that close the waste loop responsibly.

Green Parenting

Tara and I are pregnant!

As with the rest of our lives we are trying to consider the impact of our actions in a socially and ecologically conscious way.

Dishwasher Soap

In April, G Johnson left a comment about dishwasher soap.

We use 7th Generation dishwashing soap and Earth Friendly Product's WaveJet stuff for the spoting. They are a pretty good combo. I would have to look again but I don't ever remember seeing a recipe for a dishwasher soap.

Native Plants are hard to find

Last weekend I decided to look around for a few more plants (this really is becoming an obsession).

I heard a lot about Gardens of Babylon which is located at Farmer's Market and I know of at least a couple of garden shops on Dickerson Rd. I trotted over to Farmer's Market and boy was I disappointed?!!? They had a much larger variety of plants than Home Depot or Lowes but it was the same old stuff. There were VERY few natives, I did see a few Growild supplied plants but for the most part is was the same old stuff. Very Sad. Next I drove to Dickerson Road Farmers Market and it was the same story. They have a lot more herbs, food plants and they have a bunch of sedums but their perennials were more or less the same as everywhere else. I did find some tiny pint sized natives.

In the front yard there is a small planter that my Dad used for roses (one of his plants of choice). It gets sun all day and the few perennials I found were all sun lovers so I bought a few to fill this little square. I bought 2 of each of the following:

Verbena Canadensis "Homestead Purple"
Penstemon Digitalis "Husker's Red"
Asclepias Tuberosa aka Butterfly Weed (THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS BUTTERFLY BUSH, which is very popular and very invasive)

Johnders hung out (really, he laid there while I planted) with me while I planted them at 9pm day before yesterday. Its amazing how late you can stay outside before it gets dark.

As usual we'll see what happens. These plants are next to a holly bush that some mockingbirds or chickadees have made a home in for years. I read somewhere recently that you should make plant butterfly larval food, which makes sense. Larva feed birds, birds spread seeds and feed larger predators and the cycle of life continues. Hopefully these plants will do their job by attracting the butterflies and I have something in the yard that would be larva food.

It seems I've turned this into a gardening blog. I would say that gardening, especially native plant gardening is a very eco-friendly thing to do. I am doing by best to 1. restore the native beauty to my neighborhood, 2. restore the ecological balance to the soil and the landscape by inviting beneficial critters back onto the land, 3. planting more items that eat carbon dioxide thus reducing my carbon footprint, 4. my goal is to plant so much that I will reduce the need of a gas powered lawnmower and electric powered trimmers.

It all fits.

Boycott the Man

This is a duplicate post from my other blog.

I don't have a lot to add here but read what Marjorie has to say and boycott Nestlé, Pepsico and all those companies!

Now I know, not all companies are purely evil but some took a sharper right turn towards it than others. I also understand that the corporate decisions are not made by the workers and I don't really want them to suffer b/c of any action I take but Marjorie talks about personal responsibility and we all have to find our "line in the sand" and our comfort zone.

As far as the mega-corporations...there is not one service or product produced by these companies offer that you can't find at a smaller, more local, probably higher quality place. Yes, they are possibly more expensive but where are your priorities?

Tara and I make a conscious decision on most everything we spend money on...how local is it, how fresh is, how ecologically sound is, how humane was the process? If it is then something that fits our budget we buy.

So draw your line in the sand, ask the important questions and tell your friends.

Breaking New Ground

Tara has been working to rid our personal space of plastics connected with food. Last year or earlier this year she bought a crapload of Pyrex storage containers and she has been reusing the hell out of water bottles, peanut butter jars, etc. A couple of weeks ago she decided we should start taking our own containers to Chicago Gyro.

For those who don't know nor read my other blog, Chicago Gyro is a restaurant around the corner from our house, it is the only ethnic food in the neighborhood and some of the healthiest too. We started getting to go from their every Friday when we were dating...dinner and a movie at my place. I actually proposed while we were eating Chicago Gyro. While we remodeled our kitchen - about 3 weeks - we ate their almost everyday. We got to know them, they got to know us and then Tara starting working at the school where one of them attended.

I am not a ground breaker, I don't want people to notice me and Tara wanted me to walk up our street with a bag of Pyrex, ask these guys, mostly Kurds & Iraqis, to put our regular order in them.

I did it and everything was fine. The former student asked if we were going on a trip and I said no we don't like styrofoam. He said ok and that was that. Easy. Still a little embarrassing but easy. I know we are the oddest people in the neighborhood and we have to be some of the oddest black folk in East Nashville, if not all of Nashville.

No TV Day

At the beginning of April Tara implemented a "no TV day". The goal was to have one dedicated day for not turning on the TV. Her point was that she felt she watched too much TV. She has lots of shows she keeps up with, I don't have that many but I do watch as many movies as she does. We didn't push ourselves too hard. We chose Wednesday. I get home from yoga around 8pm, she goes to bed about 9pm, so there isn't a lot of time to watch TV. I think its working well. Tara catches up on email or reading. I play/train with Johnders and listen to music.

The unintended consequences are reduction in energy usage. We have a hog of a TV. Its energystar rated but it is a 42" plasma...it uses lots of power and generates a lot of heat. So at least one day a week we are using a lot less energy.

One small step...

Another Obsession

A few months ago I got deep into using baking soda, vinegar and essential oils to clean everything. There are some really good books on this subject but the one I found most appealing was Green Clean: The Environmentally Sound Guide to Cleaning Your Home by Linda Mason Hunter.

It started with vinegar. Both of our bathrooms have ventilation issues and mold on the shower grout is a battle we constantly wage. Somewhere I heard that a few drops of tea tree oil in white vinegar was a mold cleaner and suppressant. Then I heard vinegar mixed with water was a great window/mirror/chrome cleaner. Sure enough, on both accounts I was impressed with the results. Then came the deluge of books. I checked out most every book the library had on the subject and the primary ingredients for clean cleaning are baking soda, vinegar and essential oils.

Essential Oils can be expensive but considering that you only use a few drops at a time they last forever. White vinegar is what, .80/gal and baking soda something like .80/big box. This is a cheap way of cleaning and cleaning well. There are two other ubiquitous ingredients for green cleaning and Tara introduced me to one of them when we were dating...Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap (the guy was nuts...you have to read a label - .pdf file - on one of the bottles to see what I'm talking about but he made a great product). This is another one of those expensive upfront but lasts forever kind of things. A gallon is about $50 but this stuff can 1) be diluted indefinitely 2) be used in every soap application you can think of. The last ingredient, borax, I haven't tried yet.

Tara and I are very fond of Ecover products as well as 7th Generation but I think we will limit those name brands to a couple of applications only. I can approximate a lot of household cleaners with the soap, vinegar, oil & baking soda but I am not going to do the cooking and blending that some of the applications require.

Obsession

We have had a crapload of rain since winter and the plants are loving in. Late last spring I plants some new plants (alumroot, ninebark, and eco-lacquered spider) and they struggled through the summer drought and didn't impress during fall but this spring they are going nuts, especially the goldenstar/eco-lacquered spider. I bought four or five and one didn't make it through the summer at all, another struggled and is still a drawf but it is green and healthy. The other 2 or 3 are spreading like mad and yesterday their gold flowers started to pop. These things have, at least double, if not tripled in size. They are creepers, or as some website called them, leapers. They spread out and some of the new feelers root down and so on. Its fun to watch. Last weekend I weeded and put down some mulch which makes them pop that much more.

Near them I have some alumroots (one green and 2 purple). The green one is in front and it has exploded in size. Some of its leaves are the size of my hand and, of course, this is making it difficult for the ones behind it to get the sunshine they need but they are getting there. Tonight I will trim the hedge behind them to give room for more light.

The ninebarks are moving slowly. A couple of years ago I tore down the wood fence on one side of the yard and we replaced it with some shrubs. I went to Home Depot and picked up some butterfly bushes, crape myrtles and burning bushes...OOPS. I didn't know all three are considered no-no plants. We went to Growild and were told - if memory serves me right - that the butterfly bush is in the same category as japanese honeysuckle which is a step below kudzu on the "we hate this plant" list. Burning bush was a step below that and crapes weren't invasive they were non-native. They suggested ninebarks. We bought 3 and one did not survive. The other two are popping with leaves. I like these shrubs, they are bold and unique. We are going to Growild in a couple of weeks and I plan on getting at least one more.

Because of all this plant life I have become obsessed with native plants. I don't know where I first heard about native plant gardening but now that I have some I don't know why this isn't more popular. This is no brainer gardening, especially in the South. You buy plants native to the area and you don't have to do much more than put them in the ground. They are made to grow in our climate, they react naturally to the problems like drought and cold.

So what does this mean environmentally? It means no pesticides. It means less weeds, native plants used properly will win the competition with weeds. It means natural predators and prey (insects, mammals, birds, and reptiles). It means supporting local businesses (you shouldn't have to mailorder plants native to your area, you should be able to drive no more than an hour or so). Its cool to be able to say everything you grow is from your area.

Please check out your local nurseries. If you live in the Southeast I know there are some great books but please go to a nursery instead of Home Depot and Lowes, who rarely have any decent selection of native plants.

Subversive Hollywood

I saw Dan In Real Life this weekend. It was sweet. I like Steve Carell and he's good at playing kind of a grown-up version of those Adam Sandler characters...loveable, goofy, not-too-self-aware...but smarter. The movie takes place in some NE coastal town, NJ or NY or possible MA. It's one of those everybody goes home to the parents house things. About 3/4 the way through the movie there is a scene in the laundry room, everybody comes in at the same time and several of the characters are carrying (only visible to those who know the label) 7th Generation laundry detergent. Of course, they were carrying these items in cloth bags. My wife and I smirked at each other b/c we did recognize the labels.

Green Buddhist Thought of the Day

On a certain day, month and year one should observe the ceremony of tree-planting. Thus, one fulfils one’s responsibilities, serves one’s fellow-beings which not only brings happiness but benefits all.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama, October 1993

Save Money, Save The World

It's been quiet around here. I'm not sure why, just haven't had a lot to say. Its been too hot to say anything. I've been too tired.

Enough of the blah blah woof woof. He's something I found recently and I am proud to say that I do most of it...
10 Ways to Go Green and Save Money
1. CFLs. Change all your light bulbs.
2. Energy-efficient appliances. Energy Star
3. Buy used if possible. There are several swapping websites
4. Make your own coffee.
5. Eat in more.
6. Ride a bike, walk, carpool.
7. Gas-saving driving. This and #6 are about the same as far as I am concerned but if you must drive get a hybrid of an high MPG car
8. Less waste. Packaging...Buy fresh produce and choose products that aren't packaged heavily. Recycle the packaging once you get something
9. Insulation. We really need to check this in our house but with temps like the have been this month we really need to work on fixing this, it will probably help our already super efficient HVAC.
10. Push mower. Yeah right! My yard is too big for this BUT you can find alternative groundcover. Find a nursery that specializes or features native plants (not lowes or home depot) and find a nice ground cover.

Summer

I've been pretty quiet on the green front but let's talk about summer. Its hot, I mean really hot. In Nashville its also really dry. I can't remember the last good rain. What that means for me is a lot of time inside with air conditioning and a lot more watering of plants.

We have two air units. One heatpump for up and one furnace/forced air for down.

Step one for proper heating and air, as it was told to me when I was replacing the old system, was getting the correct size. If you get a system too small you will over tax and burn the system out. If you get one that is too big you will have a big ol mess of inefficiency and that is what we replaced. We had a 40 year old furnace and a 15 year old air compressor (that didn't match style or size, which apparently affects efficiency as well). I had one guy tell me the furnace should have been in a museum.

Next part is the need for programmable thermostats. If you get a new system they are pretty much a given but if you aren't upgrading go ahead and buy one. They are easy to install and they can be very easy to use. Most seem to have 7 day sets and the ability to change the temp 4 times a day (morn, away, home & bed). And of course you can override what's set. I have mine set cold to get up, really warm (b/t 77 & 80) as the away setting, pretty cool when we get home and a little cooler for bed.

Third is maintenance. Change the filters regularly, our return vent filters upstairs are chnged every 30-60 days. The one filter for the furnace should be changed every 6 months. One tip they game me about the 30 day filters was buy cheap then spray with oil (like Murphy's) that will help catch more airborne allergens while putting very little strain on your system. The "HEPA" or other convoluted filters put more strain on the system than necessary. I also need to get the guys to come out and look but I figure I will wait for the weather to break.

Plant watering. I haven't been good at the watering schedule. I know the best time to water is early morning but I haven't done it then. Mostly, I have done it late afternoon/early evening. I need a timer. I need to do better.

Recycle

Part of being a good "green" citizen is living the "Reduce, Recycle, Reuse" mantra. In Nashville we are fortunate enough to have curbside recycling in most neighborhoods. They pickup paper, aluminum and plastic. I have faith that these items are actually being separated and recycled. I'm sure I could find out if I wanted to but I have faith. You'll notice they don't pick up glass. Well that's where "The Recycling Center" comes in. Just enter your zip code and you'll see all recycling centers in your area. I happen to have a full service recycling center within one mile of my house. Tara and I have been cleaning out the garage and the basement; in the garage we found some ancient household cleaners and volatile liquids and whatnot, my recycling center will take them from me.

Our recycling combined with our composting reduces our waste by something close to 90%. We have neighbors with 2 or 3 people in the house who put out 2 40gal trashcans each week and rarely put out the recycling container, which is picked up monthly. Tara and I put out 1 of the 40gal containers every other week and they rarely have more than 3 or 4 tall kitchen trash bags in them and we put out a full recycle container every month!

So, please rethink what you throw out and try to reduce, recycle and reuse more than you do now.


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Meat

We are meat eaters. A lot of people think because you eat healthy you have to be vegitarians, that is far from the truth. What you do have to watch is where your meat comes from.

I can't say more than anything else but meat, the kind most of us eat, is enhanced, manipulated and man-handled. In addition to that the big American farms use an extraordinary amount of resources to raise consumable meat. Most of the grain grown in America is grown for animal feed.

The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the entire American population

We've known the ratio of energy to pound of meat production was outrageously high for at least a decade. This energy required doesn't include the amount of water required and because of all of these factors my mother-in-law has started to avoid meat when she doesn't know whether it is grass-fed and/or free range.

Ideal Bite has some options. At the very least we need to talk to our butchers and fish mongers. Ask them where the meat comes from. Ask them if they have or can get free range and/or grass-fed meat.

I was listening to Barbara Kingsolver on Speaking of Faith and she talked about how all of these ideas of organic, locally produced, grass-fed, and what-not are considered elite eating now when just about 40 years ago they were the standard. We must get back to that. The food will be cheaper, taste better and help correct the damage done to our natural environs.

Powell's Books tells us...

about the Green Press Initiative.

This is possibly the hardest part of being green for me. I can easily give up cars, eat local, wear and use green clothes and eco-friendly stuff but I do not want to give up books, magazines and CDs.

Here is something that might help people like me.

Powell's, there's hardly a better bookstore.
Harry Potter goes green.

C3 Campaign - Eat Local and save the world!

Did you know that most food in supermarkets travels 1500 miles and generates 5 to 17 times more carbon emissions than food grown locally? Or that big box retailers only put $14 back into the local economy for every $100 spent in their stores, but locally owned businesses put back $45 of that same $100? How about that small farms use far less pesticides than large farms?
The Center for a New American Dream knows that every individual can have a significant impact on the environment, and our new Carbon Conscious Consumer (or C3) campaign makes that impact visual. Each month from July to December c3.newdream.org will highlight a new, simple way each individual can make an impact, plus show the difference each person makes both individually and along with the people they’ve influenced.
This month, reduce your carbon footprint by eating 1 pound of food locally. You’ll reduce carbon emissions, pesticides, even packaging, all while helping your local economy. Then, increase your impact by spreading the word. The participant who convinces the most people to take on the challenge will win a landscaping package that features local plants, herbs, and vegetables. Find out more at c3.newdream.org