death to the satellite dish

the previous owners of our house had a satellite dish and it lived happily on the roof, even though we didn't use it. then our house was re-roofed and the workers dismounted it and left it sadly in our back"yard". 

we are starting the process of fixing up our backyard so that arlo can play in it (we got a sandbox & slide for him). so, today i am trying to get rid of the junk back there. namely, this dish.

i call dish network to see if they can come uninstall it & recycle it or use the parts in any way. oh, and did i mention that there is a big fatty cord attached to it that is connected to our house? 

they told me to do whatever with it, cut the cord and throw it away. THROW IT AWAY? they don't recycle or re-use them any longer. this is appalling to me. appalling. horrible. this thing is huge. i try to have less than a tall kitchen bag full of garbage a week (and i even feel like that is a lot, i am soon going to be composting). 

so, now what to i do with it? i am going to be writing dish network a letter. and i already politely explained to the kind man on the phone how horrible it was that i was just supposed to put it into our landfills. 

if anyone knows of alternative (serious and useful) answers, please let me know. google has already told me that i can use it as a bird bath or wok. no thanks. 

The Diva Cup

I am going to assume that most of my readers are female. If you are not a female, I suggest you stop reading now. If you are an awesome woman, please please please keep reading, you will probably thank me later. And no, I am not being paid to tell you this (I am not that cool).

Let's talk about our periods. There is something out there that is better than a tampon, and a million times more comfortable than a bulky pad. It is the Diva Cup. I just want to start out by telling you that I honestly, honestly wish I would have found out about these things sooner. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "wow, that is sooo gross, I could never do that". Let me tell you how not gross it is. When tampons were first introduced it took quite a while before the concept caught on and people thought the same thing. Once you take the time to learn about The Diva Cup, and actually try it for yourself, you will be pleasantly surprised about how clean and not messy it really is. I will be the first to admit that it took me a good 2-3 months/cycles to get used to it... but I did get used to it and now, there is no turning back. I LOVE IT!

The first reason that I decided to try the Diva Cup was environmental. Wow, think of all those pads and tampons that are sitting in landfills, now that is gross. However, after using it and growing to love it... that might be one of the smallest reasons why I love the cup. 


The first reason I love the cup: comfort and cleanliness! With the Diva Cup, odor is not created because the flow is not exposed to air; making me feel super clean and fresh, I didn't know I could feel so clean during my period. Again, I will admit, when i first saw it in person, I was shocked at how big it was, but it is really so comfortable, you cannot even feel it. 


The second reason I love it: you can wear it for longer (up to 12 hours) and not have to worry about it, which is soooo nice. When I first started using it, I was more "paranoid" and took it out more to clean it and such, but I learned that I didn't need to as often. 


The third reason I love it: it doesn't dry you out. You can wear it on your lightest of light days, and you can even put it in before you start your period (say you know you are going to start sometime during the day, but you'll be out and about, stick that sucker in and don't worry about it!). Other reasons I love it: it saves me money and is better for the environment. 


Now you might be thinking, how hard is it to use? I will tell you this: if you can insert a tampon, you can insert a Diva Cup :) It did take some getting used to, but so does a tampon the first time you try it (at least it did for me!). It is also easy to clean, just use hot water and soap (I do use the Diva Wash, but you don't have to). I also boil it after every cycle just to be sure that it is extra clean. 

Here is a video of how to use it (it is NOT graphic):

So, that is my little plug for the Diva Cup. If you have more questions, you can go HERE to get them answered! 

Nothing New update

So, as the year progresses and we try not to buy anything new, I have come to some "road blocks" and am having to make some compromises. Let me explain....

As you all probably know (maybe more than you want to) if you read this blog, I am a huge fan of trying to reduce our waste and to be kind to our earth. Which is why I am doing this "nothing new" thing. However, I also have goals that I want to achieve to make our home less wasteful, and some of those could require me to buy "new" things. Here are some examples:

1. I want to stop using saran wrap (and BUYING it), so I think it is worth it to invest in some new things like these so I don't use more plastic. 

2. I use a swiffer to clean my floors. I bought the disposable wet covers at costco awhile back and still have them. But, I hate myself for buying them. Every time I use them, I wish they were gone. I am thinking about getting something like this swiffer cover. 

3. I want to start composting this year. Hopefully in the next few months. I may need to buy a receptacle to keep my compost in. I have been researching how to compost when you don't really have a yard, and I am finding some good resources. Are you interested? Maybe I will write a blog about it.

4. Produce bags. I already do fairly well at this, but I still use plastic bags for some things: bulk spinach or lettuce. MOST everything else I either don't use a bag, or I use a paper bag (which can be recycled, but I would still rather reuse than recycle. Here are some that I like:

found here

found here

found here

Maybe you guys have some ideas for other things I could use that are not NEW instead of buying these. But I feel like the principle of "reusable" things is more important sometimes. So, I find myself in a dilemma. What do you think?

More info on our nothing new adventure:

Other things we have bought new (besides food):

a printer (business expense)

paper for the printer (mostly a business expense, but we will use it for personal use too)

crayons for arlo (i didn't look at goodwill, but it doesn't seem like something you can buy used? am i wrong)

So, I feel pretty decent about what we have done so far. Definitely not perfect, but definitely an improvement and we have learned a lot (and saved a lot). 

zero waste home

first of all, i have to give all the credit of this post to ksenia, because she posted about this earlier today, but i figured that while we have many similar readers, we also have many unique readers. in the past i have posted about becoming more "green". and i still have that goal. however, i have become distracted by other things and have not accomplished as many of my goals as i would have hoped, but by the end of the year, i hope to have met more of my goals.

this video is amazing and i hope that some day in the somewhat near future, i can be more like this inspiring family:

we still have a long way to go. right now, each week we usually produce about 1 large trash bag full of garbage. and every 2 weeks our recycling bin is about 1/2 way full. that is a lot (in my eyes). when we were in california, we stayed with a family who didn't have a trash can. they kept a very small bag to put their trash in (like a target plastic bag) that seemed to last awhile. in the two days we were there, the small trash bag didn't have much in it. the rest was either composted or recycled. i thought this was a great idea and hope to implement something similar. 

do you have any creative ideas to reduce waste? 

What is a CSA farm?

I recently found an article talking about sourcing your summer produce on one of my favorite blogs (simplebites.net). I loved the idea of CSA's and started looking into them, talked to Dan about it, and we decided to do it.

A CSA is a Community Supported Agriculture farm. What happens is a farm provides a certain number of shares for people to buy. With each share you get a box of farm fresh vegetables, fruit, and herbs (varying by the season and particular farm) each week.

I am really big into food. Yes, I love eating it, but I also love learning about it (what is healthy & what isn't, how to buy locally and seasonally, etc). I feel that eating good, whole foods is one of the most important things you can do for your health (although I am not claiming to be perfect at it). One thing I have been trying to do more of this past year or so is eating more locally and seasonally. (Greatly inspired by the book, Plenty.) There are many, many reasons to eat locally: health, the environment, and the local economy, etc.

Now that Arlo is getting older and eating more & more food, I want him to have a healthy relationship with food. I want him to know where his food comes from, to see it grow, to know that it doesn't come from the grocery store in nice packages, it comes from the earth and from real animals. I want him to visit the farms where his food is grown and even get his own hands dirty.

I, too, want to know where my food comes from. I want to know the farmer that grows it and support them in what I feel is a very important and honorable job. I want to know the practices used in farming and growing my food (what chemicals, if any, are used? do they use GMO seeds? etc). I am also looking forward to the opportunity to try new produce (many farmers provide recipes and help with how to prepare unknown veggies) and to eat healthier!

Find a CSA in your area: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Check out these videos:

Have you ever joined a CSA? How was it?

my journey to becoming less wasteful (UPDATED)

two things have re-motivated me to reduce the amount of plastic (and other things) that i purchase and use. i just read this disturbing (to me) article. and, of course, the horrible oil spill (don't even get me started). many people don't know that the little saying, "reduce, reuse, recycle", is in order of importance. first, we need to reduce the amount of things that we buy that are wasteful, then we should reuse what we can, and finally we should recycle what we cannot reuse. however, if you read the article above, many plastics are not actually recycled, when we think they are. i have a long way to go and feel like i still produce way too much waste for my own good. i want to blog about it so that i will be accountable for my next goal, the next thing i want to work on to reduce the amount of waste i am putting back on this earth. i want to make a commitment, by posting on here what i still need to accomplish.

it's so hard when plastic is in pretty much everything that we buy. even the glass jars i use have lids lined with plastic. even if pasta is packaged in paper bags, it has a plastic window. your razors, your chapstick, your chewing gum, pretty much anything you can purchase is made from plastic or is packaged in plastic and we don't have much say about it. i remember going to the grocery store the day after i first did some research on this and was appalled by how some of the only things i could buy with it, was fresh produce if i didn't use the bags provided, luckily New Seasons has paper bags, if i use bags for produce at all.

watch this:

Use Less Plastic from TakePart on Vimeo.

things i have done:

• paperless kitchen: no paper towels, napkins, plates, cutlery etc.
• cloth diapers & wipes
• reusable feminine supplies: what? gross you say? that is what i thought at first! but, check out glad rags and the diva cup
  
• re-purposing all of my glass jars: i try and buy the products that come in glass jars instead of plastic ones (mayo, peanut butter, etc) so that i can use them to store things like dried beans, oats, granola, quinoa, etc.
• reusable grocery bags: i am still not perfect at this, sometimes i forget, bad me!
  
• buying in bulk as much as possible: less packaging. i also try and re-use my bulk containers from New Seasons and bring them with me next time I buy stuff.
• buying about 95% of arlo's clothes at consignment sales
• reusable snack bags: when I pack Dan a lunch or Arlo a snack, everything it is packed in is reusable. I do use freezer bags for freezer meals, but I wash and reuse them.
• never buy bottled water. we do still buy the occasional large bottle of superfood, though
• use EVOO & Caster Oil as facewash
  

goals:

• homemade yogurt: no plastic yogurt containers
• start composting
  
• become a 1 car family: this will happen once i sell my beetle, we also need to buy a bike since ours was stolen.
  
• use non-toxic and/or homemade cleaners
• can and preserve fruits and veggies: i want to try and avoid buying canned beans, tomatoes, etc. did you know that the cans are lined with plastic?
• buy fresh bread that comes in either paper bags or no bags, or bake my own bread
• make my own granola
  
• only buying milk in returnable glass bottles. we don't really buy milk now, but soon will be for arlo.
  
• use (new) shower caps or these cute covers instead of plastic wrap, they can be washed and reused.
• switch over all cookware to NON teflon, did you know that it is toxic?
• make my own shampoo or go poo-less, or buy the bar shampoo
• stop using the disposable swiffer covers and get some of these
• use arlo's glass baby food jars to hold bulk spices
  

some great resources:

Life Less Plastic

Fake Plastic Fish

Simple Mom

The Story of Bottled Water