Is recycling still worth it?
I seem to have run into an obstacle in my marriage, regarding recycling. My husband seems to be under the impression that it takes more energy to recycle a bottle, or can, or cardboard box, than it does to simply toss it in the garbage — and therefore, is not worth recycling, because it’s creating more pollution than just tossing it.
So, I have some questions…
Yurt + Dome = My life in a yome
My 16-month-old daughter and I live on an herb farm (no, not that kind of herb farm, though we are in Northern California). I am a farm hand here, and in exchange for a certain amount of hours a week working the land, we get to live here and breathe the fresh air, learn about herbs, and watch everything bloom.
We live in a yome here. Yep, a yome — it’s a cross between a yurt and a geodesic dome. And wait until you see the triangular windows…
How our cat demands we use fabric grocery bags — and the 5 tricks we use to remember to use them!
I WANT to help the environment, but that alone usually does nothing to help me remember my reuseable shopping bags. Then the issue went from “Help the environment” to “Help the environment and save the cat from death by plastic.”
Family cloth: would you go toilet paper-free?
We’ve talked about all sorts of eco-friendly home hacks, but let’s try the final frontier of reusable toiletries: FAMILY CLOTH. The concept is pretty straight-forward: rather than wipe your butt with paper that you then wad up and flush into the septic system, you use small squares of soft fabric that you then wash and reuse.
No more toilet paper, ever. Wait, EVER!?
You can afford better food: 10+ ways to get more out of your grocery budget
Let’s start with this: I am NOT a picky eater, but I’m choosy about my food. I haven’t always been this way: when I first lived on my own, life was full of Pizza Hut and mac and cheese and ramen noodles and nary a vegetable in sight. I thought spending 50 cents on green onions was a splurge.
The first changes in my adult eating habits happened when I read Micheal Pollan’s rules for eating. That link is a LONG article, and well worth the read, but I’ll summarize: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. And don’t eat food with more than five ingredients. He goes on to say that if you’re confused, you should stick to foods your grandmother would recognize. That’s pretty simplistic. In real terms, how do you get there?
Rick and Annie’s handbuilt treehouse in Australia
What would it be like to inhabit a normal-sized home that’s actually a treehouse? Now we know. We picked up a friend of ours and offered her a ride, and we didn’t know we were in for such a treat when we got to her destination!
Make your own citrus enzyme cleaner
Let me start out by saying I AM NOT A PATIENT PERSON. Just ask anyone in my family. No wait, don't. Just trust me on this one.
So when I read about making this enzyme cleaner that takes 3 MONTHS to "mature"…I just knew I could never stand the waiting! So I ALMOST passed on this idea….until I read a way how to speed the process up from 3 months to TWO WEEKS!
I thought about it long and hard….and after some DEEP soul searching…I decided I COULD do 2 weeks.
A month after making my batch of cleaner, I hadn't even gotten around to trying it — so I decided the bathroom would be my first "test subject".
What we eat and why it matters
Last summer I read The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. I was given the book for my birthday, together with some cookbooks. You get the point, I love food. But I care about how it found its way into my kitchen, too. Let me tell you about what we decided works for us, after much book-reading and value-weighing.