Weather the storm

Bleatings from EnviRambo.

Sadly it is that time of year again. Time to batten down the hatches, button up the house, and put the storm windows on. All of our house has new double pane windows, except for the solarium. Sixteen 107 year old leaded glass windows and no insulation. You bet your bottom it gets darn right cold in there. The windows have started to bow and warp and are anything but air tight. You can actually see outside on some of them! And I am not talking through the glass either. When it rains hard with a lot of wind, water comes in. Ah, but they are beautiful, add charm and are part of what appealed to me when we purchased the house.

Looking out without the storm windows on.

So, every fall I pull the storm windows out of the shed, drag out the ladder, prepare my bucket of water and vinegar and get to work. The outer windows only get washed twice a year; when the storm windows go on and again in the spring when they come off. I am lazy when it comes to this task, but not so lazy that I want to spend the next seven months looking through dirt and bird poop.



Heat loss through windows accounts for 10 to 25 percent of your home heating bill.[1] Windows are a major source of escaping heat since they provide a poor thermal barrier, with an R factor of only .89. They are also often not well sealed and let cold air in. Adding storm windows greatly improves both of these situations.[2]

Looking out with the storm windows on.

This window assembly—the single-pane window plus the storm window—has an R factor of 1.79, which is actually more energy-efficient than a double-paned window assembly that has an air space up to half an inch (and an R factor of only 1.72).[2] Your old storm windows may be more energy-efficient than you think!

If you don't have storm windows, an inexpensive option is to make your own storm windows by adding a clear vinyl film to the outside of your windows using a special tape designed for this purpose. This is a compromise, since vinyl is decidedly eco-unfriendly, but while you cannot recycle the tape, you can recycle the vinyl and use it next year.[3]

With & without storm window.

This side by side comparison was taken in the morning. The left window has an exterior storm installed; the right window does not. It is completely covered in condensation. All that moisture is on the inside. A darn good way to rot the wooden window frame!

While it is not a job I enjoy and the storms are mighty ugly to look at, I will continue to drag them out and put them up year after year. They conserve energy, reduce my heating bill, increase our comfort, preserve a historic aspect of our home, and add a creepy effect for Halloween!

1. US Department of Energy - Tips on Saving Energy & Money at Home
2. US National Park Service - Conserving Energy in Historic Buildings
3. Energy Boomer - Easy Add On Storm Windows From The Outside

Secrets of the Season

From the bean of Green Bean.

Photo of my son's toes courtesy of photographer, friend and blogger extraordinaire, Jess Nichols.

With the holidays hot on our heels, many greenies are thinking about what to buy. Or not to buy. Simple Mom offers a list of 10 Clutter-Free (and earth friendly) ideas for kids. Mnmlist, on the other hand, suggests 7 Ways to Avoid Buying New Stuff.

If the holidays and winter have you thinking about restocking your wardrobe, be sure to take the ethical clothing pledge (via Sono-Ma):

"I pledge to only wear clothing that is one or more of the following:
1. Pre-loved
2. Handmade (preferably by me)
3. Reconstructed
4. Made with ethical / environmentally friendly materials
5. Made by a company with strong ethical policy & workers' rights

* Companies with environmentally friendly practices (such as cutting down on waste/energy/water) get brownie points
* If I get one little inkling of sweatshop labour, I'm outta there!
* Above all though, I think the most important thing is reducing the amount of things we use in the first place. Not purchasing ANOTHER piece of clothing just for the sake of it is the biggest statement we can make."

Of course, if you're too busy enjoying the Recession to think about the buying, that's okay too. That's right, I wrote "enjoying the Recession" because more and more studies are finding that people are enjoying the Recession and everything it has given them - like realizing what really matters in life. I tend to agree.

I also tend to agree that there are some things that we have to purchase. Like food and staples. When that happens, make sure you are supporting who you think you are supporting - with Eco-Salon's write up of The Stories (and Money) Behind 10 of Your Favorite Organic and Natural Brands (via It's Not Easy Being Green). Good things to know so that you can avoid the ever-present greenwashing - something Eco Yogini rants about when it comes to "compostable" coffee cups.

Oh, and no segue whatsoever but did you hear that Ireland banned GM foods? Yup!

Last but not least, why do we write? Why do we do all these little things? The reusable totes and water bottles? The composting? The carpooling? The reused clothing and the pared down holidays? We all know that personal environmentalism doesn't matter, right? It's all about big industry and politics.

Or is it? The New York Times argues otherwise and highlights the tangible benefits of individual changes - nearly 8% of emissions. And blogger bud, Ruchi over at Arduous argues that "Yes, This Is Important" - seeing personal changes as a gateway to social change.

Now that you've embarked on personal environmentalism, dip your toe into activism by asking the President and the EPA to stop the mountain removal at Coal River Mountain - a potential windfarm site - and feel proud of yourself for speaking up.

The scoop on recycling glue sticks!

Some useful information from the Greenhabilitator...

My daughter started Kindergarten in August and we had the pleasure (?) of our first school supply shopping experience. I was befuddled by a few things: 1) They asked for copy paper. Isn't that something the school supplies teachers with? 2) They didn't ask for notebook paper. I don't expect her to be writing essays or doing algebra, but won't they be writing anything? 3) They ask for an awful lot of glue sticks.

After 2.5 months of school now it all makes sense. They don't need notebook paper because they write on worksheets...lots of worksheets - thus the need for the copy paper. LOTS of worksheets. And most of them include cutting things out and pasting them onto other worksheets.

Macy is learning a TON, so I won't even think about complaining about all the worksheets. They do go into the recycling bin as soon as they come home. (Shh...don't tell her that though!)

The glue sticks are another issue. All that plastic.

Enter Elmer's Glue Crew Recycling Program! Elmer's has partnered with Walmart to take back their empty glue sticks and bottles. All you have to do is box them up, print a label, and drop the box off at Walmart. Here's what happens next:

A local plastic recycling company picks up the empty bottles and glue sticks from Walmart®, takes them to their factory, and puts them into a machine to compress the plastic bottles and glue sticks into a block. Then they ship these plastic blocks to a toll company, where the plastic blocks are put into another machine to be ground into bits. Once the plastic is ground up into little pieces, it is sent to an injection molding company, which rinses the ground-up plastic again to remove any traces of glue or other debris. Once the ground plastic is thoroughly clean, it is melted down into liquid plastic and placed into a variety of injection molder machines that form new consumer products or packages.

Sounds like a lot of energy exerted to me but, because we're not going to stop schools from using glue, we should at least make sure the glue sticks and bottles get recycled and given a new life. According to the website they're made into things like gardening equipment and park benches.

The photo above is the glue sticks that we collected in my daughter's Kindy class in a little less than one month. That's about 45 glue sticks. Over nine months of school we're likely to collect 400 glue sticks from her classroom alone. There are 4 Kindergarten classes in her school, so we could recycle 1600+ glue sticks this year - more if the other grades participate as well. But I'm working in baby steps!

If you'd like to get your local school participating, just visit the Elmer's Glue Crew website. They offer contests, prizes and activities throughout the year as well as some really good lesson plans (with the standards that apply, for you teachers out there!) and activities.

This is something that is so easy to do: Drop off a small collection box to each classroom, collect the glue sticks once in awhile, drop them off at Walmart. You save some plastic from the landfill, the kids learn about the importance and process of recycling.

I know squat about homeopathy...(and a puny little bit about herbalism)

---from the musings of a coughing and nose-blowing suburban greenmom...

...but I am sort of interested in learning. So I'm going to use my guest post moment today to both post what I've got but also to ask if any readers have any experience or thoughts to share?

To me, homeopathy has always been one of those slightly more far-out alternative healing traditions that I've always viewed sort of dubiously--not because there's necessarily anything wrong with it, but because it follows a completely different paradigm from most of the rest of what I'm familiar with. I just don't get it.

Herbalism was a fairly easy jump for me--after all, didn't most modern medicines come about from isolating, strengthening, and eventually synthesizing substances found in nature that produced particular responses in the human body? And using what occurs naturally also ties in with the Real Food movement, when you think about it; we as humans want/need a wide variety of different Stuffs to nourish and help us thrive, so it makes sense that we'd be able to get what we need from the natural world, particularly the plant world, right? A few years ago I began to get interested in herbs and what they do, how they work, how to prepare them, and so forth--Rosemary Gladstar is one of the foremost herbalists in the U.S., and her website has a lot of good resources. Susun Weed also has a ton of really great resource material on her site--though be warned, she's also, shall we say, fairly Alternative in her ways. (She talks to plant fairies and stuff like that. I suppose "eccentric" might be a good term to use. She knows a lot, though.) But there's a huge amount of really great info there about a lot of the plants that grow right in our backyards, or where our kids play, or by the side of the road (not a good place to harvest from, by the way, due to all the emissions and stuff...) And the Wise Woman Forum there is a superb place to see what other women are trying in terms of natural remedies for things--there is a large and active community ranging from the Deeply Herbally Involved Never Go To An Allopathic Doc people to folks a lot more like me who are just looking to deal with some of life's medical curve balls without resorting to prescription meds every time they come along. (BTW--Allopath="ordinary" doctor, as opposed to Naturopath or Homeopath...)

Which brings us back to the original topic of this post--my recent discovery of and being-intrigued-by homeopathy.

On Sunday morning I felt fine and dandy. Sunday afternoon I was surprised to notice a little trickle coming from my nose. By Sunday night I was flat out in bed. By Wednesday, I got up again. Hey there, good friend flu. Welcome, come stay for a while. (And may I just mention how lucky I am to have a family, and especially a spouse, who actually picked up the pieces so that the unthinkable could happen: Mommy got Two Sick Days.) I have no idea if it was the piggy variety, it just came on really fast and hit me hard--nothing digestive, but the whole head and chest and body aches and skin sensitivity thing and all. I didn't go to the doc, because pretty much everything I've been reading has said that there's not much the doc can do except maybe prescribe Tamiflu or something, for high risk people. (In which category I might have fallen, because I have mild asthma...)

At some point, about 48 hours after I was hit (and about 40 hours after I should have thought of it, which was just plain stupid of me) it occurred to me that last time I'd been sick I'd bought a box of oscillococcinum (okay, I got the Whole Foods generic version of same, which cost significantly less...it contains the same homeopathic active ingredient, anas barbariae hepatis...) It's supposed to be a pretty good homeopathic antiviral. Hard to say what's a result of a medication vs. what would have happened anyway, but after 3 doses of the stuff Tuesday, my fever broke dramatically--with much perspirational ickness--overnight and I felt 300% better in the morning. (Which was still unfortunately fairly crappy, but I'll take it.) You're supposed to start taking it at the first signs of the flu, so I still don't really know why I was such an idiot and didn't even think of it, but I didn't. So as I say, it's hard to tell whether what helped was the oscillowhatsit or the flu just running its course...or whether the very long and very hot shower I took before bed, in flagrant violation of all green-seeking conservation guidelines, opened things up enough to help the healing along...

But since by day 2 the ridiculously poorly acted espisodes of CSI Miami were getting old fast (What is it with that show? Back in the NYPD Blue days we really thought David Caruso could act...but watching him now I'd say he's on his way to becoming the next Shatner if he's not careful), I spent a good bit of prone time on the couch poring over the internet and researching what homeopathy is all about. It's sort of interesting. But incredibly different. I spent a lot of time on ABC Homeopathy, which has a lot of good information. They have a whole Guide to Homeopathy on there that's worth some time.

I have to say, I find the whole thing fairly non-intuitive. The basic principle seems to be "like cures like." So your "cure" would be some substance that when taken in higher quantity would produce the symptoms you're experiencing, only the homeopathics are so incredibly dilute that instead of causing the problem or making it worse they help gouge the body into fighting the symptoms. (Not unlike the vaccination principle, I guess, but on the other hand very unlike.) And I find it intimidating and a bit freaky, because the "cures" often have names like "belladonna" and "arsenicum" and "strychninium"--names that are kind of, like, stuff we associate with fairly nasty poisons, ya know?

But I know people who swear by this stuff. And who know a lot more about it than I do. And I'd be the last one to just write something off simply because I don't understand how it works. (Um, hello, computers?) And there is that reality that once I took the flu stuff, my fever did break and didn't come back. Anecdotal evidence to be sure, but there it is. And my husband started taking it literally half an hour after his sniffles started, and almost a day later he hasn't developed into worse symptoms despite taking care of me all week...anecdotal evidence at best, but it's still something I'm inclined to pay attention to.

So, my dear Boother friends--anyone out there have any experience with homeopathic medicines? What do you think?

--Jenn the Flu-Ridden Greenmom

Legumes+broth+grain=cheap soup for dinner!

--from the musings of the soup-loving suburban greenmom...

I love soup. So nice and Autumn-y. So warming. So....cheap.

Made a new one, curried lentil soup, the other night, and it was LOVELY. Typical made-up recipe, as most of my soups are. I wanted something healthy, easy, and which would use some of that lovely jar of Penzey's hot curry powder I've had on my spice rack since last summer.

CURRIED LENTIL SOUP
--Brown lightly in a little olive oil: 1-2 onions (chopped), 1 celery heart (chopped), 1-3 carrots (cut up), 2-3 cloves minced garlic, 1-2 tsp really good curry powder
--Pour in 1 quart broth (chicken or vegetable) and heat just to boil
--Add 1/3 cup green lentils and 1/3 cup brown basmati rice (rinsed and picked), heat again just to boil (you could use almost any kind of lentils, actually, but the tiny red and black ones cook really fast and give more of a mushy-saucy consistency.)
--Reduce to low simmer; cover and cook 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. (For me "occasionally" means "whenever I think of it in between settling sibling domestic disputes, starting another load of laundry, and doing the dishes.") Add a little water near the end if it's getting too thick.
--Pour in 1 can diced tomatoes with juice, or a couple cups of the tomatoes you canned from summer because you were more on top of things than I was, and another 1/2 tsp curry powder; stir well and let simmer a few more minutes.
--If you want, a couple handfuls of chopped spinach added at the end is also great.
(You could add all kinds of things to this soup, whatever veggies might happen to be in the fridge...)

Serve with naan or homemade artisan bread.

This soup was good the first night, spectacular the second.

I swear, I LIVE by broth and diced tomatoes. Those two ingredients in a pot, with just about any variety of veggies, a grain, and various spices and condiments, can make almost anything. Lentils, rice, and curry powder--it's something vaguely Indian. Cannellini beans, pasta, and half a jar of spaghetti sauce (plus various Italian spices), it's pasta fazool. Black beans and onions with lots of garlic and cumin, it's black bean soup or can be served over rice. Add more veggies to the above and a jar of salsa, serve over crunched up tortilla chips, it's tortilla soup. Endless variations, and as long as I have broth and diced tomatoes in my cupboard, I can make almost anything in about 45 low maintenance minutes. It's odd; while I try as much as I can to stay away from pre-prepared, processed convenience stuff like salsa and pasta sauce, in a pinch a small amount added to something I'm making gives almost anything a "cooked longer and seasoned better than I actually did" quality that I think is worth the sacrifice...:-) Sigh.

If someone had given me this formula when I was in graduate school and occasionally subsisting on peanut butter straight from the jar because the assistantship check wouldn't come for two more days, I would have eaten a lot better. (In fact, I hope Camille, the college student over at EatDrinkBetter who's working on upgrading her tragic but typical college diet to stuff that's healthier and more sustainable--stops by and reads this. She's awesome, by the way--if any Booth readers know college students, I'd highly recommend her posts!) Even if one doesn't make one's own stock or can tomatoes, just getting a can each of soup and tomatoes, a bag of lentils, and a bag of brown rice, gives the template for a cheaper and healthier soup than one could ever find in a red and white labelled can, you know?

Soup. Good stuff.
--Jenn the Greenmom

A Season of Kind-Giving

A gratitude challenge from The Conscious Shopper

Around this time last year, I wrote a post on my personal blog called "Thank You, Dear Stranger" about gratitude. I explained that my husband and I were trying to teach our sons that gratitude is meaningless without action. It's useless to feel grateful for someone if you don't tell them, or even better, show them. I concluded: "Wouldn't it be wonderful if the holiday of Thanksgiving were accompanied by a season of kind-giving?"

Well, this year, I've decided to do just that. In the next couple of weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, my family will be making a gratitude tree:


This branch is now the centerpiece on our table, and I'm going to make paper leaves to go with it. Every time we feel grateful for someone, we'll write their name on one of the leaves and hang it on the "tree." On (or around) Thanksgiving, we'll go through the leaves and brainstorm ways we can show gratitude for those people. We'll narrow it down to a reasonable number, and then we'll carry out those acts of service in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Part of the point of my original post was that sometimes we feel grateful for perfect strangers, and the best way to show gratitude for someone we'll never see again is by showing kindness to someone else. Some of the leaves on our tree might be strangers, but we can "serve" them by performing random acts of kindness for others we don't know.

The point is to show gratitude for our blessings by paying it forward with kindness, and to focus our holiday season on giving rather than receiving.

So I'd like to challenge all of you to find some way to focus your attention this month on the many people in your lives that you're grateful for and to think about how you can turn the holiday season into a season of kind-giving.

Giveaway: No Impact Man

A book giveaway from The Conscious Shopper

I was the super happy winner of Fake Plastic Fish's No Impact Man giveaway a couple months ago. I've now finished the book (and loved it!) and am ready to pass it on to someone else! To be entered to win my gently used copy of this book, simply leave a comment on this post. I'll announce the randomly selected winner next Wednesday.

I think guest-Boother Karen has already done a fabulous job of reviewing the book here and here, so rather than rehash what you already know, I wanted to share one of my favorite passages from the book:

There is another story I love, about the Korean monk who founded the school of Zen where I meditate. Dae Soen Sa Nim decided that world peace would come if all the religious leaders of the world got together and had a good, human conversation. The way to do that, Dae Soen Sa Nim decided, was to have all the world's religious leaders get into a hot tub together.

In order to get all the religious leaders into the same hot tub, Dae Soen Sa Nim thought it was important that the invitation come from the Pope. He wanted the Pope to send out a letter that said, esentially, "Dear Religious Leader, How about we get into a hot tub and figure out how to attain world peace? Yours truly, the Pope."

So, without invitation, Dae Soen Sa Nim got on a plane, travled to Rome, marched up to the gates of the Vatican, and asked to see the Pope. No, he told the guard, he did not have an appointment. The guard sent Dae Soen Sa Nim to see one of the priests. A day or two later, the priest sent him to see a bishop. A couple of days after that, the bishop got him an appointment to see a cardinal.

As the story goes, the cardinal in question did not see the value in Dae Soen Sa Nim's hot-tub approach, and there the effort died.

But why this story gets told again and again in the Zen school is because of the sheer "just try" energy of Dae Soen Sa Nim's approach. It suggests that instead of trying to save the world by sitting around figuring out the best course of action, we should just start trying to save the world. If we all just start trying from where we are, even if some of us fail, one of us or a couple of thousand of us will cross the finish line and get the job done.

And if we don't, we will inspire other thousands to start from where they are, just as the story of Dae Soen Sa Nim and the Pope has inspired many hundreds of his students just to try. If one of these students succeed, then Dae Soen Sa Nim's stunt will have worked.

Okay, Dae Soen Sa Nim's attempt was a little crazy, and so is mine. I mean, the idea of turning off the electricity. But I'd rather be the kind of nut who tries something than the kind of nut who, knowing what could happen in the world, doesn't.

I love the spirit of this story. I'm constantly plagued with doubts about whether or not I'm doing the right thing, making the right choices...

Was I right to choose to cloth diaper my babies? Some people say disposables are better for the planet...Am I making the right decision by choosing to buy local milk in returnable glass bottles even though it's not organic?...Is this product good for my family's health?...Am I eventually going to find out that this supposedly eco-friendly company was lying to me?...Should I be sacrificing more? Am I doing enough? Am I doing enough?

But I know for sure that I'd rather be the kind of nut who tries something than the kind of nut who doesn't. Maybe I'm not perfect. But I'm trying.