Whew!

The last thing I remember was a big snow storm in mid-April right before we left for Ethiopia. When I woke up it was almost October. What happened to the summer?

The aspens have all turned yellow here and we're using an extra blanket at night. I've already started stressing about all the Christmas gifts I need to make. Not to mention Halloween costumes and treats for school.

I'll be back to regular blogging soon. I can't believe it's been a week since I've posted here. I'm guessing that the rest of the year's posts will largely be about gifts, treats and food and trying to keep them green. 'Tis the season. It's a crazy whirlwind of holidays, but I love it.

Need some artsy ideas for recycled Christmas tree

Mr. Greenhab is trying his hardest to green his school. They had a recycling dumpster with pick up service at one point in the past, but no one ever used it, so it was discontinued. Now the school can't afford the $90 per month to get the bin back.

Since he started teaching at the school he's been trying to raise awareness about recycling and other environmental issues. Best of all, he's been teaching the kids why it's important, how to study the school critically, identify environmental problems and brainstorm ways to solve them.

Last week he signed his class up to participate in the 2nd annual Trash to Trees program which aims to "...raise awareness about the importance of recycling and making eco-friendly choices, in particular during the holiday season."

Each school that signs up gets a 5 foot tree to decorate using only recycled or repurposed materials. It has to have a theme and it can't use electricity. So far our thought was to save all of the recyclable trash that the school makes in a single day and decorate the tree with it. I'd like to make a statement about the amount of trash we could be saving from the landfill if the school just had the support and ability to recycle it.

The school has about 300 children, who eat both breakfast and lunch there, for a total of somewhere around 600 small plastic milk bottles thrown away each day. That's over 100,000 plastic milk bottles in the landfill each year for one single school.

But I'm trying to think beyond stringing up 600 milk bottles all over the tree, which is where your creative mind comes in. Help us out by sharing your artistic ideas.

I remember some time ago reading a blog where the author made shrinky-dinks out of plastic, which made me think we could cut the bottles into ornament shapes and shrink them down. But I think those were actually made from the plastic clam shell produce containers. Yeah, that's my only idea so far. :(

Trees will be judged in 10 categories like Most Recycled Items Used, Best Tree Top Decoration and Most Original Decorating Theme. Winners receive a cash donation to the school's PTA/PTO. After the competition there is a silent auction where members of the community can bid on the trees. This money also goes to the respective school.

I think with the cash prizes the school would have enough money to pay for recycling for the year or even purchase a few computers. Can you imagine a school without student-access to computers? Or one where students didn't even have the option to watch President Obama's address to school children because their TVs are analog and they didn't have the money to purchase the converter boxes?

October APLS carnival topic is up

Visit the APLS blog to find out what the topic will be for the October carnival. Nope, I'm not going to tell you. Yep, I'm mean like that. Here's a hint:

The carnival will be hosted right here at Greenhab. Please consider joining in! Submissions are due by Friday, October 16th.

Have you ditched the disposables yet?

If you haven't yet joined Crunchy Domestic Goddess's Ditch the Disposables Challenge, you still have time! Last year there were almost 150 participants and Amy is shooting for 200 this year.

The goal of the challenge is to get participants to try the reusable version of the disposable products they know and love. For example, you could use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins, wash cloths instead of paper towels, or Klean Kanteen bottles instead of disposable plastic water bottles. (See how I dissed that other company there?) If you've done those things already, you can move on to something more challenging like using cloth wipes instead of toilet paper. I'm not quite there yet, but we are attempting to kick the ziploc baggie habit (yet again).

Go sign up and help Amy hit her goal of 200 participants and help the planet in the meantime!

On an "abenture"

Fall is in the air and the aspen trees are already beginning to turn yellow up here at 8500 feet. Today is such a beautiful day - sunny, but not hot, with a faint breeze, and bright blue skies. We took the kids on a hike this morning on our property...or an "abenture" as Fletcher says. Here he is with some sort of animal spine that we found. Ah, the life of being mom to a boy!


I set the kids up with garbage bags before we left in case we ran across any trash on our hike. I noticed a few days ago that a bear had evidently gotten into our neighbor's trash and dragged a bag of it onto the back side of our property. I had a feeling no one else was going to bother to clean it up. Sigh.

Mr. Felix was a trooper. He walked about half way, but needed a little lift.


Here we are cleaning up the neighbor's trash. And it's true, you really can learn a lot about someone by looking through their trash. Now we know that our neighbors are gamblers with heartburn, probably from all of the potato chips and chicken pot pie they eat. They also really need to start recycling.



We found a lot of trash: beer cans, water and soda bottles, some wayward styrofoam peanuts, wrappers, cardboard and, most of all, plastic bags of every kind - grocery bags, newspaper bags, bread bags, bags for wood chips and potting soil and just about anything else you could imagine.


It reminded me that it's great to bring your cloth bags to the grocery store, but that we need to be vigilant about avoiding the other types of bags we accept - whether it's for your Sunday paper or a bag of pasta.


And speaking of plastic bags, here we are at the end of our adventure with all the trash we collected. It feels a bit hypocritical to talk smack about plastic bags, then load all of our trash into them. Maybe that's something we need to think about soon.

A Ray of Hope in Education

Head on over to the Green Phone Booth today to read my post A Ray of Hope in Education. With so much going wrong in our education system, one Colorado district is taking a new approach.

Are they all yours?

Mr. Greenhab with daughter Jackie, Felix, Fletcher and Macy.

I've been contemplating the topic of this month's APLS Carnival "When does size matter?" but haven't come up with anything all that insightful or unique to say. Like many of the other posts I've read on the subject, the size of our family does affect us in some ways but, in most, we still try to do the same things we did when we were a family of 3 -- as opposed to the family of 6 - 8 that we are now (it's a complicated story).

Just 2 years ago Mr. Greenhab and I lived in the city with Baby Greenhab, doing our composting, recycling, walking to the grocery store and living a simplish life. Over the past two years we moved to the mountains, out of walking distance from anything. We adopted two children. Grandma Greenhab moved in. Uncle Greenhab's child lives here part time too. We're just one gigantic, chaotic family now.

I can no longer line dry 100% of our clothing. I'm not saying it's impossible. It's just too impossible for me. I do multiple loads each day. In the summer they can all dry outside, but the summer only lasts about 3 months here. In the cooler weather it takes more than a day for the clothes to dry inside, so I can get behind very quickly.

I can't drive a Prius. I can't even fit everyone in our SUV some days. Yes, I own an SUV {hangs head in shame}. It's probably worse that we actually own 3 cars {GASP!}. To our defense, we had the SUV and one compact car. We got the 2nd compact as a hand-me-down when Grandpa Greenhab passed away. So we drive the small cars most of the time, but if I have all three kids, well you just can't fit three car seats in the back of a compact car. We also use it in the snow.

Anyway... Those are really the only two big ways in which the size of our family affects our "greenness". Of course we could discuss the general environmental impact of having a big family v. a small one, but that's not really what this topic is about.

I find the bigger contention lies not in how many people are in our family, but what those family members are willing to do. Each member in our family has different beliefs, worries, goals, and things they're willing to do. And I'm good with that.

Mr. Greenhab has adapted to many of my "crazy" ways. He's used to not having paper napkins or paper towels in the house. He likes composting and doesn't mind that I clean solely with vinegar. But take away his meat and WATCH OUT! He's a carnivore through-and-through and dislikes 90% of all vegetables. He's also The Cheapest Man on the Planet (yes, that's an official title!) so our meat is usually purchased on sale, or in the clearance section of the meat department. Basically, you can forget getting him to spring on local, organic, grass-fed beef or free-range chicken, and he won't touch most veggies with a ten foot pole.

On the other hand, we can't afford (financially or environmentally) to feed meat to the whole family. Instead, I make meat for Mr. Greenhab, then lots of veggies and side dishes for the rest of the family, who eats a smaller portion of the meat.

Grandma Greenhab has taken on the role of Family Recycler! On a weekly basis, she loads her car up with our recycling and takes it into the town recycling center to sort. She rocks! With all we compost, recycle and refrain from buying, our family of 6-8 usually only has 1 or 2 bags of landfill trash each week. Grandma is a pastaterian (meaning she's a vegetarian, but she doesn't actually like many veggies) so getting her to eat local organic foods is also out of the question.

So you can see that our greenness depends a lot more on what everyone is willing to do, rather than how many people there are.

In a recent interview with No Impact Man Colin Beavan, Beth Terry asked him who his heroes are. His response, in part, was "...the reason why Gandhi and Martin Luther King and also Tolstoy are heroes of mine is because of the principle of non-violence. Because the idea is not to get angry at other people, it's to love. That basically you love people into change. You don't hate people into change."

And that's basically the approach I take with my family. I try to push them a bit to the brink of their comfort zones. I encourage them. I sometimes plead with them! But mostly I love them. And they show me they love me by joining in on some of my hair-brained journeys.

This post is my contribution to the September APLS Carnival that will be hosted at CRSTN85.

The Brown's Big Weekend Out

Last week marked 8 years of wedded bliss for the Browns! Although it probably wasn't part of a true Compact, we decided to take a night off and stay downtown in a fancy-schmancy hotel. To our defense, we actually planned it before we starting Compacting again...and we got a smokin' deal through Hotwire.

We stayed at the Oxford Hotel in downtown Denver. It was built in 1891 and still has many of the original features. It's a beautiful place. Of course, my camera battery died, so I don't have any additional photos to show you how pretty it was.

I did get this photo though...


I'm such a nerd! In the bathrooms they have wash cloths to dry your hands on instead of paper towels. Loves it! They actually have a whole "sustainability initiative" which includes fancy water efficient toilets with two buttons - one for pee, one for more than pee - they have recycling bins in each room, low flow shower heads, their lights are on sensors, they provide employees with transit passes, and they donate all partially used amenity bottles to the local homeless shelter.

If you ever come through Denver and need a place to stay, I highly recommend the Oxford!

Canning question: Would you eat this?

I was going through the pantry and found a jar of plum applesauce that had gotten lost somehow. I canned it exactly one year ago. It smells fine and tastes pretty good too (very tart), but has this on the top...

There was a piece of either apple or plum that was floating on top and it had grown this white mold (?) on it. When I lifted the piece off, everything else looked fine. But I'm afraid I'm going to get botulism or something. What do the canning experts out there think? Would you just toss it?

Sleep mask tutorial on Make it From Scratch

After a crafty hiatus over the summer, I'm back and blogging on Make it From Scratch every other Friday. Head on over there today where you'll find a quick and easy tutorial for these sleep masks. (I'm thinking stocking stuffers!)

He means well

Mr. Greenhab brought me a gift the other day. It wasn't candy or flowers (although he did bring me flowers for our anniversary on Tuesday!). No, it was this...


There were actually two boxes and about 100 of these total. They're tops to those shoebox-sized plastic tubs. Evidently he rescued them from the garbage pile at school. I'm guessing some of the teachers made cubbies for their students using the boxes, but didn't need the tops, so they decided to just throw them away.

Big points to Mr. Greenhab for being horrified about these going to the landfill and digging them out of the trash.

Now what the heck am I supposed to do with them???

Our homeowners insurance company said that we need to re-roof our barn, so I'm thinking colorful shingles? That's all I've got so far.

It's that time of year again...

Time for school fundraisers.

I didn't even have kids in school until this year and I'm already sick of them. The fundraisers, not the kids. Although I could probably use a break from the kids too. I digress...

The thing I like about this school is that they only do 3 fundraisers throughout the school year. #1) Gift wrap #2) A letter sent out saying "Please give us money." #3) Buffalo run (or something like that) where the kids do laps around the field and get friends and family to sponsor them.

So let's just say this wrapping paper thing is not my favorite. In fact, I took their packets out of their backpacks and put them straight into the recycling bin. I do feel a little guilty that I'm the stinky hippie parent that fights the man and doesn't do her part, but we don't use wrapping paper any more and it would kind of be against my values to push it on other people. Maybe I'll make some cloth gift bags to sell in my Etsy store then give the profits to the school. Hmmm...

I'm really fond on the second fundraiser. "Hey, we're not selling anything, or making you get off the couch. Just write us a check and we'll leave you alone." Seriously, do you really need more gift wrap or expensive chocolates? Why buy a bunch of crap you don't need just so the school can get a small portion of the money? Why not just give all that money directly to the school? In return, you don't junk up your house or the landfill. And I'm guessing you might even get a tax deduction?? (Don't quote me on that!)

The third fundraiser is definitely a good one too. It gets the families all out there together and keeps the kids active. My kids run around in circles all day long and I don't even pay them to do it. I think we'll have that one in the bag.

Thinking ahead on the Green Phone Booth today.

Head on over to the Green Phone Booth where I'm blogging today about Thinking Ahead to a sustainable holiday season.

Books, books, books

I usually use our local library for any books that I want to read, but I couldn't pass these up at a yard sale this weekend. $0.25 each baby!

Some of these are actually Marc's, but I got Crimes Against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., (Which I started reading a few months ago, but didn't have time to get all the way through. I think I paid more than $0.25 in library fines actually.); Plain and Simple, which is a story about a woman who went to live with the Amish; Fun Places to Go With Children in Colorado; a book about home energy savings; and Confessions of a Shopaholic, which I don't even know why I bought except for I don't think I'll ever see the movie. I might need a fluffy, easy read one day.

There was also a book from the early '80's about energy. I opened it up to a page that talked about how we are at a crucial time where we need to conserve and change our ways. Guess it didn't work.

Anyhoo... I love a good yard sale deal! It ended up that the sale was at the house of the President of the PTO. That was kind of embarrassing...."Here, let me dig through your refuse." Oh well, no shame in my game. Just working on my stinky hippy parent rep.

Colorado Costume Swap

I had the best intentions of setting up a costume swap website for this Halloween. I had grand ideas of being able to incorporate a message board feature, separated by region, where people from all of the country could go to swap Halloween costumes. It would be a great way to not only save money, but to save people from having to go out and purchase yet another Halloween costume that would be worn only once, then sent to Goodwill.

What is it they say about good intentions?

Since it's now September 2nd and I haven't even started on this, I went ahead and set up a Yahoo group, just for Colorado residents. Here's the link~

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/co_costume_swap/

If you're in Colorado, sign up! (Please?) You don't have to list a costume if you don't have one to give away. You can still keep an eye out for a costume you might want to use. The group is Freecycle-style, so there are no charges to join or trade costumes. Please pass the word!

Click to join co_costume_swap

We're compacting again!

Long ago, in a city that now seems very far away, we decided to put ourselves through a rehab program called the Compact. Compacting started when a group of friends in San Francisco decided that they were tired of the consumer rat race and made a pact not to buy anything new for a period of 6 months. Now there are all sorts of blogs, Yahoo Groups, and websites dedicated to Compacting.

We first decided to Compact as a way to detox from our consumeristic lifestyle. We had just started "going green" and the Compact got our creative juices flowing. We stopped shopping for entertainment and started spending that time connecting with each other. We spent more time outside, in the garden, at the park, taking walks. We learned to make due with the things we already had and to separate need from want.

As time went on, we began buying things again. We were good at times and bad at times but, for the most part, we did well, not going overboard. I was able to leave my corporate job and take a part time position working from home. We felt pretty good about that, considering that Mr. Greenhab is a teacher, and they aren't known for their high salaries!

Lately, though, we've noticed that the monthly credit card bill is getting higher again. (That could have something to do with the two new additions to our family!) On top of that, Mr. Greenhab and I delved into a conversation the other day about how much of the US's debt China holds...which led to a conversation about everything that is Made in China...which led to a conversation about the book Depletion & Abundance...yada yada yada...and we're back on the Compact.

Funny how that happens. But I guess everyone needs to reinforce their rehab (greenhab) once in awhile to make sure they stay the course. Here we go.....