Archive for the 'Environment' Category

Resolution-

Published by Helen on February 8, 2009 in Environment and Shopping. 6 Comments

We’ve had our latest coffee maker for about 2 years. It still works - kind of - but the lid has water trapped in it and about half of the time you have to unplug it and plug it back in to be able to turn it on. Oh yeah - and when you pour coffee it makes a puddle beside your cup no matter how you hold it or twist the lid. The one we had before it lasted about 2 years too. I started looking around online for coffeemakers that would last for more than 2 years - but that ’s not all! Since I was making a list of possibly unreasonable demands I also added:

1. Makes hot coffee - I want to be able to put milk in it without it going lukewarm.

2. Makes strong coffee.

3. No plastic parts in contact with water/coffee - I can taste it and know it isn’t good.

We’ve used a french press (strong, but not hot enough) and tried the cold brew method (strong,  great for iced coffee , but a hassle for not-hot-enough coffee.) I’ve had everything from a $20 Mr Coffee to a $70 stainless thermal carafe coffee maker.  I know this all sounds whiny and spoiled - waaah - feel sorry for me with my coffee maker problems! But really it is just one more example of the disposable crap mentality that I don’t want to be a part of. I don’t want to buy a new crappy coffee maker every 2 or 3 years, I don’t want to throw away a  broken crappy coffee maker every 2 or 3 years. I could quit drinking coffee, but then I could write this post about crappy pencil sharpeners, crappy dishwashers, crappy cars, crappy socks - this is bigger than the coffee maker. I just want something that does what it supposed to and does not need to be replaced regularly.

Okay - deep breath -  in my studies on the interwebs I came across electric percolators. Several reviews I read mentioned that the percolator in question was purchased to replace a percolator that had died after 30+ years of daily use. Others mentioned how hot the coffee was - or how strong! And guess what? A lot of the percoltors I saw had no plastic parts! I looked around on ebay but didn’t find anything reasonable, so finally I chose a percolator on amazon and put it in my cart but didn’t buy it right away.

A few days later I found this percolator at goodwill:

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I thought the cord was missing, but it was wrapped around the stem inside. There weren’t even fingerprints on it - it had never been used! It was $8.78, I feel like I have a piece of artwork in my kitchen, and it makes steaming hot, strong coffee. If you visit me in the next 30 years I’ll offer you a cup.

We’re going to be early birds-

Published by Helen on February 3, 2008 in Environment and Pets. 4 Comments

For whatever good it does, we recycle everything that we can here. Glass, plastic, cans, and corrugated cardboard go to the recycling center. Chickens get our vegetable scraps, gardens get the grass clippings and leaves. That leaves us with about 2 kitchen sized garbage bags of trash a week. I noticed that a good portion of that was non-corrugated cardboard - cereal boxes and pasta boxes - and junk mail.

This year I decided that I would find a solution to this last category of garbage. I went on one of the sites that takes you off catalog mailing lists (can’t remember which one) so my junk mail should be reduced, but still - there was the paperboard.

I had the idea that I could shred the paperboard in a paper shredder, but I didn’t want to fork over big bucks for a heavy duty paper shredder, or even $20 for a cheapo shredder that would have a questionable lifespan shredding cardboard. Also, what to do with the shreds? They would be okay for chicken bedding until they got wet, or they would be okay as a mulch - but not very attractive.

I thought about requesting a paper shredder on freecycle but never really got up the nerve. Goodwill to the rescue! I found 3 shredders on our Saturday trip - one that looked reasonably sturdy and worked in reverse. $3.97! That is the kind of investment I will take a chance on! When I got it home I took it apart, cleaned out the jammed up paper and even soldered a couple wires back in place. (Don’t anyone be too impressed here - there was a black wire and a yellow wire and the places that they obviously came from were labeled Y1 and B1. Not rocket science!)

It works great now - in reverse and forward, and it only complains a little when I run pieces of cereal boxes through. It took several 5 -10 minute sessions to shred through January’s boxes and junk mail, but I didn’t want to burn the motor out so we took lots of breaks. I think a weekly 5- 10 minute shredding session will take care of our garbage now that we are caught up. I put the shredder on an empty 5 gallon bucket to catch the shreds, which I then decided was the perfect receptacle for my shred-using plan.

A worm bin! For red wigglers, or composting worms. They like newspaper and cardboard and junk mail bedding, and they like coffee grounds, banana peels and citrus peels - all things that the chickens can’t do much with.

So here is how we made the worm bins - we made 1 for us and 2 more for friends who are also interested in vermicomposting.

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Dashiell is drilling holes in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. I drilled a few more on the side a few inches from the bottom.

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Here is Ray filling this bucket with shredded cardboard and paper -then we wet it down.

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Then we put some soil on top and I wrote 1,2,3,4 with a sharpie marker at points 1/4 of the way around. From what I’ve read you’re supposed to feed the worms in a different spot every day so they move around.

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Finally we put the bucket with the holes, shreds, dirt and numbers in a plain old regular bucket. This is to catch the “tea” that drips out of the worm bin. Last - a lid for the top.

I ordered some worms and I think they’ll be here later this week - I’ll update on this project in a few weeks.

Sign o’ the Times

Published by Scott on January 8, 2008 in Environment and Work. 5 Comments

usgs_drought_map.gifMy school, like most elementary schools, has an annual carnival. It’s usually in the spring but some of the other local schools have their versions in the fall. I’m sure they’re all pretty much the same- cake walks, raffle baskets, pony rides, bouncy castles, a dunk tank, face painting, crappy games with crappier prizes, and lots of junk food. The kids love it and the school rakes in a lot of cash.

I found out today we’ll be crossing dunk tank off the list of “fun” things to do this year. Because of the prolonged drought and prohibitive water restrictions, we’re not permitted to have one. How crazy is that? Not that I don’t completely agree with the decision. It’s a waste of water. I find it remarkable the considerations we now have to take into account compared with just a year ago. It’s been such a radical change in mind set that I now find myself giving doubly disapproving looks at most drivers of gargantuan SUVs- one for the gas guzzling, the other for having a sparkling clean vehicle!