More Plant Pics

Broccoli

Strawberries

And my new clothesline!

Crunchy's Challenge

Football and Acorn Squash

Reason number 43, "Why Erika NEEDS a Root Cellar:" B and I decided to move our squash (acorn, sugar pumpkin, and zucchini) to another location in our house (where our current "cellar" is... more like our current place to store things that should be stored in a cellar). We ended up tossing some fantastically large acorn squash across our living/dining room... Seriously, some of the squash were bigger than footballs! The two pictured below, with a U.S. quarter, spent another 4 weeks on the vine!

--Erika

Read Me

Plastic Ocean: Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic... Are We, by Susan Casey

--Erika

Erika's OTHER Random Link of the Week

Crunchy Chicken's latest project. Check it out!

Link of the week...

This is a great place to find local food!

I've just finished reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. Mr. Pollan defines several items that make up what we should eat. Food, as it turns out, isn't quite the same as it used to be (duh!), so he makes the suggestion to eat only things your great-grandmother would recognize as "food." He expands on this by defining where you might find this in a grocery store (outside rim versus the inner isles), and then expanding to mention that maybe, just maybe, instead of including a middle man, we should just go see the farmer to get our food.

This is where Erika's Random Link of the Week comes in. Local Harvest, in their own words, "...allows consumers all over the country to search for local farmers' markets, community supported agriculture farms, U-pick farms and farm stands, and to view an extensive listing for each market or farm that matches their search criteria." The only problem I've had with the website, isn't really even with the website. It's the fact that some of the farms haven't updated their information. My goal, this week, is to find a few, local, CSAs.

Happy surfing.

--Erika

Earth Hour 2008

Saturday 29 March 2008
8:00 to 9:00 PM

Who: EVERYONE
What: Turn off your lights (better yet, also turn off the TV, computer, radio, etc., unplug appliances, turn off the heat/AC, stay out of your car, etc.)
When: See above
Where: EVERYWHERE
Why: A symbolic stand against global warming
More info? Check it out here.

So, B and I Watched An Inconvenient Truth...

I have always loved driving manual transmission vehicles. I don't really know why. I do know that they tend to have slightly better fuel economy. What I recently learned here, is that my manual transmission vehicle (versus the same car, but with an automatic transmission) reduces my CO2 output TEN PERCENT! TEN PERCENT! If I switched to a Prius, my CO2 output would decrease by 41%!!!!

So, Erika's Random Link of the Week is this. It's the companion site to An Inconvenient Truth. I will admit something... For a guy with a lousy, no-good, make-me-want-to-wash-my-hands-in-bleach handshake, Al Gore presents a pretty water-tight case.

Check out my "Ya' Gotta Watch This" section. I have never been as disgusted as I was watching the link to a certain animal rights organization's video about where meat comes from. Unfortunately, the same story is corroborated in several other places. On a happy note... Places like this treat their animals appropriately and sell very nummy milk, cheese, and butter!

--Erika

Eat...

I have been spending a lot of time thinking, learning, practicing, and otherwise contemplating the process of eating. Let me clarify; I've been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, he talks about where our food really comes from, and what processes it goes through before we unconsciously chow down. I've been thinking about what I choose to eat (my anti-resolution-resolution is no more high fructose corn syrup (or high maltose corn syrup for that matter) in anything I purchase), where it comes from, how it's produced, what I do that takes a plant from the ground into my mouth, etc. Tonight, I came upon an amazing and articulate post over at Casaubon's Book. She really articulated the thoughts I have on cooking, I am certainly not one of those people who would go hungry if I were given dried beans and no instructions, and I am definitely adventurous when it comes to making substitutions, but I'm not nearly as fluent in "food" as she discusses (and is). Quit reading my blog, and go read hers!

--Erika

Link of the Week

Click here.

'nuf said.

-Erika

Shopping...

So B and I started and finished our shopping for Christmas today. I'm proud that we're done, and most of the things we got for folks didn't make me cringe. B commented that some people would be SO fun to buy for - the folks who love the tacky decorations all over - but we don't really know anyone like that. Good thing too, 'cause that would make me cringe.

Princess Goopy Eye (A.K.A. Mrs. Wigglesnort) appeared to have had a problem remaining on her four paws today. She nudged me when she came in the door when we got home. I looked down on my leg where she had plowed into me and saw a large brownish splotch. It wasn't the same color as the mud she gets into, so I was immediately suspicious. One sniff confirmed it - I'd been poopified! YUCK! I was just glad it was B's turn to bathe her. On a side note, she smells REALLY good now!

I also did some math tonight. Did you know that for every minute I am in class next quarter (440 minutes per day, 2 days per week, 2 of those days are holidays, which makes 17 days) My tuition works out to 55 cents PER MINUTE?! I want to know where it all goes! (Try it - $4,101 for the quarter)

On to happier things... I've updated my wish list... again! Maybe I'll go work on that some more before I go to bed...

--Erika

Thanksgiving Weekend

I actually left the house this weekend... I really didn't want to, I hate fighting traffic and seeing people go crazy over consumerism. If I was up to speed on things, I would have posted something about "Buy Nothing Day" before Thanksgiving. My redemption in this is that I went to a coffee shop (Ristretto Cafe) to do homework. If you get a chance to try their Abuleta Mocha - you've gotta! It's more than delicious!

I wish I had something else to say right now. I bet you'll never hear that from me again!

--Erika

B RECYCLES!!

I've been hounding B to recycle what he can for a l-o-n-g time... and I *just* found out that he regularly pulls aluminium cans out of the trash at work and moves them to the recycle!
YEAH!

--Erika

Wasting paper

I know how to change printer margins, and I do it frequently, but I know there are a lot of people out there who just don't know/care how to fit more text on a page. I ran across this petition on another blog (I'll add it to the Blogs I frequent section)... it's an online petition to have Microsoft change their manufacturer default settings to .75" for margins.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/changethemarginsmicrosoft

Happy petitioning!

--Erika

How big are two zucchini???

Well, the two I grated and froze made FIFTEEN CUPS! Plus a whole load of seed. I'm going to try saving it for next year and sprouting it before the garden is planted, just incase it doesn't work...

As for other things I'd like to do to become more "green" (I'm starting to not like this term - kind of like "religious" - can't stand that term either). Every time I get in my car, I make sure I'm completely ready to go before I start it; oh, and I'm trying to make sure I take as few trips as possible. I think one big thing that could be classified as "green" is vegetarianism. It takes so many resources to make one pound of meat, and when you look at the differences between one pound of non-meat food versus one pound of meat food, you get more/variety of nutrients, more fiber, etc. and you don't contribute negatively to the environment as you would with the meat - plants don't make massive amounts of waste, and they don't require a secondary crop just to feed them. It's not that I'm against cows or chickens or anyone who eats them, I just think that it's a more environmentally sound choice to eat a (local/organic) vegetarian diet compared to eating a diet that includes meat. There is a whole other arena of organic/free range meat options that I won't even get into - 1. I don't know that much about them and 2. since I'm veg. I really am not in a position to make any sort of decision on it at this point.

Anyway... OOH - THIRD DAY CONCERT TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!

Green? Well, Trying...

I guess I've always had a tendancy towards becoming green... I was one of those recycle nazis in elementary and middle school. Now, as an ::: gulp ::: adult, I have decided that I really do want to become more green and reduce my carbon footprint.

I've started with some small changes. All clothes are washed in cold water, and I'm currently using "Planet" detergent, and gathering the formulas and guts to make my own. I've also installed a clothesline! OOH, OOH, OOH, there it is in living color! At first B wasn't too keen on having his skivies out for the world to see. Once he realized that our tall fence guarded his unmentionables from neighbor's eyes, he was okay with it.

I also just bought my first bottle of "green" dish soap. We still have about 10 ounces left of the other stuff, but it doesn't work well and it stinks. As for dishwasher soap - we have more than a bucket left before we run out. Hopefully that will last 'till I get a real job.

I'm also trying to warm B up to the idea of using rain barrels. He likes the idea of a less expensive water bill, but his comment went something like "I don't want to have a gigantic blue tub dominating the backyard in all it's ugliness, come on!"

That's going to be it for this installment... I heard somewhere that I'm long winded and need to break it up a bit.