January/February

Wow, I didn't realize it had been quite so long since I posted.  I've been keeping busy, and here are just a few of the things that have been going on around here:

Our washer died on us after 8 years, and my husband left the decision of what new washer to get up to me.  So while I compared and made up my mind, I went to the laundromat for a couple weeks.  I didn't mind going, other than carrying out the heavy loads of wet laundry to the car.  I had just had a cyst removed off my back so it was tender when that area was pulled.  Other than that, I looked upon it as guilt-free reading time!

J picked up a bug and started showing symptoms the morning after his birthday.  Eventually it led to bronchitis, but other than an occasional cough, he is all better now.  He missed nearly a week of school, and spent some time snuggling with his Milo.  

And then I caught the bug too, which in me turned into tonsillitis, and a trip to Urgent Care on a Saturday, where a nice nurse practitioner hooked me up with an antibiotic and some good cough medicine.

My sweet Mr. GV gave me a wonderful box of Rose City vegan chocolates for Valentine's Day.  I thanked him, then asked him to just put it on my dresser.  (I was sick in bed at the time.)  However, the delicious chocolates inside the beautiful box have since been inhaled.  

We had planned an overnight trip away for Valentine's Day, but I kept busy with these little guys instead.

I did a little magazine reading while waiting for J in the car rider pickup line at school.

J unfortunately missed his Valentine's party at school while he was sick, but he did have a whole bag of them to bring home the next week.  He saw this one that says "Puppy Love" and immediately said he was going to give it to Milo.  It was so sweet.  He had been adamant that Milo get a Valentine.  

I had to throw out some food.  *Sigh.*  When you eat a lot of produce, it is easy to have waste when you've been sick or just busy.  We should just stop buying lettuce mix, as it seems that's what I mostly throw out.  But I did manage to rescue a bell pepper that got lost in the back of the fridge.  I cut it up and froze it, and we'll put it in chili or a couple other dishes later.  

I also had 3 wrinkly apples.  While the outside was not pretty, the inside was just fine.  I ate several pieces while on a car ride, then shared some with Milo.  After that the browned leftovers went outside to the critter feeder, where either the birds or squirrels will enjoy.  

One day it actually warmed up enough to take a walk in the park.  Milo was thrilled to get out and do some exploring!

And I gathered up more of my unneeded items from our spare room.  Here you see 5 more boxes of items going to the Goodwill donation truck.  It always feels so good to get rid of things you just don't need or want anymore.  Mr. GV even let me get rid of 3 of his coffee cups.  

I've been doing some reading too.  As you can see from the picture, I enjoy cozy mysteries.  I have a whole shelf full of ones to be read.  I do read some regular fiction as well, and the occasional nonfiction.  

This is the second in the County Cork books, a series by Sheila Connolly which I am thoroughly enjoying.  I won this one in a contest and promptly read it, then sent it on its way through Paperback Swap.  (By the way, if you are interested in joining Paperback Swap and put in my nickname as a referral (pheochrom), I will get a referral credit.  There's also an icon on my homepage you can click. And if you want to join but not click on my icon or use me as a referral, that's cool too.)  

Everybody pays their own postage to mail out on PBS.  I save and reuse the envelopes I receive my books in, which is of course a better use of resources, not to mention saves me money.  And I can tell you others do too.  The white one in this picture was being used for at least the 4th time.  

I hope you all have had a good January/February!  I know it's been a fun (ha) weather time for much of the US, those of us in the South included.  

Half-Marathon, Take Two

Mr. GV completed his second half-marathon last month!  This time I didn't stick around for the start, but did get some pictures during the race and at the finish.

I had trouble getting good pictures this year, due to my placement, but that's Mr. GV there in the gray shirt in the front of the group.  

The participation medals, waiting to be claimed.  

Along with a bottle of water, bananas were something else you could grab as you went across the finish line.  

Whew, finally finished!

Yay!

And on an environmental level, I was glad to see recycling containers for cardboard and plastic near the fuel/hydration/rest tent at the finish.

Bulk buying

I am so thrilled that the Kroger in a nearby town has remodeled.  Yes, the sushi bar where I can get vegan sushi is great, and yes the expansion of the natural foods section is phenomenal.  But the main reason is this:  BULK!  

Whenever we travel to the big city, I am sure to take along my bulk bags and load up from the bins at Whole Foods.  But to be able to get my loose bulk items from the town just down the road?  Lovely.  

I do use their stickers for right now.  If the bag needs washing, I just peel the sticker off and save it for the next time.  I was thinking of using a temporary fabric marker for the bags that are solid.  And maybe attaching something with some rigidity (like card stock) via safety pin to the mesh bags.  

I do wish I could just take my glass jars with me as I do at Whole Foods.  But they don't tare the weight at my Kroger as they do at WF, so that's not an option.  

And yes, you do see *one* plastic bag in this picture.  We ran out, and really wanted those dried blueberries.  I chose the resealable plastic bag instead of the produce-like bags people generally use for bulk.  We will use that bag until it is completely worn out, and I might see about purchasing a few more solid cloth bags so that doesn't happen again.  

Results of Air-Drying Laundry

I mentioned in a previous post that I had finally started back air drying my clothes instead of using the dryer.  I don't believe at the time I had any concrete numbers as to how much money it was saving us.  I'm like everybody else, I want to save money whenever I can, but the main reason I air dry is for environmental purposes.  

Well, we have gone through one complete electric cycle and received the bill, and our electric went down $15!  Our heat runs on gas, but has electric blowers, so any decrease in using the heat would be mostly reflected in our gas bill, with perhaps a bit of a decrease in our electric.  But we had cold weather during the last billing cycle so the heat pretty much ran its usual amount.   I'm fairly sure the decrease in our bill was due to not using the dryer, except for sheets and dog covers.  

Other benefits to not drying clothes:

-As I mentioned before, more humidity in our house during the winter, which means less static electricity and the ensuing shocks, and less dry skin.  I do what I can to keep moisture in the house during these cold months:  clothes air drying, letting steam from the shower "be" instead of using the exhaust fan to get rid of it as I do in the summer, and little things like taking the lid off the kettle to let the steam escape and opening the dishwasher during the drying cycle and letting that steam out.  

-Your clothes last longer.  What gets trapped in the lint filter of your dryer, after all, are fibers from your clothes.  (And dog/cat fur if you have any pets.)  

-You don't heat your house in the warmer months.

-Less noise pollution.  No matter how quiet your dryer is, it's still going to make some noise.  

-Smaller chance of creating a fire hazard with your dryer.  

Clothes drying on our guest shower rod.

Today

Today I:

.... continued to hang almost all our laundry to dry.  Today it was a load of towels, washcloths, and socks.  On the left under the bath towels you can see the vent.  With the cold weather we are having right now, the heat is unfortunately running quite often, so I take advantage of that by drying the laundry over it.  

I had picked up the bad habit of using my dryer for everything except for some underthings and Mr. GV's biking clothes, which need to be line-dried.  I have a clothes line outside, but didn't use it this past summer like I should have. So back in December I started again with this great drying rack I've got.  I've found if I do one load of laundry most every day, I can keep up this way.  Shirts I put on hangers and hang them in the guest bathroom on the shower rod.  That shower is only used when J comes to visit, so they're not in the way at all.  It is a small room and if you shut the door it warms up very nicely in there, and the shirts dry overnight.  

I do use the dryer for a few things:  sheets (because of their size), and dog bed covers/blankets and "dog sheets."  Dog sheets are sheets that cover the love seat, the backseat of the car, and our comforter to keep the hair from taking over.  If I don't put these items in the dryer, the hair does not come off.

Another benefit to air drying in the house during the winter:  it adds humidity to the dry air!  I don't know for sure if this is the reason, but our hands are suspiciously not as dry and cracked as they normally are in the winter.  Until I'm proven wrong, I'm going to believe it's from the extra humidity in the living room.  

.....marveled at the beauty of the veggies and fruit Mr. GV was juicing.  

....cooked up a black bean vegetable soup from Veganomicon.  I cooked the beans overnight in the slow cooker then cooked the veggies this morning and added it all to a pot.  I haven't tried it yet but Mr. GV says it is very good.  

Travel supplies for the car

When we travel by car on vacation, I like to keep certain supplies with us.  I'm not talking about a fire extinguisher or tire gauge, although we have both of those in our car too.  No, I'm talking about supplies to make eating out on the road a little easier, and hopefully a little more ecological.  

In a reusable bag I keep plates and bowls that are made of more ecofriendly materials than regular paper supplies.  The utensils are reusable.  Often we have reusable bowls with us as well.  

I also take napkins (paper left over from fast food stops, and cloth if we are just gone for a weekend), a can opener, a clothespin for closing open food bags, some packets of sweetener, and some dish soap.  Generally I have a couple of rubber bands, a dish rag and towel, and a small knife with us as well.

Do you carry eating supplies with you when you travel?

The little things

A few little things I've been doing recently, green-wise:

Mr. GV attends continuing education every year, and that always means a lot of paper.  Two full binders of paper, as a matter of fact.  All things that he will never reference again.  There are a few sheets that are blank on one side, and they are pulled out and put beside our printer.  We don't do a lot of printing in this house, but there are coupons and a few other things, and I use those papers. 

The pages in this picture are all printed on both sides, and there wasn't much I could do with those, so they have gone to the recycling facility. 

Mr. GV went through the items hanging up in his closet that he hasn't worn in the past 6 months.  He managed to let loose of these 6 shirts, plus one more that I am going to keep for myself, to wear around the house. I'm proud of these 6 that will be leaving our house soon, because it is tough for Mr. GV to let go of things, and I sincerely appreciate it when he does.  These shirts will be headed to Goodwill in the next couple of weeks. 

I had stopped using dryer sheets for a couple of years, but the static is just terrible in the winter.  I found 2 boxes of dryer sheets in my laundry closet, and cut the sheets all in thirds.  That is enough to keep the static down, and as a bonus, one box will last three times as long!

(Dark picture--sorry about that.)  I buy conditioner that comes in a plastic bottle.  Is there any other kind?  I have to be honest--I have finally found a vegan conditioner that makes me happy, so I haven't bothered to check to see if they sell conditioner in a container other than plastic. 

Lately I've been cutting the bottles open and using a spatula to get the last bit out before recycling the bottes. The amount I got out of 2 bottles was enough to do my 'prone to super-tangles' hair a couple of times. 

As I was putting my Christmas decorations back into their tubs for another 11 months, I pulled out a few pieces of which I don't have any sort of attachment.  This includes a stocking I was given when I held a volunteer position, a small Beanie, 3 candle holders (minus one glass that broke), and some bud vases.  I will admit that I am waffling about the vases though, as I kinda love them.  They may not make it to the thrift store, but the rest certainly will. 

I'm not sure if you can really see how big this bag is, but that's a wide doorway between my dining room and kitchen.  There is some heavy-duty bubble wrap in there, the likes of which I have never seen before.  It came with our new microwave, and is extremely sturdy.  The rest of the bag is filled with regular bubble wrap, packing peanuts, and air pockets. 

A few months ago I offered up some bubble wrap and packing peanuts on Freecycle, and the owner of a local used bookstore took them, as they use it all in shipping books and handcrafted wooden items that her husband makes.  I save it up, and whenever I get an assortment together, I take it by.

All on their own, these little things don't seem like very much, but when you add them all together, you can see what a boost the environment is getting from recycling and reusing.  Of course the VERY BEST thing to do is Refuse!  Refuse that plastic bag, refuse to buy that dust collector, etc.  But sometimes we made poor choices in our past, we have no choice in the matter, or darn it--we just don't want to change that one thing that we love so much! 

Yesterday I stayed home and had an eco-frugal kind of day.  Sometimes being frugal or green feels like a burden, so it's nice to think through the day and see all the things I've done that help out finances and the world around us.

First up I got some (soaked) dried beans going--chickpeas, kidney, and black.

 I spent a few minutes in the early morning sitting outside on the deck.

I hung out a couple loads of clothes (this is just the first one.)

Defrosted some vegan hot dogs for Mr. GV.  Yep they're in plastic so not the *best* thing but they were in the freezer and I'm trying to use up some old things in there.

Rinsed out a couple of plastic bags for reuse later.

I got some cushioned air pockets together for recycling.  I've emailed the place we take our plastics above #2 to see if they will take these.  If not, the company will accept them back for recycling.

Got the cans/jars we had used for the day together, to take for recycling today with the rest.

Saved the end of the onion I was cutting up for a later batch of vegetable broth.

Made up a new batch of vegetable wash.

Had a yummy, nutritious snack of popcorn with nutritional yeast.

Listed to entertaining and informative podcasts while I worked in the kitchen.

Made up a big pot of chili with the aforementioned beans.

Used the soap slivers we've accumulated over the past few months to make up another batch of liquid soap.

Made some more homemade cheeseless parm.

Fixed 8 bottles of tea, per Mr. GV's request.

Walked to the mailbox and pondered what, if any, trees should replace the two we lost to the storms earlier this year.

Wondered if the persimmon tree is EVER going to give us any fruit.

Admired my cucumber plant and how the fencing acts as a great trellis.

And was happy to see at least a couple of tiny baby cukes!

Was grateful to see the broccoli plants are still proving me wrong and sending up small side shoots, which we are enjoying in our salads.



A few other things I managed during the day:

-Made a donation online and printed out the tax receipt on the back of a used sheet of paper, only turning on the printer when needed.
-I washed and dried our sheets later in the day so as not to heat up the house.  Sheets are the one thing I don't like to put out on the line.  Allergens seem to bother us when I do.
-I went through my filing cabinet and pulled out the book for the non-working TV we recycled as e-waste earlier this month.  The book was recycled this morning.
-I paid attention to the dishwasher's cycle so I would know when to cancel it.  I've found that even on eco-wash, a large portion of the last part of the cycle is devoted to heated drying.  There is no way to turn that off as there was on my old dishwasher, so I just listen and stop it when I am able. 
-Paid attention to when the central air was running.  With the current temps, it seems as though it wants to run all the time, even when I have it turned up to 75 or 76.  I kept turning it up yesterday when I was sitting, because being in front of the fan is enough to keep me cool then.

Anybody else want to share some of the eco-frugal things you've been doing lately?