Monthly Archives: December 2009

Last year, the Eco Women made some resolutions for 2009.

So how did they do?

Eco Lassie:

Last year’s resolutions:

Her local garbage collector DOES NOT recycle, however, she does it herself and takes items to a center when she goes to town weekly.  Her plan for 2009 is to increase how much she recycles.

How did she do?

She is happy to report that her household did increase how much they recycle.  Even better, starting next month, they will be able to recycle glass and metal curbside!

Enviro Girl:

Last year’s resolutions:

1. Install two screen/storm doors to allow for better circulation in the summer, draft control in the winter, and help her sons with their traffic patterns year-round.
2. Buy homemade (yea Etsy!) or make over half of her gifts to other people over the next year.
3. Incorporate three more types of organic foodstuffs into her family’s regular diet.
4. Create 10 “rabbitats” (piles of brush for critters to live/hide/forage under) in the Back 40 of her property.
5. Learn how to can instead of freeze food (more energy efficient).
6. Finish the CRP plantings (trees) on the Back 40.
7. Wash her hair every other day instead of every day to shorten shower time and reduce water use.

How did she do?

1. Screen doors — She did this and reports that the doors are WONDERFUL.  They’re doing a great job of all of the above and more than paying for themselves!
2. Homemade gifts — Check .  People really liked how unique their gifts were.
3. Organic foodstuffs — Yes!  Carrots, spinach, tomatoes, and salad dressing.
4. Rabbitats — They built three of the hoped-for ten.
5. Canning food — Check.  She canned fruits.
6. Tree plantings — Check.  1,900 trees are planted and they are now dealing with the fallout of keeping the weeds down around them.
7. Hair — She did that too.  Sometimes it meant scheduling herself for three days without washing her her hair, but a shower cap and pony tail make this possible.

The Green Mommy:

Last year’s resolutions:

Her “dirty little secret” is that she still uses paper towels, even though she knows she shouldn’t. This is the year she’s going to give them up for good.  She also wants to start buying these or these consistently instead of the usual garbage bags.   She uses her cloth bags instead of disposable plastic ones when she shops, so she shouldn’t be putting her garbage in non-biodegradable plastic bags.

How did she do?

She had a difficult year defeating her arch nemeses, “The Paper Towel”, but she’s definitely getting a handle on him.

Recycla:

Last year’s resolutions:

1. Believe it or not, Recycla does not have a compost bin.  *gasp* Yes, an eco sin of the highest order.  Instead, she sporadically takes her produce scraps directly out to the garden and digs them in.  Or, she’ll toss an apple core behind a bush.  She knows this is wrong and will fix the situation this year.  She’s moving to a new house in six weeks and, sometime shortly after that, will either get a compost bin or a worm bin.
2. Recycla is also using her upcoming move as an opportunity to pare back her possessions — she’s hoping that her family will enjoy a less-cluttered home and won’t rush to buy more stuff.
3. Finally, Recycla and her husband are investigating ways to become better locavores.  They will soon start buying their beef, chicken, and eggs from local farms. They will also significantly increase how much they grow in their gardens this year — even though they haven’t moved into their new house yet, they have already built three raised beds for their kitchen garden (and planted some herbs and garlic last fall) and will build three more this coming year, as well as plant blueberry bushes, grape vines, and more.

How did she do?

It took longer than expected, but Recycla has not one, but TWO compost bins in her back yard and is thinking about getting a third one.  As for paring back possessions, she made some progress, but her husband children are natural pack rats and accumulate stuff almost every minute.  This will be an ongoing project.  As for her third goal, Recycla’s family has made huge progress — they significantly increased the size of their kitchen garden and also visited the farmers’ market regularly.  They have started buying beef and chicken from local farms, but are still researching their options for eggs.

Tune in on Tuesday, when the Eco Women share their eco resolutions for 2010.

Today is the LAST DAY to enter the Holiday Giveaway!

Enviro Girl is a self-avowed clothesline fan.  She hangs everything out to dry from April through October.  The weather dictates her laundry schedule, but unlike a clothes dryer, clotheslines:

1. cost nothing to run (clothes dryers are among the least energy-efficient appliances–NO clothes dryer even has an Energy Star rating)

2. are cheap (Enviro Girl inherited hers, her grandfather made them)

3.  are convenient–unless it’s about to rain, Enviro Girl can leave her clothes hang on them all day until she feels like pulling them back inside

4.  make clothes smell great (NOTHING beats the smell of clothes or sheets fresh from the line)

5.  use a renewable resource (sun and wind)

The trouble is, Enviro Girl lives in Wisconsin, which makes a clothesline an unreasonable option for almost half the year.  She’s all for the environment, but she’s not about to bring in t-shirts and jeans frozen flatter than pancakes and then put them someplace to thaw.  She’s got 3 kids–enough laundry as it is!

Back when Enviro Girl had her first teaching job she lived in an apartment.  The nearest washer and dryer was across the street and the dryers didn’t work.  Every week Enviro Girl would lug heavy baskets of wet laundry back to her place and hang them on a drying rack above the gas stove heating her apartment (she was kicking it Old School in a big way back in those days–and NOT by personal choice).  She still has that drying rack, though it’s rarely used.  This fall she decided to try it out.

Between a short rail hung above her utility sink and her drying rack from back in the day, Enviro Girl can air dry an entire load of clothes.  She still has to toss towels, undies, socks and sheets through the dryer, but she and her family have grown accustomed to the sight of the drying rack standing, fully loaded, in the corner of the kitchen.  It takes their clothes about a day to dry inside this way, but it still offers all the advantages of the clotheslines.  Except the smell–their clothes just smell like nothing now.  And the convenience.  With only one drying rack, Enviro Girl can only dry one load a day as opposed to 3 at a time on her substantial length of clotheslines.

She was dubious at first, but it living almost dryer free during the off-season is possible in Wisconsin.

Reader, how do you dry clothes in your neck of the woods?

Don’t forget about the Eco Women’s Holiday Giveaway!

Recycla and her family live in Virginia, which received a massive snow fall this past weekend — Recycla measured 22 inches after the last flake fell.

You can probably imagine Recycla’s daughters’ hyperactive delight in the face of all that snow and they have spent as much time outside as they can manage without getting frostbite or hypothermia.  The girls have made  snow forts, snow angels, snow balls, and more.

And, getting to the point of this post, Recycla and her girls have made snow ice  cream.  Yum!

Making snow ice cream is super easy:

• Start off with clean snow — about 5-6 cups loosely scooped (not packed).
• In a large bowl, mix a cup of milk, 1/4 – 1/2 cup of sugar, and a little vanilla extract.
• Mix in the snow.

The resulting mixture will be slushy and oh-so-delish.

If you want chocolate ice cream, Recycla and her family happily recommend adding in some of your favorite hot chocolate mix.

Tell the Eco Women:  What is your favorite kind of ice cream?

Don’t forget about the Eco Women’s Holiday Giveaway!