Going Without Shampoo?

Keeping your hair clean without shampoo. Would you try it?

The Boston Phoenix: The No Poo Do
Natural Family Online: Why You Should Go No 'Poo
The Carousing Classist: Taking the Hippy Dippy Plunge
The Daily Mail, UK: Could you Survive without Shampoo?
Simply Living Lightly on the Earth: The No Poo Movement

Foraging for Wild Food

ForageSF was conceived of by Iso Rabins in early 2008, with the mission to connect Bay Area dwellers with the wild food that is all around them. Through a monthly box of all wild foraged foods, which we call a CSF, we deliver fresh, sustainably harvest wild food to city dwellers. From wild mushrooms to acorn flour, there is a wealth of edible forage just outside our doors that few people know about, and still fewer ever consume. Our goal is to push people out of the supermarket, to get them trying new foods harvested sustainably and fairly by their neighbors. As part of our community focused philosophy, 50% of the profit from the sale of any product we purchase from a forager goes straight to that individual . That is, to the person who collected it.

Effective Advertising for Canadians

There's a pretty effective ad. I came across this ad on the site for the York Region newspaper. Someone had sent me a link to follow to a story they had printed. Anyway, I was struck by that ad with the maple leaf falling down. I even went to the site for the Nature Conservancy.

How to Build a Snake Hibernaculum

I've been watching one of those animal shows today and they were talking about snakes. At one point they showed a hibernaculum of garter snakes leaving in the Spring. Made me think about how we could encourage garter snakes or at least help them to survive by having something like that in our garden. I'd also like to build a bat house to encourage more of them too. We used to get a lot when we lived in Alliston. They eat a ton of bugs and only come out for about an hour just as the sun is going down. All the rumours about them being dangerous are a bit overdone. They may have rabies true but that is the extent of the danger.

Meanwhile, back to the garter snakes. I found information about building a snake hibernaculum on the Toronto Zoo website. I don't know if my Mom would be interested. Not that she is afraid of snakes at all but her garden space is mostly spoken for with all the plants she already has and those she is more than likely to find to add during the garden season.

Would you build a winter home for snakes? In Ontario we don't have to worry much about poisonous snakes or any other kind of poisonous creature really. Rabies are a bigger worry.

How to Build a Hibernaculum
1. Select a well-drained site protected from cold winds, with good sun exposure (south-facing).  Ensure that surface and ground water flows away from the site (i.e. build on upland areas).  If not, drainage pipes below the frost line may be required to prevent flooding. 
2. Your snake hibernaculum can be sized to fit the available space, but it must be deeper than the frost line (at least 2 meters deep).  Snakes prefer an overwintering site that is close to the water table, but not flooded.  Moist air ensures that snakes do not dehydrate over the dry winter months. 
3. Place rubble in the bottom to create chambers for the snakes.  Chambers created at different depths allow the snakes to move vertically and horizontally to select a preferred temperature/humidity microhabitat.
4. Concrete blocks or PVC drain pipes (with holes cut into the sides along the length of the pipe) can be used for entrances and passages to allow the snakes multi-level access.  Snakes use these passage ways to move to the bottom of the pit and into the underground chambers.  It is necessary to hand place the concrete blocks to ensure that a space or tunnel extends down into the bottom of the pit at each of the corners.  Continue to fill the pit with larger rocks, old concrete blocks and slabs, maintaining as many openings and chambers as possible. 
5. Cap with an insulating layer of smaller rock rubble.  Be sure to leave the entrances open and keep the top clear of shrubs that may grow as the site matures.
6. Protect emerging snakes from predators by having cover objects such as logs, rock piles, brush and uncut grass nearby. 
7. In the spring (mid April to late May), monitor your site to determine if wildlife are using the hibernaculum. Don’t get discouraged, it may take several years before snakes “discover” your hibernaculum.

Wild About Gardening has more information about building hibernaculums for toads and how to keep frogs in your pond as well.

Another Paper Box

I've got a crayon box sitting on my desk. It had Crayola markers in it, 64 of them. One of them, garden green, has no colour and I'm going to send an email to Crayola about that. Maybe I will even get that done, off my to-do list, tonight.

I'm just looking at this box and thinking about the paper/ cardboard used to make this box which is now disposable. Thinking about all the years we had boxes of crayons, pencil crayons and pens and threw away boxes. Often they were kind of ripped up cause I did try to keep mine all tidy in their box as long as I could. But the box never could outlast a pencil case or metal crayon box (usually a cookie tin left over from Christmas).

Does it make anyone else feel kind of sad to think of the trees cut down to make packaging which we throw out soon after we bring the stuff home?

A crayon box isn't big. One crayon box is just one crayon box. But, we bought a new bathtub for the renovations to add an apartment to the basement and that was a really big box, for one home, one family. It had to be strapped to the roof of a friend's van to bring it here. The empty box had to be folded several times to fit into the trunk of the car. The recycling truck which picks up our cereal boxes, milk cartons and newspapers, would not take the bathtub box. The man on the truck explained that it would not fit on their truck. The box would take up too much space and they would not have enough room to load all the recyclables from the houses on their usual run. We would have to drive that box to the dump.

To the dump? That doesn't sound like recycling.

So that isn't what we did. I folded and semi-crushed that box until I could smoosh it into the trunk of the car. Then we drove it to the massive store (one of those huge parking lots with a row of massive chain stores to one side) where we had bought the bathtub. I dragged that box out of the car and put it into a handy shopping cart in the parking lot. I left it there. My small protest to too much packaging and the waste of too many trees.

This crayon box is still on my desk though. Still making me feel sad for the part of a tree it once was. Never to be a tree again. Was it worth it? To be cut down, pulverized, painted and folded and then stuffed with crayons only to be bought and then discarded? I don't think so.

We need different packaging. Why can't crayons be sold in a tin box which would last longer and not become dog earred and torn. A tin box could go to school and stay in a locker and then come home again. A tin box could last a kid from grade one to high school and beyond. The tin box could outlast the original crayons and end up holding pens and pencils when that kid starts their first job in some cubicle or something more interesting and unique. A tin box could be passed on to children of that child and then grandchildren. A tin box would only increase in value and be something treasured if it was kept by the family.

This cardboard box is never going to be any of those things. If I don't take it to the blue box it will just be landfill, un-needed and unnecessary landfill. We have an overflow of landfill of this kind already.

So here is this one box. One box isn't much. Like one tree in a forest, it's just one and when it's gone it makes a bit of room for saplings to reach up through the space and grab some sun for themselves. The problem is that it's not just one tree or one box.

Think about all the packaging we take for granted, don't even see it as we go through our day to day lives. There is such a ton of it. In a week you might be throwing away a whole tree. But, one tree isn't much. Right?

Green is the New Black

 

This shirt was at Goodwill. I liked the slogan and the floral design. It's even a nice shade of green.

Remember... Take Care of Our Planet

October 15th - Blog Action Day

I've Been Thinking Green Tonight

I was at an Interview Skills Workshop this afternoon. One of the interesting things I can remember was about researching the company before the interview. I already knew about the researching part but two new things were researching the competitors and researching market and industry trends. I think I already knew those too but had forgotten them. Funny how your brain stops stopping on a dime once you get old-ish.

We had to write four interview questions. One was something you would ask if you were the interviewer. The second was something you hate to answer when you are interviewed. The third was something illegal to be asked, such as demographic information. The fourth was something unusual/ wacky just to throw people off. I asked, "Is it ethical to flush goldfish?"

So your question for the day... is it ethical to flush goldfish? I mean not just the dead ones or those barely living. What about all those goldfish which are flushed just cause people are tired of watching them do nothing but float around, puff out their cheeks and poop. Excitement is not a goldfish.

Two interesting issues in the news lately: banning cell phones from schools and banning plastic grocery store bags from cities entirely.

On the cell phone thing I am comfortable with them being banned or at least restricted. Do we really need to tell everyone we are on the bus and thinking about stopping to get milk on the way home? Is that really important communication? No. People talking about boring stuff on the bus should be banned. If you can't talk about something interesting just shut up or get off the bus and bore someone walking home.

Also, it is possible all that boring and useless cell phone use has begun killing off the bees. Think about your last call. Was it worth killing a bee for? Of course, it's not just the bees. Bees are essential for pollinating plants. Next time you want to eat something from the plant world consider the bee who let the plants have sex so they could make little plants so you could eat them. Now, how do you feel about killing bees and causing plants to lose all the excitement they really have. It's not like they can just walk over to another plant and buy them a drink.

As to the plastic bags... I wonder what will happen to everyone working so hard to make all those bags now. What about the oil producing countries who will see their income lost due to plastic bag banning. To each action there is a reaction. Yes, it's good for the environment not to have those bags blowing in the wind but someone else will suffer for it. Wildlife won't get stuck in bag handles. How will they amuse themselves? People won't have a lifetime free supply of small sized garbage bags. I even have a garbage can thing which was created just to use those plastic grocery bags, the handles slip over the slots in the side of the can. What about that! What about the person who created that idea and patented it? They are going to be out of a vast fortune. That hardly seems fair.

Still, I do think the plastic grocery bags should go. It isn't an easy decision for me. I have considered how I will need to buy an even bigger purse to hold all my non-flimsy (yet still some form of plastic) grocery bags. I have a nice one from M&M Meats which they gave me for free last time I shopped there and bought a ton of frozen stuff. I will have to get at least one more of those I think. However, it is a struggle to get even one folded and smushed up into my purse along with all the other necessary junk I cart around everyday. Something else will have to be sacrificed if I am going to fit in two of those. Don't think that will be an easy choice to make. Or, that I only need to bring bags when I'm going grocery shopping. I never know when I will end up picking up a few things, along the way home or as I see a store when I am out wandering around doing important and vital things. I will always need to keep at least one bag in my purse for non-planned grocery shopping.

Yet, I put the environment first. If the plastic bags are banned here in Toronto I will manage... somehow. It's for the turtles after all. Think of the turtles who have to live with those blasted bags sinking down into the wetlands once they blow away in some parking lot or other. Those bags never compost, they just stick around forever. The poor turtles have to live with them longest since none of the frogs and fish and other creatures live long enough to really care. So, if they ban grocery bags in your area, think of the turtles who you'll be making very happy.

Green Weddings

I wrote about Green Weddings for LockerGnome. I tucked this quote along with it.

“I dreamed of a wedding of elaborate elegance,
A church filled with family and friends.
I asked what kind of wedding he wished for,
He said one that would make me his wife.”
– Author Unknown

Green Karat: Eco Jewelry

Green Karat - Using recycled gold for ecologically responsible jewelry.

Gold is a very versatile metal. It is malleable and ductile. It’s a good conductor of heat and electricity, immune to tarnish, and resistant to acids. Although these properties make it very useful in industrial applications, 80% of the gold used each year nonetheless goes into jewelry.

While gold is valuable enough to provide an incentive to recycle, significant amounts of gold sit idle, while mining continues at a pace of 2,500 tons a year. In fact, there is enough gold above ground (already mined) to satisfy all demands of the jewelry industry for the next 50 years. Much of it sits in bank vaults and in the form of old and unused jewelry.

Our greater goal at greenKarat is to end destructive gold and diamond mining. We do not, however, strive to force that change through radical activism. While activist organizations play a critically important role in educating and motivating consumers, we believe that widespread and permanent change will ultimately occur through the voice of consumer buying decisions.

Our mission is to provide an ecologically and socially responsible jewelry alternative to those who seek change. We want to help you, in some small way, become part of the permanent solution. Together we can make a difference.

Tired of Flying Rats? (Aka Pigeons)

Have a look at these pigeon spikes. Fairly nasty, even I think impaling them could be a little extreme. However, not so long ago they used to be an ingrediant. So this is the lazy person's way to hunt for pigeons. I bet you could be cooking up pot luck for the whole neighbourhood in some city areas. Feed the homeless potluck pigeon pie!

Although, I think people who live downtown sometimes get confused. There are so few wild animals down there, other than rats, pigeons, insects and the odd raccoon that they consider pigeons to be a real bird. They even feed them, on purpose. It's really too bad and someone should suggest that they get out more. Out of the city that is. There are real wild animals still left. You don't have to settle for flying rats who poop all over everything and everyone. City people... there are real birds just a little north of you (everything is north of the cities here in Canada).

I don't know why these people want to hunt crows. I actually like them. They keep to themselves and clean up roadkill.

Freecycle

Freecycle

One rule: everything posted must be free. Whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano, or an old door to be given away, it can be posted on the network. Or, maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself? Respond to the posting directly and you just might get it. After that it is up to the giver to set up a pickup time for passing on the treasure.

The Freecycle Network is a project of RISE, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission includes reducing waste, generating employment training, and fostering cooperation between other nonprofit organizations and the public.

Find your local group and join up. I have joined two cause there isn't anything closer to where I am.