No Room for a Garden? Find a Community Garden
May 11, 2010 Gardening
Not everyone has the space for their own garden. While you can do a little kitchen garden and grow some herbs and perhaps some tomatoes, it’s really hard to do a serious garden if you don’t have the space. You might be fortunate enough to have an option in some areas.
Some neighborhoods have community gardens set up. These may be many individual plots that you can sign up for or a single plot that anyone in the community can help with. It’s a chance for you to garden even if you don’t otherwise have the space. The American Community Gardening Association is a great place to start learning about community gardens.
If there’s a community garden already in your area, go find out how to join. There may be fees associated, as there are costs to running a community garden, from leasing or buying the land, to the cost of insurance, to the cost of water.
If you can’t find a community garden in your area, you might be able to start one with others in your area who would like to garden. Start talking about it in your neighborhood. Look for empty lots that could serve. Start talking to sponsors to help with the costs once you have enough people to get things going.
It can be challenging to start a community garden. You may not find the support you were hoping for. There may be some people flat out opposed to the idea. The only way you’re going to find out if things can work, however, is to give it a try.
It helps to remind people that a community garden isn’t just about giving people a place to grow flowers and vegetables. It’s a way to bring the community together. It’s a way to teach children about where food comes from and give them real experiences with growing food. It’s a way to make healthier foods more accessible.
Community gardens can even help to deter crime. They get people out into the neighborhood and helps them to get to know each other. There are more eyes outside, so to speak.
The people who participate in the community garden may even be interested in getting together on other topics of concern. You have one point of interest in common. You may be able to get members of the community garden group to work on other activities as well. It’s great for making needed changes in the community.
You will find being a part of a community garden to be a fair bit of work. That’s reasonable, as any sort of gardening takes significant effort. But you may have to add into those efforts the work needed to make the garden function for everyone, deal with disputes and cope with troublemakers. But you’ll be joining in efforts to really improve your community.
Tags: community gardens
Can You Really Go Green By Working at Home?
May 10, 2010 Working at Home
Lots of people want to work at home. For most it has nothing to do with going green and everything to do with dreams. The dreams of a more leisurely lifestyle. The dreams of more time for their family. The dreams of an income they can barely imagine.
But working at home isn’t all about that. It can also be about being more eco friendly.
I’ve worked at home since late 2001. It’s mostly been fun, but also stressful, and I’m still far from the wild dream so many have of hitting it rich. But then I haven’t always had a home business either.
If you’re looking at working at home and wondering if there’s a shortcut to getting started without getting scammed, I’ll tell you the answer right now:
Maybe.
Whether or not there’s a shortcut depends on what you do right now. You see, it’s possible that your current job could become at least a partial work at home job if it’s the right sort of job.
That’s right, you could telecommute from your current position if that’s possible within your company.
This is obviously not possible for everyone. If you have to deal with people face to face, it’s not going to happen. If your job otherwise requires your physical presence every day, it’s not going to happen. But if that’s not the case, it might be possible. Or not. Much depends on the company you work for.
Go in and talk to your boss. Find out if telecommuting even one day a week is an option. With luck, you’ll get a positive answer.
If it’s a no, but you think you could telecommute to your current job, start working on changing the policy. Find out why the answer was no and figure out how to counter those arguments. Sometimes it can be done.
What If You Can’t Telecommute from Your Current Job?
Many people just don’t have that telecommute option for one reason or another. It’s a drag, but it’s real life.
If you’re serious about working from home, it’s time to start looking.
When you’re considering the eco side of working from home, be sure that you consider that as you job hunt. There’s not much eco to working for companies that generally don’t respect the environment.
You’re also going to have to learn about work at home scams. The dratted things are all over the place. Be extremely skeptical of any and all job offers, especially the ones which sound too good to be true. I run another website, Home with the Kids, which has a lot of tips on avoiding work at home scams you might want to read.
Most work at home jobs pay on production rather than hourly. This makes sense, as it means that they don’t have to worry about if you’re being productive during the hours you said you’d work. If you’re not productive, you’re just not getting paid!
What About a Home Business?
It’s amazing how many home business opportunities there are out there. You could join an eco friendly network marketing opportunity. You could do affiliate marketing. You could start your own website. You could do some other kind of business.
There are so many ways you could start a home business if that’s what interests you. The internet has opened things up tremendously.
The challenge is that there is never a guarantee that your home business will allow you to make a living. Running a business is hard work. If you want to succeed, you’re going to have to give it everything you’ve got and keep pushing through even when it seems like nothing is going right. Expect it to be hard and you won’t be disappointed.
Don’t trust any of the people who tell you it’s going to be easy to earn six figures in a year (or worse, a month!) working from home. People who earn that kind of money are very much the exception to the rule. Just as with any other kind of business, most home businesses fail. If you want to do a home business you had better be prepared for that.
Set Up Your Work Space
If you can telecommute or otherwise find a way to work from home, you’re going to need a good space to work from home. A dedicated home office is best, especially if you need quiet for your work, and some jobs do have that as an absolute requirement.
You can work from any place you can set your computer up if your work allows it.
You will want to be as free from distractions as possible wherever you set up. You don’t want to get started working and find that you’re unproductive because the TV is on or the kids are playing or anything like that.
Make sure that any supplies you buy as as eco friendly as possible. You shouldn’t be buying new gear unless it’s absolutely necessary. That includes your computer, which of course will be tempting to upgrade, but do you really need a newer machine or is the one you have quite capable of doing all you need it to do?
This May Take Time
For most people, getting to work at home isn’t something that happens overnight. It may take months to find the right opportunity or to get your current job to start a telecommuting program. Be patient.
If you’re starting something new, don’t be surprised if it takes time to earn an adequate income. Even when it’s a job rather than a home business it takes time to figure things out well enough that you earn what you’d like. Work hard at it just the same and find something that works for you.
Tags: green home business, telecommuting
When Should You Teach Your Child to Swim?
May 6, 2010 Eco Friendly Parenting
Summer is coming and that means your family might be spending some time near the water, whether it’s a swimming pool, a river, the ocean, a lake, whatever’s convenient to you.
Are your children good swimmers yet?
Swimming is something I consider to be a vital skill for children even if you and everyone in your family does not have a swimming pool available. Just because you don’t have easy access now doesn’t mean your kids never will, and it’s good for them to be able to cope if they get a chance to go swimming.
How Young is Too Young for Swimming Lessons?
I’m all for teaching kids of any age to swim. I don’t believe there’s such a thing as too young. And it would appear that National Institutes of Health agrees with me. Despite fears that swimming lessons for very young children (ages 1-4) increases the odds of drowning, a study has shown that this isn’t the case.
With a very active toddler and inlaws with a backyard swimming pool, you have no idea how comforting this is to me. Sweet little rascal is going to learn to swim as soon as possible.
It’s important to keep in mind that swimming lessons don’t guarantee your child won’t ever drown. In fact, the NIH report found that many of the older kids who drowned were in fact fairly skilled swimmers. Swimming lessons still appeared to help limit drownings, but they were not a guarantee.
Always Be Vigilant Near Water
It doesn’t matter how well your kids swim, you should always be careful when your family is around a body of water that someone could drown in. Younger kids should have one adult whose sole responsibility is to know where that child is and what he or she is doing at all times.
No leaving the area without assigning another responsible adult to keep watch.
You’ll still need someone watching older kids, as accidents can happen. Kids who are confident in the water are likely to enjoy some horseplay or test their limits.
My oldest tests her limits all the time when we go swimming. Sometimes she needs a little help.
Use Proper Water Safety Gear
This is one area where I’ve had to disagree with my inlaws a few times. They always want my kids to wear floaties on their arms.
These are a really bad idea.
Floaties give kids who can’t swim the idea that they’ll be just fine in the water. They don’t realize how much they’re relying on them.
Worse, floaties can come off with little warning. Kid arms are often skinny things, and the floaties just don’t stay on that well when the kids get to playing a little rough.
I’ve been told that they also teach bad swimming habits. I’ve talked to swim instructors who really hate floaties.
If you need to put your child in something to help him or her stay afloat in the water, use proper floatation gear such as a life vest
Know How to Swim Yourself
If you can’t swim, there’s only so much you can do if one of your kids needs help in the water. And if you can swim, make sure to take the time to build up your endurance. Even a small child is very hard to carry through the water when you have to swim. After all, both of you need your heads out of the water regularly, possibly constantly if the child is not comfortable holding his or her breath underwater.
Take some time throughout the swimming season and build up your swimming skills. It’s great exercise and has a shot at being a benefit to your family. Hopefully by just making it so that your kids can have a little more fun in the water, but it’s nice to have a shot at being able to help someone struggling.
CPR lessons are a good idea too. CPR is one of those skills you hope you never need, but if it comes up necessary you’ll be extremely grateful you took the time to learn it.
Tags: kids, life vests, swimming lessons, water safety
Are You Tired of Being Green?
May 5, 2010 Going Green
Admit it. Sometimes being eco friendly is just a wee bit frustrating. It’s challenging even when you’re used to it. There are only so many parts of being green that can really feel routine when you know there are easier but less eco friendly choices out there.
I think we all feel the temptation at times to skip the green solution and do things the easy way. To drive where we could walk or ride a bike. To skip the search for organic or local produce. To shop without worrying about where the products came from, what they’re made from or how they were made. To give in and let the kids have whatever random plastic toy they’re begging for that you know will be forgotten in a week if you buy it.
Most of us will give in at one point or another on these things. We don’t have perfect willpower. But sometimes it’s all just so overwhelming that we want to just quit for a time.
How do you get past that?
Take a Hike
You heard me. Take a hike. Get outta here!
Seriously, go reconnect with nature. Head out to a favorite hiking trail, favorite beach, whatever really helps you to enjoy nature at its finest.
If you can do this regularly so much the better, but that isn’t possible for all of us. Get out into nature as often as you can to help yourself remember just why you want to be eco friendly in the first place.
Figure Out What isn’t Working for You
Often frustration with being green isn’t so much the whole being green thing. It’s one particular thing that just isn’t working for you. Maybe you’re one of the unlucky ones who just doesn’t do so well with CFLs. Maybe buying organic produce and free range meat is adding a stress you just can’t quite cope with on your budget.
Whatever is causing the problem, think if you really need to continue it. For foods, look at which ones are really a priority to get organic for you. It matters more on some foods than on others.
If you just don’t like the light quality from CFLs, think about other ways you can save energy. There are lot of choices out there. Maybe something else would work better for you, such as drying your clothes on a clothesline or remembering to completely shut down your computer at night.
You can always come back to the frustrating parts later. You could make more progress overall by skipping things that aren’t going too smoothly at the moment.
Slow Down
How many changes have you tried to make recently?
Much like figuring out what isn’t working for you, you should be noticing if the changes are coming too fast for you. Most people don’t do so well with a ton of changes being made all at once. Take it a little bit easier for a while or even stop adding new eco friendly habits.
It’s okay to feel frustrated with eco friendly living. It’s a difficult process for most of us. But try not to let frustration stop you. Take a deep breath, then another, and figure out what’s going wrong. Once you know where the problem is, you can start working on the solution.
Tags: burnout, eco friendly living
Why Aren’t You Using a Clothesline?
May 4, 2010 Eco Friendly Home
There are many simple things you can do to be more eco friendly. Hanging your clothes out on a clothesline
The Eco Advantages of Using a Clothesline
Buying and using a clothesline to do most of the drying of your laundry makes a lot of sense when it comes to the environment. It’s one of the easiest forms of solar power to use. It’s even fast on hot days. And it keeps you from using gas or electricity to power your clothesdryer.
The environmental advantages go beyond the gas and power bill, however. Line drying also helps most clothes to last longer. Dryers can be pretty hard on clothes; that’s why you get so much lint in the dryer.
The sun doesn’t cause that damage. It’s much kinder to your clothes. This means your clothes will last longer and you won’t need to replace them as often.
The Advantages to You
I know, hanging clothes on a clothesline sounds like a lot of work. It certainly is more work than tossing clothes into the dryer and taking them back out later. But it may not be as bad as you think.
I prefer to use clothespins to hang my laundry, but some other people put damp shirts, dresses, pants and so forth onto hangers to dry on the clothesline. It saves a step. If you’re in an area with a lot of wind it’s not so good an idea to use hangers because the wind can blow them right off the line.
You can still make doing your laundry more efficient with a clothesline. It may take time and effort to get the clothes up, but once they’re dry you can bring the hangers out and the clothes are easy to pop onto the hanger, as they aren’t all tangled up from being in the dryer anymore.
You also quickly save money with a clothesline. How quickly depends on the clothesline you bought, how much laundry you do and how much it costs you to run your dryer for each load. It’s likely to pay off in well under a year for many families.
Hanging out laundry is also pretty good exercise. You’re out in the fresh air and sunshine (might want to wear a hat!) and hanging up heavy, damp laundry. If you aren’t used to it, you will feel the effort.
The Disadvantages
It’s not all wonderful with a clothesline. You probably don’t want to let your jeans and towels dry completely on a clothesline – they end up kind of crunchy. But you can let them dry most of the way and then finish the job off in the dryer. They’ll come out feeling great and you will still have used your dryer less.
If you have a Homeowner’s Association to deal with, you’re likely to be facing rules against clotheslines. There are groups trying to change that, but it’s slow going. If you’re discreet about it and don’t get a huge setup that can be seen over your fence you can probably still get away with using a clothesline.
Clotheslines are also more challenging in apartments and condos. You likely just don’t have a great space to install one. However there are many good clothes drying racks you can buy and put in a space that gets plenty of sunshine and where you can open the window for fresh air.
They’re of course quite subject to weather. You’re not going to get much benefit from a clothesline on a rainy day. But even on cloudy days clothes will often dry reasonably quickly, depending on the moisture in the air that day. And when the sun goes down, the laundry’s not going to dry fast at all.
Overall, I find the advantages of using a clothesline
Tags: clothesline, laundry
