Monthly Archives: April 2008

Time to Haul Out Your Bike?

It’s spring, and the weather is beautiful in much of the country. If it’s not, it probably will be soon.

bike path

Have you ever considered biking to work? Or for your errands? With gas prices climbing ever higher (they will hit $4/gallon soon in my area, the way things are going), biking is looking more and more practical for a lot of people.

It’s also great exercise. You don’t want to ride so hard that you arrive at work covered in sweat, of course, especially if you’re dealing with the public all day.

If you’re within 5 or so miles of your work, this can be highly practical. It doesn’t take all that long to bike that far, and unless you have a lot of hills to go up you probably won’t need to sweat much to get there, except perhaps in the summer if you live in a place where it’s already hot by the time you leave for work in the morning.

This is something we’re hoping my husband can do for his next job. While we’d like to stay where we are, if he ends up commuting a distance we’ll look at moving once my daughter’s out of school. No point in having him drive far just to go to work if we can live closer.

If you have baskets on your bike, it can be highly practical for many errands. I remember when I was in college I would ride my bike to the grocery store and just carry the bags on my handlebars. A basket would have been much easier, with significantly less distraction and risk of breaking a bag.

A challenge these days is where to store your bike at work or when you get to the store. A lot of places don’t offer a place to lock up your bicycle, a serious problem. When I was a kid all the grocery stores in my area had bike racks. Now I rarely see them, and I do look!

Some jobs will allow you to bring your bike inside. There may be a storage closet or room in your cubicle for one, depending on the setup. It’s something to discuss with your boss if someone else hasn’t found the solution first.

Stores can be more challenging. Most have trees in the parking lot, and many people use a cable to gently attach the bike to the tree. But no matter where you lock up your bike, make sure that you aren’t blocking walkways or ramps.

You will want a good quality lock for your bike. U-locks are very popular, as they are much more resistant to theft than cables are. Square link chains are also quite strong.

Make sure that when you lock your bike you lock the wheels to the body of the bike. It’s quite common to have individual parts of the bike stolen rather than the entire thing. Many bikes come with an easily removed front wheel, so you can pop it off and lock it to the body and the back wheel with little effort.

You don’t need an expensive bike either. Keep it affordable and you can quickly pay off the investment in terms of gas money. Add in the benefits of the exercise you’ll be getting, and the advantages may be too much to resist.

Ever Hear of a Moringo Tree?

I was using Stumble Upon today when I came across this article about the Moringo tree. Very interesting!

Interesting enough that my husband and I decided to buy some seeds for it.

<>Normally I like to think about local plants, but this one produces food as well as grows quickly, which really cuts down my resistance. My husband and I have agreed that as much as possible when we own our own place, decorative landscaping will be local plants, but we’ll still have a garden.

The Moringo grows quickly, which is a part of the attraction. My son’s bedroom heats up worse than any other part of our house, so something that grows quickly enough to shade it would be a huge help for our heating bills. And since it doesn’t require great soil, and apparently can grow in dry areas, we have hopes for this being a good choice for our area.

One of the catches is that it requires a lot of pruning. But if the leaves are edible, I don’t think pruning will be too big a deal.

We’ve already ordered our seeds from Seedman.com. Hopefully they’ll come quickly and within a few weeks I may have more to report.

Greening Your Spring Cleaning

It’s spring, a favorite time for people to clean out their homes. But for a lot of people that means using all kinds of chemicals that are harsh on their hands as well as the environment.

spring cleaning supplies

Good thing there are plenty of alternatives.

Start your spring cleaning by decluttering. Get rid of the stuff you just don’t need. Whenever possible, resell it or donate it to a thrift store rather than throw it away.

Don’t get rid of things you can reuse just because they’re getting old. Think about creative ways to repurpose things that have broken, and remind yourself you don’t need new versions of things that still work.

Cleaning Without Harsh Chemicals

Have a supply of white vinegar, baking soda, olive oil and lemon juice on hand for cleaning. Vinegar cleans in the kitchen and bathroom by itself or watered down remarkably well. Combine it with baking soda if you need something a little stronger.

The basic way I mix baking soda and vinegar is to sprinkle the baking soda on first. I keep a spray bottle of vinegar so that I can spray the area with the vinegar to get the reaction going. The baking soda also provides a mild abrasive good for scrubbing.

This mixture also works on cloth furniture and carpets. Just work the baking soda into the stains a little with your fingers first, then add the vinegar. I’ve heard it’s safe to run through steam cleaners as well, if you want an easier time cleaning carpets. I haven’t tried that much myself yet, but spot cleaning has been amazing.

With a 3 year old and a 5 year old, we have plenty of spots to test this on. I’m quite delighted with our results.

The olive oil and lemon juice are for your wood furniture. Mix a cup of olive oil to 1/2 cup of lemon juice in a squirt bottle and use just as you would other furniture polish.

Vinegar diluted with water works well for cleaning mirrors, and gives you a chance to use your old newspapers. Newspaper works amazingly well for cleaning glass, and no worries about leftover lint. You can use a little isopropyl alcohol in the vinegar and water mix if you like. This is the combination I’ve used:

1 cup isopropyl alcohol
1 cup water
1 tbsp white vinegar

Mix in a spray bottle and you’ll never miss the blue stuff!

Finish Off Your Spring Cleaning By Planning for the Future

There’s little point to decluttering year after year. As you finish your spring cleaning, promise yourself you’ll think before you buy, and you’ll buy less stuff.

When you buy, buy with the future in mind. This is why buying from thrift stores is good, and buying quality products that won’t wear out quickly makes sense. It’s why buying sustainably produced products matters.

As individuals, the differences we can make are small. But we can have an impact on what is socially acceptable, and the long term impact of that matters.

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10 Ways to Make Going Green Fun for Your Family

One of the challenges of getting the whole family to be environmentally friendly is that they take it so seriously. It sounds like a drag, as though it requires you to deprive yourself. And in many ways you should deprive yourself, or at least cut back, which to many is the same thing.

green fun outdoors

But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.

1. Explore thrift stores.

You can find some amazing things at most thrift stores. Shopping at them means a lot less guilt since you aren’t buying new. And while you shouldn’t go overboard still, you have more reason to buy things just because they appeal to your sense of fun.

2. Reward the kids for turning excess lights off.

Chart it or make it a competition. Just keep a sense of fun about it and have a little reward for whoever does the best at keeping excess lights off. Getting to choose the game for a family game night is a good choice.

3. Explore the chemistry of homemade cleaning products.

Kids love seeing the reaction caused by mixing baking soda and vinegar. That they also make an effective cleanser or drain cleaner is quite a bonus.

4. Garden.

Most kids love to get dirty and they love growing plants. Even if all you have is a kitchen shelf or apartment balcony you can grow herbs. My kids love it when our tomatoes are ripe enough that they can just go out and graze on them.

5. Play as a family, outdoors, no power toys.

Play tag, kick or throw a ball around. Just interact as a family. Oh, and make sure you turn off all the lights, television, computers, etc. before you head out.

6. Make crafts from things you would otherwise throw away.

Cut pictures out from magazines, grocery store ads and junk mail. Make a caterpillar from an empty egg carton. Make a quilt from old favorite clothes. Get creative.

7. Go to the farmer’s market.

A farmer’s market is often much more fun to explore with kids than the neighborhood grocery store. Keep the kids well behaved, of course, but also encourage them to talk to the people selling produce there. They may learn some interesting things.

8. Buy organic makeup, personal care and beauty supplies.

While many of these tips are easiest to do with small children, this one will appeal to a wider range of ages. The scents of many products can be a challenge depending on your kids, but there are plenty of options to fit just about any image yours are comfortable with.

9. Plan when you water your lawn.

While a lawn isn’t the most environmentally friendly thing you can grow in your yard, most people have them. Try watering your lawn in the late afternoon in the summertime, when it’s still warm enough the kids will enjoy running through the sprinklers, but it has cooled off enough that your watering efforts won’t simply evaporate away.

It’s not quite as efficient as watering after things have cooled off still further, but young children love to play in the water so much it’s hard to deny them the opportunity completely.

10. Talk about other things you can do.

Every family works differently. Get yours involved in living in a more environmentally conscious way in your own way. The harder you want to push on this front the more challenging it can be, but keeping the lines of communication open makes it much easier on everyone.

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