Worm composting - They're Here!!

At long, long last, the worm compost bin has become a reality. After finally getting our bin together, complete with drilled air holes (thanks, hubby!) we attempted to get red wiggler worms from our local bait shops. They informed us that they are also trying to get their hands one some. Funnily enough, when I mentioned that we wanted them for composting, one bait shop guy responded, "I know, I know." Ha! Guess we're not that odd around here after all. Anyhow, I went online and ordered 500 red wigglers from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm in Spring Grove, PA. I realized that once I had placed the order, I really had to get things together for this thing!! I put our bin out and collected all of our appropriate table scraps in it (fruit and veggie left-overs, but no citrus, etc.) Then we waited....

They arrived today. Here's what the package looked like:

The first step in preparing a worm composting bin is to find a bin with a lid. The size will depend on you. Ours is a former bird seed box cum rock holder. It's clear, which I love, has a lid that opens 1/2 way, and has a carrying handle. Perfect!

The first thing we did was to hand-shred a bunch of newspaper. There's no accounting for taste, but the worms allegedly love it! 

We filled the bin about 3/4 full.

My daughter went out to the back yard and collected a handful or two of both soil and sand, and a few leaves.

Add the soil mix and mix it into the newspaper.

The worms! 500 red wigglers heading for their new home.

Nature girl!!

We watered down the newspaper/soil mix. It really lowered the stuff way down. Once we placed the worms on top, we shredded some more newspaper and gently placed it on top. We then made a space in one corner of the box, and added our collected kitchen scraps. They are getting a lovely mix of cantelope melon rinds, celery, and other good stuff. I have read that we can add coffee grounds, which we have plenty of in this house. I also read that we should have usable rich soil in about 3-4 months. 

I promised to bring this bin to DD's school, and now I want to keep it! But I get it back at the end of June when school ends. I think I'll keep it for a few days, anyhow. =)

Clyde. The first worm to be named. (grin)

2010 - April Plan- RESULTS

Purge Plan: Kitchen Purge #2 - Glass purge

During the month of April, I purged NOTHING from our glass stash. On May 5th, I have pulled a bunch of spice bottles (glass and plastic) out of the cabinet, combined some, and simply got rid of some that we've had for a bunch of years.

Green Plan: (From Easy Green Living by Renee Loux)

>Get a low-flow toilet, or make your existing toilet low flow:

Already had.

>Don't be a drip - fix leaky faucets and toilets:

Hm. I have one to fix. I'll call today.

Holistic Moms Green Plan: Breast feed. Whelp, I don't need a month to work on this. I have been nursing for 5 1/2 years, and we're still going strong. =)

I haven't done well in the area of PURGE in April. Perhaps I can renew my efforts for May. Hmmmm...

I Love Coffee But...

...I'm not sure that I could justifying purchasing one of these! Have you seen them? They are one-cup coffee makers. Kinda cool in their way. You get a fresh-brewed cup of coffee in 3-minutes time. The coffee (or tea or cocoa) goes directly in your cup, so there is no filter or decanter to clean. And it's sort of fun. You take one of these coffee/tea/cocoa singles. They are plastic with a foil top. You put one in the machine. Close the machine front, and the back pops open. (cool) Add water to the marked line, close the back, add your cup, and press the flashing button. Three minutes later you have your hot cup of whatever you choose.

Here's the thing. First of all, for each cup of coffee, you are throwing away non-recyclable plastic and foil, which ends up in the land fills. Each cup. Secondly, the machine pokes a hole in the top and the bottom of each of these little canisters, and hot water is poured through it, leaching whatever it can from the plastic on its way to your cup. Ugh! And thirdly, it takes away even the thought of composting the coffee grounds, as you never even see them. Wow. Talk about a green nightmare!! At the very least, the packaging that the over-packaged grounds came in was recyclable.

Did I have a cuppa? Yeah, I did. And did I enjoy goofing off with this machine? Yeah, it was sort of fun. But I'd never own one. And it's sort of a bummer that they are so popular. Alas, baby steps. Step one: awareness.

Recycling Improvements-Yeah!!

Today I glanced out the window when I heard the recycling truck making its way around the neighborhood. The company collects the recycling every other week, and we are always overflowing. I am always so happy to see all of it go. Some months ago I asked the company, County Waste, for an extra recycle bin, and we always fill both plus and extra card board box or two.

So today, I see two trucks. One is collecting the recycling, the other is taking the blue bins away, and replacing them with a trash can sized recycle bin. Very cool. It'll be much easier to move one large bin back and forth. I had been using the kids' wagon to transport the recycling to the end of the driveway. The new bin came with paperwork. (Unfortunately, the paperwork was tucked inside a large plastic sleeve, but...baby steps!!) This is the exciting part. The company will now be accepting a whole lot more than it has been. I am thrilled. To date we have not been able to recycle junk mail, and we thrown tons and tons of it away. I was seriously considering asking the post office if I could bring our junk mail to the local office, as they have bins there. They will now accept junk mail, envelopes, copy paper (yahoo!) , plastic containers #1-7 (yippeeyippee!!!) and lots of other stuff. I am SO happy about all of this. Oh, and they will be collecting recycling every week, and it all goes into one container! All good things. =) Now if we only had curb side compost pick up!!!

"No waste bird feeder" and "Do play with your food!"

My kids and I were watching Oobi this morning. (I'll comment on Oobi another time....) The characters were making a city out of boxes, paint, paper and other crafty items. My daughter and I got to talking, and decided it would be fun to build a city ourselves. Somehow the project morphed into making a no-waste bird feeder, using food and other all-natural ingredients. We are about to start... I am going to chronicle the process.

It's now day's end. My plan was to photo journal the entire process, but our day suddenly got very busy.  Due to time constraints, darling daughter quickly put together a flat "house" made with bread, peanut butter, cereal and nuts. The critters must have felt lucky today! For dinner, we kept on this theme, and put together a house made with bread and hummus, a carrot chimney, broccoli and cauliflower trees, olive mushrooms and celery grass! Everyone ate heartily. It was fun! I told dear daughter that I look forward to doing more projects like that in the near future. =) I mean really, who says you shouldn't play with your food!!

PreserveProducts.com

A while back I learned about the Preserve company from a book I was reading called Gorgeously Green, by Sophie Uliano. She spoke specifically about the fact that this company produces toothbrushes which they make from recycled yogurt cups. Cool, what? So I checked into it. Once the toothbrushes have done their duty, they can then be returned to the Preserve company, and recycled again into other plastic products. Wow! So I bought some. They're ok. I find that the bristles bend quickly, but whatever. I got them for the kids and for hubby and me. I haven't tried mine yet, even though I've had it for some time, simply because I had more than one to begin with. But I'll get to it. Today I went back to the Preserve website in anticipation of blogging about it today. I found a cool new thing (new to me, anyhow) they've added. Brita water filters can now be recycled and the plastic repurposed. This was great news for me personally, as I happen to use Brita pitcher filters. The only thing is that there are drop-off sites for the fitlers (and other items) but of course there are none that are within a reasonable driving distance from me. There is one, however, within a short distance from my father's house, which I frequent. That means being really on top of things. Collecting the used filters in the house, remembering to bring them to his house, then getting them to the drop-off site. That's a lot for my poor tired brain. But it could happen. ... .... Anyhow, the company is worth taking a look at. http://www.PreserveProducts.com.

Worm composting - update

I emailed my daughter's science teacher about keeping a worm composting box in her science room, and she is all for it! COOL! After the holidays, dear daughter and I will set a box up, introduce the worms, and bring it to school. How fun! Of course I will take pictures throughout the process and share them. The teacher, not surprisingly, has done this in the past, and says the kids enjoy "feeding" the worms. So basically once DD (dear daughter) and I set it up, the teacher and students will maintain it. Perfect! She suggested that DD and I introduce the concept to the kids at school. I'm shy as can be, and DD is too, so I suggested to the teacher that we set up a poster or something with facts, pictures and information. That would be fun for us, too, and would allow DD to feel proud of the project, and not scared. I hope she goes for it (teacher, I mean.) She will.

Worm composting

To my "compost" post, JK replied: "Compost year round! We have tons more scraps in summer, but also more of a fruit fly problem. Bug free now that it is colder, though! You should look into earthworm composting. They teach it in the schools here---very simple and cheap if you have someone to show you, and a certain someone would LOVE it (perhaps too much)!"


I have been reading about this online. In fact there was a cool article about this a few months ago in Family Fun magazine. I think it's cool. Though I've been a little commitment shy with the whole thing. I mean, it does mean feeding and reproducing worms in your house. I'm skeptical, and dear hubby is, plain and simple, not into it. However.....perhaps if my daughter and I put a worm compost box together, her science teacher would be willing to host it in her classroom....hmmmm. Anyhow, if you're interested in reading more about them or watching some videos on it (very interesting!) do a Google search on worm composting. It's really neat! 

Composting

Yesterday I finally saved some kitchen scraps for composting. It's one of those ideas that's been rattling around my head for ages. My daughter has a garden in the back yard. What an awesome opportunity to learn, and teach, about composting, recycling, reusing, organic, and on and on! Fun! So while making dinner in the morning (crock pot) I saved potato peels and so forth in a cup. I saved it for my daughter, but funnily (did I make that word up?) it was hubby who took the stuff out. (cool-grin) Anyhow, I've got some reading to do, but I'm excited about it. So off to collect the coffee grounds from today! =)

Anyone already compost? If you've got any advice or ideas, please share them. I know very little about composting other than the obvious.... for example, do people compost all winter? Or just in the warmer seasons?

Coffee Filters

Forever and ever I used a plastic, reusable coffee filter. I have felt good about this. No paper waste! It did not occur to me for one second that I have been pouring hot liquid over plastic every morning for years and years. I am a person who never microwaves anything in plastic or with plastic wrap, nor do I put hot food into a plastic storage container. So why have I never thought about the coffee filter? Who knows. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the more I make changes to my lifestyle, the more I become aware of areas that could be changed with good results. Or something. So. I just read this article about coffee filters. It is from http://www.projectgreenify.com/. Basically the writer suggests making cloth coffee filters, using unbleached, tight-weaved fabric. Huh. Where have I been? I see the benefits. No more paper, no more plastic. It will take me a while to get the filters together. It's a trip to the fabric store (once every 2-3 weeks), washing the fabric, and creating. But, when I get to it, I'll post pictures. =)

Cloth

This is an area of being green and reducing waste that's been a part of my life for quite some time. I thought I'd share my experience with replacing household paper goods with cloth alternatives. Here is a basic run down of what I've tried and what I think:

>>>Cloth napkins: We have used cloth napkins at home for a long, long time.

Pros: No paper waste, reusable, easy to find or make, can be made from recycled cloth

Cons: Adds to laundry and water use, we seem to go through them quickly

>>>Cloth wipes as Kleenex

Pros: Really reduces the red nose that is exacerbated by paper tissues, thicker and softer, reusable, last a long time, easy to find or make, can be made from recycled cloth, reduced paper waste, no chemicals on the skin

Cons: Germy. My daughter leaves them all over the place at home and at school. I hate how they smell when they're full of my boogers. Uk! For me, I don't prefer to use one more than a couple times before I want a clean one.

>>>Cloth diapers

Pros: Reduced waste. There is much information on the internet on how paper diapers pile up in the landfills. Non-toxic, unlike disposables. Reduced diaper rash. Reusable. Reduced cost over all. (They may seem expensive when you look at the unit cost, but if you calculate what you would spend over the years that your child/ren are in diapers, you spend much less with cloth! Especially if you use them for more than one child.) I made my own, which had benefits in many areas.

Cons: Bulky! Need to change them more frequently. They don't wick wetness away (some may argue this point. I always used all-cotton materials. There are synthetics which may wick) More laundry. Storing soiled diapers until wash time.

>>>Cloth wipes for use with cloth diapers

Pros: Stronger than paper wipes, don't need as many, easy to warm up for use, non-toxic, reusable (wash with diapers), easy to find or make, can be made from recycled cloth, gentler on skin

Cons: Laundry, need to be stored until wash time

>>>Feminine hygiene products

Pros: Reduced cost, reduced waste, more comfortable (IMO), non-toxic (do a little research on toxic shock syndrome-yikes!), reusable, easy to find (often called mama cloth, moon cloth)

Cons: Laundry, must store until wash time

All of this is obviously just my opinion and my experience with these things. I enjoy sewing, so much of our cloth collection has been made by me. However, all of the things I listed above are readily available online.

A fun way to recycle a little paper

Yesterday my daughter and I made some cute Christmas ornaments using scrap paper we had around the house and some markers. =)

www.origami-resource-center.com/christmas-ornaments.html

Laundry Detergent recipe

One of my most tried and true green efforts recently has been with the home-made laundry detergent, so I thought I'd share the recipe. First, a quick pros and cons list:

Pros: 

All-natural

Biodegradable

Safe

Gentle

Effective

Reuse containers

Cons:

Hardens and needs to be broken up

Occasionally lumps of detergent remain in wash after load is done

Recipe makes small amount of detergent

Recipe:

1/4 cup castile soap (I like peppermint)

1 cup baking soda

1 cup washing soda

1 cup white vinegar

Mix the castile soap with the powders. Add vinegar (it will foam up, then settle down, just mix). Stir til completely combined. 

At this point I leave it, and it hardens. If you keep mixing through the hardening process you can break it up right away. It becomes a lumpy powder. I have yet to perfect the process so it all gets crunched up to a thin powder, but honestly, I don't have time at the moment, and it works well anyhow. 1/2 cup in a regular size load does the trick. Makes about 5 loads worth...something like that.

I've been using this detergent for weeks now, with great results.

If you try it, let me know what you think.

All-Purpose Reusable Gift Bags - Photos

Two of my reusable gift bags. I just make them to fit whatever I need to wrap! =)

All-purpose reusable gift bags

I'm learning how to post photos. Just practicing. But this is one of my reusable gift bags. I'll post photos of some of the others. I like them. =)

Holiday Green

I started to think about what I could do this holiday season to pursue my dreams of being more green. The first step was so obvious I wondered what took me so long to get here. The paper and trees that are used during the holidays are mind-boggling. So. In the past I have tried having a live tree, but I can never seem to get the thing to last through the winter. I'll keep working on that one. But my main focus this year is the gift wrap phenomenon. Recently, Flylady (flylady.net) posted a message about making and using reusable gift bags. POP! My brain was all over that. I love to sew, and it's a new project, plus it advances my green path. I was hooked. I have been making them like crazy ever since. They're easy to make, and can be made any size/style. Giving them to others is like giving two gifts in one. And you're gently passing on the message to "save a tree." I love it. I also have a bin full of flannel fabric that I collected when I was making cloth diapers, a phase which has passed. (The making of, not the using of-I'm still doing some of that) So I'm happy to have a use for that. They're not so Christmassy, but whaddevah.