Sustainable DIY Series: How to Install a Low Flow Shower Head

May 9, 2013 by / 4 Comments

Hey all my awesome RSS Readers.  If you’re using google reader, they are going to shut it down in mid june.  If you’re still interested in subscribing by RSS, Check out feedly, which is what I’ve switched too.  I’ve also got an email list, or you can like me on facebook or follow me on twitter.

A while ago, I did a poll on the site, trying to figure out how I could write content that was more relevant for you all – my awesome readers.  One of the thing you all were curious about was more DIY projects that could make you more sustainable around the house.  Since most of my projects recently have had nothing to do with sustainability (making a beer bottle crate, putting knobs on cabinets), I’ve been waiting to write something.

After a few weeks, an opportunity fell into my lap.  I got contacted by the people at Niagra Conservation, who asked if I would like a shower head to review.  I was slightly skeptical at first, because, who gives away a shower head? (and also because we just finished our upstairs bathroom, complete with a new shower head.  After a little inner reflection, some extra prodding from the company and talking with my dad, I decided that I had very little to lose so I told them yes.  I had initially offered it to my dad, but when I got it in the mail, I called him right away and told him that he’d have to get his own, because this thing looked awesome and I wanted to keep it.

Since the shower head in the upstairs bathroom is pretty new, I put it in our basement bathroom.  This was the better choice because the downstairs shower was pretty old, and used about 3.5 gallons per minute and wasn’t all that great.  It wasnt bad enough for us to replace it on our own, because as of now that shower is used pretty infrequently as it is.  However, it was free so I decided what the hey.  They estimate that you can save approximately 5,500 gallons of water per year, which is a lot of water and a big deal out here.  It could potentially save you even more if you have tiered water pricing like I do (where you pay more per gallon once you cross a threshold of water used for the month – ours is 6,000).  If you can stay in the first block of water usage, it could save you quite a bit of money.  Even if you’re already pretty good with you water bill wise, this will help you save even more water – always a good thing.

Sustainable projects like this are my favorite.  I can work for a bit once, and just keep reaping the benefits of saving water throughout the lifespan of the item with little fuss going forward.  It doesnt take constant maintenance or really any work in the future on our part, except cleaning at times.  This one was even better because the total time from start to finish was about 10 minutes.

One thing about this project – While this is low hanging fruit in that it’s relatively cheap to do and easy to do, it’s not going to save you a ton of water.  Things like a dishwasher and washing machine will save you more water, but cost a lot more money.  The frequency of use here is also something to consider, as in some households, a more efficient toilet will get you further.

Installing the Low Flow Shower Head

 

 

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This is what our downstairs bathroom looked like before I started.  This is the old shower head, which was pretty inefficient.  That’s not something that we want in the house, because it wastes so much water compared to what we put in there.  The first step in the process is to take off the old shower head.  Some are hand tightened so you can just used your hand, but mine was a little tighter so I used a pair of pliers to get the old one off.  Once the old one was off, it was time to prep the pipe for a new shower head.

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Once the old shower head was off, I got a wet rag and wiped off the remnants of the plumbers tape that was on there, as well as a little bit of junk that had gotten in the threads over the years.  Once that was all done, I took some nylon plumbers tape and wrapped it over the threads.  The new shower head said that you didnt have to do this, but because we had so many very small leaks during our upstairs plumbing I just went the safe route.  Once the tape is on if you choose to use it, you’re ready to put the new shower head on.

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Now it’s time to install the new shower head.  Take the shower head and screw it on to the pipe with your hands.  Make sure not to over tighten the shower head as you’re putting it on.  There’s no need for pliers for step, so just go easy on it and test it to make sure it doesnt leak.  Below is a picture of the shower head in action.

100_4278Bottom line: This shower head is pretty awesome.  It’s great that we are saving about a gallon per minute while showering with this shower head, and the pressure is great too.  I’ve heard the low flow shower heads described pretty poorly before, but that’s not the case for this one.  The rainfall is awesome, and it makes you feel like you are in a luxury hotel hotel when you’re showering with it.  I cant seem to find the exact one they gave me online, but I dont think that it will cost more than $40 at the store.  With the potential to save about 5,500 gallons per year, the paypack period will be pretty quick with this unit.  If you’re in the market for a new shower head (or just tired of your inefficient old one) give this a try.

Note: While they did give me this unit for free, it didnt influence my decision.  I wanted one of these style shower heads for the upstairs bathroom, but we couldnt find one that matched the fixtures for the sink and tub that we had already purchased.  

Readers:  How are your shower heads?  Do you have any that could be replaced, or are there other projects around the house that will save more water that you’re interested in tackling first?

 

Filed Under: Environment, sustainability  / Tagged: ,

Planning a Backyard Garden

April 30, 2013 by / 5 Comments

After spending most of 2012 summer living in the basement and basically doing nothing but working on the upstairs of our house to make it so we can live up there, this summer will be a bit different.  We dont have nearly as much indoor work to do, so we decided that we would focus most of our efforts outside.  The outside was never really that great, and we basically neglected it all of last year, and into the winter.  It’s been nice, but I have a feeling our neighbors have been wondering what’s wrong with our lawn.  There’s nothing really wrong with it, but it’s not sparkling green.  (Honestly, I could care less)  Anything that isnt producing food is a waste of real estate, as far as im concerned.

So, now that we have some time to focus energy on the backyard, we can get started.  Last weekend, H and I worked in the backyard and turned over an area for a garden that’s approximately 10′x6′ deep.  I used this as part of my race training, so I took all the rocks that were in there, put them in a pail, and carried them into the front yard to put under some of the bushes that we trimmed back.  Once that was all finished, I got out the trusty pickaxe and started to turn everything over.  There was a lot of dead tree roots buried in there, which I was happy to get out.  I loosened up all of the dirt in there, I was ready to get it sifted.  Since the garden is sloping to the east, I realized that I’d need a bit more dirt to even everything out, and make it look like the garden was intentional as opposed to something ad-hoc.

Im planning on heading over to the city compost station, and picking up a cubic yard of dirt for $30.  Once I get that, I can sift it in with the existing dirt, return it to the garden area, and then it will be ready for planting.  Hopefully, it will be ready by the time that my boss has her annual plant sale.  H and I havent picked what we want to plant quite yet, but I’m sure tomatoes and peppers of some sort will be on the agenda.

In addition to the garden, I’ve also started to soften up an area for a cold frame.  When we replaced the window in the bathroom, I kept both panes, in anticipation of putting a cold frame in.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get this done, but it really wont be that big of a deal if it takes me a while because they are made to grow in cold weather.  The plan is to put some spinach into the cold frame, and maybe some other fall and winter root veggies so that we can enjoy them deep into november.  The plan to finish off the cold frame is to use some lumber that I’ve been salvaging from roll aways around town (and near friends houses).  Hopefully, that will all go together just fine (and the dog wont mind me booting her from one of her favorite spots.

Once everything is set up, I’m hoping for a productive season gardening.  I am not sure if I’m going to plant everything to full capacity right away, as I’m not sure how much H will be interested in being involved so I dont want to overload myself with work, but it looks like it will be a lot more productive than last summer.  I’ve got some plans for irrigation and rainwater harvesting, but I’ll share those later.

Readers: Do you have a garden planned for this summer?  If so, how long have you been doing it, and if not, why not?  What are you planning on planting this year, and what grows well in your area?

Filed Under: Environment, sustainability

Preserving your Food Without Canning

March 6, 2013 by / 3 Comments

H and I are still looking for a CSA for 2013, but we are also stil enjoying the goodies that came from our CSA in 2012.  We did a lot of canning when we got overwhelmed with fruit towards the tail end of the 2011 share.  We still have a lot of that, so H and I were looking into different ways to preserve what we got from 2012 in ways that we’d actually use.

While I have yet to figure out why, we’ve had trouble drawing down the stash of canned goods that we created in 2011.  We are still working at it, but we both agreed that it wasnt the best idea to add more in 2012 (it also seemed like we didnt get as much, which kind of bears out in the bankruptcy filing).  We did get a lot of a few things though, and these are a few of the things that we did get.

Freezing

One of the best ways to put up your winter servings is to freeze the stuff you cant eat right away.  There are many, many different ways to freeze things.  You can freeze them exactly how you get them, or you can turn your extra veggies into soup or stew that can be frozen for later.  Most vegetables require blanching before you can put them up in the freezer.  Blanching is just heating the vegetables with boiling water (or steam).  For more information, check out the university extension guide for freezing veggies.

This year, H and I blanched quite a bit of potatoes to keep in the freezer for the winter.  The directions that we used can be found at pick your own.  Right now, we are just using the potatoes when people come over to make some delicious breakfast burritos!  The process was not all that time consuming, and it was much better than letting the potatoes grow roots or just throw them away.

One of the potatoes we did save and are going to let root out so that we can plant it this summer.  While I havent decided 100% yet, it looks like we may be using something like this potato growing container while gardening this summer.

We also found out a way to freeze herbs this year.  We were getting inundated with cilantro and parsley, and while we were using it as fast as we could, we couldnt get rid of it all.  I didnt really help matters by constantly grabbing the cilantro out of the ‘free’ bucket that others couldnt use.  At one point I think we had over 15 bunches of cilantro laying around the house.  Thankfully, preserving this was relatively easy.  All you need to do is take your cilantro and chop it up like normal, then put it in an ice cube tray.  Dont pack it too tightly because you need to make sure that there’s room for the water to get in, but pack it tight.  Once your ice cube tray is full of cilantro, take it and put some water into the tray.  Make sure to use just a trickle of water, or the pressure will blast all the cilantro out of the tray and you’ll wash it down the drain.  Just let the water trickle in and fill up each box in the tray and place in the freezer.  When ours were done we took them out of the freezer and put them in a plastic bag because it fits better in the freezer.

No Boil Canning

We also made pesto, which could be considered canning because it ended up in a jar, it’s not because all it required was a blender.  You dont need to store your homemade pesto in jars you can put it wherever you want, but we put ours in jars.  While this isnt traditional basil pesto (we didnt get basil in our CSA) it’s still a pesto, and a pretty good one as well.  Like I mentioned earlier, we were inundated with herbs, and parsley was one of them.  Since this isnt perkins and I cant think of many ways to use parsley in recipes, we needed to find a way to do something  with it.  After a while of searching, we found this parsley pesto recipe:

2 cups fresh parsley leaves, rinsed well, roughly chopped, pressed into the measuring cup
1 -2 tablespoon capers
8 -10 green olives, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts (or use macadamias)
2 -3 tablespoons lemon juice (or use lime)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

 

Put all of that together in a blender and go to town.  It’s simple to adjust as well – if you like your pesto a bit thinner, use a bit more olive oil.  Make sure to add it after you’ve got everything blended so you dont end up making it too thin.

Those are all the things that we learned from our CSA last year, and it was nice to find a few things that didnt make quite as big of a mess as canning did (though I do miss the salsa).  Hopefully we can find a new CSA for next year, and hopefully find more interesting ways to put up the leftovers that we cant eat.

Readers: Are you thinking about a CSA this year?  

Filed Under: sustainability

Sustainability Goals 2012 Recap

January 9, 2013 by / 2 Comments
Last year, after setting goals for a few years and finding success that way, I decided that I should make my list of goals smaller.  In an effort to do that, I broke my goals up into 3 different categories that I chose.  The cateories were finances, health and sustainability.  These goals are the focus of my life (and this blog) so it was nice to finally have a bit of direction for the year.  I think this approach of splitting the goals worked out well, and I think I’ll keep it going into 2013, though the categories might be slightly adjusted.
As for the goals themselves, I could have done better.  Since this was the first year that I did a sustainability category (and sustainability focused goals) I decided to go easy on myself.  Even with that in mind, I didnt do all that well.  Lots of things that were more or less forseen (like my wedding) and some that were not (like buying the house).  Even with that, there was still plenty of time to do what I wanted, I just didnt make the time for it.  Next year I’m going to make a goal poster or something so that along with my goals being on the site, I’ll be able to see them when I’m wandering around the house as well.
  1. Plant a freaking garden.   I had initially planned on building this garden in our old place, got approval from the landlord to build some garden beds.  I found some old fence sections that I pulled out of the garbage and had turned into some raised garden beds, but before I could get them filled with dirt we bought a house and move.  There was too much to do at the new house to mess with planting a garden, so I didnt focus on it at all.  H planted a tomato plant and a pepper for me, but they didnt do too well because of the unusually hot and dry summer, as well as us being gone and them not being watered for a while.  I also planted a raspberry bush this year that grew a bit, but it was mostly getting used to the new soil, so it bore no fruit (and I think they arent supposed to bear fruit for 5 years).  That was the extent of my “garden” so I’m going to call this a mostly fail.  The raspberry bush should come back next year, but the tomatoes and peppers are gone.  I saved some dried root crops from the CSA that we didnt get around to eating, and hopefully I can get those in the ground early this year as well.
  2. Make some papercrete.  I pretty much screwed the pooch on this one.  I let it go until after the wedding because I had other things to do, but once that happened I got pretty serious about it.  I was looking at making a 5 gallon batch, and to do that, I was going to need to make a form for about 4 bricks (I even did the math!).  Once I started to think about it though, I thought it was a waste of time a bit.  People usually make this stuff in 250 gallon batches, and they make many many bricks at a time.  I’ve probably got the pape saved up for this (or I’m getting close) I just dont have the space to dump all the stuff into forms.  The wasting time part really got me discouraged, so I began to focus my efforts elsewhere, and this never got done.  I’m going to see what I can do about next year and making some of these bricks (maybe I’ll block off the alley for a day).  I just want more space to do this stuff at, so I’m going to have to see if I can look into that.  I’m still saving paper and thankfully I’ve got an outbuilding or H would have gotten annoyed with me having garbage pails and boxes full of paper laying around everywhere by now.  This will go on next year, and hopefully I’ll get a better plan of attack. I’ll call this one a total fail.
  3. Continue using human power for most traveling.  This I figured would be one of the easier goals of all of my goals, but it went off with out a hitch this year.  I had a good solid 5 or so months where I didnt drive my car at all.  I was able to ride my bike to all of my errands (or ride with H, which I’ll admit was kind of cheating), and I was even biking to the gym in the morning.  That all unfortunately stopped when my bike suddenly got a flat tire, which I have yet to fix.  Even then, I’m still walking for most of my errands.  Of course, I drive over to the hardware store because I never know what I’ll leave with, but other than that, I’ve been walking a lot this year.  I am kind of curious as to how many steps that I take every day, but not curious enough to buy a fitbit or a pedometer.  Maybe someone will give me one for christmas, though that is unexpected.  For this goal, I’m going to call this a pass.  
So I had 3 goals for sustainability and I’d call this a 50% success rate.  There was a total pass, a total fail and one that was about half way.  This year did teach me a bit about goals though, and for 2013 I’ll be getting together goals again, but I’ll also be getting together a plan of action and steps that I’ll need to take to make sure that I get my goals done.  I’ve got a lot more on my plate in 2013, so I’ll need to be much more organized as well.  I’m toying with making quarterly goals, instead of just quarterly progress reports, so that could aid in my goals.  Some of these obviously would fit better in some seasons than others, so I plan on taking that into account when I’m making my list next year.

Readers: What were you working on in 2012, and how did you do?  Did you break up your goals into categories or did you have a long list?  Where did you write them down, and how did you keep track?  Did your method work, or what changes will you be making 

Filed Under: sustainability  / Tagged:

Is Getting Your Own Food Cheaper, Part 5

November 16, 2012 by / 4 Comments

As I’ve tried to expand my sustainability horizons over the past 4 years, I discovered hunting.  I’d always been interested in hunting and curious (as well as unsure) about wether or not I could ever participate.  Hunters often get a bad rap, but it’s not wholly undeserved.  I hunt so that I can get a sustainable, organic source of meat  for the winter and summer months in the fall.  The places where I typically hunt I get tags that are designed to control the local population of the animal I’m out hunting, so not only am I getting some stuff for the freezer, but I’m also doing the land a favor by slowing down the heavy grazing going on.

I’ve written about this multiple times before, talking about the total cost of my Halibut fishing, my Elk Hunt, my duck hunt, and my blue grouse hunt.  Oddly enough, the first hunt that I ever went on for antelope has not gotten a cost analysis yet.  I didnt get to go this year, and I didnt buy a tag in time last year.  I always like to see the cost breakdown and figure out how much meat I got per pound.  For just about every hunt, I seem to be landing all over the map as far as cost goes, coming in near $5 per pound on the elk side, and upwards of $28 dollars per pound for duck.  Of course, this is slightly skewed, because it’s not all lower quality meats like ground elk or elk sausage, there’s also steak cuts and tenderloin cuts.

Next on the list for this time is deer.  I’ve been wanting to go hunt deer for a while, and there is a huge deer population in northern wyoming (both white tail deer and mule deer).  So much so that the landowners in the area where we hunt (Ucross, WY) call the game warden to send hunters to their place so they can thin the herd a bit.  The deer eat all the hay that the landowners have stored for the winter for their sheep or cattle, which annoys the landowners.

For this deer hunting trip, it was me, my father in law, the friend that took me duck hunting a while back.

Here are the costs of my deer hunting trip:

  • Deer tags $60.  This year, I got two deer tags.  I had initially only planned on buying one, but after talking to the landowners when we got there, I decided that if I harvested one early enough I’d go into town and buy another one.  My other buddy decided the same thing, and that’s what we ended up doing
  • Gas/Lodging $68.  This trip basically required a 1 night stay, and 2 tanks of gas.  My father in law paid for the room, and I bought one of the tanks of gas and my buddy bought the other.  The cost of all three was roughly equal
  • Food/drinks $30.  Though I brought snacks with me for in the car on the way up and back, I still paid for a fair amount of meals (3).  The food situation was a bit thin at the house before I left, so I couldnt really pack as much of my own food as I wanted.

Unlike all of my other hunts, I was able to offset the costs of this hunt.  After talking to the rancher about the number of deer and a friend, I offered to “sell” my second deer to my friend for $25 (basically the cost of the tag).  He agreed (I’m not sure if he thought I was joking or not), and this was the main reason I got the second tag.  Since I knew I could most likely get one and I had something to do with the meat, it didnt seem like that much of a risk.  I texted my friend when we left and told him to find a processor for the animal and that he could come pick it up the next day and he was shocked.  He ended up giving me $30, which I wasnt going to complain about.

The total cost for the trip was $128, and I ended up with 1 white tail deer. I process the meat myself, and though I’m not finished with it yet, I’ll end up with about 25 lbs of meat when everything is said and done.  This puts the cost per pound of meat at about $5.12, which is slightly less than what I paid for elk (though it would have been higher had I not had to go out for elk like 9 times).  Of course, this is not all steak quality meat, but I would say about 33% of it is.  This will be a nice addition to the winter rotation, and I’ll probably end up giving some away as well.

Readers: Do you think the price for game meat is reasonable?  Do you know someone that hunts, or are you involved in a roadkill program in your state (where they take animals that got hit and give away the meat)?  

 

Filed Under: Environment, Finance, sustainability  / Tagged:

Investing in Sustainability

October 19, 2012 by / 2 Comments

When we moved into our house, there was a long list that I compiled of things that we’d need to upgrade to something that met my own personal energy efficiency standards.  One of the easiest (I thought) would be the thermostat.  I figured that we could just swap out the old, mercury thermostat for a newer programmable thermostat that would save us energy (and money).  Then I started to read that programmable thermostats dont always save money.  I read some articles and research, and found that while lots of them do work, there’s a lot of room for error in the “program” part of a programmable thermostat.  The energy savings comes from following a program, but it turns out that humans dont do that very well.  I had even seen this in our old house, when H or I thought that it was too cold inside, we’d just override the program. Though this didnt happen often, we were rather good at policing the other one – getting sweaters and/or blankets for the person that wanted to turn up the heat.  That worked out for a while, but the blankets started to get everywhere, and we decided to buy a house and move.

Not long after we moved, I found something that used new technology, design and a small nudge to override the constant fussing that people tend to do with their thermostats.  This thermostat was called the nest, and after reading about it, I thought it would make a great addition to our new home.  I quickly ordered one, and waited until the painting was done to install it.  I got it set up right before our wedding, but was unable to get the unit working correctly (because there was not enough power coming from the furnace to power the unit).  I had other things on my plate, so I left it – much like I did with our hot water heater.

The first frost hit wyoming last week, with nighttime temperatures dipping to the mid twenties, and temperatures inside the house getting down into the 40′s .  H didnt seem to mind at first, but I think the real reason was that she just didnt have time to deal with the problem.  Friday morning, I was cold and annoyed, and decided to get the problem fixed.  I called someone that offered same day service, and they came later in the afternoon.  It took them about 10 minutes to get the furnace turned back on, and of course, the thermostat was dead.

Once the unit was charged however, I was excited to see it in operation.  It basically “learns” your schedule as it goes, and adjusts accordingly.  You turn it down when you leave your house or go to bed, or you turn the heat up to the desired level when you wake up or get home.  It uses your habits to adjust the temperature accordingly, and in the process save you energy.  In addition, you can remotely turn up the temperature of your house from your phone or the website!  One of my personal favorite parts about the unit is that it has a little green leaf at the bottom to let you know when you’re saving energy.  If you have the heat lower than a certain temperature (70, I think) the green leaf pops up and lets you know you’re saving energy (and money!).  I find myself turning the heat lower just to see how low that H and I can get it, and still have the house comfortable – it’s like a game.

Of course, since the thermostat begins to ‘know’ you, it can tell you why your energy usage was lower on one day than it was on the next.  For instance, though the unit does not ‘know’ us very well yet, it gave us the following message:

“your adjustment caused energy usage above the weekly average”

I do not really appreciate this, as it makes me feel wasteful for being cold, but I do look forward to what it will tell us when it knows us better. Other days, it targets the “warmer than usual outside temperatures” for using less energy.  Great ways for saving energy and money, even if it’s a little patronizing.

When I was telling my dad about this his first question was “well how much did that thing cost?”  Well, I told him, it cost $250.  He was pretty shocked, but I explained why I did it.  Energy used in heating and cooling households is widely suspected to be about 40% of the overall household energy bill (according to the Energy Information Association).  That’s a large percentage, and would most likely be the driver of higher electrical bills as resource prices change.  Installing this unit will ensure that we are getting the absolute most efficient use of our resources – natural resources and our cash.  Over the lifetime of this unit, I have no doubt that it will meet my payback period (which Im guessing we will hit sometime in the winter of 2015 at the latest) requirements, and will start saving us money on heating and cooling at some point.

The appliance payback period is probably one of the most difficult things on the journey to a more sustainable lifestyle.  You sink a lot of cash into the unit up front, forgoing other options and incurring opportunity cost for the “investment” you made in your values.  This is something that if you truly value being a wise steward of natural resources and rooting out waste from you life, you should be perfectly happy to have made – I always am.  To top it off, you’ll save some money too.

You can reap the rewards with sustainability and sometimes those rewards come cheap and quickly.  Other times, you’ll need to bide your time and watch the savings pile up slowly.

Readers: Do you have a hard time spending money on ‘green’ and money saving technology or other products if the initial cost is high?  If you do, do you normally ignore it and just make the purchase, or do you go for the less expensive substitute?  

Filed Under: Finance, sustainability  / Tagged:

Fall Gardening 101: Prep for an Organic Garden Next Spring

October 15, 2012 by / 5 Comments

This year, one of my goals was to plant a garden.  Unfortunately, with all of the time that H and I spent on the wedding and the honeymoon, there just wasnt time to get anything into the ground, and when H did plant some things for me (a tomato and a pepper plant) it was right before we left for about a month.  Normally, it would have been no problem but we didn’t get anyone to water our plants, so they quickly withered in what ended up being a hot summer.  This wasn’t exactly the best thing that could have happened, but I’m not suprised by the results – we focused most of our time indoors on repairs and I didn’t have much time to focus outside.  Next year, however, will be different.

Not only have I decided that I’m going to substantially increase my gardening, I’ve decided to try organic gardening, and here’s why:

  • It’s better for the environment – Our food typically travels about 1500 miles just to get from the farm to our plate!  That is so much wasted energy trucking a tomato from california or mexico when I could just walk into the backyard and get one.
  • It helps my soil – Instead of having to put on different fertilizers every year to make up for a lack of a specific nutrient, I can plant cover crops in the winter or early spring to fix the nutrients into the soil.  This way, there wont be fertilizer residue on my foods, and it wont wash into the storm drains in my town.  Healthy soil = happy garden
  • I know what genes are in my food - There has been a lot of controversey lately with GMO plants.  Some european countries require labeling of GMO foods, but here in the US we do not.  While I’m not convinced these are bad for you (yet), I feel like it’s a senseless risk – I can easily garden and know I wont be eating a GMO tomato, so why wouldnt I do that?
  • I’ll know more about what I eat - I’m not here to talk smack about the grocery store, but going to the store and buying something puts 1 more layer of stuff between me and my food.  I want to know more about my food, how it was grown and where it comes from.  Putting (another) middle man in there wont help me with this at all.  (This is one reason H and I signed up for a CSA)
  • My Food will Taste Better - Gardening is a great way to branch out from the traditional varieties of fruits and veggies that you see in the grocery store.  There are tons of varieties to choose from, and you can pick based on what you like best and what grows well in your area.  Some of the best varieties are available at seed savers, Including my favorite, Heirloom tomatoes!
  • My Garden will Save money – Gardening is far cheaper than buying an equivalent amount of produce from a store.  According to the University of Arizona Ag Dept, 1 properly cared for tomato plant can yield 15 lbs (!!!) of tomatoes!  If if tomatoes were .99 per pound (they normally are not) you could get about 4 plants (where I live) that are already started for 15 bucks – and that could yield you ~60 lbs of tomatoes!  The CPI (consumer price index) is also constantly increasing, and growing your own food is a great way to insulate yourself from unexpected increases.
  • Pride – There are few things more awesome than having some friends or family members over to your place and saying “all of this stuff came from the garden”.  Lots of work went into getting the food to grow, and they’ll appreciate the time that you put into it.
  • You can do it anywhere – Contrary to what you may think, you dont need a gigantic backyard (or a backyard at all) to start growing some of your own foods.  You can grow in pots and window box planters, and even tailor containers to your meals, like I did with my pizza pot.
  • Connect with Nature – This is a top reason for me.  I love spending time outside, and try to do as much as possible.  In the past, this meant hiking, snowboarding and climbing.  There’s no where I feel better about myself, life and everything that’s going on around me than when I’m outside.  Having an awesome garden will allow me this experience every day, instead of when I make time for being outside, as it is now.
  • Teach your family – this is a great way to show your kids where food  actually comes from.  You can teach your children that the food they eat comes from the soil, and that they need to take care of the soil if you want it to give you any veggies.  Like the wise ben franklin once said “A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself”.

One reason, is that I’m getting my garden prepped right now for next spring – conditioning soil, cleaning up branches, etc.  Of course, since mine is an area that has not been gardened before (or at least not in a long time), I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.

Cleanup is first, and probably most important.  I’ll be removing lots of branches, weeds and other cover (including a bed of rocks).  During the winter, weeds, dead leaves and other cover make great habitat for slugs, bugs and other undesirables in your garden.  Weeding is also extremely important, as weeds have the tendency to self seed and come back in your pumpkin patch twice as strong for next year.  Get all of your plants that have stopped producing out of the garden and into the compost pile (if you have one), unless they are blighted or otherwise diseased.

After your garden area is clean, determine what nutrients that your soil is missing.  Typically, the local extension of your state  university (or whichever is heavily focused on agriculture) will test your soils for a small fee, then tell you what nutrients need to be added.  For soil testing services in your area just search google for “soil test YOUR STATE”.  If you’re more of the diy type, go ahead and do a DIY soil test. Missing nutrients will depend on where you live and what you’ve been growing recently, depending on whether or not that crop puts nutrients into the soil, or takes them out.  Organic matter is a great addition to the soil in most cases.  Add organic matter (typically straw/hay) to the soil in the fall, will keep the soil moist and prevent weeds from growing in your garden.  This is a great time to work some manure into the soil – you can buy it, but a farmer would be happy to give you some if you asked.  Just make sure that it’s not a far drive so you dont have to deal with the smell.  Important: Do not add manure when there are crops present – it can carry organisms that can contaminate your crops.

Here at sustainable life blog, we are trying to build up our earths resources, and save money – not spend money on fertilizers that could infiltrate the groundwater and local streams.  Here are some of the most common nutrients that your soil will be lacking, as well as a few cover crops you can plant in the fall to put the nutrients back into the soil.  Planting these will build nutrients into the ground in a sustainable, natural way – ensuring great garden production for years to come.

  • Nitrogen (N) – Clover and Lucerne (great chicken feed) take nitrogen from the air and put it into the soil via their roots (this will probably be the route that I go).  Stinging nettle accumulates lots of nutrients in the leaves and can be a great soil fertility enhancer.  Till this under in the spring before you’re ready to start planting, and you’ll have excellent soil in no time!
  • Phosphorus (P)- Comfrey is a great for fixing many things, including calcium, nitrogen and potassium.  When you’re ready you can make a great liquid manure and really kick the garden into high gear.  (Dock is also good for this, but difficult to keep in check – I’d shy away from it.
  • Potassium (K) – Yarrow is a garden herb that is non competitive and will easily fix potassium and phosphorus into your soil.  Yarrow attracts good insects to your garden and repels bad ones, in addition to fixing nutrients into your soil.
my clover seeds, ready for planting and nitrogen fixing!
All of these plants are what’s known as “green manure”, because they are great at adding nutrients to the soil.  To turn them under, you cut the crop as close to the soil as possible using  a weed eater or shears.  Take the cuttings and toss it into the compost pile or make liquid manure, and you’ll be left with stubble.  Some choose to use a hoe to turn over the stubble, and some leave it, planting the crops between them.  If that sounds like too much work, you can always cover with mulch and a sheet of black plastic to decompose the stubble, but decomposition could take a month or more.  For those of you with raised garden beds worried about being able to get all the stubble out of the corners, that will probably be your best option.

Compost is also something you can add after you’re finished harvesting – the area where I live composts green waste and has a few “free dirt days” that you can go pick it up, free of charge or if I miss those days, it costs about $30 for a truck bed full of the stuff.  Once the spring comes around, I’ll grab a case of beer, some good natured but unsuspecting friends and a few shovels and wheelbarrows, and have some help getting all of that dirt unloaded.

I’ll reap the bounty in about a year, but lots of the prep work for the garden comes now.  What will you be doing to make sure you have an awesome harvest next year?

Readers:  Are you planning on planting next year?  If so, what are you going to plant, and how are you going to give yourself a kick start this fall?

Filed Under: Environment, sustainability  / Tagged:

Money Laundering: Are High Efficiency Washing Machines Worth It?

September 24, 2012 by / 13 Comments

As part of our personal economic stimulus home purchase, H and I have been replacing quite a few appliances around the house – most of them because the existing ones were either too small and woefully old, or they were terribly inefficient.  The washing machine is old, and uses a lot of water – something that really angers me because I see it as a monumental waste.  H doesnt really care about this fact, but after we were getting clothing coming out of the washer (or the dryer) with holes in them, that was the last straw for her.  We went to the store to poke around once, and took the truck just in case of an impulse purchase, but we were able to look around, and hold off on the purchase.

After this, I decided to do some research on which washing machine would be best in terms of efficiency.  This is kind of an odd ball as far as appliances go, because you have to watch use on two fronts – electricity and water, where as most appliances you just need to concern yourself with how much energy is being used.  First, I went to the energy star website and tried to find out which units used how much water an electricty per load.  Of course, since this program is run by the EPA, nothing is simple.  They’ve done all this analysis and scored each unit based on something they call a ‘modified energy factor’ and a ‘water factor’.  Of course, this didnt really do much because the explanations are not that clear, but they offer a spreadsheet (g0 to clothes washers resources, then qualified clothes washers) you can download to look at all the data and see for yourself.

Once I got the spreadsheet downloaded, I did a double sort – first on the water factor, then on the energy factor.  I pulled the top ten out of the list, because the numbers were virtually the same.  It seemed that when one washer did better with water, it wasnt quite as good in the energy side, and vice versa – but again, we were talking about a very nominal amount.  Once I had this information, I looked up each make and model number just to see about how much they would cost – and I got glaringly different results.  For all but 3 washing machines on the list, they were $1,200+ units (for just the washer – dryers were about the same price)!  I am not about to pay that much for a washing machine, and I got even more curious about the prices because the others on the list were around $600, or 50% less!  Since there was virtually no difference between the amount of resources used between each unit, it couldnt be that one unit was more efficient.  The extra expense was in the features – which I don’t need.

When I ran some quick numbers on wether or not the more expensive units would save more money than the other units in the group, I determined the payback period to be over 100 years!  By that time, I will have gone through at least 3 washing machines, if not more.  Due to the extremely small difference in efficiency and the large difference in cost, it got me thinking about the models on the very bottom end of the spectrum, and how they would compare to one of the $600 units, as well as one of the $1200 units.

The cheapest unit on the market right now runs about $400, and is not energy star certified – while all the ones on my list are.  According to the product fact sheet, the unit uses approximately 470 kWh/per year, while the ones on the energy star list ranged from about 90 kWh/year on the low end, to 284 kWh/year on the higher end.  Where I live, energy prices are about an even 8 cents per kWh, so we are talking a yearly cost difference of somewhere between $27 and $12 per year, depending on the unit selected.  You’d pay about 34 per year for  the cheapest unit on the market, 12 for one of the $1200  and  7 for the $600 unit .  Given the approximate life span of a washing machine of 15 years (I’m being generous here) you’ll save approximately $405 over the lifetime of the unit, if you picked the $600, and compared it to the cheapest unit on the market.  The initial cost of the most expensive unit, however, is over $1,000!  Even counting in energy savings (based on prices in my area) I still wouldnt be able to get a positive return over 15 years!

Like I mentioned earlier though, there’s also some water useage to consider, which is a lot harder to price out (in my area anyway).  Our water is sold in “blocks” where we pay one price for the first 1,000 gallons, then a higher price for the next 1,000 gallons, and so on.  Where this could really save a person money was if they were able to use a more efficient unit to keep themselves from going into a higher water usage block that would be unavoidable with the cheaper unit.  As I mentioned, this would be hard to pin down, and even more so with laundry needs changing over time.

What seems to have happened in the washing machine industry is the companies are larding up the units with tons of (unneeded, in my opinion) features that they can sell for high margins.  If you look carefully however, you’ll be able to find a very high efficiency unit at a low price – making it easy to get the return on the investment that you’re seeking.  The cut off, however seems to be the $1,000 price point – once you get above that, no amount of efficiency will be worth the extra cost you paid for all the bells and whistles of the fancy unit.  (Who needs to control the washing machine from a cell phone app, or have a washing machine delay the start time, anyway?)

So, are high efficiency model washing machines worth it?  It depends, like everything.  The cheaper units on the energy star list will always give you a positive return on your investment though depending on the amount of energy used, payback period will vary. While the ones that cost $1,000+ will most likely not be worth it in the end.  Here’s a handy sheet on the energy star website that has estimated lifetime operating cost, as well as MSRP (which you shouldnt have to pay – you should be able to find it on sale somewhere).

In the end, H and I got our washer for about 575 (est yearly operating cost: $11), and our dryer for $650, for a total cost of $1200.  Our payback period versus the least efficient machine on the market should be about 8 years, give or take.

Readers:  Are you in the market for a new washing machine (or any appliance)?  If so, do you take as much time as me deciding what to purchase, and consider all relevant factors that are important to you?  Or do you just search out the best deal and be done with it (I have the luxury of waiting because my old washer is not broken).  If you’ve recently bought a new washer (or other appliance) did you rank initial cost, or lifetime cost higher in your decision making process?

Filed Under: Environment, Finance, sustainability

Green House Update Strategies

September 19, 2012 by / 9 Comments

For the past 5 or so months, H and I have been waist deep in the throes of renovation on our house.  We’ve made a ton of changes to the place, and things have started to move at a slower pace (boo) but have come ages from where we started.  When the person you buy your house from is 92, there’s not really much of her ‘style’ that you want to keep.  O

Of course, with all of the updates that we have done, H and I have generated a lot of ‘construction debris’ AKA waste.  Mostly, the waste is things that are not really worth much to anyone anymore for whatever reason.  However, there have been a few things that we’ve pulled out that while not exactly our taste, still work fine and are not ruined.  Specific examples include the drapes, curtains, kitchen appliances, kitchen cabinets, kitchen sink, bathroom sink and vanity, and more.  I just couldnt stand to cart this stuff off to the landfill (even though it is free to dump there…dont get me started), so I started to think about a few ways to re-use or breathe a second life into all of this stuff.

The first thing I did was decide what I had a use for around the house.  There are 2 outbuildings on our property, and they  were essentially bare.  One of the outbuildings has made a great spot for the cabinets that we were able to salvage out of the kitchen – the cabinets wont cover every inch of the wall and floor, but they will give me some storage space when needed.  All it took was a little bit of plywood screwed on to the back for stabilization, and the cabinets were ready to be back in service.  Unfortunately, I was unable to keep them all as some had gotten too busted up during removal to salvage.

After I looked for a way to simply re-use the pieces as they were, I next tried to look at a way that I could use a portion of the material that was extracted in a way that the creator didnt intend, but would still work for me.  Most of this ended up being scrap wood that has been used for various project during reconstruction, and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make a papercrete mold with what I’ve got left.

Even after this semi salvage attempt, there was still a great deal of stuff that we thought was terribly ugly, had no space for or just plain old didnt want.  While researching what to do with all of this stuff we deemed ‘junk’ I found out about the Re-Store, which is run by habitat for humanity.  They take all construction debris and process it, then re-sell it at the store.  Not only do they take used building supply, major chains also donate new building supplies to the store.  It’s a pretty awesome place, and we have made quite a few trips over there during the process.  We’ve given them countless light fixtures, a bathroom sink and vanity, a kitchen sink, a few cieling fans, and much more.  The store has everything there too, and while I didnt pull the trigger, I almost became a customer of the re-store when we were there.

I was shocked at how big the re-store in my town was, and there was 2 other very large ones a few hours drive away – they seem to do a brisk business.  I think the re-store is a great place to bring some of your old construction supplies, or even get some things for your house that you’d like to replace for super cheap.  The best part about the store though, was that al of the time and energy that went into the pieces that H and I no longer wanted but still worked fine didnt have to get tossed into the landfill, taking up space for something that actually was garbage.  Finally, it’s a great spot for budget shoppers – everything there was fairly cheap!

Readers:  Have you ever heard of the re-store?  If you have heard of it, have you ever dropped something off or bought something there, and if you have not heard of it, would you consider using it during your next project?  Is there anything like this in your area that’s unaffiliated with the restore?

Filed Under: sustainability  / Tagged:

CSA Update 2

September 17, 2012 by / 10 Comments

Once again, H and I Signed up for a CSA.  Last year, we only signed up for fruits, but this year we decided to take the plunge and go for both fruit and veggies.  This is the 2nd update of our CSA for 2012.

This year has been a lot different than last year.  For starters, we have been without a kitchen for quite some time, and while we currently do have a kitchen, we do not have counter tops in yet, so it makes it rather hard to cook in the kitchen.  We are also still sort of living half upstairs, half downstairs after buying a house, and im anxious to get that over with as well.

So, for the past 3 months, we’ve been getting a variety of veggies.  This has been tough, because we get lots of things that we are unfamiliar with, or have difficulty cooking because we dont yet have a fully functioning kitchen.  We’ve gotten eggplant, bell peppers, beets, kale, swiss chard, spinach, butter lettuce, dried beans, peppers, squash, zucchini, carrots and a whole bunch of other things I cant even think of!  I typically try to ride my bike to our pick up location and get our shares, but they have become pretty big and difficult to get home.

With our fruit shares, it has been mostly plums and apples since we got back.  It was really hot where our peaches grow (western colorado) this summer, so they came early and the people who we had arranged to pick up our shares got the bulk of that.  I was really looking forward to eating those this year, and was really hoping to have some to put away for the winter.  Even though we dont have a functioning kitchen yet, I do have a system for canning and preserving that I’m hoping to implement soon (perhaps with the peapples?) so hopefully we wont have to eat it all in one fell swoop.

Like I mentioned earlier, we decided to do the grocery store challenge, which has gone pretty well so far.  We’ve been able to cut our grocery bill about in half, and I think that should get even better as we get more functionality out of our fledgling kitchen.  Typically, we go to the store about once a week, but lately it has been once every two weeks as we continue to fill in holes with our shares and take advantage of all the food that we get from the CSA, as well as all the food that I was able to go out and get for myself in the last year or so.

I did the math on the weekly cost, and it came to around $30 per week (for 26 weeks) of fruits and veggies.  I dont think that’s too bad, but I’d really like to supplement that next year with a garden of our own and better tracking methods for prices at the time we get the items.

 

Filed Under: Environment, sustainability  / Tagged:
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