Use your online banking option. It saves time, stamps, envelopes and trees. If every American used this simple tool, 3.9 billion tons of greenhouse gases would be eliminated, and, 2.3 million tons of standing wood could be spared per year.
When you visit the ATM machine or self service gas station, skip the receipt–those scraps of paper are a top source of litter.
This morning, as I was talking to my friend who is in the middle of organizing and cleaning closets in anticipation of new carpeting being installed in the too near future, I was reminded of the 80% vs 20% rule of home clutter: We use 20% of what we own 80% of the time.
That also means that we could all dispose of a minimum of 50% (there are a few things that really are necessary once or twice a year) of what we own and not miss it one bit. For the past few years, I have adhered to an ironclad rule of cleaning–I clean as if I were moving. That means if I were moving and wouldn’t take said object with me, it gets donated, recycled or tossed. It is a very freeing experience.
For those of you who have children in the house who have a penchant for saving scraps of paper with pictures of dinosaurs or tiny plastic animals, the rule is to clean the day before your neighborhood’s trash pick-up. They never see what is tossed and you have a truthful response when 6 months down the road the one inch plastic horse or piece of paper comes up missing. “Mom, have you seen my Tyrannosaurus Rex picture?”, you can honestly say, “No honey, I haven’t seen it in a long time.”
“This I Believe,” on National Public Radio is a revival of a famed 1950’s series hosted by one of the premier journalists of his time, Edward R. Murrow. Now, as well as then, everyday and not so everyday people, write an essay about what each values about his/her life and world.
When the series was revived several years ago by public radio, a newspaper article about the new version caught my eye and my fancy. I was immediately smitten. Carefully cutting out and saving the information, it became a personal goal of mine to submit an essay. Surely there was something from my life noteworthy enough to dare sharing in this incredibe public forum.
Each time a draft is started, I will hear one or two of the already released essays read by the writer. Mostly everyday people, with the occasional astronaut (Dan Tani) or world famous musician (Yo-Yo Ma) thrown in, recount personal stories of courage, inspiration and hope. After hearing another’s essay, I heave another huge sigh, go home, delete my latest draft and start anew. Hearing essays written by people who have functional autism, started a food pantry or circled the earth makes my story sound feeble in comparison.
Today I have new hope. An idea has tickled the edges of my belief bin. Maybe, just maybe, this one will meet my standard of what would be acceptable. I’ll keep you posted–no pun intended.
Lighten the load in your flowerpots and container grdens. Fill your pots 1/3 to 1/2 full with foam packing peanuts. (Do a spot check first–some foam packing peanuts melt in water.) The containers are lighter and also leave room for drainage. Lay a few coffee filters or a piece of landscape fabric between the soil and the foam to keep the dirt from migrating into the bottom layer. Save three ways: money spent on potting soil, water usage, and, energy spent moving a lighter pot from one spot to another. Last but not least, it’s a way to use packing materials that are hard to manage.
Read about this recently and it sounds really cool. In the middle of endless yardwork, this sounds like a dream come true. Here’s the gist of what this group of friends do to help each other and themselves.
A core group of 10 people from 6 households meet one Saturday a month from September to June, holding a work party. The day’s efforts are dedicated to the project of the host’s choice. It could be to clean the yard and plant the vegetable garden, lay the bulk of a laminate floor, paint/stain the deck or any other job that has been neglected for far too long.
Couples can attend each party, and have two parties a year at their home. In addition, a couple can send one person for the whole day or both for half a day. The host is responsible for lunch, snacks and drinks. Minor scrapes and cuts occur, but it is wise to make sure everyone who participates has home-owner’s insurance just in case.
I know, I know. Technically, this is stretching the definition of Roadside Sign, but the sentiment is worth putting the Webster’s Dictionary back on the shelf. Besides, the pic was taken in a parking lot, adjacent to a very busy street 
This makes 6 servings or 8 cups of soup. Begin 1 1/2 hours ahead. In a 5-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat, fry 5 bacon slices until crisp. Cut 1 (one) 2 1/2-pound broiler-fryer chicken into serving pieces; add the chicken portions to pan and brown well on all sides.
Remove chicken pieces and bacon from pan. Drain on paper towels. Pour off any fat in pan. Return chicken and bacon to pan; add 4 cups chicken broth, 2 diced carrots, 2 stalks chopped celery, 1 chopped apple, 1 tablespoon curry powder, and the next three ingredients tied into a cheesecloth bag: 6 crushed peppercorns, 2 whole cloves, and 1 bay leaf. Heat mixture just to boiling. Cover, reduce heat and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, or until chicken is fork tender.
In seperate pan, combine 1 cup water, 1/2 cup rice and 1 1/2 teaspoons butter. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and cook 20 minutes until rice has absorbed all the liquid. While the rice is cooking, cut the meat from the bones. Return meat to soup, discarding bones as well as cheesecloth bag of spices. In cup, with spoon, blend 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour into 1/3 cup water until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture to simmering soup, stirring. Add 1 cup half-and-half; do not boil.
To serve: Ladle soup into warmed bowls. Spoon a mound of hot rice into the center of each bowl of soup.
The 3-Minute rule. Never ever spend moe than three minutes looking for something. Instead, do what you would do if you had searched for an hour and still couldn’t find what you were looking for. Grab the spare set of car keys, borrow your daughter’s belt or wear another pair of earrings. The missing item will turn up eventually. It’s one of the correlaries of Murphy’s Law: When you no longer need or want it, there it is, staring you in the face.
Going green does not mean you have to chain yourself to a tree, but you can increase the pitiful amount of office paper that is recycled annually. A typical U.S. office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper per year–roughly the equivalent of one tree! 8 million tons of office paper is used annually in this country, with less than 9% of that amount being recycled.
Easy things you can do:
One last thought, take your own coffee mug to the office. Close your eyes and imagine how big of a pile would be created from just one year’s worth of your disposable paper coffee/tea cups….
Stumped about the stump? The big tree in the front yard finally succumbed to time, disease, the wind, the driver who came around the bend a little too fast…. Whatever the reason, after the major mess has been cleared away, you are left staring out the window at an ugly stump. A stump grinding machine is the fastest way, but your budget is on a slower track.
Out-of-date environmentally short-sighted thinking that includes harmful additions of chemicals are simply unacceptable. ”When you know better you do better.” We now know better.
One way to remove the stump is to cut it as close to the ground as possible while the chain saws are still available from the initial clean-up. Next, using a wide drill bit, drill as many holes as deep as the bit will go, as wide as possible and as many as possible. Fill the holes with water, then fill with high nitrogen fertilizer. (45-0-0 NPK rating is best.) Cover the stump with a heavy plastic tarp to trap moisture. Top that with an organic mulch or straw. Thoroughly wet the mulch to keep in place, as well as adding a few rocks or other heavy decorative items if it’s in plain view. This will trap moisture under the tarp, creating a micro climate that will cause the stump to rot. Periodically remove the plastic, repeating the application of water and nitrogen rich fertilizer directly to the stump. Eventually, nature will take its course. The stump and roots will simply rot away.
