No Spend Month blog

I found this challenge- No Spend Month. Read all about it:
http://smallnotebook.org/2008/07/01/july-is-no-spend-month-whats-it-about/

More made in USA items

I found cute jeans at Vertigo clothing store on Lee Drive. They are called JUST USA. They are cute & reasonably priced. Vertigo & Macy's (surprisingly) have several items made in the USA so check them out if you are interested. I believe it is important to support American designers and companies.

Simple Living to the extreme!

This is an article that Chris found about a guy who is trying to only own 100 things. I guess we all can take baby steps to only use what we need.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812048,00.html

Next Meeting June 23rd/ Notes from last meeting

Hi Everyone-

I hope you are having a nice summer! We had a good meeting last Monday. Joe, Christophe, and I got together and talked about a few things. We set the next meeting date for 23 June since Christophe and I are both going to be out of town for work on the 16th. I hope the 23rd is good for some of you. After you get a chance to look at your calendars, please let me know if you are in our out for that date. If only a few people can make it, we could change the date/time to accommodate more people or the venue to better accommodate a small group.

In the meeting, we first talked about some of the forecasts for faster than previously thought climate change. For example, some model predictions from the US Navy Post-graduate school say that the arctic could be ice free in the summer by as early as 2012. That is scary soon. We talked about how because there are doubts that humans could be responsible for altering the climate, it is false until proven true. With this cultural mindset of false until proven true, we continue to do nothing. This is definitely not the safe play when the entire planet hangs in the balance.

We also talked about how the climate change "debate" is somewhat of a distraction to tangible, undeniable human induced catastrophes; examples include deforestation, vacuuming the oceans (Christophe told us how the fishing town in his ancestral home in Portugal struggles more and more to catch fish and how fish that used to be "trash fish" are now prized as a delicacy due to shortages), spraying our crops with ever more potent toxins,...A good article that talks about some of the psychology of this denial is attached. The title is a little avant-garde, but the article is very good. Here is my favorite line: “The fact is that if climate change were caused by gay sex, or by the practice of eating kittens, millions of protesters would be massing in the streets.” A link to the article is as follows if the attachment doesn’t work:

http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/gilbert/blog/200607.html

After getting thoroughly worked up and a bit depressed, Joe provided some stress relief tips from an article that got passed around his office. The link to the article is below. There are definitely some good ones in there. We needed to put a few of these into action immediately!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/05/15/destress.parenting/index.html

Another topic was scheduling free time. This almost seems like an oxymoron, but in our hyper-scheduled world sometimes we need to do this. When I think back to my childhood, some of the fondest memories are of playing in the vacant lot next door with a friend. No x-box, no cell phone, no baseball practice. Now, some of the best times with my own family are lazy Saturday mornings where we make pancakes, stay in our pj's until noon, and water the tomatoes.

My mom is reading a great book that is called Last Child in the Woods. I haven’t read it yet, but she is fired up about it. It talks about the disconnect between children and the natural world. Here is the link on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Child-Woods-Children-Nature-Deficit/dp/1565123913

Take care,

Jeff

Next meeting Monday June 2 at 6pm / Update from last meeting

Next Meeting:

I will be out for the rest of May, as will Chris. How does June 2^nd sound for the next meeting?

Interesting Articles

This is a really good website and magazine.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/

Some of the articles that I found particularly interesting are:

The Gospel of Consumption: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2962

This article talks about the engineered rise of consumerism. An interesting section talks about how Kellogg gave workers the option of a 6hr workday; the majority took it in return for less pay and more time with family/community. This could happen now if the entire economy were not based on consumption.

Snap into Action for the Climate: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2956

Wow. This article presents some information on climate change that you don’t hear much about in the mainstream media. The main message is that the major government models predicting climatic events such as melting of the summer disappearance of arctic ice are probably very conservative. A study put out by the US Navy Postgraduate School suggests that the Arctic may be ice free by as early as 2013 due to some unfavorable feedback loops. That is 5yrs away. This would have a major impact on the earth. Scary stuff.

Jeff

Sandals Made in USA

I found some sandals made in the USA. They have a great website: http://www.okabashi.com/environment.
I found them in the garden section of Target. They are cute & comfy.

Information Jeff sent out after the last Simple Living Meeting

I saw a great article a couple of days ago that I found pretty motivational. Here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=magazine

Here are a few items that came out of the meeting:

Water conservation:

Erin collects water as she waits for it to warm up for washing dishes and uses it for watering plants.

Use “gray water” (or used wash water from dishes, clothes,…) for watering plants/lawn ( I think you need to be careful about watering vegetables with this). In the summer, if I ever wash my car, I do it on the front lawn so the grass/trees get some water.

Collect rainwater for watering plants. You could really go for it and use rain water for a lot of household functions. We have 2 old water heaters that fill up w/ rainwater from the roof. Work well and look ok once you take the outer insulation off. I picked up both water heaters from the side of the road.

Bug Control:

Christophe told us how to make a cool bug/wasp/fly trap made from a 2L bottle ( cut top half off, fill with colored sugar water, flip top and insert); flies get in, can’t get out.

Fleas/Ants: we used these nematodes to help correct a flea infestation in our yard; I think they worked great. It sounds like they may work for ants as well. Here is the site:

http://www.arbico-organics.com/nematodecombo.html

For insect repellant, we have starting using “Bug Bands” which are citronella impregnated wrist bands. They seem to work well. As far as bug spray is concerned, we have some Burt’s Bees bug spray that works well. No deet so I feel ok about putting it on the little one.

Biking around BR:

Baton Rouge Bike path info:

http://brgov.com/dept/planning/bike/routes.htm

Local pro-bike group that Christophe remembered from earth day:

http://bikebr.org/

Urban/Apartment Compost Ideas:

Make a compost bin out of a big pot and put it on the balcony/porch. Worms would probably eat up your veggie scraps like crazy. Maria suggested putting some shredded newspaper in there every once in while to keep everything moving along.

I’ve seen some indoor, under counter worm bins/ compost bins that may work. Not sure how well they work.