Going the Distance

Apparently my new driving skills are really paying off! I ran out of gas a few months ago, and my car was at about 420 miles. Luckily I ran out of gas as I was about to pull into a gas station, so it was a quick push and then we were refueled and on our way again.

On Easter, we were heading back from my Grandmother's house when I looked down and realized that the mileage was at 418 (my gauge is screwy, so I always go by my mileage). In a slight panic, I started looking for gas station signs. 420. 425. I promised myself that Sam would push when we broke down. 430. 435. At last! A gas station! We were at the gas station, and my trip odometer read 438 miles. To my shock and delight, the car only needed 11 gallons (and change, you know how it is). In fact, just this week I ran out of gas (second time in my life) at just under 500 miles. Apparently my slow and patient new driving style is really paying off!

~Dionne

Matches or Lighters?

Which is best? It is really hard to know. There are varied opinions about this subject, and there is really no clear cut conclusion. Matches produce more frequent instances of solid waste, however the lighter waste is less biodegradable. Lighters burn cleaner, and you are much less likely to start a wildfire with a lighter than with a match (or, even more likely, a cigarette).

This is something that is of interest to me because I am the kind of person who loves candles, and I have books of matches and lighters all over the house. I'm not sure which is best. Perhaps a reusable lighter so that there is no solid waste?

The argument of Which is Better is all over the place, with arguments on cloth vs. disposable diapers, mail order versus malls, and more. Candles or electricity? That one seems easy. :)

~Dionne

Veggie Boot Camp

I joined a CSA! CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, which essentially means that local farms grow food for local people. I became a member by paying for my first 7 weeks, and then all I had to do was drive to the drop off point right here in town to pick up a box (yes, a big, huge box) of veggies. It feels like veggie boot camp, and it is slightly scary trying to figure out what to do with all of that green (and not green) goodness. The best news? I have rarely tasted food so fresh and yummy. I am totally excieted about each new week and all of the wonderful new foods that I can try.

This week:
Carrots, Salad, Arugula, Radishes, Leeks, Fennel, Agretti, Strawberries.

The carrots will become baby food. The salad was used as salad, along with a few of the radishes. We ate some ourselves, then donated the rest (about half) to my Auntie, who loves salad (I really don't like lettuce, actually). The arugula is a cooking green, as are the radish greens, so those will mostly be sateed with garlic to make a side dish (ok, a lot of side dishes - there's a ton of food!) The radishes, leeks, fennel, and agretti are a little puzzling so far, but I WILL come up with ways to eat them. The strawberries were dessert, and they were some of the best EVER.

Last week, since I was down for the count:
Celery, Parsnips, Mustard Greens , Purple Carrots, Spinach, Cardoons, Salad

The celery got traded out for more parsnips. I don't like celery, thanks. The parsnips were ok cubed and boiled, but they really shone in a scalloped potato/parsnip dish. I wouldn't mind more of that. The mustard greens were sauteed with garlic, and enjoyable that way. I added local honey once, but Sam liked them plain, better. The purple carrots were going to be baby food, but they were overlooked for two long and kicked the bucket. The spinach, on the other hand, was terrific, sauteed with the mustard greens and also as a salad green. The cardoons tasted like artichoke heart soup when cooked up for cardoon soup, which was to die for. YUM! Not bad for a veggie I had never heard of before. The salad was half consumed when I gave up and donated the last half to my mommy, who was thrilled. She will be getting more.

It is exciting and a little scary to be cooking all of these new foods. Veggie boot camp ROCKS!

~Dionne

I'm BACK!

It has been WEEKS, and I have so many post ideas, with so much going on in my life! Blogger locked my blog an it took a mammoth effort to unlock it again (and then they didn't even email me to tell me that I was ready to roll), but here I am, back in action!

To start out with: I bought two nylon grocery bags that fold up into a teeny little package. I can just pull them out and go! I have used them twice now, once to save the CSA a bag, and once to get groceries at Safeway. Guess what? You get three cents back for every bag you bring and use. How cool is that? I really want nice, cloth bags eventually, and I can use these as emergency supplements (since they fold up so nice and tiny, they live clipped onto my purse right now.)

I'll be back tomorrow for a nice entry about veggie boot camp, so stay tuned!

~Dionne

Cloth Diapers?

When you have kids, one of the many Great Debates (along with organic food and breastfeeding) is cloth diapers versus disposables. A diaper company (I think it was Pampers) did a study that showed that the extra toilet flushes and the laundry that comes with cloth diapers is enough to cancel out the environmental benefits, not to mention the extra carbon you release if you use a service that has to drive the diapers to and from your house.

Dubious as a study from a disposable diaper company might be, it was recently backed up by a study from the British government, who were actually in the midst of a cloth nappie campaign at the time. Oops.

Do I use cloth? No. I feel that they stink, they are three times as much work (at least!) and they seem to be more prone to both leaks and rashes. I worked in a daycare, so I got LOTS of first hand experience changing both kinds.

Should you? Honestly, that is entirely up to you. The environmental impact is much the same, the cost is higher at first, but they may pay for themselves if you wash them at home. The choice seems to have become entirely personal.

~Dionne

Slow Going

In helping the environment, I am also fighting terrorism and saving some money. That’s right - I’m driving slower. Slow driving can have a huge impact on how much gas you use to drive the same distance, but people are in such a hurry, even when it doesn’t matter. Just yesterday I was driving along a back road to get home, and this person, all alone in their huge SUV, was tailgating me the ENTIRE WAY. As soon as we hit the broken yellow he swerved out to pass me, roaring down the road at about 15 miles over the speed limit.

As he raced down the road, the first light turned yellow, then red. I pulled up to the light just as it went green again, and the two of us started out side by side, although he quickly pulled ahead by mashing his foot on the gas. When the next light went red, he screeched to a halt, and I slowed to a stop a few seconds later. I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying at his futility, but it was also frustrating to see that gas guzzler waste even more gas (and put wear on the breaks!) because the guy was such a racer.

I have been using the cruise control in my sweet little Civic to keep me at the speed limit or just slightly below if there is no one behind me. The best part is that like coming off of junk food, coming off of speeding was only hard for a week or so. Now, I just don’t feel the need to go any faster. How much does it REALLY affect how much sooner I get where I am going, after all? Speeding sure didn’t help my friend in the SUV.