Chickens are a fun way to start on the path to self sustainability.  I got chickens because I was tired of reading about the abhorrent husbandry practices of the big egg industries, and even though I could buy “cage free” eggs in the store, I still felt it would be better to have my own.  I had a small shed that I had built, originally for a very old and very loved horse and when she went on her way, the shed and the subsequent fence that was built housed eight cats for a time and then when the cats moved out, the chickens moved in.    

Now we have eggs that I collect every day, fresh, not treated or washed in chemicals, from hens that graze the yard, eat bugs and get to act as nature intended them to act.

I listen to KUOW a lot. I like NPR, not all the time but I usually feel that they deliver solid news service. A week, or so ago I heard an article talking about energy efficiency in housing. One part of the panel was acting as a detractor and said that if energy efficiency, in public housing, really made sense then land lords would be all over making their buildings efficient. I wonder how many people really believe that line of horse S$%^. I guess it depends on who is paying the heat bill and how a building is heated. The apartment I live in right now is cold, almost as cold as my farm house in western Mass. (one of the reasons I spent so much time insulating the edition I put on that place), none of the windows are double pane or have storms on them. I have one electric base board in the bedroom and a little in wall forced air electric heater in the living/dining room area. I pay the electric bill. I am sure my landlord couldn’t give two s*&!@#$’s about the heat loss of this building. The building once had radiators, they were probably steam, which is super hot, and was probably created by an oil or coal fired furnace. You can bet that this system was removed at some point in an effort to decrease costs for the landlord. Once again the buck is passed and the waste continues. The tenant isn’t going to do anything because they don’t want to invest in something that won’t give them a return and the landlord is happy to pass on the expense and the cycle never ends.

Lets do something about it. Stand up and organize to force energy efficiency in all buildings.

Do you think about your food? If so how do you think about your food? Beyond that do you think about what you put your food in? How about Polyvinyl chloride or Bisphenol A. Both are in a lot of things. For instance the pipes that carry waste water from your sink, bath and toilet to sewer drains (although most plumbers will now use ABS tubing for that today, but that is a different post.), it is also in some of your food containers, packaging of items you buy and in the plastic wrap you use to wrap your food. I won’t go into why you shouldn’t wrap your food with it, the link above gives a host of information on those issues, lets just leave it at it leaches into our food. So here is my point of this post. You might think long and hard about where your food comes from: buying organic, locally grown or growing it yourself and then what do you do wrap it up in some good old PVC or BPA.

Zanne and I have been using Rubbermaid products for a lot of storage and the Laptop Lunch containers for Izzy. The problem with the Rubbermaid stuff is that it really does have a fiarly short life span compared to glass. Our next step is reusing glass containers for a lot of our storage. Don’t get me wrong I like a lot of the Rubbermaid stuff and they are pretty clear about their products and what they are made from and getting three to four years of use out of a product isn’t bad. On the other hand glass lasts a life time if you don’t break it. I will admit you could drive yourself crazy thinking about all this stuff fortunately their are a lot of people out there doing huge amounts of research on all these products. You don’t need to know it all you just need to know where to look. The ZRecs guide is a good place to start. I never trust just one source and always try to check at least three sources. Usually I check the company that makes the product, if they are forthcoming with information that is a good sign, then I will check an independent source and finally some government agency usually from Germany or Canada.

Enjoy your food.

Are you still getting your bills in the mail? Why? It is so easy to go paperless with almost all the companies you receive bills from.

Think about all the paper wasted, all the energy used to print and deliver the bills. If you already pay your bills online through your bank or the companies site it makes even more sense. You can retrieve all your info online. Go ahead do it.

Simple changes in your life can have great effect.

How many plastic bags have you used this week? How many do you think end up here? If you think because you don’t just let them float around in the street that they won’t end up there, or in this tree, you are wrong. The best way to not let them end up there is to not use them. Buy a reusable bag, make one, find one do whatever you need to to not ever use a plastic bag again. Beyond the waste of it all the amount of energy and resources used to make them is just silly. Come on it isn’t that hard to carry a reusable bag around with you, I keep mine in my right hand coat pocket and many stores will give you a small discount for bringing your own bag.

Little changes can make big differences if large numbers of people participate.

I don’t live there anymore but I still own this house, oh the economic turmoil. This was an old country farm house that had little if any insulation in it. When I decided to add to the house, making an unusable portion of it usable, I wanted it to be as tight as possible. Insulating is not as simple as some people might think. You really have to understand a lot of different facets of the different materials that can be used. Partially because I was on a shoestring budget and partially because I am always trying to not throw things in landfills I did a lot of scavenging for the insulation I used. This decision made my installation even more tricky. I used reflective rigid foam in the ceiling with 3/4 inch air space inbetween each two inch section. The air space helps the reflective foil work more effectively and adds R-2 to each inch of insulation. In the walls I used a combination of ridig and fiberglass. One of the most important things to do when insulating is to create an air tight seal to do this I used a sprayfoam to fill in any gaps.

In this picture you can see how much heat loss the rest of the house had compared to the edition I put on. That roof is cold enough to maitain frost, which means no heat is getting out. This in turn means more heat staying in the house and less heat needed to raise and maintain temps. Compare the upper roof done with ridig foam and the lower roof done with fiberglass. We can all make a difference if we just think about things with a little fore thought.

Make a difference think about it yourself do your research.

But coffee can be very unsustainable. The way it is grown, harvested, shipped and processed are all topics for later posts. Today I am concerned with the end user.  Caffe Ladro is my favorite Seattle coffee place. They show great interest in providing coffee that is is fair trade, shade grown and all those things that any good environmentally conscious consumer wants in their coffee house. As I sat there with Izzy, doing alphabet games I started to count the number of cups and lids that left the cafe. I was as guilty as everyone else, there on our table were two cups, no lids mind you, one for my americano and one for Izzy’s hot chocolate. I carry a thermos to work with me every day and thought to myself how many paper cups have I saved over the past ten years by using my thermos? Of all the people who came in to get a cup of coffee only three, that I saw, had reusable containers. That makes for a lot of coffee cups used and thrown away. I kept thinking this is why some decisions need to made from the top down. If the cups were from a sustainable source like Sustainable Party then it would be less of an issue. Don’t get me wrong I am not suggesting that people should not be responsible for their own actions but there are so many things to think about in our lives. If the coffee place we go to thinks about beans and how they are processed I don’t see any problem with them making the decision of what kind of cup we use for us. It just gives we the consumer one more reason to shop there instead of the place that doesn’t think about those things.

Be responsible think about the things you buy and why you buy them.

My father built a solar house in the 70’s. At the time PV panels were not an option but using solar for the heating of water for preheating was. I was young when he was building his house but I have vivid memories of installing 20 4′x8′ copper panels on the roof and building plexi-glass containers around them to focus the heat on water pumped to them from the basement. In the basement were 4 1200 gallon fiber-glass tanks that acted as heat exchangers. Hot water from the panels came off the roof and heated water in the tanks which in turn preheated water for the radiant heat and domestic hot water. It was really a very impressive system and I remember on day it being 10 above zero, after having been like that for a couple days and my father being so happy because the preheated water coming to the water heater was at 103 degrees. In the end I don’t know how much money he saved in heating the water but I think his project instilled in me a sense that we all should participate in using the energy that is all around us to take care of our heating and electrical needs.

The solar heating system my father built was probably not cost effective but today to do what he did would be far less expensive and more efficient. Pre-heating water is a great way to save on heating costs and if you use PV panels to produce your electricity than you will rarely need an exterior input from the grid.

Think about where your energy comes from.

Plug in America covers all things about plug in vehicles. Plug ins are cars that are available now for us to buy that can make substantial differences in carbon emissions. Yes I know when you plug in you are still using dirty energy because the electricity is probably made with coal but the end result is far less emissions and less cost for you: Plug in America has all the numbers. Buying a plug in also sends a message that you are concerned with emissions when gas prices are low. I keep hearing this argument that consumers wont want to buy hybrids or other more sustainable vehicles if the price of gas is low. What are you all crazy. If gas is 1.25 a gallon and you own a car that gets 60 MPG that means you can go 600 for about 13 dollars compare that with your Hummer or Escalade getting around 8-10 MPG wait it is going to cost you 75 dollars to go the same distance. Save the money pay off your credit cards.

Don’t let apathy run your life. Think about the decisions you make.

That is a great question and it is one which can be easily answered on a basic level and more complexly answered when it comes to how it must come to function in our global community. Simply put being sustainable is making the world around you able to continue to be the way it is as you pass through it. We should want to leave as small an impact on the place we are as we can. To do this many things must be taken into account. Simple things like recycling, reusing, using things fully and making our living spaces efficient can make a great impact but a grand scale must be created if we are reverse the effects that have reared their heads. One simple way to become more in sustainable in your day to day life is to only buy what you can afford. Over consumption has led, in great portion, to our current environmental and financial disasters. It will take time but if we all learn to live a little more simply the system will evolve and constant growth will not be necessary to maintain it. And lets face it the credit card companies are doing nothing to make the current situation any easier. As money gets tighter for everyone they are raising peoples interest rates and making it harder for people to pay off their debts. There is nothing sustainable about credit in this fashion lets all come together and force them to act responsibly.

Cut up your cards. Pay with cash.