This past weekend during our Easy Street breakfast fix Izzy was feeling the beat. We entered to Black Sabbath who Izzy spent a good portion of the meal air guitaring to. After breakfast the music changed to Abba, which isn’t as weird a transition as it sounds and Izzy decided to dance her heart out. After the third song we all decided it was time to be on our way. This little nugget of time really brought it home for me how important it is to enjoy life. Don’t rush through it.

The more you slow down and enjoy what is going on around you the more you will understand a renewable lifestyle.

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.

This past Saturday we made a German pancake for breakfast, the recipe is on Zannes site, it was a truly wonderful eating experience with homemade whipped cream and all. Try it one morning it doesn’t take that long and is really not terribly labor intensive. It is certainly worth the effort and something everyone can take part in the making of.

Have fun making your food, savor the taste of your food and converse while eating your food.

Granite is beautiful and is great for counter tops. An unfortunate problem with granite is radiation. Not all but some granite slabs contain high levels of uranium and emit gamma radiation. Find out more on Treehugger in a great little blog post there.

Don’t trust your sales person remember many of them may not know or may not want to have a discussion about something that could jeopardize a sale. Do your own research and be persistent about getting answers from your supplier and installer. Another thing to remember is that no sealer is going to stop radiation from emitting, perhaps maybe lead, and with that you have other issues??!!

My Amazon store has a few products on right now and all those in the store I have put there. You will find a similar product section just to the right of my store and even though I do get a referral credit when these items are purchased I have not picked them specifically. The reason I am writing this post is because I was just on my store and saw an “organic” processed “food” product in that section. I want everyone to know that I do not endorse any “food” product. Please do not think that I am if you see something in that section. You will know, by reading this blog, that I believe in eating food not “food” products.

Buy what you like just know what you are buying.

Laundry is a huge waste. Lots of water, lots of energy, lots of waste running down into the sewer. Zanne and I have spent a lot of time and energy finding the most efficient washer, unfortunately it is still in storage. We also spent a lot of time finding a biodegradable detergent that cleaned as well as the ones that did such a good job at cleaning but also at polluting. Of the six “green” detergents we have tried this one cleans the best and seems to be the most cost effective. If you can’t find it at your local grocery, ha ha, try your local coop or natural store. I also have it for sale on my Amazon store. If you have never tried it I would do so and then order then order through my store because Amazon only sells it in bulk, which actually saves you more money and is more efficient.

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.

I started working for GreenPeace this week. That’s right I am one of those people out there asking you to help the environment, or save the trees, whales, polar bears, you know more than likely you have encountered one of us somewhere sometime. I am sure a lot of you avoid us like the plague, even if you are on board with the cause you are on a deadline, or its raining, etc.. If you read my blog and you believe in what GreenPeace is about than stop and talk to one of us, I promise we are not about the hard sell and lets face it who can’t afford a few cents a day to help ensure a watchdog like GreenPeace stays around. We are all about clean air, water, preserving natural spaces and peace. If you really do believe in any or all of these things then don’t avoid the next GreenPeace person you see on the street. Who knows if you are in Seattle it might be me. Check them out.

This is my recipe and I use that word loosely because I never do anything the same way twice.  It is so easy.

Soak a pound of dry peas as directed or if you buy bulk add them two about 8 cups of hot water boil them for two minutes and then let them sit for a while. I left mine for about two hours, they still had some body to them.

I then cut up some red potatoes, red onion and carrots how you cut them is up to you. I would never presume to know how you like your vegetables cut. All these I saute in olive oil, veggie broth and a little salt and pepper until they are almost tender. I don’t eat meat but I guess you could throw in some pork or whatever you flesh eaters do.

Then I mixed it all together and let it sit on the stove on a low/medium heat for a couple hours. The flavors blend really well this way and cooking it slowly ensure you retain most of the nutrients and don’t completely destroy the fibrous attributes of the veggies. As it cooks you have to add water or broth or else you will end up with a split pea brick and that is no fun to eat.

Make and love what you eat.