Day 70 of our Green Year: Planting Great Trees

Who likes fruit? Who likes fruit trees? Who likes to pick the fruit right off the tree and eat it without having to worry about pesticides? I think the answer to this is that we all do. Sadly, most of us do not have fruit trees in our yard. However, you can easily get seeds for them, and all it takes is a trip to your grocery store.

So, for the 70th day of Our Green Year, we have decided to start planting seeds from the fruit we buy instead of simply tossing it out. This will help us create great fruit trees and add a bit more oxygen creators to our environment.

Now granted, we eat a lot of fruit and we can't use all the seeds, but many of the seeds may not grow, and using the following method, Layla and I can begin to make fruit tree saplings and sell them at Farmer's Markets for people. We will also be giving it to people as a green gift.

1. The first thing you need to do is wrap the seeds in moist peat moss and put this all in a plastic bag. Then, stick it in the fridge for about three months.
2. Transfer the seeds to flats and add some more peat moss, then cover and leave them in a warm and dimly lit area. Make sure you poke holes in the cover so the air can circulate.
3. Allow the seeds to germinate. This can take quite a while, but you just need to be patient and watch for any signs of growth.
4. Take the seeds to a well-lit area once they germinate. You should always keep these small fruit trees indoors and away from harsh conditions outside. They will die if your are not careful.
5. Once the trees are ready, transplant them and keep repeating this step depending on how large the tree grows

In total, this can take over half a year to a year, but trust us, it will be great when you are eating fresh fruit in a few years and helping out the environment by reducing your dependency on fruit grown elsewhere, while giving the Earth some more trees to take care of our air for us.

NOTE: Tomorrow, Layla and I are going to be hiking up Mount Roberts for our town's tradition of raising the Canadian flag on top of the mountain for Canada Day, so the blog tomorrow will be later in the day.

Also, here is a great video you should all check out. Thank you to No Impact Man and his great website for showing it to me. 350 Challenge
Got any suggestions for what we can do to go green? Want to share your own green stories with us or send us photos of you going green? Then send us an e-mail at crwbaird@gmail.com

Day 69 of our Green Year: One Garbage Bag Challenge

Here we are in Day 69, and the decision has been made to completely limit our garbage. We got the idea from our friend Jennifer at Mother's Going Green, who has taken part in the one can a month challenge. This means they only have one garbage can full of garbage per month, which is about two to four bags a month depending on how large the can is.

Layla and I thought this was such a good idea, that we have decided to do the same, except we will be going for one garbage bag a month. That means we will be recycling and composting everything we can, keeping an eye on packaging and everything to ensure that we do not exceed one garbage bag per month. This is actually a really tough challenge because our society has evolved to be very wasteful. Everything we buy, even the stuff that is limited package and organic, can still have a lot of packaging to it.

Our society generates so much garbage, it is truly astonishing. In Canada, which is one of the worst per capita offenders, it has become an epidemic. Here are just some alarming statistics.

• 40 percent of all solid waste generated in Canada is from household garbage.
• Each person in Canada generates 383 kilograms of waste. In other words, that is 30 garbage bags per person in Canada.
  
• 12 million tonnes of waste is generated by residential homes each year.
• Only 2.5 million tonnes is recycled.

Ultimately, our goal is to be zero impact. Selectively buying what we can to keep garbage out of our home and ensuring that we recycle and reuse everything that comes into the house. It will be a happy day here when the garbage truck has nothing to pick up, ever. Until then, we will only be using one garbage bag a month starting this week.

Also, Layla and I bought a solar powered light for our garden. No need for batteries or household electricity here!
Do you have any suggestions for limiting garbage? Do you want to join our One Bag A Month Challenge? Got pictures of you going green? Email us at crwbaird@gmail.com!

Day 68 of our Green Year: A Natural Weed Killer

We have some weeds in our garden, and while I am one to leave weeds in the yard since they aren't really doing any harm, I do have to remove them from the garden. This is because they can choke out our vegetables, and those vegetables are feeding us over the winter.
Obviously, we are not going to be using herbicides on the weeds because we are a 'no chemical zone' here. Therefore, we can use our muscles and pull the weeds out by hand, but there is another way that goes along with our message of 'Re-use, then recycle'.

In this sense, we have chosen to use something we make nearly every day to get rid of weeds. That something, is boiled water. Whether it is making pasta, boiling potatoes, making tea or whatever, we have boiled water nearly on a daily basis. Now, instead of just dumping that water down the drain, which is a big waste, we are pouring it on weeds. Boiled water is a great weed killer because it essentially destroys the entire plant and the root system if it is shallow enough. No herbicides, or pulling it out by your hand. Just reusing the water you just boiled to kill a weed.

Many gardeners are going with this method over other methods because it is healthier for the environment without herbicides floating around everywhere. This, of course, is not to say that we will not be pulling weeds by hand. Nor will we be boiling water to specifically pour on weeds. Instead, we are only using the water that was already boiled for something else, on the weeds. Remember the motto of Our Green Year, "Reuse, then Recycle"

Got any other natural weed killers? Let us know!

Day 67 of our Green Year: Reusing Yogurt Containers

In our house, we enjoy organic yogurt with our lunch. It is healthy, tastes great and you can also make some great smoothies out of it. However, this then presents the problem of many yogurt containers beginning to appear around our home. We can't throw them out, we could recycle them, but the rule we have here is "Re-use, then Recycle", so we have found some uses for yogurt containers that will keep us from buying other items.

1. Seed Starters: Yogurt containers make great seed starters because they are small and lightweight, plus easy to grow things in. You can start growing your plants for the spring and summer inside, and have green throughout your home, which then makes the air that much better.
2. Plant Protectors: On that same note, you can cut the bottom of the yogurt container out and use it to protect the plants when they are outside by putting the yogurt container over the plant.
3. Containers For Butter: Layla and I make our own butter, so we need something to put that butter in, and a washed out yogurt container works great for this.
4. Craft Supplies: Layla is big on making crafts, and there seems to be few better things to hold beads and such than a small yogurt container.
5. Leftovers: Store food in the containers when you don't finish your meal.
6. Cookie Dough: You can also store unused cookie dough in here to keep it fresh and free of crusting over.
7. Toothbrush Holder: They are a great toothbrush holder and you can even decorate it for the bathroom.

There are plenty of things that can be done with yogurt containers. Do you know of any? Leave us a comment and let us know what we may have missed!
Have you made something out of a yogurt container? Why not send a photo of it to us so we can put it on our blog. Crwbaird@gmail.com

Day 66 of our Green Year: Homemade Air Fresheners

Day 66 has come and it is time to make the house smell nice. Not that it smells bad, but there is something about a house that smells great. However, in most air fresheners, that smell comes at a price, and that price is your health. How bad can it be? You may not want to know....

In a study done in 2007, the Natural Resources Defense Council looked at 14 air fresheners and found that 12 contained phthalates. If you don't know what those are, then ignorance is bliss. They are a group of chemicals that are used to dissolve and carry fragrances. They can also soften plastics and companies also use them as sealants and adhesives. They are found in many products, including children's toys, and they have health consequences.
Studies have found that high exposures to Phthalates can cause cancer, sex-hormone abnormalities, development problems in children, malformed sex organs in infants and problems with fertility.

Now, you may think that buying 'all-natural' or 'unscented' air fresheners is the way to go. Well, in a study by the NRDC, they found that some of those 'all natural' products carried as much as 7,300 parts per million of phthalate content. Phthalates are also listed in California's EPA's Office of Encironmental Health Hazard Assessment as a developmental toxin.

Therefore, Layla and I are making our own air fresheners. Previously in the blog, we have mentioned how a bowl of lemon juice can freshen up a room, as can vinegar or baking soda. Well, if you want to do something a bit different, try this.

1. Take 1/2 cup of salt and a one and a half a cups of flour.
2. Mix together with some food coloring and some essential oils (Lavender for example).
3. Add 2/3 cup of boiling water
   
4. Once mixed so that it is clumpy, then form into small balls.
5. Let sit on the counter so they dry.
6. Put some more essential oil on them.

There, you have a great air freshener. There are not byproducts in this, no chemicals, it is all-natural and good for your home environment.

UPDATE: The soda is ready after sitting in the fridge for days and it is great. Really, it is very good. I love it and am going to be making more soon.

Also, if you want to see what the world will be like after cheap oil is gone (which may be happening now), then check out this CBC documentary I watched last night.

The Future Without Oil

Day 65 of our Green Year: Reusable Vegetable Bags

Here we are with only 300 days left in Our Green Year, and we have decided to continue our quest to banish plastic items from our house with the banishment of plastic bags for vegetables. We banished plastic bags very early on in Our Green Year, and now we are getting rid of those plastic bags that we keep vegetables in from the store to home and in the fridge, before throwing them out.

These are just as bad for the environment, and they are only used for slightly longer than plastic bags. Instead, Layla and I have decided to do the following with our vegetable bag needs. Since we are trying not to use items like plastic wrap and plastic bags, we won't be getting those bags at the grocery store and reusing them.

1. Use paper bags, like what you have for mushrooms at the grocery store if we don't have anything to put our fruit in.
2. Get a small mesh vegetable bag that can hold everything from apples and oranges to nectarines and honeydew melons.
   
3. Buying bags that have been made from recycled goods. The RDKB here sells bags that are made from recycled juice containers, they look great and are awesome to use.

One of our Green Friends, Mother's Going Green (http://www.mothersgoinggreen.blogspot.com/) did a blog this week about the types of plastic that are used in the world. Each bag has a symbol (much like the recycle symbol) with a number in it. I took note today of what number is on the plastic bags at the store. For that type of plastic, Mother's Going Green said it was made of high density polyethylene, which is used in everything from milk containers to cereal box liners. It is apparently safe to use, but that is not conclusive. Regardless of the health issues that may be related, it takes 1.75 kilograms of petroleum to make just one kilogram of high density polyethylene. With higher prices for oil these days, don't be surprised if you suddenly have to start paying for those bags.

Got any suggestions for what we can use? Send us an e-mail at crwbaird@gmail.com or leave us a comment!

Day 64 of our Green Year: Sugary Body Wash

Here at the Our Green Year household, we are trying more and more to make things around the house instead of going out and buying it.
In a previous day, we had explained all the nice chemicals that are in our personal care products, including body washes. Since Layla and I like having that clean feeling after a shower, we decided to make our own body wash. Surprisingly, it is very simple to make a body wash, a sugary body wash that is.

All you need is a plastic container, sugar, olive oil and a scented oil.

Take the reusable plastic container and fill it with one cup of sugar. It needs to be a plastic container because it is going in the shower. If you use a glass one, you may drop it, it will smash, you will step on the shards, screaming will ensue and it won't be a very relaxing experience.
Take 1/2 a cup of extra virgin olive oil and pour it into the plastic container with the sugar. Shake it until it is all blended together. This may take a few minutes because the olive oil will want to sit on top of the sugar.
Then, take your scented oil (Lavender is popular) and put some into the container. Only put a bit at first, you don't want to have an overpowering scent. Add more if you feel it is needed and shake.

There, you are done. Now, just put it in the shower. When you go to shower, all you have to do is put a bit on a wash cloth to use as a body wash. You should do this about once a week and you will find it actually does great wonders for your skin. The olive oil will naturally settle on the sugar, so you may have to mix it before you use it.
Make sure you rinse well afterward as well.

Let us know how it works for you!

If you have pictures of yourself doing green things (leave out the ones of you showering with sugar body wash), send them to us at crwbaird@gmail.com and we will put them on the blog!
One of our blog partners, Jennifer from Mothers Going Green, sent me an astonishing power point presentation on plastic bag usage. I highly recommend seeing it. If you would like to, e-mail me at crwbaird@gmail.com and I will send it to you.

UPDATE: I received my $100 green cheque from the Government of BC today. They are sending cheques out to everyone in an effort to get people to buy green things with them. I am using mine to buy a solar panel. Stay tuned!

Day 63 of our Green Year: Greening Up The Pet Food

For Layla and I, our pets our like our children and we only want the best for them, and the environment in which they inhabit. Currently, we have two dogs (Niko and Lucy), three birds (Augy, Zed and Honey), two cats (Palu and Sparty) and one dog we are babysitting for our friend, Darcee, this month, Buckwheat.

So, we want to make sure what they eat is as good as what we eat. Why allow our animals to eat byproducts when we eat organic food? Therefore, for Day 63, we are getting rid of animal byproduct and unhealthy pet food. Most of the pet food you buy at the store is filled with reconstituted animal byproducts, which are just low-grade wastes from the poultry and beef industries. These are things we would never eat, yet we let our companions munch away on it.

A delightful insight into byproducts comes from the fact that the animals that are used in pet food are called 4-D. What does that mean? It means that the dead, dying, diseased and disabled. Unless it actually says so on the can that the ingredients are food-grade meat, you can be assured what they are eating is no good for human, or pet, consumption.

This is why Layla and I are going with Natural and Organic pet foods instead. One place we have tried for pet food is right here in our town. It is called Mountain Mutt Bakery and our dogs love their all natural food. You can also find a wide variety of other organic and natural pet foods in certain stores (Like Tails Pet Store where we are) and online.

All the organic and natural pet foods come from animals that are raised in a humane way, and not pumped full of drugs and hormones, and are preserved with vitamins C and E. That is much better than the 'byproducts' that are in pet food.

So, before we leave you today, what is in some byproducts (albeit not all)? Here is just a short list:

• Cow brains
• Sheep guts
• Chicken heads
• Road kill
• Rancid grain

After seeing animals die from tainted grain last year, Layla and I are no longer taking the chance for the good of our environment, and our pets.

Do you have a photo of you with your pets enjoying an eco-friendly activity or food? Let us know!

Day 62 of our Green Year: Plastic Wrap Elimination

Did you know that oil prices are going up? Unless you live under a rock on Mars, you probably do. Well, when oil prices go up, so does absolutely everything else with oil and oil byproducts with it. Most are made from petroleum based products and that is not only bad for your pocket book, but for the environment as well. Typically, plastic wrap is made from polyvinylidene chloride, or polyvinyl chloride (which both end up getting in close contact with your food.
These chemicals are very toxic when they are produced, used and incinerated. Now, they are very rigid plastics, so those who manufacture plastic wrap will put in phthalates, which can cause hormonal disruption, development problems, and oh ya, that also comes in close contact with the food you eat.

As a result, Layla and I are banning plastic wrap in our house. No more of it at all. We came to the conclusion of why we would ban plastic bags, but have plastic wrap that is only used for awhile then thrown away. So, we are getting rid of plastic wrap for that reason, as well as the environmental impact it causes when it is made, and the horrible impact it has on our bodies when we ingest food that has been in contact with these chemicals for hours, or days.

Instead, we are choosing to use some alternatives.

1. One thing we do is take dishes and use those as containers. They are not perfect, but they do work okay. This means taking a bowl and putting it over a plate of food, or using another plate as a lid on a plate of food. This is simple, we can keep doing it and it is environmentally healthy.
2. Reusable containers are a great fit. We already have some for take out and Subway, so we are going to get some more and use that for food in the fridge. Also reusable, so that is a big plus.

For now, we are going to hold off on aluminum foil. We banned aluminum cans, and having aluminum foil seems like a step in the wrong direction. Layla and I think just using the containers and other dishes should work fine for us instead.

Thank you as well to Darren at the Weekender for doing a story on Our Green Year in an upcoming issue of the paper.

Day 61 of our Green Year: The Ultimate Recycling

Well we are going headlong into our third month of going green and things are starting to really take off for us.
For today, we have decided to go green by joining Freecycle.org. Freecycle is a website that has actually been around for a few years, which allows people to essentially join the world's largest free garage sale.

Freecycle works through Yahoo Groups, and it gives the ability for people to put things that they want to get rid of up on the group for their area (our area is Trail, B.C.). Whether it is plant pots, a dresser, clothes or more, you can find it here and all you have to do is contact the person giving it away and pick it up.
As well, you can put up your things as well to prevent the things you own from ending up in the landfill. Remember, one man's trash is another man's treasure, and you don't want to contribute to our growing landfills by throwing things away, which someone else may want.

Think of how much waste goes to landfills that does not need to? How many times have you seen things like couches, pots, books and more at a landfill? There are about 10,000 landfills across Canada right now. That is about one landfill for every 3,500 people. As well, landfills account for 38 percent of all our methane emissions in Canada, which is 20 times stronger than greenhouse gases. While the items you get on Freecycle are not going to be producing methane, beginning by giving away what you would throw away, is a good start to preventing you from simply throwing everything away because it is easier. That way, landfills get smaller and more gets recycled.

Currently, Layla and I are looking for some things on the site to help us go green. We will see what we find!

As well, be sure to check out www.greenmagazines.com, where Layla and I will have ten tips on how to go green in each issue of Organic Lifestyles. They were nice enough to speak to us and we are looking forward to sending our message of how to go green to a wide audience!

Here is a photo of Layla doing the right thing by drying our clothes outside on the deck. Do you have any photos of you doing green things? Send them to us at crwbaird@gmail.com

Day 60 of our Green Year: Pop, Green Style!

Whoo! Two month anniversary of Our Green Year. Things are going strong for us and really picking up, which is great. Only ten months, or 305 days to go, before Our Green Year comes to an end and Our Green Life begins!

For today, we have decided to make our own soda. We figure that things like Coca-Cola, Pespi and other pops have huge amounts of items that we may not want in our bodies, like Aspartame (which apparently gives tumors to rats). The surprising thing of all this, is that making soda is really easy to do and does not take that much in ingredients.

So, here is how you make it:

1. Get a 4 Liter jug, a washed out milk jug will work great. Then, get a cup of warm (baby bottle warm) water and put 1/8 of a teaspoon of yeast in it. This is important, if you put too much yeast in, your pop will taste funny and the bottle may explode. However, too little and you won't get the "ssss" when you open the jug. Let the water and yeast mix together by sitting on the counter for five minutes.
2. In the jug, put one to two cups of sugar in, depending on how sweet you want it.
3. Put two tablespoons of flavoring in the jug. Most supermarkets will sell this flavoring and it comes in many varieties, from Dr. Pepper and Coke to Grape and Orange.
4. Put the warm water and yeast in the jug.
5. Fill the jug with water until there is a few inches of space at the top.
6. Shake the jug for two minutes.

After you have done that, put it in the fridge for about four to six days so it can carbonate. Check it every so often. If you find that it is very firm (as in hard to push the jug sides together), then open it and let some of the air out to relieve the pressure.

There you have it! All there is to making soda, pretty easy and quick. It should not take you more than ten minutes to do this.

UPDATE: Our biodegradable pens arrived from Grassroots Store, and they are great. You can see our dog Niko also likes them...or how they taste!

Our story was on the radio stations (KBS Radio and Mountain FM) here in the Kootenay region of BC, so that is great!
http://www.mountainfm.net/?q=node/5147

Do you have a pop recipe? Send it to crwbaird@gmail.com and we will put it up. If you have pictures of yourself going green, send that to us too and we will post it on our blog. Our friend Min did, by showing us her new biodegradable bag!

Day 59 of our Green Year: Green Shopping

Welcome to Day 59 of Our Green Year, only one day away from two months!! So, for this day, we are going to be going green with our shopping. Already we have gone green by only buying local food and making sure it is organic, but there are other ways that we can go green with our shopping.

I would like to thank Mother's Going Green (http://www.mothersgoinggreen.blogspot.com/), who offered several awesome tips on how to go green with your shopping. So, Layla and I are taking the steps ensure our shopping is green, and that goes well beyond bringing cloth bags to the store.

First, we are going to shop less like our friend at Mother's Going Green. We will only be shopping for things when we need to, and when we do it will only be a local store. This means that unless we can't avoid it, no more Wal-Mart for us.

The other way we are going green with our shopping, and this is the most important one, is we will only buy items with minimal packaging. This goes from the food we buy, all the way to anything else.
Excess packaging is everywhere in our lives. When we buy food like Pizza Pops, they are put in a box, and then in individual plastic wrap. Is this necessary? What about Swiffer Sweeper? This product is built on not having a reusable mop that you can use for five years. Instead, you have to keep buying packages of individually-wrapped sweeper pads.
According to some estimates, while we are urged to increase how much we recycle, the amount companies waste in excess packaging has increased by 12 percent since 1999! We are talking about items like plastic that can take 1,000 years to break down, and once we rip the packaging to get our product we forget about it in the garbage.
Think about this. A total of 35 percent of all the waste in landfills is from packaging! That is a lot of waste that does not need to be there.

Therefore, from now on Layla and I will only buy products that are in cardboard boxes that we can reuse. We will only buy other products in jars that we can also reuse. If we have to buy something that uses plastic, we will either recycle it or turn it into something we can use. If you wonder what you can use the CD plastic wrap for, well if you take it off carefully, attach it to the to of a bucket and poke a hole in the middle (make sure it slopes down to the hole), then you can collect dew in the morning to use on your plants.

Thank you to Mountain FM who did an interview with us today about Our Green Year, as well as Shaw TV, who are planning on speaking with us next month!

The message of Our Green Year is spreading. Thank you to everyone who comes to our site each day and I hope we are helping to make a difference.

Day 58 of our Green Year: Homemade Butter

As part of our goal to be self-sustaining, we have decided to begin making a lot of things that we could buy, in our home instead. The reason for this is because we want to take a bit of our carbon footprint away from having to buy items like butter and pop at the store. So, today we have decided to make our own butter.
To make butter, you need two things; cream and salt. The homemade butter you make is much better for your health than margarine and retail types of butter because there is nothing in it but cream and salt.
The reason this is an environmentally-good thing to do is that the less butter you buy, the less butter has to be shipped, the less greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere. Granted, you do need to have cream, which has to be shipped. To beat this, Layla and I are buying our cream from a supplier in the Lower Mainland of BC and will be looking for a place where we can buy the cream in an area of the Kootenays.


So, to make butter, follow these steps:

1. Let cream (whipping cream works best) get to room temperature.
2. Put cream in jar with tight lid.
3. Shake jar for 30 min (you can do this with a food processor, but shaking it is good exercise and does not use electricity). As you shake the jar, you will find that it becomes like whipped cream and then suddenly, and its kind of cool, the cream will separate from the butter and it will be sloshing around in the jar. Shake for a few more minutes.
4. Once done, you will see a lump of butter in the middle that will be quite soft. Pour out the cream, which is now buttermilk.
5. Put cold water into jar and shake, then pour out water. Do this until the water comes out clear.
6. Get butter out of the jar and onto a plate. Put salt on it, mix it on the plate and form into a butter block shape (if you can).
   
7. Put in fridge to chill.

That is all there is to it, and trust me it tastes far better than any other butter you buy at the store. The price for the cream is comparable to what you would pay for the butter, so it is more or less equaling in cost for you, with a little bit less than what you would usually get in a butter container but it is much healthier.

Do you have a recipe for butter that may work better? Let us know. If you have a picture of you or your family making butter, send it to crwbaird@gmail.com and we will put it up!

Day 57 of our Green Year: No more cans

A few weeks ago, Layla and I committed to recycling nearly everything we could. This included pop cans. When you recycle pop cans, you save about 60 percent energy that it takes to make them from scratch.
However, recently, we began to think about the pop cans themselves and the harm that may be caused to the environment by buying things like pop cans.
As a result, we are committing to eliminating pop cans for our life. The reason we chose to do this is two-fold, and it has to do with our own health and the environment.

First, the environment. When aluminum cans are made from scratch, it has to use aluminum that is processed from the Earth. This is VERY energy intensive, so it contributes heavily to greenhouse gases, and the mining itself destroys local habitats.

The second reason is our health. While we are not doctors, we recently chose to buy only natural personal care products to keep harmful chemicals out of our lives. Well, aluminum is the main component of cans, and some studies have shown that Alzheimer's Disease can be caused by aluminum. Now, we are not saying it does cause it, or that if you use aluminum cans you will get Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, but we are not taking the chance.

This is why we are going to begin making our own drinks (stay tuned for making your own soda this week) and keeping it in reusable containers.
If you do use aluminum cans, please remember to at least recycle it!

If you can, check out a great website called Tree-Nation (www.tree-nation.com), which will let you buy your own tree and become the guardian of that tree. If you can't plant a tree, this is a good place to check out.
Also, Layla and I saw a news report last night about how the government is changing the designation of lakes across the country so that mining companies can dump toxic mine waste into the isolated lakes. This will kill the lakes, and despite what the mining bosses say "It is the safest way to dispose of it and we have many lakes", it is not a good thing to do. Over 50 lakes are already designated in such a way that they will be polluted with toxic waste. Read more about it here:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/16/condemned-lakes.html?ref=rss
Please join our Facebook group to help stop this:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17741112868


UPDATE: Our garden is coming in great, and here are some pictures of the garden and the veggies that are coming in, including peas, potatoes, radishes and corn. Thank you to KBS Radio and Organic Living Magazine who interviewed us about Our Green Year. If you know of any media who may be interested, contact us at crwbaird@gmail.com and I will send you a press release.

Day 56 of our Green Year: Bottle Composting

You may be thinking we are talking about composting bottles, but the truth is we are talking about making a portable composting machine that you can take with you. Whether you are on vacation, or even at work, why should you forget about going green when you are not home? This is where the portable bottle compost method comes into play.

You can easily make this portable compost device and take it with you wherever you go. Now you don't have to throw things out that could be composted when you can simply put them in the bottle and compost it from your car, hotel room or office.

These are really easy to make. To make them, you need these items:

• A Two-Liter Plastic Soft Drink Bottle
• Two Cups of Fruits and Veggies Scraps, all chopped up.
• One cup of grass clippings or leaves
• Two cups of garden soil.
• Blood and bone fertilizer if you have it.
• One newspaper torn into squares.
• Spray bottle with water.
• Spoons for the soil.
• Tape and a marker

To make the compost bottle, follow these steps:

1. Remove the label from the bottle, leave the lid on and cut about three-quarters of the way up the bottom to form a flip top.
2. Put the soil into the bottom and then moisten it with the spray bottle. Put a layer of fruit scraps in, then cover with soil about one cm thick.
3. Put some fertilizer in it.
4. Add leaves and then cover with another one cm of soil.
5. Put some fertilizer on that.
6. Place newspaper in the bottle and put another one cm of soil.
7. Put another layer of fruit and vegetable scraps in, cover with one cm of soil and sprinkle with more fertilizer.
8. Tape the top up and put it in a sunny spot on the window sill.

Afterwards, every so often, check to see if it is too moist (open lid) or too dry (add water). After a few weeks of adding composting to it, then take it out to the garden and put it in the soil.
This really makes a great portable compost bin for when you are on vacation or in the office.

If you have photos of you making this compost bottle, send them to crwbaird@gmail.com and we will put them up.
Here are a few photos of me using our manual lawn mower, which does a great job of the lawn.

Day 55 of our Green Year: Fresh Fish

Well, here we are to Day 55 of our Green Year. So, 55 down and 310 to go...whew!
Last night, Layla and I were watching W-Five and they aired a report about food from China. In it, they showed how the standards for food in China are actually less than what they are here (which can be bad enough). As a result, many people have become sick from food that was made in, or from ingredients in, China.

What they stressed mostly was fish, and they even showed someone feeding fish at a fish farm, while someone just off the banks of the fish farm water was using pesticides on plants. Mmmmm....nothing like pesticides in your food.
As you may recall, Layla and I have decided to go local and organic with our food. We recently bought organic mustard and other items, and are even going to start making our own butter (see future blog :) ). We did this because we wanted to keep pesticides out of our food, and we want to support local producers. The site we use to find local producers is Eat Well Guide (www.eatwellguide.org)
After watching that alarming documentary, we have decided to only go with fresh fish from now on. We are lucky in British Columbia because only seven hours away lies the Pacific Ocean, where we can get our fresh fish brought in on a regular basis. The reason we want to do this is because in China, many of the fish have been found to contain Malachite Green, which is something that can cause cancer. Now, in the documentary the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said that it tests every shipment from China for the toxic ingredient. Then, W-Five went and bought a random fish at a random store, which came from China and had it tested. Guess what, it had Malachite Green. So, obviously someone is lying.
As well, you may think when you buy cereal and other items that say "Product of Canada" or "Product of USA", but there is a loophole in the law that concerns that. If the packaging is worth more than the ingredients, and it often is, it can say "Product of Canada" even if it was made in China from Chinese ingredients. "Product of Canada" only means that at least 51 percent of manufacturing costs were incurred in Canada.

Our local grocery store does have fresh fish that we buy now, but if you know of anywhere in British Columbia that we can order fresh fish from, please do let us know. We are not big meat eaters and prefer fish because it is light, so it is something we have every week or so.

UPDATE: Our vegetable garden is coming in nicely, with our peas, corn, potatoes, radishes, sunflowers, onions and spinach popping up. As well the herbs outside and inside are coming in, and our indoor tomato plants are beginning to pop up! If you have any suggestions for things we can do to go green, or know of places we can get organic vegetables, fruits and fish, please do let us know. Crwbaird@gmail.com If you have pictures of you going green, then send them to that address as well and we will put it up.

Day 54 of our Green Year: Biodegradable Pens

Layla and I are writers. Working from home, we write books for clients and also write our own books. As a result, pens are a big part of our lives. We use them to write out notes, write out ideas, pretty much write out everything.

Until we started doing Our Green Year, we never thought about the pens we use and throw away. However, since we are trying to be net-zero in our impact on the environment, the question came up of "what do we do with our pens?"

Thankfully, there are companies out there that actually specialize in green products and the one we chose was the Grass Roots Store (https://www.grassrootsstore.com/index.asp), which sells environmentally friendly products. So, from here we went and bought some biodegradable pens. Yes, that is right, biodegradable pens. You can actually compost them!
They are made from corn, and are completely environmentally friendly, so this is big for Layla and I because now we can make notes on our recycled paper with biodegradable pens and be completely net-zero in our writing lives.

Layla and I will also be buying more green products from the Grass Roots Store to go with Our Green Year, so stay tuned!
If you know of another store that sells environmentally friendly products, please let us know!

Lastly, here is a nice statistic to show you just how large this pen problem is. Every single year, around the world, TEN BILLION pens are thrown away....that is a lot of plastic and ink.

Day 53 of our Green Year: Picking Up Litter

This is a really easy one for all of us. No matter where you live, you will find litter. It is a horrible reality of our disposable society. Instead of choosing to carry our garbage an extra block, we dump it on the road. Instead of keeping the garbage in our car until we are at a place to dispose it, we toss it out the window.

More than anything, litter shows the mentality of many of our species, who see the world as one big dumping ground, and not the beautiful oasis suspended in a sunbeam that it is.
However, there are those out there that hold onto their garbage and throw it out or recycle it. Those who care that our roads are clean and that a hike in the woods does not show us garbage instead of nature.

In that vein of thought, Layla and I are committed to cleaning up trash when we are out. From the littlest wrapper we find on our walks, to cleaning up larger items when we are out and about. I encourage all of you do to the same. If we take the time to clean up after ourselves, the world can be a very nice place.

The Earth is not a dumping ground. It is a beautiful place that we should respect. If we don't, then one day all that will be left of our civilization will be the garbage we chose not to recycle or throw away.

Do you have your own tales of picking up litter? Do you have photos of you picking up litter? Or just photos of the litter in your area? Send it to us at crwbaird@gmail.com and we will put it up here to show what others are doing to keep the world clean.

Day 52 of our Green Year: Going Fair With Chocolate

Awhile ago, we did a blog on going for organic and fair trade coffee because it actually gives money to the people who deserve it (the growers) and it is grown in a way that allows the environment not to be hurt. This is important to us, and to that end we have decided use our 52nd day of Our Green Year to only buy fair-trade and organic chocolate from now on.
Our friend Jen at Mother's Going Green did this already (http://www.mothersgoinggreen.blogspot.com/) and now it is our turn.

Now, it is time for some not-so-friendly information from Treehugger.com regarding the chocolate so many people buy.

• The Ivory Coast provides 43 percent of the world's cocoa for chocolate, and a study in 2001 found that there was massive amounts of child slavery going on at the cocoa farms. So, the nice chocolate bar you just had today may have had its cocoa picked by a young boy or girl, forced into slavery. In Africa, it is estimated that 284,000 are working in horrible conditions to pick that cocoa for the chocolate products. U.S. manufacturers of chocolate say they are not responsible for the children because they don't own the plantations.
• Currently, Hershey's and M&M/Mars control two-thirds of the $13 billion chocolate market in the United States. This means that the cocoa these companies use may come from child slavery plantations.
• In 2005, the U.S. chocolate industry agreed to VOLUNTARY steps to end child slavery on the plantations, but as of now the deadline has passed and nothing has been done.
• Fair Trade chocolate only represents one percent of the world's $60 billion chocolate market.

That is just talking about fair-trade and the conditions many children and other workers deal with for our sweet tooth, but what about the environmental impact?
Along with using child slavery at some plantations, those who grow the chocolate also clear off vast areas of land, and use pesticides that get into the water, air and the cocoa bean itself.

So, the next time you bite into a non-organic chocolate that is not fair-trade, you may taste the hands of a enslaved child and a bit of pesticide.

This is why Layla and I have gone fair-trade and organic with ALL of our chocolate from now on. If we are going to satisfy our sweet tooth, we are going to do it with a clean peace of mind.

Day 51 of Our Green Year: Finding Glowing Solutions For Old Lights

No one really stops to think about what they can do with their old and spent incandescent light bulbs. Surprisingly, there are quite a few things that people can do with them instead of throwing them out or having them sit around the house collecting dust. Especially with the new laws coming in over the next few years, where some places are banning the use of incandescent light bulbs, there are going to be many people left with incandescent light bulbs that are not being used any more.

For the creative person out there, they can do more with their incandescent light bulbs instead of adding them to the garbage. Instead, they can turn them into cute and pretty decorations around the house in the form of small vases that hang in front of a window, cute little bugs with coloured water in them that hang on the wall or the window, or even as holders for bath salts in the washroom that hang on the wall.

Craig and I decided to turn a couple of our incandescent light bulbs into pink and purple bugs that could liven up our door that goes out onto our deck. After emptying the light bulbs, decorating them and filling them with coloured water, they turned out to be a couple of nice inside decorations with little effort.

Now, before one can do anything with the light bulbs, one will have to empty out the inside. This can be done by using a pair of pliers to pull off the metal end piece. Then, the dark plastic part is put over a flame to weaken the plastic and allow it to be broken apart. Then, after prying off the plastic, one will have to take something long and narrow and carefully break apart the inside tube. Once this is done and the broken bits have been taken out and disposed of, the inside of the bulb can be rinsed out with some water. Cloudy bulbs will become clear; some salt will help take the remainder of some of the frosting out of the bulb.

Once the bulb is empty, one can make just about anything they can think of, including,

a) Decorative bugs for the window

b) Bath salt holders

c) Flower holders (fake flowers can be used)

d) Decorations for Christmas, Easter or any other holiday

All one has to do is be creative and have fun! One note of caution, however, is to make sure that all stray glass pieces are vacuumed up so as not to have anyone cut their hands on them.

If you make something with your old incandescent light bulb, send a picture of it to crwbaird@gmail.com and we will put it up here!