Day 175 of our Green Year: EcologyFund.com

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends out there! A great day at the ranch for us today because we had friends and family over, had a great green turkey dinner and had CBC News and Radio come by to do an interview with us!

As many of our readers will know, we try and find sites where you can click to go green from your home or office computer, without taking too much time out of your day. Well, we have another one for you: EcologyFund.com

This site is owned and operated by The Hunger Site Network and when you go to them and click on their sponsor buttons, you help to fund for critical habitat and wilderness preservation. Sponsors have agreed to pay to protect the project you can select. It costs you nothing, but every day you can help by clicking sponsor buttons to save habitats. Even if you just register, The Hunger Site Network will donate 500 square feet of wilderness in your name, and then keep a running tally of how much you have saved so far. As it says on the website of EcologyFund.com, all the monies from the sponsorships generated go to purchase and protect wild lands.

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A great thanksgiving dinner for us using homemade stuffing, grain-fed turkey, potatoes, peas and carrots from the garden and even homemade pies. We had 13 people out and it turned out to be a great day for everyone. You can see a pic here.

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Some awesome news! Andrea and Trevor from CBC News and Radio came by today and did an interview with us about Our Green Year and what we are doing. It aired on CBC Edmonton News at 6 p.m. here, and a story about us will be on CBC Radio tomorrow morning, so check it out if you can. Thank you so much for coming by Andra and Trevor, we appreciate you helping us spread the message of how easy it can be to go green. Below is a picture of Trevor, Andrea and myself. If you want to see our story go to http://www.cbc.ca/edmonton/audio-video/ before the end of tomorrow and click on Latest Newscast. We are about 22 min into the newscast.Below is the video from CBC News, courtesy of CBC.CA.

Day 170 of our Green Year: Making Preserves

The large organic garden here means that there are a lot of vegetables to eat throughout the winter. Many are frozen in the freezer downstairs, but some are not. To make sure they last and do not rot, it is important to use a time honored method for storing food; making preserves.

Hence, that is what today entailed. Through the process of canning the preserves, notably tomatoes, carrots, pickles and more, and then boiling them in a pot and canning tray to create a suction seal, you can have those great preserves days, weeks, months and even years down the road!

It is a great way to reduce your consumption at the grocery store because you won't have to buy those vegetables for quite awhile. With each harvest season that goes by, you add to your catalog of canned materials. It is a very green method because you are storing food so that it is not wasted and can be eaten later, you are not buying from a grocery store and instead living off the land for your vegetables, and beyond the process of creating the suction seal with boiling water, the process uses no energy to store, unlike when you freeze vegetables.

If you can, give canning a try. It is a very easy process and you can enjoy those carrots, tomatoes, corn and more even a year or two down the road.

Included here is a picture of the cans that we have downstairs in the cold room.

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If you have any photos of you doing canning, let us know and we will put it up. Just send us the photo to craigbaird@wildmail.com.

Day 169 of our Green Year: Signing The UDAW Petition

A few years after the creation of the United Nations, one of the most important documents in human history was drawn up (by a Canadian. Go Canada!). It was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and it detailed exactly what each human on Earth was entitled to and it has been used by the United Nations as evidence against countries that choose to mistreat their populations, and has helped some dictators be charged with war crimes.

Well there is a new document being drawn up and it is the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare. The campaign has the goal of getting 10,000,000 signatures to help get the United Nations to sign into law a resolution that would give rights to animals around the world. In 2003, during the Manila Conference on Animal Welfare, 19 government delegations from the European Council, the United States and Saipan created a foundation text for the UDAW. Two years later, representatives from Kenya, India, Costa Rica, Czech Republic and the Republic of the Philippines agreed to create a committee to push for the initiative. Other countries have joined on with representatives of their own including Australia, Cambodia, Fiji, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Poland, Slovenia, Tanzania and the United Kingdom. The initiative has active support of both the European Union and the United Nations.

So far, the initiative has reached over 1,000,000 signatures, with Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica, becoming the one millionth signer.

This mandate is the most ambitious initiative on animal welfare that has ever been attempted and since there is no international protection for animals, it is highly important. If accepted by the United Nations, it would recognize animals as sentient beings, which means they are capable of suffering. It would recognize that animal welfare is an issue of importance as a part of the social development of nations. Lastly, it would act as an initiative to create better provisions to protect animals around the planet.

Layla and I are big animal lovers, and that is why for our 169th Day of Our Green Year, we are signing this petition in the hopes that our future will see animals with rights to protect them from harm, pain and suffering.

You can sign the petition here.
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For those of you who live in Ontario, I encourage you to send a letter to your premier regarding Bill 50. Introduced by Minister Rick Bartolucci, it would overhaul the 89-year-old Ontario SPCA Act to widen definitions of cruelty to animals and to address critical animal welfare issues. It will also allow investigators to bring abusers to justice.

If it is made law, it would make Ontario's weak animal protection laws into some of the toughest in the country, and the world. Some of the changes would include:

• Establishing new provincial offences against animal cruelty, including: causing or permitting distress, training or allowing animals to fight, and obstructing an Ontario SPCA Inspector or Agent.
• Giving judges greater flexibility to impose stiffer penalties, including jail time, fines up to $60,000 and a potential lifetime ban on owning an animal of any kind.
• Providing for inspection powers; allowing investigators to inspect premises where animals are kept for the purpose of exhibit, entertainment, boarding, sale or hire.
• Allowing the Society to apply for custody of an animal victim while the case is still in the courts; preventing the Society from having to return an animal to the owner during a trial if cause for concern is shown.

Send your letters of support of this bill to:

Hon. Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
Rm 281, Main Legislative Building, Queen's Park
Toronto, ON M74 1A4

You can also e-mail them to dalton.mcguinty@premier.gov.on.ca

If you do send a letter, take a picture and send it to us and we will put it up on our blog to show that you support helping animals! E-mail to crwbaird@wildmail.com

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On the weird search front, one of the searches that brought up our blog today read:
"has any human lived over 159 years?"...odd
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Below is two pictures of Layla and I in the garden today bringing up the potatoes. There were pretty big ones in there as can be seen.

Day 167 of our Green Year: Thumbs Down To Microwave Popcorn

On occasion, we have some popcorn (albeit it has not been for months) when we want a quiet night at home with a good movie. Well, after coming to the ranch, we noticed that the other people we live with enjoy microwave popcorn. Layla and I have never been big on microwave popcorn as it cannot beat the taste of freshly popped popcorn. After reading about what is in microwave popcorn, we are glad we don't eat it anymore.

A recent report by the FDA showed that a chemical coating that is in microwave popcorn bags breaks down when it is heated into a substance called perfluorooctanoic, which is a likely carcinogen according to the Environmental Protection Agency. One has to wonder why a company would use a chemical that breaks down into a carcinogen when it is heated, like in microwave popcorn. This goes along with another study that found an acid in the chemical that causes cancer in animals and 'likely to cause cancer in humans'.

The danger in microwave popcorn does not stop there as there is another chemical called iacetyl that is found in the FAKE butter flavoring. Amazingly, there is a condition called bronchiolitis obliterans (popcorn workers lung) that some workers in popcorn factories suffer from since they inhale the fumes on a regular basis. Diacetyl can also cause lung disease if inhaled according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Due to all of this, we will ensure that when popcorn is bought, it is bought in the form of popcorn kernels (organic if possible), not in the form of microwave popcorn.

If you would like to make popcorn, there is a handy way to pop your own. On the stove, pour three tablespoons of olive oil and turn on the medium heat. Put two kernels in and when one is popped, pour one-third of a cup of corn into the pan and cover it. When it begins to pop, shake it constantly to let the steam escape from the popping kernels. Then take the pan away from the heat immediately, pour into a large bowl and season it to the taste you like.

As we said, we do not have popcorn often, but this is a great and quick method to pop popcorn naturally, and without the chemicals of microwave popcorn.

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Jim from Spokane e-mailed us a week or so ago with a question about brewing your own beer and whether or not it is green. Here is the question:
"I am a homebrewer and I reuse bottles in my brewing process, but I was just wondering as I made my last batch what went into the growing of my hops, grains, yeast, and other ingredients to make my beer. Is it more eco-friendly to brew your own beer, or just buy it from the store? Is it more eco-friendly to drink beer or wine?"

I have not been able to find an answer between if it is more eco-friendly to drink beer or wine, but my personal view is that wine is better since it is made from the juice of grapes. If they are organic grapes, all the better.

In regards to the other question, it is absolutely better to brew your own beer, both for you and the environment and here is why.

It is estimated that farmers spray their hops about 14 times per year, with about 15 different pesticides and fungicides. Hops accounts for about five percent of the total volume of the beer, and 50 percent of the taste. If you get your hops from an organic source, as well as your barley, then you are doing a great service to the environment. Making sure you can buy your yeast and other ingredients from organic sources also means that you won't have any pesticides or herbicides in them, which does both you and the environment well.

Also, if you are going vegan, and fish is not on your menu, beer may be what you don't want. This is because many beers are classified with isinglass, which is a collagen made from the bladders of fish. Where those fish comes from and the chemicals they have in them is anyone's guess.

Since you re-use your bottles Jim, you are helping out even more by re-using before you re-cycle. Great Job :)

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An update on renovations, the wall between the living room and kitchen has been torn out, allowing for better heat and air distribution throughout the house now.

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Be sure to check out Our Green Year Journal to see what we bought today on our weekly trip to the store, and a picture of our green penalty list.

Day 166 of our Green Year: Environmental Clicking

Throughout Our Green Year, we have joined causes where we will click on sponsored buttons once or twice a week to help support giving rice to people, saving the rain forest and more. Well, we have found another place where you can help the environment while clicking buttons from your computer. This place is kind of a one-stop shop for this and it is courtesy of the same place where we have our e-mails set up (craigbaird@wildmail.com); Care2.com.

At this link, you can save seals, big cats, fight global warming, save the rain forest, save the oceans and save primates and pets. It is a great place to visit a few times a week to help save the environment through clicking. You can take a minute or two out of your day to do this and all you have to do is create a Care2.com account, which also provides you with a Care2.com e-mail address (should you want it). Care2.com will donate to environmental causes for every single e-mail you send.
As well, you will be able to track how many animals you save, how your fight against global warming is going and more. It is a great site that we will be using a few times a week as part of Our Green Year.

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A busy day for us, as outlined in Our Green Year Journal by Layla. Here are some pictures of the butter we made, the fly strips we made out of syrup and organic sugar, the bread we made, our new plants in the basement, the green swear jar we have set up and the shower container for excess water we put in the bathroom.


Also, here is a picture of the cake we made from nearly total organic ingredients, except for the icing sugar and some other small ingredients that were already here when we moved in, and therefore could not waste.

The other picture is of our kitchen table with solar powered candles on it. The vegetables on the table are fresh from the garden and the fish dish is made from fresh fish. Behind the table, you can see that we are taking out the wall between the kitchen and the living room. We are doing this because the fireplace is in the living room, and taking out this wall will help improve heat circulation during the winter, meaning less reliance on the furnace.