I nearly jumped for joy today, when my husband showed me an article about how VA is trying to change suburbia into something more environmentally friendly and realistic. Basically, they are hoping to abandon this pesky cul-de-sac scheme, that permeates the neighborhoods here.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/21/AR2009032102248.html?hpid=topnews



I hate living in the suburbs. But it's where my dh's job is and I do not care for him having to commute for ever to get to his job. We happen to live in a cul-de-sac.
Is it better than to live on a thoroughfare? Well, yes. But like the article says: The cul-de-sac scheme is just a band aid for over engineered streets, which are far to wide and which let cars go far too fast. The whole cul-de-sac-scheme results in clogged collector roads. And very often you have to take those collector roads to be able to get to the nearest store or nearest anything.
While growing up in different European cities, I have lived on roads that could be classified as thoroughfares. But those roads were much narrower. In fact, very often two cars couldn't pass each other without one having to stop completely. We played all day long on those roads.
It would be nice with a grid of roads with proper sidewalks, so you actually could walk or bike to places.
Yes, I am a new urbanism junkie.

Our Washing Mashine II

I have been thinking about our washing machine and I think I know why I am so disappointed by an appliance that has been rated as eco-friendly:
It's an appliance for those who don't put too much thought into being eco-friendly in the first place, but still want to be environmentally conscious. (Boy, English is hard sometimes.)
Not to insult anybody, I really don't mean to. Every little bit counts. But our machine is a machine for people who wash with warm/hot water and detergent, no matter what happens. If you do that, yes, our machine probably will save some energy, water and maybe even money eventually.
But if you only used cold water and a little soap and soda before, you might not be faring that much better with a machine like ours, which forces you to use warm water and detergent to get the same results.
Just my thoughts.

GT's Kombucha II

Well, I got a reply. And since it was signed GT, I assume the man himself answered. I am almost feeling starstruck :-)
Anyway, he said they were already looking into the labeling thing. Maybe he was just being nice, but still.

GT's Kombucha

I love GT's Kombucha. I also love to reuse their bottles, since they are just the right size for a water bottle or a salad dressing bottle. (And most plastic caps for vitamin bottles will fit, if you don't like the original cap which will eventually rust.) However, it is pretty much impossible to get rid of their label. And after several washed the label will get nasty and moldy. So today I wrote an email hinting that they might consider using a different glue. I don't expect to get an answer, but I thought that if nobody told them, they might not even get the idea that people are reusing their bottles before it goes into the recycle bin.
In the end it is reduce - REUSE - recycle.

Our Washing Mashine

The other day, one of dh's coworkers, looked astonished, when dh mentioned that we were washing our clothing with warm water mostly. (I don't think he mentioned why they were talking about that in the first place.) She apparently only washes with cold water.
I figured that she had one of the old fashioned washing machines, the ones with the agitator in the middle. (I shouldn't say old fashioned. I do understand that those machines still comprise the majority here in the US.) Growing up in Europe I only encountered this kind of washer when I came here. We only had the spinning drum ones. (And no, they aren't necessarily front loaders. We only had top loader ones.)
I have read a lot about how the washers with the agitator used both more water and energy. That made us buy a front loader, when our old washer finally broke down.

Ho boy...

So far it is the crappiest washer I have ever dealt with in my whole life. (And for those who are interested: It is a LG WM2455HW.)
Yes, we did research when we started considering buying a new washer. But we were sort of forced into action when our old washer gave up the ghost. (We had gotten our old washer with our house. The previous owners were destructive knuckleheads. Will write about those later.)
For some reason all models, which had gotten good ratings, were gone, in the sense of discontinued. Since LG had gotten good ratings overall, we decided to take the model that was available and which was recommended by the salesperson.
Well, that was a mistake.
Pretty much from the beginning, I noticed that it didn't take out stains properly. Even worse, it was summer, and after a while, our freshly washed clothing began to stink. Like the washing machine couldn't handle all the pee, vomit and general crud and dirt that children will dispense on their garments.
I think that was the point when we should have just returned the darned thing. But I kept trying to make it work. I had always washed in cold water. Now I tried warm. I tried different kinds of laundry detergents. We did have some phone calls with Sears, who did send people to check if the thing was installed correctly and if anything was wrong with it. (Nothing wrong with their customer service.) Eventually we were enlightened that anything with children's bodily fluids would have to be washed in - well - the baby clothing setting. (Which is HOT.)
Together with a new laundry detergent we finally got our stuff reasonably clean, and we decided to keep the thing, since we had definitely used it A LOT already. It just felt wrong to return it.
I am not altogether happy though. I always used to wash in cold water. Now it is usually warm, so I wonder how much energy that thing really saves. It does save water though.
I was usually able to wash with soap. Now I do need a specific he laundry detergent. So it is expensive in its own way.
And I can't get over the fact that I never had problems like this with any washer I encountered in Sweden, Germany or wherever I happened to live in Europe. (I know that LG is a European brand, but still. Maybe they ship their crappy models to the US?)
Sometimes I wished we had an old fashioned model again, to be honest.

Hair

We were all soooo ill last week. Some stomach virus.
Yesterday I heard a report on npr morning edition about not washing your hair every day.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102062969
I have in fact been practicing that for a while.
Not washing my hair every day that is.
At some point I noticed that our visitors from Europe didn't shower every day. In fact, they didn't even shower every second day. However, I really couldn't claim they smelled bad or had greasy hair.
I remembered that when I lived in Europe, I didn't shower every day, except for maybe the worst times of puberty, when not washing my head meant to go to school with greasy strands.
When I came here, I worked for a jeweler in production and repair for a while. Tinkering with metal had been a hobby of mine and I couldn't get any higher paying job at the time. So I figured I might as well doing something I loved doing.
Anyway, as maybe a few people know, fabricating and repairing jewelry is a relatively dirty job. There is a lot of filing and polishing. The dust gets everywhere and I had to shower every evening. Somehow I just kept doing that, even when I stopped working there.
But at some point I gave it some thought. Mostly because I wanted to save water. I was wondering about the hygiene point, but like I said, I soon realized that the Europeans who visited didn't stink, and that I didn't use to shower every day either, so...
It is not easy. You scalp gets used to being washed at certain intervals. In the beginning my hair did get greasy the second day. But I persevered. Putting baby powder in my hair helped. It absorbed enough grease to make it look decent. I have since stopped doing that. Firstly, I wasn't sure how far it defeated the purpose and secondly, I wasn't sure whether the baby powder would serve as an extra snack for the dust mites in bed at night.
I now wash my hair every third day. I could get by even longer, I guess. Last week, when everybody was ill, I got by for six days without washing. It didn't look too great though.
My daughter has gotten ear tubes, because she constantly got ear infections. Washing her hair has turned into a nightmare. Whenever she gets water in her ears, her eardrums will get inflamed. The expensive earplugs from the doctor's don't work. Eventually I told my husband we just wouldn't wash her hair more than once a week. After his initial protests about the lack of hygiene, he went along, and it works great. Her hair doesn't get greasy or stinky at all!!! I guess that's because puberty hasn't hit yet.
So, it saves water, it saves shampoo and it is good for your scalp.

Sieben Linden

In the Economist (Feb 28th - March 6th 2009) I read an article about Sieben Linden. SL is a social and ecological settlement in the Altmark in the region of Sachsen-Anhalt (former East Germany), i.e. a self proclaimed eco-village. "The 120 inhabitants have decided to live in as green a manner as possible. They are trying to wean themselves off fossil fuels, grow their own food and timber, acquire fewer frivolous possessions and produce less waste." (p.16) "...the main reason the inhabitants buy less and waste less is that they have a rich community life which does not revolve around trips to shops, restaurants and cinemas." (ibid)
They have several different "neighborhoods" which feature different models of alternative living.
Sounds like a great place that really inspires hope.
http://www.siebenlinden.de/content.php?p=0000
http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13135425

My day today

Let's see...
Today's triumphs:
1. Bought two full meals worth of all natural and humanely raised pork and 1 meal of natural chicken breasts at Ukrop's (plus some sausage and cream cheese) at the bargain bin for $24!
2. Got my farm fresh milk (more about that another day when I am not tired)
3. Spent over an hour helping out at my kid's preschool. (Hurray for involvement!)
4. Spent an hour with my kids learning about the number 3, the letters R and S and about life in Afrika. (I'm thinking about homeschooling. More about that later.)
5. Checked out my nearest Goodwill Store, mostly to see the prices for maternity stuff, so I could compare with Craigslist. Saw a toddler bike for $15 that I might want for my daughter. (She has a toddler bike that I got for $5. For reasons that are absolutely beyond me, it doesn't have any brakes. Call me clueless, but I didn't even check for that when I bought it. it just didn't cross my mind that somebody would manufacture a toddler bike without brakes. )
6. Drove around the two stripmalls closest to our house to check out what businesses are there, so I can chose to use them instead of anything further away.
7. Checked my local Craigslist for maternity clothing. Found an entry that looks promising and wrote an email to the seller to see if she was willing to take less $$, since her initial price is too high for me

Trials:
Well, I drove a lot, esp. in the morning, when I brought the kids to preschool and picked up the meat and milk. But I guess it wasn't all that much for American standards...All the stores were sort of on the way.

I hate Walmart

I hate Walmart. Most of all, their unavoidable plastic bags are getting on my nerves. Since I (have to) buy the bulk of our purchases there, I get a lot of them.
Yes, they do have their "good conscience" recycling containers. And boy, do I use them. They get every single plastic bag back that they force upon me.
I have tried to bring my own bags. But I usually don't have enough of them. Also, Walmarts cash registers are designed in a way that makes using your own bag fairly impractical for both you and the cashier, resulting in more time being spent and angry people behind you in line. Walmart used to have a big "tub" at the end of the cash register, where your goods would accumulate and where you yourself could start packing, if you - like me - didn't mind doing that. Now they have their little plastic bag carousels, where the cashier dumps every purchase directly into a bag.
In most European countries I lived, it works like this: The conveyor belt pretty much stops right after the cash register and the cashier dumps your purchase back into another shopping cart. Once you pay, you take your cart either to your car, where you can put your stuff in your own bags or laundry basket or whatever, or you take your cart to a table, often opposite the cash registers, where you can pack you purchases into your own bags. (That is the option for people who walk or bike to the store and who only purchased as much as they actually can carry home.)
And no, it is not really all that bothersome.
I do believe that Walmart doesn't want you to bring back your shopping bags for recycling. They want you to use them as trash bags. I first had this impression, when they changed the bag color from noxious blue to white. Would you rather use a blue shopping bag as a trash bag - thereby outing yourself to the world that you shop at Walmart - or a neutral,white one? Seeeeee...
And lately, I made another discovery. They perfume their bags. I am fairly chemically sensitive. (And yeah, I also thought that that was ridiculous, before I started suffering from it.) One day I drove home after my hated trip to WM, and I was feeling slightly nauseated/lightheaded. I also noticed a strange, fake-fresh flowery smell in the car. First I couldn't figure out, what it was. But after unpacking at home, it hit me: The bags stank! And they stank exactly the same way that those perfumed trash bags smell. (And just for your info, I once bought them by mistake and we had to give them away because they gave me headaches. So I know!)
That absolutely convinced me that they are trying to make people use them instead of returning them.
I read somewhere though that WM is going to try to encourage people to bring and use their own bags. I am just curious how they intend to do that, since the cash register layout is so problematic.

Walmart and other shopping

I hate Walmart.
Yet, I probably purchase most of our stuff there. Why? Affordability, of course.
Here in Richmond, we have our local grocery chain, called Ukrops. I would absolutely love to do my shopping there exclusively. But alas, I can't. I tried, for a while, but it just wasn't financially possible.
I a lot of other stuff second hand. Goodwill is my favorite. I know that there are stores that have better prices, but they are further away. I do have however two Goodwill shops fairly close by, so I can make it a habit to drop in and check things out.
I pretty much buy all children's clothing there. And I have so far bought most of my pregnancy stuff there. I also buy misc household items.
Yard sales don't really work for me. Too much planning and too much driving around. I know two fairly well off neighborhoods that have neighborhood yard sales, and I do try to go there, but I just would not sacrifice every Saturday for driving around many miles to hit several single family yard sales.
I have tried Craigslist too, but unfortunately made a few too many bad experiences...

Gratitude

I like reading discussion threads about healthy and frugal living.
Right now I am reading a thread about healthy foods and how to maintain a healthy diet with as little money as possible. It seems that the current recession/crisis/whatever you want to call it is hitting some families pretty hard, in the sense that they simply can't afford meat and veggies and have to go for cheap refined flour and potatoes more often than not.
I must say that I am very grateful that we can afford to buy veggies, meat and organic/specialty foods. Don't get me wrong. I shop around, compare, clip coupons and go to Walmart. And I don't by everything we want, by all means. But I think I am doing OK providing three picky eaters with a fairly healthy diet. I am grateful for that and wish everyone could do so.

Edible Landscaping

Since I would like to garden a bit - to have fresh produce and because I just plain like it - I have been preparing a small raised bed I have right under the kitchen window. Seeds are bought, books are being studied, and I am just waiting for the last of the snow to go away, to plant some frost hardy varieties like spinach and a lettuce called "Feldsalat" in German. They have predicted temps up to 83 degrees for Sunday, so...
Here in the South, I always have to take care to plant early enough, since it will get so hot so fast. The first year I planted lettuce, it first didn't germinate at all, then it did and immediately shot up to go to seed. I have learned since then and start early...(Although I feel that I am already sort of late this year.)
My German grandmother always had her own veggies growing. They also had a fruit yard. But as a kid I wasn't interested in growing the stuff. I only ate it. Very often straight out of the ground or off the tree. I'm a bit sad/annoyed I never paid attention to the actual gardening part. Now I am so into it and I study as much as I can.
My Homeowners Association isn't too fond of gardening. Our subdivision is in a very natural, forest-like setting, and they see it as their goal to preserve that. Preferably we should only plant native plants. But some of the people before us already broke that rule. We have several fig trees in the front yard, grapes on a trellis in the back and two pear trees. I wouldn't mind to plant more.
I love Edible Landscaping, i.e. gardening with plants that have at least one edible part. I am fairly "lucky" to have quite some Greenbriar in the more woody parts of our property. Briars are actually edible, esp in spring, when the leaves are tender. I have been pulling out Poison Ivy, to give the Briars more space to grow. (And because of the kids, obviously.)

Heating and Temperature Settings

We keep our house fairly cool.
"Fairly" means between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. During the day we usually have around 64 degrees and during the night we scale down to 60.
When my youngest daughter (3 years) is old enough to pull up the blankets she kicks off during the night, we will set the heater to 55 degrees over night.
(I have realized by now that I should have made her some sort of sleeping bag, like those sleepers she wore as a baby. But I was concerned that it would be too confusing at night if she had to go potty.)
The benefits? Well, for one, it saves heating costs and is good for the environment. But it saves in other areas too. We don't need humidifiers any more. Our skin has gotten better. (Both my son and I have dry skin.) And my children seem to get less colds. (I read somewhere that that has something to do with the decreased difference between inside and outside temperature.)
It has its challenges. For one, we need to dress in layers, so we can add and shed whenever we need to. I am not talking about tons of clothing. I'm talking tights/long undies, pants, undershirt, warm sweater and slippers. You don't have to run around in socks. My children (and husband) refuse to do so sometimes. (And get surprised when they are cold.) My husband is in fact the type who would love to run around in wife beaters and shorts all year long. (Grow up. It is winter! Wear a sweater!)
It can be challenging when we have guests and I forget to turn up the heat. Sometimes I noticed only while saying goodbye that our visitors never took off their jackets. (Again, if it is in the 20s outside, you don't have to wear a dress shirt. There are tons of stylish wool sweaters you can wear over a shirt and still look business casual.)
It's also hard to adjust to those who seem to need 72 degrees year round. I noticed the other day at our local library that they don't have hooks or lockers for clothing. They seem to expect people to come into the building dressed for summery temperatures, not for reality. (We had had one of the worst snowstorms in recent years.) So besides a big book bag, I also had to lug sweaters, scarfs, hats, mittens and jackets for three people around the building. This however seems to be a sign of our recent, wasteful times. In the main library building in the city of Richmond, they do have a coat room. The place was opened in 1956. People were smarter in those days.
My son's preschool is another example. They crank up the heating so high that some of the students wear short arm t-shirts inside while the temperature outside is below freezing.
But like I said, the benefits outweigh the annoyances for us, so we just plow on.