Monthly Archives: March 2009
I’m A Weird Neighbor As Well….
| March 31, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Rj over at Going Green Mama wrote about being a weird neighbor and I can so relate! I’m guessing a lot of us can!
She says “Sure, everyone leaves their cans on a kitchen counter to recycle after a get-together.” Haha not around here! We don’t have curbside recycling so few seem to recycle. I can’t count the number of times I have taken a Sigg bottle with me to someones house so I won’t need to use a plastic cup and people keep trying to get me to drink soda (which I don’t) with a plastic cup. I really know you have enough plastic cups and soda. That’s nice and all but people just don’t seem to understand why you would not drink soda and why you don’t want a plastic cup haha.
Around my house I do a lot of dishes because we don’t use disposables. My husband even brings home a Sigg bottle, Sigg coffee mug and a Wrap-N-Mat for me to wash each day from work.
You will see my husband use paper towels sometimes but never me. You won’t see paper napkins being used by either of us. We have a good suply of cloth napkins now.
If you come to my house during the day all the blinds are open and no lights are on. Why use power when you have the sun to light your room?
I make daily trips to my composter. I think my neighbors wonder what that big black thing in my backyard is and why am I always rolling it around the yard. I’m also about to have an organic garden growing in my backyard.
Around once a week there are clothes sitting outside in the sun being sun bleached.
My husband even mows our lawn with an electric lawn mower and an electric weedeater. And he uses natural products for bugs and weeds.
My family, friends and neighbors most likely think I’m just some crazy hippy but that’s okay. They seem to be okay with it as well since I keep having them tell me, very proudly, that they have started doing at least some green things. 
Do you care when people think you are nuts because of your environmental ways?
Did You Turn Off The Lights?
| March 29, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Even in the environmentalist world there are a lot out there that don’t see the point in Earth Hour (even Crunchy Chicken! haha). As I have said before it’s about awareness now saving money or energy. (Though it does save a fair amount of energy overall) These blogs say it better than I ever could-
Earth Hour: Media Hype or Effective Awareness Building?
So my question is who turned out the lights and who didn’t? And why?
Touchy Subject: Religion
| March 29, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
If talking about religion makes you mad just skip this post. If you can be open minded read on.
My religious background is a bit odd. I went to an Assembly of God church until I was around 4. At that time my parents felt they needed to find a new church. They tried a few others but ended up at the Presbyterian church. This is the church I remember. I was baptized at around 4 years old and then went through confirmation at around 13 years old.
My beliefs are somewhat similar to the Presbyterian church and I like the style of worship. But I feel if your beliefs are the same as any faith or church you aren’t thinking for yourself. The bible isn’t black and white.
Right now I’m not going to church for personal reasons. I still call the Presbyterian church my home and I still go on Christmas and I’m helping with greening the church but right now that is not where I should be on Sunday morning.
While I like the Prebyterian church my beliefs are even closer to Quaker. I would love to go to a meeting house but the closest is over an hour away. I would have never guessed I could relate to the Quaker faith until my friend Christi told me one day she had been reading about them and found we are Quakers! She was right.
I’m sorry but I can’t believe that only Sunday morning Christians will be in heaven! Also this whole heaven and hell thing isn’t biblical. (and now the comments will be coming in! haha) Hell is a human thought up idea, most likely to scare the crap out of people.
Truth is I believe that everyone (Christian or not) has some of God in them, he made them so he is in their soul. We should treat people as such and we should try and do good while we are here. I don’t think we need to spend hours on end debating if the bible says being gay is wrong. I don’t really care, that’s God’s deal not mine.
I feel that God wants me to be nice to everyone, do what I feel in my heart is right, and make the world a better place. The God I know is about love not hate.
My Earth Hour
| March 29, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Earth Hour is over in Oklahoma. This year my husband joined me which was really nice. We sat outside with our dog Patience using torches and a Moon Jar as light. It was nice to spend time together with no distractions (other than the neighbor’s dog barking.
Before going outside we turned off our power strips and all the lights. I turned my phone to silent and only took it with me for a clock.
We came back in at around 9:20 p.m. My husband got on his laptop which was still unplugged. I sat in the dark and did a bit of yoga and then meditated for the last little bit of time. I’m still in the dark and my laptop is running on battery power.
What did you do for Earth Hour?
Earth Hour
| March 28, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Earth Hour is tonight at 8:30 p.m. All you have to do is turn off your lights for 1 hour. Simple! Have a nice candle lit dinner, read by candle light, spend sometime in nature, your town may even have events going on.
Earth Hour does help save a lot of energy but the biggest part of it is the awareness. Doesn’t get much easier to spread the word of climate change than to turn off your lights for just one hour.
Just remember use soy, veggie, or beeswax candles! Have fun stay safe and spread the word!
When Earth Hour is over it’s time to start thinking about Earth Day. Check out the Earth Hour 2 Earth Day Challenge (EH2ED).
Oklahoma Sustainability Conference
| March 28, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
My mom and I went to the OSN conference this last weekend. It was great to be able to meet some new people and listen to all the great speakers.
The first session I went to was “Sustainable Daily Living” Trathan Heckman Executive Director, Daily Acts. Heckman was really enjoyable! I plan to learn more about Daily Acts. He also likes a lot of interaction with people so he had us talk to the person next to us and I got to meet a really nice lady and gave her my blog address so if she is reading hi!
After that one I went to “Coal Burning Power Plants” Thomas Smith of Public Citizen, Texas. I learn a LOT from that one. And I was very impressed that OG&E (my power company) had people there listening and they even sponsored the event. I plan to e-mail them a thank you because it had to be hard to listen to us all bash coal power plants haha. Makes me feel better about having them as my power company. I also got to meet a lady I had talked to on youtube.com so that was pretty neat.
After that my mom and I went to Chipotle for lunch. It was very nice and we got there right before it got busy so that was good. While I had talked to Beth Terry (Fake Plastic Fish) about how to make it waste free I never did come up with a good way to not use the paper from the basket but I did take a Sigg bottle with organic sweet tea and cloth napkins for my mom and I so the paper was the only waste. Next time I hope to have come up with a way to not take the paper.
After lunch we hurried back to the conference and looked at some of the booths. I had no idea they would have so many! Next year we want to go both days so we can spend more time at the booths and hear even more great speeches. After looking at some of the booths we went to listen to the keynote speaker, William Greider. I loved a lot of the things he said. He is more to the left than me but economical and environmentally I agreed with most of it.
My mom on Twitter.The next one I went to was “Stories by an Oklahoma Activist” with Earl Hatley. I think this was my favorite! Hatley is a Tribal Consultant, Grand Riverkeeper, and co-founded LEAD Agency, Inc. He is the Grand Riverkeeper in Oklahoma for the nationwide Waterkeeper Alliance, founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He is also a member of the Long Hair Clan of the Cherokee.
His stories were amazing! He has done so much for Oklahoma. It was also a bit sad because he said the night before the speech was the first time he had ever been recognized for his work! I will never forget him! I wish everyone could listen to his story.
We decided to leave before the last set of speeches because we needed to go to Native Roots Market to get some gifts for bags we are putting together for the local recycling coalition essay contest.
On our way out of the conference someone was smoking and I saw her throw her cigarette on the ground so when I thought she had gone in I went over and picked it up to put it in the trash. She
I guess hadn’t gone in and saw me do it and felt really bad for doing it. It was rather funny and I don’t think she will ever litter again!
I will be writing more about the speeches on Got2BeGreen.com.
Product Review: Natural Pet Warehouse
| March 27, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Natural Pet Warehouse is a great store for all the tree hugging pets out there. They have tons of great toys, treats, and more.
“Hurry up and let me have the treats!”- Patience
Patience (my Great Pyrenees) got to try out tons of things. She is a very spoiled dog. She tried out a Cheerful Pet wool tug, a PentaPulls duck, a West Paw Zisc Fetch Toy, a West Paw Tux, Grandma Lucy’s Blueberry treats, Grandma Lucy’s Pumpkin treats, Pro-Calm Organic, Monzies Organic Treats, a Orbee-Tuff Recycle Ball, and a Earth Dog Martingale Hemp Collar.
“Come out treats!”- PatienceHer favorite toy is the West Paw Tux or the Orbee-Tuff Recycle Ball. The West Paw Tux is a toy you put treats in for your dog to try and get out. She really enjoys that and has an easier time with it than some other treat balls we have tried. It is also dishwasher safe, non-toxic, recyclable, made in the US and strong!
The Orbee-Tuff Recycle Ball is a very strong ball! This is about as tuff as dog toys come! It has held up great. Patience likes to throw her balls for herself when we aren’t watching (or she thinks we aren’t watching). She plays with this one a lot and it still looks great. I have to throw away tennis balls pretty often but so far this one is great! It’s also super cute and made from materials that would otherwise go to waste.
I think she likes this toy because it’s soft so she can sleep with it.She also really likes to play tug-a-war with the Cheerful Pet wool tug. I love that the Cheerful Pet toys are made from wool and naturally dyed. You can even wash them in your washer! They are sweatshop free and buying these toys helps the people of Nepal.
“How did it do that?!”- PatienceThe PentaPulls duck is her first squeaker toy and she seemed a little confused on why it made noise but also liked to play with it. It seems strong but may not be good for the really chewy dogs. Patience isn’t much of a chewer. It is also made from recycled plastic!
Patience doesn’t really fetch so she didn’t do much with her West Paw Zisc Fetch Toy but I threw it around and it works well. It could even work for your kids to play with. Just like the Tux it’s recyclable, non-toxic and made in the US.
She loved all the treats but I think the favorite was the Grandma Lucy’s Blueberry treats. I love that all the Grandma Lucy’s treats she tried are 100% organic, human grade ingredients made in the US or Canada. I feel good letting her eat them. The Monzies weren’t as big of a hit but she still liked them. I like that they are also organic and wheat and corn free. They are also low fat if your dog is watching their weight.
I love the Earth Dog martingale hemp collar. She doesn’t wear it all the time but I use it when I put a leash on her because she has a huge neck and can get out of her other collar very easily. This is great because it doesn’t scare her like a chock collar would but still keeps her from slipping out. I also like that it is made of hemp. Normal nylon collars are hard on a dog’s skin. It’s also hypoallergenic, machine washable, and made in the US.
I haven’t been able to try the Pro-Calm because she hasn’t needed it but I’m happy to have it around. She was abused and car trips and some other things scare her still. I hope this will make the next car ride to the vet less scary for her. It’s 100% organic and looks very easy to use. They say it should work in around 20 minutes. I wish I had this when I had my Golden Retriever as a kid that was so scared of thunderstorms.
Overall I’m very happy with the products Natural Pet Warehouse carries. I will be ordering from them in the future for sure. They carry many cute things that are also good for your dog and the planet. Patience loved her box of goodies and would thank Natural Pet Warehouse but she doesn’t talk very well and is shy. They have sure made one dog and her owner very happy.
“I know I’m pretty but enough with the pictures, I’m tired.” -PatienceGreener Dish Washing
| March 26, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
How to wash dishes is often a debate in the world of environmentalism. Hand wash or dishwasher? Which soap? Rinse or don’t rinse? Food scraps in trash or garbage disposal? Do non-antibacterial soaps kill germs? Who knew dishes could be such a big subject?! Hopefully this article can help answer these questions.
Hand wash or dishwasher?
Dishwashers are the way to go when trying to be green! A study by the University of Bonn in Germany found that dishwashers use half the energy, one-sixth of the water and less soap. The dishwasher also will kill more germs. Plus your hands will thank you!
Which soap do I use?
For hand washing (I still hand wash Sigg Bottles and such) I use Method. Other options include Seventh Generation, Ecover, Planet Ultra, Biokleen, ECOS, Shaklee and Eco Store USA.
For in my dishwasher I use Seventh Generation but not everyone has much luck with it. You will need to try a few most likely to see what works for your type of water and your dishwasher. Other options are- Method, Ecover Tablets, Ecover Powder, Seventh Generation Tablets, Biokleen, ECOS, Shaklee and Eco Store USA.
While Green Works makes a liquid I don’t support them because they won’t tell us what is in that last little bit that isn’t natural. If they will open up about it that would be great but until then I won’t support them. Now if it’s that or a conventional product pick Green Works but you should be able to find at least one other option.
To rinse or not?
If you have a good dishwasher very little rinsing may be needed. With the soap I use and the dishwasher we have, rinsing is a must. To make it less wasteful I always rinse them just once or twice a day in a sink full of hot soapy water. This makes it easier and it uses much less water! Rinsing one dish at a time with the tap running will waste a lot of water and time.
Do I put the food scraps in the trash or garbage disposal?
The best answer is to put them in the composter but if you don’t have one or if it is something that can’t go in the composter, the trash is the best bet. It would take to long to tell you why it is in this blog so go to TreeHugger.com’s article about it.
Do the soaps that aren’t antibacterial kill germs?
100% yes!!! Antibiotics are finding there way in to our bodies in so many ways now! With things like MRSA we really should be starting to see the dangers in over using antibiotics. Also antibacterial soaps are really soaps with something called triclosan which is a pesticide! Yes you heard me. I don’t know about you but I really don’t like eating my organic food on a plate washed with pesticides or after my hands have been “washed” with them. Eww!
Looking for a plastic free way to do dishes?
Well as always Beth Terry (Fake Plastic Fish) has some tips for you. She uses bar soap on a Skoy cloth, scours with baking soda and makes her own dishwasher soap. She also uses vinegar in the rinse cycle.
So how do you wash your dishes?
Product Review: Nature’s Baby
| March 19, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
By Christi Nelson Gallagher
We have had the opportunity to test Nature’s Baby Organic Diaper Rash Cream as well as their Organic Soothing Stick over the last couple of months.
Here’s what we found:
Staying true to form these two products are very high quality. The diaper rash cream is very thick, a little goes a long way which makes the price much better than what you spend on mainstream diaper cream. It has a nice lavender scent and seems to do the job well. My son is prone to diaper rash when he has been sick so we were more than ready to try this product. We’ve used just about everything on the market, including Rx. Nature’s Baby was good, better than “normal” products. I noticed that it seemed to help more with a minor or beginning rashes as opposed to that nasty thing that little one’s get with a tummy bug. But then, I think the best thing for that is good old fashioned soap and water!
The Soothing Stick is great too. It comes in a compact cylinder. We have used this on minor cuts and scrapes and, according to my daughter, it takes some of the stinging out. It’s great for travel, throw it in your purse or diaper bag and don’t worry about leaks or spills! The down side is it is a bit greasy.
This one get four stars from our house!
Product Review: Kids Konserve
| March 18, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
By Christi Nelson Gallagher (My kid reviewer)
Kids Konserve reusable waste free lunch box set is the coolest, cutest, best idea since sliced bread! My kids love the design and it makes lunch fun. I have even taken this lunch “box” (really it’s a recycled cotton bag) to school with me (I’m back in college) and received many compliments and inquiries on where to get one.
The set comes with a napkin, a plastic washable sandwich envelope, two stainless steel side dish containers with rubber lids and a beverage bottle with a screw on top. The Napkin is made well, it held up great in the wash. I was just thrilled at how easy everything was to clean! The two snack containers are just big enough for an adult size hand full of pretzels, animal crackers, a hand full of grapes or carrots. I was also quite surprised at how long the bottle kept my juice cold in that it’s not heavy at all! My commute is about an hour and it was still chilled (with no additional cooling system) when I got to school. This set makes travel easy without turning your floorboard into a trash can. The only down fall I could see was that the lids are just a little bit difficult to get off. The suction is pretty strong which is GREAT to avoid spills but little hands are going to need some help.
All in all I think this one hit it out of the park! This is a product I plan on using often. In fact, I am going to buy two more, one for my son and one for me! Way to go Kids Konserve!
