How “green” are you? How do you do it?

[Shibaguyz]

So now there is even an entire cable network dedicated to “green” living. What we’d love to know if how folks here in WS are “greening” up their lives.

Have you always been “green?” Are you making the transition slowly or are you just going all in? We’re looking for ideas and input from new and old “greenies.” Websites you reference, books you read, etc. Share it all!!

We’ll start…

We started trying to clean up our act a few years ago by really paying attention to our recycling. That was our first phase.

Next, we learned about the concept of eating locally from Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” We started slowly then ended up replacing our entire back patio area in our new townhouse into vegetable growing space. Soon we were doing the majority of our shopping at farmers markets and canning and freezing our own food so we could keep local all winter.

We have always counted on other bloggers for information and inspiration and we have become avid fans of Michael Pollan.

Our approach was to do one thing at a time (1. recycle more, 2. use public transit when possible, 3. replace our light fixtures with energy saving bulbs, 4. grow our own food, 5. buy locally, 6. preserve our own food) until we had a complete picture we felt we could live with. Over the past couple of years we’ve found that to be our best strategy rather than jumping in with both feet right off the top. The best part of our journey is that we just keep adding more and more pieces to the puzzle.

Okay… your turn!! I know we’ve seen a lot of our neighbors using hand powered push mowers and buying energy saving light bulbs. What else are you doing? Growing your own food? buying locally? Share here and we’ll (steal) learn from your experience and maybe we can all benefit.

On your mark… get set… GO!!

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[AdmiralJaneway]

Compared to you, I’m not very green. I’ve matched you on #1,2,3 & 5, but I growing and preserving my own food is not for me. Kudos to you, though. I’ve started using the re-usable grocery bags. I’m a convert…no need to ask the question, “Paper or plastic?”

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[charlabob]

We’re probably light celery green, and getting greener. A few years ago we replaced our green (ugly) grass with drought-resistant plants (and rocks.) Now we’re just waiting for a good drought. We have a tiny patch of grass in the front and none in the back. This requires less water; we already had an electric rather than gas mower, because I couldn’t pull the cord. When I can push a mower, I will.

We definitely use the canvas/reusable bags. In fact, if I forget to bring them, I buy another — that’s why I have, at last count, 23.

One of my interests (for myself and for a possible article/book) is “greening for the less than able.” Workarounds for those of us who can’t bike to work or bus/bike because of physical challenges. Mine are (hopefully) temporary, but I’m very aware of what I can and can’t do — and the difference between that and what I’d like to do. Someday you’ll see the charla and the bob tooling around west seattle on matching electric scooters with baskets full of local produce and bread.

I’m also interest in greening for people who just don’t have the time (right now) for growing/preserving/etc. I read the Kinsolver book too and was fascinated by what the family did. That level of commitment just isn’t possible for everyone, and I want to be sure people who can only take half-way steps right now have the right set of steps and are encouraged to follow them.

As a veteran of many social movements, I’ve always been kind of horrified by our “all or nothing” approach. (I’m not saying anyone here is like that, especially SGuys, whom I idolize, but we do have to be sure that “green” isn’t perceived as an elitist movement or we will fail. And this one, unlike some, is much more crucial to our very survival–failure is not an option.)

Edited to add freecycle! I’ve become redevoted to freecycle as opposed to “throwing away.” We’re definitely getting away from the buying everything — libraries versus buying and throwing away books — downloading music — all of that, ultimately, saves resources needed to manufacture, package, transport and dispose of “disposable” goods.

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[JenV]

I have always been green- before it was “cool” to do so. (But then again, I grew up on Vashon with a bunch of hippies. At one point, we lived in a cabin in the woods with no power or water. We grew our own food and used an outhouse. can’t get much more green than that!) Now as an adult, I recycle everything- to a fault- even my used TP tubes. I live and work in WS, so I drive about 3 miles a day, tops. I don’t grow my own food, but I would if I could. I may be picking some brains later to see if my little space would work for some small-scale urban gardening…oh and I LOVE freecycle. I have been able to get rid of 3 cellphones and a laptop!

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[JanS]

JenV…my daughter calls me the “freecycle queen”. I adore that website…and utilize a lot when it’s advantageous…mostly sticking to the n West Seattle/Beacon Hill area. I literally have a computer desk, a Vita-Mix, 2 cuisinarts, a 37″TV and stand, dishes for Crimmas, crystal,a second massage table, and just yesterday, Pur water filters for my kitchen sink.

Free is always good…recycling those things that can be is a great thing.

I work at home, so only put between 200-300 miles on my car every 3 months or so (kids sometimes use the car now, so that may change). I elected to work at home out of necessity during chemo 3 years ago, but it now makes me a forward thinking semi-green person – lol.

I’m working on the rest of it..I only have a small deck, so no room for actual garden , but if spring ever rolls around, I may do some herbs, etc…

We do what we can…and each little bit helps…

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[GenHillOne]

JenV & Jan ~ what exactly is the deal with freecycle – for one, do I have to have a yahoo email address? When I go there, it tells me to read FAQ before proceeding, but then you can’t read them without registering, and I don’t want to register without reading the FAQ…see where I’m going with this? A vicious circle. I have lots to freecycle!

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[JenV]

GenHill- just set up a dummy yahoo address. That’s what I use my yahoo address for. It’s free! You just have to log in and off you go! It’s really easy. You post like this: OFFERED: Verizon Cell phone, works. west Seattle. – that would be the title. You always have to put your area in, since it is Seattle-wide. Inside the body, you put your details. then people email you, and you get rid of your stuff. you can also post WANTED: ads if you’re looking for something specific. When someone hooks up with you to take the item off your hands, you simply go back on and post a TAKEN: verizon cell phone ad, and that’s it! Posting the taken ad helps you avoid lots of emails after you’ve gotten rid of the item.

Happy Freecycling!

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[JenV]

the ads look like this:

OFFERED: House paint (Eastlake)

White, gold, darkish green, light green, magenta, teal..

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[meg]

We do recycling, composting, and using canvas bags. Unless we are running out on dog poop bags. (boo!) However, we are looking into a pet-poo composter (that is essentially a worm bin), but can’t decide if that might be too gross or not. (any opinions???)

TRANSPORT: We share 1 car and were really good about taking bus, then got lazy, but are back on it now. I am having fun taking our baby on the bus…hoping to raise her to think the bus is just 2nd nature.

YARD: We have a decent size yard and last summer we had a new (UNgreen) deck made and a super cool recycled brick patio done (craigslist find from a building being torn down). We have removed the majority of our lawn and plan to remove more~just leave enough for the kid to play as soon as she is walking. We planted a large portion of our yard w/ native plants. We made raised beds with used cinderblocks that we got on craigslist & had friends mosaic. We haven’t had time (new baby, ironman training, & PhD school get in the way) to do all the food planting I intend on doing. In the meantime, we are working on creating good soil with cover crops, etc. Starting in fall we plan to get more intensive in this area. It is a little overwhelming in terms of how to grow the most we can and think about crop rotation etc. Makes my head spin a little :)

EATING: This is the area we are wanting to branch out into eating more locally. Once we are growing more we want to preserve/can/freeze our “bounty”. We plan on getting chickens in the next few years.

BABY: we cloth diaper, use homemade butt wipe and wipes. limit toys & baby consumerism in general.

I would LOVE ideas on how to determine the best way to intensively garden and make the most of our large-ish yard.

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[Shibaguyz]

charlabob – TOTALLY agree with you about the one thing at a time. If we had tried to do everything all at once we would never have succeeded. I’m all for doing one thing until you get it down well then move on to another. It sort of seems to avalanche at some point kind of naturally eventually.

Good point everyone about the canvas bags. We use them at the farmers market and now make ourselves RUN back out to the trunk of the car if we are shopping anyplace else and forget to bring in our own bags. We’re getting better at that one…

Freecycle was just recently recommended to us so we tried posting on there for canning jars and yarn… wanted, not offered. Nothing yet but we’ll see.

The whole Freecycle concept is very cool. I think we (the Shibaguyz) forget most often about the amount of waste we put out. Both post-consumer and general retail consumption. Something like Freecycle or Craigslist is a great option for getting rid of all of the “extra” we have, unnecessarily, accumulated over the years. Thanks for that reminder.

Also, we highly recommend, if you are an iTunes user, to search for Michael Pollan & Barbara Kingsolver on there. Of course, you can purchase their books but there are quite a few free programs available for download with them talking on the subject of ethical eating and sustainable agriculture.

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[JanS]

The original “greenies”……my parents are 84 and 83 as of this spring (in PA), and have never, ever, ever, in their entire lives, had a car…can you believe that? It’s always been bus for them, even now (well, sometimes a taxi). My daughter is 27, no car, no license. I got my license when I was 24 out of necessity, moving from Wash, DC, with great public transport to Winston-Salem, NC, which virtually had none from where I was living.

And now mine is parked most of the time, being as I work at home.

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[meg]

Shibaguyz- what kind of yarn are you looking for? Maybe I can hook you up.

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[charlabob]

I think the freecyclists are getting pickier — Last time I went through a freecycle phase people pounced on old magazines, a bunch of half-bottles of shampoo and conditioner, and a real deal on a hospital bed (free!) Of course at that time people were also giving away dryer lint (to make stuffed animals)– so that was apparently a different era.

This time I haven’t managed to unload my latest magazine collection and a huge number of home recorded videos which someone could record over, watch, or make into art. I will keep trying :-)

I had this “duh” moment a few weeks ago — that canvas bags belong in target, bartell, Click! (where I got my favorite silk ones)….somehow I’d only thought of them at grocery time.

AND (I still haven’t done this but I will next time we eat out) taking our own “tupperware” like containers for take-home from restaurants is absolutely brilliant! It does mean admitting I have a tupperware collection, but maybe even that will become hip.

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[WSMom]

I love to shop for clothes at thrift stores (I still am mourning the loss of Backstage Thrift). People are pretty shocked when I tell them most of my clothes are second hand. My new favorite thrift store spot is called Frenzy located in Burien. They especially have an amazing variety of jeans for under $5.00.

My family are composting fools. I have three compost (worm) bins cooking. I grow a nice vegetable garden and am looking forward to freezing peas and beans this year as well as tomatos.

Regarding the dog poo composter, I read the reviews on Amazon.com and several people said that the poo did not break down in non-sunny areas. If anyone has had good luck with dog poo septic systems I’d love to hear about it.

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[JanS]

I like thrift stores, too…and will have to visit Frenzy…thanks WSMom…and for us more…um…zaftig females who like to do the thrift thing…try Two Big Blondes at 24th? maybe 25? and Jackson…in the CD. They used to be in Georgetown…have a fairly nice little store…

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[Shibaguyz]

meg – all kinds of yarn… not that picky for some of the projects I’m working on. Whatcha got? ;)

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[meg]

all kinds of things….haven’t had time to knit at all lately and have lost interest in some of the projects I bought yarn for. If you want I can bring to queer meetup next week and you can look through and have what you want. What are you working on?

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[JenV]

speaking of freecycling and dog poo…I have a TON of plastic grocery bags from throughout the years that aren’t being used. If any of you dog owners would like some for poopy bags, please let me know.

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[miws]

“speaking of freecycling and dog poo…”

.

OMG, you had me scared for a second there, JenV!

.

Mike

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[RainyDay1235]

It never feels like enough, but here is my “green” list:

1. Carpool every day to work (I work with my husband – so that part is easy! :)

2. Use canvas bags for grocery shopping – easy habit to start. I’m also going to get one of these so I’m never without:

http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?searchId=14435827&itemIndex=3&CATID=255&PRODID=74340

3. Compost (small container near sink – large green container buried in backyard)

4. Craigslist all possible items for free before trashing (someone took all our old bathroom fixtures – toilet, sink, doors and all!)

5. Keep heat off in house except for dead of “winter” – blankets and sweaters otherwise

6. Unplug appliances when not in use and keep lights off unless I’m in the same room

7. Use degradable doggy scoop bags! :)

8. Joined the ‘green team’ at work – right now we’re working on how to reduce paper usage.

Anyone get their newsletter from Seattle City Light. Is your power really coming from ‘green energy’ if you pay $12 more per month?

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[Heinz57Mom]

Started by going organic and joining PCC when I moved here 11 years ago.

Quit schlepping water in plastic bottles from PCC and installed a Custom Pure filtration system in the kitchen sink.

Ordered a bunch of kleen kanteens from reusablebags.com and while I was on there ordred organic cotton produce bags as well. We use no plastic water bottles disposable or otherwise.

Have accumulated a large selection of canvas and other reusable shopping bags through my purchasing Chinook’s over the last few years. I’ve bought six so far this year.

I’m a WAHM so my commute is from the bedroom to the living room. I help others WAH that are interested therby reducing their carbon foot print as well.

Love to can but haven’t been able to get anything to grow in my yard since moving here. Holding on to my canning jars for when I can return to doing this. Estate sales are also a great place to find canning jars.

I replaced all my plastic food storage containers with glass.

We compost and recycle zealously through the city.

We unplug appliances the moment we’re done using them.

We buy books and VHS for the kids used from library booksales.

Hubby drives a Prius for his 4.5 mile commute and we’re looking at getting a second hand scooter or motorcycle for him.

Shop online from an ecofriendly manufacturer for ALL our personal care, home care, and nutritional products.

We cloth diapered and use cloth feminine products as well.

Instead of printing receipts for online transactions I copy and paste them into a Word. document and save them in a file of receipts or a tax file. Then I only print them if I need them and they’re never lost.

I scratch cook and bulk buy reducing the packaging.

Our lawn is au naturel. No pesticides, herbicides, etc. We don’t water it. We let nature take its course.

We wash clothes with cold water.

We replaced all our light bulbs inside and out with CFL’s.

When I cook too much and it’s something my family won’t eat I call a friend and she walks over to get it for her family.

I didn’t do it all at once. I started with eating organic and things progressed from there.

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[Shibaguyz]

We’re really fascinated by the home composting by people with small spaces. How have those little under-the-counter composting bins worked out for you? Are they messy and smelly at all?

All I can say is WOW there are a lot of people doing a LOT out there! Glad to see that most of you started out with the “one thing” then moved on from there.

We’ve started doing the cold water wash since we moved to our own home here in WS. Once we bought the energy saver appliances and started reading about them, it seemed silly to use the hottest settings for them.

I’ve always wondered about the cloth diaper thing. We saw a documentary the other night that mentioned the amount of disposable diapers one baby uses during the diapering stage. It was really staggering! Our mothers used cloth and I remember those being the best cleaning cloths for dusting and drying our cars once we got older. LOL

Thanks for the tip on estate sales as a place to get canning jars. We still don’t have a local response on freecycle.

Anyone out there using the new paint supplies on the market? How about household cleaning supplies? That is our next switch we are making. We’re deciding whether to buy it or make our own. Anyone out there doing either?

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[GreenSpaces]

I started by becoming a Native Plant Steward for the Washington Native Plant Society in 2001. We joined PCC the same year, and have been growing and greening ever since. I think we do a lot here around our place without even thinking about it now, so I won’t list them. The yard at my old house was a Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat, and also a Pesticide Free Zone. I had a p-patch plot for a few years than began gardening at home when it became too difficult for me to manage (rheumatoid arthritis). When it became too difficult to take care of the yard and garden there, we sold the property and moved to High Point, a Built Green Certified Community here in West Seattle. My townhome is 3-star Built Green Certified and is the best for energy efficiency and air quality. I don’t have a yard, just a huge deck and I grow food in containers that are high enough and easy enought o keep weed free. I also have an AeroGarden inside and grow herbs and lettuces hydroponically.

I miss the opportunity to learn and apply all of the green techniques I read about it. But really I just skipped several steps and instead of remodeling my old house just bought one that was appropriately constructed.

One of the other things I do in order to live with myself is to be sure I share all of the interesting green tidbits I learn with others. On Earth Day in 2007 I launched my own green blog, http://www.greenspacesrealestate.com

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[Shibaguyz]

Very cool GreenSpaces! We’ll check out your blog. We share similarly on our blog about local eating.

You are also the second person who we’ve heard of using an AeroGarden. You really like it, huh? We always wondered if it was as good as it looked.

Don’t know about the rest of you but we’re getting all kinds of new ideas and ways to refine a few old ones from this thread. Thanks!

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[meg]

The counter top compost bucket we have doesn’t smell at all (until you open it!)– it is the stainless bucket with charcoal lid inserts that you can get at Bed bath & beyond or Met. market. We then dump it in our Compost Tumbler with all our shredded paper and spin away.

Cloth diapers ROCK. So easy to use. I heard that diapers take up the most landfill space (followed by plastic bags and take out containers).

We make cleaning supplies sometimes—but generally use mostly a mix of vinegar/water with some essential oil in it. Sometimes w/ grapefruit seed extract. And use a paste of baking soda for grimier stuff. I sort of make it up :)

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