Eldred and I decided to revive our Green Step initiative. We originally did it from March 2007 through February 2008. We still do 10 of the 12 steps: save warmup water from bathtub; use my own bags at stores; greener/community financial investments; switch from fabric sheets to dryer balls; switch to greener cleaning and personal care products; buy ( Read more... )

I know that people have been reaching used of kudzu for years, but maybe it is finally getting some attention as a viable biofuel: Kudzu Gets Kudos as a Potential Biofuel

This wind-powered light called Firewinder looks cool!

I love the Google decoration for today!

Our green steps were tied to Spring Equinox rather than Earth Day last year because that's when I started the project. Maybe we can go Earth Day to Earth Day this year with one bigger quarterly project instead of smaller monthly ones.

Some possibilities:

- install a rain barrel or two
- put a rain garden ( Read more... )

Saw this blurb on the US Dept of Energy blog: South Carolina Utilities Unveil Green Power Option. If found the info about Palmetto Clean Energy on the Duke Power website.

It's been a year since we started out on our one green step a month project. So, let's see how we are doing.

March - save warmup water from bathtub
We are still doing this daily and it's been a year. I declare this one a big success!
April - use my own bags at storesI do this most of the time. I keep 3 string bags in the car. I use them at ( Read more... )

I didn't really do a step in February. I had all the stuff to do, but didn't until March, so I'll count it as February anyway. I made my own liquid hand soap from water, Dr. Bronner's tea tree castile soap, and vegetable glycerin. We have it in the kitchen and master bath. I'll put it in the powder room when the curren soap there runs out.

The weather this weekend was what I love about living in the South. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to sit outside in short sleeves. I sat on the front porch Saturday soaking up the afternoon sun and reading. It was wonderful! Especially after spending the week sick. At least it was a cold and not the flu, so I didn't complain. Much... I ( Read more... )

Yesterday evening on the way home from work I stopped at the grocery store. Oddly enough, I missed Eldred by about 5 minutes. So, we ended up with some duplicate items. That's okay. We'll eat them ( Read more... )

Our January green step is to try to eliminate high fructose corn syrup from our diet. We try to avoid regular corn syrup when possible, but are focusing on the high fructose kind. This has turned out to be easier than I thought, so I guess we have already been heading that direction. Eldred has to give up his Banana-Strawberry Yoplait. I found ( Read more... )