Carbon Credit Collector

So, the final week has slipped away and it is nearly time to face the jury. Our road of trials has not been as bumpy as we thought it would be. Dan and I have enjoyed switching our way of living to a more eco-friendly one. This competition has been an opportunity for us to really commit to a less-intrusive lifestyle, to simplify our needs and to cut down on things that are un-necessary.

Things we did last week:

TRANSPORT

Dan got up extra early and took the bus from Cass Bay into town on Friday and then walked across the park to Girls’ High, where he works. Although it took 40 minutes longer than driving he tells me it was a nice and relaxing way to start the day. He got some marking done on the bus and some exercise in too. He says that he’s going to bus 2-3 times a week now and has in fact gone on the bus today!

I joined SPOKES, a cycle advocacy group, and was appalled to learn that council funding for developing cycling in CHCH has been drastically reduced in favour of developing roads! Eek.

WASTE

We’re still producing very little waste. We’ve taken Waverly’s advice to heart and are really trying to reduce the amount of waste we create. We look at everything we buy with new, critical, environmentally-aware eyes and are really starting to spurn plastic and spread the word about places like Binn Inn, where you can fill up old containers etc… My Mum will be visiting the one in Nelson she tells me!

I’m also trying to use everything that we buy. I’m still freezing the excess that would have gone floppy in the fridge or mouldy in the fruit bowl before our eco-my-flat days. We’re also helping others to reduce their waste by being grateful recipients of extra produce. Dan’s Mum gave us a huge load of tomatoes from their garden the other day and I’m making us some soup (with veggie stock from Binn Inn!) tonight. Our landlords came over last night with some grapes for us off their vine that suddenly decided it was sick of being no-good and would flourish this year! We’ve got them sitting on a tray in the sun to let them ripen that little bit more to reduce the ‘tart’ factor.

We also trialled using our pre-person shower water in the washing cycle and it worked just fine! We didn’t get to Blue Earth yet, but it is definitely on our list…

FOOD

So, I’ve already mentioned that we are now Binn Inn converts. I went in for the first time earlier in the week and stocked up on flour, stock, sun dried tomatoes and some risotto, yum! Our seedlings continue to grow well and I’ve transferred some into our garden. In the weekend I weeded the gardens and added some organic fish compost that we had lying around. The cabbages are starting to fruit and our spinach from last season is starting to spring back into life, much more massive than before! Our spring onions are getting bigger each day too and all the herbs are going well. We missed the market but will be back there with bells on on Saturday. Last week we made our lunches and saved on packaging etc… and money for us, so that was good.

ENERGY

Well, we really don’t use that much energy. I suppose the most goes into hot water heating and cooking. We’ve been quite vigilant about our showers this week but for me, long showers are still something I need to find a solution to. I don’t have a shower everyday so I think that might make up for it somewhat! We now have eco bulbs all over our flat and spares if they run out or we want to help someone else be more environmentally friendly! I gave one to my Mum for their bedroom, she was worried it would be a funny kind of light but was pleasantly surprised. There wasn’t much different we could do for Earth Hour, we turned off our lights like most people I suppose! The bad thing about Earth Hour for us was that Dan had accidentally left a light on ALL day, about 6 hours, so we felt bad about that.

Well, I think that’s all I can think of. It’s been a really great four weeks actually. We’ve discovered some really simple but effective ways that we can help reduce the human impact on the environment. The things that we’ve changed are easy to maintain and we want to keep living this way. The Farmers Market will be a weekly visit, we’ll buy bulk at Binn Inn, we’ll buy organic at Liberty Market and Piko. We’ll also keep saving our grey (and not-so-grey) water for gardens and washing loads etc… We don’t flush every time and that’s fine with us! We’ll keep growing our garden and sharing produce around Cass Bay and with our friends and families. We are excited to learn more and more ways that we can be better people!!

Thanks to everyone who helped with this competition. The lectures were really awesome and it actually has been life-changing.

Big SMILES and Cass Bay Hideaway is signing off….

The road of trials continues and the boons are many along the way!!

Lis and Dan

This was a week of surprises at the Burrow.

The first was positively a mystery. Without any involvement of the female residents, some plastic bags appeared on the washing line, in a clear attempt to reuse over recycle. The only explanation is that
one of the male residents was responsible, a true testament to the transformative power of eco-my-flat (or the shortage of alternative lunch-wrappings).

The second surprise was indeed, surprising. The residents went on an outing to Supershed, to use their $40 of vouchers, yet between them could only spend a total of $6 on all their second-hand
goodies. Among their finds were shoes, pots, an empty photo album and a thermos. There will be many more trips if they ever hope to use the vouchers up.

The third surprise was more…disgusting. Perhaps due to nature’s sense of humour, the worm farm has become a maggot farm, and is supplying the house with a steady supply of flies. The residents
aren’t overly worried about this, content that their organic waste is now being broken down from above as well as below.

The fourth surprise was action taken on a flat heat pump. Having discussed this previously with their landlord, the residents enjoyed a visit by an electrician, to assess their lounge for a heat pump’s
arrival. The residents also had a great phone conversation with their landlord about the range of CEA subsidies, and plan to put their Community Services cards into action on insulation. Watch this
space.

Among this week’s other eco-developments are vinegar sprays used in the bathroom, further attempts to turn off appliances when not in use, homemade bread and yoghurt, chestnut harvesting,
delicious red grapes and green beans from friendly neighbours, an array of homemade jams, and perhaps most significantly the spreading of our new-found habits… a couple of ‘burrowers’ have found
themselves greeted by free-range eggs and chicken when dining at family homes this week.

But will the plastic bag reusing be repeated? Will the worms or the maggots win? And will the residents manage to find $40 of second hand goodies? Find out in the final installment, from the Burrow!

Ok, this must be about the last eco blog, I have really enjoyed reading about other peoples eco-fying missions and writing about ours. I had wanted to do more, late nights wandering through blogs-sphere have provided me with lots to dream about… but time and money are rather imposing barriers. I have come to the conclusion living a truly eco-friendly life would either be a full time occupation or require much capital. it would be great to be able to have solar panels, a wet-back efficient log burner, double glazing, a glass house… a house designed to catch and keep the sun… insulation… enough land to have chickens and bigger garden and fruit trees…however at the moment these things just are not possible! Buying eco-friendly soap is pricey enough for us!

But as we all know we can just do our best… cooking from scratch with more homegrown food and food found or given from friends has been a top priority of ours, as well as beginning to shop at Bin Inn to reduce packaging on things we cant grow- such as flour, oats and legumes and being much more consciousness about going to the butcher, we have reduced our supermarket purchases a lot. This has turned out to be a bit more time consuming- bread, bottling, jam and relish making takes a while (anyone who ever said 50s housewives didn’t have day jobs were soooo wrong!), but we have tried to usefully combine these with other things.

A trip blackberry picking on Friday provided a chance for a nice walk up the port hills, we have decided our exercise this year will be from alternative sources to the gym (mostly a money saving choice but also good for the environment!) biking walking gardening and yoga on the back lawn use no energy and usually turn out to be useful too! On that note more lettuces spinach and herbs have also been sown this weekend, coriander, parsley and garlic chives (not regular) are particularly good for winter.

Our shelves and freezer are moaning under the weight of all our carefully preserved goods… some will make nice gifts for friends as well. A bucket of cider is bubbling away in our laundry, food processing the frozen apples was rather a mission! Hopefully it turns out to be drinkable…

We are using our old rubbish bin as a rainwater catcher (but here is a link to much more creative uses of skips! http://trinixy.ru/2008/10/29/kak_mozhno_ispolzovat_kontejjner_16_shtuk.html), and the bucket in shower to save water for the garden. Unfortunately we are unable to keep the grey water from our shower or washing machine, this will have to be one for the future! We have been careful to have back-to-back showers as well.

Our room is feeling a bit better with double glazing on the top windows, I am very proud of the way they turned out!

All our things are now turned off at the wall every night. Next to our bed we are using two large candles instead of a bedside lamp and once they warm up they are actually quite bright. We are looking forward to saving power this winter by spending most days at uni and therefore not using much here, as the heating will be on there anyway we might as well benefit!

I also feel participating in eco-my-flat has re-enforced the importance of not using our car as much… I have been biking much more this year and find it really nice.

So all in all we feel happy about the steps we are taking and look forward to eating our summer and autumn produce in delicious form throughout winter!

1 you cant really tell but the top two windows have been insulated with the plastic from ECA

2 the Rosehip and Apple Jelly

3 the cider process…

4 looks pretty good!

5 Fydor and some of our many pot plants!

So this morning i went out to the greenhouse and picked some fresh spinach and parsley to make an omelet. little was i to know that the spinach had other plans. Half way through cutting up the spinach i slipped and chopped off a small chunk of my left index finger. Its ok i got my own back, Shelly used the spinach to make a delicious Quiche.
Everything in the greenhouse is growing at a ridiculous rate producing more evil vegetables.‘. If you look look carefully you can see my pak choy seeds are taking off and should be ready for planting out in a couple of days.

I haven’t blogged for a long time. Last weekend i went home and managed to fix the vege oil system in my truck.  My brother and i drove up to the lakes and went deer hunting. We saw lots of sign but didn’t manage to get anything.
In my opinion hunting is the most environmentally friendly way to get meat. For a start, the transport is almost carbon neutral since my truck runs on recycled vege oil, secondly, killing deer reduces their impact on our national parks and the world wide environment because  less native plants are eaten and absolutely no carbon is released, compared to say beef. According to an article in New Scientist “Meat is Murder on The Environment” , “A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.”  Additionally there are no carbon emissions related to the processing, packaging and transport of the meat. Finally, free range meat is far more ethical and creulty free than farmed meat.

Since i am talking about food and its carbon footprint i should talk about my Food Energy spreadsheet i am putting together. These days people have an obsession with low-fat/ low-energy foods, and they don’t mind paying more for it. As an active student i am inclined to go the other way. I would like to find the foods that have the most energy for money. This has a number of benefits. For a start, it should save me lots of money because i get the most energy per dollar i spend. Also, from an environmental perspective spending less money on anything is always a positive. This is because the less you money you spend the less you have to work and the less impact you have on the environment. For example, an average Chinese or Indian releases less carbon emissions than your average American simply because they consume less.
What my spreadsheet does is simply calculate the cost per kilojoule in food. So far it has come up with some interesting findings. For example, i found that the expensive La Terra whole meal spaghetti is actually a lot cheaper than budget canned spaghetti. This also shows that in some cases  i may be able to justify buying healthy foods over unhealthy food because they contain more energy for your dollar.

Hi guys.
Well its been another week in the Stables
Had the Earth Hour on the weekend
Sadly we werent able to make it to the dinners which would have been fun but we did participate by having a flat warming in the light of the night at my friends flat off riccarton road.
There was about 5 flats there so hopefully this helped the cause
As for our flat, well we had our first home brew on the weekend! was very nice!tasted a lot like a radlier and we have got the bottles ready to go for our next lot! So all is going well
Our energy consumption is staying very low! Made our first batch of pumpkin soup with the pumpkins we “found” So we still have around 10 pumpkins and are keeping on building up a stock pile for winter
Our flat has also been taking full advantage of the free lunches at the uni once a week! these are going down very well!
If we arent having these we are often taking to uni coucous lunches that we got in bulk bags at the Asian food warehouse! very good value for money this and no packaging.
We have definately started paying attention to how our foods are packed and what this does to the environment
As for our overall shopping, we have set another flat record, $47 for 5 guys for 2 weeks! so we are going well! some how surviving without any trouble! As for more free lunches, giving blood is a great way to get a meal and help the cause! they need 470 patients a week just to keep even with demand!So the Stables eco efforts are going well. It will be interesting to see whatt next term brings and what new and crazy ideas we come up with. Ohh also, 2 of us have started to grow beards for winter! cant beat a little bit more insulation!
Anyway thats all for now!
See you thursday!

I thought it’d be fun to write a blog on eco-pet-ownership. As mentioned in our first blog – we have a wee petting zoo going on here. We’ve got a cat, birds, rats and axolotls (= “Mexican Walking Fish”).

I think one of the most important things you can do to “eco” your pets is to prevent them from breeding!! There are already too many unwanted pets in this country, let alone the world. With most mammalian pets you can get them speyed or neutered which means they’ll physically lose their ability to reproduce. By far the most effective way of preventing breeding! Even rats can be desexed! Though it is a more risky operation to spey a female than it is to neuter a male so making sure all the males are neutered would work too. Morris (my boy rat) came from the Wellington SPCA and they desex all their male rats before rehoming – so he has no balls! And he’s totally fine and still tries to take advantage of wee Ratty (girl rat) though I’m pretty sure she asks for it!

Another really big thing is to make sure you know what you’re in for before you get a pet of any kind. Cute kittens and puppies grown into cats and dogs and can live for many, many years. They can make it difficult to find a place to rent, or to go on holiday for any period of time. They need good quality food, a clean place to live and play and rest, and your companionship! I’ve wanted to get chickens for years and years and years and years (I LOVE chickens!!!) but to be fair on them I haven’t allowed myself to give in because I know they will make it really difficult to find somewhere to live whilst I am still “young and free” and moving constantly (it’s already difficult enough with the current crew, and now we’ve acquired the cat too (he came with the house!), AND we have a baby on the way… madness ensues!).

Anyhoo, here’s some stuff we do with our pets that helps to reduce their impact on the environment.

Cats

• Cats are carnivores. It’s true. Which makes feeding them awkward in an otherwise vegetarian household! There are vegetarian cat food products (vegan even) available, but we think that if you’re actually 100% carnivorous then you should probably eat meat. So we buy “Organix” cat food which uses organic chicken meat. It’s not guaranteed, but in general organic chicken is raised less cruelly and more eco-friendly than non-organic chicken – possibly even free-ranged. It’s hard to know what’s best for kitty and for the environment, but we think that we are at least taking a step in the right direction! We buy it from Opawa Organics (which is another fun organic shop certainly worth checking out!! They’re reasonably priced too. http://www.opawaorganics.co.nz/
• For variety, LeRoy sometimes gets to eat fresh meat! Free-range and organic of course. He’s a bit fussy (probably coz he’s old) so we chop up whatever meat we buy for him into wee chunks and fry them up for him. Lucky cat. We get his meat from the “Organic Butcher” in Opawa (just around the corner from the aforementioned organic shop). So far he’s tried their diced beef steak and their lambs fry. I’m thinking chicken might be next on his menu…
• LeRoy has no balls… as his name may suggest!
• LeRoy eats from ceramic bowls. Ceramic = not plastic. It’s also good coz it’s cheap, heavy and easy to clean.
• Collar with a tag and bell – the benefits are numerous. Aside from being large, cumbersome, lazy and totally unco, his lovely-jingly bell also means when he’s pretending he can catch birds they can hear him coming and fly away. It also means we can hear him coming. Or hear him being somewhere he shouldn’t be! The tag has his name and contact details on it which means that if he gets lost (or worse…) then we can be easily contacted. Also it’s fun for our neighbours who he might visit to know his name and to know that he has a home so they don’t try and feed him (he was a HUGE fatty before we acquired him, he’s on a strict diet now!).
• Jacob says that LeRoy also prevents forest fires. Though then we both agreed that preventing forest fires is actually bad for the environment. Luckily LeRoy is probably the laziest, most unco cat in the world, so he doesn’t actually do anything like that.

LeRoy and Morris chillin’ outside on the deck…

Ratty Ratkins having a snuggle with Jacob

Birds and Rats

• Perrywinkle and the rats have newspaper to line their cages which gets changed at least weekly. It’s a cheap (=free!) and convenient way to line their cages, and all the soiled newspaper gets composted.
• I have a bucket full of shredded newpaper that I theraputicually rip by hand for the rat’s nest box which they love to burrow in and rearrange. Sometimes Perry gets some too and he likes to hide in it while he’s playing on the bottom of his cage. All around good times in the shredded newspaper!
• Empty tissue boxes = awesome rat AND parrot toys. The rats like to hide in it and fill it with shredded paper and nibble on the corners. Perry likes to hide in it and tear it into tiny little pieces. These also end up in the compost once they’ve been suitably demolished.
• Fun homemade rat toy ideas http://www.dapper.com.au/toys.htm. Our rats have an old bandana pegged in the corners to make a hammock which they love to hang out in. It can be washed and reused, and in the winter you can have a thicker, warmer fabric for them to snuggle in!
• Homemade toys in general are fab. Newspaper, rope, string, cereal boxes, bits of wood… animals are like kids – they enjoy the box the toy came in more than the toy itself! A great way of reusing stuff that might otherwise be thrown out. Perry’s favourite toy is a clothes peg which hangs from the top of his cage! (Same goes for bigger animals too like cats and dogs – some dogs love to spend an afternoon licking the last tasty morsels of Marmite from the jar once you’re done with it. Fun for them and it means you don’t waste any food!)
• The rats and the budgies eat Topflite – budgie seed and rat mix (http://topflite.co.nz/). They’re a NZ company based in Oamaru and as a animal-lover, fussy “mother” and qualified animal carer, they’re the only brand of bird seed or rat food that I’ve found anywhere in NZ that I am happy to feed my pets. You can buy it from good pet stores – I get mine from Blacks Pets in Opawa.
• These guys are also fed fresh (and usually organic!) fruits, veges, and anything else we’re eating that they can eat. The rats like to eat our leftover dinner! And all the birds love fresh spinach and apples.

Four of the five budgies hanging out in the aviary

Perrywinkle! Our flats namesake and my pride and joy (at least until baby comes!)

Axolotls

• The tank water is an excellent fertiliser for the garden!
• Mostly axolotls are terribly boring (but we still love them) and don’t do an awful lot of bad or good to their environment. They are endangered in the wild though so maybe having them here in captivity is good??? Debatable….

Rufus checking himself out in the corner of the tank

Well the competition is almost over, and I’m sure we’re not alone in saying it sure wasn’t long enough to really make a lot of long-term meaningful changes… or long enough to write all the blogs I had planned in my head! Especially since it ends at the same time as all the tests and assignments and projects and stuff we have due before the mid-trimester break! We (hopefully) have a few more blogs coming before the end of the competition (most from Jacob!). Looking forward to the pot luck tonight!!!

Sarah + the crew

Hmmm Tuesday seemed kind of sad this week with no eco tips to look forward to, but we have soldiered on taking more eco steps on our own.

This week has seen more of the thoughtful food creating, we have been growing, harvesting and foraging, then bottling, jamming (is that the word for it?!) and baking. Rosehip and apple jelly and Rosehip syrup (both ingredients hand picked wild or from nearby gardens and put into recycled glass jars) was cooked up then strained during the add breaks on Flight of the Concords. Rhubarb (from another friends garden) was stewed and frozen while readings for uni were knocked off at the kitchen table. Vegetarian lasagna with silverbeet, basil, tomato sauce, oregano from our garden, chili and eggplant from farmers market was baked while we conducted a heated discussion on the merits of Wittgenstein and JS Mill played out.

The garden was given a going over in the sun, all the tomatoes harvested the afternoon before the first frost (apparently it is way better to pick them all before they get frost)! Although usually I would probably gotten rid of the green tomatoes this year they are currently waiting patiently in a large box to be turned into green tomato chutney and maybe Fried Green Tomatoes! More herbs and beetroot were planted. Our sad looking lemon tree is going to be re-planted this weekend in our old recycling bin- with soil dug from a forgotten corner of the garden not bought as potting mix!

A foraging session lead to a fattening of the shelves and no need to purchase certain items.

Hmmm moving on from food! We also hunted down some old woolen blankets and wrapped up our hot water cylinder, it has been warm to the touch but as it is close to the wall and cupboard doors I have just sort of assumed we couldn’t do anything… but turns out quite a few blankets can fit.

We have also been trying hard to turn everything off at the wall, and have not been using the lights as much as usual…

The two top windows in the bedrooms have been happily fog free after the frosty nights; the plastic insulation things have worked wonders! We are contemplating buying another set for the other two bedroom windows…

Shopping wise we bought some essentials from the supermarket, butcher and fish monger, combining a trip out in the car with as many errands as possible. Found Pak n Save is getting a bit better on the eco friendly options, recycled toilet paper and eco store soap both on special! Some of their veges and fruit even have place of origin (narrowing it down to ‘New Zealand’!!!).

In the spirit of freecylcing (and because I owe almost all my current wardrobe to the great Sallies) I cleaned out some old clothes and took them to the clothing bins. I am telling myself not to fill up the wee hole in my cupboard this has provided… but…there is a 1960s blouse with my name on it hanging in the sallies window!

To do this weekend:

-get the apples out of the freezer and make cider

- bike to bin inn with vessel and get some vinegar for relish

- meet up with my knitting buds, armed with my ‘new’ needles from the Sallies

- see about those thermal curtains…

Photos:

1 the tomatoes

2 making Rosehip and Apple Jelly

3 the only system that seemed to work for the straining…

4 the hot water cylinder

So here we are with our final installment for eco my flat!
We have been pretty good this week and have accomplished quiet a lot. These are some of the things we have done this week:
 
- Karel checked the hot water cylinder and it felt cold to touch so that means its not losing us any power which is great.
- Using old envelopes as scrap paper
- Yoska put bricks in the toilet so that less water is used for every flush…. very easy to do so that was great.
- Yoska bottled the free pears we were given at our last eco my flat seminar – thanks fellow eco my flatters!!!
- Brooke has been using her hot water bottle and Karel and Yoska have decided to try and get through winter without using their electric blanket.
- Yoska went shopping for the flat last week and managed to buy almost everything with no packaging. The only things that did have packaging were milk and margerine. And they are both recyclabe. To achieve this magical feat we did things like refill the dishwashing liquid (ecostore brand) at binn inn and take along all our own reused zip lock bags.
- Akbar works at a food court type restaurant and brings home left over food for the whole flat…. this includes specially selected vegan food for the vegan members of the flat. The food he brings home would otherwise be thrown out and is much welcomed by the poor students living in our flat (ie. 5/6 of us ). The only problem so far with this is that it comes in those takeaway containers… and after several weeks of this we are now starting to collect large numbers of containers which we can’t really use for anything. So as a possible solution to this we are considering dropping them off en masse back at the restaurant (and not mentioning that akbar gave them to us so he does’nt get in trouble). Or an alternative idea is to find a preschool or kindy that might be able to make good use of them.
- Yoska, Brooke and Akbar have been collecting the water from the dishes and using it to water the garden.
- No circulars sign has finally been put up, its been a long time coming as we have all been getting annoyed with the paper cluttering up our dining table. Plus this way we are being eco too!
- Compost is constantly being built up. We have gotten better at putting ALL our food scraps on the compost bin as well as most of our paper and cardboard.
- Bank statements have been cancelled to save on unneccessary paper. Some people in our flat never even bothered to open them anyway so now we are avoiding the unneccessary waste.
- The garden is flourishing and lettuce is now being eaten at a steady flow directly from the garden, for some reason I (Yoska) am convinced it tastes waaaay better than shop stuff. Up until this we have been using pick as you go lettuce but this week we finally harvested a hearting lettuce. We have 6 in total and feel that they need to be eaten soonish so that the frosts don’t get them. Gabby dug out a rhubarb plant and in the spirit of sharing things around gave it to a friend. We won’t miss it seeing as we have about 6 gigantic mature rhubarb plants left!!!!.
- Every night before we go to bed Karel and Yoska have been making sure everything in the living room is unplugged at the wall, things like the stereo and laptops which have permanent lights otherwise. And making sure the tv is not on standby. These may seem like trivial things but every little bit makes a difference and we aint gonna complain if it reduces our power bill. On that note we got our first power bill… it covered 6 weeks and 6 people and was $127. Which I think is actually pretty good.
 

Photo 1 shows Yoska scooping up the used dishwashing water into a bucket.

Photo 2 shows the fruit we have been bottling. The photo shows some rhubarb and pears that have been bottled.

Photo 3 shows the brick we have put in the toilet to raise the water level.
 
 
So that is all for eco my flat. We have enjoyed going to the seminars and learning about being more eco friendly. It was great being able to hear what other people were up to and then stealing their ideas!!!! We are one of the flats hosting a pot luck on Saturday so look forward to seeing some of our fellow eco my flatters there.

Bathroom time!

The shower – where we get clean! I guess the biggest thing in there is the water usage. Sadly we did not get given one of those fun shower bags that measures water efficiency at our audit, but I would guess that our shower isn’t the best since it is one of the “better” ones (in terms of pressure and soakage) I’ve had over the past few years. About a week ago I put a bucket in there to catch the water while it warms up (sadly, a stinky plastic one, not a super magical metal one)

Another good thing about our water use is that we don’t have very long showers (most of the time…). Admittedly I’ve never timed them, but I would guess they average about 4-5 minutes each. And we have one per day each, usually at night, and usually one right after the other so maybe that’s good since the pipes stay warm and such. Also our hot water cylinder is set to about 55°C – I progressively turned it down during the first week we lived here as it was waaaayyyy too hot. It’s got some built-in insulation, though it’s still slightly warm to the touch. It’s also freakin’ enormous – you couldn’t put that fun proper-insulation around it as it is too close to the walls in its cupboard. We will endeavour to find some old carpet or woolen blankets to wrap him up in next time we’re at the Super Shed (and we can pay for it with our vouchers!!).

Now for what we use in the shower. Our purchase of shower-related (and pretty much everything else related) products is exclusively animal-friendly. I think animals are swell, and that we shouldn’t rub shampoo into their eyes to see if it makes them cry. As well as that, I also don’t think we need to be using the latest, greatest whizz-bang chemical someone invented in a lab (and tested on animals!) on our skin, or in our homes at all. So though originally my change to eco-friendly products stemmed from animal rights based reasons, it has also made me way more conscious of what’s in all these products, and now I shop based on animal-friendliness AND eco-friendliness. Good stuff.

The products you can see in the picture are:

• Eco-Store body wash – funnily enough this is Jacob’s. He likes using body wash instead of soap so we buy this stuff for him.
• Eco-Store shampoo – also Jacob’s! I don’t use anything at all in my hair (unless it’s REALLY dirty).
• Living Nature face cleanser – this is mine, though I only started using face wash since I got pregnant as my skin started doing crazy things. (My “weird” skin/hair care regime (or lack thereof) is explained later). It’s made in NZ from au naturale ingredients and although it seems expensive, you get an awful lot in one bottle so it lasts for aages! http://www.livingnature.com/
• Alba face exfoliant – mine too. I love this stuff. Smells like pineapple and makes my skin feel yum! And a bottle this size lasts me for almost a year! http://albabotanica.com/
• Nail brush – Jacob’s. For cleaning under his nails after doing dirty manly things like working on the car or bike. Sadly it IS made of plastic, but it gets VERY well used and dirty and deformed before it needs replacing (which isn’t very often, he says).
• Face brush – mine. This thing rules. Plastic again but I’ve had this one for at least 2 years, if not 3. I use it every day to gently scrub off dead skin and crap off my face and neck.
• Eco-Store manuka honey & kelp soap – fully awesome. I use this on my body and it’s fab coz it not only cleans you, but scrubs you too! I suggest buting it from Liberty Market where it’s cheap and unpackaged
• Loofah – used on the body to scrub off dead skin cells and yuck stuff. These last for ages and they’re made from a dried plant! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luffa
• Synthetic loofah – probably not real eco-friendly but it’s pretty old and I don’t think we’ll be replacing it once it’s spent. I think Jacob likes to use it to apply his manly body wash though

Our bathroom window and sink… points to note:

• As with the toilet, the window has double-tongue latches and a window stay so we can leave the window open 24/7. This is super good at getting rid of the humid air after a shower and keeping the room venitlated. We can also see our vege patch out this window so we are reminded to go and check on it and water it and shoo cats away from it and such.
• On the windowsill is Jacob’s hair product. I’m not sure how “eco-friendly” this is, but it’s animal-friendly and made in NZ, which probably makes it better than most other products in the supermarket. Must look into more obviously eco-friendly alternatives when he needs to restock.
• By the sink is a glass jar of organic Coconut Oil. I use it on my body (especially the bump!) as a moisturiser and it works great! This is my first step into the “only putting on your skin what you would put in your mouth” philosophy. So far so good!
• Next to that is the big ol’ bottle of Health Basics normal body moisturiser – though we don’t really use it much so this bottle is pretty old… I wonder if it’s still good… It’s animal-friendly and made in NZ, but I don’t think it’s plant-based. If we do ever finish it then I’m sure the bottle will come in super handy!
• At this exact moment we have Eco-Store bar soap as hand soap (these pics were taken last week), but in the pic is the liquid soap pump which I fill with liquid soap-nut soap. Soap nuts are awesome. I wish I had a soap nut tree! For more info go to http://www.globalsoap.co.nz/soapnuts.htm – will be more on this in laundry section
• Toothpaste on wall to the right is Red Seal Natural toothpaste which you can now buy in most supermarkets. It’s made in NZ, animal-friendly, fluoride-free, and made from “a combination of 9 herbs and 4 minerals which offer many cleansing and hygienic properties to help keep teeth clean and gums healthy.” http://www.redseal.co.nz/
• Yet to find eco-friendly alternative to toothbrushes but would LOVE to hear if anyone has found any!! I guess as an upside we re-use old ones as cleaning apparatus for fiddly things, but they do eventually end up in the bin

Jacob’s shaving apparatus.

• Tom’s of Maine is a super fun US brand of oragnic toiletries (I especially love love love their apricot deoderant stick) that you can buy from the Liberty market. This stuff comes in a metal tube too (=not plastic). But it does come all the way from the USA. Next time we need to buy some we’ll have a look at NZ-made alternatives.
• A Schick razor with disposable heads (so you don’t have to replace the whole thing) – before the Shopping and Waste workshop with Waverly we were not aware of any “better” alternatives to supermarket razors, so we chose Schick over Gillette since Gillette are a Procter & Gamble product. Procter & Gamble are a HUGE corporation (you’d be surprised how many common brands come under their name) and do some very stink things to animals with their prodcuts. I won’t bore you with the details, but if you want to know more, you can start here http://www.uncaged.co.uk/pg.htm. We will definitely be looking at getting one of those fun razors Waverly had at the workshop where you just replace the blade (=no plastic + junk to landfill) once Jacob has used all his replacement blades.

Of course, to clean the bathroom we use distilled white vinegar. In a spray bottle on surfaces. In a bucket with warm water to mop the floors (and sometimes the walls too…). You can even soak a rag with it and put it on the shower head or around the taps to get rid of mineral build-up (leave it overnight). A paste of baking soda and water is good for stuff that vinegar doesn’t work for. If that fails too though, then we use Eco-Store shower cleaner which is magical and gets rid of even the grimeyest of grime!

My word that’s a lot of blog. Until next time!

Sarah + the crew

Heya fellow eco friends! Here’s what Dan and I have been up to this past week…

RECYCLING

I finished making Dan’s boxer shorts, they look cute I think! I’m not sure if Dan loves them but we both know that at the end of the week when they’re sitting there at the bottom of his undies draw, they’ll be coming out! We used recycled elastic for the band and recycled buttons that we picked up in South America a few years ago too. My aunty has offered us an old sewing machine of hers so there’s no stopping me now, today boxers, tomorrow, the world…

ENERGY

We put up the curtain that we got from Toffs. It’s actually nice but a little short. I need to add something to the bottom, any ideas? I continue to use public transport and my feet (even though we live in Cass Bay and it takes me 2hrs to get to Uni!). I just figure walking is good exercise and bussing can be time to read. Taking your time to get somewhere can also be quite meditative (if you’re not rushing!).

GARDENING

Our veggies seedlings are continuing to grow. Even the coriander has now sprouted! We want to get them nice and big before they go out into the garden. We’ve transferred some to their own containers and will probably grow them on our deck as it’s nice and sunny. Things are happening in our garden too, last season’s spinach looks like it is making a come-back and the spring onions have really taken off with all that rain and shine. Our sink window basil suddenly took off and we realised it was going to seed so I took the buds off, hopefully it will be okay.

FOOD

We missed the farmers market on Saturday unfortunately (I loved it so much last week, it’s definitely now our shopping adventure of choice) so we went to the Funky Pumpkin to get our veggies and fruit. We chose only local produce and bought what we thought was in season (as Rhys had suggested). Our neighbours went fishing and gave us a few flounder! It’s so nice living in Cass Bay. We couldn’t see flounder on that fishing guide we were given so weren’t sure if it was a good choice or not but we figured that it was locally caught, entirely fresh and given with love so had to be good! We cooked one up (whole, in the oven, wrapped in recycled tinfoil, mmm…) and froze the other two for another night. We’re trying to cut down on packaging and buying things that we can make so I baked some afghan cookies, muslie slice and another pizza base. We also cooked up a good batch of celery-based vegetable soup. Dan took some for lunch at school and we froze the rest for later in the week. We also chopped up all of the celery and froze it so that we can use it when we like without having to worry about it going bad. We also peeled all the corn we got at the market, broke it in half, left some out and froze the rest.

WASTE

Dan filled a container with stones and put it into our toilet’s water cylinder to decrease the amount of water we use each time. Everything’s still going down and it still seems like a lot of water is being used so we might be able to put something else in there. We also took the water from the dishes and put that on the garden. We’re still using the bucket in the shower too and I think the garden is growing all the better for it! We’re producing hardly any rubbish due to our decrease in packaged goods. I went to Binn Inn but it was a Sunday and they weren’t open! So, something to do next week. We are looking for an alternative shaving option for Dan and his unruly facial hair. At the moment he is using the plastic razors because it’s just too expensive to use the other ones, he just goes through them so fast. We’re looking into the old style of cut-throat blades but we need to do a bit of research into that, does anyone know how to shave like that without doing yourself an injury?

THINGS FOR THIS COMING WEEK

Visit Binn Inn! Research razor options for mega-man stubble. Lengthen curtain. Use the window insulation we got in the workshop. Visit the EECA website for some tips. Visit Blue Earth and get some soaps etc… Make lunches!

Have a great week everyone!

Lis