Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool Easy-Care Washable Blanket

I've coveted Pendleton wool blankets for years, but only recently allowed myself to purchase one of the pricey bed covers when I realized it would be a quick and frugal fix to cold nights in our new house that is without insulation and wrapped in old siding and laden with air holes and old drafty windows, many of them broken.

The Regency wood burning stove insert we ordered before we moved in nearly 3 months ago still has not arrived or been installed into our fireplace (sigh). Insulation, hole-mending, new siding and windows will come within this first year of our tenure--should our coffers provide. But until all of the updating is complete winters will be chilly because I'm keeping our thermostat as close to 60 as we can bare in an effort to minimize our oil usage and bills. A thick wool cardigan has been my house uniform of choice this winter, and the temperatures, as you know, have not been very low. Even so, I've been known to sleep like a pioneer woman, a wool hat pulled down to my ears.

Back to the blanket, which possesses so many recommendable qualities. It's one of the few fine products made in the USA today. And the wool used in the entire Eco-Wise line of home products and clothes wear is, according to Pendleton, "created to leave the lightest impact on the earth. From the sheep to the shelf...it passes strict standards of sustainability and responsible environmental stewardship."

And if all this do-gooding doesn't do it for you, there is the fact that it's practical--warm and washable. It's also luxurious and soft to the touch, and in an array of colors and patterns it comes in there should be at least one to please everyone's tastes.

Composting, Envirocycle Compost Tumbler, Worm Bins & Vermi-composting

This weekend, more than 2 months after moving into our new house, I finally retrieved our envirocycle from our old Manhattan apartment building basement and found its new home in our backyard, so it seems an apt time to revisit the important topic of composting.

Most of us now know what a good thing for the earth and our health composting kitchen scraps and yard debris is, but many Americans still don't realize how fun, easy, satisfying, and un-smelly it really is.

I've written about this topic in the past, so in lieu of repeating myself I'll point you to my other entry on composting and the envirocycle, which I love. Of course, if you have the right situation you can also easily and cheaply build your own composting area. There is much information online to gather on how to do this, and perhaps in the future I'll write on it, as well.

There is also the very good option of vermi-composting, or letting red wriggler worms make short shrift of your scraps. Kids--and this adult--love watching this dynamic natural process; It's better than reality television! You can build your own worm bin for the task or purchase a ready-made one, like this great one.



photo by flickr member pretty poo eater

Banana Bread Recipe - Use Your Bananas Before They Go Bad - Prevent Food Waste, An Environmental Issue

It's shameful and an environmental issue that America throws away nearly half of all its food, according to Jonathan Bloom.

Necessity IS the mother of invention! In an effort to not waste our food, I recently created this easy to make, delicious, moist confection -- a hybrid of several banana bread recipes I found online and in cookbooks -- in order to use most of a banana bunch before laying them to waste. *We don't have composting set up yet in our new home.

Makes 2 large loaves and serves many.

Ingredients:

• 1 c. sugar
• 2 c. (plus enough for pan) white whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur. White or a mix of regular whole wheat and white would work.)
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. cardamom
• 1 t. vanilla
• 3 eggs
• enough brandy to top off raisins
• 3/4 c. oil (I used peanut. You can use canola or vegetable)
• 2/3 c. sour cream (I had on hand a vegan sour cream. You can use dairy-based version or buttermilk.)
• 1 c. raisins
• 3 handfuls walnuts
• 4 average to large ripe bananas

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
• Measure raisins and add brandy enough to just cover them. Set aside and let soak at least 1/2 hour, more if you have the time.
• Combine all dry ingredients, except the walnuts, in large mixing bowl.
• Beat eggs, then mix all the wet ingredients, except the raisins and brandy, together in a separate mixing bowl.
• Peel and hand-mash bananas, add to wet ingredients.
  
• Combine these wet and dry ingredients into one bowl, mix well with rubber spatula or large spoon, making sure to scrape sides to incorporate all.
• Mix in all the raisins and brandy.
• Fold in walnuts.
• Oil and flour 2 large metal bread baking pans, or if you have non-stick pans omit this step.
• Split the batter evenly between the two pans.
• Bake for an hour or until a tester toothpick or thin skewer removes clean after being inserted in its center.
• Remove to cooling racks.
• Slice and serve. It will go fast, but it freezes and thaws well. Before freezing wrap well with foil.

Marmoleum - Eco-friendly, Sustainable Flooring Options

The most sustainable option in flooring is clearly making use of what you have. But that's not always possible or desirable.

Once we removed the old, funky-textured linoleum, peeling asbestos tiles, and avocado green and royal blue 1970s carpeting, we were lucky to find good oak wood flooring throughout most of our new home, so we'll only have to sand, then finish them with a low- or no-voc wood floor sealer.

Our kitchen and bathrooms are exceptions to the warm oak flooring, so we considered other eco-friendly options and for the kitchen we settled on marmoleum by Forbo Flooring, a "green" version of linoleum. The tiles and wide strips are a composite of recycled materials, including wood, flour, and "tall oil," and renewable products, including jute, linseed oil, and pine rosin.

I like marmoleum in the kitchen for many reasons, not least of which is that it's easy to clean and is kind on the feet and body when you're standing and working there for long stretches. We also loved the wide color palette it's available in and that you can cut, mix and match tints to achieve some very fun, creative results.

There are many other eco-friendly flooring options, including bamboo, salvaged wood or tiles, concrete, recycled glass and ceramic tiles, recycled rubber, cork, renewable, natural fiber rugs and carpets, and others. Green- and aesthetic-wise, considerations are many when you shop for eco-friendly flooring. Not all the choices are equal when it comes to their environmental impact, so do your research and make the best choices you're able to make.



photo by baubilt.com

Green, Eco-friendly New Year's Resolutions & Lifestyle Tips, 2012

New year's resolutions often lean toward the diet and health related, and ultimately green issues ARE health issues, many even diet-related, so why not create a completely green new year's resolutions list for 2012?

There really are countless ways in which we can improve as a society and as individuals when it comes to respecting and preserving our natural environment and resources, so if some of these don't speak to you, do some research and find others that do.

Here's my list:

• Stop with the plastic bags! We all know this one, but I'm a big offender. Way too often I'm caught shopping without my reusable bags. Always keep a reusable grocery bag (or 2) with you. Read this article about the garbage pit in the middle of our Pacific Ocean. Most of the pit is plastic. There are other plastic products in our daily life, too, that we need to curb use of -- plastic drinking bottles, food "jars" -- begin buying more bulk goods, re-use old jars and containers or buy glass ones that can last a lifetime as storage containers.
  

• Get involved! Volunteer or join a community group, place of worship, take a class. Building strong social networks and closer community are good preventive measures when it comes to protecting the environment and our health.. Perhaps you make a new friend or acquaintance in a class who can drive with you to the grocery store or on other errands, you both can save money, a precious resource, and keep our air cleaner. We share information and things. Maybe you tell a new classmate about the local farmers' market she hadn't known existed, or she shares her children's old clothing with you for your children. This list could go on and on.

• Unplug 'em! Many of the techno devices hanging around our homes and offices use nearly as much energy while off as they do on. The remedy is either to unplug them entirely or plug them into a power strip that can be turned off when they're not in use. The money and energy savings can be hefty.

• Grow some of your own food! Even if you live in the city you can plant a window box with tomatoes and herbs, or join or start a neighborhood community garden. If you've more space, good for you! Growing food is good for body and soul. It connects us to nature, to our families and neighbors, it CAN shrink our food bills, it's good exercise. It's also local and hopefully organic, so lessens our footprint with regard to petroleum products.

• Vote green with your green! Daily voting with our wallets is one of the best ways to influence companies to green their practices from top to bottom, side to side. Newsweek makes knowing the largest national and global companies' footprints an easy task. They survey, crunch and regurgitate relevant information and data to give us their now yearly Green Rankings.

• Educate yourself and your family! There are so many good books, websites and documentaries helping us to understand the nature conservation and resource misuse issues we must all deal with, and most of them offer very positive visions and realistic and empowering resolutions to these often gloomy problems. Just a few to get you going: The Great Disruption, The Big Thirst, The Dirty Life, Last Child in the Woods, The Spell of the Sensuous, Real Food, and Little Heathens.
  

• Plant a tree! Shel Silverstein was right, trees give and give to us. They provide not only shade and color, but substantial and necessary social, environmental and financial benefits. They can cool your home in the summer and reduce your energy use, indirectly they can increase your home and community value. Planting trees and shrubs can attract local birds, insects and animals and restore it to a more serene and natural setting. And it's advised to enlist an expert arborist to care for those trees you already have and to assist you in choosing new ones that are appropriate for your landscape and home placement.
  

• Re-use items! It saves money and earth's resources, reduces air and water pollution. There are so many items we use daily that we CAN re-use repeatedly if we just take the moment to clean it, fold it, wrap it. A few examples of items I try to re-use regularly are rubber bands (I've created a colorful ball that contains them and looks like a small sculpture at my desk), paper (I print on the backs of all full-sized pieces and staple together pads for notes from envelopes and smaller pieces), foil, plastic bags, and many glass jars I wash, dry and re-use as long as I'm able. I will look for more ways in 2012 that I can re-use instead of buy new.
  

• Watch your seafood! Our oceans and sea life are vital resources integral to a healthy planet and people. The Monterey Bay Aquarium makes choices easy with their Seafood Watch website and handy pocket guides and smart phone and mobile apps.
  

• Plug the holes! Filling gaps around doors and windows is easy because we can see and fill them, but finding the usually plentiful "invisible" holes in our homes requires performing a blower-door test for a nominal (in the end money-saving/energy saving) fee. Most of our heat and cooling is lost through these larger "invisible" crevices that can run from basement to attic. Once you find them you can seal them with non-toxic caulk or foam.
  

How to Clean Even Hard-to-Remove-Spills From Glass & Ceramic Stove Tops - Eco-friendly, Frugal Home Tips

I'm of the firm belief that most specialty cleaners are not only overly priced, but are often not the best products for the jobs they are marketed for, and often do not work at all.

Current case in point are the cleaning products made especially for cleaning ceramic and glass top stoves. I know this because we recently purchased one of these ranges and while cooking our holiday meal this weekend the applesauce bubbled out of its pot and onto the glass where it quickly caramelized then burned to a dark black, hard-as-rock recalcitrant mess.

To remove the easy to get schmootz and cooking debris I went over the surface with a warm water and dish soap soaked sponge. Remaining was the black rock-textured blob of burnt sugar, so I pulled out the next weapon from my cleaning arsenal , a heavy duty scouring pad, which took the surface off the burnt sugar but no matter how much elbow grease I put into the task, it could not budge the lithic blob entirely. At this point I pulled out the specialty cleaner, made only to clean glass and ceramic stove tops like ours. Let me be frank here, the specialty cleaner did NOTHING toward removing the cooked on sugar. I began to panic mildly at this point, thinking I'd ruined our brand new, not inexpensive appliance, but pulled out the one tool I knew could make short shrift of the rock, IF it didn't scratch the surface, which I was pretty sure it wouldn't, but was fearful because all the literature that comes with the range says NOT to use anything rougher than a scotch-brite-like scouring pad and the cleaning product they say to use--which doesn't work. What is a cleaning woman to do?

Break the rules, of course. I first squeezed a large dollop of dish soap directly onto the spill. Then, slowly and carefully I scrubbed in a circular motion with one of my favorite green cleaning tools, a metal scouring pad, on a small patch to test. Miraculously, the black began lifting easily, and as I thought, it did NOT scratch the surface a bit. Within a minute or two of scrubbing in this way, then wiping with a clean, wet sponge to remove the loosened residue, the stove top was sparkling like the first day we got it!

Disclaimer: Please don't take my word for this with your glass or ceramic stove top. I'm only vouching here for my first hand experience and success. Always make sure to TEST a new cleaner or implement in a very small, inconspicuous area before going gangbusters with it.

How to Remove Wall Paper With Vinegar and Water - Eco-friendly Home Renovation Tip

I'm super handy, but was intimidated by the prospect of having to remove the old grungy wall paper from the 1/2 bathroom in our new home.

I knew I wanted to tackle it without the noxious hardware store formulas made solely for this task, but was not confident that using the white distilled vinegar I'd heard worked as well, really did.

Well let me cut to the chase here. It does! Save waving a magic wand over it I can't imagine an easier way to remove wall paper than with vinegar, water, and a little elbow grease.

And preparation, planning, and patience go a very long way in making the task even easier. Here's, step-by-step, what I learned.

Before starting make sure to have handy all you will need:

• something to put all the waste and debris in (large garbage bag, cardboard box, etc...)
• bucket
• a few cotton terry towels
• paint spatula (wider than 2" is best)
• utility knife
• hot tap water
• lots of white vinegar (Buy by the gallon. Have several on hand to start. You may need more.)
• ladder or step stool
• work gloves (optional)

1. Make sure work area is well lit.

2. Fill bucket with approximately 1/2 hot tap water and 1/2 white vinegar.

3. Soak towel in the water and vinegar solution. Wring lightly. You want as much water as possible in the towel, but not so much it runs down your arms and soaks your shirt sleeves.

4. Using utility knife find a corner edge of the paper and lift top plastic-y layer of the paper off, if this is possible. The paper was laid in strips, so just remove strip after strip. What remains is the pulpy backing paper and glue, which is much easier to remove if you can lift this top decorative layer off. As you're removing this, you may need to either cut around light fixtures and cabinets with the utility knife or remove the pieces to get paper beneath them, if there is any. In my case, it largely lifted and pulled out from behind these pieces, so was quite easy.

5. If the top layer of the wall paper does not lift, don't despair. Simply score the paper in order to allow water and vinegar mix to soak in and soften the glue.

6. Wet an arms-length sath of either the pulp-glue backing or the scored paper. In either ase, you will need to use several towel's worth of the solution to get enough of it into the paper and glue to soften it for removal. Let it sit and soften for a minute or so before going to the next step.

7. Using paint spatula begin gently but firmly scraping in systematic, efficient rows. If the paper is not budging or it's not lifting easily soak it with more of the water and vinegar mix and let sit another minute or so before scraping again. It's very satisfying once you get a rhythm going and see the paper collecting on the spatula, revealing the wall behind. Before you know it you're half way done!

8. After you've removed all the paper by repeating steps 7. and 8. on all the walls, you will need to go over the entire surface a time or two more with the solution, scrubbing and rubbing a bit to get all the glue up.

9. Using a clean towel go over the entire surface with only hot water a time or two in order to remove the vinegar and any remaining glue residue.

10. Let the wall dry well before preparing it for painting or whatever wall treatment you've planned.



photo by flickr member nolaclutterbusters

How to Clean Stainless Steel With Green, Eco-friendly & Organic Homemade Frugal Polisher-Conditioner Made From Kitchen Ingredients

Because they don't know there are options, people regularly waste hard-earned bucks on expensive (and unhealthy) specialty cleaners to keep their stylish stainless steel appliances clean and smudge free.

They should be happy, and maybe surprised, to learn that two salad dressing ingredients sitting in their kitchen cabinets can keep these surfaces just as clean and shiny as the overpriced, frou-frou specialty products.

To clean all your stainless steel surfaces, simply sponge wipe with dish soap and water solution. If that doesn't get the greasy prints, cut them with a light spray of white distilled vinegar and wipe again. It's helpful to keep some white vinegar in a recycled spray bottle under your sink with your other eco-friendly cleaning supplies.

After you've cleaned the surface, condition and buff it with ....olive oil, or peanut, or any vegetable oil you have stocked. The key, I've found, is to not use too much oil at once and to use a little bit of elbow grease. On a cotton cloth daub oil to start, then add as needed. Buff stainless steel in small circular motions until you've covered the entire area. The oil does exactly what the oil-based expensive cleaners do -- fill the fine grain to repel fingerprints and smudges and reflect light smoothly off the surface.



photo by flickr member bedroom.eyes

Product Review: Eco-friendlier, Greener Seltzer Soda Water Maker Carbonator - Soda Siphon ISI 2247 Red

Sometimes going green doesn't seem so green. Case in point: I've got a seltzer drinking habit I don't want to part with, but I'm not comfortable with the plastic bottles my bubbly comes in .

So I did some research and the alternative I came up with, not a perfect answer mind you, but the best I'm able to do right now, is this handy seltzer soda water maker by ISI, a brand that chefs and restaurants often choose.

There are fancier and more expensive soda water makers out there, but the simplicity of this classic design will outlast those more complicated -- a wise concept I learned and have benefited from repeatedly over the past 25 years since a pony-tailed rock climber I took a trip with shared it with me. I'd asked him why he didn't have some of the newer, fancier gadgets I'd seen other climbers with and he replied, "The fewer the parts, the less chance of something breaking, something going wrong." OK, perhaps not as critical a concept when one's considering seltzer makers instead of hanging from rocks one shouldn't be hanging from, but useful and pertinent, nonetheless. And, if my point with this change is lessening my impact, the storage bottles and counter display stands that accompany the fancier makers are extravagant, especially knowing I can make the beverage by the glass or re-use bottles I already have for storage.

And make sure to stock up on CO2 chargers. If you buy them in this larger quantity you'll end up paying about 45-cents per cartridge, so over time you will recoup your initial investment on the maker and your seltzer will be cheaper than the prepared store-bought fizzy drink. Also comforting is the fact that cartridges are steel and fully recyclable.

How To Make Your Own Eco-friendly, Non-toxic, Green Yoga Mat Cleaner

Doing yoga is supposed to be pleasant and calm-inducing , but if the mat you're practicing on is grimy and smelly it can be distracting and diminish the healthful experience.

It's worth the little bit of time it requires to make the cleaning and care of your yoga mat a part of your regular yoga practice.

I recommend the following monthly, green bathing ritual for your yoga mat.

Fill your bathtub a quarter to half way with cold to warm water. While the tap is running add a large dollop of your favorite natural hair shampoo, something like Burt's Bees Pomegranate and Soy Shampoo, and a few small drops of your favorite essential oils, maybe peppermint and lavender, so they disperse. Unroll and submerge your yoga mat in the water. Swish it around a little and let it soak for a few minutes. Along with the warm water, the shampoo will help loosen the schmootz and help break down the body oils on the surface of the mat. The essential oils will help to disinfect the mat and lend therapeutic soothing and lifting aromas. With a clean sponge wipe the mat, making sure to get its front and back side.

Drain dirty water from the tub and rinse the mat under the faucet quickly so as to not waste water. Holding the mat over the tub let it drip dry for a few moments. Finally, hang your mat to dry outside in the sun if you're able. Sunlight is a natural, free disinfectant. Otherwise, hang inside over shower curtain rod or wooden clothes drying rack.