Good Excuses for Not Posting

Marc says I've become a bit of a "loser blogger." And that's a direct quote.

I have to say, I'm feeling a bit loser-ish myself since the last post was over a month ago. Nearing on 6 weeks. A lot has been happening in those 6 weeks, namely:

1. CompostTumbler is making compost (more on this later).
2. Vegetable garden is fully sprouted (more on this later).
3. Marc quit his job.
4. We launched our online boutique, www.HappyGreenBaby.com

You Gotta Get Paid

"There's nothing more stereotypically green than an avid recycler — and nothing more rare in real life ... RecycleBank was started with a simple idea: that people want to recycle, but they just need a little push."

And just how can one motivate people to get off their lazy asses and put that Keystone Light can in a recylcing bin instead of the trash? With good old fashioned dinero.

This is a great article my friend Lamia forwarded to me:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1730187,00.html?cnn=yes

The Boldest Statement I've Made Yet

King Soopers has, by far, the best organic produce selection in town.

Sunflower Market has good prices ($.97 for strawberries!) but considering 99% of all its stuff is droopy and half moldy, I'm basically buying food for the composter, not to actually eat.

Whole Foods is pretty, but it's lack of local or organic items is glaringly obvious, once you're able to step away from the fruit dip sample tray and start shopping. Oh, and need I mention the $6.99 lb. Brussels sprouts incident of Thanksgiving 2007?

Safeway has made a gallant effort to look like they support organic. Our newly remodeled neighborhood store has a special 10 foot section dedicated to bruised, miserable looking organic produce that is roughly twice the cost of the conventionals.

King Soopers, on the other hand, has fresh, shiny organic produce you actually want to eat! And just about every conventional item has an organic counterpart, with good prices to boot. Top that off with the fact that the checkers RARELY charge me for organic prices on produce and it's a no-brainer that I will brave my way through college students and Totino's Party Pizzas to fill my cart.

Wasteful Tech Habits

This blogger is funny. And he makes some really great points about how wasteful we can be when it comes to our technologies.

http://www.goodcleantech.com/2008/04/everyday_ecotech_wasteful_tech.php

I, for one, am not one to jump on the latest cell phone craze - but I do have an old multi-function printer here that, while it doesn't print black anymore, could serve someone fairly well as a scanner/fax or light printer. I am going to try to find it a new home where it will be loved ... and dusted.

One man's trash ...

Is a treasure for my garden!

The Larimer County Recycling Center is turning out to be a fine resource for me! I made a quick dash down there this morning with a load of corrugated cardboard (the Tumbler had to be delivered in something) and the overflowing box of low-grade paperboard. As I was dumping the catalogs into the "newspapers plus" dumpster, I noticed that someone had put several thousand fresh, never been opened copies of The Voice and some other Weld County penny-saver type of publication.

I looked around to make sure no one was watching and I grabbed a stack of the papers and put them into my box. I hurried back to the Xterra, smiling to myself at what a score I just made.

These discarded papers will make a fine organic weed barrier in my new bean/squash garden so I won't have to resort to plastic or toxic weed killers.

I Tumble For Ya

I am officially composting.

Saturday brought a bright sunny Colorado spring day, Marc was without flu or hangover and we set to building the Backyard ComposTumbler. Thanks to my expert instruction reading, our composter was set up and filled with old leaves just a scant 45 minutes.

I was even able to take out my first bag of refuse from the kitchen pail, after cleaning veggies from the weekly store run. And, it's looking like I will be able to take another load out in the next few days thanks to my Roast Banana-Pumpkin Bread baking frenzy and our daily coffee habit. The website says I should have compost in 4-6 weeks ... just in time to start my garden! I wonder if it will come together faster if I wear a denim shirt while I use it.

I'm So Excited

And I just can't hide it. I'm about to lose control and I think I like it.

I'm also glad Marc isn't here right now to see how giddy I am over the arrival of my compost pail! It's basically just a mini trash can to hold all my kitchen scraps before they are off to the ComposTumbler but it's stainless steel (goes with the toaster) and has a charcoal filter in the top to help eliminate odors. Best of all, I got some BioBags, which are fully biodegradable trash bags that I can use in the Pail and put directly into the compost pile.

They will also be a big revelation in dog poop pick up. No more fossilized golden retriever poop.

Now, if only I had some vegetable scraps to put in it. It's almost enough to make a girl want a pre-dinner apple.