Many of you know that I have a thing about air drying our clothes. Unfortunately, I do not have a fancy-smancy, nor handy-dandy, laundry line….just a make-do-with-whatcha’-got line that is cobbled from an inexpensive retractable single line attached to my garage and ending on at a tall pvc pipe slipped over a t-post. Isn’t that something?

Last year I reported to you that we had cut our utility costs by 33% for the months of June/July and that I felt that solar drying and cold water washing made the huge difference. Unfortunately, my solar drying is meeting with some opposition this year from Hais and JMorgan. Both cannot stand the smell of fresh, air dried laundry…nor do they care for the crisp feel of nature on their clothes. Between their protests and my own issues with my life being totally unorganized I confess that my solar dryer is not getting much attention this summer. I still hang MY nicer clothes up in the basement instead of letting the dryer vent fill up with the threads from my favorite garments, but I have to admit that I have thrown loads of towels into the dryer lately.

Maybe the wet beginnings of summer kept me from getting in the groove with things…or maybe it is that I am just being lazy because my thoughts are scattered from here to yon. Who knows? Maybe today will be the day I begin to work toward re-establishing my old laundry habits. Hais’ comforter is hanging on the line as I write. She will be home from school in a few hours…maybe it will be dry before she arrives and I can just throw it in on her bed without her noticing. Maybe she won’t notice the lovely aroma…maybe it will soke up the “aroma” from her room before she gets home….maybe I can get away with saving some money while making a tiny impact on energy overuse.  We’ll see.

For those of you who are looking for ideas and motivation for solar drying your own clothes, I strongly urge you to take a look at Project Laundry List. From their website….

“Project Laundry List is making air-drying laundry acceptable and desirable

as a simple and effective way to save energy.

Save approximately 15% on your energy bill.

Do your laundry the green way.

Want your clothes to last longer?
Use a clothesline and cold water wash.”

They even have a store where the profits benefit the non-profit Project Laundry List.

See what I ordered? Adorable! I can hardly wait for it to arrive…..

from the website….
Nova Scotia Dress Clothespin Bag

“These beautiful bags are sewn in Nova Scotia by a woman who spent decades pinning things up on her clothesline. She wanted to have a place to store the pins that was attractive and whimsical. We bring you…the Nova Scotia Dress Clothespin Bag.”

Stop by and take a look at all they have to offer at the Project Laundry List Store.

Be there or be square….



http://www.earthhour.org

I just came across White House Farmer…

The site was developed soon after Michael Pollan (one of my favorite authors) of

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

and

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

suggested the White House develop five south acres for growing fruits and vegetables for the First Family and staff. Farmer in Chief was an open letter to the then President-Elect, published in the New York Times Magazine.

There is no way that I can do justice to the article by writing a synopsis, so I will include a very small exerpt…..

“After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one study. Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases. This state of affairs appears all the more absurd when you recall that every calorie we eat is ultimately the product of photosynthesis — a process based on making food energy from sunshine. There is hope and possibility in that simple fact.”

Okay, so here I was cutting articles from the newspaper for Hais’ senior scrapbook and what did I find? A API story written by Jeff Karoub titled Discouraged words: One sees red over “green”! The title caught my attention, then I perused to find an inset titled ENOUGH ALREADY! with this:

Lake Superior State University’s 2009 list of bannished words: 

• green
• carbon footprint or carbon offsetting
• maverick
• first dude bailout
• Wall Street/Main Street
• monkey
• 3 (Emoticon for “heart” used in text messages and email.) 
• icon or iconic
• game changer
• staycation
• desperate search
• not so much
• winner of five nominations
• It’s that time of year again

    –The Associated Press

Looking for the actual story online (so I could link to it) only provided me with LSSU’s actual release on their website. LSSU issues 34th annual List of Words to be Bannished  was released online on December 31 under the university’s Campus News.  Though I consider this a parody of sorts, I am disappointed at some of the environment/ecological choices added.

{snip}

“Environmental buzzwords are getting the axe this year.
“Green” and “going green” received the most nominations.

GREEN – The ubiquitous ‘Green’ and all of its variables, such as ‘going green,’ ‘building green,’ ‘greening,’ ‘green technology,’ ‘green solutions’ and more, drew the most attention from those who sent in nominations this year.

“This phrase makes me go green every time I hear it.” Danielle Brunin, Lawrence, Kansas.

“I’m all for being environmentally responsible, but this ‘green’ needs to be nipped in the bud.” Valerie Gilson, Gales Ferry, Conn.

“Companies are less ‘green’ than ever, advertising the fact they are ‘green.’ Is anyone buying this nonsense?” Mark Etchason, Denver, Colo.

“If something is good for the environment, just say so. As Kermit would say, ‘It isn’t easy being green.’” Kevin Sherlock, Hiawatha, Iowa.

“If I see one more corporation declare itself ‘green,’ I’m going to start burning tires in my backyard.” Ed Hardiman, Bristow, Va.

“This spawned ‘green solutions,’ ‘green technology,’ and the horrible use of the word as a verb, as in, ‘We really need to think about greening our office.’” Mike McDermott, Philadelphia, Penn.

CARBON FOOTPRINT or CARBON OFFSETTING – “It is now considered fashionable for everyone, tree hugger or lumberjack alike, to pay money to questionable companies to ‘offset’ their own ‘carbon footprint.’ What a scam! Get rid of it immediately!” Ginger Hunt, London, England.

Mike of Chicago says that when he hears the phrase ‘carbon footprint,’ “I envision microscopic impressions on the surface of the earth where an atom of carbon forgot to wear its shoes.”

Christy Loop of Woodbridge, Va., says that ‘leaving a carbon footprint’ has become the new ‘politically incorrect.’ “How can we not, in one way or another, affect our natural environment?”

Presidential election years are always ripe for language abuse. This year, the electorate grew weary of ‘mavericks’ and ’super delegates.’ As Michael W. Casby of Haslett, Mich. said, when he suggested banning all of the candidates’ names, “Come on, it’s been another too-long campaign season.”"

{snip}

“STAYCATION – “Occurrences of this word are going up with gas prices.’Vacation’ does not mean ‘travel,’ nor does travel always involve vacation. Let’s send this word on a slow boat to nowhere.” Dan Muldoon, Omaha, Neb.

“The cost of petrol forces many families to curtail their summer voyages and a new word has sprung, idiotic and rootless…” Michele Mooney, Los Angeles, Calif.”

Can you say “Bozo”?

ENOUGH SAID!

I promised it and here it is ….

America Unplugged!

It has been awhile since we offered a challenge here at TSB, so what better way is there to finish out 2008 than with a DE-electrifying, environmental, money saving challenge? As the year winds down, I will be suggesting ideas and report on our own efforts in this challenge. I know that many of you already “live” this challenge as part of your everyday life and I hope that you will share ideas and suggestions for those of us beginning.

So, novice or veteran, if you wish to share your plans for beginning or further success, please post your tips in the comments section of this post. For those of you that wish to participate, feel free to add the widget to your blog and add a comment below.