Dog Beach

Obviously we weren't the only ones thinking a day at the beach with our dog would make for a great outing during the rush of the holidays.

Having just moved from landlocked Illinois, this was our dog Layla's first visit to the beach. She couldn't wait to rush to the water's edge and check it out.

Not too sure about getting her feet wet. Feels too much like taking a bath...

Back on solid ground...chasing a ball still remains her favorite thing to do.

Gosh guys...can't we do this everyday?

Winter Beach

Ryan and I headed out to the beach today and had the place to ourselves. The wind, the water and the winter sky...it was all ours. Something about being alone, away from people, especially in a natural place appeals to me. Allows me to think and process my thoughts more fully. Crowded city streets and crowded desks distract me and make me forget those things that are most important to me. Make me forget how I most want to spend my time with this one life I have to live.

Even today out on the beach, I still felt a bit of distraction. Was not fully present in the moment, somewhat oblivious to the beauty around me. Proof that I need to get away more often. Proof that my life has been too busy lately. Rather than rush about this weekend, preparing for the upcoming holiday, I am going to take my dog out to the beach and let her romp and play and let her pure unadulterated joy become mine.

Supporting family traditions

This wonderful wooden carved Santa was on hand to welcome us to the Jones Family Farm this morning as we arrived to cut down our Christmas tree. After discussing with my husband and son the environmental impacts of cutting a tree and possible alternatives, we decided to continue with tradition and head out to the tree farm. My thirteen year old son has never known a Christmas where we didn't find and cut our own tree, so of course his vote was to do what we have always done. My husband mentioned that the many other environmental practices we participate in would balance out this particular indiscretion. As I saw it, within the realm of having a natural tree, we had three options.

1) Cut boughs from local evergreens and bring them inside. This option was quickly nixed by my son and husband as not providing the proper Christmas atmosphere. While I felt this would be the best zero waste option, I had to agree with them that it would not be the most rewarding option after establishing a tradition that involved enjoying the sight and smell of a real Christmas tree in our home.

2) Purchase a tree from Whole Foods. The pros behind this decision would be that we could walk to get the tree and bring it home. Also, Whole Foods would plant five new trees to replace the one we purchased through their Trees for the Future program. The cons would be that the trees would not be local and were transported long carbon producing distances.

3) Purchase a tree from the Jones Family Farm. We ultimately decided to go with this decision because it would allow us to support a local farmer while spending some quality time together as a family. The drawback to this decision would involve us driving quite a distance to the tree farm, but we figured our overall reduction in driving since moving to this area far outweighed the impact this one trip would make.

This exercise in considering my impact in regard to a Christmas tree has made me decide I would rather not change meaningful family traditions for the sake of eliminating any potential environmental impact. Family traditions contribute to the joy of living and should be preserved when possible, as long as they are not overly impactful. Any environmental cost of maintaining these traditions can be offset by reducing yearly miles driven, energy used, or waste generated. The pain from reducing my household heat or buying less will be easier felt than changing those traditions our family holds dear.

Zero Waste Christmas Trees?

My local Whole Foods store is advertising Zero Waste Christmas Trees this season. These trees are live fresh Christmas trees cut and transported to New York from a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I am confused by the label "Zero Waste". Obviously, it took a considerable amount of water resources to grow these trees and energy resources to cut them and bring them to my area. Zero Waste? Maybe after the tree is used and mulched back into the earth, the result would be zero waste, but when considering its total impact, it really can't be called zero waste.

In fact, I don't think any type of Christmas tree can be considered zero waste- not the artificial type that gets used year after year, or the live type which appears to be more natural and less environmental costly. Given that all Christmas trees make an impact of some kind, is there any real zero impact sort of solution that one can make in regard to Christmas trees?

Looking back to the origins of the Christmas tree, it seems Pagans had the answer on how to celebrate using no waste methods. During winter solstice celebrations, evergreen boughs would be cut and brought into homes as decorations to celebrate the return of the light. Nature respecting Pagans could not bring themselves to cut down an entire tree for something as silly as household decoration.

So maybe that is how we have gone astray. Rather than use just part of an evergreen tree to celebrate the holidays, we have moved to a place where we destroy the entire tree. Our disconnection from nature has allowed us to feel comfortable doing this. Taking clues from the Pagans, we can find some zero waste options. How about decorating a live tree that stands in your yard and not bringing a cut tree into your house? Or try cutting some boughs from a tree and bring them inside. I even read a post somewhere about how you can cut branches from an evergreen and arrange them in such a way that they look like a Christmas tree.

My family tradition is such that we cut a live tree each year and look forward to the experience of heading out to a local Christmas tree farm to find that perfect tree. The time spent as a family walking on the farm and drinking hot chocolate has always been a special time of togetherness. How do I change tradition for the good of creating zero waste? I think it would be pretty difficult and herein lies the problem. If I am unwilling to change my traditions for the good of the planet in this one area, how many other ingrained practices do I have that I am unwilling to change? Many I am sure, and that is what scares me.

Lowering your thermostat to 55 without having your family complain.

My dad lives in Michigan and doesn't turn his heat on at all during the entire winter, relying on the heat that seeps through the common walls of his neighbor's condos to provide just enough warmth to keep him from succumbing to hypothermia. Knowing my family would not want to pursue such drastic measures, yet still wanting to reduce my energy impact, I have devised twenty-one simple ways to survive the winter while keeping my thermostat set at 55 most of the time.

1) Acclimate to colder temperatures.
It takes awhile to get your body used to colder temperatures. Start by lowering your thermostat every few days while adding more layers of clothing until you find your comfort zone. Last winter, I needed the temperature to be at least 68-70 degrees to be comfortable. This winter, I kept the heat off through October and November and find that I can now be cozy in a range of 60-65 degrees.

2) Turn down the heat to 55.
The University of Minnesota Extension Service suggests lowering your heat to 55 or 60 degrees at night when wrapped in bed with warm blankets. I take this suggestion one step further by applying it during the daytime as well. I have two heating zones in my house, one downstairs which contains the kitchen and family room and the other upstairs which has the bedrooms. I keep both zones at a constant 55 degrees and only turn the downstairs zone up to 65 between 5 pm and bedtime. Because my house uses hot water radiators to heat, I find they maintain comfortable temperatures for about 2 hours after I turn them back down to 55 for the night. On the flip side, my forced air furnace in Illinois made the house feel cool within minutes after scaling back temps for the night. Notice what your furnace does and adjust accordingly.

3) Use less rooms.
Figure out the one area of your house where the entire family can hang out and only heat those rooms to 65 in the evening when everyone is home and gathered together, keeping the rest of the house always at 55. This winter I moved my computer downstairs so that I could work at it in the evening when the family room was warmer. Being together in one room also provides for more family time to play board games or just allowing time to talk.

4) Only warm the rooms you use.
Close the doors to the rooms you are keeping the heat down in. Hang drapes or sheets between arches so that heated areas don't lose precious heat to the cooler areas. We hung a spring rod between a large arch from our heated family room area to the foyer which leads upstairs to the cooler areas. We then ran the rod through the bottom of an old sheet to form a curtain which traps warm air downstairs. Despite the sheet being thin, it is amazing how much heat it holds in.

5) Cover your windows with plastic.
Just before the cold weather set in, I bought some plastic window coverings from Home Depot. These inexpensive coverings are made to fit various window sizes from small to patio door size and form a seal around the window which keeps out cold air beautifully. I covered the three air conditioning units in my house and can no longer feel a breeze when standing near them.

6) Surround yourself with down.
I happened to have a very comfortable down jacket...one of those thin ones with good fill power, which I started wearing in the house as the weather got colder this fall. At first it felt silly to wear a jacket in the house, but as the days went by, I got accustomed to it and it felt more normal. I now find my down jacket is the last thing I take off at night and the first thing I put on in the morning. It is the single most important thing which allows me to keep my heat down and I really couldn't survive without it. Make sure your down is either 600 or 800 fill. The larger the number, the better the down quality. Something called "Down alternative" is not a good alternative for keeping you warm I have found.

7) Keep your core warm.
I find that as long as my core is warm, then I will be warm. I haven't had to resort to hats or gloves yet this year because it just hasn't been cold enough. I also haven't had to wear long underwear either, but figure it will come in handy as the weather gets even colder. For now, keeping my core warm has been enough. Whatever material you use to keep warm- be it wool, fleece, or down, make sure that your core is covered adequately and the rest of your body will stay warmer overall.

8) Invest in a down blanket.
Again, I must mention down. There is nothing like a good down comforter to keep you warm in a 55 degree room at night. It only takes a few minutes to warm it up with your body heat and then you are toasty for the duration.

9) Don't set your thermostat to auto heat in the morning.
When I wake in the morning and slip into my down coat, I find that I have enough residual heat in my body that I don't need to step into a warmed-to-65 degree room. Before you switch the heat from 55 to 65 first thing in the morning, gauge how you are feeling and determine what your plans are for the day. If you will be leaving soon for work or such, why warm your place for only a few hours? You may be surprised that while rushing around in the morning, you don't have the need for much heat and can skip jacking up your thermostat until you arrive back home later in the day.

10) Eat and drink warm things.
I start each day with a cup of coffee and some hot oatmeal. The act of moving about and preparing my food helps to keep me warm while eating the food warms me from inside. It also feels good to stand over a hot stove and take the chill off while stirring the cereal.

11) Use other people's heat for free.
Admittedly, it does start to get cold in a 55 degree house after a few hours in the morning, so at that point, I tend to head out to a heated place like the library or coffee shop to take advantage of the free heat. Kinda like using public transportation- the subway is using energy whether we are riding on it or not and the same is true of the library. It is going to be heated if I am wandering the stacks or not, so I may as well take advantage of the free heat it provides by hanging out a bit.

12) Let the sun shine in.
Before I leave the house on sunny days, I make sure that my blinds are open on the south side of the house to take advantage of any ambient heat that may want to stray through my windows and help to heat the house up. I keep the blinds on the northern colder side closed to keep out the cold.

13) Get outside.
When it is only 55 degrees in the house, stepping out into 35 or 45 degree air feels relatively balmy. Taking a walk helps to get my blood flowing and warms me up perfectly. The sun on my face feels great and lends me the benefit of much needed wintertime Vitamin D.

14)Stay active in your house.
Usually after a morning of running errands and soaking up free heat at various places, I am then faced with returning to a cold 55 degree house. This can be the hardest time of the day, especially on cold and rainy days. Sometimes, I give into the temptation and turn the heat to 65 in my downstairs zone. Other times I get busy doing laundry or cleaning which keeps me moving (and warm) until the evening.

15) Cook your meals at home.
Why buy precooked meals and bring them home when you can make meals yourself and gain the benefits of heating your house in the process? I found this to be particularly true on Thanksgiving Day. While it was cool outside, we didn't need heat inside with warmth of the oven and the body heat of our guests. Again, before you turn up the heat, think if the heat from the stove will do the trick.

16) Layer your clothes.
I suppose this goes without saying. We have been hearing about this for a long time now, but it really helps to keep you warm. Typically I wear a t-shirt, thin fleece shirt and then my 600 fill down coat and find I can stay warm while alternating between moving about and sitting in a 55 degree room.

17) Tuck your shirt in.
Again, this simple trick goes a long way toward keeping you warm. I find if I am feeling cold, if I simply tuck my t-shirt into my pants, I will be warm. Try it.

18) Be engaged.
I tend to get the coldest during the evening if I am siting at home reading or watching TV. Rather than let the cold seep into my bones and force me to think about turning up the heat, I find if I get engaged in a conversation with my son or husband or we play a board game that involves talking or laughter, I forget about the cold and find I feel warmer.

19) Wear a scarf, socks, slippers, and maybe even a hat.
Wearing a scarf is key. It goes a long way toward keeping your body heat locked in and is comfortable to boot. Socks and slippers make a huge difference in how warm I feel too, especially if they are closed slippers with a back and sides. I haven't had to wear a hat in the house yet, but I bet if I did, I could keep my heat a bit lower from 5-10pm.

20)Take showers differently.
Nothing like taking off your warm clothing for a shower to ruin your attempts at keeping the heat down. In order to stay warm after your shower, take all of your clothes into the bathroom and put them back on the minute you dry off. Don't forget to put on your down coat right away too...it will help keep the warmth of the shower acquired by your body trapped in for a good long while. Wash your hair less frequently...cold hair makes for a cold person. Besides, it isn't good to wash your hair too frequently anyway.

21)Sleep with your dog.
Last of all, use the trick my son uses to help keep him warm- sleep with your dog. I am not sure if there have been any studies done on the warming properties of a dog, but my son manages to sleep in a T-shirt with a thin blanket each night and never complains about getting cold.

Maybe after reading this, you may think I am just as crazy as my dad or that we both are genetically wired to put frugality above common sensibilities. You may also feel that your family wouldn't adopt any of these methods without complaint, or you may think that they would just as soon move out than do any of the above. I say, give it a try. Adopting one or two of these ideas could help to reduce your energy impact if it results in lowering your thermostat even a few degrees. If you are interested in how low others are willing to set their thermostat (so that I don't appear as the only crazy one), check out the "Freeze Yer Buns" post at The Crunchy Chicken.

Buy Nothing Day???

Above is a picture of what Times Square looked like on "Buy Nothing Day" this past Friday. Every store on the square was jammed packed with shoppers which made navigating through the thick crowds all but impossible. Sadly, the buy nothing message put out by Adbusters seemed to have done little to put a dent in the shopping madness of these folks. When will we figure out how to stop shopping and start living?

Cousins

Some things never change and the excitement of spending time with a cousin is one of them. The time I have spent with my various cousins over the years has always seemed special despite the number of years that pass between visits or the number of years between us in age. Having the same grandparents and other relatives brings about a comfortableness that isn't found in many other places. My cousins know me, understand where I come from, and generally accept me as I am. I anticipate the same will be true for my kids and their cousins as the years go by.

This Thanksgiving brought together my kids and their cousin Cassie who lives in Michigan. My youngest son Ryan and Cassie are only four days apart which makes for an especially close connection. I myself also feel a close connection with Cassie because she is the only child of my brother Erik whom died last year. She is the bridge to him for us, and I am the bridge to him for her. Without each other in our lives, we will have lost something very valuable.

Even though her visit here was short, Cassie was able to tour the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island along with Central Park and Times Square. On Thanksgiving morning we took her to Rockefeller Center to watch the NBC Today show in the plaza and then watched the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade afterwards. Cassie gave Ryan a running commentary about who was who in the parade, her being much more celebrity aware.

Later on, my kids and Cassie worked together in the kitchen to make the sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and green beans for our Thanksgiving meal. Togetherness- that is what I was thankful for this Thanksgiving. To watch my kids building the same sort of memories with Cassie that I built with my cousins all those years ago.

United Nations visit

Yesterday Ryan and I left the country and we didn't even need a passport. As we entered international territory at the United Nations, the only thing required was to pass through a security checkpoint.

Once on the grounds of the UN, Ryan's interest was soon piqued when he noticed a statue of a gun with a knot in its barrel. After entering the building, we quickly signed up for a guided tour and then used the hour until our tour started to visit the exhibits in the lobby and check out the gift shop and bookstore in the basement. The lobby exhibits were devoted to explaining the mission of the UN and were done in a way that appealed to all ages.

The guided tour lasted about an hour and started out by explaining the UN's history, and we then viewed gifts received by the UN from member nations. In the next section of the tour, the eight Millennium Development Goals of the UN were explained which were 1)End Poverty and Hunger 2)Universal Education 3)Gender Equality 4)Child Health 5)Maternal Health 6)Combat HIV/AIDS 7) Environmental Sustainability and 8)Global Partnership.

After an exhibit on disarmament and humanitarian aid provided by the UN, we visited the General Assembly Hall where the 192 members of the organization come to discuss global issues. The members were in session when we visited and it was interesting to hear and see them at work.

Both Ryan and I enjoyed our tour and found it fascinating to hear about why the UN was founded and also to learn about their on going efforts to bring about global peace.

Fall Colors

You don't have to drive too far from the city to happen upon a beautiful place to take a hike.

I am amazed at the beauty of the trees in the Northeast. While Illinois praries are beautiful themselves this time of year, it is great to be able to experience a forest full of hardwoods as they change.

We saw mostly brillant yellows and oranges, not the reds I had expected. Maybe the maples had changed already and I missed their display.

No Impact Experiment- Friday, Water

Water is the final lifestyle change that the No Impact Experiment tackles. You are asked to look at the footprint of your water and then see how you can make changes. After calculating my water footprint, I was surprised to see the majority of the water I use yearly comes from food production. While I don't eat a lot of meat, it was interesting to see that meat production used the most water of any other food item I consumed, coffee was the second highest. The water footprint asks for food volume in kilograms but I found a handy calculator that makes the conversion from pounds to kilograms.

There are many suggestions on how to reduce water consumption in the water section of the how-to manual of the No Impact Experiement and most of them I already practice. Run full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher, reduce shower lengths, don't run the water when you brush your teeth etc... but nothing I could change in this area would make the kind of difference reducing meat consumption would make. Amazing! Based on these findings, I am going to reduce my meat consumption and work on cooking more plant based meals.

This week's No Impact Experiment has opened my eyes to the fact that the biggest changes I need to make are those centered around food. Changing how I eat will reduce my impact in every area of the challenge we covered this week- trash, transportation, energy, and water. That by changing my diet, I will be making the most profound impact possible for me at this time. I can see how the packaging of my food items contributes to trash, how its delivery from distant corners of this country contributes to transportation costs and energy, how its production uses up energy and water. Now I just need to do the work to figure out how to make the changes.

With making changes in mind, I spent Saturday reading a book called, "On Good Land, the Autobiography of an Urban Farm" by Michael Ableman. The title pretty much tells you what the book is about, but it is also something more. A gentle reminder of the importance of maintaining a connection to the food we consume and the rewards that will come as a result.