Q is for questions

We’ve probably all heard that there is no bad question, except for the one not asked…and there are many  famous quotes about questions.  Here are a few of my favorites...

The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.  ~Thomas Berger

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.   ~Albert Einstein

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?   
~Henry David Thoreau

Better to ask a question than to remain ignorant.  ~Proverb

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever
~ Chinese Proverbs

So what are some questions we can ask about our human footprint?  And what green baby steps can we take to alleviate our human footprint? Here are a few questions related to our human footprint.  

1.  How much energy is conserved by switching to CFLs?               
2.  How much water does the average person use?
3.  How much food does the average person eat?
4.  How many diapers did you wear as a baby?
5.  Won’t going green cost more?                      
6.  How much water does the average shower use? 
7.  How much food is wasted in the US each year?
8.  Why should I buy locally grown and produced foods?
9.  If milk is good for me, how can it be bad for the planet?      
10. About how much packaging does an average American toss each year?                                              

If you are curious like me, tune in tomorrow to learn the answers to these green conundrums!  Some of the answers may shock you. And remember what Einstein said, "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.  The important thing is not to stop questioning."

H is for Home Improvements

Of course I mean green home improvements!  Over the last few months we've been doing some green home improvement projects that are helping us reduce our carbon footprint and save money in the process. One of our favorites comes in the form of a fluuuuuuusshhhh :) 

As Ed Begley, Jr. likes to say, we've been "picking the low lying fruit" and doing simple things that don't cost a lot of money, but in the end are better for the planet and our pocketbook.  Since we began our green journey, we've taken the following home improvement babysteps.  We started with:

• outlet insulation gaskets http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/02/outlet-small-changes-big-results-day-11.html and kept on going, 
• replacing our old showerheads with low flow heads http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/03/water-water-everywhere-day-26.html, 
• replacing bulbs that burn out with either CFLs (please recycle them back to Home Depot or Lowes when they are spent) http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/03/cfls-day-15.html or LEDs, which are more expensive, but result in huge savings in the long run, then, 
• Hubby figured out how to rewire and replaced an electric eye on our front entry lights instead of buying new lights and adding to the landfill http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/04/picking-low-lying-fruit.htm and saving us money by only having the lights on when it is dark.
• Back in the spring, we made "lemonade out of lemons" when our basement rec room was flooded after New England was deluged with rain and we suffered our first flood; when we redid the room we used biodegradable paint trays http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-wouldve-guess.html, 
• chose carpet made from 100% recycled PET from plastic bottles and chose an eco-pad to go underneath it  http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/04/lemonade-from-lemons.html  
• When it was time to replace the gross matt in the mud room, I was excited to find a green mat...I mean we are talking babysteps here, so each time we step into the house I smile at that green choice, http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/05/ecstatic-over-ecomat.html  
• One of my favorite home improvement projects this year has been the installation of the clothesline.  Not only are we saving energy, but it is kinda therapeutic hanging out the laundry listening to the birds and the crickets...I do have the kids helping me to hang, and take down the laundry, and while they don't like how the towels turn out ("they are crunchy mom!"), they have done a good job of helping with it, and believe it or not, it's good exercise reaching and pulling on the line to move the clothes along!  http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/06/c-is-for.html  We've also saved quite a bit of energy with this home improvement, and I hope I can continue to dry clothes outside well into the fall http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/07/e-is-for-electricity-and-energy.html.  

Our most recent home improvement project that hubby embraced, researched, and installed (I'm soooo lucky to have such a wonderful, handy, guy who is supportive of the green babysteps we've been taking), is a dual-flush system for the toilet!  When he first tried to find it locally he couldn't and when we were on the road recently he found it at Home Depot in NJ (they told him they'd just started carrying it).  It's called HydroRight Smarter Flush Technology by MJSI, Inc.  This system replaces the regular flusher mechanism inside the tank and the outside flusher as well.  The upper button is to "flush liquids and paper with less water", errr or #1, and the lower button is to "flush with more power", err or for #2.  The HydroRight claims it will saves up to 15,000 gallons after one year ("the equivalent of stacking water bottles 45 miles high"....yikes they used disposable water bottles as their example...heaven forbid!) and result in savings of about $100 in water/sewer costs each year.   At $24.98 per dual-flusher, we plan to install two more for even more savings, because with a family of 6 our septic gets a workout and we'd love to trim our water bill even more.   http://www.gomjsi.com/dual-flush-hydroright/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=us&utm_term=hydroright%2Bdual%20flush%20converter&utm_campaign=hydrorightdualflush&gclid=CIvU4rXOsaMCFRafnAodkDLuVA

Stay tuned to find out what our next green home improvement project will be! 

The Ides of March....Water Water Everywhere - Day 26

Here in New England it has been raining cats and dogs, and the wind has been howling. As they say about March, "In like a lion, out like a lamb". I'm still waiting for the gentle "lamb" days of spring :)

All this rain has made me think about the precious resource of water....such an important resource yet it is wasted on a daily basis...once it goes down the drain you don't get it back (unless of course you have a grey water system like Ed Begley Jr.).

Recently we replaced both of our older shower heads with a flow rate of 5.5 gallons per minute (gpm) to newer low flow shower heads. We picked Moen Nurture which is only 1.75 gpm. With 6 of us showering, and several divas in the house who enjoy the sauna/shower (to the chagrin of their parents), this was a much needed change! The Moen Nuture has 3 different settings, great shower pressure, and at about $55 we are very happy with the change, and can't wait to see the positive impact on our water bill (our town recently raised the water bill rates too). We will also lower our water heating costs since we are using and wasting less hot water.

Stay tuned to see if we end up cutting off the divas with shower timers!