Green McMansion

Global Warming or Not - Does it matter??

2009-06-10T13:52:00.006-04:00

There are quite a few arguments out there about Global Warming and Climate Change.

1. Is it actually happening?
If not, don't worry - Keep things as they are. Continue burning fossil fuels.
If yes, procede to step 2.

2. OK, it is happening, but it is part of the natural cycle.
If true, don't worry - Keep things as they are. Continue burning fossil fuels.
If not true, procede to step 3.

3. OK, it is caused by man, but can we afford to change to green sources of energy?
No, we cannot - Keep things as they are. Continue burning fossil fuels.
Yes we can, Procede to step 4.

4. Where do we get the money - borrow from our children? Increase inflation?
Yes, just deal with it and fix the planet
No, this is too much to handle. I'm going to rethink Global Warming - Procede to Step 1.

In the United States, we are taught to think as individuals, not as a collective. Great things can happen when we do that. Great things can happen as well when we put our heads together and think and work together as a group.

When it comes to climate change, I alone cannot fix it. Neither can you. But if we all do our part at cleaning up the environment that we all live in, we collectively get cleaner air, cleaner water, healthier food, less toxic chemicals that pollute our environment, and less dependance on foreign oil.

In the end, think twice before you waste everyone's time debating whether or not global warming exists. Don't try to take on the worlds problems. Just take on your own. Lets all fight together for a cleaner world. Lets all take care of what is in our field of vision.

Get Energy Efficient appliances, turn down the heat, turn up the A/C, turn off the lights, weatherize your home, change to CFL light bulbs, install a rain barrel, buy local food and/or grow your own, start composting, take the stairs instead of the elevator, turn off the TV, install solar or wind, recycle, work from home, buy a more energy efficient car, take public transportation, turn down the temperature on your water heater, put a blanket on your water heater, and on and on...

Just think about what you are doing, and do it efficiently.

Think globally and act locally.

Think about the planet
Think about your country
Think about your state
Act within your county
Act within your city
Act within your neighborhood
Act within your street
Act within your home
Act within your self
Act within your heart
For your children

Have a Green Day!
Dave Bunyard

Hypermiling - Part 1 - uphills and downhills

2009-05-06T22:16:00.000-04:00

Hypermiling is a way of getting the most out of your tank of gas.

I don't know all of the rules myself, but I am learning on my own.

Some you probably know about keeping your engine tuned and keeping your tires inflated. But here is something which you may not know.

I learned this on my own from simply riding my bike.

Going uphill:
Uphills are hard. You know you are on one, because you have to work hard to get up the hill. Usually you find yourself slowing down. Sometime you may find yourself getting off the bike and walking it.

Now, imagine driving a car and not only maintaining your speed going up the hill, but actually accelerating up it. You can hear your engine having a tough time going up the hill can't you? Yeah, that is called wasting gas. Try maintaining your speed or even slowing down a bit to try to get to the top of the hill. Don't accelerate if you can help it.

Going downhill:
On a bike, it is wonderful to get to the top of the hill because you can coast downhill. Coasting is the key word here. It means out of gear. If you are going downhill and driving a stickshift, you can find that putting it in neutral, you can accelerate as you down hill. If you have it in gear and let go of the gas, you will not accelerate as rapidly or even at all. Have the car in gear actually slows you down.

Now, this all depends on the car you drive. My wife has a Scion XB with triptronic transmission that makes it easy to shift into neutral going down the hill and then as soon as I level off, I can slap it back into drive and continue on. Your transmission may vary and some cars you should not do this at all. A hybrid that has regenerative braking actually charges the batteies when you step off the gas. So, it is a wash if you do this one way versus another.

Be careful and practice at slow speeds first.

Have a green day!!

Bypass the elevator - 1 up and 2 down

2009-05-06T22:00:00.000-04:00

Now this is something I recall back in my Saudi days on a great way to save energy and get a little exercise. I saw this posted in a few buildings next to the elevators while I was there. Save energy, take one up or two down, instead of the elevator.

Now, I could simply say take the stairs, rather than the elevator. But not everyone can do this, or want to do this.

Using the elevator takes a lot of energy. Think about it. An electric motor from an elevator can push a bus. Straight up. or Straight down. That is a lot of power.

It is very simple. Before you take the elevator, think about how far you have to travel. If you only have a few floors to climb, take the stairs. As a general rule, if you are only going up one floor, take the stairs. If you are only going down one or 2 floors, take the stairs. 1 up and 2 down.

I am doing this at work myself, and it is helping me out a lot.

Conserve energy. Take the stairs - 1 up and 2 down.

Tomato planting part 3

2009-05-06T21:40:00.000-04:00

OK, So I got 2 new stunned tomato plants from my neighbor. They had a rough time getting started, but are finally starting to come alive. I figure something pretty interesting out.

Now, using the cat litter boxes as an upside down planter has one major problem. Too much shade. For a plant that needs full sun such as tomatoes, getting light to the plant growing upside down, tends to be a bit of a challenge. But I think I figured it out.

I discovered somewhere that it is not necessarily the heat of the sun that the plants need, it is just the light. So I put a mirror on the ground beneath the plant. I put it at a slight angle to get the most light possible. Once I put the mirror down, the bottom one started to come alive.

Now, who really wants to use a good mirror, lie it on the ground and let it deal with rain and mud, etc. So, I used a cheap frameless mirror. Now, I discovered a cheaper way to do this. old CDs act as a mirror as well. I saw something on treehugger.com which show how to make a solar cooker out of a satellite dish and CDs mounted to the dish. I have not tried this yet, but If I put a bunch of CDs on a cheap wooden or metal grate or something, I should be able to accomplish the same thing as a mirror, and be able to utilitize the CDs instead of putting them in a land fill.

The peppers are still growing and the 1 original tomato plant are also doing well. We have had a lot of rain, so things are looking up.

Have a green Day!!

Tomato planting part 2

2009-04-23T13:02:00.001-04:00

OK, so the first attempt at getting the tomatoes going has failed. I had to take a trip to Indiana and the temperature got cold. I'm not sure if I overwattered them or if the cold got to them. Anyway, all but one died. The one that survived was one of 2 that I planted on top of the litter box. 6 of 8 of the green peppers survived.

One of my neighbors has a hobby farm as well and he knows what he is doing. I volunteered to help him out to learn a thing or two. I layed out some hay on his new tomato plants to work as mulch. He must have planted about 50 plants. We also planted 2 jalapeno plants. He said that he only needed 2. We also planted a few rows of lina beans. We used his great grandather's wheel plow to dig a little trench, drop the beans and then covered up the trench.

After helping him out, he gave me a couple of tomato plants and I planted another upside down plant with another on top. We shall see how they live.

I also mowed the lawn today and trimmed the hedges. Lots of work done today. Next time, I need to wear a hat. Got some a little sunburn.

Have a green day!

Auctions

2009-04-07T21:36:00.000-04:00

When my wife and I bought our McMansion, we had to buy stuff to fill it. I know, accumulating things is very anti-green. So, we decided to do it in a green way. Buy recycled. But in this case, not just buy recycled items, but recycled at a lower cost than you would think. One can go to ebay, craiglist.org or Goodwill, but we discovered auctions.

If you have never been to an auction, you ought to go just to watch. You might want to register in case you want to buy something. But just watch for the first hour or so. If something gets sold in the first hour that you absolutely fall in love with, just let it go. You will find another one in the next hour, or at the next auction.

The auctioneer will ask for bids first at a very high price. Just wait until he drops it until someone else starts bidding. Then jump in and go. But don't let your emotions get to you. If you do, you may bid more than it is worth. Remember, that there is another piece of furniture or antique just like it later on.

Remember that there is usually a buyer's premium plus sales tax. You may end up paying 20% more than what you bid for. Just ask before you start budding. Also, keep in mind that what you buy is sold as is where is. You have to load it up on your car or truck and take it home.

So, in the last year or two, we have purchased furniture, carpets, glassware, antiques, and many other kinds of eclectic things. Most items are recycled from someone else. Recently we found an auction that has food, toilet paper and salvaged merchandise. It is kind of like going to Costco or Sams, only cheaper.

It is fast, entertaining, and you get to buy stuff for a huge discount. And, because you are often buying used items, consider it green. So, at the end of the day, you save money and it is entertaining as well. But be careful, it is very addictive. Be careful not to spend too much.

Go to http://www.auctionzip.com/ to find the auctions near you.

Have a green day!!

Slamming the cardboard!

2009-04-07T21:16:00.000-04:00

It is Tuesday, so I put the trash out along with my recycling. They do a single stream recycling here so it is very easy to toss it all into one pile.

We went to an auction this week, so we had a lot of boxes to get rid of. The recyclers take cardboard as well. So, I had a large pile of boxes set out on the curb.

A few minutes later, a neighbor's kid knocked on the door and asked if he could jump into the pile of boxes. He said he would clean up the mess afterwards. We said OK and watched him as he dived onto the pile of boxes. We thought it was great.

The kid was a young skateboarder. So is my stepson. When my stepson was in his teens, he and his friends slammed themselves into the basement wall until they busted through the wall and outside. My wife repaired the large hole in the basement wall by putting a door in it.

I think slamming the cardboard is much better than slamming into a wall and causing a lot of homeowner damage, but boys need some kind of outlet.

Makes me think of a cardboard playground for these boys to knock themselves out in. Hmmm.... a recyclable playground....

Have a green day!

Green Shaving

2009-04-06T22:21:00.000-04:00

Here is a little way to save some money on shaving. I have given up on shave cream. Instead, I take my little soap chips from the shower and put them in a large coffee mug which sits at the sink.

In the morning, I add a little water to the mug and stir it up with my boar hair brush, slather the mixture on my face and shave away. Now, if you are a wuss and need it to be thicker, try adding a little cocoa butter to the mix to give it a little thickness.

When I get more soap chips, I add it to the mix. This mix has been sitting on my sink for more than a year and I have never run out. Saves money and the environment on those cans of shave cream.

Now, I will say that an old man told me years ago that the best brush you can find is one with badger hair. But they don't make them anymore. Maybe they are endangered? If you find a badger hair brush, hold on to it. Until then, you can find a boar hair brush in your local drug store.

Now, I am tired of paying high prices for the blades on my mach 3 razor, such I went on Amazon and found a German Merkur safety razor and blades. I've heard great reviews and plan on giving it a try when it comes in.

Have a green day!!
Dave

Tomato planting part 1

2009-04-06T21:45:00.000-04:00

OK, so I have seen all of those new upside down tomato planters. I saw them selling for $10 a peice at home depot the other day. However, I wanted to make my own.

I have 6 cats (long story), who use a lot of litter. I wanted to reuse the litter buckets that I get by the pallet load it seems. Yes, I can recycle these buckets, but I wanted to try to use them out for planting upside down tomatoes.

I found a sunny spot in my 1/3 acre property in the backyard by the retaining wall. I drilled 3 holes side by side at at angle on the retaining wall. Then, I insterted 3 garden hooks (which we used at our wedding to hold morrocan lantersns) into the holes. Then, I put the hooks through the holes and let them hang. Drilled a hole through the bottom and then hung the bucket on the three hooks. I hope it will hold.

OK, so I hung 6 buckets like this and then let my wife look at it. She took a look at these white and yellow buckets and said they were terribly ugly. She said that they were an eyesore. She suggested that I paint them to match the color of the retaining wall.

Well, that means that I need to use paint. Paint made for plastic. No low VOCs here. So I got 4 cans of tan plastic paint to paint the buckets. Haven't painted them yet, but they are in the garage now waiting for me.

Julie and I went to Home Depot on Sunday. I bought some tomatoes and Green peppers. Tomatoes go on the bottom bucket (upside down). The peppers go on top of the bucket. I have never done this before, so we shall see how it goes.

My wife bought some flowers to plant as well. Got some weed and feed for the yard and potting soil for the flowers and tomatoes. If anyone has any suggestions for an organic weed and feed, let me know.

The home deport said to wait until after Tuesday because a cold snap is coming. So we have not planted it yet. The plants are in our dining room right now awaiting for the weather to get a but warmer.

Maybe by this weekend we will put them in the dirt.