Blogging and Websites

I love WordPress.

Here are a few websites I put together using WordPress. Most started with a prebuilt theme.

www.ericsprojects.com
www.martinpropertydevelopment.com
www.cbrem.com/rogersplaza

www.cbrem.com/news (this one isn't used, but it was fun to build).

Between the prebuilt themes, widgets and plugins, I can make a website look just the way I want.

What can you learn from idiots?

My children have started listening to a particular radio morning show that is dishing out incorrect information.

One of the hosts insist that running the air-conditioner in a car doesn't use any more fuel than leaving it off. I had a 1989 Ford Escort GT. I can tell you for a fact that when I turned the A/C on, I had to give the engine more gas to maintain a consistent speed.

If that's not enough to convince you, how about this. The compressor, the part of the A/C that makes the process work, is connected to the engine via a belt. Engine power is used to run it. The first law of thermodynamics states that "energy can neither be created or destroyed". So, the compressor is taking power from the engine. Burning gas makes the engine move, therefore, running the compressor takes gas.

If it didn't use gas, then somehow he had learned how to create energy out of nothing. Given E=mc² (energy = mass times speed-of-light squared)solving for m gives m=Ec² so, if you could create all the energy you want out of nothing and mass = Energy times the speed of light squared, you could create your own universe. You'd be God.

The host claims that he has studies to back him up. I guess you can find a study to support anything...

Well, we've had quite a few conversations about this at home, so even if we didn't learn anything directly from him, we did learn because of him.

Swift-Tuttle

Last night, I found Swift-Tuttle, one of our chickens dead. It was unexpected. She was a Comet, hence the name. She was always the first to make it out of any new fence system, always off discovering something new to eat.

She isn't the first of our chickens to die. I've even butchered a few myself, but I never really get used to it and I hope I never do.

Waiting for solutions

Over the years, my family has become more aware of the price of the things we own. Much of the clothing, electronics and other items are made by workers that cannot afford the very items they are making. There are also the environmental issues to consider. Automobiles can take up to twice their weight in raw materials to produce. Electronics take many times more.

As a family, we strive to purchase items that we feel are fairly made. To us, that means that the workers received a fair wage. We also strive to purchase items that produced with recycled materials and/or are sustainably produced. Second hand items are ok.

For those items where there wasn't a fair choice, we set aside 1/4 the purchase price of the item. This is our fair trade markup. These funds were set aside at purchase time. At the end of the year, the fair trade funds go to organizations that we feel support sustainable living and fair trade. Everyone in the family, adults and children, participate in our fair trade program.

Some items were easy. I was able to find journals I like to write in, made in Canada with recycled paper. We have been able to find almost all the clothing and furniture we need second hand.

It is amazing how much you can find when you start looking.

Some items immediately became unavailable. I had been taking photos for my website, but my digital camera was old and didn't work well in poor light. We use a 200Mhz laptop to access the Internet. I like to listen to music in my car and wanted an MP3 player. None of these items are fairly made. Even paying the fair trade markup, I didn't feel right purchasing them. I decided to wait.

Over time, I was able to find solutions. For playing music, I found a CD player at Goodwill. I have it connected to my car stereo. It even plays CD-RWs, so I can rewrite disks when I want to listen to new music.

As for the digital camera, recently someone on a message board put one up for $100. It was an upgrade for me, so I purchased it. My mother-in-law ironically, recently lost her digital camera, so I passed my older one to her.

As for the laptop, a friend of mine, whom I help with computers from time to time, knew I was interested in a used laptop. He is going to let me have his laptop when he upgrades.

For me, being committed to making the right kind of purchases, making my own thoughts clear, then waiting for the right solution has paid off.
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This post was submitted to GroovyGreen.com

Recycling day

When I first started recycling, I was surprised at how much I could recycle.

We have great recycling in my community and I recycle everything I can. I recycle cardboard, boxboard, office paper, news paper and shiny paper, clear #1 plastic (PETE) #2 (HDPE), #6 (styrofoam), #5 plastic and #7 plastic (Other). They also take clear glass, cans and aluminum and batteries.

Most of the cardboard I recycle, the average consumer wouldn't see. We order our groceries monthly and we order by the case. My wife also has a produce club. Every 3 weeks she orders a truckload of fresh, organic produce. She then divides it up with other local families. I end up with most of my cardboard from our groceries.

At work, we recycle paper, but not boxes, so if there are any boxes, I bring them home.

About every 2 months, I can fill up my van, with the back seat out. When I fill up the back of the van, I start loading the passenger seats. When I'm done loading, there is only room for the driver and helper or two, nothing more.

This load could have ended up in a landfill, but it didn't. Recycling is like putting money in a savings account. When you are doing it, it doesn't seem like that much, but then you check the balance and "Wow, look at that".

A green Christmas

While planting this years Christmas tree, I was able to reflect on the season.

I have never liked the idea cutting down a tree and using it for decoration and have used live trees for many years. This year, we found a tree from a local grower. At 6 feet tall, it was just the right size to bring into the house. We decorated it with home made ornaments and beeswax candles.

Live trees take a little more care, but I can't imagine anything else.

Each Christmas, we make as many of our gifts as we can. We do our best to avoid the consumerist attitude driven by large retail corporations. It takes a bit more effort, but it's important enough to us that I save a week of vacation, just to make gifts.

Here are some of this years projects:




Tea cup candles are a great way to reuse mismatched teacups and they are extremely easy to make.

We purchased these teacups from Goodwill and the wicks from the craft store. The wicks are made for this type of candle and are lead-free. We already had the beeswax on hand.

Mint tin sewing kits. What is it about mint tins? We saved tins throughout the year. We wrapped thread around cardstock and hot glued on felt. The felt holds needles and safety pins. Buttons and folding scissors were added.

We cut out pictures from magazines and catalogs to decoupage the covers.

I don't use plastic dishes when I bring my lunch to work and I like to have my own spices. My wife sewed together this fantastic kit for my stuff. She sewed pockets into a cloth by folding it up and stitching it. There are enough pockets for a fork, spoon, knife, salt and pepper. She added a ribbon, to hold it closed.

The spice containers are left over from brewing. White Labs ships yeast in these cool little bottles.


There were also quite a few wood working projects. We made simple block stilts by cutting off two 4 1/2 inch blocks from a 4 x 4. I woodburned a flower pattern onto the blocks and drilled a hole for rope. My wife painted the flower. The rope was added after this photo.

This year, I tried an experiment. I wanted to make my own oil and beeswax finish that was free of V.O.C.s. I started with V.O.C. free boiled linseed oil (BEWARE: some oils are chemically treated, don't use those). I heated the oil and melted in beeswax, just like I make salve. Everything I used it on came out looking great. It was easier to apply than plain oil and dried faster.


I made two necklace wall hangers. One was cherry and was was walnut. They are simply boards that have been cut and sanded. I drilled holes for mini-shaker pegs we purchased and woodburned a design onto each.

My daughter is very much into horses, so my son and I made this horse shelf.



My wife put together these paper PDAs. They are cardstock covers for the PocketMod paper PDAs. She used home made paper to make the pictures. We always use recycled paper and the these can be recycled again, when used.

My wife found a local bead shop, where she was able to put together many necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

Many of these were one afternoon projects that we accomplished with the help of the children. If you would like to try these projects, I will be putting directions for them on ProjectsBy.US. The horse shelf is already there.

Lastly, my children received WalMart cards from well meaning gift givers. WalMart is not the kind of company we want to do business with. We prefer locally owned companies and companies which sell goods that are fairly made. WalMart isn't even close.

WalMart does not allow cards to be cashed-out. We didn't want to take the children to WalMart to shop and if we just re-gifted the cards, we would be telling other people to shop at WalMart. Since we wouldn't shop there, we didn't feel that was fair.Since WalMart already had the money, we decided that the best use was to use the cards to buy gifts for others. That way we were giving something of value and using the cards, so WalMart didn't get a gift from us.

Christmas, being a season of giving, we feel the best gift we can give is our time.