Looking for Sustainability ideas

I thought I find a way to keep costs down while still trying to stay eco-friendly. Trying to keep striving for sustainability. This a record of that journey.

Sometimes blunt and straight forward then sometimes sarcastic

This frugal crunchy hipster single momma is doing what she can to save Mother Earth while not breaking the bank!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

AH frightening!!

I have had this poke plant that wants to keep growing by my front window.  Now I have people telling me OMG you don't want a poke plant to grow in your yard gasp the berries are poisonous. Yes this  I know and I tell the kids not to eat the berries it will make them poop with a bad hurting belly ache and then they can't play outside.  Guess what they listen or if they don't I take them inside......... 

SO I thought I try to fix this crazy plant from keep coming back I dug around this root thinking I could easily pull the root out..... so yea that is the root, plus a couple of the roots from stocks growing near it...

I accidentally busted the huge on off while digging all around it...

I googled and found out that roundup will kill it... yea I don't do roundup.... poison in the soil to kill everything...

Then I found a site where it was a forum and someone posted why kill it? It is beautiful. It has purple stems!  It  doesn't  grow to large.
It has beautiful berries that feed many wild animals including birds, that is how you got the plant in the first place....

I have been trying to get my grape vine that has been killing my shrubs in the back yard to line the fence  in the front yard but nope it wants to keep choking my shrubs...
I guess I wouldn't worry about the poke plant.  I have heard that yea I will be see it come back next year (seeing how I still have a real huge root system!!).  You know it does shade that front window the wondow I put my air conditioner in....SO My little feather friends can have a snack on me.....

ivy

Friday, October 29, 2010

Too much Candy!!

So trick or treat  week-end is coming up! Oh the candy....The candy.... Oh we used to have candy until Christmas. I would throw it away and replace it with the Christmas candy. Then we throw that away and replace it with Easter Candy.... Well if I only had  something like  Halloween Candy Buyback!


So if you got way to much candy; why not let a dentist buy it back??

. Check out the Halloween Candy Buyback site. Where you can search for a dentist in your area that will give you around  a dollar a pound for your candy.  Wait they do something good with it. They send the candy to Operation Gratitude , who sends it to our soldiers. Win win. You get rid of candy you have too much of, the kids get some pocket money and our soldiers get some candy and a lift in spirits!

Yea the older kids might not like the fact it is only a dollar a pound but hey that one more dollar they didn't have before.. Plus a great way to get rid of the candy that you don't like of course after you bargained with your friends... ( and the candy mom and or dad needed to inspect closer...)


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

There is a switch


On our ceiling fans there are switches that switch the directions of the blades.  I believe it is clockwise for summer and counter clockwise for winter. But of course we switched the blades to do the other direction the other night when it got down into the 40's.... sigh today it was in the 70's..... Guess it is lucky that we just have to switch this switch on the fan to change the blade direction, not turn the blades or anything major like that...

Ways to help keep your home warm in the cold weather and cool in the warm weather...........

PS....
Miss Animals right learned the hard way to clean your blades first... cough cough, dust bunnies aren't something she likes to save...... That and it doesn't help with her mom standing there laughing and saying dust bunnies be free... Be free........


ivy

Monday, October 25, 2010

Pink for what?

With October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month seems like many items are turning pick.  We have chips, cake mixes, make-up, cleaners, toilet paper, sponges, paper towels,  and more with the famous pink ribbon on it.  Of course we have more personal thing with the pink ribbon too,  we have t-shirt, sweatshirts, aprons, blankets, coffee cups, thermos bottles, water bottles and stickers.

I have no problem with the pink ribbon per say... just that some of the things that sport that beautiful pink ribbon are full of Chemicals that are know to help cause breast cancer. They are called endocrine disruptors because they mimic estrogen in the body. Plus the chemicals that  disrupt hormones... So we have heard the reports of the birth control pill and breast cancer, however they do only raise your chances a small percent.


Studies also have shown that Obesity can play a big part in breast cancer also. Fat cells increased estrogen secretion.

So when I see pink ribbon chips, cookies, cakes, mints, candy and muffin mix....... I have to shake my head.

I get it why this works......... we love to get something for nothing.  We buy some chips that have the pink ribbon, some of our money goes to help fight breast cancer... we get something we want and we get to help fight a horrible disease. It a win win deal!!

We get to fight like a girl.... save the tatas ..... save second base ....... Pray for a cure...

So I leave the food, as I am trying to make more from scratch. Ok once in a while I get a pink ribbon candy item or corn chips....
And I buy the pink ribbon reusable things for Miss Animal Rights who want to do her kitchen in all pink ribbon stuff .......  Yes she has those pink ribbon sponges!!



ivy

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Ah it's fall......

My crazy cat loves to be out in our Florida room.  In the summer many times we leave the back door open so the animals can go out to the Florida room.  Well Miss ambassador kitty loves that back room.... she will go out there sleep on the window sill.  I had a piece of wood across the  corner where she loves to sleep.  Well the sad part is that now when we let the dog out, she will run out there to jump up in the window. It's all good when it's nice outside but when it is chilly we close that back door, leaving Miss ambassador kitty out there.  She most times sleeps and it seems like at 3 AM in the morning when it is all cold she is heard meowing  her little heart out for someone to open the door.. Plus I am not in the I want kitty love at this time of night....  And she want to love me up for rescuing her from the cold back room.  Now we do look back there to make sure she isn't back there but the girl scoots back there when we open the door.  Some times she hides!! LOL We have to look under the wicker seats out there..... But sometimes she hides too well.....

My bedroom is right next to the Florida room... I hear her before anyone else.........

Oh well it is fall....... warm days and cool nights. My kitty meowing her head off at 3AM..............
And me trying to not get clawed up from 2 cats fighting over my attention after crawling back to bed......

ivy

Monday, October 11, 2010

Standing on a Street Corner

So yesterday I had the day off and was driving to the store.  And yes I live in a city not a huge city but big.  I saw the craziest thing standing on the street corner!  I saw 2 football players and 3 cheerleaders. Wait they were not walking home from practice or waiting for the bus. That what I thought when I first pulled up to the light.... Because they walked up to the cars in front of me with their helmets out and the girls where cheering.......  They were begging for money..... I thought WTF.... there is store right there they can stand outside there...Which is a very big thing in this area, groups outside the doors of a store. .. But  they were on the other side of the street also....Right in front of Dairy Queen...... I thought how scary and dangerous this could be.... The other side did have an adult but mine side didn't... I guess I am the worrying parent...

OK I have real problem with the schools having to SELL candy and magazines and that cheap expensive crap that they have those little catalogs to help the school. I mean really our kids having to sell stuff just for the school.  I think that the schools shouldn't have to do this. Dang they are in charge of our children! Their futures and OMG standing on a street corner or door to door should not be something they should do!!!!!!!!!! Arg....

I understand that the ways some schools are cutting back are in the "extras" like sports and other elective programs.  I know that it isn't easy making ends met and it getting harder and harder but pan handing on a busy street??? It was at the area we call 5 corners, where 5 streets come together......

Maybe I am thinking to much or worry to much but this whole thing bothers me......
Would you let your kid stand on a busy street corner to ask for money for his/her sport?

ivy

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