A year ago my lease was up and I struggled with leasing or buying a new car. I was limited to a large car since there are six in my family. I drove almost every SUV, Crossover, and regular car that I could find that fit within my parameters. I hated all of them. I felt like Goldilocks. The seats were too uncomfortable, the Prius has a spoiler in my vision, and others drove like trucks. I ended up buying my minivan after its lease expired. (Read my saga here).
One of my readers suggested that I look at the Ford Escape Hybrid . I obviously missed that car in my search. Well, my chance came when a local car dealer sponsored a fundraiser to help a high school. For every parent who test drove a car, the company would donate a certain amount of money to the school. I had already gained a new respect for Ford after I interviewed Deborah Mielewski, the Polymer Technical Leader of Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford Motor Company about Ford’s green initiatives. (Read the interview here or listen to the podcast. You will be equally impressed.) Off I went to test drive the Ford Escape! [click to continue…]
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Look what is hiding under my mulch.
Most people schedule vacations to destress from their hectic lives. Some down time they say. Heck, I need an extra week of vacation just from the stress of getting ready for vacation.
I don’t know about you, but I always try and tie up loose ends before I go away. It is so stressful thinking about what I would have to come home to after vacation. So, I make my enormous list which is probably too hard for Superwoman to accomplish and ultimately end up cutting my losses a day or two before V Day to what I really need to get done… [click to continue…]
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by Green Talk on June 24, 2009
in lighting
Ilumisys‘ LED replacement tubes featured at LightFair 2009
Every other year, LightFair International, the biggest and brightest (in my opinion) lighting show comes to New York City. This is my second time attending this amazing show and I was not disappointed. In fact, they should have renamed the show “LEDFair” since 90% of the exhibitors were showing off their LED lighting in some fashion. With over 20,000 visitors, 475 exhibitors and a multitude of seminars, everyone was yearning to learn how to brighten their world with the newest green technologies.
The atmosphere at LightFair was so upbeat compared to the International Builder Show in Las Vegas this past January. Perhaps lighting just puts everyone in a good mood or there was such excitement about all the new products. It was nice to be surrounded with hope and the possibilities that the world will be getting back on its feet and the LED market will absolutely be leading the way. [click to continue…]
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Tagged as:
CFls,
LEDs,
LightFair,
lighting
What causes back aches, frustration, and stiff joints? Digging a new garden bed. If you have ever attempted this with soil that has never been tilled, it is time intensive and hard work. Don’t let television fool you. How to make it easier? Visiting a local equipment rental company. My tools
So what happens if you just don’t need the bed now but are thinking about it for next year? Why not try the no till method? Let nature help. What do you need? [click to continue…]
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Welcome Garden #2!
Around May and June I become a little obsessive with my garden. Over the years, it has grown from 4 tomato plants to now 19 beds, 9 heirloom apple trees complete with their own birth announcement, 2 peach trees, 7 blueberry bushes, and 2 grape vines. Okay. This did not happen in one year, but over the years, I have expanded the garden like you would expand a family. Sometimes I think I am Eddie Albert from Green Acres. Remember that show with Eva Garbo? Just like Eddie Albert’s character, I am a lawyer turned gentlewoman farmer.
This year was a leap year. Although my apple trees are little, I thought I could protect them from the deer by surrounding them with four foot deer fencing. Apple buds are quite enticing and they outsmarted me by nipping at the buds through the fencing. They must have push the fencing with their noses. One particular apple tree did not bloom at all this year and I hope that it is not dead.
My apple trees are like my babies. Haven’t you heard the saying don’t get between a mama bear and her cubs. Well I feel the same way about my apple trees. I had no other alternative but to put up an 8 foot wire, ugly fence to keep the deer out. I knew they would never prosper if the deer could nip at them. So, up went the fence.
So, You Say You Want a Corn Field?
Since the fence encompasses more land than the trees, I started to get garden fever and spotted a very sunny plot several yards away from the trees for a corn field. (You can take the girl out of the Midwest, but you can’t take the Midwest out of the girl.) [click to continue…]
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See the free giveaway below!
Like many moms, Christine Steward, had an epiphany after reading the ingredients of her newborn’s products and decided to switch to more environmentally friendly product. What makes Steward so different than most of us, is she decided to make her own products. As her friends coo’ed over her products, she decide to make them for the world and For My Kids LLC was born.
Why take the time to create your own products? Steward’s citation of the following passage bring it on home:
“‘Our kids are the canaries in a coal mine,’ says Dr. Kenneth Bock, author of Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies. ‘American children are growing up in a toxic environment, a chemical soup sensitizing them to even the common foods they need to grow and thrive.’ The chemical culprits that bombard our children’s immune systems are ubiquitous in American life. Yet these same toxins are responsible for spurring many children’s immune systems into overdrive, provoking maladies from asthma, eczema and allergies to autism and ADHD. The links are pouring in. Diabetes was even tied to environmental pollution in a report published early this year in the respected British medical journal The Lancet What’s more, research published during 2006 in Environmental Health Perspectives suggests a potential association between autism and air pollution around a baby’s home.” Toxic Tots: Altered Lives“, Dallas Child, Lisa Poisso (Posted March 31, 2008). [click to continue…]
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Tagged as:
antibacterial product,
children products,
green household products,
natural mosquito product,
vegan lip balm
Check out my Greensender water bottle giveaway!
Every year my sister and I struggle over what to get my Dad for Father’s Day. We always go through the same dance when that day draws near. You know the familiar ” should we get him clothes?” My sister then replies, ” he doesn’t need any clothes.” We go through this question and answer period for a few minutes and always draw the same conclusion. He has everything. So, what do you get a Dad that has everything or something that is at least useful other than a tie or shirt?
How about a Greensender personalized water bottle with a logo of his favorite past-time such as fishing or golf? Now, there is a gift that is good for your health as well as the planet. Don’t you remember health class where the teacher would drum it into our heads that you should drink at least eight glasses of water a day? But why is having your own water bottle good for the planet? According to the Clean Air Council, Americans throw away 2.5 million water bottles hourly. Shocking, isn’t it?
So how do you order? Head on over to the bottle shop, where you can choose the color of your bottle, size, and whether you want a name on the bottle as well as the font type. Maybe you want the golf image like the bottle shown above? There are 20 different images to choose from. Don’t see one you like and have one that you would like to use, just contact the company. [click to continue…]
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Tagged as:
green Fa,
reusable water bottle,
water bottle
Remember Eat the View, the campaign asking the Obamas to create a White House vegetable garden to feed the staff? Well, the campaign worked and Michelle Obama is busily creating an amazing organic garden at the White House. Feel like a little dirt under your fingernails or eating amazing home grown veggies? If you live in New York City, the New York Restoration Project along with Amy Goldman will be hosting the Vegetable Starts Seed Giveaway in community gardens around the City. So what’s the dirt on the event?
On Saturday May 30th from 1 – 4:00 PM in three community gardens in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, the Seed Savers Exchange will distribute over 2000 heirloom seeds to registered community gardeners and local residents, to make gardening more accessible to New York communities. Experts will be on site to answer any questions and provide gardening tips and tricks. The selection of vegetable seeds that will be available was determined through suggestions submitted by the community. From tomatoes and corn to parsley and oregano, all of the seeds being given away are organic, untreated and have not been genetically engineered, exceeding industry standards and bringing high quality produce into the homes of New York residents for free. Amy Goldman, writer, passionate gardener and advocate of heirloom fruits and vegetables, has generously provided a majority of the seeds for the event.” [click to continue…]
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Tagged as:
Gardening,
heirloom seeds,
seed exchange
I just received the following press release in my mail box late last night and thought it was worth mentioning.
“While most economic sectors within California are ailing, the clean energy industry – newly dubbed the “green gold rush” – promises to boost jobs and drive development despite dismal economic conditions. The California Utilities Diversity Council (CUDC), committed to promoting diversity in the state’s utility industry, will host a one-day conference Friday, May 29, in Long Beach, open to business owners, educators and all other professionals interested in learning from public and private sector experts.
The conference, entitled “Advancing Diversity in the New Green Energy Economy: How to take advantage of the green gold rush in California,” will be held at the Long Beach Convention Center and bring together top-ranking officials in California’s leading utility companies, private enterprise executives, educational institutions to lead the day’s events. Focus will be on business opportunities for existing and new entrepreneurs, as well as anticipated job opportunities with companies developing products and services in the new clean energy field.” [click to continue…]
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Tagged as:
California clean energy,
clean energy
