Green Talk

Look familiar?

You know the drill. You have to run to the bathroom and you don’t bother to look if there is toilet paper in the toilet holder.  Reaching over, your hand feels cold steel.  “Darn it!” you exclaim.  “Someone forgot to replace the toilet paper in the bathroom!”

If you have kids, a forgetful husband or wife, or just lazy roomates, this is not an uncommon situation.  How many times have you gone to the bathroom to find that there is no toilet paper and you can’t get up and get some?  I swear my kids only go to the bathroom where there is toilet paper because replacing the roll would be just too hard and (gasp) time consuming.

Finally, you vow to keep a few rolls in each bathroom because you do not want to relive that embarrassing moment again.  (Perhaps running with your pants down the hall to find toilet paper?  It just does not get more awkward than that.)  Low and behold, there is very little toilet paper in your closets. It is obviously time to buy more toilet paper for your home.

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The morning after, could this be your car?

We have been looking for about a year for a used bedroom set for my teenage son. He had outgrown his children furniture, and I wanted him to have a set he can take with him when he decides to live on his own, which is coming sooner than I thought.

 Like all young parents we bought into the idea of transitional furniture for our kids.  It was smaller and youth like. Not much bigger than their baby furniture. Kind of the three little bears, just right for our children with a small desk and smaller drawers for their little clothes. Why should I buy him an adult set I thought.  I remembered we all fit in our twin beds until we went to college and beyond.  I would have never dreamed of buying him an adult set.  He was so small. An adult set would just be too big.

 Fast forward to a decade and some years later, he is big.  He is bigger than both my husband and me. I am not sure where he came from.  Was it an alien abduction in my sleep?   His big shirts, plumber like baggy shorts, and large sweatshirts no longer fit in his transitional furniture.  It was time for an adult set for him and his littlest brother would take his. For all of the young parents out there, in hindsight, perhaps we should have bought him an adult set from the beginning so I would not have been in this dilemma.  

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Photo by permission of Creative Energy Technologies Inc.

How many times have you stood by your dryer and felt this cold air near your feet?  Just opening up the dryer door immediately wakes you up from the surge of cold air that hits your face.   For years I have been looking for some device that would stop the cold infiltration from my dryer vent. Those flimsy plastic shutter vents did absolutely nothing to stop the cold air.  Half of the time, the louvers of the vent would get stuck in the open position and more cold air would pour in.

 Winter is fast approaching many parts of the world, and it is time to start thinking about how to reduce those energy bills.  Last year I installed this great energy device to stop cold air in its tracks and to give me back the joys of folding clothes again in my warm again laundry room.  Okay, maybe not the joys of folding clothes but at least I am warmer.  The device is called the Heartland Natural Energy Savings Dryer Vent Closure System DRY21000™. 

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Photo courtesy of Broan of the Guardian Plus

Do any of the following situations apply to your house? Your house has a stale smell to it, and you long for spring when you can open up your windows again to try and air out the house.  Perhaps, for  some strange reason, you feel so much better when you are not in your house.  How about this situation? Your headaches or allergies seem worse during the winter months, but you are not sure why.

Think about it.  Since you have made your house more energy efficient by making it less drafty, your family has symptoms like those described above.  If  any of these scenarios sound like your situation, your house could be suffering from an indoor air quality problem.

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Photo by permission from True Media LLC 

How many of you are trying to live a greener life?  We try to recycle more, turn off the lights, and buy more environmentally friendly products.  There are times we slip, when we throw a plastic bottle into the trash can, rather than recycling it.  Sometimes we completely fall off the green wagon when we turn down the thermostat so low in the summer that our windows show frost in the morning.  So if you were Kermit and being as green as he is, where would you go to confess your sins? 

Welcome True Green Confessions, a website that helps the sinner in all of us to anonymously confess  our darkest green secrets or just plain rant about our newly greened society.  This website was started by  True Media LLC  in partnership with  GroovyGreen.com,   as an off shoot of True Media’s other websites, “True Mom Confessions, “True Dad Confessions”, “ True Office Confession”,  and even scarier, “True Bride Confessions”.  These sights are more entertaining than watching Jerry Springer! 

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Photo courtesy of Message!Products.com

  Writing checks is second nature to us today, but is there some way writing a check can help the Earth?  Sure, you could write a check to your favorite environmental charity, but do you know that you could use  a check that is made of environmentally friendly materials?  Or, use a check that helps reduce landfill waste, and in some cases gives a donation at the same time to a worthy charity? Well, you are in luck because four companies offer checks made out of recycled materials.  Out of those four companies, purchases from two of those companies benefits certain charities.  Check writing never seemed so eco-friendly!

  The Check Gallery 

Check Gallery prints their checks using soy based ink on recycled 24lb MICR bond paper with 20% post-consumer fiber. 

  “With The Check Gallery, everyone can relax and feel good about their purchases. Not only do we use the latest innovations in recycling, we create attractive products that cost much less than the bank’s. It’s this kind of commitment that makes The Check Gallery America’s leading earth-friendly check company,” according to their website.

 Check Gallery checks are produced using assorted different themes ranging from scenic America to ladybugs checks.  The cost for one part checks is $21.90 for 2 boxes containing 300 checks.  Two part checks for the same amount costs $29.90.  For first time buyers, the cost of the first box of 150 costs $9.95 and the second box is $.49.

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Photo courtesy of Icynene.com 

Remember, my Top 10 This Next List , where I posted my ten favorite green building products? Number 5 on the list is Icynene^®,  an open cell spray foam insulation.  It basically provides a barrier to prevent drafts, condensation, and outdoor allergens from penetrating the building envelope.  From personal experience, this is an amazing product. 

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Did you ever wonder what that plastic piece in the center of your pizza was called?  It is called a package saver, and it helps prevent the box from damaging the pizza.  According to an article on About.com, it was invented by Carmela Vitale of Dix Hills, NY, receiving a patent on this device in 1985.  So, what does this have to do with anything green? 

Just think. How many times does your family order pizza?  How many package savers are being thrown away?  Multiple this by twenty plus years of package savers times the number of people who order pizza.  The thought is staggering.

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I wrote an article asking Green Talk readers “How Would You Reuse Articles that Would Ordinarily Go in the Trash?.”  I have only received one response, although a good one.  My reader suggested using yogurt cups for planting seedlings.

 I decided to make a page entitled “Readers’ Reuse Tips” on my website for multiple responses.  Who has not cleverly reused an item in their house?  Thinking I would be flooded with responses, no one responded.

 Hoping to generate more comments, I started thinking about items I put in the trash and how can I reuse them.  My whole way of thinking changed about trash.  Could I use the spiral on the notebook I just recycled for something?  Could it be used as a tie to bind something together? Hmm. 

 So, over the last couple weeks I have a chance to put my writing where my hands were, and came up with two suggestions that I will be posting this week.  Without further ado, here are my latest trash to usefulness suggestion:

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Is this Lemon cucumber ripe yet? 

I started growing an heirloom called Lemon Cucumbers this spring. My seed package did not have a picture.  I thought the cucumbers would have a hint of lemon, hence their name lemon cucumbers.

In the last month, my cucumber plants have been going wild with flowers and these yellow tennis balls have been emerging.  Thinking that they will eventually turn green and elongate, I just left them on the vine. 

 Week after week, these tennis balls with facial hair kept getting bigger and did not turn green. I finally picked on and cut it open.  The rind was a little tough and there was a lot of seeds like a melon.   The cucumbers did not have a particular taste.  I thought they were kind of bland.  Plus, they made me burp.

Thinking that I left these cucumbers on the vine too long, I looked up what should the cucumbers look like.  There on the internet, plain as day, was my yellow hairy tennis balls.  Did I let them stay on the vine too long?

Again, I went back to the internet and found different stories of when to pick them.  Some blogs said pick them when they are green and small.  Others said yellow and small.

 What should they taste like?  Some said sweet but the skin will be tough if you leave them on the vine too long.  Mine were definitely not sweet. 

Readers, I need help.  When should I pick these lemon cucumbers and how should they taste?

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