David Suzuki

I'm at the library, and have just picked up David Suzuki's Green Guide (by David Suzuki & David R. Boyd, published 2008).  How could I not know this book existed?


I think David Suzuki is the best.  Although I'm young enough to have grown up with cable, I didn't because I lived out of the service area.  Therefore, I was lucky to get three channels growing up, and The Nature of Things with David Suzuki was something that always came in clearly.


Recently, he's been showing up on green commercials, telling Canadians to get hip with things like clotheslines, fluorescent bulbs, and one very cute one of a guy who's been infested with penguins because he's kept his fridge door open too long.


Suzuki & Boyd's book dedication:

"This book is dedicated to every person worried about the Earth worried about the Earth who has ever wondered 'What can I do?'"

 Can't wait to get home and tear into this...will offer highlights when done.


P.S.  The Nature of Things will be looking at climate change at 7pm (Eastern) on Saturday, June 20.  Check with your local listings to see who's carrying it in your area.

No 'Poo? No Shit! - How Green is Your Hygiene? Pt. 1

Why: Cut down on chemicals poured down the drain; water usage; plastic bottle consumption; have happier hair.

My Hair: Curly, moderately thick, frizzy and a bit dry, bad attitude all its own and occasionally eats small items.

Regular Care: Shampoo every other day, brush out tangles with conditioner in shower, squish to dry. Between wash days, straighten or tie up in pony tail.

Products: Shampoo, Conditioner, multiple anti-frizz products, hair spray, curl squishers, root lifter.

Tools: Plastic brush with knobby bristles, blow dryer (occasionally) and tourmaline straightener.

OK, so I've been doing the no 'poo thing for about 3 weeks now. When I first read about it, a paste of baking soda seemed the way to go. I would wet my hair, mix up about four tablespoons of baking soda with some very hot water and rub that sludge into my hair. Then I would wrap it in a towel and let it sit for about half an hour before stepping into the shower, rinsing it out (which I didn't find difficult, but some do) and then rinsing it with apple cider vinegar.

Let it be said: Apple Cider Vinegar smells VILE. Especially when poured over one's head.

This is what I did twice a week for the first two weeks. My hair appeared to be pretty greasy - not common for my head. And let's not forget that although it's only twice a week, wetting one's head over the kitchen sink, splattering baking soda all over the place, and then walking around with a towel for half an hour is a pain in the ass. I have two kids, two online businesses, and a home daycare. Complications are NOT what I need.

Here's what my hair looked like two days ago:

Not too too bad, until you look at the backside, which pretty much looks like a rat's nest:

Remember, brushing my hair has been a conditioner only type of deal, and old habits die hard. I've been brushing it in the shower with the apple cider vinegar, and not straightening it at all...I'm totally going to end up with a big ol' frizz head if I touch it with a brush at all, right?

The other day I read about going without cleaning agents altogether. Instead, a detangling comb (or fingers, for that matter) and a dense boar bristle brush (vegans can go use synthetic) are apparently all you need.

A bit of the science of our heads. I'm just dabbling here, nothing huge...

Mammals (in this case, you and me) produce an oily substance called sebum from their skin. Sebum makes us waterproof. It keeps our skin and hair from drying out, as well as keeping us from getting TOO wet and shriveling up like a prune.

Regular shampooing and conditioning (even every other day, or once a week!) strips the hair and scalp of sebum, which freaks out the scalp and makes it produce MORE sebum. Vicious circle, the more the wash, the more you produce and get greasier hair between washings.

On the other hand, if the sebum that you produce is never removed, it builds up, gets blocked, and can eventually lead to hair loss.

Ai yi yi...so what's a mammal to do? Let's get back to the boar bristle brush. These brushes, with their dense, natural fibre bristles, do a number of things for us.

First, when brushed along the length of the hair, this brush will remove dust and dirt particles.

Next, when used to massage the scalp, and brushed from the scalp to the ends, it helps to spread the sebum along the hair length, sealing it.

Finally, boar bristle brushes smooth down the hair cuticles, giving it a glossy finish, naturally. These are the brushes used by ballerinas to give them a sleek bun before performances.

Oh...I musn't forget to mention that boar brushes are NOT meant for detangling...detanglers are. A boar brush is too dense to detangle, and will do far more damage than good if used that way.

One last thing about these brushes: They're not cheap. Expect to pay just under $20 for the very cheapest in your local drugstore. Going anywhere fancier is sure to double that, easy.

Give me a week or two with this, and I'll do an update. For now, know that shampoo is not the way to go, and there is sure to be a different "No 'Poo" routine for each hair type, not to mention lifestyle!

How Green is Your Hygiene? - Intro

Hands up if your bathroom looks more like a chemist's lab than a place to remove the grime and dirt of your days. My hand is up, but I'm working on it. It has finally dawned on me that I may well be walking out of the bathroom with more shit in my hair and skin than when I walked in. And if it's doing that to ME...what's it doing to our water?

Time to take a closer look...

But forget all the science. I don't have the time or the inclination to figure out what all those chemicals are in the stuff I use, and which of them are the worst. So here's how this is going to work:

No chemicals. Easy peasy...but what is a chemical? For the purposes of this experiment, we will define a chemical as:

1. anything I don't recognize; or
   
2. anything I can't pronounce on the first try.

Good! The ground rules are laid...we'll start with hair in Pt. 1 of How Green is Your Hygiene?

Vermicomposting Notes

I've got my worms. Woo hoo! They were hand-delivered on Easter Sunday...and they're so much fun!

Let's start with a definition, for those who are new to this concept.

Vermi refers to worms. Composting is the decomposition of organic materials into a fertilizer-rich material. Ordinarily, composting is a thermal process, in which the materials decompose through heat.

In vermicomposting, worms do the decomposing. They eat, they poop, and oh, how green your grass grows.

Types of Worms

The very best type of worm to use is the red wriggler worm. These little guys will eat half of their weight in food scraps per day. Holy crap!

The worst kind of worm to use would be the big fat ones in your backyard. The don't decompose things, they only eat things that are ALREADY decomposed. So you'd have to wait a while for them to start eating, and things would definitely smell.

Red wrigglers is the common name for the good ones, and doing a search for that will bring you tons of results.

Where to Find

Where do you find these guys? Online, mostly, from what I can tell. I've only found one place nearby to me that has them, and they're an hour away (fyi, that would be The Worm Factory in Westport, Ontario). They do accept orders online (Ontario folks only) and by phone (for all other folks). I'm guessing that sending worms across borders might be a bit of a problem though - just google it, in your area.

Most places seem to charge about the same amount for them: $25-ish for 1/2 pound, $45-ish for a full pound.

Housing

Worms need a home. Worm homes need to be well ventilated so the composting process doesn't turn to rot (aeration is the key word here) and begin to smell. Worm homes also need to be dark because the little guys don't like light. Clear b oxes are not ideal. For singles and couples, recycling a couple of buckets from Tim Hortons will do a good job of housing your worms and taking care of your scraps. For a larger family that produces more scraps, a large, shallow storage bin with a lid will work great.

Ventilation

Whichever you choose, you will need to ventilate. In the picture here, you can see that I went nuts with a drill and put a million holes in the top of a Rubbermaid bin. (I started out with a nail and a hammer, and got about 15 holes done before my fingers hurt and I was just annoyed. The drill was WAY more fun.)

The holes that my drill made (I think I was using my husband's second smallest drill bit) seemed good for airflow (not too small) but too big to keep the worms contained, should they decide to make a run for it. So I stopped off at Canadian Tire and bought a roll of screening for doors and windows. I cut a piece slightly larger than the area where the holes were drilled, and used sandpaper to roughen the plastic around the holes. I then smeared some carpenter's glue (because that's what we had in the junk drawer) around on the rough parts and pressed the screen into it. I left it to dry in the sun for a day, after which the smell from the glue was mostly gone.

So far, so good, although we've only had the worms for three days now. At this point, I do have a concern that I have some long, skinny bugs roaming around in there, and I haven't completely decided what they are or what to do about them. Seems that adding more dry bedding (shredded newspaper, dry leaves, etc) and sprinkling eggshells or calcium carbonate (to reduce the acidity of the environment) is often the answer to a lot of problems.

Anyway, I'll keep things updated here on Life with Worms. :) My kids are totally pleased about it though, and my neice even seems to be coming around. My husband doesn't care so long as he doesn't have to have anything to do with it.

Passionately Drawing a Blank

This is my third, maybe fourth time, sitting and staring at a blank page in front of me. I know that starting this blog is a great idea, it's going to raise awareness of environmental issues, it's going to help people learn what little things they can integrate into their daily life to make a big impact on the Earth, it's going to drive visitors to my website and have them buy Recycled Sandals!

But really, where do I start? I have a list of ideas for posts that I care about, feel strongly about, and therefore could whip off and have published before the kids are even out of bed. But I can't start with any of those, because I haven't STARTED yet! You, dear reader, don't yet know me. Tossing out a post completely out of context seems the wrong thing to do...like walking up to a stranger, slipping my hand into theirs without saying a word and just walking along with them. I don't think I'd get very far.

So let's get back to basics:
I'm Laurel, Canadian, 33, mother of two.
I love vivid colours; reds, oranges, hot pink.
I hate green.
I'm terrified of almost all insects, but bite back my screams when my son finds a spider in the garden because I don't want HIM to think that mommy thinks these things are scary, and be scared too.
I've seen "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Story of Stuff" and want to live better for the planet, so my children HAVE a planet, but don't always know what to do to that end.
I recycle, I reuse, I try to reduce. My set of plastic storage containers came filled with a bonus of margarine, cottage cheese, etc.
My 3 year old knows the difference between the blue and gray boxes, and what type of items belong in each.

Next time, I'll tell you about the Recycling Bastards.