Archive for August, 2011
« Previous EntriesNo Dumping!
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011I’m on vacation with my family this week, and we’re staying in a cute family-friendly beach town in New Jersey. This means giant rental houses and lots of people from other places coming and going constantly during the summer season. I think that if you live in a place such as this, you’d have an [...]
Making Emergency Preparedness a little Greener
Monday, August 29th, 2011We were just struck hard by Irene this weekend, and while NYC and where I live near NYC is ok, there are lots of areas nearby and to the northeast with significant flooding and other concerns. I feel like we really lucked out! Sunday I was thinking about emergencies, and I came up with a [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Find a Ceiling Fan!
Saturday, August 27th, 201100
Happy Eco-News Fridays!
Friday, August 26th, 2011Solar Cheaper Than Kerosene for Many Poor Rural Communities Enormous Underground River Discovered in the Amazon Coming Soon: Batteries That Run On (And Clean) Used Toilet Water Weekday Vegetarian: Indian Butter Chickpeas White House bees deliver record crop 14 Million Electrified Vehicles on the World’s Roads by 2017 ‘Missing’ lager yeast discovered in Patagonia UK [...]
Camping Choices
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011I’ve written before about the camping choices my family and I make – small car camping! We fit everything into our compact car (with roof rack), squeeze our bodies into the car, and head out merrily to find our adventure! (For those of you in other countries, this may not seem groundbreaking, but – in [...]
Talking Eco-Choices With Kids
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011I spent an incredible day with a young niece and nephew yesterday, which culminated with us laying on my bed, talking about yoga and older brothers and other assorted important topics. My niece noticed my little Chico bag sticking out of my purse, and asked what it was. I thought I had shown them Team [...]
When being green isn’t, well, GREEN
Monday, August 22nd, 2011I was thinking the other day about showering. See, I take really quick showers. Like, really super ultra quick showers. I’m in and out in under 8 minutes, generally, even if I need to wash my hair. The twelve year old is always shocked at how quickly I finish up, and super skeptical that I [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Grow It!
Saturday, August 20th, 2011Any food we can grow ourselves reduces our food footprint, and the pollution caused by shipping that food from farm to table. Plus, if we grow organics then we also reduce the amount of chemicals we release into the environment (and into ourselves!) Starting small is a great idea– perhaps a flowerpot with basil or [...]
Happy Eco-News Friday!
Friday, August 19th, 2011The blog Brooklyn to West is charming, and shows off the amazing carpentry and vision of two women who traveled cross country buying up scrap and discarded wood and other items, and are now repurposing these materials into an incredible restaurant. The Navy is starting to use solar power to make their bomb squads (who [...]
Greening Mail
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011Remember sending actual letters, in actual envelopes, through the actual mail? I’ve still got boxes of old correspondence in storage, and I just can’t let go of them. They remind me of a time when I took real time to sit with pen and paper and write– by hand– my thoughts to a dear friend [...]
NASA’s Earth Observatory
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011I’ve started getting a neat email in my inbox every day – it’s the Earth Observatory, from NASA, and it sends out a daily image (or two or five) that share a part of our planet that we don’t often see from here. For example: a meteor, viewed from the International Space Station: Isn’t that [...]
Eyeglasses and Contacts
Monday, August 15th, 201100
Easy Peasy Tip: Scout Used Items
Saturday, August 13th, 2011When you need a new to buy a new item which is relatively common, such as a pair of computer speakers or a replacement computer keyboard, see if you can find them used before buying them new. These types of things are easy to find at garage sales, or on Craigslist or Freecycle.com, or by [...]
Happy Eco News Friday!
Friday, August 12th, 2011If you’re in MN or WI, check out these upcoming seminars on sustainable farming for and by women! Or check out the Farm School for Women in NC, a ten month program beginning in January. Check out the Konbit Shelter project, which is bringing affordable and sustainable earthen bag structures to Haiti for residential shelters. [...]
Natural Medicines
Thursday, August 11th, 2011I’m currently layed low with a fierce throat infection, and I’m doing the typical sick-girl things: drinking lots of warm liquids (hot water with lime is feeling about right), eating soup, watching bad movies, and napping all day. But when I woke up on day 2 worse than day 1, I knew I needed to [...]
Cooking Hot: outdoors!
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011During the hot hot hot summer we’ve been having, my partner and I have been making a point to cook outdoors as much as possible. It keeps the house from heating up too much and helps us to regulate our home temperature without using an air conditioner. Of course there are a lot of out-door [...]
Aluminum Can Flowers For Me
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011Aren’t these flowers beautiful?? They’re not real. I was in a bar the other night, and there were some travellers at a nearby table with their aluminum can creations set out for everyone to admire (and hopefully purchase). So of course I bought one– firstly, because I was once a young free spirit travelling around [...]
Picking the product that can be repaired
Monday, August 8th, 2011This weekend we had a busy drive up to the Capitol District (of NY) to visit family and drop Twelve off at his week of Environmental Conservation camp – and we made a special trip to stop by Tough Traveler of Schenectady. I’ve got three bags from them – all of them are over 15 [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Get a Spare!
Saturday, August 6th, 2011At the risk of sounding crazy and totally in conflict with our other tips recommending that you buy less – sometimes you may need to buy a spare. Friend of Tiny Choices Amanda wrote in: Previously, I had been taking my expended K-cups apart at home to compost & recycle the materials, but what a [...]
Happy Eco-News Fridays!
Friday, August 5th, 2011Happy Eco-News Fridays is a weekly Tiny Choices column, featuring positive environmental stories from around the globe. Browse the archives here > European Mayor Uses Tank to Crush Car Blocking Bike Lane Are Urban Chickens a Gateway Drug For Urban Cows and Pigs? (We hope so! -Editors) Ajiro Bamboo Velobike: A “Grown Vehicle” That’s Farmed, [...]
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