Solstice

The Winter Solstice is a favorite celebration for me.

This is the service at First Unitarian ( on Saturday) We were each invited to think of our unique gift and light a candles to symbolize the light each of us brings to the world. It gave me hope...to see all those lighted candles...all the gifts that are being offered.

It's Report Card Time

We got our first progress report. Here's how we are doing.

Gas- The goal for therms/month is 42. (this is 40% below the Madison average). We passed our goal. Our monthly average was 2 therms/month. But can we keep this up in the cold weather?

Driving- Miles/month should be around 650. ( 40% below the Madison average) We were 521(Aug), 853 (Sept), and 950 (Oct). We were on track in the warmer months. (Note: two people drive this car, not one which is what the 650miles are based on.) However we will still aim for 650 mil/month. This we be a real challenge now that the snow/cold is here.

Trash- The goal is less than 82 lbs/ month. We average 2.5 lbs/week. Well below Madisons' average. We would love to reduce this further and get our recycling down...as well as make sure we aren't "trashy" when we are on the road.

Electricity- Our goal is 360 Kwh/month. Our electricity/month is 336 Kwh, 415 Kwh and 372 Kwh in August, September and October. Here is our weak spot...we have our work cut out for us.

Food- With Willy Street West more accessible, it is easy for us eat 70-80% local/organic. This may become more of a challenge in the winter months as our local options shrink. Can we afford to eat more organic?

One additional challenge for this month is to pay attention to our holiday spending and see how well we do at shopping our values. I just shopped for our Christmas cookie ingredients at Willy Street. Our Christmas cookies this year will be close to 100% local/organic ( wonder if they will taste better?)

Roots R us!

I made confetti meat loaf for dinner ( local, pasture raised beef) mixed with grated carrot, potato and onion ( and some oatmeal and local eggs).

Plus sweet potato, potato and butternut squash. ( all local..thank you Willy Street West)

I took advantage of having the oven on to make dinner for tomorrow too. Roasted sweet potato pie. The crust is organic, corn tortillas, filled with sweet potato as well as corn from the farm ( from our freezer) and grated Tipi Farm carrots and local provolone cheese. and Yuppie Hill Eggs ( gotta love the name)

This is one of our favorites.

We splurged on organic bananas and mixed them with Ela Orchard apples for bread that is more like cake.

Here we are eating our Sunday dinner. When you spend more on food and cook from scratch...you want people to sit awhile and enjoy it.

Welcome Willy West

We shopped at Willy Street West today.
Produce: Got local sweet potatoes, potatoes, celeric, rutabaga, carrots and onion for potpie for dinner tonight. Dessert will be rhubarb, raspberry pie (both picked from our yard this summer)

For breakfast this week we got quick oats (Willy has a great bulk section.)

For lunches: local pasture raised deli meat ( ham) and local apples and Nature's Bakery bread. I have left over chick peas so plan to make hummus as well to go with our Nature's Bakery pita.

Plus Mark made black bean chili for the Packer's game today ( with a jar of salsa I canned this summer.)

We are feeling pretty good about our local food commitment this week. Willy Street makes it much easier to buy and eat local! Thank you Willy Street!

A green cat?

Meet Tandy, the newest member of our household. She doesn't look green but she is..or as green as we could get.
Ben had been asking for a cat for years...this last time he even offered to pay the adoption fee (that was a hard offer to turn down.)

But we are trying to minimize our impact on the planet...would having a pet dramatically add to our impact? We asked Ben to do some additional research.

Based on what Ben found out..here is what we did.

1. Shopped for pet supplies at Goodwill. They have a pet section. Ben was able to find a food and water dish as well as a pet bed and pooper scooper.


2. Found cat climbers on the curb ( need to be washed but in good shape)

3. Our biggest concern was the litter box and would this add to land fill. Ben and Mark found a wheat based litter. Want to know about other litter box options check out Green Little Cat

Now the next step will be to build a separate compost..since we can't compost cat scat with our regular compost for health reasons. Our Greener Faster Challenge buddies suggested a backyard pet waste digester.

Have a cat and want to do more? Check out the 30 day Green Cat Challenge

What's your pressure?

Did you know that most people don't check their tire pressure? That most of us drive on under inflated tires and that our cars are much less efficient because of it? I didn't know any of these things.

I also learned ( this was in a Sustainable Behavior Change workshop) that men are more likely than women to check their tire pressure. Below is me demonstrating how men are most likely to check their tire pressure ( both before and after adding air)

And below that is me with my brand new ( under $5) tire pressure gauge.
Checking the air pressure in my tires.

My tires were all under inflated....by 5-20 pounds.


I have now filled them up to 35 pounds ( I found the right number in my car manual..luckily still in my glove box).

I also learned that I need to check my tires more frequently during cold weather...so the goal is to check on the first of each month.

Photos by Nate Nesslar

Confessions of a Slacker

So how is that Greener Faster Challenge going you may be asking.

The truth is we have been slacking. Three things that have slowed us down.
1. It was more important to me to get involved with the election. Our policy makers will make decisions that have the greatest impact on energy use.
2. We fell behind on tracking. I never did get an easy tracking system in place ..which meant we weren't seeing how we were doing...so we all forgot.
3. With travel it seemed we had done the really big stuff. Like going down to one car..so it was hard to get motivated to make more changes. Coordinating the use of our one car was taking enough time and energy.

To be honest, if we were doing this on our own...I'd probably throw in the towel and move on. But since we have made a commitment to a group, giving up is not an option ( the power of social influence.

Some thoughts on how to get motivated.

The competition is not motivating me..in fact it gets in the way. I don't want to compete with the five other families. I want to learn from them and I want them to succeed.

We had a discussion about prizes early on and there is interest in not having all the prizes go to the one family that reduces their energy the most ( though that should be recognized and rewarded) Some other prize categories could be:
*Most innovative energy reduction idea
*Most dedicated family
*Most generous ( family that shares the most ideas to the rest of us)
*Most public ( family that shares the most publicly via blog, TV, newspaper,events)
*Most social: family that gets the most other people involved (like our neighborhood 10 day no car challenge last year)and an
*advocacy award for the family that engages or communicates most with policy makers. So I'll share the ideas with our group next week.

My goal this weekend is to get back on track with tracking...we need to try a system that is easy and visible. Stay tuned!

The Final Hours

 
Here is the view from my desk. I spent the last couple hours calling for Feingold from the Democratic office in Madison.

What I learned:
If I have a choice between calling alone and calling with others...I'll pick calling with others. The inconvience of getting down town was nothing compared to the support of being with other people who were "like me"

I called through 4 lists ( though I only intended to do one) because I could hear the deep, calm voice of Ben behind me " Hi this Ben, I'm calling to remind you it's Election Day. Did you get a chance to vote? Awesome, thanks so much" and perky Maggie who sat down beside me and offered to get me some pizza. And every time I looked up the room was crowded with people who care, passionately about the future of our county.

I had role models and cheer leaders ( and chex mix and cookies and pizza)

I got to feel what it is like to be a part of the democratic process.

It is messy and inconvient and sometimes annoying (think being called 4 times in three days)

But the alternatives to democracy have some serious drawbacks.

And now we wait....and hope.

GOTV

 
I won't say it was a unanimous decision..but we did ( as a family) help with "Get out the Vote" yesterday. We knocked on doors in Madison reminding people to vote, asking them specficially to support Russ, Tom and Tammy and making sure they knew were to vote.

We got two curt dismissals (people annoyed with us), four "Thanks for what you are doing", four " Yes we will vote," two "We already voted!", two "Where do I vote" and one "Really, it's a close race?"

If you have an hour or two today or tomorrow...every vote does count and it did make a difference that we went out.

Want to find out what you can do?
Moveon.org
BarackObama.com

We made page 3

of the Wisconsin State Journal


I found out from my son Ben.

Me " Did you talk about Parade for the Planet in school today?
B "Yea, we made the paper. They spelled my name wrong."
Me: " We made the paper?! What did it say?"
B " I don't know..something about the Green Challenge."

Actual quote ( once we bought a paper) " Julie Swanson, 48, a public health educator, brought her 12 year old son Ben Nessler. As part of the local environmental group ENACT , the Swanson's family is one of six reducing their energy use by 40% below the Madison average. " We're doing this (rally) to say to our legislators, 'We're doing our part; we need you to do yours.'"

Final comment from Ben: " you know, I've been famous a lot."

Parade for The Planet

 







Ben at the Sustainability Fair

These giant " puppets" of Mother Earth and the Green Man were a show stealer


The Earth Band warming up ( they were the hit of the parade!)

Lincoln and Wingra Schools were both represented!

The Raging Grannies are the last photo.

It was a hopeful day. The first Parade for the Planet drew a crowd of people who are passionate about making a difference.

We gathered at Lisa Link Peace Park and were reminded that Madison and Wisconsin have taken the lead on environmental issues before. We marched and sang up State Street with Sierra Club, Audobon, Lincoln, Chavez and Wingra School..and of course..our very own Earth Band ( from Westermorland Neighborhood).

ENACT was there ..the group that is sponsoring the Greener Faster Challenge. At the Capital, we gathered to hear several speakers.

I learned that
-Madison is the first Free Trade city in the US
-that UW madison is working to end all use of plastic water bottles
-that the US military has made a committment to cut their use of fossil fuels in half.

We have a lot of work to do. But it is good to be reminded that there is work being done...by many caring and courageous people.

Here is Wingra's Schools 350 video.
And photos from 10/10/10 from around the world.

What are you doing on 10/10/10

We will be marching to the Capital to tell our legislators to "Take Note! We are doing our part to reduce climate change. Now we need you to do yours!"

This first ever Parade for the Planet is part of 350.org's global day of action to raise awareness and spark action to address global warming. In the United States, this is great timing...right before our election.

The Westmorland Band will be joining Parade for the Planet to march from Lisa Link Park to the capital.

Our group is called Band Together because we are inviting any and all to join us as we march and sing. Don't worry if you don't play an instrument. There will be a large percussion section and we need singers and sign holders. This is a family friendly event.

Numbers matter! The more people who show up , the more our legislators will realize this is important and will influence how we vote in November.

Rehearsals
This Saturday and next Saturday(10/9/10) at 3:30pm at Westmorland Park
Whether you can rehearse our not come help us be the largest, loudest part of the parade on 10/10/10. We are meeting at Lisa Link Park at 11am

Have fun and change the world!

More information about
10/10/10 and 350.0rg
Parade for the Planet

Photo credit: flickr 350org

We so rock!

Just got my WI League of Conservation Voters(WLCV) email newsletter...
and look who they featured from the Election Cycle.
Us!
I love being famous. Thank you again to our sponsors ( Kyle, Sarah, Nancy, Jill, Beth, Trudy, Jaime, Pamela, Connie and Bill, Erica, Dave, Mary, and Brett. You all rock too!!)

We are in the count down to the Election. Want to see who the WLCV has endorsed? Their list influences my vote!

Eat Local Update

So how are we doing? Has being involved in the Greener, Faster Challenge changed our behavior?

Our first month goal was to buy more local and organic
We spent $739 on food of which $521 was local or organic.

We got much of our food from our CSA farm ( community supported agriculture) and the farmer's market. Our goal was 90%..which we didn't make but we did increase our local/organic purchasing.

Ben was reading our cereal box at the table the other day listing all the organic ingredients. When Ben and Nate went shopping on their own..they came back with local and organic ( with no prompts from parents)

When we are in town, our new Saturday lunch tradition is Thyme bread from Stella's, goat cheese from Dream Farm, and apples from the gentle apple man. All from the west side farmers market. ( the gentle apple man is our family name for the man we buy apples from..because he carefully and gently picks out each apple for you. You can't be in a rush when you buy from him..but boy you get the best apples.)

So have we changed our purchasing behavior....a big yes.
Pros
-we eat and shop more intentionally
-we are all much more aware of where our food comes from
-our food dollars are supporting our values
-we have discovered some fun local foods ( we had a great time discovering how many local food Brennans' carries...and if you like taste tests...Brennan's beats Whole Foods. You can eat a meal while shopping at Brennan's ..and it is a good meal)

Cons
- We spend more money on food
-We are spending more time shopping ( this may get better as we get better at knowing where to buy what)


Photo source: Vermont Valley Farm ( our CSA)

Going car free

For one day at least....

Wednesday, September 22 is World Car Free Day.

This year our family will bike, walk, or ride the bus to work, school, and soccer. I am taking an art class and I picked the one that is walking distance from our house(my class starts Wed night)

There is a great event planned for those of you in Madison. EnAct and Community Car are hosting a walk around the capitol with Mayor Dave on September 22nd from 5-6:30pm. They will raffle off FREE alternative transportiaton prizes- one of which is a Voyageur GS bike courtesy of Williamson Bicycles.

If you can't go car free on Wednesday...what would car lite look like?

Thank you!!

We got rained on twice but otherwise it was a fine day to ride!


Thank you to: Kyle, Sarah, Trudy, Jaime, Nancy, Jill, Connie and Bill, Pamela, Erica, Dave, Mary, and Brett. And special thanks to Beth Albright and Family.

If you look at the fine print you will notice that Beth was THE top sponsor for the whole event and she chose to sponsor our team!! ( did I mention she's my sister and has been my top sponsor my whole life ( except maybe when we were teens))

And we were listed in the Top Riders. We raised $405 and won a gift card to Whole Foods! (the boys were quite pleased with this!)

It was an honor to ride representing our sponsors and to support the WI League of Conservation Voters. If we want to impact climate change we will need legislators willing to pass policies that put the environment first.

PS: Nate says next year he is riding the 25 mile route! Stay Tuned!

A Favorite New Tradition

Our annual Harvest Potluck is a favorite of mine.


We invite families from our neighborhood and the only "rule" is to bring local food. Highlights: pizza with local toppings from Vermont Valley farm, Pear Tart ( pears from Mary's back yard, sweetened with honey from Karen's bees), homemade salsa, cantaloupe from the farmer's market, and sweet corn from a local farm (may be the last of the sweet corn. Good food and good company= a great combination!

We did it!

We reached ( actually passed) our fund raising goal. We are now at $310 and will get our name listed on the banner!!

Many thanks to those who have sponsored us: Sarah, Kyle,Trudy, Jaime, Hildebrands, Erica, Pamela and Nancy. And special thanks to our biggest sponsor: Beth Albright and family ( my sister!) Her $100 pledge put us over the top!

You can still ride with us on Sunday. Register to ride!
And you can still sponsor us!

More than halfway there

One week and $100 left to reach our goal! Thanks to Kyle, Sarah, Connie and Bill Hildebrand, Jaime, Trudy and Erica we have already raised $155!

Next Sunday we will ride 10 miles to support the work of the WI League of Conservation Voters. We are raising money and riding because we believe it is critical to elect legislators who are committed to putting environmental concerns at the top of the list.

There is still time to join us in riding...or support us in reaching our goal of $250! ( we are registered as Swanson/Nesslar)

Here's to a greener Wisconsin!

We need your help

We are riding in the Election Cycle, a fund raiser for the WI League of Conservation Voters.

Although we have made a commitment to change our lifestyle to live as sustainably as possible..ultimately we will need policy change if we hope to make the big changes that we need to sustain life on our planet. We need legislators who put the environment at the top of the list and are willing to make some tough choices.

Our action: support an organization with a track record of environmental policy change.

How: we are riding as a family on September 17. Our fund-raising goal is $250!
( We already have $50..thank you Kyle and Sarah!
What you can do: register and ride with us...or support us. You can donate online ( our team name is Nesslar/Swanson) or if you want to write a check ..send me an email or post your email in the comment space below.

Harvest from the Farm

We woke to a white world this morning...our first big snow. To say official goodbye to fall, I've pulled out my photos from our last harvest at the Farm.

As part of our commitment to eating local, I went to the farm (Vermont Valley)to pick basil and tomatoes.

With the tomatoes I tried canning: our famous Nell's chili sauce, spagetti sauce from Animal Vegetable Miracle and salsa ( which Mark has decided adds just the right heat for football chili)

I made the basil into pesto which we freeze in spoonfuls on cookie sheets and then store in plastic bags. Pesto with corn is one of our favorite winter dishes.

Unexpected Blessings

This is Ben making dinner. We have been meaning to have the boys start making one dinner a week ..and this month seemed to be a good time to start.

Rather than moan../Ben opened a restaurant...Nesslarino's Pizzaria.

He made the pizza dough from scratch (local toppings included: three cheeses, basil, tomatoe, onion, pesto and organic pepperoni). He also had an antipasto plate, desserts and drinks. He set the table and served wearing a suit coat.

He thought of all of this on his own ( we just asked him to think of one dinner to make). I now know the best restaurant in town!!

100% Living our Values

Today I realized we didn’t have pita bread for dinner. Luckily Mark had the car because it would have been tempting to make a quick run to the store.

I decided to shop at Whole Foods: I can walk there, they carry organic and some local and I can recycle both plastic bags and #5 plastic.

Beautiful quiet walk (since neither of the boys was interested in coming along)

I stopped at Bagels Forever. Good local bagels, cheap and no plastic!

At Whole Foods, it took longer to shop since I don’t know where everything is and I am reading labels to see if there is a local or organic option. Whole Foods seems expensive but the positive side is
-beautiful place to shop
-easy to find either local or organic. They are carrying more local now but they should take a tip from Willy St Coop and make their buy local tags a different color.
-really good taste tests. I felt rewarded for shopping!

I did buy too much so my backpack was heavy on the way home ( felt I was 2 inches shorter by the time I got home)

All in all, it was a good trip. Took longer but on the “Living our Values “ scale= 100%

And we're off....

We have had our house assessment and our first all group meeting.

What we learned from our assessment:
We are 61% better than the Madison average in our gas useage. yea!
-Goal: maintain or see if we can go lower

Water: 65% below Madison average. Sounds good so far.
Goal: maintain or reduce

Electric: This was our big ouch. We doubled our use from last year. You should have seen our faces when we saw the graph. So although we were 18% below the Madison average last year...we know we can do better ( because we already did)

We are also tracking our mileage, weighing our trash and recycling and tracking how much local/organic food we purchase.

First impression: this is a lot of data to collect. I have already lost the forms once. We are writing on scraps of paper and losing them. I feel like we are off to a limping start.

Our goals for this month:
1. We have to address our electric use and strategies to get it lower.
2. This is the ideal time to focus on eating local...so we are setting the bar high.
3. Get some systems in place for collecting and keeping track of our data.

What have we gottten ourselves into?

We are one of five Madison families selected to participated in year long Greener, Faster Challenge.

We have made a commitment to reduce our energy use to 40% below the Madison average. ( the good news...we are already 20% below, the bad news: we have done all the easy stuff already)

The challenge officially begins in August.

We will be working on goals related to
-energy use
-water conservation
-travel
-eating local and organic
-reducing our trash and increasing recycling

We took some steps to get better in each of these areas when we started this blog. But this challenge is more public and puts us in friendly competition with 4 other families. And there are prizes involved!

More details to follow.

How good is your sun screen?

Right after I bought sunscreen to take up to the cabin I found out about the Environmental Work Groups' (EWG) 4th annual sunscreen guide. (Thank you Willy St Coop!)

The two sunscreens I bought didn't rank very well.
Banana Boat is rated "Caution" because of poor UVA protection, unbalanced sunscreen,and it contains vitamin A (what's wrong with vitamin A you ask? According to EWG it may hasten the growth of tumors on sun exposed skin. That's comforting.)

Our second choice, No Ad, ranks worse at "Avoid" because it contains oxybenzone (a synthetic estrogen which is absorbed through the skin...so a hormone disrupter), as well as vitamin A.

I'm not feeling great about slathering this stuff on my kids...

The good news is there is a long list of recommended sunscreens. The bad news is I don't recognize most of them..which means they are probably not available at Walgreens. But I have to stop by tomorrow..so I'm going to check out what they have.

Want to find out how good (or bad) your sunscreen is? Go to Find your Sunscreen.

Photo credit: flickr gotreadgo

Why I haven't been blogging

Every time I ask myself "Blog or Garden?" Garden wins!

It's about time

The President's Cancer Panel recently released a 'ground breaking" report stating

"The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated."

Here's a New York times oped

Currently the toxic chemicals actually in use in this country are not monitored and only about 200 out of 82,000 chemicals entering the market since 1976 have been tested for safety (Isn't that comforting) Source: Green America

A bill was recently introduced to protect Americans from harmful chemicals. It's called the Safe Chemicals Act. Here's a New York Times article

You can support this law by signing this petition

I did!

Photo Credit: Flickr the_justified_sinner