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.