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.