Keeping Busy

Between a hike in the gorge, picking berries, making freezer jam, enjoying the German beers at the Portland International Brewfest, BBQs with friends, and me spending a few days at the beach with my mom and sisters, we've started a huge project at our house. We've begun the remodel of our office and laundry room.
It's been a busy week. I've been meaning to get on here and post some pictures but it's not easy since our computer isn't hooked up right now. So here are a few from the highlights of our week and we'll share more once the remodel project is further along. Right now we're a little stalled on the project. In taking down the wood panels that used to make up the ceiling and walls in the back of the house, Gabe discovered some insulation that needed further investigation. We should have results from the asbestos test tomorrow and should be back to work soon. That is if the test comes back saying we have a green light to continue.
-h

Night Out

I've really been feeling my old age starting to settle in lately.  After all, I will be 30 in just 2 short months.  Nothing has made me feel my age more than our night out last night.  We got tickets to see Wolf Parade, one of my favorite bands, at the Crystal Ballroom.  When Gabe and I first started dating, we were going to concerts and shows at least once a week and many of them were at the Crystal so we have had a lot of good times there.  I was really looking forward to seeing one of my favorite bands at a venue where we've had a lot of memories.

Well, we got downtown about the time the doors opened and we were seriously the oldest people in line.  I'm not kidding!  We were surrounded by kids between the age of 14 and 17, all drinking Monsters.  When we got up to the third floor ballroom we were 2 of the only 1/2 dozen people in the over 21 side of the room.  So, I'm sitting on a bench in the Crystal wondering where the last 5 years have gone.  How have I gotten so old?  My feelings of old age didn't go away when the opening band started at 9 o'clock and Wolf Parade didn't go on until 10:15.  We did this kind of thing all the time 5 years ago but now I think it's catching up with me.  

Even with all of my depressing reflections about my upcoming milestone, the show was great.  The opening band, Listening Party, was ok.  Wolf Parade put on a good show, playing a lot of songs off their first album and an equal amount from their new album.  I prefer the old one so I was happy they played quite a few from that album.  Being the old geezers we are, we left about 11:30ish when the crowd was cheering for an encore.  I didn't have to be up at 6am to go to work today, but I decided for Gabe's sanity that we'd better head home at that point.  I'm sure today he's really feeling 24 again!

-h

Long Beach

Washington that is...not California.
Gabe and I wanted to get some camping in this summer but haven't put much time or energy into planning anything. We decided, oh...about Wednesday, that this weekend maybe the only chance we have this summer. I started to do some investigating. We really wanted to head to the coast to escape the 90+ degree heat. The only problem is that Oregon State campgrounds at the coast fill up before you can even blink. I'm not sure when reserving a campsite a year in advance became the norm around here. How can anyone do anything spur of the moment anymore?
Well, we decided to look at exploring somewhere new. That's how we ended up camped on the Long Beach Peninsula this weekend. And it really is the longest beach in the United States, at 28 miles of sand. It was a really fun place to explore. We didn't spend too much time actually on the beach because it was really windy. After all, how can you spend a day at a beach in the Northwest without being blown around? But we did hike some of the Discovery Trail that commemorates the end of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and their arrival at the Pacific. We visited the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, stopped by the Cranberry Museum, walked out to the North Head lighthouse (where 2 deer walked out of the woods and on to the trail right in front of us...so close I could have touched one of them), and we explored Cape Disappointment State Park and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.
Throw a few campfires in there, and it was a perfect weekend. Here are a couple pictures.

Gabe standing with the bronze statue of William Clark on the Discovery Trail

-h

Greece Slideshow

For those that want to see all the 209 pictures we posted, here is a slideshow.

You can also click here. Once you're there, you can click on the "View Map" button to get an idea of where we went.

Greece Highlights

This is for those of you who want to know how our trip was, but don't want to look at the huge number of pictures we took.
We'll give you the highlights!

Athens
Our trip to Greece began and ended in the huge sprawling city of Athens. Like most big cities it's loud and smoggy. The heat of Athens is made worse by the concrete of the city. But there are a lot of things to see and do in Athens, and the public transportation system is really easy to use. At both of our hotels were just a few blocks from a metro station. And the extensive metro station goes all the way out to Pireaus, the port, so that makes the trip to get ferries to the islands really easy!

Our exploration of Athens included: the Acropolis, the ancient Agora, Hadrian's Library, the National Botanical Gardens, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the National Archeological Museum, Likavitos Hill, the National Art Gallery, and Greece's first (and only) mirobrewery: Craft.
We also took a day trip from Athens to Cape Sonioun. It is the southern tip of mainland Greece and has this amazing Temple to Poseidon there.

Delphi
We were excited to get out of Athens and venture to Delphi in Central Greece. It was a 3 hour bus ride and in his excitement to get off the bus, Gabe left his book sitting on the bus. The purpose of our trip to Delphi was to explore ancient Delphi and the Sanctuary of Apollo. Delphi is beautiful. It's up in the mountains and everywhere you look there are magnificent views all the way to the Gulf of Corinth. It's no wonder the ancient Greeks built this important oracle here.
After exploring the ruins we also spent some time in the museum where many of the artifacts found in Delphi are held.From Delphi we rode the bus back to Athens, took the metro to Pireaus in the hope of catching an early afternoon ferry to our first island: Mykonos. No luck on that. We had to get the last ferry that left Pireaus at 5:45pm and arrived in Mykonos at 9. That wasn't a huge deal except it meant that we had to kill almost 4 hours in Pireaus. So we decided to go get some lunch and we're walking to the place Gabe saw in our guidebook and wants to try. Did I mention that we're carrying all our luggage with us?
Well, as we're walking, I step off the curb and twist my ankle. I couldn't walk and my ankle starts to swell immediately. In my fall off the curb I also fell on a car and put a small dent in the hood but that wasn't my biggest concern. What I cared most about was not letting this ruin the rest of our vacation. So I popped some ibuprofen and we found a small shaded park for me to rest in until our ferry departed.
That's not it. When we get to Mykonos it's dark. Gabe's looked at the map in the guide book and thinks he can get us to our hotel easily on foot even though I sprained my ankle 8 hours ago. I'm not sure why I agreed to this but we take off on foot and quickly discover that the port where our ferry came in isn't even on the map in our guide book and there's no way we can walk there. Fortunately we come to a bus stop and we decide to wait and catch the bus into the city. Once we arrive at the bus station, once again Gabe believes he can get us to our hotel room on foot. So we take off on foot, and we walk, and we walk ,and we walk. Remember, I sprained my ankle. By this time I'm tired, in pain, and angry, so I insist that Gabe ask for directions. He ends up asking for directions 3 times and it turns out we're way off course. What we didn't know about Mykonos town when we started this journey is that there are NO street signs and the streets are like a maze. They were intentionally built that way to keep pirates out of the city.
So, after "exploring" the city for 2 hours I suggested (or should I say forced) Gabe to call our hotel and find out how to get there. The friendly owner of the hotel actually came and got us and walked with us the rest of the way.

Mykonos & Delos
The reason we went to Mykonos is because it's the island closest to Delos. I really wanted to visit Delos because the entire island is one archaeological site. Gabe and I both agree that the floor mosaics were definitely the coolest thing we saw there. These lions were pretty cool too!We also had some time to explore the maze of streets that make up Mykonos Town. It really is a beautiful city and this is the one place I wish we would have had one more day to explore. We tried fried octopus at a wonderful seafood taverna here on Myknonos. It's much better than calimari.Naxos
The next island we were off to explore was Naxos. This island has a little bit of everything: great beaches, mountains and fertile valleys. We decided to rent a car here for the entire time we spent on this island because we knew we wanted to explore all of it. We stayed in this little beach village, Mikri Vigla, that has one of the best beaches on the island. It was wonderful. We spent a lot of time on the beach but we also explored nearly every part of the island. The little village of Halki was fun. Since the 19th century Halki has had strong connections with the production of Kitron, a delicious liqueur. So we went to the oldest distilery to try some. Naxos was my favorite place by far!Santorini (Thira)
From Naxos we went to Santorini. Gabe says this was his favorite island.
The submerged caldera of Santorini was the epicenter of what was probably the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history. Our hotel was on the rim of the caldera and the views were amazing! We enjoyed many sunsets from the deck outside our door.
While on Santorini we decided to do a boat tour of the 3 other islands off the coast of Santorini. 2 of the islands are still volcanically active. We hiked to the top of Nea Kameni and the views were fantastic. We also rented a car one day so that we could do some wine tasting and head over to the east side of the island (Kamari) to play at the beach. That night we also went to the village of Oia for the sunset. We weren't the only ones. There were hundreds of people waiting for the sunset. So much for romance!
Santorini was our last stop, so from there we took a ferry back to Athens. We stayed in Athens for a day and then caught our flight home. That's our trip. It was amazing!

That's the run down of our trip. We took over 500 photos. We'll get a link on here to more pictures if anyone's interested.
-h

It's good to be home!

We got home on Thursday afternoon.  (That's after some drama getting home from the airport and not sleeping for 24 hours...I seriously can't thank Dave enough for saving us!)

We had a great time and are excited to share photos and stories.  But we're both also very excited to be home.

Top 10 things we love about being home:

10.  Taking a shower without getting water on every surface in the bathroom.  Closed showers aren't very popular in Greece.

9.  Toilet seats!

8.  Sleeping in a Queen sized bed.  In 2 of our hotels we had 2 twin beds that were pushed together.  Very European!

7.  Not having to live out of a backpack.

6.  Use of the Internet and computer whenever we like and not having to pay 4 Euro for it.

5.  Beer that actually tastes like hops, and not just water.  Heineken and Mythos just didn't cut it for 17 days.

4.  More options for breakfast than plain yogurt and hard boiled eggs.

3.  Not being the only people eating dinner at 7pm.  Most Greeks don't eat until the sun goes down and we ate a lot of dinners alone.

2.  Being able to read street signs and know exactly where we're going!

And the number one, top reason we're happy we're home...

1.  Being able to flush toilet paper.  (Apparently Greek pipes are not made for the disposal of TP and either bathrooms don't have TP or they have a little garbage can next to the toilet for the disposal of used toilet paper.  

The process of readjusting our internal clock is slow.  We went to a 4th of July BBQ at Dave and Carley's last night and I was ready for bed about 9:30.  So, I think we left their place around 10:30.  Unfortunately, the party in our neighborhood wasn't over until 3am.  And then I was wide awake at 7!  I'm not one who normally takes naps, and I really didn't want to take one because it doesn't help the time adjustment, but I couldn't resist this afternoon.  I left Gabe responsible for getting pictures ready to post.  So, if you're interested in seeing what our trip to Greece was like...those photos and stories will be coming as soon as possible.

-h

Leaving Santorini

Well the time has come for us to leave the islands and head back to Athens. We're going to miss the laid back atmosphere that the islands have when compared to the big city. Santorini really is a beautiful place. We rented a car yesterday and explored the island. We tasted wine at three different wineries, Santorini is famous for its white and desert wines. They grow grapes in an interesting way here, low to the ground so they retain moisture better and it also protects the fruit. We also got to check out the black sand beach they have here and then went to see the red sand beach as well. The cliff views from each of the different villages on the island was unique and amazing.

It's hard to believe that we'll be back in Portland in a few days!

See you all soon.

-G

Sun and Sand in the Cyclades

We are enjoying the sun and beaches in Naxos. This is our second day here after a couple days in Mykonos. We enjoyed our time in Mykonos, but it is certainly a tourist destination, with cruise ships pulling in to port and partying till the wee hours. The main reason we were there was to see Delos, considered the center of the Cyclades. The quantity and quality of the ruins there was amazing. Mykonos town (Hora) was a beautiful town, all narrow alleys and white painted buildings on the hillside. Pictures will come once we get back.

We have a car here in Naxos, so we've been exploring the island extensively. The car is a Chevy Matiz, a little better than the "convertible" Beetle we had in Cozumel. There are some neat historical sites, and many old churches here. This is also where the bulk of the marble for the many of the ancient Greek building projects came from. Our plan for the rest of the time here on Naxos is to enjoy the beach and the cool Aegean waters. Then we'll be off for Santorini.

-G and h

Quick Post From Delphi

What a change of pace around here. This is a small town of around 3000, it does live off tourism, but is much more relaxing than Athens. We got in yesterday afternoon and checked out the town, and then visited the ruins today. Pretty amazing place with great views of mountains and the Gulf of Corinth. We stay the night tonight (it's 3:18PM) and then take the bus back to Athens. The plan is to head to the port of Piraeus and head to Mykonos.

-G and h

Here we are...

sitting in Syntagma square a few blocks from our hotel using Athens' free wifi (free here in the park anyway).
When we arrived yesterday we were wiped out from going more than 24 hours without sleeping.
So, today was our first chance to explore. We first went to the Acropolis and the Agora. This truly is a Disneylansd for historians. We also went to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the largest temple in Greece.
Gabe says I'm writing a novel here and I need to wrap this up.
-h

We're off!

Heidi and I are at the gate waiting to get on our flight. In 10 or so hours we'll be on the other side of the Atlantic. It seems like the plane is booked solid, so right now we're not even sitting next to each other.

They're boarding now, so see you in a few weeks!

-G

I love vacation

And this is only my first day!

I seriously have had the best day! I got out of bed pretty early...I thought I'd be really tiered from the restless nights of sleep I've had lately. But at 8, I was wide awake and couldn't get myself to fall back to sleep. So, I decided to get up and go to the gym. It's embarrassing to admit how long it's been since I've been there, so I won't. There were only about 10 other people there. Fantastic! When I got off the elliptical my legs felt like jelly, that gives you and idea of how long I've been avoiding the gym. But I felt great. It always feels great afterwards, but I have so much trouble convincing myself off the couch. I spent the rest of the "morning" reading this. The 4th, and final, book comes out in August.
My afternoon was perfect. It was helped out by how wonderful the weather is today. Currently it is 72 and pretty much clear of clouds. Other than the weather making this the perfect afternoon, I went and got my hair cut. Finally! I've managed to put it off for weeks. After my cut I walked down to Powell's, found a few things there, and then walked here to enjoy my much needed end-of-the-year massage. I had some pretty huge knots that needed to be worked out of my shoulders.
Now I'm home, waiting for Gabe. He had to work late today (usually he's off at 11 on Fridays). They have a TON going on, and being that he won't be back for 3 weeks, he felt some obligation. Now he's been waiting at the bank downtown for the last 1/2 hour. He's trying to pick us up some of these.
Well, we're heading out with some friends tonight to celebrate the beginning of summer. We'll be heading to Clyde Common where we'll be trying absinthe. The FDA loosened its restricitons on this spirit and I've been wanting to give it a try. I'll let you know how it is! Then we're heading to Bailey's Taproom. A place Gabe's been desperately wanting to try. It should be a fun way to start the summer, the weekend, and see our friends before we leave for 3 weeks!
Our list of things to do this weekend, in order to be ready for our departure on Monday, is at least a mile long. Hopefully, I'll be back on here before we take off.
-h

School's Out for Summer!

Thought it would be fun to share this with everyone today.  Gotta love the Muppets with a little Alice Cooper!

It was tough saying good-bye to my students today, and I'd much rather have one more day to laugh and have fun with them then clean my classroom.  My messy classroom and final trimester grades are still waiting for me in the morning.

We're pretty excited.  Our ETD (estimated time of departure) is quickly approaching.  We leave for Greece in 5 days!!!!

-h

Only 3 more!!!

That's 3 more student days anyway.

We had our Living History Day today at school.  I spent the day in costume as a Civil War surgeon.  Because I was so busy all day, I didn't have a single chance to snap a photo.  I'm really bummed out by that.

This morning I went outside to set up my field hospital.  I got help from a few colleagues to set up an easy-up tent to use for my cover from the terrible weather that was forecast for today.  (I don't think it got much over 50).  The wind was blowing pretty strong and I was concerned that the tent may not stay where I wanted.  Well, I should have listened to that thought and feeling.  I went back to my classroom to get the day started with my first period class and I then saw the most terrifying thing out my window.  My easy-up tent was on the football field.  It blew down the hill, past the grandstand and was on it's way off school property.  At that point I had 20 kids in my room (3 minutes before first period started) and there wasn't much I could do.  Other, than ask a trusted student to run out there and rescue it.  Which is what I did.  All that to say, my field hospital was not all I wanted it to be and it was cold and windy ALL day.  Luckily, the torrential downpours never came and I had some company.  Gabe reluctantly agreed to come and help me out this afternoon.  He was a great help even though he claims he's terrified of middle school students.

We are both spending the evening relaxing with a much needed hops filled beverage.

-h

Amusement

My team of teachers took our 8th graders to Oaks Park today. We've spent the last 2 years with these kids, and in 9 days they'll be off to high school. So, we wanted to do something fun with them. Something they won't soon forget. And let me tell you...they had a blast. I don't think I've seen so many smiling middle schoolers in one day. It's amazing how the teenage angst goes away when you're laughing and riding rides. The kids were soooo funny when I got on the roller coaster with them. They were all: "I can't believe you're really going to ride this with us!" I guess I never thought my middle school teachers had any fun either.

Thinking about my own middle school experience, Oaks Park hasn't changed much from when I was there in middle school. Yes, they have some new rides but it really looks much as it did 15 years ago! (See the above picture...It's the Screamin' Eagle and it replaced the big dragon ride) I guess I'm really glad it hasn't changed much. It's sorta neat that the Oaks Park I remember from age 14 is the same one they'll remember. Wow! I'm getting really sentimental. It must be nearly time to say good-bye to these guys. I'm really going to miss a lot of them!

The day was really a blast. The kids had a blast and we had a blast with them. We did have a few who made themselves sick, but it's amazing how quickly a person recovers at age 14. Oh...to be young again! Well, maybe not that young. There are some more fun end of the year activities to look forward to. But I have to admit that what I'm looking forward to the most is the morning of Friday June 13th. That's when I'll still be in bed at 10am!
-h

Weekend Play

So if last weekend was full of work, this one was most definitely full of play. Heidi and I, along with my coworker Ross and his girlfriend Savannah, went to Bend for the weekend. We left Saturday morning, leaving sunny Portland for rainy central Oregon. We were all pretty hungry when we got into town, so we headed directly for the Deschutes Brewery pub in downtown. After lunch we decided to go explore the Tumalo Falls area, just outside of town. As we closed in on our destination, the weather closed in on us. It started as heavy rain, which quickly turned to hail and lightening. It had hailed enough to completely cover the road, making things pretty slick, even with "the beauty of all wheel drive". Needless to say, there was no hike, and no viewing of the falls.

Sunday I decided to show everyone around the Newberry volcanic area, south of Bend. We started at Lava Butte, unfortunately the view was pretty poor as the area was socked in with clouds. Heidi did manage to get some good pictures around the rim though.

We lucked out as we headed to Newberry Caldera, the weather cleared up nicely, there were some clouds, but the sun warmed us up. Our first stop was Paulina Creek Falls, a 60 foot double falls. The lower view point was snowed in, so we had to make do with taking pictures from the upper view point.

By then we had done about all the exploring we wanted and were needing nourishment. Some food and beer at Bend Brewing Company took care of that. We played a round of bocce ball in Drake Park, carefully trying to miss the seeming endless piles of goose poop. It was then that we went to the concert at the Les Schwab Amphitheater, the real reason we were in Bend in the first place. We saw Modest Mouse along with The National and The Breeders. It was a great show, and the weather even held out, I don't think I felt a single drop of rain.

-G

Weekend Work

We've been on quite a blogging hiatus, I know! This time of year is always so crazy busy and when we aren't busy, I want to be sleeping. Last week was quite a disaster. It was exhausting spending my day in a classroom that's nearly 100 degrees (I'm not joking...this week when it was 95 on Friday it had to be well into that in my classroom). I had one of the worst days with my 6th period class from hell, and Gabe had a dental emergency. It's a pretty long story but I'll give you the short version. He's had a lot of trouble with one of his front teeth. And this week, that problem tooth completely fell out! The tooth's dead, it's been through a root canal and most recently he had a crown put on it. Well, apparently the tooth wasn't strong enough to take the crown. Gabe was enjoying his favorite snack at work on Wednesday, bit into a Cheeto and his front tooth literally fell out of his mouth. He was pretty freaked out! Luckily, the dentist was available and he glued it back in. All this to say that we'll be spending our economic stimulus check on Gabe's dental implant...not on our trip to Greece, like I'd hoped.

So how do we relax after a stressful week like that? I decided that we should spend the weekend working in the sweltering heat. I know...I'm insane!
Here's what we've been working on this weekend.
From start to finish... I've expanded my garden this year and used the space I previously had reserved for my dahlias. So, we decided to make another raised bed just for me to plant dahlias in. Hopefully, this means I'll have a bunch more this year to enjoy! It was a tough project and we chose a tough weekend to do it. Since it was in the 90s yesterday we did most of the work today.
I just want you to know that Gabe didn't do all the work. That's the false illusion the photos imply. It's just that don't like him taking pictures of me when I'm really gross, hot and sweaty. Gabe, on the other hand, doesn't seem to mind!
-h
Only 3 and 1/2 more weeks!

To those who teach

Today is teacher appreciation day and I've decided to take the opportunity to share another story from the wonderful world of Middle School. Since I'm trying to have a positive attitude at this time in the year, I won't complain about the fact that I have 8th graders who are still coming to class without something to write with. Summer is getting close and we're all getting tired. So this story really brightened my day today!
One of my favorite students came into class today (I know I'm not suppose to have favorites...what can I say, there are just some I enjoy more than others) and very matter-of-factly stated:
"In a perfect world everyone would have the same brain capacity as me."
I don't know where she heard that, or where she got that, but I found it so funny. I just had to think that if those words were true, my job would be soooo much easier. And so much more fun! I love the teenage brain, I just wish they all had the same motivation to use that capacity sometimes!
-h

Put your green behind the green

We did it! I'm pretty proud of us. Through the month of April we made a lot of changes in our house. Some small, some big, but all of them will greatly impact the health of the planet as we continue them each day for the rest of our lives.
As the last action in our month long endeavor to live more green, I decided I wanted to donate to an organization that is working every day to keep the planet healthy. There are lots to choose from. You can go international with this one. Or locally with this one. After doing some research, and reading lots of mission statements, I decided to give to The Conservation Fund.
Our quest to live more green isn't over. It's always been important to us, but now we've really made it a priority in our life and I'm excited by that. If we all did something, even just the smallest thing, that change could mean the world.
-h

In Hot Water

Did you know your water heater can use up to 25% of the energy consumed in your house? It's typically considered to be the second largest energy consumer, following only heating. There are a few different ways to cut down on your water heating bill. There are some that are pretty obvious, like don't use as much hot water by taking shorter showers or washing your clothes in cold water. You can also turn down the temperature on your water heater, though your dishwasher may not turn out as clean of dishes if you turn it down too much. The step we are taking is to further insulate our water heater by wrapping it with an insulating blanket. Most modern water heaters have decent insulation, but giving it some extra can't hurt. Like the article mentions, if the outside of yours is warm, it will most definitely benefit from some extra insulation.

-G

One more thing to recycle!

Your old tennis shoes.
Gabe's always bugging me about having way more shoes than he thinks is necessary. I even just blogged about my newest pair. I can't help it. Shoes are so easy to shop for and I don't have to feel guilty about how much weight I've gained since we got married.
So, I decided something I should do is recycle some of the old tennis shoes I've been holding on to. I haven't thrown them away because I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm glad I didn't because recycling them is easy. Nike has this great program that takes the used shoes and creates different parts of sports surfaces. I know this is something they've been doing for a while, and now my shoes can be a part! There are lots of locations across the country that will take your donations. If there's not a Nike donation site near you, here are some other ideas about what to do with those old tennis shoes. (other than tossing them in the trash)
-h

Fabric

Today, Gabe bought this shirt made from organic cotton.  We previously bought towels made from organic cotton and we love them.  Yes, they cost a little bit more but it's worth it because buying clothes made from 100 percent organic cotton eliminates lots of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides from the environment.  Whenever possible, buying clothes made from organic cotton will keep you and the Earth happy and healthy.

Does anyone have any green tips they'd like to share with us?  We're running out of ways we can change our life to help the planet.  Any help?  We need something good for these last 3 days!

-h

Draw The Curtains

Now that summer is fast approaching (it was 72 today!), it's time for us to start thinking about keeping our house cool. Since we don't have air conditioning we rely on keeping the house closed up during the day to keep the house livable during the evening. Once it cools off in the evening we open up again. To keep the sun out as much as possible, we'll be keeping our new curtains closed up tight. The curtains keep the sun from warming up surfaces in the house that then radiate the heat back into the air. Doing this keeps our house as cool as possible during the day. For those of you with air conditioning, this will cut down on your cooling bill.

Really, this post is just to brag about the fact that I finished hemming the curtains we got a while ago.

-G

Take action

against climate change. If the threat of global warming and climate change is something you're concerned about, then let those in the country who make the decisions know how much you care.
I sent this email off today. There are a lot of things individuals can do to lessen the impact we make on the Earth but sometimes businesses need the "encouragement" of legislation to do the right thing.
-h

New Resource

As I was browsing around this evening I stumbled onto Metaefficient, a review site of sorts that focuses on efficient and green products. It's got a pretty broad cross section of reviews in it's index, mostly stuff that we use everyday, not just specialized "green" products. One item that I looked at that Heidi and I have been discussing is rainwater storage. Basically a barrel you catch rain in to be used in the summer to water plants. I also read the review of the newest rechargeable batteries since the ones we're using right now are a few years old and don't hold much of a charge. When I do decide they're done, I'll be sure to recycle them.

-G

Go paperless...

at least at the bank.  

I just signed us up for paperless bank statements.  Now we'll get electronic notice that our bank account information is viewable and paper won't need to be wasted on printing the statements.  Plus, the banks keep all the statements electronically on file for 18 months.  Here's another way to look at it...if every household took advantage of online bank statements, the money saved could send 17,000 recent high school graduates to college.  When you look at it that way, printed bank statements seem like a huge waste of resources

Also, don't forget to decline ATM receipts.  We've been doing this one for a while.  ATM receipts are one of the top sources of liter on the planet.  I often see people take them from the machine and directly put them in the garbage.  Why not just decline them and not take a receipt at all?

-h

Earth Day

So today is Earth Day, the 38th annual day where we are to gather as a planet and take some time to respect our earth. I don't really have anything specific to post about today. I just want all of you to take some time and think about what the earth means to you. What do you care about most? Is it the flora and fauna? Scenic views of mountains? Fresh clean water? I realize that these things are important to all of us, but is there one thing that you care about the most? I'm thinking that for me, the most important thing is something we have plenty of here in Oregon. It's those deep, dark, damp forests that you find all over western Oregon. The ones where everything is different shades of green, there is moss on every surface and everything seems moist. I'm thinking about places in pictures like this one, and this one.

Now that you have an image in your head about what you love about our earth the most. What are you going to do to save it, to make sure it doesn't change, to make sure it's still there for future generations?

-G

Glass vs. Aluminum

I thought this post would be sort of a no-brainer, I had assumed that glass would win easily. What I found was a complicated maze to determine what makes the most environmental sense. When looking at making containers from virgin materials, glass wins, hands down. When you start looking at containers containing recycled materials, it gets a little murkier. Cans are typically 40% recycled, while bottles are only 20-30%. The gap is even narrower when you take into account the fact that 45% of cans get recycled when only 25% of bottles get recycled. For more reading, check this out. The best solution is to use reusable containers, and the best way to do that is to make your own beer. I new there was a reason I liked making my own beer so much!

-G

New shoes

If you're in the market for a new pair of shoes. Try reducing the size of your footprint on the environment by purchasing shoes made from recycled materials. If every American household purchased just one pair of shoes made from recycled materials, 2 million pounds of waste could be diverted from landfills.

I purchased these today. Simple makes the soles from postconsumer tire rubber. They use a water based glue that isn't toxic...and there's more. But they aren't the only ones, Teva also has a new line of sustainable shoes. It looks like Keen also has a sustainable line but I'm having trouble finding it. It's not on their website but I did find it at REI.
-h

Buy Local

We enjoy going to the farmer's market but sometimes it doesn't fit into our schedule. I've found the best solution! Great local, organic produce brought straight to our doorstep. I choose the amount of produce I want, as well as how often I want it delivered. It's great! We should get our first bin on Tuesday! On average, US supermarket food travels 1,500-2,500 miles before it reaches your table. Buying local food can reduce the amount of petroleum consumed to transport your dinner by as much as 95%. These are just a few of the many reasons shopping local is better. (For more information click here and here.)

Let's not forget the benefits of organic. You can lower your exposure to pesticides by 90% just by choosing organic fruits and veggies. If just 1% of the nation's farmlands converted to organic agricultural systems, it would remove 26 million pounds of pesticides per year from the food we eat and from the environment. Buying organic, and supporting these local farmers, encourages this type of farming. Which I love! I'm also going completely organic for our garden this year too. I've never used pesticides, but I've also never been careful about the type of fertilizer I use either. I guess that's one more way we'll do our part.
-h
Check out this cute movie about organics!