Simple Ways Wednesdays - Episode 6

Posted by A. Caleb Hartley on August 27th, 2008 filed in Simple Ways, paper
1 Comment »

Two things I know for sure about environmentastic! readers:

1. You are interested in living a more “green” lifestyle, each for your own reasons.
2. You are tech savvy enough to subscribe to, read, or even write your own blog.

Knowing these two things makes it easy to suggest the next Simple Way to improve your environmental footprint:

Use paperless billing for your monthly expenses wherever possible

Take a look at your bills the next time they come in, or go to the website for the companies whose bills you receive each month.  Somewhere on the invoice, in the envelope (with all the wasteful flyers and inserts), or on the website, there will most likely be instructions on how to sign up for “paperless billing.”

Pay attention to how much paper you receive with each bill as they come in.  Multiply that amount of paper by the number of bills you receive, then multiply THAT by 12 months per year.  Now think about what you actually do with all that paper.  Me?  I throw it away (recycle it, actually, but it’s still a waste).

So you can see how much of a difference signing up for paperless billing can make!  Sign up today!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

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Do you use paperless billing already? Why or why not? What do you think about it? Let us know in the comments!

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Comment Luv

Posted by A. Caleb Hartley on August 22nd, 2008 filed in blog, comment
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environmentastic! just added CommentLuv to its list of plugins!

This will give a little more luv to anyone who leaves a comment by adding a link to the commenter’s last blog post (if the commenter is a blogger and enters their blog’s URL when they comment).

So comment away - you’re getting a little more luv each time you do!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

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Simple Ways Wednesdays - Episode 5

Posted by A. Caleb Hartley on August 20th, 2008 filed in Simple Ways, flea, pet
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Make your own flea tonic

If you have pets, you have fleas. If you have fleas, you probably are trying to rid yourself of them. I am.

So how do you do so without using toxic poisons or fluids or nasty smelling flea collars that probably do nearly as much harm to your pet as they do to your pet’s fleas?

Try this:

Lemon Flea Tonic

Thinly slice a whole lemon, including the peel.

Add the sliced lemon to 1 pint of boiling water.

Let steep overnight (don’t let it boil overnight, just steep - once you have added the lemon to the boiling water, you can turn the stovetop off).

The next day, strain out the lemon pieces and pour the liquid into a spray bottle to apply it. You can use it as often as necessary, but most likely once a day will be more than enough.

My wife and I will be trying this with our dog this weekend - we’ll let you all know how it works!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

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Have you used this recipe before? How did it work? Do you have other natural solutions for fleas? Let us know in the comments!

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National Aviation Day

Posted by A. Caleb Hartley on August 19th, 2008 filed in Uncategorized, aviation
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Happy National Aviation Day to all of you USA-ites out there!

August 19th is the anniversary of Orville Wright’s birthday in 1871, and was designated National Aviation Day in 1939 as a way to stimulate interest in aviation in the United States.

No, this is not related to the environment (not directly), but long-time readers of environmentastic! will know that I am not only an environmentalist, but also an aviation enthusiast. Sounds contradictory, but I don’t think it is - I believe that every industry (nearly every industry) has the potential to work in harmony with nature.

Even the (very) few industries that, by their very nature, cannot completely harmonize themselves with the environment - like Big Oil, Nuclear Power, etc. - can and should do their very best to limit the impact that they have.

That’s all for today, but tomorrow is Simple Ways Wednesday - and after that, I will actually be showing exactly how some in aviation are, indeed, looking toward the future and finding new ways to power aircraft in a more sustainable manner.

Until then…

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

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Simple Ways Wednesdays - Episode 4

Posted by A. Caleb Hartley on August 13th, 2008 filed in Simple Ways, Uncategorized, flower, gardening
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Prepare your flower beds eco-smartly!

If you’re a gardener, a simple way to reduce your impact on the Earth is to recycle your newspaper and yard waste into next spring’s flower bed.

A good time to prepare for planting next spring is coming up soon - autumn! If you prepare your flower beds right in the fall, they’ll be ready to go in the spring, when you need them. By using layers of material you would most likely throw away anyway, you can have a great flower bed prepared come planting time. You can even create a new plot - right over existing grass!

First, make a one-inch layer of wet newspaper over the area you would like to prepare (don’t use colored newsprint - only the black and white (and read all over) pages).

The next layer should consist of a couple of inches of peat moss, then do a few more layers of some kind of organic material like compost or grass clippings or chopped-up leaves (it will be autumn when you do this remember). Each of these layers should be about 4 or five inches deep. No more than three layers of organic material is necessary above the peat moss.

The last step is to plant your bulbs, then cover them with another two inches or so of mulch. Your total depth after all is said and done will be somewhere between one and a half feet and two feet or so. Over the course of the fall (before it gets to freezing temperatures), keep the plot watered (about an inch of water per week) and the “pile” will begin to disappear… it will sink right into the ground.

Once spring has sprung, you’ll see that your flower bed is now full of excellent, good, clean dirt. And the newspapers have acted as a weed-barrier, so you should have very few weeds to deal with, too!

And if you don’t keep the packaging or mark the type of flowers you planted (and your memory is like mine) you’ll have a nice surprise in Spring when they begin to grow and bloom!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

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Do you garden? What do you think of the “lasagna” method of flower bed preparation? Leave a comment and tell us!

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