Green Knitting

Photo by Better Homes and Gardens: Eco Friendly Yarns

Winter is coming!  Time to get all bundled up with scarves and hats!  Over the holiday weekend I learned how to knit thanks to my dear friend Helena.  Yarn is expensive if you buy wool or other natural fibers and the acrylic yarns will add to the microplastic fibers present in our waterways.  See my post "Oceans Filling with Microplastics"

What is a new knitter to do?  Thousands of wool products are given to thrift stores every month!  Wool sweaters can be found for as low as $5.00.  Or if you are lucky, much lower than that!  Check out craigslist for rumage sales in your area.  You may be able to find several wool sweaters!!

For information on how to turn that used wool sweater into skeins of beautiful recycled wool yarn check out Dawn Prickett's blogpost "Recycling Sweaters for Yarn".  She gives all the details from what to look for in a sweater and what not to buy to how to carefully take apart your sweater and clean and dry skeins of recycled yarn! 

For other eco alternatives to yarns check out Better Homes and Gardens and their blog post "10 Eco-Friendly Yarns You'll Love."

Not into knitting but love hand-made knit gloves and other beautiful things? Check out Heidi's Hand Knits by Heidi Krunkle!  Or click the image below!

Hand Knits by Heidi Krunkle!

Real Food 101: Notes for Government Officials*

It appears that there is a disconnect and some misunderstandings regarding the definition of real and/or raw FOOD.  According to the Webster's online dictionary FOOD is " a: material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy." 

"Artichokes & Raspberries" photo by COMPOST THIS!

Unfortunately most of America's food is not "real."  We seem to have an abundance, but in reality when you walk into a typical American grocery store, exactly how much food do you actually see?  I'm not kidding, I'm serious.  Walk down the aisles, how much food do you actually see (outside of the produce section)?  Is there anything that exists outside the box, bag, or plastic container? 

Real food is not processed into ultralight slices.  Real food does not contain chemical preservatives.  Real food does not come packaged in plastic or cardboard.  Real food comes from FARMS, from organic vegetable beds, and windowsills (think alfalfa sprouts).  Real food comes from your backyard chickens and goats.  Real, wholesome food.  

Where can I get "REAL MILK?"

Earlier this year I posted an article about raw milk.  "Milk it! Go Raw!"  It wasn't until l heard today's news about government officials (US government officials) forcing Americans to 'kill' their meal by drowning it in bleach "Citizens Forced to Pour Bleach on Feast" that I found out about another grievous error on part of officials. See "Police Raid Organic Raw Milk Co-op with Guns Drawn"  

I am a vegetable gardener, my sister raises urban chickens and I have friends who are beekeepers.  Food is our source of life, and we must protect our right to determine what sustains us.  The Amish are weighing in on the issue too, they've been drinking raw milk for hundreds of years.

Instead of fighting the organic farms and regulating how we can eat our food....officials should be regulating how much 'un-food' is in our food.  We should be forbidding corn syrup and other products that research has shown limit our bodies ability to digest fat, carbohydrates and protein. Such limitations encourage obesity,  diabetes, and high blood pressure/heart disease, and may be linked to various cancers.

*Government officials take note, this particular blog post is designed specifically for you.*

Warning--Imported Honey may not be safe --Buy Local!



Local Honey! Pixie Honey, Olympia, Washington, USA

Honey!  You can get it anywhere, but do you really know where it is coming from?  According to www.foodsafteynews.com most honey sold in the United States does not pass international saftey protocols.  Honey that the EU has banned, the USA has imported in record numbers. 

BY LOCAL HONEY!  How do you find local honey producers?  Check out your local Farmer's Market first.  Here is a great website: Local Harvest helps you find farmer's markets in your area.  You can even search by product name.  Search HONEY!

For those in the Seattle area check out Pixie Honey, from Olympia Washington.  They produce pure, raw, honey!  They have a booth at the Capitol Hill Broadway Market on Sundays through December 18, and at the Olympia market until the end of December.  The markets run May-December and April-December respectively. 

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMER'S MARKET!

Re-think Christmas!--Light a "Green" Tree

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a scrooge, and I love ----absolutely LOVE the smell of fresh pine, but as the world's population gets larger and larger and we consume more and more, we need to start thinking about and why we use something. That is why I think that we should re-think cutting down trees for Christmas. In the old days it made sense--we brought a pine tree into the home to remind us that the sun was going to return, that spring would be here soon. We did this over the solstice -the longest night of the year--and we would light it with candles (yes we used to do that for real) and we would burn a yule log in the fire as well to remind us that even in the coldest nights the sun (and warmth) will return.

Well, I think we need to rethink that a bit. According to the global post we cut down 36 MILLION trees for Christmas each and every year. Think of that for a second--more than a second--think about that, and keep it in your mind.
Remember what I said earlier about how if we don't do something pretty soon, we won't have any more rainforests. Rainforests for the most part are responsible for ALL AIR on the PLANET. My response to that was to have everyone plant something ANYTHING that could clean the air.
We grow Christmas trees on land that could have forest on it. We clear cut trees for 2-4 weeks out of the year (or less if you procrastinate), and then...............we throw them away.........tons and tons of trees............frocked, tinsled, and left for the garbage pickup person.
We need to rethink Christmas. I think next year I am going to make a new tradition. I am going to gather my friends and family and we are going to go on a Christmas day hike. We will sit or stand (depending on how wet and muddy things are) under the trees and hug and dance around them. Heck..........I may even try to find some battery operated christmas lights..........we will light the tree ---deck the halls-----take some photos------drink some egg nog and brandy and then take all the stuff down and put it in a box for next year-------

yeah. I'm going to re-think Christmas. Heck. I think I'm going to start this tradition this year.

Like the photo of trees above? see Artshop.com

Light the Tree Using Bicycle Power!

BICYCLISTS ..........................................................WE CAN MAKE Electricity

MEET







CHRISTMAS TREE



Ok Seattle.............we need to work on this!
I'm going to see if we can network the cyclists in this city together to light up the Christmas tree downtown! If Copenhagen can do it WE CAN TOO!

Check out the wall street journal article "Pedal Power: Copenhagen powers Christmas Tree with Bikes"
and how about in Peru: Solar, Wind and Bicycle-Powered Christmas Tree in Peru [photos]

Many thanks to "sea turtle" on flicker for making their photos (cyclists above) available to share. For more awesome photos by sea otter click here.

Steve Jobs, Thank you for a Green Apple

Steve Jobs and the folks at Apple have been striving since the beginning to produce an ecologically sound computer.  And they improve on the technology every year.  Much of the new MacBooks are recyclable!

Did you know that over 303.9 MILLION environmentally toxic techno babble units were dumped overseas in 2007 alone?

 Get this, Apple will recycle your old computer or mobile phone-- Locally! and give you a rebate for a new computer or a 10% discount on an I-pod. 

Make sure the recycler you choose is certified that they DON'T ship waste!! 

Visit e-Stewards to find a e-recycler near you!

 

Now for the statistics:  (U.S.A. 2007 statistics)

• 20.6 MILLION televisions
• 57.3 MILLION computers, printers, mice, keyboards, printers, fax machines etc etc.
• 126 MILLION cellphones

For complete details visit Electronics Takeback Coalition

The U.S. is not alone according to the Science Daily, China trashed 500,000 TONS of refrigerators 1.3 MILLION TONS of TVs, 300 TONS of personal computers in 2010.....and they have just begun to enter the digital age.  Can you imagine the impact in a few years?  

Think! Before you Throw!