Please note, this competition is now closed to entry…

YOU COULD HAVE WON a 7 inch “PanDigital” digital photo frame!

Our family uses these all the time and it saves printing out photos (which saves trees), we just load our favorite photos and watch them scroll through! This digital frame normally retails for about $80.00 and features built in 64MB memory for all your favorite photos.

Our Everyday Stuff Freebie - August 2009

Entering the competition is easy, simply leave a comment against this post telling us why you would like the PanDigital photo frame, leaving a comment against this post earns +1 point (comment must contain a valid email address);

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• PRIZE: A 7 inch “PanDigital” digital photo frame (Approximate value $80)
• GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Monday, August 31st 2009 at 8pm CST
• NUMBER OF WINNERS: One – picked at random using random.org
• PRIZE SHIPS: USA or Canada
• THE USUAL: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. In the event of a tie the winner(s) will be selected using random.org and announced on Monday 31st August 2008. Good luck!

More Competition Info…

You can read all of our competition policies here; COMPETITION POLICIES

As our family attempts to take steps to simplify our lives and help our planet, I wanted to read something that was relevant to organic food and a simply life. This book fits the bill.

On Good Land, is an excellent book. You are drawn into the story of this small farm in the suburbs of Santa Barbara, California from the very beginning. The author, Michael Ableman has refused to let Fairview Gardens, this small farm be destroyed by the urbanization of California farmlands. He writes with wisdom and wit about the environmental and cultural benefits of small scale, diversified agriculture, and the link between good food on the table and the good earth it comes from. Good Food starts in the fields and orchards that are well tended. He makes the point that if we ignore this fundamental rule, it could be at our own peril as it says in the book “without good farming there can be no good food; and without good food there can be no good life.”

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I was just surfing on the net looking for random facts about the 3-R’s, (recycle, reuse, reduce), when I came across some information that I found to be amazing, at least to me.

• 1 ton of un-coated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees
• 1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees

A pallet of copier paper (20-lb. sheet weight, or 20#) contains 40 cartons and weighs 1 ton. Therefore:

• 1 carton (10 reams) of 100% virgin copier paper uses 0.6 trees
• 1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333.3 sheets
• 1 ream (500 sheets) uses 6% of a tree (and those add up quickly!)
• 1 ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper (used for magazines like National Geographic and many others) uses a little more than 15 trees (15.36)
• 1 ton of coated, lower-end virgin magazine paper (used for news magazines and most catalogs) uses nearly 8 trees (7.68)

There is controversy on just how much energy is saved through recycling. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) states on its website that “a paper mill uses 40 percent less energy to make paper from recycled paper than it does to make paper from fresh lumber. Critics often argue that in the overall processes, it can take more energy to produce recycled products than it does to dispose of them in traditional landfill methods. This argument is followed from the curbside collection of recyclables, which critics note is often done by a second waste truck. Recycling proponents point out that a second timber or logging truck is eliminated when paper is collected for recycling. (more…)

The month of July has been a fight against my own conscience. My old truck had reached the point where I could buy a new truck that was much more affordable, lower monthly payments and have a new truck warranty. I started researching what type or car, truck or SUV I might want and my new green inner voice was shouting at me to buy a hybrid.

I looked at the new Ford Fusion hybrid and was really impressed with its design, features and most of all great fuel economy… But my practical side just kept on fighting back, we have five dogs at home and will soon have kids too, the Ford Fusion is just too small for one dog, let alone five dogs and a few kiddos! So what were my other options? I found several larger hybrids such as the Ford Escape hybrid but the starting prices for the Escape range were out of my league, even further out of reach were SUVs like the GMC Yukon hybrid. After weeks of inner turmoil I just couldn’t find a car, truck or SUV that was green, affordable and practical. It was clear that I would have to compromise somewhere.

image by Jety

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reusable totes

We have been using reusable shopping bags since February of this year. It is amazing how few plastic bags we now have that we have to recycle. We use to get aroung 10 to 15 plastic bags a week, from our trips to the grocery store, drug store, shopping center etc. Now that we use reusable shopping bags, that number has been reduced down to maybe one or two a week. That’s because we occasionally forget our bags. We keep some in Carter’s vehicle and some in my VW. Just as a rough guesstimate, we have reduced the number of plastic bags we have use by about 75 bags for the last six months. It is really easy to use the reusable bags, you just have to make it a habit to bring them into the store.  If we all would reduce and eventually quit using plastic bags, what an impact it would have on our environment. The following information was a real eye opener for me:
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On the news the other night there was a story about a drought ridden area in Texas where the wells had gone dry. Except for one family, everyone was having to truck water in just to exist. The one exception was a family that had installed a rainwater collection system. Even with little to no rainfall they were able to supply their estimated 1,500 gallon a month need.

From our days of sailing we were pretty aware of the ease and practicality of collecting rain for our needs. On some islands where the only water comes from desalination systems water can be nearly as expensive as diesel fuel.

When we moved to Luna Azul we installed a rain collection system and were amazed, in an area that only gets 17 inches of annual rainfall, how much of our needs could be met from the rain.

In case you have never calculated how much water you are letting get away, here is the simple formula. I will use our 30 ft by 30 ft barn as an example. Converting ft to inches= 360″x360″=129,600 sq inches. So if it rains for one hour at 1″/hr you have 129, 600 cu inches divided by 231 cu in / gallon = 561 gallons of water. In one hour!!!

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Working from home gives me the opportunity to run a green office. I went to Staples to get paper the other day and took stock of all the recycled products I could get. I have been buying Staples 100% recycled copy paper for a while. It is 20lb, 90 bright, made from 100% recycled paper without using chlorine or chlorine compounds. It serves my purpose as well as non recycled paper and helps me help the environment, that always feels good!

As I searched the shelves, I found that Staples offers more than 3,000 different environmentally friendly office products, not only recycled copy paper, but file folders, packing peanuts , recycled Post-it notes, light bulbs and even recycled storage boxes!
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