So this week I did the following:
1) Completed my income taxes.
2) Filled out my census form.
3) Enrolled my daughter in kindergarten for the fall.
About the only thing I missed was voting, jury duty and signing up for military service! Although we are still house-sitting for a member of the armed forces (hubby's brother) and I voted a month ago for a school levy issue. Does that count?
FYI, we are due to hear this coming Monday about the grant proposal (actually, a preliminary letter of interest) that I wrote for Johnny and Michele's Heart & Soil organization. Crossing my fingers that they will invite us to submit a full proposal!
Tomorrow is a big day for events. The Healthy Kids and Green Parenting Fair, sponsored by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, will be held at the south Park Community Center, and the Tacoma Community Gardening Summit, sponsored by MetroParks, will be held at the Manitou Community Center, from 10-3 and 10-4, respectively. Johnny and Michele are presenters at the latter. Fortunately, the two locations are within a five minute drive of each other. :)
Friday, March 19, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Mystery solved? And more about hair
Remember my Seattle Organics castile soap mystery? I have an email in to a company called Ballard Organics, asking if they were once called Seattle Organics, since I haven't been about to find anything about the latter. It's possible, since I've been seing Ballard Organics soaps on the shelves in several stores, and the labels of the two products looks the same.
In any case, I wish I had heard of them sooner. I just received an order of AAA shea butter, which I ordered online because as much as I want to buy shea butter from a local company, Alaffia, $10 for 2 ounces doesn't compare to AAA's $25 for 16 oz. But on Ballard Organics web site, they sell 16 oz. of shea butter for $24.25. Even cheaper and local! I would need to find out more to know if their shea butter is unrefined and as good quality as Alaffia's and AAA's.
I know I talk a lot about hair, but it's a black woman thing! So, I went to get my hair done last week (for the first time in more than a year), along with my daughter, with a hair dresser who works in the barbershop where my husband gets his hair cut. I told him that I don't want to use chemicals on either of our heads, and I want to find something I can do with my hair naturally and easily, and that daughter wanted her hair straightened. He gave me a nice cut, and applied a product called Noodle Head, which he said would keep it curly. I like the cut, hate the product. It contains, of course, a list of unreadable ingredients (although a quick scan on the Safe Cosmetics Database shows that many of them are low hazard), and alcohol is the second biggest ingredient (after water). My hair looked great at first, and an hour later, was dry and rough to the touch.
I think I'll stick with my homemade products, thank you. I really like Green Barbarian's hair recommendation -- washing with 2 T. apple cider vinegar in 8 oz. water, and then conditioning with a mix of 2 T. olive oil and 1 T. vodka in 8 oz water, with a little essential oil for scent. And my conditioners are working well.
The hair dresser did recommend a product that I purchased and do like: a paddle brush, which is great at detangling curly hair (when wet). I also just invested in a better flat iron, which a woman at Sally's Beauty Supply said for very curly hair, needs to heat up to 450 degrees. The one I bought was far from the $240 the woman at the mall tried to sell me at Christmas time--only $40. I won't use it often, but I'd like the option to straighten my hair or my daughter's on occasion.
In any case, I wish I had heard of them sooner. I just received an order of AAA shea butter, which I ordered online because as much as I want to buy shea butter from a local company, Alaffia, $10 for 2 ounces doesn't compare to AAA's $25 for 16 oz. But on Ballard Organics web site, they sell 16 oz. of shea butter for $24.25. Even cheaper and local! I would need to find out more to know if their shea butter is unrefined and as good quality as Alaffia's and AAA's.
I know I talk a lot about hair, but it's a black woman thing! So, I went to get my hair done last week (for the first time in more than a year), along with my daughter, with a hair dresser who works in the barbershop where my husband gets his hair cut. I told him that I don't want to use chemicals on either of our heads, and I want to find something I can do with my hair naturally and easily, and that daughter wanted her hair straightened. He gave me a nice cut, and applied a product called Noodle Head, which he said would keep it curly. I like the cut, hate the product. It contains, of course, a list of unreadable ingredients (although a quick scan on the Safe Cosmetics Database shows that many of them are low hazard), and alcohol is the second biggest ingredient (after water). My hair looked great at first, and an hour later, was dry and rough to the touch.
I think I'll stick with my homemade products, thank you. I really like Green Barbarian's hair recommendation -- washing with 2 T. apple cider vinegar in 8 oz. water, and then conditioning with a mix of 2 T. olive oil and 1 T. vodka in 8 oz water, with a little essential oil for scent. And my conditioners are working well.
The hair dresser did recommend a product that I purchased and do like: a paddle brush, which is great at detangling curly hair (when wet). I also just invested in a better flat iron, which a woman at Sally's Beauty Supply said for very curly hair, needs to heat up to 450 degrees. The one I bought was far from the $240 the woman at the mall tried to sell me at Christmas time--only $40. I won't use it often, but I'd like the option to straighten my hair or my daughter's on occasion.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Connections
Once more, I don't have enough time to post all I want, but I'll try to do this quickly.
Everything is connected... that's what I've been thinking about.
When Colin Beavan reached the "no more electricity" stage of his No Impact project, he realized that some of the challenges he and his family would face are the same that impoverished people around the world face daily: keeping food from spoiling; keeping cool in hot weather, and warm in cold weather; doing laundry and other chores without labor-saving devices; providing artificial light after the sun goes down so children can do homework; etc. As Beavan writes on p. 170, "When you take the 'use less' philosophy to scale, you have to question its worldwide applicability. Because how on earth can someone who has no access to electricity possibly use less?"
This makes me recall what the Permibus folks said: any "sustainable solution" that doesn't work for poor communities and urban communities isn't sustainable.
I am working with our friends Johnnie and Michelle on a grant application for their organization, Heart and Soil, so that they can do more projects engaging youth in community gardening, provide more support for local gardeners and small farmers, and do more community outreach and education. Their long-term goal is to ensure that everyone in Pierce County has access to health, local, sustainably grown foods. As Johnnie put it, if something were to happen to the highways between Pierce County, where Tacoma is located, and King County, where Seattle is located, the shelves in grocery stores throughout Pierce County would be empty in 48 hours.
Speaking of connections, we've been talking about ours. Johnnie and Michelle moved to Tacoma about the same time we did (they came from California); they are also house-sitting; they, like us, have backgrounds in community service and youth development; and they, like us, really want to make sure that the sustainability movement doesn't leave out low-income communities and communities of color. So there is at least one reason we're here in Washington after all!
And speaking of Tacoma, it's funny how one of my complaints about Washington two weeks ago has changed. We've had a lot of sunny days recently, while the east coast was getting slammed with bad weather.
Everything is connected... that's what I've been thinking about.
When Colin Beavan reached the "no more electricity" stage of his No Impact project, he realized that some of the challenges he and his family would face are the same that impoverished people around the world face daily: keeping food from spoiling; keeping cool in hot weather, and warm in cold weather; doing laundry and other chores without labor-saving devices; providing artificial light after the sun goes down so children can do homework; etc. As Beavan writes on p. 170, "When you take the 'use less' philosophy to scale, you have to question its worldwide applicability. Because how on earth can someone who has no access to electricity possibly use less?"
This makes me recall what the Permibus folks said: any "sustainable solution" that doesn't work for poor communities and urban communities isn't sustainable.
I am working with our friends Johnnie and Michelle on a grant application for their organization, Heart and Soil, so that they can do more projects engaging youth in community gardening, provide more support for local gardeners and small farmers, and do more community outreach and education. Their long-term goal is to ensure that everyone in Pierce County has access to health, local, sustainably grown foods. As Johnnie put it, if something were to happen to the highways between Pierce County, where Tacoma is located, and King County, where Seattle is located, the shelves in grocery stores throughout Pierce County would be empty in 48 hours.
Speaking of connections, we've been talking about ours. Johnnie and Michelle moved to Tacoma about the same time we did (they came from California); they are also house-sitting; they, like us, have backgrounds in community service and youth development; and they, like us, really want to make sure that the sustainability movement doesn't leave out low-income communities and communities of color. So there is at least one reason we're here in Washington after all!
And speaking of Tacoma, it's funny how one of my complaints about Washington two weeks ago has changed. We've had a lot of sunny days recently, while the east coast was getting slammed with bad weather.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Some good news
Today is an absolutely gorgeous day: about 60 degrees and sunny, witn clear blue skies. And we got our latest utility bill: our heating costs are down about 70% compared to this time last year.
I needed some good news, since my frustration with Washington state has reached its peak recently.
I needed some good news, since my frustration with Washington state has reached its peak recently.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The importance of community
This is the first of many quotes I will be sharing from No Impact Man:
From p. 130:
I can relate. Part of my malaise at living in Tacoma is due to not feeling like I am a part of the community, the way I did in Boston. And part of that is due to the difficulty of getting around, of being close to neighbors and community programs, something that I was much more easily able to do in walkable and public transportation friendly Boston. Beavan devotes some time to writing about how so many of our towns and cities and neighborhoods are not structured in ways that facilitate community. The immediate result is that in many places, you have to drive just about anywhere, which of course has a negative environmental impact. But a secondary consequence is that due to this lack of community, we try to fill our lives with more stuff, rather than being filled by the difference we are making in the world.
From p. 130:
I sometimes wonder if our lack of social connection and community is at the root of our environmental problems. I wonder, at least in my case, if that lack has meant that I don't feel responsible or accountable to anything beyond myself. Without real community, where is the visceral sense of connection to something larger, to something to which I owe my care? Maybe one reason I felt like I couldn't make a difference when the project started was because I wasn't firmly connected to anything to which I could make a difference.
I can relate. Part of my malaise at living in Tacoma is due to not feeling like I am a part of the community, the way I did in Boston. And part of that is due to the difficulty of getting around, of being close to neighbors and community programs, something that I was much more easily able to do in walkable and public transportation friendly Boston. Beavan devotes some time to writing about how so many of our towns and cities and neighborhoods are not structured in ways that facilitate community. The immediate result is that in many places, you have to drive just about anywhere, which of course has a negative environmental impact. But a secondary consequence is that due to this lack of community, we try to fill our lives with more stuff, rather than being filled by the difference we are making in the world.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Life is very busy...
...so I haven't been able to post much. I want to write about all the things I learned from reading No Impact Man, but there is so much that will take a while, so I'll leave it for another day.
In the meantime, I started a new book, Green Barbarians by Ellen Sandbeck, and boy, is she making me think. One thing (among several) that she has made me want to change is using Trader Joe's TeaTree Tingle conditioner to wash my hair, because, as she writes:
Instead, she recommends the following hair wash, which she uses because, like me, she has thick, dry, very curly hair:
Add 2 T. olive oil and 1 T. vodka to an 8-oz squeeze bottle, and add enough water to fill the bottle. Shake well and apply to wash your hair.
She also recommends steeping a sprig of a pleasant-smelling herb in the vodka bottle for a week so the vodka will make your hair smell good. I think I will also add a squirt of castile soap to the mix, because I like a little lather when I wash.
Like me, Sandman also rinses with a vinegar/water mixture and gives a reason why this works so well to soothe the scalp and prevent dandruff: our skin is naturally acidic, and washing removes some of the natural acid. Using vinegar helps return your scalp to its natural acidity. (The same is true of washing my face with a mix of powdered milk and water, due to the lactic acid).
Once my current bottle of Tea Tree Tingle is used up, I'll try the olive oil/vodka wash and report on the results.
In the meantime, I started a new book, Green Barbarians by Ellen Sandbeck, and boy, is she making me think. One thing (among several) that she has made me want to change is using Trader Joe's TeaTree Tingle conditioner to wash my hair, because, as she writes:
"Tea tree oil... has been found to be a potent antimicrobial and antifungal... Using tea tree oil in everyday products such as shampoo, toothpaste and skin lotions is probaby overkill. Perhaps tea tree oil should be saved for special occasions such as tick, lice, flea and fungal infestations..."
Instead, she recommends the following hair wash, which she uses because, like me, she has thick, dry, very curly hair:
Add 2 T. olive oil and 1 T. vodka to an 8-oz squeeze bottle, and add enough water to fill the bottle. Shake well and apply to wash your hair.
She also recommends steeping a sprig of a pleasant-smelling herb in the vodka bottle for a week so the vodka will make your hair smell good. I think I will also add a squirt of castile soap to the mix, because I like a little lather when I wash.
Like me, Sandman also rinses with a vinegar/water mixture and gives a reason why this works so well to soothe the scalp and prevent dandruff: our skin is naturally acidic, and washing removes some of the natural acid. Using vinegar helps return your scalp to its natural acidity. (The same is true of washing my face with a mix of powdered milk and water, due to the lactic acid).
Once my current bottle of Tea Tree Tingle is used up, I'll try the olive oil/vodka wash and report on the results.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Kale is growing in my yard
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I learned at a free workshop sponsored by the Washington Conservation Corps I attended on MLK Day that I should have cleaned out my garden plot at the end of the season. So last week, I went out there for the first time in months and took a look around. A lot of stuff was growing out there, some of which I clearly recognized as weeds or grass.
Other things, however, looked like veggies. One plant I dug up had roots that looked like carrots--and we didn't plant carrots last year! Two other plants resembled different types of spinach. We did plant spinach, but it went to seed and never produced a crop.
I called the Master Gardeners program and asked about it, and they told me to bring in some samples, which I did yesterday. It turns out that what has roots that look like carrots are peony plants, and one of the spinach-like plants is another flower.
However, the second spinach-like plant is actually kale! After my spinach went to seed, someone suggested I plant kale "because it's easy to grow"--but the kale never sprouted, I assumed because we planted the seeds so late in the season. So apparently, it didn't sprout last summer, but is making a wintertime comeback! Per the Master Gardener's suggestion, I replanted all the stuff I dug up, and we shall see if this kale (there are three kale plants growing now) flourishes enough to produce a crop!
Other things, however, looked like veggies. One plant I dug up had roots that looked like carrots--and we didn't plant carrots last year! Two other plants resembled different types of spinach. We did plant spinach, but it went to seed and never produced a crop.
I called the Master Gardeners program and asked about it, and they told me to bring in some samples, which I did yesterday. It turns out that what has roots that look like carrots are peony plants, and one of the spinach-like plants is another flower.
However, the second spinach-like plant is actually kale! After my spinach went to seed, someone suggested I plant kale "because it's easy to grow"--but the kale never sprouted, I assumed because we planted the seeds so late in the season. So apparently, it didn't sprout last summer, but is making a wintertime comeback! Per the Master Gardener's suggestion, I replanted all the stuff I dug up, and we shall see if this kale (there are three kale plants growing now) flourishes enough to produce a crop!
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