Apple Weekend

What better way to spend to spend a fall weekend than with apples! First we went apple picking and got some cider donuts and hot cider to enjoy while picking. For those who are looking to pick big batches for cooking we found out that if you "pick" them from the ground they are a lot cheaper. We got a 1/2 of a bushel for $7.50 instead of $12.



When we got home it was time to cook up the apples. Today we made apple sauce, apple fruit roll-ups, dried apples, and apple crisp. Now we will have local apples through the winter!

Arthur making apple sauce

Courtney making apple fruit roll-ups

Use less stuff, use less money

One of the main benefits of only buying used stuff is that we save a lot of money. Not only is used stuff cheaper, but we also only buy things that we need.

Check out this new coat rack that I built today. Our old one was breaking, so I decided to have some fun with making a new one. Every single piece of it is from Ann Arbor's Re-Use center (my favorite store in town). I had to get creative and use different kinds of hooks, but I like how it turned out. And the whole thing: the wood, hooks, bolts, and screws are all used. Total materials cost: $1.27.

about 32 cents' worth of cool hooks

ready to hang coats

Our first purchase... TP

Ok, so when we make exceptions to our no-buying-anything-new rule, we want to research the options. Well we're in the market for some good toilet paper, and no, we’re not re-using it. So what are the options when buying TP, and why should you care? Two major issues to consider:

Uh Oh, time to buy more...

1. Recycled content. It's a no-brainer to buy 100% recycled content toilet paper, and it's not even more expensive. Another thing to look at is post-consumer content. Paper mills produce a lot of waste in the production process, which they re-process and call "recycled content." That would be pre-consumer waste. Post-consumer waste is when they use recycled content from paper that has already been produced, used, and recycled. 80% post-consumer content is pretty good.

2. Chlorine used to make it white? This is one I didn't understand at first, but basically chlorine is incredibly caustic and toxic. It's harmful when used in the bleaching process, and you probably don't want to rub it on your skin. There are better ways to whiten toilet paper than use the most toxic household chemical. Our toilet paper in Tanzania was pink. Not sure why.

Check out this website for more information: http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp

So we normally just buy TP from Trader Joe’s, which is chlorine free and 80% post-consumer recycled. Other easy ones are Seventh Generation or Whole Foods brand. Most groceries have this type of TP, but if they don’t then tell them that you want them to carry it!

And on the subject of using paper in general, here is a quote from Bill McDonough that puts the life cycle of paper in perspective:

Imagine designing “something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes colors with the seasons and self-replicates. Well, why don’t we knock that down and write on it?”

Well, if we're going to use paper, might as well recycle it.

Sabine has some competition...

Sabine has a little competition in the cute department these days. She got a new friend named Kuja, and they are just about the same size! Kuja is the newest member of the Steudel family and is 10 weeks old. Welcome to the family Kuja!

The Green Side Detriot

Michigan has been in the news a lot lately, particularly Detriot. Michigan has the highest unemployment in the country at 15%, the cars have left, and Detriot is falling apart. This is what the news likes to report but there is another side of Detriot. Anywhere in the world when things go bad people don't roll over and accept their fate. Instead some pretty amazing things happen. Today we took an urban farm tour of Detroit. We have many problems with food in this country, lack of connection to the land, lack of access to fresh nutritious food, obesity, I could go on instead just read today's New York Times magazine. Detroit is tackling the issue head on and might be on its way to becoming an examples of what cities can look like in the future. Detriot has an estimated 17,000 acres of vacant land and some people are turning them into farms. Where else in the United States can you buy a house for $500 and take any land you want and start farming it (yes this is what some are doing and no one is complaining, I guess there is free land you just don't get to put your name on it but you can use it). Here are some pictures from our tour today. It is a pretty interesting look at a very different type of city.
We have put captions on the photos so you can get a feel for some of the farms in the city.

Detroit Farms

Waste

Some of you might be wondering what might be motivating us to do this no shopping thing. Well there are lots of things but here is one example. It is hard to picture the amount of stuff we use in a day, week, month, or year. One artist Chris Jordan has used art to help us visualized our impact. Here are two that I particularly liked but there are lots more on his website and they are well worth checking out.

Cans Seurat, 2007
60x92"

Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.
Partial Zoom
Detail at actual size:

Plastic Bottles, 2007
60x120"

Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes.

Partial Zoom
Detail at actual size:

Good Old Fashion Fun

Last night we went to a show by a band we blogged about last year, The Carolina Chocolate Drops. They bill themselves as an African-American String Band but man they can play a lot more than that. They play a mean fiddle and banjo but if you want to really see them get going you have to see them play the spoons, jug, and kazoo. This YouTube video has them playing a great song that includes the kazoo and the jug. They played one of my favorites last night, their remake of Hit em up Style which we posted last year. They play a great show with lost of entertainment. And if you get Rhiannon up and dancing it is well worth it. If they come to your area they are well worth seeing. Here is there tour schedule.