The National Parks: America's Best Idea

I am making a quick plug for the PBS show that is airing all this week by Ken Burns called The National Parks: America's Best Idea

Our National Parks are truly amazing places that everyone should go to and treasure. Some of my favorite memories took place in these parks. A few highlights are a 6 week backpacking service trip in Yosemite in high school with the Student Conservation Association. Being with my family in Yellowstone in the winter and being the only ones watching old faithful go off or cross country skiing feet from a buffalo with no one else in sight (summer visitors will know how amazing this is). Spending three weeks car camping through National Parks of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico in middle school where many of our family jokes came from. Being the only ones for miles on a beach in Alaska with my family while watching a humpback whale swim back and forth in front of us all night. And I could go on and on (don't worry I wont!).

So tune in from 8-10 (est) all this week to see some of the most amazing places in the world. Then go visit and support their protection! Ok I am done :)

Re-Use resource #1: Freecycle

To be successful in the re-use economy you have to know your resources. Because yes we will need to purchase things over the next year and if we had to make everything ourselves it would be a long year. So our first resource is Freecycle. It is a Yahoo group that you can join for your area. Once you join you will start receiving e-mails titled OFFER and WANTED. People post things they are trying to give away: half a can of paint, moving boxes, couches, even kitens. Or you can post things you want. The key is everything is FREE! We have used this a few times over the past year with lots of success.

The first time we posted was when we got back from x-mas last year and I had left my cell phone charger back East. I could have gone out and bought one for $25 but it seemed silly becuase mine was sitting at Starlight waiting for me to come and get it in the summer. So I posted on Freecycle that I was looking for a motorola razor cell phone charger. Within a day I had a couple of responses from people who had gotten new phones and how had nothing to do with their old chargers. I got two chargers without paying for them and two chargers were saved from going to the landfill. Now that is a deal.

We have also posted offering items. After our wedding we had many wonderful gifts. However these gifts came overly packaged, tripple boxed, gift wrapped, bubble wrapped, you name it. We ended up with 10 garbage bags of bubble wrap and many many many boxes. We posted it on Freecycle and within a day some lucky mover showed up and picked it all up.

Here in Ann Arbor you can post for porch pick up and you leave the item on your porch and the person can come and get it when they want and you never have to meet them (or more importantly wait around for them).

To find cool stuff in your neighborhood and save stuff from the landfill check out Freecycle in your neighborhood http://www.freecycle.org/

Ok, I'm off to go shower, where I'll be listening to the shower radio we got on freecycle!

Our Shopping Experiment: Adventures in shopping used

Our Shopping Experiment: Adventures in shopping used

We have decided to try an experiment: Starting today, we will be trying to not buy anything new for a while – possibly a year.

We’re trying it for a variety of reasons. Here are just a few:

1. We have plenty of stuff! We were lucky enough to get many wonderful gifts from the wedding and we couldn’t possibly think of anything else we need.

2. Support the Re-Use Economy! There are a lot of options for buying used items when we need something, and we want to support the re-use economy. Finding used (pre-loved?) goods can often be a rewarding experience, and we often find treasures that are way better than anything we could buy new.

3. It makes us think! Do we really need that or do we just want it? As Americans we have large ecological footprints. That means we are taking someone else’s share and we want to be more aware of the consequences of our choices. When we do have to purchase something we want to be aware of that purchase and make sure we need it.

4. Not buying new things will encourage our creativity! I’ll give you an example. Last year our couch was sliding around all over our wooden floor. You couldn’t sit down on it without it moving a foot. But the hardware store didn’t have rubber feet big enough. So I took the soles off my old pair of shoes, cut them up, and nailed the rubber to the couch feet. No more slipping!

OF COURSE there will be exceptions. We need to buy food. We need toothpaste. Etc. But the guiding principle will be to try buying used when we NEED something. And if we do need to buy something new, we’re going to make sure we really need it and we are going to do our homework on that product. That means making sure it’s the best we can find. Can we find one that is made out of fully re-used materials? Is it durable and will last a long time? Who made it and where was it made? Can we buy local or sweatshop free?

This experiment will evolve as we get into it, and we’re looking forward to blogging about the ins and outs of the Re-Use economy in Ann Arbor.

Think we’re crazy? Send us an email and tell us why! Have questions? Ask away! We want to hear from you about what you think about our idea.

Love to you all,

Courtney and Arthur

The best of the farmers market

This is the best time of year at the farmers market and you have to make the most of it because it doesn't last long. One way we have been spreading out the bounty is by buying seconds and making things that we will last. Most farmers will have seconds that they sell, they are the fruits that have been bruised or are a few days older. They are still good, just not as pretty, but they are cheaper. Many will keep them under the table or, if not just ask if they have any that day. Over the last month we bought a box of seconds peaches and made fruit roll-ups with our dehydrator. We also made tomato sauce that we put in our freezer. Tomato sauce is easy and a good way to use many things from the market. Ours includes:
Tomatoes
onions
peppers
egg plant
zucchini
garlic
basil

Cook everything together other than the tomatoes with a little olive oil. Once the onion has turned a little brown add cut up tomatoes and turn down the pot to simmer and let it sit until most of the juice has boiled off. Put it in a container in the freezer and you will have yummy farmers market veggies for the winter.

More Wedding Photos

We got the rest of our photos this week and they just reminded us how amazing the wedding was, how great it was to see everyone, and how fun it was! We got 2000 photos but we got it down to about 200. If you would like to see them they are at the links below. Feel free to pass them on to others who were at the wedding or might enjoy them.

preparations

Family and Wedding Party

Ceremony

cocktails

Reception

Dancing!

Training the Cat

Moshi is a whiner. She likes to get up early in the morning (between 4:30 and 5:30) and cry outside our door, frequently throwing herself against the door and scratching her claws on the way down. It's loud and impossible to sleep through.

But all she wants is attention, so getting up and punishing her (spraying her with water) only encourages her.

So how can you train a cat not to cry outside your door without getting up and opening the door? We figured it out!

We placed our vacuum outside the door, then ran the cord into the bedroom and attached it to a surge protector next to the bed. So I had a switch to turn on the vacuum cleaner.

Moshi sniffs the vacuum outside our bedroom

The next morning, Moshi started crying at 5:30. The second she threw herself into the door, I flipped the switch, the vacuum turned on, and Moshi shrieked. It must have scared the bejeezus out of her. From the bedroom we could hear her sprint out to the living room.

An hour later, she came back and cried again. I hit the switch again. She shrieked again.

But she learned the lesson. And for the last week she hasn't bothered us and we've been sleeping peacefully until we're ready to wake up.

Wedding

In a blog post I can't begin to express how amazing the wedding was. We are still trying to take it all in and process the whole weekend but all we can say is that it was perfect! Thanks to family and friends we have some photos up from the wedding. If you want to check them out they are at our website
http://www.courtneyandarthur.com/photos/

We will also be posting more photos soon as we get some of the professional ones. If anyone else took photos we would love to have them!

Thanks everyone for a perfect and amazing wedding.