Mother's going GREEN Day 59 - My Pet Peeve

It seems most green bloggers have a pet peeve. So I thought I would share mine. People who do not follow the water restrictions placed on their community.

A few weeks ago; I read in our local paper of what they are calling Phase 3 Water Conservation. It says that we need to conserve water by only watering our lawn twice a week. 1/2 an inch each time. Odd houses can water on Thursday and Sunday from 4:00pm to 9:00pm and even numbered houses can water on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 4:00pm to 9:00pm. Very simple straight forward instructions. For those who may not have picked up the paper or did not read it or can not read; it is announced on the local radio station.

WHY THEN ARE PEOPLE STILL WATERING THEIR LAWN on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and in the heat of the day????? It drives me crazy to see this.

If you are reading this and are one of the people who blatantly ignore your communities water restrictions - PLEASE ADHERE TO THEM NOW!!! - Thank you.

Mother's going GREEN Day 55 - Breastfeeding

Today's post will be rather brief. Our family has had a rather busy 'family' day with a picnic at a local natural lake with a barbecue and swimming. I was glad to see many families and families with infants and their mothers breastfeeding. We all have our own style some cover up discreetly, some find a very private and secluded spot and some (like me) well whatever.... My motto is: anywhere, anytime. And as I recently found out as a Canadian it is my right and is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights.

Breastfeeding is the way to go both the health benefits for the child and mother, plus all the positives for the environment. No energy consumed (warming bottles, producing bottles and formula.) No water used in the preparation of formula. It is all ready and set to go.

Now I understand the personal choice here. But I am also certain that one should take into account all the benefits when making that choice and they far out way the benefits of bottle feeding. Some mothers cannot breastfeed. My first child was a natural and I breastfed for 22 months. My second child was a little more difficult. It was very challenging at first just to get started any much of my support suggested just switching to formula. That was not an option for me so we continued and struggled and persevered until she was about 41/2 months and then I started to supplement with formula. The thing is I never gave up and even with supplementing I continued to breastfeed her until she was 18 months old. My newest arrival has taken to feeding quite well and I look forward to another 22 months of breastfeeding her.

The point is breastfeeding is the "green" way to go. It is good for mother earth. The mother and the child.

Mother's going GREEN Day 52 - The Car Wash

My car is probably one of the not so clean cars on the road. I honestly do not have time to wash it and quite honestly have better things to do. But when it gets really dirty and dusty - when it is tempting to write on it with your finger "please wash me" then I head of to the drive through car wash. (okay - so not as dirty as in this picture)

Today, was the day I headed for the car wash and as we were going through it the thought occurred to me that this might not be the best environmentally friendly way to wash my car. As soon as I had a spare moment I was going to investigate this and here is what I found:

What is the most environmentally friendly way I can wash my car: doing it myself or going to the local car wash?

I figured washing the car by hand would be the most environmentally friendly way to go - since most of the time to be 'green' one needs to go 'old school' but as it turns out that washing our cars in our driveways is one of the most environmentally un-friendly chores we can do around the house. Unlike household waste water that enters sewers or septic systems and undergoes treatment before it is discharged into the environment. Which means that the water from washing your car in the driveway goes right into storm drains -- and eventually into rivers, streams, creeks and wetlands where it poisons aquatic life and wreaks other ecosystem havoc.

The water from out washed car includes the following harmful ingredients: gasoline, oil and residues from exhaust fumes; not to mention the detergents used in wasting the car, unless of course you are using an environmentally friendly detergent but even so it has the other chemicals I have just listed.

However federal laws in both the U.S. and Canada require commercial carwash facilities to drain their wastewater into sewer systems, so it gets treated before it is discharged back into the great outdoors. And commercial car washes use computer controlled systems and high-pressure nozzles and pumps that minimize water usage. Many also recycle and re-use the rinse water.

The International Carwash Association, goes on to say that automatic car washes use less than half the water of even the most careful home car washer. According to one report, washing a car at home typically uses between 80 and 140 gallons of water, while a commercial car wash averages less than 45 gallons per car.

For more info on this topic you can visit the following sites: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/car-wash.html

http://www.imagesautospa.com/Environmental.html

Needless to say I was thrilled about my findings - taking my car to the commercial car wash was in deed the green thing to do.

Mother's going GREEN Day 34 - Miscellaneously Green

Was it ever hot today. 32 Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit)!!! But it was a day of many small successes.

No energy wasted on indoor cooling systems: I have never been a fan of air conditioning. Not even in my car (it has always felt very artificial) In my car I prefer to have all the windows down and just let the breeze blow though. The same was true today. My husband wanted to plug in the electric fans to cool our house and I said no lets just open the back and front doors of the decks and let the very slight breeze blow through. It did the trick and kept the house cool.

Reused Water: Because it was so hot, and even though we are trying to live a greener life, I did want my children to enjoy splashing about in the cool water of a 'wadding pool'. We filled the pool a little with water - enough for them to cool down in and have some fun. What we did do with the water once we were done was water all of our garden plants (which we would have done anyway since it was such a hot day). This way the children could amuse themselves for a while as they filled their buckets (and thier watering cans) with water and watered our garden. Picture shows our daughter watering the small tree we planted on earth day.

Reduced waste and recycled: I am not one to feed our pets 'human' food. Although I have heard that it is better for them than 'pet' food. No additives. So today I made the decision that our dog could now eat the left over 'human' food that our kids do not eat. In doing so we throw away less of the food waste and our dog can eat a little treat too. Because I did not have an extra dog bowl for this delicious snack - I thought - mmmmm what can I use..... my green friends at Our Green Year spoke about recycling yoghurt containers, so I went off to our recycling bucket and dug one out. Cut it a little shallower (since we are buying the larger containers and not the individual containers - so we can reduce packaging) and presto I had a little dog bowl.

Organic Food: Food has never tasted better and tonight we enjoyed a 100% organic meal. Chicken with carrots and tomatoes with organic dressing. Even organic ketchup for the kids. Hats off to my husband who is getting into the 'organic food' thing.

No Plastic Bags: Further kudos to him as he also purchased another canvas bag when grocery shopping today after he realized that he would not have enough and to avoid the plastic ones. I believe my earlier post about his plastic pitfalls has put a little fear in him.

So all in all a great "going green" day in this household. Living green is becoming a habit, almost second nature. Which make this mom really happy.

Mother's going GREEN Day 19 - Garden Pests: in particular a Squirrel

We have our rooftop garden underway - but the last few mornings we have woken up to see that some little animal has dug up our seeds - we suspect a squirrel. Now we are trying to grow our own vegetables in order to be sustainable - but we did not figure we would have to sustain a squirrel as well.

When I 'googled' garden pest deterrents I came up with some scary facts in regards to pesticides:

• Pesticides not only kill the pests but all of the good bugs too like Lady Bugs, Honey Bees and Wasps.


• Collect in the tissues of animals and humans, causing disease and possible death.


• Each year 43 000 children under the age of 6 are exposed to pesticide in concentrations high enough to cause damage to their developing bodies.


• Many of the common pesticides have been linked to an increased occurrence of allergies, asthma and cancer.

Since we are growing an Organic Garden using pesticides was never an option but the information on them very informative.... But I still had a squirrel to deal with.

One website suggested that we feed the squirrel - squirrel food. Set up it's own little eating area away from our garden and then he would not bother our seeds. While this would be ideal, quite honestly I do not want the squirrel to become reliant on me for providing its food.

Finally, I found a website that suggested hot pepper flakes. Currently, we have none on hand but I thought regular coarsely milled peppercorns might do the trick too.

My search on pest deterrents also lead me to a website where you can make your own Pest Control Spray right in your kitchen. Should we ever get those unwanted bugs we will be sure to try the recipes. Most of them involve a combination of Water, Oil, Biodegradable Dishwashing Soap, Garlic Powder, Chili Powder - all non toxic and chemical free.

For some information on the dangers of pesticides visit: http://www.noahsnotes.com/naturalpest.html

And for the recipes for the "Pest Control Spays - you can make in your kitchen!" visit:http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/health-environment/pesticides/non-commercial-pest-spray.pdf

Mother's going GREEN Day 16 - The 3 Minute Shower

Yes, it is possible. A 3 minute shower. After all I have read on water consumption I figured I could aim for a 3 minute shower. Now you may ask how is this possible? Well, I enjoy the warm water for a minute and a half, I also wash my face during this time. I then turn the shower off and soap up and wash my hair, then I turn the shower back on and rinse off for another minute and a half. Technically a little longer than 3 minutes but I only use 3 minutes worth of water.

Since I had children I have never had the luxury of anything more than 5 minutes in the shower always a baby crying or a child interrupting so a 5 minute shower for me has always been sort of the norm. That is why I challenged myself to use even less water by turning off the water while I washed. It seems to work great and now I am in the habit of doing it everyday. Not sure how I will feel about the cutback in the winter when you will get a little chilly - but perhaps I will appreciate the water even more when I get to turn it back on. In case you are wondering we have a clock in the shower which I use to time my showers.

When it comes to bathing the children, I bath the infant first in her little bathtub. I then dump her water into the big bath tub where I bath my other 2 children together. I fill there tub up with 3 inches of water. I measure this by putting my hand in the tub and when the water reaches my palm it is 3 inches deep (the length of my fingers). When I first did this my son exclaimed: "Mom, how are we supposed to bath in such a little bit of water?" It has since become the norm.

Based on some figures from my green friends at "Our Green Year" http://ourgreenyear.blogspot.com/2008/05/day-26-of-our-green-year-limiting-our.html ,

I am only using 45 liters of water per day on my shower, 315 liters per week or 16380 litres per year rather than the average North American who showers for 15 minutes using 81900 litres per year.

An interesting sites to visit regarding Canadian water consumption: http://www.environmentalindicators.com/htdocs/indicators/6wate.htm

The average water consumed in a household in Canada is 125 000 litres per person per day to see how your household compares to this average visit: http://goblue.zerofootprint.net/