Unique techniques for keep your home warm in winter

This being a cold winter in northern Michigan and propane prices being astronomically high, I've been researching ways to keep my house, and more importantly me, warm. Now I rent from the Grand Traverse County Parks and Recreation via the Grand Traverse Conservation District, but frankly astronomical bills aren't something that anyone enjoys and I don't need to live in a sauna.  So I've been on the lookout for simple green tricks to keeping a warm house.

I came across this really awesome article on Huffington Post that had some unique ideas. It's titled 9 Unusual Ways to Keep Your Home Warm Without Turning Up the Heat and the points that I found interesting were: set your ceiling fans to rotate clockwise, add some layers to your floor, turn off your bathroom fan, and worry about the person, not the house.

Changing the rotation of your ceiling fan can seriously force the warm air down to help you keep warm? Blasphemy! Totally wish I had ceiling fans in my house just so I can use this trick.

Bare floors can suck 10 percent of my heat from my house? Thank you National Energy Foundation for providing me with this knowledgeable statistic. I'm glad most of my house is carpeted but perhaps the kitchen could use an area rug.

The bathroom fan thing really makes common sense; hot air rises, fan leads directly outside, basically means cold kitchen and bathroom. Note to self: further communicate this to roommates.

Most importantly out of all of these fun techniques, worrying about your warmth instead of a hot house really hit home. Now that's not saying that you shouldn't be worried if you have a frozen pipe, which I did but a space heater is keeping it company at night though it is an exposed pipe located in an unheated part of the house which is another tale. Part of the beauty of winter is spending snowy days bundled up on the couch with hot cocoa and a good book. Walking around the house in flannel pajamas and cushy socks are a right of winter and definitely not something I'd do in the July heat. The house needs to be warm enough to live comfortably but reasonable enough to accommodate the challenges of winter, like high propane costs.

Sunset in Houghton, MI
February 6, 2014

Enjoy winter everyone. Be thoughtful of your energy usage and marvel in the beauty winter brings us.

AmeriCorps VISTA: Grand Traverse Stewardship Initiative and Bay Area Recycling for Charities

Since mid-August I have been working as an AmeriCorps VISTA through the Traverse City, Grand Vision to Grand Action under the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District. The Grand Vision is a document that maps out a 50 year community development plan. The AmeriCorps VISTA program's primary goal is to fight poverty. My particular program is fighting poverty through education; I help develop programming for students and giving them opportunities that they may not have access to otherwise. And yes, that is the simplest description that I can give.

Two of the programs that I'm working on are: the Grand Traverse Stewardship Initiative (GTSI) and an educational program for Bay Area Recycling for Charities (BARC). The goal isn't to brainwash the students into becoming environmentalists, but teach them the curriculum that they are required to learn anyways in a way that teaches awareness to the students. 

GTSI is an educational program that connects Placed-Based Education (a more hands on learning approach) and environmental stewardship. I help the program coordinator with research and programming with two schools within the program. This past week I spent researching Teaching Great Lakes Science which provides free lesson plans, real Great Lakes data that has been simplified for educational purposes, and draws out processes like science based graphing, terminology, and inquiry based questions to inspire student critical thinking. Best of all, is this great resource through National Geographic called Great Lakes Fieldscope. This resource allows students to manipulate several layers of the Great Lakes watershed. Layers such as: rivers and streams, elevation, water depth, watershed boundaries, political boundaries, and land cover. Not going to lie, I wish this was around when I was a student. Alas I'll just have to settle for using it now. The students will be able to hypothesize and virtually simulate their experiments.

The BARC education program has taken a bit more time to figure out. My fellow VISTA and I have been working off of a previous intern's work from last summer. She didn't have a background in curriculum so the lessons need to be cleaned up a bit and clarified. The lessons teach the basics of recycling and if I cannot connect our ideas for lessons to the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle theme then the idea gets nixed. Overall they're a great starting point and without the other VISTA I'd be in serious trouble because my background in curriculum isn't great. What took so long was figuring what we wanted the end result of the program to look like, or our end result after the VISTA year term is finished. Now we've decided on five lessons per grade, connecting each lesson to the Next Generation Science Standards, making each one a hands on, problem solving lesson, and connecting them to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. In the new year, I'm really looking forward to diving into this project.

Since I've felt so lost this past year in life, I'm really happy to immerse myself into these programs. Programs that connect with my passions and feel like I can give my all to. This AmeriCorps program is kind of a living experiment for me because I'm seriously considering going into Environmental Education for my masters. If I like the program development aspect then I'd really like to help schools and nonprofits develop more of these program types to be used in the classroom. But all this really is just wishful thinking until I take the GRE.

Restaurant Recycling

It's been ages since I've written. But I'm proud to report that I've been recycling the wine bottles, milk cartons and orange juice containers from work.

Now I currently work in a restaurant where for the first three months I was secretly stashing the recyclables so that they wouldn't be thrown in the trash. Apparently I wasn't being that sneaky because eventually my boss asked me about it and instead of me lying because who really rummages through the trash for recyclables? I just owned it; told them I like recycling and since I drive right by the drop site coming home from work it's no big effort for me to stop and drop it off. My next shift, my boss had a pile of glass bottles for me to recycle.

I know that once I leave, which will be soon, that the bottles will be going into the trash again. But I still consider this a win because I made the effort and 5 months worth of recyclables didn't go into a landfill. A small win, but a win nonetheless.

Recycling with the parents

So I'm currently living with my parents, depressing I know but silver lining I thought that this would be an opportunity to get them to create a greener lifestyle, as in recycle more, or at least to start with.

Now I wasn't thinking about uprooting their entire regime overnight but implementing changes over my unknown length of staying in their home. Unfortunately my efforts have either been ineffective or ignored, or ineffective and ignored. I got talked to for buying organic broccoli, which was on sale.

I put my recycle bin in the kitchen because I thought it'd be easier for them to remember that the vast majority of food containers can actually be recycled. Little did I know that this would mean a discussion later with my father. Apparently the recycle bin must be kept out in the garage, something about bugs getting into the containers. Now my argument was that there should not be any food in the containers therefore would not attract bugs. I've been recycling this way for the last three years and it's worked pretty well for me. Regardless I lost; my recycle bin is now in my closet and is used personally as opposed to communally. My parents pile the recyclables (which for them consist of paper products and yoplait containers) by the garage door.

Another problem is actually getting my parents to realize what's recyclable and keeping the recyclables out of the trash can: glass, aluminum, paper and not just in the typical forms but also things like salad dressing and steak sauce bottles. You also may have to empty the food out of the container before you can recycle it. In other words don't just pitch it because it needs to be out of your refrigerator! The containers that I leave soaking in the sink so that they'll be easier to wash, seem to be disappearing into the trash can when I'm absent from the room. And yes I'm very suspicious of my mother.

They try to get me to do their projects by stating it's "very ecological", like going for a bike ride. Sorry there are better examples but this is one that seems harmless but comes up regularly. Riding a bike somewhere instead of driving is ecological but if you're just going for a bike ride then it's just a bike ride. Kind of like a walk, you're exercising but the alternative wouldn't be using a car that runs off of fossil fuels.

Between job searching and quality parent time, I'm somehow going to have to figure out a way to fix this. But right now, I've got no clue where to go from here. At least it can't get any worse, can it?

My summer using only public internet

From May 8 to August 13 this year I used only public internet access. My rational behind this was: it saves me money and since the energy is already being used I may as well take advantage of it.

Now this project had its ups and downs. During the majority of the week I used the Peter White Library's internet access, but because this was over the summer I went to a 3rd Street Bagel (a local coffee shop) on Sundays. This meant that I could only use the internet while these businesses were open. I had to sign a user's agreement every single time I signed onto the library's internet access that said I wouldn't be illegally downloading or looking up porn. Ironically the library would block some of my legal sites and would allow for porn popups, if only someone could explain that to me.

An unforeseen side effect of using only public internet access was that it created a hierarchy to what I got done. Fast email check, a momentary glimpse of Facebook and then job searching. At the beginning of the summer I would cruise around on Youtube but that stopped after an unfortunate incident with a very old man with no teeth who was very upset that I wouldn't go out with him. It became my mantra to get in and out with what I needed to get done in a timely manner.

There were some days that I didn't even bother going to use the internet, which is huge for someone of my generation who just graduated college. The internet is an integral part of a college students' life. It was almost like going cold turkey, with limiting myself to two hours maximum of internet a day.

It was hard getting a hold of people. For the vast majority of my friends, I don't have their phone numbers. I've always gotten a hold of them by way of Facebook and I didn't want to post my number online. But when it came to the Fourth of July, I didn't think about all my normal places being closed. And I was supposed to spend some part of the day with my friend Katrina. So the search began early that morning and eventually I remembered that Starbucks would've been my best chance. Score! After three coffee shops, walking in the insanely hot weather (the UP doesn't get that hot ever with that day being the only exception), one scratch on my car, Starbucks didn't let me down. And thank god I got in contact with people, spending the Fourth alone would've been depressing.

By doing this project I saved myself approximately $40 a month without having private internet, but I don't think I'll do this again at least for an extensive period of time. I couldn't watch any of the Olympics unless I was at the bar, I didn't feel comfortable checking my online bank accounts, my job searching efforts suffered and I really missed being able to chat on Facebook and Skype.

Public Transportation in da UP

In order to get to work, I ride the Al Tran public bus transportation system. They pick me up from Bluff St. in Marquette at 8 a.m. and drop me off at Grand Island Landing (the ferry dock). Luckily I have a $100 bus pass, which ends up costing approximately $2.50 one-way as opposed to the $6 without the pass.

One of the largest downsides of living in the country/rural area in the U.S.A./UP is that the public transportation system is drastically lacking. If I’m not at that bus stop before 8 a.m. or back on the mainland in time to make the bus, I’m screwed. I cannot get to work or home. There is a bus I can catch an hour later on my return to Marquette but it doesn’t take me completely to Marquette. It’ll drop me off in Harvey which is six miles from Marquette. Walking home from there wouldn’t be all that fun considering how badly I need a shower after work.

Some of the characters who ride the bus are quite a riot. Last year there was a Mexican man who asked my coworker and I, if Lake Superior was the Pacific Ocean. I’m still unsure of whether he believed us. Another man road because he had his license revoked due to drunk driving and yes he complained rather extensively every day. And a woman who also had her license revoked due to drunk driving but brought her high strung dog on board without a leash (and yes the dog would greet me whether I encouraged it or not). This year we’ve had some rather disgruntled housekeepers from various hotels in Christmas and Munising, Michigan and some car enthusiasts. I wish that I could retain the information from the car enthusiasts shared at a more fundamental level. Basic car maintenance would make much more sense to me if I could.

Tokyo: Waiting for the last train.

When I studied abroad in Japan, I was introduced to the concept of public transportation. I spent the summer riding the trains to see the sights and riding a bicycle to get around Hikone, the town in which I was staying. They have trains that can get you within walking distance of just about anything (minus the mountain villages). I got to ride a night bus to Tokyo and would’ve ridden the Shinkansen or “Bullet Train” if I had had the money and time to go Hiroshima. 

I really wish that we had something that was that accessible to the U.S.A. Our dependency of cars would be greatly reduced if we did. 

Novella Carpenter: Urban Farmer

WARNING: This post contains a few spoilers from Novella Carpenter's Farm City. I didn't go crazy but there are a few minor ones.

Novella Carpenter with fowl

A few months ago, back when I was still a college student and president of the Environmental Science Organization (ESO). We (being ESO) brought Novella Carpenter to Northern Michigan University’s campus. None of us had read her book at our decision making point but hey she had written Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer which was a National Best Seller so we were interested in what she had to say. We were really lucky to have her because she had just had a baby and her rep wasn’t so sure that she’d be willing to start up again. So we bribed her with a little extra money that we petitioned the Student Finance Committee for.

Farm City is her personal narrative about her urban farm in the ghetto of Oakland. She uses the anarchy of Oakland in order to create GhostTown Farm on 28^th Street. Unfortunately I didn’t get around to reading it before she came to campus, which I’ll admit was shameful. But I did read some of her blog and going in semi-cold turkey gave me the opportunity to really pay attention to her talk without any previous bias.

She read a bit out of Farm City, promoted her new How-To book titled: The Essential Urban Farmer, and stressed her view of eating meat. Which I understood to be that it’s alright to eat meat, it’s alright to be a vegan/vegetarian but if you’re going to eat meat it’s more important to know how that animal was treated before its life was ended.

Upon meeting Novella, I liked her instantly. She was easy going and really willing to talk to you. And not just about her but what’s going on in the community that she was in. Novella told this hilarious story about a drug bust from a warehouse across the street in which the police left all of the plants there and it became a free for all with the locals. This definitely shocked my friend Laura, but it’s one of the things that just made the event so much less formal and enjoyable.

I had been stressing all day about having to entertain Novella at dinner and not knowing what to say or even worse just sitting at the table awkwardly without a word being said. Not a problem. Novella was willing to talk and once we all got going it was like we’d all done that a million times before.

One thing that seemed to be really stressing Novella out was vegans/vegetarians who don’t agree with her views. They chose to not eat meat for animal rights, boycotting the mass slaughterhouses (where most often animals aren’t treated well) or whatever reason but condemn her for choosing to raise her own farm animals to eat as way of not partaking in the mass slaughterhouses. Now there are extremists in everything but to me you have to be willing to recognize that your choices are a personal choice for you (self-righteously written but really here people there’s not too many options to solve the differencing of views here).

One of the most hilarious and informative
nonfiction pieces I have ever read.

In her book she talks about a vegan who suggested on her blog that having a petting zoo instead of eating her farm animals would essentially teach the community about the animals. But she pointed out that she wants people (aka mostly children who come by) to know where their meat comes from; to have a connection with their food. It’s not a bad concept considering most meat you buy in a store today doesn’t even look like it came off an animal.

Following dinner that night I immediately bought both of her books through Amazon. And they cruelly came in the week of finals/graduation.

But I have finally just finished Farm City and I recommend it to everyone. Not only is it hilarious (literally laughing out loud and embarrassing myself on the public transit to work) but it really shows her purpose and view on food. It made me question my food choices. Questions like: should I eat meat if I don’t have the guts to kill the animal myself? How much can I invest into meat that was treated fairly while it was alive? What types of vegetables can I grow in an apartment? Should I grow these in an apartment that I share? And though I haven’t got any answers for my questions as of yet they’re viewpoints that I definitely need to consider.