Back To Green...Back To Reality

I have certainly gotten a bit off-topic what with my freezer paper tutorial and my philosophising about all things Massachusetts. It's not from lack of material. There are so many green things going on that it's just a matter of deciding where to begin...

As I alluded to briefly in a previous post, the Washington Post's Color of Money columnist Michelle Singletary holds an annual Penny Pincher of the Year contest in which readers are invited to submit their best ideas for frugal living. This year, Michelle was looking for Green penny pinchers and green penny pinchers she did receive.

Third place winner was Amy Haden of Scottsville, Virginia who manages to bring home over 50 pounds a week of discarded coffee grounds, banana peels and other compost-fit contributions from her place of work. Both her chickens and her garden benefits.

The second place winner was Shirley Orth, an nurse from Del Mar, California, who decided that the one time use of an emesis basin for holding IV supplies was a complete waste "disposing over 500 of these per month". Their solution came from the IV tubing packaging itself: it included a small tray which they now reuse in place of those pink, plastic basins. A while back I posted on this very topic and so did my blogging friend over at Mom Go Green.

The grand prize winner was Tom Sponheim of Seattle Washington, who evidently visits coffee shop restrooms. A lot. But he is merely to adjust the water level in the toilet tanks! Tom estimates that during one particularly productive rounding, his "three or four hours of work would result in a savings of about 500,000 liters a year of water."

Updates - The Worm Bin, The Compost Pile and The Ultimate Recycler

It's been quite some time since I've updated you on my husband's worm bin creation. You may remember that the design was a winner (recycled Tidy Cat litter tubs) but the result was a disaster. I am proud to announce that Green Husband's worm bin is now a success. He kept the design the same but this time went more slowly, being careful not to overload it and giving the worms plenty of time to do their work. I can attest that the bin is now teaming with worms. The second tub contains very rich worm muck and the final bin contains that crazy worm tea. Green Husband uses it to water our potted tomato plants.

Another success is his compost pile. As you can see our vegetable scraps and coffee grounds have composted to a nice, rich, dark dirt - again adding nutrients to our tomato plants.

And finally, The Ultimate Recycler. Several months ago Pip and his Granddaddy spent three hours in Granddaddy's workshop building a birdhouse. When we got it home and up, it was not long before a sparrow took residence and had babies.

Now they have flown the coop, so to speak, so it was time to clean out the nest for the next family. We found feathers from other birds, strips of blue tarp, some plastic wrappers, hay, grasses, and dryer lint.

Thank you, Green Husband, for providing me with so much content for Gift of Green! ; )