Waste not, Want not on Moving Day

White Mt.  We climbed this as the culmination of our
orientation trip.

Note from Rachel:  I actually wrote this post during the last week of August when I was actively moving.  I figured I just needed to throw in a few pictures of the madness and I'd be good to go.  Little did I know, that was easier said than done.  Moving was insane, then I left on the 2nd to help lead an orientation trip for new graduate students...so this post is a bit of a flashback.  Hopefully it will still be helpful to someone!  Further disclaimer:  this post contains only iPhone pictures...mostly of my cat.

It seems like only last year that we moved all our stuff from SoCal, up along the I-5, to the central valley of California.  Oh wait, that really was just last year.  Can it really be that time again?  The painters that came to my apartment Tuesday morning imply that yes, yes it is.  It's moving time!  Transplanting to a new place is always simultaneously exciting and annoying for me.  I love the possibilities.  This year I'll keep my room clean.  This time I'll really put an effort into decoration.  This spring the patio garden will happen!  However, I don't love the hassle.  Will I get my security deposit back?  Where do I put all my stuff while I shampoo the carpets?  Will my cat finally hate me if I make him move again?

Reduce: DIY Drain De-Clogging

A tall grass prairie restoration site I visited while at ESA

Well, welcome back me.  It has been a second guys!  As you probably know if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, I've been away at the Ecological Society of America conference, then I was a little ill, then I got a fellowship (!!!!), then I started packing for our move at the end of the month, and then my boyfriend started nagging me about unclogging the sink.

See, as anyone who has ever rented housing probably doesn't need to be told, our bathroom sink clogs up a lot.  We are really careful not to flush a bunch of hair or what have you down it, but inevitably, about every other month, it needs to be attended too.  Usually, the fella' takes care of this ASAP, but after the last Drano purchase, I told him next time the sink needed fixing I wanted to attend to it.  Earlier this year, I was perusing Pinterest and came across something which I quickly stuck on my Green Lifestyle pinning board:  an all natural drain de-clogger.  Now, Drano itself doesn't have a ton of explicitly cataloged negative impacts to the environment (read: I couldn't really find any studies about it).  However, the two major active ingredients, bleach (NaOCl) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH), are known to have several human health impacts (see some EPA reports here and here).  Plus, the stuff comes in a plastic bottle, which I don't feel comfortable reusing for anything because...you know...it had Drano in it.  The final nail in the coffin, for me at least, is that the stuff costs between 5-10 dollars a bottle.  Generally, if it will hurt me if I accidentally eat it and if it costs a bit of money, I'm over it.

5 Weird Things I Do: When I'm Shopping

Weekly Farmer's Market haul!

My typical Friday afternoon goes a little something like this:

• 4pm- Begin simultaneous watching the clock and repeating the mantra "Be productive, stupid."  (Note:  graduate school not always the best for increasing self-love.)

• 4:30pm- Start to feel like I'm really hungry and, I mean, it's almost time to go anyway.  Desperately try to make final progress on whatever task I have been attempting.

• 4:45 pm- Give up.  Start filling in my OCD meal planning spreadsheet and making my shopping list.

So, just based on this 45 minute snap-shot, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that my approach to picking the groceries I purchase might be a little different than your own.  Meal planning spreadsheet you say?  List you say?  It may sound weird, some might say it's unnecessary, but these are a part of my household's weekly shopping ritual.  What's more, I'm confident that these things, plus others I will discuss, help me to save money and cut back on the waste I produce.  So I felt compelled to share, and another instillation of "5 Weird Things" was born.  

LIT to KY Pt. 2: Adventures in the Sunny South

What?  You’re writing a low impact travel post that begins with a plane ride?  Yes I am.  Please see Pt. 1 for a little more information on my thoughts and rationale regarding this issue.

Day One: In Transit

As is my general practice in life, I took the spring quarter down to the wire.  I had a paper due at 5:00 pm on Tuesday which I turned in, literally at 5:00 pm.  I have trouble letting things go.  I just like to mess with them till the last possible second… Then I had a lab meeting on Wednesday, and class on Thursday, and BBQ on Thursday, and a date night on Friday.  Things got busy and all of a sudden it was Saturday, and I needed to leave the house at 4 pm and I hadn't packed, scooped the kitty litter, or anything!  Lucky for me, at this point I’m very good at packing and my boyfriend is very good at keeping up with the laundry. 

Is this real life?  An empty
middle seat?  Praise be.

I was able to quickly zip up my suitcase and my backpack (with minimal work stuff actually, which was nice), made sure to grab my reusable mug, my water bottle, and some airport snacks, and we were out the door.  We had just enough time to stop by the Co-op on our way out of town so I could grab some coffee and a few more snacks.  I’m sort of obsessed with our local foods co-op.  They have an amazing section of bulk foods and, as luck would have it, one of their awesome bulk trail mixes was on sale.  Score.  I've written before about the importance of bringing snacks with you when you travel.  When you are trying to have a small impact, being able to source the products you consume is very important.  It’s a lot easier to do this when you make your purchases from sources you know and trust than when you are rushed and hangry (hungry plus angry) at the airport.  Bonus points, when you plan ahead, you can make sure the snacks you choose come with minimal unnecessary packaging.  I put my trail mix in a little paper bag and my coffee in my to-go mug and we were on our way.

LIT to KY Pt 1: Planes, trains, and moral conflict

My Greyhound view on the 20hr trek between NM and CA.

As a preface, this is part one of a two part post about my recent trip home to Kentucky.  Part two will take the more traditional form of my other Low Impact Travel (LIT) posts where I discuss my adventures and the little ways I try to alter my travel behaviors to reduce my ecological impact.  However, I wanted to take some time and space to talk about an issue which often troubles me, how and why we choose our means of transportation.  Please note that while this post does contain some science, it's mostly my own opinions and rational.  It should be taken as neither fact or prescription, and is simply the conversation I have been having with myself for the past 4 years, converted into essay form.  

Low Impact Travel: Snow Mt. Wilderness

Preamble: I feel some of these "Low Impact Travel" posts are going to get a little repetitive in their environmental action content.  Unless I have a striking new tip or experience, I'll just include ways I generally lower my impact into the narrative and sum up at the end.  As I do more different kinds of travel this summer (travel for conferences, going home to Kentucky, or driving for work) I'll write more posts with more specific tips.  As suggested in the comments, I'll bold some of the basic tips/suggestions throughout the post.

****

I wrote on Wednesday that I needed to re-up my commitment to make time for nature before the month ended and I inadvertently killed my 2013 streak of monthly nature outings.  In the middle of writing that post, I sent an email out to a group of my friends about organizing a hiking trip or adventuring some other adventure.  I got a reply from two of these pals about a potential camping trip already in the works with a few mutual friends.  I'm super duper shy and was a little nervous about spending the weekend with numerous people I don't consistently spend time with (but I did know almost all of them...super duper shy).  But, my friend A (who I went to the snow with) and another friend J were going to be there, and honestly I knew everyone else going was fun and nice, so I decided to get over my irrational reservations and do what I wanted to do:  go camping!


The other nice thing about tagging along on someone else's adventure is that I had to do very little planning.  The ring leader of the operation, M, had us all over to her house for dinner on Friday night where she made us delicious food and we worked out the details.  A had already picked out a great spot, the Snow Mountain Wilderness in the Mendocino National Forest.  I do my work along the coast in salt marshes, where there aren't really any trees and even less mountain action, so I love exploring in areas like this.  There were nine of us leaving together on Saturday morning and planning to return early Sunday evening, with another person meeting us up later on Saturday night.  So, we split up meal/beer duties and decided that we only needed two cars.  Everyone would sit close, but we would use way less gas, which, in a group of ecologists, is a prime concern.


I headed from the lovely dinner straight to the Co-op to get food for my meal, Saturday dinner.  I was going to make burritos with guacamole and my dinner counterpart planned to make roasted vegetable packs to put in the burritos or eat on the side.  I got my supplies and went home with the best of intentions intentions to make everything for my food contribution that night.  Instead, I went to my room and set my alarm for early...I'd do all that stuff in the morning.  We were planning to leave at 8am, and I didn't roll out of bed till 7:20.  I hadn't packed a single thing.  Oops.  Lucky for me I keep most of my camping gear in a single location and this was only an overnight trip.  I quickly threw all my stuff together in my backpack, went downstairs and threw all my food in a bag.  No coffee yet, ugh, but I rolled up to M's house only 15ish minutes late, just as everyone was bringing their stuff outside to pack in the cars.  Perfect timing actually.  And M had coffee.  A good woman.

We blew a tire on the way to the campsite,
but with our powers combined overcame

We piled into the two cars and began our caravan out to the Ranger's Station closest to our end destination.   Meridith wrote last summer about how we love to talk to park rangers and get their recommendation on what to do in the area.  We planned to ask this ranger where she thought we should camp, and we needed to get a campfire permit.  I actually didn't know that, in CA, when you are camping outside of designated camp grounds you must have a campfire permit to start a fire or use a camp stove.  It's a cool practice because they go through a bit of basic fire safety with you and make you state (cross your heart) that you will abide by certain cations to minimize fire risk.  If we want to keep enjoying the wilderness, we need to make sure and follow the rules.  Fire permit in hand, we headed to the recommended Summit Springs Trailhead.  Along the way we drove through the remnants of a forest fire, which A (a forest ecologist who studies fire!) told me happened in 2009.  We pitched our tents at the informal site along a flat about a quarter mile short of the trailhead.

The light green looking clearing in the center is a
serpentine outcrop

Serpentine

After an awesome lunch, we headed to the trailhead around 2:45 for a 4 hour hike about the wilderness.  We saw tons of really cool native flora and some awesome vistas.  One set of really cool ecological features we saw were the serpentine outcropings.  These unique geologic formations result in the very unique serpentine soils.  These soils are the result of the erosion of metamorphic rocks which contain high levels of iron and magnesium.  Due in part to the unique mineralogy of these rocks (and in part to some other ecological characteristics about which I am certainly not an expert), this soil has very characteristic properties and supports a specific group of native plants.  The really cool thing about serpentine outcrops is that they represent small discreet patches of habitat for theses specialized communities.  As a result, these soils and their associated flora and fauna have been used to study many ecological theories (island biogeography, meta-population structure, meta-community theory, just to name a few).  Plus, these are just really pretty rocks.

Forest Frisbee

Old Forest Fire

We arrived at an open glade around 5:00 pm, and everyone was pretty ready to turn around and head back for dinner prep before we lost the light.  A little game of frisbee broke out, and a few of us wandered a little past the open area, and around a meadow to attempt to get another good view.  Meadows are really cool ecosystems as well.  A lot like wetlands, they are periodically wet and walking through them can cause subtle changes in elevation, which alter hydrology and can impact the native species.  Public service announcement:  when you are hiking, always walk around a meadow.  We found our final view, which was a great glimpse of the valley and part of the Coast Range, and we also passed through another, older (according to A) forest fire.  Seeing all the burned trees standing there, stark white, with little saplings popping up underneath was really cool and moving for me.  Seeing the natural cycles of nature, and feeling like I understand even a small part of what is going on is humbling and exciting.  We headed back to camp, made an epic dinner, had an killer bonfire, drank some adult beverages, and ate (at least I did) one too many s'mores.  As the night wound down, we dowsed our fire with a substantial amount of water, stirred the embers, and headed to bed.

Informative Sign

The next morning after breakfast, we packed up our camp and headed back down the road.  We wanted to get another short hike in, but weren't sure where we wanted to go.  One of our party had a really poor night's sleep and another had long standing knee issues.  After a full day of hiking the day before, we were looking for something low key.  Luckily, on the way out, we passed a sign for Letts Lake.  We snacked by the shore then took a short, hour long hike all the way around the shores of the lake.  I, naturally, poked all around at the edge of the water and took a picture of the lake from every angle.  I love ecology in general, but when you add water to it, I'm in my element.  I saw some cool dragonfly exuvia on the emergent vegetation and a pretty interesting informative sign.  I wish there had been a little more information as I could infer a lot from this sign, but I think the general public would have been interested in a  bit more information.

Letts Lake

And that was that.  Adventure success.  And, despite my initial shy-girl reservations, I had a great time with this group of people and think I will hang with them again in the future.  It's hard for me, but I always feel so great after making new connections or expanding on ones that are already in place.  I'm excited to see what will happen in June as that will be the half way point for this new year's resolution.

Last Word:  After feeling sort of despondent after a few weeks of pretty intense work, getting out into nature totally recharged my batteries.  As usual when traveling, I tried to make sure we took as few cars as possible.  We brought and cooked almost all our own food (we stopped at a little Mexican joint on the way back out of the woods) and were careful to LNT (leave no trace) when we packed up our campsite.  We also were very careful about our use of fire in the woods and made sure to get the proper permits.  I also took lots of pictures and made sure to get thoroughly wow-ed by the natural splendor of the area.  A very successful trip indeed.      

This is me, glorying.

What do you think?  Do you get nervous going on trips with people who you don't know super well?  What are some of the best nature facts you've learned on the trail?  Any awesome "wow, this is beautiful and makes me feel small, which is AWESOME!" moments to share?   

5 Weird Things I Do: Morning Routine

Hey all!  I know it has been a while.  What can I say.  School.  Life.  The usual things that get in the way of my blogging.  Have I told you guys that I am running a Sprint Triathlon in April?  It's crazy right?  Like I need more to do.  It's been pretty great though.  I've been swimming, biking, playing soccer, and discovering that I might actually like running!  I've been training for the past month or so, and I discovered a new favorite blog:  No Meat Athlete.  This blog is great starting from the adorable jogging carrot, right down to the health and running advice.  I stopped by there a few mornings ago during my usual blog trolling/procrastination loop before getting down to work and saw the most recent post about weird things this blogger does now that he is a vegan.  I loved it, mostly because I thought it was all cool, familiar, and not really that weird.  But it got me to thinking, I've spent a fair amount of time thus far telling you guys about new things I am trying to do to make my impact on the earth itty-bitty-small, but I've totally neglected to tell you all the things that have changed in my life over the past few years as I strive for this goal.  Some of these things are big, some are small, and some are totally weird.  I just think of them as so normal now.

So, over the next little bit, I will be sharing with you short lists of the weird things I do in my day to day.  Some of them might seem pretty normal to the hippie-eco set, but I hope to teach even the old hat eco-nerds some new tricks.  Here we go with installment one!

Five Weird Things I Do- My Morning Routine:

1.  Baking Soda and Coconut Oil Face wash

My new face washing routine.

Excuse the blurry picture, but this is pretty much what it
looks like before I combine the two ingredients.

I found this little gem months ago and quickly added it to my Pinterest board for future reference. I had been using the Neutrogena Facial Cleansing Bar because it comes in a paper box and I didn't have to buy a new plastic bottle every time I needed new face wash. However, I was always a little bummed that the bar came wrapped in a little layer of cellophane plastic. So close, yet so far. I've always had problems with mild but persistent acne and the Neutrogena had really done the trick for clearing it up and lasted for a really long time (read: it was super cheap!).  Additionally, I wanted a face wash with as few chemicals as possible.  Your skin is your biggest organ, and everything you put on it gets absorbed to varying degrees.  I do not want to put a lot of random chemicals on my body and just hope for the best.  This  was another semi-plus for the Neutrogena face bar.  Everyone should run their skin care products through the Environmental Working Group's, Skin Deep Database.  It will tell you a lot about the chemicals and risks associated with all sorts of health and beauty products.  But I digress.

So, I was a little resistant to trying this new technique, because I was relatively pleased with my current solution   Despite my reservations, when the time came to buy new face wash about a month ago, I found an on sale coconut oil that was 1) organic, 2) in a glass jar, and 3) did I mention on sale?  I decided I had to go for it!  I figured, I use baking soda for everything and if this doesn't work I can use the coconut oil for cooking.  How does it work then?  The jury is still out.  I have super, super sensitive skin so each time I switch face washes, there is an awkward period where I get small break outs, so that is still happening.  Additionally, I'm not sure I've been doing it 100% right.  The instructions on the website are different than the ones on the pin, which are the ones I have been following.  Right now, I am using a pinch of baking soda and a very small amount of coconut oil (size of a pencil eraser) 3 times a week, then washing my face with warm water and a wash cloth the other days.  My skin looks a lot healthier aside from the slight increase in blemishes.  I have no dry skin and it has evened out my skin tone a bit.  I'm going to give it till the end of April, and see if things clear up the rest of the way.  After all, I have been exercising about 20x more than usual and falling into bed at night without rinsing my face sometimes, so it's hard to say if this is working great or not.  Someone else should give it a try!  Let me know how it goes.  It's for sure got less chemicals and plastic associated with it than any other face washing routine I've tried.  And, I feel like my face smells nice after...


2.  Baking Soda Deodorant

My deodorant!

Unlike the previous item, this is tried and true for me!  In high school, I was always very self-conscious about sweating a lot, and I was even using one of those over the counter, prescription strength deodorants at one point.  I went back and forth about this into my undergrad days, and then my little sister's best friend's mother (long connection, I know) got breast cancer.  This was during the time when researchers were just starting to explore a possible link between aluminium-based components in deodorants and development of breast cancer.  The jury is still out about this health link, and I would encourage you to check out the National Cancer Institute's summary of the data here.  In either case, I'm not really one for messing around with possible cancer causing agents, so I decided I needed an alternative.  I started off with a sea salt spray deodorant that you can find in most stores, which is Pink Ribbon endorsed.  That worked pretty well, but later that year I was starting to really think about cutting back my consumption of single use plastics.  I read an article online that said baking soda could easily be used as a deodorant.  I gave it a go, and it works so well, is so cheap, and so easy that I will never go back!  All you need is a reusable container and an old make-up brush.

Fair warning, this is not an antiperspirant.  However, everyone I know who I have convinced to actually give this a try has ended up loving it!  Antiperspirants use those aluminum-based ingredients to actually clog up the pores in your armpits, preventing you from sweating.  And did you know that sweating is actually really good for your body?  It helps you maintain your temperature and gets out bad stuff, like toxins you might have absorbed through the skin.  That's one of the reasons people feel so great after coming out of the sauna!  So, when you initially make the switch you might feel extra sweaty, because your pores are trying to get rid of all those clogging agents you've been rubbing on everyday for years!  After the adjustment period, I (an those who I have gotten to try this!) felt less sweaty and smelly overall!  Seriously.  Do this.  If you aren't into straight up baking soda, there are a ton of recipes for smelly-good homemade deodorants on the internet.  If you don't want to make it yourself, and you have some extra cash, my boyfriend has been using Lush's solid deodorant bars as of late.  He loves this one.

I have not yet sold D Lo on the green smoothie,
so his is sans kale.  Hello toes!

3.  Drink My Breakfast Smoothie with a Stainless Steel Straw

Yes, I love smoothies.  They keep me really full until lunch time, they give me a lot of energy in the morning, and, because I'm obsessed with green smoothies, they give me all the benefits of dark leafy greens!  I also love straws.  Maybe it's a leftover from my childhood.  I had stopped using them for the most part because they are made of plastic...and you just throw them away.  However, when we moved this summer, our new roommate had a ton of straws in this cute little container.  I couldn't resist and started using them again.  Bad Rachel.  The solution?  I used my birthday amazon gift card to buy these cool, reusable, stainless steel straws!  It really is the little things guys.

4.  Coffee, Coffee, and more Coffee!

My morning and afternoon pick-me-ups.

I, like everyone else in America, need my morning cup of Joe   Unlike normal people, graduate students need at least two cups of coffee a day (on average) to keep on trucking.  I'm only half kidding about this.  Anyway, as a result, you can end up purchasing a lot of coffee, which comes with the baggage of a recyclable plastic lid and cardboard sleeve and non-recyclable cup.  Plus, $1.50 or more for a cup of coffee every morning can really add up over time!  I generally opt for the cheaper, less wasteful solution of making my coffee at home.  I purchase my coffee in bulk, and store it in a reusable container.  Then, I brew two cups every morning.  The first cup, I drink hot right then and there.  The second cup I put in a reusable glass jar (which probably used to house peanut butter!) with a little soymilk and stash it in my office fridge as soon as I get to campus.  By the time I need a mid-afternoon pick-me-up, I have iced coffee!  I save money, and I cut down on waste.  Win, win.  Need more reasons to remember your reusable mug or just make coffee at home?  Check out this awesome infographic by Mother Nature Network:

5.  Get on My Bike and Ride!

The Silver Fox (my bike)!

I love my bike, and I love biking.  Our little town is the most, extremely bike friendly place I have ever lived, so it makes biking a lot more convenient.  I bike to school almost every weekday, and I bike to quite a few of my weekend destinations.  D Lo actually doesn't know how to ride a bike (gasp!), so that is on our to do list for 2013!  Bike riding makes the most sense for a lot of reasons.  It costs no money and makes you healthier, while driving your car costs you money and leaves you sedentary.  For me, getting to and from campus each week would involve 20 miles of driving.  My poor car only gets about 20-25 miles to the gallon when I'm driving in town.  So, driving to work each day could easily cost me 4-5 dollars a week (thanks CA gas prices).  That doesn't include the cost of parking on campus (7 dollars a day...and a lot per quarter.  Honestly, I've never checked it out because I know I can't afford it!).  Additionally, when I'm driving I'm just sitting there.  News flash, I sit at work all day.  Being an ecologists usually means that for 9 months out of the year I am sitting in front of my computer/microscope/lab bench not really moving.  The other three months, hopefully, I am doing field work and running about outdoors!  However, during the day to day that is the non-field season, by biking to work I burn about 65 calories each way (according to this calorie burn calculator).  So, biking is the obvious choice for both my wallet and my health.

Biking is also a great choice when it comes to ecological thinking.  Each week, by biking to work I keep 0.01 metric tons of carbon out of the atmosphere (based on this carbon footprint calculator).  That might not seem like a lot, but it adds up over time!  That means each year, just by biking to work and no other destinations, I can stop 0.56 metric tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere!  That's a lot, all thanks to little ol' me.  I know biking to work isn't reasonable for everyone, but surly there is one location you visit at least once a week where you could bike instead of drive?  Maybe you can make a little extra effort and start a carpool to get to work?  Get creative!

Last Word:  I get really sad when when people start talking about their feelings of helplessness when it comes to the environment   That little voice in our head that says "What I do doesn't really make that much of a difference" can be really discouraging.  Unfortunately, in some ways, that is true.  We need a real societal shift in order to get our world back on track.  But where do societal shifts start?  That's right, with individuals.  Like me.  Like you.  We really can do this!  These "5 weird things" were changes to my life originally, and changes require activation energy, but once I overcame inertia and just did it, I don't even think about these things anymore.  They are just...my life.  Pick one, or two, or more and give them a try.  To quote Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, don't nothing just because you can't do everything.  

What do you think?  Are there things you do on the daily that others think are strange?  Share them with me, I would love to give them a try or talk about why you choose these actions.  

Low Impact Travel: Going to the Snow

My feet in my snowshoes!

I think, a lot of times, people perceive a ecology-centered lifestyle (or green...I'm never really sure what terminology to use) as being restrictive.  It's not an outlandish conclusion to come to, really.  Essentially, when making decisions in an ecosystem context, you're thinking not just about yourself, but the system in which you live.  In that framework, sometimes the easiest, most convenient, or even funnest option isn't the very best choice.  This can seem like, well, a bummer.  However, I think you will find that with a little effort and proper prior planning you can still enjoy the activities you love!  I'll give you an example of an adventure I went on with some lady-ecologists this past weekend.

Not like the snow was deep or anything

One of my friends in graduate school, A, is from Florida originally, and since winter has rolled in she has been jonesing to get to the snow!  Lucky for her, I am always game for an outdoor adventure, and we quickly found a few co-conspirators.  With a little quick research, A found that we could rent snow shoes from the campus outdoor club for 10 dollars for the whole weekend.  Renting or borrowing equipment that you will only use occasionally is one excellent way to lessen the impact of your adventures.  You can think of it as reusing on the social level!  So, on Friday, after my TA meeting, I tottered on down to the outdoor adventure accessorizer, and rented my snowshoes.  Easy peasie.  I also borrowed a pair of gaiters from one of the other girls coming along because I lack proper snow-playing  gear (I'd been living in SoCal for 3 years).

Lake Tahoe from afar

Originally, A and I had planned to head up to Lake Tahoe on Saturday night with a full car of friends and stay at a fellow student's parent's cabin, and another group planned to drive up Sunday morning early and meet us for the day.  However, around 3:30 Saturday afternoon, due to a number of circumstances, the volume of passengers in the car dropped to just A and myself.  We regrouped and called the Sunday morning crew.  Did they all want to carpool together on Sunday morning?  The deal was done, and we all had more time to do work (oh joy).  Carpooling is an extremely important part of lessening the impacts of your adventures.  If your schedule is flexible, taking the train or bus are also great options!  I used this carbon footprint calculator to estimate the emissions from our trip.  With 4 of us in the car, I estimate we emitted 0.09 metric tons of CO2.  That's only 0.023 metric tons of CO2 each as opposed to 0.04 if we had stuck with the original plan and driven in pairs.  Additionally, considering the vehicle you choose to drive is key.  If I can avoid it, I never take my car on adventures unless it will be FULL of gear, surfboards, or people because the gas millage is not the best.

You have rented, you have carpooled, and now you are on your adventure!  Time to have a blast and/or marvel at nature (depending on the brand of adventure you have chosen).  Make sure you pack your own food and water to the greatest extent possible to reduce the unnecessary plastic wrapping associated with buying food on the go.  I go into some examples of the types of foods I like on the go here.  On this adventure, I had a few granola bars (weird composite wrapping, too bad) and lots of fruit!



Lower Echo Lake

How long could we have resisted?

After this weekend, I would highly recommend that everyone go on a winter adventure ASAP.  As we discussed on our hike, the deep snow makes LNT (leave no trace) hiking super easy.  You don't have to worry about messing up trails, damaging vegetation, or contributing to erosion because...you're just walking on top of the snow!  It was also wonderful to get out into nature as it really helped me to decompress.  I'm never sure how much to write about it here, but being a graduate student is really stressful.  I'm busy a lot, and that's why my posting here isn't super regular.  However, when I spend time on non-academic things on purpose, I'm much more productive during my week.  And running around this winter wonderland was a great use of my time!

Really guys, don't even try and park here.

Last Word:  Adventuring while living an environmentally conscious life is possible!  All you need is a little bit of creativity and desire to make a good plan.  Knowing I put in just that little extra effort makes me feel even more excited about my current/future endeavors   Over the last weekend, my major green decisions were to rent/barrow gear, carpool, and pack lots of snacks!  Next time you long for an adventure, try to implement at least one (maybe two!) of these strategies, and try to find a way to measure the results.  I love looking at the numbers and seeing the impacts of my decisions.

 What do you think?  Are there things you could do to make your adventures easier on the planet?  Any tips for low impact travel that I haven't mentioned in this post?  I would love to hear them!     

Reduce/Reuse: DIY Salad Dressings

As most of my friends and relations can tell you, I'm a very easy going person.  But, there are a few things in this big world that make me squirm.  One of them (as I'm sure you have already gathered) is excessive waste in all its forms.  Another big thing that really makes me go "squee" and have a mini-internal crisis is paying a lot of money for something I know costs very little to produce.  And when these two pet peeves team up, I'm very likely to vote with my dollars and refuse to buy a product.  So, last week, this is how the scenario went down:

Stage 1: Realization- It's Saturday, grocery shopping day, and we are totally out of salad dressing.  Unluckily, all the available options at [insert the name of your local chain grocery here]:  (1) Are packaged in plastic, (2) Contain high fructose corn syrup, (3) Don't have 1 or 2 but do cost more than 5 dollars.
Stage 2:  Moral and economic dilemma!- I sweat, I ask D Lo to make a decision, I get frustrated and say I need time to think about it.*
Stage 3: Denial- I don't buy salad dressing and end up mooching off my roommate for the week, because she already bought it, so even if I have an issue with it...it's there...   
Stage 4:  Acceptance- The next Saturday, I resolve to pay a little more and buy dressing in a glass jar from the Co-op, because I'm lucky and I have that option.  I shell out $5 for a 12oz jar of dressing.
Stage 5:  A) It's delicious!- Eat my yummy dressing until I return to Stage 1, or B) It's super gross!- I paid 5 dollars, and I'm super disappointed in the product, but I soldier through because...you know...it cost 5 bucks!
Stage 6:  Overcoming Resistance- Resistance is the force that keeps you from doing things that you really want to do/know you really should be doing.  Every time I bought that 5 dollar bottle (or just bought the plastic, high fructose version because I am a poor graduate student), I knew there was a better way. 

*This is the part where I always feel INSANE.  Am I the only person who has a moral crisis over salad dressing?

And this, friends, is really why I wanted to start this blog.  I know there are other people out there who really want to make some changes in their lives, but they don't because they think it will be too hard/expensive/time consuming.  I totally feel you; I deal with that feeling daily.  What always helps me is reading a blog or talking to a friend who tells me how simple and fun these changes can be.  So, here is another small solution to our big ol' ecological problems.  And, in this case, the solution takes about as much time as comparing the labels on your standard store bought salad dressings!

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Homemade Italian Dressing (modified from original instructions at Penniless Parenting)

Ingredients:*
1/2 cup of the vinegar (any type, I used ACV and some red wine vinegar)
~3/4 cup of olive oil or other oil (I used 1/2 olive oil, 1/2 cheaper vegetable oil)
1 Tablespoons of water
1/4 Tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 Tablespoon onion powder
1/4 Tablespoon honey, white sugar, agave nectar, or any other sweetener I would imagine
1 tablespoons dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 Tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 Tablespoons salt

* I halved the original recipe because my jar was not going to hold the original quantities.  I also doubt I added a full 1/2 T of salt because adding salt to things always makes me really nervous that I will destroy the product.  One too many slips of the hand I guess.


Homemade and yummy! 

Equipment:
The glass jar from your yucky-overpriced dressing...or any re-purposed receptacle
Funnel
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons

Instructions and Tips:
Literally dudes, this took me less than 10 minutes to make, and that includes the time I spent looking for my freaking onion powder.  You just put all the ingredients in, and shake shake shake.  Quite honestly, not my favorite Italian dressing ever, but I do prefer it to the ones I have bought most recently in the store.  There are, however, TONS of salad dressing recipes online, so try your hand at recreating your favorite flavor. 


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Final Word:  You can see the whole reason for why I think homemade solutions are more green here in my first DIY post. In this particular situation, it was all about not wanting to buy plastic (or a product pumped full of what I deem to be unhealthy ingredients) and not wanting to fork over a bunch of money. I literally had all of this stuff already in my kitchen. Major score, right?

What do you think?  Do you have any amazing salad dressing recipes?  Or maybe an inspirational story of overcoming resistance?  We'd love to hear it!

Reduce: My Green Holiday Swag

Well, I have been absent.  The holidays.  Life.  FINALS.  I will not discuss in detail the coffee induced hell that the first two weeks of December entailed.  I also will not detail the lovely time I had at home with my family, friends, and the many many dogs that live at my parent’s home.  I will, however, share with you a few choice, blog inspired Christmas gifts I received this year.  I’m a really lucky girl.  I have a very talented and environmentally minded mother, so when she asks me what I want, I give her ideas.  Here is how she executed:

Homemade reusable cosmetic rounds!

First, check out these reusable make-up remover pads!  After I made my DIY eye make-up remover, I realized I would need some cotton pads to use the product the way I wanted.  Those convenient little cotton pads you buy at the drug store seemed sub-optimal for several reasons.  First, they are wrapped in plastic.  I promise I will write a full out post about the drawbacks of plastic soon.  It's on the list.  Second, I don't know a ton about the cotton industry, but anything that takes resources to make and is explicitly one use, seems iffy to me.  So, I asked my mom to come up with a solution.  She made me about 20 reusable cotton rounds.  Over half of them are washcloth material on one side, and the other half are just all cotton fabric.  She made them all from stuff she had laying around the house too, so no new stuff needed!  She also re-gifted to me this amazing airtight container for them.  I think it has some beer cheese in it when she first received it, but it's really pretty and the pads fit perfectly.  I'm going to use them for make-up remover, toner, and, as per my cousin's suggestion, I'm thinking of putting some mixture of stuff in the container to try and make a reusable version of those pre-moistened pads.  I will report back.

Bulk bags!

Second, she made me these awesome bulk bags to be used at the co-op and the Farmer's Market.  I have a few of these, but I always run out and end up using the old brown paper bags I have been saving hording for...probably too long.  Needless to say, most of those have seen better days, and my mom comes to the rescue.  Bad on me for not putting something in here for scale.  There are a variety of sizes, the biggest one could hold lots of produce or a ton of rice if it's on sale.  The smallest one would be perfect for those things I'm buying in bulk for just one recipe.  These were also made from fabric scraps she had around the house.  They are so cute, right?

Last, I cannot leave out the cool presents made for me by my crafty little sister.  She made me these super cool headbands out of old t-shirts!  As headbands pretty much equal my grad school hair uniform, these are amazing and thoughtful.  I wear them all the time.  She tells me she learned how on Pinterest.  I will try to find the link and post it to my own Pinterest page.  If you're so inclined, you can follow me on there, here.  She made some other pretty amazing gifts for the rest of the family.

Final Word:  Basically, my family is amazing, and they really know me.  I also love that they are into downing the waste that is often associated with the holiday season.  I'm super excited to try them out, and I'll make sure to report back.

What do you think?  Did you get any cool gifts for the holidays?  I know it's a little late...but eh.  Any cool eco/green/sustainable gifts you'd like to gab about?  I'd love to hear about them!          

Low Impact Travel: Thanksgiving 2012

I am back from my Thanksgiving travels.  I’m still pretty tired, and have a ton of school stuff to catch up on, as usual I suppose.  This year, travel was especially crazy because ticket prices were so high (ouch), so I took a red-eye flight on Wednesday which got me into Nashville around 5am CST.  I then flew out of Nashville on Saturday at 7am CST.  Quick turn around, and a few very early mornings!  I thought I might reflect on my wanderings and talk about small things we can do to make our travel footprint a little smaller. 

WEDNESDAY:

I did some school work in the morning and early afternoon.  The usual.  The boyfriend (hereafter D Lo) picked me up from school right after class, and I went straight away to making brownies for my roomies and my rideshare buddy.  I went through my fridge and tried to pick out the veggies that would go bad before I got home.  I juiced up a carrot, cucumber, chopped a sort of mealy apple, and threw all that in  the blender with some kale, frozen raspberries, and bananas.  D Lo usually avoids my “salad smoothies,” but I think he was counting on missing me, so he drank up, and it was proclaimed “not that bad.”  My lab mate and her boyfriend swung by to pick me up just as the brownies were done and the smoothies were in our bellies.  My lab mate is from the Bay Area, so she just dropped me off at a train station near her house.  I jammed out to podcasts all the way to the airport.  Once there, I got real hungry, and got another smoothie (this one in a plastic container).  A quick jaunt from SFO to LAX, a speedy veggie burger and fries from Burger King (I really love to eat while I travel) and I was on a plane again and on my way to the southern homeland!

Green smoothies are one of my fave snacks.

Travel Dos:

#1àDo make sure and use up your food before you leave home.  Waste not, want not as they say.

#2àDo ride share and ride public transit when you can.  SO MUCH less stressful than dealing with holiday traffic.

#3àDo remember to pack your own snacks.  Things you buy at the airport as so over priced, wrapped in plastic, and usually not that good for you (I’m looking at you Burger King).

THURSDAY:

Many many cooks in the kitchen!

I rode in the car SO much today, but in that part of the country, it’s much harder to avoid.  Public transit is just not really well developed in more rural areas.  I also went on every errand with all my siblings.  Really, nothing beats riding in a car, chatting, listening to music on a beautiful fall, country day.  I just love Kentucky.  I had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I didn’t take that many pictures, but I am so blessed to have such lovely family and friends to spend these times with me.  I did make everyone laugh till they almost cried when I admitted to drinking cabbage juice last year when I was working on my thesis.  I’m a weirdo in a family of weirdoes, and we all like it that way.  My brother even made a fabulous vegan dish for me to enjoy with the Thanksgiving Feast!  We ate, and drank, and played games until the cousins had to head home.  It was a great holiday.     

Post dinner entertainment from my bro and my sister's beau.  

Travel Dos:

#4àDo remember it’s the holidays and you are supposed to play and do things you don’t always do (like eat till you have a little tummy pooch! Yum!! Or ride all around town in a car.)

FRIDAY:

My newest niece puppy who I met Friday.

This was my only full day in Kentucky.  I’m so glad my brother got this day off work so we could all hang out till he and my sister-in-law had to leave at 1pm.  My college roommate was also in for the holiday with the family, he’s an adopted kid to my parents, and he got to stay till lunch time as well!  That evening my best friend and another college roommate stopped by to hang out and chat and eat more food!  I also had some time on Friday to talk Christmas plans with my mom.  She is going to make me some bulk food bags and some reusable face cloths (think a reusable item that will replace cotton balls in the bathroom), more on this later.  I also remembered where I got so many of my good-for-the-earth habits when I watched my mom fix a few Christmas decorations instead of throwing them away and give tons of leftovers to us in reused containers (No, D Lo, that is pie not feta cheese!).  I also had an amazing conversation with my sister about women in science and the impacts of our diet choices.  She is pretty amazing and works for the National Park Service, and her park just got its first female director!

SATURDAY:

On the road again, way way early.  Too too early.  Luckily, this time I had my mom around to fix me tons of snacks.  I wish I had taken a picture of the spread.  I had coffee in my to-go mug, pretzels in a reused container, peanut butter and gram crackers wrapped in tin foil, and raisins.  This kept me from buying any snacks all the way through the airports!  Thanks mom!  I took the train from SFO to within about an hour of my California home and, once again, D Lo and I were able to avoid the stressful airport traffic.  Basically, living in a city where the train is connected to the airport is amazing (…duh…).  We were way too tired to cook that night though, so we ordered in Indian food.

Travel Dos:

#5àMake ahead of time, and freeze, a homemade meal.  You will be too tired to go out or cook when you get home, and your delicious curry will come in a plastic Tupperware.  To the credit of this restaurant, my curry and two small condiments were the only things in plastic.  Pretty cool!

FINAL WORD:  Obviously, this isn’t a post about large scale travel choices (train vs. plane vs. automobile) because this little southern girl has got to get home, and flying is really the only practical way at this point.  Maybe that post will come later.  That said, the holidays are supposed to be fun!  I think that lots of things you can do to make your travel lower impact, also make the whole experience more fun and way less stressful.  Public transit and ridesharing are decidedly less stressful because you spend less and deal with traffic less, always a win.  Spending money on overpriced items *cough*airport snacks *cough* always stresses me out, and I loved not doing that on the way back to CA.  Think about your holiday routine, we’ll all be doing it again in a few weeks, and consider changes you can make. 

What do you think?  Do you have any great green travel tips?  Any tips for avoiding holiday stress?  Favorite on the go snacks?   

Reduce: Cook at home [Roasted Eggplant Pesto]

My week. Coffee shop, grade/write, rinse, repeat.

Things have been 100% crazy in my life as of late.  School is really kicking my butt, and I find myself doing something I very rarely do under pressure…shutting down.  For me, one of the top signs I’m really stressed out is poor eating.  I get “too stressed/busy” to cook, and, instead, clean the grout between my tiles after eating a ton of tater tots.  While cleaning that grout can be very rewarding, making meals at home from whole foods is one of the best things we can do for our bodies, and for the environment.

Here is the pitch (it might sound familiar).  When you prepare foods using simple ingredients it become a lot easier to know where those ingredients originate.  I also find it’s a lot easier to avoid unnecessary packaging when I’m cooking from whole foods and simple ingredients.  And, as I really needed someone to remind me this weekend, cooking for yourself really doesn't take that long and is so much more rewarding than ordering a pizza.  Also, it’s just better for you!  I don’t really want this to turn into a nutrition blog, but I am sort of obsessed with nutrition, and if you want to know some cool sites to refer to, let me know in the comments.

Long story short, I want to commemorate the last real meal I cooked before I let stress get the better of me.  This is a simple meal you could make without much effort during the pre-Thanksgiving week.  It also uses lots of ingredients that you can buy with little to no packaging, score!  This Roasted Eggplant Pesto comes from one of my favorite vegan cooking blogs.  For the non-vegans in the house, my boyfriend, a committed omnivore, generally loves things from Susan’s blog.  I doubled the garlic because…that’s what I do.  I also didn't take a picture of the finished product because it just didn't look very photogenic.  Refer to the picture on the original blog.  She really gets its good side.

You don’t like to cook you say?  Ah, dear friend, I was once like you.  Literally, my parents were worried about me when I moved away to college because they were “afraid I wouldn't feed myself.”  It took me years to get to the point where I thought roasting an eggplant was a step in a “simple” recipe.  My advice is to start slow.  Cut out some easy processed foods first.  For example, if you love making burritos, buy some bulk beans and cook those things up yourself (you only need a sauce pan and some water).  Love pasta night?  Skip the sauce in those plastic/glass containers, and buy a can of tomato sauce and spice it up yourself.   The key is to set yourself up for success in the beginning so you don’t get frustrated or discouraged.  And for those of you out there who love to cook, think of some ingredients you could sub or tell us a story about something you are already doing, I would love to hear it.

That being said, I now love to cook myself.  Check out these nummy ingredients!  We ate this on pasta twice, and I used it as a spread on many a piece of toast.  I loved it!

Look at this pretty basil!  And the only plastic it came with was that silly little
twist tie they up around it at the store. Totally kept that bit to reuse.

You can't win them all.  These were my plastic wrapped ingredients.  If you are comparing to
ordering out though, I used those sun dried tomatoes for 3 recipes and that pasta for two
recipes  with each recipe making about 4 servings.  I think cooking at home is still winning
in the coast-benefit analysis.  If you have more funds than I, you can totally avoid the
 plastic.  You can buy pasta in bulk at lots of natural food stores.  I almost bought dried
tomatoes at the farmer's market, but they were twice as expensive.  Remember you can
only do so much at the same time!

Look at this beauty!  Roasted eggplant from the farmer's market.  YUM!

Soaking almonds (also from the farmer's market) hanging out with the garlic.  Nuts in general
are expensive, but the guy at the market actually sells them for a super good price.  This is for
sure one of those ingredients where I cannot always afford to skip the packaging.  Garlic,
however, is always cheap at the store and the market without packaging.  Don't fall for that silly
plastic mesh they put three of them in.  You don't save that much money!

FINAL WORD:  I know not everyone loves to cook, but it’s a skill that will really serve you well in your journey to help the planet (and yourself) stay happy and healthy.  Remember, baby steps are the best way to make real, lasting changes in your life.  Give yourself a break!  Try upping your home cooked meals by one day (or even one meal) per week.  Keep track of the waste you create, and see the difference! 

What do you think?  Do you live near a farmer’s market where you can buy your produce?  Do you like to cook?  Any favorite cooking tips or websites to share with us?