live from sublurbia

I thought about this the other day when reading about an effort to block methane facilities changes to our state landfill system.

My first thoughts were along the lines of, “I dunno, methane sounds great! Use it to power cars, and power plants!” Then I wished I spoke more legislativeeze. Green Florida says this is not a great bill, would end mulch programs, but does it?

Solid Waste / Recycling and Landfills 
 
HB 569 was considered on second reading Tuesday and passed by the full House on Thursday. The bill would allow certain Class I landfills with an active gas-collection system to collect yardwaste. It also requires such a landfill to obtain a minor permit modification to its operating permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection which describes the beneficial use being made of the landfill gas and modifies the facility’s operation plan before receiving any yard trash. Its Senate companion, SB 1052, has yet to be heard in the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee. County staff will continue to oppose these bills as contradictory to the state’s 75% recycling goal and in an effort to preserve space in Class I landfills.

Further reading seems to indicate what Green Florida is worried about – looks like counties can cut their costs by combining waste and yard waste pickup and just methaning everything. Continue Reading »

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I’ve got one pretty pretty rain barrel at the front of the house. Looks a lot like a big planter unless you know better, or spot the hose peeking off of the side.

I want more. Oh, I want more. They don’t have to be that pretty, but they should work. However, I grew up in the desert, and I know what the ravages of the sun can do to household goods repurposed to other lives.

However, it looks like garbage cans will work fine after all. :) Continue Reading »

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To find more school tips, hit this weeks WFMW!

Ah, shoes and socks and bits and bobs, it’s time to get ready for school again. Yesterday I pulled out the school clothes tub to sort through what we’ve got an what we need. Pulled three shirts I’m going to try and de-stain, added three I picked up from an outlet store last week. Pants and shorts we’re good on, but I’ll need to take my eldest shoe shopping.

The day before school starts, we’ll pick up his classroom assignment, teacher assignment, and supply sheet. The supplies usually range from typical, such as paper, pencils, and crayons, to class-wide, such as construction paper, hand sanitizer, and modeling clay.

Some of these things can be acquired sustainability – sure I can go buy a pack of Play-Doh, but I’ve been saving it up from kid meals and party bags. Even getting it out for the kids to play with from time to time, I have a fat ton of that stuff in the house. Paper? Notebooks? Pencils? Recycle-content goods! Even plastic bags have gotten into the act, made with less plastic (and at a higher price, go green gouging!).

And what am I sending the supplies in this year? A reusable bag. Continue Reading »

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I’ve got some things around that are quite trashy. I’m pretty pack ratty, as I’ve admitted before, but I think I am and can stay a far pace away from hoarding … but you never know.

I’ve got tea bag wrappers. No reason to save them, but they smell so nice. And I came up with a use for them. But not the time to use them in.

I’ve got old mailing envelopes. Some can be reused, some can’t. The “can’ts” can be reused in other ways, but I want to do more research on Tyvek before I get into it. I had hoped to have a nice long piece about Tyvek tonight, but I was thwarted by bad javascript. :( I understand DuPont wants to capture information about their users, but should I really have to fill out tons of personal information to read a PDF about the Tyvek life cycle? Continue Reading »

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Between getting organized for guests coming and going, sorting out all of my fabric into type for sewing, sticking close to home to tend roofers and kids with summer colds, I’ve finally rid myself of the giant laundry basket in the den, our seven-year old portable playpen.

Over its lifetime, it housed kids and cats, toys and laundry, bolts of fabric and the occasional birthday gift. Despite the manufacturer’s claims of less than a minute set-up time, negotiating all the bits into position usually took at least ten more minutes and three more inches in height than I have. Nothing like trying to ratchet the “pull and twist” mechanism while trying to not fall into the pen.

Despite the mostly fond memories, the time has come for departure and recycling. I hope someone picks it up to sell the metal tubing for scrap – but we have quite a parade here on Friday mornings, so I think it likely. If I knew where to recycle/sell the tubing or we didn’t have the informal pickups before the formal pickups, I would have taken a sledge and knife to it myself for recycling.

I can’t pass it on, because the wear of a dozen children, pets, and my own rough assembly finally caused something to give and break about a year ago. Not enough to get out of letting it hold “some laundry” for “just a little while”, but enough to catch all the clutter I could throw its way.

Two weeks ago, we finally broke it down, and disabled it as much as possible to discourage its unsafe reuse for children. If I’d thought it through enough, I would have kept the netting to reuse for a project; I didn’t think of one until I finally laid it on the curb for bulk pickup. Too little, too late.

Goodbye, Clutter Catcher of Doom. Good riddance, and dang you held a lot of laundry.

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[Think of a something Thursday!]

Growing up, we had a huge cake box full of cookie cutters. We’d get them out once or twice a year, taking over the kitchen to make COOOKIES. Great busy, messy fun during the summer and winter breaks. But excavating them was a major chore. And the box usually sat around until all the cutters were washed and put up – usually a few days or even weeks (eep!).

I was pretty good about cookie cutters at first, but they seemed to take up an awful lot of space in the “whatever” drawer (Which reminds me – any use for corn holders? I’ve given up on those little stabby knobs.). The cutters spread to the boxed lunch area (cute sandwich shapes!) and the toaster oven (ghostest toastest with the mostest!). I did a quick purging of the kitchen and came up with a count of seventeen, and I know that doesn’t even cover the ones in our art bins. Continue Reading »

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It’s still the same color and paint job as when we moved in, and, well, we’ve added kids since then. The bathroom is a little worse for wear.

Backing up … WAY up …

I tried out for a reality TV show. Oh, and by the way, the winner of the Amazon GC is Ms Tilla. Ms Tilla, expect an email within 24 hours.

I tried out for Kelly Ripa’s New Reality TV Show (Mom, Inc?) last week in New York City. I had a ton of fun, met a lot of wonderful women (not limited to but including the fabulous Blondee and the inventor of the SafetyTat and one of her little inspirations! And some dragon tamers.

It was a little crowded the first day and a bit hectic. Not to cast asparagus at the production crew – they did fabulous. First-day usual shakedown; moving things around to run more smoothly, it worked out pretty well, I thought. A bit of a delay while Kelly herself came in to do some promo shots and speaking parts (I saw the top of her head! TWICE!), but overall it was a lot of fun.

If you’re going to go to the tryouts (still to be held in Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles through the end of this month), here’s how it will likely generally run: Continue Reading »

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If so, head over here and answer the poll! Don’t forget to leave a contact email address so you can be contacted if you win!

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I don’t know if I remember how to do all this! Blogging, Work for me Wednesday, Think of a Something Thursday …

Funny how I’ve been blogging in my head a lot recently. What is this blog? Why is it here?

I didn’t grow up in sublurbia; it was a small town of it’s own that became sublurbia-like, as much as it could. Suburb in the older sense of the term, an outgrowth of a central town, not these mushroom-field boxes of ticky tack.

And yet, here I am in my own little mushroom, finishing up another month of … sublurbian living. I work in the town I live in, finally (I’m still a writer, but from home). And I see my neighbors for long stretches of time as we play with the kids on the street. It’s not all bad, but, some of the plastic sameness still bugs me.

But I can be … domesticated and not plastic. I’m still greenie-eco-gal, but not nearly as much as I want to be. I’m trying to strike a balance between the consumerism that surrounds us, drowns us, and being green — not to be seen but because it’s the sensible sustainable thing to do.

So I’m getting back in my stride. Let’s see what I remember about all this interwebby stuff.

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I recently heard the sound of water running while out in the garden. I looked over my shoulder towards the sound, hidden, as I knew it would be, by the monolithic barrier that had appeared a few months ago. Large, healthy new branches peeked shyly over the fence of the adjoining yard, and everything clicked: The landscapers had been! The landscapers had been! My neighbor’s spa and patio was complete! Free mulch and sod for me!

I scampered down to the edge of their property to the zone traditionally set aside for things no longer wanted by its original owner. Sod! Mulch! Fresh! Free! And it was all mine, all mine! I made plans to fix the bare patch I’m sure the Home Obsessers Association is itching to send a note about, I plotted a spot to pile some mulch for my next compost pile, calculated how to get it from their house to mine, and which owner to ask and how to ask, depending on who appeared first. Continue Reading »

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