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Archive for the ‘community’ Category

Send Girl Scout cookies to the troops overseas.

Posted in community, tagged , , , , on January 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

In keeping with the idea of promoting community activism, our very own song writer Jora is trying to help out a local girl scout troop with their annual cookie drive. What particularly appealed to me in this drive was the troop to troop option. You can order girl scout cookies here and they will be delivered to our troops overseas. Thinking of cookies as a real comfort food I really liked this idea. It is a way of letting our troops (some of whom may have sold GS cookies themselves!) know we are thinking about them and send them our best. The cookies are $4 a box.

You can email Jora your order. Please include a phone # so she can verify your order. Checks can be made payable to: Girl Scout Troop #40175 and mailed to PO Box 6135 Los Osos Ca 93412. Please order no later than Saturday February 1, 2009.

Here is a list of cookies:

  • Thin Mints (The BEST!)
  • Tag Alongs Peanut (Butter Patties)
  • Sugar Free Chocolate Chips (new)
  • Dulce de Leche(new)
  • Samoas (carmel delights)
  • Do-si-does (Peanut Butter Sandwichs)
  • Trefoils (Shortbread)
  • Lemon Chalet Creames (new)

If you need ingredient listings you can visit littlebrownie.com

I thought the troops would like the thin mints and lemon creams. The thin mints were always my favorite. Oh my gosh. I remember selling these when I was a girl scout a million and half years ago. Anyway let’s not go there. Thank you, Jora, for letting us know about this.

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I am the Knit!

Posted in community, tagged , , , , , on January 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

When I was 12 (hey it was not THAT long ago!), I had an accident that pretty much confined me to my couch for a few months. I was a VERY active tomboy, so after about a week of watching television and reading I was going crazy.

Say it with me: CRAZY.

A friend of my mother’s offered to teach me how to crochet. As desperate as I was, I lunged at the opportunity. So a group of us pre-teen girls would get together and have classes. We crocheted, we talked, we laughed, which really helped distract me from the long recovery. Kathy, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU!

Time went by; friends started having babies; I started making blankets; but no matter how much I tried I just could not get past the “square ” crochet, so blankets was pretty much all anyone got.

After I had Logan I felt emboldened to try more complex knits. I mean, I was a MOM, and once I became a mom, long dormant genes had awakened. I figured one of them had to be the “knit” gene. So I took up a knitting book—the basic “teach yourself to knit” type. Success! I learned to make a hat!

By the time Kaia came along, I had advanced to booties, so she had the full outfit—hat, booties, blanket!—when she was born. And I had found a creative outlet that was portable, fun, and easy to start and stop—except for the starting and stopping part. You see, as the kids and their dexterity grew, projects were abandoned with increasing frequency as I found the needles in increasingly interesting places—and consequently not in my project. When Kaia was hitting her first birthday, I was hitting my limit. I put the needles down (more or less) permanently.

Then in November, the month after Kaia turned four, I came across knitting looms. At first I was unsure if the looms could give me the same satisfaction as my needles. Turns out not only am I satisfied, I am thrilled.

Say it with me: THRILLED.

I can leave my knitting for days, know exactly where I was when I left off, and the kids have not messed up one project. In the 8 weeks or so I have worked on the looms I have made over 30 hats, which was perfect for a Christmas where we chose to emphasize giving handmade gifts over purchased ones. I’ve also made a few cool scarves, and I’m in the process of doing a blanket with a stuffed teddy bear head for a baby shower. I have lots of other ideas turning in my head, too. I’m a knitting genius.

I have even inspired my brother-in-law and his kids to take up knitting.  Apparently he is using it in the place of a bad habit he is trying to kick……I expect a hat (or 20) soon!

I personally have the knifty knitters round and long looms; they come with basic instructions and you can watch demonstrations and get patterns or craft ideas online. Any fellow knitters reading this? Wanna share secrets and ideas?

Knit on!

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The Clothesline Project…Revisted

Posted in community, diy, tagged , , , , on January 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Last week the heating element on my dryer went out.  No big deal, I prefer to line dry the clothes anyway. One problem:

I don’t have a line.

I have been hanging my clothes in the laundry room and out on the back porch, but I need a designated line now that I have all the laundry to line dry .

My current "clothesline"

I told Samson I wanted a line over 2 years ago, now it is either spend $400 on a new dryer or get a line put up ASAP. Expect an episode on creating your own clothesline……lol!

Does anyone else line dry? Have any suggestions for Samson before he launches into another project?

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Coffee, anyone?

Posted in community, organic gardening, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2009| 3 Comments »

So I am sitting in my favorite coffee house, Black Horse (which used to be called Uptown and which is where I used to work in my college days sooooo long ago). After the euporia of my latte began to wear off and more pragmatic thoughts began to filter through my brain, a conversation I’d had with my mom bubbled back to the surface. It was about coffee grounds. Coffee grounds and gardens. And reusing. And not wasting.

You see, coffee grounds are GREAT for my garden. And Black Horse has LOTS of coffee grounds. Therefore, getting LOTS of coffee grounds from Black Horse would be GREAT for my garden. Oooooh, I LOVE logic! (You can tell that by now my latte high has completely dissipated).

Seriously, Eric makes the BEST lattes.

I asked Eric—the manager and coffee hero who created my nectar-of-the-gods—if Black Horse recycled its grounds. His response was measured and polite.

“Hell no. We have way too many grounds for that.” He pointed to the trash bins where they deposited the steaming remains of brewed and espressoed coffee.

“But you would give them to someone who asked?” I pressed.

“Sure. In fact, we have a few people who come in for that already. Why, were you thinking about some for your garden?”

My opening arriveth on golden wings.

“Yep. And I have a few other friends who might like some, too.”

Do I ever. Here’s the deal: if you live in SLO and you need grounds, feel free to stop by and ask for a bag of grounds. Better yet, bring your own bag. Tell Eric that Samson sent you. If we get enough interest, I’ll formalize this with Eric and we’ll create an actual Grounds for the Garden program, which will benefit everyone involved:

  • Us gardeners will get some beautiful high-quality grounds for free
  • Black Horse will reduce their trash fees and get increased customer pass-through
  • We’ll be taking waste bound for a landfill and reusing it to produce necessary commodities

If you’re NOT from SLO, have you considered asking your local coffeehouse about reusing their grounds? They’ll probably be up for it if you explain the potential benefits.

Huzzah for community involvement!

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Episode 2!

Posted in community, filmmaking, recipes, sustainability, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 14, 2009| 2 Comments »

Okay, so The Moose is Up again! Unbelievably! I actually feel like I know what I’m doing with Final Cut, which is certainly a sign of the end of the world.

In this episode we get out and mingle with other people at a free faire and a bike kitchen. I also update you on the garden and the state of the compost. Oh, and I get to make some insalata caprese! Which is great, because then I also get to eat it.

Let us know what you think of the latest installment. And if you have any ideas for content, leave it in the comments.

Cheers!

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Super pickled!

Posted in community on January 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I made the pickles last night. It should be interesting. I made a quart before I realized I forgot to add the water. The heat sealed the lid on so couldn’t add the water. That one is just going to be vinegar and salt. Added water to the second quart so will see what the difference is. Also used kombucha tea that turned to vinegar instead of white wine vinegar. Will let you know how it turns out in 6 weeks

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Prune this

Posted in community on January 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I have never understood the art of pruning. This of course never stopped me from actually ‘pruning’ my trees and shrubs. Every year I head out to my trees with clippers in hand and the whole time I am clipping I am saying, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m really sorry. I don’t know what I am doing so please forgive me.” I have never killed a tree because of the way I clip I just know there is a better more humane way to do it. The plants have always been very tolerant and managed to grow back in spite of my help.

After the class at Poly I can honestly say for the first time ever I did more pruning and less apologizing. I learned some very basic stuff that everyone should know before they are even allowed to purchase pruning shears.

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Thank you!

Posted in community, tagged on January 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Thanks to ALL of you who have been kind enough to stop by and check out our blog! We’d LOVE it if you’d leave a short comment in one of our posts. Let us know how we’re doing and what you’d like to see.

Again, thanks SO much for stopping by!

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To the Family

Posted in community, tagged , , , , on December 28, 2008| 2 Comments »

Hi gang!

So…we’re finally off the ground. Aren’t you proud? Or, at the very least, amazed? I kinda can’t believe we did it either. Mom thinks it’s a bloody miracle after all the yelling and screaming she had to do.

But it’s up! And we’re keeping up the tradition of appearing on film doing silly things that also might be a smidgen helpful.

It feels really good. And I’m actually thrilled that we can share this with you. It feels like you’re part of this, too, because you are…in so many ways. And we’d like you to be involved in other ways.

More tangible ways.

Like contributing to this blog. As commenters, as writers, as contributors, as hydroponic experimenters, as whatever you’d like to do. And then, when you feel like we’ve got a handle on this and that it’s actually going somewhere, invite friends and confidants to come and participate. Let’s turn this into a party!

P.S. I’m working on a virtual game of Oh Hell.

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As we grow…

Posted in community, tagged , , , on December 23, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Have you built anything cool recently? Do you have any advice for fellow sustainability seekers? Perhaps you have step-by-step instructions for building a worm bin that you’d like to share.

Or maybe you’d like to see us do a step-by-step worm bin construction on the show. Let us know and we’ll try to work it into future episodes.

And if you have any advice for this blog (links, content, ideas, etc.) shoot us a comment and we’ll be happy to consider it.

Thanks!

S&J

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