We Interupt Our Regularly Scheduled Home Improvement...

...for this bird house project.

Kat built this birdhouse on a field trip to Gorman Conservation Discovery Center yesterday.  She and Shane put it up when she got home.

I promise to get back to regular posting soon.  This week has just been completely ǝpısdn uʍop for me!

Free Compostable Seed Starter Cups from Citrus

We all know about compost, and how letting food scraps break down can help feed our gardens.  Well, here's another way food can help grow more food.

My friend Sharon passed this on to me via Pinterest several weeks ago.  Isn't it great? 

We ate several oranges and grapefruits in January, carefully cutting them in half across their "equator" and scooping the fruit out.  We let the rinds dry, since we knew we'd not be using them for a little while, then stored them in a glass jar with the lid kept off.

When it's time to use them, just fill the dried cups with potting mix and sow away.  When you water the cups, the rinds rehydrate and smell really good.

Alternately, you could rehydrate them first by soaking them in water for half an hour or so.  They'll be more flexible for handling while filling them.  Whichever way you choose is fine.

When you're ready to plant out, you can try planting the entire thing, rind an all right into the soil.  However, because we've had trouble with commercial peat pots breaking down quickly enough when we've planted them, and because not all plants need acidic food, we suggest removing your seedlings and surrounding soil from the citrus cup.   Plant the seedling and toss the cup in the compost bin.|


This post is being shared at the Hearth and Soul Hop with Premeditated Leftovers.

Catching The Rain

Look! A Saturday post! This won't happen often, but I wanted to post about our rain catchment set-up so I could link it to a thread on Facebook. This is picked up verbatim from my old blog, from March 31, 2010. Enjoy!

Our backyard still needs a little spring cleanup, but I thought I'd go ahead and post about our rain gathering system, since gardening season is beginning.

We first got the idea for using these translucent white food grade tanks for our rain water when we were stalking my bloggy friend Sharon's house one evening.  She and her husband Kevin have similar tanks.  Basically, we've diverted all rain that falls on the house into the top tank, which sits on the house's original back stoop.  When it's full, we empty it into the lower tank and let the top tank fill again.  While we will use water from either tank, we usually will draw from the top tank if possible, because gravity makes the water flow faster.  Eventually we may get a pump for the lower tank to solve the flow issue.

At first, we blocked the downspouts on the other end of the house, but found that the tanks were getting full while the gutters were overflowing, so Shane opened the other end up again.  Currently, we aren't collecting rain on that end, but it's definitely an option for us in the future.

We found the tanks, which hold 275 gallons each, on craigslist; we paid $130 for both.  We've seen them both cheaper and more expensive since then.  Shane recalls that he had to buy some of the downspout material, some brackets and a couple of hose fittings for the spigots were also purchased.  The total cost for the entire setup was about $175.

What I do know is that we saved a bundle on water last summer.  We planted out in April, before we bought the rain tanks, and our first billing after planting was 50% more than our average!  After we bought the tanks, our bills went back down to average for the rest of the season.  We believe the money we saved in the first season recovered most of the cost; soon we'll be seeing nothing but savings from our rain barrels.

Granted, each season will be different and the savings will fluctuate.  When there is a lot of rain, we collect a lot of water, but we don't need to use as much of what we collect.  During a dryer season, we'll collect less, but will use more (or all) of what we collect.   Still, any savings is a good savings, both for our budget and for the environment.

Thoughts on Second-Hand Stuff

Last week I wrote about our decision to NOT replace a part on our kitchen stove.  In the comments the conversation turned to repairing instead of replacing, replacing with second-hand parts, and hanging on to what you already own.  That's where I want to pick up the conversation again today.

In the last two weeks, a couple of second-hand items have come into our home.  One was by design and the other was by chance.

After seeing our friends' Jack LaLanne Power Juicer like the one above over the holidays, learning how well it worked and how easy it was to clean, we decided we wanted one of our own.  Shortly after, Aldi stores had a similar Crofton juicer on sale for $35 plus tax -- much cheaper than a brand new LaLanne juicer.  As far as I could tell, it worked the same way.  I've bought the Crofton brand before and have always had good luck with it, so I went ahead and picked up one of the two juicers left in our local store.

But on the way home, I wasn't completely happy about my purchase.  I decided I'd look on craigslist for a used Jack LaLanne juicer.  I found several listed and three within my price range.  It took all day, but one of the people I contacted finally responded and we worked out a time for me to see the juicer the next day.  I ended up buying it for $40.

Now why would I pay more for a used item than a new one?  First of all, after sales tax, the new one was about $38, so I only spent a couple dollars more for the used one.  Second, I already knew how the used juicer worked and I knew I would like it.  Third, by buying the pre-owned juicer, I didn't create an artificial demand for more juicers to be produced.  Fourth, I may have kept it out of the landfill; if the previous owner didn't sell it, he might have just thrown it away.  And fifth, it came with no packaging for me to have to recycle or throw away.

I was much more comfortable with this purchase and took the brand new juicer back to Aldi the next time I went there for groceries.

The second item we got used was a 42" flat screen TV.  Shane's boss' neighbor was going to throw it away and asked said boss if he'd take it and put it in a job site dumpster (not sure of the ethics of that, but that's for a different post).  Boss called Shane and told him it was available, that it supposedly worked but had some color problems, and asked if we wanted it.  Shane told him sure, we'd take it.

As it turned out, it did work, but it had some screen issues.  It wouldn't work on wide-screen view, but worked ok on full-screen view.  It didn't seem to have any color issues, but it didn't have as good a picture as our current TV.  We ended up listing it on craiglist as a free item, explained it's problem, and had lots of calls from people wanting to give it a new home.  The first person who called us decided to take it.  Everybody involved was happy and the television never saw the inside of a dumpster.  At least not on our watch.

By the way, our current TV was also given to us by Shane's boss.  The boss said the color was dull and upgraded to a flat-screen a few years ago.  We were happy to get it because our old TV was really too small for our living room. The one he gave us is a rear-projection big screen model and all Shane had to do was open the cabinet and dust off the projection bulbs.  That made a big improvement, but after fiddling with the freebie flat screen last week, Shane decided it was time to clean the projection bulbs in our TV again.  Only this time, he also cleaned the mirror that reflects the projection bulbs.

The picture is unbelievable now.  I suppose it doesn't take much to impress us, but we all three sat for the longest time and marveled at the difference a good cleaning made.  I expect this TV will have to flat-out quit working before we consider replacing it.  Unless, of course, the boss decides to upgrade and give us his "old" one again. ;)

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that not all used acquisitions, whether purchases or freebies, are going to work out.  On the other hand, there are lots of reasons that justify giving a new home to second-hand stuff.

What kind of used items have you adopted lately?

Could You Live A Zero-Trash Lifestyle?

Between composting and recycling, we have reduced our weekly trash output to about half a bag a week. That's half a tall kitchen bag, if you're wondering. We put out a lot less trash than most families on our street. Our neighbors seem to be setting out two or three bags weekly, so we think our half-bag looks pretty good. But we've got nothin' on this local couple. They are experts at trash reduction.

Follow the link to read more.

Image:  Kansas City Star

In a wasteful world, one KC couple tries to live a ‘zero-trash’ lifestyle - KansasCity.com