Urban Homesteading

So I've been slowly integrating various green concepts into my life- vermicomposting, getting rid of wasteful things like paper towels, using the Diva Cup during periods, using only earth friendly cleaning supplies, trying to use and buy less, carpooling, trying to rid myself of water bottle usage, etc. Most things have been surprisingly very easy.

I have recently become interested in Urban Homesteading. That is, trying to distance myself from the dependency on others, specifically corporations, big business, and such. I love the idea of moving towards self sufficiency and it really horrified me how far I am in similarity to the lifestyles my grandparents once lived.

So now I am looking for a place where I can start my own little Urban Homestead when I get to St. Louis. I have to find a place with a fenced yard and some green space!

I stumbled across Square Foot Gardening. Basically you build boxes to plant your crop in. So we can do this. My problem is that I have no green thumb. But I was thinking that maybe I could get involved with one of the community gardens to learn. Also I heard the Missouri Botanical Garden holds all sorts of classes.

Food that I would like the grow (note: I've not done any research on the viability of any of these, so they might not all be feasible):

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Squash, Zucchini, Onion, Garlic, Pepper, Tomato (for April... I hate tomato), Potato, Sweet Potato, Soy beans, Green Beans, Lettuce, and Spinach. Then I'd also like to grow some basic herbs- Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, etc.

Luckily in St Louis there are various Farmers Markets that I can't wait to visit. Old North city has one and Tower Grove has one. Tower Grove even does yoga on the lawn on Saturday mornings. I'm totally doing that once I get settled in STL. But yeah, if I can buy most of my stuff locally, that would be a huge help too!

So, of course, thinking about doing these things and actually doing them, is a whole nother concept all together. I think that if I take it slow and learn as I go, a year from now I'll be that much closer to significantly lessening my footprint!

Also, in other Green news, I want to build a Doggy Poo Composter. Obviously you wouldn't want to but this compost on garden goodies that you eat, but it can go on ornamentals and such. What a great solution to wasting more bags and landfill space!

Once I get to St Louis I will also be making a much larger vermicomposting bin because the smaller one I have now is just too hard to bury the food in different sections. I have to redo the box anyway because I'm having a little fruit fly headache.

Birthday Gadgets!

I turned 26 on May 2oth. So now that I'm older than a quarter century, I think that I can officially talk about how old I am. I have been caught saying things like "I'm almost 30 years old!" at least 5 or 6 times. And it seems that now that I am so old, I'm acting it. I'm not really interested in drinking, partying, or being awake past midnight.

Yes, yes, I know I'm a "baby" blah blah.

One awesome thing about getting old is that I appreciate the cool stuff even more. For my birthday, I few really rockin gadgets from my two favorite ladies, my Mom and April.

I'll start with April's gift. Well, it really wasn't her idea. My old roommate upgraded her camera and go a new Canon 50D, leaving her poor Canon 20D cold, alone and neglected. So, she very nicely sold it to April for a really really really nice price.

I am now the proud owner of this awesome and very sexy girl. She's considered an upper level amateur camera and many pros use this beauty as a back up. You can look up the specs but it's 8.2 megapixels and shoots in RAW and JPG format. She also threw in a nice zoom lens that is lovely.

To accessorize, I bought a camera strap from Phatstraps.com . My first custom made one was going to be awesome. It had black skulls on it and blank minky lining. But USPS got it lost and don't get me into their crappy tracking system for standard deliveies. PhatStraps didn't have to, but because they are awesome, refunded me the price of the strap. So I went with an already made 40" strap that they had that looks like this, except with lavender Miky instead of Pink. I LOVE it!

I left my baby in St. Louis during my trip so I wouldn't have to check luggage on the way back. I wish I would have brought her though so I can stop to take some pictures on our drive up to St. Louis. I may have my dad ship her instead. We'll see.

Next, Id like you all to meet.... drum roll please... MOLLY!!!

She's an Acer One- also known as a netbook. It's 10 inches and it's adorable. It's not made to store much, having ony 1 GB, but I'm going to get a big Memory card or flash drive for it and transfer files to my external harddrive when things are getting full. Also we still have our two regular notebooks, although they are currently virus infected and I've only gotten one back to a some what usable state (unfortuantely, it's NOT the one with my new full Adobe suite, so I've been without all my yummy programs for a few weeks now).

I love her. My mom got one for herself and my grandma. My mom named her Malikai and grandma named her Mable? Oh I forgot what my grandma named hers. My mom named mine Molly. But for some reason there was a netbook naming emergency one day, per my Mom. And they all HAD to have "M" names. People wonder why I am like I am?

Bock Bock Bock

What is that white fluff ball, you ask?

Is it a cotton ball?

It is a puppet?

Is it a doll?

Is it a super fluffy alien from outer space?


Is it Gabby??

Nope! This is a White Silkie CHICKEN. A few months ago I stumbled upon a site about Urban Chickens. That's right- chickens you keep in your backyard in urban environments. I never thought this was possible.

I don't really eat eggs now (except the occassional lapse in morals when I'll have a scrambled egg) because of factory farming conditions. But alas, I could take care of a few rescued chickens, have fresh eggs, reduce my dependancy on external mass production, have natural insect control, and natural lawn fertilizer?! This fits totally into my quest to GO GREEN.

Haha- One day. When I have real land. I don't really want to keep chickens in the city. But one day maybe  I'll rescue some chickens. Puffy or otherwise ;)

So now that I'm... a.) Going to a cold climate and b.) Not running a roller derby league, I'm getting back to my craftiness. I hadn't knitted or embroidered in FOREVER it seemed. I actually got rid of my entire stash of yarn in my last move since I hadn't touched any of it in about a year and a half. Of course, once I rid myself of something, I decide to get back into it. But whatever.

So I knitted myself a seed stitch scarf with the only ball of yarn I did save from the move. I did this mostly just to get my knitting rhythm back and figure out what the hell I was doing.

Then I knitted the Everyone's Doing It Shrug with this yummy purple Debby Bliss cotton I got at Knitorious in St. Louis during my trip. I have to take a picture of it still. I'll post it on here and on Craftster when I do. I've been wearing it for 2 days. It only took me a few hours to knit up. Very basic lace pattern and it's done on 10 1/2 size in a wrosted weight, so it knit up super easy. I'm going to do a more complicated shrug for my mom's birthday in June.

I also just made up a little pattern to knit a little Bichon for my Mom, which is supposed to look like Gabby (my Mom's Bichon that I'm rehoming with me- a whole nother story in and of itself). When she's sad and missing Gabby, she can pet the Gabby dolls instead. I knit that with some fuzzy Joanne's Angel yarn.

On some little Size 2 needles I am knitting Snowflake from The Knitted Teddybear book (LOVE that book). I'm not making her with the recommedned Mohair, but just some beige Heart and Soul yarn I found at Joanne's. I was just excited to find some fine yarn because I wanted Snowflake to be tiny.

I also started making April a hat on some circular needles I have. I never learned to knit on circulars and DPNs so that's what I'm doing. Over the next month or two, I'm going to teach myself all of the skills that I was either afraid to learn or just never got around to:

1.) Cables

2.) Intarsia

3.) Lace Work

4.) Circulars

5.) DPNs

6.) Customizing a pattern

The problem is that I tend to be impatient and I'm a slow knitter. So I try not to take on any projects that will take me more than a few days to complete. Like the chances of me every knitting an adult sweater are pretty slim. But you never know....

Alas, I have returned.

So I'm back from a week long trip to St. Louis. I went to do some job interviews and well, mostly to skate with the Arch Rivals. April (Jack U Up) had already been there for a week prior and had gotten several practices in with them and I was jonesing to see if I would share her impressions.

I only got to hit one practice but it was scrimmage night so I was very excited to see how they would play and how I would adjust in the pack.

First off, their practice track is like skating on ice. I'm sure that after a few practices I'll get used to it, but I was so embarrassed... I splipped out and fell 7 times.... yes, 7 times. And I was wearing my mojos. Granted, they're a bit worn, but still. 3 of the falls were during warm ups! Ok and I didn't just knee fall small and pop back up. No. I would like freaking collapse all big and crazy and sloppy. S

Otherwise I did an ok job. I was definitely skating at the 50 percent.

Arch Rivals play a much different game than they do compared to teams in Florida. Their actual pack speed didn't phase me, as I prefer a faster pack, but the speed and ferocity at which they skate in the pack took me by surprise. They move around quickly and efficiently, like bees. I'm used to staying somewhat static positionally in the pack and the movements of opposing players in packs here are more predictable.

At ARRG, one minute they're here, one minute they're there. It was alot of fun watching everyone buzz around me!!! My first scrimmage I felt like it was my first scrimmage ever... I was just watching them, trying to slow the play down in my head, start seeing the patterns, the trends, the holes, etc. My the second scrimmage, I was starting to see what I needed to see. I took a few people out but ARRG seem more about containment, which is great because I'd rather contain than throw blows and risk penalties.

One thing that I also enjoyed was the amount of communication that was happening in the pack and from players watching on. While I'm sure at first I might be overwhelmed having several people, whos voices I don't yet recorgnize, yelling at me at one time, I'm looking forward to getting instruction in the midst of an action, a play, or a pack. Gives me an opportunity for on the spot improvement. I really really need that.

I'm both scared and excited to be a little fish in a big sea. I have alot of learning to do and alot of adjusting to their style of play. I'm looking forward to the challenge and seeing how far I can get on this team. Coming in as a transfer is already daunting... and it's not like I'm going to a team that has played me or knows me from leadership stuff. I'm noone and I have to pay my dues like everyone else. It's an uphill battle from here!

Widdling Yarn

So now that I'm moving to a place that actually has SEASONS, I can knit again!!! Before, there wasn't much to knit, living in the tropics and such. But now there will be a winter in St Louis, so I've already started knitting stuff in preparation!

Of course, I had to kind of reteach myself to knit. And then I realized is I really never evolved from basic stitches.

So, in true Me fashion, I made a list of knitting skills I am going to learn:

1.) Lace
2.) Cable
3.) Knitting in the round (just started a hat for April on circulars!)
4.) Knitting on dpns
5.) Knitting actual wearable stuff
6.) Adapting patterns

So far in the past two weeks, I've knitted a seed stitch scarf, started on a hat for April, made a mini Gabby for my mom, and now I'm starting on the Everyone's Doing It Shrug. I'm making it for my mom for her birthday at the end of the month.

I'll post pics of my work soon.

Meet Me in St. Louie

So not that I'm suprised at the fact that I haven't posted in like... months... because I've been too freakin busy to even remember I HAVE a blog...

But I'm writing to announce that April and I are moving to...drum roll please... St. Louis, Missouri!!! Yes, this is one of my childhood homes. I was born and raised here (for the most part- I moved around the midwest a few times growing up but always moved back to STL) until Sophomore year of high school when my parents dragged me to South Florida.

Most people save up all their lives to one day move to (and die in) South Florida, so you're probablly wondering what kind of crack I'm on that makes me want to leave the beach, palm trees, lack of snow, etc etc.

For you people who have never been to St. Louis, I will give you some of the top reasons that I love St. Louis, in no particular order.

1.) St. Louis Style Pizza- I've had pizza in over 15 states and NOTHING compares to St. Louis' pizza. It's made with provel cheese instead of mozzerella amoung some other yummy and uniquir tastes. It's sstacked with cheese and OOOOH so yummy. You can't really understand unless you've had it. My family even has a system for tight packing 3 or 4 pizzas so that it fits in a small duff so that we could easily bring it back to Florida.

2.) Gooey Butter Cake- Again, if you've never had it, you don't know what you're missing. At 500 calories a piece, you're already forced to savor each bite. Shnuck's makes it the best, in my opinon. Then Missouri Bakery. Seriously this stuff is the best and most sinful stuff you've every had. I brought a tray for some of mmy teammates at a recent tournament in Indiana. Even the desert haters loved it. Probablly not what we should have been eating before a tournament, but whatever.

3.) Seasons- Most people in the USA don't understand what the big deal is here. In Florida, specifically South Florida, nothing changes. Sure, it may drop to like 70 or even 65 for a few weeks during the year, but the only change you see is hot, hotter, and f*ing hot. The trees don't change. You could look outside any day of the year and unless there's a hurricane, you will see the exact same thing. As much as I'm not specifically looking forward to scraping ice off of my windsheild, I AM looking forward to fall leaves, COLD during Christmas (I'm sorry but sweating while putting Christmas lights on palm trees DO NOT make me feel the Christmas Sprirt), relaxing at a park during Spring, listening to secadas and watching fireflies at night, and I will NOT MISS HURRICANE SEASON!!! But all my Floridian friends are welcomed to come evacuate to our house when that next Category 5 comes through!

4.) Arch Rival Rollergirls- I'll post a length rundown on this later! It really deserves it's own post.

5.) People- When I first moved to Florida I was in culture shock because, well, I was from the midwest and people are pretty freaking nice there for the most part. I came to FL and people were rude, pushy, downright mean, or they would just pretend that you weren't even there. Well after 10 years here (yikes!!), now I'm kind of like Floridian anti social. I kind of panic when strangers want to talk to me. I don't make eye contact in stores... I stay to myself until I get to know you, then I'm talkative. So I'm excited to be around friendly people again. Now I just have to get back to that too!

6.) Family- We considered places where we would eventually look at putting down roots one day. I refuse to raise kids in South Florida. Refuse. Sorry but refuse. Oh yeah, plus gay adoption LEGAL in Missouri. Ahhh the irony. We'll see, after being there for a bit, how gay families are actually treated... now that's a whole nother ball game.

7.) The St. Louis Arch- Sorry, but it's just that awesome

8.) Culture- St. Louis is just one of those cities that has soul. I lived in a few diferrent places in St. Louis- Kirkwood, South St. Louis near Carandolet Park, and West County. West County didn't really have alot of what I'd call "soul"- it was nice and peaceful but very much suburbia. But I remember in the city always loving the sights, sounds, and smells. From University City and The Loop to Soulard and Downtown, the Hill. Forest Park, The Muny, The Fox Theatre, etc etc... you just feel the history and soul of the place when you're there. Oooh the Magic House, the Science Center, there's just so many cool things to do. In Florida, it's beach culture. Which is awesome- just not for me.

That's what I've got at the moment. I'm sure I'll add to this list later.

Hapiness Is...

Apparently today I'm making lists. So I'll continue:

Hapiness is...

1. Finding different ways to wake April up... I wake up, I open the blinds to get all the yummy sunlight to wake April Up... Ok that didn't work... Jump on April... Ok that didn't work... put Lola and Gus on April... Gus plucks out April's eyebrow... Ahah! Now She's Up.

2. April and my Sunday Morning Routine... wake up, get dressed, bundle Lola up, walk to Dolce Vita, this little Italian cafe on Hollywood Blvd.. eat some scrambled egss with goal cheese, toast, and a double espresso that's so thick I almost have to chew it. Lola naps and gets lots of attention from passerbys. Then we walk around downtown, take a lap through Artspark, check out the little shops, obsess about Lola.

3. Competing.. I've always been more of a game day sort of athlete, no matter what sport I was playing. I really have always hated practicing any sport that I've played. I just want to compete. Obviously, you have to train to compete, so I tolerate it. I don't care about the crowd or fans (I love each one of them, I'm just saying that I don't play for fanfare), I just want to compete... oh yeah and win.

4. Lola- pretty much anything that involves Lola makes me abundantly happy- petting her, looking at her, talking about her, thinking about her, watching her sleep, watching her prance, dressing her up, taking her places, whatever- if she's involved, I'm happy. I mean, just look at her- who wouldn't she make happy??

5. Espresso- There's nothing like making a fresh batch of espresso in the morning to get me going. YUMMMMM.. add a little sugar, some soymilk, some ice, and I'm ready to roll!

6. Being on skates- I wish that I could wear them everywhere. MUCH easier and quicker than walking. Maybe I should invest in some of those shoes with little wheels on them... what are they called? Heelies?

7. Having no voicemails on any of my phones (I hate phones!!!!!)

8. Quinoa... my new addiction

9. Drinking a bottle of wine with April and just hanging out, talking about nothing of any importantness

10. Crunchy Eggplant Rolls from The Sushi Room! omg they are sooooo good.

Top 10 reasons I want to move to Portland

So I'm always scoping out places that I might want to move someday. It's hard to find an ideal place, but mostly I want to find a place where I can fit in, have a family, own a home, have some land, and somewhere where I can be generally content. I also want this place to be politically liberal but a family- friendly place where I can feel save raising kids. Portland is one of the cities that I think I might love. Have I been there? No. But here are some reason that, in theory, I want to move to Portland:

10. They have a ton of tree huggin hippies

9. Real estate prices are lovely compared to South Florida- maybe I could actually own a house! With a yard!

8. The Rose City Rollers are a pretty rockin league if you ask me

7. I can legally adopt there

6. I have some actual legal protections as a lesbian

5. Strong lesbian community there

4. It's very very green

3. It's very outdoorsy people friendly

2. The public transportation system is very efficient

1. It's far far away from the tropics

What could you go without for a year?

What if this is all you could buy for an entire year? - The Seattle Times

*Image from apartmenttherapy.com

The Seattle Times wrote on a family who gave up purchasing any new non-essential items for a year. In times like these, that seems like a goal which would benefit us all. According to The Seattle Times, this family first did it to wean off of consumer gluttony but are now doing it to save money.

The only exceptions to their retail spending is for toiletries, food, home improvement/maintenance items, free stuff (through rebates, etc) , kid's school uniforms, and they did an occasional shopping spree.

Here are some lessons that the family reported:

"1. Buying is a habit; giving up the habit buys time... But when you swear off buying new stuff, you gain time. You can read the front page of the newspaper first, and you can go to the park instead of to the store. It may sound hokey, but I gained peace."

2. I can live with what I have.

3. Buying used doesn't necessarily mean saving money."

I think that this would be an excellent (but difficult) exercises. How about trying this for even a month? How would you fair?

Read the full article HERE

This Friday Night in Ft Lauderdale

Alright, so Friday nights are usually for relaxing after a long work week- either in your jammies at home or out at a chill bar. But how about doing something different this week?

The Broward County Derby Grrls love their fans and volunteers and we want to show them how much, so we're throwing a bash in their honor on Friday night.

There's going to be the usual Broward debauchery (if you've been to one of our parties, you know what we mean). Jello wrestling, Derby Grrl jail, drink specials, and all sorts of other activities that shall remain a mystery.

Even if you've never gotten around to coming to a bout, you should definitely come and meet us. Everyone becomes a fan of ours after partying with us :-) 8pm- Freddie's Achor- SR 84 West of Federal- behind the BP, across from the armory.

Domme's Complete Derby Gear Profile

I am a gear nerd. It's true. And I have very strong brand loyalty because I buy stuff I've done alot of research on and they are products I rest my most vulnerable body parts on. I don't take that lightly. So I've decided to review the stuff I wear, for your reading pleasure! I've also converted April to wearing most of this same stuff, so she can back me up that this is good quality stuff right here :)

Skates- Reidell 265 Wickeds- We should start with the most important part of skating- the actual skates. When I first started skating, I bought some old RS1000s off of ebay. They did the trick for that time but then I realized they needed alot of work to keep up with the skating progress I was making. So I took my butt down to Fritz's Skate Shop in South Beach got my Wickeds! These skates have the old retro style double stripes, which I love. They come stock with PowerDyne DynaPro Aluminum plates, which do the job, especially as a bigger girl (I skated on them at 350 lbs with no issue). At Fritz's, they're geared towards outdoor skating, so they came with some Radar Pures (I'll go into these later) but usually they come with Radar Tuners (which in my opinion, are shit, but to each her own).

I had practically no break in-period, which was WONDERFUL, as I've seen sooo many girls act like they had torture devices strapped to them when they first got their skates. The toe stops never budge, they are easy to adjust, they do what I tell them to, and I like that they're a little heavier than something with a nylon plate...I feel more grounded that way.

Problems that I've had- The counter on this skate goes over the foot, which caused me alot of pain for while and I know has given other skaters problems. Losening my laces and cutting out the elastic tongue holder thing seemed to help as well. If a skater has this problem, Reidell will fix it for free. Just email them and they'll get your skate back to you in a week. Luckily the pain finally went away as the counter softened a bit over time.

This is a leather good, which I try not to buy in my daily life. Reidell has now come out with a 265 Divine, which is supposed to be 100% vegan. I don't know anyone who's skated on these, as they're pretty new and rather high priced for a non-leather good, in my opinion.

Indoor Wheels- Blue Cannibals, Black Mojos- I train during the week on Black Mojos, which are a Hybrid Indoor/Outdoor wheel. It's really hard to get any momentum on our grippy floor so I'm using them as resistance training. Then a few days before a bout, I'll br throwing on my Blue Cannibals. Blue Cannibals are WONDERFUL. They're grippy but not too grippy. I've skating on them on outdoor painted concrete, on slick and grippy wood, and on convention center polished concrete and they've been awesome on all of thos. They also have an aluminmum hub which ensures a purer roll. They're worth the high price tag. They make a cheaper, non aluminum hub, Witch Doctors if you're budget concious. I've also used the yellow cannibals and they are great jammer wheels or great for bigger girls (I wore them when I was heavier) who worry about grippy wheels slowing them down too much.

Insoles- Superfeet (Green)- I am always shocked when I hear how many derby girls are skating 6-10 hours a week with the insoles that came with their skates. Ladies- these are just filler insoles. You NEED to buy a good quality pair of insoles. Don't abuse your feet more than you have to.

I believe in firm support, not the jelly kind that you buy at your local Walgreens. Superfeet are pretty decent over the counter orthotics around 40-50 bucks. They have different colors to accomodate different types of pronation.

Stores that carry Superfeet have sample so bring your skates with you and try the samples on skates, especially doing left turns. I recommend green but some people like gray.

Socks- Skater Socks - Socks can make all the difference in your foot comfort level and in whether or not your get blisters. Some people say that thin socks are better. Some say that thick socks are. I find that Skater Socks are the best socks for me to skate with. They are thick and they don't allow my foot to move as much within the skate, causing me less blisters.

Knee Pads- 187's- *DON'T F AROUND WITH YOUR KNEES!* Again, I'm amazed when I see the crap ass knee pads people play with. This is a very tough contact sport where you purposely and accidentally fall on your knees over and over and over again. These are the only knee pads I recommend, although I hear Fatboys are good too. These suckers have very thick memory foam, they stay in place, and when you fall, it's like falling on clouds. Seriously. Everyone who I've convinced to transition from crap knee pads to 187s will be a bran whore for life. If you want a little extra support, throw some Gladiator Knee Gaskets under them. Same thing if your knee pads slip due to excessive sweat. Even if you're Fresh Meat and aren't sure if you'll stick with the sport, spring for the good knee pads. DON'T F AROUND!

Wristguards- Triple 8 Hired Hands - I believe in having the most protection possible. When I wear any other wrist guards, I am super scared to fall. The minute I put my Hired Hands on, I have no fear. The break in period was a little annoying because they're stiff but after a few practices, they're nicely broken in. I also had to cut the fingers down a little bit because they were too long. But that was no big deal and I haven't had any fraying or anything from the cutting. Wristguards are a tricky thing. They say that the purpose of them is not to prevent breakage but to prevent breakage in the actual wrist... it is supposed to transfer the trauma up to your arm, which is much easier to heal than in your wrist, where there are a ton of tiny and hard to heal bones. April wears these and they recently protected her from a bad wrist break... I wouldn't wear anything else.

Helmet- TSG Superlight- This is the lightest helmet on the market. I love it. It's like you don't even know it's on. It only comes in Matte Black I believe, no glossy or colors if you're into that. My only complaint is that I swear it makes me look like an egg head. See, I'm an egg head -------->

Mouthguard- Gladiator Custom Mouthgaurd- Ok, so I get made fun of alot because I'm always talking about my wonderful mouthguard. Until you've worn a custom mouthguard, you can't possibly know how wonderful it is. With gladiator, they send you a mold kit... you take an impression of your teeth (it's pretty easy), you send it in. They make a concrete mold, they make your mouthguard, and they send both back to you. Then, if you ever need a replacement, you send in your concrete mold for a half priced replacement. They have a variety of colors and color combos. Mine is clear. You can also get your name, team logo, team colors, whatever. This is the cheapest custom mouthguard that I could find. The beauty of these babies is that you can actually breathe properly, talk, and you can even drink with them in. Try that with your boil-in! Also, they don't seem to melt like the boil ins so when you leave it in your skate bag in your car, it stays in perfect shape! They range about 50 bucks for your first one... 25 each there after. If you want to go crazy (and spend crazy money), you can get awesomely unique mouthguard from guardyagrill.com

Elbow Pads- Boneless- Honestly, I'm not too picky about my elbow pads. As long as you buy a mid range elbow pad with THICK memory foam and good grippiness on your elbows, they should be fine. However, those cheap ass rollerblade pads all you girls are getting from Sports Authority are NOT appropriate once you start contact. Upgrade!

What gear do you wear and love?

Adventures in Vermicomposting.... The Beginning

Several weeks ago I randomly stumbled across a video where Martha Stewart was demonstrating how to set up a worm bin for Vermicomposting. Yes, that's right- not just composting- VERMIcomposting. Most people don't know what that means, so I'll explain.

They're worms people. And they eat your garbage. And it's awesome. Basically, you feed them your dicarded veggies, pastas, rice, fruit, coffee grinds, papers, newspaper, bread, cardboard, etc... they eat it... then you get gardening liquid gold... super enriched soil fertilizer. Even if you don't garden (I don't...yes), you definitely know people who would be estatic to take your compost off of your hands for you. Or you can just feed some plants in your complex.

One of the many advantages to using worms to eat your garbage is that apartment dwellers and people without a yard don't have to miss out on composting, which is a huge important step towards sustainaibility. Some majorly important reasons to compost, in any form, are: Reduce waste sent to landfill, reduce greenhouse gases, reuse organic materials, recycle natural nutrients, improve soil without chemicals, produce rich humus for plants, and you save money on chemical fertilizers.

There are all sorts of set ups that you can buy online or at your local green store. But they're a bit expensive. I went the DIY route by building my own 3 trayed vertical flow system, all for about 20 bucks total! However, you can do it even cheaper or if you have a rubbermaid bin or two sitting around, you can make it for free

I made one similar to THIS ONE, but I did it with an even smaller bin so that it could fit underneath my sink. Plus, April and I don't have alot of leftovers so I didn't want to overdo it. I do want to eventually get the Worm Inn, which just look adorable compared to my ugly bins. I just have to budget for it. It's really one of the cheaper vermicomposting retail options out there. Or you can DIY! I would, but in this case, I'd rather buy one, as I'm concerned about my sewing skills when dirt and worms are involved

Right now I'm just trying to figure out if the bait shop gave me the right kind of worms or not!!! They said that they were wigglers but they also had a red worm price (but none available there). I thought red worms were the same as wigglers!? Anyways, I'm just going to watch them and try to see if they're making any progress. And I'm planning on posting on vermicomposters.com and once I can find my camera and get some pictures of my new little buddies.

Completed 2009 EnviroGoals- Part 1

So I've added a list of 2009 EnviroGoals- Most of the "In Progress" or "To Do" ones will be feeding the Footprint Fridays series. But I do want to go over what I have been able to do thus far in 2009 already.

Ban Paper Towels- When I think about how many paper towels I've gone through in my lifetime it makes me cringe... I cannot even begin to guesstimate how many paper towels I have put into landfills. But ironically enough, I just never thought about NOT using paper towels. It never dawned on me until I stumbled across an old Apartment Therapy topic "A Paper Towel-less Life." To be honest, this article is what turned on the light bulb for me about starting to work towards living more simply. So, we have one roll of old paper towels left that we're just keeping in the house for emergency purposes (Lola accidents and such) and then they'll be gone... FOREVER!

This was actually a more simple endeavor than I though. I mean, our parents and grandparents didn't have paper towels when they were growing up- it would have been thought wasteful. I just went to Target and bought a pack of dishtowels. I always seemed to accumulate a pile of hand towels and kitchen towels over the year that I had pretty much just used for decoration- so now we're actually using those for their purpose

Carpool to Derby- April and I try to carpool to derby whenever possible. We always had. More of a fiscal move than anything else.

Eliminate Meat- I've been a vegetarian for 10 years or so. The next goal is veganism. It's something I did for about 2 years at one time and slipped out of it a few years ago.

Enviro-Friendly Cleaning Products Only- When we moved to our new loft, I would not allow any unsafe chemicals to travel with us- We left several bottles behind. I know leaving them behind and "wasting" them probably killed April, but I wanted to start fresh with safe products only. We use Seventh Generation - Dishwashing powder, Laundry Detergent, Tile and Tub Cleaner, and Toilet Cleaner. I love ALL of their stuff and not only does it make everything so fresh and clean, clean, but it also makes me feel like I'm doing a little bit of my part. We do have one bottle of bad chemicals that I forgot to mention- it's a glass top stove cleaner. If anyone knows of something greener that can get that clean, PLEASE let me know.

Vermicompost- I will be talking about this later. Stay tuned!

Wash clothes in cold water- The only thing I wash with hot water are our roller derby pads and gear... because they really do need them. Otherwise, we're washing things in tap cold water in our more energy efficient washer. Next I need to look into line drying... hmmm... Adding that to my goals.

Most of these are just small things, but they make an impact...

Brrrr... I Love This Kind of Cold!

When you play a contact sports at high speeds on wood floors, you tend to come away with alot of bumps, bruises, and pain in places that you never knew existed. Alot of people don't last more than a few practices because their bodies get pretty beat up. And that's BEFORE they ever even get hit. I've been having alot of problem with my right leg lately, which I'm sure I'll talk about in more detail at another time. A few months ago I pulled my right hamstring. I went in for a hit, lost balance and did a cute little split. But really it wasn't cute- it hurt. Damned badly. I've since been trying to recover it to no avail and have just been dealing with the pain. Well, now I have shin splints on that same leg. Oh yeah and my knee hurts from all the stress on that leg. It's all worth it, don't get me wrong and is a small price to pay for the awesomeness that is derby. But I was looking for options because I didn't want to go through a box of ziploc bags just to ice all my aches and pains for a day. So at my job, there's a little pharmacy. I stumbled across a wonderful little invention:

RETRO REUSABLE ICE BAGS! woo hoo!

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Yup, just like I've seen in the movies. Duh! I could have been using these all along as opposed to the ziplocs, the wasteful disposable cold packs, or the (I'm sure) environmentally nightmarish gel packs that barely stay cold for longer than 15 minutes. I iced my entire leg pretty much all day and only had to refill this bad boy once! And it kept nice and brrrr cold. Not to mention it's adorable!

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This one was the large one and was around 10 bucks. Next paycheck I'm going to buy another one to keep at home. So keep on coming aches and pains! I'll be ready for you with a greener solution!

What's This Blog All About?

To answer that question- check out some of the topics I'll be rambling about in my blog:

Building, decorating, crafts, cooking, and other hands on stuff. I'll talk about projects that I'm working on, and hopefully throw some tutorials in there somewhere.

Every Friday I will review my week's effort to lesson my carbon footprint. I will then set a goal for the next week. Some will be small and easy. Some will seem like monstrous tasks and may take a while to achieve. But it's time to stop sitting on my ass. I used to be such a good little environmentalist and as I've gotten older of slacked off for convenience sake. But no more! You can also find a list of my ongoing efforts to reduce my footprint on the right rand side of this page. If you have ideas or better ways to do these things, let me know! It's been a while and suggestions are always more than welcomed.

In December of 2007, I weighed about 350 pounds. I have since lost over 150 pounds, and am still losing, thanks to gastric bypass, healthy eating, and lots of exercise. I went from being a food addict to being very health conscious. I love to talk about and learn about health, vegetarianism, fitness. I have a long way to go in this journey and enjoying bettering my body in any way that I can.

In my quest to reduce my environmental impact, I'll be talking about ideas, research, stats, and things I learn as I go.

Dining, Drinks, Bars, Shows- things to do in South Florida or wherever else my travels take me.

I've been told I'm a bit of a b*tch. It's not that I try to be, it just happens. I don't like to beat around the bush, I'm very direct, and I have strong opinions. If you have ovaries, apparently that makes you a b*tch. So, I figure, why suppress it when it's so natural? I like to go on rants. Sorry. Deal with it. But feel free to debate me all you'd like.You'll probably lose.

Reviews on Products, Meds, Movies, Books, Drinks, Food, Music, Websites, Blogs, Products, whatever. If you have something you want me to review, email me!

Most of my life, energy, and free time is dedicated to the greatest sport on earth- roller derby. I'm a co-owner and President of the Broward County Derby Grrls and I am also a player. So I'll talk alot of derby- strategy, BCDG results, other league results, injuries, equipment reviews, news, and derby related subjects I find myself interested in at the moment.

Social Justice- Gay rights, animals rights, democracy, human rights, eracism, etc.