Change the World Wednesday – 7th Aug

Wheee!

Birthday month! Yes, my birthday is this month, I am a Virgo. In Portuguese it’s quite funny, be cause “Eu sou virgem” is like saying “I’m a virgin” LOL and me, a 62 year old with 12 kids…. and seven grandkids. No! Eight now, I just found out last week that my estranged second daughter has had a little girl recently.

Toward the end of the month I will be celebrating with a BBQ at the bar, as I do every year, but this year will be a little different since I have embarked on my ‘beefless weeks’ each month, which are still happening. To compensate for the excesses and sins committed during my BBQ, I am making the rest August ‘beefless’.

Still no cat. I am catless, therefore sad. But I am sure that being catless is a temporary state.

There is some good news, but I will refrain from mentioning it here, as it complies with part of this weeks CTWW, coincidentally.

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This week’s CTWW, let’s move right along.

It’s a triple banger, and I get to do a little of each.

This week, unplug household appliances on standby. Pay special attention to any appliance with a clock or lighted panel (microwaves, coffee makers, etc.) … those are the obvious signs that energy is being used even when the appliance isn’t. Also look for phantom energy use … phone chargers, TVs, recording devices, etc. They all use energy when plugged in. Turn off the computer and monitor when not in use. Worried about maintaining your internet connection? Then, leave the modem on but turn everything else off. Consider a power bar to make this task easier.

 

OR …

Buy only local foods and products this week thereby reducing the amount of fuel used to get products from their origin to your shelf.

 

OR …

Go on a “no spending” diet this week. Refuse to purchase anything but the bare necessities thereby reducing the industrial processes required to manufacture stuff.

So, in reverse order… I often do things backwards, I hate being predictable, it’s a bit like being ‘normal’.

Well, the last bit is the easiest, because most of my buying is necessities, not quite the bare, but necessities. But I promise I won’t buy any wine, beer, chocolate or fancy cheeses this week or make any big purchases.

The second bit is harder, because I don’t have the means  (no car) to get really local produce. But I will walk hobble, remember I am on a walking stick, to the supermarket for my weekly shop (today) and the sacolão (fruit and vege shop) instead of using the bus.

The first bit, I already do all that. But last week, I bought a new stove, it’s energy rated No. 1 on a scale of five.

Mine has a smoked glass door

I have used two old stoves, both recycled from the street, for 5+ years. Neither have ever functioned well, but I persevered through necessity even though it has bugged me all the while.

My new stove (gas) does have electric start, and an oven light, but I am not plugging it in. I don’t find it necessary. To light it, I will continue to use my recycled cigarette lighters; once the gas runs out, the flint has another six months use.

I splashed out and got the ‘five-burner’ model, because the larger ring will reduce cooking times for big pots which I do sometimes.

Also the stainless steel will be easier to clean. I know this from experience in commercial kitchens.

Okay, that’s it for this week. I’m off back to bed at 3am…. *yawn* I only got up for a pee.

 

Change the World Wednesday – 12th Jun

I am pre-Coffee at the moment

Please note, I am pre-Coffee and it is not yet 5am.

*Yawn!*

Beefless week last week, another success. Not only that, but I accepted Small’s challenge and went vege for a day and had quiche as my main meal. The rest of the week was pork, chicken and fish.

As usual, I bussed and walked to my jobs, and I walked to the supermarket. Just thought that I would mention, for those of you who don’t know me that well, I am confined to a walking stick for anything further than the little park where I live. I figure that if my leg does give out and I do fall (haven’t yet) the locals know where I belong. So for me the 25 minute walk (Monday-Friday) to my second job is a task; the longer hour walk to the supermarket is definitely taxing. There are two reasons that I commit this foolishness, one is financial; the other is that I need the exercise to combat my sedentary lifestyle. Besides, I get to see more of the neighbourhood and what is going on.

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Time for this week’s CTWW.

This one is for me, I am a gazer.

This week be very mindful of opening the refrigerator and freezer. Resist browsing the contents and/or “grazing”. Close the door rather than hold it open while you pour a glass of juice or quickly use an item to be returned to the shelf. When you must open the doors, minimize the time and shut them as quickly as possible.

This is not my fridge… it has food in it

Actually, I do feel twinges of guilt when I open the fridge door and normally get what I want and close it again.

But, I am also a gazer (not grazer, I don’t have grass in my fridge). I gaze into the empty space and wonder where all the food went. I gaze into the empty space and promise I’ll go to the supermarket. As I never have more food than I need, the gazing is brief.

I realise that when you open the door there is that WHOOSH! of cold air escaping, here in Rio on a 40°C (96°F) it is most welcome. But I don’t close the door while I am pouring a juice or water, or adding a splash of milk to my coffee; and for good reason. If you close the door and open it AGAIN to put the juice, water or milk back, there is a second WHOOSH! I have reasoned that the second WHOOSH! displaces more cold air in the fridge than it would lose if the door was left open momentarily.

If I am cooking, I get all the required ingredients from the fridge in one opening, rather than get them each as I need them.

So I am mindful of my fridge opening habits, and I have given them some thought in the past. This is one of the advantages of being old, you have time to think.

So yes, I have and do meet this challenge on a daily basis.

 

Change the World Wednesday – 5th Jun

My Mean Green Leaf Eating Machine has disappeared. Read Done a Bunk for the full story.

I am still hopeful that I will see him as a moth, but I’m not holding my breath.

Still, it was a few exciting days watching him deforest my guava tree faster than illegal loggers in the Amazon.

I bought my second energy efficient light bulb to replace the incandescent one that blew out on Sunday night. That’s the two most used in the house now.

I try to be green. I have been interviewed by EcoGrrl, and I realised that I have always been greenish. It was a part of our growing up 50 years ago, we didn’t have to concentrate on recycling so much, because we didn’t have stuff to recycle. Somewhere along the line we lost the plot, I guess it was about the same time as plastic appeared. In those days all bottles were recycled. You paid for the soda/beer bottles and got a refund when you took them back. You didn’t have to think about it. As kids, if we wanted a little extra pocket money, we scrounged the backyard, then the neighbours for ’empties’ and took them to the shop, emerging triumphant with pockets jangling with change. It was a part of childhood.

But today, the kids are a lost generation. They have to be taught because they have no role models.

They say that technology is progress. I disagree, technology has created a ‘throw-away’ world, a wasteful world, a world where we don’t respect the green hand that always hovered over us anymore.

It was a time when if you didn’t respect what you had, you got a clip around the ear, and deservedly so. Today, it is child brutality and you are risking the kid growing up with a twisted view of the world. I’m sorry, that’s bullshit! I had my ears boxed thoroughly as a kid and I appear to be okay. We are losing our grip.

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This week’s CTWW.

OPTION 1:
This week drive less … or not at all. Consider walking or bicycling. Plan out trips so that the least mileage accomplishes the most. Plan at least one day when you leave the car parked and perhaps stay at home. Avoid quick trips to the market or driving your kids around when they could walk. If you must make a trip, consider public transportation or carpooling with a friend.

 

OR …

OPTION 2:
This week, for at least one day, go vegan or vegetarian. Yep, meatless for a day … longer if you can. Search the Internet for great recipes. You’ll also find wonderful dishes (tried & tested) right here on this blog (click HERE or use the tabs above).

 

OR …

If you are an Eco-Superstar, do both activities … perhaps for the whole week.

For me this is not so much a challenge. I always use public transport. And, like today, I combined my supermarket trip with returning from work, so I don’t have to make a ‘special’ trip.

My second job, is closer by, and I walk to work. It takes about 25 minutes, and gives me much needed exercise.

This is my sixth beefless week, so I consider my efforts to reduce beef consumption to be doing my bit rather than go totally meatless.

I’m certainly no Eco-Superstar, I don’t have a cape and I wear my underwear on the inside.

Until next week.

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Change the world Wednesday – 24th

April is nearly done, less than a week to go. My commitment to eat no beef for two weeks every month (1st & 3rd) has been successful.

I will continue with this as it has certainly not harmed my diet, although I do love my beef. I have instead turned more consciously to pork, chicken and fish, which all featured in my diet as much as beef.

Quite frankly, I haven’t missed it.

One thing, it has made me more conscious when organising my shopping. Actually, I don’t organise it, I hate lists. I just go along to the supermarket with the idea of essentials and things I know that I am running out of, and make up my menu as I go along the aisles.

It has made me aware of things like “Smart Bacon”.

If a bacon was smart, it wouldn’t end up as bacon in the first place.

Have you ever heard of this? It’s stupid. It looks terrible, it certainly looks unappetising.

Why is it smart, because there’s no fat. Actually it isn’t even bacon, it’s vege protein. People have this aversion to fat; fat makes you fat. Generally that’s bullshit!

Looks absolutely hideous

Animal fat is natural in modest quantities. It’s where the flavour of meat is.

The people who have created the myth that animal fat makes you fat are the companies that sell cooking oil, vege cooking lard, margarine, etc. It has nothing to do with reality, but everything to do with making money.

It’s the same as the myth about cholesterol. Every cell in your body needs cholesterol to reproduce. The doctors who tell you that you must reduce your cholesterol are doing the dictates of the BigPharma companies who make and sell drugs to reduce cholesterol. Sure you can accumulate too much, but the levels that the doctors use are well below what you need. So many people are scared into taking these drugs needlessly.

I did meet last week’s CTWW, not a paper towel, nor serviette used.

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On with this week’s CTWW.

We’re visiting the toilet again.

I call it a toilet, some countries euphemistically refer to it as the ‘bathroom’ or a ‘restroom’. To call it by its real name offends their warped sensibilities; they are to afraid to refer to anything that promotes/suggests certain body parts or bodily functions. I wonder who these paranoid people are?

A restroom, for pities sake! I have never rested in one yet.

This week, use less toilet paper. Rather than just pull it off the roll, count out no more than 6 sheets per use. If you accepted this challenge the last time we ran it, and did well, see how low you can go.

 

OR …

If you are already a toilet paper conservationist or have switched to cloth (oh yeah, some use cloth toilet paper), please share other ways that we can conserve paper.

A bidet

Well, the first part is easy.

I have long adopted the European/South American bidet-style of washing my bum after an initial wipe with two pieces of toilet paper. to get rid of the ‘dags’*.

Sprays the nether regions with warm water

I don’t actually have a bidet, but my shower has a hose with a rosette nozzle that does the job fine.

You can get kits to attach to your cistern, but that is a cold water job.

The cost of such a kit, would soon be offset by the saving in toilet paper.

Washing your bum is certainly a lot more hygienic than smearing faeces across you skin then wiping hard using a lot of paper to make them disappear.

A bad case of dags

*dags – the crap encrusted wool that dangles behind a sheep.

Hence the phrase, “Rattle your dags” when you want someone to hurry up. Because when a sheep so endowed runs, sometimes the hardened dags actually rattle.

Change the World Wednesday – 17th

Soon they will look like this – image: Musings from a Stonehead

I have beetroot on the boil, ready to make some pickled beetroot to put in the fridge. I have to store it in the fridge because I don’t have sealing jars.

In the middle of my second ‘beefless’ week. The first week was a success, although I nearly faltered this Monday…

“I almost committed a heinous crime. This is my second ‘beefless‘ week of the month in my resolve to limit the amount of beef I am responsible for. I planned lunch, a lovely pork roast that would warm the cockles of my heart today being coolish, cold sliced pork to go with a salad on a day not cool like today and at least two days of pork sandwiches for nibbles. Then I realised I was going to use beef dripping to cook it in the roasting dish. See how easy it is to fall into little traps. Yes, I buy my dripping, because I don’t roast enough to collect the real McCoy. I used to buy pork lard, but I just recently discovered that the green pack was beef dripping, much preferred because of the flavour. So in the spirit of the ‘beefless‘ week, I will dry roast it and save the lard produced.” – Life is but a Labyrinth

An aside – Someone turned the sun off…

It was a lovely sunny morning and now it is so dark I have to turn the light on at 9am to see the keyboard. I fear for the worst.

For those of you who liked my post yesterday, you might like to check the post on wine racks on my blog Things that Fizz & Stuff for rustic wine racks.

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Here we go! This week’s CTWW.

This week (yes, one whole week) banish paper towels/napkins from your life. This includes paper towels in public restrooms and disposable napkins in restaurants.

 

OR …

Never use them? Great, please share your tips & tricks for getting along without them.

I am a fiend.

My hamburgers are bigger and juicier

Generally, I don’t use paper towels.

However, I do have them. Why, you might ask. Well there is no substitute for paper towels when you are eating a homemade hamburger; at least not my homemade hamburgers.

When I make a hamburger, it’s not just a hamburger, it’s an adventure. Hamburgers are not made to be eaten with a knife and fork, they are made to be eaten in the hand. My hamburgers are so juicy that to eat one without being folded in the mandatory paper towel you would have juice running down to your elbows.

My coffeepot

So in this, I am a fiend.

But I don’t use them generally in the kitchen, there I prefer washable cloths for all those small spills, or big spills like yesterday pouring coffee from the bule (coffeepot) into the thermos flask, the spout slipped off the flask in mid-torrent and I had coffee all over the stove top.

This morning, I was more successful.

I also have paper serviettes.

Gasp, horror!

They get used for outdoor BBQs only. Indoors, I use cloth ones, when I use them.

As for paper towels in restrooms (how quaint that Americans have this peculiar name for toilets, I have never ‘rested’ in one yet), what can I say, I’m a man (men are just big boys) and a quick wipe on the jeans suffices. Old habits die hard.

My fav restaurants both have cloth napkins.

So while I commit these hideous crimes, I do so sparingly.

Change the World Wednesday – 10th

Good morning good bloggers.

Getting my first coffee at 6:00 this morning I was reminded of Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam.

Yes, Oh God, it’s early.

Ready already for my second cup.

Update

My first beefless week was no sweat, I didn’t even miss it unless I thought about it. No beef in the fridge, no temptation. Even Lixo didn’t mind, he loves chicken as a meat supplement.

Last week’s challenge was about CDs and DVDs, etc, which is not really a problem for me as I don’t buy them, I download them.

I was taken by surprise in a comment on last week’s CTWW from Ecogrrl:

Cloud data storage

“Note – it’s important to remember that going digital doesn’t mean you’ve eliminated your environmental impact – you’re just transferring it to a different form – smaller yes, but still destructive. Internet use and storage takes up SO much – data centers are springing up all over my state of Oregon, on the eastern (dry) side of the state, where they are using up all the precious water to keep them cooled so that people can store their stuff online. There is definitely a negative to all of our internet use, so we need to think of the “invisible” storage of our digital files as well.”

I had never thought about that, less even known about it. Having given it some thought, the only online storage that I use is my blogs, images for my blogs, and a humble collection of mainly “Lixo” clips on YouTube.

I have no faith at all in this cloud storage nonsense. So I will never be a threat to environment and water usage there. But it is an aspect that one should include in the calculation of your water footprint if you store a lot of data on line as some people do. It would be worth finding out how much water is used to store, say, 1tb/month or year.

I use some CD ROMs for storage, more recently I have been using large capacity pendrives and I am currently exploring the value of investing in a USB external drive.

With a view to recycling, data/media storage, I found this idea.

CD holder toilet paper dispenser

So instead of buying dispenser packs of tissues, just buy a cheaper soft toilet paper for the same job. Cuts down on unnecessary packaging and production. Although we try to cut down on on the use of paper towels, etc in favour of washable reusables. If you’ve got a runny nose or a child with one, this could be useful.

Click the image for the challenge post

Let’s move right along, this week’s CTWW.

This week, test out Eco-friendly cleansers. You can buy “green” versions or better yet … make your own. Use Vinegar, Hydrogen Peroxide or search the Internet for other natural, homemade options. If you’re currently using something which contains toxins (typically identified by the long list of ingredients on the label and warnings about skin irritation, breathing problems, etc.), consider switching to a safer version.

 

OR …

If you’ve already made the switch to safe cleansers, please share your tips, suggestions and recipes.

Used scour pad

I don’t use much in the way of household cleansers. A simple scourer for the toilet combined with a hard brush does the trick.

Also, I reuse my scour pads from the kitchen, they get recycled to the bathroom.

*Little interruption here* Lixo has come in and  decided it’s breakfast time and I need more coffee…

There, Lixo has his breakfast and I have my coffee.

Smells sweetly of coconut

I have reduced my use of dishwashing liquid. Instead, I am now using a simple bar soap and finding it much more effective, lasts longer, has more suds and is considerably cheaper.

So those are my efforts for the challenge.

There are some cleansers, amongst other things on my Apothecary page.

If you have some ideas that could/you would like to be included there with a link to you blog, please leave me a comment with the link. I am always on the look out for ideas.

 

 

Change the World Wednesday – 3rd April

Running a bit late this morning. Big tropical rainstorm last night lots of rain, lots of lightning and lots of wind. The net went down. for a couple of hours. But that is normal for the Third World, you get used to it.

Last week’s CTWW was about your water footprint.

Boy did I get a surprise.

1848

Initially, I thought it was ho-hum, at least I did until I saw reports of 100+ and 400+.

Then I went, oh dear!

I wasn’t doing so well. My big culprit was food, or more specifically meat.

In Small’s last week’s CTWW gave these figures:

• Beef 1 kg = 15,500 lt of water
• Pork = 4,800 lt
• Chicken = 3,900 lt

Now while that isn’t an end all definitive list, it did show me that the amount of beef that I consume (Oh, I do love a BBQ) was where I unwittingly used most of my ‘hidden’ water.

After much gnashing of teeth I thought about what I could do.

The result is that I have imposed on myself two beefless weeks each month. Monday – Sunday, the first full and third weeks  of each month.

I am now in the middle of my first week.

Last night at the supermarket, I bought no beef, only chicken for three days, pork for one day and fish for two days (I already have fish in the fridge for one day). I have bacon to make a bacon & egg pie and ham for snacks.

By doing this I have roughly halved my beef intake.

Even Lixo P. Cat has joined the the effort.

Not by choice, I might add.

He is having chicken as his meat supplement instead of mincemeat (ground beef for our American cousins), and fish ‘flavoured’ dry cat food that probably doesn’t have any actual fish in it as much as his meat ‘flavoured’ doesn’t not have any actual meat in it.

My Lixo is a ‘green’ cat.

When I unpack from the supermarket, Lixo is a great helper. He carefully inspects each item as it goes into either the cupboard or fridge.

Last night as the last item was hidden from his feline eyes. He looked up at me quizzically and ‘meowed’, and I could just read his mind… “Where’s the beef?”

Onward!

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This week’s CTWW.

This week, apply the three R’s (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) to CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, etc.

Once again, it’s rather a large challenge to hop across to Reduce Footprints to read the rest, just click on the banner and you’ll be transported from Kansas…

I am already green here. I haven’t bought a CD for music in years, I download from the net. The same with films, although I do have one or two currently. I have in the past given DVDs to neighbours when I am done with them, so they have been recycled.

I wouldn’t use a CD as a coaster, because coasters need to be absorbent or you drip condensation all down your front.

But I can imagine that they could be used decoratively as dangly things in the wind, like chimeless wind chimes.

As for disposal, Brazil is just not up with this type of specialised recycling and if they were added to the ‘plastics’ would no doubt be discarded at the recycling plant. Anyway, in our area we don’t have selective recycling for anything.

You do see this in ‘posh’ areas, but Zona Oeste (West Zone) is not ‘posh’ enough

Our recycling is more like this…

Catadores roaming the streets looking for stuff to sell on

That’s about it for this week, on with my beefless week… Chicken for lunch!