As the national news focuses on wildfires in Arizona and Texas (and we all send well-wishes to those affected) we in Fairbanks have our own wildfires to burden us. Only a few homes are threatened (or have burned down), but the air quality has severely suffered. Yesterday would have been a great day to get a picture from the hill where I work of the valley below, if I'd remembered my camera. The fire is in a different valley, so it wasn't visible. But our area looked gray, rainy and foggy. Except it wasn't fog, it was smoke.
Today is a little better in appearance, but the air quality has still been judged to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. Apparently, I fit into that group because my sinuses have been killing me for the last couple of days. Shane and I laid down to watch a movie last night and the fluid in my sinuses moved around and it felt like water rushing up my nose. Fun, right? I was hoping that the rain yesterday would have helped, but since the skies hardly did more than sprinkle it wasn't as great as everyone was hoping. Most Fairbanksters would say that their perfect summer weather has a torrential downpour about once a week to keep the fires down, while being hot and sunny the rest of the week.
Several fires have been burning continuously for several years, smoldering in the bogs over the long winters. Crazy, right? It doesn't really seem possible. But fires can also spread through the roots of trees in the right types of soil. (Clay especially, like we have in places around here--my friend went home the other day to discover that his dirt driveway was on fire!)
Obviously, wildfires are a normal, natural part of how the forests in Alaska (and really, any temperate forests) regenerate. But the fires from the past few years have been out of control. It gets hardly a word in the national press because we're a) not important unless spouting inanities like, "I can see Russia from my house!" And b) as I said before, not many homes are threatened. (The town of Anderson was evacuated a couple summers ago, but that was roughly 20 homes.) It should matter more, though, because these fires are a sign that the arctic is getting warmer and warmer. Fires are natural, yes. But we've broken quite a few records in the past decade and the problem only seems to be getting worse. Like with the spiders, it's a long-term trend. One large fire is not indicative of global warming. But a decade of severe, unceasing fires is. And as long as they're around, people like me who are sensitive to the air quality are going to have really, really bad days.
And until these fires go away, I'm going to be thanking the firefighters I know every chance I get. After all, I just have to deal with bad air quality. They're the ones actually protecting us from the fires. They deserve a little thanks at the very least.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
New roommate...ish.
For the summer, one of our friends is living in a motor home in our driveway. This is one of those things that makes me think, only in Alaska. Anywhere else he'd be considered homeless, and us cruel for "making" him stay out there. (We did offer the guest bedroom, but he didn't want to pay rent. Hence, the motor home.)
For the privilege of being in our driveway, using our bathroom and kitchen facilities, as well as paying us for the electricity he's using he's giving us the contents of his chest freezer. All I can say is, yum. It's packed full of things like halibut, more salmon, etc. We tried antelope last night. (Don't ask me where he got antelope, I have no idea.) Conclusion: antelope is not my favorite meat. I liked Shane's marinade, and the way he cooked it kept the meat really tender. But the actual taste of the meat wasn't something I care for. Oh well.
I am looking forward to cooking up some halibut tomorrow. Halibut requires deep sea fishing, not the dip-netting (it's exactly what it sounds like) that Shane's parents do, so we don't have it that often. When we do, it's more of a delicacy. (Unlike salmon.) My mom's recipe for beer battered halibut calls for Bisquick (the whole recipe is: beer, Bisquick; combine to thick and goopy stage), but I can't really find a great sounding recipe that doesn't call for something like Bisquick, pancake mix, or at least seasoning mixes. Hmmm. I might experiment. Or I might just suck it up and buy Bisquick, which I haven't bought in ages.
Anyway, all of this will certainly help with the grocery bill for the summer since we'll mostly be eating game meats. Now if only the farmers would get their veggies in and bring them to the farmer's market, life would be perfect. All they've had so far are cucumbers, which are ok but I'm not a big enough fan to buy and eat tons of them. Not even as pickles, which I've thought about making.
The one thing I did buy at the farmer's market last weekend was a bar of goat's milk soap. You know what the dog did? Climbed up on the table and started eating it. Not too much, I think she realized pretty quickly that it didn't taste as good as it apparently smelled. But she's been climbing on the table a lot lately. When Shane gets up, she's sleeping on the table and doesn't seem to realize that she's doing something wrong. I've been trying to explain to her the difference between cat privileges and dog privileges (the cat gets to be on the table, the dog gets to go for walks), but she doesn't seem to understand. For now, the cat is staying firmly in the place of favored child.
For the privilege of being in our driveway, using our bathroom and kitchen facilities, as well as paying us for the electricity he's using he's giving us the contents of his chest freezer. All I can say is, yum. It's packed full of things like halibut, more salmon, etc. We tried antelope last night. (Don't ask me where he got antelope, I have no idea.) Conclusion: antelope is not my favorite meat. I liked Shane's marinade, and the way he cooked it kept the meat really tender. But the actual taste of the meat wasn't something I care for. Oh well.
I am looking forward to cooking up some halibut tomorrow. Halibut requires deep sea fishing, not the dip-netting (it's exactly what it sounds like) that Shane's parents do, so we don't have it that often. When we do, it's more of a delicacy. (Unlike salmon.) My mom's recipe for beer battered halibut calls for Bisquick (the whole recipe is: beer, Bisquick; combine to thick and goopy stage), but I can't really find a great sounding recipe that doesn't call for something like Bisquick, pancake mix, or at least seasoning mixes. Hmmm. I might experiment. Or I might just suck it up and buy Bisquick, which I haven't bought in ages.
Anyway, all of this will certainly help with the grocery bill for the summer since we'll mostly be eating game meats. Now if only the farmers would get their veggies in and bring them to the farmer's market, life would be perfect. All they've had so far are cucumbers, which are ok but I'm not a big enough fan to buy and eat tons of them. Not even as pickles, which I've thought about making.
The one thing I did buy at the farmer's market last weekend was a bar of goat's milk soap. You know what the dog did? Climbed up on the table and started eating it. Not too much, I think she realized pretty quickly that it didn't taste as good as it apparently smelled. But she's been climbing on the table a lot lately. When Shane gets up, she's sleeping on the table and doesn't seem to realize that she's doing something wrong. I've been trying to explain to her the difference between cat privileges and dog privileges (the cat gets to be on the table, the dog gets to go for walks), but she doesn't seem to understand. For now, the cat is staying firmly in the place of favored child.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Idle hands are...
Idle hands are so not my problem right now. I've shaken off the last of my winter sleepiness (hibernation isn't only for bears) and I'm in full Summer Mode.
Not that the things I've accomplished sound like much when they're totaled up.
Laundry.
Dishes.
Making bread.
More dishes.
Weeding the garden.
Wedding stuff.
Cleaning out our plastic bags for re-use.
That last one had my mom sounding skeptical when I said that I do it. She said, "I tried reusing some Ziploc bags, but there were crumbs left and they got moldy...." My answer: soap and water. I rinse each of them out, squishing the soap around with just a bit of water, and then hang them over things in our kitchen so that they dry out. (Wine bottles work really well for the bigger bags, and little canning jars that I've used for jam are about the perfect size for the smaller ones.) I've never had anything in them get moldy and they get naturally weeded out of use on a regular basis (after about 3-4 uses). I don't ever reuse bags that have held raw meat, and I've only reused cheese bags a couple of times (because of the bacteria). But for bread, sandwiches, fruit, chopped veggies, etc., reusing them works really well. (And yes, I'm trying to find alternatives to putting those things in plastic.) Actually, at this point we really don't use them for much except meat, cheese, and bread products.
This is part of overhauling my sense of what's "disposable". Yes, something can be disposable, but does it have to be? My brother has, for years, shaken his head over single use products. It's a waste of resources, and it's a waste of money. Why would you ever want to buy something that's only good to be used once? I understand his point more and more.
Of course, this is also the man who said that he's only ever going to buy the shoes that have bike clips on the bottom. They're multi-tasking, and "when is it a bad thing to have the ability to clip yourself to something?"
Whew. Add to all this our ballroom dance class, coed softball, and taking care of the normal plant/animal tasks for our household, it's already starting to be a big week.
Not that the things I've accomplished sound like much when they're totaled up.
Dishes.
More dishes.
Weeding the garden.
Cleaning out our plastic bags for re-use.
That last one had my mom sounding skeptical when I said that I do it. She said, "I tried reusing some Ziploc bags, but there were crumbs left and they got moldy...." My answer: soap and water. I rinse each of them out, squishing the soap around with just a bit of water, and then hang them over things in our kitchen so that they dry out. (Wine bottles work really well for the bigger bags, and little canning jars that I've used for jam are about the perfect size for the smaller ones.) I've never had anything in them get moldy and they get naturally weeded out of use on a regular basis (after about 3-4 uses). I don't ever reuse bags that have held raw meat, and I've only reused cheese bags a couple of times (because of the bacteria). But for bread, sandwiches, fruit, chopped veggies, etc., reusing them works really well. (And yes, I'm trying to find alternatives to putting those things in plastic.) Actually, at this point we really don't use them for much except meat, cheese, and bread products.
This is part of overhauling my sense of what's "disposable". Yes, something can be disposable, but does it have to be? My brother has, for years, shaken his head over single use products. It's a waste of resources, and it's a waste of money. Why would you ever want to buy something that's only good to be used once? I understand his point more and more.
Of course, this is also the man who said that he's only ever going to buy the shoes that have bike clips on the bottom. They're multi-tasking, and "when is it a bad thing to have the ability to clip yourself to something?"
Whew. Add to all this our ballroom dance class, coed softball, and taking care of the normal plant/animal tasks for our household, it's already starting to be a big week.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Laundry Day
Laundry is one of those things, I admit, where Shane and I diverge directly along the traditional male/female roles. In fact, practically since we started dating over four years ago, I've been doing his laundry along with mine. (He NEVER did laundry, and it started to bother me. Plus: we lived in the same dorm, laundry facilities were on his floor anyway, and the machines were huge so I could get a lot of laundry done all at once. So I took over, like I tend to do.)
We've had a rather interesting laundry history, too. I've already explained living in the dorms, but there was also the six months we lived in a dry cabin. That made laundry an interesting (and very infrequent) venture. We were, to be blunt, dirt poor and didn't want to go to the laundromat. Ever. So we relied on the generous nature of our friends, and a lot on the fact that Shane's younger brother was living in the dorms. Once a month we'd cart pretty much all of our clothes to campus and spend as long as it took to get things cleaned and at least mostly dried. There were a few times we'd have one bag of clean and dry, another bag for clean and not at all dried so that the second set could be laid around the cabin to try dry. Since we kept the temperature so low to save on heat, and the drying area was farthest away from the heater, things would more often get a little frozen rather than dried, but we made it work.
Now that we're in an apartment with an actual washer and dryer for our own use, I'm very conscious of the toll the electricity for it exacts on our electric bill. Especially the dryer. So I do all that I can to reduce the amount I actually put into the dryer. Our storage space (located right next to the washer and dryer, conveniently) has provided...well, not the perfect alternative (it's too small!) but an excellent one. There's a closet bar across the front, and I hang a majority of our clothes along there to be dried. At first it was just a few of our nicer clothes (the dryer is also very hard on clothing), but now it's expanded to almost all of our shirts, and all of my underwear. (Women's underwear is ridiculously expensive!) I keep meaning to add our pants into the growing list of things that don't go in the dryer, but there's more of a space concern for them. Now that it's summer, I suppose I could just set them outside to dry. Hmmm. The only thing I've found it's better to put in the dryer are towels, otherwise they get rather stiff. (Although, maybe just tossing them in for a small touch-up at the end of the drying process would fluff them up enough?) Yes, all of this does take a few extra minutes since I have to hang up each individual item, but the savings to our electric bill makes up for that. And it's still something that I can do and leave as I please. It makes me feel really good when I need to dry only one out of every three loads of laundry.
The other easy way I save is by using less laundry detergent. Like, waaaay less. I read this article a while ago about using less, none, or making it yourself and have totally altered the way I do laundry ever since. (I admit that I don't make my own. But I buy Seventh Generation soap, and the big container has lasted almost two years now.) For an average load of laundry, I try to put in no more than a tablespoon or two of soap. My laundry still comes out smelling fresh and clean, and it stays that way.
I also never use fabric softener or dryer sheets. I don't find them to be at all necessary, just a waste of money. My clothes are plenty soft, and since I air dry most of our stuff, there's no need for dryer sheets.
When we do eventually buy our own place, will I even bother to get a clothes dryer? Maybe.
We've had a rather interesting laundry history, too. I've already explained living in the dorms, but there was also the six months we lived in a dry cabin. That made laundry an interesting (and very infrequent) venture. We were, to be blunt, dirt poor and didn't want to go to the laundromat. Ever. So we relied on the generous nature of our friends, and a lot on the fact that Shane's younger brother was living in the dorms. Once a month we'd cart pretty much all of our clothes to campus and spend as long as it took to get things cleaned and at least mostly dried. There were a few times we'd have one bag of clean and dry, another bag for clean and not at all dried so that the second set could be laid around the cabin to try dry. Since we kept the temperature so low to save on heat, and the drying area was farthest away from the heater, things would more often get a little frozen rather than dried, but we made it work.
Now that we're in an apartment with an actual washer and dryer for our own use, I'm very conscious of the toll the electricity for it exacts on our electric bill. Especially the dryer. So I do all that I can to reduce the amount I actually put into the dryer. Our storage space (located right next to the washer and dryer, conveniently) has provided...well, not the perfect alternative (it's too small!) but an excellent one. There's a closet bar across the front, and I hang a majority of our clothes along there to be dried. At first it was just a few of our nicer clothes (the dryer is also very hard on clothing), but now it's expanded to almost all of our shirts, and all of my underwear. (Women's underwear is ridiculously expensive!) I keep meaning to add our pants into the growing list of things that don't go in the dryer, but there's more of a space concern for them. Now that it's summer, I suppose I could just set them outside to dry. Hmmm. The only thing I've found it's better to put in the dryer are towels, otherwise they get rather stiff. (Although, maybe just tossing them in for a small touch-up at the end of the drying process would fluff them up enough?) Yes, all of this does take a few extra minutes since I have to hang up each individual item, but the savings to our electric bill makes up for that. And it's still something that I can do and leave as I please. It makes me feel really good when I need to dry only one out of every three loads of laundry.
The other easy way I save is by using less laundry detergent. Like, waaaay less. I read this article a while ago about using less, none, or making it yourself and have totally altered the way I do laundry ever since. (I admit that I don't make my own. But I buy Seventh Generation soap, and the big container has lasted almost two years now.) For an average load of laundry, I try to put in no more than a tablespoon or two of soap. My laundry still comes out smelling fresh and clean, and it stays that way.
I also never use fabric softener or dryer sheets. I don't find them to be at all necessary, just a waste of money. My clothes are plenty soft, and since I air dry most of our stuff, there's no need for dryer sheets.
When we do eventually buy our own place, will I even bother to get a clothes dryer? Maybe.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Jobs
Shane has a job! It's a temporary, summer research position at the University. But it's gainful employment! Being unemployed and bored has certainly worn him down in the last few months. We're going out with friends to celebrate tonight at our favorite local Thai restaurant. Yum.
This does not mean, however, that I'm taking us off our budget. I think it's as important as ever, especially since this is only a temporary position. I hope there's another position, or more money for this one, at the end of the summer but I'm going to plan for another long stretch of unemployment. Just in case.
This does not mean, however, that I'm taking us off our budget. I think it's as important as ever, especially since this is only a temporary position. I hope there's another position, or more money for this one, at the end of the summer but I'm going to plan for another long stretch of unemployment. Just in case.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Crash!
Crashed my bike last night. No serious injuries. Just scrapes, bruises, and wounded pride. (Lesson learned: never bike along Cushman. Honestly, the worst sidewalks I've ever seen! And that's saying a lot, since I bike along University....) I was more concerned for my bike than for myself. The chain came off, and I got angry trying to put it back on. (If you saw a woman swearing and working on a bike downtown last night, that was me!) On the plus side, I did get to miss pretty much the entire meeting that I was going to. Our place is eligible through a state program to be weatherized, and I don't know why but it had to be the people living in it and not the landlord who had to go to this meeting about "what will happen?" Boring, but I missed most of it and still got credit for being there. (Not only was I late, but I explained to one of the people running it what had happened, so I spent the rest of it in the bathroom trying to clean myself up. Mostly grease from the chain.)
This morning, I re-potted the tomato plants I have at work. So far, about seven tomatoes are roughly the size of marbles. Maybe a little bigger. I'll share whatever bounty that comes from them with my coworkers. My hope is that the plants will love living in here, and keep producing until it starts to get really dark.
The second crash we've had lately was because one of my work plants tried to commit suicide yesterday. (Herbicide?) Over my computer I saw something fall off the reference shelves, and when I realized what it was I went running. The poor thing mangled its top, but it will live. (I'm sorry, I don't know what type of plant it is. Something with a thick stem and big leaves.) It just got too top-heavy, so now I'm going to try to train it down where it can snake over the top of the bookshelf. Since I propagated this and one other plant from a much larger one at the other library which snakes over a microfiche shelving unit, I know it will work.
Poor plant. I hope it heals as quickly as my scrapes and bruises will.
This morning, I re-potted the tomato plants I have at work. So far, about seven tomatoes are roughly the size of marbles. Maybe a little bigger. I'll share whatever bounty that comes from them with my coworkers. My hope is that the plants will love living in here, and keep producing until it starts to get really dark.
The second crash we've had lately was because one of my work plants tried to commit suicide yesterday. (Herbicide?) Over my computer I saw something fall off the reference shelves, and when I realized what it was I went running. The poor thing mangled its top, but it will live. (I'm sorry, I don't know what type of plant it is. Something with a thick stem and big leaves.) It just got too top-heavy, so now I'm going to try to train it down where it can snake over the top of the bookshelf. Since I propagated this and one other plant from a much larger one at the other library which snakes over a microfiche shelving unit, I know it will work.
Poor plant. I hope it heals as quickly as my scrapes and bruises will.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Is it really helping?
Awareness about climate change is, while not necessarily at an all-time high (thank you, "climate change deniers", for helping to ruin my state), it's certainly in a lot of people's minds. And I think a lot of people are working in little bits to try to help out. At the very least, it makes economic sense for people to drive less, turn off lights when no one's in a room, and use more efficient appliances, etc. But I think because the scope of this problem is so big, and so much of it is out of our control, that people end up focusing too much on one little thing and never enough on the big picture. We sign petitions for wanting cleaner water, but do we change our driving habits? We turn off lights, but do we unplug unnecessary appliances?
For instance, I saw an article a while ago talking about the "scandal" that was caused when Cameron Diaz said that she doesn't always flush the toilet in order to save water. She's environmentally conscious, which is fantastic. But...I can't help but wonder, what's the environmental toll of the large house she probably lives in? Of all her new clothes, the traveling I'm sure she does, etc? Is it at all hypocritical of someone to claim that they're "environmentally conscious" if they live in a mansion? I mean no disrespect to Ms. Diaz, I'm sure she's really working toward environmental causes. She just happened to be the example I thought of.
There was also an article (which I didn't actually look at) on the cover of the PETA magazine which periodically gets "donated" to the library touting Lea Michele's efforts to end horse-drawn carriage rides in Central Park. All I could think was, REALLY?! That's what she's going to focus on? Not puppy mills, factory farming (I think those pictures speak for themselves), or any of the other hundreds of animal causes. She chose carriage rides. As I said, I didn't read the article so I don't really know about it. Perhaps the horses aren't kept well? But it's like avoiding the part of an iceberg you can see and then saying, "Whew! That was close!" You're still about to hit the ice under the water, but you're too focused on the superficial view to understand that.
I feel uncomfortable trying to label what I'm doing as "sustainable" because I know it's not. There's a long, long way to go before my own lifestyle is sustainable. Is it even environmentally friendly? I'm sure there's so much that I don't (and that we don't, as a species) understand about the environment that I'm probably as blind as anyone else to how awful my actions are.
Of course, it would probably be best to ignore these gloomy thoughts and listen to Don Cheadle when he says, "every green thing you do has an exponential impact when combined with the actions of others." And then I can help him plant a forest.
On the plus side, I have noticed a severe reduction in the amount of garbage we have every week. So one part of this, at least, is helping.
Also, it was either great naivete or great hubris that lead me to put a compost bin in the backyard and expect that the dog wouldn't get into it. I've now moved it to the side of the house, outside of the fence, and the cat has become my favorite child for the time being.
For instance, I saw an article a while ago talking about the "scandal" that was caused when Cameron Diaz said that she doesn't always flush the toilet in order to save water. She's environmentally conscious, which is fantastic. But...I can't help but wonder, what's the environmental toll of the large house she probably lives in? Of all her new clothes, the traveling I'm sure she does, etc? Is it at all hypocritical of someone to claim that they're "environmentally conscious" if they live in a mansion? I mean no disrespect to Ms. Diaz, I'm sure she's really working toward environmental causes. She just happened to be the example I thought of.
There was also an article (which I didn't actually look at) on the cover of the PETA magazine which periodically gets "donated" to the library touting Lea Michele's efforts to end horse-drawn carriage rides in Central Park. All I could think was, REALLY?! That's what she's going to focus on? Not puppy mills, factory farming (I think those pictures speak for themselves), or any of the other hundreds of animal causes. She chose carriage rides. As I said, I didn't read the article so I don't really know about it. Perhaps the horses aren't kept well? But it's like avoiding the part of an iceberg you can see and then saying, "Whew! That was close!" You're still about to hit the ice under the water, but you're too focused on the superficial view to understand that.
I feel uncomfortable trying to label what I'm doing as "sustainable" because I know it's not. There's a long, long way to go before my own lifestyle is sustainable. Is it even environmentally friendly? I'm sure there's so much that I don't (and that we don't, as a species) understand about the environment that I'm probably as blind as anyone else to how awful my actions are.
Of course, it would probably be best to ignore these gloomy thoughts and listen to Don Cheadle when he says, "every green thing you do has an exponential impact when combined with the actions of others." And then I can help him plant a forest.
On the plus side, I have noticed a severe reduction in the amount of garbage we have every week. So one part of this, at least, is helping.
Also, it was either great naivete or great hubris that lead me to put a compost bin in the backyard and expect that the dog wouldn't get into it. I've now moved it to the side of the house, outside of the fence, and the cat has become my favorite child for the time being.
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