Cool, cool morning of 43 degrees! The days are still in the mid-80s – good thing… There was lots of fun news this week! Follow me on Twitter and Facebook to read the stuff I didn’t have room for!

> I love my bicycle! I’d like to live where I could ride year round, but for now, I’d be content to move into town so I could run errands on it instead of using the car. Bikes are becoming very popular for practical use and good health.

> I grew up outside of New York City. The Empire State Building was a fascinating and grounding element for me as a kid. The architecture was incredible, and its status as the tallest building in NY was almost god-like. Remember, I was really little! I was not happy when the twin towers were built and took away that status, and I had this sick sense of joy when the Empire State Building’s rivals fell. This building was a big part of my childhood, especially since we scaled its stairs to and from the observation deck more than once. Now this favorite building of mine is undergoing a major green retrofit. Yay.

> I am anti-stuff. Anti-unnecessary stuff, to be more precise. I am horrified at the storage units that keep getting built. How much unused stuff do we have?! Get rid of it! But if you can’t, here are 10 eco-friendly ways to store it.

> Mmmmm…. ice cream…. I guess I won’t be buying Ben & Jerry’s anymore!

> If I had to live in a city, it would be San Francisco. I fell in love with it as a kid and visited several times as an adult. It’s on my radar for a visit or maybe a move in the near future. San Francisco is a progressive city, and they are working hard to be as eco-friendly as possible as quickly as possible. One more reason to love it.

This is a excerpt from a dialogue I frequently have with my friend, David. We are both in transition, dreaming of possibilities and being torn by realities. We talked again last night.

I think too much planning ruins what we are really supposed to be doing – being free. If the spontaneous move doesn’t work, you make another one. I don’t know. Someone said I was a gypsy in a previous life.

You know, I may have told you this, but when I was about 20 in the early 70s, I read a Dear Abby column titled Advice at 85: Live Daringly. I still have it somewhere, and it shaped me. An 85 year old woman wrote to Abby and said if she had to do it over again, she’d eat ice cream for breakfast, and walk barefoot in winter more often (among other things). She felt she’d spent so much energy doing the ‘right’ thing that she missed living.

We should be spontaneous and deal with the consequences. We could die tomorrow, so what is there to lose? Nothing! Our society says this is wrong, and that is wrong, so we abide by its lame rules and lose out.

I ran out of toothpaste last week. I thought I could squeeze one more brushing out of the tube, but it was impossible. So I brushed my teeth without, and flossed and used mouthwash as usual.

My mouth didn’t feel any different, so I had to ask myself, do we really need toothpaste?

My dad was a dentist. I am well-acquainted with dental hygiene. Brush twice a day, brush your tongue, replace your toothbrush regularly, get a check-up every six months, and go easy on the sweets. This has kept me from major dental work most of my life.

In the last ten years or so, the emphasis at the dentist has been not so much on teeth as gum disease. A cleaning now consists of a laser cleaning beneath the gum line, a flossing and a quick scoot over the surfaces with the spinny thing dipped in an abrasive. Gum disease seems to be at the root (ha ha ha) of most dental problems. It’s not just cavities anymore!

So I began to think about toothpaste while I brushed without it.

> What good does it do? Does it just make your breath minty fresh, or does it actually clean?

> If our problems are below the gum line, does toothpaste get down in there and clean it out?

> I floss after a good brushing with toothpaste, and there is stuff between my teeth that a toothbrush and paste don’t get.

Our society is obsessed with cleanliness. My teenage daughters take every hygiene commercial to heart, and think they need this deodorant, that toothbrush, this face or body wash, that shampoo, and so on. They recite ads like they are absolute truth. (They have so much to learn about hype!) Toothpaste that makes their breath fresh is high on their list of must-haves.

Other countries don’t focus on the sterile lifestyle American ads purport. Articles have been written about how our children are sicker, because their homes are immaculate, and they are never exposed to dirt and germs. We are building up resistance to antibiotics, because of anti-bacterial hand soaps and other unnatural things we absorb into our bodies.

Indigenous people use chewing sticks, native plant parts that have antimicrobial qualities. They chew on a stick until it is frayed, all the while getting it’s disinfecting benefits, then they go over their teeth with the frayed end.

I met a woman in my travels about 20 years ago, and she did not brush her teeth. She had a twig in her hand, and she picked and cleaned her teeth and gums with that during the course of the day. She had beautiful teeth. I don’t know if this was a genuine chewing stick, which you can buy, or if she felt the way I do – keep the hidden spaces around your teeth clean.

So what’s up with toothpaste? It cleans the surfaces. It does not clean between your teeth or under your gums, where dental problems begin.

Toothpaste is a multi-billion dollar industry. The choices these days are overwhelming – whitening, breath-freshening, plaque-removing, tartar-controlling, paste, gel, paste-gel combo, travel size, family size and everything in between. Manufacturers want to please every corner of the market, since it’s all about money. Their ads tell you you have to have this product, or people won’t like you. Who doesn’t want to be liked? So we buy it – we buy their hype and their product. (photo: flickr Clean Wal-Mart)

But do we need it?

I think not. I figure I can brush sans toothpaste, floss, rinse with mouthwash and pick my teeth during the day as usual, and I’ll be fine. I mean, if toothpaste (and I use plain old toothpaste without all those amazing properties that will make me wildly popular) cleans the surfaces, I can do that with a good brush.

There’s a little bit of everything this week! You can follow me on Twitter and Facebook to read the stuff I didn’t have room for!

> Now THIS is closer to my idea of being green – holistic and progressive! I think all new construction should have sustainable features, but I also believe that taking care of each other is eco-friendly. Here is a green school that serves the children in a poor neighborhood of Bogota.

> Speaking of holistic… We all know we are moving at warp speed with technology fueling us. We have news in our pockets on our phones before a newspaper every hears of it. We we can communicate 24/7 with friends and relatives around the world via Twitter, Facebook and other social media. Slowing down is good for your health, and good health is eco-friendly.

> I’ve always been astonished and horrified at the energy use and waste in hotels. Towels and sheets get washed after one use, toiletries are thrown away after one use, empty rooms are heated or cooled, breakfast food is tossed in the trash – I shudder as I write this, and I haven’t even mentioned water and electricity usage! I can travel and relax now, though, since some hotels are going green, and there is even a Green Hotels Association!>

> Autumn is on its way. The days are shortening, the mornings are chilly. Your house needs some attention to get it through the winter!

> Reduce, reuse, recycle, and strive for zero waste. I couldn’t have said this better than my friend Julie Urluab at Taiga Company – ‘Zero waste maximizes recycling, minimizes waste, reduces consumption and ensures that products are made to be reused, repaired or recycled back into nature or the marketplace.’

Reusable shopping bags have become very popular. Cloth bags have cut down on the manufacture of new plastic bags, which in turn has cut down on a lot of pollution and CO2 emissions. They have also helped reduce the waste plastic bags create. I’m sure you’ve seen images like this one of bags hung up in trees and scattered on the side of the road. On my bike rides, I see them tangled in barbed wire fences, and I can here them flapping in the wind. What an awful sound in a place where I should only hear my bike tires on the road and the sounds of cows and crows. (photo: flickr cuttlefish)

Most of you probably have a drawer full of these, even as you switched to fabric reusable bags. But buying a reusable bag defeats the purpose of saving energy, when you have a bunch at home still.

Reuse/recycle the plastic shopping bags you have!

I never see anyone in the grocery store with an old Wal Mart or Albertson’s bag. Everyone has rushed out to buy a new bag, possibly made in China of plastic, probably from some online retailer, who then has to ship it to you. That’s a lot of embodied energy in a supposedly green item!

Using the plastic bags you already have at home seems to be the most logical choice when you are switching to reusables. Once you have used those up, THEN go to a local store and buy a reusable cloth bag hopefully made by a local artist or, at least, by a company in your city or state.

Throwing away something perfectly usable to buy something that is more eco-friendly is not eco-friendly at all.

As always, there is lots of information to share this week! You can follow me on Twitter and Facebook for the stuff I didn’t have room for here.

> My idea (for now) of rain harvesting is a bunch of buckets and 55-gallon trash cans lining the house under the roof. I use the water mostly for garden irrigation, but I have been known to dunk my head in it on a hot summer day. Someday I will get official with gutters and a cistern, and when I do, this item will come in handy.

> You don’t need LEED certification to live in an efficient, healthy home. You can, however, use their guidelines to make improvements. Start with an energy audit, and caulk and seal obvious leaks, then move up to larger items. Greening your home is not beautiful, until you get your utility bill. Here are five simple ways to get started.

> Get prepared for when the economy picks back up. There will be a demand for workers in sustainable fields. Here’s a projection on green jobs for the next ten years.

> I love beer. What I have been drinking for the last ten years or so is Fat Tire, one of several brews of New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado. New Belgium is one of the most sustainable businesses in the US. Serendipity that I like their beer AND they are green! Here are four other eco-friendly craft breweries, and be sure to read the comments for even more.

> Consumption is evil. We need to cut back and do without every new gadget that comes along, repurpose what we have, and recycle what we don’t need anymore. Check out this list of anti-consumers, and get inspired to live a simpler life.

> It wouldn’t be a recap without a green building! This comes from the Draw-Your-Own-Conclusions Department. Being green, to me, is holistic. It’s a lifestyle, a complete way of living, including appreciating nature, taking care of each other, and staying healthy. The largest cosmetic company in Brazil is embarking on a country-wide green building project. They are creating places for thousands of employees, sales people, consultants and contractors to meet, have trainings, stay and feel at home. The buildings are efficient modulars, which I love. What I don’t love is that (and I hope we all know this by now!), cosmetics are loaded with toxic ingredients, including lead and other heavy metals. So how green is this company? To me, not very. You can build green all you want, but if your product is toxic, it means little. Is this greenwash, hypocrisy, or just lack of education? Draw your own conclusions.

I am all for recycling. We need to reuse and re-purpose as many items as possible. Of the three Rs of recycling – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Reducing would lessen the need for Reusing and Recycling. Recycling, although a positive thing, still uses energy and has some questionable, to me, long term consequences.

Having been a landscaper for many years, I’ve seen a lot of people opt for plastic lumber for walkways, walls and planting beds. Great stuff! It is made of recycled plastic and does not rot, like wood. Exactly. Does not rot.

Will. Never. Decompose.

Although my neighbor’s walkways look good all the time, never weathered, never showing signs of age, never rotting, at some point, when someone else comes in and remodels, those walkways, that plastic that was once saved from the landfill, will eventually get thrown away. One question I have is – 20, 30, 100, 200+ years down the road, will there be enough landfill space to accommodate today’s recycled plastics?

I just read an article about a New Zealand man who recycles plastic trash into bricks to use in landscapes and other outdoor settings. He would like to see his product used for sustainable emergency housing where natural disasters wreak havoc.

This is an honorable task, since it minimizes landfill waste and could shelter people in need, but think about it. What will happen to those landscapes and homes long after you and I are gone?

Think again.

See what you can do to Reduce your use of plastics. Today.

(Just as I was getting ready to post this, I found this on Triple Pundit – Landfills: A Viable Alternative to Recycling?. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.)

(photo flickr D’Arcy Norman)

Many years ago, I was helping a friend landscape her new home here in Taos. Gretchen was an avid bird watcher, so we designed her one-acre lot to attract, feed and shelter birds. Aside from hanging hummingbird feeders and others filled with sunflower seeds and thistle, we planted perennials and over 30 native shrubs, and created a brush pile with scraps of tree trimmings. She strategically placed a few birdbaths around the garden.

Being a bird watcher myself, I have implemented a lot of her ideas in my yard over the years. My bird garden has fewer shrubs and more perennials, and is limited to the area right around the house. I have a couple of brush piles for shelter, and until I cleaned my yard to sell my house, I had a few dead trees (snags) standing. Most exciting, in my travels, I have become familiar with the plants in the wild.

I was out showing property the other day, and drove by a yard that looked a lot like Gretchen’s. The entire lot was planted with shrubs that would not naturally grow right there in the sagebrush. It was deliberately planted and beautiful with late summer, red berries gracing many of the plants.

There was a small sign by the road that I could not read, but on the way out, I stopped. It said ‘Certified Wildlife Habitat – National Wildlife Federation.’ Wow, I thought, I didn’t know you could get certification for feeding the birds!

When I got home, I went to the NWF website. For $20, you can apply for certification and receive other benefits, such as a membership, magazines, discounts and your name in the NWF National registry of certified habitats.

But even better, they tell you how to create a wildlife friendly yard! For free!

All you need to do is provide elements from each of the following areas:

> Food Sources – For example: Native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, nectar
> Water Sources – For example: Birdbath, pond, water garden, stream
> Places for Cover – For example: Thicket, rockpile, birdhouse
> Places to Raise Young – For example: Dense shrubs, vegetation, nesting box, pond
> Sustainable Gardening – For example: Mulch, compost, rain garden, chemical-free fertilizer

There are links to each of these categories, and there are a lot of details. They tell you how to create water features, build nesting boxes, garden organically, plant for birds and butterflies and much more. It’s very informative!

Whether you want to certify your yard or just create wildlife habitat, the National Wildlife Federation is a wonderful site to learn from.

And your wildlife will love you for it!

As an FYI, here is a list of habitat plants that Gretchen and I used in our Zone 5 southwest gardens. Be sure to use native plants or those that are adapted to your area.

Perennials
> columbine
> bee balm
> penstemon
> hollyhock
> aster
> black-eyed susan
> cone flower (echinacea)

Shrubs
> trumpet vine
> honeysuckle
> currant
> yucca
> rose
> silver buffaloberry
> four-wing saltbush
> fernbush
> wild plum
> western sand cherry

Trees
> pinon
> juniper
> blue spruce
> chokecherry
> NM locust

And lots of sunflowers!

I used to focus on green building and renewable energy in this weekly recap, but there is so much other great stuff out there, I have to broaden my scope. Don’t worry, green home lovers, I will always include something for you! Read my Twitter stream and Facebook page for lots of green building news!

> By now, you should all be aware of the health and environmental dangers of plastic reusable and disposable drinking bottles. We’re all looking for convenient and good-looking solutions. I, for one, am not crazy about drinking out of metal. It gives me goosebumps, and I just found a beautiful, recycled glass solution!

> My friend, David aka The Good Human, never misses the irony in a situation. Last week, he posted an article about the toxicity and health hazards of everyday cleaning products, and he nailed the real situation in the title, Why Call It Cleaning If We Just Spray Toxic Chemicals All Over The House?.

> I am a big fan of remodeling. We won’t have open land forever if we keep building on it. Besides, in this economy, it makes more sense and is faster to remodel than to sell, if you are needing a change of scene. You can remodel with efficiency and certification in mind. Everyone was skeptical at first, but it’s happening again and again. Here is a beautiful LEED Platinum Certified remodel.

> You also know that I am a small-house advocate. Having grown up in a big house of wasted space, my tastes may have been formed then. I don’t like to see waste anywhere! Why are homes getting smaller these days? Environmental consciousness or the economy? Check out this blog post and read the comments for a good discussion.

> I am not a vegetarian. My body and I feel better when I eat a high protein diet. I am less tired, and I eat less when I eat meat, eggs, dairy along with my salads, fruits and vegetables. Some people say this is unhealthy concerning cholesterol and heart conditions. Here is some scary info that has nothing to do with arterial plaque build-up

In this economy, we are all trying to save money. I have heard stories of people cutting back to bare bones to keep paying the big bills, like rent or the mortgage and the car payment. Some people just want to live a simpler, more frugal life, so saving money is imperative.

Recently I read that the US wastes about 25-50% of the food it serves. That’s a travesty, considering some countries don’t have enough food to go around. We also eat a lot of junk food here, while others can’t even get nutritious food!

Save money, eat better, and eliminate wasted food:

> Make a weekly menu to shop by. I do this, and I can assure you that there is not much leftover by the time I have to shop again! We eat balanced meals, because we always have the ingredients, and we don’t waste time wondering what to eat and end up ordering pizza or running out to the burrito wagon four nights a week. Today’s average family does exactly that, but that’s another story.

> Shop the walls of your supermarket. Anything in the aisles is processed and full of preservatives and other things with 35 letters in the name. The walls have produce, dairy and meat. That’s all you need. Buy some flour to make your own bread, and buy organic whenever you can. Find a store or butcher that will grind meat for you. E-coli and other diseases seem to come from meat processing plants.

> Never shop when you are hungry! Eat before you go, otherwise things that aren’t so good for you look amazingly healthy and yummy. I have gone to the store hungry, throwing things in the cart I thought I needed, but at the check-out, I was asking ‘What is this?’ about every strange item I put on the belt. Very simple. Save money and your health by eating before shopping!