Americans are overwashed. Really. We take more frequent showers than any other people anywhere on earth, and across all of human time. Recently, I decided to think twice about the impulse to jump out of bed and into the shower practically every day. I mean–why? It’s not like I’m actually dirty. My hair might be [...]
Entries Tagged as 'energy use'
Grow With the Flow–Pee On Earth Day is June 21st
June 15th, 2010 · 11 Comments
Start drinking water, friends–Pee-On-Earth Day is coming fast! On June 21st (also the Solstice, of course) people across the hemisphere will be celebrating the clean, phosphorous and nitrogen rich liquid we produce every day. Green design theorist, William McDonough (coauthor of the iconic Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things), likes to say, [...]
Tags: energy use, urban farming, waste reduction
The Stockings Were Hung…On Winter Clotheslines
December 7th, 2009 · 12 Comments
About a month ago, I called my friend T who, like me, is something of a clothesline evangelist. With the rains coming and school starting, I had fallen way behind on my laundry, and finally did about four loads in one day. I popped them all in the dryer. “Oh my god,” I told T, [...]
Tags: clotheslines, energy use
Simple Winter Sewing Project: Hot Rice Bags
November 28th, 2009 · 42 Comments
Warm face, warm ‘ands, warm feet Aow, wouldn’t it be loverly? –Eliza Doolittle Cloth bags of heated grain are great for warming the bed or soothing sore muscles–much cozier than hot water bottles, and a nicer quality of heat. I kept seeing them in boutique shops with shocking price tags, and whenever I asked what [...]
Tags: craft, energy use, sewing, simple gifts
Hats Indoors, Nightcaps, and a Simple Gift Project–My Favorite Easy Knitted Hat
November 16th, 2009 · 8 Comments
My dad always said, “Leaper, if your toes are cold, put your hat on.” And all of us have heard that we lose 50% of our body heat through our heads. This last was recently debunked, sort of, by the scientific community. Evidently the heat loss “myth” is based on murky science from the 1950s [...]
Tags: craft, energy use, knitting, seasons
Simple (and Beautiful) Outdoor Clotheslines (part two of a short series)
May 22nd, 2009 · 1 Comment
Tom and I have differing clothesline philosophies: I want a permanent line in the backyard, he doesn’t. My ideal line would involve the classic t-shaped wooden beams at each end, strung up as trellises to grow beans. Tom doesn’t like how they look, and thinks a permanent structure would take up too much space. Our [...]
Tags: clotheslines, energy use
Clothesline Bans and Laundry Outlaws (part one of a short series)
May 18th, 2009 · 13 Comments
My mother-in-law told me that clotheslines are against the law in Salem, Oregon, where she lives. I checked it out, and it’s true! Clothesline bans persist in many US cities, and parts of Canada and Europe. Thousands of homeowner associations prohibit line drying, including the 55+ community where my own dear parents live. Hmm. Clothes [...]
Tags: clotheslines, energy use, laundry
A Subterranean Clothesline–Thinking Outside of the Dryer
March 27th, 2009 · 8 Comments
Last summer the three of us traveled in Kenya and Tanzania for two months. Our first stop was a volunteer stint at Colobus Trust on the coast of Kenya, where we worked on Colobus monkey conservation, and lodged in the organization’s simple rooms. Our packs were light, with few extra clothes, and it was the [...]
Tags: clotheslines, energy use, laundry
