Ecofamily

In 22 weeks, January – May, The Linn County ISU Extension & Outreach office has diverted approximately 100 gallons of food waste from the landfill by collecting leftovers from lunches, coffee pot, meetings and nutrition program scraps . It is feeding our worm bin, Marissa’s worm bucket, my worm bin and an outdoor compost bin at home. To create compost, we need a balance of ‘green’ or nitrogen rich material (fruit & vegie peels & cores) and ‘brown’ or carbon based material (tea bags & coffee grounds).  I also use shredded office paper and newspaper for the ‘brown’.   I’m  inviting my office mates to help me harvest the compost from the worm bin the end of June. We will pick a nice day and do it out on the picnic table. 

By composting food waste, we are reducing methane and other harmful chemicals from polluting the air and water here in Linn County. Scott Koepke, New Pioneer Coop SoilMates, says nearly 75% of everything that goes to the landfill COULD BE COMPOSTED.  Consider this as you make decisions about the waste your household produces. By diverting it we will save money for our family, our municipality and keep our soil, water and air clean.

One tip for composting food waste:  Remember to wash your bananas before eating and leaving the peels in the collection bucket.  They usually have fruit fly eggs on them and washing will prevent them from hatching in your compost.

How much fruit or vegie scraps does your household discard? Could you start composting at home or the office? Do you know if one of your neighbors does this? Tell us about it on the blog or our Eco Family Facebook page!

Kristi

Environment, Food, Health, Public policy, Waste Prevention, Water quality & conservation compost bin, divert from landfill, fruit, keep soil water and air clean, save money, vegies, worm composting

I recently invited neighbors and friends to a compost and rainscaping open house in my yard.  I put laminated signs in my prairie patch, rain garden, rain barrels, and the organic garden bed.  Although the pouring rain was an excellent time to see the rainscaping in action, it kept most people away.  However, I am encouraged by the many conversations that have happened as a result of the invitation!  One neighbor learned about vermi-composting and I gave her some worms to get started. Another is collecting food scraps from her family of 5 for my compost bins. And she is asking about what can be composted and what cannot be.  Another has composted for years but is collecting for me.  I will share compost with them this fall. I met a neighbor for the first time (she has lived in the neighborhood for 5 years) and I didn’t know her name.  She stopped by when she was walking her dog and said, “YOU ARE THE ONE I have been looking for, for  a long time!! I want to know about your prairie.”  We spent some time in her yard looking at some organic and native planting options.   Several more said they wanted to know if I would be doing the open house later, because they want to see and learn.

It is fun for me to see the interesting connections between people in my neighborhood. We were ‘cat, chicken and rat sitting’ for two families so were out and about on one recent beautiful weekend doing our “chores”.  Over the course of the weekend, several men ended up in our driveway talking around the fishing boat to my husband.  One neighbor shared leftover graduation food with several families and roasters were returned.  A few exchanged plants from their house and yard. More walked and stopped to talk, sharing updates on health, family and who knows what else!

Join us June 6 for the last Eco Family Virtual Conference on NEIGHBORS! http://www.extension.iastate.edu/article/iowans-can-sign-remaining-eco-family-conference-sessions  As economies, the environment and people’s health change, people make connections to support each other. Towns all across the world are transitioning into more sustainable, local communities.  It happens by building relationships and connections. 

How many of your neighbors do you know by name? Dogs and babies, snow shovels and lawnmowers are some key connectors for neighbors.  How does it happen in YOUR neighborhood? Share your comments on this blog or on our Facebook page!

Kristi

Connection with Nature, Environment, Food, Health babies, connections, exchange, fishing boat, Health, neighborhood, neighbors, new economy, open house, organic, prairie patch, transition towns, walking dogs

Have you missed me? I have been on the road for 7 weeks  conducting training, attending conferences and putting a lot of miles on vehicles!  I shared our Eco Family work with folks all over the nation, from Alaska to Florida and many places in between!

On my travels, I learned that E85 fuel stations are also in Minnesota and you can find them with your smart phone app.  At the pump, the E85 fuel hoses are yellow, and the gasoline hoses are black. E85 fuel is a blend of 85% ethanol (produced by corn grown in the Midwest) and 15% gasoline.  It is an efficient energy source, decreases fossil fuel use, but is considered by some, a highly subsidized energy source for transportation.  I traveled to North Dakota and learned they are having trouble sharing water for drinking, farm use, and for fracking because of the newly discovered oil.  I made many pit stops along the way and found myself pondering how to dry my hands.  Should I use a paper towel, a renewable resource, and often made from a percentage of post-consumer waste, but that takes lots of water and land to produce? Should I use the air dryer that uses electricity produced by coal or nuclear power?

This photo is from one of my stops in northern Iowa.  I was in the middle of a wave of the oldest wind generators in Iowa and realized that the electricity in this area was likely wind powered!  So, this is easy, I said to myself, I will use the electric hand dryer powered by clean wind energy!  Feeling so good about my choice and having freshly clean and germ-free hands, I turned to leave the public restroom. But, alas, I needed a paper towel to grasp the handle to open the door.    

Energy choices are complex. Our energy generation, transmission, distribution and storage systems must be diverse and localized to be sustainable. I am in favor of my tax dollars being used for alternative energy research, like solar power.  I do not believe we will find one energy source that fits all of our energy needs.  I am in favor of reducing our dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels in general because they are not renewable, at least in a human lifetime. And they create air  and water pollution in its production process. I am also in favor of reducing our demand on electricity and fuel, but in our global society and consumer culture it is a daunting task.  I still need to travel for my job and to stay connected with my family.  I do what makes sense to me, but sometimes the choices are not very clear or do not leave me feeling good.

What conundrums have you been in? How do you make your energy decisions? What are your concerns? Where would you spend your tax dollars?  Share your comments with me at http://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/isuecofamily  or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/ISUEco-Family

Kristi Cooper

Energy, Environment, Health, Public policy, Waste Prevention, Water quality & conservation air pollution, alternative energy, coal, consumer culture, E85, Eco family, Energy, ethoanlo, fracking, fuel, germ-free, nuclear, oli, polution, research, solar, transportation, water

I have two special places in my yard prepared for the pear trees that I will get this weekend.  They need sunshine, nitrogen, well drained soil.  I ordered them from Backyard Abundance, a non-profit organization in Johnson County, Iowa that is helping people grow their own food within 10 minute walking distance of their home.  In my case it is within 100 feet of my front and back doors. 

This is Earth Week and Arbor Day is on Friday, so it is the perfect time to find ways to improve the health of our lives with plants and eco friendly practices.

My husband watched “Green Fire”, a movie about Aldo Leopold the “father of modern conservation”, and is now reading his book, Sand County Almanac.  Cedar Rapids held a fabulous event last weekend called Eco Fest sponsored by may local organizations.

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Week or Arbor Day?  Is your community doing a ‘clean up project’ or other event to beautify your area?  Have you been able to spend time outdoors appreciating the wonders of Mother nature?

Share your thoughts at the Eco Family Blog http://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/isuecofamily  or our Eco Family Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/ISUEco-Family  !!

Kristi

Connection with Nature, Environment, Food, Health Arbor Day, Earth Week

My dear friends in NW Iowa and Minnesota are still recovering from the ice storms recently.  They are cleaning up lots of broken trees.  Although it is a very sad thing to see a precious tree snapped off, all is not lost.  That tree can live on in another form as  materials for outdoor playspaces!!  If you are handy with a chainsaw and have a child care center or playground that could use some new experiences, consider these ideas from Nature Explore outdoor classrooms.  Children learn so many skills by interacting with natural materials.  Here are just a few examples!

• Stepping stumps  – develops estimation skills required for math, balance and body awareness
• Log balance beam  – develops awareness of material properties and physics, large muscle strength and self confidence
• Tree cookies (slices of a trunk that can be used as building materials or flooring) -  develops small and large muscles, physical strength, math and science skills, imagination, problem solving, language and social skills!

If you are lucky enough to have a hollow log or even a rotting one, both can provide endless hours of exploration and learning about the natural world.  Talking about decomposition and habitat are much easier when you have real live (or dead) examples!!  Please don’t be afraid of letting the kiddos get dirty.  They need to experience messiness in order to be good scientists, chefs, engineers and pilots, teachers,  fathers and mothers!

If you are thinking about introducing some natural items to your outdoor (or indoor) play spaces, consider the elements of a well designed space to maximize children’s learning.  Nature Explore, a collaboration between the Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation is a leader in research behind outdoor classrooms. Arrange the outdoor space into well defined activity areas. For example, place the building area near a flat surface and provide lots of standard blocks as well as sticks, tree cookies,  stumps, stones, bricks and other items that children can experiment with.   Choose a separate area for climbing and crawling like a series of stumps of varying heights (keep them under 18″ if you have children under age 5),  a hollow log and a balance beam.

They also have great resources for your family, church or school to use at  www.natureexplore.org.

What experiences have you had with downed trees?

Kristi

Connection with Nature, Environment, Health, Waste Prevention balance, body awareness, chefs, child development, decomposition, engineers, fathers, habitat, language, math, mothers, science, social skills, stumps, teachers, trees

Thanks to a recent spring rain, my rain barrel is FULL!  I am grateful that in Iowa we have the freedom to collect rainwater for our outdoor uses. I use rain water for my container gardens, the annual vegetable garden, flower beds and my newly planted blueberries and aronia bushes. I also use the rainwater to wash my car - if it gets really dirty. When I have more rain water than I can use outdoors, I empty the barrel into empty milk jugs to use for my indoor plants and, if need be, to pour flush toilets in an emergency.

I hope we don’t have a water emergency this summer, but drought predictions continue.  Last summer our community well was low and we were asked to reduce our water usage.  We were given a few suggestions like  ‘don’t water your lawn, wash your cars, or fill pools’.  I knew there were many more things a household can do to reduce the demand on water supplies.  After a little research, we came up with a pretty good list of things the families in our neighborhood association could do to reduce the demand on our well.

In the home, there are a number of practices that can save hundreds of gallons of water.  Families can reduce their water consumption with a few easy changes. The best practices for saving water indoors include:

• Fix leaks. Leaks are the biggest water waster.  Even a slow leak in your faucet can waste up to 300 gallons of water per month.
• Install low flow. Replace toilets made before 1995 with newer low flow models. This can reduce bathroom water usage 30-60%.  Faucet aerators and low flow shower heads can reduce water usage by 40%. Replace dishwashers and clothes washers with more efficient models.
• Slow the flow. Flush less. Take shorter showers. Run only full loads in the dishwasher and laundry. Don’t use the garbage disposal – compost instead.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach offers many educational resources for families to learn about water conservation. Here are two tools your household can use to create water conservation habits indoors and out!  One family in our Eco Family Virtual Conference has already reduced their water consumption by 23%!!

Please share YOUR thoughts on water use in the Eco Family blog!  

Kristi

Water quality & conservation container gardens, eco family blog, Eco Family Virtual Conference, low flow, neighborhood association, pour-flush toilets, rain barrels, water conservation, water consumption, water emergency, water supplies

Oh my goodness! YOU should hear what the Eco Families are doing about STUFF!

After watching the PBS video on happiness, 3 young cousins sorted their toys and gave away a huge pile! Another family went through their clothing, donated some, consigned some and developed an ingenious system to use all year so they would know at a glance what they had worn or not worn in the last year. Everyone talked about what a new economy would look like and what it would take to make the change from a scarcity focused consumer culture to an abundance focused cooperative society.  We pondered what it would be like to localize our energy, food and other goods and services.

Most households are doing many best practices for sustainable living.  We shared what kind of  ‘changemakers’ we thought we were.  It takes connecters and worker bees, teachers and investigators, writers and speakers, and many more talents to create sustainable neghborhoods and communities.  We will look deeper into how to enhance relationships with our neighbors close and far away during May before our June  online gathering.  It was interesting to see how our conversations about the material things we choose are closely related to the relationships we have with others.

This month we are exploring resources about food – what we eat, where it comes from, how we can influence food systems.  Please join us for “FOOD” in the next Eco Family Virtual Conference! We will be looking at how to make sustainable choices about a very tasty topic!!  http://www.extension.iastate.edu/linn/news/live-green-2013

What’s in your pantry?

Kristi

Energy, Environment, Health, Public policy, Waste Prevention changemakers, connecters, consign, consumer culture, cooperative, donate, Eco Family Virtual Conference, give away, happiness, ingenious, investigators, local food, localize, material things, new economy, pantry, relationships, speakers, stuff, sustainable living, teachers, worker bees, writers

Meet my new friend, Jason! He is helping my husband and I determine the right ‘array’-ngement for solar power for our home. I learned so much in our 2 hour visit with him!

We want to generate enough energy to replace our current electrical use.  We have a couple of options – to install an array (several modules connected to each other) of photo-voltaic (PV) cells on our roof or as a stand alone in our yard.  Jason taught us about the electrical engineering of the system and how it works to bring electricity into our home.  I am excited to watch the meter run backwards on those sunny days!  He helped us consider our shade trees, our roof style, direction, elevation and slope to think about the best possibilities for solar PV installation. 

We looked at 12 months of current electrical use and he calculated the type of system needed to supply our current energy needs.  Our nearly 35 year old roof can easily hold a 4lbs/square foot solar array, however we do need to think about how old our current shingles are and if we want to upgrade before the installation. These babies (PV cells) will last for 30 years! I don’t want to have to take it down to re-do the roof in a few years.

Then we looked at the tax credits, loans, rebates and incentives that could make it more affordable for us.  Although we get our electricity from a local co-op and rebates are not available, there are still some good options that will help shorten the payback time.  You can learn more about solar incentives at www.dsireusa.org  We still have some research, thinking and talking to do before we decide anything, but I am encouraged at the potential to change my power source from coal to solar.

I have been watching the industry for decades and wondering when the technology would become affordable and practical for home owners.  I think it has arrived!  Germany has been doing it for years and has much less solar exposure than Iowa does!   We are choosing to work with a NABCEP (North American Board of Certifed Energy Practitioners) Solar PV installer. You can find one in your area at www.NABCEP.org

Iowa has great solar resources – we trust it to grow our crops, why not trust it to power our homes and businesses?! What bright ideas do YOU have about solar power?

Kristi

Energy, Environment, Public policy affordable solar, array, electrical engineering, Energy, Germany, NABCEP, photo-voltaic, rebate, residential, solar energy, solar incentives, solar industry, solar power, solar PV installation, solar rebate, tax credits

You are invited to our Open House on Monday, March 25, 4-6 pm! Tour our new location at 383 Collins Road NE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Win really cool gifts like low flow shower heads, faucet aerators, meet our red wigglers, and see all of the programs Iowa State University Extension & Outreach offers in Linn County!

We invite you to come and tour our new office space, meet staff, and learn about some of these programs including
♦ Parenting Education Consortium
♦ 4-H (K-12 Youth Outreach)
♦ Eco Family
♦ Master Gardeners
♦ Play and Learn
♦ Nonprofit Management Academy
♦ Family Finance
♦ Expanded Food Nutrition Education Program
♦ and so much more!

Stop by on your way home from work or bring the kids – we’ll have a fun hands-on Science activity for youth to try.  You’ll be be able to visit with a Master Gardener about any of your plant questions, learn tips on how you can live a more eco-friendly life,  gets tips for balancing your finances, hear about many of our upcoming classes and events  and much more! 

Questions?  Email benesh1@iastate.edu  or call Linn County Extension at 319.377.9839. 

Please note: The handicapped entrance is at the back of the building and you may use the lift at the bottom of the stairs to reach the second floor.  If you need any special accommodations to attend or have any questions, please let us know in advance.

Hope to see you live and in person!!

Kristi

Connection with Nature, Energy, Environment, Food, Health, Public policy, Waste Prevention, Water quality & conservation 4-H, Eco family, Family Finance, faucet aerators, Health, Linn County Iowa, low flow shower heads, Master Gardeners, nutrition, open house, Parent Education Consortium, red wigglers

What’s the story of stuff in YOUR home? I keep taking things to donate or consign and there is still STUFF!

10 years ago, my husband and I tried to get rid of a piano that ‘came with our house’. It was no longer “tunable”. It was HUGE and took up sooooo much space in our family room that we  barely avoided hernias each time we moved it to make room for our growing family’s activities.  We tried to sell it, give it away, donate it but NO ONE wanted it.  We did not have the desire or skills to transform it into a useful piece of furniture and freecycle did not exist in our community.  I hate to admit this publicly, but, we pried it apart, heaved it out the back door, dragged it (with the pickup truck - that’s how heavy it was!) and burned it. We both looked at each other and said ‘this is just wrong!’ On one hand, it felt wrong to destroy a musical instrument, but it was equally wrong to have stuff that didn’t bring us joy and took up so much energy and space.  We vowed then, that when we brought anything ‘new’ into the house, something had to go out. We have honored it some times and not others.  But we certainly are better at choosing carefully the belongings we know we have to store and maintain.

This month, participants in the Eco Family Virtual Conference are exploring the story of stuff in their lives. They are taking action to adjust their consumption, simplify and enjoy life MORE! The virtual conference is actually a flipped classroom, meaning you get all the videos and materials and even have cool activities you can do at home all month before we gather online.

Reigster today for only $15 and see what a difference you can make in the Stuff that makes up YOUR life! http://www.extension.iastate.edu/linn/news/live-green-2013 

What’s the story of stuff in your life?

Kristi

Energy, Environment, Health, Waste Prevention consign, donate, Energy, maintain, space, storage, story of stuff