Home Composting

Home composting information with videos

eco irony

Should an electric car be assembled in an old plant or should the old plant be demolished to build a "green" plant?

Is carbon offsetting just the bargaining stage of "grief"? (Does the earth actually benefit or is it mostly Mr. Gore that benefits?)

Doggie doo drain

At our current house, I have a doggy dooley that I've stopped using in advance of our move. M said installing the dooley was difficult enough that he doesn't want to do it again. It does require water added very often as well as an enzyme powder.

At the house we hope to get next year, it has a septic system. I ran across a product, the doggie doo drain (http://www.petproductadvisor.com/store/mc/doggie-doo-drain.aspx) that essentially is a funnel that can be put on the regular septic system. I'll have to see if we can do this! It does require water each time you add poo, so it will need to be close to a water spigot.

Sustainable Fish List

From the Seafood Watch website: http://www.seafoodwatch.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_health.aspx

*The Best of the Best: October 2009

• Albacore Tuna (troll- or pole-caught, from the U.S. or British Columbia)
• Mussels (farmed)
• Oysters (farmed)
• Pacific Sardines (wild-caught)
• Pink Shrimp (wild-caught, from Oregon)
• Rainbow Trout (farmed)
• Salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska)
• Spot Prawns (wild-caught, from British Columbia)

**Other Healthy "Best Choices"

• Arctic Char (farmed)
• Bay Scallops (farmed)
• Crayfish (farmed, from the U.S.)
• Dungeness Crab (wild-caught, from California, Oregon or Washington)
• Longfin Squid (wild-caught, from the U.S. Atlantic)
• Pacific Cod (longline-caught, from Alaska)

Christmas bomber's dad

So a father turns his son in for texting about a terrorist act. Thomas Friedman writes an interesting "it takes a village" article. My favorite quote: "We are the people of July 4th — not Sept. 11th." He goes on to say: "no laws or walls we put up will ever be sufficient to protect us unless the Arab and Muslim societies from whence these suicide bombers emerge erect political, religious and moral restraints as well — starting by shaming suicide bombers and naming their actions “murder,” not “martyrdom.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/opinion/06friedman.html?th&emc=th

Food and farming

Interesting article from the California Cook that encourages a conversation about food and has many good points and refers to the law of unintended consequences, as seen in the last Green Revolution: "Developing tasteless fruits and vegetables was not the goal of the last Green Revolution; it was a side effect of a system designed to eliminate hunger by providing plentiful, inexpensive food, but that also ended up rewarding quantity over quality."

This applies to just about everything in life: "Don't assume that those who disagree with you are evil, stupid or greedy. And even when they are, that doesn't relieve you of the responsibility for making a constructive and convincing argument."

Some of the comments included:

• ...eliminate hunger or capitalist system?
• ...reminding us that "quality is more expensive than quantity." Too many of us are unwilling to devote more of our budgets to food in order to support a better food system.
• In the quest for a better food system, subsidies for corn and soy need to be eliminated.
• ...matter of national security

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-calcook6-2010jan06,0,6888223.story

Somewhat related, an interesting article about heritage breeds. We used to get milk and beef products from a variety of cows? While the industrialization of agriculture has done great things to make food more available to all people, the side effect of making it less diverse was probably not anticipated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/dining/06frozen.html?th&emc=th

Agility class: seminar

Tonight I had an agility seminar, explaining USDAA and running a Grand Prix course. Cassi was wound up but did pretty good; I had a late call on a jump and she had to re-do her weaves. Teka had to be cheered through it but she got REALLY excited at one point and was jumping around after coming out of the chute, so everyone was laughing at how cute she was. I had fun but my pain returned after I started to need to go pee. I took care of that but the pain is coming and going anyway. I'm going to head to bed shortly as my solution. :) Ah, to be active and NOT in pain. Not that the pain is caused by being active, but it's just so unpredictable.