It's Easy Being Green

Ever since I was just a little guy, I was a true prepster. My Mom dressed me in tiny polo shirts that over the years, grew with me. Whether it was Lacoste or Abercrombie, polo shirts have been a staple of my wardrobe through high school and into my current thirty-something years. I’m guessing they’ll be with me for the rest of my life but not just because I like them.

I think polo shirts are one of the most utilitarian yet stylish pieces of clothing a guy could have. The short sleeves and collar can take you from business casual to active sporty to date night all with little effort. That’s perfect for the Dad on the go.

One quintessential brand of polo that I’m proud to have in my collection is Lands’ End and their new Mesh Polo can’t be beat. The fabric of many well-made polo shirts can often be heavy and stiff. The new LE Mesh Polo is made from a hefty fabric but it’s also soft which is a big plus in my book. The seams and yoke of the shirt (two places that can often rub you raw if you’re not wearing a high-quality polo shirt) are specially finished to feel extra soft on your skin. Lands’ End has also developed a no-curl collar that lays flat wash after wash.

I’ve been wearing my new LE Mesh Polo for a couple weeks now. I picked a bold summer color called “Soft Orange” and have been rocking it with a new pair of blue and orange plaid shorts that Homestead Hottie picked up for me as a birthday gift. Not only does the polo truly look great but it feels wonderful too. It’s already endured a couple of sauna-like southern Indiana summer days and I didn’t feel like I was being suffocated by an entire roll of fabric. The polo really does hold up well in the wash and the treatment to the color is truly one of the finest improvements to the polo. Folded polo collars are honestly one of my biggest pet peeves with my favorite style of shirt.

If you’re still on the fence about what to pick up your Dear ‘ol Dad, you should think about one of Lands’ End New Mesh Polo Shirts. It’s a remarkable value for a preppy wardrobe piece any guy should have. Even better than buying one, how about trying to win one? I will be giving away one of Lands’ End New Mesh Polo shirts to one lucky reader this next week. Leave a comment on this post, telling me why you would like to win a Lands’ End Mesh Polo shirt. One lucky winner will be drawn at random on Thursday, June 23rd at 9pm CDT and have a Mesh Polo in their choice of size shipped to them. Good luck!

Bonus Entries:

• Tweet a link to my contest and post another comment on this blog post with the direct link to your post
• Share my contest on your Facebook page. Post your username and a link as another comment on this blog post
• Write your own blog entry related to Father’s Day, sharing a link to my contest. Post a link to your post as a comment below.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Lands’ End and received a polo shirt to facilitate my review, one to giveaway, and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Popularity: 22% [?]

The weather here in southwest Indiana has been flip-flopping faster than a group of politicians lately. May proved to be a tough one to get the garden off to a good start before the heat of summer set in and parched everything. We struggled the first half of the month with copious amounts of rain, day in and day out. The raised beds proved their worth in being able to shed the excess water and keep winter vegetables from turning into a bog.

Cooler temperatures (we’re talking 50’s some days) definitely put a cap on growth rates though and stunted warm weather crops that should normally be out around that time. Several tomato transplants just couldn’t get the early sunshine and warmth necessary for them to establish and they ended up withering away. Once two weeks of severe rain moved out, we quickly ping-ponged into the mid 90’s with full sunshine. This extreme temperature swing stressed even more transplants and left local gardeners and farmers wondering what season mother nature was going to stick with for awhile.

It looks like the heat has ended for the time being, taking us back down into the upper 70’s and low 80’s. Another stormy and wet pattern is setting up for the rest of the week. Established plants took advantage of the sun and heat though, putting on a flush of growth that caught them up nicely.

Calico Popcorn begins to stretch toward the sky while a volunteer pumpkin begins to ramble about in front of the popcorn patch.

Our patch of Calico Popcorn out near the duck pond already reaches my knee and almost swallows up our Darling Daughter when she walks in the rows. The tomato plants are also doing great, shooting up a foot or more in the past several days. We’ve even started to have some blossoms open within the last couple of days so hopefully by the 4th of July we will pick our first homegrown tomato. Potato sprouts are shooting up but who knows what they’re doing beneath the soil’s surface.

Our two black and white cats poke through the new garden space checking out the tomato patch and the potatoes in the lower right.

Cosmo Savoy Lettuce has been a big producer in the cool temperatures and only recently has started to bolt. It’s produced many dinner salads for us and by far has been the most successful lettuce growing we’ve ever done. Purple Globe Turnips have also done well this year and provided a continuous harvest. Our grapes are off to the races too. They are quickly climbing up the arbor over our garden gate and are stretching down each side of the garden fence without abandon. We even have some clusters of grapes growing and can’t wait to taste them when they’re finally ready to eat.

The grapes have started furiously crawling across the tiny arbor over our garden gate.

This is the first year we've had clusters of grapes growing and we can't wait to try one!

We’re planting more fruits and veggies every day to keep a continuous harvest cycle going this year. We can’t wait for those summer staples like tomatoes, zucchini and yellow squash to start producing. How does your garden grow? What has done great so far and what has been a disappointment?

Popularity: 10% [?]

Our society seems ripe with abandonement. Apparantly many individuals believe that when the going gets tough, get rid of it. Because of that thinking, we see abandonement just about everywhere we go in America. It could be that Sears refridgerator dumped out of the back of a pickup truck in an empty lot. It might be the junked Toyota Corrola pushed over the edge of a canyon, coming to rest in the middle of a stream. It could also be the fluffy persian cat, silently dumped in the middle of the night behind the tv station. Or, in the saddest of circumstances, it’s the infant left on the front steps of the local fire station. While my most recent run-in with abandonement is worth a chuckle, it’s kind of sad at the same time.I took the recycleables out to the recycling dumpster this afternoon when I was greeted by the most unusual “freebie”. Left by the side of the dumpster stood an indoor palm tree…a houseplant. This palm tree had certainly seen better days. I’m not one to let any abandoned object, sitting beside the dumpster, go unnoticed. So, I went in for a closer look. The tall spindly palm tree was tied to itself. Five shoots came out from the soil. Two of those shoots had perfect green leaves on top of them. Another shoot had a brand new leaf, ready to unfurl and spring forth with new life. The other two were as brown as cowhide and crispy. The palm was sitting in a rather large terra cotta pot, complete with a terra cotta drip tray. The pot looked as if a mere sneeze would turn it to dust. Lines of calcium stained the rim and sides of the clay. Another spot almost seemed to ooze blood, like the damn thing had been shot at in one last fit of rage between the plant and it’s owner. The soil was covered with dead leaves…like the thought never occured to simply throw them out.

Abandonement: A houseplant tossed out of the very house it tried to pump oxygen into. It’s not as if the damn thing has given up the ghost, not wanting to grow or participate in life. No. This palm has two good fronds and another on the way! But why bother cut the dead and decay from this horrible plant? I’m just going to place it gently by the dumpster and walk away, hoping someone will save this tragic thing.

And so, I waited until darkness fell around the dumpster and his leafy mate. I skulked through the parking lot, almost fearing for the harsh reaction of the neighbors. The neighbors who would recoil at the thought of picking up someone’s abandoned house plant. With the crumbling pot firmly in my arms, I carried the poor palm back to our front step. Bathed in the porchlight, I knew yet another abandoned object had come to our home to stay. A stay that will breathe new life in the abandoned potted palm. At the same time, I feel sorry for the poor sap that just gives up on their houseplant.

Popularity: 16% [?]

How quickly American’s seem to turn their backs on our roots…the simple foundations on which our country was built upon. Some of these ideas, while seemingly outdated and maybe not the most convenient, are truly the best options when it comes to living in a sustainable way. Rail travel is one of those ideas.

The idea behind rail travel is not a new one. The first examples of rail travel began in Greece around 6 B.C. Grooves embedded into limestone rock provided a guide for wagon wheels pushed by slaves to traverse a 6 kilometer trail without leaving that trail and damaging the surrounding landscape. The idea slowly progressed from wooden rails laid on top of the ground to the current iron rails of today. In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed opening up the western United States for settlement. The railroad also greatly reduced the amount of time and cost it took to ship goods from the east coast. Between 1896 and 1910, it’s said that 95% of all inter-city transportation was done by rail. In 1920, rail travel reached it’s pinnacle, transporting 1.2 billion passengers. But a nearly tripling in rail fares that year led more Americans than ever to look at the automobile as a cheaper, more self-sufficient way of travel. Rail travel saw another surge beginning in 1939 but it was still only half of ridership seen in the 20’s. By 1970, airlines were transporting almost 75% of travelers while trains carried a mere 7%. Amtrak was created during this same time period by the U.S. government to balance out transportation options and relieve traffic congestions on roads and highways. But since then, railroads haven’t had a huge impact on travel. It’s just another forgotten way.

Now, that forgotten mode of transportation is coming back to haunt us.  This isn’t a scary haunting but one of those friendly spirits that appears to tell us we messed up writing off rail travel a long time ago.  But, we can change that and some of our lawmakers are hoping to do just that.  On November 6th, the Senate voted 70-22 to fund Amtrak with $11.4 billion for the next 6 years.  That’s a fairly sizable increase to the government run, for-profit, railroad compared to years past.  Is it enough to save passenger rail travel and encourage more to use the service?  Only time will tell and the House still has to put their stamp of approval on the measure.  President Bush and his administration has dallied with the idea of shutting down Amtrak and opening passenger rail travel to privatization.  Under that plan, each railroad would have their own opportunity to provide passenger rail service, just like they did in the old days.

Rail travel requires about 20% less energy than traveling by car or plane making it more environmentally friendly.  Trains can run in bad weather when planes might not be able to fly or when roads might be too hazardous and nerve-wracking to drive.  Trains provide you with more leg room and you don’t have to deal with breathing that stale, recirculated air.  You can get up, stretch your legs and walk around.  Not to mention the fact you can actually see major portions of our country by traveling on a train.  The scenery is always changing!  So, if you plan on flying or driving this holiday season, take time to think about how it would be different boarding a train.  Think about the environmental impacts, saving you headaches of early check-ins and security lines and most of all, the relaxation you’ll experience on your journey and most of all avoiding the $3/gallon gas prices.  If you’re really passionate about it, book a trip on Amtrak or write your local Congressman or Senator a letter to let him/her know your support for rail travel.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Popularity: 4% [?]

We’re all being confronted with a steadily rising price at the local gas pumps. I can’t believe that already, we’re facing $3.75 for a gallon of unleaded gas in Northern Arizona. I worry about how much higher prices are going to climb and how much this commodity runs my life and maybe even ruins it.

It seems like we will never see prices dip to the levels they were at four or five years ago. I can fondly remember filling up my gas tank in Phoenix with prices hovering around $1.50 a gallon. I can remember when the price climbed to $1.75, people were outraged. But here we are nearly double that amount in a five year period and everyone seems as calm as a Hindu cow. How does that happen? How do we just seemingly ignore the fact that the situation with oil is getting way out of control both with prices and with future supplies? It frustrates my wife and I a lot, so we’re trying to do what we can to limit our demand on oil.

We live about 12 miles away from the city in a small, relatively rural bedroom community. We both commute into town to work but we’re really trying to plan our trips smartly. Before we head to town, we think about where we have to go and what we have to do. Then, we plan our route making one big circuit. Not only does it save you the frustration of having to drive back and forth from one place to the next. It also saves you gas! While 12 miles into town and back hardly seems like a long trip, we’ve programmed ourselves to believe it is. That 24 mile round trip will burn one gallon of gas in our Nissan Maxima. That number makes me cringe, thinking about a 1 gallon container of gas being thrown out the window. When we come up with something we’d like to do in town, we try to think of other things we can accomplish if we’re going to burn the gas to get there. It’s a great, easy technique that we’ve found works really good to make a dent in how much gas we consume.

We’ve also started talking about trying to buy a hybrid car. Our 1999 Nissan Maxima gets about 26 miles per gallon city driving and 31 on the highway. That’s really not bad compared to some other “energy hogs” driving on our roads today. Considering a Toyota Prius hybrid can get 44 miles per gallon, we’ve got a long way to go! We can’t afford to buy a home in our area because prices are way out of line for first time home buyers. So, we’re thinking about investing our money in vehicle that will save us from the pain at the gas pump.

I’ve been doing some research on hybrid cars and I’m just really not impressed with the way auto manufacturers are finding ways to save us money and energy. Chevy has announced a new hybrid Malibu but it’s only rated at 24mpg (miles per gallon) in the city and 32 on the highway. That’s just a 2mpg increase over the normal engine. That hardly seems worth it! Ford’s hybrid Escape SUV get’s about 34mpg in the city, 30 on the highway. That’s pretty decent but the price seems too high starting at $25,075. Buying American would be nice and I’d feel better about supporting some of the last remaining manufacturing that goes on in our country or at least supposedly does. But it seems like once again, the foreign automakers are leading the pack on hybrids. Hopefully American automakers will get their act together or just like our oil reserves, they’ll dry up.

Here’s some cool resources I found on the web while doing my research. The Fed’s fuel economy website gives you details on the current tax credits associated with buying a hybrid car:
Federal Fuel Economy Website

To find rebate and incentive programs offered by your state you can head to the U.S. Department of Energy website:
Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center

And, for those of you that would like to see some side by side comparisons of hybrids, head to the website by the Union of Concerned Scientists:
Hybrid Center

Powered by ScribeFire.

Popularity: 5% [?]

You’ve seen the mug. Some probably have the t-shirt. You know the ones I’m talking about, screen-printed with the phrase World’s Greatest Dad. It’s so subjective, how could one argue with such a special title. Maybe that Dad is the World’s Greatest for one person but not necessarily another

There is no other place to analyze and compare the styles of fatherhood closer than on TV. Throughout the decades we’ve been able to watch the role of dads change along with societal expectations and the progression has been interesting to watch. Gone are the days of Ward C leaver being served breakfast by his wife before he departs for his 9 to 5, only to return again for a cocktail, dinner and a brief fatherly anecdote on some life lesson mom has been dealing with all day. Finally, to have his slippers and robe fetched before turning in for the night. It seemed to work for Wally and the Beave but is it the best way to father?

Strangely, one TV dad I think has influenced my style a bit is Herman Munster. Yes, the guy does stick out like a sore thumb (something I try to battle on a daily basis) but he has a level of fatherly empathy that I applaud.

Herman, played by the great Fred Gwynne, was always there to coach his son Eddy and daughter Marilyn through life’s ups and downs with a measure of grace. Respecting his children for the individuals they were (werewolf or not), Herman provided love and guidance with the perfect mix of humor to keep things from getting overly awkward. Besides, I think humor is such a great way to keep a connection with your children and reveal that you don’t always have to be quite so serious.

My Darling Daughter is still young (barely turning two) and with another girl on the way, I consider myself fairly new at this ultimate life test called being a dad.  Only time will tell if I’m the World’s Greatest Dad for these girls. I hope with all of my heart to show them all the love, empathy, guidance, fun and humor one  man can have with his wife and kids.

So who do you think was the World’s Greatest Dad on TV? The guys over at Man of the House have a bracket going on right now, pitting TV dads against each other. They’re in a showdown as people vote for their favorite until one will be named World’s Greatest TV Dad for Father’s Day this year (June 19th).

After taking a look at the field, I’m placing my bet on Phil Dunphy (Modern Family) and Charles Ingalls (Little House on the Praire). Phil is just a goofball with a big heart, two qualities I hope come through in my parenting. Charles, aside from the obvious quality of being able to support his family by living off the land, was able to handle the rough and tumble frontier life but still be an even-keeled and tremendously loving father. Take your pick and register a vote for your favorite TV dads!

- I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received promotional items to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I just wanted to take a moment to give some mad props to some sweet bubble bath we picked up for Everly this week. Heading back from this month’s prenatal appointment at The Farm, we made our usual pilgrimage to the Whole Foods in Franklin, Tennessee. One special that caught our eye this week was the Alaffia Every Day Shea, Shea Butter Bubble Bath.

Everly ran out of the “cheap” econo-sized bottle of bubbles we bought at Walmart a few months back. Finding the Alaffia bubbles was perfect timing. She loves these bubbles more than any other brand we’ve purchased. The comforting Eucalyptus Mint fragrance calms our Darling Daughter right down when it’s time to hit the tub. The sudsing action is amazing and even better, Alaffia’s bubbles don’t contain sodium laurel sulfate. These bubbles smell great and lather my daughter in a rich, shea butter based cocoon of bathtime goodness. What more could a parent ask for?

After reading the bottle, I now know that Alaffia is Social and Fair Trade Certified by the IMO. Since shea butter is primarily produced in West African nations, this is important in ensuring the farmers and workers there are receiving a fair price for their product and labor. Even better, 10% of my purchase with Alaffia goes to support community empowerment projects in West Africa. Some of the funds help ship used children’s bicycles from the U.S. to impoverished villages so young girls can get themselves to school. Funds also go to support the purchase of school supplies and repairs. Money is also used to help fund pre and post natal care at a maternity clinic in Togo, an area gripped by high infant mortality rates and sub-standard healthcare.

Some of the proceeds from every Alaffia purchase helps transport used bikes to West Africa so girls can have an opportunity to get to school.

I’m so proud of this socially conscious purchase. I know it may sound silly but when you take the time to find products that really do improve the world, you’ll know your dollars are helping to make a difference. Can you say that about the bubbles your kids use at bath time? Sure these bubbles might cost a little more than petroleum based bubbles bought at your local big box store, but I think the end result is worth it.

If you’re looking for some sustainably produced, Fair Trade Certified, extra gentle and non-toxic bubbles for your baby that rock, check out Alafffia! You can also read up on them at their blog.

Popularity: 9% [?]