It's Easy Being Green

I’m so enamored with a Christmas card we just received in our office at work today. It’s from our friends at the San Diego Zoo and their pachyderms who also took part in the crafting errr I mean excreting of the card. That’s right, your mind is headed in the right direction.

The PooPooPaper card stock and envelope are crafted from a giant heap of steaming elephant poo, recycled without one whiff or clue to its origin and now resting between your fingers. Some co-workers were disgusted. I was delighted and now I’ll share the poopy greeting with you!

The envelope, giving only the slightest of hint as to the contents inside

The front...

The inside...

The reveal on the back...

A closeup of the logo

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It’s exciting to see that the Home Depot has brought back one of my favorite programs for the fourth year in a row: their annual Eco-Options Christmas Light Trade-In Event. Bring in any old incandescent string of Christmas lights (working or not) and receive a $3 to $5 credit toward the purchase of a new, energy efficient light strand. You can get a credit for up to 5 strands and you have until the 13th of November to participate.

What is exciting about this year’s trade-in is that they are allowing the credit to be used on all three major collections of LED lights they’re carrying including the Martha Stewart brand. Last year I was disappointed to find my Home Depot stores cleaned out of the few options they actually allowed for trade so props to them for expanding the program this year.

Are you wondering why you should trade up to LED Christmas lights? Click here to read more. If you’d like to know more about what Home Depot does to those old light strands once you trade them in, they produced a quick video this year explaining the process. Now go get your energy efficiency on this Christmas!

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Valentine’s Day is just a few days away and we have been busy making some minor preparations for the lovey day.  This year there isn’t much money to shower each other with nice gifts nor is it really needed.  We handmade some Valentine’s cards with Everly to send to our family.  They were simple and just involved finding little crafty knick-knacks, trinkets and cutouts to glue to simple cardstock hearts.  Everly had fun customizing and gluing each Valentine and will show up with tons of toddler love still attached to them.

I am recycling these wooden shipping palettes by dismantling them and turning them into something new

I’m working on a project for Homestead Hottie that recycles old shipping palettes and turns them into something new and useful.  I can’t tell you what it is going to be yet since it’s still a surprise.  Stay tuned for an update on that and yes, I really have to get cracking on it since there was little time left for me to build this past week.

Instead of the hassle of trying to find a babysitter, Homestead Hottie has elected to stay at home and have me cook our traditional Valentine’s meal: a 4 course fondue dinner.

We really got into fondue living in the Valley and used to go to The Melting Pot for all of our special occasions.  The setting is romantic, the process of eating is fun and keeps you busy, and best of all it’s really good.  The closest Melting Pot to us is in Nashville and after one awful experience there I don’t think we will ever go back.  It just wasn’t the same and the management there didn’t seem to care about it.

In  a few days I’ll dust off the fondue pot, ready the sterno cans and begin slicing and dicing for our big meal.  A hot pot of cheese fondue will start us off, followed by a salad, then the main course of meats in an oil or burgundy based fondue, followed by dessert.  If you’re thinking about staying in this Valentine’s Day we highly recommend it as a way to save money and show your Valentine that you care even more.  If you are cooking a Valentine’s meal in your own kitchen this year, here is a great little dessert recipe to try out if you’re looking for something different.  Espresso Granita would make a great after dinner treat or you could use it as a palette cleanser in between courses.  It’s super easy, can be made in advance of the big meal and seems so sophisticated.  Enjoy!

Espresso Granita

Ingredients:

- 2 cups warm espresso (I prefer Lavazza’s Super Crema for its delicious caramel notes and sweet finish)

- 1/4 cup sugar

Combine 2 cups warm espresso with a 1/4 cup sugar.  Pour the mix into a shallow baking pan and place it in the freezer.  For the next hour, take the pan out every 15 minutes and use a fork to scrape the developing ice crystals.  This will give you a light, delicate granita.  Serve a scoop in a glass topped with whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings.

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Before you toss all those 2010 holiday cards into your trash can, have you ever considered re-gifting them?  I’m not talking about pasting your own messages over those that were written to you and then mailing them back out next year, though that is an interesting recycling idea.  Just don’t tell anyone you’ve done it or make the mistake of mailing a card back to its original sender (insert a snicker here)!

One Tristate family is actually putting those used holiday cards to good use, turning them into custom wall-art they plan to sell in 2011.  The Bothast-Revalee Family here in Evansville is taking donations of new and used holiday cards to make the art.  Bothast says the proceeds from the planned sales will benefit two local child-advocacy organizations.  As soon as I got wind of their project, I knew it was one that needed to be shared with others.  Not only is it a great way to recycle it is also for an amazing and truly heartfelt cause.

“Our family has made a commitment to make art for these agencies,” said David Bothast, ” all the while reflecting on our own blessings.”

Both David Bothast and Brian Revalee have close ties with civic service in the Evansville community, working for much needed civic agencies.  Revalee is currently the Executive Director of the AIDS Resource Group, the only HIV/AIDS Service Organization in the Evansville area.  Bothast serves as the Director of a transitional housing programs that serves homeless parents with children.  In 2010, both also became foster parents for three siblings with the help of  Evansville’s The Villages.

” I hope this initiative raises both funds and awareness for area child-centered and family-strengthening organizations in our Tristate community,” Bothast said.  ” Mostly, I hope modeling voluntarism and advocacy to my new family will instill in them a sense of civic pride and community responsibility that will continue throughout their lives.”

Bothast says the initiative is a home-based endeavor and third-party fundraiser. “The proceeds will be directly donated to receiving agencies to use toward strengthening their programs and changing lives in our community. With this initiative, ‘charity begins at home.’”

“We see daily the need for services and the impact hard-working and under-appreciated social workers and activists make not only immediately, but generationally,” Bothast said.

Card donations will be accepted by the family all year long but now is a great time to help those cards find a new life before heading to the city dump.  If you would like to help out an undoubtedly great cause by re-gifting your holiday cards, please contact David by emailing him: Davidbothast@gmail.com

If you our somebody you know has another great way to not only be more eco-friendly but also to help out the local community, let us know about it by sending me an email.

Above photo Seasonal Still Life courtesy of Christmas Stock Images

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Cruising the backroads of western Kentucky and making deliveries these past couple of days after Christmas, I’ve already seen some scattered Christmas trees thrown into the drainage ditches.  Some have been carelessly tossed on the front porch as if waiting for a magic ride to the dump or perhaps waiting for a hitch to the next rural ditch somewhere.  While some could argue this is redneck composting at its finest, this is not the preferred way to recycling your evergreen tree.

Here at the half-acre homestead, we usually keep our tree up until January 2nd, when we are finally all but drained of festive holiday feelings and yearn for the return of our living room.  Well, maybe the return of one, little used corner of the living room but the though is the same nonetheless.  In years where we’ve lived in a house with a fireplace, the Yule Log will get stripped of its branches and be left to dry for burning next year.  The same can be held true for the outdoor firepit.  True the romance isn’t quite the same but the novelty can ring out for all your neighbors to see.  I know what’s coming next because it is by far a Midwestern specialty.  No, I don’t think burn barrels or burn piles qualify for the same appropriate disposal of Ihren Weihnachtsbaum.  For all of you non-Germans in this pro-German area, that’s “your Christmas tree” in deutscher Sprache.

If you don’t have a neighbor handy with a chipper or shredder you can borrow, simply take advantage of one of two drop-off locations on either side of the Ohio.  In Evansville, you can drop your tree off at Newman Park near where the nature trails begins.  The city parks department says there are signs already posted and even some trees which have already been dropped off.  The Christmas trees will be chipped and mulched for use in the local parks.  The last day for drop-off is January 7th.  In Henderson, you can drop off your trees at the Newman Recreational Complex on Sand Lane through January 8th.  Don’t forget to remove as much tinsel and ornaments as possible because those items don’t beautify the forest floor or local tree trunks anymore than that Styrofoam thirst-quencher cup tossed out the window.  Most of all, please don’t ditch your tree in a drainage ditch, farm field or other illegal dump site.

Do you know of another Tri-State Christmas tree recycling drop-off point?  Leave a comment and share with our other readers so the word can spread!  Happy mulching!

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It’s taken me a while to jump on the LED Christmas light bandwagon, mainly because the incandescent strands we have still work and the prices on the LED lights are still a little high for my liking.  Last year though, I noticed I had about three strands that weren’t working properly, so I began pillaging them for bulbs.

Mini-LED Lights

This weekend, Home Depot was running a trade-in deal that I couldn’t pass up though.  For every strand of incandescent Christmas lights you brought in to recycle, you got $3 off the purchase of a new set of LED lights.  I ended up picking up 3 boxes of LED lights for about $9 after the discount, saving me 50% off the original cost.  That’s what I call a heckuva deal!

I can’t wait to decorate for Christmas and see how these new LED light strands look and perform compared to their old outdated cousins.  It will be nice knowing I’m using 80% less electricity to light up my holiday display with LED lights, they stay cool to the touch and you can (if you’d want to) plug in dozens more strands to each other before you risk overloading an outlet.

Have you purchased any LED lights?  If so, share your experience with how they’ve performed and if you want to share a photo of your LED light display, that would be great too!

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Are you headed to a Mardis Gras party or celebration tonight or tomorrow?  If you are and you end up with handfuls of the coveted beads when you’re done partying, save them and recycle them.

That’s right, instead of just throwing your beads away long after their luster is gone, you can send them back to New Orleans and have them recycled for a good cause.  The Arc of Greater New Orleans is a non-profit groups that serves people with intellectual disabilities and delays from birth through adulthood in the New Orleans area.   If you’re in the area, you can drop your Mardis Gras beads off at one of their three locations:

• 925 S. Labarre Rd., Metairie
• 5700 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans
• 333 Sala Avenue, Westwego

For more recycling information call (504) 837-5105.  Laissez les bon temps roulet!

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