My wife and I are Zonies, born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona also known as the Most Western Town. In 2008 we uprooted ourselves from our home in Flagstaff, Arizona, packed a vintage Winnebago Motorhome with our possessions and trucked 1800 miles to my new job in Evansville, Indiana: The River City. We are now a family of four, striving to live our lives as sustainably as possible. Stay awhile to laugh and cry over our trials and tribulations and learn how easy we have found it to be green.
So our huge winter storm is in the process of moving into the mountains of Arizona this morning. We got about an inch of snow and now it has switched over to rain. It’s all part of what’s expected to be a gloomy day here. I’m already considering plans for dinner tonight and I think one of my favorite bloggers, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, triggered my desire for a nice warm roast enjoyed by the fire tonight. If you’re not sure how to cook a really good pot roast, check... (more...)
It looks like we’ve got another massive round of winter weather heading our direction here in the mountains of Arizona. The sun has been out the last two weeks but temperatures have been super cold and we still have a ton of snow left on the ground from the last storm! It’s good though. Our parched streams, rivers and lakes all need water and it will help to delay wildfire season a bit this year. I knew it was going to be a good day…even a good week though when I opened... (more...)
If you haven’t already read my post below on the Mortgage Meltdown and Credit Crisis you should. This is an illustration of what amazes me about American’s current financial status and the desire for more. We were watching TV this morning and an ad came on for “cashcall.com”. They were advertising small consumer loans, presumably to pay your house payment or other items you’ve already fallen behind on like bills and stuff. Then, the fine print pops up for less... (more...)
You’d have to be like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand if you haven’t heard one bit about the current state of our economy. Houses are foreclosing at record rates, new homes aren’t selling and there’s already an 8 month glut of unsold homes sitting on the market. Add to that the staggering amount of debt a lot of Americans are carrying around and the situation begins to take on some epic proportions. I just finished watching an interesting documentary called “Maxxed... (more...)
It’s warmed up to a balmy 17-degrees outside today but with the wind chill it feels more like 4-degrees. It was bitter cold last night and the car wasn’t too excited about starting up for the drive home from work. This morning the house felt more like a meat locker inside…making us realize just how truly un-efficient this rental house is. If you’re faced with high heating costs or just the aggravation of trying to keep your house at a comfortable temperature, you should... (more...)
Did you make a New Year’s resolution to take a college class or learn something new this year? How about taking more online classes if you’re already a student, saving you the money spent on gas to get to campus? Well, another fun blurb in this week’s edition of U.S. News & World Report is about the free, online classes offered by major universities like MIT, Yale and the University of Tokyo. The caveat of course is that you don’t get credit for taking the classes but... (more...)
Is anyone else even a little dismayed by the current administration in The White House? In case you missed it yesterday, oil prices hit the long-awaited $100 per barrel mark. It’s the highest dollar value the commodity has ever traded at. Granted, if you compare it to the oil crisis of the 1980’s economists say the $100 mark is still a dollar below the 80’s crisis point if it’s adjusted for inflation. There was a lot of speculation by economists last night that the only... (more...)
