Energy Hog

So I got my electric bill the other day. Being eco-conscious I do paperless billing (good) but my bill was $300, TWICE what it was last month!!(Bad!) So what am I doing wrong!?!? I'm doing my best to make a conscious effort to conserve energy in our house. I unplug all our kitchen appliances when not in use, I make sure to turn lights out when we're not using a room, I try to keep the air off and the window's open when it's not a HOT day, I got that new HE washer, I try to use the drying rack instead of the dryer for my clothes (but I'm really not that good at this! I like to laundry at night, when it's not really the best time for line drying). So what do I need to do differently do make sure our energy bill isn't over the top?!?! I know the AC is a HUGE drain and I'll be honest, I'm not really ready to give up on that entirely, especially when it's 90 degrees out! We got a dehumidifier for the basement, which is running nonstop and STILL not sucking out all the moisture. I KNOW both of these things are huge energy drains, but THAT much?!? I'm still trying to solve this mystery. While examining my bill I noticed some fine print.
AEP Ohio Messages
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
approved AEP Ohio's requests in Case No.
11-1361-EL-RDR to increase its Enhanced
Service Reliability Rider, in Case No.
11-1337-EL-RDR to implement its
Environmental Investment Carrying Cost
Rider, and in Case No. 11-281-EL-FAC to
adjust its Fuel Adjustment Clause. As a result
of these adjustments, a residential customer
using 1,000 kWh of electricity will see an
increase of $1.44 a month effective with this
bill.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in
case number 11-2473-EL-RDR on June 22,
2011, approved an adjustment to Ohio Power
Company's transmission service rates
effective with this bill. A residential customer
using 1,000 kWh of electricity will see an
increase of $1.47 per month.

So what's my kWh? 2998!!!! OK, I REALLY need to work on decreasing our energy usage! I've decided that from now on these animals are going to pull their weight around here! Does anyone know where I can buy a large dog sized wheel? Dog/Cat/Rat energy! The wave of the future!!

Grocery Cart Voyeur

Last night I went grocery shopping ALONE! As odd as this may sound, I actually find grocery shopping kind of relaxing when I don't have 3 kids in tow. I can price compare, read labels and use two hands to push the cart instead of hold a child with one, pushing the cart with one and begging the third to PLEASE get off the side of the cart because an additional 50 lbs on one side makes it REALLY hard to push, especially with one hand! After my relatively short shopping trip I realized that they only had two lines open, thank you Giant Eagle!, and I, of course, picked the wrong line. As I tire of reading the tabloid headlines (Brad is cheating! People has a picture of him touching another woman's ARM (which looks like it was done in passing, as if she had said, "I loved you in Twelve Monkeys!" and he squeezed her arm and said, "Thanks!")) I looked at what the family of four (with two kids that are WAY to big to be in one of those double carts---we're talking 3/4 graders!) was taking out of their cart. This now has my full attention. Chips, pop, pop, pop, chips, white bread, Sunny D (which I also overhead a boy telling his mom WAS TOO orange juice--because it had vitamin c!!) and if you can't tell from my tone already, I started to judge. I looked at the mom and dad. They looked reasonably intelligent, except for the part about letting those big kids ride in the double cart. Why were they putting all that JUNK into their bodies? At this point I realize I'm staring (my husband says this is a common problem for me) so I try to distract myself by looking somewhere else, which happens to be the cart of the guy behind me. OK, this guy was WAY worse! Frozen corn dogs, 2 gallons of conventional 2% milk, fruit loops, white bread, Hot Pockets...at first I thought he was a single guy (wearing scrubs, which leads me to believe he works in the medical field...shouldn't he have SOME idea about nutrition??) when a woman and two kids walk up behind him and start talking. This again distracts me and my eyes finally come to rest on my own cart. What do THEY see when they look at ME? This brings me down a notch. I like to think that I eat only healthy food, but when I look in my cart, it's not all fruits and veggies and whole grains, like I'd like it to be. (For the record I only do half my shopping at Giant Eagle, I get all my fruits, veggies, bulk grains and anything else I need that's organic at the Raisin Rack. ) I KNOW that I'm not even CLOSE to having the perfect diet, but like I've said, I'm doing the best I can. I guess my nosiness into my neighbor's carts isn't so much me feeling superior, it's really just a sadness that so many people don't know what's in their food and what that stuff in their food does, or doesn't do, for their body. For example the Fruit Loops. They say "with Whole Grains" on the box, which everyone knows is good for you, but if you look closely, they barely have enough whole grains to even count and the High Fructose Corn Syrup and dyes more than outweigh any benefit that the whole grains could be doing. It's just so frustrating to me that it's a FIGHT to eat REAL food! Is that REALLY so much to ask?!!

Garden Update

One of the first blogs I did was about the vegetable garden I planted. I know that not only did everyone read that blog, but that you have all been waiting for an update. I have a bean!!! After the rain we got a few days ago, my bean plants took of and I have one bean that's actually big enough to eat and a few more that are still growing. I have two little green pepper buds and my swiss chard is about ready to harvest for the first time. I was planning on running to the grocery store today, but NOW... When I planned the garden I didn't really have a good concept of where I was going to put the things I planted to I've kind of got a little bit of a mess out there. Plus the fact that I planted in what was a flower bed so my garden is tear-shaped, not particularly conducive to rows. I also planted the pumpkins, beans and beets from seeds. Next year I think I'll go to a nursery and buy some veggie plants since the chard and peppers are doing so well (although the spinach isn't exactly thriving and it was from the nursery.) But I'm pleased. This is what I was hoping for this season! I'm just giving it a shot and seeing how I do. Next year I'll know what I'm doing and hopefully I'll be able to plant something a little bigger (maybe even till up part of the yard in a normal garden shape!) and MAYBE I can even reach Victory Garden status and grow 40% of our veggies!

On a related topic...I'm considering growing pineapple! My oldest asked me if pineapples grow on trees...DO pineapples grow on trees? Thank God for Google! Apparently pineapples actually grow on plants, they're a member of the bromeliad family. They don't need much water and they can be started from the top of a store-bought pineapple. They do need full sun and warmer weather, so in the winter I'll have to bring it inside, which means I'll need to pot it, but I think the kids might think it's interesting to try and grow one. Here's a picture I found online of a pineapple plant. Crazy, right?

Free Webinar

I just got an email from KiwiMagazine.com about a free Webinar that they're having. It's titled Inspiring Health: How to take baby steps to create big changes in the health of your family. It's July 19th from 11am-12pm. The brief synopsis was included in the email:
Robyn O'Brien was raised in Houston, Texas on meat and potatoes with a fair share of Doritos and Ding Dongs thrown in. She was not a foodie. She earned an MBA from Rice University and graduated as the top woman in her class. She went on to work in the investment world, jockeying with the gang on Wall Street, as an equity analyst where she covered the food industry. But when her first child was born, she traded her briefcase for a diaper bag and threw herself into a new world of picky eaters, nuked nuggets and blue yogurt. Flash forward ten years later, and today she is a mother of four and founder of the AllergyKids Foundation, an organization designed to help protect the 1 in 3 American children that now has autism, ADHD, asthma or allergies derived from the chemicals now so pervasive in our food supply. Join this author of The Unhealthy Truth: One Mother's Shocking Investigation Into the Dangers of America's Food Supply—And What Every Family Can Do To Protect Itself on the journey that turned her into a crusader for cleaning up the food supply and learn what KIWI parents like you can do to protect the health of our families.

It sounds interesting to me, but I teach online and I know it's kind of hard to juggle an online meeting with three kids. I'll have to see if I can work something out. If you are interested in attending the registration link is here.

Reusable Snack Bags

I was having a hard time coming up with a topic to write about today. I started thinking about what I've done today that's green and the first thing I thought about was line drying my laundry, but I've already talked about that. Then I started thinking about what I had actually washed and since my husband's socks really aren't that blog-worthy, I decided to write about these great reusable snack bags from Planet Wise. I bought them last spring at the Breastfeeding Center in Massillon. I bought three of them, and a sandwich wrap. I'm now down to two since I lost the one I got for Vince THE SAME DAY!! (I'm still clinging to the hope that it will turn up.) ANYWAY...I got the snack bags for my oldest son's lunch box. I was VERY happy with them! They're machine washable and they're corners are rounded so when you turn them inside out, nothing gets trapped in the corner. They had cute fabrics and the inside is lined with a PVC free plastic. They velcro and I've used them with veggies and crackers. They were great for snacks in the car on our Sesame Place trip. I also got a sandwich wrap that is basically the same thing as the snack bag, but the whole thing folds out...and becomes a placemat! I like to think that my son actually used it as this instead of putting his food directly on the cafeteria table... So I love them, but they're fabric on the outside, so they take awhile to dry. Not OVERLY long, but longer than I have when I have to unpack a lunch after school, wash it, then repack another lunch the same night. So I need a lot of them, but they're $8 each. I can buy a LOT of plastic bags for $8...even though I know these are safer than disposable bags and better for the planet, but after loosing one the day I got it...I'm hesitant to invest in a ton of them. I also got them very gender specific so I can't really share. My son was less than thrilled with the idea of taking my daughter's pink strawberry bag in his lunch! I've decided to get one or two each time I go to the Breastfeeding Center, which isn't very often, but every little bit helps, right?

Solar Panels

For the record, Sesame Place is an AWESOME family trip! All 3 of the kids loved it and we spent a full 12 hours at the park! (Not so super green as website may lead you to believe, but still a GREAT trip!)

On the other hand, 7 hours across Pennsylvania, not so great! However, we did see 6 wind turbines (my daughter pointed them out) and two houses powered by solar panels. As we drove by, my husband said, "I wonder how much THOSE cost?" And so did I. So I decided to do a little research. And I mean a little research. I Googled "solar panels for residential homes" and clicked on the first link that popped up. Interesting! To summarize, I found that there are government incentives to using solar panels and if you generate enough energy, you may even be able to sell your excess back to the power company. It stated that the sunnier parts of the US benefit the most, but those living in Maine or Washington can also benefit. See, Ohio wasn't included in that list so there ARE places that are cloudier! They list their cost as $160 a panel, which sounded pretty good to me, until I looked at the DIY kit, which will work for a small cabin, RV or boat--cost: $982.

I still have unanswered questions, so I checked out the Wikipedia page.

How long will they last? "Many crystalline silicon module manufacturers offer a warranty that guarantees electrical production for 10 years at 90% of rated power output and 25 years at 80%.^[6]"

How many panels will I need to power my house? Will Ohio's weather allow me to actually use solar panels as an exclusive method of power? Can I store the power? Or will I have to use the most power during daylight hours? (I didn't find these on Wikipedia :( ) Inquiring minds want to know!!

Of course I'm not actually thinking about installing solar panels, although I'd like to! For now I guess my solar energy consumption will have to consist of toting my drying rack outside to dry my laundry!

Phoning it in

I was reading yet ANOTHER one of the cookbooks that I got from the library last night. This one has a whole section on meat and poultry, so I'm guessing it wasn't really a vegetarian cookbook. I actually really like it though because it has lots of those fun facts I love. It's called The Earthbound Cook and it's by Myra Goodman. I'm just now realizing that it's Earthbound, as in Earthbound farm organic produce that I buy all the time at the grocery store. It's a great book because it focuses on eating whole foods and trying to eat better not only for you, but also for the planet. So instead of actually writing something myself for this blog post, I thought I'd just list a few facts I found in this book. Hence, the blog post title. SO...here goes:

• A half-pound of conventionally produced ground beef is responsible for 50-60 times the greenhouse gas emissions of a half pound of fruits and veggies.
• Raising animals for food consumes more than half of all the water used in the US.
• There is no USDA organic certification for any type of seafood.
  
• Compost! 25% of a typical American household's garbage is comprised of discarded food and trimmings, generating roughly 96 billion lbs of food waste each year. And food wast4e in our landfills, combined with other materials that decompose, such as yard clippings, is the second largest man-made source of methane in the US, accounting for 34% of total methane emissions.
• According to the EPA, in the US we recycle only about 30% of eligible materials. Because recycling saves both material and energy, if we increase our national rate to just 60% we could save the equivalent of 315 million barrels of oil per year.