An Interview With Lisa ~ The Retro Housewife Goes Green

February 28, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 4 Comments

I have a treat for you – a second interview for the month of February! This one is with Lisa Sharp who blogs at Retro Housewife Goes Green. And she just happens to be my daughter. I often say that if you do it right, you can raise kids who in turn teach you. Lisa is my inspiration to live an eco-friendly life.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

LWD Interview: Lisa Sharp, Retro Housewife Goes Green

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your blog, Retro Housewife Goes Green.

I’m a homemaker living in a small town in Oklahoma with my wonderful husband and our Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd rescue dog.

I started blogging in 2008 as a way to share the things I was learning about green living and real food. Over time I found I also really enjoyed sharing my love of homemaking. Now I share all about homemaking, green living, cooking from scratch, and my other love, vintage.

2. When did you first become interested in environmentalism?

It’s always been there on some level. When I was around two years old my dad went to throw away my baby food jar and I told him “no daddy, we cycle.” To this day my family still often says “we cycle.”

It became more of a passion for me as an adult. I watched An Inconvenient Truth and started researching what was going on with our environment more and became very concerned.

I knew I had to do something so I started volunteering with the local recycling coalition, and ended up helping to bring curbside recycling to my town. I also started blogging and sharing green living tips to help others do their part.

3. In addition to your blog and your Green Oklahoma website, what sources would you recommend to someone interested in living a more eco-friendly life?

Two of my top book suggestions would be The Story of Stuff and My Plastic-Free Life. They are very informative and give some great advice. For homemakers, I also highly recommend Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck.

Some of my favorite green living blogs are:

My Plastic-Free Life
Groovy Green Livin
Mindful Momma,
Dr. Karen S. Lee
The Crunchy Chronicles
Bren Did
A Modern Homestead

They all share a wide range of information from organic food, reducing waste, gardening, natural health, and DIY.

4. What advice would you give to someone who wants to be more environmentally conscious but doesn’t know where to begin?

Start small! It can be easy to want to do it all but that is a recipe for disaster. It will become overwhelming and expensive.

Figure out which small steps will make the biggest impact in your family. Do you use a lot of disposable water bottles? Invest in some reusable water bottles.

Reusable bags are another thing I recommend. Buy them slowly and put them where you will remember them. You can save some money over time as many stores now give discounts for reusable bags and you will have less bags to stuff in a cabinet or dispose of.

The biggest thing is to take one thing at a time, let it become a habit, and move on to the next.

5. What has been your biggest challenge in living a green and eco-friendly lifestyle?

Giving myself grace. I have spent years feeling guilty anytime I wasn’t perfect. This is not a good way to live and not practical.

Last year I started really taking note of this. There has to be a balance between doing your part and being stressed all the time.

Now I try to follow more of a 80/20 with my eating and green living in general. Sometimes I eat fast food and sometimes I dye my hair. If most of the time I’m doing really well I have no reason to stress about the other time.

I wish I could be perfect but I really don’t want to live off the grid, raise all of my own food, and live a zero waste life. Maybe for a week and then I’d want to sleep for a week. There are some that can do all of that but I can’t.

6. I know you try to eat a mostly organic diet. Can you tell LWD readers why you started doing this and any benefits you have seen from it?

Several years ago I started suffering from a lot of health problems. I have fibromyalgia and it had gotten very bad. Most weeks I’d have at least one day I ended up in bed all day.

Conventional medicine hasn’t come up with good treatments for fibromyalgia right now. Your options are basically pain medicine and sleep aids. I didn’t want to go this route if at all possible so I started researching natural ways to treat it.

One thing I found is many people had a lot of success with eating an organic/whole food diet. Since I grew up eating a pretty natural diet, including having some organic food before it was popular, this was pretty simple.

I started by removing the worst ingredients and making more and more from scratch. I lost weight and started to feel better. My husband also saw health benefits from this change.

I’ve tried many things over the years to improve my health and reduce fibromyalgia symptoms and my diet changes are one thing that has stuck and made the biggest impact.

7. Do you make any of your own cleaning products? If so, do you have links to the recipes?

I don’t make that many cleaners because I clean almost everything with hot, soapy water. It’s very simple but has been shown scientifically to work. I just fill a bucket or sink with as hot as I can stand water and add a bit of Dr. Bronner’s castile soap.

I do make a daily shower cleaner spray and my own laundry detergent. I also use vinegar for windows and glass and anything that’s a bit smelly.

8. Organic food and “green” products can sometimes be expensive. Do you have any suggestions for “going green” on a budget?

Meal plan. We waste a lot of food and that can cost a lot of money! When meal planning be sure to check sale flyers and look for coupons. And be flexible. My last shopping trip I found grass-fed ground beef was on sale for almost half of what I normally pay. My meal plan had a fair amount of chicken in it but I decided those meals would wait and got a lot of ground beef instead. This saved me a lot of money on meat for the month. And of course reducing your meat intake will help. Try Meatless Monday for an easy way to reduce your meat intake.

Otherwise being green should overall be about using less. You don’t need all the latest “green” gadgets. When buying something consider buying used and when buying new, buy products that will last.

Ditching disposable products and gradually buying reusable ones will also save you a lot of money over time. I rarely buy paper towels anymore because I have a paper-free kitchen, I don’t buy bottled water, and one bag of plastic sandwich bags will last me years. These changes add up.

9. Where can LWD readers connect with you?

You can find me on my blog – Retro Housewife Goes Green, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and my Facebook group – Homemaking for Everyone.

10. Do you have any upcoming projects or anything new in the works for Retro Housewife Goes Green?

Soon I will have a spring cleaning challenge series. You will get tips and tricks delivered to your inbox to help you get your house in great shape for the spring. I will announce it on the blog and social media soon.

~~~~~

Thank you, Lisa! I appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions and share so many great resources.

Lisa’ Bio:

I’m Lisa. I’m a homemaking, vintage loving, green living, blogger, living in a small town in Oklahoma.

I’ve been married since 2005 to my wonderful husband, Justin. We have a Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd Dog rescue named Patience. She’s terribly spoiled but also very sweet.

I love to bake, craft, go antique shopping, listen to local music, and of course spend time with my friends and family.

Lisa’s Links:

Retro Housewife Goes Green

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Homemaking for Everyone

Reusable Shopping Bags

LWD Giant Green and Frugal Living Roundup

February 25, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 2 Comments

Running our homes in a frugal and eco-friendly manner is important. We all want to get the most from our financial resources and I dare say most of us are also interested in doing our part to protect the environment. The good thing is that these two goals are not mutually exclusive. In fact, in so many instances, the “green” choice is also the frugal choice.

Here are some excellent resources for green and frugal living:

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

Giant Green and Frugal Living Roundup

The obvious resource for both green and frugal information for me is my own daughter’s site:

Retro Housewife

Goes Green

As I began looking for a few of her posts to share I realized what a huge amount of content she has amassed over the years. Here are just a few:

15 Green Cleaning Hacks

How to Clean Your Mattress

Green Cleaning Essentials

Simple Toilet Bowl Cleaner

How to Have a Paper-Free Kitchen

Natural DIY Carpet Freshener

30 Frugal Green Living Tips

8 Depression Era Tips That Save Money

7 Vintage Homemaking Skills That Save You Money

7 Frugal Gardening Tips For Beginners

Real Food on a Budget: Meal Planning

Lessons From the Amish That Save You Money

10 Benefits of Line Drying

Do you want to eat a healthy, organic, grass fed diet but don’t think you can afford it? My friend, Victoria of A Modern Homestead, explains how they do it on less than $200 a month. Click here to find out how:

She has a number of other posts about frugal living, including this one in which she shares several unconventional ways to save money:

Crazy Ways to Save Money

One way to save money AND be eco-friendly is to make your own household cleaners. Bren of Bren Did has a nice collection of recipes. Here are a couple to get you started:

Fresh Lemon Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

DIY All-Natural Orange Vinegar For Cleaning

Frugal and/or Green Living Blogs:

Blue House Journal

My Plastic-free Life

Money Saving Mom

The 25 Best Frugal Living Blogs of 2016

101 Blogs Thrifty People Read

Best Green Lifestyle Blogs 2016

I wrote some posts about green living on another blog of mine which I’m no longer updating:

Homemade Deodorant

The cost of bottled water

Repair or Replace?

Other LWD posts you may be interested in:

That’s just nuts – soap nuts, that is

The Wisdom of Grandma

Eco-Friendly Laundry

Books on Green/Frugal Living

I’d love to hear your favorite resources for living a green and frugal lifestyle. Leave me a comment and I’ll check them out!

Earth Hour Turns Ten – Will You Be Observing It?

February 17, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 4 Comments

Yesterday I received an email reminding me that the 10th annual Earth Hour event is coming up. For one hour, millions around the world turn off their lights as a symbol of commitment to the planet. I first heard about Earth Hour and observed it in 2008 which was the event’s second year. We’ve been observing it ever since.

I initially read about Earth Hour on someone else’s blog. It sounded intriguing so I checked out the website and read more about it. One hour without lights? That was certainly easy enough. But since then I have learned more about it and why it’s more than just turning off lights for an hour.

If you aren’t familiar with Earth Hour, here is a brief overview:

Over the years we have usually observed Earth Hour with a candlelight dinner. Each time we have been reminded how enjoyable it is to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasure of a leisurely meal by candlelight. We have music playing quietly in the background but we put away our phones for that full hour. In fact, when that hour is up we don’t hurry to to turn on the lights and get back into our usual busy-ness. It hasn’t been unusual for us to leave the lights off another hour or so. I’ve done dishes by candlelight and sometimes we’ll play a game after dinner. One year the weather was gorgeous so we ate outdoors and then continued our Earth Hour observation with one of our favorite activities…stargazing.

I see this year it is scheduled at 8:30 but I’m pretty sure it’s been a bit earlier in the past. We aren’t early dinner eaters but 8:30 is a little late, even for us. Still, the time is not the real point. If 8:30 doesn’t work for you for some reason, choose your own hour. I think this year we will begin our observation at whatever time we eat dinner and then continue it until 9:30. Or later, even.

I know there are some who don’t see the point. What difference does it make to turn off your lights for an hour? But Earth Hour is about so much more. Turning off the lights is simply a visual representation of an ongoing effort to fight climate change and protect our environment on a daily basis.

Here are ways you can make a difference on a daily basis:

10 ways to celebrate Earth Hour daily!

Small actions done regularly by millions of people add up to monumental change. It’s all too easy to look at a huge, worldwide problem like climate change and just give up in despair. But we each have a role to play and it DOES matter.

Below are links to previous posts I’ve written about Earth Hour. Some of these are on another blog of mine, The Well-Groomed Hippie. I haven’t posted much there since I started Life With Dee. Every once in awhile I think about reviving it but then I realize I don’t actually have the time.

If you are interested in participating in Earth Hour this year, you can read more and sign up below:

Earth Hour

Have you participated before? If so, I’d love to hear how you celebrated in the past. Or how you plan to this year. I’m thinking that since this is the 10 Year Anniversary I should plan something special. Any ideas?

~~~~~

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

Eco-Friendly Laundry

February 14, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 5 Comments

Laundry is one of those household tasks that not only takes a lot of a homemaker’s time but can also have a big impact on the environment. Detergents, bleach, fabric softener, and dryer sheets all have potential issues. Not to mention water usage and energy consumption considerations. But we can take steps to lessen the environmental impact by adopting some eco-friendly laundry practices.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

Eco-Friendly Laundry

First up, let’s consider laundry detergent options. There are now a number of laundry detergents which are safer for the environment.

And some people make their own laundry soap, although these vary in their safety. For instance, many recipes call for borax which may not be as safe as some think:

Borax: Not the green alternative it’s cracked up to be

For the first 30 years or so of my marriage I used Amway laundry detergent. It was expensive but it did a good job on our clothes and at one time it was amongst the better commercial options. It can be hard to change a three-decade-long habit but I have successfully made the switch to soap nuts.

Soap nuts

I wrote about how I use soap nuts a few years ago. You can put them in the little muslin bag that comes with them and just toss in the washer and that works relatively well in warm water. However, I prefer to make a liquid from them which seems to work better, at least in my front loader. Here is how I make it:

That’s just nuts – soap nuts, that is!

Not only is this one of the most environmentally friendly options, it is also cheap! It costs about 10 cents a load compared to over 30 cents for Amway.

Bleach

There are many environmental concerns about chlorine bleach. Here is a recipe for making your own color safe bleach:

Make Your Own Color Safe Bleach

Fabric Softener

It’s no secret I love the scent of Downy fabric softener. My mom and grandma both used it and I just adore that “April fresh scent”. However, I know it’s not the most eco-friendly way to soften fabrics. Liquid fabric softeners and dryer sheets contain many untested chemicals which are suspected hormone disrupters:

Don’t get slimed: Skip the fabric softener

12 Endocrine Disruptors You Likely Have in Your Home

I’ll be perfectly honest here and admit that I still use Downy occasionally, especially on my sheets. However, I use vinegar in the rinse cycle for most other loads. Maybe someday I’ll kick the Downy habit entirely but at least I’ve cut my use substantially. Baby steps, folks. Baby steps.

Dryer balls

I’ve never been in the habit of using dryer sheets but while vinegar is a decent substitute for liquid fabric softener, it doesn’t always reduce static enough during the dry winter months. That’s where dryer balls come in. I like these wool dryer balls:

Not only do they help soften and reduce static, you can also toss them in the dryer with washed pillows to help them dry faster and fluff them up.

Clothesline

While many (most?) of us here in the United States have clothes dryers, that’s not necessarily the case in the rest of the world. While I’m not interested in giving mine up, I am interested in having a clothesline. When we first moved to our current home, there was some clothesline stretched between three trees in the backyard. It wasn’t always the best option during pollen season but I did hang some of our laundry at least occasionally. There is truly nothing that smells better than line-dried sheets.

Eventually those lines rotted, we took them down, and they were never replaced. David doesn’t know this yet but I have a little project for him soon:

I have figured out the perfect place for a clothesline…away from trees and close to the house. I’ll be sure to take some pictures after David installs this.

My daughter has a clothesline and wrote about it here:

10 Benefits of Line Drying

Indoor drying rack

I may not have a clothesline yet but I do have an indoor drying rack like this one:

I keep it set up in the tub of our guest bathroom (unless we have guests!). I use it for delicate items or things that can’t go in the dryer. It’s not big enough for all of our laundry, largely because it doesn’t dry fast enough indoors. But it does have its purpose.

Wall mounted drying rack

In addition to the outdoor clothesline I’m hoping to have soon, I also would like to install a wall-mounted drying rack in our laundry room. This would give me additional indoor hanging space during rainy weather.

Do you use any of these eco-friendly laundry practices? Do you have any others to add?

The Wisdom of Grandma

February 10, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 4 Comments

If we are fortunate there will be someone in our life who provides an example of a life well-lived. For me, that person was Grandma. I grew up next door to my grandparents and spent much of my childhood in their home. I continued to spend a lot of time with Grandma until she died at the age of 94 and her life influences me to this day.

When I think about Grandma several words and concepts come to mind:

Frugal

I’ve heard the family stories of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. My dad picked cotton as a 5 year old but got to quit early to go make cornbread for the family’s dinner. No indoor plumbing until they moved to California when my dad was twelve. A house with no insulation and milk that would freeze in a bucket on the floor overnight.

They never went hungry but sometimes they ate squirrels Grandma shot, cleaned and fried. Grandpa always worked very hard but sometimes work took him a long way from home.

Even though my grandparents had a comfortable living later on, those early years instilled a natural sort of thrift in Grandma. She never seemed concerned about money during my lifetime but I think she was so used to living on very little that it just never occurred to her to desire more than they had.

Looking back on my childhood growing up next door to my grandparents, I recall a simple, relatively frugal lifestyle. I sincerely doubt Grandma would have used the word “frugal” and I know for a fact she would have told you she had everything she needed. They always had plenty to eat and to feed any of their eleven grandchildren who happened to be hanging around.

I don’t remember ever having soda/pop at their house but Grandma always had a pitcher of her delicious sweet tea available for thirsty kids (or adults!). Saltine crackers were also a mainstay and we were always welcome to them for a little snack.

They built their house themselves. It was simple but adequate for their needs, as well as all of us grandchildren who considered it our second home. Their household furnishings were comfortable and well cared for but not expensive. Grandma never drove and didn’t leave the house very often except for church. Grandpa did the grocery shopping from her weekly list so she rarely shopped for much herself. She used what she had until it wore out and then she replaced it with something similar.

They didn’t eat out very often but once in awhile they might take a couple of us kids for a hamburger. Grandma cooked three meals a day in a small kitchen without a dishwasher as a matter of course. That’s how they grew up and I honestly don’t think they ever seriously considered anything else. I do recall her adult children buying Grandma a portable dishwasher. She thanked them for it and then continued to wash her dishes by hand. It did provide some much needed counter space, though. One of my fond memories is of her pies cooling on top of that portable dishwasher.

The one thing she loved which might seem frivolous were fresh flowers. When we lived in the desert she grew lots of beautiful flowers, including my favorite – lilacs. She always brought me a bouquet from the first blooms each spring. In her later years my mom and I both made a point of bringing her fresh flowers often. I don’t have lilacs but I always brought her some of the first blooms from my daffodils.

Green

As I said, I doubt Grandma would have used the word “frugal” to describe herself but I’m absolutely certain she wouldn’t have called herself “green”. The notion of being environmentally conscious wouldn’t have occurred to her and yet in many ways she was. For instance, while she had a dryer, most of the time she used a clothesline. The dry and windy conditions in the California desert where I spent my childhood were perfect for this and no doubt every bit as fast as a clothes dryer. How well I remember the delicious, line-dried scent of the sheets I slept on when spending the night at my grandparents’ house. And because she didn’t replace sheets until they were paper thin, they were the softest thing imaginable.

Another thing she did which today we might consider eco-friendly was to cover bowls of leftovers with a plate rather than foil or plastic wrap. She learned to keep house before those items were in common use and while she did use them for some things, she continued the practice of using a plate all her life. I have one of her melamine plates and I use it for the very same purpose.

Routines

Grandma was a creature of habit. She arose early each morning and went through a similar routine each day. If it was very early, she was outside watering trees, shrubs, and her beautiful rose bushes and lilacs. Mealtimes were regular so we knew when to find her in the kitchen. I don’t know exactly what her housekeeping schedule was – I wish I had thought to ask – although I do know that she cleaned out her refrigerator every Saturday morning. Her house was always clean and orderly so I’m sure she had a regular cleaning routine of some sort.

Faith

Ever since I can remember, Grandma had a little handwritten sign on her dresser mirror which said, “Prayer changes things”. As she went about her daily work she was nearly always humming or whistling old hymns and this wasn’t lost on her grandchildren. She used to love to tell the story of me as a toddler walking around singing, “Oh, Jesus, I sure do like you” – my interpretation of “Oh, How I Love Jesus”, one of her favorites.

All of her grandchildren have fond memories of the Bible she kept on the small wastebasket in the bathroom. I remember looking to see where she was reading each time I went in there. Many years later that Bible met with an accident. A little boy she was babysitting wet on it and she had to throw it away. However, I was honored to have been left her “good” Bible upon her death. It’s one of my most prized possessions.

Contentment

If I had to choose just one word to describe my grandmother I think it would be “content”. She never seemed to want anything more than what she had and was grateful for her blessings. Her life was centered in her home and around her beloved family. Along with her strong faith this seemed to be all she desired from life. While my dreams are bigger in some ways, I am still often reminded that when it comes right down to it, a good life doesn’t require much. Food, shelter, people to love and care for, faith, soft sheets and fresh flowers. That was plenty for Grandma.

LWD Book Club ~ February 2017

February 1, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 2 Comments

It’s the first day of February. Do you know what that means? That’s right. New selections for the LWD Book Club! It’s also the beginning of a new theme for LWD blog posts.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

LWD FEBRUARY BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

February’s theme here on Life With Dee includes frugal living and “going green”. There is so much overlap between these two topics that it only made sense to do them both together.

This month’s LWD Book Club selections all reflect the monthly topics this time.

I have read another of Sophie Uliano’s books, “Gorgeously Green” and enjoyed it. It’s no longer available on Amazon although you might be able to find it in your library. Instead I selected “Do It Gorgeously“, a handbook of sorts on how to make less toxic and less expensive products yourself. I’m looking forward to learning more about this DIY aspect of going green.

Do It Gorgeously

This next book was written by Beth Terry. She blogs at MyPlasticFreeLife, formerly known as Fake Plastic Fish. My daughter, who blogs at Retro Housewife Goes Green, became acquainted with Beth through a green blogging group several years ago. Beth included an essay about Lisa in this book and then invited her to speak with her at an event in Tulsa a few years ago. I went with her and we both had the honor of meeting Beth, going out to dinner with her after the event and then back to her hotel room where the three of us talked until 1 a.m. It was as though we had all been friends for ages. If you’re interested, you can read the blog post I wrote about it here: Plastic, Wikipedia and Field Trips.

Plastic Free

Many, many years ago when I quit my job as a R.N. case manager for a hospice company in order to homeschool our kids, I was highly motivated to cut expenses. After all, our income had been cut in half. That’s when I discovered The Tightwad Gazette books. Back then there were three of them and I own them all. Now they are available all in one book. Convenient and frugal! I consider this the bible of frugal living. Some of the ideas are pretty out there for my taste and these days I’m much more interested in eating a healthy, mostly organic diet than is reflected in this book. Still, there are hundreds and hundreds of worthwhile ideas contained in these pages.

The Tightwad Gazette

If you have any favorite books on frugal living or going green, leave me a comment and I’ll include them on the resource page I’ll do at the end of the month.

PREVIOUS LWD BOOK CLUB CHOICES:

Plastic, Wikipedia and Field Trips

April 5, 2013 By Deanna Piercy 5 Comments

I hardly know where to begin. My daughter, Lisa, and I took a little trip to Tulsa Tuesday and Wednesday. Beth Terry, author of “Plastic Free – How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too”, was speaking at the University of Tulsa and she had asked Lisa to speak with her. What an honor!

We left town a bit after noon on Tuesday and headed toward Tulsa. It had been warm the day before but a cold front had come through, along with some much-needed but poorly-timed rain. As we were approaching the turnpike entrance in Stroud, we got one of our hair-brained ideas and decided to see if we could find the Keystone XL pipeline and get some pictures to show Beth. Lisa looked it up on her phone and with only a rough idea of where it is located we took our detour. Remember now, it’s raining and has been for several hours. The road we think will lead to our destination turns out to be a heavily-rutted gravel road. And we are driving my Prius. Do you think that deterred us? If so, you don’t really know us very well.

We went about a mile down the teeth-jarring road but it was rather muddy and after slipping a few times we decided to give up our quest. I really didn’t want to have to call David and try to explain why we got the car stuck in the mud when we were supposed to be on the turnpike.

We did, however, find another little gem. Did you know that Stroud is the wine capital of Oklahoma?

And have you ever seen a winery/R.V. park? Neither had we:

Back on our original path, we drove the rest of the way to Tulsa in a moderate rainstorm. We stopped at Whole Foods for lunch and then checked into our hotel. David had reserved a room for us at the Doubletree which just so happened to be the same hotel where he and I had experienced a fire scare and had to leave our room to go stand in a stairwell with a bunch of strangers in pajamas. Ah, the memories.

We changed clothes, fixed our hair and makeup and then headed to the university. When we entered the event room Beth was looking over some notes at the podium but when she saw us hurried to meet us with hugs. We all hit it off immediately. Lisa has known Beth via online and phone interaction for quite awhile but I’ve only interacted with her a bit on Facebook. She could not have been nicer and really helped make Lisa comfortable before her first speaking opportunity.

Beth’s talk was very informative and entertaining. She’s an excellent speaker – funny, warm and engaging. Throughout the talk she would periodically have Lisa speak. She asked Lisa to explain how she became interested in environmentalism, talk about glass straws from Glass Dharma, Lisa’s website – Green Oklahoma, her part in helping Ada get curbside recycling (Lisa is featured in Beth’s book because of this), and Lisa’s current activist project. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I was of how well she did. I recorded the portions where she was speaking but I promised her I’d let her see them before I shared them. Hopefully she’ll let me upload them to YouTube and then y’all can see how well she did.

Following the event and book signing, the organizers of the event took Beth, Lisa and me out to dinner at an Irish pub. Book Smart Tulsa was one of the organizers of the event and the co-founder, Jeff Martin, was one of the three people who took us out. He’s also an editor with This Land Press and encouraged Lisa to write an article for them. We had a wonderful time and the conversation was so interesting.

After dinner we drove Beth to her hotel, went up to her room and then proceded to gab like old friends until after 1 a.m. Unfortunately Beth had an 8 a.m. flight so we finally had to call it a night. We hugged, took pictures (on Lisa’s camera – if they are decent I’ll share later) and made promises to get together again someday.

Here is a picture of the sitting room in Beth’s hotel room:

It’s a really cool little boutique hotel which had been part of a design project. In the hallway outside Beth’s room I spotted this and thought “is that a Remington??” Sure enough. It was:

We left our hotel at noon the next day and went to Utica Square for lunch. When I spotted this, I had to take a picture:

We ate lunch at the Polo Grill where I had perhaps the best burger I’ve ever eaten:

There was a yarn store next to the restaurant so we popped in there for a few minutes to drool over the pretty yarn. We decided we have good taste (check the price):

No, we didn’t buy any. Next up, we went to Reasor’s grocery store because Beth had mentioned at the event the night before that they sell milk from Memory Lane dairy which still uses glass bottles. Yes, I bought some. And we also found a new-to-us, organic, locally roasted coffee there. We each bought a bag to try and Lisa will be adding the company to the resources on her site, Green Oklahoma.

Next up was Whole Foods where we did our monthly grocery shopping. I didn’t buy a lot since David and I will be in New Orleans for 10 days this month (I’ll share the grocery haul video I did tomorrow or Saturday).

We then headed for home. As we got to Stroud, Lisa looked up the town’s historical information on Wikipedia which turned out to be quite interesting. If you enjoyed the Pixar movie, Cars, take a look at the Stroud Wikipedia listing. There’s a really neat connection.

Ever the autodidacts, one thing led to another and we spent the rest of the trip home with Lisa looking up various Oklahoma towns and reading the history to me as I drove. We now have a whole list of potential field trips we want to take. And yes, one of them will no doubt involve taking pictures of the Keystone pipeline but we’ll pick a sunny day for that.

Be sure to read Lisa’s blog post about our adventure. And you can see the picture of the three of us there so I’ll probably not share it here.

That’s just nuts – soap nuts, that is.

March 14, 2011 By Deanna Piercy 4 Comments

Have you heard of soap nuts? They aren’t really nuts but rather, a berry. Completely natural, kind to the environment and CHEAP. I’ve used Amway laundry detergent for 30 years and have always been happy with it. It was one of the very first to be made without all the fillers and is phosphate-free. It’s been rated as perhaps the very best in performance but it’s also pretty expensive.

As part of my quest to “go green”, as well as to save money, I decided to follow my daughter’s lead and try soap nuts. Lisa gave me some to try a couple of weeks ago. I tried it on David’s shirts, figuring that he wouldn’t care one way or the other. 😉 I also decided to substitute white vinegar for Downy. I had done that on occasion in the past but I must admit I’m rather partial to the fragrance of Downy. Anyway, when I pulled the shirts from the washer I smelled them. I was astounded by how fresh and clean they smelled. There was no fragrance but they just smelled *clean*. Next I tried it with our sheets and again, I was very pleased with the results.

So I placed an order on Amazon and in a couple of days received my shipment. I figured out the cost per use and with the quantity I purchased, it comes to around 7 cents a load. Amway was about 30 cents per load, as I recall.

You can just toss the soap nuts in the little muslin bag that comes with them into the washer but my understanding is that it might be a little more effective to make a liquid and use that. Following Lisa’s suggestion, last night I boiled 4 cups of water and poured it over 8 soap nuts, leaving it overnight. This morning I decanted the soapy liquid into an old Perrier bottle. Because there are no preservatives, it is recommended that you keep the liquid in the refrigerator. I will be placing a large label on the bottle to designate the contents!

Here is a close-up of the soap nuts:

What laundry detergent do you use? Have you ever tried soap nuts? After reading this, would you consider giving them a try?

Small Stuff…

January 24, 2010 By Deanna Piercy 2 Comments

Sometimes we wonder if our seemingly small actions really make a difference. A couple of days ago I had a meeting in town and afterwards, as I started home, I saw the person in the car ahead of me toss a can out his window. Grrr…. It was a quiet, residential area and no other traffic so I pulled over, crossed the street and picked up the can so I could recycle it. Just as I did so, another car passed me and the driver probably thought I was one of those weird, eco-nuts. Oh, yeah. I guess I am. Thanks, Lisa. 😉

So, I’m on my way home and happen to notice an elderly gentleman on the side of road picking up (you guessed it) cans. I pulled over, and because his back was to me and he was apparently almost deaf, it took me a bit to catch up to him and get his attention as he was walking down into a ravine. I handed him the can, telling him that I had just picked it up after someone threw it out their car window and he could have it. This sweet old man in his striped overalls and big hat tied under his chin gave me a big smile and thanked me.

It may sound silly but I can’t begin to tell you how happy this made me. Sure, it was merely a single bit of litter removed from the street and only a single can added to the ones the man was picking up which doesn’t sound like anything at all. But I still felt good about it.

I then came home and while checking Facebook saw that a friend had posted the following article from The Onion (a satirical site):

“How Bad For the Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be? 30 Million People Wonder”

It is a humorous look at how we fail to see the way in which our individual, seemingly small, actions add up. Do take a look at it; it’s pretty funny. I thought the timing was superb.

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Meatless Monday…

December 14, 2009 By Deanna Piercy 2 Comments

Not everyone is inclined to go vegetarian and even though we are currently eating mostly vegetarian, that may not be a long-term thing for us. Still, everyone can have at least one meatless day per week.

There is a major campaign afoot to promote Meatless Monday and I just signed up, but did you know that it actually started with Herbert Hoover during WWI? You can read more about the interesting history of Meatless Mondays here.

Are you wondering why you should consider participating in Meatless Monday (or another day of your choice)? Here are a few reasons from the Meatless Monday site:

Health Benefits

REDUCE RISK OF HEART DISEASE. Beans, peas, lentils, nuts and seeds contain little to no saturated fats. Reducing your intake of saturated fats can help keep your cholesterol low and reduce your risk of heart disease.
MAINTAIN HEALTHY WEIGHT. A plant-based diet is a great source of fiber, which is absent in animal products. Foods rich in fiber make you feel full with fewer calories, resulting in lower calorie intake and less overeating. On average, Americans get less than half the recommended daily quantity of fiber.
IMPROVE OVERALL QUALITY OF DIET. Consuming dry beans or peas results in higher intakes of fiber, protein, folate, zinc, iron and magnesium with lower intakes of saturated fat and total fat.

Environmental Benefits

REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide . . . far more than transportation. And annual worldwide demand for meat continues to grow. Reining in meat consumption once a week can help slow this trend.
MINIMIZE WATER USAGE. The water needs of livestock are tremendous, far above those of vegetables or grains. An estimated 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef. Soy tofu produced in California requires 220 gallons of water per pound.
HELP REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENCE. On average, about 40 calories of fossil fuel energy go into every calorie of feed lot beef in the U.S. Compare this to the 2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy needed to produce one calorie of plant-based protein. Moderating meat consumption is a great way to cut fossil fuel demand.

In addition, decreasing our intake of meat can save money, too. So what’s not to like?

If you are interested in this concept, go check out the Meatless Monday website. There is a lot of good information there, including recipes. If you decide to join, you can receive free weekly recipes via email. Check it out!

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