Asha Anujeeva

My mother has always had a top loading washing machine. But I noticed that a lot of the laundromat machines are front loading machines. So I wanted to learn more about why people would use one machine rather than the other type.

Front load washers have been the dominant style of new machines sold to high end consumers for several years. All of the major brands offer both styles.

The front loaders save about $150 per year in energy and water costs as compared to top loaders. They use about 70 percent less water and energy.

Interestingly, a front load washer dissolves the laundry detergent in 5 gallons of water for each load as compared to 20 gallons of water per load used by the top loading machines.

In high school, I was a member of the 4-H club for 3 years. We learned about gardening and care of livestock. One thing that I remember learning was the time we planted roses. We learned about preparing the rose bed and how to take care of the rose bushes.

Now I have put that training to good use. My roses are still blooming and they are beautiful.

With tomorrow the first day of September, our summer is about over. Actually, Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of summer for this area.

I decided to buy some Planters and try to extend the vegetable growing season. By putting the vegetables into containers, I can move them inside the garage at night to protect the plants from frost, then move them back outside in the morning to take advantage of the sun.

Last year I tried this using one Planter and it worked very well. I had two different crop cycles of tomatoes. By planting some of the tomatoes in the containers, I was enjoying fresh, vine ripened tomatoes well into October.

I have also had great success with my Window Box Planters and am learning about raising geraniums. I especially love the bright orange red geraniums and this is my second year planting and nurturing these flowers.

My father has always been interested in conservation – even before it became “cool” to be “green.”  Part of his attempts at conservation have always included rain harvesting.  Ever since I can recall we have had rain water barrels at the corners of our house and our garage.  We would use the water collected from the rain barrels to water our gardens and wash the cars.

The only thing that worries me about doing this is the reports that I hear about acid rain.  That’s the biggest reason we don’t use it for potable water.  I don’t know if there even exists a filter system that could be purchased by a homeowner that would make it safe to drink.  That is one of the things that makes me very angry about the slowing down of environmental protection acts – the air that is being polluted hundreds of miles away from us is ruining our air and water.  I know that there are technologies available to scrub the pollutants from the factories at the source, but they aren’t being installed and maintained as fast or as well as they need to be done.

Well…. I’ll get off my soapbox now!  Conserving water is still a good thing.

I recently bought a magazine at the store called The Green Guide. It is put out by National Geographic. What attracted me to the magazine was the headline Green Made Simple, and a smaller headline Go Green Save $60 a week. Well, I’m all about saving both the environment and money, so I bought the magazine. All in all I thought it was a good magazine; most of the tips I already was doing, so I was both proud of myself and disappointed in the magazine that they didn’t have many “new” tips for me to use. However, there WAS one new tip that I have started using – instead of paper napkins, use cloth napkins. They claim that I can save $1.68 a week by using cloth napkins, and it is easier on the environment to use cloth instead of paper. So I’ve bought some cloth napkins and we will be using them unless we are eating something tomato based that will stain.

I’ve decided that this winter I am going to buy thermal underwear and wear it under my regular clothes at home so that I can turn the thermostat down a couple of degrees.  I’m concerned about the high price of heating the place this winter, and I think that by investing in some thermal underwear that I will be doing a good thing for the environment and a good thing for my checkbook!  I’ve found some thermal underwear that is smooth and silky to the touch that is only $7 for a top, and $7 for the bottom, which seems like a very good price at the local big discount department store.

I don’t like the waffle-weave thermal underwear because it is always too small, no matter how large a size I buy!  The pants only come down about half-way between my ankles and knees; I like the pants to come all the way to my ankles.  The kind that I like used to be called “Cuddleduds” but now it seems they’ve been renamed to “WarmWear.”  I don’t care – they will be comfy and help keep me warm!

With the economy as bad as it has been, and the fuel prices soaring, I have been giving some serious thought as to selling my gas-guzzler car (or just garaging it for a while) and buying a more fuel-efficient car.  In order to buy a more fuel-efficient car, I would need to get a Car Loan to help pay for it.  My brother suggested that I check out the bestleadinglenders.com website to see what kind of competitive loan I could get through them.  They are a leading online financial services company that provides student loans, car loans, credit cards, and Payday Loans.  They give credit to consumers with good credit, or bad credit, and they do not charge any application fees.  I like that they don’t charge application fees, it would really be upsetting to have to pay an application fee and then get turned down for the loan!

I love to keep a flower garden.  I don’t bother with a vegetable garden, it is so much hard work and so time consuming.  For the amount of veggies we eat around here, it is just more cost effective to buy them at the farmer’s market or grocery store.  Besides I don’t want to deal with trying to protect my food harvest from all of the garden pests that think that my garden is an all-you-can-eat buffet!

In our area, a lot of people have problems with pests coming into their gardens and eating up all of their hard work.  Deer and rabbits seem to be the worst offenders around here, although an occasional raccoon has been known to help himself to the corn crop!  I like the Havahart products that help to deal with unwanted animals in a humane way.  They sell a defence animal repellent spray online at their website havahart.com that repels rabbits and deer.  What repels them is the smell, so they are not harmed in any way.  These sprays are organic and will not damage the environment in any way.  If I were to decide to try to grow veggies I would definitely use this product to try to protect my garden from being eaten up by the deer and rabbits!

I was reading a BBC.com website news story today about how 48% of the world’s primate species are facing extinction.  The article explains that a large reason for that was the deforestation of the world; people are cutting down and/or burning the forests that the primates live in.  That was depressing news.  But what really surprised me was to read in the article that the extinction is being exacerbated by hunters who are hunting the primates for food!  I did not realize that people considered monkeys as edible!  I don’t know why, I just never really thought people would eat monkeys.  That makes me especially sad, since I consider primates to be so closely related to humans that it almost seems cannibalistic to eat them!

I was reading an article in the NY Times website about how global warming could melt the ice caps in Greenland, and how that could actually benefit Greenland in the short run. The fishermen are seeing the appearance of warm water cod, and the farmers are beginning to grow broccoli and potatoes, all things that were unattainable up until recently. When the ice continues to melt, more of the island’s mineral resources will be easier to get to, so mining will increase.

One of the things that I really enjoy hearing about, or reading about, is when people use reclaimed building materials to either build their new homes or to renovate their older homes.  For example, every now and then I hear about old barns being torn down and the wood being used to build and decorate new homes.  Barn board is very in-demand and expensive!  Who would have thought that the wood used to house livestock would be valued later by people in their own homes! 

There is a company that is dedicated to helping consumers to get reclaimed wood flooring in their homes.  There website is snheartpine.com.  They sell beautiful reclaimed heart pine, wormy chestnut, reclaimed barnwood, and a large variety of native American hardwoods.  These folks are true craftsmen, and their work is beautiful.

I was shopping at my local Wal-Mart and heard some of the employees talking about how pretty soon Wal-Mart will be requiring their customers to bring their own bags!  I wonder how well the customers are going to be taking that!  Personally, I’m glad – I have several canvas shopping tote bags that I bought a long time ago that I would like to use for my weekly groceries.  Even though I bring most of my empty Wal-Mart shopping bags back to the Wal-Mart for recycling, I really would prefer to not have to deal with them.  Although they DO make good little trash can liners!

According to an article dated May 29, 2008 in the LA Times, there is a company that is planning to use algae to start producing a crude oil that can be used to make gasoline and diesel fuel.  The production of the fuel uses carbon dioxide, which would help to clean up our greenhouse gases problem.  It can be refined in existing refineries and be used by the existing cars and trucks on the road.  It plans to reach full commercial scale in five years.  The company that is planning to do this is called Sapphire Energy.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful, getting oil from algae instead of fossil fuels!

I’ve been hearing that this is Earth week, a time when there are events that call attention to the environmental crises that we are in.  I hope that enough people start to pay attention and start to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem.  I’ve started trying to cut down on my own carbon footprint; I’ve been buying CFL lights, and unplugging appliances that aren’t in use.  I’ve also been trying to cut back on extra car trips into town “just because.”  I try to make sure there is a really good reason to be driving anywhere and I try to combine errands into each trip.