Joyfully Green

04/05/2013

My Love/Hate Relationship with Social Media

Before I began Joyfully Green in July of 2012, I had a very strong aversion to social media. Actually, I'll go one step further and admit that I openly mocked it. "Friending" and "tweeting" were just not for me, and I told anybody who tried to convince me otherwise my firm stance on it. But very soon after I started this blog, it became abundantly clear that I needed to publicize it (due to the proverbial "tree that falls in a forest"), and social media was the primary way to do it. So, I broke down and joined Facebook for business purposes. For the first week, I felt something that can only be described as "dizzy queasiness."

When you first get sucked into the vortex of social media, it's hard to see the light of day. Literally. You can sit at your computer in a zombified daze, scrolling through updates from friends you haven't seen in decades. Some of this reconnecting is actually quite pleasant, as you (almost miraculously) find people you genuinely liked but lost. However, it can consume your "real" life, so you're spending a disproportionate amount of time on your "virtual" life. Exercise, fresh air, and eating regularly scheduled meals can fall by the wayside, in favor of the never-ending newsfeed of what your long-lost friends are up to. Often, they're not up to very much! My husband and I started to vote on "The Week's Worst Facebook Update." (Sorry if your update is in here, friends reading this, but you brought it on yourselves!) Our top three nominees to date, in no particular order, are the following:

1) "Ate chicken and broccoli for dinner. Yum!" (Really? This qualifies as an "update"?)

2) "Having the best time of my life tonight!" (So why are you typing on Facebook?)

3) "Wish I were sleeping right now." (So get off the computer and go to bed!)

But, lo and behold, Facebook brought my blog a lot of traffic, despite the fact that I went about it all backwards by conducting blog business from my personal page. (I'm non-techy like that.) I've just now gotten around to figuring out a completely separate business page for my blog; in a way, I'm starting from scratch. (You can help me regain some lost ground by "liking" this blog in the right-hand column under email subscriptions. I finally figured out the HTML code for the "Like" widget today. Yep, I'm pathetic like that.)

Facebook still brings me more hits than any other medium. However, I wanted to broaden my network to include people I would consider "colleagues" but not necessarily "buddies." So, I broke down and joined LinkedIn. I had my two social media outlets, and that was that. Or so I thought...

At the beginning of the new year, I received the happy news from the BlogHer Publishing Network that they would be syndicating one of my favorite posts. They asked me to cross-publicize it with them on Facebook...and Twitter. So, (insert heavy sigh here), I broke down and joined Twitter, which was the social media site I had mocked the most mercilessly. Considering the gist of this post, I have some news that might surprise you: Twitter is amazing and not at all what I thought it was. Twitter finds like-minded followers for you, so anybody searching "green" will come up with this very blog you are reading right now. Twitter builds your audience, with very little effort required on your part. It's not really about "friends" or "colleagues"; it's about common interests. If I had known it was so easy to find people interested in green topics, I would have joined it ages ago--possibly before Facebook. (Apologies, Twitter, for all of the unfounded mockery.)

The point of all this social media rambling? In a word: Balance. In another word: Restraint. I have a whole category on this blog called "Unplug & Simplify"; social media is the exact opposite of unplugging and simplifying. Despite having a need for social media from a business angle, it's a constant struggle to maintain limits on how much technology I will allow into my life. Because being green for me does NOT mean being tied to my computer for hours on end, ignoring the changing seasons, the books I want to read, my dog who likes long walks and cuddles, the plants I need to water, and last but not least, my children, who are still quite small and need their mother. But, as I've learned in the last eight months, getting the green word "out there" means I must dip my toes into the waters of social media and wiggle them around. The key is to watch out for the undertow.

Now you tell me: What's your personal opinion of Facebook and Twitter? And should I join Pinterest? (I'm only half-kidding.)

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If you enjoyed reading this post, please subscribe to this blog via RSS reader (bottom of right column) or email (under "Categories"). Already subscribed? Please connect with me on Facebook and Twitter . To comment (and please do!): If you're a subscriber, click on the blue title at the top of the post to get to the main site. Then you will see the comments section at the end of the post. Thanks for reading Joyfully Green!

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Posted at 09:20 AM in Unplug & Simplify | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: BlogHer Publishing Network, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, simplifying, social media, technology, Twitter, unplugging

04/02/2013

Instantly Greener: Create No-Tech Zones in Your Home

I've been reading a lot recently about an increasingly common addiction called FOMO: "Fear Of Missing Out." These days, we are so wired into technology and social media that we often feel like there is something infinitely more exciting waiting for us inside our computer or mobile tech gadgets--so much so that we are missing out on the real-life people and events happening right in front of us. (Kids calling me upstairs? Just one more minute while I check Facebook...) The siren call of technology is a powerful seductress.

When I wrote my post called "Unplugging from Technology to Reconnect with Your Child", my friend Jess, a mother of two teens, wrote to me with some wise advice: "We have something called the 'Declaration of Non-Dependence on Technology' for our home. We have a 'phone zone' and everyone is supposed to leave their devices there, except to check them once in the afternoon and once in the evening. And no devices upstairs. It's not easy. It's not perfect. But, I feel like even TRYING is sending a better message." As parents, it's really up to us to set limits--and the earlier, the better. If our kids see us battling (and losing) the addiction to technology, how are they supposed to learn to think their own thoughts, unhampered by digital beeps and glowing screens? Do your children usually see you checking your iPhone or reading a book? Which activity would you rather see your kids doing on a regular basis?

My fellow eco-blogger Debi from Go Explore Nature wrote to me recently with this comment: "For quite a while now, I've been jealous of my son's passion for reading. How he can spend hours in his room devouring a good book, then gush about every detail to me later. And I asked myself, 'Why don't you do that?' So now I'm promising to turn off the junk TV now and again (I do love my bad TV) and get back to reading. I do love getting lost in a good book."

Do you ever complain that you don't have time anymore to read a good book? As Debi pointed out, sometimes it's just a matter of reorganizing your time and priorities--and that often includes turning off technology. Why don't you create a designated space in your home for curling up with a good book? I'm not suggesting that you buy anything new to make a cozy reading nook. Just find a comfy chair, a cozy throw, a good reading light, and a little table to set a cup of coffee or tea upon, and read the old-fashioned way--without a screen.

Please recommend the best book you've read lately (it doesn't have to be green!) in the Comments section below. I always love suggestions for my ever-growing stack of books! I'll go first: As usual, I'm concurrently reading a few books. I'm reading Walden (again); Jude the Obscure (because I go through these kicks of reading every book by a classic author--I finished reading Edith Wharton and Henry James and now I'm on a Thomas Hardy bender); and How to be a Domestic Goddess (because I'm an Anglophile and Nigella Lawson is both the wittiest and the coziest British writer I know--she's the only cookbook author I read purely for her prose). I'm also reading a couple of green books, but I'm saving those titles for future posts! Now, you...

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If you enjoyed reading this post, please subscribe to this blog via RSS reader (bottom of right column) or email (under "Categories"). Already subscribed? Please share posts on Facebook, Twitter, email, and out there in the "real" world. To comment (and please do!): If you're a subscriber, click on the blue title at the top of the post to get to the main site. Then you will see the comments section at the end of the post. Thanks for reading Joyfully Green.

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Posted at 01:44 PM in Instantly Greener, Unplug & Simplify | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: Edith Wharton, Facebook, Fear of Missing Out, FOMO, Henry James, iPhone, Nigella Lawson, social media, technology, Thomas Hardy, Walden

03/28/2013

Life's Too Short for Flat Soda and Stale Donuts

Years ago (1994, to be exact), I was leaving a theater after seeing "Il Postino" and I was so overcome with the beauty of the film, affection for the characters, and appreciation of the message that I vowed right there and then, "I'm not going to see any more bad movies. Life's too short to sit through bad movies. I want to see amazing movies like THAT." Well, I'm here to tell you that I've seen more than a few bad movies since then. Not only did I watch "Dude, Where's My Car?" more times on cable than I care to explain to you, but I have two little kids--it's par for the course to sit through a few real stinkers while the kids are howling with laughter at jokes clearly aimed for the under-ten crowd. However, my overall sentiment is the same as it was after seeing "Il Postino": Life is too short to waste time (or money) on inferior versions of things. Especially when you have a choice. And in America, we have no shortage of choices (many of them, really bad and worth skipping altogether).

I was reminded of this sentiment very recently when I read a short but incredibly insightful blog post at "First Today, Then Tomorrow" called "Pick One." Blogger Randy Murray writes: "You can have anything that you want for lunch. So why eat another bland fast food hamburger and french fries? There are literally hundreds of shows on the television. So why stare at another hour of screaming reality TV stars? You don't eat, drink, or watch bad things because they are cheap. You default to them because they are easy." Amen, Randy.

We have only so many waking hours in the day, and all of this sub-par stimuli is clamoring for our attention. Reality shows about mean people doing stupid things. Shopping malls and mail-order catalogs filled with STUFF we do not need*. Tell-all books, magazines, and websites that stalk and mock celebrities and celebrate their misfortunes. It's like drinking flat soda while eating a box full of stale donuts--where's the value in it? Why settle for this junk? Is it really worth your time and/or money?

I'm nowhere near perfect when it comes to avoiding all mind-numbing stimuli. Sometimes, after a long, grueling day, the last thing I want to do is "think deep thoughts"; it's pleasant to just turn off my brain for a while and kick back. I'm not talking about those moments; I'm talking about when I realize, with pleasant surprise, that I have a couple of free hours. How do I want to spend it? I can't tell you that I will absolutely always choose Dostoevsky over "Dude, Where's My Car?" And I can't tell you that I will always choose fresh air and a good, long walk over a nap. But I can tell you that by and large, I don't want to spend my free time reading somebody else's sales pitch or watching someone else's poor excuse for a good time. Life's just too short for stale donuts and flat soda.

Your turn: What's your favorite guilty pleasure? What's your favorite way to spend a free Sunday afternoon? Are they different or the same?

* Get taken off mailing lists for free at Catalog Choice.
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Posted at 09:17 PM in Green Ideas, Minimalism & Non-Consumerism, Unplug & Simplify | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: Catalog Choice, mail order catalogs, mindless entertainment, reality TV shows, shopping malls

03/24/2013

Pictures & Ponderings: From Thought to Action

"Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become your character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny."

The Internet is rife with different answers on who originally penned the wise words above--Mahatma Gandhi and Ralph Waldo Emerson are two of the most common guesses. I don't have the definitive answer either, but I love the sentiment about acting with purpose each day and living mindfully as you move through the world, and I'm grateful to my new nature-loving friend across the blogosphere, Fred First (Fragments from Floyd) for passing it along to me. I'm also grateful to the Pileated Woodpecker who posed for me above, as I admired his own steadfast purposefulness!

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Posted at 09:51 PM in Nature & Wildlife, Pictures & Ponderings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: living mindfully, Mahatma Gandhi, mindfulness, Pileated Woodpecker, Ralph Waldo Emerson

03/22/2013

A Good Composter is Hard to Find (But We Found It!)

As much as I'd love to tell you that composting came naturally to me, it just didn't. It takes some trial and error to figure it out, and it also takes a really good composter. Unfortunately, it took us five years and three failed composters to arrive at one that actually does what it's supposed to do--break down food, without breaking down. I know a few people who simply chuck their food scraps in a big pile in the backyard and cover it up with mulch, and if that works for you--great! However, we happen to live in black bear and coyote country, and we don't want our backyard to turn into a buffet for the wild kingdom--it's important to us that the compost stays well-contained. So, here's my official review of composters (all without worms, for you squeamish types).

Back in the summer of 2008, determined to divert our food waste from landfills (mostly due to my obsession with garbage and desire to create less of it), we ordered the NatureMill composter (this model appears to be an updated version) through Williams-Sonoma. It seemed like a revolutionary product because it was an indoor (!) composter, able to do year-round composting. We kept it right in the kitchen and we didn't smell anything. (Sometimes, my husband said it smelled vaguely of mushrooms, but he doesn't like mushrooms, and I didn't smell it, so I don't know what to make of that critique.) It was also able to compost things that are not recommended for other composters--meat, fish, poultry, dairy. However, it jammed up three times within the year that we owned it, and since it was relatively new to the market, customer service at NatureMill (although quick and courteous) seemed to be using us as guinea pigs to figure out their glitches. I had to go through the extremely unpleasant task of emptying out the contents (that's a nice way of saying "scooping out disgustingly stinky, dripping-wet food, well on its way to molding and rotting"), and my husband had to install a new circuit board, which helped--for a couple of months, until it broke again. And again. After the third strike, it was out--we sent it back to Williams-Sonoma and got a full refund. It's worth reiterating that NatureMill has updated their models to address previous problems, so maybe their new line works better (but we're not going to be the guinea pigs).

Onto our next model: the Sun-Mar Continuous Use Composter, purchased from Gaiam. This one didn't jam up, but the stand warped and the tumbler fell off its spinner. Also, it was a favorite playtoy with the neighborhood raccoons. We saw one little guy balancing on top of it--sort of like a circus clown on a barrel--and he was able to rip off the door, twice. Gaiam replaced it in a flash--we didn't even need to clean it out or send it back (their customer service rep recognized how incredibly gross the task was, plus the photo of the broken composter was enough proof for them). However, the replacement composter also warped and fell off its spinner. Gaiam promptly refunded us due to their (totally excellent) unconditional guarantee. So, that ended well--except for the two big, plastic composters that ended up at the landfill, badly defeating the whole purpose of using a composter to reduce our waste.

Just when we were about to throw in the towel on composting, we came upon the Joraform Compost Tumbler (pictured above) on Amazon*. It's been nearly two years, and the only problem we've ever had with it is that it arrived via UPS in a damaged box so the screws fell out en route (another reason for me to break up with the UPS man). The seller on Amazon (The Composting Warehouse) sent new screws and we had our handyman put it together for us (the instructions seemed a tad complicated, but we are just not that techy, despite our brief tenure as NatureMill technicians). It's a good size, with two chambers, and secure latches--wild critters cannot get into it. Whenever we add food scraps, we add a layer of dry mulch, spin it, and add more mulch. No smell at all. The compost turns out exactly as it should--like rich, aerated soil, with no real evidence that it was once food.

So that's my recommendation to you--and to my friend, Jennifer, who lives on a farm and spends a good deal of time shoveling sheep manure, and yet the concept of composting "completely grosses her out." Jen, I promise you, it's not bad at all--when you have the right composter.

Your turn: Tell me about your composting trials and tribulations. Qualms? Questions? I'm all ears!

*If you decide to order the Joraform composter (or anything else you see linked on this site to Amazon.com--such as the green books for kids and adults), please click through the link I've provided to buy them. It puts a few extra pennies in my pocket when you buy things that I recommend, and it keeps this blog advertising-free (for now). While I can't guarantee that you will love what you buy, I will never recommend anything on this site that I don't personally own, use, and love.

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Posted at 04:32 PM in Green House | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: black bear, composter reviews, coyote, good composter, landfills, mulch, raccoons

03/17/2013

Pictures & Ponderings: The Unpredictable Months

And just when we think "spring has finally sprung"

We wake up to flurries.

Powdered sugar sprinkles down on us all day and into evening

Covering the crocuses which have just started to peek out and say hello

Because winter isn't ready yet to say goodbye.

Mid-March and Mid-October are distant cousins:

They wink at us and whisper, "You don't know us at all."

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Posted at 08:23 PM in Pictures & Ponderings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: crocuses, March snow flurries, springtime

03/13/2013

Instantly Greener: Good Things Come in Little to No Packaging

Because I'm on the tinier side of the height spectrum, all my life, well-meaning folks have been telling me, "Good things come in small packages!" I didn't always appreciate it, especially when I was a kid and my pesky neighbor, Cliff Paininthebutt (who was only slightly less small), called me "Mini-Wheels" (I was speedy as well as tiny) and my parents tried to tell me that he liked me. Even these days, decades later, one of my eco-colleagues calls me "The Little Green Dynamo." (I sort of like that nickname.) But I digress. This is a post about switching from buying things in earth-unfriendly packaging (that will hang around forever in landfills) to buying things in little to no packaging (best), or earth-friendlier packaging (next best).

For example, pictured above is my new favorite passion: pomegranates. Sure, they have a thick skin, but since it's biodegradable and compostable, the "packaging" is null and void. If there is a more beautiful fruit anywhere else on earth, please tell me about it right this second, because to me, the pomegranate is a veritable work of art. What other food delivers layer upon layer of glistening rubies to you? They're juicy, crunchy (you can eat the seeds), and loaded with anti-oxidants. Bonus: Eating a pomegranate is super-fun for the kids (who should wear bibs or red playclothes--poms can get quite squirty and messy). So, that's your best bet on the packaging front: unprocessed fruits and vegetables, purchased loose or in reusable produce bags.*

Here's my second choice, above: buying products with low environmental impact. I just found this laundry detergent from Seventh Generation at the supermarket today, and I was really impressed with the innovative packaging. The outside layer is recyclable or compostable cardboard (there's an inner plastic bag--it's recyclable in limited areas), and the label says "this bottle uses 66% less plastic than a typical 100 oz. 2X laundry bottle and washes the same number of loads." The tissues are from True Green Enterprises and are "made from sugar cane by-products and quick-growing bamboo, reed or grass." The carton is made from 100% recycled material. Two green thumbs-up for both of those products. But now...(big, exasperated sigh)...

...massive thumbs-down to these organic foods for kids. Sure, it's sort of good (said in a begrudging tone) that various companies are making organic fruits and veggies which are convenient for parents to grab and go, but this type of packaging makes me cringe. One of them had the nerve to say that the plastic cap is recyclable--as if that's ever going to happen! It's not even coded for recycling, in the off-chance that somebody will try to do it. The thing that pains me the most about these single-use packages is that the companies are trying to portray themselves as "good for the earth" due to the organic products within (and granted, they're skipping pesticides and all of the problems those entail). Some of these companies advise you to send the empty packages onto other companies who will "upcycle" them into other stuff (imprinted with their brand name on it), but why not just have more responsible, easier-to-recycle packaging in the first place? As I learned when I was reading Garbage Land, Germany has their act seriously together on this front--they've enacted laws for extended producer responsibility (EPR), which means manufacturers must take back their unrecyclable packaging at the point of sale--and that means they avoid the cost and hassle by using earth-friendlier materials at the onset. Why are we so behind on this point?

It's enough to make me want to go lie down...or eat another pomegranate.

Your turn: Which things (if any) do you buy in the name of on-the-go convenience? Are there earth-friendlier things you can substitute for your current single-use, disposable items? What products out there get your green thumbs-up or thumbs-down?

*If you decide to buy these reusable produce bags (or anything else you see linked on this site to Amazon.com--such as the green books for kids and adults), please click through the link I've provided to buy them. It puts a few extra pennies in my pocket when you buy things that I recommend, and it keeps this blog advertising-free (for now). While I can't guarantee that you will love what you buy, I will never recommend anything on this site that I don't personally own, use, and love.

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A Note about Subscriptions, Sharing, and Comments: If you enjoyed reading this post, please subscribe to this blog via RSS reader (bottom of right column) or email (under "Categories"). Already subscribed? Please share posts on Facebook, Twitter, email, and out there in the "real" world. (There are social media sharing buttons at the end of each post on the main site.) To comment (and please do!): If you're a subscriber and you get this blog delivered to your computer, phone, or iPad, click on the blue title at the top of the post to get to the main site. Then you will see the Comments section at the end of the post. Thanks for reading Joyfully Green!

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Posted at 03:24 PM in Green House, Instantly Greener | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: anti-oxidants, biodegradable, compostable, eco-friendly packaging, EPR, excess packaging, extended producer responsibility, organic fruits and vegetables, pesticides, plastic, pomegranates, recyclable, recycling, reusable produce bags, Seventh Generation, True Green Enterprises

03/10/2013

Pictures & Ponderings: Stand Your Ground

"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground." -- David Vaughan Icke

Let me say right off the bat that I had no idea who David Icke was until I googled the quote above (first seen on my neighbor's bumper sticker) for proper attribution. If you've been living under a rock like I've apparently been and don't know who he is either, you can click the link above and see that he's got a lot of theories that are definitely "out there." But this post isn't about David Icke. It's about holding fast to what you believe in, no matter how preposterous it seems at the time.

I've heard so many people trash environmentalists like Al Gore and Ed Begley, Jr., and it always surprises me when people think they're nuts, given the current state of polar ice and superstorms. But I'm so glad that both of them planted the seeds of change and continue to face down the nay-sayers.

About ten years ago, I think I was the only one taking my own reusable grocery bags into our local supermarket. I felt like a bit of a freak, but it was personally important to me to cut down on my plastic consumption, so I braved the odd looks and soldiered on. Now, most stores are selling reusable bags right at the checkout, and it seems like only the minority of shoppers are still using those flimsy plastic bags. I'm not saying that I was personally responsible for the shift to reusable bags at my supermarket, but I am saying that I'm glad I held my green ground when it wasn't the popular or trendy thing to do.

How about you? Have you ever taken a stance on something that was unpopular at the time, but later became an accepted practice? Have you ever felt like an eco-freak?

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Posted at 09:16 PM in Pictures & Ponderings | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, David Icke, Ed Begley, Jr., plastic bags, reusable bags

03/07/2013

The Coyote That Wanted to Eat My Dog for Breakfast

It's been almost a year and a half since it happened, yet just last month, I had another nightmare about it. In the dream, I was walking our dog on a pitch-black night and without hearing a thing--just sensing something--I whirled around to see two glowing, green eyes. I bolted awake, shaking the bed. It was the coyote. Again.

In real life, it didn't happen that way. It was a sunny day in September, right after breakfast, and I was taking Delilah (still a pup) for a walk around our neighborhood. When we got to the cul-de-sac where the houses meet the forest, seemingly out of nowhere, it charged. For a split-second, I thought it was somebody's dog, loose from its leash. But this was nobody's pet. This was a wild animal, easily double the size of my 25-pound dog, foaming at the mouth and growling, out for one purpose alone: to eat my dog.

I have a rather odd but convenient habit of morphing into another person when I'm in high-panic situations. That other person has her act seriously together. So, no, I didn't scream or run. I got between my dog and the coyote (with about two feet between us), and I bellowed, with alpha-dog superiority, "NO!!!" I just knew, without even thinking about it, that there was NO WAY I was going to let this creature get to my dog. From a stroke of crazy luck, I had a little spray bottle with me filled with vinegar and water (thanks to a tip from our dog trainer), and I instinctively sprayed the coyote several times in the face.* Finally, it turned tail and ran back into the woods. I went home and in a steady, businesslike manner, I wrote an email to all of our neighbors, warning them that an aggressive coyote was out and about. I also called the township to report the incident. Then it hit me, really hard, as I morphed back into "regular" me: I had just fought off a COYOTE. A wild-eyed, raging, hungry, possibly rabid coyote. [Feel free to insert your favorite expletive here.]

Recently, I read an essay by the environmentalist David W. Orr called "Recollections."** In it, he recounts the night he came face-to-face with a coyote. His experience was just a wee bit different than mine and ended up with the two of them sitting down on the ground at a short distance apart, each cocking their heads to the side in mirror-language, and having a sort of telepathic chat with each other. When his coyote pal finally decided to head off into the woods, Orr says, "I stood and watched him fade into the trees along the creek and then walked home, blessed in some way that I could not describe." Suffice it to say, the only blessed feeling I experienced after my own coyote meeting was enormous gratitude that my little dog and I had walked home unscathed.

For the most part, we choose to live where we live--if not in a city, we might live near the woods, near the ocean, near a swamp, or near vast grasslands where we can't tell what's living within reach of us. A friend down south told me about a 10-foot alligator that made an appearance in her backyard. I saw a news story today about a 2000-pound great white shark that was tagged and released not far off-shore in Florida. My eco-blogging colleague Tricia in Australia recently wrote about spotting a funnel web spider about to crawl under their outhouse. ("Funnel web spider" seems to be another name for "tarantula." Take a look at that thing and be prepared to freak out.)

During the decade or so when I lived in Manhattan, there would be the occasional report on the evening news of a wild animal on the loose (never mind the all-too-frequent rat stories): a rabid raccoon, a very lost mountain lion, a coyote making its way down from the woodlands of Westchester County. I was never particularly pleased at the outcomes of these stories, which usually involved a policeman or an animal control officer killing the "trespassing" animal.

But the world has gotten a lot smaller, and sometimes the boundaries between "us" and "them" are blurred. This is the price we pay to live in a world graced with wild animals. Sometimes, we get too close for comfort, and one side loses the fight. In an article from The Wall Street Journal (which I found fascinating, despite the apparent pro-hunting bias), author Jim Streba writes: "It is very likely that in the eastern United States today more people live in closer proximity to more wildlife than anywhere on Earth at any time in history." I can't argue with him on that point--we have a veritable zoo in our own backyard.

A few years ago, when I was complaining to my husband that some kind of burrowing rodent was digging holes all over our garden, he said one of the wisest things that anybody has ever said to me: "It's just a little creature, trying to make its way in the world." I've thought of those words many times over the years (even when the creatures weren't so little): the time when my children wondered why a fox had eaten a pretty bird and left behind only a mess of bloody feathers near our doorstep; the time a black bear cub ambled across our backyard in broad daylight; every time I see the carcass of a deer who tried and failed to cross the highway. Like us, these animals are (or were) simply going about their daily lives, trying their best to provide for their families, or even just trying to make it through the week in the best ways they know how. Are they encroaching upon our territory, or vice-versa?

On any given day, you never really know what will greet you when you head out of your front door. The coyote experience shook me to the core, that's for sure. I carry pepper spray now and I'm only semi-afraid to use it. I walk outdoors with more awareness and a touch of paranoia mixed with bravado, much like I did during my time in Manhattan. And speaking of those days gone by in the Big Apple, the motto is the same here and now as it was there and then: "It's a jungle out there." Don't I know it!

Your turn: What wildlife have you spotted in your neck of the woods? I'm all ears!

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* Don't spray your dog in the face, especially the eyes. They don't like the scent of vinegar, so our trainer's point was to spray near them when they're doing something undesirable.

** The essay "Recollections" appears in the book entitled Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World (The Bioneers Series). Publisher: Sierra Club Books; (October 1, 2005)

Posted at 08:54 PM in Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: author of Nature Wars, black bears, coyote attack, coyotes, David W. Orr, foxes, Jim Streba, suburban sprawl, wild animals in the suburbs, wildlife

03/05/2013

Instantly Greener: Unleash Your Inner Farmer!

Just a few short years ago, I was proud of myself if I could grow my own basil without it wilting. Eventually, though, I started to feel embarrassed that it was the only thing I was growing. So, I branched out. Last year, our "crops" included tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, rosemary, oregano, mint, Italian parsley...and the trusty basil. I like to grow the things we eat the most, partly because I can't stand buying produce in those little plastic clamshell containers. (Even if they're recycled, they still create a lot of pollution in the manufacturing and recycling processes.) Plus, I can't always find organic produce, so I'd rather grow our own and know that it hasn't been sprayed to the brink of death with pesticides. Last but not least, it's a great lesson for little ones to learn that food doesn't grow in the supermarket. (Added bonus: They seem more likely to eat it if they grow it!)

Even with the occasional snow flurries lately, I can still feel spring on the way, which makes me excited to start growing our own fruits and veggies again. Naturally, I'm all for growing things seasonally and locally, but sometimes, I like to try growing things that don't usually grow in the northeastern U.S. Citrus trees fall into that category, and last spring, I bought three. Meyer lemon (pictured above), seedless lime, and mandarin orange. By late spring, we should have some of our first Meyer lemons ripening. Not enough to make lemonade every day, but enough to spritz on fish or slice for salads, I think. Since the citrus trees I bought are dwarf varieties, it was (relatively) easy to drag them into the house at the first sign of frost. I can't wait to drag them back out onto the deck once spring is here to stay.

Your turn: What did you grow last year? Successes? Failures? What's on your planting agenda this year?

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