Everything's Coming Up Green

Archive for the ‘Being Green’ Category

Last week my mom and I loaded the girls up, packed plenty of snacks and water and headed out with a list of potential garage and rummage sales to tackle. I will admit that I was not quite as prepared as I would have liked. I didn’t have our route mapped out; I didn’t get our lunch packed (I did pack Emma’s though), and I didn’t get up quite as early as I would have liked though we left only 15 minutes later than I had planned. If there is one thing about West Omaha that I reeeally dislike it’s that the housing areas are severely screwed up! It seems like every other street is a circle or a dead end. We did finally find the first house. And I walked away with a sack full of items. It was mostly filled with 4-five wick Citronelle candles that I scored for $.50 a piece! I found a few fun things for Emma as well.

Next stop was the rummage sale. It.was.the.jackpot! I scored tones of stuff. Unfortunately when I was taking pictures of my spoils I forgot to separate out the items by specific stops. Oh well I guess it doesn’t matter that much. It certainly isn’t life changing for you or me.

The next one was a bust. It was one of those that when you walk up you can smell everything and it is not good. It smells like nothing is ever cleaned and everything smells the same. The mother was very nice and her kids were very sweet, but, um no. Not going there. I hopped back in the car and we were off to the next one. There I got a box full of balls for $2.50 and a sweet frame that I am going to refinish. I laughed at the price of the frame because it was only the second day of the garage sale (it was going for four days) and it had already been reduce twice. Why you ask. Because they started the price at a whopping $15! It’s a cool frame don’t get me wrong but not in the best of shape. I paid $3 and that was good for me.

Home décor and craft stuff

Kids stuff

Scarves

Pink necklace and earring set $2

2 mesh bed rails $2

All those tiles for $5!

The blue necklace I scored for $1

So I won’t list everything but I will hit the highlights.

Adjustable Booster seat $1

White stool $.50

Bag of scarves $1

Fall figurines $2 for pair

New bag of Raffia $.50

NWT Children’s Place Swimmer shoes $2 (for E for Vacation next year)

There was a ton more but it is late and my brain is fried. You can see it all in the pictures. It was good but it is definitely difficult garage sale shopping with two small children. The problem is in the Omaha area Thursday and Friday are the big days to garage sale (which means hubby is at work and can’t watch the kids) and you need to start early. My girls are not early risers (thank you Jesus!) so this poses a problem on that one. I love, love, love it though! And I will be doing it again.

Have you scored any hidden treasures at a garage or rummage sale recently? Join in and brag away!

I want to take a minute and share with you how my garden is doing. I will give you for warning that there are quite a few weeds. Since I was gone all last week and it rained every night while I was gone, all of the last minute weeding that I did before I left is no longer visible. It has rained every night since as well. Plus let’s be honest, laundry comes first. Anyway here are a few pictures of the garden.

These are my dad’s herbs- Basil, Cilantro and Thyme. The Rosemary didn’t make it.

The Tomato plants are starting to get blooms!

Heads are starting to grow on the Broccoli! I am so excited because this is my first time growing broccoli and it is looking so good even after the nasty storms we’ve been getting!

One of my many gorgeous Onions.

A potato plant.

My strawberries haven’t been much this year. It’s a developing year. I will say they are looking a ton better though.

My lone Pumpkin. I barely got this planted before a storm blew in. I planted 5 seeds on that mound and one came up. I didn’t get out there in time to start anymore mounds.

This is my Zucchini. I have two of these and as you can see they already have blossoms!

I think this is Acorn Squash.

I believe this is a cucumber. My other one died.

These are Straight Neck Yellow Squash.

Here is a view of all the vine plants. All those weeds to the right were not there when I left. Soon there will be mulch there instead.

One of my three pepper plants. I think that I am going to transplant them. The potatoes got a lot bigger than I thought they would!

There you have it. I will post more picks after I have had a chance to weed!

Spring has sprung and I have been getting my green thumb on! I have been busy weeding, planting, watering, and yes, harvesting!

 

 

 The strawberries are blooming beautifully now,

 

and as long as I keep harvesting the asparagus it keeps growing back. This fall I will transplant it over into one of the beds. It is currently planted where the garden used to be. We moved the garden because it was A) to far away and difficult to water and B) nothing would grow in the soil over there. Depending on how well my gardening venture goes this year I may try planting some stuff over there next year so that I have more room. I know, I know, I am very ambitious. But I love gardening and if you prepare well it will mean less work during the growing season.

Here’s the list of everything I have going this year:

7 Tomato Plants (3 “big Boy”, 1 Med sized, and 3 Cherry)

3 Peppers (2 Yellow, 1 Green)

7 Red Potato Plants

9 Heads of Broccoli

Lots of Red Onions

Almost an entire bed of Strawberries

3 Rhubarb

Several Asparagus

1 Acorn Squash

2 Cucumber

2 Zucchini

2 Straight Necked Squash

1 Pumpkin (Hopefully)

1 Raspberry Bush (To be planted)

3 Blueberry Bushes

The blueberry bushes are my grandparents’ pet project so I don’t have to worry about those.

My plan is to do a ton of canning, freezing, and salsa making with all those tomatoes. My dad has started a herb garden in a planter box so hopefully I will have fresh herbs to use in my salsa and spaghetti sauce!

Wish me luck! I can’t wait to share some of my garden love with friends and family!

       Whether you believe in “saving the planet”, reducing the number of plastic/paper bags in your house, or like saving every penny you can, bringing your own bags to the grocery store is a great idea. It has become increasingly popular for stores to offer incentives for customers to bring their own bags. In Omaha, Whole Foods offers a whopping 10 cents per bag, bakers and Hy-Vee offer 5 cents per bag, and Target has started offering 5 cents per bag as well. All it takes is a little thought ahead of time and you are set to go.

How to get started

       Before you go out and purchase a bunch of bags look around your house for bags that might work. Even paper or plastic sacks from previous purchases will work in the beginning. I have not paid for a sing bag in my arsenal. During Earth day (month) many stores and websites offer free bags or have their bags deeply discounted. Now granted $1 for a bag is not bad and you will definitely get more than your money’s worth but two or three for $1 is even better.

Consider making your own.

     You can check out the instructions here at Martha Stewart’s site for making bags out of t-shirts. I have several I have set aside to make into bags that no longer fit or have sweat stains in places that will be cut off for the bag; shirts that I can’t wear anymore but can’t bear to part with. I’m sure we all have one or two of those around the house.

On top of the monetary value, I personally feel so much better walking out with my own bags and not a bunch of plastic bags that never seem to go away. I could get on my soup box about how we use a material that was meant to last a long time for one time uses, but I won’t, there just isn’t enough time for that and you might miss my point.

       Ultimately when you are trying to be frugal and make every penny count you need to take advantage of every opportunity. $1 a week adds up to $4 a month, which adds up to $52 a year!

Do you have any creative bag ideas?

We are fortunate that we live in a City that offers FREE recycling and waste pick up (Free meaning we pay for it through our taxes of course). The problem is that many people don’t see the need to recycle because it doesn’t save them any money on trash pick up or that it can be sooo much extra work that its not worth it to them. There are so many benefits to recycling, the biggest being all the additional trash that is kept out of the landfill. Trash is inevitable but the less we dump the better. In 2008 Omaha residence recycled 15,000 tons of material.  That means Omaha residence saved half a million dollars in energy resources. It may not reduce our taxes but it can help to keep our taxes from rising. Since we have started recycling in our house we have drastically reduced our waste. We use a smaller trashcan that fits plastic grocery bags instead of tall kitchen bags and we only empty the trash about every two to three days. It is quite common that we will skip a trash pick up day because we only have two or three little bags in there. But if you look at our recycling bin it is full to over flowing.

  Its really easy to recycle in our fare city. Just call 444-5238 for a free bin. You give them your address and it is delivered the following recycling day. You can visit http://www.wasteline.org/mybin/index.htm for details on what you can and cannot recycle at the curb. They also have a list of drop off sites for some of the items not accepted at the curb. Waste Management uses single stream recycling so everything goes into one bin. No more separating the glass, paper and plastics.

So go on give it a try. It is such a great feeling seeing your recycling bin fill up and not your trashcan.

 

Do you recycle? How has it changed the way you see trash?