National Prescription Drug Take Back Day

A lot of you probably know how to find out where to recycle almost anything -- just to go to earth911.com. 

One of the more difficult things to dispose of safely is unused medication.  You can't just flush it down the commode or throw it in the garbage. 

This Saturday, October 29, is the Drug Enforcement Administration's National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, from 10am to 2pm.  Visit the DEA's website to find a collection event in your area!

Planning An Eco-Friendly Move

We're finally doing it! My family and I are packing up and moving back to the East Coast from Texas.   It will be great to live closer to family and actually see some Fall foliage.

In preparation for the move, I focused on two main areas. 

1. Eco-Friendly Packing Materials
The first thing I investigated was the possibility of limiting or eliminating the waste of using cardboard boxes and tape.

www.rentagreenbox.com

A few cities have some amazing options for folks moving intra-city, such as: Rent A Green Box.  For a modest fee, you can rent reusable boxes (with tops).  The company drops plastic boxes off at your point of departure for your move, then picks them up at the destination after you've unpacked them.  It also sells eco-friendly packing materials for fragile items.  And if you plant your used packing labels in the garden, you can watch lovely snapdragons spring forth!  Rent A Green Box currently operates in Orange County and Los Angeles Counties.

Live in Seattle or the surrounding areas, Canada, Idaho or Minnesota?  Take a look at Frogbox.

BungoBox serves markets in Arizona and Florida.

Rentacrate serves a number of markets and can be used for cross-country moves.

2. Moving Less Stuff
Moving is a great opportunity to pare back.  If there's anything we haven't touched in a few years, whether it's kitchen equipment, books, toys or clothes, it's going to be reviewed.  Holding a moving sale and advertising it on craigslist.org is a great way to cull your possessions.  We plan to do this two weeks before departure.  Whatever is left over will be donated to Goodwill for a tax deduction or given away on freecycle.org.

Cute garage sale sign from www.sassysigns.com.

What are your eco-friendly moving tips?

Mid-June Backyard Bounty

One of the lovely things about living in a place like north Texas is how easy it is to grow your own food.  Lots of heat and sunlight go a long way toward generating good growth.  As long as you water things well and watch for pests, you've got some good food on the table.

Though I neglected to replant one bed that I'd used for winter crops, I did plant two others with a variety of yummy summer delights: sweet corn, green peppers, luscious tomatoes, strawberries and watermelon.

If you've considered growing your own food but think planting beds is too arduous, you don't need to - just get a few big pots and have at it.  Many foods grow really well in containers.  In fact, here in Texas I have to keep my avocado and citrus trees in pots because they need to be brought inside in winter.  You can read more about container gardening by doing an internet search (including finding some inspirational photos), but click here for one blog with some good, quick information.

Here are a few shots of our backyard bounty:

Juicy tomato ready for plucking.

Second batch of sweet corn is almost ready to pick.  You haven't tasted truly sweet corn until you've tasted sweet corn from your own backyard.

One of seven watermelons now growing.  This one is actually growing in our strawberry patch.  The watermelon vines are really aggressive.

Granny Smith apple.

Golden delicious apple.

Lemons.

Butterfly Garden

One of the really fun projects I completed this Spring at my children's school was the installation of a Butterfly Garden.  I also bought a butterfly kit so the children could watch the caterpillars transform, then release the butterflies into the garden.

Butterfly gardens aren't just pretty to look at - they serve a purpose when placed near a vegetable garden such as the one I installed at the school.  Butterflies, like bees, are great pollinators - but they don't sting.  This is a plus for the kids since they love to tend to the vegetables.

Creating such a garden is a very simple and fun project to do with kids.  Just prepare a garden bed and fill it with plants that attract butterflies!  This includes plants that caterpillars love to munch on (such as herbs like dill, oregano and fennel), as well as flowering, nectar-producing plants that butterflies love to visit.

Here is an aerial view of our butterfly garden:

Top row, from left:

Verbena, Blue Salvia, Lavender, Phlox, White Salvia

Bottom row, from left:

Lantana, Dill, Oregano, Lantana, Blue Salvia, Phlox

 

Once the butterflies were ready to be released, the children gathered around and I opened the enclosure right inside the garden:

The children cheered as the butterflies flew from the enclosure.  The last butterfly needed some encouragement, so I lent a hand:

What a beautiful day.

Springtime in North Texas

It's been a busy few months full of distractions. 

The main one was a major health scare that turned out to be absolutely nothing.  This served as a reminder to me that it is a very good idea to get a second, third or even fourth opinion.  On the plus side, I am totally fine.  On the negative side, I wasted a lot of emotional energy.   It also highlighted to me that it's not worth getting upset about something until you really know what you're dealing with.  The bright side of the ordeal was that my heightened emotional state prompted me to get many things done that I'd been putting off.  In fact, I created a big long list and knocked things off one by one.

In the midst of this I did a lot of gardening.  I got the school's veggie garden squared away, planted two new trees there and started a sunflower garden for them.  I then added several trees to our own backyard and prepped three raised beds to plant a variety of things: spinach, broccoli, carrots, romaine lettuce, strawberries, watermelons, tomatoes, bell peppers, corn and cucumbers.  I added blueberry bushes, ordered some banana trees and potted an avocado tree, a lemon tree and a clementine tree.  I also planted hibiscus and hydrangea plants.  I can't wait to see the blooms.

Here you see the cold weather crops coming up:

I added a new feeding station for Nemesis Squirrel because he wasn't sharing any birdseed with the birds.  It took him a week to figure out it was there, which surprised me given how clever he seems to be. 

Things are waking up here in North Texas.  The flowers and trees are budding and the grass is coming out of hibernation.  Spring and Autumn are my favorite seasons, so it's a happy time of year. 

One extra special experience was taking my boys camping for the first time.  Sleeping out under the stars and roasting marshmallows for s'mores (no, not organic) was so much fun! 

Don't wait to share these experiences with your kids.  There is no time like the present!