Think you have to save the world? No; it's not your job.
Think you can't do anything at all toward saving the world? No, that's not quite right either. Take a lesson from Edward Everett Hale. I love this thought. It's why we foster little batches of kittens every summer.
"I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But I can still do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
Is there some little thing you can do today to make the world a better place? Share a ride? Show someone a kindness? Read a little so that you can speak intelligently on some subject? Prepare to vote in your next election?
I believe that if you do a little something every day, or nearly every day, you ARE saving the world.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Kermit Was Right
It's not easy being green.
You would think that building a "green" energy-efficient house would be a no-brainer. Easy. After all, there are all kinds of environmentally "friendly" products available now. Wheatboard cabinets. Bamboo flooring. Low-e coated thermal windows. Energy-efficient appliances. Solar panels. It's all out there. But when you start doing research, you find out that all these decisions aren't so easy and obvious.
Take wheatboard cabinetry for example. In some installations, the cabinets have been literally falling apart in 5 years and have to be replaced. What's green about sending cabinets to the landfill after 5 years? I've chosen cherry cabinets made from all of the cherry tree, cracks, blemishes and all. Those natural characteristics will give me the rustic look I want and ensure that little or no wood is wasted. (Leftovers go to the local high school shop class.) They are somewhat higher end cabinets, made by a small company in Minnesota, Plato. Yes, they will have to shipped 1500 miles from there to here, but these cabinets don't look like the mass-produced stuff we commonly see. Because they aren't. Plato is a small company. Employees get a living wage with benefits. We will end up with high-quality, made-in-America-for-a-living-wage cabinets that wil be in style andl last forever. Or as close to it as one can reasonably get. I think that's green. You may differ.
Our Friday meeting with the architect focused on some remaining structural issues. But also on heating, cooling, window, and energy issues, all of which are tangled together like a ball of worms. We have Jen's energy calculations. And Randy's. Will the twain meet? Eventually. In the meantime, we still are struggling to figure out how much supplemental heating we need and where. And what window coatings to choose to optimize heat gain in the winter and heat lose in the summer. It isn't as easy as just slapping in low-e coated windows and a gas stove here and there. Wish it were. We have a long ways to go to deal with those issues and make those decisions. And 2 meetings scheduled with Jen the architect next week after she meets with the engineer(s) and the builder twice earlier in the week. Did I mention that we now have both a structural AND a civil engineer on this project? Never mind the surveyor who played out his part some time ago. And here I thought we were building a structure that was just a house. Sigh. Live and learn.
You would think that building a "green" energy-efficient house would be a no-brainer. Easy. After all, there are all kinds of environmentally "friendly" products available now. Wheatboard cabinets. Bamboo flooring. Low-e coated thermal windows. Energy-efficient appliances. Solar panels. It's all out there. But when you start doing research, you find out that all these decisions aren't so easy and obvious.
Take wheatboard cabinetry for example. In some installations, the cabinets have been literally falling apart in 5 years and have to be replaced. What's green about sending cabinets to the landfill after 5 years? I've chosen cherry cabinets made from all of the cherry tree, cracks, blemishes and all. Those natural characteristics will give me the rustic look I want and ensure that little or no wood is wasted. (Leftovers go to the local high school shop class.) They are somewhat higher end cabinets, made by a small company in Minnesota, Plato. Yes, they will have to shipped 1500 miles from there to here, but these cabinets don't look like the mass-produced stuff we commonly see. Because they aren't. Plato is a small company. Employees get a living wage with benefits. We will end up with high-quality, made-in-America-for-a-living-wage cabinets that wil be in style andl last forever. Or as close to it as one can reasonably get. I think that's green. You may differ.
Our Friday meeting with the architect focused on some remaining structural issues. But also on heating, cooling, window, and energy issues, all of which are tangled together like a ball of worms. We have Jen's energy calculations. And Randy's. Will the twain meet? Eventually. In the meantime, we still are struggling to figure out how much supplemental heating we need and where. And what window coatings to choose to optimize heat gain in the winter and heat lose in the summer. It isn't as easy as just slapping in low-e coated windows and a gas stove here and there. Wish it were. We have a long ways to go to deal with those issues and make those decisions. And 2 meetings scheduled with Jen the architect next week after she meets with the engineer(s) and the builder twice earlier in the week. Did I mention that we now have both a structural AND a civil engineer on this project? Never mind the surveyor who played out his part some time ago. And here I thought we were building a structure that was just a house. Sigh. Live and learn.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
A Window on the Truth
An astute reader, and probably my only reader astute or otherwise, has inquired, "What is a truth window?" Truth windows are, as far as I know, unique to straw bale buildings, although not all of them have one while some have more than one. I haven't the foggiest idea where this straw bale construction tradition started, but I think it's pretty cool.
You really can't tell that a straw bale building is a straw bale building. If you look closely, and the architecture has highlighted this, you might notice that the walls are thicker than normal, but, frankly, you can get thick walls with any number of construction techniques. You can also choose to finish the walls to highlight the undulating qualities of the bale stacks, but most people don't. So, many owners incorporate truth windows to prove that the walls are, indeed, actually made of straw.
A truth window is on an inside wall and shows the actual straw beneath the finished wall. Frequently a truth window is in the form of a frame around a piece of glass behind which, you guessed it, is the straw bale wall. Another oft used approach is to have a little door in the wall that opens to reveal the straw which may or may not be covered with glass. (Some folks want to feel as well as see their straw.)
We will have (at least) 2 truth windows. One is the little door approach, the small antique Mexican framed pantry door. (Turns out that small ones are rare; who knew.) That one will be in the library. In the laundry room we'll have an oval brass porthole. This is an actual porthole that would normally be installed in a yacht. And if my warped imagination comes across anything else too cool to pass up we may have another one somewhere.
You really can't tell that a straw bale building is a straw bale building. If you look closely, and the architecture has highlighted this, you might notice that the walls are thicker than normal, but, frankly, you can get thick walls with any number of construction techniques. You can also choose to finish the walls to highlight the undulating qualities of the bale stacks, but most people don't. So, many owners incorporate truth windows to prove that the walls are, indeed, actually made of straw.
A truth window is on an inside wall and shows the actual straw beneath the finished wall. Frequently a truth window is in the form of a frame around a piece of glass behind which, you guessed it, is the straw bale wall. Another oft used approach is to have a little door in the wall that opens to reveal the straw which may or may not be covered with glass. (Some folks want to feel as well as see their straw.)
We will have (at least) 2 truth windows. One is the little door approach, the small antique Mexican framed pantry door. (Turns out that small ones are rare; who knew.) That one will be in the library. In the laundry room we'll have an oval brass porthole. This is an actual porthole that would normally be installed in a yacht. And if my warped imagination comes across anything else too cool to pass up we may have another one somewhere.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Clothes Hangers
Remember me telling you how I'm slowly cleaning stuff out of our garage, and either getting rid of it or cleaning and packing it up for storage until getting moved into the new house? My objective is to deal with some pile, piece, box or stack of stuff most days that I'm at home. Apparently some piles, pieces, boxes and stacks will be a bit more challenging than others.
For reasons I won't even go into now, I had a huge collection of nice clothes hangers in the garage, all totally coated in dust. I spent a lot of time Tuesday cleaning them all, running batches through the quick clean cycle on the dishwasher, sorting them, and getting the hanger situation in our existing closets straightened out. Today I packed up all the ones going to the animal shelter thrift shop. Phew. I also have a small box of clean black hangers for the closet in our new library/guest room. And another box full that will go to the laundry room.
What a dopey, time-consuming job. But necessary. And with a really good set of outcomes. Joan Crawford would be proud of me, and I'm rather happy with myself, too.
For reasons I won't even go into now, I had a huge collection of nice clothes hangers in the garage, all totally coated in dust. I spent a lot of time Tuesday cleaning them all, running batches through the quick clean cycle on the dishwasher, sorting them, and getting the hanger situation in our existing closets straightened out. Today I packed up all the ones going to the animal shelter thrift shop. Phew. I also have a small box of clean black hangers for the closet in our new library/guest room. And another box full that will go to the laundry room.
What a dopey, time-consuming job. But necessary. And with a really good set of outcomes. Joan Crawford would be proud of me, and I'm rather happy with myself, too.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
2008: Week One at The Estate
You know. The Estate. Well, we have to have something to call it. Our land is 3.7 acres, but except for a small building pad, it's so steep you can't even walk on it. Deer can walk on it. Not people. '"The Building Site" has too many words. "The Estate" is short and simple.
Randy spent a lot of time January 1 and 2 planting at The Estate. He hopes to return the land to its former vegetal glory on the one hand, and increase the number of oak trees on the other. Eventually the existing mature oaks will die, so it's important to have young 'uns to take over. In anticipation of predicted rain (it came, a LOT of it!), he planted coffee berries, toyons, and something else I can't remember. And acorns. Hundreds of acorns. Acorns we harvested from the trees on site a while back, that have been resting and wintering in our refrigerator.
While it rained, we were in San Francisco at Pearson's national sales meeting. Pearson being Randy's publisher. He attended to launch the second edition of his first book. I tagged along to eat, socialize, be a bum, and shop. Damn, I'm developing a taste for Italian leather bags. Now we're home again. Randy's teaching full-time this quarter. I'm pursuing my clean-out-pack-up-and-move-stuff-to-the-storage-locker project. And generally working very hard to get and stay organized. It's going to be an intense year.
Randy spent a lot of time January 1 and 2 planting at The Estate. He hopes to return the land to its former vegetal glory on the one hand, and increase the number of oak trees on the other. Eventually the existing mature oaks will die, so it's important to have young 'uns to take over. In anticipation of predicted rain (it came, a LOT of it!), he planted coffee berries, toyons, and something else I can't remember. And acorns. Hundreds of acorns. Acorns we harvested from the trees on site a while back, that have been resting and wintering in our refrigerator.
While it rained, we were in San Francisco at Pearson's national sales meeting. Pearson being Randy's publisher. He attended to launch the second edition of his first book. I tagged along to eat, socialize, be a bum, and shop. Damn, I'm developing a taste for Italian leather bags. Now we're home again. Randy's teaching full-time this quarter. I'm pursuing my clean-out-pack-up-and-move-stuff-to-the-storage-locker project. And generally working very hard to get and stay organized. It's going to be an intense year.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
The Garage and The Storage Locker
Happy New Year! I'm so excited! 2008 is the Year of The House. I doubt there will be one boring day out of the entire 366. Even the last few days have been lots of fun. One night was dinner at Jan and Kirk's house with Nick. We talked of Nick's involvement with SLO Green Build, Jan and Kirk's wonderful RV trip to southeast Canada, Randy's trip to India, and, of course, The House since we are all interested in environmental and energy issues. Followed the next day by lunch at the Madonna Inn's Copper Coffeehouse with Wayne and Scott, friend Jim, and their wonderful beagle Eddie. Capped today by lunch with my cousin Marty and her daughter Julie who was visiting from Denver. I love these people. It was so great to see them all.
I promised a few words about the garage and the storage locker. One of the many reasons for building this new house is so that I will finally have room to pursue all my creative interests, especially weaving. I have 4 looms, but there isn't room here for 2 of them: my father's rug loom, and my 16-shaft Macomber. At the moment, like good Californians, our garage is packed with stuff that won't fit in the house. Obviously, boxes of weaving yarn and looms in pieces jammed into the garage aren't of much use to me here and now, so I'm bit by bit going through all this stuff, tossing and organizing where necessary, and carting things to a storage locker just a couple miles from the new house site. Bit by bit, nearly everything in this house will end up in storage there as we prepare to move.
There's nothing easy about this phase of the task: the garage. It's often overwhelming and frequently emotional as I shed stuff that just isn't relevant to my life anymore, however much it once was. I recently read a bit of clarifying advice about cleaning out: if it isn't immediately useful or deemed beautiful, get rid of it. I'll admit that my definition of "immediately useful" is a little loose. For example, I probably need never buy more weaving yarn, other than some basic black, of course. And beauty is clearly in the eyes of the beholder. Still, I love getting cleaned out, cleaned up and organized. When the house is ready for us, all we'll have to do is move stuff from the storage locker into the new house. Everything will be boxed and labelled. So far I've moved my basic weaving yarn into the locker along with boxes of fabric for weaving rugs. To-be-dyed yarn is now organized and boxed, ready to go into storage. Each day I resolve to tackle another box or pile or stuff, making that fateful decision: useful or beautiful? or not?
I promised a few words about the garage and the storage locker. One of the many reasons for building this new house is so that I will finally have room to pursue all my creative interests, especially weaving. I have 4 looms, but there isn't room here for 2 of them: my father's rug loom, and my 16-shaft Macomber. At the moment, like good Californians, our garage is packed with stuff that won't fit in the house. Obviously, boxes of weaving yarn and looms in pieces jammed into the garage aren't of much use to me here and now, so I'm bit by bit going through all this stuff, tossing and organizing where necessary, and carting things to a storage locker just a couple miles from the new house site. Bit by bit, nearly everything in this house will end up in storage there as we prepare to move.
There's nothing easy about this phase of the task: the garage. It's often overwhelming and frequently emotional as I shed stuff that just isn't relevant to my life anymore, however much it once was. I recently read a bit of clarifying advice about cleaning out: if it isn't immediately useful or deemed beautiful, get rid of it. I'll admit that my definition of "immediately useful" is a little loose. For example, I probably need never buy more weaving yarn, other than some basic black, of course. And beauty is clearly in the eyes of the beholder. Still, I love getting cleaned out, cleaned up and organized. When the house is ready for us, all we'll have to do is move stuff from the storage locker into the new house. Everything will be boxed and labelled. So far I've moved my basic weaving yarn into the locker along with boxes of fabric for weaving rugs. To-be-dyed yarn is now organized and boxed, ready to go into storage. Each day I resolve to tackle another box or pile or stuff, making that fateful decision: useful or beautiful? or not?
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