Surviving the Cold in the South
Sunday, January 10th, 2010If you live up north you have no idea how crazy it can get in the south when it snows, melts and then freezes because up north you learn how to dress, walk and drive in this type of weather. Down south you have no idea how to do any of these things. You see the guy that has just slammed his car into a pole and gets out in shirt sleeves to look at the damage. You stop and ask him if he has a coat and he tells you he does but it’s back at the house. You ask him why his coat is at the house in 12 degrees weather and he says it’s because he didn’t plan on having to go any further than his car to the pizza place and then back home; there is no pre-planning involved here outside of the transportation departments.
It’s not their fault that this type of weather is beyond what they know and it would beyond mine as well had I been born and lived here all my life. As it is, I have been going out and getting things for my family and bringing it back because I am the only one experienced with this weather in my neighborhood. The good news is next week it get above freezing once again and life goes back to normal.
Methane Gas from Cows
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009Ever since I heard that one of the biggest problems we have is the expelling of methane gas from cows, I have wondered why this has become a problem in the last 40 to 50 years. It just didn’t make since to me that cows have “all of a sudden” become a driving force in global warming. Then last month I had a conversation with a family member who has been around farm animals all of her life and she told me something I didn’t know; cows who are fed corn and corn products have terrible digestive issues because corn is not their food staple, grass is.
So based on my own discoveries in relation to certain foods I have eaten over the years it makes since to me that if we are force feeding cows an unnatural food they may be producing and releasing an unnatural substance to them into the air; thus methane gas. Now I have no scientific proof of this but I’m sure someone smarter than me will do the science down the line and let the rest of us know. I sure would be interested in the results from anyone outside of the beef industry!
Could You Live Small?
Thursday, July 16th, 2009As an interior designer I love to read about different ideas that talk about spatial issues. I tend to be drawn to books about living smaller. I know that may seem contrary to some coming from an interior designer. However, living smaller really exercises the creative aspect of design. Anyone, with enough space, can come up with ways to organize and store our personal belongings. How much space do we really need, and now that everyone is talking “green” how efficient is it to have all that space? In the last year or so I read a book entitled “Put Your Life on a Diet: Lessons Learned from Living in 140 Square Feet.”
The author lives in a mobile home – literally. He can hook his home up to the trailer hitch of his car and go anywhere. What amazed me was his quality of living and out-of-the-box thinking approach to life. He lives completely “off the grid” meaning he has no utilities whatsoever. He gets up in the morning and bikes to the gym where he works out and then uses their facilities to shower, shave, and well you know. He takes his laptop to do his work at the library. Doing this he is using power that is already being used, so no additional electricity is used. He charges the battery there so he can use the battery power at home as necessary. There are many ways to live green, and although we may not choose be as extreme to go “off the grid” and move into a trailer house, we can challenge ourselves to be creative in conserving and living a more simple life that will in essence make us more green.