Enviro-journal...

20070323-Ontario Food Co-op

While sprucing up my website in preparation for the Glebe Eco-Fair, I came across this interesting group- the Ontario Natural Food Co-op. According to their website: "Our mission is to support a sustainable food system by providing, with integrity, quality service in the distribution of organic and natural foods and products within a socially responsible, co-operative network."

They have minimum orders for their food items, so they suggest forming a buying club with a group of other interested individuals. They have some ideas on how to do this here.

20070319-Checking out the energy bill

Colin and I were checking out our energy bill the other day, to see how we're doing on that front. We were a bit dubious about our energy usage, because we run a dehumidifier and a couple of extremely ancient computers in our basement (we are somewhat the equivalent of the people who keep old rusty car parts around 'just in case' but with old computers instead). To find out how we were doing, we found some stats for the average consumption of electricity in Ontario. According to the graph we found here, 61% of people use an average of 1000kWh or less per month. The remaining percentages of people use more power. Based on that, we're in the typical range, but I think there are a few things we could try to bring it down a bit more.

20070210-Revenge of the Composter

So, although things started out well with the composter, they did not end well. What happened, you may ask? Things were going quite well for the first week. There was minimal odour when the composter was opened, and no odour when the composter was closed. I kept adding stuff- mainly vegetables for the green material and shredded paper for the brown material. By the second week, though, things started to get a little strange. The composter started to smell of...I kid you not...vodka and rising bread. Strongly. That was sort of okay, but then, by the third week things really took a turn towards the smelly. I'm talking Night of the Living Dead smelly. So smelly that the compost has now been buried in the backyard, and I'm hoping it doesn't rise again in the spring.

I called the company and asked them what was up. They said they thought I had chucked so much stuff in at the beginning that the cultures didn't have a chance to get well established. They also thought I didn't have enough brown stuff, and suggested sawdust. So we'll see. For now, the composter is taking a time out, in the basement, and I'm waiting until spring.

20070114- Wrastling the Composter

My friends lent me their new indoor composter to try out. They hadn't had a chance to get it up and running, and they knew I was intrigued by it (I think the continual inquiries about it every time I saw them may have tipped them off). I started it up last week, just in time to deal with the mountains of old Christmas and New Years left-overs. I'm not one to do things by half measure. I followed the short preparation instructions and chucked everything in. We'll see how it goes.