Happy Green Beings

Visit Simple Mom this weekend for some sage advice, and a lovely eco-friendly giveaway.  The give away includes soy candles (non-polluting, not made from petroleum), some reusable produce bags, and a subscription for Pear Budget.  Pretty sweet!

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After sixteen years of sleeping on the same mattress set, we’ve splurged. W’s economic incentive rebate and most of our solar system rebate has been dutifully spread around. Beginning with a mattress that we hope will prove to be an

heirloom, we completed our new sleep platform. A 5″ thick hand made compressed wool mattress by Shepherd’s Dream has been dropped onto a set of latex foam strips, each glued to the slats of a wooden bed base. We are also enjoying the wool topper we bought to go with. They are shown together to the right. After 16 years of pillow top, we wanted more than a reed mat. We decided to opt for a queen sized IKEA Sultan Lovene which comes in two slat bases resting side by side. A single one is shown below to the left. Each base has it’s own independent adjustable section of slats located under the area where most of each person’s weight will be distributed.

This was no quick decision. We researched. We dialogued. We inquired. We sampled. We planned. And once we were granted the federal funds, we ordered. Shepherd’s Dream uses wool collected from sheep who are treated a certain way, by people who don’t believe in the use of hormones, etc., etc. The folks that make the mattresses charge enough to pay themselves a living wage (and they live in California). The sample was just large enough to lie down shoulders to hips, but it was the clincher. You’ll have to visit someone like us if you want to try it in full size, or go stay at a bed and breakfast in Canada. You won’t find their line in any show rooms because they don’t want to deal with retailers who may pressure them to do business in ways that they aren’t willing to compromise. Direct sales only. Smart in a know your limits sort of way, isn’t it? True to the testimonies, it really feels like a fine product.

IKEA’s bed base was a bit of a gamble on our part. We spent as much on keeping our bed frame and finding a way to support the mattress with it as we would have for a bed frame from Shepherd’s Dream. I like what we’ve found to go with our bed frame. But if we had it to do over again we would have ordered the Shepherd’s Dream box insert shown above to the right. The Sultan Lovene allows us the additional option to tip-up the head of the bed while reading, but we really haven’t used it yet. It also provides an area of adjustable firmness for each person, as well as independent support for each person, but the latex foam provided independent support anyway. It will allow the mattress to breath similar to the Shepherd’s Dream slat base. We tried the mattress set directly on the IKEA bed base and we could feel the slats. We were glad that we had ordered the latex foam strips which have been glued down over each slat. The latex strips are shown below to the left. Ours are not visible when the bed is made, but a few can be seen when it is not. The main challenge was that our bed frame has no midbeam, so wooden slats alone wouldn’t work. Initially, I thought I would want to install one of my own. But the prospect of watching our head board and foot board gradually come unglued during our slumber drove my search for another option. Our bed frame is designed for a box spring. The set of Bedbridge Trusses that I ordered provide support for the wooden slat bed bases by spanning from one side rail to the other, and come with adjustable posts supporting them at their midpoints. This is a major compromise on going with all wood support, and was not a green nor an inexpensive choice. Because I’m no engineer, I ordered another set offered by the same company that comes with a single truss, and a pair of Bedbridge Beams. That gives us four trusses with center posts and a pair of beams that have no posts. I’ve spaced them evenly, using the beams at the head and foot of the bed bases, and the trusses under the weight bearing portions of the bed bases. A new bed frame or the bed box that Shepherd’s Dream offers would have been greener options, but I was convinced I had a better idea. These are the sturdiest products I could find to go with the IKEA product, and I’m confident that they will support the bed bases for as long as they last.

About IKEA’s Customer Support. While ordering, the lack of a confirmation page led me to believe that my first attempt to order hadn’t gone through.  I ordered a second time, and the confirmation page showed that second order, but not the first. That’s right, I ordered two sets of bed bases. When they arrived, I was confused, and immediately navigated to their customer support page. Although I did have to wait a couple of days for a response, they credited our account, and I have been told to dispose of the extra set of bed bases. What could beat that?

So what is it like to sleep on after a month? I like it. With the latex foam and the topper, it feels like a firm mattress with a pillow top. I haven’t played with the slat bed’s firmness, but it is adjustable as long as you don’t completely glue down the latex foam across the entire surface of a certain section of slats. The directions are to leave the covers down during the day which suits me fine. There is enough give in this foundation, yet we don’t seem to feel the other person moving when they turn. I’ve also spent nights spread out across the center while Anja was away traveling, and there isn’t any problem sleeping over the seam between the twin IKEA slat bases. I really like the idea of not needing to throw a mattress into the landfill.

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This is a cool website for kids that has some fun activities and games. It’s all about the environment and it’s pretty creative! Check it out- http://www.meetthegreens.org/

Enjoy!

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Check out this link to some inspiring college students making a difference where they can.

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Grocery shopping is interesting at our house.  Rarely these days do we go to a regular grocery store.  I’ve managed to piece together several different sources where we can get quality food at prices that are often lower than the grocery store.

 We purchase milk and eggs directly from a farmer about 1 1/2 hours from our house.  The farmer delivers our order and several other families orders to our house once per month.  The milk is not certified organic, but they do use organic practices.  The eggs are from ranging chickens, who get to peck at the ground eating bugs, so their eggs are large, deep yellow and really nutritious.  The farm has a little store where they carry food that is healthful for those following the Weston A. Price Foundation guidelines for diet.  There’s raw milk cheeses, lacto-fermented foods, sea salt, natural sweetners, and sprouted grain breads to choose from.

Another source of year-round food for us is our natural foods co-op.  We buy from Natural Farms, a natural foods distributor out of Madison.  This order is also monthly, and we buy many things in bulk, saving on packaging and pricing.

We have hooked in with other folks who occasionally make runs for natural meats–Amish raised chickens, turkeys (in fall), chicken brats–and sometimes eggs, too.  I also buy coconut oil from another co-operative group about 2-3 times per year.

 In season, the Farmers’ Market is about the most fun way to grocery shop ever.  It’s like a festival every Saturday.  There are some good ones in the area.  Appleton has a lovely market, and the market in Madison is worth the drive.  I’d love to see comments from folks with their favorite markets.

Of course, since I work there, The Red Radish is a place where we get food, too.

 We finally own a piece of property that gets enough sun to attempt having a garden, so we will hopefully see a bountiful harvest of tomatoes and peppers there this season.

Some of our favorite local farms are:

• Cattleana Ranch:  grass raised beef, pork and lamb.  CSA for meats and produce
• Prospera Farm: growing “moreganic” produce, available at the Appleton market
• Park Ridge Farm: certified organic, available at the Appleton market
• Keune Authentic: growing produce biodynamically, CSA available.  also distributes other farmers’ produce
• Makes Scents: growing sunflower greens, pea shoots, and distributing other healthful products

So, lots of people ask why I do all this.  I love the community around food.  I love the connection with other people who wish to purchase quality foods for their families, and who are concerned for the impact our food raising has on the earth.  I’ve learned a lot from many of these folks, gotten to know them over the years, and it’s a joy to greet them and purchase my food from them.  I don’t have that kind of connection to our food if I go to a big box grocery store.  While I’m not a purist (I do buy avocadoes, citrus fruits, bananas, etc), I like that much of our food is local. 

I welcome comments from folks who have their own great sources of food, so that we can share.

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The curb side discount electric lawn mower has died. The bearings are gone on the electric motor, so no point in repair. The battery was loosing it’s ability to make it half way around the yard anyway. So out with the rotory mower, and back in with the reel mower. Eugene Klein, who fished our local waters, and kept a garden next door, had a reel mower that he used well into his 50’s. At some point it broke and he finally joined everyone else and purchased a Lawnboy gas mower, so the sound of cutting grass finally changed in his part of our neighborhood. All of the sudden, the late evening lawn mowing was no longer an option. City ordinances had already addressed complaints between neighbors across the region. Soon, their language would be generalized to address the use of their string trimmers, wood chippers, and other noisy two cycle motor driven power tools. Ultimately, power washers, and leaf blowers would fall under their authority as well. Instead of rakes edgers, and leaf sweepers powered by muscle, everything had either an electric or small gas powered element to it.

Mr. Klein never turned to the rototiller. He had long established a well aerated soil structure, composting his fish remains along with yard waste. My brother’s dog so loved to excavate and roll around in that stuff when I tried it in mom’s flower garden. And did he ever have the tomato and green bean crops. We always had plenty of fish in our freezer, fresh tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers on our table, followed by rhubarb for mom’s pies. Friday evenings during the summer, we ate like kings even though dad’s business was in start-up. And they were all thanks to Mr. Klein’s habitual use of a garden fork and skill with his spinning rod. The Lawn-boy and the garden fork used for traditional vegetable and flower gardening seem at odds in this time of global warming, but were completely compatible to a guy who grew up in Northern Wisconsin’s logging camps. Pick the right tool for the job and maintain it until it can’t be fixed. Fishing on Lake Winnebago from a wooden boat with an old Evinrude Motor and a pair of oars, Mr. Kline showed me how to use the wind while drift fishing for walleye pike on early mornings or overcast days, depending upon which shift he worked. He motored out until we lined up the center Elm tree with the radio tower, and another elm tree with a silo, and low and behold, the depth of the anchor went from 15 feet to 7 when he had me drop it in. We were right over the rock pile off of Garlic Island which the walleyes used like a corner hangout. He took me out to further his limit, but I was the one who took home the fillets those summer days. We used his home made jigs, poured from a piece of lead that he found at the army surplus store, and tied with care from buck tails that he brought home from deer camp.

A few weeks before he passed away, Eugene and I sat with my daughter while we visited in his living room. The house still smelled the same as it had when I was growing up. He asked about my children, and talked about his children and grandchildren. The garden was still there, though not as many vegetable plants were in residence as when I lived at home. He ordered a single box of girls scout cookies, and we said farewell for the last time. Taking out the reel mower reminds me of Eugene Klein, his care for his friends, family, and his home. I just purchased a garden fork last evening, so I’ll be thinking of him as I use it to turn the soil for our new vegetable garden plot. I only hope I can prepare the soil as well.

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