Natural oven cleaning

We renovated our kitchen in 2006 and I am embarrassed to say that we have never cleaned the oven (properly) since we bought it. Ick. I know.

Part of the problem is that oven cleaners are toxic, and I didn't have the energy to think of an alternative. I find it odd that after two kids, I have found some sort of hidden energy that I didn't have before -- one that doesn't need sleep and gets things done.

This is where the Internet is a lifesaver: a quick natural oven cleaning search led me this site. Using her method I got down and dirty with my oven and here are the results.

Now this does require a bit of muscle and its not as clean (especially the glass) as I'm sure it would be with a toxic oven cleaner, but the alternative of a safe method for my kids, the air we breathe and the food we eat trumps a spotless oven.

The Green Market

After a few trips to Madison and their illustrious Saturday Farmer's Market on Capitol Square, I was feeling a bit let down living in the Chicago burbs. Yes, we have Whole Foods but our Farmer's Markets are more "craft-show" than local, chemical-free produce, and the Chicago Green Market is too far for us to travel on a weekly basis.

Wesley at the Green Market -  July 2011

Then I found out about a local Green Market, and every Thursday little Wesley and I high-tail it out west to get farm fresh eggs, in season produce, and pasture-raised meat (and this is in addition to our bi-weekly CSA share we pick up).  After we pick up our goods, I make my weekly stop at a local shop for the best Americano and chocolate croissant, and we head back home.

Life's little rituals make me happy.

Officially a SAHM, frugal diva

Monday marked my first week as a SAHM (Stay-at-home-Mom).

I told myself that it wouldn't feel any different than the last 12 weeks I've been home, but it did. I went grocery shopping with the baby yesterday, and driving around in our SUV I felt like I needed to have mom jeans on and a bumper sticker saying "My kid's an honor roll student at [fill in name here] Junior High." Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The week also marked our official start of living "frugally." Since October (and our decision to go to 1 income), we've made some changes in the way we spend. For example, we...

• make our coffee every morning (no more Starbucks or fancy $4 lattes every day, although I did give us a budget for coffee/weekends. We can't be entirely miserly). Monthly saving: $60
• make our lunches every day (no more $10 lunches when make sandwiches for $10 for the week.) Monthly saving: $160
• No more careless spending. Just in general, we're watching those extras that we buy but don't need. Monthly saving: $50

So far so good, but there's always more.  KT left me a comment with some great advice on where to save money.  (Unfortunately, I do a lot of those already because I tend not to be a wasteful person -- like wrapping presents with used bags. In fact, I had more than 1 friend give me a gift in alternative wrapping saying, "I knew you'd appreciate this!")

But here are our other cost savings measures Matt and I have just agreed to:

• No more cable. (This was a suggestion from KT). We barely watch anything other than some sitcoms. I don't watch TV during the day and at night, who has time? We're lucky to get in 1 DVR'd sitcom in.  (MY SUGGESTION). Monthly saving: $75
• Lose our 2nd car. We can't fit the baby in it anyway, so it's a waste of gas and insurance and maintenance. It's paid off so it doesn't cost us alot, but it's money that can go somewhere else. (MATT'S SUGGESTION) Monthly saving: $60

 In all, this will save us about $4500 a year... which we will be spending on the baby's formula!

"It's a beaut, Clark."

So we finally got a new furnace.

I know, exciting blog-worthy news. But when you're furnace looked like this - running at 80% efficiency, rusted out in the inside, and overheating so that the nameplate melts down -- it can be pretty exciting stuff to get a new one.

OLD Janitrol Furnace (5 years ago - looked better)

New Trane XV95

2010 is the last year for the tax credit, and our city is offering rebates up to $1000 per household for any energy changes made to your house (we had the audit a month ago). So all in all, we got a good deal on this Trane XV95. Already our house is cooling much better.

Energy Audit

Our city got some grant money from the government to provide its residents with energy audits, and with that you can get up to $1000 back on any energy improvements you make (this is in addition to the tax credit).

So I quickly signed us up (which I was lucky I acted so quickly), and we had our energy audit yesterday.

Improvements they recommend:

1. Insulate the attics **
2. Replace the furnace and water heater
3. If we don't replace windows (not a lot of ROI on window replacement), then we should upgrade our storm windows.

** If we can only afford one thing on this list, this is their recommendation. It's the best ROI, and where you lose the most heat from your house.

Home improvement is never done! Now I need to start calling for quotes on getting this all done before the end of the year.

Also before the end of the year, we hope to finish the bedroom floors (only the baby's room got replaced), and replace the family room carpet with hardwood. This will make us so much closer to getting the house almost done (well the INSIDE!).

Toxins … everywhere

I was reading one of my library books on how to have a greener, safer home. Sometimes, I wonder if it's not better to stop reading and live my life, toxins, cancer-causing agents, and all?

• Parabens in my shampoo and soaps … these mimic estrogen and can cause cancer
• Triclosan in toothpastes … this is an antibacterial substance

Determined to be as "au natural" as possible, I've switched to Tom's of Maine toothpaste (I had a free sample to get me started – basically tastes like baking soda rather than fresh minti-ness), and I checked all my soaps for parabens so now I'm only using paraben-free stuff. Anything else I need to worry about?

First Crop of the Season

Yesterday we picked up our first crop share of the season.

We joined a CSA – Community Supported Agriculture – with our next-door neighbors on the every other week plan (because even that was too much for 2 people!). The nearest farm to our house for pick up is the Green Earth Institute in Naperville.

Pick up is from 530-730, I left at 5:10 and got there close to 6PM – and it's only 12.5 miles away! I took the BMW all alone, so this was my first "real" alone trip driving the stick shift that far in heavy traffic and it was great. Although when I turned on the gravel road to the farm, I cried, "Oh no, my car!" And then I saw all the other SUVs and felt like we were a bunch of hypocrites. Next time, I'm taking the Civic with all my bumper stickers. Matt won't let me fancy up the BMW with stickers …

I got there during a lull, so the line was short and I got to mull over which 7 turnips I wanted, and which 6 garlic snapes looked thickest. My 2 big Madison Farmer's Market bags served my well as I ladled all the greenery into them, thinking I'll need more bags as the season continues.

This bi-weekly share included (and I'm splitting this with our neighbor): 1 summer squash, 7 turnips, 5 radishes, 6 garlic snapes, 1 Chinese cabbage, 1 bag of sugar snap peas, spinach, mesclun, and Asian greens, 1 broccoli head, 1 bunch of Swiss Chard, and 1 bunch of green onions.

Tonight I am making pasta with greens, garlic snapes, broccoli, onions, truffle oil, and Parmesan cheese. After kickboxing class, of course.

Solar Nerds

Saturday was the Solar Tour I talked about here, and Matt and I only managed to see 4 houses out of the 7 I had mapped out for us. Oh yes, I google-mapped our tour and if it weren't for the fact that we were searching for crumbs on the car seats to sustain us just another hour or two, we would have made it.

But the 4 houses we did see were all very unique and we walked away with a lot of ideas and thoughts on the subject of solar. First off, there are 2 types of panels we saw throughout -- PV panels that harness energy for electricity, and Solar water panels that heat the water in your house.

House 1:
This guy did everything himself and since he has such a large lot (unincorporated as well), he built all his solar water panels and PV panels on his lot as opposed to a roof. He has 11 solar water heater panels! He's only on the grid as backup and it's mostly for the winter. And he has back up battery (10, I think) storage for the evening/cloudy days.


House 2:
They just did the solar water panels - 4 of them - on their roof. The owners weren't around but a nice guy from illinoissolar was and he told us about it. I think $40,000 was the amount that a solar water system would cost. OUCH. But he said that IL and the US government both have rebates and tax incentives that help offset the cost, and then in some cases you're cutting your bills in half ... so, there's some give and take. But it takes a few years to reap the initial costs. He builds electric cars and told us the Prius was awesome. Just another dilemma: Prius or Solar Panels?

House 3:
Now this house was SPECIAL. And I'll talk more about this here on Rosemarie's Garden because it was more than just solar PV panels ... we're talking green roof, complete native Illinois prairie habitat, passive solar design house. Wow. Right in the middle of the suburbs. A true oasis.


House 4:
This one most closely resembled what we'd like to do for our house. They started with the solar water panels (installed by professionals). The owners said they saw an immediate return. Then they added solar PV panels on their own. So they have both on their (very large) roof. They don't have battery storage so the house runs on solar during the day (sunny times) and then works on the grid the other times, but they harness enough power that they don't use to sell back to their town. In this case, their meter gets turned backwards and they get money back from whomever is buying the energy.

So now that we've taken the tour, we went back home to look at our very odd shaped and tiny rooflines and wonder if we can even do this? The cost is a big factor so we would really have to invesitage the rebate/tax break issue.

Solar, dude

Solar energy.

I want it. Can I have it? Can I put solar panels on my house and transform this meek split level into George Jetson’s dream vacation home? Can I harness the sun’s power to heat and cozy-up my abode the way the Delorian harnessed 1.21 gigowatts of nuclear energy to travel through time?

Matt – who before we got married actually went to an energy fair and contemplated life in a hay barrel house – and I have thought a lot about solar power/panels. We haven’t done any research on this – how to set it up, the initial costs. But we agree this is the direction in which we want to go.

All I know – all I think I know – is that you need:

• your roof to be south facing in some way (the sun is strongest facing south)
• space in the house to house all the generators and batteries that store this energy.

We have both – we’re north/south facing with ample roof space on the south side. Plus our unfinished basement could hold a plethora of gizmo-gadgets. So now we need to explore further and lucky for us … this Saturday is an Illinois Solar Tour where you can take a free self guided tour to homes and businesses that have adopted solar energy. You can view their panels and their set ups, ask questions and see what it’s all about.

Sometimes I think the Western burbs as a whole is not as forward leaning, green-minded as the city (and near-city) dwellers, so I was so happy to see 14 different places to visit. I total in the Chicagoland area there are 100+ places. Very cool.

Move over plastic

I’ve broken free from plastic … well, plastic food containers at least.

Despite the recent scare that the plastic containers leak horrible chemicals into your food when you nuke them (what in that sentence wouldn’t make anyone say, “uh duh?”), I’m surprised I hadn’t unshackled the plastic reins a lot sooner. Plastic containers suck.

• If you put them in the dishwasher they sometimes bend all out of shape.
• Most times the lids fly the coop, off to the same “Land o’ Lost Things” where the sock doubles end up.
• And if you can find a lid, they usually stop fitting properly and you get all sorts of spills
• There’s no easy place to store them, they end up taking the entire top row of your Lazy Susan and you find yourself shuffling for 2 pieces that match every morning around 7AM, with your eyes barely open.

Glass, notwithstanding the possibility of shattering into a million pieces, will hopefully be a better choice. And it better be better because I’ve just ordered a whole bunch of new glass containers which will fit snugly into my lunch bag, and house all my leftovers.

Organic Produce

The last few times I've gotten together with my parents and grandparents, we start to fight about the idea of organic produce with my dad and grandpa against it (a government conspiracy to make us spend more money) vs. my mom and I.

According to my dad and grandpa, no one uses pesticides to grow vegetables. Sigh. These 2 men come from Italy where they were really fortunate to eat the freshest fruits and vegetables grown locally and free of chemicals. Unfortunately they don't realize that modern US agriculture and 1950's Italian agriculture aren't the same.

Anyway, one of the arguments was that if you had to choose which items to buy organic, what would they be. Well, the most recent consumer reports magazine has a nice little list of the TOP 16 items that when grown conventionally will have the most pesticides. So if you buy organic, make sure these are:

Fruits:

• Cranberries
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Strawberries
• Pears
• Apples
• Cherries
• Cantaloupe

Vegetables:

• Green beans
• Sweet bell peppers
• Celery
• Cucumbers
• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Peas
• Lettuce

A clothes line

After reading an Op Ed piece about how much electricity a clothes dryer uses, and the virtues of hang drying your clothes outside, I am seriously considering this lifestyle change.

In 1989, when we moved into our new -- but old as it was built in 1964 -- house, a clothes line was attached to the back of the house. In the summer, you would pull the line out and attach it to a pole at the opposite end. For a long time, my mom dried her clothes on that clothes line, sheets and underwear alike hanging in the breeze. I think the line broke a few years back, because on a recent visit her clothes were hanging over the railing of the deck. New location, but she still hang dries her clothes.

We bought our new washer/dryer only last year and the washer's spinning mechanism is so fast that the intent is to ring out so much of the water that you don't need to dry your clothes as long. So I doubt we'd be saving the $100 the Op-Ed's author is saving; however, there's something about it that makes sense nonetheless.

For instance, when it's 80 degrees outside, does it make sense to dry your clothes in the dryer?

Off our kitchen, we have a utilitarian patio with the hose and shed, as well as my pots full of tomatoes, onions, and peppers. That spot seem's ideal to sun dry our clothes. My only question is would any of our neighbors complain -- the clothes line isn't seen much these days and our backyards are pretty close together.

And I would feel a little bit embarrassed having my undies hanging in the breeze, not to mention that I highly doubt Matt would let me even get close to the doorway with any of his unmentionables. This may turn into a covert operation.

Catalogs

After buying a few things on-line, I started to get catalogs. No biggie, they were entertaining to flip through and then I dumped them right in the recycling. It's never a problem if they're from stores you like. But once I bought a gift at Pottery Barn baby and then I started getting kid catalogs sent to me (and I have no kids). Add in a few magazine subscriptions, and then you start getting catalogs from stores you didn't know existed.

Once I got my eleventh JCrew catalog for the season (yes, they have early- mid- late spring catalogs all filled with the same stuff in case you didn't see it the first time), I stumbled upon CatalogChoice.org in the newspaper as a way to eliminate catalog waste.

Basically, you sign up and report the catalogs you're getting that you don't want and they make a request to the company. And best of all, it's free.

So if you want to stop getting those annoying unsolicited catalogs, then this is one way to do it.

Earth Hour: Fun with candles

Last night between 8-9 p.m. was Earth Hour. Did you shut off all your lights?

We were at my Aunt and Uncle's house for my cousin's birthday, and what better way to bring out the birthday cake but in a house swathed in candlelight. It was almost romantic, walking around a modern house with only candlelight to light the way. To pass the time, the over 60 crowd discussed at the kitchen table and the younger crowd hung out in the family room where we made sure the candles didn't set anything on fire; we passed the time trying to play a game where you say a word and then everyone has to sing a song with that word in it.

For that hour, it felt intimate as we all huddled close, and when the lights came back on, everything had to adjust, not just our eyes.