Come the Revolution

Lydia Marie Child’s American Frugal Housewife is a classic of 19th century industry and morality. Child was an early feminist and abolitionist steeped in the Transcendentalist movement, and much of her advice to young, less-than-wealthy housewives still rings true today. I picked up a copy while at Sturbridge Village this summer, even though I’m no housewife and, frankly, Cian’s the frugal American in this household. Here are some of Child’s more salient points.

Time is money.

The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all the fragments, so that nothing be lost. I mean fragments of time as well as materials.

I’m guessing there was nary an idle hand in the Child household. While it’s no longer economical to knit our own stockings in between other tasks, we can still make use of time when our hands or minds would be otherwise unoccupied by knitting for gifts or charity while watching TV or learning a useful language while walking or taking public transportation (or driving, if you can still afford that).

Live well within your means.

No false pride, or foolish ambition to appear as well as others, should ever induce a person to live one cent beyond the income of which he is certain. If you have two dollars a day, let nothing but sickness induce you to spend more than nine shillings; if you have one dollar a day, do not spend but seventy-five cents; if you have half a dollar a day, be satisfied to spend forty cents.

Well would you look at Mrs. Child, preaching the dangers of a credit economy in 1828. She’s right, though. Modern-day frugalists advise us to put away 10% of our earnings which, depending on how much (or how little) you make, may seem to add up v e r y s l o w l y. A more dramatic an adventurous savings method for the seriously committed couple is to live entirely off of one partner’s earnings, and put the other’s directly into savings.

Pick up your twine and paper.

In this family, when the father brought home a package, the older children would, of their own accord, put away the paper and twine neatly [. . . .] If the little ones wanted a piece of twine to play scratch-cradle, or spin a top, there it was, in readiness; and when they threw it upon the floor, the older children had no need to be told to put it again in its place. [. . .] The other day, I heard a mechanic say ‘I have a wife and two little children; we live in a very small house; but, to save my life, I cannot spend less than twelve hundred a year.’ Another replied ‘You are not economical; I spend but eight hundred.’ I thought to myself– ‘Neither of you pick up your twine and paper.’

There are limits to how much twine and paper you can pick up when you live in a (frugally) small space, but this hint has served Cian and I well. He saves plastic utensils from the occasional take-out meal to bring with his brown bag lunch, and I wash and save the tubs that soft cheeses come in to store my own yogurt cheese in. Ah, plastic: the modern day twine and paper.

An apple a day. . .

Avoid the necessity of a physician, if you can, by careful attention to your diet. Eat what best agrees with your system, and resolutely abstain from what hurts you, however well you may like it.

Doctors are expensive (and also, in case you hadn’t noticed, the sky is blue). Stay healthy by exercising, eating well, and maintaining proper hygiene (and by walking carefully down stairs) and, hopefully, you’ll save on doctors bills. Knowing how to deal with everyday illnesses at home is also useful, and Child provides a fairly extensive list of remedies. You might want to rely on something a little more recent.

Choose your lot.

Says Germanicus, ‘There is my dunce of a classmate has found his way into Congress, and is living amid the perpetual excitement of intellectual minds, while I am cooped up in an ignorant country parish, obliged to be at the beck and call of every old woman, who happens to feel uneasy in her mind.’

‘Well, Germanicus, the road to political distinction was as open to you as to him; why did you not choose it?’

‘Oh, I could not consent to be the tool of a party; to shake hands with the vicious, and flatter fools.’

Since Germanicus is wise enough to know the whistle costs more than it is worth, is he not unreasonable to murmur because he has not bought it?

Could you be earning more money than you are now? I could be, if I was willing to make certain sacrifices. I tried that; it made me an unhappy person. So I elected to do what makes me happy, for less money. We’re still comfortable, paying our debts and putting money into savings, but things are definitely tighter. But you won’t hear me complain: I’ve chosen my lot. Not all of us have the luxury of choice, but to the best of our ability we should choose what makes us happy, whether that’s a fat bank account or more leisure time or even (perish the thought!) goats, and then get down to the business of living well.

“Camels eat grass; grass needs water. So did their masters’ crops, whose bounty begat a population boom of humans. More humans needed more herds, pasture, fields, and more water—all just at the wrong time. No one could have known that the rains had shifted. So people an their flocks range farther and grazed harder, assuming that the weather would return to what it had been, and that everything would grow back the way was.
It didn’t. The more they consumed, the less moisture transpired skyward and the less it rained. The result was the hot Sahara we see today. Only it used to be smaller:Over this past century, the numbers of Africa’s humans and their animals have been rising, and now temperatures are, too. This leaves the precarious sub-Saharan tier of Sahel countries at the brink of sliding into the sand.”

Alan Weisman wrote this in his book The World Without Us, which provides not only a view of the constructive destruction the Earth would offer human structures should humans disappear (say, were we wiped out by a deadly virus) but also a history of the world from archaeological, anthropological, botanical, and agricultural standpoints. As a nerd, this book is completely engaging- I felt as though my knowledge of the world was expanding simultaneously in every direction. It engaged every aspect of my knowledge and comprehension of the world.

It was also refreshing, and terrifying. Refreshing knowing the earth would reclaim much of the surface damages caused by humans within a few hundred years. Terrifying that it could not reclaim all of the damages.

Hey y’all, sorry about the duplicate posts yesterday. This new theme forced me to change our permalink structure, and feedburner read the new permalinks as new posts. Shouldn’t happen again.

Happy autumn! Especially to those of you who live in places where it actually is autumn.

Photo by Glockenblume.

I was reading yet another article about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and thought a post on that topic was a bit overdue. I guess I’m tired of seeing it everywhere and didn’t think it would be all that interesting to post about. What caught my attention today and made me rethink this lack of bee talk was that yet another “possible cause” was listed in this article. It seems each article puts out its own “possible cause,” as though only one choice will really affect the bees at all. In reality, bees are a very suceptible and sensitive group of species, and the honeybee is an especially sensitive one in some ways. Part of the reason for this may be that the honeybee is a domesticated European animal, and being in the Americas by itself is not what the animal is wired for.

As for the possible reasons for CCD:

Radio Waves- There was a concern a while back that the cell phones and other constant presence of radio waves would confuse bees. This seems to not be a big factor because colonies in areas with no cell phone service and extremely limited ability to pick up radio or television broadcasts are just as affected as those in areas with heavy cell phone use and multiple radio stations.

Monocrops- Having only one crop, especially when that’s the only crop for miles and miles in every direction, leads to a desert in terms of food for bees. During a short period of time every plant is in bloom, such as in an apple orchard in the spring, and then there are virtually no blooms for the rest of the year. One flood of blossoms cannot sustain a colony. Because of this type of desert a lot of large monocrop establishments rent bees.

Rented Hives- These hives often travel hundreds of miles between crops. Not only does this stress the bees in general, but there’s a good chance they won’t find any food along these long drives. Fasting, essentially, for a few days or weeks while traveling could easily stress individual bees to the point of death or exhaustion (wherein they don’t return to the hive); at a colony level this is almost expected. As prarie lands are being converted to agricultural land, such as in Colorado this season, the plethora of flowers that give these colonies renewed energy between crops are no longer available, and we can only expect more colonies to suffer the unfortunate fate of CCD.

Mixed Hives- At monocrop fields and even the resting places, colonies from all over are put in the same field. The bees don’t go into the wrong hives, but they interact outside of them. This makes these large gatherings similar to a kindergarten in that if one kid has lice, that is if one bee has mites, they’re all going to get mites.

Pesticides- Heavy spraying of pesticides, especially with crops that are routinely sprayed regularly and heavily (i.e. apples) during the season, may effect the hives in the area. I am close to a farm that has both bees (rented, here only for a few weeks of course), and sprays every few days. Some pesticides are specific, they only (or at least, we think they only) effect certain pests, leaving beneficial insects untouched; some are broad spectrum, effecting many or all the insects interacting with the chemical.

Systemic Pesticides- These are a special kind of broad-spectrum pesticide that is actually within the plant. One of the ways that its effects have been described to me is that these pesticides confuse insects so they don’t know that they ought to (biologically speaking) eat or damage the plant (from an agriculture perspective). There’s nothing to say that these don’t also confuse bees, limiting their knowledge of how to get back to the hive. Organics don’t use systemic pesticides, but they can use something called “surround,” which provides a level of confusion to the insect (due to standing in sticky clay-covered leaves) ‘distracting’ from their intended purpose of damaging (or fertilizing) the plant.

photo by cdw9

Aww…

Last night, NPR’s All Things Considered discussed the recent republican ploy apparently newsworthy issue of Obama’s comparison of McCain and W’s positions. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig, he said: it’s still a pig. Then, even though McCain had said the same thing about Hillary Clinton’s health care platform mere months ago, someone at the McCain camp thought it would be a brilliant idea to take the phrase out of context and make it sound like Obama had in fact been referring to the Repub’s vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.

I am so disgusted by politics at this point that none of this surprises me, and I almost turned the radio off. I’m glad I didn’t — I would have missed this absurd clip of Joel Salatin (of Polyface Farm in Swoope, VA) putting lipstick on a pig. Literally.

It’s so funny that whenever mainstream media talks about Salatin, they say “Made famous by Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” The farmer had written half a dozen books by the time Pollan’s book came out — he’s been famous in certain circles for a long, long time. I wonder who he’ll vote for? He strikes me as a libertarian, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he voted for McCain.

For the record: Salatin told NPR that when you put lipstick on a pig? It is, in fact, still a pig.

Photo: johnmuk.

I like to cook, but I’ve never been much for recipes. Basically I just take flavors that make sense and put them together, using recipes for inspiration.

But you can’t do that with baking — which is why Cian is the designated bakier in our little kitchen. But when he went away to farm for five months, I was left with two options for baked goods: pay too much for mediocre muffins, or learn to make them myself.

There’s a great flexible-muffin recipe in The Tightwad Gazette, but it was a little too flexible for me. I needed something a little more clear cut.

Luckily, Cian picked up a little cookbook called Cooking for 1 or 2 at a used bookstore last year, and it has a great basic muffin recipe with lots of possible additions. It’s so easy even I can manage it — and that’s saying something.

Magnificently Easy Muffins
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar or honey
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
3 Tbsp oil

possible additions

• 1 Tbsp cooked, crumbled bacon
• 1 Tbsp thinly sliced green onion
• 1/4 cup shredded cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped dates or nuts
• 1/3 cup blueberries
• 1 tsp grated orange or lemon peel
• 1/4 cup raisins and 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup grated carrot, apple, or zucchini

Stir dry ingredients together and make a well in the center. Combine liquid ingredients separately and add to dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Let sit for one minute, then fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

My favorite combinations: Apple-walnut and green onion and cheese. Now that Cian’s back I can pass the baking torch back to him — I’m hoping he’ll make me some zucchini-cheddar muffins. I’d say “hint hint,” but subtlety has never been my strong suit.

Photo by tin_G.

I got a heads-up that the recent plastics post was too much of a downer. The trouble is, I don’t want this blog to devolve into “reduce, reuse, recycle” and all the tips so commonly used you can recite them. I figure if you’re reading this you’re aware that using a cloth bag for your groceries or investing in permanent containers lets you use less plastic.

Therefore, I have made a completely different list of tips as to how to live plastic-light or plastic-free. If you want real help in this arena, ask Allie or Beth.

#1 Have money. A good bike costs money. All-natural-fiber clothing costs money (especially if you don’t like sweatshop labor being involved, you liberal). Your new wind-car is bound to cost money.

#2 Live within walking/biking distance of a store through which you can purchase most necessities in bulk bins. This generally requires living in a city, which will limit your ability to raise your own food. Choose your poison.

#3 Be extremely stubborn. No matter how dehydrated you are, never buy a plastic bottle of water. Always wait until you can buy glass (Perrier?) or re-fill your method of water container.

#4 Brand yourself “GREEN.” Wear Michael Pollen books in the back pocket of your 100% organic cotton and/or hemp pants. Never take transportation, even public transit, if it’s not gasoline-free.

#5 Be a Fruititarian. If it hasn’t fallen off the plant, the plant clearly doesn’t want you to take it.

Look down. If you’re like me and fully clothed I’ll bet you’re wearing plastic. No, really. Think about it. Is your shirt a cotton/poly blend? What are your shoes made of? What are the soles made of? Anything in your pockets? How about that credit card, your ID, and a keychain or pen? Even if you are wearing or carrying no plastic on your person (and kudos to you if you fit in this category), you’re looking at a computer, and most of its components are some combination of metal and plastic.

I’ll bet you at least occasionally use plastic bags with your groceries or other purchases, most of which are packaged in plastic in some way. This morning I went to the pharmacy to pick up some things. I left with medication in a plastic tube, a small plastic container, bandaids, a bar of soap and two tootsie rolls. Upon recent examination of the tootsie roll packaging (I put one in my mouth for a few minutes), I think it is plastic-covered paper (it used to be wax — plastic is cheaper). The bar of soap has a laminate on the outside of the box, even though it’s called “Grandpa’s,” which is particularly funny because when my grandfathers were my age, plastic had yet to become ever-present.

That’s something I all too often forget, surrounded by my laminated wood-pulp “fiberboard” and plastic everything. The world you and I know now is completely based in plastics. Even “eco-friendly” food and products are shrink-wrapped in plastic. Organic growing, especially on a large scale, relies on plastic to help battle weeds that conventional growers mow down with toxins. And almost all of it is virgin plastic- it’s new. Post-consumer recycled plastic is not popular, but nether is recycling. Go to the nearest dump and look at the trash that’s yet to be buried. An unbelievably high portion of it is plastic. Take a cruise and you’re whisked around the areas of ocean, called gyres, where currents cause (a lot, but not all) plastic trash to end up, and much of it does make it to the ocean eventually.

Just something to think about.

As you, dear readers, may or may not know, I recently left my job as a blogger at an environmental organization here in DC. There were a lot of reasons why it made sense for me to move on, but — now listen here — being burnt out on “green” is absolutely not why I left. Honestly.

But I am burnt out. I’m so burnt out that one more poorly-written email pitch from a PR firm representing a “green” freakin’ car company could have sent me over the edge. You would have found me slouched on the pavement outside of McDonald’s, PFC-coated burger wrappers and supersized milkshake cups strewn around me, shouting about how global warming is a hoax perpetrated by Al Gore.

Here, in no particular order, the things that drive me crazy:

“Green” everything. Sometimes, green makes sense. Green travel, for instance — that’s a great way to describe a style of traveling that an eco-savvy audience might be interested in. But your SUV that gets 20 miles to the gallon? It’s NOT GREEN. Just stop.

The same tips, over and over and over. If one more freakin’ eco-websites tells me to switch to CFLs! I can’t be held responsible for my actions. If you’re going to write tips, make them good. Original. Useful. Just read Allie for a while, and then try again, okay?

Pictures and stories of drowning polar bears. I get this one. I really do. Playing on peoples’ emotions makes them more likely to pay attention. But honestly, I’m just not strong enough to read about it every day, and going through tissues at this rate can’t be environmentally friendly (but hey, at least they’re recycled).

Complaining about the current administration. I’ve done my fair share of this, especially at the afore-mentioned job. It’s not that there isn’t plenty to complain about. After a while it just loses its purpose. Yep, they’re screwing up, and we’ll be cleaning up after them for years to come. Complaining about it day and and day out isn’t going to fix it. It’s just going to make me want to throw things.

Awesome New Recycled Chairs and Other Things You Don’t Need! A certain major eco-blog (you know the one) likes to write about “sustainable design,” which basically means “stuff you don’t need and probably can’t afford that won’t actually fix this problem we’ve gotten ourselves into.” I like cool stuff as much as the next girl, but we can’t shop our way out of this, and seeing consumerism represented as sustainable living drives me to drink (but only the finest organic vodka, of course).

Ah. . . I feel better already. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Photo by Two Stout Monks.