Hunters are often villified by animal lovers for killing Bambi, but people should know hunters are the first people to notice damage done to the environment by business/poor practices and advocate for change. Also, hunting and fishing permit fees are usually earmarked for environmentally-related expenditures.
To reconcile the two sides of the argument, my question is "are you going to eat the animal you just killed?" Also, are you going to spend a bit of time (and ammo money) practicing to take a good shot so Bambi doesn't suffer from your lousy aim? If the answer to these two questions is "yes," than I have no problem with hunting for food. If not, then I have little respect.
There's something to be said for looking the animal you are about to eat in the eye and then butchering it yourself ... makes you more conscious of the animals sacrifice and more motivated to use every scrap and bone (not just the animal you killed, but also the neatly packaged ones in the supermarket). You're more likely to only eat what you need to stay healthy.
As a child, my father fished and hunted deer and fowl. We always helped dress the animals we ate (a nasty job, but not rocket science). In lean times we ate a lot of suspiciously shaped-shaped "chicken stew" that I now know to have been squirrel, opossum, raccoon, birds, snake, rabbit, moose and all sorts of "garbage" species. Blech!!! Raccoon is nasty! Possum and squirrel actually -do- taste kind of like chicken.
They say that in the Great Depression, people in urban areas were so hungry that there wasn't a spec of small game (squirrels, birds, etc) to be found anywhere. If the choice is to hunt or go hungry, than by all means hunt!
I don't think you realize how much available credit has been cut from the general public in the past 18 monhts, about $1-trillion of un-used balances, with another $2 trillion to go. If you have an 800 Fico Score, you wouldn't be aware of this, but the average american, has a Fico score under 720, and they have all had thier available limits cut back. An average guy with only a $3,000 to $5,000 balance available, has had his line cut anywehre from 30%, to just a hair over whatever the outstanding balance is right now. That little game causes lots of over-limit events, which causes fines that result in 35% to 50% interest returns to the credit card lender, and stretch truth-in-lending laws to the limits.
Bottom line, look out Christmas, that card debt is what the average american has been using to buy X-mas gifts for the past 15 years, and this year....they don't have it. Retialers are in for a shocker of a lifetime, that nobody is really admitting to.
We plug our bathtub, take our showers and use the tub water to flush the toilet (with a bucket). We have enough tub water to never need to flush the toilet. Every 10 days or so, I also use the tub water to wash the dirty socks. The kids socks get so dirty that they usually need two washings; the first pass is done with used shower water. We also use the tub water to water our garden, flower beds and compost bins (we have a chlorine filter on the shower).
You make an excellent point. Poor people are just like us, they just have less money! If we all took a second and examined just how close we are to being poor ( one pay check, maybe 2?), we'd be less hasty in our judgments. That being said, the requests which the original author noted are ridiculous. My family is middle class and we can't afford gifts like this for our own children. You can "blame" the media and society from here to sunday, but it's by shirking our personal responsibility to educate and ingratiate our children that this kind of sickness evolves.
I think that the fake/real tree dilemma should be approached from a regional perspective. In some places in the country fake trees are appropriate, in some real trees are appropriate.
Where I live, in the Rocky Mountain West, you are rightfully ridiculed if you have a fake Christmas tree (aside from legitimate allergy concerns). The West faces huge costs associated with forest fires each year, which thinning goes to alleviate. Christmas trees are a renewable resource that goes to support local jobs. The carbon footprint in transportation costs is far less than if a fake tree were shipped from China. Furthermore, trees are a carbon sink, and by removing thousands of trees from the forest each year, and using them in a way that does not release their carbon into the atmosphere (aka not burning them), more trees will grow up in their place, going to help abate the effects of global warming.
So for me, a real Christmas tree it is. But the reasons why I choose a real tree might not necessarily hold in New York City or Los Angeles.
Yes, I felt the same way, that some of her choices were bad and undermined her point. I guess what I came away with was not that it is impossible to pull one's self out of poverty -- obviously a few people do it -- but that to do so requires an iron will to defer every tiny bit of gratification (damn hard when your life sucks), coupled with physical stamina and just plain luck. Most of us like to think we would make better choices in that situation, but most of us are deluding ourselves.
I think she does do an excellent job of illustrating a point you made in your other article (thanks for the link!) about how being poor makes life more expensive: the people living at the motel because they couldn't afford a security deposit for an apartment, the fast food meals eaten for lack of basic kitchen equipment, etc. Other manifestations of this are paying to have checks cashed and to pay utility bills because you can't open a bank account (no min. deposit, or no banks in your area); doing grocery shopping at convenience stores because there are no grocery stores in the neighborhood; and so on. And you can never take advantage of any economy of scale, whether it's bulk buying at the grocery store or a ten-ride bus pass, because your budget is so limited. The lack of a cushion is what makes life simultaneously more expensive and more risky. Once you have that cushion, once you "get ahead", you can live much more cheaply. It's a whole different situation.
Anyway, I see you know all this. :-)
Thanks for the response.
"Grey water system" cracks me up, but we have one. "System" sounds so technical. It's as simple as running our drain hose into a trash can. The trash can is set up on bricks and has a hole in the bottom attached to a pool hose. The hose is directed at whatever is thirsty in the yard. The only thing we have to be careful about is the type of soap we use.
Installing a system to store shower greywater for use as either (a) water for the wash cycle of a clothes washer or (b) for use to flush toilets or (c) irrigation for landscaping is worth considering as an option.
Also, it is possible to rerig the outflow of your washing machine to a barrel (like a big trash barrel) so that you save the rinse water of one load for the use as the wash water of the next load, thus saving 50% of the water you would normally use. There are also automated systems to do this, but the basic way is to manually pour the rinse water from the bucket into the washer once the new wash cycle has begun.
I'm a social worker. It's been my experience that a lot of these "Angel Tree" types of requests from the needy are usually filled out by staff of the agencies that provide the names. Since I had a caseload of about 50 kids that I was required to put up requests for, and so did everyone else, we just went around asking each other what a 10-yr-old might want. Those requests are not filled out by the kids, and seldom are they made by the parents. Generally, someone just has a list of genders and ages. It's a very tedious task to think up things that kids might want, so sooner or later, someone starts putting down "ipod" for everyone of a certain age. The reasonable requests for things like "warm coat" are probably done the same way; I know I've written that down a lot. For people in my profession, Christmas is quite a chore, and we don't carefully interview each child to find out what he or she really dreams of for Christmas. It is perfectly acceptable to ignore the requests and just give something you think a child of that age might enjoy; so what if Tommy or Sally doesn't get what they asked for? I didn't usually get what I asked for as a kid, and I suspect neither did you.
It should actually be "if it's brown, be mellow". Urine decomposes quickly into ammonia gas and other unpleasant things in the absence of carbon, such as you would find in a sawdust toilet or similar composting system.
If you really want to save water and still want to use your water-flushed toilet to "go" in, keep some 2 liter plastic soda bottles or 1 gal milk bottles (with caps) and guys can pee into those, then cap them off. No smells.
Women need a funnel to make this work.
In general, this is a class of toilet management called "urine diversion"--which is intended to keep the urine sequestered bcs it's the URINE not the **** that smells most.
after you go in the bottle and cap it, try your #2. #2 can sit in the toilet all day and the next without smelling.
Then when it's time to flush, you empty the bottles into the toilet and flush--once a day or every two days.
The obstacle here is that #2 is considered "gross" and "disgusting", so most people are embarrassed to leave it in the toilet. YOu would need to have an agreement with all household members to pull this one off.
For areas that have SERIOUS water shortages, a sawdust bucket carry system and outdoor compost pile would be the best options, as outlined in the Humanure Bible by Jenkins, which is a very funny and good read on the subject written by someone who knows his subject well.
Well in some places like where I live we have this long an arduous season called 'FIRE SEASON' which used to be a month and now seems to be four months. When I moved to the forest I was all touchy-feely with the whole tree thing. But you know what? Up here residents get permits to go into sections of the forest that need to be thinned for fire.
(Basically, if you have three trees growing in the same space the two tallest ones will take all the light and nutrients and the third will eventually dry and become kindling for the next fire).
I feel no guilt whatsoever in my husband and mother going on their annual tree hunt. For $10 we get a tree that fits us (this one is seven feet +) and that's one less match stick come fire season.
Firstly, I too was struck by how greedy our local angel tree seemed this year. As opposed to years past the tags had requests to pick at least two items and most items were not cheap.
Secondly, Toys for tots seems to have a good toy exchange and around here lots of the cub scout packs collect. Many of us buy stuffed animals from Kohl's $5.00 special animals that also support children's education and hospital funds. Double giving is great!
Lastly, it made me remember a book that I had read about a boy who always wanted something special for Christmas but kept getting something else. It is online at http://www.soentpiet.com/houston1.htm
I do not think that anyone is denying that the kids have big wishes, however there is not an unlimited amount of money around to fill them all. In today's economy when people look at the trees and see items that they can not afford for themselves requested they feel that they have to pass on giving. But if they have supported angel trees in the past then passing probably makes them a bit sad and annoyed that the tag did not say just Boy size 12 and leave the picking to them.
One thing that I find I am blessed with is that my "Christmas" is a holiday called Ayyam-i-Ha (celebrated the end of Feb.) because I am a member of the Baha'i Faith. The best part for me is that I have more time and sales to shop for those meaningful gifts for my friends, husband and little boy. Also my husband and I always celebrate Valentines day a week later to save money on gifts by getting them half off. I know he loves me more if he waits and pays half price :)
We were not allowed to buy used things for the kids at our office "angel tree". I'm well aware of how inexpensive a guitar can be if you buy used.
I don't think being outraged about the cost of the gifts that the "kids" are asking for is a matter of hoping that poor children would behave like Dickensian street urchins who are grateful for a scrap of bread. It's a matter of being asked, as a total stranger, to pony up $100 or more for a gift from an 8 year-old that you don't know. There's the chance that you might be being duped by an opportunistic parent or other adult.
It's like those anecdotes that you hear about panhandlers who live in nice condos in New York City - untrue save for one or two (if that) outrageous examples, but still enough to fill people with rage when they think about handing over their money to someone who doesn't NEED it, but just WANTS it.
You can argue that people should give without caring about what happens to their money, but that's just not the way the human mind works, for the most part. People want to know that when they give away their money, it is worth the sacrifice. That's why so many of those Save the Children-style charities provide you with detailed information about the child that you send hundreds of dollars to each year.
I find this about as surprising as I find rude comments from bell ringers when you refuse to donate. We live in the Land of Entitlement, and this is simply yet another example of terrible behaviour exhibited as a result.
i don't have an opinion on the fake tree like most do.
but i think the Christmas ribbon idea is wonderful!
i like the idea of being able to make your everyday decorations and knick knacks look ready for the holidays.
i used to shove all of my "everyday" pieces into big plastic totes and then pull out all of my holiday themed items.
that's gonna change, NOW!
i just recently transformed a clear candle holder (a giant hurricane vase) into a holiday potpourri/pine cone holder with a bit of red ribbon tied around the top of it.
it looks ready for the holidays without much effort.
To add to what I posted earlier, I talked to my grandmother today (she just turned 75!) and she said that while she had no problem with kids wanting stuff, at the same time, she doesn't think those children have any idea what poor or needy means - and I have to agree. They're on the tree, chance are good that their parents are struggling to get them gifts. What good does it do to ask for something electronic - they'll need someplace to plug it in, and/or have to have them constantly plugged in - and the LAST thing a parent who's struggling needs is a higher electricity bill.
She said that when no-one had any money (like when she was younger), they knew that asking meant that someone else would do without for them. And she said that she's thinking that kids either don't know, or don't care, what it might cost someone else when they ask. They (my grandparents) try not to get bummed by everything they hear on the news (on the radio, in the newspaper, or one of their THREE fuzzy rabbit-ears channels!), but they have been giving money left and right for causes, and to see trees (because they have, too, in Missouri!) that ask for high-priced items makes them wonder how truly bad off some of these families are.
I got into this manic crafty mode one year and sewed stockings for each family member from my stash of scrap fabrics (they chose the colors they wanted). Every year the stockings go up on the mantle. This week I had ankle surgery and can't do a tree for the family. The gang has still not decided how they want to handle it. Use their aunt's very small plastic tree or buy a very small live one.
Growing up, we didn't have a green tree but a small beautifully shaped deciduous tree that had been bulldozed down at a construction site. My dad (an artist) dragged it home, put it in a stand, and we decorated it with clear twinkley lights, my mom's homemade popcorn balls (wrapped in orange celophane), and oddball ornaments. Around February, Dad suspended it up side down in the front window where it stayed for years (and which we decorated every Christmas). When Dad died, one of his students asked if she could have it.
I would say that you will not be able to do any of these methods,since the extereior panals for the corvette mostly plastic or some other type of resined fiber.
Sarah - try finging a small santa hat to put on your turtle, I bet that would look adorable (and I'd love to see a picture of that, by the way, either with or without the hat)
One thing that I do to Christmas up my regular things is to put fake poinsettia flowers in my houseplants. I got several of these by cutting apart on old wreath or centerpiece thing. It looks great and makes my whole houseplant table look christmassy, and also adds some color since none of my plants bloom in the winter. My favorite is the flowers in my spiderplant and aloe vera.
I also put some of the same flowers in my window pine garland (fake) to add continuity to my decorations.
I can also fit all of my christmas decorations into one large box. The largest item is my small tree, about 1.5 to 2 feet tall, and made of tinsel garland and lights wrapped around a wire frame. I have had that tree since I was about 10-12, and I think my mom bought it at a garage sale or thrift store for a couple dollars.
For dishwashing, I live in an apartment with a single sink. The way I minimize water use is to fill the very bottom of the sink with soapy water and soak then wash the smallest stuff in this, usually silverware and tupperware (and by tupperware I mean yogurt and cottage cheese tubs) lids. Then I rinse these under running water into the sink, and this fills it up enough to soak the next largest things, plates and cereal bowls, then continue up to the biggest pots and pans. I usually leave my dishes for awhile (just laziness here, not for water saving purposes), so I have lots to do at once, and most of the time drain the sink halfway when it gets too full. I figure that I use about one and a half sinkfuls of water for a very large load of dishes. When I am doing smaller loads, I use the same process, but do it in a large salad/mixing bowl or the liner to my crockpot.
About the 'let it mellow' issue, I refuse to do this. My parents did this for years when I was growing up, and I have a friend who's family did this as well, and both of their bathrooms ABSOLUTELY REEKED of urine. When I returned to my parents home after being away for several months, the smell was almost intolerable even after they had stopped doing this for a long time. I think it soaked into the wallpaper, or the floor or something, and even after they replaced the wallpaper, the linoleum, the tiles around the bathtub, the sink vanity, and most of the rest of the bathroom, there is still a faint but distinct smell of urine everytime you walk in there. I do keep plastic bottles full of sand in the toilet tank though, to reduce the amount of water used per flush.
I also use the 'wasted water' from the kitchen tap (waiting for it to be hot or cold, rinsing something, etc) to water my plants.
If you are serious about saving water, want a toilet that really works and is affordable, I would highly recommend a Caroma Dual Flush toilet. Caroma toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. Caroma, an Australian company set the standard by giving the world its first successful two button dual flush system in the nineteen eighties and has since perfected the technology. Also, with a full 3.5″ trapway, these toilets virtually never clog. All of Caroma’s toilets are on the list of WaterSense labeled HET’s http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/find_het.htm and also qualify for several rebate programs currently available as well as LEED points. Please go to http://www.caromausa.com for more detailed information or visit http://www.ecotransitions.com/howto.asp to see why they actually work better than any US toilet. Best regards, Andrea Paulinelli
The family tree is one my mom sent me in 1991 or so, which she got at a yard sale. It's a bit ratty, but it's no more ratty than it was when I got it. :P We bought one last year for my son, who is now 11. One day he'll go away and have his own Christmas, and he'll have his own tree with its own memories.
There are always questions about which is better - live or fake. Transportation to and from the tree farm and if the city can use all the mulch from chipping the trees, the ecological impact of having a swath of genetically identical trees, reduction of diversity by clearing out forests to farm Christmas trees, problems of storing the big bulky tree which sees use for 1/12 of the year, using plastics and horrible work conditions to make trees in China and ship the leaden, melamine-tainted products around the world... I think we have to just do our best. Make sure there's no stray weird stuff on the dead trees clustered on the curb so they *can* be chipped, and reuse the fake trees a million times so we don't have to consume more than the once.
These already exist! Look for one with a "flow control valve". It's typically a knob to twist or a button to push, can shut the water completely off or just reduce the flow.
I could not disagree with you more! My younger sister was a recipient of a wig from Locks of Love. Although my parents are middle class (I was not even eligible for financial aid in college), the wig was still provided free of charge. Fortunately, my sister's hair grew back, but Locks of Love committed to making her a new wig every year-and-a-half as her head grew until the age of 18. The quality of wig that they make is truly unbelievable - it looks like a natural head of hair right down to the scalp and my sister could even wear hers swimming without it falling off. I have donated my hair twice and I will continue to do so. If you are thinking about cutting your long hair, please send it to Locks of Love. You will help improve a child's self-esteem!
Hunters are often villified by animal lovers for killing Bambi, but people should know hunters are the first people to notice damage done to the environment by business/poor practices and advocate for change. Also, hunting and fishing permit fees are usually earmarked for environmentally-related expenditures.
To reconcile the two sides of the argument, my question is "are you going to eat the animal you just killed?" Also, are you going to spend a bit of time (and ammo money) practicing to take a good shot so Bambi doesn't suffer from your lousy aim? If the answer to these two questions is "yes," than I have no problem with hunting for food. If not, then I have little respect.
There's something to be said for looking the animal you are about to eat in the eye and then butchering it yourself ... makes you more conscious of the animals sacrifice and more motivated to use every scrap and bone (not just the animal you killed, but also the neatly packaged ones in the supermarket). You're more likely to only eat what you need to stay healthy.
As a child, my father fished and hunted deer and fowl. We always helped dress the animals we ate (a nasty job, but not rocket science). In lean times we ate a lot of suspiciously shaped-shaped "chicken stew" that I now know to have been squirrel, opossum, raccoon, birds, snake, rabbit, moose and all sorts of "garbage" species. Blech!!! Raccoon is nasty! Possum and squirrel actually -do- taste kind of like chicken.
They say that in the Great Depression, people in urban areas were so hungry that there wasn't a spec of small game (squirrels, birds, etc) to be found anywhere. If the choice is to hunt or go hungry, than by all means hunt!
I don't think you realize how much available credit has been cut from the general public in the past 18 monhts, about $1-trillion of un-used balances, with another $2 trillion to go. If you have an 800 Fico Score, you wouldn't be aware of this, but the average american, has a Fico score under 720, and they have all had thier available limits cut back. An average guy with only a $3,000 to $5,000 balance available, has had his line cut anywehre from 30%, to just a hair over whatever the outstanding balance is right now. That little game causes lots of over-limit events, which causes fines that result in 35% to 50% interest returns to the credit card lender, and stretch truth-in-lending laws to the limits.
Bottom line, look out Christmas, that card debt is what the average american has been using to buy X-mas gifts for the past 15 years, and this year....they don't have it. Retialers are in for a shocker of a lifetime, that nobody is really admitting to.
We plug our bathtub, take our showers and use the tub water to flush the toilet (with a bucket). We have enough tub water to never need to flush the toilet. Every 10 days or so, I also use the tub water to wash the dirty socks. The kids socks get so dirty that they usually need two washings; the first pass is done with used shower water. We also use the tub water to water our garden, flower beds and compost bins (we have a chlorine filter on the shower).
You make an excellent point. Poor people are just like us, they just have less money! If we all took a second and examined just how close we are to being poor ( one pay check, maybe 2?), we'd be less hasty in our judgments. That being said, the requests which the original author noted are ridiculous. My family is middle class and we can't afford gifts like this for our own children. You can "blame" the media and society from here to sunday, but it's by shirking our personal responsibility to educate and ingratiate our children that this kind of sickness evolves.
I think that the fake/real tree dilemma should be approached from a regional perspective. In some places in the country fake trees are appropriate, in some real trees are appropriate.
Where I live, in the Rocky Mountain West, you are rightfully ridiculed if you have a fake Christmas tree (aside from legitimate allergy concerns). The West faces huge costs associated with forest fires each year, which thinning goes to alleviate. Christmas trees are a renewable resource that goes to support local jobs. The carbon footprint in transportation costs is far less than if a fake tree were shipped from China. Furthermore, trees are a carbon sink, and by removing thousands of trees from the forest each year, and using them in a way that does not release their carbon into the atmosphere (aka not burning them), more trees will grow up in their place, going to help abate the effects of global warming.
So for me, a real Christmas tree it is. But the reasons why I choose a real tree might not necessarily hold in New York City or Los Angeles.
Yes, I felt the same way, that some of her choices were bad and undermined her point. I guess what I came away with was not that it is impossible to pull one's self out of poverty -- obviously a few people do it -- but that to do so requires an iron will to defer every tiny bit of gratification (damn hard when your life sucks), coupled with physical stamina and just plain luck. Most of us like to think we would make better choices in that situation, but most of us are deluding ourselves.
I think she does do an excellent job of illustrating a point you made in your other article (thanks for the link!) about how being poor makes life more expensive: the people living at the motel because they couldn't afford a security deposit for an apartment, the fast food meals eaten for lack of basic kitchen equipment, etc. Other manifestations of this are paying to have checks cashed and to pay utility bills because you can't open a bank account (no min. deposit, or no banks in your area); doing grocery shopping at convenience stores because there are no grocery stores in the neighborhood; and so on. And you can never take advantage of any economy of scale, whether it's bulk buying at the grocery store or a ten-ride bus pass, because your budget is so limited. The lack of a cushion is what makes life simultaneously more expensive and more risky. Once you have that cushion, once you "get ahead", you can live much more cheaply. It's a whole different situation.
Anyway, I see you know all this. :-)
Thanks for the response.
"Grey water system" cracks me up, but we have one. "System" sounds so technical. It's as simple as running our drain hose into a trash can. The trash can is set up on bricks and has a hole in the bottom attached to a pool hose. The hose is directed at whatever is thirsty in the yard. The only thing we have to be careful about is the type of soap we use.
Of course, we wash and dry outside so....
Installing a system to store shower greywater for use as either (a) water for the wash cycle of a clothes washer or (b) for use to flush toilets or (c) irrigation for landscaping is worth considering as an option.
Also, it is possible to rerig the outflow of your washing machine to a barrel (like a big trash barrel) so that you save the rinse water of one load for the use as the wash water of the next load, thus saving 50% of the water you would normally use. There are also automated systems to do this, but the basic way is to manually pour the rinse water from the bucket into the washer once the new wash cycle has begun.
I'm a social worker. It's been my experience that a lot of these "Angel Tree" types of requests from the needy are usually filled out by staff of the agencies that provide the names. Since I had a caseload of about 50 kids that I was required to put up requests for, and so did everyone else, we just went around asking each other what a 10-yr-old might want. Those requests are not filled out by the kids, and seldom are they made by the parents. Generally, someone just has a list of genders and ages. It's a very tedious task to think up things that kids might want, so sooner or later, someone starts putting down "ipod" for everyone of a certain age. The reasonable requests for things like "warm coat" are probably done the same way; I know I've written that down a lot. For people in my profession, Christmas is quite a chore, and we don't carefully interview each child to find out what he or she really dreams of for Christmas. It is perfectly acceptable to ignore the requests and just give something you think a child of that age might enjoy; so what if Tommy or Sally doesn't get what they asked for? I didn't usually get what I asked for as a kid, and I suspect neither did you.
It should actually be "if it's brown, be mellow". Urine decomposes quickly into ammonia gas and other unpleasant things in the absence of carbon, such as you would find in a sawdust toilet or similar composting system.
If you really want to save water and still want to use your water-flushed toilet to "go" in, keep some 2 liter plastic soda bottles or 1 gal milk bottles (with caps) and guys can pee into those, then cap them off. No smells.
Women need a funnel to make this work.
In general, this is a class of toilet management called "urine diversion"--which is intended to keep the urine sequestered bcs it's the URINE not the **** that smells most.
after you go in the bottle and cap it, try your #2. #2 can sit in the toilet all day and the next without smelling.
Then when it's time to flush, you empty the bottles into the toilet and flush--once a day or every two days.
The obstacle here is that #2 is considered "gross" and "disgusting", so most people are embarrassed to leave it in the toilet. YOu would need to have an agreement with all household members to pull this one off.
For areas that have SERIOUS water shortages, a sawdust bucket carry system and outdoor compost pile would be the best options, as outlined in the Humanure Bible by Jenkins, which is a very funny and good read on the subject written by someone who knows his subject well.
Well in some places like where I live we have this long an arduous season called 'FIRE SEASON' which used to be a month and now seems to be four months. When I moved to the forest I was all touchy-feely with the whole tree thing. But you know what? Up here residents get permits to go into sections of the forest that need to be thinned for fire.
(Basically, if you have three trees growing in the same space the two tallest ones will take all the light and nutrients and the third will eventually dry and become kindling for the next fire).
I feel no guilt whatsoever in my husband and mother going on their annual tree hunt. For $10 we get a tree that fits us (this one is seven feet +) and that's one less match stick come fire season.
Margaret Garcia-Couoh
Firstly, I too was struck by how greedy our local angel tree seemed this year. As opposed to years past the tags had requests to pick at least two items and most items were not cheap.
Secondly, Toys for tots seems to have a good toy exchange and around here lots of the cub scout packs collect. Many of us buy stuffed animals from Kohl's $5.00 special animals that also support children's education and hospital funds. Double giving is great!
Lastly, it made me remember a book that I had read about a boy who always wanted something special for Christmas but kept getting something else. It is online at http://www.soentpiet.com/houston1.htm
I do not think that anyone is denying that the kids have big wishes, however there is not an unlimited amount of money around to fill them all. In today's economy when people look at the trees and see items that they can not afford for themselves requested they feel that they have to pass on giving. But if they have supported angel trees in the past then passing probably makes them a bit sad and annoyed that the tag did not say just Boy size 12 and leave the picking to them.
One thing that I find I am blessed with is that my "Christmas" is a holiday called Ayyam-i-Ha (celebrated the end of Feb.) because I am a member of the Baha'i Faith. The best part for me is that I have more time and sales to shop for those meaningful gifts for my friends, husband and little boy. Also my husband and I always celebrate Valentines day a week later to save money on gifts by getting them half off. I know he loves me more if he waits and pays half price :)
We were not allowed to buy used things for the kids at our office "angel tree". I'm well aware of how inexpensive a guitar can be if you buy used.
I don't think being outraged about the cost of the gifts that the "kids" are asking for is a matter of hoping that poor children would behave like Dickensian street urchins who are grateful for a scrap of bread. It's a matter of being asked, as a total stranger, to pony up $100 or more for a gift from an 8 year-old that you don't know. There's the chance that you might be being duped by an opportunistic parent or other adult.
It's like those anecdotes that you hear about panhandlers who live in nice condos in New York City - untrue save for one or two (if that) outrageous examples, but still enough to fill people with rage when they think about handing over their money to someone who doesn't NEED it, but just WANTS it.
You can argue that people should give without caring about what happens to their money, but that's just not the way the human mind works, for the most part. People want to know that when they give away their money, it is worth the sacrifice. That's why so many of those Save the Children-style charities provide you with detailed information about the child that you send hundreds of dollars to each year.
I find this about as surprising as I find rude comments from bell ringers when you refuse to donate. We live in the Land of Entitlement, and this is simply yet another example of terrible behaviour exhibited as a result.
i don't have an opinion on the fake tree like most do.
but i think the Christmas ribbon idea is wonderful!
i like the idea of being able to make your everyday decorations and knick knacks look ready for the holidays.
i used to shove all of my "everyday" pieces into big plastic totes and then pull out all of my holiday themed items.
that's gonna change, NOW!
i just recently transformed a clear candle holder (a giant hurricane vase) into a holiday potpourri/pine cone holder with a bit of red ribbon tied around the top of it.
it looks ready for the holidays without much effort.
To add to what I posted earlier, I talked to my grandmother today (she just turned 75!) and she said that while she had no problem with kids wanting stuff, at the same time, she doesn't think those children have any idea what poor or needy means - and I have to agree. They're on the tree, chance are good that their parents are struggling to get them gifts. What good does it do to ask for something electronic - they'll need someplace to plug it in, and/or have to have them constantly plugged in - and the LAST thing a parent who's struggling needs is a higher electricity bill.
She said that when no-one had any money (like when she was younger), they knew that asking meant that someone else would do without for them. And she said that she's thinking that kids either don't know, or don't care, what it might cost someone else when they ask. They (my grandparents) try not to get bummed by everything they hear on the news (on the radio, in the newspaper, or one of their THREE fuzzy rabbit-ears channels!), but they have been giving money left and right for causes, and to see trees (because they have, too, in Missouri!) that ask for high-priced items makes them wonder how truly bad off some of these families are.
I got into this manic crafty mode one year and sewed stockings for each family member from my stash of scrap fabrics (they chose the colors they wanted). Every year the stockings go up on the mantle. This week I had ankle surgery and can't do a tree for the family. The gang has still not decided how they want to handle it. Use their aunt's very small plastic tree or buy a very small live one.
Growing up, we didn't have a green tree but a small beautifully shaped deciduous tree that had been bulldozed down at a construction site. My dad (an artist) dragged it home, put it in a stand, and we decorated it with clear twinkley lights, my mom's homemade popcorn balls (wrapped in orange celophane), and oddball ornaments. Around February, Dad suspended it up side down in the front window where it stayed for years (and which we decorated every Christmas). When Dad died, one of his students asked if she could have it.
I would say that you will not be able to do any of these methods,since the extereior panals for the corvette mostly plastic or some other type of resined fiber.
Sarah - try finging a small santa hat to put on your turtle, I bet that would look adorable (and I'd love to see a picture of that, by the way, either with or without the hat)
One thing that I do to Christmas up my regular things is to put fake poinsettia flowers in my houseplants. I got several of these by cutting apart on old wreath or centerpiece thing. It looks great and makes my whole houseplant table look christmassy, and also adds some color since none of my plants bloom in the winter. My favorite is the flowers in my spiderplant and aloe vera.
I also put some of the same flowers in my window pine garland (fake) to add continuity to my decorations.
I can also fit all of my christmas decorations into one large box. The largest item is my small tree, about 1.5 to 2 feet tall, and made of tinsel garland and lights wrapped around a wire frame. I have had that tree since I was about 10-12, and I think my mom bought it at a garage sale or thrift store for a couple dollars.
For dishwashing, I live in an apartment with a single sink. The way I minimize water use is to fill the very bottom of the sink with soapy water and soak then wash the smallest stuff in this, usually silverware and tupperware (and by tupperware I mean yogurt and cottage cheese tubs) lids. Then I rinse these under running water into the sink, and this fills it up enough to soak the next largest things, plates and cereal bowls, then continue up to the biggest pots and pans. I usually leave my dishes for awhile (just laziness here, not for water saving purposes), so I have lots to do at once, and most of the time drain the sink halfway when it gets too full. I figure that I use about one and a half sinkfuls of water for a very large load of dishes. When I am doing smaller loads, I use the same process, but do it in a large salad/mixing bowl or the liner to my crockpot.
About the 'let it mellow' issue, I refuse to do this. My parents did this for years when I was growing up, and I have a friend who's family did this as well, and both of their bathrooms ABSOLUTELY REEKED of urine. When I returned to my parents home after being away for several months, the smell was almost intolerable even after they had stopped doing this for a long time. I think it soaked into the wallpaper, or the floor or something, and even after they replaced the wallpaper, the linoleum, the tiles around the bathtub, the sink vanity, and most of the rest of the bathroom, there is still a faint but distinct smell of urine everytime you walk in there. I do keep plastic bottles full of sand in the toilet tank though, to reduce the amount of water used per flush.
I also use the 'wasted water' from the kitchen tap (waiting for it to be hot or cold, rinsing something, etc) to water my plants.
If you are serious about saving water, want a toilet that really works and is affordable, I would highly recommend a Caroma Dual Flush toilet. Caroma toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. Caroma, an Australian company set the standard by giving the world its first successful two button dual flush system in the nineteen eighties and has since perfected the technology. Also, with a full 3.5″ trapway, these toilets virtually never clog. All of Caroma’s toilets are on the list of WaterSense labeled HET’s http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/find_het.htm and also qualify for several rebate programs currently available as well as LEED points. Please go to http://www.caromausa.com for more detailed information or visit http://www.ecotransitions.com/howto.asp to see why they actually work better than any US toilet. Best regards, Andrea Paulinelli
The family tree is one my mom sent me in 1991 or so, which she got at a yard sale. It's a bit ratty, but it's no more ratty than it was when I got it. :P We bought one last year for my son, who is now 11. One day he'll go away and have his own Christmas, and he'll have his own tree with its own memories.
There are always questions about which is better - live or fake. Transportation to and from the tree farm and if the city can use all the mulch from chipping the trees, the ecological impact of having a swath of genetically identical trees, reduction of diversity by clearing out forests to farm Christmas trees, problems of storing the big bulky tree which sees use for 1/12 of the year, using plastics and horrible work conditions to make trees in China and ship the leaden, melamine-tainted products around the world... I think we have to just do our best. Make sure there's no stray weird stuff on the dead trees clustered on the curb so they *can* be chipped, and reuse the fake trees a million times so we don't have to consume more than the once.
These already exist! Look for one with a "flow control valve". It's typically a knob to twist or a button to push, can shut the water completely off or just reduce the flow.
I could not disagree with you more! My younger sister was a recipient of a wig from Locks of Love. Although my parents are middle class (I was not even eligible for financial aid in college), the wig was still provided free of charge. Fortunately, my sister's hair grew back, but Locks of Love committed to making her a new wig every year-and-a-half as her head grew until the age of 18. The quality of wig that they make is truly unbelievable - it looks like a natural head of hair right down to the scalp and my sister could even wear hers swimming without it falling off. I have donated my hair twice and I will continue to do so. If you are thinking about cutting your long hair, please send it to Locks of Love. You will help improve a child's self-esteem!