Mushrooming!

What do most people do on their first anniversary?  I don't know.  We went on a mushroom foraging expedition!  Five hours with two mushrooms pros in an urban forest here in Vancouver.  Despite the chilly weather, it was fascinating and fun.

Even better, it clued us in to some things we can do without an additional trip to the store, like finding our own mushrooms (we're unlikely to do this until we're really certain of our identification skills) and growing our own in the storage closet (a potential 2014 project).

We saw cool mushrooms.  We saw tasty mushrooms.  We saw mushrooms that looked like bright orange snot.  We saw medicinal mushrooms.  We saw pretty mushrooms (well, most are).  And lots and lots more -- several dozen species.  It was amazing how many different kinds exist on a small patch of land, once you've clued in to their existence.  We learned lots.

Anyway, towards the end we picked a few edibles and took 'em home.  Starting from the upper left in the photo below, we have laccaria laccata, winter oysters, lepista nuda (blewits), and ... I don't know the other two yellowy types, but recall that the one under the winter oysters is some sort of fake chantarelle which isn't poisonous.  The three fan-shaped ones in the far lower left corner are turkey tails, which you don't eat because they're woody and leathery, but you can make them into tea for some nice health benefits (apparently) -- I did so this evening and feel pretty good.

The ones we fried up were all delicious in different ways, save the winter oysters which tasted almost exactly like nothing, except they were sort of a mushy-nothing.  The end.

Homemade hand & body cream

Bottles, dispensers, tubes, screw-top jars.  You know how things accumulate?  We thought we were pretty good about running a tight ship and not having lots of excess toiletries.  But when it came to lotions and creams, we had ... lots.  Of course, we didn't buy more and throughout the course of this year one by one the various containers ran dry.

Well, a few weeks ago we finally ran out of lotion / cream.  Time to make our own.

Starting with this link, I devised the following recipe:

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/8 cup shea butter

1/8 cup cocoa butter

1 tbsp liquid aloe vera

1 tbsp sweet almond oil

2 drops clary sage essential oil

2 drops sandalwood essential oil

1 drop patchouli essential oil

1 drop neroli (15%) essential oil

Heat the first three ingredients together -- I used a makeshift double boiler (a bowl sitting an inch-and-a-half-deep in a pot of water on the stovetop.  Add the rest and blend well -- I used a Magic Bullet.  In hindsight, I'd have waited and added the essential oils after this step since we now have a Magic Bullet container that smells like this recipe.  But hey ho.  Once done, I put it in a re-sourced lotion container and popped it in the fridge for a while to get it to "set".

The stuff is great.  For the scent portion, my aim was to make something that was fairly gender-neutral (Erin's the main consumer of this type of thing in our little household, but we'd just finished moving apartments, I'd spent several hours cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning, and my hands needed something).  I think I pulled it off -- we both like it.

Enjoy!

Homemade aftershave

Another bottle runs out, another recipe is tried in an effort to reduce our dependence on mass-produced goods and chemicals...

I got the base recipe for homemade aftershave here.  I recommend reading the original, since it gives some good background on the various ingredients and their uses/benefits.  I twisted the recipe around somewhat, as you'll see if you compare what's below with the original.

Here what I used:

2 cups of witch hazel extract
1/4 c dark rum (2 oz)
1 cinnamon stick
6 cloves
5 bay leaves
1/2 tsp aloe
1/2 tsp glycerin
25 drops bay rum oil (about 1/4 tsp)
8 drops neroli essential oil (10% dilution)

Put everything into a jar.  Cover, shake well, and let it sit for a month, shaking it every day or so (I probably achieved weekly and it seems none the worse for it).  Strain and bottle (I didn't think that straining it through a sieve was good enough to remove all the little bits, so I strained it through a paper towel laid inside a sieve).

Apply to face after shaving, about a teaspoon per time.

It feels and smells great, and I like the fact that most everything in it came from our kitchen.  I wouldn't drink it, but I like that I could if I wanted with little fear of getting sick -- I wouldn't try that with the store-bought stuff!

Fruit flies, be gone!

It's a bit late for this, given the fact that we're well into autumn.  However, this "recipe" is so good that it's worth sharing even in February.

We have fruits and veggies sitting out all the time.  We also have the windows open all the time.  Voila -- fruit flies!  And once you have them, nothing seems to work.  We've used traps -- purchased and homemade.  We've tried several home remedies.  Everything works...to a degree.

This site, like many others we've read, promised a solution.  And it actually worked.  Read more about it on the link.  But here's the summary.

1. Find a container (the other website suggested a wide mouth jar, but we used a small empty glass jar).
2. Fill it half full with apple cider vinegar (apparently the only thing that'll work).
3. Add a few drops of dish soap.
4. Fill it up with water in a way that makes it foamy (i.e., blast it under a running faucet).
5. Set it on the counter and walk away.

Within minutes, you'll be catching and drowning fruit flies.  The bubbles seem to be the key.  If you come back in an hour or two and the bubbles have gone away, put it under the faucet on full blast again for a second to get things nice and foamy.  Walk away again.  Just keep doing this every time you pass by over the next day or so.  After a half dozen times, you may have to start over with new vinegar.  But the reduction in numbers is significant right off the bat and in a day or two or three, you'll be fruit fly free.

Rescuing and re-sourcing: my favorite vase

It's incredible what you can sometimes get for free if you just keep your eyes open.  Back in my days at UBC, I was a member of the pottery club and would occasionally (in spurts) spend chunks of time in the dismally-located subterranean pottery studio there (bad location but a great little space, I should add!).

I made some nice stuff and some stuff that...didn't quite work out.  Mostly the former, however.

Anyway, as with all pottery studios there was a "discard" bin, where people put failed pieces.  Things that didn't turn out how the artist intended, things that cracked in the kiln, things where the coloring or patterns didn't pan out.

And that's where I found this wonderful piece.  Why was it in there?  Well, one side of it has a hairline crack on the upper third or so.  But hey.  This photo doesn't really capture it, but the texture, coloration, and size of it is gorgeous.  And unless you fill it right to the top with water, leakage isn't an issue.

Bottom line: we love it.  And the price was right.  Whoever made it -- thanks!

Our pet worms

We have pets!  This isn't a new thing, since we've been doing it for over a year now.  But out on our apartment's balcony, we have a few hundred "red wrigglers," a type of worm that is particularly good at turning our fruit and vegetable scraps into great dirt!

We had some initial growing pains (note: unless you want fried worms, avoid direct sunlight, even if it's not warm out) and our current batch is the offspring of worms from friends Ian and Ruth, who gave them to me in a yogurt container with holes punched in the lid (incidentally, these worms maaayyyy have attended a Jeff Mangum concert last year since I had my backpack with me at the time).

Anyway, they're super easy to keep!  We keep them happy with a once per week feeding.  Their home is kept balanced and fruit flies are (mostly) kept at bay by the addition of shredded paper, which I harvest from my workplace's shredder and bike home with in my backpack.

Our other bit of great news is that we'll have an even better place to USE this compost next growing season, as we've just signed on for a place with a huge rooftop garden!  But that's material for a future post...

Sprouts!

Prepping sprouts are Erin's deal.  But I still eat 'em.

It's pretty easy.  Take something that you want to sprout.  The pictures below are mung beans, but we've also tried some other stuff and you can too.

Instructions:

• Soak some beans/seeds overnight and then drain and put in a jar with a mesh top.
• Tip the jar on its side in a bowl and rinse/drain them once or twice a day.
• Wait.

In about 4 days, you'll have healthy sprouts -- fresh, with zero packaging waste, and at a cost of a few cents per batch!

Homemade play dough

Summer happens.  Our postings have been few and far between in recent months, but the Year of Less continues...

One of the challenges for this year is what to do about gifts -- birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  We've tried to be creative about not buying stuff.  We've given away homemade wares, given gift certificates for meals and activities, and continued to do homemade cards for people (Erin generally heads up this one).

Here's something we did as a fun and pretty easy gift for kids: Homemade play dough!

We started by trolling the internet for ideas that use all natural ingredients and narrowed in on this one.  Here you go:

1 c plain white flour
1/2 c salt
2 tbsp cream of tartar (not necessary, but makes it more elastic)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 c boiling water
Natural food coloring

Instructions: Put it all in a bowl and mix.  That's it.  For our inaugural batch, we wanted to avoid artificial food coloring.  This recipe made enough for three nice balls (pictured below).  For red, we chopped up a piece of beetroot and squeezed some juice in.  For orange, we sprinkled in paprika.  For yellow, turmeric.

A Half Year In...

As of July 1, we were halfway through this Year of Less experiment.  How's it going?  Sometimes, a bulleted list (or a series of them) can summarize better than words in a paragraph.  Here goes.

What's worked?

• Not buying books.  We've made even better use of the library than before.  I got a gift card for a bookstore from my sister-in-law last Christmas and I've been tempted to use it a few times, but I've made myself think it through quite thoroughly so that I only make the splurge on something that really counts.  Each time I want something, I sit on it for a day or three and often check it out from a library first.  So far, I keep deciding that I didn't need a particular book that much.
• No takeaway coffees/drinks.
• Brewing our own alcohol.
• Upgrading my old mountain bike to a commuter vs. buying a new (or used) one.
• Skipping out on dryer sheets.
• Homemade laundry detergent.
• Homemade dishwashing powder (future posting).
• Gifts: our homemade activity book was a hit.  We recently made homemade play-dough for one of our favorite boys (future posting) and Erin's done some crocheted things and a homemade billfold made from cork.
• Driving less: selling one car, walking lots, and riding a bike/train to work.
• The shower timer.  Who would have thought?  Short showers are easy and not even a sacrifice.  I hadn't realized how long I take and how easy it is to be under five (or even three) minutes until we bought a simple timer and got used to it.
• Buying spices in bulk and putting them all in used, labeled bottles.  When I wrote the original blog post, I got so excited about talking about baking bread that I forgot to mention that one of my main points was that spices in bulk are incredible cheap if you have a good source (in our case, the Coop in Bellingham, WA).
• Building planters from recycled pallets and having a miniature herb garden on our balcony.

What hasn't worked?

• Homemade conditioner.  Then again, we find that it's not necessary with the shampoo we make.
• Homemade mouthwash.  We might try another batch with a different, tastier recipe.

The jury's still out on...

• Homemade shampoo.  I like it; Erin's still on the fence.  When you've grown up on shampoo that lathers, there's transition involved in stuff that doesn't.
• Homemade glass cleaner.  This stuff works, but it's not quite as nice as the blue stuff from the store.  I'm cutting down on the cornstarch the next time we try it.
• Homemade body scrub with epsom salts.  Okay in theory, but we added lavender buds and they make a mess of the shower floor.
• No lights on Friday nights.  Umm...we haven't been stellar at keeping true to this one...

Of course, being able to buy "nothing" leads to some possibly unhealthy cravings.  For example, we find ourselves making lists of what to buy in 2014.  Namely, a bike/ski rack for the car and Icebreaker underwear.  But we've mostly succeeded at it so far.  Our only real capital purchases have been running shoes (we considered this a healthy joint necessity; we both already wear ours about five times as long as what the recommendations all tell people) and a food processor after ours went bonk (we did our research and splashed out on one with great reviews and a 10-year warranty rather than going cheap and replaceable; besides, no food processor means not being able to make lots of the stuff we do from scratch; and, it was purchased using a gift certificate that was a wedding gift from our friends Meryll and Justin).

In summary, it's been a great experiment thus far.  Rather than feeling like a sacrifice, we've done lots of great trips and really focused on enjoying Vancouver in place of buying stuff.  As we've stated before, we still entertain ourselves.  We've spent a night at the aquarium, been to tons of concerts (including favorites Devendra Banhart, Ariel Pink, Christopher Owens, and John Grant), checked out the documentary film festival, hosted my parents and a few friends, and taken innumerable runs and walks along the waterfront and through the city.

Bring on the rest of the year!

Soon to come: homemade almond milk, reducing food container waste (even the recyclable stuff), some volunteering experiences, homemade shaving gel and aftershave, and a few more surprises...

Homemade laundry detergent (and it's HE / high efficiency compatible)

So we've been using homemade laundry detergent for a few months now.  It's incredibly easy!  And, despite the fact that it's a powder, it is compatible with high efficiency / front-loading washers.  Here's how to make it.

Ingredients:
1 bar of soap
1 cup of washing soda
1 cup of borax

Grate the soap finely.  Easy!  This will yield about a cup of soap powder.

Then add a cup each of the borax and washing soda:

And that's it!  Mix it together well -- use a whisk if you want, or even a blender -- then toss it in a container (in our case, a big plastic jar that was previously full of cashews), and start using it.  One tablespoon does a load.  I'd initially made a scoop out of the folded end of a toilet roll (as pictured below), but have subsequently found a plastic tablespoon scoop from something else we had laying around the house...some other detergent, or coffee, or some such thing.

I've talked to people who are skeptical of using powder in a HE / high efficiency / front-loading washer.  And it's correct that you probably shouldn't put the powder in the drawer at the top.  However, I did my research (as you should, too), and for our machine, anyway, it is perfectly fine to use powder.  But, the key is that you have to sprinkle it inside before loading clothes.  Do so, then turn the agitator back and forth a few times.  After 2-3 little turns, most of the detergent will have fallen through the little holes in the agitator.  Load your clothes and wash as normal.

We tested this stuff out a bit tentatively.  And now, we make big batches of it.  It's quick to make, it lasts forever, and it probably only costs cents per load.  I'll leave someone else to do the math, but it's certainly far less than any detergent I've ever used in my life.

We won't be going back to store-bought stuff ever (probably).

I deserve a reward!

Our friend Darlene recently sent us an interesting article about a guy who went back to engineering after an extended period of travel.  Sound familiar?  I've done this a couple times now.

The article starts with how, as soon as he started making good money again, this guy named David was more careless with it.  And, how spending that money now is somehow less satisfying than it was when he had less money and more time (e.g., an expensive coffee-to-go vs. a coffee savored slowly on a sunny balcony in some gorgeous locale).  Where it gets interesting -- and eerily similar to how I've often felt -- is when he states how and why this occurs.  Starting with how "a lifestyle of unnecessary spending has been deliberately cultivated and nurtured in the public by big business," this guy talks about how the 40-hr (or more) workweek is designed to leave us with precious little time -- evenings and weekends -- and how that inspires us to spend a lot on gratification in the way of convenience and entertainment.  In short: we work too much, so we're entitled to buy "stuff" (and deserve to watch more television to "unwind" -- and get exposed to more adverts that encourage us to buy more "stuff").

Anyway, Erin and I read this article and had a long chat about it.  We both work.  We both don't have as much time as we like to.  And we both feel that we "deserve" indulgences -- a massage, a new pair of shoes, a sweet bike.  Try as we might to shirk it, there it is -- this feeling that we've worked hard enough to be entitled to buy something that will somehow make us happier, better people.

Well, we've vowed not to buy stuff in 2013.  So then what?  How do we reward ourselves when we can't go out and make purchases?  What we've come up with is trying to exchange THING-rewards with ACTIVITY-rewards (or perhaps more accurately, NO-ACTIVITY-rewards -- because doing nothing is nice sometimes, too).

We still go out to eat occasionally.  We go to a lot of concerts.  We still do drinks with friends.  But, where once we may have hopped in the car to drive somewhere or gone out to do some shopping, now we go for a run or take a nice long walk in the city.  Or we stop in somewhere for a coffee and have a relaxing, figuring-out-life chat (we've outlawed coffees to go, but still indulge provided we sit and enjoy the experience).  Or we plan an afternoon or evening with friends that pretty much guarantees that someone's spent a couple hours preparing a nice, home-cooked meal.  Other rewards include doing things for each other to express our love or to help unwind after a long day/week (vs. material gifts meant for the same purpose).

This is the sort of "stuff" that we really deserve.

Of course, seeing a shiny new book or a nice pair of jeans will continue to inspire some materialistic lust -- and serve as a reminder that the battle can't be won in a day.

Apartment gardening

It's spring in Vancouver and with the longer, warmer days, everything is getting lush and starting to bloom. It's this time of year that makes me miss having a plot of land - it's been too long since I last had a yard where I could get my hands good and dirty and spend summer days tending the garden. I began to look for opportunities to participate in the community gardens in our neighbourhood very soon after we moved into our new apartment - unfortunately, to no avail. Most of the community plots have very long waiting lists and the guerilla garden right behind our building is being redeveloped this summer.

Regardless, I was determined, especially with our year of less project, that we would have a garden and try to grow some of our own food. Very quickly, we discovered that there would be two challenges to this undertaking: 1. purchasing some necessary gardening supplies definitely goes against our rule of avoiding non-consumable purchases and 2. we live in a North facing apartment with a shady balcony.

While we had a few plants and pots on our deck, the first thing that we needed were containers. Brian had the brilliant idea to recycle wood from shipping pallets to make planters. He located and brought home some pallets; I was hoping that my contribution would be disassembling them, but after spending an hour trying to pry it apart with not much success, I was happy to turn the deconstruction and construction back over to him! A couple of hours down in the workshop and Brian returned with two fantastic planter boxes. Not only is he good looking and smart, he's handy too.

As for the dirt, we figured we would be able to get around purchasing a bag between the composted soil from our worms and some "local sources". I'm sure the two of us were quite the sight - Brian coming home covered in mud with a big bag of dirt after a trail run and me nonchalantly chatting up neighbours as they passed by the empty lot where I was scooping some dirt into plastic containers....

As for the North facing balcony, some library and internet research yielded that the 3-4 hours of sunlight we get would be enough to accommodate leafy greens and various herbs. Our existing basil, parsley, oregano, and cilantro are loving their new home and one week after planting some seeds, our mesclun and kale are sprouting. This mix should be good to supplement us throughout the summer; we will keep you posted as our little apartment garden grows!

Spicing (and baking) it up

There's been a transition since I started a new job 2.5 months ago -- we have less time to cook with both of us working full time.  However, we still spend a lot of time in the kitchen and cooking/baking continues to be something that Erin and I enjoy doing together.  This post is about a few things we do to try to be a bit more self-sufficient.

First, something that's been a project years in the making is my habit of reusing old glass containers for spices, lentils, flours, etc.  Sure, you can buy matched sets of Tupperware, glassware, and all that.  But how much more interesting to clean out jam and pickle jars and reuse them!  To this concept, Erin added a brilliant touch -- chalkboard stick-on labels.  Thus, our mini-pantry looks like this:

It's a hodge podge, to be sure, but we like it.  We look forward to having a bit more space than this in the future since this is only about half of it.  Anyway...

Another thing that's been fun is that we've stopped buying bread.  Erin got me a great book for Christmas about bread making.  The first 10-14 days of the year, I "caught" wild yeast from the air and developed it into a perpetual starter.  Once you have this going, you just feed it 2-3 times per week.  As a result of this, I tend to bake two loaves of bread every Sunday.  This necessitates buying white and whole wheat flour in bulk.  We get great organic flour in 25-lb sacks from a little local shop:

I like to think that the bread baking has been going pretty well.  We eat some, we freeze some, we give some away, and we find create ways to use the rest (think: croutons -- and this fantastic recipe for Spring Panzanella that we made the other night).

Here's one of my loaves:

What's brewing

It's been a few weeks since our last update and we wanted to write a quick update about what's brewing. Literally.

As part of our project this year, we decided that we would NOT purchase any wine or beer (or other alcohols) for consumption at home, but instead stick to drinking what we already have and making our own beer and wine.

There's a few reasons for this - 1. Erin has a drinking problem.... no just kidding. But, she does like her coffee and wine. Not willing to part with either of these vices, even though they are consumables, her commitment for this year is to not purchase take away coffees or store bought wine.

2. There are considerable cost savings in going this route. Average price of a bottle of wine in BC is $20. Average cost of home made wine is $3-$4.

3. Brian has long brewed his own beer, and it's an activity that we've discovered we quite enjoy doing together (even more so now that we have concrete floors that are really easy to clean up).

For the wine, not having all of the equipment, I opted to go in with Sarah on a batch of Okanagan Pinot Noir from a local U-Brew company. We recycled wine bottles from friends and neighbours and Sarah and I spend a great afternoon together bottling (and tasting) the wine.

Friends have all been surprised that it's not store bought, as are we impressed with the quality and flavour. There's more in the works - Chilean Sauvingnon Blanc (shared with Sarah and Darlene) and Chilean Malbec (still looking for a friend who may be interested in sharing...). I'm excited for the day when we have the space where I can complete the whole process - start to finish - at home. For now, the U Brew option is a great solution and I highly recommend you checking out what's available in your locale.

As for the beer, right after we moved into our new place in December, we brewed a batch of Juniper Berry beer which turned out really nicely for a winter ale (and is almost entirely depleted). Inspired by Spring, Luke and Brian brewed a honey, coriander, vanilla, and orange peel "experiment". The reason it's been dubbed an experiment is because we're not sure if we should classify it as an ale or lager, and it fermented a little more vigorously than anticipated (thanks again, Derek, for helping clean up the beer explosion)...

And thanks to a really thoughtful gift from Tara, we have some other recipes we're really excited to try out - including root beer and limoncello!

All in all, the period of time where we didn't have any wine was a bit of a challenge, but this project has been very fruitful!

Cheers!

Perfect Sunday

10:30 a.m. - Roll out of bed (Hey, we don't have kids!).  We recognize that someday we won't have the luxury of sleeping in.  But for now, we will occasionally indulge.  Besides, we were out last night until almost 2:00 a.m. at a concert downtown (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, if you care); the choice/convenience of being able to walk there and back is another luxury we don't take for granted.

11:00 a.m. - Begin a nice 7 mile run around False Creek on a beautiful sunny Vancouver day.

12:30 p.m. - "Breakfast": multigrain pancakes from scratch, served with sliced bananas and real maple syrup.  Erin also prepped some food to eat later on in the day.

2:00 p.m. - Walk 2 miles or so to Downtown Eastside.  We stopped by the home brewing shop to pick up ingredients for our next batch of beer.  And the Homesteaders' Emporium for beeswax and soy wax for our next batch of candles.  And Sunrise, a great Asian market where we picked up fruits and veggies for the week.  We'd brought a backpack with us, so we loaded it up with all of our purchases and walked 2 miles back home.

By the time we finished all of our "To Do's," it was close to 5:00 p.m. before we could "relax."

Now, we understand that an alternate version of this day could have been:
8:00 a.m. - Wake up and run.
9:00 a.m. - Quick breakfast out or from a box.
10:00 a.m. - Hop in the car for groceries and beer.
11:00 a.m. - Start "relaxing."

The thing is, everything we did was part of a nice day.  That run wasn't obligatory -- it was fun.  Cooking wasn't a burden -- it was fun.  Spending a few hours getting groceries and supplies wasn't a chore -- it was fun.  Slowing down and enjoying every piece of the day is...fun.

Candle light Friday nights

This Friday I will be waiting for my husband to return home from a long week of travel. The sun will be setting and I will be lighting candles all over the house. Sounds romantic, hey? Well, not entirely – it’s all part of our year of living with less. We’ve introduced “Candle Light Friday Nights”.

Why are we doing this?

1. We own a lot of lamps (7 in total – remember we live in 620 square feet). I like to turn on said lamps. According to the all wise internet, using a lamp for two hours a day will consume nearly 220 kilowatt hours of electricity in a year, at an average cost of $18.
2. A former co-worker of mine, Denise, first introduced me to the concept of limited “screen time” that she used with her children, and I really liked the idea. I spend most of my day on the computer and I want to try it myself.
3. We watched No Impact Man a few weeks back. This family went 6 months with no electricity in New York. The idea is admirable but totally impractical for us, hence, we picked one night (and leave our fridge running).

How are we doing this?

Everything is done by candle light after dusk – no lights allowed and no electronic devices (no phone calls, texts, e-mails, or internet surfing allowed). We made our way through all of our candles a few weeks ago, so were faced with the choice to purchase or make our own. This made for a welcome challenge. I purchased a pound of beeswax, some wick (both for under $15), and started collecting empty votive holders and small jars. I picked up a book from the library about candle making, but as it turns out, these simple candles don’t require much instruction. Simply melt the wax in a double boiler, set the wick, pour in the wax, and let cool. I’ve made eight small and four medium sized candles, and have half of the supplies left.

The benefits?

I can’t say that I have seen a difference on our hydro bill yet, but candle light Friday nights have been a great way for us to wind down from our busy week, get caught up with each other, and make sure we spend the night focusing on what’s most important – each other. I won’t attempt to liken it to having the same religious importance, but I enjoy how it fits with the Jewish tradition of lighting candles on Friday night for the sake of harmony in the home and joy on the day of rest. We look forward to having some company over some Friday night and sharing this new found tradition. I might even send you home with a candle (this means you, Felix!!! – we’re really looking forward to having you over!).

So, Shabbat shalom! Wishing you harmony and joy this Friday, and signing off in anticipation of another great Candle Light Friday Night!

Bye bye, George! (We're now a one-car family)

The dust has settled and we sold George, my Honda Fit.  Selling a car privately is a pain, but we Craigslisted it and got lucky; a local engineer and his wife test-drove it the day after we listed it, liked the car, and moved quickly to close the deal.

I loved that car, but Erin's car makes more sense for the future -- it's got all-wheel drive, snow tires, and is a bit bigger.  And Erin doesn't drive stick shift.  Fuel economy?  The Suburu can't compete with the Honda -- not even close.  But hey, you can't have everything.

It made sense to sell one of our vehicles on so many levels.  First, with me biking to work and Erin taking the train, we only drive about once a week, anyway.  Second, there's a government monopoly on liability insurance in British Columbia, so we pay about $180 month per vehicle to keep them insured (it's for this reason that my Honda Fit has sat in storage for the past six months).  So there's some nice cash savings.

Anyway, sharing one vehicle is actually not a sacrifice at all.  And since we only have a single parking garage space at our flat -- and George has been stored there -- it means no more battling with street parking for the our Suburu.

It feels good to be a one-car family.

The Shower Timer - Friend or foe?

One idea/tool that's great in theory but made me a bit leery is the shower timer.  Erin and I both love long hot showers.  I'm not talking about 30-minute endeavors, but I know that I'm a regular exceeder of the 5-minute guideline we all learned about in grade school.

This winter, I was doing some consulting for a local company that involved brainstorming recommendations for an energy/water/comfort efficiency assessment for residential homes.  When I stumbled across this simple, non-electric, inexpensive (< $5, check Amazon) timer, I knew that it'd be a good idea for others to implement:

-- since shorter showers not only result in less water usage (water efficiency), but a lot less energy required to heat that excess water (less electricity or natural gas, depending on your water heating system).

I admit, though, that for me, I had some resistance to the idea.  I/we have made a lot of choices to reduce waste, but for some reason this one seemed a bit tougher and more personal.  Nevertheless, about a month ago, I picked one up and stuck it on our shower wall.

And?  It has certainly changed things for us.  And it's been far less painful that I/we thought it would be.  I've learned that:

1. While I didn't time my showers before, they were surely longer than 5 minutes.
2. It actually only takes me about 2-3 minutes to get clean, followed by time that I just stand there and enjoy scalding-hot water running over me.

I've found out that I'm quite happy with a 4-minute (or so) shower.  In fact, I frequently find myself jumping out at about the 3-minute point simply because I'm more cognizant that I'm "done" and it feels nice to be wasting less.  Erin, too, has had no problems adapting.

In short, I thought it was going to suck to be "forced to" take shorter showers.  It hasn't played out that way.  It's not bad at all.

Driving less

In follow up to Brian's recent posts about commuting to work on bicycle, I wanted to share my thoughts on one of our undertakings that I am really enjoying...driving less.

I'll start with a disclaimer: we no longer live in climates where we risk freezing our limbs, and our recent move into a very walkable city/neighborhood makes this undertaking much easier than it would be if, say, we were still living in Alberta, Minnesota, or even a suburb in greater Vancouver.

Driving less does come at the expense of convenience and requires the commitment of time and planning - and we have dedicated to doing it, rain, wind, cold, or "slushing" (since it doesn't really "snow" in Vancouver). However, the payoffs are much better than the sacrifices. We are consciously trying to get where we need and want to go WITHOUT getting into the car. Here's how:

Getting to and from work - Brian has already shared his strategy for his commute to work; cycling is great exercise for him, and far less stressful and frustrating than navigating through congested Vancouver traffic. I commute from Vancouver to Surrey via Skytrain, and have taken advantage of the work and tax subsidized transit pass. While the commute is much longer than I am used to and would prefer (45 minutes each way), I'm using this time as an opportunity to read (and can report that I have finished more books in the last 3 months than I did all of last year). We're saving on the cost of gas, toll bridge fees, and parking passes (and reducing carbon contributions). When I have to get between the corporate office, hospital, and ambulatory care center in Surrey, I take advantage of the health shuttle (again, reducing carbon imprint AND saving BC taxpayers by reducing my mileage expenditures). I try to take advantage of the working from home policy whenever I can and remotely commute into the office when I don't have meetings.

Getting groceries - We walk. We make frequent small trips together and carry our groceries home. For solo or larger/heavier shopping purchases, we bring along our hiking backpack.

Seeing friends and running errands - We walk, cycle, or run. It definitely requires us to plan out our schedules to leave extra time for getting to and from places, but we cherish this time to connect with one another, shake off the stiffness from sitting at our desks and computers all day, and burn off some of the calories from the decadent meals our friends have been treating us with!

On vacation - We recently made a trip down to Oregon and Coastal Washington to use the generous "mini-honeymoon" getaway that my coworkers gave us as a wedding present. While we did require the car to get to and from these destinations (we did investigate taking the train... unfortunately, it didn't stop where we had to go), we made a commitment that we would use the car as little as possible. While we were in Welches, OR - we did our best to walk and NOT take the car around town. While we were in Long Beach, WA, we stayed at the Inn at Discovery Coast and took advantage of the neighboring Adrift Hotel (www.adrifthotel.com) beach cruiser bike loans. I'm pretty sure that I had a perma grin on the entire time - I loved the one-speed, banana-seat, upright-handle nostalgic ride. We rode along the boardwalk and the paved trails all the way to the lighthouse. We stopped to enjoy the beach and explored the towns in search of a perfect spot to stop and get lunch. It was pure bliss!

The Adrift Hotel and Inn at Discovery Coast are noteworthy - using a lot of reused objects to finish, furnish, and decorate the rooms, and offering local, organic, vegetarian, and environmentally sound food and products, all at a great value. AND they are pet friendly - with some really loveable resident canines. Much to my dismay, I didn't manage to convince Brian to bring one home. But I think he's warming to the idea...

I estimate that I have gone from using the car 5-6 days a week to once every two weeks. Soon, we will be selling Brian's car (which has been parked for almost 5 months) and officially become a one car family! (Anyone who is in the market for a fantastic Honda Fit, stay tuned!)

The bike dilemma, part II

Of the four options I talked about in "The bike dilemma," I chose #2 (convert my mountain bike to a decent crossover).

#1 (keep mountain bike as is) sucks because it's a lot of work to ride on wide, knobby tires (and a cushy, energy-absorbing suspension).  #3 (buy a new but cheap bike) is clearly against our 2013 rules.  And #4 (buy a secondhand bike) didn't work out, simply because I found that even a used $500 bike is in many ways inferior to my existing bike, a >$1200 bike that I bought used for $400 in 1998 or so.  Even so, as I wandered around my bike shop of choice, I had to stop myself from rationalizing how great this or that $1000 bike would be.  Old habits die hard.

So here is a tally of my upgrade expenses:
$60.00 - Two puncture-proof commuter tires
$8.40 - Two tubes (I have loads of new spares, but they're all way too wide for my new skinny tires)
$2.24 - Wheel rim tape (the previous stuff was fifteen years old and almost worn through)
$2.80 - One pretty little red bell (to let pedestrians and other bikers know I'm about to pass them -- but not really, given that most commuters have sleeker/faster bikes than mine)

Also, I spent $32.48 on a pair of MEC shoe covers.  It rains a lot in Vancouver.  I've heard that these will do a decent job of ensuring that I arrive at work with dry feet.  On a related note, I already had some fenders that I could reinstall; these should keep me from showing up at work with a mud stripe down my back.

In all, it took me a few hours to tune my bike up and swap out the tires, but it was a fun activity to reconnect me with this old friend.  Gearing up for bicycle commuting set me back just over $100, a far cry from the several hundred dollars I would have been tempted to spend in any non-2013 year.  A great bonus was that Erin and I were able to take our bikes out of storage for a test ride downtown to drop in at our friends Kat/Liam & family on Sunday evening.

Anyway, here are some pics:

Taking beauty into my own hands

Beauty products consumed a considerable amount of cupboard and drawer space in our bathroom -- not because either of us are product junkies -- but because, as with so many things, over the years these products have simply collected. I consider my self relatively low maintenance in the beauty department; however, on counting the boxes marked "bathroom," there were three 30" by 30" containers that were full to the brim.

One objective for our year of living with less: simplify. So, I have taken to trying to consolidate bottles, make better choices about the products I do use, and whenever I can, I will attempt to do it myself. Now, the DIY component of this journey could aptly be named, "the good, the bad, and the ugly."

Let's start with the ugly. As a child, a DIY haircut often resulted in tears and a trip to the hairdresser. I have very vivid memories of the 1" haircut I requested from my mother...that turned into 4-5" in attempt to get things straight. Or the time I decided to cut my own bangs. Bad idea. But, many years older, and wiser, after having occasionally trimmed my own hair, I thought it might be a good time to try out cutting my own hair and avoid a trip to the hairdresser and the intrusive sticking of fingers into my ear after getting my hair washed...

My hair had grown quite long, past mid back, and was apt to get caught on a number of things. It was time for a big change. I braided my hair, headed into the bathroom with scissors, and SNIP -- started trimming away. I had been quite impressed with how even it was, until my loving husband entered the bathroom, took one look, and said, "let me get the camera."

Fortunately, he was quite willing (and skilled) at helping me fix things up. Oops.

The bad: self waxing. I'm not sure why I ever think this is a good idea. I'm going to need to put some more thought into natural and cost effective hair removal options.

The good: I had a container of epsom salt given to me by my dear friend, Meryll, oh some, 7 or 8 years ago. The gift was spot on -- I love soaking in the bath and would use the salts whenever I was particularly sore -- but we no longer have a bathtub in our condo -- only a shower, so I decided to put them to good use to make a body scrub. So I turned to Martha.

Taking her lead, I combined 1 cup epsom salt, 1 tbsp lavender buds, the zest from an orange, and just enough vegetable oil to make the mixture moist and sticky, but not runny. Both Brian and I love using it, and it further inspired a face scrub made from brown sugar and olive oil. My sensitive and breakout prone skin loves it!

Homemade glass cleaner

OK, glass cleaner is cheap.  The last bottle we bought was from the dollar store.  $1.25 plus tax.  But can we do better?  As it turns out: easily!  This stuff is not rocket science.

I did some digging around and found this excellent review of a few different ways of making glass cleaner.  Because we don't have rubbing alcohol on hand, I went with version 3.

Ingredients:
2 c hot water
1/3 c vinegar
1 tbsp cornstarch

Mix together.  Pour into an old spray bottle.  That's it!  It works great.  It's supposed to work even better with the rubbing alcohol, but I'm pretty okay with it as is.

Homemade dryer sheets?

No, we're not really going to make homemade dryer sheets.  But when we ran out, like everything else we've run out of in the past month or so, it led to two questions:

1) Do we really need this product?

2) If yes, can we make it ourselves with less chemicals -- or more cheaply?

Of course, we should be air drying our clothing during our Year of Less.  However, let's be realistic.  It's January in Vancouver.  Nothing's going to air dry until July or so.

Okay, so we're going to dry.  Is it necessary to use dryer sheets to have soft clothes?  Well, not really.  But it's sort of nice when they're not all staticky.

I did some googling and it turns out that you can get soft, static-free clothing by doing two simple things.  First, add a tablespoon or two of vinegar to the fabric softener drawer in your washing machine (if you mix it with the soap, you neutralize the soap -- so don't!).  Then, when it comes time to dry, use some of those rubber/plastic dryer balls.  We already had some, so it wasn't an added purchase.

The end result?  To be honest, it's no different than if we'd use dryer sheets full of chemicals.  Another successful experiment and forever-change in our household!  (And, I found that we still have a bunch of dryer sheets in a place I hadn't looked before.  I suppose we'll still use them up, but we'll definitely not buy them ever again.)

In conclusion, it turns out that dryer sheets are pretty unnecessary.  It makes a person stop and wonder how many other products we've been subtly convinced to buy through clever advertising...

The bike dilemma

Obviously, buying a bike is not permitted in a year in which you're trying to avoid all capital expenditures.  But still...

I got a new job.  I start next week.  It's 6 mi / 10 km from home.  Since moving back to central Vancouver -- and being close to a light rail station that Erin can use for commuting -- we don't use the car much anymore.  I'd like to keep it that way.  Thus my need for a commuter bike.

Our thought process was this.

1) Can't buy one.  Make do with my existing bike, which is a mountain bike suited to...well...mountains.  It has a suspension.  Suspensions absorb energy.  Energy that you put in.  Awesome for hills and trails.  Not awesome for non-sweaty commuting.  Also, the bike has rugged tires.  Not ideal, but deal with it.

2) After much discussion earlier in the month, we decided that perhaps a good compromise was to buy slick tires to put on the bike.  That'd make it much more efficient.  But then again, it's still a crappy bike for city commuting -- and a set of decent slicks would cost $80.  That's a fair chunk of change for a non-ideal situation.

3) Buy a cheap commuter bike when we go to Portland (US prices and no sales tax -- yeah!).  When we were there in October, I saw a sweet new bike for just $400.  That should be allowed.

4) But wait -- new?  No way.  There must be used deals out there.  Talking this through with others, it turned out that our friend Sarah knows a great secondhand/repair bike shop in Portland.  We're dialed in.  The plan is to walk in, test ride a few bikes, and buy one on the spot.  Ideal budget: $200.  Max budget: $400.  To offset this price, I will sell my mountain bike.  It's an old $1000+ bike that will hopefully fetch at least $200 or $300.

A forthcoming posting will report how this turns out.

Homemade mouthwash

Another day, another empty bottle.  This time it was mouthwash.  First off, we really even need mouthwash?  I like to use it off and on.  Erin, too.

Last year, I decided to go back to old school Listerine only -- none of the fancy pants colored/flavored varieties.  Just plain Listerine.  It doesn't taste good.  Erin calls it asswash.  Fair enough.

She picked us up a bottle of Tom's of Maine baking soda mouthwash a few months back.  It came in a nice 500 mL bottle (as opposed to one of those gargantuan jugs you see in the big shops).  It was different, but good.  Anyway, that's the one that just ran out.  I did a bit of online research and then invented a new mouthwash recipe based on a few things I found.

Brian's mouthwash:
16 oz / 500 mL water
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp hard liquor
2 tsp baking soda
5 drops tea tree oil

Heat the water with the cinnamon stick in it.  As soon as it reaches boiling, remove it from the heat.  Stir in the baking soda until thoroughly dissolved.  Let things cool down, then add the liquor and tea tree oil.  Voila!  Put in an empty bottle you already had on the shelf.

The very first time you taste this, you may want to spit it out.  But beyond that, I guarantee you'll love it!  It's sort of like candy-apple flavored.  It does a nice job of freshening breath.

Homemade shampoo and conditioner

On returning from my trip to Minnesota, I found that my lovely wife had finished the last of our store-bought shampoo and had taken it upon herself to make some more from scratch.

The original recipe is from the David Suzuki foundation website (direct link to the PDF here -- other homemade haircare recipes are also included), with a few small modifications.  Here you go:

Make a "tea" using the following amounts of water and dried herbs:
2 c water (use distilled if you live somewhere with chemically-tasting water)
2 tbsp peppermint
2 tbsp lavender
2 tbsp nettle
2 tbsp rosemary

Once it's cooled, throw away the solids.  Add:
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp witch hazel
~ 1 tbsp xanthan gum
10 drops cedarwood essential oil
10 drops tea tree essential oil

Xanthan gum isn't in the orginal recipe, but we added it after using the original shampoo for a week and not liking it's "liquid"-ness.  It's hard to incorporate this completely (think: adding flour to soup stock), but it's possible if you use a whisk attachment on an immersion blender.

Lastly, stir in:

1/2 c vegetable glycerin
1/4 c decyl glucoside

The decyl glucoside isn't in the original recipe, but the shampoo won't lather without it and we weren't liking this aspect.  Of all the lathering agents (surfactants), decyl glucoside seems the tamest.  (In the natural product world, the most common surfactant -- sodium laureth sulfate -- seems to be regarded as one of the world's great evils.)

Anyway, this shampoo is pretty great.  This recipe makes enough to fill a 500 mL (~16 oz) bottle -- reused from a previous shampoo bottle, of course.

A side bonus is that after battling winter dry scalp for a decade or two -- and consuming Head & Shoulders, T-Gel, and countless other products without great results -- my head is healthier than it's been since I was about five.  Good job, Erin!

Oh, and you don't need conditioner with this, largely because you haven't stripped the hell out of your hair's natural oils.  The aforementioned website recommends a rinse that you use about once per week.

Ingredients:
2 cups water
~ 1/2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
~ 1/2 tbsp of xanthan gum

Again, the xanthan gum is our addition, simply because we like it to be somewhat more gel-like.

When we set out on the Year of Less, we didn't anticipate making our own shampoo and conditioner -- these items were certainly not on our list of things to avoid.  That said, we love these products, they were easy to make, and they cost less than even the cheapest store-bought items.  We did have to buy some products we didn't have (essential oils, decyl glucoside, glycerin, witch hazel, etc.), but as future entries will show, these will be important essentials in our household from now on -- for a variety of reasons.

Activity book for a 2-year-old

Ah, one of the year's first big challenges: what to get Brian's two-year-old niece for her birthday?!

Normally, I'd go to Amazon and look up reviews for some books with great educational value.  Or check out Melissa & Doug toys.  Or wander the local shops for other ideas.  Since these aren't options for us in 2013, Erin suggested that we make an activity book.

The idea is to construct a book that will teach a child how to use a zipper, tie shoelaces, learn how clothespins work, figure out how to work a belt.  You know, stuff dealing with tactile development -- a learning tool, but fun, too.

Erin did a great job taking the lead on this.  I headed back to Minnesota for a four-day weekend and was able to deliver the gift in person.  It was a big hit -- as of Day Two, anyway!

Also great -- besides the fact that we both put a lot of love into making it -- was the fact that it cost us only about $2 to make.  We had to buy a few sheets of colored felt and some zippers.  The rest was made with stuff we already owned: buttons, scraps of recycled clothing, old shoestrings, bits of velcro, etc.

Stuff we "need"

There's so much stuff we want.  I want books, books, and more books.  My way of dealing with the No-Buy clause is to compile a list of all of the ones I'd normally be tempted to buy.  Despite the fact that we have enough unread books to last us several years, there's this desire for more.  Where does that come from?

For me, it's about not forgetting.  I leave things out when I plan to use them in the next day (much to Erin's occasional annoyance).  When I stumble across a book I'd like to read, I buy it (usually secondhand, on ABEBooks).  That way, I can't forget it -- visually it will be there for me at such future point as my eyes spot it on a bookshelf.  The thing is, there are relatively few (perhaps 25%) books that I read that, after reading, I desire to read again or own.  Therein lies waste.

Thus the list.  We've started a notebook.  The first page is a list of the books I'd like to buy.  The second page is the other stuff we'd like to buy -- and normally would have, had it not been for this 2013 experiment.  Included are new wine glasses, new skis for Erin, and an iron so that I can use the old one for waxing skis.

Other pages detail unavoidable expenses -- which we'll get into in subsequent entries.

A week or so into 2013, one thing that's been fun is all the discussion that we've spawned.  Erin says how she craves coffee and needs to plan ahead to avoid buying it in passing (she even carried a glass jar of instant coffee with her so she can make her own from boiling water).  I say how much I'd like the game Crokinole.  And a new commuter bike.  We discuss whether I/we need these things and how to get around it.

It's fun to slowly use up bottles of shampoo, conditioner, soaps, glass cleaners, etc.  Something that we've decided to add to the mix is lowering our usage of chemicals.  Ahead: the challenge of making many of these items from scratch.

The premise

On New Year's Day, we sat around reflecting on the past few days we'd spent in Victoria, BC with friends Sarah and Luke.  Our friend Luke's parents are both ordained monks who live fairly simply -- they'd somehow survived for decades without some of our favorite kitchen accessories.  This led to a discussion of what we really needed.  Which led to a discussion of surprising credit card bills and how there was always something to make each month's statement higher than need be.  Which led to a discussion about everything we already have.  Which led to Erin's suggestion that we don't buy anything non-consumable in 2013.

Is that even possible?

We weren't sure, but decided that, yes, probably, it was.  Given a bit longer to think about it, we decided the point of the experiment was actually about living with less.  It's not just about money.  It's about being more self-sufficient, less wasteful, having less clutter/bottles/boxes around, etc.

It's not about changing the world single-handedly, nor about martyrdom or instilling fear or guilt about our (and others') choices and actions.  Rather, our year of less will be about bringing more authenticity into our lives.  It will give us the opportunity to align our values with our actions.  We value autonomy and sustainability.  We care about reducing our environmental impact, making wise purchases, and saving for what's really important to us (family, friends, travel, and a future home) -- only using/taking what we need, being grateful for what we have, and trying to leave things a little better than when when found them. 

So there we go.  In 2013, we live with less.  We don't know exactly what this year will bring, but hope that whatever crazy project we undertake, we will achieve one or more of these things:

1. Simplify.  Our lives are busy and complex enough as it is.  We crave a simpler path.
2. Use Less.  We, admittedly, consume more than we need.  We want to understand this better and change what we can.
3. Share More.  We are so fortunate and have far more than what we need. We want to share what we can.

How do we do this?  For starters:

No (wherever possible) capital expenditures (including books -- arghh!).

No takeaway coffees.

No purchased alcohol.
When running out of any household product, rethink the next step.

Etcetera (this list will constantly evolve).