I just read some good news on another blog about living green in Los Angeles (green LA girl): This week, in honor of Fair Trade Week, Starbucks has decided to make Cafe Estima, a Fair Trade coffee, it's "Coffee of the Week" in all company-owned stores (which I believe means free-standing Starbucks). This is a great opportunity for coffee drinkers to let Starbucks know that Fair Trade coffee is important to you. We should all go there this week and order a cup of Cafe Estima. According to the press release, you can also buy bags of the coffee at their stores and at your local grocery.

FYI, you can get Fair Trade coffee at Starbuck's any time you want. If they don't have it on their list of brews, you can request it specifically. AND, if they are not brewing any that day, you can ask for them to make it in a French press for you. I know that sounds like a pain, but it's good to let Starbuck's know that Fair Trade is a priority to you.

So go by this week and order some Cafe Estima. Cheers!

The moth problem is still bad. We are clueless as to how to rid our home of them. Maybe once winter rolls around they will just freeze or something, although I doubt it since it's October and 80 degrees outside. The Pantry Pest glue traps are working pretty well, but they are too passive.

About a month ago, Dakota and I decided to take things into our own hands and get... fly swatters.

The fly swatters may be old-fashioned and a little gross, but using them is satisfying. I'd say we kill 4 or 5 moths a day, each. We haven't gotten rid of all the moths, but I think we've at least reduced the population. I still am not sure where they're all coming from or if we'll ever be able to get rid of them completely. Let me know if you have any eco-friendly tips.

So a while back I bought this product called Shake Away, which is supposed to help protect your garden from skunks and other annoying rodents. It's natural and organic, apparently, and is basically crystallized fox pee. Well, it's the granulated scent of foxes, coyotes and other predators. I thought it sounded pretty amazing, so I ordered some.



I used it in my back garden, and I think it may have helped a little, but I wasn't blown away by its effectiveness. One issue I had with it is that you have to apply it several times for the first week, and then pretty frequently thereafter. I was kind of hoping for a single-application fox pee product.

I do have a pretty serious skunk/cat/raccoon issue in the back yard though. They are constantly digging up plants and making a mess. And it's kind of scary every time I accidentally run across one.

I ordered a new skunk-repelling product this week. I think this one involves pepper and is easier to use. I'll let you know how it goes.

This cool bag I ordered arrived in the mail this week. It's really modern and colorful, and it's made from recycled products. I think I am going to order another to give to a friend for her birthday. I got it from Ecoist Bags, and I heard about it on one of Dakota's favorite blogs Treehugger. Ecoist bags are made from recycled chip bags, candy wrappers and soft drink labels. The one I purchased seems to be very well-made, and, as I mentioned, it looks really cool. Of course, because they are hand made, they aren't the cheapest. A large clutch is $95. But, I think that it's important to support green businesses, and Ecoist Bags are certainly way cheaper than the designer handbags many people in LA carry. Plus, each one is unique. Ecoist's smaller bags are more affordable, in the $30-40 range. I think my friend will really dig one.

A couple of months ago, Dakota and I started a little garden in the back yard. We had to dig out of the hill to make a flat area to plant, but it came out pretty well. This is it in April, after we did our first planting. We put in tomatoes, squash, radishes, peppers, green beans and carrots. Everything has grown pretty quickly, probably because we had to fill the garden in with several bags of soil and soil builder. This was due to the fact that the soil in that area of the yard is incredibly rocky and marked with clay deposits.

I have been keeping the garden organic so far. (Although I didn't use "organic seeds." I'm not really even sure how seeds could be organic, but maybe that just illustrates my ignorance.) We weren't able to use our compost to fertilize the garden this year because it hasn't decomposed enough yet. I may need to get some of those compost-activating bugs or something. I did get some interesting pest-control products though, including this product that's made from concentrated garlic. You basically just dilute it with water and spray it on your plants. I am not sure how well it's working. I probably need to do a second application. I also ordered some fertilizing worm tea recently. I love that name. Basically it's worm castings (poop) in liquid form that you can pour in your plants instead of using Miracle Grow. I will use it on my potted herbs, some shrubs that need some help in the front yard and possible the tomatoes, which have been looking a little yellow lately.

Overall, the garden has been growing nicely, as I said. So far we have harvested a few green beans, a couple of tomatoes and a very nice yellow squash. All were delicious (although you'll have to take Dakota's word about the tomatoes). I'll keep you posted on how the radishes, peppers and carrots turn out. We may even be able to do a whole second planting after the tomatoes and squash are done producing. That's one of the many benefits of living in sunny Southern California. It's easy to live off the land around here. Hee hee.

While I love the outdoors, I am getting pretty annoyed about the fact that the outdoors insists on coming inside my house. Lately, we've had this incredibly annoying moth problem, which I am attempting to solve through natural means. About a month ago, I ordered some Safer Brand Pantry Pest Traps, which are supposed to get rid of moths without pesticides. They work pretty well. Basically they're paper triangles with sticky stuff on the inside and a little pheromone trap that lures the moths in. I guess it's kind of gruesome that the moths get caught, alive, in the trap. But maybe they should have considered that before they started flying all over the house. The trap in the kitchen has caught a TON of moths, in fact, I would say it's full. So I am ordering a new one--along with some other organic pest control products. The moths are definitely being lured in by these traps, but, for some reason, there are still new ones showing up every day. So I may have to take more extreme measures. I ordered some Moth-Away Moth repellent and some Victor Pest Control Poison-Free Flying Insect Killer from this site called Planet Natural today. I'll let you know how those work. I also got some really cool stuff called Shake Away at the same time I got the original moth traps. It's supposed to help you keep skunks and other annoying woodland creatures out of your yard. More on that later. It's so exciting it deserves it's own post.

Today, I ordered some Fair Trade coffee from a place called Grounds for Change. We've ordered coffee from them before and it's delicious. My parents have given us coffee from another really tasty Fair Trade company called Alterra. I like those coffees better than the Fair Trade brand at Trader Joe's (Cafe Pajaro), which is not bad either. Anyway, there are lots of great places to get Fair Trade coffee on the Internet these days. And now that I know about Fair Trade, I don't think I'll buy conventionally grown and traded coffee any more. I guess that's because I see coffee as a luxury item, so I feel like I should hold myself to higer standards when purchasing it. At the moment, I don't always have those feelings about foods like bread or chicken. Perhaps I will someday. We'll see.

I am thinking of starting a blog about my attempts to live a greener life at my house on Frieda Drive in Los Angeles. This would be the first post on that blog. We'll see how it goes from there.