Last month, I started this new club after reading an article in the New Yorker. The article was about this mega-church and the way the guy who created it keeps his members engaged is by assigning them to "small groups." These small groups meet, talk and pray weekly, and this creates a bond with the larger church that they're all affiliated with. What caught my attention was that the people in these small groups tend to be much more involved in the church and to do much more community service than those who are not in the groups. My immediate thought was: It sucks that this kind of thing only really exists in a religious setting.

Then, I decided to do something about that. So, I started a club called (somewhat jokingly) The Good Girls Club. I decided to keep it all women because I feel like it's easier for a single-sex group to bond, even when they are strangers. And I just like all-woman groups. I guess it's my personal bias. It's basically like a book club or a knitting club, but for community service. Right now, we meet twice a month: once to plan and once to do a community service activity. I have invited various female friends to join. There are about 6 people in The Good Girls right now, although the first two activities were only attended by two other members and me.

It's been really fun so far. Our first community service act was to go down to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and help sort and box up food on a Saturday morning. That was a very satisfying project, because it involved hard work and you could really see exactly how you were helping people. It also really brought home how serious the hunger problem is in Los Angeles.

Our second project was making Valentine's Day cards for a hospice care company. We ended up making 240 cards, mostly because my friend Natalie had this amazing assembly line that cranked out gorgeous handmade Valentines (which I foolishly forgot to photograph). But, all three of us worked hard, and it was fun to do some goofy arts and crafts for a good cause. The volunteer coordinator at the hospice was super-excited to get the cards, and she gave me a big hug when I dropped them off. Again, it was a very satisfying project.

So, in two months, we've done two good projects. I guess I'd like it if we could do more, but we're all very busy women who are very focused on our careers and friends and relationships, so I think one project a month may be all we can handle for a while.

I'm not sure what we'll do as our March project, but I am excited to figure it out. I'll post about it once we've decided.

Recently, I heard something on the radio that reinforced a feeling I have daily at work: bottled water is bad. At my work, there is a seemingly endless supply of bottled water and people drink it non-stop. I have no problem with everyone drinking water, but I just wish they would bring a reuseable container to drink it out of. It seems so wasteful to go through 2 or 3 bottles of water a day when you can just refill your container from the big water dispenser anytime. I used to just reuse a disposable bottle for a week or so (and write my name on the cap), but even that seemed dumb. So now I bring in a nice $2 reuseable water bottle I bought. Then, this week I heard a story on the radio that let me know the bottled water issue is worse than I thought.

Apparently, bottled water is the 2nd most popular beverage in the U.S., after soda. This strikes me as somewhat crazy because in most places in this country, tap water is perfectly fine. Where I grew up, in San Antonio, tap water was delicious. Here in LA, it's sometimes a little weird-tasting, but still safe to drink.

What's interesting is the bottled water is not necessarily cleaner or safer than tap water. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, who recently conducted a bottled water study, current bottled water regulations are inadequate to assure consumers of either purity or safety. In fact, the standards for bottled water are lower than those for city tap water. Oh, and despite the fact that bottled water is marketed as safer and more pure than tap, one fourth of it actually IS tap water--although it's beetween 240 and 10,000 times more expensive.

But that's not even the worst part. Bottled water actually hurts the environment far more than it protects human beings. According to the Earth Policy Institute, the manfacturing of the bottles for all the bottled water drunk in the U.S. each year uses as much crude oil as 10,000 cars. And disposal of the PET plastic used for water bottles is an even bigger problem. Burning PET creates chlorine and heavy metals, and if you don't burn them, bottles take 1000 years or more to biodegrade in a landfill. Recycling helps, but it still uses up resources to transport and reprocess the plastic. Basically, those empty bottles are bad news.

So, it seems like it's time to stop being suckered by the marketing of bottled water and get back to drinking plain old tap. OR, there's always a nice water filter on your faucet if you can't stand the taste of LA tap.

Today is Blog for Choice day, so I thought I'd do my part and post about abortion rights.

In 2004, I went to the March for Choice in D.C., and it actually made me feel like things might be ok. But now, almost 2 years later, I feel like we have taken steps backward. Of course, a large part of it is because Bush won the 2004 election. But there has also been movement of a state level to restrict abortion. Even here in California, Prop 73--an attempt to create a parental consent law for teenagers seeking abortions--almost passed last year. And similar laws are passing all over the U.S. That concerns me. These laws feel like the first step in a slow, back-door battle to eliminate a woman's right to choose.

What concerns me even more, though, is the success that Bush and cultural conservatives have had in eliminating safe-sex discussions in schools. As someone who went through abstinence-only education, I know how pointless and uninformative it is. The workbooks they gave us when I was in junior high looked like they were developed in the 70s, and mostly taught us how to come up with silly puns about why to save sex until marriage. I learned nothing. Teenagers need all the facts. If Bush really cared about reducing abortions in America, he'd give them the tools they need to protect themselves.

It's our duty as progressives who care to pay attention to what's happening and make some noise about it. We have to stand up and make it known that America is a Pro-Choice country. We have to insist that our youth aren't lied to and talked down to. We have to protect the rights established by Roe v. Wade whenever they are threatened--which is almost all the time these days.

Pro-Child, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice

Dakota had this good idea about how to reuse those inflated plastic bags that are used to fill shipping boxes these days. We use them as poop bags to pick up after Nigel the dog. Basically, you can just cut off one end of the bag to deflate it, and then it's a nice, small bag for picking up poop. I guess this wouldn't work if you have a large dog, but they are the perfect size for our needs.

I went on the website for the inflatable shipping bag manufacturer, and they claim you can recycle the bags as #4 plastic, but I have some doubts about that.

When we're not recycling shipping bags or vegetable bags to pick up Nigel's "business," I use this brand called Oops I Pooped. They are biodegradeable dog poop bags. They work well and come in a nice compact pack of 80 or so bags. I'm not a big fan of the name, but what can I do?

Lately, I have been completely obsessed with knitting, in part because of this really great message board site called craftster. Today, I saw this really exciting post. Someone posted a bag that she had knitted using plastic bags. I did a little poking around and found a tutorial on how to turn plastic bags into "yarn" and now I'm really excited. This seems like such a great way to reuse the plastic bags that inevitably pile up in our house. Now, I can make a bag to take to the store or beach or something. I can't wait to try it out. I will definitely post an update on this once I start trying.

I also found some info about knitting with old t-shirts, and I think I will do that too. Someone said t-shirt yarn is good for potholders, so maybe I'll try that first.

More to come on this...

I've been mailing off a bunch of gifts this week, so I thought I'd re-post this section from my EAPP newsletter from last December about wrapping and packing...

A great way to recycle and save money around the holidays is to make your own wrapping paper and packing materials. Paper grocery bags turned inside out and decorated can make a nice wrapping, and so can newspaper, comics, magazine pages, old maps and fabrics. You can also turn your old Christmas cards into gift tags by cutting off the back flap with the message.

When wrapping up boxes of gifts to mail, there’s no need to buy bubble wrap or (god forbid) Styrofoam peanuts. Instead, protect your gifts with crumpled newspaper, plastic shopping bags, old socks (washed, of course) or anything else soft and squishy that you’d got lying around the house. Be sure to reuse your cardboard boxes, too. Just pull off or scratch out the old mailing labels and they’re good as new.

If you receive a gift that’s been packed with those annoying plastic peanuts that get all over the place, take note that you can RECYCLE these items. Don’t put them in your bin. Instead, pack them into a plastic bag and take them by your local packing/shipping/moving store. They will usually take your peanuts and use them again, although you might want to give them a call before you stop by. If the peanuts are kind of fluffy and look like cheese puffs, then they are probably the new kind that are made of vegetable starch (you can test by seeing if they dissolve in water). These peanuts can be put in your compost bin or regular trash.

We've been working hard on the back yard lately. A couple of weekends ago, we planted a two more fruit trees. I'm really excited to have a small orchard at home--all organically fertilized, of course! We put in a kumquat tree and a fig tree to add to the lemon and lime trees we already have in the ground. I'm not very experienced in tending to fruit trees, but we got some organic fertilizer from a local nursery and keep the trees well-watered, so I think that's all it takes. At least I hope so. I really should get a good book on organic gardening. I'll have to do some research on that.

I also planted a fall garden recently. I've got beets, broccoli, peas and eggplant growing right now. Everything is doing pretty well, except for the broccoli. Apparently, bugs love broccoli sprouts. I am not sure what to do because I don't think tiny sprouts have any ability to fight against bugs, and I don't want to spray them with anything when they're so small and fragile. I guess I'll just have to hope that some of them pull through. Maybe I'll try this garlic concentrate stuff that bugs supposedly hate. I'll let you know how that goes.

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.