Roman the plumber

This past election season we all heard about Joe the Plumber. Well, we have our very own icon, and his name is Roman the Plumber, or Roman Bukowinski. Roman and his wife Liz, residents of Birmingham, MI, entertained us all at their home this past Saturday night by taking us on all 3 levels of their home and showing us his gray water and solar heating systems. Roman designed all of this himself, and it is a sight to see. We started at the upper level, in the kids' playroom, and were shown how the house is cooled by radiant tubes in the ceiling. In the basement, he showed how the solar collectors on his roof were integrated into his home radiant heating system. He has installed radiant plex tubes in all 3 floors in the home. Also, he explained his innovative gray water system, pictured below. It takes water from his showers and sinks and cleans it as the water moves through 3 levels of sand filtering containers. He then reuses the water to flush his toilets. (And with 4 young kids, this is a good idea!) He has received approval for this system from the City of Birmingham and is working with the State of Michigan to upgrade the standards for these types of systems. Oh, by the way, the kilt in the picture above is authentic - Roman is Scottish.

Here is a brief video from the evening:

The crash of trash

Our Tuesday group is moving on from our fall topic, energy, and has determined that we want to study the area of recycling. After a bit of discussion, however, we thought 'recycling' was probably the wrong term, and have tentatively broadened the concept to 'no waste'. So it was with great interest today that I found this article on the front page of the New York Times: Back at Junk Value, Recyclables Are Piling Up. The gist of the article is that the value of recyclables has crashed, mainly due to the economic downturn that is causing China's demand for recyclables to dry up. As a result, recyclable materials are piling up with nowhere to go, and in some cases community recycling programs are halting pickup of plastics and paper.

I had a feeling we were heading here. A couple of years ago I had read, improbably, a couple of book on garbage: Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage and Garbage Land: On The Secret Trail of Trash, and here's the message I took from both books: stop consuming so much and reuse what you have consumed. Both books felt that recycling was, at best, a band-aid, and, at worst, a way to delude people into thinking they were environmentalists. So it's interesting to see where our bandwagons for recycling have taken us.

Which brings me to today's point: Maybe we need to start becoming more mindful of what we are consuming and begin thinking about how we can reduce not only what goes into our garbage cans but also what goes into our recycling bins. The yogurt container, pictured above, is a prime example. Years ago when I was reading all of this I read that one thing yogurt eaters can do is to move from individual packs to the larger container - less waste. I took that in, but never switched because my brand was not available in the larger size. Fast forward to last week - I was in need of yogurt but the market I was in did not have small packs, only larger ones. So it forced my hand - I bought the larger size and discovered that I loved this yogurt too. And since my husband and I have been making soups this winter, we'll reuse the containers for freezing soup. I love it when things work out this way.

The 'No-Garbage' Garbage Day

Last Wednesday before heading over to exercise I did what I do every week: pull the garbage can to the curb (like above). When I lifted the can, I noticed that it was pretty light, so I looked inside. For the first time in, say, forever, it was empty. So I went back inside to gather up our garbage and discovered that there wasn't enough to even take out. Hmmmm....

We have been heading in this direction for a while. We have always recycled newspapers and things in the plastics/cans category, but in recent years we've stepped it up a bit. Now, every bit of unuseable paper (and believe me, we use it till it's unuseable) gets recycled. I even keep containers upstairs for paper and plastic recycling lest I'm tempted to take the easy route and throw them away rather than cart them downstairs. It also helps that our recycling center, SOCCRA, now allows all plastics, not just 1's and 2's.

Then we got better at keeping things that were not curb recyclable but could be taken to SOCCRA, such as batteries, paints, coated paper milk and juice cartons, plastic bags, etc. So about once a month we go to SOCCRA and get rid of what we've collected. And you'd be amazed at the number of people who are doing likewise -- it's always crowded when we're there.

The final nail in the garbage coffin was our most recent adaptation to composting. This is something that takes a while to get used to, but once you do, you simply cannot put food scraps into plastic bags any more, thinking of them fermenting in landfills when they could be useful in your garden. We have refined our composting methodology over the past year for maximum benefit (best idea: keep a nice composting bucket on your counter - you will use it).

So there you have one way of becoming a 'no-garbage' garbage day household. As you can see, it just kind of evolves. And just like me, you'll really enjoy not taking the garbage out.

Cold frame gardening

I wanted to share with you some of the cold frames we have come up this fall. The one above is a hoop frame that fits over a lasagna garden. It is made of a 2 x 4 wood frame base with heavy aluminum wire for the hoops, and a medium-weight plastic sheeting as the cover. Pockets were sewn into the plastic (using some fabric for stability) to lace the hoops through, but you can put the plastic over the hoops in many other ways.

The one below is a wood cold frame that is modeled on one the Brennans saw in Williamsburg, VA. It will be placed over a lasagna garden on a south wall. The windows were obtained from the Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit and are hinged for opening.

We are going to experiment with them this winter and see if we can get anything to grow. We hope to see full benefit from them, however, early next spring.

Voting the green way

Yesterday, along with record numbers of others, we voted in the presidential election. It was a historic election for a variety of reasons - our first African-American president, our first post-boomer president, the first real grassroots election utilizing social computing technologies - and all of that was exciting. But for us it also represented a first: the first time we biked to the polls. Amazing! But the weather was unusually warm (70) so we said why not?

In the picture you see me in post-vote mode. Part of the fun of the day was the free stuff that was offered to voters, and I was determined to take advantage of it. After voting we biked a few more miles over to Olga's, who was offering triple coupons for voters. And right nearby was the Starbucks, who offered free coffee to voters. I passed on the free Krispy Kreme doughnuts and free Ben and Jerry's ice cream - after all, there's only so much biking I can do to work off all this free stuff.

Best voting experience ever. And biking in November - priceless.

Radiant Blanket for Cold Ducts

This fall we've been working on winter energy-saving tips, and last week we decided it was time to put one of our ideas into action. We have a forced-air duct system connected to our geothermal system. Our ducts have no insulation, and so are a bit inefficient. In the summer the basement feels cold, and in the winter, quite warm, and a portion of this is due to the fact that the duct system leaks. So Tom found a product called TempShield single bubble white/foil, and hired Dunbar construction to put it up (although you can really do it yourself - just requires stapling). The process took about 1/2 day. The material cost $160, and although it's hard to measure energy savings, we're guessing that it will be in the ball park of 5%.

We'd recommend this if: 1)you run your fan all the time, or 2)your basement is cold.

A Fall Tour

You've got to admit, the picture above doesn't look very fall-ish. And it certainly doesn't look like it comes from anywhere in the midwest. But for those of us lucky enough to be born in Michigan, this scene is familiar. The photo was taken last week, a little outside of Glen Arbor, Michigan, right in the midst of the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. The dunes, located on the northwestern side of the lower peninsula, are an incredible natural resource. My daughter, Maureen, and I toured throughout this area last weekend on the Pierce Stocking Drive. Pierce Stocking is the name of a lumberman who worked in Michigan's woods and had a passion for sharing the beauty of the area with others. He planned this drive, saw it open in 1967, and operated it until his death in 1976. The view you see is of Lake Michigan, and is only one of the spectacular outlooks from the drive. The drive is open until Nov. 12 - get out and see it if you can! Here are directions. There is nothing like Michigan in the fall!