- Introduction: Thoughts On Gardening, The 11th Hour, Thanks CyberAngels!
- New Resources: Highlights Of The Latest Additions To Our Resource Directory
- Simplicity & Slimming Down: Changing The Food Culture Where You Work
- Lessons From The Home Front: Making The Most Of The Military Life
- Oil Spill On The Bay: Considering Our Personal Influence
- The Life Of Simplicity & Contemplation: Spiritual Awakening
- When You Walk Out The Door At Five, Leave It Behind
From My Job Sucks & I Can't Take It Anymore! Help! - Gems Of The Discussion Forums: Summer's Coming!
- Money/Life Balance In The New Millennium: Managing Your Finances
Dear Friends Of The Simple Living Network,
Spring is really, finally here! The last small mound of snow on the north side of my house melted on May 1st. The daffodils and garlic are up and onions, leeks, potatoes, peas, beans, beets and radishes are beginning to take hold in the garden. Warmer afternoons and evenings have ushered in the Frisbee® Golf season and campfire barbeques in the back yard with friends. Life is grand!
Gardening is one of my great passions in life. I do not have a particularly green thumb, but I certainly get a kick out of watching my vegetables grow and knowing that I'm eating healthy, organic food I grew myself. If you are a gardener, I am sure you understand. If you are not yet a gardener, I urge you to try it.
I believe everyone should at least attempt to grow some of their own food. It does not really take too much effort to grow a little patch of lettuce. Once you get the hang of it you may find the rewards are more than worth it: eating healthy, getting exercise out of doors while you tend your crop, moving toward self-sufficiency and building community as you meet and share with other local gardeners.
If I have not convinced you to start your own little garden patch or you need a little extra inspiration, I would like to recommend my latest favorite book (and audio book), Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year Of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver. It tells the story of how her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life — vowing that, for one year, they would only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. It is part memoir, part journalistic investigation, and an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat. I have been listening to the audio book (all 12 CDs worth!) while working in my own garden. It has inspired me so that I have more than doubled my growing space and planted several new fruit trees and berry bushes. (Thank you Barbara!)
If you still need further encouragement, I invite you to check out our growing Gardening Library. There you will find a wide selection of resources (many in inexpensive PDF format) — everything from the Stella Natura planting calendar to cold climate gardening, building a greenhouse, simplified gardening, complete vegetable garden "bibles," and much more. For the beginner, we offer a free PDF with some basic Gardening Answers.
Again, I urge you to have fun and experiment. As the important documentary, The Power Of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, reminds us: The end of oil is near. Things are going to change. Gardening is a critical skill to cultivate as we experience increasing food prices and global food shortages. We must all learn how to grow our own food, eat seasonally and locally, and build strong communities.
Happy gardening!
I must mention The 11th Hour, a new documentary produced by Leonard DiCaprio. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to do so. Conveying urgent warnings and hope for a better future, The 11th Hour is one of the most powerful documentaries since An Inconvenient Truth. DiCaprio has assembled an impressive, wide-ranging group of experts from many disciplines who explain in simple terms the perils we face if we do not act now to reduce our dependence on oil, change our habits of consumption and work to repair the damage human beings have done to this precious planet. Priced low to be accessible far and wide, The 11th Hour is a must see.
Watch The Trailer...
The Community Services on this web site -- this Newsletter, the Discussion Forums, our Study Groups Database, SimpleRadio and the rest -- would not exist without your support.
Because The Simple Living Network is a small, home based business operating without government, industry or foundation support, advertising revenue, or subscription fees of any kind, we rely on user support to continue offering our services.
If you enjoy and use this web site, we ask for your voluntary financial support — any amount large or small will help!
Our goal for 2008 is $20,000 and we still have a long way to go toward reaching that goal. These funds will be applied toward important expenses we must cover this year. Keeping up with the technology required to operate this web site is expensive! Old software is beginning to expire and must be replaced with new versions. Old equipment needs to be replaced because it is worn out or cannot keep up with the speed and storage space of this growing web site. Bandwidth charges are increasing due to the growing number of folks, just like you, using this site. (I could go on....)
Please do your part! Without your voluntary user support, The Simple Living Network would not exist!
Finally, as always, thank you to those of you who have become CyberAngels over the years. Your generous, ongoing financial contributions make all the difference.
We hope you enjoy this edition of our Newsletter!
Dave Wampler
Founder
The Simple Living Network
Copyright © The Simple Living Network. All Rights Reserved.
Resources To Simplify Your Life & Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
- The 11th Hour:
Turn Mankind's Darkest Hour Into Its Finest
Highly Recommended! - The Better World Handbook:
Small Changes That Make A Big Difference - The Better World Shopping Guide:
How Every Dollar Can Make A Difference - Careers In Renewable Energy: Get A Green Energy Job
- How To End Global Warming — Poster
- How To End Global Warming — Post Cards
- How To End Global Warming — Bookmarks
- The One-Minute Cleaner: 500 Tips For Cleaning Smarter, Not Harder
- The One-Minute Organizer: 500 Tips For Getting Your Life In Order
- The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide & Cookbook: Recipes For Changing Times
- The Power Of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil — Highly Recommended!
- Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy Insider Shows How
New Cookbooks
- The Big Book Of Preserving The Harvest:
150 Recipes For Freezing, Drying
& Pickling Fruits & Vegetables - Fix, Freeze, Feast:
Prepare In Bulk & Enjoy By The Serving - The Joy Of Pickling:
200 Flavor-Packed Recipes For All Kinds Of Produce... - The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide & Cookbook:
Recipes For Changing Times
New Gardening Titles
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year Of Food Life — DVD
Highly Recommended! - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year Of Food Life — Book
Highly Recommended! - Growing Vegetables West Of The Cascades: A Complete Guide To Organic Gardening
- How To Go Organic — Poster
- How To Go Organic — Post Cards
- How To Go Organic — Bookmarks
- Organic Gardening The Natural No-Dig Way
- The Power Of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Highly Recommended! - Sharing The Harvest: A Citizen's Guide To Community Supported Agriculture
- Stella Natura 2008 Calendar & Agricultural Planting Guide Highly Recommended!
New Posters, Post Cards, Bookmarks, Bags, T-Shirts, etc.
- Be The Change — Bookmarks
- Children's Rights — Bookmarks
- Como Fortalecer Su Comunidad — Poster
Spanish Edition, "How To Build Community" Poster - Do Justice — Poster
- Do Justice — Post Cards
- How To Build Community — Bookmarks
- How To Build Global Community — Bookmarks
- Live Simply — Poster
- Live Simply — Post Cards
- Live Simply — Note Cards
- Live Simply — Bookmarks
- Natural Cotton Canvas Tote Bag — Quantity Discounts!
- Natural Cotton Tote & Long Handle String Bag — Quantity Discounts!
- U-N-I-T-Y — T-Shirt
New To Alternatives For Simple Living
- The 11th Hour:
Turn Mankind's Darkest Hour Into Its Finest
Highly Recommended! - Cause For Hope: Humanity At The Crossroads
- Living Faith: How Faith Inspires Social Justice
- Starting Simple: Conversations About The Way We Live
- Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy Insider Shows How
Copyright © 2008
No matter where you work, from a university to a thrift store, there are going to be plenty of opportunities to share and eat food. Most offices have some combination of breakfast meetings, lunches, staff meetings, birthday parties, staff parties, and also snacks baked up the night before by well-meaning co-workers. At one place I worked everyone complained about gaining weight and it was no surprise because the lunch room was never in short supply of donuts, cookies, and cakes. We also ordered six-foot subs and pizza for our staff events.
There are some businesses where there is so much food, your instinct might be to stop participating in functions altogether, but don't try to fight sharing food at work — it is a sacred and wonderful practice. In order to simplify the food choices and possibly slim your waistline, try to take control of the planning process. Offer to bring in the food for the staff breakfast meeting; make choices like organic non-fat yogurt, a fruit platter (try to buy locally from a farmer's market) and bran muffins (possibly vegan). Make sure you tell your co-workers which food is organic, which food is local, and which food is vegetarian or vegan. Not only are you valuing your co-workers health, you are educating without preaching about how to buy with concern for the environment.
Another way for you to make changes is to offer to be in charge of all of the staff birthday parties. If you are given this responsibility, make sure you do a poll of which kind of cake each person would like for their birthday. When it comes time to make their birthday cake, use organic products or vegan products, for example exchange cow's milk for soy milk. Get your co-workers used to really tasty treats that are made with healthier choices both for their body and for the environment.
Another way to help change the food culture at work is to experiment with baking and cooking vegetarian and vegan, and bring samples of your experiments to work. For instance, someone may think that all vegan cookies taste awful until you bring in a vegan oatmeal cookie that tastes delicious. For a low-fat snack that is also vegan, you could make hummus and bring wheat pita slices or carrots. All of these choices will be lower in calories, and they are eco-friendly choices too.
Every step you make can be seen as progress. You may not completely be able to change the culture of food in the place where you work, but don't give up trying. There still may be times when you find that your co-workers order the pizza and subs, and in that case, maybe you can get them to choose wheat bread instead of white bread on the subs, and for the pizza, goat cheese and tomatoes instead of pepperoni and mozzarella. Don't give up thinking of ideas; you'll be doing the best any of us can do by thinking globally and acting locally.
About The Author
Rebecca Chamaa works for the YWCA of San Diego County. She tries to live by the motto reduce, reuse, recycle and refashion — her hobby of sewing old garments into new ones. Rebecca can be reached at rchamaa@earthlink.net.
Related Resources
Copyright © 2008
Imagine waking up one morning and being told in no uncertain terms that in two months you would be packing up and moving across the country. And then, three years later, you have to do it all over again. Such is the life of a military spouse — a life that is often uncertain, complicated, and rather difficult for someone who prefers life to be simple and predictable.
Since I married my husband five years ago, it's sometimes been a struggle to reconcile our lifestyle with living a simple, conscious life. Of course, many people move frequently due to career changes, family, or simply for a change of scenery. The challenge for me, at least, has been the feeling of not being in control of my life when choices have been made for me.
Over the years I've learned many strategies for keeping life as simple as possible even in the midst of whirlwind moves, overseas deployments, and having a husband who is away more than he is home. Most of these strategies can help anyone wanting to simplify an impending move — or even just to reduce the stress associated with our chaotic lives.
Simplify, simplify!
Thoreau's words serve as the soundtrack to my life, a constant reminder that because I don't have a permanent home, I can't fill a basement with piles of things I might need later. Early on, we did enjoy buying new things as most newlyweds do: furniture, dishes, music, candles, knick-knacks, tools — things we loved shopping for together. Then we had to pack it all up, move it, and unpack it all over again. In the process, things were broken, things were misplaced, and things often remained in boxes until the next move. But it wasn't until we decided to unload most of it at a yard sale, thinking we'd make a huge profit, that we finally had an epiphany. All this stuff was not enhancing our lives; it was suffocating us — consuming our free time and causing us extreme stress during already stressful moves.
Five years later, we are different people. We surround ourselves only with things that we find useful or which add to the beauty of our environment. Friends and family have learned to give us gifts of time or experience rather than things we'll have to pack up and move. We've developed organizational systems so that we know where all our important documents are, a far cry from our old method of tossing them in boxes in the basement. We're ready to go at the drop of a hat, which means I can sleep well at night, knowing the next move won't be preceded by frantic searching through unmarked boxes for banking information or important addresses.
Home is where you happen to be
"But why do we have to move again?" I used to ask my husband. He got accustomed to this question, and I eventually got used to the answer: "We just do." I've learned many things as a military spouse, but what's helped me most is to remember what's truly important. I've learned that home doesn't necessarily have to be where you come from, but can be where you happen to be living at the time. Any house, no matter how temporary, can be made into a home when it's full of the people I love most. I've also learned that each day is a gift. It can be tempting to live with the future in mind — retirement is ten years away — but the simple everyday pleasures are often missed as a result. Although a posting might be less than ideal, I've learned to find the assets each new town or city offers. I've also discovered the joys of new friends who become our extended family all over the country. Perhaps most importantly, this unpredictable life we live has taught me to savor each moment my husband and I spend together with our new daughter because any day could be the day he's sent overseas.
Simple living means different things for different people; for me, it's enjoying a minimalist environment, relishing the littlest pleasures, and appreciating each moment with my family, no matter where our next posting takes us.
Now, I must go pack some boxes — the next adventure awaits!
About The Author
Megan Peddle is an IT writer living in Canada. She keeps busy with her new baby, two dogs, and two cats. She's a foodie who's passionate about green living, being in nature, and spending as much time as possible with her husband when he's not deployed. She can be reached at megpeddle@yahoo.ca.
Related Resources
- Unclutter Your Home
- Making Peace With The Things In Your Life
- Walden
- 30 Days To A Simpler Life
- Voluntary Simplicity
- Simplicity & Success - Printed Edition
- Simplicity & Success - PDF Edition
Copyright © 2008
In my home in the San Francisco Bay Area, ocean freighter traffic is a fact of life. When we sail we have to keep well clear of the large, fast moving container ships that are constantly entering and exiting the San Francisco Bay. We also tend to be aware of local happenings on the water. The whole country heard when the Cosco Busan hit the Bay Bridge, but living on a houseboat and sailing another boat, we had to be more informed about the incident than the average Bay Area resident. Where could we sail, and where was restricted? Was the oil going to reach our home port?
The incident got me thinking — just what was that ship carrying, and where was it going? Was it carrying something I was destined to use? How much shipping traffic really does go through the Bay?
To refresh your memory, on November 7, 2007 the 900 foot Cosco Busan hit one of the fenders of the Bay Bridge. The collision tore a gash in the side of the ship between 100 and 200 feet long and spilled some 53,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the Bay. The fuel fouled 69 miles of shoreline and closed fisheries for three weeks. Twenty-six beaches were closed, several of which I'd been to before. Two thousand birds died and another thousand were oiled but recovered — at least long enough to be released back to the wild. We were left looking at those dark spots on the sailboat hull wondering if any of them were oil instead of algae.
The Coast Guard estimates 40% of the oil was recovered. The legal aftermath is still being sorted out. Government costs are estimated at $60 million; further costs were incurred on fishermen and oyster farms in the area. Given what we know about costs, what was my share of responsibility in the incident?
The Cosco Busan is capable of carrying about 5500 20-foot containers. These containers are half the length of the most common tractor-trailers you see on the highway. At the time of the incident, the ship wasn't carrying anything I was going to buy at all — it was carrying waste paper, lumber, and agricultural products destined for China. I do recycle my paper. I certainly wasn't aware my recycling was heading to China.
Let's say the ship was carrying equal loads, by volume, of paper, lumber, and agricultural products (wheat, soybeans, and cotton). If we estimate that one cubic foot — about six pounds — of my recycling was on that ship, here's my share of responsibility in the incident:
- 4 teaspoons (about 20 milliliters) of bunker fuel in the Bay, 40% of which was recovered
- $24 of government cleanup costs
- Collectively, the city of San Francisco's 700,000 residents are responsible for 28 dead birds and 14 oiled ones
- More costs to fisherman and other individual parties (which could have been us,