The planet is in distress and I have been summoned. I will be joining the ranks of other eco-superhero women in the Green Phone Booth. See me morph into action as EnviRambo!

Sentinel of all Earth inhabitants.

Has the power to nourish unsuspecting junkies;

Is able to transport armloads without a plastic bag;

Can cut power consumption in half;

Has a wrench and knows how to use it!

Sadly it is that time of year again. Time to batten down the hatches, button up the house, and put the storm windows on. All of our house has new double pane windows, except for the solarium. Sixteen 107 year old leaded glass windows and no insulation. You bet your bottom it gets darn right cold in there. The windows have started to bow and warp and are anything but air tight. You can actually see outside on some of them! And I am not talking through the glass either. When it rains hard with a lot of wind, water comes in. Ah, but they are beautiful, add charm and are part of what appealed to me when we purchased the house.

Rob's World is running a Make Do and Mend Challenge. The rules are simple, instead of throwing something away fix it. Seems easy enough, right? Maybe 70 years ago. That is the way life was. Something broke, you fixed it. People did not run out and buy a replacement. They do now. What happened? Have we gotten so lazy as a society that we would trade basic life skills for convenience? Apparently so.

My grandparents repaired, mended, saved, reused, repurposed everything. My parents did not. Something was lost in translation between a generation. Without my parents practicing these basic skills I failed to learn them as well. Growing up in a disposable household I viewed my grandparent's ways as frugal and old fashioned. Instead I learned to be a consumer.

Make Do and Mend is definitely a challenge for me. As an adult with a family of my own I am just learning how to cook, sew, bake, garden, compost, save, sacrifice, be self-sufficient. I feel a bit as though I have been robbed of the fundamentals to survive. I can whip up a prepackaged meal from a box in minutes. Hole in you jeans? No problem. Lost a button? Forget about it. I know where we can get more. Fruits and vegetables come in plastic bags from the grocery store, don't they? Food waste, household waste, it is all waste. Throw it away! Save? Like money? Ha! I don't have enough to save any. And I am totally self-sufficient. I have a computer, car, cell phone, paycheck. I can get anything I need with those.

How is it that we take something so simple for granted? They do not teach this stuff in school folks! Please make sure your children have the skills they need in life. If they do not see you doing it, they may never learn. And their children will not learn and their children and so on. Break the cycle.

Two weekends ago Hubby and I attended the annual D.A.R.E. Chili cook off. It was a gorgeous weekend during Historic Downtown Days. I had been stuck in the dungeon making centerpieces for the upcoming luncheon and needed to get out. After walking through the Farmer's Market and stopping at the Coop for a Switch soda we decided to make our way to the main event. It was such a beautiful day that I wanted to walk. Hubby grumbled about how far it was, but begrudgingly obliged.

By the time we arrived I was ready for the feast. We pay our entry, grab our ballots and small pencil that was provided and get in line. Bring it on! It is finally my turn. I get handed a small Styrofoam cup and plastic spoon for sampling. Bleh. I quickly gobbled up the first entry, not bad, and move on to the next. Okay, my turn again. I present my cup for filling, still licking the spoon from the last booth. The woman gives me a disgusted look and hands me a new cup containing their entry. *Blink* *Blink Blink* "No, I want to use the cup I already have." presenting it again in protest. "That's unsanitary." she says and plunks her cup into mine. The nerve! "No, that's wasteful!" I exclaim. "And I am not voting for you no matter how damn good your chili is!" I turn on my heel and the panic sets in.

Looking around at the 30 plus booths, hundreds of people, and all those Styrofoam cups and plastic spoons my mental calculator starts clicking. And clicking. And clicking! Everywhere I look more and more. People have them stacked one on top of another, some ten high. Carrying them like a badge of honor. The world starts spinning, I think I am going to be sick. Gasping for air I lean over a trash can. It is filled with little white cups! AAaaaAAaaaHhhH!! I am in Hell!

...and police officers say it's making an impact on more than just kids. I think that is worth repeating. Oh wait, I just did. You bet it is. It was estimated by the number of ballots cast that over 1,000 people attended. There were 32 chili entries. If each person took a new cup at every booth and sampled all 32 entries, they burned through 32,000 Styrofoam cups in two hours! That makes me want to cry. It gets worse. It was a hot day eating hot chili. One is bound to get thirsty. What do they have? Bottled water. Or, bottled soda. Plastic bottled soda. Just shoot me, please.

Now I am walking around with my empty glass Switch bottle, a plastic water bottle Argh!, two Styrofoam cups, and a plastic spoon. Aha! I spot someone emptying the trash cans. "Excuse me, do you have a place I can recycle these?" "No. We don't do that." Oh, bother. Is it not ridiculous that a city of 50,000 plus does not, I repeat DOES NOT, recycle plastic? WTF?! I feel I may need to borrow the cape of one of those eco-heroes over in the Green Phone Booth and address this issue.

Thankfully, only the one booth refused to fill the cup I already had. I got grief from a few and weird looks from them all, but they accommodated me. If they put up too much of a fuss, I refused to sample their chili unless they put it in my cup. A few even got it. "Aaahhh, trying to be green today, I get it." I heard Hubby snort in the background, "Today? Everyday with this one!" Well, at least he is starting to get it.

I will be sending a letter to the event chair and would like to give them a list of environmentally friendly options. Got any? In a perfect world which only exists in my head everyone would bring their own container and utensil along with a reusable bottle. The event could provide large containers of free water to fill from. Aah. Heaven.

Speaking of Heaven. I will leave you with the winning chili recipe provided by The People's Food Co-op.

Whew! The past two weeks have been manic! Where has the time gone? It started with an energy audit; followed by a parade of contractors; multiple unscheduled trips to the dentist; meetings, meetings and more meetings; massive chili consumption; two days of floral arranging; lunch with a celebrity's wife; a good ass chewing over the phone; cooking a week's worth of meals in three hours; sewing stripes on Air Force blues until one in the morning; a worthless hour spent in the VW service lounge only to be told to come back next week; and last but not least a trip to the hospital to have the embedded head of a tick removed from my side.

Speaking of party. Now I get to spend the next two weeks planning a teenage Halloween party and figuring out what to feed 70 of them for dinner. Ugh.

Would someone please press pause? I need to catch my breath. Oh balls, now what? My yard is being invaded by trucks and men. Hold on.....


Okay, it appears that the gas company has chosen today to dig a big giant hole in my yard and leave. They left a bag of tools behind so hopefully it means they will be back. With the way the last two weeks have gone I am not holding my breath. The conclusion of the energy audit was to replace our old fuel oil furnace with a new high efficiency gas furnace. According to his calculations we will save 40% on our energy bill and nearly recoup the cost of the furnace in one season. Wow! So We Energy is working on running the pipeline and installing a gas meter. Well, at least they were working. As suddenly as they came, they left. poof! Gone.


Oddly enough, my money plays the same game. One minute it is here. The next, poof! gone; leaving a big giant hole in my pocket. So far the furnace proposals range from $2,800.00 to $5,193.00. I have asked for numbers on tankless gas water heaters, too. $1,599.00 to $2,500.00. I am not sure we are ready to go that route. I would like to look into solar water heaters as well. Any of you have experience with either type? Good, bad or ugly?

Other musings from the last two weeks; eating 30 different types of chili in one hour is not good for you stomach, mixing hot syrup in granola containing chocolate chips does not make chocolate chip granola bars - it makes chocolate granola bars, line drying your clothes outside means you could have ticks in your pajamas, and setting your oven on warm with a loaf of bread inside for the final proof and then forgetting to turn the heat off makes a very flat chewy loaf of bread.

How to Grow

FRESH AIR

The air inside your home may be up to 10 times polluted as the air outside. Considering we spend 65% of our time in our homes and up to 90% of time indoors all together, the quality of air we breathe is something to think about.

Pollutants enter our homes in a variety of ways. Attached garages can bring automobile exhaust inside. We track pesticides and other chemicals in on the bottom of our shoes. Heavily scented laundry products waft toxic chemicals. Gas cooking appliances vent carbon monoxide. A Teflon treated non-stick pan overheated on the stove releases PFOA/PTFE's. Automatic dishwasher detergent containing chlorine combines with heat to create dioxin, a probable human carcinogen. The paint on our walls off gas VOC's. Cleaning supplies and personal care products we use host hoards of dangerous chemicals. Dry cleaning hanging in the closet discharges PERC. Burning candles/incense and air fresheners do more than scent the air we breathe. The furniture we sit on and the mattress we sleep on are laden with flame retardants containing PBDE. We surround ourselves with a lengthy list.


One way to combat the constant barrage of self inflicted pollution is by adding a little green to your household. Green plants that is. Plants influence air quality within a personal breathing zone of 6 to 8 cu. ft. In 1980 NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center first discovered that houseplants could remove VOCs from sealed test chambers. Houseplants are effective in removing Acetone, Methyl alcohol, Ethyl acetate, Benzene, Ammonia, Trichloroethylene, Formaldehyde and Xylene as well as bioeffluents. Plants also release phytochemicals that suppress mold spores and bacteria found in air. Research shows that plant filled rooms contain 50 to 60 percent fewer airborne molds and bacteria than rooms without plants.

This time of year apples are not the only red fruit flooding my kitchen. Cranberries should be flowing into your markets throughout the next few months. In Wisconsin cranberries are big business. Wisconsin produces more cranberries than any other state in the nation and produces more than half of the entire world's supply of the berry. We have entire festivals devoted to the bouncing berry. Since these are super super simple to preserve I brought home a five pound box this year.

Living on the Edge.

Back in August, Burbanmom threw out the idea of more eco-friendly hair removal. I have been thinking about it heavily since then. I am a long time consumer of disposable razors. Well, disposable razor heads anyway. I have been using the Venus Divine for several years now. The replacement blades cost anywhere from $2.50 to $3.50 a piece! At that price I try to go as long as possible before changing blades. Shaving daily, I will go a month or more before switching, usually resulting in a nick or two and afflictive razor burn. One of Burbanmom's alternatives resonated with me. The safety razor. After reading many, many reader's comments, discussions with my husband, Q&A with my Father-in-law, thorough internet research and running out of Venus refills it was time.

I purchased the Weishi Double Edge Safety Razor Starter Kit from RetroRazor off Amazon. I selected this particular razor because it specifically stated it was for beginners. I have been shaving for years, so I am not really a beginner, but was extremely nervous about using the safety razor and wanted to play it safe. The kit cost $25.99 included the razor, three 5 pack blade samplers, a cleaning brush and info sheet packaged in a muslin bag.

Today Barack Obama visited my town. The Secret Service moved in two days ago. The entire downtown has been a zoo. An estimated 15,000 people came out to see him speak. It was a cold brisk morning that buzzed with excitement. He gave a good speech that was well suited to the audience. Addressing the middle class, Main Street America - which he was damn near standing on, students - the town has three colleges, teachers and standardized testing - this is a hot issue here right now, and those struggling and working hard just to get by - our area has been hit hard with flooding. He walked amongst the crowd and made an effort to shake as many hands possible, before the secret service swooped in that is.

Close encounters with Barack in La Crosse
By Tribune staff

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The morning workout

When a couple of security men walked into Premier Fitness at 505 King St. late Tuesday, co-owner John Johnson handed out a few free passes.
No one knew one would be for Sen. Barack Obama.

The Democratic presidential nominee walked into the gym about 8 a.m. and worked out for 30 minutes each on a stationary bike and elliptical machine while other members were at the gym, said co-owner Sally Johnson.

“He was moving his lips and shuffling papers, so I’m assuming he was practicing his speech,” Sally Johnson said.

After his workout, Obama stopped to talk to the Johnsons’ two daughters and discussed his own family before leaving shortly after 9 a.m.

“It was just neat,” Sally Johnson said. “He was friendly and gracious.”

— Anne Jungen /ajungen@lacrossetribune.com

Doing his makeup for Rolling Stone

Suzette Everson, owner of Studio 411 hair salon in La Crosse, put the finishing makeup touches on Obama before his photo shoot with Rolling Stone magazine after his rally in La Crosse.

Everson said she was asked by the magazine to apply some makeup before photos were taken of Obama in the board room of the La Crosse Center. She said she was told the photo was for a magazine cover shot.

“This was the biggest thing in my life right now,” she said. “It was really an honor to do this for the next possible president of the United States.”

Everson received a press pass for the rally and was escorted to the room after the rally, where she waited for 45 minutes. She said she shook Obama’s hand and applied a little makeup. Obama also changed his tie for the 10-minute photo shoot.

“He has nice skin and a beautiful smile,” Everson said.

Everson said she received a call Tuesday from someone with the magazine. “I thought they were kidding me, but it was for real, and I was ecstatic.”

— Terry Rindfleisch / trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com

‘Soda jerk’ gets a handshake

When Seth Schure arrived at work Wednesday at The Pearl Ice Cream Parlor, he knew it would not be like his previous shifts behind the counter.

The day before, the self-described soda jerk got to shake hands with the Democratic nominee for president.

During Schure’s Tuesday evening shift, he noticed some commotion through the windows of the ice cream shop, and with a bit of hustle was able to get outside to see Obama step out of his vehicle.

Schure said he was one of only five or six people to get close to Obama before the Illinois senator ducked inside the Pearl Street entrance of the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites.

On Wednesday, Schure said, chilly customers kept him and others at The Pearl busy with coffee orders. But once Obama started talking, things changed.

“During the whole speech, not one person came in,” Schure said.

— Scott Rada / srada@lacrossetribune.com

Business owners felt increase in security

As a citizen, Carla Callies had a front row seat to a historic moment Wednesday in downtown La Crosse.

As a business owner, she was considering not even opening up her shop, Ambiance at 115 S. Second St., because she doubted anyone would be shopping.

“I can’t open any windows in my building,” she said, on orders from the security detail.

“My parking lot’s been blocked for two days. I have not had any access for two days.”

“It’s a crazy zoo out here,” she said at 8:30 a.m. “You can’t believe what I’m seeing. People are just pouring in.”

Michelle Peterslie, who owns the buildings along the west side of Pearl Street with her husband, TJ, said they, too, felt the increase in security.

Earlier this week, Secret Service officers asked them to close the curtains on the third floor of their buildings to conceal the mannequins that normally keep watch over Pearl Street. The agents didn’t want them to be a distraction for security personnel.

— Scott Rada / srada@lacrossetribune.com