10.31.09
Posted in Amazon.com, B&N, Bird Watching, Bird watching for children, Goodreads, Jacketflap, New Childrens Book Friends in the Meadow - Birds, Parent-child relationship, Shelfari, Svetlana Kovaalkova-McKenna, The Reading Tub, USA Book News, weRead at 3:31 am by Administrator
Friends in the Meadow-Birds is progressing along as well as any new children’s book I suppose, unless of course the author is Madonna or the book ends up on Oprah, by miracle. I’ll put the latter on my Christmas Wish List!
The book and information was placed on The USA Book News site in September, 2009 and will remain on display through December, 2009. The USA Book News site is http://www.USABookNews@earthlink.net.
The Reading Tub chose the book as one of the Fall Author Showcase features. It introduces the book and interviews the author, which was fun. See this article at http://www.thereadingtub.com/displayAuthor.asp?
The book has received several reviews on Amazon.com, B&N, and other sites. Friends in the Meadow-Birds continues to be mentioned on Twitter and Facebook and other social networking sites. The reading sites include Goodreads, Jacketflap, Shelfari,The Reading Tub, and weRead. It continues to be offered on online bookstores.
One of the lastest reviews is from the book/reading site Goodreads by Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna. She wrote:
“Thank you Peggy, this is my review for Friends in the Meadow Birds
. I gave the book 5 stars:
This is a great starter book on birding for budding young naturalists. Once you get past the introduction, which is intended for parents, it is a little too serious for children to digest, but has loads of useful information, recommends two more great books on birding, and even has a link to Cornell Lab of Ornithology; you enter my absolute favorite part of this book - bird stories.
The bird stories are these great little gems with simply gorgeous real life photos of the birds. Most of the birds are given names, so you feel like you are reading fiction, while learning an immense amount of useful and academic information about birds. The stories can be read aloud to 4-6 year olds and given to 3-4 graders to read independently. Great book for home-schoolers.
That is not all! The book has space for your child to write notes about birdwatching, a very impressive glossary with scientific vocabulary and a certificate of completion that can be framed.”
So we keep moving forward, this book and I. Who knows what waits around the corner.
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10.27.09
Posted in Green Companies, Green Household Products, Green Living, Proctor and Gamble, Recycling at 7:41 pm by Administrator
Since my last post, I continued to take inventory of the products I use in my home and have been researching the companies that produce them. My goal is to see if these companies take into consideration sustainability and earth friendly products.
Most of what I use for house cleaning products, as I noted in the last post, were products made by S.C. Johnson Company. The research I did on them ‘passed’ my test of appropriate product research and development and their concern about decreasing their carbon footprint.
Most of the other products I use are produced by Proctor and Gamble Company. These products include: Tide (or Cheer or Gain) and Bounce for laundry; Cascade and Dawn for dish washing. For hygiene products almost all of them were produced by Proctor and Gamble. These include: Scope, Crest, Oral-B, Old Spice products, Secret, Head and Shoulders, Pepto-Bismol and Vicks products, Ivory and Zest soaps, Olay and Cover Girl products, Febreze and Charmin.
What it pretty much boils down to is that for my household, these two companies produce the majority of the products we use. So it has become more important to me that I know these two companies in particular care about the world.
As with S.C. Johnson company, during my research on Proctor and Gamble, I found some very interesting results. First of all, they have a Sustainability Strategy that contains five areas. These include: Products, Operations, Social Responsibility, Employees, and Stakeholders. Their web site has details about each area. I was impressed that not only have the products and operations areas made good progress, but their Social Responsibility area goes far beyond what I ever expected.
The company gears the Social Responsibility part of their strategy toward helping children in need of the basics like clean water, immunizations, health care, etc. These children are in countries that are in dire need of such help. In the last five years, the company has helped 87,000 children. Given that the welfare of children is high on my list, this one area really impressed me. Needless, to say they ‘passed’ my test as well.
Another fact that I didn’t know and probably most ordinary people in the U.S.A. didn’t either, is that Proctor and Gamble was added to the list of the Top 100 Global Sustainable Corporations in 2009. We’re talking global businesses! That’s a great honor. Please go and read more about Proctor and Gamble for yourself at http://www.pg.com.
As for me, I have started reducing, reusing, recycling, and researching companies where I buy my products. I am satisfied with both companies where most of my household and hygiene products are researched and produced. I was pleasantly satisfied that they are already into sustainability with products I use and that I do not need to change any products at this point.
I suppose now I maintain where I am with my recycling effort, but not consider it completed. There are two things I know I need to continue monitoring. One is the temptation to return to old life patterns. (Honestly, it is easier just to throw it in the trash.) The second thing is to research new companies when I consider a new product purchase.
But for S.C. Johnson and Proctor and Gamble, I say, “Keep up the good work for the green earth!” Also, thank you for your efforts in making our earth a better place to live.
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10.25.09
Posted in Green Companies, Green Household Products, Green Living, Recycling, S.C.Johnson at 4:57 am by Administrator
I have been taking inventory of the products that I use most often in my home. The reason is that I wanted to find the ones that are earth friendly and to determine the ones that are not. I want to support the companies of the products that are into sustainability.
Some of the products I use regularly include Scrubbing Bubbles, Oust, Shout, Windex, Off, Pledge, Raid and Drano. For wrapping foods I use Ziploc bags and Saran Wrap. As it turns out all these products are made by S. C. Johnson. I researched the S.C. Johnson Company to find out if they were into sustainability. I am glad to say that S.C. Johnson is big time into green living and research continues on their products to improve them to be as sustainable as possible.
Their website www.scjohnson.com covers everything from CEO reports, to reports on chemicals in products, to what we can do in our homes to help be more green thinking and living. I especially liked this part of their website. The suggestions given on the site of things we can do at home included ideas for every room in the house. Some are common and well known like turn the water off while brushing your teeth. But did you know that when the stove top burner pans become caked with burned on grease or other food over time that they absorb more energy and therefore costs more to use? Did you know that when we use a six inch pan on an eight inch stove top burner, we waste over 40% of the energy produced by the burner? We need to match the pan we use to the burner size so as not to waste the energy. There are many other helpful ideas on the “Doing Your Part,” in the ‘Around the Home’ section of the website. It is worth reading for the living green cause, and it also may just save on utility bills.
I encourage you to take a good look at the S.C. Johnson website. There is loads more information on products and even coupons. I was really impressed that the company that produces so many of the items I use every day has been into sustainability for years, longer than I have. The Company has received two Presidential Recognition Awards for their “greenlist” process and their overall efforts towards sustainability.
Thanks S.C. Johnson for the great work and concern for our good Earth.
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10.13.09
Posted in Green Living, Recycling at 6:00 am by Administrator
What a learning experience I have got myself into! I still have a long way to go but I do feel that in just a couple weeks I have moved from a non-recycler to a recycler. I am no longer part of the two thirds of Americans that do not recycle. I continue reusing the items I have a second use for, take unneeded items to the thrift store and I recycle the things I can. I did follow up on the last blog post and went the next day searching for places to drop off items to recycle. I have also joined a nearby (sixty miles) Freecycle group that swaps or gives away items that are still useful.
What I found was that I can recycle batteries and certain metals in a town about twenty miles from where we live. I can drop off paper, magazines, cardboard, plastic bottles (numbers one and two), cans, and plastic bags in another city sixty miles away. Then there is another city about fifty miles away where I can drop off glass, phone books, cell phones, ink & toner cartridges, other e-waste including computers, monitors, printers, peripherals and other plug-in electronics. But I cannot drop off all these recyclables in one city. Well, so much for it being easy for someone in a rural area. Or in this case, for those in these cities with items that cannot be recycled due to no vendor.
Another downside that I ran into is that the vendor who was at one time taking plastics (numbers three through seven) is no longer doing that for the SE, USA. This leaves these types of plastics with no place to go but the landfill. These plastics include containers like yogurt cups, cottage cheese containers and many more plastic items. That is a bummer big time. Right now these plastics make up most of the trash in my trash can.
However, there is a good side to this story. I set up several containers after I found out what I could recycle and where to take it. I have one container for all types of paper, being careful to shred any personal information. Another container is for all types of cans, after rinsing them out. Beside it is the plastic container which includes not just grocery bags, but bread and roll bags, plastic wrapping from other food items, soda and milk bottles, without the tops and rinsed out, and even some medicine bottles are the right numbers (one or two). I was amazed at the number of different plastic items that ended up in the recycle bin. I also have a container for cardboard and bottles.
Some may think that it is just too much trouble with the miles to travel, keeping up with what city takes what, rinsing out the cans so no food traces remain, looking for the numbers on the plastics, removing tops off the bottles, etc. But the main stumbling block to overcome in the beginning is the attitude and deciding that recycling is a good and even necessary habit to develop. Eventually I expect it to become a lifestyle. The attitude I had at the beginning of all this had to do with acknowledging that each person (me and you) leaves a carbon footprint every day we live. My footprint will grow bigger and multiply if I do not teach my children and grandchildren that they also are leaving a print and need to do something about it. I cannot just tell them, I have to be an example. We adults have to be as responsible as we can be.
I can already tell it is something that is staying more on my mind as I cook or unwrap something. I don’t just turn to the trash can, but stop and think where does this go? As I run across different plastic containers, it’s becoming like a game to determine what number is assigned to the container and if I can recycle it or not. I feel a sense of, “Yes!”, when I’m able to throw it in the recycle bin and a sense of “dog gone it”, when I lose and have to throw it in the trash. There is a satisfying feeling to it, even though at times it does take more energy to recycle than to just throw something in the trash can.
Did you hear the report on Public Radio a few days ago that the atmosphere is 10% better off today than it has been in forty or so years? Given the economy with factory and plant closings, fewer cars on the roads, etc., there is less pollution going up that creates havoc in the atmosphere. It’s sad that it takes a major recession/depression to bring about a 10% improvement.
We as a nation can do better. We as individuals can do better. If you haven’t joined in the recycling effort, go ahead and take that first recycling footstep rather than leave that big dark carbon footprint.
My next step besides maintaining the recycling effort is to look at more of the companies I do business with. Who are they and what are they doing for the environment? I’m also allowing the idea to run around in my mind about writing the powers that be about what can be done for the rural recycler around our nation’s countryside? While I combine trips to these three cities and drop off my recyclables while I’m there for other reasons, it would be great if the rural recycler had more options. It doesn’t hurt to ask!
In the mean time, I’ll follow the advice of Mother Teresa, “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” Each house doing their own recycling effort, parents teaching their children or in some cases children are teaching their parents, each household recycling on their own. I can’t fathom how much positive change this would make in our economy and environment. From money saved by companies producing products and passing the savings on to the customer; to creating new and clean energy resources and many other advantages most Americans cannot imagine. Recycling changes our individual lifestyle and thereby changes our nation’s lifestyle big time.
SO, COME JOIN ME. IT’S OUR ONLY EARTH!
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