Why Anjali Appadurai is my hero!

"Get It Done": Urging Climate Justice, Youth Delegate Anjali Appadurai Mic-Checks UN Summit

I started this blog in part to share my experiences as I travel, in hopes of helping people who might be planning similar journeys. Primarily, though,  I started it because I am deeply, vitally concerned about the future of our species and every other species on this planet. The voices of the future have been regarded as vague or distant. Let's stop all that nonsense, and let's start being very blunt about how we are killing ourselves and each other and our children by our reckless complacency.

It won't take communists or an alien invasion to destroy humanity. All it takes is a lazy desire for convenience and turning 300 million blind eyes to the consequences.

I hope my nieces and nephews see this video, and understand that if they do their homework and seek out opportunities to raise their voices for justice then they can be heroes just like her. In fact, I hope ALL CHILDREN, EVERYWHERE understand that they can do it, too!

I just hope that for them, it isn't already too late.

SUPER cool apartment composting idea from Stevil Chemist!

Back in 2004, my husband, my son and I were fortunate enough to be able to attend Convergence 10 in Chicago.  C10 was a great Convergence, like all conferences it had it's share of drama, but we still enjoyed ourselves immensely.  I taught a pearl-knotting class there, and met a ton of incredibly interesting people. One of those folks, Stevil Chemist, was part of the organizing committee, and we still keep in (occasional) contact on Facebook.

Mr. Chemist is a science-y, vegan, globe-trotting bicycling enthusiast with a very courageous juicing palette. That's just some of what/who is, and I have no doubt there is much more to discover about him for those who can get him to sit still long enough to share a hot beverage and some interesting conversation. In any event, he posted on Facebook about a GREAT idea for apartment/small space composting idea.

Many of you know we have moved around a bit lately, and one of the things I have gotten interested in recently is "green walls"--more on that in another post--and small space gardening. Needless to say, Mr. Chemist's post was timely and very intriguing! I am not sure if this is his innovation or not, but he dehydrated his composting material before running it through the blender. I haven't heard back from him yet, but it seems he bought a large roaster (pan?) from a thrift store for the project.

Drying it first would obviously reduce size, but also make storing in an small space easier and draw far fewer vermin. Pulverizing it in the blender will render it usable SO MUCH faster than letting it breakdown over the course of a growing season. I am no gardening specialist, but I am guessing all you'd have to do is mix it in with your potting soil at this point. Any of you gardeners out there, please feel free to chime in on the pros and cons of this composting method. Please!

How smart is that?!? WTG, Mr. Chemist, and thanks for sharing!

***Edit: Just got permission from Mr. Chemist to use his quote and photo from Facebook:

"My $10 composting solution, an 18qt rival roaster oven I got from the thrift store. I dehydrate the peels, rinds, skins, etc @275F then grind the dry refuse in my blender. There's ~80% decrease in volume so the grinding doesn't take much time at all. The dehydrating process smells like potpurri."