Furnace — I have a friend who owns an appliance parts store. She says furnace tuneups are kind of a rip. If you can clean the filter yourself, you probably don’t need a tune up — unless something’s wrong with your furnace, I think they just check that the filter is clean and give you a bill. I’m not 100% on that, but I’m pretty sure.

“A Formula for Hopelessness

Hopelessness may be more common in people who are required to change a major portion of the way they are living, and less common in those that have already made (or didn’t need to make) huge life transitions. Here’s a formula I’m playing with:

Hopelessness = Uncertainty + A Belief in the Need for Overwhelming Lifestyle Shifts + No Social Supports

If you live on a thriving farm in an area with a huge group of active PO community members with lots of practical skills, you’ll feel more “can do” than if you live in a suburban locale and know only other techies that are planning their in-ground swimming pools, and you, yourself, have never seen a cabbage grow.”

The full article, “Three Types of Doomers and Fantasy Collapse” is at

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/45752

I have been dealing with this aspect of veganism for many years (and it’s why I can’t truly call myself one).
I’m always trying to find a balance between critters and planet.
So far, I say I have imperfect answers.
for example: I have non biodegradable shoes (Chacos, all bought before they moved to China) I justify this with maintaining them to the best of my ability.
I will be very torn when the footbed has to go on, but I think the company has a recycling program.
Same on my grocery bags. they are reused at the end of their life if I send them in.

But I’ll buy used silk over poly any day. new silk, I don’t thing I could do.
I’ll buy used wool over acrylic yarn, but polarfleece is a miracle in my winters.

applying that to food, I make almond milk (better to ship the almonds than a septic box imho)
eat a smattering of local dairy (not a long-term solution for me, and I am talking a few times a year)
I’m blessed that Denver has a company that makes tofu from Colorado-grown beans. Packed in plastic, though. grrrr. I’d be so down for a glass jar/ deposit situation like milk.

How do you weigh the not so great choices?

Thanks for reading, and I hope, answering.

MOre useful knowledge brought to you by old house people! It’s a myth that replacing good old wood windows is more energy efficient, and I’d like to spread the truth!

Some metal like attached-to-the-wall bookshelving and DIY closet organizer kits come w/…superglue…and felt.

NO PLASTIC WRAPPER! :-D

Only thing is, you’ll have to find a buddy with a “saws all”–and a “metal blade” attachment.

Not hard to cut the metal to size if someone has that tool. It’s a power tool–a hand saw. I held the metal steady with two hands while my boyfriend handled the saw.

So here’s one. If I concentrate hard on the thought that Fake Plastic Fish suddenly disappears from the Net, I get the feeling that if I were to continue to do so, tears would gather in my eyes. But, I guess this is only a potential crying story?

I have been following your advice on writing to companies about their over-use/un-necessary use of plastic. No replies. Could it be the profanity is off-putting? Beth, maybe you should compose a polite “form letter for the rest of us” where all we’d need to do is fill in a blank or two and pop it in the mail. But that would be giving you one more thing to do! Forget it. I’ll just limp on by myself and make it a rule to use only words with more than four letters.

By the way I love, love, love your blog and someday soon I will have my own and I’ll translate it for you if necessary :-)

Hugs

Lara Sumiacher

PS: I’m argentinan, sorry if I have grammatic mistakes. My e-mail is lara_sumiacher@hotmail.com just in case you want to answer or anything