Urban Homesteading and Going Green(er)

First off, if you live in Anaheim, you MUST call this guy: Noe ("Noh-eeeee") Tafolla with Anaheim Utilities Advantage Services. His number is 714-939-9020. Why, you ask? Because for Cinco de Mayo this year when I took the kids to that fiesta on La Palma, I stopped at the Anaheim Utilities booth and found out about this program the city has going: Make an appt for one of their reps (Noe for us) to come to your home (or apartment!), and they will spend about an hour with you reviewing your utilities usage to tell you how to cut back on your usage and your SPENDING, PLUS give you aids to do it...

For instance, with the exception of the tube lighting in the kitchen and a few lights where we needed smaller bulbs, ALL the light bulbs in my home are now the low-watt-using coil lights - free of charge! - I now have water-saving devices on both bathroom sinks and a saver/sprayer/quick-off-for-dish-washing device on my kitchen sink - FOR FREE! - and two brand new low-flow showerheads installed and in use in my bathrooms - TOTALLY free! Plus a couple weeks from now I'll be mailed a full report on how to lower my utility usage point by point and step by step, and I have all the info I need about other rebates and programs the city offers; unfortunately, since I'm not a homeowner, I can't really use them, but they include things like rebates for low-flow toilets/washers and dryers/fridges/ceiling fans/dishwashers/YOU NAME IT!

I know what you're thinking, I was thinking it to and I asked for you: Why on earth would the city of Anaheim want to HELP people use LESS of their utilities, thereby DENYING themselves the extra income??? Turns out if Anaheim overuses utilities and can't produce enough to keep up with their residents' usage, they actually LOSE money because they have to then turn around and buy the extra energy off Edison for a higher rate...so the closer they are to selling only the amount of utilities they can produce, the higher their profits. Having to power Disney keeps them from hiking their rates, so they can't make extra $ that way...better to help residents use the proper billable amount. Tada! Free program!!! Loooooove it! I'm greener AND I'm saving money! (And isn't that the best part?)

Speaking of going green(er) and saving money, Kim introduced me a few months ago to those green veggie bags you see on TV...and I confess, I doubted. I doubted, that was, UNTIL I started storing my mushrooms in them. One time around was all it took. You see, I LOVE mushrooms...but often find myself buying them, forgetting about them, and tossing them since they get all nasty and slimy in 3 or 4 days. NO LONGER. As long as I wipe out the condensation inside the green bag every few days now, they last FOREVER! (Okay, my record is 3 1/2 weeks, but that's because then I used them because they looked like they were JUST starting to go.) Witness the photos herein; I bought these mushrooms fully 11 days ago, and they're PERFECT. But it's not just mushrooms, it's all my produce, and so now I won't have to throw away the head of Romaine I forgot about in the bottom of the bin, or the brussels sprouts I keep intending to serve with dinner but don't have a husband around to serve them to. They're BRILLIANT. Thanks, Kim. I believe...

Then there's Urban Homesteading, one of those uber-hip catch-phrases that might make you scratch your head...if it weren't so obvious. We live in a concrete jungle stacked on top of ourselves and others, and as Urbanites, we're still attempting Self-Sufficiency...by turning our back "yard" into a Garden! Go, Urban Homesteading! And what's MOST amazing to us is...we actually seem to be succeeding! We put seeds in dirt in pots and watered it, and things are GROWING!!! My friend Natasha is a master gardener and would probably snicker at our amazement, but let me tell you, my friends...growing Tomatoes, Shallots, Basil, Green Onions, Chives, Zucchini, Pumpkin, Sunflowers, Bell Peppers, and Lettuce on a 10x10 concrete balcony seems like a MIRACLE to us! (I also have some roses, courtesy of Kim and Kathy and Bella, and believe it or not, you three, they're still thriving!) When Kim moved she "donated" her two window boxes to us, and we planted. We bought $1 tin pots from Target, punches holes in the bottom for drainage with a hammer and flathead screw driver, and we planted. Jason won (don't ask) 3 indoor trees from work which we uprooted, refilled the pots with soil, and we planted. We bought big orange Home Depot 5 gallon multipurpose buckets, Jason drilled holes in the bottom, and we planted. And believe it or not, STUFF IS GROWING!!!

The most amazing thing to us, of course, are the tomato plants. Do you see those little silvery tin buckets? ONE of them was a proving ground for me...I experimented, poking tons of crazy chopstick holes all over the dirt, tossing 3 (or 4 or 5!) seeds in each hole, covering them over, and watering them...and now we have FORTY-FIVE TOMATO PLANTS!!! Yes, they ALL grew. Like WEEDS. After 2 or 3 weeks, we had to transplant them...and a couple weeks later, they've had to be transplanted AGAIN! We had SO MANY tomato plants, in fact, that we took 5 groups (of 3 - 5 seedlings each!!!) to my folks' yesterday evening and transplanted them THERE! (We only have room and funds for so many transplant buckets!) We're still in shock...and excited as all get-out.

Growing stuff is AWESOME. Even if everything suddenly DIES, we'll just try again, learn from our experiments, and keep growing! (I imagine, however, that at least a couple of those plants will produce...and I'm STOKED!) So I have something to be excited about again...and since I'm putting off painting and writing for no good reason, this is one I HAVE to stick with, and it's good for me, and I'm enjoying it.

But I'm NOT enjoying the manure-stinky soil stuck underneath my fingernails, so if anyone has any ideas - other than cutting all my nails off, that is - let me know. Nail brushes just ain't cuttin' it. Oh, and my patio stinks like cow poo. Yeah, that sucks too. But we have tomato plants! I'm over it!