Vacuums Suck (Sometimes): Vacuum Repair Tips

It's true; vacuums suck. But more notably, sometimes they don't suck. When this happens, it doesn't necessarily mean that your vacuum is broken. (Unless it's smoking. Then it is most definitely broken.)

Try these tips to fix a broken vacuum before throwing it out. It'll save you a handful of cash and it will save a bit of prime real estate in the landfills.

• Replace the bag when 1/3 to 1/2 full or empty the bin or tray frequently for bagless models.
• Clean off the spinning "brush roll".
• Replace or clean any filters in your vacuum.
• Check to see if the belt is broken. It sounds hard, but it's really not. Google "replace vacuum belt" for tips on what to look for.
  
• Take it to a vacuum repair shop. My sister and I have both used Carmen's in Westerville and their customer service was wonderful. If they can't fix your vacuum, they may even offer to take it off your hands for a few bucks in order to salvage the parts. Way better than sending it directly to it's grave!
• For more tips, check out this WikiHow article.
  

Feeling a bit lost? Though most vacuums share similar features and require similar maintenance, your vacuum may be a bit different. Digging through your junk drawer for the manual or Googling the make/model in search of a manual in PDF format may not be the worst idea.

Eco-Friendly Candles & Kegs

Sometimes going green is dirty. Dirty Franks, that is. This local hot dog joint, along with its sister restaurants, offers up some eco-friendly fair.



Curious why tapping the keg is eco-friendly? According to the Dirty Frank's menu:

Dirty Frank’s encourages drinking draught! One keg lasts 30 years & is re-used 360 times, eliminating over 43 thousand bottles from our landfills!

Though they offer bottled and canned beers & recycle the packaging, draught is best in terms of reducing waste. And to top it off, they offer Ohio-made beers from places like the Columbus Brewing Company.



And what pairs well with kegs? Candles, of course! Dirty Franks has partnered with the sawed-off-wine-bottle candles from Candle with a Cause to create ambiance. Not only does Candle with a Cause use eco-friendly packaging, they also donate 25% from the sale of every candle to a featured cause. A company after my own heart, they are currently supporting Pets without Parents.

(Interested in other eco-friendly businesses in Columbus, Ohio? Check out Jeni's Ice Cream, Glad Annie's Old World Baklava, Surly Girl, Jury Room and Tip Top.)

Green Fail

Going green is definitely a game of trial and error. Here are three green "fails" that I've encountered on my journey.

Hemp Shower Curtain

Green Possibility: I bought a hemp shower curtain a couple of years ago as an alternative to plastic shower liners. Hemp is supposedly naturally resistant to mold and mildew, so this sounded like the perfect option!



Green Fail: After less than a year, the shower curtain became permanently stained and looked horrible. To be fair, the following things are true: The company, Greenfeet suggested that I wash it weekly. I did not. Greenfeet also suggested that I use a product called Moldzyme to help eliminate any mold/meldew buildup. I had some success with this product and still use it, but it didn't eliminate the stains on the curtain. Lastly, I often forget to turn the fan on in my bathroom and I don't run my air conditioning in the summertime, so my mold-free demands were probably too much to ask of any well-meaning shower curtain.

Green Promise: Though this endeavor failed, I did sew some cute crafty things from the parts of the shower curtain that weren't stained. In the aftermath, I have also tried to make my plastic shower liners last as long as possible, even going so far as to wash them on delicate with cold water once or twice in the washing machine before pitching them.

Henna Hair Dye

Green Possibility: Henna hair dye has no additives, chemicals, or pesticides, unlike typical hair dyes.



Green Fail: I tried using Rainbow Henna's blond dye to cover up my dirty brown roots with no luck. I saw absolutely no difference in my hair after numerous treatments. To be fair, I like my hair blond blond, and not dirty blond, which is probably against nature to begin with. Also, my friend's mom uses to red henna dye and you can definitely see the difference!

Green Promise: I wait as long as possible between trips to the salon. And I use eco-friendly shampoo, bar soap, toothpaste and shaving gel to make up for all of the chemicals I send down the drain in my vain attempts to remain blond.

Hand-Crank Paper Shredder

Green Possibility: The ability to shred paper without using electricity? Sure, why not? The hand-crank paper shredder seemed to offer up limitless shredding possibilities!



Green Fail: I used this less than a handful of times, careful not to add too much to the shredder at one time, but the blades simply went dull. After a while, all of the paper that I fed through it simply remained in one piece.

Green Promise: I've gone back to adding hand-torn pieces of paper to my composter or my recycling bin. Not quite as secure, but most of my documents aren't that confidential.

Cashing In: Donations and the Ultimate Paper Trail

I like to donate money. If I have a bit of extra income, I try to pay it forward. But donations are an eco-gamble.

I've donated through PayPal before. I've donated with a check before. I've donated in memory of a loved one. I've donated by mail and I've donated in person. Unsurprisingly, many of these donations came with a price.



You see, there is a paper trail. The charities, as well-meaning as they are, quickly become stalkers. They send letters. They send postcards. They send catalogs and bumper stickers and free t-shirts.

According to the Better Business Bureau, "For a national direct mail campaign, a charitable organization may mail from a half million to ten million or more letters." SmartMoney totals the cost of direct-mail solicitations last year to $1.8 billion. "Small donations, such as $25, barely cover the costs the charity incurred in soliciting the gift. To recoup those costs, many charities will simply sell the donor's name to another charity doing similar work," as Charity Navigator points out.

On average, charities need to make contact seven times before they get a donation. I understand that they need to recoup these costs. They need to take every opportunity to remind me that the whales still need to be saved, homeless pets still need homes, cancer still needs to be cured, bands still need uniforms...

I sympathize. I really do! But I don't want to be hounded every week. I don't want to constantly feel like I'm not doing enough. And above all else, I don't want to contribute to the waste that comes with these efforts. So, the moral of this story?

Give cash.

I may be one of the few people I know who still carries it, but I swear it comes in handy sometimes. When I'm standing at the register and I see one of those plastic coin boxes to help feed the hungry, I slip in a $20. Whenever I'm enjoying the scenery at a national park, I find the donation box near the ranger's station. Whenever a band geek asks me if I want to buy an overpriced candy bar, I fork over the $5.

It's nice to be able to pay it forward without the environment having to pay the price.

Not interested in carrying cash? Check out this article for more tips on donating without the mail solicitations.

Can you hear me now? (Phone Book Opt-Out)

I hate junk mail. I hate almost all mail, period. And because of this, I hate AT&T.

I have not once used AT&T's services in the 6+ years I've lived at my current residence. And yet they send me junk mail every week. I've tried to get off their mailing list, but they have told me there is no way for them to remove me because I do not hold an account with them. If I used their services, I'd have an account with them and I'd be able to set my mailing preferences. Go figure. (By the way, Insight Communications is the same way.)



So I was really excited to find Yellow Pages Opt-Out, a site that will supposedly direct you to where you can opt out of all phone book mailing lists in your area. Simply type in your zip code and voila!

Unfortunately, the site they suggested for AT&T's phone book distribution, AT&T Advertising Solutions, would not allow me to enter my mailing list preferences, because I do not have an AT&T-provided phone number. Because I don't have an account with them I can't set my mailing preferences.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY???



Luckily, the site they suggested for Yellow Book was much more helpful. Now, I only receive one company's phone books on my doorstep instead of two. In the meantime, according to DowntownColumbus.com, Columbus recycling companies will now accept phone books, which has not always been the case because of the paper quality.

Progress, I suppose. Slow, slow progress.

(See The Paper Monster post for more tips on reducing your junk mail consumption.)

Update as of 9/15/2011: Yellow Pages Opt-Out now allows you to manage all subscriptions for all phone books that are delivered to your address. I requested 0 copies of the Yellow Pages phone book and am hoping that the next deliver will skip my doorstep. Crossing fingers!

Beverage Showdown

Over the past month, I've been making the switch from Mountain Dew to coffee. For those of you who know me, this is a big deal.

A Bit of Background

I have been an avid Mountain Dew drinker since I was 17. I didn't grow up in a household with pop, so when I got old enough to work and buy my own food, I made up for lost time. Though my obsession has ebbed and flowed over the years, I have recently come to the point where Mountain Dew intake has become an important part of my daily routine.

I have thought about abandoning it and going cold turkey for almost two years, mostly because I don't like feeling dependent on anything other than the basics of food, water, shelter and clothing. But I also know that at times, caffeine intake has made me a happier and more productive employee and person. I don't have many vices, but this is one of them.

The Dilemma

So, what's the problem? I could continue to drink one 20 oz Mountain Dew every morning for breakfast for the rest of my life. There could be worse things in the world. But...I've started to worry about the waste involved and the environmental implications of my splurge.

• Bottle waste: One 20 oz Mountain Dew every weekday morning, and possibly one or two on an occasionally busy weekend means that I am recycling approximately 300 plastic bottles per year. I am recycling the bottles and not pitching them in the trash, but the making of and recycling process of plastic has a lot of environmental implications.
• Transportation costs: I am also paying the cost in weight to transport the full bottles from wherever Mountain Dew is made to me. (The Rockies? The Great Smokies? The Catskills? I'm sure.)
  
• Recycling costs: Then I'm paying the cost in energy to send the empty bottles to the recycling plant and have them melted down and re-made into a different product. Check out the EPA site for more information about plastics recycling in the U.S.)
  
• Ingredients concerns: Most Mountain Dew (except for the recent Mountain Dew Throwback) contains high-fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient. King Corn is a must watch if you're interested in high-fructose corn syrup and its environmental/health/economic implications. Some of the other ingredients are not any more heartening. Taking into account that Mountain Dew is a highly processed beverage, it stands to reason that much of the cost of making it is a cost to the environment and health of its consumers.
  

The Alternative

As I mentioned earlier, I decided (at least for now) to continue drinking a caffeinated beverage, so I'm not going totally rogue in the ways of modern conveniences. I don't much like tea, and eating my weight on chocolate doesn't sound like the best idea. So coffee it is.


Here is why I feel that coffee is a more eco-friendly alternative:

• Ingredients: There's only two: coffee and milk. I'm choosing to drink it with soy milk, mostly. I have more options about where I buy these ingredients and who I buy them from. I can buy fair trade coffee if I want. I can buy organic if I want. I like that I have a choice when it comes to who I support and how.
  
• Caffeine Generation: Interestingly, it seems that caffeine is often extracted from coffee for other uses, rather than being synthesized, so I'm essentially skipping a step by drinking it straight from the bean rather than infusing it into another beverage.
• Packaging: I am using a reusable mug that is easy to clean. Even if I buy a new mug every 6 months, that only means 2 a year, instead of the 300+ bottles I was using for Mountain Dew. I can also buy coffee in bulk and have a couple of different packaging options for it, including taking a reusable container along with me to the store and buying from bulk bins.
  
• Preparation: Luckily, I was recently given a French Press. I've never really made coffee before, but this option is better than a coffee maker because it doesn't require a disposable filter, it allows you to heat your water in the microwave (usually more efficient than heating water on the stove) and it is easy to quickly dump my coffee grounds in the composter when I'm done.

The Verdict

This is not the perfect solution. I will probably still buy a Mountain Dew every now and then. Coffee still has to travel far to get here. There are still energy costs involved in brewing it.

But this winter, I'm a little bit warmer in the morning and I'm a little less worried about my health and I'm a little bit happier about my impact on the world...

CSA Diary: The Long Winter Months

So, I stockpiled some squash and other keep-long veggies for the winter. Acorn and butternut, mostly, but some delicata and spaghetti squash, too. Onions, turnips and potatoes included.

I'm not big on playing up the sweet flavors of squash, so I am always looking for more savory alternatives.



I have now found a combination that works perfectly for my salt-seeking needs:

• Squash, sauteed or cooked with broth or baked
  
• Onion, sauteed with olive oil
  
• Fake sausage, such as Soyrizo, Field Roast brand or Tofurky brand, sauteed
• Cheese, if desired

Hint to anyone who would like to learn from my mistakes: Do not ever try to peel an acorn squash. It is a bad bad idea. I wasted a good hour of my life to this effort. Slice in half and bake in the oven. Really. Unless it's the apocalypse and there is literally no fuel to spare. Butternut squash is a perfectly acceptable squash to peel, however.

CSA Diary: Winding Down

This provides a highlight of the things I've been making over the past month or so with my CSA veggies, minus the mundane and utter failures.

What I Got

• Acorn Squash
• Beets (with Greens)
• Field Greens
• Garlic
• Leeks
• Onions
• Radishes
• Rutabaga
  
• Turnips (with Greens)

What I Made

• Sausage Jumble: Boiled some Yukon Gold potatoes*. Sauteed turnips, radishes and leeks in olive oil until soft. Added Gimme Lean sausage until brown. Added turnip greens, beet greens and a can of tomatoes. Put sausage mixture on top of potatoes, then topped with mozzarella cheese and gobbled it up.
• Butternut Squash Soup: A large & very phallic-looking butternut squash, garlic, Honeyrun Farm's honey, salt, pepper, carrots, onions, celery, olive oil, Not-Chick'n Bouillon Cubes, 1% milk. (Not the best soup I've ever made, I'll have to admit.)
  
• Sweet & Tangy Salad: Tossed together field greens, dried figs, Trader Joe's Stilton apricot cheese, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt & pepper, almonds.
• Bubbles & Squeakish: Boiled some Yukon Gold potatoes*. Sauteed leeks, turnip greens and cabbage. Added Morningstar's sausage crumbles and topped with a slice of Swiss cheese.
• Rutabaga & Broccoli Mash: Boiled rutabaga and broccoli stalks. Ran them through the food processor with butter, salt, pepper and thyme until smooth. Tastes like a very sweet version of mashed potatoes.
• Butternut Squash & White Bean Soup: Sauteed onion, celery, garlic. Added butternut squash, white wine, veggie broth, cumin, red pepper, cinnamon, cloves and boiled until soft. Added whipping cream, oregano, salt, pepper, Great Northern beans. (A much improved soup in comparison to the soup listed above!)
• Green Spaghetti: Spaghetti with Newman's Own Cabernet Marina sauce and Morningstar Grillers Crumbles with sauteed green onions, beet greens and kale.
  

* From the Clintonville Farmer's Market

Shopping for a Furnace & Air Conditioner

I just went through the process of shopping for a furnace/air conditioner to replace my 30+ year old units, so I thought I would share my newfound, soon-to-be-forgotten, wisdom with you.

Step One:
Ask your friends. I got recommendations from friends, family and co-workers, simply to help narrow down the choices, as there are a LOT of them!

Step Two:
Look up your "leads" on these sites to get an idea of what their service is like, what their customer satisfaction ratings are, whether or not they have the required state licenses and certifications, etc.

• Air Conditioning Contractors of America
• Angie's List (Requires a subscription.)
• Better Business Bureau
• North American Technician Excellence certified (NATE)
• Ohio Department of Commerce's Company Licensee Lookup
• ReferenceUSA (Though this requires a subscription, many libraries, such as the Westerville Library, provide access to their library card holders.)
  

Step Three:
Create a checklist of questions to ask the salesperson/contractor once you start getting quotes. Get three quotes or more for comparison. EnergyStar.gov provides a good starting point in their Heat & Cool Efficiently article. Keep in mind that what makes a unit most efficient is its proper installation. Here are a few of the things I considered during the quote process:

• Breakdown of expenses (cost of unit versus cost of labor)?
• Any duct work (sealing) that needs to be done to increase efficiency of the unit?
  
• What are the AFUE ratings for the quoted furnaces and the SEER ratings for the quoted air conditioners? (Note: For furnaces, the higher the AFUE rating, the better, with a maximum rating of 100. For air conditioners, the higher the SEER rating, the better. The standard range is currently between 13.0 and 16.0 rating.)
• Is there an installation checklist, such as the Manual J, that will be used during the installation process?
  
• Is the quoted unit correct sized for my home? (Sizing has a direct correlation with unit efficiency. A unit too big or too small for your home will decrease its energy efficiency.)
• Be sure to walk away with a written quote with the suggested units' specifications.

Step 4:
After getting quotes for specific units, Google the unit model numbers that have been quoted to find out what other customers are saying. One bad review isn't worth noting, but numerous bad reviews may be.

What I Got:
After this whole process, I bet you're wondering what company/units I went with. Based on the conversations I had with the three companies I worked with (Hetter Heating & Cooling, Columbus Worthington Air and ML Heating & Air Conditioning), I made the decision to go with Hetter Heating & Cooling. The staff were friendly and knowledgeable. The company had a great Better Business Bureau rating. They had many of the HVAC certifications/licenses that I had researched. They quoted a good price and were interested in helping me find an energy efficient unit that I would be happy with.

• HVAC Company: Hetter Heating & Cooling
• Air Conditioning Unit: Trane XR15, 15-SEER rating (A 16-SEER unit was also quoted, but came with a significant price increase.)
  
• Furnace Unit: Trane XR95 (95 AFUE rating)

Overall, I felt very comfortable with my choice! I got to use the heater last week for the first time and the difference is remarkable. Here's to warm nights in my future!

CSA Diary: Week ???

Ok, confession time: I've had some recent CSA failures. A botched attempt at greening up some Campbell's tomato soup, a fake chicken noodle soup that had a lot of celery and not a lot else, some burned remakes of earlier concoctions...But here are a few of the not-so-bad inventions from the past couple of weeks.

What I Got

• Butternut squash
• Celery
• Edamame
  
• Radishes
• Turnips (with greens)

What I Made

• Edamame: I love to snack on edamame. Just boil them up for a few minutes and pop them out of their pods. It's important to note that the pods are not like snow pea or snap pea pods. They're tough and furry and don't feel too good going down!
• Rainbow Pasta: Chop and saute turnips, radishes, turnip greens, cherry tomatoes (that I grew!) and green onions* with olive oil until tender. Add pesto** and toss with spaghetti.
• Chimichurri Rice, Enhanced: Sauteed celery, turnips and radishes in olive oil. Added Trader Joe's chimchurri rice and Meijer organic kidney beans until warm. Topped with cheddar cheese.
  
• Pearsauce: Tried out a recipe that my sister has successfully made many times, Pear Soup. However, mine turned out more like a pear version of applesauce. Good, but not as good as Cath's! Used pears from Lynd's Fruit Farm, Wholesome Sweeteners' brown sugar from Raisin Rack and sage from Cath's garden.
• Apple Crisp: Used apples from Lynd's Fruit Farm and the Simple Apple Crisp recipe from Recipezaar, but added some rolled oats to give it some more crunch.
  

*From Clintonville Farmer's Market
**I made this pesto over a year ago. Took basil, garlic, lemon juice, almonds, olive oil and Parmesan cheese and blended in a food processor. Poured into an ice cube tray and froze. Once frozen, dumped the cubes into a plastic freezer bag and it's held up for the past year!