Independence

Yes, I know this is "Keeley's Green Blog" but something very exciting and nerve wrecking has been consuming my time this past month and I wanted to share. To fudge it as a work related blog I'm going to use the theme of "independence" as in "Nashville's Independent Radio." That works right? It also has to do with money, which has a greenish hue to it..!

So what's the real theme of the this blog? Gaining financial independence for the first time in my life and starting off by eradicating my car loan. By the way, if you're interested in a 2005 Pontiac Bonneville, check out craigslist.com and search for it! I'm still trying to sell. Until then, I've purchased a 1997 Nissan Altima through another craigslist poster and sure enough there is a world of things wrong with it. I've learned more about cars in the past two weeks then in my entire life! Fortunately all of the issues seem managable to fix. Heck, I even changed out the ignition rotor cap all by myself for only $8! Among other things my brake fluid is leaking, there may be something wrong with the timing belt, the check engine light OBD II sensor does not have power going to it (which means I can't read the code for the check engine light) and my ABS is malfunctioning... found that out when I almost crashed it on day two of ownerrship! Nonetheless, I'm determined to love this car and make it purr!

I'm also a math geek and keep expense sheets for evething, including my monthly budget and now I have one for the "Actual Value" of my 2005 Pontiac. I purchased the car from CarMax in 2006 with an original ticket price of $12,000. Since then I have done regular oil changes and have switched out the windshield wipers almost twice a year, replaced all four tires, had a sensor replaced in the computer, and put all new brake pads on. Since Oct 2006 my $12,000 car purchase has already totaled up to $10,431 with alsmot 3 more years still left on the loan payments! Paying $283.09 per month, I still owe $9625 on the lifetime of the loan, making my total value (not including future oil changes or maintenance) $20,062! That's $8,000+ more than I had bargained for! Don't get me wrong, the car is FANTASTIC and very comfortable, but I don't have any money. I wish I had understood finance a little better when I signed the papers on it! So, I'm selling it for $6500 and taking a $2500 loss on it. I'm still saving money in the long run. If I sell this Bonneville in the next month, I figured that I can put almost $5000 worth of repairs into my 1997 Nissan Altima in the next 3 years and still come out even! $5000 is a lot for repairs and I'm convinced it won't come to that. That is a HUGE financial relief and a HUGE step towards my financial independence.

My next step is to pay down my student loans and take on paying my own car insurance. After that... at age 24+ I'll FINALLY be able to say I don't rely on daddy anymore! Woo hoo!

Fuel Economy Website

I currently drive a 2005 Pontiac Bonneville, but have lately been seriously considering selling it for a cheaper car (in the $1500 range) just to get rid of my debt. While looking for alternative cars on Craigslist, I started to wonder about the fuel economy of these cars. I came across a neat site that I'd like to share:

www.FuelEconomy.gov

It shows the city and highway gas mileage of all model cars, including emissions and other helpful information. Check it out!

Booty Camp

This is me, as the hulk. Those are my real muscles, but my skin is not really green. I have been working out with the Lightning 100 crew for six weeks now. To be honest, I think my muscles are too big and I'd rather just take nap time while everyone else is working out, but a commitment is a commitment!

I've had a great overall experience with it! In fact, Team Green is now offering a Team Green exclusive Bootcamp this winter with Focus Fitness. Here's the pitch:

"Dates and times will be established by those who are interested. If you're one of them, email me at TeamGreen@WRLT.com to reserve your spot and let me know your availability. TEAM GREEN BOOTCAMP is an exclusive 10 week program, twice a week. As a group you will build strength, energy, awareness, and camaraderie. Make a one time payment of $300, which includes all equipment (kettlebell and restraint bands). This offer comes out to less than $15 per class!"

My only problem with the Lightning 100 bootcamp is that it's three days a week, and I get so worn out. This TEAM GREEN BOOTCAMP will be great, especially if it ends up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's so hard to get back Sunday from a weekend long Team Green adventure, then have to work out on Monday!

Recycling Center for Boys

I really apologize for taking so long to finally post a new blog! Yesterday I took my first day off in almost six weeks (seriously... seven days a week for almost six weeks)! This job has really trained me to be productive because I could not sit still. Everything around my house that has been neglected finally got some attention. It felt so wonderful to get so much done! Major projects included:

1. Taking reycling out to convenience center
2. Test homemade backpacking fire starter (see post below)
3. Screw kitchen trash can to wall so TG will quit knocking it over!
4. Create home recycling center for my roommates

My roommates (3 guys and 2 dogs) have made a mess of my recycling attempts. The guys don't rinse out their beer bottles before putting them in a bag, which brings flies indoor, and the dogs (well, mostly just my dog) gets into all of the plastic and chews it to shreds. So, here's what I did:

Dog Issue: I went to Walgreen's and bought some cheapo laundry hampers. They are 2 for $5. I bought one for paper and #1 & 2 plastic, one for all other recyclables and 3 for glass. The hampers are tall enough to keep the dog out, and for safe measure I placed a board over top of it so she can't stick her nose in there.















Boy Issue: The beer bottles tend to stay around the house for a long time because when it comes time to recycle, no one wants to stick their hand into the stinky bag and separate the three kinds of glass (brown, green, and clear). Some boys just don't learn and will never rinse out the glass, so I created an outdoor recycling center for them. Here's how I did it:

What You Need:
Scrap wood and bricks or cinder blocks
Drill
Hand Saw
Screws
Small hinges (3)
Pipe fixture (3)
Laundry hampers (3)

1. For some reason I have some scrap ply wood, cinder blocks and random wood pieces around my house (probably from a construction project over 10 years ago). I used a hand saw to cut off a 20"x45" plank of wood. I screwed this onto the hand railing of my patio. One side of the plank was proped up by house and the third side was proped up by two cinder blocks and a 4'x4' chuck.
   
2. The laundry hampers will line up underneath the wood plank. Cut a hole over each hamper. To keep the rain out, create a small door to go over the holes.
3. Using some of the left over wood from the ply wood, cut squares just larger than the holes you've made to drop bottles through. Preferably, make the squares larger than a glass bottle. These pieces will become the doors to each hamper. Using your hinges (just over $1 for two at Home Depot) attach the doors over the drop holes. If you want to be fancy (like me), purchase some pipe fixtures large enough to go over a glass bottle. You can then use one of each color bottle as the door handle to the correct colored bins.
4. I then used a second sheet of ply wood to place on the outside of the new recycling center so that wind and rain could not blow through the back side. (See photo above)

Viola! You have yourself a boy- (and girl-) proof recycling center for all your stinky beer bottles. If they can't put the right colored bottle in the right hole... I just don't know what I'm going to do about them!

Fire Starters: Perfect for Backpacking!

On the Team Green Frozen Head backpacking trip a couple weeks ago I over heard someone talking about how to make home made fire starters. It had rained the entire day before and most of the wood around us was wet. A fire starter really saved us because it was able to burn long enough on its own to dry out some of the wood and generate enough heat to burn the rest. You can buy fire starters pretty cheap at most outdoor stores, but they usually have chemicals of some sort in them. Here are step by step directions how to make your own out of house hold items.















What You Need:
Zip lock bag full of dryer lint (maybe even some wood chips or dry leaves)
Glass container
Two or three cheap wax candles (99 cents at Micheal's)
Boiling Pot
Match Box

1. Break the wax candle into pieces and removed the wick. Place the wax pieces into the glass jar or glass.
2. Fill a boiling pot 1/3 to half full of water. Place the glass container with wax in the pot and cover with lid. Boil water until wax melts
3. Stuff dryer lint into melted wax. Before wax dries completely, mold the melted wax and dryer lint into small balls (about the size of a doughnut hole). Make sure that dryer lint is well saturated with wax, but not much more than 50% of each.
4. Place match stick into dryer lint/wax ball and allow to dry for several hours.
5. Light one to test in an isolated area and see how long it burns. You'll want it to burn on it's own for at least 10 minutes.

I tested mine the other day and it lasted almost a half hour. The larger you make each ball, the longer it will burn. If you are a backpacker you can appreciate the need for things to be small and light weight. Customize each for your activity needs.

Radio Fit

Three weeks ago all of the Lightning 100 employees (minus about 3) enrolled in a 10 week bootcamp through Marathon Fitness, a fitness facility directly below our studio (in fact, most of the afternoon as we hear are grunts and groans from guys trying to lift weights). Each of us weighed in and determined our goal for the 10 weeks. Based upon our age, weight, gender, body fat, and goals we were each issued a meal plan. You can learn more about everyone's response to this experience on our blog Radio Fit. I discovered a very significant problem with my diet: I don't eat! I tried doing the bootcamp and eat more, but even then I wasn't eating enough. My over exherting my body through bootcamp three times weekly plus Team Green Yoga on Tuesdays and our outdoor adventures over the weekends I was starting to feel weak, negative, and tired. If you're interested in designing your own meal plan, here is an example of a meal for those of you who are active, want to mantain your weight but gain strenght:

7am
4 Egg Whites (I still only eat maybe one or two)
1 Yolk
1/2 cup oatmeal

10am
Meal replacement or yogurt

1pm
3 oz fish or chicken
Complex carbohydrate (rice, potato, pasta)

3pm
1 tbsp peanut butter

4pm
6 oz chicken
Veggie serving

7pm
6 oz chicken
Veggie serving

1/2 gallon of water (Really, I still only drink a couple glasses)

They are very small portions but they keep you full for the duration between meals.

Learn, Grow, Engage

Last night was the premier launch of Engage Green, Team Green's initiative to educate our listeners, Team Green members and the general Nashville community about simple ways to make your life greener. Engage Green was my brain child about two months ago and I am so proud to see it finally taking off, every First Tuesday of the month (except for in November, due to the election, when it is moved to the second Tuesday). This month's topic was Water Conservation and Preventing Storm Water Pollution. What perfect timing too! Yesterday and today it has rained for the first time since September.

Here is a recap of what we learned:

The historic stereotype of large drain systems pouring neon green waste into rivers with a plant off in the distance are now obsolete. The major form of water pollution today is waste from private property including pet waste, vehicle fluids, garbage, and construction debris. This waste rests on top of impermeable surface area (does not absorb water, such as concrete and asphalt), floods our streets and yards, and is eventually pushed into our water sheds, rather than being naturally processed through the Earth's filtration system (roots, dirt, rocks, and eventually making it to the ground water).

What is our solution? Councilwoman Evans explained that we can create permeable surface area on our private property. You can do this by replacing your impermeable driveways with crushed concrete, shredded tires (much like a running track), or other great options. We learned that the cost of crushed concrete compared to asphalt or regular concrete is minimal and lasts longer. The only maintenance it requires is to be "brushed" or cleaned with a leaf blower twice a year to remove sediment and other matter that clogs the surface. Metro Council is also implementing a fee per property (including government property, churches, houses, and commercial property) that will be added to our water bill based upon the estimated impermeable surface area we own. This fee can be lowered by creating more permeable surface area, including crushed concrete, rain gardens, rain barrels (rain water harvesting), green roofs, and more!

Margo Farnsworth also spoke about habits we can change in our daily lives to decrease the amount of water that we use. "It all goes back into the ground, right?" Wrong. It goes into the sewage system, which is pushed through miles of piping and eventually makes it's way to a water processing plant, which uses electricity and chemicals to purify the water for reuse. By saving water on our end, we save energy and other costs on that end. Here are some tips she gave:

1. When making coffee, only make as much as you know your household will consume. For example, I know that I will drink one cup and my roommate will drink one cup, so I only add 2.5 cups of water and a tablespoon or so (depending on how strong I want) of coffee grounds to my coffee maker. This will make exactly 2 coffee-cups full, and no extra coffee is dumped out.
2. Hamburgers require a lot of water (I'm not sure why, though), so if Americans learn to curb their diets and consume smaller portions (go from a 1/4 pounder to wopper junior), we will save water.
3. Turn the water off when brushing your teeth (duh!) and lathering your hands with soap. That water is not necessary to have on during the interim and will saves hundreds of gallons of water per year per individual.
4. Most of our water use is actually put into the ground. Silly, huh, that we pay to water the ground that mother nature does on her own! Many individuals and companies water even when it's raining! The best tip is to water your lawn or garden early in the morning or late at night and to use dip irrigation (soaker hoses, for example). Why? Because over half of the water used with sprinkler systems is absorbed into the air and never reaches the ground. Using a soaker hose, covered with mulch, ensures that the water only goes into the ground by the plants that you want watered, reduces the amount of water that is released per unit of time (because it drips out, rather than pours out), and the mulch prevents evaporation.

You can find more information about storm water pollution and ways to prevent it at Nashville.gov/stormwater.

We had about 15 people join us at Lipscomb University at their Institute for Sustainable Practice. Although Engage Green was a success for our first seminar (especially considering it was the same night as the debate at Belmont), there are things I definitely want to change for the next one. I had always invisioned these talks as a "How-To" discussion. I believe that many people get it. They understand that there is a problem; although they may not know exactly what the problems are, they get it and want to change. I want these discussions to be an opportunity for people in Nashville to come, learn an overview of the problem, and learn step-by-step how to make changes in their personal life. I want them to walk away with instructions in hand so that they can go home and make the changes over the weekend, and be confident in the process!

For this class, ideally we would have discussed the issue of storm water and the need for water conservation for about 20 minutes, then learned step by step how to create a rain garden, and how to install rain barrels, followed by a short discussion of simple things we can do daily (like the coffee advice above). Everyone would walk away with a handout including rain garden instructions and resources on one side, and rain barrel instructions and resources on the other. I will be sure to make the next seminars more hands on!

Our upcoming calendar will look a little something like this:

November 11th (Second Tuesday)
Location: Lipscomb University, Burton Building, Flex Learning room
Topic: Local Food Options and Composting
Learn about the benefits of local food and where to buy it. Also, learn a couple different ways to create your own composting system, especially with the holidays coming up. You'll finally know what to do with all that left over food (when you just can't eat anymore of it!)

December 2nd (First Tuesday)
Location: Lipscomb University, Burton Building, Flex Learning room
Topic: Energy Saving Options
Specifics TBA

January 6th (First Tuesday)
Location: Lipscomb University, Burton Building, Flex Learning room
Topic: Green Washing
If your new years resolution includes "Going Green," you'll need to know the difference between truely green products and what is simply advertised as green (known as Green Washing). Some products claim to be green because they are made of "all natural" ingredients, but these natural ingredients can still be harmful to you and your environment.

February 3rd (First Tuesday)
Location: Lipscomb University, Burton Building, Flex Learing room
Topic: TBA
Possibly we will discuss Green Building Options. Learn great spring remodling options that will preserve the environment and your money in the long run.

March 3rd (First Tuesday)
Location: Lipscomb University, Burton Building, Flex Learning room
Topic: TBA
Possibly we will discuss the topics missed during the storm water discussion, including step by step instructions how to create rain gardens, rain barrels, the benefits of trees, and other rain water conservation tips just before the "rainy season" hits.

If you have any topic suggestions, or are interested in presenting (all presentations must be non-political, and non-sales oriented), please contact me (kreed@tunedin.com). If you are interested in sponsoring an event (event sponsorship, product donation, food/beverage sponsorhip, or more) please contact Team Green Director, Laurel Creech (laurel@tunedin.com).