It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:
Hi Mavis, You’re my only daily blog visit. LOVE your stuff. Ed Hume sells a booklet each year that calendars gardening by the moon. Do you have any experience with this? Is it worth the extra calendaring effort?
~Lan
I have heard of gardening by the moon–and think it would be an interesting {and probably effective} way to time your gardening. I haven’t ever tried it myself, though. Readers, do any of you have any experience with this one?
I’ve so enjoyed reading your blog. I hope you don’t mind but, I came across this quote today and it stuck with me. It popped in my mind again when I clicked over to your blog. “The things we take for granted, someone else is praying for” -Unknown. It makes my year’s goal of living more simply feel a little easier repeating that in my head.
~Jamie
Jamie, thanks for the awesome reminder. I do have so much. Thinking of a year of no-spending as a sacrifice is just plain disrespectful to those who have so little. I’ll carry this perspective with me daily. Thanks again!
Help! My county is about to stop recycling glass. What should I do? I hate to throw away all that glass!!
~Laura C.
Laura, my best suggestion is to find ways to put it to use yourself. I like to rinse out the cool bottles and use them as vases. I also like to keep jars–they are perfect for storing items I’ve gotten from the bulk bins. You can get super clever and turn that glass into cash. Get yourself a glass cutter and start making artisan drinking glasses. {There are tons of tutorials on YouTube.}
You can always save it up for months at a time and take it to the next county over too, if repurposing isn’t your thing. It really depends on how far you are from other services and how committed you are to not throwing it away, I guess. Readers, anything to add?
Mavis, I don’t know what has happened. When I get your blog – it is one huge paragraph with numbers, etc. If you can help – perhaps, I need to reset something on my computer?
~Mary
I found this on Facebook and HAD to send it your way. It is an article about 30 different families from around the world. They asked the families to buy a week’s worth of groceries and take a family photo with all the food (they listed how much they spent too). It was fascinating and eye-opening too. Love your site!
~Kayla
This totally reminded me of the book “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats” by Peter Menzel and whoa Nellie is it fascinating! Thanks for the reminder, and I hope everyone will take a minute and click over and check it out.
~Mavis
Andrea says
We do not have a recycling center anywhere close to use. It’s an hour and a half drive. So we try to reuse glass as much as possible. We use a lot for storage. Spray paint the lids, add a cute little decorative knob at the top and use in bathroom to hold cotton balls/ q-tips etc. I give them as containers for gifts – like decorating up a pickle jar and putting cookies or filling with candy. I use them to grow herbs in the window sill. I live in the South and humidity is a problem. So I store matches in them. There are tons of uses for glass containers.
Deborah from FL says
I am receiving a normal newsletter, since you asked.
Love love love the quote! And the article about the families with their weekly purchases really illustrated that point. I found that article to be quite powerful. I was also intrigued not only by the food items themselves, but also in the background environments in which the families live. It was eye-opening on many levels. 🙂
I re-use a lot of glass around here, and there’s been something that has started to bug me. It’s the lids. Specifically the material on the inside of the lid. I don’t know what it’s made of or how porous it is. Therefore I don’t know if I should be reusing for food storage. Anyone know anything about this?
Mavis says
I’d be hesitant to use it for long term storage, but I use mine for short term all the time!
Suzanne says
Loved the article on groceries from around the world. I was honestly shocked by how many of them had huge amounts of food. I felt like that was mostly an American thing. But it also saddens me how little produce most Americans buy compared to the rest of the world. I feel like in many places around the country, it is hard to find good produce. Where I live we have almost no farmers markets and the stores that do have a good produce selection are all within a few miles of each other leaving the rest of the city with poor selections.
When I was a kid, we lived in Germany and there were market stalls every where. And, along with an ice cream truck that traveled the neighborhood, we also had a fruit and veggie truck that was like a mini farmer’s market that drove through the neighborhoods a few times a week. I sure wish we had something like that here.
Kim says
I LOVE the idea of a produce truck which drives through neighborhoods!!! I join you in the wish that we had something like that. Thanks for sharing!
Lisa Millar says
One of my friends posted that amazing article a couple of weeks back on what families around the world spent on groceries. Because I am keeping track too this year it was a real eye opener!!
Look at ‘us’ in the western world and our packaging!!! Bottles and bottles of sugary drinks and plastic up the wazoo!!
I know $1.23 in Sudan would a different value to how I view it, but it was totally fascinating to see!! Also seems like the less that was spent the more fresh produce was on the table!
I was going to try a few ‘gardening by the moon’ experiments this past season – but didn’t get organised in time!! 🙂 Would love to hear if anyone else has!
We have a good recycling area for free at the tip, but I never chuck out glass jars and rarely the bottles as I reuse them for making sauces and relish. ALso vases, temp seed storage and whatever else comes to mind.
Linda says
My grandmother used the Old Farmer’s Almanac and planted crops by that. I know she always planted peas by the light of a full moon and always had more peas than she knew what to do with. Me, I have brown thumbs and can not grow a thing.
We are lucky in that we can recycle glass. Most of the jars are used to drink out of or to store things. I have huge pickle jar that holds my knitting needles and smaller jars that hold crochet hooks. There are even jars that hold scrap balls of colorful yarn that looks too pretty to use!
Thank you for the time you take to blog, I always find something useful!
Mavis says
The number of commenters saying their parents/grandparents planted by the light of the moon is surprising (and awesome!).
Lan says
Very interesting. But not so much during our day and age, huh?
Jamie says
Regarding the glass…
My sister in law was faced with the same problem. She put a listing on craigslist and a local artist contacted her. That person has been using her glass for almost a year now and they pick it up from her house and she has been invited to a gallery viewing for some of her stuff. How cool is that!!!
Might be worth a try…
Mavis says
That is such an awesome idea!!
Jessica S says
That was going to be my suggestion! Post it on a local buy/sell/trade site, the free section on craigslist or freecycle. So many people are willing to pick up random free things..
Beverly Evans says
I am having the same problem as Mary. It has a large paragraph of numbers and letters then a regular paragraph. It has been doing this for a few weeks now.
Thanks for any help.
I love this site.