Consider - as you buy food this summer - where it comes from. Could you visit a local farmers’ market and buy fresh, local produce? Support local food production. Think about how much fuel it takes to bring your food to the table. You can talk to the farmers at the market and ask they how they grow the vegetables that you buy. Last year, an old Italian lady exclaimed, “No spray! No spray!” (meaning no chemicals) as I purchased her unusual variety of Swiss chard.
Supporting the local agricultural industry can be difficult when you’ve grown up with fruits like mango, bananas and pineapple all year ’round.
We grow our own tomatoes, beans, peppers, zucchini, cucumber, strawberries, pears and most herbs.
Heaven.
Today is Canada’s 142nd birthday. Here at the campground, we treated campers to a Canada Day hay wagon ride complete with O Canada! playing endlessly. Afterwards, everyone enjoyed cake and coffee (or bottled water) in the barn.
Happy Canada Day everyone!
Shell has some great fuel-saving tips.
Imagine if you did them all. You could run your car on the fumes of an oil rag.
Service your engine - Did you know a poorly maintained engine can increase your fuel consumption by up to 50 per cent? Just replacing dirty spark plugs can improve your fuel consumption by up to 5 per cent.
Keep your tires at the right pressure - If your tires are under inflated by just 1psi, your fuel efficiency can be reduced by up to 3 per cent. So pump up those tires up once a week or whenever you fill up.
Avoid carrying excess weight - For every extra 100 lbs (45kg) you carry, your fuel efficiency can drop by 1-2 per cent. So clear your car of unnecessary items that just add weight to your vehicle when you can.
Take the roof rack off - If you’re not using your roof rack or your roof box, remove it. A roof rack can affect the aerodynamic efficiency of your vehicle, creating drag which can result in your car using up to 5 per cent more fuel.
Check the air filters - Air filters keep impurities from damaging your engine. Replacing a clogged air filter can help improve your fuel economy by as much as 10 per cent and can help protect your engine.
Use the correct oil - Using the manufacturer’s recommended lubricant can help improve fuel efficiency by 1-2 per cent. Higher quality motor oils can also help your engine operate more efficiently. If you’re using Shell Fuel Economy, Shell Helix will help you squeeze even more out of every drop by helping your engine run extra smoothly.
Check the seal on your fuel cap - Fuel evaporates every time you open the fuel cap. Make sure your cap is properly screwed on every time after every fill up.
Plan your trips - Cutting down on the time spent in the car is the easiest way to conserve fuel. To reduce driving time, combine all your short trips and errands into a single journey or call ahead to avoid wasted journeys.
Keep hydrated - Don’t forget to drink water. When you’re well hydrated, you concentrate better. Keep a bottle to hand as you drive and make sure you drink to help keep yourself cool and focused when you drive. And remember, if you ever feel drowsy while driving, pull over and rest at the first opportunity.
Keep calm - That way you’ll be able to drive smoothly and anticipate what’s going on ahead of you. When you keep calm, you also drive with plenty of distance between your car and others.
TIPS ON DRIVING MORE EFFICIENTLY
Drive smoothly - If you drive aggressively, you’ll burn up to a third more fuel than if you drive smoothly. Avoid accelerating or braking too hard and try to keep your steering as even as possible.
Use higher gears - When you drive slowly in a higher gear, you’ll burn less fuel. Change up a gear whenever you can.
Keep the windows closed - Wind blowing through an open window slows you down. To compensate, you’ll put your foot down harder, using more fuel. So instead of opening a window, try and use your car’s internal ventilation system instead of the air conditioning.
Use cruise control - Change up whenever you can. Using cruise control on major roads helps you maintain a constant speed and helps you make all those drops count.
Avoid excess idling - Stuck in a jam? Idling gets you nowhere, but still burns fuel. Turn the engine off when you’re in a queue until you need it. As a rule, if you’ve stopped for over 10 seconds, switch off your engine.
Avoid over-revving - Change gear in good time when you pull away or when you’re accelerating. Never ‘redline’ the rev counter.
Avoid high speeds - The faster you go, the more wind resistance you’ll encounter and the more fuel your vehicle will consume just to maintain speed. Driving just 5mph (12kmph) over the speed limit can affect fuel economy by up to 23 per cent. So keep it slow.
Use air-conditioning sparingly - Sometimes it’s hard to avoid using your air-conditioning, but remember that it does put added strain on your engine on hot or cold days. And, it increases your fuel consumption by up to 8 per cent. On temperate days, you can always use your car’s internal ventilation system instead.
Avoid rush hour - If you can travel outside of peak times, you’ll spend less time stuck in traffic and use less fuel drops as a result.
Keep a constant speed - Instead of coasting when you reach a downward slope, maintain steady engine revs. This will mean you pick up speed, and if you’ve then got a hill to climb, it gives you considerable added momentum to help go up.
Jump in the time machine and turn back 25 years. I was talking to a friend and she remarks how much money someone has. She says she wishes she had his life as she leans back and clicks the remote for her television.
I made a point to look at this “moneyed” person’s life over the next while. Turns out he got up at 6:00 a.m. and worked mostly 14-hour days. He drove an older truck and lived in decent but not-so-swanky neighbourhood. Today, he still has a successful business.
Hmm. He was the poster child for hard work. Would this woman be so envious if she had to give up her TV-watching ways and put in long workdays?
I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
~ Thomas Jefferson
I do not know anyone who has gotten to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but it will get you pretty near. ~ Margaret Thatcher
Love conquers all, but if love doesn’t do it, try hard work. ~ Unknown
Unless you are willing to drench yourself in your work beyond the capacity of the average man, you are just not cut out for positions at the top. ~ J.C. Penney
Hard work has made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win. ~ Nadia Comaneci
Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ~ Thomas Alva Edison
Last time I was at the garden centre, hostas were $4.99 for these tiny, pathetic plants. The bigger, more developed ones were almost double that price.
I was at a friend’s on the weekend and she was showing me her back garden. She had about five varieties of hostas. I oohed and aahed because they were rare varieties and asked if I could, at some point, divide a piece off for my back garden. Right away, she grabbed a shovel and headed over to the plants. I wasn’t even ready and she was going to get some for me. She had other perennials that I was welcome to take a chunk of home.
Make friends with your neighbours. Often their perennials are growing way out of control and they are happy to share them with you.
Last year, I took cuttings of sedums and plunked them directly into the soil and they have now formed a border on a hill for me. I did have to water them for about a week until they rooted. The folks that I got the cuttings from still ask me if I want more.
Last year, my husband was at Home Depot at the end of the season - September. They were selling off the rosebushes at blow-out prices. One dollar per plant. He couldn’t resist. I have given about four or five of them away as gifts because we just didn’t need that many plants.
The photos show only a few of the varieties we have. Check out garden centres and places like Home Depot late in the summer for their end-of-season plants. You can save a bundle.
This year, we grew beans, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, strawberries and about five varieties of tomatoes. The dill, oregano and chives just come up on their own. I saved seeds from the tomatoes and beans last year. I just dried them on a plate and stored them in a piece of paper towel in a small paper bag. We start the seeds in late March in the basement under grow lights. Sometimes the seeds grow, sometimes they don’t.
I get a big thrill out of seeing the first veggies growing. Yesterday I could see teeny zucchini, baby tomatoes and peppers. We’ve tried lettuce and other vegetables but found that they attracted chewing varmints.
If you are thinking about making the leap and eating less meat or a few more vegetarian meals, I haven’t found a better site than 101 Cookbooks. Her recipes are simple, healthy but inspired!
Today’s recipe is a Lemon Cucumber Tofu Salad. Her description: A simple tofu salad recipe made by marinating cucumbers and chopped dill in lemon juice and olive oil, then tossing with tofu, pine nuts, and avocado.
Her photographs are wonderful. Check out her site and you’ll find recipes that will tempt even carnivores.
I visited a friend on Saturday and she had done some home renovation. After I got over how gorgeous the renovation looked, I realized how frugal she was. In the new bathroom, she bought a big soaker tub off of Craigslist for $100. She had taken an old mirror and painted the frame in silver. She had a relative show her how to do tiling and she had done subway tiles in the tub enclosure. Instead of getting a couch in the family room, she built a frame and then had two twin foam mattresses covered (total cost less than $150) and they were the seating area. It also doubled as extra beds for guests. She planned to make pillows in the L-shaped area to lean on. Instead of desks for their office she had Home Depot cut a 4′ by 8′ piece of maple (one side was nice) and she finished it herself. The wood sits on top of filing cabinets and that is the “desk” for the business.
There’s always a less expensive way.
I asked my brother, “Best Father’s Day gift?” and he replied:
“For me it’s always the phone call I appreciate the most.”
Last year, my husband got a card and an eggplant and pepper plant for the garden. Nice.
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