Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for compost] 

I've actually checked two more things off my Day Zero list, but the most exciting completion happened today. Jason and I started our compost bin. Originally we planned on building our own, but when we went shopping for soil and lime we saw a 115 gallon compost bin made from recycled plastic. This is way bigger than we really need, but it's something we'll probably be able to grow into. We threw our own food scraps, newspaper, soil, and lime in there today and it's just a little bit from the bottom. Soon we'll collect food scraps from our friends and after a long time we'll create our first batch of compost soil!

Adding some food scraps to the bin.

Our giant compost bin.
Jason and I obviously rent our house, so some of you might be wondering where we're doing this. We actually had some spare laminate flooring that we laid down on our laundry room floor (which is cement) and set the compost bin on. A compost bin is empty at the bottom so you can set it on the ground outside, which we clearly cannot do. There is a drawer on the side of the bin where we can release the compost when it's finished. We'll probably use this soil to grow things and give it to our friends who want some. We're only planning on filling this bin half full right now, but maybe someday we'll fill the whole thing.

And for those of you wondering what else I checked off my list, I got my nose re-pierced. I had it done when I was in high school but let it grow close one summer when I had a job that required me to take it out every day. I also have quite a few projects in progress.

988 days to go, 3% complete!

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For one year Vanessa Farquharson decided she would make one environmentally friendly change every day. She would keep a blog about her progress, and try to figure out what all of this green movement stuff meant. Sleeping Naked Is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days

is the book version of her blog, although they're very different. The blog had in-depth posts for each change, while the book only has a little bit about a few different changes every month. And sometimes nothing about the changes at all, just a mention of the change and then a story about a date she had that same day. Something completely unrelated. If you can't tell by my lackluster introduction, I was less than pleased with this book.

Maybe I should preface the rest of this review with a statement: I'm an environmentalist. I pretty big environmentalist. I recycle, bike/walk instead of drive whenever possible, buy organic food, recycled products, make homemade cleaning products, take military showers, wear clothes several times before washing. Yeah, I'm kind of green. But there is still so much more I could do, so when I picked up this book I thought maybe I would also pick up some new ideas. Which I did, let's make that clear. I'm planning on creating compost box after reading her description of hers, and there were a few other ideas. But for the most part, I think this book was a cheap ploy to cash in on the media success of the green movement. Oh, and a way for her to brag about how she started dating her boyfriend.

The biggest problem I had with this book was the lack of information. She says she did something, like stop using paper towels, but she never goes into why she decided to make that decision. She doesn't talk about any research she did, and scientific information to back up that decision. And without education, people are not going to make a change. Another problem I had with this book is that she complains relentlessly about everything. She decides to wash her hair with natural oils instead of shampoo, and then complains and complains about how this will prevent her from getting a boyfriend because what kind of guy will date a girl who uses oil to wash her hair. She decides to bike instead of drive to work, but then complains and complains about how this is going to prevent her from wearing cute outfits to work, and that's she's going to have to take backpack (God forbid!) with her to work. She has a real thing against backpacks, just hates them. And there are multiple instances in the book where I was under the impression she was doing all of this to meet hipster guys instead of for herself. To her credit, she does stick with some of her changes and stops complaining about them after a few days, but honestly my view of her was not the greatest, and I didn't find this book to be very interesting, helpful, or mind changing.

I'm giving this book a D.

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