Tommie’s cafe at the wonderful public library in Livermore makes yummy sandwiches and pours high-quality McLaughlin coffee. It became a wonderful example of how an outspoken sustainable (aka “annoying”) customer can encourage a business to become more green: Every time I went there for a cup of coffee I would purposefully leave my travel mug in the car and ask for a reusable cup. Every time I would end up walking back to my car to get my own mug—with a big, emotionally manipulative “sigh”. Usually the baristas would only charge me for a small coffee to make up for my “inconvenience”. Until today when they were all smiles pointing at a new sign that was advertising Tommie’s “House” mugs. A few weeks earlier I had a chat with the owner about offering at least one sustainable coffee with the result that “Sumatra Organic” has entered the six-coffee line-up. One more problem: the open ceramic mugs are not welcome inside the library. Tommie …?
Archive for sustainability
the lion sleeps today
Earth Day in Livermore gave local businesses and non-profit organizations an opportunity to gain healthy and earth-friendly exposure within the community. A poster child of green was Rising Sun Energy who were offering free exchanges for halogen floor lamps (which produce mostly heat and waste electricity) with fluorescent versions. But the green spirit seemed lost on some: The Lion’s Club, for example, was fund-raising with unhealthy snacks, paper plates, and plastic cutlery still double-bagged in disposable plastic bags. Do you want 500 plastic bottles of Walmart’s Great Value Purified Drinking Water with that … (-;
doubly green recycle monsters
Because I had volunteered to take care of the recycling bins in my building at my LLNL job, bottles and cans had been accumulating at an alarming rate behind my house. With Earth Day around and my sister in town it was time for a trip to the Refund and Recycle Center on 2680 Old First Street in Livermore. The process is fast, the staff is efficient, and the reward is doubly green: green feelings & green bucks. We made plenty of the first and twenty of the latter.
a love potion as organic pest control
Driving up North Vasco Road to Brentwood is a wonderful way to spend a sunny Sunday springtime morning: white wind mills, green soft hills, family farms, cattle, goats, and orchards in bloom. For the annual blossom festival farmer Al of Frog Hollow Farm was giving us a tour of his organic fruit orchards. For pest control he uses a special “love potion” that prevents the moths from mating: from every tree hangs a little plastic envelope that is filled with female pheromones. When the male moths arrive there is an intense smells of female everywhere but they cannot find a single one. Poor male moths … I know exactly how you feel.
meeting Tom’s bees
Tom (a fellow “urban farmer” from Pleasanton) gave us a bee tour and some hands-on experience on what beekeeping is all about: we got to open one of his hives and inspect several frames. I was amazed how friendly and calm the bees were. Sure … being in the protective suit was reassuring but it did not really seem necessary. The bees were busy doing their thing and showed no aggressive behavior whatsoever. There was something truly magical about handling those bee-loaden frames. I am so looking forward to get my own hive.
I got to know Tom who maintains a website on bee-lining (a neat GIS & bees mash-up) through Linda Schneider who is running a visionary non-profit to create self-sustaining communities in El Cerrito.
building a chicken coop from reused materials
I collected the following items for building a chicken tractor with a detachable chicken run:
- a frame of a wooden coffee table (Karleen found it on the curb)
- 20 recycled 5 foot 1×8 redwood boards (bought from a fencing company)
- a stack of nail and screw prodded 2 by 4s (used to hold drywalls inside my garage)
- the leftover semi-gloss latex paint (from painting my interior doors and windows)
The design of the tractor is determined by the coffee table that is the base of the chicken tractor. The size of the run is determined by the length of the 2 by 4s. Since dad is visiting I am taking a few days off work so we can build the coop together:
baby chickens
The first real step towards urban farm life comes at the affordable price of $2.50 a chick at Alamo Hay and Grain. The four girls cheesecake, pumpkin (two rhode island reds), penguin, and omelet (two barred rocks) enjoy their new home: a light bulb heated cardboard box in the living room. Once they have eaten the entire 25 lb bag of chick feed they will be big enough to move into a chicken coop in the front yard. But wait … there is no coop yet.
(one week later: they are nearly double the size)
sustainable decoration
Alden Lane nursery is giving away hundreds of sweet pie pumpkins. I load up the Vibe with tens of pumpkins and use them to decorate my house seasonally (hours before dad and Martina arrive). Eventually the decorations will all be eaten and any remains composted. We are talking pumkpin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin curry, roasted pumpkin seeds, …
creating an urban farm in downtown livermore 