Scoop The Dirt

I want to know, have you ever seen the rain....

Jason and I have been hanging out in San Pedro la Laguna for 3 weeks or more now – and we are both absolutely in love with this town! So, I apologize if I haven’t had much to say recently, but when you are stationary (and not traveling), it’s hard to write about just our day-to-day activities. But just in case you were curious – our daily lives have consisted of Spanish courses in the morning, volunteering at our hostel (Yo Mama’s Casa) in the afternoon, and Jason playing in a band in the evening a few days a week. We’ve also helped the owner of the hostel paint and clean up a few private rooms in the back, and now we are more comfortable situated away from a lot of the guests of the hostel. I’ve learned to make some pretty amazing granola, and other than that – nothing too exciting had been going on.

Jason’s Day Before His Birthday Celebration

Until recently – there has been a LOT going on in Guatemala, which many of you may have heard already. Last week, Volcano Picaya erupted and brought much turmoil to the streets and towns surrounding it. The streets were filled with volcanic ash, homes were destroyed and some unfortunate families lost loved ones. Travel was chaotic, planes were unable to go anywhere and the roads were shut down in many places.

Then it started raining. And raining. And raining. Hurricane Agatha, which traveled down the coast of Mexico, caused torrential downpours all throughout Guatemala.

And last Saturday, the rain caused a terrible landslide to occur here in San Pedro la Laguna. And other landslides began to wipe out other small, underdeveloped villages surrounding Lake Atitlan. The effects of the rain were monumental, and now many families are left without shelter, food, water, and clothes. Farmers lost their crops. Children lost what few toys they had. And many lost their hope.

Back to the show – 2nd set. Isobel,Thenasis and J

What was amazing was how quickly the town pulled together to help those in need. The travelers and the foreigners that live here, the churches, the schools, and the locals all began to pull together what few resources they had and organized a system to help those who lost everything. A search began immediately for a young girl, who sadly was never found. Churches began to shelter and protect those who were left homeless. And Yo Mama’s Casa turned instantly into a makeshift soup kitchen. Some of the hostel guests went around to the different restaurants and tiendas to ask for donations of rice, beans, flour, pasta, vegetables – anything that they could afford to give. We visited a local Mayan woman who makes tortillas for a living in hopes that we could purchase 100 or more tortillas to add to our dinners. She didn’t have any flour to make the tortillas, but luckily a restaurant had donated several pounds of flour to us. So, she was able to make a ton of tortillas for us. When someone returned to pick up the finished product, the woman refused to let us pay her for her hard work. She was just grateful that she was able to provide something for those in need.

Meanwhile, other guests stayed back at the hostel and began to crank out meal after meal with the donated food items, and we fed hundreds. Many we fed were workers in the field who were digging up everything that had been buried beneath the mud and debris, and many were families who had been staying in churches and temporary housing. We were able to continue with the hot meals for a few days.

Start of first set at En Vivo

But now so much more needs to be done. Homes need to be built for those families who have nowhere to go. Some other displaced families have other structures to live in, but they are empty. Those who lost their farms also lost their food source and their income source. So, we are all trying to figure out how to get more donations to buy what these families need. Our friend Sharon has been working closely with the local Spanish schools, churches and families to develop lists of family names, items that they specifically need, and organize how to make sure everyone gets exactly what they need, since there isn’t that much to really go around.

The Yo Mama’s House Band (with Jason at the helm) has been playing all around town, and we have been able to collect food, clothes, and money at each event. Our Spanish school has set up a link on their website for those around the world who want to help financially. And there’s even a Facebook page setup to help raise awareness and money.

Justin, Jen and Alex supporting Yo Mama’s

Not to mention, if you are reading this, YOU too can help us by 1) Joining the Facebook page 2) Donating what little (or lot) you can through the website 3) Sending an email or this entry to all of your friends and family members. And in return, you can rest assured that we are making sure that the money is going only towards buying food, medicine, clothes and other necessary items for these families – and that the purchased items are getting put directly in the hands of those families who need it the most.

This week we’ll be taking off of school to catch up on our lessons, but also this will allow us some time to get involved with projects around San Pedro, and to see if other towns around the lake could use our help as well. It is heart-wrenching to realize that these people lost everything that they own in one bad rainstorm, that their entire houses could be swept away from them so quickly, and that they have to rely on the sole kindness of others to help them recover since there’s apparently no government programs in place to help in times of crisis. I definitely feel that Jason and I arrived in this town for a reason, and I hope that we are able to make a small difference while we are here. There are some absolutely amazing travelers that are going above and beyond the call of duty here – big ups to Sharon, Becca, Isobel, Jen and all the members of the hostel and the Yo Mama’s House Band. Let’s keep it moving!

Dinner at Buddha’s for Jason’s Birthday

Beach on one side, Mountains on the other

Yesterday we finally got to get out of the city for a bit and explore the beautiful mountainside. Now, THIS is why we are here! Just a short 45 min drive up a extremely bumpy dirt road, while riding in the bed of a pickup truck, you begin to see tropical forests and an incredible view of the waterfall high above the Rio Cangrejal. Seriously – this is such an amazing difference from the beach and the city. The temperature is cooler, the sun is shining and the foliage is just incredible!

I’ve always dreamed of living in a land where you could watch the Carribean from your porch and go hiking under waterfalls all in the same day!

We drove up to some hotels that are nestled deep in the woods. These places have been built from scratch up in perfect solitude. With views of the waterfall and the river, fresh water swimming holes, outdoor bars built out of rocks and mango tree wood – ahh, just a spectacular peaceful experience. We visited two hotels – the Villas at Pico Bonito and Casa Cangrejal.
Check out their websites! Seems like even the mountain folk are pretty excited for us to get up and running. They used to send their clients down to our restaurant when they were looking for a day on the beach, and one lady even used to take horseback riding trips up and down the beach, stopping at the Iguana Bar and Restaurant for cold beers and a good lunch!

I can’t wait to do some more adventures in this country -there’s great water rafting trips, hiking and lots of exploring to be had!

It was just so nice to get a break from all of the work as well, although I am excited to say that the bar does seem to be coming together quite nicely. We finally have installed some shelves for liquor and glasses and whatever else. We have a juicer (yum!), two blenders and an array of glasses.

Now – just need to the beer and soda distributors to take away one large fridge and deliver two small ones. Sounds easy, right? For some reason, we have been asking them to do this pretty much since the first day we arrived. No joke. You’d think they’d want us to be good customers! Hopefully they’ll come manana

Oh yeah, manana, manana….

I’ve always thought that the Spanish word for “tomorrow” was manana. Turns out there’s a second definition:

mañana Spanish [maˈɲana (English) məˈnjɑːnə]n & adva. tomorrowb. some other and later time

Apparently, the Hondurans typically mean the 2nd definition because every project that we try to have them get done is always going to get done “manana”, and that was days ago.

The last couple days has been a continuation of our whirlwind chaotic experience. I was shocked to realize that today marks our first week here in the country, and we are looking forward to getting through another week and hopefully seeing some of these projects come to fruition.

Tomorrow, our neighbors are having a cook out with some of the local business owners and we are trying to have the bar cleaned up and ready to serve them some beers. Seems like a simple task – it depends if we knock out any more concrete walls today.

Here’s an idea of the many projects that we have going on:
Exhaust fan for the kitchen: Steve (our handyman) had found a couple at a store a week ago, which were gone when he went back. So, the guy that he bought our stove and fryer from had one. That was bought yesterday, and a window in the kitchen had to be broke out to fit the fan…which was when they discovered that the fan blows in instead of sucking out. So, now a box needs to be built out the outside of the window to put the fan in the other direction.

The Stove and Fryer: We bought these things from some guy the first day we arrived. We got them set up, and a week later the fryer is still not working. In fact, we probably have to order a part from the states to get it up and running. The stove, I am proud to say, does seem to be up and running – but we still need to get a rack for the oven. See – nothing is ever 100% complete around here. But you can’t just run out to the restaurant supply place and buy a new fryer. And if you could, it would cost you thousands of dollars. Heck, a cheap-ass toaster here costs $25. I bought my toaster at Target for $4. You would think things would be cheaper here, but everything is imported and it’s really crazy expensive!

Our front door: We have 4 keys for our apartment – not to mention the keys we have for the restaurant. Everything has a lock or two and everything is a pain in the butt to get in. The one door that we really want to be working is the one in our kitchen that faces the ocean. We started a week ago getting the welder to come out and look at it. We needed to get a new lock welded on it. That took a couple days. Then he came back and sanded all the rust off and tarred it. Then he has to make screens for it. Who knows when those screens will be put on it (my guess – manana). And when all is said and done, there’s still a ton of huge gaps around the door itself that the bugs will still come in – and don’t even get me started on what a pain it is to even open the door. From the outside, you have to unlock the dead bolt on the right door. Then open both screen doors to get to the inside wooden door handle on the left door. Then unbolt the inside doors out of the floor, open the left door….enough, you get the point. That’s just how everything is around here. Nobody thinks of convenience or efficiency when putting things together.

With all of the repairs and projects going on, we haven’t had much time to enjoy ourselves living in a new country. We did get to go to the center of the city a couple days ago, park the car and run through the market and a zillion different stores to do a lot of shopping for the restaurant. The market is pretty cool – the meat market is pretty gross, but all of the produce looks pretty amazing. Once we have a fridge for the kitchen, we’ll be able to start thinking about buying things in ‘bulk’ there and building more of a menu. It’s funny the little things that you get excited about finding – since everything is such a task to find. We went to half a dozen stores, and in one random grocery store we found salt and pepper shakers – with lids! That is HUGE – everything is so humid down here that it is essential to have these shakers with lids for the restaurant. We were able to buy a dozen of them!

So, we’re getting there – at least that’s what I tell myself every day. It’s only been a week and we’ve at least got a lot of projects up and running. Some of them are bound to get done this week!

Let the good times begin

This is the tale of two gringo’s who leave the comforts of our safe haven in Boulder, CO to start a new adventure in a third world country after meeting some stranger on the internet.

My boyfriend and I have just moved to La Ceiba, Honduras to help open and manage the Iguana Bar at the Coco Pando Resort. To put it nicely, this place needs a shit ton of work done and livin’ ain’t easy in Honduras.

Day 1: We arrive at Miami Airport at 8:00 a.m., go to get our tickets and discover that it turns out you can’t buy a one-way ticket out of the United States. Hmmm…..not the brightest thing on our behalf, but you would have thought that Orbitz would warn you of this before you purchase a one-way ticket. So, we buy a return ticket for some random day in August.

We have an hour layover in Grand Cayman – where we have to go through immigration to exit the country, only to turn right back around and go through immigration to enter the country and board a plane again

Jason at the dinner table

. Flying to La Ceiba, we can’t land due to heavy rains, so we hover for over an hour (until we basically run out of gas) and then land on Roatan. We re-fuel and sit on the plane for over an hour, and then pilot tells us that we’ll attempt to land in La Ceiba one more time and if we fail, we’re going back to Grand Cayman. Luckily we land.

Even more lucky for us is the fact that Neal (the owner of the bar) actually waited at the airport for us for 3.5 hours – we were pretty excited to see his face when we got off the plane.

A little less exciting was the fact that after traveling for almost 12 hours, we had to go buy a stove from some guy immediately. Our first Honduras purchasing experience just showed how differently things are done in this country – we buy a used stove and deep fryer from some guy who just owns a storage room full of junk, who loads it in the bed of his pickup truck and delivers it to our bar. (After 2 days, we’re finding it works less than perfect and we’ve got to track this random guy down again.) Hey – this is a good find for the bar though, and we’re excited to get some equipment hopefully up and running shortly.

Next task for the day – we move a mattress from a room nearby into our room. Grateful to have a bed to sleep on tonight.

Impressions first day: The city of La Ceiba is less than attractive. Honestly, it sucks. It’s dirty, it’s loud and it’s full of traffic and shitty stores. The hotel is a diamond in the rough, though. The ocean in front of us and the mountains behind us – a sight for sore eyes for sure

Our first dinner on our new stove

. The bar needs to be cleaned, but is in otherwise great shape. The apartment needs scrubbing, the shower doesn’t drain, the lights aren’t working, etc….but these are projects that will get done in due time.

Day 2 and 3:
Even though the guys thought that we’d be serving food by today (swear to god – a bit disillusioned), we were lucky to get the beer in a cooler and the cooler up and working. The last two days have been spent scrubbing the heck out of the apartment, and running around buying things for the apartment and bar. Nothing is as simple as going to a Walmart around here. If you need 3 things, you need to go to probably 6 different stores. Prices vary so much at every place. In one store, a coffee pot could cost $20, in another store it costs $5. So, it’s worth driving around, but it’s time consuming to save some money.

By the end of today, we’ve gotten a little further along.
Our bedroom has a bed (with pillows!) and a dresser. Our kitchen has a large jug of water (still shopping for a dispenser), a coffee maker and enough dishes to get by on for now. We’ve fixed most locks and door knobs (and I literally have at least 10 keys to just get in and out of this damn place) The bar has one working deep-cooler (apparently we’re pretty lucky to even have one of those), and we’ve got 14 cases of beer ready to be sold (or drank at least)

Iguana Bar

. The restaurant has a deep fryer and a oven/flat top – both aren’t working (yet), but they are upstairs in the kitchen at least.

Most things get delivered: beer/soda, water/ice, fruit/vegetables, seafood, propane. Still have to figure out things like oil, spices, breads, tortillas, etc.

We’re starting from a little below ground zero – not exactly the shape I thought this place would be in when we first arrived. But we’re slowly but surely getting things done in a country where nothing gets done quickly. Good news is – the gringos that live here are more than excited to see this place up and running, the help that we do have is impressive and the beach is right out our front door.

Another rainy day in La Ceiba!

As you all know Jason (bitsnpieces) Kelly (Green Bein’) are spending some time in Honduras… Here is the latest from Jason on his blog:

Seriously – you DON’T RECYCLE? What’s your problem!!

Keep it up. This could be your backyard one day.

I was just home visiting my entire family in the small town of Delta, PA. If you know where that is, then we are probably related - so please drop me a line. It has a population of less than 1,000 people. (I would say 900 of them were born and raised there, and 100 of them are running from the police and hiding out there. (There’s no budget for police in this town, obviously).) So, I understand the “small town” way of thinking, let’s just say. My parents, however, are educated and well-off – yet, they still do not see the implications of not recycling.

I found this to be astounding – and it turns out the over 25% of you guys do not recycle in your home. Read an interesting Harris poll on who is and isn’t recycling HERE

So, let’s start with the basics and read up on why you should recycle.

When you throw stuff in the trash, it is taken to a landfill where it sits…pretty much forever. Now, think about how many Americans throw something away every single minute – and imagine that in a bunch of piles all around the states. Gross. We can’t keep doing this forever – there simply isn’t enough space. If you haven’t see WALL-E, do it.

Some numbers to help you better visual these piles of trash that could be recycled into other products instead of just sitting there forever:

Aluminum Cans take up to 500 years to decompose (but can be recycled and back in action in less than 6 weeks).

Diapers take up to 550 years to decompose.

Plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to decompose.

A plastic jug (get this!) – up to 1 million years. WHAT??? Same goes for glass bottles.

We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum cans every YEAR. (those zeros are correct)
The energy saved by recycling one aluminum can is equivalent to 1/2 a gallon of gasoline or running a TV for 3 hours.
Those Sunday papers that you read are taking a toll on our forests! In fact, 500,000 (read: 1/2 a million) trees are needed to produce them every week!
If every American recycled 1/10 of their Sunday paper, we could save 25,000,000 trees a year. (Is this shit for real? GEEZ, PEOPLE! Think about all of that CO2 absorption!)
Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles EVERY HOUR. And only about 20% of those are recycled.
Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags – equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil. (Enough to probably stop this war, really) And we only recycle 2% of those plastic bags in America. Do the math!!

So, the numbers are there. And the recycling part is probably pretty darn easy for you. Check out your local recycling options – hey, they may even just pick it up at your curb for a small fee (or free). We have a compost bin of our own, plus take advantage of our curbside compost pick up. It doesn’t cost us that much more than just basic trash services – and once you take the compost and recycling out of our trash can – we probably create a bag of trash every other week. It’s AMAZING what doesn’t have to go in the landfill, and what can be reused or recycled.

Real Christmas Tree or Fake Christmas Tree - that is the question

ChristmasTree

I don’t know about you, but I am EXCITED about Christmas. It’s pretty much the best time of the year – besides Thanksgiving and Halloween really (only b/c those holidays aren’t tainted by the need to purchase people gifts that you don’t really want to give them.) Other than that though, it’s great. And it lasts FOREVER – that’s the best part. Weeks and weeks of decorations and lights, Christmas carols and snow. AHH – it’s amazing!! The lights went up in our front yard the day after Thanksgiving – it would have been sooner if we had time and I don’t care if you think that’s ridiculous. Christmas Lights, people – that’s AMAZING!!

What didn’t go up this year was our Christmas Tree – and I just want to assure everyone that it’s just b/c we aren’t going to be in Colorado this year for the holidays and I don’t want a fake one. Ever. (Unless you count the 2nd tree that I have in my basement that is silver and shiny. I’m not perfect, people.)

So you may be thinking – What the heck is so “green” about cutting down a tree just to decorate for a couple weeks?

Back off scrooge – I do my part and I feel good about what I do. But to be honest – I don’t’ feel bad about sacrificing the poor tree for the good of the holiday spirit. (read above – Do you see how HAPPY this makes me? Totally worth it in my book)

But just so you can feel better about yourself, here are a few good reasons to get a real tree and skip the fake one this year.

1) Fake trees are made in China. Most of them at least. The carbon footprint on just getting that damn thing to your local retail outlet is already costing you zillions of trees.

2) The fake trees made in China are made out of nasty chemicals and PVC. They even have to carry this really bad label from California that basically is like “we can’t possibly call this thing safe. you are on your own, bitches.”

3) Unless you like lead poisoning more than the smell of a fresh cut tree, probably not the way to go.

4) You can’t recycle that fake tree, unlike the other smell-good, look- good real tree option. It’s going to sit in a landfill once you are done with it – unless you think your kids will want it in your will. Don’t even will that thing to your kids. That’s just cruel.

5) Real trees CAN be recycled, and turned into mulch and other reusable products.

6) Real trees absorb 1 ton of CO2 in their lifetime. And an acre of those trees produce enough yummy oxygen for 18 people. That’s good stuff for you and the planet.

That’s all pretty darn good stuff, if you ask me – but just to be even more on the safe side, make sure you go the extra step with “Greening Your Christmas Tree” this year.

• Look for a sustainable farmer – a good farmer will plant at least 3 little baby trees for every one that it cuts down.

• Buy from a local farmer. Just because they set up in some parking lot, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t get their trees from Timbuktu.

• Buy from an organic farm. Yes, even trees get doused with chemicals and fertilizers.

• Recycle your tree after the season – and be sure to remove all the ornaments and tinsel. (Don’t spray that fake snow crap on it either. You got a real tree for a reason – keep that shit real!)

There’s also the option of getting a tree that is alive (as in a pot still). You can get them planted after the holiday, too. Not so bad of an idea, especially if you live in the woods, I guess.

For me, I am keeping to the old tradition that my parents raised me with. I love real trees that smell real good. Too bad my mom has since dropped that tradition, and I get to go home to a fake tree these days. (Now you know why I haven’t been home in years!)

Xcel Energy Solar Rebate – Dropping QUICKLY

Hey everyone – Gonna keep this short and to the point, but it must be pointed out!! Xcel Energy’s solar rebate is quickly dropping. Some of you may recall that Xcel Energy’s initial solar rebate was $4.50 per watt – amazing. However, October 2008 that rebate was dropped $1. And we have all been warned that this is just the beginning of the end for the solar rebate here – and across the country.

On Friday, November 13th (coincidence?), Xcel Energy dropped their rebate to $3.00 per watt – and they are now working off of a tiered rebate system. When a tier maxes out, it drops again. And this $3.00 tier is filling up fast.

Things to note:

1) This rebate is NOT going to get better, so if you are sitting around waiting for the $4.50/watt rebate to come back again – you are wasting your time, and costing yourself money in the meantime.

2) You cannot lock in the current rebate by just “signing up”. To lock in the rebate, you better talk to a professional company. You must a) Submit a $250 deposit to Xcel Energy and start your online application b) Submit an electrical line diagram to Xcel Energy c) have that line diagram APPROVED by Xcel. If you are lucky and you act NOW, there’s a slim slim chance you can lock in the $3.00/watt rebate. Seriously – act now.

3) You can still take advantage of a 30% federal tax credit for your solar panel system. If it’s installed by the end of the year, you can claim it on 2010 taxes. If not, this rebate is in effect for another dozen or so years, so that at least is good. But don’t leave cash on the table by not getting a rebate while it’s there. It’s free money.

4) Electricity rates are not going to get lower. In fact, they will continue to increase at an alarming rate and it will cost you more and more and more to use the exact same amount of electricity. So, you may be waiting for technology to get better so that you can get a smaller system or some shit – but let’s be honest – that is just continuing to cost you money in the long run.

5) Panel prices are low right now. Really low. Competition is high. Really high. That means – you’ve hit a sweet spot. Yes, they might get lower, but probably not much any time soon. Eventually, this playing field will level off. And if you snoozed, you loosed (what? that makes sense.)

Check out Xcel Energy’s website for update on their rebate drop: http://xcelenergy.com/Colorado/Residential/RenewableEnergy/Solar_Rewards/Pages/CurrentPricing.aspx

Bookmark that page. Or do something about it and starting thinking of how you can make a solid investment in your future NOW!

Energy Saving Tips for Your Home and Your Life!

Tree Huggers Unite I bought a house in Boulder, CO a little over a year ago. The homeowners boasted that they had taken lots of measures to make the home energy-efficient. Well, that sounded pretty good! But – after moving into this house, I realized we still had a long way to go.

Yes – there were new windows. And hey – that’s key!! Windows are really expensive – sometimes over $20 G’s. A drafty window can cause your heat or a/c to work overtime – causing high energy bills and uncomfortable areas in your house. Not only were there new windows, but there were insulating window blinds over the windows. Also key – in some situations. I wasn’t a fan of their home-made country style, so we took them down. We’ll get some better looking ones though. But remember – Colorado is BLESSED to have all of this sunshine (read previous blog). So – enjoy it! Let that sunshine in during the day to naturally warm your house. It’s called passive solar, and it helps keep your home toasty in the winter. Use those window coverings at night to help keep the cold out; or, use them when it is so warm outside during the day that you want to keep the heat out!

They also had installed low-flow toilets. I had never lived in a home with these and honestly, wouldn’t have thought it would make a big difference at all. But, for a 1700 sf home with 3 people living in it – our water bills are never higher than $30 per month (that’s during the peak of the summer when we are watering our vegetable gardens! We’ve removed most of the grass from our yard to keep our water bills down low too!) I have to say, I think that it makes a big difference.

So, being energy conscious, my boyfriend and I started to do other things to make our home more comfortable and to reduce our energy bills. Here are just a few easy things you can do yourself – or affordable things you can hire a professional to do.

• Have a professional energy audit performed on your home: Oh man – these things are great. I luck out, because the company I work for does these, so I was privy to the fact that they are really worth every penny! Basically, these energy-detectives come into your home with these cool diagnostic tools (infrared cameras, blower door testing, etc). They peek into your attics and crawl spaces, inspect your appliances, look at your heating and cooling systems and more. Then, a few days later, they come back at you with this detailed report on how you can do more to make your home more energy-efficient. A lot of the things I could do myself, some I have started to save up for, and others are prioritized for years down the road. Why didn’t we do this before we bought this house? It should come with the inspection!!

So, after the audit, we can start prioritizing what home improvements we want to add to our to-do list. Trust me – this gets intertwined with everything else a new homeowner does – landscaping, painting, building a fence, etc. But – it should get on the list b/c it’s gonna save us moolah at the end of the day.

• Seal your windows and doors: (EASY) We were blessed to have new windows in our home. Not so blessed when it came to the sliding glass door and the front door. We’re saving up to replace both of them. But in the meantime, we spent about an hour and $10 upgrading the weatherstripping around the front door to help seal those leaks. During the winter, we hang a heavier curtain on our sliding glass door to block those drafts as well. Remember, heating and cooling your home accounts for over 50% of your energy bills. So, one of the best things to do is figure out how to do it more efficiently!

• Increase your attic insulation: (MEDIUM) Peek into your attic and check out what your level of insulation is. In Colorado, you should be looking at about 16″. (It is different for different areas. The Department of Energy can help you determine what you should be aiming for!) Here’s the sweet part about insulation – it’s really affordable and it has one of the best ROI’s. Here’s the downside – it’s messy to install, and some kinds aren’t so eco-friendly. Yes, you can do it yourself with a visit to Home Depot. But – not sure it’s worth it. For less than $2000, you can probably get pretty darn cozy in your home. Plus, you can save big with federal tax credits and rebates! (If you live in CO, you can get 20% (up to $300).) So – might want to let a professional do the dirty work. There’s a lot of nooks and crannies to consider, and you want it done right!!

• Install Low-Flow Shower Heads and Sink Aerators: (EASY) Almost all of us pay for water from the city, and if even if we don’t, it’s good to remember that we’re starting to see shortages in our water supply even in the US. In fact, the avg American uses something like 50 – 200 gallons of water a day. Yikes. Low-flower shower heads and sink aerators are a simple way to lower your water usage without investing a lot of money or having to change your daily habits (god forbid we change your daily habits)

• Back to the Basics: The last few simple steps I am going to give you today are ones you have heard a million times – and if you aren’t doing them yet, then I think you should be disappointed in yourself.

Replace your old light bulbs: I don’t’ care if you use CFL or LED, but get rid of those incandescent lights. They suck. We all know it. They’ll stop making them soon anyhow. CFLs have had a bad rap, but they are better and getting better. I can’t tell you the last time I replaced a light bulb. And the colors are fine. For those of you that complain that they are too yellow or whatever, stop being selfish. Do your part! Change your darn light bulbs.
Recycle: One of the easiest things you can do is recycle – and if you don’t, then you are just plain lazy. And rude. Every time you don’t recycle a can, it is equivalent to filling that can half full of gasoline and then dumping it on the ground. Recycled materials are reused to make new things for you, so that we don’t have to keep depleting our natural resources. Enough is enough – freakin’ recycle your shit. You may be single handedly causing a war right now.
Take reusable bags to the grocery store: AHH – I know. I am still perfecting this one. But how wasteful are we to not do this!! We go to the store, get a plastic bag, carry that bag home and then we’re done with it. (I don’t care if you use them in your bathroom trash can. It still goes into the landfill, and it’s bad!) Americans throw away over 100 mill plastic bags every year. I could go on – I will, in another blog shortly. This could go on forever. Just use them. Read this.

And that’s enough for today, kids. Stay tuned for many more ways you can save energy, save money and save the earth!!

What do you mean we can get energy from that burning thing in the sky?

If I can do it, so can you.

I might be a little biased here, but I have to start my “green blogs” talking about solar power in Colorado. I have been working in the Renewable Energy (RE) industry for the past couple years, and I am very proud to say that I recently installed solar panels on my home’s roof. I currently generate more electricity than I use every day, and I feel great knowing that my electricity comes from the sun’s power. But – not everyone would agree with me that it is a great investment. Well, I beg to differ and I think we all need to sit back and think about why solar electricity makes so much sense – even in Colorado.

Who isn’t proud to live in Colorado?

Colorado residents are proud of their beautiful state. You know it – I know it. We all think that Colorado is one of the best states in the country. And it IS certainly worth bragging about the majestic mountain ranges, the vast amount of protected open space and more than 250 days of sunshine that graces the Colorado sky every year. But when was the last time you heard a CO resident boast about their 32,000 active oil wells, 13 coal-fired power plants or the 36,000,000 tons of coal Colorado mines produce annually.

Colorado’s Governor Ritter instated a Climate Action Plan in November 2007 that will reduce Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions 20% by the year 2020. And a big part of the focus is challenging the state to reduce their electricity consumption.

And it’s working – because many individuals in Colorado are stepping up the take the challenge by reducing their own carbon footprints and reducing their dependence on coal and oil. Incorporating renewable energy resources such as solar power and taking measures to reduce their home’s and business’ energy consumption are just a few ways people are making the difference.

So – let’s talk about solar power.

(Trust me – I’ll get to the Energy Efficiency side of things later. That is one of the most over-looked, yet most important aspects to really making a difference).

Colorado residents should be proud of the abundance of sunshine they have available. The sun’s power is a reliable source of energy that will remain in existence for another 5 billion years. With all of this sunshine, Colorado could be producing over 80 million megawatt hours of solar electricity every year instead of getting over 70% of its energy from coal.

AND – believe it or not – installing solar electricity on your home (or business) has never been easier. Colorado has some of the best net metering policies in the country. Net metering is the policy of allowing the customer to sell back to the utility company the surplus of energy that their home’s solar system generates. Large utility companies in Colorado also offer phenomenal rebates. Xcel Energy, for instance, will rebate $3.50 per watt of the installed solar electric system. (Look for this to drop – honestly, possibly by the week’s end. I’ll keep you posted!) This, coupled with a federal tax credit of 30% (yep – 30%, uncapped!) will pay for almost 75% of your solar installation. I paid less than $5000, and Xcel Energy paid almost $16,000 AND I haven’t even filed my tax returns yet!! That’s a sweet deal.

As if that’s not enough – solar panel prices are lower than ever. And competition is fierce in Colorado. That means, we’ve hit a sweet spot for solar installations in Colorado. Rebates, federal tax credits, low panel prices and high competition. The stars are aligned! I know – you are thinking – hey, what’s to say it isn’t going to get sweeter? Panel prices are probably going to be next to nothing with the way technology is going. And there’s going to be higher efficiency panels soon too. I’ll wait.

Well – here’s why you shouldn’t hold off.

Every day that you wait, you are paying an electric bill to your utility company, instead of paying off your solar panels that will provide you electricity – free of charge – for decades!! Not only that, but as I mentioned before – rebates are NOT getting any better. In fact, this is the best they will be, and they are going to drop at an incredible rate. And as for technology – sure, they are getting better at making these things. It’s sort of what science and technology does. BUT – the panels that were made over 30 years ago are still working at pretty much the same efficiency level. So, why wait and have to pay more out of pocket for panels that are at a higher efficiency in 5 or 10 years? My ROI is shorter than that – so, when you are still considering your system, I’ll be experiencing free electricity on my home.

Let’s talk about electricity rates: Colorado has already experienced an average increase of 5% every year in electricity rates. With the electricity demands on the rise, the cost of electricity is expected to raise an additional 40% in the next 25 years. A solar electric system may have a substantial up-front cost, but it will lock in your electricity rates for at least the next 25 years (probably much longer.)

And how about your electricity bill: A typical 4.2-kilowatt system can offset 60% of an average household’s energy use. (That’s being on the light side too. I offset 100% of my electricity needs with a 3.8 kW system. That’s because of energy efficiency. We’ll talk about that later.) This can significantly reduce monthly utility costs for a family. Homeowners should also take into account that installing a solar array will increase the value of their house. It is estimated that for every $1 saved annually on the utility bill, the value of the home increases by $20.

And let’s not forget about the environment too – to some the most important motivator! An average system will offset almost 7,000 pounds of CO2 per year. This is equivalent to planting 23,000 square feet of trees or not driving over 8,000 miles.

Residents of Colorado should be proud of all the wonderful renewable energy opportunities that exist in their state. It is the 6^th sunniest state, the 11^th windiest state and the number one state for geothermal potential. It is up to the locals to start taking advantage of what our state has to offer, and give Colorado a cleaner and brighter future.

Since marketing in the renewable energy industry for the past couple years, I have acquired an interest in the wealth of information out there regarding how to be "green". I have a strong interest in the amount of energy that we use as humans - whether at home, at work or anywhere we go during our lives. I'm amazed at how simple it can be to live a life where we produce less trash and consume less energy - yet so many of us don't want to make the effort. And we're paying for it now - and will be for years to come.

It's a big GREEN Earth out there - unless we keep doing what we are doing. Then it will be a big trash pile. I don't plan on changing the world and saving babies lives or anything - I'm just trying to share some stories about what is happening in this big world that you maybe didn't realize, and hopefully share some tips on how YOU can save babies (or maybe a tree at least.)