Comments karimetzger has made

  • Radiant Heat?

    I've wondered this myself quite often - we keep our radiant heated, well insulated house (that can almost heat on lightbulbs alone) at a temperature around 20 C.  We were informed because it is in-the-floor, radiant heat (which I'm not sure should matter anyway), it is way too much energy for the boiler to heat it back up if we take it down at night.  It does take more time to heat the house back up if we let it fall, than if we had a conventional forced-air system.  

    However, I still am in the habit, and have been since childhood, of turning it down at night to more like 16-18C.  

    So, same rules for radiant heat?  Or not?On Umbra on turning down the heat posted 11 months, 4 weeks ago 21 Responses

  • Go Veges!

    My family of 4 is also vegetarian, and while we like animals, it was mostly an environmental decision for us.  I have both Deborah Madison and Mark Bittman's cookbooks, and both are awesome.  Might I add one more to the list though?  This is a small one, but it's great for just getting started, as all the recipes are whole foods, and all are 30 minutes to prep or less. It's called 'Cranks' - I think I have the first one, but there's one now called the 'Crank's Bible' - gotta be good!On Umbra on shifting to vegetarianism posted 1 year, 1 month ago 19 Responses

  • Amen, and one to consider..

    amen.  We are all trying so hard, and with the economy today, if we are working parents (so many now HAVE to be), doing the best thing ALL the time isn't always possible.  Could we possibly have a greater societal issue, in that we have made it impossible to stay home with our kids and have neighourhoods with kids growing up together??  (question for another day).

    In the meantime, let me share with you what I did, as a humble, working (at home) mom who ALSO stayed home with her kids (doing double duty). as you can imagine, time is limited when you both work full time, and stay  home with your kids full time (thank goodness i have a supportive partner!).  My solution was that I 'succumbed' to disposable diapers when I had to, but I mixed it half and half with 'G-diapers', which are paper diapers with cloth covers - check them out online if you are curious.  

    I think sometimes we get so caught up in what's right, that we make it 'all or nothing', and you only succeed if you are 100% on whatever you try.  How about we applaud the best we can do, and wherever we can make a difference we do?  I know several families with similar situations, where they have used both cloth diapers, as well as disposables, and did the best they could.  Yay for them!  Do what you can, how you can, and if you can do better without hurting yourselves or your families, Do!  No more hurting our friends and families with guilt trips and pushiness because of the very small 'diaper issue war'.  

    Happily almost 100% post-diaper issues!

    Kari

     On Umbra on the never-ending diaper ado posted 1 year, 5 months ago 25 Responses