Month: January 2010

I can’t believe how excited I am about our new Green Bin!

Way back in the day, we used to live in a not-so-nice neighbourhood in Hunt Club and I loved to wander the streets in the much nicer neighbourhood adjacent to ours. They were one of the Ottawa neighbourhoods selected to participate in the first “green bin” composting pilot project, and I couldn’t wait for it to be rolled out to the rest of the city. Seven years later, and I’m maybe just a little bit too excited to start using my shiny new Green Bin this week.

I have always admired the idea of composting, and have always meant to get one of those backyard composters, but I never quite got around to it. I totally support the concept of composting, but the actual maintenance of the composter seemed like a lot of work. I mean, really, it’s a good week month when the grass gets cut, and the gardens run pretty wild, so maintenance of outdoor things is not my strong suit. But separating my compostables and having someone haul them away to make good use of them? I’m all OVER that idea!

When the Green Bin arrived in the fall, I hauled it into the garage and pretty much forgot about it in a “I don’t have to think about this until next year” sort of way. And then suddenly over the holidays it WAS next year, and I started noticing articles in the paper that talked about people using their Green Bins and I checked the Web site and sure enough, the official Green Bin collection starts this week. Yay! See what I mean? Way too excited.

And here’s where I admit, in a twisting-my-toe-in-the-carpet kind of way, that I really do not know anything about composting at all. But the city does make it pretty easy for you. (I’m not being a shill for the city, by the way. For the sake of disclosure, they have sent me a couple of e-mails with information and links, but I haven’t really had time to go through them. This is just me muddling my way through my first Green Bin experience and documenting it for all the Interwebs to enjoy!)

I thought I’d have to go out and get one of those stainless steel countertop buckets that I’d seen in the flyers. I checked the Ottawa Web site and found a User Guide and thought, “It would have been nice if they’d sent me one of these.” And then I kept reading and realized they DID send me one, and they sent one of those little countertop buckets, too, albeit in plastic instead of stainless steel. They were inside the Green Bin when it was delivered back in October, and I’d never even thought to open it! Huh, how about that!

So I set up the little bucket on the counter, and stuck the “what can go in the green bin” sticker to the front of it. I’d picked up some of those paper liners at Loblaws, and so I popped one of those into the countertop bucket and started using it right away.

It took about a day for me to fill it up, so I don’t think we’ll have any issues with odours, as that’s about as often as we change the kitchen garbage bag anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I can compost dryer lint and — I swear, my life is an echo chamber some days — I can even dump the pet hair and other crumbs I collect each day in the little swiffer vac in there.

I’m not sure why some people have been complaining so vociferously about the program. Yes, there has been an additional fee foisted on us, and yes, it’s probably not been handled as well as it could have. But for the average household, the pros far outweigh the cons. I don’t mind the extra $60 or so a year in admin costs, and I don’t mind the extra $4 or so on my grocery bill for bin liners — to me, they’re well worth the price of doing our part for environmental sustainability. I do wish that the bins were collected every week instead of every second week, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it works out this summer.

All in all, I give the city a thumbs-up on the Green Bin program. I still remember when the first recycling programs were implemented, and how I found the switch to bi-weekly paper collection such an inconvenience — and now that’s all second nature. Really, composting through the city couldn’t be easier, and I’m delighted to do my part.

In which the dog hair finally snaps her last bit of sanity

There’s an old Dan Hill song (what, you don’t do early 70s Canadian folk rockers?) that has the lyric, “Freedom takes on new meaning / When you have a family of five.” With all due respect to Mr Hill, I’d like to posit that the following is also true: keeping the house clean takes on a whole new meaning when you have a family of five.

As you might remember, we got new laminate floors installed on the main floor at the beginning of December, and I’ve since spent a lot of time thinking about keeping the place clean. There’s no doubt that the house is now freer of dust, dog hair and crumbs than it was before, because instead of having these things migrate deep into the pile of the (horrendously ugly) sky-blue-washed-out-to-grey carpet, I’m now sweeping them up on a daily (sometimes twice-daily) basis. Was there really this much smutzch floating around before, or have I suddenly become hyper-vigilant to it as it dust-bunnies itself into every corner?

I’ve become alarmingly obsessive about cleaning the floors. (Not, for whatever it’s worth, much else in the house. So far.) With something like a missionary zeal, I sweep the main floor in search of every stray dog hair and crumbled bit of goldfish. Once upon a time, Procter and Gamble sent me an e-mail asking me to evangelize their Swiffer line in exchange for free product and I declined with a superior sense of derision. And today, I will tell you free of any commercial endorsement whatsoever that I am ridiculously infatuated with my newly acquired Swiffer vac. Seriously, why did you not tell me about this before? I have been freed from the tyranny of the dust pan, and any of you who have spent any time at all watching tufts of golden-retriever-German-shedder dog hair floating lazily over the back of the dust pan or dancing out of the bin on the faintest hint of breeze must IMMEDIATELY set out to acquire one. I also bought a new canister vac at the Boxing Day sales ($200 marked down to $139, with special pet hair attachment!) to replace the 10 year old Kenmore upright that was literally held together with duct tape, but it’s the zippy little Swiffer vac that really floats my boat. There is something supremely satisfying in seeing those stray dog hairs get sucked up instead of skittering away from the broom that moves me deeply.

In another life, I remember reading an article in some woman’s magazine about housekeeping shortcuts, and I knew that it was so not the kind of article for me because it suggested that you don’t have to move the sofa every single time you vacuum. I remember skimming past the rest of the article in search of the next one, with a puzzled little thought bubble over my head that said, “You’re supposed to move the sofa when you vacuum?”

Fast forward three kids and one laminate floor and here I am, moving the sofa about every third time I swifferize. By all things holy, I WILL conquer the dog hair and the crumbs, I swear it.

(There is a small, concerned voice in my head that is suggesting, in the carefully modulated voice you reserve for the craziest of people, that maybe I’m spending a little bit too much time thinking about the swiffer vac. You think?)

And since I’m rambling about cleaning, you know what else I do now that I once scoffed over in derision? I wash the kitchen floor by hand. It’s just easier that way. Next think you know, I’ll be ironing the bed sheets. It’s a slippery slope.

I wish I could declare with a smug sense of self-satisfaction that at least the floors are so clean you could eat off of them, but, well, the dog just shed another half pound of hair, I just noticed at least a tablespoon of coffee grounds that skittered out of the filter, the baby crushed a stray goldfish into powder and someone’s just tracked no-salt-ice-melter from the front hall way half way across the dining room.

And Sisyphus thought the rock was a bitch.

Project 365: The beginning of the end

Wow, only three weeks to go in my year of photos! A few of you have been asking what happens on day 366, and I’ve been chewing that question over myself. Back in July, or October, I might have told you enthusiastically that I couldn’t imagine a day without a picture any more, and of course I’d be starting a new Project 365 right on the heels of the old one. In late November, when the picture-taking was an onerous duty instead of a delight, I wasn’t sure I would make it through one year and would be thrilled to be relieved of the millstone — erm, I mean camera strap — constantly around my neck.

I’m still waffling. I hate to stop, I really do, but I think if nothing else, my family has had enough of the 365 for now. I might try something a little easier, like a 52×7 project, where I take seven pictures each week instead of one picture each day. Or, I might take a little vacation and see how keenly I miss the challenge. For all the angst, the annoyance, and the additional stress that this silly project has brought into my life, it has more than redeemed itself in the improvement to my mad photographic skillz, and it’s simply amazing to me that I have this pictorial tribute to a year in our family’s life. Much like the blog has captured little moments that might have been forever lost otherwise, I’ve learned to take pictures I would have never conceived of just a year ago.

Pictures like this one from yesterday, of Lucas playing my cousin’s piano. (A piano has been on my 365 to-do list almost from the start. I still have to get to a billiard hall some time in the next three weeks, too. Anybody got a pool table in their basement I can borrow for half an hour?) The hands-and-feet project has been one of those unexpected and delightful outcomes of the 365.

345:365 Songs in the key of life

This was my Christmas Day shot. After the Christmas Eve 12-Hour Photo Project, I was pictured out and this is one of the few shots I took all day.

339:365 Christmas cheer

I got two days worth of shots from the ice storm that moved through the Ottawa Valley just after Christmas.

340:365 Ice world

341:365 Icy grass

Lucas at play seems to be another favourite theme of mine — go figure! This was taken through the viewfinder (TtV) of my Kodak Duaflex IV. I don’t think I’ve missed having a TtV shot each week at least since I got the Duaflex in October. This is another thing I never would have tried, probably never would have even heard of, if it weren’t for the 365.

342:365 Lucas at play TtV

Speaking of TtV and old cameras, check this out. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I found this in the bottom of a box in my own basement. I had no idea it was there. It’s a Kodak Junior Six-20, made in Germany in the 1930s. It must have belonged to my grandmother, who lived in Germany until my father was born, or maybe my grandfather. Makes a nice addition to my vintage camera collection, though, don’t you think?

343:365 Kodak Junior Six-20

And finally, another bit of play that I never would have thought of before the 365 project: light painting with Christmas lights. Leaving the camera on aperture priority on a dark night keeps the shutter open for a long time as the sensor tries to gather enough light. By moving the camera around in little circles, the Christmas lights on the maple tree in my neighbour’s yard make cool light trails that look like a psychedelic spirograph! (After much deliberation, I designated this one an outtake and chose the next shot as the picture of the day.)

Christmas light zoom 3

And by holding the camera (relatively) steady but zooming in on the same tree while the shutter is open, you get a different kind of light trails.

344:365 Christmas light painting

It was only after I’d posted it to Flickr that I saw the impression of the angel in the light trails. Can you see it? Total fluke, a serendipitous bit of luck.

Kind of sums up the whole project sometimes — a bit of skill, a bit of observation, and a whoppingly large dose of serendipitous luck!

Flip Mino HD winner!!

Congratulations to Guillermo of Los Ziegler en Canada, one of Ottawa’s most unique blogs, who will be starting the new year with a new Flip Mino HD camcorder courtesy of Mom Central!!

Thank you all for your comments and your tweets. You might have noticed that there were some duplicate tweets and comments, but in tabulating the results I removed all the duplicates and in most cases, let people know that only one comment and one tweet per person would be entered into the draw.

Thanks, too, to Mom Central for sponsoring yet another fun giveaway! Stay tuned for more freebies in 2010, and a Happy New Year to everyone!