Filed under: Check This Out!
There are some interesting Natural Living iPhone apps out there for you iPhone or ipod Touch owners. Here are just a few, free ones unless indicated:
Go Green. Get a new Green tip every day, though the reviews on this particular app seem to indicate that the tips are not always accurate and can be pretty lame, lol.
Locavore. Tells you what foods are in season in your area, and helps direct you to local farmer’s markets. Seems like it would be great for frequent travelers as a fast and easy way to find markets. (NOT a free app)
iRecycle. Tells you what is recyclable and where to take it in your area, including hours and locations of recycling facilities.
Seventh Generation Label Reading Guide. Helps you figure out what’s in the stuff you buy. The images in the iTunes store show an alphabetical list of ingredients, what they are, how they affect you, etc.
Dirty Produce. Helps you remember which produce you should buy organic, and which it’s probably OK to stick with conventional.
I’ve downloaded iRecycle and the Seventh Generation Label Reading Guide for my iPod Touch. I’ll let you know what I think. Please do comment here if you decide to try any of these – or if you have any other relevant apps!
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Considering we’ve just offloaded 4 old computers at our house, this new book seems particularly timely.
You can enter a giveaway and read Craft magazine’s review <a href=”http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/02/book_giveaway_project_excerpt_1.html”>here</a>.
Iowans for Informed Consent seems to be a relatively new organization in Iowa. They are focused on informed consent relative to vaccines, and particularly the H1N1 vaccine.
And if you haven’t been to Prairieland Herbs, Picket Fence Creamery, and Northern Prairie Chevre for Sample Sunday yet… um, you’re seriously missing out.
Check out all the yummy sample goodness here.
Next Sample Sunday: May 3
The mycountyparks.com website is just a few hours old, but looks very promising if all the counties hop on board!
Our family has often been frustrated with the clunky county park system. When looking for new trails, parks, or campsites, it’s cumbersome to look up each county conservation board and hope their website’s up to date. Our counties have some awesome natural resources, but finding out about them sometimes means a few phone calls and, well, if your family’s like mine, that’s not likely to happen.
Enter mycountyparks. com! Only a few of Iowa’s 99 counties (Lynn, Polk, and BlackHawk, mainly) have entered their information, but the organizers think the other counties will be adding their information over the next few months.
Just a note, there’s a new wellness clinic open in town, and I’m really excited about the things they offer. It’s called the Livewell Clinic. They offer such a wide variety of services, from food allergy testing to female health problems to pregnancy and labor support to well child visits. I think it will be an asset to our community!
I had a chance to meet the owners a few months ago and they are super people. I’m going to be making an appointment there in the near future to find out more about their services and I’ll definitely report back!!
My husband found this fun article on Bill Nye greening his house.
You’ll also note if you keep reading that Bill Nye is a swing dancer. See, all the cool Crunchies are swing dancers.
The Happy Cow has a nationwide directory of Vegetarian resources (restaurants, mostly). Here is the link to their Des Moines IA page.
Today, I came across a new organization called Goods for Girls.
You may have seen the commercials… the ones describing how girls in South Africa miss school when they have their period and how buying Tampax tampons will help them. There’s also a commercial for Always pads, with a similar message. Imagine having to use rags or newspaper, which is what many of these girls use for their periods.
Procter and Gamble (P&G) has started a program in Africa, where they are donating Always sanitary pads to girls who otherwise would miss several days of school each month due to inadequate menstrual supplies.
But what are the potential problems with donating disposable feminine hygiene products? Well, for starters, there is the environmental impact. In most of these areas, they have no solid waste programs or landfills. In other words, they burn their waste.
As such, products that have synthetic components (like sanitary pads and tampons) would be incinerated. For some schools, P&G is building incinerators near the bathrooms. But what about the pollutants emitted from burning these products? They may potentially get inhaled by the students and teachers. Any additional packaging, plastic or otherwise, would need to be disposed of in the same manner.
What would be a good alternative to help out these girls but without the environmental impact? Since most of these girls are using rags now, having a pad that is a more sophisticated (with a waterproof barrier) may be enough to allow them to participate in school and regular activities. They would still wash the pads as they normally do with the rags, but they would benefit from the extra protection.
I started Goods 4 Girls to provide the link for women wanting to donate hand-sewn menstrual pads to agencies who could provide the means to identify areas of need as well as provide the distribution to the women and girls needing the pads.
Wallypop has decided to become one of their participating retailers, so if you want to help them out, you can either zip on over to their website and make a donation, or you can zip on over to Wallypop and purchase some pads to be donated.
Mark November 16 on your calendar.
I have to say, ever since seeing Mike Rowe make biofuel on Dirty Jobs, I’ve been rather intrigued.
