Step #2 - Reduce your emissions

Change #1

Until recently, Rob drove a Chevy Tahoe. Although we really did like the comfort and spaciousness of the big bohemoth, we did not like it's gas mileage (15-17 mpg). We also found that we only rarely had much more than just the two of us to haul around. So about four months ago we made the decision that it was time to get rid of the big behemoth and trade it for a greener vehicle.

We looked and we looked, and finally settled on the Toyota Camry hybrid or the Prius. We test-drove both, rented a Prius for a weekend, and talked it over for what seemed like weeks. It seems that we just couldn't decide between the two until one day...Ding!...On went the lightbulb and it came to us that if we couldn't decide between the two, maybe we should just pick the one that is better for the planet. Voila - decision made. Since the new Prius arrived in our driveway, Rob has literally tripled his gas mileage. Now he's working on getting much higher gas mileage as the engine wears in.


We've found that we now take the Prius on all our errands except the dirty ones - my Matrix has a fairly large, plastic-lined trunk area, which makes it perfect for hauling plants and bags of mulch.

Change #2

But we didn't stop there. I've given up my parking pass and started taking public transportation to work. I started this last summer, when I thought I'd try out the brand new extension of our regional light rail system. The first line ran between the airport and downtown, which was great, but it didn't seem to serve most of the people who commute by car to work. The new line, however, ends about four miles our house.


My driving commute included 20 minutes of drive time, plus five minutes to walk from the parking garage to the office. Between the drive to the train station and the 45 minute train ride downtown, my commute is roughly one hour. The added 35 minutes each way are tough on the days when I just want to go home, throw on some old clothes and work in the yard. On the other hand, the ride time does seem to help me decompress on the way home, so I tend to arrive home a tad happier and a little less stressed out. I think it's a good trade-off.

Last year I switched back to driving when the shorter days came. I have a hard time convincing myself that the extra hour of train time was worth it when it means I have zero time at home in the daylight. Does that seem like a cop-out? Hard to tell...but at least I'm reducing my mileage during 6 months out of the year.

Change #3

Even when I commute to work every day, I drive a maximum of about 8,500 miles a year. I can go anywhere from 4-6 months without needing an oil change, and by then the little sticker that the oil change folks placed on my windshield is long since illegible. This means that I have a hard time remembering to get my oil changed or my tires rotated on a regular basis. Although I probably should have known this, I had no idea that forgetting to take my car in would seriously affect my mileage.

About six weeks ago I was cleaning out my glove box, pulled out an old receipt and realized that it had been over 5,000 miles since my last oil change. I took the car in and had them change the oil and oil filter, and rotate and balance my tires. Ever since, my gas mileage has increased from 30 mpg to 36 mpg, a 20% increase.

I'll be checking my tire pressure and keeping track of scheduled oil changes and tire rotations from now on.

The Results (so far)

Between these two changes, we should be able to cut our household gasoline use and vehicle-related emissions by more than 50%. Not too shabby, but I know we can do better. We're currently pondering an electric lawnmower, so that may be our next move toward household gas independence.

Does anyone out there have any other suggestions for our next step in our personal gas use and emissions reduction?

Step #1 - Make your own bread

I'm starting to think about this adventure in becoming more sustainable as a journey down a really long road. I've been walking much slower than I would like so far, but I know that if I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, I'll get there. Corny analogy? Maybe, but it's working for me right now, and I'm sticking to it. That makes this the first post in a very long series to come that will chronicle each small step (including the occasional backward one) down the road.

On Wednesday night, I started my very first batch of homemade bread. I chose the no-knead variety, mostly because I'd heard it was easy and thought that would make me more likely to continue baking bread. I found the recipe in the New York Times, of all places. I made it exactly as instructed the first time, and plan variations in future iterations.

Recipe: No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting (I used half white, half wheat)
¼ teaspoon instant yeast (I used Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast)
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed. (I skipped this for now)

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. (I started my bread at 11:30 pm, in the hopes that it would be ready when I got home the next day. This seems to have been a fairly successful strategy.)

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. (I didn't get to this step until 20 hours after I started the dough. In retrospect, this may have resulted in too many air bubbles, which could be why the texture was a bit odd.)

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. (Here's where I started thinking the recipe had gone horribly wrong. My dough was much too gooey to form into a ball, and no amount of flour on my hands or the dough was going to prevent sticking. But I perservered. After the two hours, my dough had not doubled. It did not even grow by 50%. It also continued to spring back at this point, but I refused to give in and chuck this batch.)

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. (I used our Le Creuset baking dish, which seems to have worked very well. This loaf needed just 15 minutes with the lid off to look and smell delicious.)

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Here's a picture of the resulting loaf.



As you can see, the bread didn't rise nearly as much as anticipated. The texture is also a bit spongy, perhaps because I let it rise for too long in the first stage. But the flavor is good, and it has a great crust on it, so I'm thinking this was a fairly good first effort.

If anyone out there has more information on what I might want to do differently next time, including maybe changing the kind of yeast I used???, please let me know. For my next loaf, Rob has requested a full-on kneaded bread, so please also pass along any great recipes of that variety.

Hmm. Now I'm looking forward to spreading a bit of locally produced goat cheese on a couple of slices of yummy fresh bread....