Jake and Bathsheba

A blog by two cats who used to live in the same house in Northern Virginia. Unfortunately, they are both no longer with us.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

We Took the Environmental Dare


In memory of Anastasia, our friend Karl asked the cats of the blogosphere to come up with a fun dare. Many cats, including us, submitted suggestions, but Mr. Chen's dare impressed the judges enough to win. Thus, we were all dared "to come up with one creative, fun, useful way to save the environment and put a picture of yourself doing it on your blog!"

We are not particularly creative, so we decided on quantity, not quality. Our mom considers herself very committed to being sensitive to the environment, so she welcomed this dare.


First off, instead of driving to work, we offer teleworking, which Mom did today. We highly recommend this--it's win-win for everyone. We get a servant at home to cater to all of our needs and she gets to enjoy us and have less stress doing her work on the computer and phone.

If you have to report to the office, one thing you can do is ride your bike to work. Mom tried this for the first time back in May for "Bike to Work Day" and has been doing it at least once a month since. Yesterday was a beautiful day and she rode in--12 miles one way, 24 miles round trip. It helps to keep her in shape. She's lucky to have showers at her office--or rather her office staff is fortunate!


I didn't like having to pose on that bike pack. I work from home as deck patrol so I don't have to ride to work.



On those days when she has to drive, Mom takes her Prius. We highly recommend this hybrid vehicle because it has low emissions plus gas mileage in excess of 50 mpg.


On the home front, there are lots of things you can do to make your yard more environmentally friendly. Here is our brush pile at the bottom of the yard. This is a great place for little critters and insects. Birds love to peck around in the brushy leaf litter.





You can also make a compost pile. Though I have been known to raid the compost pile for avocado rinds in the past, this time, Mom placed me in the midst of this stuff. There are lots of shredded leaves and vegetable waste. You can see that some of the cantaloupe seeds sprouted and a vine is growing. This pile is super high in the late fall when Mom rakes and shreds leaves, but a lot has decomposed by now.

Then there's garden plantings: try to plant for wildlife. Mom uses lots of native plants and no pesticides. So what if our lawn is "weedy"; at least it's healthier for me to walk on.








See the tall "stalky" plant here? It's a milkweed, the only plant that monarch butterflies eat in their larval stage.







During Tropical Storm Hanna, one of the big Bradford pear trees in our neighborhood split. The neighbors cut it up and put the wood out with the trash. Mom knows that it makes better firewood than fodder for the landfill, so she took it home. We just have to wait a while for it to season.









How about some solar power? Ours is old technology, but it's a renewal resource that could be viable in many sunny climates out west.










We also recommend natural cleaners like vinegar rather than harsh chemicals.












And reuse your plastic take-out food containers. They're great for lunches and leftovers--or for carrying our food on long trips.











Of course we recommend recycling. Just be sure you know the rules in your area and don't contaminate the recyclables.


We aren't showing them, but we assume that all of our friends reuse plastic bags for the daily scooping of the litter box. And those plastic newspaper sleeves are great for those of you with dogs and need a disposable pooper scooper. Sure, reusable bags are great for groceries and shopping, but you still need something for the stinky stuff.

Yes, Mom still gets the dead tree version of the newspaper. She's a geezer and loves to read her hard copy version. She especially likes to read the Sunday edition in bed. She likes to think that by being a paid subscriber she will do her part to keep the newspapers in business because online versions still don't pay for themselves with ads.



Just remember - CATS are NOT recyclable! They all deserve forever homes.


~J&B

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27 Comments:

At Friday, September 19, 2008 12:50:00 AM, Blogger Kimo and Sabi said...

WOWY - great job!

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 12:58:00 AM, Blogger Samantha & Mom said...

Too cool! You guys do a great job for the environment!
Yer scurvey FL maties,

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 5:39:00 AM, Blogger Us4 Cats said...

Wonderful job you guys. I must add, you are all beautiful kitties.

Great photos!

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 6:16:00 AM, Blogger Goldie, Shade and Banshee said...

Wow!!! What a great post! We have our Dare post up today too but it isn't as grand as yours! We are very impressed!!!!!

The PM is a little envious too as she want a Prius.

Well done.
Purrs Goldie and Shade

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 6:45:00 AM, Blogger Parker said...

::Clap, clap, clap::
You guys are doing a lot to help, we salute you!

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 10:15:00 AM, Blogger Cats~Goats~Quotes said...

Wow!! I am very impressed with the way you take care of our environment!
We will join Parker!
::Clap, clap, clap::
~ Napoleon and The Bunch

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 11:23:00 AM, Blogger Mini said...

Great job! *Clap*

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 11:34:00 AM, Blogger LZ said...

Those are a lot of things your mom and you guys do to help the environment! We do a lot of those too and we can't wait to have the humans walk to work and come home at lunch time!

Chase

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 11:44:00 AM, Blogger The Cat Realm said...

Thank you for taking the Dare! We are very impressed, you are really good ambassadors for the earth, well done! We hope a lot of cats will take some tips from you!!! A great post, my friends!
Karl

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 12:57:00 PM, Blogger Tybalt said...

Bravo!!! You outdid yourselves on the dare . . . great job!

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 2:42:00 PM, Blogger Daisy said...

I am so proud of you! I can tell you are very committed to helping the environment in lots of ways. And we think the Prius is very cool!

 
At Friday, September 19, 2008 5:00:00 PM, Blogger Anita said...

Great job and fantastic dare!!! Those are a lot of things your bean and you guys do to help the environment!

Congratulations and nice to meet you!

 
At Sunday, September 21, 2008 11:16:00 PM, Blogger Rosie & Cheeto said...

Yoo guys are already seem vary envorunmentulie gud. Way to add to yer grate werk!

And thank yoo fur letting evarybuddie know yoo are not recyculabul, Jake. That culd have been a BIG disastur!

 
At Monday, September 22, 2008 5:10:00 AM, Blogger Mark's Mews (Marley, Lori, Loki, and Binq) said...

VERY good werk guys! Ya both are definitley "green"...

 
At Monday, September 22, 2008 11:03:00 PM, Blogger Mickey's Musings said...

WOW!!! Super ways of saving the planet!!!!! You guys are pawsome and your Mom is too ;)
You have great ideas!!!!!!!!
Purrs Mickey

 
At Thursday, September 25, 2008 4:56:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very good job :)

 
At Friday, September 26, 2008 11:00:00 AM, Blogger The Cat Realm said...

Hi guys! Get back to blogging! Hahahahahahahahaha
We gave you the "Premio Dardos" award, get it on our blog.
Karl

 
At Friday, September 26, 2008 8:02:00 PM, Blogger Skeezix the Cat said...

Yoo guys did a GRATE JOB with this dare!!!

 
At Sunday, September 28, 2008 6:10:00 PM, Blogger Quasi said...

These are all terrific ideas! Thanks for the tips. Our human female drives a Prius, too.

 
At Monday, September 29, 2008 8:15:00 PM, Blogger Rosie & Cheeto said...

yoo still enviornmentaling!?!?

 
At Tuesday, September 30, 2008 10:08:00 PM, Blogger Meowers from Missouri said...

youse guys did a heckuva job environmentalling. our mom & dad try to do some of them, especially the ones about composting, an' usin' plastic bags for the stinky stuff!!

thanks for stopping by our bloggie wif your sweet condolences. we miss nels, too, but are getting used to an empty chair inna livin' room. we are thankful that he doesn't hafta be sick any more, an' know he had a long, happy life!

love,
ed, nitro, & xing

 
At Wednesday, October 01, 2008 6:18:00 AM, Blogger Findus & Smilla said...

Wow, there are many parallels to our home: home office, solar panel, compost, waste separation,...
We have no hybrid car. Here ends the envronmental awarness of our dad. He has a 150 hp diesel. OK, it's economical, but only when you drive economical.
I think we should do a similar blog. Would not be so easy because we are shure that dad is not ready with his camera when we are in place.

F&S

 
At Friday, October 03, 2008 9:07:00 PM, Blogger Madness, Trouble, Squish and Milkbone said...

Hi. Well done on all the eco-friendly things you do. Our Mom is a crazy tree- and bunny-hugger. She even became a vegetarian about 6 months ago. Luckily she did not try to make us vegetarians!

We are actually driving to Georgia tomorrow! We hope it will be OK and we will not be to uncomfortable in the car.

 
At Sunday, October 05, 2008 4:27:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great pictures, keep up the good work.
We should all do our bit to help the environment, and try to make up for mistakes of previous years caused by neglect and ignorance.

 
At Thursday, October 09, 2008 9:44:00 PM, Blogger The Cat Realm said...

Just coming by - but it seems your staff is as bad as ours!!! Today they forgot my Gotcha Day - and this is the first time in weeks that I can go and visit a bit.....
Lots of purrs
your friend Karl

 
At Saturday, October 11, 2008 7:13:00 PM, Blogger Rosie & Cheeto said...

whoa-she let the purrspektive take care of yoo and he passed! This is intense. Did he kleen up the bowl and did he give yoo a pat on the head and say yummmmm when he put the fuds out and did he sneek yoo treets!?!? If he passed than he musta done that. This is so grate, yay!!!!

 
At Saturday, October 11, 2008 10:19:00 PM, Blogger Toffee K. Ripple Fuzzypants & Feline American Angels said...

Excellent job savin' the environment, Jake!
Smooches!
DMM

 

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