Somewhat idle hands and keyboard...

Sometimes you reach a point where you're just trying to pay the bills, to keep the people around you happy, to have clean underwear to wear each day, and to keep the rain barrels mosquito free. That's been me lately.

Green stuff? Yes, I am plugging away there too, but more in a maintenance mode than a Mr.-Wizard-new-project-every-week mode.

Basil loves the olla!

The food-is-free planter is looking pretty good, but it's needing a little shady roof - have you ever seen a sun-burnt bell pepper? The front porch olla-planters are doing well with potatoes, tomatoes, and whole lotta basil. We picked up a rosemary plant to add this weekend.

Now you've seen a sun-burnt bell pepper!

Consuming less and recycling the rest? I'd give our household a C+. We have been taking reusable cups and shopping bags with us more consistently, but we've been eating out a lot and there's a lot of waste in the restaurant world.

A successful work commute to and fro yesterday

I'm riding the bike for most of my under-4-mile trips and I'm riding the work-in-progress-e-bike to work a few times per week. I am wishing I had bought a quality e-bike a year or two ago rather than spending so much time, money, and precious garage time piecing the current e-bike together, but it has been a fun project. The coolest part of the project has been learning to build (and rebuild twice) a lithium battery pack.

Even though lots of tempting stuff has popped up lately, I have been successful in not bringing any new projects home.

As a matter of fact, a few projects have even left this year. I don't have the nerve to call myself a minimalist, but I have been doing some minimizing, and that feels good.

The nicest green(er) upgrade has been retiring Rambo, the old Dodge pickup and replacing it with an eight-year-old Ford Escape Hybrid - by far the nicest vehicle I've driven in years. I feel pretty darned good when I'm able to keep it in electric-only mode while running about. Not a perfect solution to burning less gas, but a definite step up.

Life is good. The blogging is slow.

May all your greenliness roll smoothly along!

In Case You're Missing the Wheels (Shameless 2WheelsMaybe Plug)

Head over to 2WheelsMaybe and see some of what you've been missing!

2WheelsMaybe site link

Just look at the fun stuff you've been missing:

Okay, I'll quit bugging you about it! May you have a wonderful, carbon-neutral day!

Scott Pruitt is out!

My heart leapt a little as I read the news.

No, I don't think the world is an instantly better place, but once in a while it's nice to see the obviously corrupt being deposed by their own actions.

But it wasn't his blatant attacks on the health of our planet and all of those who live here that brought him down. It was his lifestyle of graft and deception that did it.

Actually, the president lauded the fine work he's done in his short time in office. Ugh!

So, no, I don't think we'll see any EPA improvement.  I just think the next guy will be a little smarter and show a little more discretion.

But it's still nice to see a really bad guy take himself down.

May we live in a healthier world we work together to create.