The Eco Dad

I can't seem to get into any sorta rhythm with blogging, and I don't know why. I suppose if I keep blogging and not giving up, I haven't completely failed, right? I think having a challenge kept me interested and made me want to update. Going vegan hasn't exactly been all that exciting to write about and it's completely overrun my Instagram account. The memes, recipes and pictures of activism have been good though. Originally going vegan for the health benefits has spread into all other sorts of awareness. I've even started to wean the kids off of meat and dairy. I have to figure if I don't want it in my body, why would I put it in the bodies of my children? That said, they're slowly becoming vegetarians.  I think I'm a couple fun recipes away from making them vegan, but kids are fussy and my current arsenal of recipes is piss poor to say the least. So, as the title of this fine blog entry would suggest, it was my birthday recently. I celebrated by...

After a roughly three month hiatus, I'm back. I can't say too much has changed. My vegan challenge for the month of March has, well, solidified. Originally a thirty day challenge, it's become a way of life. I've managed to maintain my body mass while feeling lighter. It's hard to explain, but I attribute it to my calories coming from plants as opposed to meat and dairy. I've even managed to increase some of the weights I lift in the ol' garage gym. Not bad. No one cares about your protein intake until you become a vegan. I'm still fixin' and repairing things rather than buying new. I've bought the odd piece of new clothes - a bathing suit, a pair of shorts, but not much else. I haven't lost sight of what's important. I'd rather spend money on quality food, travel with the family and not spend it on those things that really don't matter. This old iPhone4 of mine DEFINITELY matters. 😂 Moving forward I'd li...

Well, it was inevitable - new clothes. I haven't grown tired of thrifting. In fact I was at a thrift store just last weekend. I needed to get my kid some new (used) snow pants, but I also grabbed him an airplane to pack full of rescue vehicles and my other son got a pack of dinosaurs which he hasn't stopped playing with because he has a dinosaur obsession right now. We have plenty of toys to purge and we managed to get rid of some excess Christmas stuff by simply returning it. Thank Christ for returns! I digress.  I purchased new clothes, but did so from a local Canadian company that manufactures right here in Canada. Their name? Ungalli. How is that sustainable, besides cutting the carbon of transporting? I'm glad you asked. They recycle plastic bottles into clothing. Yes, 1 Ungalli t-shirt saves 10 plastic bottles from landfill. That same shirt takes 25 litres of water to make versus 2720 litres of water for a standard shirt. That's just for a t-shirt. I also hav...

We're one week into 2018 and I'm mulling over the direction to go after 2017. I proudly managed to not buy new stuff for an entire year. I learned a lot, picked up some good habits and greatly improved my mindset. Did I accomplish all I wanted to? No, not really. I still have stuff/clutter, but that's okay. The weight I put on personal belongings has greatly diminished and to me, that's a great thing. I don't feel the need to buy new, but having learned about 'slow fashion,' I'm not opposed to buying some new clothes, so long as they are well made and not drawn from some fashion fad that will soon fade away. The same can be said for other items - no more 'disposables.' I'm only buying things that I will absolutely love and want to repair should things start to give way. Learned a lot in 2017, like how to consistently give thumbs up in photos. I'm still left with what to blog about in 2018 and beyond. I've greatly enjoyed inco...

Happy New Year! I've made it an entire year without buying anything new. I've received a few new things, purchased a couple new hygienic items (that was in the original disclaimer anyways) and bought a whole lot of used stuff. I've purged a lot of items from my personal belongings, though I have plenty more to go. The one thing I hadn't done, up until today (New Year's eve) is shave with a straight razor. Guess what I did today? Well, I'm still alive, so I got that going for me. I couldn't find a honemeister that would sharpen the blades I have. I couldn't find decent used stones to hone them myself. I was relegated to using the dumpy default one that came with what essentially was a straight razor starter pack I bought used earlier in the year. It sucked. Maybe I sucked at sharpening. I'm not sure. I watched on YouTube as people honed blades and were able to cut a hair by dropping it on the blade. I swear I need a friggin' tetanus shot after...

I just noticed it's been approximately 2 months since my last entry. That's pretty piss poor consistency. It's not like I haven't been busy either. I'm sure I had lots to blog about, and out of all that I'm going to provide a vapid post about how I saved money on boxing day - one of the prime consumer 'holidays' next to Black Friday. God help us all. Lately I've been in a creative mood. I've made a refined, personalized coaster using a piece of firewood, a wood burning kit and stain/lacquer (picture not attached). I've tried my hand at making healthy treats, such as vegan, gluten-free mint chocolate bark (picture on my  Instagram account ). I've also made vegetarian (used whey protein powder), gluten-free protein brownies (also on my Instagram account). Maybe I'll post recipes and try to dig up some photos of the coaster, but until then you get the post about fixing jeans. I am sooooo sorry. So, on Boxing Day, instead of going out...

We've all heard the saying that "it's better to give than to receive." For my birthday this weekend, that's exactly what I did. In lieu of some party, I gathered a handful of friends and their kids and organized a site for the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. While we didn't give financially, we gave our time and efforts to clean up a park/beach here in Mississauga. Others will benefit from our efforts. I figure if I'm going to gather people in an area, I may as well put them to use. Ha! An acceptable form of child labour.   I find this to be an extremely rewarding experience inasmuch as you do good on the day of the event, but you also teach your kids (and others, 'cause I don't have four kids as pictured above) to do good in the future. You can make it a bit of a game to see who can pick the most garbage, or who can find the biggest piece. It's all in how you sell it. Make it a friends and family event and it should sell itself to th...

I'm certainly glad I put 'irregularly updated' in this blog's description, 'cause it's been just over three weeks since I last wrote anything. I don't really have any excuses. It's just been a bit busy with a family vacation and a work-related trip to Amsterdam, Holland. Oh yeah, and my oldest starts school this week. He seems alright with it. I'm f*cking terrified! For our family vacation we went the cottage rental route. We've done the group cottage rental thing before and I have to say, with the right people, it's a good idea. Luckily, we go with the right people. At our busiest we had 10 adults and 6 children. We were spread around 5 cottages on one property, so we weren't on top of each other for 7 days, thankfully. That's how friendships are ruined. Nope, this was about a 3 hour drive outside the city limits and each family that went had their own cottage. The property was waterfront so the kids got plenty of beach time while ...

As the disposable razor supply in my house reaches what I'd consider a critical low point, I have, with great patience, found a honing stone. It's a tad dirty and needs a good lapping (flattening), but I have a means to sharpen my old straight razor. Victory! I was starting to give up and even saved a website on my browser for buying new stones and a lapping apparatus. Guess I won't be needing that! I've also found a guy who hones straight razors that works where some friends of mine live, so even without the stone, I'd have a way to sharpen my razor. Ta-da, an environmentally friendly alternative to disposable razors that also supports small business. Not bad. This is going to take some work ... thankfully there's YouTube! I also found a seamstress willing and able to fix my favorite shorts. Cost? $12 ... there was more than one hole that needed sewing. 😬 No matter. You'd be hard pressed to find a pair of shorts you'd consider your favorite f...

Well, I've been hit with a few clothing emergencies. Okay, so they aren't emergencies, but as life happens I'll need a couple things. I dodged a bullet with buying a suit because my son's daycare graduation was moved to a new date that clashed with a business outing. Given the choice I chose family. I always will. Yes, I know it's daycare and it's not a recognized diploma, but my son worked very hard on his Going to Kindergarten song and at four years old he knows if dad is, or isn't, there. Back to the suit though, this will likely require a consignment store. I don't see too many suits in a style I like on the thrift store racks. Consignment means paying more, but not everything second hand is going to be cheap or found in a store that relies solely on donations. It's sort of a negative connotation about second hand - that's it's cheap, beat up, useless stuff. Yes, you have to sift through the rough (and there's lots of rough), but you...

The first long weekend, in Ontario anyways, with decent weather is (hopefully) the Victoria Day weekend. It's sort of an unofficial kick-off to summer, even though summer is actually another month away. It's also a huge weekend for gardening. I'm not sure if it's because the temperatures are all but certain to stay above that bloody frost point or because the only shopping people can do on the holiday Monday is at a nursery/garden centre. Either way, I don't care. I went to our local nursery this long weekend and picked up some flowers and a couple scotch bonnet pepper plants. At first I wondered if it broke the mission of not buying new, but plants are perishable items, kinda like food. I've never really heard of someone buying pre-owned annuals. They die. Every year. Circle of life. Perennials, I suppose, you could buy second hand, but I've never heard of someone digging up someone else's garden to transplant it in their own garden. You'd risk root...

It's now May and I haven't blogged in a bit. I don't really have a valid reason for it. I missed Earth Day, which you figure any eco blog would recognize. I stand by my "irregularly updated" disclaimer. 😏  Besides, shouldn't Earth Day be every day? Is this blog really belated if I believe that? Well, it's not like I didn't do anything for Earth Day. I made a point of taking my boys out for a good old fashioned, unorganized, impromptu neighborhood makeover. We took out our garbage pickers, some garbage bags and had at 'er. It's like a game to them - see who can pick up the most trash. Their motives may be to win a competition, but the end result is a couple of garbage bags worth of litter off the street. It also gets them in the habit of looking after their environment. Hopefully seeing their dad do it too means they recognize you're never too old to clean your street. The family that picks together, sticks together? They genuine...

Over the past two days, little by little, I have endeavoured to make my best friend a trophy. Why? Because she deserves it. She has served her country for twenty years and I am fortunate to have been her partner (officially and unofficially, on and off) for almost the last four of them. I could go on and on about how awesome she is, but that's not the purpose of this blog. The trophy I made - that's why I'm writing today. So yeah, she's served her country for twenty years as an officer and there will be no pin, no plaque, no handshake, nothing. In fact she had to plan her own celebratory lunch. While I'm up for that, I wanted her to have something other than a full belly. My immediate thought was a gag gift - a used softball trophy from Value Village, likely a 1997 Pee Wee 'AA' Championship. It wasn't that I was looking for a softball trophy, I just figure that's the sorta trophy that gets thrown out. Having it used also keeps in step with my year ...

I did it! I completed all 1776 steps of the CN Tower climb for the World Wildlife Foundation. Total funds raised by me? $370! It's not a huge amount, but it's $370 they wouldn't have otherwise had. To add to that awesomeness, I also got to spend time with friends. The only part that sucked was the 0500 hours alarm set on my phone on a Saturday morning. That was dumpy. Just gonna go ahead and use a B&W filter in honour of all the baby pandas we saved. This is the kind of activity I think more people should do - something for your body, for a good cause, with good friends. Look at all the win in that picture. If the picture wasn't in black and white you'd see even more win as the girl in the middle got a fluorescent yellow shirt for raising over $1000 ... yes, over one thousand dollars! She's a rockstar, or, as the WWF considers her, a platinum panda member. I think I might try to find more good causes to support. I just wish most of them weren'...

In the absence of purchasing anything new, I've found that thrift shopping or scouring used online ads has become a bit of a pastime, almost an addiction. There is something to be said about finding a great deal, but trying to keep in step with decluttering is becoming a bit of a battle. I've done well enough in terms of donating old clothes when I buy something 'new,' but I'm running out of clothes I'm willing to part with and I really enjoy finding something awesome at a second hand store. Just yesterday I found two used shirts I really liked, so I caved and purchased them. Coincidentally, it is Hockey Night in Canada! What else have I been scouring for? Well, I'd like a second iPad Mini 2 in order to minimize the fighting between my boys over the one iPad Mini 2 I have.  My Nexus 7, the one that allowed me to part ways with my Kobo in a previous post, is on it's last legs, so I started looking for a used Android tablet for me. Shoes. I ...

Temptation lurks all around us. We're inundated with the latest and greatest something or other. I got a phone for Christmas, liked the company's Instagram page and started following them. Problem with that is, aside from the cool pictures showcased by OnePlus owners, I've just recently been shown a really cool version of the phone I already have. The difference? It's limited edition black. Mine is charcoal. Now, I'm pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things, so I've never lined up for an iPhone when the latest one came out, but others do. I can almost guarantee that someone has gotten rid of their perfectly good charcoal OnePlus 3T in order to get the OnePlus 3T in Midnight Black. Just this week I've seen the same thing with the latest iPhone 7. Now there's a 'RED' version allegedly supporting a cause. Not satisfied with your black or silver Google Pixel? How about a 'Really Blue' Pixel? Companies don't even have to innovate anymore...

A few blog posts back I made mention that I would use some of my Kijiji earnings and support a friend's charitable endeavours. I did, but then more recently I thought to myself, why stop there? My finances may be finite, but I can raise more money for the cause by taking part in it myself. That said, I will raise funds for the World Wildlife Foundation by completing the CN Tower Climb here in Toronto. It's just that there is always room for more good in the world. It's like Jello, and if I'm to believe the commercials of my childhood, there is always room for Jello. Who knows, maybe my kids will see me doing it and want to do it too. Granted, they're a little young at 2 and 3 years of age, but it gets them thinking. Here's an excerpt from a conversation I had with my 3 year old this evening about it ... Not sure I'll be able to save any 'cars' doing the WWF Stair Climb. 😕 So, he may have been thinking about Transformers and how some of th...