G Whiz

I have a review blog, but I thought this would go better here - no one's giving me anything to write this (heck, they don't even know I exist), and it IS a product that's touted as being "green".

~The Product: gDiapers

~The Hype (stolen from their own website): "The most eco-friendly diaper available, gDiapers provides parents with a diapering solution that is good for babies, parents and the planet. You can have the flexibility of a disposable diaper with a 100% biodegradable gRefill, or opt for reusability with super soft and trim-fitting gCloth inserts. gDiapers are plastic-free, elemental chlorine free, latex free, and perfume free.

Use a biodegradable gRefill or re-usable gCloth inside our newborn tiny gPants and our cotton little gPants. All materials are breathable, just like sports clothing, so babies are far less likely to get diaper rash. And did we mention they're cute? Babies can flaunt their eco-friendly diapers in a rainbow of adorable colors. Because green diapers don't need to be bland.

No landfill required.

50 million diapers get tossed each day and each one takes up to 500 years to biodegrade. Ick. Home compost, toss, or flush the biodegradable gRefill for the smallest footprint on earth. gDiapers break down in 50-150 days...You can also compost the wet ones or simply toss the soiled refill. It will break down in the landfill a lot faster than the 500 years for a conventional disposable diaper. Or learn more about re-useable gCloth."

~The Price: Variable, but Diapers.com and Babies-R-EverywhereUs were pretty close. Prices quoted here are from Diapers.com.

$17.99 for one pant.nappy, no refills (gPant and plastic liner only).
$14.99 for one pack of 40 biodegradable/disposable refills.
$20.00 for six plastic liners.
$29.99 for 6 cloth refills.
$79.99 for a six-pack of the pants only.
$129.99 for a "Sweet Bundle" with 6 pants (3 orange, 3 green) and 4 packs of biodegradable refills.
$135.99 for a "Sweet Bundle" with 12 cloth refills.
$149.99 for a "gBaby bundle" with 6 pants, 80 biodegradable refills, and 6 tinygPants (sized for newborns).

In other words, not cheap (especially when you realize they come in sizes, so you have to purchase pants and liners more than once as your baby grows), but at about $20 for 60 disposable newborn nappies, it's comparable...and over time it may even be cheaper if you're using the cloth inserts.

~Our Thoughts: We were lucky - several friends were kind enough to gift us with both gPants and refills. Ours came in two-packs (two pants, four plastic liners, and a spatula looking thing called a Swish Stick)(you'll find out what the spatula looking thing is for in a minute). The plastic liners snap in, so if one gets schmutzed or deteriorates, it can be cleaned or replaced. Replacement liners are also available online. We received both cloth and disposable refills - this was the prime reason I was interested in gPants; we travel/camp several times a year, and hauling soiled cloth nappies about with us did not seem like fun...but I didn't want to use conventional disposables, either. gPants seems like a nice middle way.

The pants come in a variety of colors with cute names like Guppy Green and Grubby Knees Grey. We have Goddess Pink, Guppy Green, Gooseberry Purple, and Golly Molly Pink. Check out their website for more color info. The pants have Velcro tab closures, so no pins, awkward buttons, or snaps. Thank you, NASA, for Velcro! The tabs take a little getting used to - where a traditional disposable has tabs that go back to front, gPants have tabs that go front to back (so baby can't get to 'em, remove 'em, and use soiled nappies for painting the walls with)(not that THAT ever happens). They're soft, with lovely knit cuffs so little legs don't chafe, and (because the plastic liner is removable) machine washable. They aren't as bulky as some cloth nappies, either, which I like.

We tried to use them from the start, but the waist-band irritated Sprout's umbilical stump and she hollered about it - dear Goddess, did she holler about it - so we used regular disposables with the little cut-out until the stump fell off and she was fully healed.

We have both cloth and biodegradable refills. I like the cloth ones for home/short trip use and the biodegradable ones for longer trips away from home.

The instructions with the cloth liners called for 6 hot water washings (no soap, no other laundry), then a hot dry before use. I don't know how earth-friendly that is...even though we had 4 sets of 6 refills (2 small, 2 medium), it hardly made a load, and even though our washer has an adjustable water level...that's a lot of hot water! All the washing serves a purpose, though - the liners we got are felted hemp (yay, hemp!!) and needed shrinking before using. Better to pre-shrink, yes? Yes!

The cloth liners are soft...nice for baby's bottom. Sprout likes 'em, anyway. They don't hold as much soil/liquid as a disposable nappy, so you'll need several packs of 'em if you want to use 'em exclusively. We haven't had a poop with one of the cloth refills*, yet, so I can't tell you how easily they come clean...

The biodegradable liners are nifty, but as with the cloth they don't hold as much so you really have to be on top of nappy changes. Sprout lets us know when she needs a change if we slack a bit - little miss does NOT like to be damp or soiled! There are several ways of disposing of these refills - trash 'em, flush 'em, or compost 'em.

Trashing 'em may seem contrary to being green, but they are supposed to break down faster than traditional disposable nappies, and there is definitely less waste. It's certainly the easiest of options, especially when they're poopy.

Flushing 'em requires some dexterity, and isn't a good option if you're squeamish, it's heavily soiled, or you're holding a baby (because it really takes two hands) - first you have to scrape off solid waste with the spatula thing, then tear down the sides of the refill and dump the inner core into the toilet. Swish with the spatula thing to break up clumps, flush, and while it's flushing, drop the outer part on top. Down it goes. Not very useful if you're in a public restroom, but not too difficult at home. I haven't had a poopy one to flush, yet*, so I can't relate the mess factor on that score...but the wet ones haven't been too awful.

Composting was another of the reasons I wanted to try these. They don't suggest you compost poopy ones, but according to their directions wet ones can go into the pile just fine. We haven't had a go at this, yet - in all honesty, we're a little leery of putting them in our garden compost pile, so we're going to start a separate heap for them...just as soon as we get a little more time in the day. Who knew new babies were so much work? Oh, wait...we did...

Some online reviews complained about leaking, but we haven't had an issue with that...yet. I won't be surprised by it, though - in my experience, all nappies leak, even disposables. Usually when you've got the baby all dressed up, or forgot a change of clothes for her, or have just run out of wipes.

~In Summary: I like 'em enough to keep using 'em, although I do think they're on the pricey side. They are a nice alternative to disposables, and while they aren't as budget friendly as I'd like (What can I say? I'm notoriousle cheap!), they do fit into a mainstream green lifestyle.

Check it out:

Sprout, stylin' in her Goddess Pink Little gPants.

*Not that the baby doesn't poop, because then I'd be at the doctor's office, not writing a blog...but we used regular disposables at night until we ran out of 'em, and she seems to like pooping when she wakes up, so the gPants haven't had much of a workout on that front.



Disclaimer - no one at Casa de Crazy was asked to write, nor recevied compensation for writing, this post. gPants, Diapers.com and Babies-R-EverywhereUs don't know we exist and probably wouldn't care if they did know who we were. All opinions offered here are as biased as they come, because we write what we think.

Gardening, Casa de Crazy Style

Spring is being coy here at Casa de Crazy, showing us glimpses of her color and warmth and then withdrawing, only to tease us again another day. We've had our fill of Winter and decided to try starting some plants. You can read about some of that here.

We're trying to be as green as possible around here, and we've gotten pretty good at it in our own way - we make less than one bag of trash a week. The rest we recycle, re-purpose, compost or burn.

We worry about another kind of green, too - money is tight, the economy sucks, and everything we can do to save the Endangered Greenback around here is important.

We checked out little peat-pot greenhouses...but at six and seven bucks a pop, they were well beyond what we wanted to spend...after all, that's six or seven packs of seeds if you know where to shop! The refills for those greenhouses run about two dollars for twenty or so...much better. Now we needed to find a way to get 'em warm and keep 'em moist.

Hey, wait...didn't Someone see some empty Sterlite bins in the garage?

And we have some Chinese take-out containers hanging around, too.

Nifty - they fit nicely in our available window space, help contain heat and moisture (especially with a borrowed heating pad underneath) and they're portable, so we can put them out on the front stoop when the weather's fine, bring 'em in at night.

They work quite well, I think.

What we have in the Sterlites are cucumbers, eggplant, and one or two million tomatoes. We put several seeds in each peat pot, and wouldn't you know most of 'em sprouted...so Someone use some leftover potting soil and Dixie cups to spread 'em out a bit.

In the take-out container are some catnip seeds...have to take care of the furbabies, too! The sort of upper left one is actually sprouting, and you can see it if you look closely.

Because we'll need somewhere to put all these little darling when they're grown, we spent some time preparing a garden bed out front, today.

First, Someone cut sod squares. Rather than just throw them in the compost heap or the woods, I moved most of them to the other side of the driveway, where rain, cars, and a dearth of sunlight made ruts and mud and a sad state of affairs over the Winter.

The sod clods have a chance to take root and amend all that.

I used the opportunity to talk to Bird about sod houses and whatnot...but I think he found the worms more interesting.

Oh, yeah, worms. Lots of them. We rescued as many as we could, because we knew there'd be tilling going on in a bit, and figured the squirmy fellows would rather be transplanted than pureed.

Later, if we want, we can always take up worm farming - the worms are wonderful for the soil and make fine bait, too, for an afternoon's fishing.

Once the grass was removed, Someone had to chop out a few roots before tilling.

It's not all that easy when you mostly have trusty old hand tools to work with.

Luckily, a kind-hearted ex-mother-in-law loaned us her tiller a while back, so the turning of the soil went well enough.

Someone got to thinking about what else we might plant out here...and melons came to mind.

Now why would melons make a man smile?

We all had a hand in the new bed...even Bird got dirty, not that getting dirty is a chore for a seven-year-old.
We're red clay all the way, here...
...so we'll need to till in some soil amendment to get the best growing conditions...compost sure does come in handy!

After tilling, Someone raked the loose soil to even the bed a little.
Now we just have to wait for those seedlings to grow a bit more before putting them out - we don't plant before Ostara/Easter around here because that's right around when we have last frost.

In another post, I'll show you some more of our garden fun - we have things growing indoors, too, both to help feed us and as a sort of science project for Bird!

Have you started your garden, yet? How's it going?

Through Winter's Night...

...I dream of gardens.

I dream of carrots and peas and okra;
I dream of spinach and lettuce and cabbage;
I dream of tomatoes and onions and potatoes;
I dream of beans, and artichokes, and broccoli;
I dream of cauliflower and pumpkins and squash;
I dream of zucchini, and wax beans, and cucumbers;
I dream of eggplant and garlic and peppers of all sorts;
I dream of watermelon, cantaloupe, and strawberries;

I feed these dreams with compost and ash
anything organic that isn't an animal product goes into the pile
paper is burned, the ash spread about
leaves collected and given to the pile, too

A friend, a Love, has moved here
and with his strong hands
his capable hands
he stirs the pile,
feeds it,
makes it rich

He talks to the earth, tells her stories of what may be...
and she listens and hopes.

I feed these dreams with Baker's Creek
and the Seed Saver's Exchange

Dreams of heirlooms passed down,
to me
and my son
and (perhaps one day)
his children

I dream of gardens, abundance
of feeding my family
with sunlight and rain
of one day planting trees, groves...

through Winter's night,
I dream...
~~~~~

I am truly blessed - Someone has moved here and sees the yard and its potential, and is happy to be out there even in the bitter cold, making it ready. We pore over catalogs and talk about planting times, sprouting indoors versus dropping seeds directly into the earth, of Winter plants and Spring plants and our hopes that one day we (well...honestly, he) will produce enough to sell or can or give away...

I would love to lessen my dependence on the corporate farm culture, on things produces by bullies and chemicals and laboratories.

So I dream...

How about you?

We Are Go for Compost

I started a compost pile. I did it the old fashioned way - I found a spot that looked good and started dumping compostables there.

That's right - no bin, no barrel, no box, nothing but a clear spot at the edge of the yard. I don't care if critters get into it and have a feast - at least I'm not putting organic matter in the landfill, and maybe, just maybe, I'll get a bit of compost out of the deal, anyway.

Viva la revolicion, yo!

Mmmm, compost!

I have been researching compost. You wouldn't think it needed much research, but you'd be...well, right, ,actually.

When did composting get so complicated? There are dozens, if not hundreds, of sites dedicated just to composting and the finer points therein. When I was a kid, composting meant anything that didn't come from a critter went into the pile and turned into dirt. That simple. Nowadays, it seems you can't compost the "right" way without a bin, barrel, box, or special gizmo for the job.

One of the best things about compost, when I was a kid, was watching the pile every spring just to see what would pop up. We had mystery melons, mystery squash, all sorts of mystery fruits and veggies that happily made their home in the pile. We didn't, as far as I can recall, turn the pile, stir it, water it, lace it with newspaper, add worms, or any of that stuff. Just kept adding to it. When it got tall enough, we might start another, or we might topple it, shovel the soil out from the bottom, and keep going. It was easy.

I'm a little intimidated by composting today. It seems one cannot simply start a pile and let it go - one must have a container for it (plastic, no less, and how is that helping the environment any??), keep it moist but not too moist, feed it the right mix of dry and wet ingredients, turn it, stir it, and play violin concertos to it fortnightly.

Bah!

I had the idea to start a community compost pile with some friends - everyone would have a bucket which would get dumped on the pile weekly. Yes, even leaves and lawn clippings if they wanted to gather them up. I thought my back yard would be a good place, since it's huge and relatively unused (and I'm lazy and don't want to haul my compostables somewhere else when I could just fling them out the back). Hasn't happened yet - I don't have the money to buy one of those fancy barrel rigs, and there are enough wild critters scampering about that I'm not sure about having a pile just...sitting there.

Then again, why not provide a smorgasbord for them? They live here, too! The critters get fed, and their poo will turn into dirt, too - win-win!

What do you think? Would you participate in a community compost pile? Start one of your own? Or is the Dispoze-All just too convenient? Is it OK to just toss the stuff in a heap like I did when I was a kid? Or do we have to use bins and whatnot, now?