We started thinking more about how we're trying to set a good lifestyle example through our actions. We've hestitated to sign up for WE Energies' program as we're trying to reduce our consumption in general rather than simply assuage our guilt by simply buying offsets while we continue to guzzle energy and products. In any case, we decided to "put our money where our mouths are" and sign up for the program. We researched it a bit to ensure that it wasn't just rhetoric from the energy company, and as such, we took the plunge. Granted, we didn't go all the way to 100% renewable energy as we want to see what effect this initial action has on our monthly bill. We don't think it will be a problem and if they're truly using it for building more windmills or whatever, then maybe the more people that sign up then the more accommodations they will have to make for renewable energy.

Yanoff Family "Green" Tip(s): In July, 2008, we signed up for WE Energies' Energy for Tomorrow program. A portion of our energy usage has been replaced by renewable sources.

In addition to this, we've purchased or wish-listed a number of energy-saving devices:

• Back in May, we mentioned the reel mower we use to mow our small lawn without using any gas.
• We own a crank-powered flashlight that also has a radio for emergency purposes.
• We own a staple-free stapler. Okay, this might not be a home energy-saver, but we don't need to purchase little metal staples anymore.
• We've wish-listed a manual paper shredder.

Meanwhile, the whole family helped deliver free reusable bags to some of the 6,900 residences in Shorewood. It's part of a campaign paid for by area businesses whereby recycleable tote bags have been created as part of an idea by the Shorewood Conservation Committee. The idea and event gathered significant local coverage as detailed on the site. Which brings us to a new edition of...

Yanoff Family "Green" Tip(s): We limit our use of plastic bags and containers. There is a great slideshow, The Dangers of Plastic Bags, that only takes a couple of minutes to view but it details some staggering facts about the use of plastic bags. To help limit our use, we attempt to re-use any plastic bags we do receive. Sure, everyone uses them to line their garbage cans with them but how many do you really need? A paper bag can usually work just as well. We typically only get plastic bags from stores about every 4th or 5th trip.

We've also been bringing our own canvas bags to stores and some grocery stores have been giving us money back just for doing that. My friend, Sarah, was so inspired by our efforts that she made a lovely bag just for us to take with and use for produce instead of using the grocery stores' plastic bags. One last thing we do is we bring our own Tupperware to restaurants in one of our tote bags and forego the restaurants' own plastic containers for our leftovers (and, we make sure that the kids get their drinks in regular glasses or cups rather than the disposable kiddie cups that restaurants tend to give out).

In any case, I haven't had a chance to add our full list of "Yanoff Family Green Tips", but I hope that when I do, they tell a more complete story. Some day, I will gather them all onto a single page but for the unconverted, I've been doling them out on a monthly basis.

The missing tips talk about things such as birthdays and holidays. For example, Carly had her 8th birthday party this past weekend and instead of gifts, she asked her friends to bring a donation to the Wisconsin Humane Society. Gillie and Carly are big supporters of it and have been doing this for their past 1 or 2 birthdays now. We saw that their friends often took guesses at what to get them, and the birthdays turned into a bit of a materialistic ritual. Now, what we do give the girls is whatever presents they want, but at least this way there is no waste in terms of gifts from a dozen kids that were all gifts we already had or things the girls did not really want. This year, Carly got a Nintendo DS and because it was an electronic game, we opted to get her a new one. However, we bought a bunch of "like new" games off of eBay for her. Because of the reduced price, we were able to obtain a couple more than we would have with our usual spending limit, and since they are gently used we didn't contribute to the creation of new products (hopefully).

About two Hanukahs ago, a friend of Carly's said she wanted to celebrate Hanukah. Innocently thinking it was because of the beauty of the symbols and the rituals, I asked Carly why her friend wanted to celebrate Hanukah. "Because we get 8 presents," she said. While I'm sure that this little girl got more than 8 gifts for Christmas, I realized that the message and the ritual were getting mixed up. So, we dropped down to 7 night's worth of gifts and on the 8th night we donate our time to the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. We've done this two years in a row and while the girls maybe don't yet get the same sense of fulfillment as Kathy and I get from it, they do at least get to learn about another fact of life.

Kathy and I are eventually going to need a new car (we're own only one these days) and I asked Kathy why we couldn't buy a one-year-old car instead of a brand new one. We'd still have years of warranty left while getting a good price because of that first-year depreciation. We just don't think that everything we buy has to be new, but we haven't denied the fact that we still buy things we need. Which brings us to the Amazon.com wish list. It may seem materialistic but it's actually reduced what we get. The girls are always going to get something for a holiday or birthday and now they get exactly what they want.

The wish lists are also a nice outlet, we've found. When they were younger and in stores and they'd see something they'd want, we'd always say "let's add it to your wish list" and we never had to deal with "I want it now" or any type of in-store temper tantrums.

In short, we haven't given up on buying stuff, but I think that nowadays we're buying the right stuff (stuff we want, or have a need for), and consuming less in general. When we go out to dinner, for example, we forego straws and plastic cups whenever possible, and we bring our own Tupperware to take home leftovers. So to us, the less materialism doesn't necessarily mean purchasing less, but consuming less of what is offered to us. While the girls tend to load up their wish lists with toys, games, and books, Kathy and I stick to small items such as CDs or DVDs as well as functional items (I have a mower blade sharpener on my list, for example).

We plan on writing later this week with those "Yanoff Family Green Tips". Meanwhile, the girls are enjoying summer. We went to a Brewers game on Thursday and saw them win and met one of the pitchers after the game, and we've been spotting mantids in our garden that are triple their birth size.

• A new video by Carly. It's pretty funny as she made up a TV show for little kids and this is her singing the improvised theme song. Carly's got a boatload of creativity built up inside of her that often has to come out in the form of painting, songwriting, woodworking, film-making or some other creative outlet. Carly also remains a consistent source of humorous quotes.
• There are several new photos on the site, including ones of our gardens and recently-hatched praying mantids.
• We continue to maintain a list of sites that are free and legitimate that stream new albums and songs. And, halfway through 2008, Scott's picks for the best music of 2008 is starting to take shape.

Meanwhile, some family highlights:

• Scott and Gillie passed a recent Taekwondo test again and are now red belts with a green stripe. They are currently training for the black stripe and then the next step is a black belt. People often think of a black belt as a major accomplishment and, while it is no small feat, the warrant black belt merely sybolizes that one has mastered the basics of a martial art and are now ready to begin more serious training. Our Taekwondo master is a 9th-degree black belt!
• Carly has just started with flute lessons and Gillie has picked the violin as an instrument to take during "Summer Strings", a type of summer school class offered in August. She may continue it through the school year as part of the 4th grade band.

Other things we'd recommend:

• Try Firefox 3. It's so fast that it was like getting a new computer. It's also really fast in terms of setup and the user interface is top-notch.
• Read What I'd Say if I Was Wrong About Climate Change from one of our favorite blogs, NoImpactMan. Even if you can't read the entire article, his list of reasons, especially the first half of it, are really ace.
• Educate yourself about your diet the way we have. The article Flavonols may slash colorectal cancer risk: study highlights the fact that "genetics susceptibility is responsible for less than five per cent of cases" of colorectal cancer which shows "the importance of diet to potentially reduce the risk".

1. True or False: The U.S. tests every cow for mad cow disease.
2. True or False: Despite fears, Mad Cow disease has yet to be found in U.S. cattle.
3. True or False: The USDA gives individual farmers the right to at least test their own cattle if they want to.
4. True or False: Our beef is still considered safe enough that all countries accept it for import.

Ready for the answers?
See below...

1. True or False: The U.S. tests every cow for mad cow disease.
   False. Over one of every 100 cows is tested in the U.S. but Japan tests every cow.
2. True or False: Despite fears, Mad Cow disease has yet to be found in U.S. cattle.
   False. Three cases have been found, starting in 2003.
3. True or False: The USDA gives individual farmers the right to at least test their own cattle if they want to.
   False. The department refused, saying such testing would “imply a consumer safety aspect that is not scientifically warranted.” American consumer groups were apoplectic, but the beef industry which did not want to be pressured to spend $25 or so testing every animal applauded the move.
4. True or False: Our beef is still considered safe enough that all countries accept it for import.
   False. See BSE Trade Status as of July 28, 2006 for the list of over 60 countries that ban our meat.

The Edible Estates project proposes the replacement of the domestic front lawn with a highly productive edible landscape.

It's a bit of a fascinating idea, and one that Reverand Tom Launius, pastor of Southminster Presbyterian Church of Waukesha, is following through on. He's proposed that the church dedicate its front lawn to be a vegetable garden in order to feed parishoners or even the hungry. But get this &mdash Southminster had to get a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals and still has to get a conditional use permit from the city's Plan Commission. The Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously signed off on Southminster's plan, but the mere fact that this much is required (a permit?!) because a church wants to grow vegetables on their front lawn is a complete joke.

While we had the idea earlier to scrap our backyard in favor of a vegetable garden (see photo at left), it is tempting to eventually do the same to the front lawn in a show of solidarity, if only we didn't have so much shade. In any case, we dedicated one-third of our backyard, roughly 200 square feet, to a vegetable and herb garden. Last weekend, Kathy and the girls planted organic seeds they ordered in the new garden. Kathy's erected a fence to keep the rabbits out (they are still welcome to help mow the lawn) and we're hoping for a bounty that supplements the great organic vegetables we get from our CSA (community-sponsored agriculture) farm we will receive weekly organic vegetables from this summer. If you're in the mood for tips on a backyard garden, we recommend reading an article entitled Our Backyard Food Factory.

By the end of World War II, over 80 percent of American households were growing some of their own food. Within months after Victory Day this activity quickly subsided. Given the rising cost of oil and food, it may be time to help ourselves again with a new type of Victory Garden.

• Gillie won a trophy for 3 years in a row of receiving a rating of Superior at piano federation. Check out the photo of Gillie and her trophy.
• Both Scott and Gillie earned their next Taekwondo belts, which means they now have a yellow stripe on their red belts.
• Both Gillie and Carly won the Be Kind to Animals week photo contest from the Wisconsin Human Society. This was the second year in a row that Carly has won. Carly won for her photo of Eddie, the guinea pig from her class at school. Gillie won with a candid photo of Shadow when Shadow decided to lick the utensils in the dishwasher one night after dinner.
• Gillie was selected as a state finalist in the kndergarten - 3rd grade category of the Doodle 4 Google contest. Google had a contest to see which kids could draw something creative with the Google logo. Google sent Gillie a certificate and an art kit as a prize.

Yanoff Family "Green" Tip: It's spring, which means it is time to think about the lawn. In the Yanoff household, this means that we:

• Use a reel mower instead of a gas-powered mower &mdash granted, we have only a quarter of an acre lot here in Shorewood. But, if Scott's going to push a mower either way up and down that lot, why does it need to be gas-powered? Sure, the old mower didn't use much gas over the course of a summer, but it's one less machine spewing CO2 into the air.
• Use corn gluten instead of a chemical-based weed killer. Corn gluten meal is a powdery byproduct of the corn milling process. Used for years as a supplement in hog feed, this natural protein is very effective for lawns and gardens as a plant food as well as a weed supressor. You can usually find these at lawn & garden centers.
• Use a clothes lines instead of our electric-powered dryer whenever possible. Kathy strung up a series of clothes lines in our basement, actually, so that we can do this year-round rather than just doing it outside. While we don't dry everything this way, Kathy's been trying it with sheets and tableclothes and that seems to prevent a full load from making it into the dryer.

When you grow even a small portion of your own food, you reap manifold benefits. You get the satisfaction of reducing your dependence on others for your most basic needs. Vegetables are absolutely the best thing you can eat, and when you grow your own they are cheaper, fresher and tastier. You get to control what fertilizer is used (or not) to grow them, and no petroleum is required to truck them to your kitchen. You get to slow down a bit and maybe connect with your neighbor to swap surplus tomatoes or borrow a shovel. Best of all, you get to be out in the fresh air, using your muscles with a real purpose and not just completing sets of reps. It’s the perfect solution: get in shape while improving your diet.

Michael Pollan makes the point more completely in his essay, Why Bother?:

It is one of the absurdities of the modern division of labor that, having replaced physical labor with fossil fuel, we now have to burn even more fossil fuel to keep our unemployed bodies in shape [i.e., driving ourselves to the gym].

I say we take his advice. Let's skip the health club this summer and work out in our back yards instead.

(Photo: Flickr - Dr. Hemmert)

First up is a great article called Grains Gone Wild from the New York Times that really summarizes the current situation. It seems that the invasion of Iraq that was supposed to eventually lead to cheaper oil has instead created an oil shortage. The New York times article As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation Program paints an even worse picture. It seems that not only are farmers plowing under other crops in favor of corn, but they're turning away the government subsidy paid to them in order to preserve some fields for conservation. It seems that the subsidies can't compete with the current price paid for crops.

For a bit of fun, try either this Crossword game where you are given no clues, only parts of words and part of the alphabet to use to fill in the blanks; or check out How Well Do You Know Your World, a fun geography game that tests how well you know the world map.

Yanoff Family "Green" Tip: We've found a number of ways to save energy around the Yanoff household:

• Compact Flourescents — these can be had for $1 to $2 if you look for specials. They last forever and we've found that while some of the older versions are not the best for reading lamps, they do just fine outside for the porch light or for those lamps we have on timers to light up dark rooms after sundown.
• Use a reel mower instead of a gas-powered mower &mdash granted, we have only a quarter of an acre lot here in Shorewood. But, if Scott's going to push a mower either way up and down that lot, why does it need to be gas-powered? Sure, the old mower didn't use much gas over the course of a summer, but it's one less machine spewing CO2 into the air.
• Use stairs instead of the elevator &mdash whenever we get the chance, we opt for the stairs. Kathy has one flight up to her office and Scott has about three, so both try to set an example for others by forgoing the electric-powered elevator in favor of the stairs. Figuring that each staircase burns about 13-14 calories, a few flights up a couple of times a day can account for any naughty snacking we do that day. Scott's even begun leading his teammates to the stairwells instead of the elevators in hopes of getting his team on the right path.

And sure, I know it's the Internet but do a Google search and you'll find quite a few sites pointing out that Hank Aaron is supposedly a vegetarian, as well as Packers Superbowl MVP Desmond Howard. Protein is protein — no matter from where is comes. Prince will have to eat his share of vegetables to get it — but he WILL get it.

A quote we like:
How we treat the creation reveals how we feel about the creator. - Pastor Rob Bell

Oh, and there are some new photos up on www.Yanoff.org from our visit to the Mitchell Park Domes.

There's a great quote in the book about how in 2002, ConAgra had to recall 19 million pounds of E.coli-contaminated beef:

If 19 million pounds of meat distributed to half of this country had been contaminated with a deadly strain of E.coli bacteria by terrorists, we'd go nuts. But when it is done by a Fortune 100 corporation, we continue to buy it and feed it to our kids.