Hypermiler Ho!

New hypermiler topic. Find all hypermiling, hyperdriving, and nempimania posts here!!! Newest to oldest.
Hypermiler Champion!!! 124mpg in a honda insight

Hyper Driving: Saved 1 mpg the first day!!!

Cool Fuel Economy Blog!

Hypermiler Champion!!! 124mpg in a honda insight

Here he is!!! Jack Martin, a Honda Insight driver won the latest Hypermiler competition with 124 mpg, using hypermiler techniques.

"Hypermiling requires some dedication, but the basic principles are easy to learn:
Pumping up your tires to the maximum rating on their sidewalls, which may be higher than levels recommended in car manuals. This reduces rolling resistance.
Use engine oil of a low viscosity.
A useful, but controversial, practice is drafting behind other vehicles on the highway to reduce aerodynamic drag. If the guy in front of you slams on brakes, you will need to see a surgeon to have that tailpipe removed from your head.
Keep speeds down
Accelerate gently
Avoid excessive idling
Remove cargo racks to also cut down on aerodynamic drag.
Avoid unnecessary braking; coast to slow down."

I have been using some of the techniques and continue to increase my gas mileage each day. I will be posting stats soon...

Check it out on Tree Hugger.

Bicycle Drifting!!!

Now that's the type of drifting that I like to see and try! No gasoline required! I think I got some old tire laying around.

Hyper Driving: Saved 1 mpg the first day!!!

A friend of mine mentioned to me this thing call Hyper Driving or Hyper Miling, and being a green guy, I was very interested to try it. So I read up on it on wikipedia and some other sites and tried it out today on my weekly trek to Tuscon, AZ. It's 100 miles one way, mostly flat and straight.

These are the methods I used:
Driving Barefoot (throttle sensitivity)
Average 60 mph
Average 2350 rpms
Pulse and Coast (rev up to 65mph then put it in neutral and coasted to 55mph)
Windows open under 55, AC on low above 55.
Coast on off-ramps
Coast down hills

If you are interested in getting the most gas mileage out of your current vehicle, this is the way to do it!!! I'm on my first true tank of hyper-miling after filling up with $4 gas for the first time. I'll keep you posted!s

Earth Day Mini Garden

Here's an example of a mini garden that I started on Earth Day April 22, 2008. I wanted to see how much I could grow in this little space. I found the wood in an alley. Here's the box.

I lined it with an old t-shirt to keep the soil from falling out and weeds growing up. You could put a plywood bottom on it will holes drilled in it to make it mobile.

Then I planted in alphabetical order, Bok Choy, Carrots, Onions, Radishes, and Spinach per the back of the package. I watered it every day and here are the results.

Two Weeks in.... Yesterday...

Lots of growth. The Bok Choy is growing great, as are the radishes, the spinach is doing o.k. I think I need to thin the radishes and the spinach will get some more sun. The onions are coming out slow. The carrots sprouted a little, but have since been blocked out by the bok choy. On night I will make a salad with all my mini garden veggies, or maybe a stir fry!

Thanks for looking.

Remember anyone can garden anywhere:)

NPR Radio: Food Crisis! Get a garden and subsidise your food purchases!

NPR: Food Crisis hits middle class, listen here.

I was listening to NPR today and they had a story on Marketplace about the current food crisis. It covered three different families who were using home gardens to supplement their diet and save some money at the grocery store. If you are serious about having good food to eat and saving some money, a garden just may be for you! One point that was brought up was that a women didn't have time to garden. In my research with my own garden, after the initial set up with building the box, mixing the dirt, and planting your plants, I only spent less than 10 minutes on gardening a day. I could do alot more, but on my busy days I just give it a quick water and a check and harvest a little for lunch and dinner, thats it! Little time invested and I save so much $$$. Good luck Gardening!

Easy Asian Style Veggie Recipe

Here's a recipe for all you folks that are looking for something quick, veggie, and with lots of protein.

Veggie Stir Fry

2 Zucchini's (sliced)
1 Red Pepper (chopped)
1 package of mushrooms (sliced)
2 carrots (peeled and chopped)
1 package of firm Tofu
Soy Sauce
Shiracha Hot Sauce
1 cup of rice
1/2 cup of quineoa (keenwa! high in protien)

Combine rice and quineoa in rice cooker and cook.

Heat pan or wok and add a little of your favorite oil: peanut, sesame, olive, it don't matter:)

Add all veggies and tofu, stir fry for 8 minutes until all veggies are cooked thru. Add a dash of soy sauce and a dab of shiraca, stir.

Serve with rice mixture and enjoy!

If you want a full organic meal, use all organic ingredients. Now wasn't that easy!?

himomanddaditsaboy!!!!

Well, he's finally here!!!! Cavan Robert!!! 6lbs 4oz

I tried to find a 100% organic baby beanie, but none exsist. At least this one was locally handmade:)

biggreenbabyblog.com coming soon!!!

Al Gore New "Inconvient Truth" video in a convient 2 minutes

New Al Gore Speach cut into 2 minutes. Courtesy of SustyTV.com!
Time is now to take action!

Happy 4-20!

Here's ten things to do to keep the greenest day of the year greener!

1. Ride your bike to you "buddies" house
2. Play Frisbee or hackie sac
3. Shut off all the lights and tell ghost stories
4. Shower in the dark
5. Make up a live action "Cheech and Chong" skit.
6. Bake your brownies in a solar oven
7. Use a magnifing glass
8. Water your plants
9. Play guitar
10. Write to you Senator

Happy Green Day to you all!

Cool Fuel Economy Blog!

Here it is, Fuel Economy Tip of the Day!

Check it out, lots of content and tips on how to up your gas mileage! Good on dailyfueleconomytip.com

Add 10% to your gas mileage!

I did! Today, on my weekly trek to Tuscon, AZ for work I decided to try and drive in between 65 and 70 mph. I have been making the trip there for years doing 75-85 and always get 20 per gallon or less. So I wanted to see if slowing down helped my mileage and it did! By slowing down I dropped the RPM's of my 4runner thus running the engine at a lower speed and thus saving gas and $$$$. By the return of my trip I had 226.3 miles and used exactly 10 gallons of gas. I will try this again next week to time it exactly to see what the time difference is by actually slowing down.

Try it! Slow down 10 mph. Save the planet!

Here's some more tips to help improve your fuel efficency.
Thanks

Bob

New Zazzle T-Shirts

Printed on 100% organic cotton American Appearal T-Shirts

Inspired by one of my favorite and green things to do!


create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Strawberries are Poppin' Up!

Here's some pics of some strawberries popping out in bobs big green garden. I can't wait! Strawberries are some of the most expensive and necessary and tasty organic fruits out there. So it is in high priority that I grow these. I have three plants, one in each of my gardens, and each is starting to pop some berries out. I hope I get at least a good pound, maybe more! mmm...strawberry shortcake:)

freecycle.com

I've heard a little bit about this site and I am excited to use it. What a great way to reuse the stuff you don't want any more.

http://www.freecycle.org/

Welcome to the Green Roll and my daily habits!

I love my garden!

Here's a pic my friend Chrissie took while she was visiting from the great white north, Chicago. She was amazed at how much could be grown in a little space. Last night we made a salad with Romain Lettuce from the garden and we had enough to feed 6 adults with leftovers! All from $2.99 plants from Home Depot. So far it has provided 5 times the amount of lettuce for what I paid. I love free veggies and I love my garden! Have a great day!

Go Green, Live Rich!

Here's a book that I am definetly going to buy.

Go Green, Live Rich by David Bach

I alway knew that going green would save me some money in the pocket book. Yeah saving green!

Recipes Topic

Find all the recipes that I post up here...

All Vegetarian, all Organic!

Easy Asian Style Veggie Recipe
GoVeg.com Pad Thai recipe
bbgb's Organic Hummus Recipe

Anyone can cook! Even me:)

GoVeg.com Pad Thai recipe

MMM...Pad Thai. MMM...Veggie cooking. We made this last night with some tofu...mmm, it was great!!!!

GoVeg.com welcome to the Green Roll!!!

Ready Made mag

My brother Noah recommended this site to me. It's an online magazine that you click through like a real magazine (minus the paper:)

http://readymademag.com/

I really enjoyed the article about 10ft x 10ft dwellings. Check it out.

Recycle this!!!

Here's a site that we all should be using more.

http://www.recyclethis.co.uk/

Sunset Mag. Garden

Here's a great example of a large scale square foot garden with some style!

Check out this article and learn how you can use little space to grow a lot of Veggies!!!

HA HA Hummer H2's Suck!

Hummer H2 video!

HA, poor little fellow...shoulda bought a toyota.

I like to ride my bicycle! Topic

Here is where you will find all bicycle topics.

I make a green pledge...
Are you aware while biking? Driving?

I like to ride my bicycle. I like to ride my bike...

Bobs Big Green Garden Topic

Here's where you will find all of my posts of Bobs Big Green Garden.

Square Foot Garden Begins!!!
Square Foot Garden Continues: Mixing Soil
Bobs FIRST Tomato!!!!
I love my garden!

New BBGB garden begins!

Thank you for gardening:)

I make a green pledge...

I am making a green pledge to deliver all of my eBay items and other things that need to be shipped directly to the shipping store via bicycle. I figure I can save my self gas, save UPS and the USPS gas, save the Earth from more toxic emissions, get a little exercise and have fun at the same time! All I did to my cruiser was add a flat mount saddle platform on the seat post and a couple of bungee cords and move this large box to the shipping store today.

Bob

Bobs FIRST Tomato!!!!

Here she is...all red and shiney. mmm...can't wait for more of those! Easter Tomato!!! This was a cherry tomato that Jen and I quickly enjoyed.

Are you aware while biking? Driving?

WATCH ME!

Here's a British ad on awareness while you are biking...

Never even saw it coming!

Be safe on your bike while commuting

Happy Green Day!!!

Just a quick "Happy St. Patty's Day" to all of you!!! Here's an update on how my garden is growing. Lots of life sprouting up in Bob's Big Green Garden! Tomatoes are coming in and I had my first sandwich with garden lettuce. Also we've been making some great guacamole with the cilantro that is blowing up in the garden... almost hard to use it all. Have a great green day!

Earth Hour!!! March 29, 2008 8pm Mtn Time!

Phoenix Earth Hour

Lets turn out the lights for one hour for the Earth!!! Check out this site to see what happens when we do.

Here's my Earth Hour site.

Go Girl! 365 er 366 days of doing something greeen!!!

You gotta check out this blog:
She's got the right idea!!! Wish I was as diligent at blogging as her!

http://greenasathistle.com/

bottled water is more expensive than gasoline!

Bottled water is evil!!! Please find your own water container and refill it!

Courtesy of Greenberg cartoon!

Z-day is coming to a city near you!!!

What is it? Z-day

When? March 15th, 2008

Where? Near you!

Check these lyrics!

two party system

Vote Green, Stop the Machine!!!

Vote Green

If you want to stop the corporate control of the country and want real answers, consider the one man who's been agaist the corporate machine...

Ralph Nader

He's not gonna win, but he'll ask the right questions at the debate that the canidates don't want to answer. Lets start answering questions!!!

Worlds Largest Solar Farm to be in AZ!!!

Check out this link...

 

Who'd a thunk it...a solar farm in Arizona? 

 

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/abengoa_solar_t.php

 

yeah solar!!!

Square Foot Garden Continues: Mixing Soil

Here are some pics of me mixing up "Mels Mix." The recipe is from Mel Bartholomew's book, Square Foot Gardening. One third mixed compost, one third peat moss, one third vermiculite. You want to use 5 or more different composts so the plants have all the nutrients they may need and you achieve this by mixing different brands together. Peat moss is that nice, smelly, good for your soil stuff that comes from swamps. You can find at many home and garden centers. Vermiculite is volcanic rock that is heated up until it explodes into little styrofoam like pieces. This stuff really absorbs and holds water really good. Make sure you save some vermiculite so you can sprout seeds with it later. Vermiculite is a little tricky to find but after some searching I found it at my favorite nursery.

Mix the different composts together on a tarp or big sheet of plastic so nothing goes to waste. Once those are well mixed, add the peat moss and vermiculite. Keep turning with a shovel or by folding over the tarp, this should get it to a good mixture. Once all is mixed, fill up your box!

Go Steve Nash, Go Suns, Go Green!!!

He's our number one player doing his part for the planet. Check out the new shoe he's promoting from 100% recycled waste from the Nike factory. Gimme a G...

Switch your air filter...Save gas!!!

I just changed my air filter in my 1996 Toyota 4Runner with 226k miles. I'm trying to see how my gas milage improves. I've noticed an increase in power, even with a stock filter. I have friends who run a K&N Filter system and have seen great results. I might get one, but I gotta save some gas $$$ first!

Just trying to make her last as long as I can!!!

Nuclear Power might be good for us???

Check it out!!!! mmm...nuclear.

Square Foot Garden Begins!!!

Here is the first step in my square foot garden...building the frame. I took two 8ft, cedar 2x6's and cut them in half. Screwed them together with galvanized screws, lined the bottom with burlap and tadaa! Instant site for a garden! I am going to add the soil mixture later, but here's a good start. This could be used in an entry way, on a patio, on the side of the house, think of the spots that you have 4ft x 4ft in you yard or patio and you could build one of these. OR! Just build a box as big as you want and plant whatever you want as well! Enjoy mini gardening.

Here are some plants that I am starting indoors, so that later I can plant them outside. Garlic (the tall ones), carrot tops (maybe they'll sprout?), and some onions and beans in the container. (which is some leftover deli containers filled with vermiculite, on top of each other to create a mini green house). The onion seeds have started to sprout, the beans are taking a little while longer.



I will continue to post updates on how my progress is going! I am curious to see how much produce I can get from this one garden and in future gardens!!!



I got all these fun ideas from:



the All New Square Foot Gardening book and website!

Have you checked out T-Bag lately? Biker friendly!

There's a group in my hometown of Tempe, AZ thats trying to raise awareness for bicycles as transportation and fun that has a website you have to check out!

TBAG

Good People!

How many paper towels do you use in the Bathroom?

Just a little check to see if everyone can cut back on their paper towel usage after using public restrooms. Just think how many trees would be saved if we all only use one paper towel at a time...or better yet, just wipe your hands on your pants!

Composting is Fun! and good for the green lifestyle!

Composting: the collecting of ones kitchen scraps and paper products, mixing together for a few months and creating black gold! If you don't know already, composting is a great way to be green! Not only are you not throwing your organic garbage in the landfill to rot and add to the escalating amounts of methane, but you're creating the worlds best fertilizer! It's the circle of life all inside of a garbage pail. You ad organic material, add water, add more material, wait, stir, wait, stir, add, wait, stir...when your compost is a nice shade of black, you are ready to put it in your garden where you will grow tasty, healthy vegetables that you will cut up and throw the scraps into your compost pile and thus, the circle continues.

My wife and I have been composting all of our non-cooked kitchen scraps (minus meat product and dairy) and all of our shredded office paper in our backyard composter for the last three months. We have noticed that we are taking the garbage out less and less each week and truley destroying our disposed financial documents (who wants to dig through my compost for my credit card number?) We also throw in all of our dryer lint, paper towel and toilet paper tubes, weeds, dead leaves, egg shells, fireplace ashes, etc.
So far, we have only filled our 25 gallon trash can less than half way. You can use any container you want to hold your compost, we chose this 25 gallon Brute trash can for its compact size and tight fitting lid. We just leave it in the back yard and let it do it's magic. I stir it about once a week to airrate it and to mix all the good stuff together. I added a little water to begin the pile with and haven't added any more lately. You want it moist, not wet, but moist. If you have to much liquid drain it off into a bucket and dissolve 1 cup of the tasty brown liquid into one gallon of water to make "compost tea." You can then give all of your plants a drink of this perfect food. It's like a V8 for your plants! You want to make sure you have a good 1 to 3 ratio of greens (kitchen scraps, weeds, lawn cutting, etc.) and browns (carboard, newspaper, office paper, etc)... This makes sure you have a perfect mixture of carbon and nitrogen, which make the compost alive. I have thought about adding some red worms to the mix, but I am afraid I will bake them in the container. I am looking at some worm farms to help break down some of my waste sooner.

I will be updating everyone on the progress of my compost bin. I plan on using it in my Square Foot Garden...Coming Soon!!!

Here's a couple links for extended reading on composting:

How to compost.org

Tree hugger.com

Anti-Radiation Diet

A friend of mine send this link over to me today... It includes some information on what foods are good for you and which vitamins are essential to fighting old age. I use some of the foods and vitamins in this article, but I am definetly going to up my intake after reading it! Click, Live long and eat good food!

bbgb's Organic Humus Recipe

mmm....humus.

1 can of organic garbanzo beans (drained, save liquid)
2 cloves of fresh garlic
2 tablespoons of organic tahini
2-4 tablespoons of organic olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 blender
1 big bag of pita chips or flat bread

Blend all ingrediendts in blender on medium, adding garbanzo bean juice to thin consistency. Garish with tomatoe's, olives, cucumber slices, etc. Try not to eat it all at once, no one will kiss you for a long time:( If you like it let me know!!!

Eat less meat, Ride a bike!

As said by Rajendra Pachauri at a Paris press confrence, "Please eat less meat -- meat is a very carbon intensive commodity," Read the article here.

Welcome to Bob's Big Green Blog!!!

This is the first post on bbgb! I am a newbie at blogging and am using this as my test subject...(wahaaaahahahah...evil laugh:) I wanted to start a blog to tell the world of my opinions of living the green lifestyle. I am not perfect, (as none of us are), but am constantly striving to do something everyday to lessen my impact on the earth. Check back often for new posts and tips!!!

Thanks for checking,

Bob's Big Green Blog