Comments for Carbon Free Family

Comment on Roadtrippin’ with our Tesla by Erin Augustine

Erin Augustine — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 09:57:35 +0000

Kathy! What an adventure! Robbie and I were talking about this the other day… the difference between the range listed on the dash and the range listed on the map. I couldn’t understand why they would be different?!?! But then Robbie said something that helped it click into place for me… the range on the dash is fixed; it’s NOT dynamic. It assumes some sort of average driving conditions. Whereas the range on the map IS dynamic, constantly adjusting to driving speed, temperature, wind/drag, etc. For example, Robbie routinely drafts behind a semi if he knows he’s going to be tight on range 🙂

Have you ventured back out to the Marshall charging station yet? I highly recommend a “practice run” at the charger sometime when you don’t need it and have plenty of time to figure out the details of connecting. It’s pretty intuitive though… hopefully it will be a piece of cake for you to get the hang of it!

Comment on Roadtrippin’ with our Tesla by Kathy Ossmann

Kathy Ossmann — Fri, 14 May 2021 01:35:07 +0000

Today was the first time I took our new Tesla Model Y on a longish trip – to Ann Arbor for a doctor’s appointment. To and from Paw Paw should have been just under the max capacity. So we got it all charged up to 100% last night. When I got to the doctor’s office it was down to 55% so I felt pretty confident that I could make it home without needing a charging station. I knew there was one in Marshall but didn’t know exactly where and hadn’t learned how to look them up on the Tesla info screen yet. As the gauge went lower and lower I started to get worried. But I calculated what percentage it should go down each 1/2 hour of the trip if the rate of discharge remained the same as it was during the outbound part of my travel. That proved to be true so I figured I would still have 10% when I pulled into our garage. Turned out it was 9% and I was getting a message to charge immediately or I might not be able to start it next time. I guess that might have been cutting it a bit close! At any rate, it’s out there charging now and my app tells me its up to 92%. It will be ready for tomorrow’s adventure!

Comment on Goods (including clothes, kitchen gadgets, and anything else you regularly buy) by Erin Augustine

Erin Augustine — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 01:52:35 +0000

I mentioned several favorite books during our call tonight. Here are a few links in case you want more information.

1) Buy Me Once website that highlights durable products
https://buymeonce.com/

2) The book: A Life Less Throwaway was written by the founder of the Buy Me Once website, Tara Button. I love this book and highly recommend it
https://buymeonce.com/pages/a-life-less-throwaway

3) Another book: Soulful Simplicity by Courtney Carver. This book talks about simple living and how to design a capsule wardrobe.
https://bemorewithless.com/soulful-simplicity-/

Comment on Home + Transportation by Erin Augustine

Erin Augustine — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 01:46:33 +0000

Hi friends! I’m sharing a couple of resources promised during our time together last week.

1) An article about how much energy is wasted storing unwanted emails.
https://www.cnet.com/news/spams-carbon-footprint-one-e-mail-is-like-driving-three-feet/?fbclid=IwAR1r3C8XgEl5v4FtkLlpHXrxPlpvkFJBbvQGeyJqEXXVXIsuo_OZCC83Q4o

2) A service several friends recommended to help you reduce your junk emails.
https://unroll.me/?fbclid=IwAR0QcdhshNp7dMwsI4UHH2HnvsOWc8yP3ZU1LQoyN5HjKZrgD86dXMOAWys

3) Lastly, information about stopping junk mail from arriving at your home.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email#:~:text=To%20opt%20out%20for%20five,at%20www.optoutprescreen.com.

Comment on 2021 Intentions (part 1) by Erin Augustine

Erin Augustine — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 11:31:00 +0000

Thanks for your kind words of encouragement. I LOVE how creatively you’re thinking about this new car decision! And I can’t wait to hear about your test drive!

Comment on 2021 Intentions (part 1) by Kathy Ossmann

Kathy Ossmann — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 20:22:12 +0000

You’re such an inspiration! We are excited to have an appointment to test drive a Tesla on Feb. 13th! It’s the next step for us now that our 2011 Prius has more repairs needed than make sense for the age of the car. We were a bit reluctant to go 100% electric because of occasional long trips. But then realized that we could rent a car on those few occasions. The savings we’d have on maintenance of an all-electric car would offset the rental costs.

Comment on Food (including food waste) by Erin Augustine

Erin Augustine — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 23:14:41 +0000

One more link to share:
The recipe for my mother-in-law’s amazing tomato sauce:
https://carbonfreefamily.com/canned-tomato-sauce

And a whole course I created to help people preserve more local food:
https://carbonfreefamily.com/courses/preserve-local-food-for-eating-all-year-long

Comment on Food (including food waste) by Erin Augustine

Erin Augustine — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 12:17:31 +0000

Here are a few more Grand Rapids area winter farmers market options. I think we discussed each of these during our conversation last week.

https://www.wmfarmlink.com/

https://www.rekomarket.com/

Milk Share – this is a private group on Facebook. If you want to join, I’m happy to invite you and introduce you to the organizers. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2139916972816130

Comment on Food (including food waste) by Erin Augustine

Erin Augustine — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 11:18:26 +0000

I’m posting the great resources Susanne shared by email earlier this week:

I wanted to share two of my favorite cookbooks with you as some of you are trying to take out less and reduce meat and dairy.

The first one Vegan Reset is a fabulous guide to prep meals ahead of time and then just assemble during busy times. It has a 28 days meal plan, a shopping list for each week and you will learn how to cook super yummy vegan food. The plan seems to be enough for 2 adults…at least for us.
https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Reset-Kickstart-Healthy-Lifestyle/dp/1328454037/ref=asc_df_1328454037/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312134205520&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6623694348168867812&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017521&hvtargid=pla-525041710956&psc=1

The second is just yummy vegan food, Oh She Glows, 100 vegan recipes is the one I have. But there are more from the same author and they are all great
https://www.amazon.com/Oh-She-Glows-Cookbook-Recipes/dp/1583335277/ref=sr_1_4?crid=21RFZNVTYOYYK&dchild=1&keywords=oh+she+glows+cookbooks&qid=1611330886&s=books&sprefix=oh+she+%2Cstripbooks%2C489&sr=1-4

Comment on Food (including local, unpackaged, and unprocessed) by Erin Augustine

Erin Augustine — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 11:36:20 +0000

Carrie – I forgot to mention packaging size last night! Once more strategy to reduce your packaging when shopping a more traditional grocery store is to buy bigger containers. The packaging to food ratio is slightly smaller in bigger containers. For example, buying the quart container of yogurt instead of individual serving size reduced your total plastic. This only works as a net positive strategy if you’re sure you can eat all of the food before it expires. I’ve certainly had lots of conversations with people who overbuy when shopping at stores like Costco or Sam’s. We can talk more about this next week if you want. Cheers!