ecodweeb

Well this is interesting! Hanes is looking at Hemp as an alternative to cotton for their clothing: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/hemp-fabric-our-lives

My Grey is 17, he's lived in the house going on two years now, and only recently has he done this. I thought he was going nuts, but then I found out (thanks to Google) that yes, this is normal behavior!

You turn your car off too, MsGardeness? Kudos to you! People think I am nutty to shut the car off at a long stop light or waiting in a long line (like a backup on I-40 from a semi fire - we're not going anywhere for an hour, at least). Every little bit helps!

To be fully honest the only reason we got it was the diesel engine. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but it works. I'm amazed, given it's Jeep's small utility, it just towers over the CV-R, RAV4 and other "cute yutes" that it competes against when you park next to them. We make good use of the 4x4 system each summer at the beach, and we live in a flood prone zone ... so disaster was another factor in getting a 4x4 vehicle. Even when you 'replace' the Jeep with a new daily driver, keep it. They don't make them like that anymore. That was one of the better vehicles they made, don't let it go!

They do make the 5200k CFLs but they cost even more than the 5400 "warm" CFLs that are like $2-3 each these days. Do you have a Cherokee? I find that most of the non-Jeep SUVs have horrible ride heights and just don't do well. To be fair, the Liberty CRD is really loud but not that sooty/smokey (unless the turbo pipe blows off -- that has happened once). The Grand Cherooke Clean CRD they had for all of one year was just as quiet as the V6 gasoline model and had 0 tailpipe output, but I don't think it got exception economy (24-26 I think?), the 30MPG capability was our primary reason for the Liberty -- that and its ability to move bird cages, of course! You might want to consider a Subaru, they have 4x4 and usually are higher ground clearance than other cars. The current ones aren't that beautiful looking, but sometimes function means more than form.

Are you looking at a hybrid SUV/CUV or a station wagon for its replacement, Judy? You'd really benefit from the diesel being in rural settings; our Jeep has a daily cycle of +/-70 miles (30 pure highway and at offpeak travel hours) and it gets easily 24mpg (450-475 miles before we fill it up, don't trust the low fuel warning). With a lighter foot and a long drive I've gotten nearly 600 miles out of it (30mpg). The VW sedan can go upwards of 700 miles pure highway, 600-650 in combined cycle (worst ever was 525 miles). But these are older vehicles; the new clean diesels seem to be as good once broken in but have 0 visible exhaust out their tail pipe. I'm disappointed in the SUV hybrid economy; not very good if you use more highway than stop and go city. I have had mixed luck with CFLs. I'm really not a fan of them, plus I question the true econess of them with the Mercury content. Still looking at LEDs, I don't know why they are not more common place -- they've existed since like the 70s!

thift needs to make a huge comeback, reuse and make do is the way to go!

aww too cute! Lulu followed my partner up the stairs reciting his name with every step up the railing!

How funny, I was a little late for work today and grabbed the first shirt I saw on the floor of the bathroom. Later that day my chiropractor tells me I have bird poop on the back of my shirt, right as I was telling him of our newly adopted girl. Little soap and water in a rag took care of it!<br><br>Post edited by: kcfoxie, at: 2009/08/13 19:11

Isn't it great when they entertain themselves at the expense of the other household pets?

My female is cursing from her previous home; and she says the a-hole word when I offer my fingers for her to step up, almost every time. I am trying the route of ignoring it, and not reacting to it -- reacting is reinforcing that this action gets a reaction. That methodology seems to work with biting -- or it did with the last one -- so we shall see. I reward her with a grape for nice things like hello, goodbye, how are you?

Aloe! I feel so dumb, we keep aloe stocked at all times (both humans of the house burn easy). I will use that on her tonight -- the redness has reduced a lot. We applied a little more neosporin on the areas last night, and she does not beak them before it soaks in (I was really careful not to use excessive amounts). Red Palm oil... I will look for this, can I get it at any GNC/nutrition store? Would it be safe to soak their Roudybush pellets in the juice and then serve that to them w/ fresh veggies and fruits (they get a mix, Phoenix: 1 almond, 3 baby carrots, and a half hand of pellets / Talula: 4 grapes and half a hand of pellets, she's not shown me she likes any of the offered nuts yet)

I wanted to pose this question as in chat last night I noticed a lot of very refreshing comments about hunting/consuming wild game and shopping for non toxic cleaners at Earth Faire/Whole Foods. How eco-conscious are you? Does it cross your mind, or do you do it for other reasons besides the whole "being green" fad? I'll start... Prior to getting Phoenix I learned about diesel volkswagens, having always wanted an aircooled Beetle (and got it, a 73 Super Beetle) as a child, I got into the whole Volkswagen show scene. I then learned about the aircooled's replacements -- the "waterwagens" and a lot of the "old schoolers" who showed up with 80s VWs had diesel VWs. I didn't know diesel engines were offered in cars so I ask why get a diesel? The response was 45 to 60 miles to the gallon, I didn't believe them. I was wrong! My father acquired our neighbors 1986 VW Golf diesel, non turbo. This puppy can drive to Asheville NC from Memphis TN -and back- on 10 gallons of fuel. Thats better than 60 miles to the gallon. It isn't very fast, and no 80s car was really safe, but it's amazing given it's just a 4-cylendar motor, and a decade before the first hybrid cars came out. Well, then my mom had a coworker who bought a new beetle in 2000 (I REALLY wanted on of those cars, and in 2004 I did buy one -- but a gas model), and he got nearly 800 miles out of it's 15 gallon tank, over 50MPG! I couldn't believe that! So fast forward to I bought that New Beetle on 2004, when I moved to NC. I then learned about this thing called biodiesel - a diesel fuel made from vegetable oils, algae, or rendered animal fat. A local co-op started up and was making Biodiesel for sale to 'normal people' who wanted to use it to reduce their carbon foot print and reverse the direction we send our money for our transportation fuel. I was less interested in the green part but very interested in the localizing my money part -- because a healthy local economy makes for a healthy national economy. So in 2007 my beloved 100k mile 2002 new beetle (that I bought in 2004) was traded in for a brand new 2006 Jetta TDI. I now have almost 100,00 miles on this car (3 years in Feb Ill have owned it, that's how much I drive) and its given me a lifetime average of over 41mpg; love the car. Love the smell of the biodiesel (smells like fries!), and all of this played a bigger role in my life than I would ever know.... So I'd embarked on this "green" path with my car, but for obvious reasons: the fuel is local, the car gets outstanding fuel economy, and it's all win-win for me. Then my partner's mom called and said she was getting new carpet and we needed to take Phoenix to our house. So we did. I had a terrible accident with a cat urine stain, carpet, and an exploded bottle of bleach. After that incident, I started research citrus based cleaners for my house -- I was scared I'd accidentally kill this little bird that was now living with us. I like Sun & Earth cleaners, but I'll buy just about anything at Earth Faire or Whole Foods that is a non toxic cleaner. I'm also big into solar power; my Beetle came with a solar panel that plugged into the power outlet to keep the battery charged if the car was to be parked for an extended period of time (more than two weeks). I've rigged this up with one of those multi-port power splitters for your car and charge my cell phone, and sometimes my Asus netbook, with the panel. I have three of them and have linked them into a series array (I believe that is the right term) and they produce enough power to charge an iPhone while it's turned on, any other cell phone, and my laptop if it's turned off. I also have solar powered battery rechargers, and use nothing but rechargeable batteries. We recycle when we can, we also use CFL lights in the house -- but I've had two of them explode and the mercury scares me. I'm looking at the very expensive option of LED lighting to upgrade my entire house with; its a one-time investment that should last 15-25 years (longer than I'll keep the condo). The price per bulb on ebay is $15; it's quite an investment but the light is very cool white. I've found that Phoenix is likes the LED lights more than the CFL ones, his beahvior at night is different when the living room is LED lit vs CFL lit (I think the color of the light is why this change happens). So, that's my forte into the survivalist/environmentalist/responsible consumer movements, what is yours?

What are diesel prices in England? I drive a diesel VW, it gets 40+ MPG in combined use, and at slower US highway speeds (55-63mph) it will get 50 to 52mpg (52 is the best I've gotten). England has so many more diesel VWs, BMWs, and Ford cars than we get in the US, I would really love to import some but I can't due to our EPA and their backwards way of doing things. Even if diesel exhaust was twice as deadly (it isn't, it's actually slightly better than gasoline exhaust despite the visibility from the soot/particulate matter) you get about 30% more miles to the gallon. Diesel was as high as $5 a gallon a little over a year ago, and gas was $4 a gallon. Everyone slowed down to about 5mph under the speed limit and I went from 580-625 miles out of a tank average to 650-680 miles per tank, I think from March thru November I filled my vehicle up twice a month every month, if that -- and I put 300mi/week on going to and from work. Not everyone can afford a new car, but if your vehicle is nearing retirement it might be worth looking into a VW diesel -- they're about the only car maker who sells diesel cars in the US (and they are the cheapest). Prior to 2006 you could get any model VW (golf, beetle, jetta, passat) with a TDI diesel engine, after 2006 the only cars with them are the Jetta and the Touareg SUV. The Jetta also comes in a station wagon variant that is a somewhat OK replacement for an SUV. I also have a Diesel Liberty (2005-2006 model years USA) that gets 30 highway and 18-21 in town (depends on your foot). Any 06 or ealier diesel can also use biodiesel, made from vegetable oil. It's not hard to do (but I do not advise anyone to try and use veggie oil in its raw form as a fuel -- leads to very expensive engine failures 98.8% of the time), lots of website that show the process and it's a fun chemical reaction that gets youngsters interested in science. If you know someone with a greasy spoon/mom and pop diner, and you can spare $500 in hardware and another $300 in consumables, you can make free diesel fuel (must pay road taxes to your state, unless they exempt you -- NC has laws that exempt home brewing under 2000 gallons a year, fed requires no taxes on under 500 gallon/year volume -- for my car 500 gallons = 20,500 miles at 41mpg. Just something to think about. Bikes are also a great option if you don't have very far to go; but that's not the case for me being in the computer business -- i travel to many remote locations to work on locked up servers. I had to have a very fuel efficient car, and I think I found it. I really love my Jetta, but I really wish I'd gotten another Bug (I have had two gas New Beetles, good experiences with one of them -- the other had over 200k miles and was running on 3 cylinders when I got it, I locked that one up). Bugs have "grab handles" on the passenger side of the dash -- sort of like our Jeep Liberty -- that the birds can perch on while parked.

Let me start with, I have little desire to own a firearm, but being a southern boy I understand the passion that this conversation carries. I feel it is absolutely insane that if you go though the processes you can't carry your concealed weapon from state to state, I saw just how stupid this was in Ocean City, MD in 2008. We go to a H20 International, a VW/Audi "show and shine" turned full-fledged car show, and one of our guys from NC had his concealed unloaded pistol in his car. On the way to our Beathany Beach DE beach house, he was pulled for a dead tail light. He told the cop up front, I have a concealed weapon in my glove box. The officer arrested him on the spot, weapons are illegal in Deleware (this may have been in MD? I don't really recall, the two states intertwine around the Costal Highway), regardless, it took a year to battle. He lost the gun (not a huge loss in the grand scheme, it was an old piece that he wasn't really attached to), but he didn't end up serving any jail time. He was released from holding after a few hours. Now, what that stated. I prefer tasers and stun guns, preffibly the ones that exceed 400,000 volts -- more than 5 seconds will permanently affect muscles. Guns can leave cool scars for thugs to talk about, but there is not glamming up a gimpy arm. That's my logic, anyway. This bill should have passed.

bry - I quit umm 8 to 10 months ago. I did it shortly after Phoenix moved in with us (he'd been living with my ersatz mother). It's hard, I know. this is the second time I've quit, but I don't intend to allow myself to stress out to the point of breaking down and starting again. It is hard to do, but the birds give me a lot of strong reasons not to start again. hang in there, you're doing the right thing. KC

oooh this is brilliant. I think i need to construct one of these ladders for my babies.

Dave I printed that out and have placed it near Talula's cage as a reminder of the great task at hand with her. Thank you.

I am KC, and this is me with Phoenix.

My hat is off to you, I am in a similar situation though my female seems to be more of a lover than she lets on. She just was never trained to step onto a hand (just a covered arm, throw a towel on your forearm and she offers a foot every time). She's also a plucker -- not something your female does not seem to be doing. How big is your girl? She looks similar in color to mine, but my female is much bigger than my male - and I thought it was the other way around! She will come around in due time.

Thank you all for the warm welcome They are very flirty already!

Well, we've made some good progress with Lulu: she's starting to step up. She's still apprehensive, but she's getting there. I find it funny how quickly they have started to mimic one another. She got her beak and nails trimmed by a female friend of ours -- and she handled that well, I'm thinking she just didn't like the women of the previous house hold and not women in general. She's also a jumper. We found that out when she jumped off my shoulder and onto the table; so now I try to cradle her so she won't jump. Jumping on the table she flapped so hard she rubbed the same joint on both wings raw. Online research said that a small amount of neosporin would help, so we applied it -- she was VERY receptive to this. I was surprised, I figured she would not be very welcoming to a Q-tip with neosporin coming near her wings, but she was quite the sweetie pie. When is mating season? I think they're trying to do mating dances when they get glimpses of each other.

Hi everyone, this is my third post. I never properly introduced myself. My name is KC, and I have two greys. The oldest, Phoenix, is my partner's parrot. he moved into our house a year ago, having lived for about 6 years with my partner's mother. He's been in my partner's family for at least 10 years now, we believe he is around 17 years of age -- the band on his foot is too old for any of the known band makers kept records, and no one knows of call sign PAT out of NC. We know he was born in NC; and has never left the state. This is phoenix in his harness (he chews on it, does not like the red): Phoenix and I go walking on a trail near my house, he rides on my shoulder. I have earrings and occasionally he strikes at it, but this usually is when we're going up or down a hill, and I'm not convinced he isn't balancing himself. Of the two he is the clumsy one. This is poor miss Talula. between 8-10 (band says 99, which I assume is birth year).. she is our most recent addition. We've had her two days as of this posting, she does not seem to care much about Phoenix but I've not let them actually interact. I allow my birds to perch on the furniture with us, both have clipped -- well Talula is feather less from plucking -- wings and so they just sit with us as part of the flock. I've put them on separate furniture, this is as close as I've let them come to one another. They can see each others cage -- one at the top of stairs (Lulu) and the other at the bottom (Phoenix) by the 55 gallon fish tank that has out Oscar, Chamaula. Phoenix has a much bigger cage, and my first priority is to get a better cage for Lulu. Phoenix seems jealous (his feet got hot!) when he saw how she can climb up and down the back of the chair to/from the cushion due to her size. Her feet are much bigger than his, and she can just do things he can't. I think this made him jealous or scared of her, and while he makes a few noises in mimicry of her, they haven't really started talking. Talula is a talker... "Hello!" "What are you doing?" and I could swear (she came from a home with 12-14 year old kids...) she said "I will KILL you!" followed by video game noises once already. She sat near an alarm (as did Phoenix in his past) and both make Brinks distinctive "beep beep beep" noises from when doors opened in disarmed mode. I love them dearly, I hope that miss Lulu starts to trust me more (she screamed to high heavens when I flipped her on her back and used my thumb to pin her beak away from my fingers to read her leg band for the adoption paperwork). She seems to have taken a liking to my partner more so than me, which is fine. His bird tends to favor me more -- so we're equal now. I will add this site to my repository of websites I visit every day, including TDIClub - for VW diesel powered cars, LOST Jeeps - for our Diesel Liberty (notice a theme? ask me about biodiesel!), and the local VW club forums, plus some biodiesel-related forums, and a few other "green" forums. About me... KC is a nickname, the screen name is derrived from the "foxy lady from kansas city" which was where my first VW came from. I have an avid love affair with VW cars; which now centers around diesels -- mostly because I live in NC and work with computers. My side work usually consists of gas station/retail POS back office systems and I tend to travel upwards of 60 miles to a single site to do my work; I work about 24 mile from home -- this is 'normal' I'd say, for my region. If you've never known, VW TDIs, or diesel cars in general, tend to get 30% better fuel economy than a gas car. This works out to about 40-43mpg combined driving, upwards of 50mpg on long highway stretches. Put another way, I throw $34 in biodiesel (non toxic, biodegradable, renewable diesel fuel made from a variety of plants and animal fats, even algae) in the car and drive from the heart of NC to the Mississippi River in memphis TN with fuel left to spare (750 miles on 15 gallon, 50mpg). We have a Jeep with a diesel, and it can go from 400-550 miles on a tank; where the V6 gas model we had got 350 miles highway. As I said I'm a computer guy, and I have an affinity for Linux computers (but work on anything, I'm Apple certified - not something you run across every day). So thanks for listening to my ranting, and I hope to be a more active member of this community. I'm rather young and these birds are too, so I hope that we live a full and long life together. Cheers, KC

I will do that right now! I am looking at their site, I am comfortable enough to clip a toe nail and get the blood, but it would be easier (sadly) to wait for him to break a blood feather again (it happens a lot..), and use that on the sample card. I may do the same for Talula just to be sure.

Hi Everyone, So, I'm at a loss here. I have a known female (I was told she has laid an egg before by the previous caregiver), but she drawfs my male. I have not had the male DNA sexed, but I know two DNA sexed males and he tries to "spar" with them and puffs up -- acting as, what the books I've read through suggest -- a male. He isn't intimidated by her, and she isn't intimidated by him, but they've not been able to get near each other -- and won't for a while. The closest I've allowed them is in the same room on different backs of furniture. They can see, and sometimes talk to each other (whistles), but that's it. I'm very cautious about their interactions. But why is this known girl so much bigger?! I found a page (link: http://www.petbirdpage.com/breed.asp?breed=grey) that says that there are actually up to three types of "Congo" greys, the Camaroon, the Ghana, and the "normal" Congo -- the Camaroon is 20% bigger than the standard grey, this fits Miss Talula's profile. The Ghana is supposedly a condo the size of a Timneh, which I've never seen one in person, but looking at the feet Talula's are much larger than Phoenix's. I've attached a photo of Talula (age 8, she's the one without feathers, yes, she's a plucker... it's going on day 2 and she's stopped shredding what is left of her feathers, so I think we're on the right track) and Phoenix (he's a good little guy, he's about 17). Thanks! KC Talula <br><br>Post edited by: kcfoxie, at: 2009/08/10 14:52