Free Dirt!

Call me naive, call me delusional or just call me smart! I've been gearing up mentally for a recession for years. It's not that I'm clairvoyant or a financial genius. It's just that I'm already married, have a house, a kid, and one on the way and I haven't even reached 30 yet! I like to call it thrifty.

I'm always under pressure to save money for the real necessities in life: Good Food and Good Times. So with all the mud slinging going on these days in the financial world, I've chosen to block it out pretend that my biggest problem is getting my vegetable garden planted this year.

Of course, I don't have a compost pile. I always just dump all the yard trimmings in a field to create brush piles for rabbits. (that's another episode) So, when I'm fiending for the good stuff - thick stinky black compost - I take a trip to my local municipality yard.

This is the ultimate recycling center in my mind. Most municipalities I've inquired about collect everyone's Christmas trees in the trash when it's time to pitch them. Then they shred them up into mulch and leave it in a huge pile at the municipality.

You can drive in and get as much as you want. Some places charge a low fee per truck load and some places have it for free. The most I've ever paid is $2...I found it in change laying around my car.

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to commandeer my father in law's trailer to hitch on to the back of my van. That sucker holds a lot of dirt! Alternatively, you can line your trunk with a tarp or bring a big bucket...like a metal or plastic keg bucket...and get enough for a small area of your garden. The size is perfect if you are growing vegetables on your apartment's fire escape.

If you do this, the next time you go to buy potting soil or mulch, you will certainly scoff at the price. $5 for a cubic foot of top soil? I think not!

Possibly the coolest laptop bag...

Here she is people, a solar generator laptop bag with a padded area for your laptop, up to 17".

Granted, there is not enough power to charge your laptop, but it can charge small electronic devices like a cell phone or blackberry or an mp3 player.

Loving it!

It comes with a battery pack so you can store the energy, it's made out of recycled plastic, and has a place for headphones or a hydration system.

The cost at this website: www.verdantcomputing.com is $249, a little above my budget for laptop bags. But seeing as how it is actually useful beyond regular everyday usage, I don't think it's too bad if you are in the market for one.

Speaking of the Verdant Computing website, they are an excellent new resource I found that has tons of unique products for green nerds, like hard drives, peripherals, monitors and other parts. They are all made out of recyclable materials, are easy to recycle or are energy efficient.

They seem like the real deal. I can't really find any reviews, but I think they are relatively new.

How to: Ask the right question

There is no such thing as a stupid question. You might have a dumb question, but that's besides the point. For any "dumb" question you might have I'm sure there is a perfectly good reason to back you up. You may be tired or not paying attention. I ask dumb questions all the time so I know.

So, I won't hold it against anyone when they ask a dumb question! After re-reading my past blog entry about how to hire the right web designer, a thought occurred to me. You might think you need a certain tool to accomplish a certain task, but all you really "know" is that you want to accomplish a certain task.

This is why you are going to hire someone to do it!

When you approach a designer or developer, tell them what you want to accomplish and see what they have to say. For example, a client of mine recently emailed me and wrote: "We need a calendar function on our website, call me to discuss." (yes, Erin I'm talking about you.)

The first thing that flashed through my head was that there is already an event listing, so maybe they want to turn it into a pretty little calendar or add some admin capability. So, of course, I am already researching options that could work based on my assumptions.

I give the client a call prepared to hand her three options with quotes that would work for the project, (the project according to my assumptions). Well, the first five minutes of the conversation were a whirlwind of confusion. After the dust settled, I realized they wanted a scheduling tool for the administration people to use to schedule flu shot clinics internally. Luckily the company uses a Microsoft Shared Server, so I just showed them how to create a calendar on the server that they could all share in their own Outlook calendar.

Then, the real meat came out. They also wanted to create an online scheduling tool for clients to allow their employees to schedule their own flu shot in 15 minute increments.

OOOohhhhh...so why didn't they just say that? Okay, calendars do have dates and times in increments, but they needed a scheduling tool.

So, I promise to stop assuming anything before I get all of the details! You should find someone you trust enough to tell you what you need that would best fit what you need to accomplish.

Instead of posting an ad or calling web designers saying I need a 10 page website that lists all of my services and is pink...say I need to create an online presence for my business to accomplish this goal and this is how much I have to spend. Then maybe I'll tell you that we can spend less money on the website and more money advertising on the web or perfecting your online "profile," or dropping leaflets from an airplane over a festival (they would be printed on untreated biodegradable paper).

Any Questions? Any Comments? Tell me!