This Saturday is Earth Day! I recently read the book Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and I’ve started to become increasingly more concerned for the Earth. If you haven’t seen the xkcd on climate change I think it is a very nice visual of why people have to stop saying “we’ve had micro climate changes before”. Now I’m of course just as guilty as everyone else of contributing to this terrifying spiral. I use fossils fuels to heat and power my home and car and travel in airplanes several times a year.
Well, this Earth Day Will agreed we could join the GreenUp program through National Grid and pay a little bit extra for 100% renewable energy sources for our electricity! I’m pretty excited about it. It will cost us a few hundred dollars extra a year for our electricity costs, and I know that is just not a feasible cost for many to justify. The idea is that with more GreenUp customers and green energy demand, the more our suppliers need to increase the green energy input into the grid. I’m happy to pay the money now to drive up demand for green energy, hopefully eventually moving the grid to a renewable backbone.
I read this quote today (which seems to be a Native American Proverb, though sources are conflicted), “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Happy Earth Day!
This little craft below was insanely simple. Grab some spoons from a thrift store and get to work! I hope to have some better pictures this weekend when I plant some herbs!
DIY Recycled Spoon Plant Markers
- Spoons (I used stainless steel spoons)
- A vice or sledge hammer
- A set of metal stamping letters (mine were 3mm, but bigger would probably be better)
- A hammer
- Sharpie
- Paper towel
- Take your spoon and flatten it. I flattened mine by tightening the spoon in a vice, starting at the point of the spoon and moving down the head gradually. You could also place the spoon face down on a workbench and hammering it with a sledge hammer until flat. This was much more laborious (I tried it).
Press spoon in vice, little by little.
- Place your spoon right side up on your metal stamping pad. Position a letter onto the face of the spoon and hammer swiftly 3 or 4 times.
Swiftly hammer metal stamp 3-4 times.
- Repeat for the other letters and symbols.
- When you are done lettering, take your sharpie and write all over each letter until the whole space is black.
Cover stamped letter with sharpie.
- Using the paper towel, rub firmly along where you inked. The sharpie on the face of the spoon should come off but the sharpie in the indentation will remain.
Rub away sharpie from face of spoon.
- Repeat for the other letters and symbols.
- Mark your garden!
Finished spoon that will mark my basil plants!
