I wish as an adult, brushing my teeth could still be as exciting as it seems to be for our darling daughter. The daily routine of brushing just becomes little more than that. I consider myself to have fairly good oral hygiene habits but am definitely not perfect. I don’t floss every single day and sometimes I only brush once a day. I do love my coffee though and that tends to speed up the rate at which my teeth stain. In fact, the dentist often lectures me on how I need to give up my favorite beverage in order to obtain that perfectly white smile. Too bad it’s not MY top priority in life to have a grill full of polished white Chiclets

I’m hoping the new Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 with SmartGuide toothbrush might bring some fun back into the routine of brushing, at least for this adult who will always try to recreate the fun experienced with my first pediatric dentist. I’ve always used the standard old brush and have been weary of trying an electric or battery powered toothbrush.

What intrigues me most about the Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 is the wireless SmartGuide that is included. The SmartGuide actually gives you real time feedback on your brushing performance, including how much time you’re spending in each quadrant of your mouth and if you’re pressing too hard on your brush.

Over the next week, I’ll be playing around with the Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 and will tell you what I think about it at week’s end. Until then, happy brushing!

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Oral-B and received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

]]> http://greenpreferred.com/green-resources/recomendations/a-brush-with-technology/feed/ 0 http://greenpreferred.com/green-resources/recomendations/a-brush-with-technology/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/greenpreferred/rss/~3/ak-TwvKx6q0/ http://greenpreferred.com/green-living/transportation/bike-to-work-week/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 11:22:52 +0000 Nate http://greenpreferred.com/?p=1153 Do you ever get yourself from point A to point B using pedal power? If so, you may know this week marks Bike to Work Week, a part of the broader Bike Month sponsored by The League of American Bicyclists.

Whether biking to work or school, a run to the grocery store or just a fun ride on a local trail, biking not only saves time and money but also your health and the environment too. There are many benefits to leaving your gas guzzling car behind every once in awhile and exploring your community from a bicycle.

As part of Bike to Work week, I’m giving away two different books on bicycling to two different winners!

Bicycling A ReIntroduction is an awesome visual reference to help you choose, repair, maintain and operate a bicycle. The big visual reference book packs more than 125 pages of information on everything from why you should get on a bicycle, choosing the right bike and even how to fix a bicycle. This guide seems perfect for a person just looking at getting into bicycling and is a well-rounded guide that will lead you through all the do’s and don’ts with plenty of pictures too!

Complete Bike Maintenance: New and Expanded Edition is another fantastic, full-color reference guide focused on bicycle repair. Packed with giant photos, this book contains nearly 200 pages of detailed instructions on how to maintain and fix road, mountain and commuter bikes. From braking systems to gears and hubs, this reference guide seems better aimed at more advanced bicyclists who are interested in taking the time to fix and repair any issues with their bicycle themselves.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Unfortunately in the Tri-State region there are no Bike to Work Week events listed or planned. The Evansville community doesn’t sport much in the way of bike lanes or even bike friendly streets which is a shame. I hope city leaders will one day decide to overhaul some of the city’s major thoroughfares and make them more accommodating to people on bikes. Out of 244 ranked communities, Evansville ranks 184th. Are you curious to know which communities are the most bike friendly? Check out the breakdown here.

The Evansville Trails Coalition is continuously fighting an uphill battle to construct and introduce more trails for outdoor recreation in the Evansville area. The group has already helped to spearhead a trail across the downtown riverfront which is super but more needs to be done. View local trails and efforts at the Evansville Trails Coalition website. In the meantime, check out the Bike to Work Commuter’s Booklet or Smart Cycling Brochure.

Our mission was to pick up some Shoreklear to get rid of all the reeds choking our pond at the Half-Acre Homestead. Dodging corn kernels all the way, we found what we came for and a little bit more (of course). That’s the fun part about the Rural King: you never know what odds and ends you’re going to find that you can’t imagine living without. Pushing toward the back of the store we heard the seasonal cheeps of baby chickens coming from the stock tanks turned brooding pens.

We already have three ladies who inhabit our Backyard Bodega: Bertha, Bernice and Blue-Red. We picked up the three Auracanas last year with a friend and they’ve been happily laying their quintessential pastel-colored eggs ever since. Realizing chickens aren’t that difficult to care for, we couldn’t help ourselves when we saw the price of baby chicks was dropped down to just a buck each (minimum of 6 to buy). So we bought six more little pullets. Three are Rhode Island Reds and the other three are Silver Laced Wyandottes. We quickly divided a place for them in the Triple-B Bodega and these spring chicks seem to be interested in getting to know their bigger counterparts! With time ladies…with time.

Panic set in again at the Half-Acre Homestead this week as we got a late season Frost Warning issued for southwestern Indiana. Just a week before, our normally conservative agricultural extension agent had given the all-clear signal that people could go ahead and plant their precious seedlings and begin the gardening season.

Mother Nature had a different idea though when she ushered in some colder air from our good friends up north. We literally had just replanted a wave of rogue tomato seedlings and some rogue pumpkins that have sprouted up around the yard. To make it even worse, we planted them on the hillside out by our little pond which gets a considerable amount of frost compared to the protected confines of our square foot garden.

Luckily, with a 7 month old in the house, we have a stockpile of baby food jars in the garage. We never know when these might come in handy so we always keep a basket or two of them around. We were able to turn a basket full of baby food jars into an easy, DIY cloche that would protect our seedlings from two nights of frosty temps.

If an early season frost sneaks up on newly planted seedlings, turn a baby food jar into an easy DIY cloche to protect them.

After two nights of frost, we were able to lift the jars on Friday and found all the seedlings had survived. Safely tucked away in their jar, warmth and condensation helped them through the night. Well, most of them. Our Darling Daughter Everly thought the already dead raspberry cane out by the pond needed some extra help so she loaded it up with baby food jars.

While it wasn’t useful in protecting the long-departed raspberry cane, it made for a nice rustic art installation on the Half-Acre Homestead. We shall call it “Bottle Bush”. In the meantime, try to track down a friend, neighbor or relative who has a little one and get your hands on a basket of your own, easy, do-it-yourself garden cloches. Enjoy!

Everly's art installation out by the pond was created using a dead raspberry cane and several baby food jars. I think the effect is rather rustic, almost primitive.

Image courtesy Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Replacement seeds and of course some fun new ones were ordered through Baker Creek Heirlooms this year. We love all the wild new offerings that appear in the Burpee catalog and the others that stuff our mailbox each year. However, we really want to try and keep as many open-pollinated varieties as possible so we can save seed from year to year. We also want to avoid seed that is genetically modified or tainted with GMO genes. Luckily Baker Creek can fit both those requirements and host one of the largest collections of heirlooms from around the world.

Here is what we ordered for the spring and summer growing seasons (yes, there will be another order in the fall):

Tom Thumb Lettuce
Mignonette Bronze Lettuce
Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce
Merveille des Quatre Saisons Lettuce

Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce. Image courtesy Baker Creek Heirloom Seed

You can never be too sure what variety of lettuce you’re going to end up liking best so I always think its better to buy more than less in lettuce seed. The flavors and textures are so wide ranging so its better to try several different varieties at the same time. I’m really excited about the Marvel of Four Seasons lettuce. Dating back to the mid 1800’s, this French heirloom lettuce is a good grower in every season except freezing weather. I can’t wait to try the buttery leaves in our first homegrown salad of the year.

Di Firenze Fennel
Purple Podded Pole Bean
Red-Seeded Asparagus Bean
Garden Huckleberry

Purple Podded Pole Bean. Image courtesy Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

We have never grown fennel before so we’ll try our green thumbs with this licorice-scented bulb that is a favorite amongst Italian cooks. I can smell it already! The Purple Podded pole bean will replace a pole bean that didn’t do much around the Half-Acre Homestead last year while providing a pop of edible color that will not only look beautiful in the garden but provide some fun on our dinner plates too. While it’s not hard to get Everly to eat her green beans, purple pods should prove to be even more enticing.

Red-Seeded Asparagus Bean is an Asian “yard long” bean that is said to be both highly productive and beautiful. The very long pods grow to a freakish 24″ long but are said to be stringless and have small seeds. They’re said to be very resistant to heat, humidity and insects all while producing a bumper crop of tender and tasty pods. We can never have enough berries around the Half-Acre Homestead so we’re going to try our hand at Huckleberries.

Patisson Golden Marbre Scallop
Bennings Green Tint Scallop Squash
Bowling Red Okra
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
Polish Linguisa
Basil – Lime
Stowell’s Evergreen Sweet Corn

Bennings Green Tint Scalloped Squash. Image courtesy Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

We like pattypan or scallop type squash so we’ll finally add a green and yellow version to our garden this year. Bowling Red Okra will replace our current outage of red okra seeds. The burgundy colored stems, okra pods and tinted flowers are stunning in the vegetable garden or flower bed. We are continuously struggling with spinach from year to year. Perhaps its the variety of seeds we have but they never seem to grow right and are often sloooooowwww growing. Bloomsdale Long Standing is supposed to be heat resistant and a large leaf spinach. It sounds better so hopefully it will turn out that way. Polish Linguisa will round out our tomato collection as a sauce tomato. Lime basil just sounds flavorful enough to through on some chicken this summer and Stowell’s Evergreen Sweet Corn will be our protest against GMO corn this year.

Of course we have a whole box filled with seed still but I won’t bore you with all that. Undoubtedly you’ll get to see the results of that over the course of the summer. I was able to keep this seed order around $33, down from a first tally of $69. I slashed and burned my list because if I could spend $500 on a yearly seed order, I really would. Now its time to start saving my own seed and slash the seed bill even more.

Heirlooms are open-pollinated varieties of plants that are often 60 or more years old. Most date back 100 years or more. Heirlooms are the truest plants, often showcasing eyestopping individuality and some of the finest flavors you can get in a fruit or vegetable. Aside from sticking it to large agri-business based seed companies who deal in hybrid or Genitically Modified seeds, heirloom seed can be saved and replanted year after year. You can read more about it here.

If you’d like to learn more about heirloom gardening, you should pick up a copy of a brand new book on the subject. The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables: The 100 Easiest-to-Grow, Tastiest Vegetables for Your Garden by Marie Iannotti.

If the 250 pages of scintillating photographs of heirlooms don’t have your taste buds watering and your green thumb twitching, I’m not sure what will. Iannotti gracefully shares her 100 favorite heirlooms, treasures that should be kept under lock and key. She also shares the wonderful stories that round out the unique history of each featured heirloom.

Don’t let the title fool you either. This book should also be a prize for any gardener with more advanced skills. I give it two green thumbs up!

Now you can win a copy of the book along with a spectacular heirloom garden prize pack including 35 packets of heirloom seeds and a bareroot tree! Click the link to head to Timber Press and enter The Heirloom Garden Giveaway

What’s your favorite heirloom fruit or vegetable to grow?