Crunchy Chicken Challenge to Freeze My Buns

I have written about No Impact Man and Path to Freedom as two primary sources of inspiration and guidance for how I will make a green plan to live a sustainable life. Whereas Path to Freedom showed me a dedicated project started many years ago and supported by grown children, there was great drama to No Impact Man and his flourish of no electricity or refrigerator or toilet paper with his wife and toddler daughter in the heart of NYC. Crunchy Chicken is a blogger beloved of many. She keeps her readers energized and challenged with the comradery of taking on solutions to problems as a team effort.

She admits it when she’s flummoxed and when she is confused while remaining bold in her daily decisions and optimism. Her family sounds like families all over the country where there are middle income white people living their comfortable lives. She is pushing her readers out of their comfort zones without attacks. I am particularly drawn to Crunchy Chicken these days as her family learned in September that her husband has an incurable blood cancer. Life is heartbreaking and yet she continues to challenge herself and those who read her blog. Here are some of the past ones – most of which I missed because I wasn’t reading yet.

The Challenge I signed on for is the Freeze Yer Buns for Nov. 1 – April 1. Right now there isn’t anything for me to do. I live in Southern California and haven’t needed to turn on a heater yet. I have had some really chilly nights, but I have dressed warm or simply gone to bed.

The dilemma for me has been that I don’t have a furnace or radiators. I just have a heater and no thermostat. So, I was not able to name the temperature range I was pledging to maintain all winter. I knew I needed to get a thermostat. I searched my local thrift stores with no luck. But, fortune struck my world when I found out that an Ace Hardware opened up a couple weeks ago in my town.

On Monday I found a thermometer for $13. Now I can be sure of the temperature and not feel all whiney when I think it is freezing – and it is not.
Tuesday, first day with thermometer Fun Facts to Know and Tell: This morning before dawn I found that it was 50 degrees and it is up to 70 degrees now after lunch.

3 comments:

Marguerite Manteau-Rao said...

Thanks Kate for being a faithful commenter on my blog. I like how you talk about our green sister at Crunchy Chicken. And bravo for the Challenge and the thermostat. Today, I think I am close to getting a bike!

marguerite
http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com

katecontinued said...

I'm look forward to hearing what you end up with after checking out those diverse sources. I asked my neighbor if I can take her bike out a few times.The following is the type she has (albeit very old and rusty from salty air.)
Comfort/Cruiser
Comfort and cruiser bikes are built for recreational riding, generally on bike paths, over flat terrain. Tires can be very wide and soft, as on a "beach cruiser," but are usually a smoother version of a mountain bike tire. Comfort bikes have an upright position, unlike a racing bike on which the rider is crouched to slice through the wind. Many comfort bikes include shock-absorbing seats and suspension seat posts which help to make the ride as cushy as possible. Weight is less of an issue, and many cyclists add rear-view mirrors, lights, panniers for carrying items, and reflective tape to their comfort bikes. The theme of this style is comfort.

Must be used, frankly it must be free.

Crunchy Chicken said...

Hey, thanks for the nice words and I am glad you are able to participate. I just finally got your email - my gmail account put it into spam, but now I have your temperatures up on my blog.

Good luck and stay warm!