I love this. Our Power - essentially localized buying clubs for residential solar energy systems. It’s so smart and simple and *important*. As a fund raiser, a complilation album has been released that includes Canadian musicians Gord Downie, Ron Sexsmith, and Steven Page alongside indie rock heros like Mike O’Neill, Jill Barber and The Violet Archers. Very cool.

Now I just have to figure out the government rules and requirements and grid-tie options for my local area and get organizing.

We’ve been needing to replace our frying pan for a while now. Something in the back of my mind made me think that the non-stick, teflon coated pans may not be very healthy. And I was right. It turns out that teflon pans (and other items with Teflon in them, such as packaging, and even stain resistant PANTS! ) may leach perfluoroctanoic acid into foods (or in the case of PANTS, right into your skin!), and high levels of this acid cause cancer, liver damage, growth defects, and damage to the immune system. According to SustainLane.com:

The ubiquity of Teflon in our lives helps explain why researchers have found PFOA in the bloodstream of 95% of Americans. More bad news: This chemical has staying power; scientists suggest it may take decades to break down.

I’d rather scrub pans for weeks than expose my family to that danger. Any advice on the best frying pan to buy?

I just discovered this site - diaperbeagle.com. It appears to be a great resource for the various cloth diapering options, and also has a price comparison feature for finding the best prices at online retailers.

Also interesting is the Real Diaper Association:

The Real Diaper Association, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, provides support and education to parents all across the U.S. for the use of simple, reusable cloth diapers. The goal of the Real Diaper Association is to put more U.S. babies in cloth diapers. To do this we aim to create a cultural shift in understanding cloth diapers-their environmental impact, their ease of use, their accessibility, and their acceptability. The Association will help parents understand that cloth diapers are real diapers.

Their long list of “why choose cloth diapers” is awesome. If your mother in law thinks you are insane for choosing cloth for your children, send her here. The first two health concerns of disposable diapers are pretty compelling in unto them selves:

Disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process. It is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S..

Disposable diapers contain Tributyl-tin (TBT) - a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals.

Before we had our baby, we attended a cloth diapering workshop. This workshop was put on by a local cloth diaper supply shop and covered the various cloth diaper options available to new parents. There are a lot of options for do it yourself washers as well as the option of using a diaper service where diapers are delivered clean and picked up dirty. Beyond utter convenience, there is no good reason for using disposable diapers on a day to day basis.

Following the birth of our baby, we opted for Fuzzi Bunz. Yes, these diapers are expensive. The upside is that the resale price on ebay (yes, used (but clean) diapers are sold on ebay!) is nearly the same price as the original new price. We’ve been pretty happy with our Fuzzi Bunz - they are exceedingly easy to put on a baby making it simple and fool proof for even those who aren’t completely comfortable with the idea of cloth diapering (baby sitters, for example).

Our only issue is that we use well water that is slightly hard - this means that we occassionally have to do an extra laundry step to ensure that the fleece keeps on absorbing liquid so that we aren’t faced with leaks.

But all in all, we’re happy with these diapers, and recommend them highly. We do use disposable diapers on occasion - such as when we are traveling but feel great about using Fuzzi Bunz the rest of time.

We enjoy learning about and trying things that are environmentally sensitive, natural, organic, home made, hand crafted, well made, beautifully designed and cool. If you’d like to submit a product for possible review, please send it to:

Magnet Strategy
PO Box 286
Wakefield, QC
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