Lured Kitty back inside with Couchnaps™. She was a stray, and loves her outside time very deeply, but we’re trying to get her to spend more time inside both for her safety (coyotes, cars) and for the safety of other critters – we don’t have any direct evidence that she hunts but I’d be surprised if she didn’t at all.
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Mmm I will investigate. It is very unlikely Mr Pancakes will give up coffee so we will still need a supply.
We “need” a replacement espresso machine too of course.
Ohh small thing to improve my environmental impact. Today I have started to make a conscious effort to use “replacement” rather than “new” when talking about getting stuff and also “get” rather than “buy”, in a bid to keep myself as open as possible to looking for alternatives like buy nothing or secondhand before jumping to new from a shop.
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I opened up the house to let the slightly-less hot air inside! It let me put off air con use for about an hour.
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Trying to find more foods that don’t contain palm oil. It is hard, but I at least passed up some chocolate that had palm oil?
No idea how people actually truly avoid palm oil if they buy anything processed.
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I didn’t buy any popcorn because it all had palm oil (or butter).
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It occurred to me that the bakery near me would probably put bread in a bag for me instead of using a plastic bag. But I’m concerned about keeping the bread relatively fresh. Does anyone have suggestions?
Screenshot from my local zero waste group. Apparently this keeps flies away?? Worth a shot now we’re in peak fly season in Aus.
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Like it keeps flies away from the general area or specifically off your lemon half? Because if it’s the latter, you could just put your lemon in the fridge?
It’s super tough. I can’t say we’ve completely cut out palm oil, but learning about what it’s in and finding alternatives has cut it down considerably.
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Keeps them away generally. Must not like the smell?
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I’ve brought in a heap of the sample size solid bar shampoo and conditioners to work today. Fingers crossed that at least a few of my colleagues want to try it out!
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Reporting back that I have had great success so far: four people have already taken samples to try.
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We’re continuing to troubleshoot our podstar stainless steel coffee pods. We just can’t get the coffee strong enough, no matter how we grind and pack. On the plus side, maybe this is how I convert Mr H to a different form of coffee sooner, and then we can give away the nespresso machine??
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I am curious about these - there are nespresso machines at work I could use.
How many grams of coffee are you mashing into the pod? The nespresso pods seem compared to the amount of coffee usually in a single shot? 8-10g?
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I baked biscuits and am packing a lunch. I also made DH’s coffee in a thermos for him.
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Another several people are taking ethique samples today 
I feel very happy about this.
I’ll have to weigh one before and after adding coffee and report back. I’ve looked up reviews and it seems like most people think they do better with a short shot rather than long, so… I guess we’ll try making shorter coffees (short shot and less milk). Mr H has gone back to drinking tea in the morning 
if I can leverage this into us giving up the nespresso machine entirely that’ll be a good outcome, but I’ll also be happy enough if we can make the reusable pods work well enough to not buy disposable (“recyclable”) ones anymore.
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I make very good coffee using one of these.
It’s not much more effort than a machine. The coffee is espresso-strength but isn’t technically espresso because there is no crema.
You aren’t asking for alternative coffee making methods so feel free to ignore me, but this little pot makes my mornings so wonderful.
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I’ve always been suspicious of the big cup button on nespresso machines. The pods have only a small amount of coffee in them. Once you’ve extracted that with the first small volume of water, you’re just extracting more bitterness and bad flavours.
On our (somewhat lower-middle range) espresso machine, there are two buttons that push through water for a single or double shot - based on which basket you’re using (for us 9g or 18g). This is missing on the nespresso. More water - same coffee volume.
You could try using two pods per drink?
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But then we have to either buy more SS pods ($35 each - ours were a gift) or refill the pods immediately after use when they’re scalding-hot.
We already have alternative coffee making equipment 
but it’s good that you have something you love!
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Ah - yeah that makes it hard.
Learn to love piccolos?