Sam Galvan

As y'all probably already know I'm starting a garden for my eco-change. The project is going well and I'll have lots to say about it when I do my presentation next week but I'll give a quick update. We've built out the garden bed and with the help of my family we pruned the Asian pear tree out front. My roommates and I are most excited about growing tomatoes and potatoes, both of which are better to plant when the weather's more consistently warm, so probably not before late April. We've also discussed planting microgreens and garlic and longer term plan to build two more beds and plant some herbs and berries. Included are some photos of the construction of the first bed. 

Support Local Businesses: Go Check Out Portland Music Co. at 122nd & Division!
I try to shop locally as much as I reasonably can. It's a little harder with food because of the time, budget, and convenience savings offered by large supermarkets but there are a number of other areas where it's easier. For me these include clothing, hardware, and bicycle materials and repair. I want to focus this post, however, on spotlighting one of my favorite local business, Portland Music Company at SE 122nd & Division. PMC is a great smaller shop with a nice selection of guitars (acoustic and electric), drums, keyboards, and accessories. The staff are awesome people and they do a great job of creating a laid-back welcoming environment in there, starting with Matt, the store manager, and including every employee I've interacted with there. They're always recommending the coolest guitars and amps for me to try out even when they know I'm not in there to buy any. I've  seen them do an awesome job with everyone from kids who come in getting their first instrument to experienced guitarists looking for some ultra-specific effects peddle. They put a lot of effort into using the store build community and it shows, and it's basically everything I would hope a local business would be. This last week I needed a new cable for my electric guitar and even though it's a little out of the way for me, it was 100% worth it to go there for it.

Use Public Transit
I already take the bus almost every time I go to school and the only exceptions to this are when I ride my bike. It's a pretty direct and easy trip from my house and takes under 30 minutes each way. Many of the other trips I make aren't so straightforward and I often end up driving. This week I challenged myself to make more of my shopping and leisure trips without driving. I live 5 blocks from a Trader Joe's so most of my grocery shopping I can do walking. It's a 5 minute walk to a bus that'll take me to other places I need to shop like pharmacies or hardware stores. Leisure trips can be a bit more complicated, often requiring connections which can add a lot of delay if the transfer timing is off. I've managed to make this less stressful by viewing time spent on the bus as its own relaxation and leisure time, entertaining myself with a book or my phone. I'm not too productive when it comes to actually getting work done on the bus but I don't really feel I need to be in order to feel like I'm making good use of the time. Another side effect of using transit more is it forces me to be more organized and have better time management as I'm somewhat operating on someone else's schedule.

Gotta shout out my neighbors for making this one really easy for me! Outside one of the houses around the corner from mine there's a basketball hoop with a few basketballs always out below it. I've shot around there a couple times assuming whoever left the balls out there was cool with it and this week I was able to confirm that was the case. I was walking by there the other day and a couple of guys were out there shooting so I stopped and asked if the hoop was open to everyone. They told me that was exactly the idea when they put it up and I ended up sticking around for about half an hour shooting hoops and getting to know them. It made for a really pleasant afternoon and I'm stoked to connect with more of my neighbors at the basketball hoop in the near future! 

Eco Challenge 4: Fix Leaky Faucets
This week I was able to do a home improvement project that's been on my mind for my eco challenge. My old kitchen sink was a classic two-knob style, and although it wasn't terrible, it did drip occasionally. I bought a new sink spout a few weeks ago that I hadn't gotten around to installing until now (prompted by this eco challenge). The new spout has a single lever that blends hot and cold water and a nozzle that extends and toggles between regular flow and spray flow. My roommate and I installed the new spout together, first shutting off the valves and disconnecting the hoses to remove the old one and then applying some teflon tape and doing the process in reverse to put in the new one. It was a relatively straightforward process that we completed in under half an hour.

In addition to saving water from the leak, the new faucet configuration is more conducive to reducing my water usage. With the dual knob configuration I'd end up spending a while trying to get the right temperature, especially when washing dishes. The blend lever, however makes this much easier and facilitates a quicker on-off of the flow. 

Pictured: the faucet replacement before, during, and after.

Reducing my consumption of animal products was pretty easy. For the vegan meals I either swapped oat milk for cow's milk in my morning breakfast cereal or hummus instead of cream cheese on lunch bagels and sandwiches. I honestly didn't notice a difference when it came to the milk and the hummus was definitely more filling than the cream cheese. For many of my vegetarian meals I ate eggs instead of deli meats on sandwiches and made a tasty dinner of quesadillas and black bean soup. The centerpiece of this challenge however, came in the form of impossible burgers and homefries my roommate and I made on Tuesday. These featured double patties, cooked smashburger style for that good texture, swiss cheese, grilled mushrooms and caramelized onions in addition to your classic burger dressings. Although far from vegan, containing cheese, egg mixed into the patties, and a mayo-based sauce, they were 100% vegetarian and 100% delicious!

For my eco-challenge this week I looked into Portland General Electric's various clean power options. Their traditional power option is about 3/4 fossil fuels (natural gas and coal) with hydro comprising the largest share of the renewable power. Their Green Future Choice option is 100% renewable, over 90% of which is wind and solar. Green Future Choice costs on average $6 more per month than the basic plan for residential customers and $11 more for small businesses. Additionally, PGE offers "block" plans where customers can add a larger share of wind or solar into their power mix for a smaller additional charge than the Green Future Choice option. The chart I've included in the post breaks all this down very nicely. Due to the extra charge these plans represent one of many ways making environmentally friendly consumption choices is something of a premium privileged option, however the price difference is small enough that they're still relatively accessible.

Action: Explore My Area

I'm currently in Arcata, CA visiting my partner and her family. I took the opportunity to come down here when all my classes this week went remote. Today we went for a short hike out to Elk's Head at Trinidad State Beach. It was a nice walk through the forest and to a viewpoint overlooking the coast (pictured). The hike provided an opportunity for some reflection on human-environment interaction. My partner's dad, who's a marine botanist at Humboldt State University, talked about wanting to set up some research equipment at the cove due to the relatively low human impact compared to other beaches in the area. He hasn't been able to so far however, as most of the land around the cove is private property.

Completing this challenge really wasn't particularly challenging for me as it's the kind of thing I like to do anyway and fits into my existing lifestyle. It was a short hike so it wasn't really physically challenging for me although it was a plenty rewarding experience. I always enjoy getting to see more of the landscape and the reflection and conversation with my partner's dad was enlightening and valuable.