Well, my first day back at work went pretty well. OK the time at work, that is. The time dropping off the girls, not so good. But I'll survive. The photo is of my backyard... the leaves are really beginning to turn color. Not a whole lot of drop yet, though. Not enough to make it worthwhile to bring out the leaf mulcher, though I did buy an extension cord for it the other day so I'll be ready when the time comes.The good news is that while I was gone from work, they have really begun a more concerted effort to become more green as a company. They had already begun doing that while I was there, but now even more so - they even started a company forum on how to be more "green."
What does this mean? Well, we throw out TONS of used coffee grounds every morning. There's a lot of people in my office who drink coffee. I've asked a couple times about being able to collect the grounds and take them home for my compost but I never really got a good response. I think now might be a good time to ask again.
If any of my dear readers happen to work in an office where coffee is being served I'd probably recommend seeing if you can set up a collection bin. I know my mom used to take the grounds home when she worked in an office - they are a fantastic source of a "green" for composting. I remember when we lived in Colorado, they used to say the soil was so alkaline that you couldn't put enough UCG (Used Coffee Grounds) into it. Worms love them, lawns love them, compost piles and veggie gardens love them.
I've contacted a couple espresso drive thrus around here but none of them seem very inclined to keep a separate trash can for the UCGs so they can be composted. Why? It isn't very difficult! I worked at a great espresso drive-thru in Colorado and we saved all of our grounds... and they always got taken by our customers. There's one more place I want to go to, a smaller place but the only place around here that makes a decent frozen coffee (from scratch) instead of the same-ol granita mix that everyone else uses. In my thinking, since they put more effort into the coffee and making it quality, they might be more willing to separate their grounds (if they don't already)... the other places kinda give me the "give us your money cookie cutter" vibe. Who knows. Plus the owner is a really nice eastern european lady and europeans generally know the value of compost. We'll see! Hopefully I'll get out that way this weekend.
