Black Friday Give Away a Signed Book

Posted November 27th, 2009 by kerri and filed in Things I love at The Little House
Tags: ,
46 Comments

Green YearI hope all of my American read­ers didn’t eat too much yes­ter­day and that you had a very Happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones.

I promised a cool give­away this week and waited until Black Friday so you would be in the mood for a real bar­gain. For me, noth­ing would put me in a bet­ter mood than win­ning a new, signed copy of a book!

Among the sea of books out there telling you how to go green, there is Jodi Helmer’s “The Green Year,” one of the best books I’ve ever read on the sub­ject. I like it because it takes “going green” in baby steps, giv­ing the read­ers an idea of small things we can do, while also pro­vid­ing the over­all pic­ture of how it would help if more peo­ple fol­lowed the suggestions.

Last week, while going through my books, decid­ing which ones to donate to the library or trade back at the used book­store, I picked up my copy of “ The Green Year.”

It’s well read, but gen­tly used, as I treat my books like the prizes they are. “Hmm,” I thought, “Should I offer this as a give­away on the blog?” It took me only a sec­ond of thumb­ing through it again to know it was a keeper, I couldn’t bear to part with it. I con­tacted Jodi, who offered to give away a signed copy of “The Green Year” to one of my lucky read­ers. This would be per­fect as a hol­i­day gift, but I think you might want to keep it.

It’s great for both the per­son who has been green minded for awhile and also those want­ing to learn about more small ways they can help the envi­ron­ment. I learned a lot from it, for example:

  • Did you know that by remov­ing your screen­saver from your com­puter that you would save 90 watts of power? Putting it in sleep mode only used 10 watts, com­pare to 90 watts of power it uses when using a screensaver.
  • Your plas­tic shower cur­tain is prob­a­bly made of PVC, which can emit harm­ful gases that cause can­cer and dia­betes. You might be breath­ing in tox­ins every­time you take a shower. Nylon shower cur­tains are much more envi­ron­men­tally friendly and are washable.
  • The elec­tric can opener in your kitchen uses more power than you think. Jodi sug­gests switch­ing to a man­ual can opener. Electric ones also take more resources to make and more space in the land­fills. Did you know if every­one in the U.S. switched to a man­ual can opener, it would save 648 mil­lion kWh of power?

So, here’s how you can reg­is­ter to win. It’s easy. Just make a com­ment on this post related to any of the posts from this week. It could be a sug­ges­tion you’ve found to help you go green or why you would like to win this book. You do have to make the com­ment on this post between now and before my new post on Monday. I’ll put the names of com­menters in a hat, draw one lucky win­ner for the book and announce it with Monday’s post. Good luck and have a great weekend!

46 Responses to “Black Friday Give Away a Signed Book”

  1. Holly Campbell says:
    November 29, 2009 at 8:46 pm

    Hi Kerri!

    Just read your arti­cle in MEN this morn­ing and wanted more! I'm so pleased to see oth­ers who embrace liv­ing small. I've added your web­site to my favorites so I can check back reg­u­larly. I'd be inter­ested in your draw­ing for Jodi's book. I've often thought of writ­ing some­thing sim­i­lar. I'm on our green team at work, a Master Recycler in our com­mu­nity & I try to influ­ence fam­ily & friends. I always try to con­vey that the move­ment towards sus­tain­able liv­ing habits is the baby steps we take so I'm pleased to hear Jodi has writ­ten a book to con­vey that mes­sage. I'd be inter­ested in read­ing it (won or not) and learn­ing more that we can do.

    Keep up the great work!

  2. Amy says:
    November 29, 2009 at 5:58 pm

    Hello Kerri!

    I found you though the Tiny House Blog just this morn­ing… I cried… My Hubby and I moved into our lit­tle home (abt 365ish sqft) just south of Mountain View, March of this year. It wasn't our choice to live in such a small place but we were going to soon be home­less if we didn't do some­thing. I'm hav­ing a very hard time adjust­ing. There are so many non-issues in a larger home that become big issues in a small home.

    Anyway, Since I'm here I'm try­ing to be greener but I must admit that I'm hor­ri­ble at it so if you would please put my name in that hat of yours I'd be thank­ful. From the sound of it that book would be a help­ful tool here.

    Thanks,
    Amy
    Mountain View, AR

    • Kerri says:
      November 29, 2009 at 6:16 pm

      Welcome, Amy! I'm meet­ing so many won­der­ful peo­ple in my own back­yard here that I wouldn't have had a chance to get acquainted with oth­er­wise. I'm glad you found your home, but sorry you're hav­ing a hard time adjust­ing. We've had some real issues too, mostly related to just being home­sick and miss­ing our friends and fam­ily. However, liv­ing small is a dif­fer­ent lifestyle and takes some adjust­ment. Hopefully, you'll get some tips through the blog here. Your name is in the hat.
      Thanks for com­ment­ing and if there's any­thing I can do to help, feel free to email me at fivecoat@​ozarkmountains.​com

  3. Becky says:
    November 29, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    I am not sure what hap­pened but when I responded it switched my response to "Baggin It"?!? Would like to read the book though. Thanks, Becky

  4. Billy Payne says:
    November 29, 2009 at 11:38 am

    Hi Kerri , found you and your web­site through Mother Earth News . We loved the arti­cle on your "lit­tle house" and things you do to con­serve . We have been "recy­clers" for many years and are always look­ing for new or bet­ter ways to help save our planet . Thank you for hav­ing this site ! — We will be read­ing your blogs for a long time ! Thanks again , Amanda and Billy

    • Kerri says:
      November 29, 2009 at 12:02 pm

      Welcome, Billy and Amanda. Glad you found the site and happy to have you here! Feel free to chime in any­time with sug­ges­tions of your own.

  5. Bj says:
    November 29, 2009 at 9:26 am

    Kerri,

    Found your web­site just one week after clos­ing on my own "small" world. I bought a 8X12 ft cabin sit­ting on 3 acres in the Ozarks. Cabin is unfin­ished on inside, so I have been look­ing at all the lit­tle ideas for max­i­miz­ing the inside. I look to move in this sum­mer.
    Having already down­sized once going into col­lege (from 2400 sq ft to a 25 ft travel trailer), I know I am up to the chal­lenge of a bit more par­ing.
    Count me in on the con­test for the won­der­ful book! Thanks for being there to guide us in our searches!
    BJ

    • Kerri says:
      November 29, 2009 at 12:05 pm

      Welcome, BJ and con­grat­u­la­tions on your new cabin. Where in the Ozarks might you be?
      My one sug­ges­tion when fin­ish­ing your cabin is lots and lots of built-ins.
      You might find the Tiny House blog (link on my site) very use­ful. Lots of great build­ing sug­ges­tions there.

      • Bj says:
        November 29, 2009 at 12:43 pm

        Kerri,

        I will def­i­nitely use lots of built ins…my one weak­ness is books! I prob­a­bly will have to build a sep­a­rate small build­ing for them!

        The cabin is not far from Cabool in Missouri. Not too far from you. I was up this week putting in insu­la­tion so I could stand to sleep "in" with­out freezing!

        Like you, I pre­fer green,but it is not always allowed in given my bud­get (teacher salary only stretches so far!)

        Keep up the encour­age­ment. I hope to move up into the cabin this fall if I can get a job in a local district.

        Thanks for every­thing you do!
        BJ

        • Kerri says:
          November 29, 2009 at 6:19 pm

          Oh, yes, I know Cabool. Sounds like we're going to have to plan a get together of small house lovers here in the Ozarks some­time.
          Books? My down­fall too. :)

  6. Susan says:
    November 29, 2009 at 9:10 am

    Kerri,
    I'm another one that read about your web­site from the Mother Earth News…what a great arti­cle and am really enjoy­ing your web­site. You are a very cre­ative writer. Will be look­ing for­ward to Monday, Wednesday and Friday blogs. Like oth­ers would love to see more pic­tures of your home and floor­plan. I have been declut­ter­ing a 1800 sf home since my 4 kids have moved out and would love to down­size to about 600 sf. I think it would be eas­ier for me than my hus­band of 40 years.
    Thanks for shar­ing you life with all of us.
    Best wishes
    Susan

    • Kerri says:
      November 29, 2009 at 12:07 pm

      Welcome, Susan. I'm glad you enjoy my writ­ing and have found the site help­ful. I'll share a secret with you — it's been much eas­ier for me to declut­ter than my hus­band. :)
      Thanks for stop­ping in and I'll look for­ward to hear­ing from you again.

  7. Sharon D says:
    November 29, 2009 at 6:11 am

    Hello! I devoured your arti­cle in M.E.N. and came straight to the site! We live in a tiny rental house and I was despair­ing at the thought of how to incor­po­rate everything…you've given me some ideas! I'm about to tackle the 'over­stuffed house' prob­lem once again. Now, if I can just get the gran­chil­dren to coop­er­ate…! Thanks for your insights!

  8. Bill says:
    November 28, 2009 at 10:39 pm

    Just fin­ished read­ing your Firsthand Report in MEN. Congradulations on a very good arti­cle, its always good to read how oth­ers change their lifes and make it work. Also, very few of us can do what the Begleys do but as long as we try every lit­tle thing adds up. Look for­ward to vis­it­ing your web­site and becom­ing a reg­u­lar reader of your blog.

    • Kerri says:
      November 29, 2009 at 12:09 pm

      Hi, Bill, thanks for stop­ping in and for your words of encour­age­ment. Having peo­ple like the Begley's is a won­der­ful resource, but I see how peo­ple feel over­whelmed with the whole going green ini­tia­tive.
      Look for­ward to hear­ing more from you.

  9. Dave says:
    November 28, 2009 at 8:04 pm

    Wondering if your small house plans are avail­able?
    Working set.…Was won­der­ing if you all did the build­ing or a con­trac­tor..
    dave

    • Kerri says:
      November 29, 2009 at 12:12 pm

      Hi, Dave, We just found the house plans and I'm work­ing with my site guru on get­ting them posted, pos­si­bly within the next week. They aren't pro­fes­sional plans, my aunt did them on a com­puter pro­gram. We also hired a builder. We were lucky to find two qual­ity builders here — one for the house and one for the office.
      One piece of advice though, do not hire an unqual­i­fied friend or rel­a­tive to be the project man­ager (our house ended up fac­ing the wrong direc­tion) and don't try to build any­thing from 300 miles away! Still, we love our lit­tle house. Thanks for the vis­it­ing and thanks for the inter­est. Stay tuned…

  10. Alexandra says:
    November 28, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    Delighted to see all the inter­est your book give­away pro­duced! I run a green bed & break­fast on Cape Cod, in the beau­ti­ful town of Wellfleet and blog about same.

  11. Donna Sue says:
    November 28, 2009 at 3:39 pm

    Hello Kerri, I haven't yet read the MEN, but will shortly. I have been enjoy­ing your posts at the Tiny House Blog. Thanks for pro­mot­ing being green and liv­ing small!

  12. Keri says:
    November 28, 2009 at 10:14 am

    Another 'Keri' here although dif­fer­ent spelling! ;) I found your awe­some blog via Mother Earth News; I look for­ward to future posts! As I read your older posts, the one that struck me the most is the "Not So Big House." I acci­den­tally found this book at my local library and was imme­di­ately engrossed. I only wish I found this book before we built our house. =/ However, we will make do with what we have and make adjust­ments as needed to make it more liv­able. Our biggest prob­lem is a lack of stor­age space within our liv­ing quar­ters. Sure, we have a base­ment but I rather that it didn't become a catch-all for stuff that needs to be stored. We really need built-in book­shelves and cab­i­nets so we will incor­po­rate the ideas from "Not So Big House" into our modest-sized house. Thanks for this great give­away! Although we are pretty "green," we could always learn more tips! =D

    • Kerri says:
      November 28, 2009 at 11:14 am

      Welcome, Keri. So glad you found the blog, and thanks for read­ing the M.E.N. arti­cle. My goal for our lit­tle house is to put in more built-ins. Finding a com­pe­tent car­pen­ter and get­ting the money are both chal­lenges for us. Hope to see you back!

  13. Paula V says:
    November 28, 2009 at 12:58 am

    Hello Kerri,
    Like many of the other peo­ple leav­ing com­ments, I found out about your blog through the Mother Earth News arti­cle by way of the Tiny House Blog. I enjoyed read­ing about your shop­ping bags. It seems to me like the "green" bags they sell in the gro­cery store are very flimsy. I have been invest­ing in the heav­ier can­vas ones. I hope I can get 20+ years worth of use out of mine!
    My plans are to move into a small house in about 8 years. Your dis­cus­sion about hunters has given me some­thing new to think about. I am not cer­tain I could tol­er­ate that kind of behav­ior for sev­eral weeks every year. I will need to rethink a few things as far as loca­tion.
    I look for­ward to read­ing your blog. Thanks for the book give­away. I am try­ing very hard to get rid of stuff while also not buy­ing more stuff but this book sounds like it would be help­ful to have around.

    Thanks,
    Paula V

    • Kerri says:
      November 28, 2009 at 11:18 am

      Welcome, Paula! Great to have you here. We're cel­e­brat­ing the last week­end of this hunt­ing sea­son tomor­row! YAY! The thing I worry about most here is the inabil­ity to fence the prop­erty. I have two large dogs who, for the most part, stay here. They do some­times wan­der in chase of a squir­rel or rab­bit. We've heard so many sto­ries here of dogs being shot dur­ing hunt­ing sea­son. We have to hold ours hostage, espe­cially on the week­ends. Leash led walks on cold morn­ings is some­thing none of us look for­ward to.

  14. Jackie Dishner says:
    November 27, 2009 at 8:28 pm

    Hi Kerri,

    Looks like your traf­fic is build­ing as you con­tinue to help green the world. I love the screen saver tip from Jodi's book. Never knew that. Count me in as a contestant.

    You know I'll be back.

    Jackie

  15. Willa says:
    November 27, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    Hello!
    I just found your blog via the Tiny House Blog & am look­ing for­ward to read­ing about you in MEN– I am mov­ing to MO to build on my 10 acres, just a few more years til retire­ment so I should be ready by then. Blogs like yours really help keep me on track!
    Please count me in for the book give-away,
    Willa

  16. Lisa Jaffe Hubbell says:
    November 27, 2009 at 7:53 pm

    You think you know all about being green; you are, after all, the green­est per­son in your neigh­bor­hood. But then you find a blog like this and you real­ize every­one has some­thing to learn.

    Count me in for the book give-away. I know I don't know everything!

  17. Barb Vatza says:
    November 27, 2009 at 7:20 pm

    I love going and being green.There are things I've been doing so long I never real­ized they are now con­sid­ered 'green'.We gave up the elec­tric can opener years ago..The unhealthy shower cur­tain cur­tain was replaced with the 'hotel' type,it can be thrown in the washer and dryer.I'd love the book as there is and will always be new ideas or old ones we didn't think of before.I love the Begley's too and rec­om­mend read­ing his book too.

    • Kerri says:
      November 28, 2009 at 11:22 am

      Thanks for stop­ping in, Barb. You're one of my heroes with green any­way. You're one of only four peo­ple I know with a hybrid car!

  18. Paula says:
    November 27, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    I found your blog through Mother Earth News. I grew up in a tiny house in the 70's and under­stand your frus­tra­tions! My hus­band and I recently bought a mid 50's ranch from the orig­i­nal owner. The house has all its orig­i­nal col­ors, fix­tures, tile and cupp­boards and is in beau­ti­ful con­di­tion. We aren't going to change a thing. It would be a shame to send all that beau­ti­ful crafts­man­ship to the land­fill so that we can be "fash­ion­able". We'd rather spend our money on our kids any­way! Best of luck to you!

    • Kerri says:
      November 27, 2009 at 5:28 pm

      "Retro" is in again any­way, Paula! :) I do think there is so many bet­ter things to spend money on. Thanks for stop­ping by and hope to see you back here. :)

  19. Ken Fish says:
    November 27, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    Hey Kerri,

    Just got my lat­est issue of M.E.N. from the mail(it was late) and read your arti­cle "MAKING THE MOST OF A SMALL HOME". That very way of life is what I've talked with my wife for a long time. This was the first time of read­ing any of your arti­cles, I imme­di­ately came to your web­site which has inspired me even more. Being very close to exact mid-60s, and out of work not by choice now I'm very ready to down­size my life. It is sto­ries like the one you and your hus­band Dale are liv­ing that just makes me want to do it so much.

    As oth­ers are telling you, I also would like to know more details about your house. Since my occu­pa­tion before lay­off was a mechan­i­cal designer, if a CAD file was avail­able I could even look at it on my com­puter in detail.

    Again, thanks so much for your web­site which my wife and I both will con­tinue to read and enjoy in the future.

    Best Regards,
    Ken Fish
    Willow Springs, NC

    • Kerri says:
      November 27, 2009 at 5:32 pm

      I feel your pain, Ken. My hus­band is a mechanic and he was laid off from a large recre­ational boat man­u­fac­turer last year. He is work­ing again, but we've taken a big hit in income.
      Anyway, I'm glad you found the blog and will get those plans posted ASAP. If you email me at fivecoat@​ozarkmountains.​com I can see if I can get the larger, more detailed file emailed.

  20. Heide says:
    November 27, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    Hello Kerri,
    Just found your website.….just recieved our copy of Mother Earth in the mail this morn­ing, and your arti­cle was the "must read first" for me!! You see, we are plan­ning to move to an antique cabin some­time in the com­ing year—432 sq. ft.–two of us with our small child. You can be sure I will be perus­ing your entire site, glean­ing all I can as we make this tran­si­tion! We are glad to know it CAN be done.….we keep look­ing at all the "stuff" we have acquired over the past 25 years and won­der­ing if we can!! It is feel­ing really good to be get­ting rid most of it.
    Keep up the good work!!
    Heide
    Springfield, MO

    • Kerri says:
      November 27, 2009 at 5:34 pm

      Welcome, Heide — we're almost neigh­bors! I'm anx­ious to hear more about your cabin. Will it be on one of the lakes?
      You CAN do it, just take it one step at a time. We still have a lot of stuff, but my mind has been rac­ing all day at how to purge some more.
      Thanks for stop­ping in and reading!

  21. Jenna Martin says:
    November 27, 2009 at 11:45 am

    Your blog is one of those that inspires me on a reg­u­lar basis. My hus­band and I have decided to declut­ter and move toward a more sim­ple lifestyle. Part of that is to move into a smaller home. Following your blog has helped tremen­dously! Thank you.

    Jenna,
    Tarpon Springs, FL

  22. Kerri says:
    November 27, 2009 at 10:53 am

    Hello, Mary, Thanks for read­ing the M.E.N. arti­cle and find­ing your way to the blog. The way you are spend­ing Black Friday sounds per­fect to me. :) Enjoy the time with your family!

  23. Mary Toney says:
    November 27, 2009 at 10:33 am

    Hi Kerri!
    I read your arti­cle in my sis­ters copy of Mother Earth News. I love your lit­tle house! I am in the process of a divorce and have been unclut­ter­ing my house get­ting ready to move. I am amazed at how much more time I have for the impor­tant things in my life since I have less "stuff" to main­tain. I enjoyed brows­ing your web­site this morn­ing as I thought of all the Black Friday shop­pers out there who will bring home bags of "stuff" and expend so much energy try­ing to find a place to put it all. I myself will enjoy a day with my sis­ter and my son, and later a din­ner with my brother whom I have not seen for many months.
    Kudos to you for your won­der­ful blog!
    Best hol­i­day wishes,
    Mary Toney
    Carroll, IA