Green Holiday Gifts for the Whole Family

Here our christmas shopping list .. includes the animal kingdom members of our family… I’ve always said, “you cant put a price tag on the health and well being of your animals”. So natch, your intrepid innkeeper has come up with some animal holiday gifts sure to please both them and the environment. Elves not included.

In the pooch comfort segment, you probably noticed it.. probably lying on your living room floor, somewhere near your luxurious coffee table. Yes, the beige blob you’ve been masquerading as a bed for your precious pooch has officially become an eye sore–but it doesn’t have to stay that way. In crisp color combinations like pinecone brown and canal blue, or ochre orange and shifting sand, the Bella Dog Bed will bring beauty back to your bow-wow. Available in three different sizes, each bed is super soft, fully washable, and made from 100 percent hypoallergenic materials. And because the filler is crafted from 100 percent recycled consumer product, you and your pooch…well, you’ll finally feel like you’re barking up the right tree

See Spot Catch!
Playful dogs are experts at encouraging their best friends to get off the couch, smell the roses, and get some exercise. Give the pair one more reason to get out into the great outdoors, a Frisbee designed especially for fetch. After years of wear and tear from good fun, the ZOOM Flyer can be returned to Planet Dog where it’ll be recycled into a toy for another healthy life full of fun and games.
Cost: $13 Where to Buy: Planet Dog

Animal treats for everyone in the animal kingdom … eats for both our horses and Manker

You’re pooch can don a tallis when you light the Channukah menorah. How frum!

Celebrate the holidays with and for your horse at the Online Gift Corral.. Giddyup and git along so you and friends will have one happy horse xmas morning

Sweets for the Rider
Equus Fine Chocolates
Unbridled Chocolates
Stud Muffins
Ginger Ridge

Show Apparel - A girl’s best friend
Hobby Horse
where it doesnt cost you a fortune to ride in circles.
Smith Brothers

Celebrate by giving to your favorite equine welfare organization
Innkeeper Tip: Make it agroup effort with a holiday barn party. Encourage guests to fill a box of either monetary donation or useful items such as feed budkets, grooming supplies, saddle pads or natch, horse treats.
American Horse Defense Fund
Hooved Animal Society

Heck if you dont have animals, but are an animal lover visit the World Wildlife Fund website, you will see that you can adopt an animal (or habitat, or both) for a loved one. It’s a pretty neat idea, and for around$50.00 before taxes and shipping ($80 if you adopt an animal and habitat) it’s one of those gifts that is great for those shopping on a budget or as a gift for that difficult-to-shop-for individual.

And a gift that truly keeps on giving all the way around…

Wintertime here can be a particularly challenging time for us horse-owners, who have to face the daily sight of horses standing in thigh-deep mud and manure piles the size of Mt. Rainer. Trust me, it gets ugly . Aside from being messy, living in mud creates an unhealthy environment for a horse. Mud harbors parasites, bacteria, and fungal organisms that affect horse health. One horse produces around 50 lbs. of manure per day, adding up to eight tons per year. While this can be a space issue, it also causes problems with odors, flies, and runoff for the farm owner as well as the community.

One of the first things we were advised to do was , create a sacrifice area, more commonly known as a paddock, to keep pastures from becoming overgrazed and ruined. Said paddock becomes the horse’s outdoor living quarters. Managing mud in this area can be done in two main ways: picking up manure on a regular basis and installing rain gutters on all barns and outbuildings. Diverting the clean rainwater away from livestock areas reduces the amount of nutrients and sediments washed into surface waters. It also means less mud for horses and horse-owners to slosh around in.

Composting horse manure is the way to go. On our piece of G-d’s kingdom, we compost the yard and stall waste from five horses and reapply it to our four acres of pastures. Our pastures were so productive this past summer that even in the drought years we;ve had, never had to irrigate and had more pasture grass than our horses could graze.

Wow.tis the . .these are great finds for the gift giving frenzy we find ourselves in. Frugal, green and you actually wont have to re-gift all the stuff you get that you dont want.

One of my favorite things about the green movement is the focus on conservation — namely, avoiding the accumulation of all that random excess crap that you a) don’t need, and b) will eventually be taking up space in a landfill somewhere.

Here’s a couple other ways you can get what you need without buying it brand new:

Swaptree is a national site that pairs people up based on what they’re trying to get rid of, and what they’re looking for. Not only can you get rid of books, music, moves or video games you don’t want anymore, and get stuff you want/need in return! What’s not to like?

Neighborrow is similar, in that it allows users to trade, but it has an additional feature that allows you to borrow stuff — for free! So if your real neighbor is a jerk who won’t let you borrow any of his tools, mooch off your community at large with this helpful site.

via Eco-Chick

Git’r done - green

Happy animals happy habitat, happy holidays. Trot on friends, trot on.