As I think about Spring coming (and it is just about all I can think about)... my mind of course is on the garden, plants, and the environment. Plus hubby and I have "An Inconvenient Truth" sitting by our DVD player just waiting to be watched. I also have a meeting with my women's group this month and the topic is sustainability. So that's where my brain is going.
My assignment for the group is to bring a list of what we are either doing or willing to commit to that helps in the area of sustainability.
So here goes:
- We buy most of our clothes secondhand (or trade),
- We used recycled products whenever possible (such as toilet paper),
- We are buying more and more organic products,
- Trying to compost more and throw away less,
- Reuse when possible (although without a better organizational system this could add to my nightmare),
- Looking into appliances that save energy,
- We save rain water for use in the garden,
- Using a push mower instead of the gas or electric version,
- Trying to use the bus more (but haven't been succeeding much lately with rainy weather and colds),
- Working on better gardening (eventual goal to be able to feed family),
- Adding berries, maybe grapes to our garden,
- Shifting over to green household, cleaning and gardening products,
- Hoping to heat the house with fireplace more and thermostat less next winter,
- Carpool kids to school,
- Ride bikes more places this Spring and Summer,
- Researching biodiesel and electric vehicles for when our Altima dies,
- Looking into solar conversion (although that price tag is hefty even with tax credits),
- Working on cooking and living more slowly, more naturally, less packaged and rushed.
- Trying like heck to get the kidlets out of occasional pull-ups and fully into underwear!
So that's what sustainability looks like in our household or hopefully will someday sooner than later. What does sustainability look like in your world or what are you working toward? Please share. For some "real world" suggestions, check out today's article at Parents.com. And speaking of Spring... I'm most likely putting in an order for some spring flower photos to make myself some notecards ... with some holidays and other life events coming our way... if you'd like some spring flower notecards please email me ASAP and I'll hook you up.
You should get a hold of a copy of this book:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/37xlaf
We need to work on sustainability. It's not something that hubby's particularly interested in, so I do what I can with what I have. We'd like to get a hybrid SUV, and we're getting a woodstove probably next year, so we won't have to use so much gas.
When we do finally have kids, I want to use cloth diapers, and I'm planning to make my own baby food.
We recycle quite a bit, and my Dad takes anything metal off our hands and recycles that. We get used appliances when possible from his friend the appliance installer, and when we can't, we buy energy efficient.
We have a pretty successful garden, it provides us with most of the veggies we need for several months during the year.
I will fully admit that my primary mode of thinking lately has been on disaster preparedness and less on sustainability, though the two do overlap somewhat!
For Oregon, I am anti-solar! Why? Remember the big freeze of 2004? Our house had solar in it from 1981, the chemical pipes froze and burst, and blue stuff was all over our attic and dripping into the ceiling. AND....I could not get ahold of ANYONE to help us with that, and as a matter of fact, got 1 call back about a month later, after I had switched everything over to natural gas!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone goes solar, make sure you do the research, and have not only an installer, but a repair person!!!!
Working on better gardening (eventual goal to be able to feed family),
ReplyDeleteI would love for this to happen at our house. There are other changes that we could definitely do. In CA we used to have cleaning products that were earth friendly. I don't know why we stopped? Sustainability is a new 'word' for me but I've thought about it for a long time and I'd like to be more active towards that end. I would LOVE to work on slowing down life and taking time to be still before my maker.
Hello Mamazuzi - you have a veritable Novel of information and beautiful images for me to get through now that i have been introduced to your blog! Now I am going to have to seriously consider taking my laptop to bed with me instead of that book i have... hmmm Thanks for playing the competition at Poppyseeds and your comment!
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