I’ve gotten my family on board with recycling plastics and aluminum, and I bring them over the week’s collection over to my boyfriend’s house.

I’ve also taken up gardening. Right now I’m growing sugar snap peas, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries, and catnip (for my cat, haha). It’s all indoors except for a few tomatoes and bell peppers since my boyfriend’s dad gave me the tomato topsy turvy thing, so we’re trying that out. I saw my first bell pepper today. I’m really excited about this. I’ve also got okra and squash that will be planted soon. Hopefully this will reduce the amount of vegetables my family buys, which will not only save us a bit of money, but also help reduce the amount of fuel we consume by driving to the store and buying vegetables that traveled thousands of miles to get there.

My next project will probably be to get rain barrels and a compost bin. Right now, my family disposes of fruit peels, mowed grass, and the like outside near our tree trucks. They eventually compost (or birds eat them) and help fertilize our trees. However, I think it’d look way better if we had a compost bin. The rain barrels will probably be in the coming months because it hardly rains here in the summer, and getting on now would be a waste (especially since I’m on limited funds).

I’m trying to think of other things I can do to further reduce my carbon food print. I’m sure I’ll think of other things. I’m having a lot of fun with this goal though. It makes me feel so good!