adopt a greener lifestyle

temperature. Remembered yesterday what my aunt told me a long time ago; that the heater maintains the water at the temperature you set so if you set it really hot it uses a lot of energy keeping the water hot-hot-hot all the time. I set the temp yesterday to the lowest possible setting and nobody noticed a change!

Although it snowed on March 31st here, it was hot on April 5th and I dried my first load of laundry in the backyard on the clothesline! The sheets smelled heavenly and I actually enjoyed (in a weird way) the crunchy towels.

in July! There was a heavy rain one night when I had 2 loads of clothes out to dry and cloudy and drizzly the next morning. I wash at least 3 times per week so curious if the electric bill will reflect anything? I got a nice steel compost bucket for the countertop. I was re-using empty sour-cream, yogurt containers etc. which was messy and stinky even if I emptied them into the outside compost every couple of days. The steel container has two charcoal filters in the lid so no smell whatsoever! We’ve always had cloth grocery bags but this last month we’ve been extra careful about having them on-hand in the car.

that I continuously work on. I recycle as much as I can, I don’t just go out and buy stuff impulsively and am constantly thinking of ways to reduce mine and my families’ environmental footprint on the planet. Not perfect but trying hard to be consciously aware of our impact on the environment and trying to make a difference.

Today it is in the mid eighties (fahrenheit). I started unloading the washer this morning and thought “am I crazy? Why am I putting clothes in the electric dryer when I could dry them outdoors?” So Max and I went down to Fred Meyer and bought two packages of clothes-line and two packages of clothes pins. We have a clothes pole in our backyard so I strung up four lines and put out two loads of laundry!

I’ve been trying to do this one, but i’m not entirely sure i’m very good at it. We recycle at home but not at work – and we don’t have a lawn or plants so all our food trimmings get thrown away and not made into compost like they should be. I try to turn lights off and i don’t leave taps running, but it all seems so insignificant that i’m not sure i’m making much of a difference.

I am always rooting around in the indoor bins and recycling most of what I find. I find it frustrating that I work in a school where some people lack the simple awareness to recycle even paper. Schools are about the future, educating children to better their lives!!! What good is that if the planet is so messed up that the future holds little or no potential for them??? Rant, rant…

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.
Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist
in the dark wood, every clearing and humming insect
is holy in the memory and experience of my people…
We are part of the earth and it is part of us.
Chief Seathl

have a recycling bank for drinks cartons now… I am so pleased, we use lots of soya milk etc and always have had to throw the empty cartons away, but no more… Yipee…

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” —Albert Einstein