1. Holy compost! I never realized how much of what we use is actually compostable! Since moving here 3 months ago, we have taken out the kitchen trash about 4 times, no joke. Once we had to because it was only half full but smelled so badly (Ryan left fish wrappers in it.) Isn't that insane?!? We use that much stuff that can be broken down by little worms into yummy soil for our garden. Currently we have a bit of a ghetto system in place as we're living in a rental home and don't want to build anything we can't move. So we're using the Bucket System. It's very complicated and I'm not sure if I have enough room here to go into detail, but basically we fill one bucket and then move onto the next. We just filled Bucket #3. I'm headed to the Goodwill Outlet (more on that later) for a larger bin to host our friendly worms and decomposing food.
Here is lonely Bucket #1. I trust you can use your imagination to insert the subsequent Bucket #2 & #3.
2. Recycling: Every city in every state has a different way of recycling. We were spoiled living in Northern Virginia (in more ways than one!). In Davidson County, the taxpayers have elected to recycle the following: cans, paper, cardboard, and newspaper. Yes, you read that right. I know you're thinking, "What the heck do you do with your actual recycling then??" I'm still on that boat. We have to collect it in our side yard in bags (since our measly recycling bin doesn't hold what we use) and make a drive 10 minutes away to sort it ourselves (gasp!) at a Recycling Center. Tip: Do not attempt to wear flip flops or open toed sandals to said Recycling Center. Some get frustrated when sorting their Clear Glass from Green Glass and angrily smash it on the pavement below. Or else they have bad aim.
In order to reduce trips to the lovely RC, I'm trying to reuse glass jars and plastic bottles as I can but we've also made a serious attempt to reduce the amount we even bring into the house. For example- Ryan has taken to drinking Fat Tire in a can instead of New Castle in a bottle. I buy bulk so we use fewer spaghetti jars and Ryan makes our salsa from scratch. See? Easy! We also don't put much paper out cause it goes into the compost so we're not left with a whole lot for the recycling guys to pick up once a month (yes, ONCE A MONTH!)
3. Reusing: I'll post more about this, but since we moved into a new house with more space (read: walls to fill, floors to cover, outside areas to decorate) I've needed to be creative in my spending. A lot of what I've done around the house was started from a find at the monthly local Nashville Flea Market, Salvation Army or Goodwill Outlet (God's gift to bargain hunters!)
4. Growing. With 2 weeks off from work initially, I had a lot of time to get my garden started. I started from scratch and had to cut sod, till, lay top soil, fence it, plant, mulch, plant ollas (pots buried which water the roots of a plant), and then re-arrange due to some lighting issues. But enough- I'll let the pictures tell the story:
This post has been pretty random, but I figured I needed to catch up on what we've been doing to embrace our new lifestyle of responsibility. I hesitate to use the term "Green" because it's so overused, but it does encompass everything we're trying to adjust in our lives. We have lots of room to grow and come exciting things in store: Rain Barrel Making Workshop in August and more to come!!
Stay cool Nashville- it's hot out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment