So I think that sometimes my eco-freak side comes out in my posts. This post however is going to highlight my freak-ish-ness. I do know that I'm not as freaky as some others, but I can aspire to be, little by little.
Lately I've:
Given away all my moving boxes and paper via Freecycle. I thought it was kind of stupid to recycle perfectly good, only-used-once material.
Changed my garbage can from the biggest (like 3 times the size in DK), to the smallest. Probably the size of the ones in DK. The lady on the phone informed me that it only holds two kitchen bags of trash. I told her that that's OK, I only have one per week. My new home composting program has cut down my trash production considerably.
Which brings me to my next point. I'm composting kitchen stuff - mainly fruit and vegetable waste but also some cardboard items that can't go in the regular recycle (like ice cream containers, which I seem to have LOTS of lately). Rich made me a plastic bin that can be rotated (by him). And its working out great. The neighbor boy doesn't get it, and I'm wondering what he told his mom. She gave me an "are you crazy?" look when I asked her one day - why don't you mulch your lawn instead of bagging all that grass up. Her husband's back is bad, and she was wondering who was going to put the bagger on their mower, I thought it was a fair enough question...but whatever.
And on mowing. I'm converting our yard to as little maintenance area as possible. There is a large portion of our front yard that is NEVER EVER used. We just have to mow it, fertilize it, kills weeds there, and water it. Which seems dumb. So we've recently planted no-mow seed there. Once established it doesn't need to be mowed, watered, or fertilized. Sounds good to me.
And this past week I went to a sustainability talk. On top of the usual stuff, I learned about solar energy in MN - mainly how it works, and that it is a very good option for MN homeowners. Rich is on board, but we are not yet ready to make the $10,000-$12,000 plunge (although with refunds and tax credits the cost could be reduced to around $7000). We are going to start with measuring where we use the energy the most, and then conservation/efficiency where possible. So that will be a fun little home science experiment...finding our phantom loads.
One interesting solar fact - Germany has had like a 55% increase in residential solar installations due to government incentives...due to the fact that they get their energy from the east, and the east is not always so stable. So, the refunds starting in the US are also based on the same thinking. Less energy dependence on others is worth the cost of the rebate.
My edamame is blanched and frozen, along with some winter squash and eggplant. The tomatoes are canned. I have inherited frozen pheasant from my brother-in-law and venison from my boss. All I need is my happy pig and beef filling up the freezer downstairs and we are ready for winter.
Thems are my edamame, and below are the store bought ones for $6.50. Oh yeah - and at the same store - Tak on my bag, and giant heirloom tomatoes; which had an aggressive effect on my child.
And now I'm off to the library to get some books on raising chickens. Its allowed in our City code to have 5 chickens per half acre. I have just under half and acre, so I can have almost 5 chickens. I'm going to shoot for three. But that's not happening until the spring. I have to figure out how to take care of them first. Oh yeah - and I'm not appraising the neighbors to this activity. Not yet.
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