OK, so every day is really Earth Day!! I remember the very first Earth Day that I celebrated when I was 13 in 1986. My brother and I came home from seeing an Earth Day show on TV and we tried to implement a recycling system but then we realized that we did not know where to take whatever we wanted to recycle, hey we were just kids.
The funny part is we are dealing with somewhat of the same problem in our new home town, there is no recycling pick-up so we have to take our recyclables to the town organic market where they have a collection area. We try to recycle everything that we can.
Ways we live what we say:
Most paper gets shredded and goes into our compost pile, cardboard can go into the earthworm bin
All food leftovers go to the chickens or ducks which get recycled by them into eggs.
Grass clippings and weeds are given to the chickens and also put into nest boxes before making it to the compost tumbler or pile.
Any old clothing which does not pass my criteria for looking presentable is demoted to cleaning rags and when they get yucky then they go to the can or we burn them during a bonfire.
We do not use plastic products, we don’t buy ziploc bags or plastic wrap, we put our food away in pyrex glass containers or glass mason jars. Plastic leaches nasty chemicals especially when it gets too hot (microwave) or cold (freezer or refrigerator).
We use cloth napkins and cloth wipes for the babies. We use cloth towels to wipe counters and cloth diapers for our babies.
We use Dr Bronners to clean practically everything and make the rest of our cleaners.
We take our own bags to the supermarket, even our own produce bags as well as bulk grain bags. You can get an idea at my store The Green Market at etsy.com
We grow whatever we can and are trying to learn to improve our gardens more and more every day. We are also adding every fruit tree to our land that we can find. Growing food is powerful. I have been very inspired by a family in Pasadena California that I have been following on their blog for a few years now. Go visit the Dervaes family at Path To Freedom. This family grow 6,000 pounds of food per year from their home in the city of 1/10th of an acre of growing area. Whenever I do not want to get out to the garden I will just watch on of their videos and I am back in!!!
I am not much into buying more stuff so I try to see if we already have something that can do the job before we go out and consume more stuff. The exception here is fabric and fibers, I cannot resist buying fabric (my Dad has always sold the stuff and I have been hooked since I was a child) and I love all types of yarn, the softer the better!!! I own enough yarn and fabric to have my own store.
I don’t do any of these things because I feel the world is coming to an end, I do them because I think as Americans we are way too greedy and wasteful. I love living a more natural life and I hope that on this Earth Day maybe my readers can change one thing in their life, it all starts with just one thing at a time.
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