Sustainability and Practicality

The person I was B.C. (before cancer) didn't mind a good argument one bit. I would argue politics with my brother, and sometimes religion (although I never have liked to argue religion). Through my ignorance and perhaps a bit of arrogance, I use to think arguing made a difference. Like it will change someones mind. Never realizing if my mind was so made up, why would I think the other persons opinion was going to change any easier. The person I am today tries to avoid conflict when possible, it is not that I feel less passionate about things, its just I think modeling my spirituality, and other views are much more persuasive and lets face it, I certainly don't have all the answers so who am I to lecture. The reason I started this post making the above point clear is that I am going to be talking regularly about my journey into living more sustainably, but I want it to be clear that this is MY journey and I do not want to be perceived as lecturing. I also will be making lots of mistakes and I do welcome suggestions but criticisms are not welcomed. With all this said I will list the areas I will be working on and also talk a bit about my day yesterday.

Smart Shopping

The first area I want to talk about will be my most difficult. Buying more responsibly. Things I do right is I usually shop when I need something, not always when I want. (containers are the exception, but I will work on it). I shop at thrift stores first to see if I can reuse an item. I tend to buy natural materials, but haven't looked into "organic" clothing. Where I am going to have the most problems are that I am cheap, um I mean frugal. I like to coupon, but most items you get couponing are not the healthiest, too much preservatives, not local or organic and come with far too much packaging. So on this journey I will talk a lot about this struggle.

Household Energy

I like a warm house in winter, cool house in summer. I have a lot to learn and work on about lowering our energy use in the household. But I will learn. One thing I have done right is use my Solar Clothes Dryer. But I have not used it as often as I should and will be using it almost exclusively this summer and fall. I haven't figured out the Oregon rainy winter and spring use yet but I have lots of time to figure it out. What's a Solar Clothes Dryer you ask.........................

An old fashion clothes line:)

Transportation

I am blessed with living in a small town that is very bike friendly. With the exception of a few big hills, it is very easy to get around in my town. LL and I have already made some changes to lower are gas usage which I will post later about but we can do more.

This is my cute old fashion bike I have named Freda. Yesterday, after being so upset about Susan's death I decided to ride Freda to the store to clear my head.

On the way home I stopped and visited with a family I have got to know. There are 4 of them who basically have the run of the neighborhood. By the way, all the cars went by without even noticing my friends. Maybe they are just use to them, but the drivers never even turned their head to notice. So another benefit of walking or riding a bike. Here is a picture of some of the family yesterday.

Local and Organic

I definitely need to improve at trying to only eat seasonable, local, and when possible organic. It also means growing as much of our own food as possible. Which includes eggs from my ladies:) My dietary issues will make this very difficult but I am determined. Yesterday, my "digestion" issues and Neopathy was manageable so I got a lot done. I am determined to plant less ornamental and more edibles this year and as chemical free as possible. This is what the garden looked like at about 10:30 yesterday.

I dug and turned the soil, mostly myself but needed M. help with an small 2'x2' area that I swear someone poured concrete on. It was that hard.

Now I know worms are good for the soil and garden. I should leave them all alone. But what is a lover of fishing to do while digging and seeing the best juiciest worms around. Well I boxed them up for fishing tonight. I have to have balance in my life you know.

I borrowed my brothers cultivator, after he showed me how to use it.

And planted a few things.

So there is an overview. I have a lot of planting to do today. (if my "digestion" holds out) and hopefully a funeral to attend. I hope you all have a blessed day.

Konnie