We are still moving forward in our adventure in living green. There is so much to do and so much going on. My apologies for not blogging about more of it.
The end of school came... with tons of activities... and left.
Summer began... with rains and floods...
...and more rains... and more flooding...
We had our first attempts at gardening flooded and washed away. :(
The second round sat in six inches of water for four or five weeks. A few plants managed to survive that!
We have six tomato plants that seem to be doing fairly well. There's one cucumber vine, still without any blossoms or cucumbers, so while the vine grew, that's all it did. The same can be said for the watermelons too. The snap peas seemed to be growing again... but they gave it up after the 3rd flooding in less than 6 weeks. The strawberries, lettuces, carrots, onions, and various peppers are all gone and gave up the fight long ago.
In the meantime, flooding in many areas near us meant higher prices for lots of things - IF - if we could even get them! It's pretty weird going to Wal-Mart, a store that is known for having absolutely everything around here, and finding more shelves empty than full!!! The whole month of June seemed to be that way. And even now, at nearly the middle of August there are still many times when shelves are left empty! So many area roads were damaged and still awaiting repairs to reopen.
Not too far from us the heavy rains actually caused the loss of an entire lake! This lake is in an area that gets a lot of tourists, plus it's great (or was) for fishing. The dam didn't break (that's what everyone thought at first), but the heavy rains weakened an area just to the side of where the dam is built; soaked so much that currents from all the rainfall upstream were overloading the dam and stressing the mud to the point that it washed away.... emptied out nearly the entire lake in a matter of hours and of course created MORE FLOOD DAMAGE downstream!
I hear there are some farmers - people who depend on farm crops for income - who lost all of their first planting; then most of their second planting; and are now left with a fraction of what they expected to have to sell this harvest season. And to add to that, many had their homes flooded as well. For us, the flooding never hit the house - came awfully close more than once - but we stayed dry inside. Still, my heart goes out to those less fortunate in this very wet growing season up here this year.
I'm sure there's a connection from the flooding to the mild summer season we're having now. There's only been one or two days so far that temps even got into the 90s! Most days are upper 70s or low 80s and the nights cool down into the 50s and even a few 40s. It's nice. It would be nicer if the mosquitoes would be somewhere else. :)
We have 23 days remaining before our next school year begins!
We still have many summer projects yet to complete before then! So the days are still very busy.
Sewing lessons are progressing - in hopes of making clothes instead of buying them at retail costs.
Everyone is getting used to using a new push-reel mower to cut the grass (weeds) instead of the old gas-powered mower.
We are also doing much better at eating fresher foods and avoiding more processed foods!
We only have 3 more light bulbs to go before every light in the house is switched away from incandescent bulbs - to either compact florescent or full-spectrum bulbs.
We are much better at remembering our fabric bags for shopping and have nearly used up our supply of plastic shopping bags from various stores.
We've done well at cutting down usage for electricity, natural gas, even gasoline for the car. The down side is that their prices all went up - so it didn't actually save us any money. But I can be happy that we didn't have the larger bills to pay!!! :) I'm sure the milder summer contributed to lowering these in most cases - so the real test may be in how low we can keep usage during the winter months... especially if the prices keep going up!!!
Showing posts with label green thumb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green thumb. Show all posts
Monday, August 11, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
50 Days and Counting
50 Days!!! Hard to believe it's been that long!!!
It's been over a month since my last posting, too! I don't know what it is about my life that keeps it running at such an insane pace! This too is all part of what I'm working to change. I want a quieter life. I want a simpler life. I want a healthier life.
Instead it seems to still be out of control... what I personally do on any given day follows the needs of all those around me.
Progress on the "green" front is moving slowly. We are remembering the cloth bags more often than not, so we've cut down on how many plastic shopping bags we use. The formerly perpetually overflowing stash of such bags under the kitchen sink is actually shrinking now! :) I'm buying more organic foods too - not all - not even half; but it's averaging about 10% of my grocery money lately. It's harder cutting down on processed foods for the whole family than I'd hoped. Many "say" they are all for it but then when they are buying something they bring so much of it home. :( I am doing better personally at not eating it however. That, at least, is only going to go in one direction, eventually eliminating all of it, for me. Now when I choose to eat something prepared from one of the many processed food selections here my body reacts by feeling ill fairly quickly.
It's much like when I was working on cutting down sodas... all kinds of carbonated drinks. At the beginning it was hard to just cut it down to one can or bottle of soda per day. At the same time I was cutting quantity I was also cutting caffeine, so the sodas I did drink were caffeine free. It probably took close to a year to get to the point where I cut it down from 3 to 6 sodas a day to just one in a week. It was an 'up and down' thing - but once I got to just one a week it was a lot easier to go without soda for two weeks, then three weeks, and a month. One day, about a year and a half into it I was out with some friends and we stopped somewhere for something to drink. My choices were coffee (which I don't drink), milk (which I also don't drink), various sodas, and tap water (which I also don't drink). No juices or teas or bottled/filtered waters. So I ordered a soda. When our drinks arrived, without giving a thought at all to the fact that I hadn't had a soda in close to six months, I swallowed a good-sized gulp... and nearly choked! Not only did the taste so totally no longer appeal to me, but the fizzing carbonation actually felt like it was burning all the way down! I never took a second swallow and I've not even considered trying any soda again since then. It's been three years now. I'm hoping cutting out processed foods, at least for me, if not for my whole family, will follow a similar course.
We have also been very busy preparing for a garden this summer! There are over 200 small containers with little seedlings all over my house right now awaiting the day they can be safely transplanted into the backyard garden. We live in the northern regions of the U.S. Midwest so spring is just barely here. Grasses have only been green a little over a week. The early flowers - tulips, irises, daffodils - are now blooming, bringing color to yards that were still quite bland just a week ago. The leaf buds on many trees aren't quite ready to open but it shouldn't be much longer. With all this in mind, our plan is to begin planting the garden this weekend and have it all in by the end of May. We will be praying for success in this first gardening for food endeavor! Considering my lack of a green thumb we will need lots of prayers! LOL
It's been over a month since my last posting, too! I don't know what it is about my life that keeps it running at such an insane pace! This too is all part of what I'm working to change. I want a quieter life. I want a simpler life. I want a healthier life.
Instead it seems to still be out of control... what I personally do on any given day follows the needs of all those around me.
Progress on the "green" front is moving slowly. We are remembering the cloth bags more often than not, so we've cut down on how many plastic shopping bags we use. The formerly perpetually overflowing stash of such bags under the kitchen sink is actually shrinking now! :) I'm buying more organic foods too - not all - not even half; but it's averaging about 10% of my grocery money lately. It's harder cutting down on processed foods for the whole family than I'd hoped. Many "say" they are all for it but then when they are buying something they bring so much of it home. :( I am doing better personally at not eating it however. That, at least, is only going to go in one direction, eventually eliminating all of it, for me. Now when I choose to eat something prepared from one of the many processed food selections here my body reacts by feeling ill fairly quickly.
It's much like when I was working on cutting down sodas... all kinds of carbonated drinks. At the beginning it was hard to just cut it down to one can or bottle of soda per day. At the same time I was cutting quantity I was also cutting caffeine, so the sodas I did drink were caffeine free. It probably took close to a year to get to the point where I cut it down from 3 to 6 sodas a day to just one in a week. It was an 'up and down' thing - but once I got to just one a week it was a lot easier to go without soda for two weeks, then three weeks, and a month. One day, about a year and a half into it I was out with some friends and we stopped somewhere for something to drink. My choices were coffee (which I don't drink), milk (which I also don't drink), various sodas, and tap water (which I also don't drink). No juices or teas or bottled/filtered waters. So I ordered a soda. When our drinks arrived, without giving a thought at all to the fact that I hadn't had a soda in close to six months, I swallowed a good-sized gulp... and nearly choked! Not only did the taste so totally no longer appeal to me, but the fizzing carbonation actually felt like it was burning all the way down! I never took a second swallow and I've not even considered trying any soda again since then. It's been three years now. I'm hoping cutting out processed foods, at least for me, if not for my whole family, will follow a similar course.
We have also been very busy preparing for a garden this summer! There are over 200 small containers with little seedlings all over my house right now awaiting the day they can be safely transplanted into the backyard garden. We live in the northern regions of the U.S. Midwest so spring is just barely here. Grasses have only been green a little over a week. The early flowers - tulips, irises, daffodils - are now blooming, bringing color to yards that were still quite bland just a week ago. The leaf buds on many trees aren't quite ready to open but it shouldn't be much longer. With all this in mind, our plan is to begin planting the garden this weekend and have it all in by the end of May. We will be praying for success in this first gardening for food endeavor! Considering my lack of a green thumb we will need lots of prayers! LOL
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Day 18 Comes to a Close
OK, we're now 18 days into my new plan... living greener, getting healthier, etc.
HOW ARE WE DOING?
UGH!!!
Change is never easy!
But we are making progress!
We are trying to remember to use the cloth tote bags we've gathered when we go shopping - but first we must come up with a plan to REMEMBER TO BRING THEM with us!!! LOL It's about 50/50 right now.
We have all agreed that we will not buy anymore chemical cleaning products. The little bits of the few we do still have will get used up unless I can find someone else who might want them. We don't feel it's right to just throw them out. But I do feel like I really don't want to use them anymore. Aside from the chemicals not being good for the environment, and not being good for us, I have some personal issues with how those chemicals affect me and my health as well as the health of some of my not-so-healthy kids! Maybe I will just dispose of them!
Some of the things we're using instead of those chemical cleaners:
Basic H2 - 1 dilution for windows and glass cleanings, a 2nd dilution for average household cleanings (counters, sinks, toilets, tubs, etc)... and even a 3rd dilution formula for the really greasy messes! We made 3 bottles (16 oz ea.) and have done lots of cleaning with them, we even made a 2nd bottle of the #2 formula, but we have only used about 2 teaspoons of the Basic H2 so far (and it's been a month since we started using it). I even wrote the date on it so I will know how long it lasted. (I'm keeping track of expenses - how much we spend on the products we're switching to, how long they last vs. how much the other stuff cost & lasted)
Vinegar
Baking Soda
Borax
We're learning lots of different recipes to combine those three ingredients with plain water to do all sorts of things. I'll try to post some of those here soon.
I also want to mention that we deal with lots of health problems here in my household. We talked some about how to handle this. My business kit came with a month's supply of Vitalizer - a basic supplement strip that includes vitamins & minerals, antioxidants, omega-3s, and even probiotics! I've been taking them for the last 3 days. I have to say they must go to work pretty quickly as I've been under tons of stress and had to do so much more physically than usual for the last several days and 4 days ago I thought I would end up with the whole weekend in bed unable to move, but that didn't happen! We'll see, I'm still skeptical of new stuff - especially if I'm swallowing it! BUT, I trust these supplements more than what I get at Wal-Mart! LOL
Sometimes I dream that coming back to this company will be a really positive thing for me. Though, after ten years of dealing with constant pain and seriously reduced mobility, I don't hope for anything to really reverse that, but it would be nice to find a way to lessen the pain, increase the mobility AND not be worried about side effects that all my prescriptions have! As I build up my business I'll add more of the supplements to my routine, replacing the ones I now get at other places. It's like I'm going to show everyone, personally, by my own experience, that these supplements work better for your body and even faster so you won't need as much of them as you do of the cheaper stuff you get at the discount stores. :) Who knows? I might even get really brave and try weight loss program too! Yes, like practically everyone I know, I need to lose weight too... but I'm even more leary of "weight loss plans" than I am of new supplements!
The other thing we've been working on is a garden!!!
Let me first say that I have the world's brownest thumb... the most success I could have in growing a garden is with a rock garden! LOL
However, we have to find a way to cut costs. We have to find a way to eat healthier. We have to eat organic produce as much as possible. SOOOO... We HAVE TO GROW A GARDEN!
My kids, my sister, my niece, everyone here wants to do it! So I figure if any of them might have a green thumb (we have no idea yet) then maybe we'll have more green thumbs than brown ones and that will make up for my really brown thumb! LOL
So to this effort - now that the snow is gone (except for just a few spots in the shadiest areas) we've been raking up all the debris from fall and winter. Right now it's just in big pile - that's getting rained on tonight. :( Guess we're going to try composting too! Hmmm... something else to work on.
A friend is going to loan us his tiller soon - after we decide exactly where in that back yard we're going to turn the ground over/under! He's at least grown a garden or two - so he's good for some advice too. Maybe he'll teach my kids while his wife & I go out for some sorely lacking girl time we've been missing! ;-)
Well, time to sign off for now. I'll try to post a little more often.
HOW ARE WE DOING?
UGH!!!
Change is never easy!
But we are making progress!
We are trying to remember to use the cloth tote bags we've gathered when we go shopping - but first we must come up with a plan to REMEMBER TO BRING THEM with us!!! LOL It's about 50/50 right now.
We have all agreed that we will not buy anymore chemical cleaning products. The little bits of the few we do still have will get used up unless I can find someone else who might want them. We don't feel it's right to just throw them out. But I do feel like I really don't want to use them anymore. Aside from the chemicals not being good for the environment, and not being good for us, I have some personal issues with how those chemicals affect me and my health as well as the health of some of my not-so-healthy kids! Maybe I will just dispose of them!
Some of the things we're using instead of those chemical cleaners:
Basic H2 - 1 dilution for windows and glass cleanings, a 2nd dilution for average household cleanings (counters, sinks, toilets, tubs, etc)... and even a 3rd dilution formula for the really greasy messes! We made 3 bottles (16 oz ea.) and have done lots of cleaning with them, we even made a 2nd bottle of the #2 formula, but we have only used about 2 teaspoons of the Basic H2 so far (and it's been a month since we started using it). I even wrote the date on it so I will know how long it lasted. (I'm keeping track of expenses - how much we spend on the products we're switching to, how long they last vs. how much the other stuff cost & lasted)
Vinegar
Baking Soda
Borax
We're learning lots of different recipes to combine those three ingredients with plain water to do all sorts of things. I'll try to post some of those here soon.
I also want to mention that we deal with lots of health problems here in my household. We talked some about how to handle this. My business kit came with a month's supply of Vitalizer - a basic supplement strip that includes vitamins & minerals, antioxidants, omega-3s, and even probiotics! I've been taking them for the last 3 days. I have to say they must go to work pretty quickly as I've been under tons of stress and had to do so much more physically than usual for the last several days and 4 days ago I thought I would end up with the whole weekend in bed unable to move, but that didn't happen! We'll see, I'm still skeptical of new stuff - especially if I'm swallowing it! BUT, I trust these supplements more than what I get at Wal-Mart! LOL
Sometimes I dream that coming back to this company will be a really positive thing for me. Though, after ten years of dealing with constant pain and seriously reduced mobility, I don't hope for anything to really reverse that, but it would be nice to find a way to lessen the pain, increase the mobility AND not be worried about side effects that all my prescriptions have! As I build up my business I'll add more of the supplements to my routine, replacing the ones I now get at other places. It's like I'm going to show everyone, personally, by my own experience, that these supplements work better for your body and even faster so you won't need as much of them as you do of the cheaper stuff you get at the discount stores. :) Who knows? I might even get really brave and try weight loss program too! Yes, like practically everyone I know, I need to lose weight too... but I'm even more leary of "weight loss plans" than I am of new supplements!
The other thing we've been working on is a garden!!!
Let me first say that I have the world's brownest thumb... the most success I could have in growing a garden is with a rock garden! LOL
However, we have to find a way to cut costs. We have to find a way to eat healthier. We have to eat organic produce as much as possible. SOOOO... We HAVE TO GROW A GARDEN!
My kids, my sister, my niece, everyone here wants to do it! So I figure if any of them might have a green thumb (we have no idea yet) then maybe we'll have more green thumbs than brown ones and that will make up for my really brown thumb! LOL
So to this effort - now that the snow is gone (except for just a few spots in the shadiest areas) we've been raking up all the debris from fall and winter. Right now it's just in big pile - that's getting rained on tonight. :( Guess we're going to try composting too! Hmmm... something else to work on.
A friend is going to loan us his tiller soon - after we decide exactly where in that back yard we're going to turn the ground over/under! He's at least grown a garden or two - so he's good for some advice too. Maybe he'll teach my kids while his wife & I go out for some sorely lacking girl time we've been missing! ;-)
Well, time to sign off for now. I'll try to post a little more often.
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