Well I thought I would start this post with some Eco stuff. I sure most of you were aware that last Wednesday was World Environment Day. After seeing a post about it here http://domesticallyblissed.blogspot.com/, I promised to write my own list here on my blog, especially as we are recent “greenie” converts. So here are some of the things we are trying to do to have a smaller footprint on our planet………..
- We have changed to a front loading washing machine to save power, and prob more important here, save water
- We have recently changed to using all Eco-store cleaning products
- We have built a grey water recycling unit so we can re-use water for the garden in dry weather
- We use cloth nappies 100% of the time (for the last 18 months)
- We use cloth wipes 100% of the time
- I made about 50 single layer wipes to use as re-useable tissues (smaller than hankies), that only get used once then washed, we haven’t bought any paper ones for about 3 or 4 months, and they are great when you have a cold as they don’t make your nose sore
- I use Mama cloth pads, they are great!
- We grow our own meat, without any chemicals and try to give our animals a good life
- We have our own chooks for eggs, who have a large outdoor enclosure
- We grow heaps of veges in spring and summer, and are working on our winter garden
- I try to either remember to take re-usable bags to the supermarket or carry what I buy (a good incentive to remember)
- We no longer buy commercially made biscuits or muesli bars (less packaging to make my own)
- I am trying to buy locally grown veges, or NZ made grocery items (if processed), or fair trade
- I am trying to buy in bulk if possible to cut out excess packaging
- We love the public libraries (we have two close by), and they run great free reading programmes for the kids over the holidays
- We have a water filter on the benchtop, so we don’t buy bottled water
- We catch our water from the roof , no town supply here
- We have recently installed a new woodburner, the second most efficient on the market, so use less wood than previously, and it has a wetback, so the electricity to the hot water has been switched off for over two months now.
- We gather firewood from a recently felled forest that will soon be regrenerated back to native bush, or grow our own (we have a few hundred gums)
- I have a large drying rack above the fire and can dry two loads of washing in 24hrs with it
- I used to sell Tupperware, so have a huge amount of containers for storing and freezing food, so hardly ever use gladwrap
- I’ve only ever been on a plane once when I was 6, so I’m not using much in air miles
- I have started buying local produce from the Farmers Market
- I bike sometimes instead of taking the car (only up to town 4k away), I’m not superwoman
We I hope that’s all not to pious and maybe helpful to others. We are lucky in getting our land just before the property boom, I hate to think where we would be otherwise.
Still on an Eco bent, Greytown is changing to Greentown for the month to promote eco-awareness. Every household in urban Greytown got one of these bags delivered. I managed to get one at the library (we are offically Carterton, but that’s ok). Cool eh?
Each bag (re-usable) had 3 eco light bulbs, a bottle of BEE dishwashing liquid, a bottle of Mela apple juice, an ecostore laundry powder sample, 2 different moisturisers, 2 postcards, some info on enviro stuff, a map of cycling routes, info on noxious weeds. Pretty good I thought. Good on you SWDC. The kids at Greytown School put them together. The school is also doing some more native planting and there are a few events down at the local college as well. Actually I should mention that Greytown school won a Silver Enviro award last year. They try to be active in looking after the environment there. I was a bit annoyed when they started the rule about kids having to bring their own lunch rubbish home (yukky sticky yoghurt containers etc), but I’m ok with it all now. Everyone in our house has a Tupperware sandwich keeper, so they don’t have much rubbish now anyway. They do heaps of recycling, run an enviro group, and do a lot of replanting near local streams etc.
Okay, enough going on about that now.
