Greener Living

Thank you to Rhonda and all the ladies who post on her blog, for reminding me of all the things we can do/are doing to help make our lives greener. In response to her post of what will you do here is my list:
- using fabric shopping bags @ the supermarket
- having a bucket in the shower to catch the water before it heats up (about 4l per shower)
- having empty cordial bottles in my kitchen that I fill with the 3-4l before the hot water comes through - this is used for drinking, rinsing and filling the kettle - if all 6 bottles are full it is used in the washing machine or to water plants.
- bucketing the rinse water from the washing machine onto the garden (today I purchased a diverter hose to make it easier)
- not owning a clothes dryer - I have a fold down line under my verandah that most of the washing gets hung on. In winter if it is too damp I hang it inside in the lounge room where there is a heater.
- from a young age I have "nagged" my children into turning off lights and appliances (tv, vcr, dvd) when they are not being used - and to not leave those little standby lights on either!
-replacing ordinary globes with energy efficient globes when they stop working.
- removing the diffusers from most of said lights so I can get more light from said bulbs, has also meant I can use lower wattage.
- recycling as much as I can.
- buying goods with the least amount of packaging.
- making my own liquid laundry detergent (see post here)

I'm sure there are a lot of other things I do which will come to me later. I'm posting this quote directly from Rhonda's blog...
"So today my friends, I want you to commit to your change. I want you step up today and decide that even if you haven't done anything yet for your planet, and especially if you have, today I want you to tell me in the comments box what small step will start or continue you along the road to a greener life. I want you to tell me about your change and how it will affect your life. Please don't close this blog down now and walk away. Today is the day when instead of just knowing that something needs to be done, you start doing it.
I want every one of you to email this post to a friend so we can get a million small steps happening. I want you to help me tell as many people as possible that we are doing this. And, most of all, I want to know what you will do."
My commitment this month is to make some re-usable mesh bags for my fruit and veggies to be weighed in and no longer take home the plastic bags. I am also going to try and use my new diverter hose as much as possible, which might mean I have to spend a bit more time in the laundry, but so be it.
So what will you do? Leave me a comment and send the message to all your friends!

Compost

My weekend was fairly busy and at least part of it involved lessening my footprint on this earth. I worked on Saturday so that was mostly unproductive as far as household chores go. Saturday night was a "soup & scrap" at my friend Mandy's house. I am working on a baby album for one of my friends who is having a baby. (seems there are 3 friends now who are all due before Christmas - guess i will be working on a few more albums!).
Sunday i caught up on all the washing, I worked full time last week (due to sick workmates) so everything go ta bit out of hand. By last night I had brought in 4 loads of washing and had it all folded in front of the heater.

Managed to score some free timber for kindling, from the shop we got our mattress from, although we are not using the slow combustion heater as much this year it is still nice to light it when I get free wood. We also went to the local Bunnings to price some timber to re-do my bench tops. Since I will be living with this kitchen for a few more years it seems the easiest/most cost effective way to replace them. We did the grocery shopping on the way home, managed to spend very little as I bought bulk chicken and steak a few weeks ago and am trying to use up what I have first.

The rest of the afternoon we spent building a compost bin/enclosure. Basically a wooden box shaped frame with an open front. The timber were the surrounds form brick pallets from the house being built next door. The sides I covered in an old piece of chicken wire that came from my Dad's shed. The back was one of the mangled sheets of colourbond from my damaged fence. All up I spend nothing but my time in constructing it.
I roped my boyfriend into helping and he supplied the screw and the staple gun, as well as an extra set of hands. Oh and for a cover on top I salvaged an old piece of carpet off someones curbside council pick up pile.

All in all I feel it was a productive day. Hope to take a picture and post later tonight!
take care of you.