Making Less Trash

I realized yesterday that when we moved into our new house (and began paying for our own garbage pick-up) we majorly downgraded our trash can. Our new can will hold only three (white, tall) bags of trash, and trash is collected every two weeks. We're taking steps to continue to reduce the waste we produce, but there's always room for improvement in that area! I'm grateful to Chris and Rebekah of Liberated Family for offering today's helpful guest post: all about ways to reduce the amount of trash we make in order to treat the environment with more respect. Please read to the bottom to learn more about today's guest writers.

A garbage truck drove past us at an intersection today. Plastered on its side was the message, "Our landfills provide 17,000 acres of wildlife habitat." What does this hype mean? Surely they're not talking about lush, green fields and young forests growing atop a mountain of trash? It seems most likely that they had 17,000 acres of wildlife habitat in the first place, dumped untold tons of trash on it, covered it up, and turned the hype machine on. Of course, we all generate trash, and it has to go somewhere. I just don't buy into the ridiculousness of the claim that burying it in the dirt is actually environmentally friendly. No matter what the claim is, it's simply buried, where a large part of it will still be at least somewhat intact in 1000 years.

But the purpose of this post is not to trash the trash service. I want to discuss ways your family can reduce the amount of trash you're sending to the landfill. Our family of four produces about ½ of a paper grocery sack of trash each week. Here's how we do that:

Viva Portlandia

Welcome to the Earth Day Blog Carnival! 

This post is part of the 2012 Earth Day Blog Carnival hosted by Child of the Nature Isle and Monkey Butt Junction. Each participant has shared their practices and insights of earth friendly, environmentally conscious, eco-living. This carnival is our way to share positive information and inspiration that can create healing for our planet. Please read to the end of this post to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.  

Happy Earth Day!

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We went for a family bike ride last evening. Jaymz was in front, Daniel and I were on my bike in the middle, and my brother Matthew brought up the rear. We bought new bikes for Jaymz and Matthew last week from a local shop that repairs and re-purposes old bicycle parts into "new" bikes for sale. Matthew got a fixed-gear bike, and Jaymz was lucky enough to find a frame tall enough for him, which the shop owner then built into a custom bike for him. How cool is that?!

In light of Earth Day, I got to thinking about all the ways this beautiful City of Roses makes it very easy (and appealing) for our family to be environmentally conscious.  

Here are a few of my favorite eco-friendly things about Portland:

Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 29)

Well, the food challenge is nearly over, and I have to say I'm feeling quite relieved. With just three days left (including today), I've had just about enough of being so concerned about our food budget!

The Adjustments:

This week's tasks were to stop restricting food intake, make enough food to last us until Thanksgiving (but not too much), and to prepare a Thanksgiving feast while keeping within the budget.

I made a few dishes early in the week for us to eat until Thanksgiving, including a big pan of gluten-free breakfast casserole, which featured many ingredients from the pantry and freezer. On Sunday, Jaymz made himself a pasta dish to take to work for lunch during the week. We didn't make quite enough food to last those first three days, but we ended up having soup and other frozen meals to fill in the gaps, so it worked out fine.

Since it was just the three of us at the house for the long weekend, we decided to spread out the cooking and eating over several days instead of making everything all on one day. On Thanksgiving, we cooked a turkey breast (brined, then roasted), gravy, gluten-free bread stuffing, and mashed yams with cinnamon and brown sugar. The next day, we made turkey noodle soup made with fresh turkey stock, which we're still eating—I even had it for dinner last night! Yesterday, we made green bean casserole using some of my homemade cream of mushroom soup from the freezer, and tomorrow I'll make mashed potatoes to continue to eat with the soup (and to use up the gravy) over the next few days.

Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 22)

With just eight days left in this food challenge, I feel like we're definitely getting the hang of it! I'm being more intentional about menu planning, I'm spending less at the grocery store, and we haven't eaten out at all this month. I feel very proud of the progress we've made, and I'm confident that we can carry on with the things we've learned.

The Budget:

Bulk foods!

As I mentioned last week, we planned to spend the week's food budget on our bulk foods delivery (which arrived on Friday). I ended up spending $43.40 on bulk foods, which brings the total for the month so far to $148.13.

The Adjustments:

Last week's tasks were fairly simple: to spend no extra money on groceries since I was purchasing from the bulk foods delivery, and to eat more foods from the freezer and pantry for daytime meals as well as dinners. All of these goals were met this week, and I was surprised that we could go for so long without buying any food at all!

Foodie Friday: GF Turkey Noodle Soup

We eat a lot of soup during the colder months, and this minimalist food challenge has renewed my craving for soup! There are several batches of soup in the freezer that we've been eating up, but this is one I'll make new again next week after we have turkey on Thanksgiving.

Making soup is a great way to utilize the turkey bones that might otherwise be discarded, as well as a fresh new way to serve leftover turkey if your family is getting tired of warmed up plates of holiday dinner. Plus, soup is comfort food, and I can't get enough of it on these cool and rainy Fall days!

Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 15)

Today I'm feeling a little minimalist challenge weary, which seems appropriate for the mid-way point. We had a really tough week, being the first week without OT for Daniel. These kinds of weeks make it hard to feel motivated to make the effort to prepare food at home (and we usually eat out a lot when our family feels like this). However, we stuck to the challenge and made it through the week, so I'm feeling very proud of us!

The Budget:

This week, we spent $49.64 on groceries, which included all the food we prepared and packed to eat on our two-day trip to the coast. This means we've spent $104.73 of our $200 budget for the month. Today marks the halfway point of the challenge, so I think we're doing really great!

The Adjustments:

Last week's tasks were to work on menu planning, figure out a solution for Jaymz's lunches, and navigate going on a trip without spending too much of the food budget.

Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 8)

The contents of my pantry before the challenge

The minimalist food challenge is going very well so far! We've been making a dent in the foods we have, and we ate at home every single meal last week.

The Budget:

As far as money goes, I spent $57.09 on food this week, and most of the items I bought were to replace foods that we finished off during the week (milk, peanut butter, etc.). I'm a little embarrassed to admit that the $57.09 includes $14.67 I spent on a frozen turkey breast, because I was nervous that I might spend too much money and not be able to buy one when Thanksgiving rolls around. Whether or not this is giving in to my food hoarding tendencies, it made me feel better about my holiday meal plan, and the turkey is safe in the deep freezer. I'm only a little ahead of budget even given that large purchase. If I put the turkey in the last week's budget instead, I only spent $42.42 this week!

Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 1)

A while back, Jaymz and I got to talking about food. I have some interesting personal philosophies about eating (which I'd like to write about this month as well), but this was more a conversation about the sheer amount of food we have in our house.

I've written before about how much I like to hoard things. For some reason, this is particularly an issue with food. I like to keep food, I like to buy food in bulk, and I like to have a full refrigerator and cabinets at all times. My tendency to hoard food has been getting a little easier for me lately, as I've been getting treatment for some (previously undiagnosed) thyroid problems I was having. In any case, I still definitely have some room to improve.

Another problem with having so much food in the house is that inevitably, some of it goes bad and we end up wasting food. This is always really hard for me, as I don't like wasting anything! Part of why I want to do this challenge is to learn how to buy just the right amount of food for us to be able to eat in a given week, so that nothing goes to waste. 

"Making" Money

Welcome to the October Carnival of Natural Parenting: Money Matters
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared how finances affect their parenting choices. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

Part of the way I parent has to do with being more conscious of the environment and the impact that our family has on it. Choosing a "greener" lifestyle doesn't have to mean spending more money. In fact, replacing disposable products in the home will save lots of money over time. The upfront cost might seem like a lot, but just think—you will rarely have to spend money to replace those things! Cloth diapers, cloth napkins and towels, reusable menstrual products, cloth baby wipes, reusable shopping bags...all these things are saving my family money over time.

Container Gardening, The Third Year

Each year, the contents of my vegetable containers spill more into the ground, and this year it feels like I really have established a garden! The first year, we had no ground at all by our apartment that we could use, but I grew potatoes (and one onion) in pots. Last year, I used mostly containers and put a few things in the ground, but I had very little overall yield (except for potatoes and onions).

Lavender, which was only about 1" tall last year

This year I've taken over more of the landscaped area in the front, and (as Jaymz pointed out) I've succeeded in bringing a lot more color to the look of the place! I have to admit, seeing flowers instead of ornamental grass (for example) when I walk outside does make the place feel more like home.

More than enjoying it simply for looks (which I do, very much!), I love how gardening makes me feel. I find myself going outside to look at and tend to my vegetables more when I'm having a stressful day. I enjoy seeing how much they grow and change from day to day, and witnessing the effects of my care for them. I can't help but see many parallels between gardening and parenting: the plants grow and change (so fast!) and you never quite know how they're going to turn out, but the process is really the fun part. The thing I find the most fulfilling about gardening is the sense of balance it cultivates in me. I enjoy the give and take, the cyclical patterns, and even the uncertainty of it.

Being able to eat vegetables I've grown in my own garden is also incredibly rewarding. I can't help but feel like I'm making a (very small) difference on the environment by cutting out the middle man for a few of our foods. And undeniably, helping green things grow (at the very least) helps to use up excess carbon dioxide in exchange for fresh oxygen. I also really enjoy learning new things, and it seems that there's never a shortage of things I don't know yet about gardening! It's fun to build my knowledge base through this process.

My garden is still small, but as I look back on how much it's grown in just a few years, I know it won't be long before I have a larger, more productive garden. But for now, I'm pleased with what I have.

Now I'm going to take you on a little tour of the bit of earth I tend (from the front door outward, because that's how I generally experience it):

Welcome.

Greeting you just outside the door is a large pot of very lively carrots. Several of them sprouted flowers recently, and I pulled them up just after I took this photo:

Did you know that Queen Anne's Lace is a type of wild carrot?

Yum! Smallish, but delicious.

Next to the carrots is one of my pots of potatoes. This one had white flowers a while back (and the other potato plant had purple ones).

See? The carrots are on the right. They're mixed colors
(white, orange, purple)...someday I'll know which ones grew the largest!

Then, to the other side of the entrance, most of the other container plants:

From top to bottom: Daphne, oregano, Walla Walla onions,
lettuce, rosemary, hot pepper, red onion (one of these),
more potatoes (with a few empty pots, too)

Some close-ups of a couple of those:

I grew this rosemary from seed this year, and they've grown very fast.
(I gave the third one away; I wonder how it's doing now!)

The pepper plant that defies all logic:

The stalk of this plant snapped almost clean in half at the base (by the rocks)
a month or so ago, yet it continues to grow...and thrive, even!

It has lots of these tiny, perfect flowers.

A little farther away from the house, the front bed (landscaped with lots of obnoxious plants by the rental company) which I'm slowly taking over:

Lavender, of course, as well as beets (bottom right, very small),
spinach (bottom left corner), strawberries (just above that),
watermelon (tiny, top right), and daisies (top left)

I'm not quite sure why the beets aren't doing as well this year, when last year we had many edible-sized ones by this point in the season. Oh well! The watermelon plants, too, are still quite small, but I remain hopeful, since they've grown fast over the past week or so:

Farther out, next to the road, I've planted several varieties of squash. We've opted to allow the native flora to take over the parking strip (generally, weeding out nettles and dandelions, mostly). You can see in last year's photos that after one Spring of neglecting the mulch cover, other grasses were dominant, but this year the clover is winning. I attribute the success of the squash this year as opposed to last year to the clover, since it's attracting lots of bees. I learned last week, when researching my Farm Fresh post on the zucchini, that all types of squash need plenty of bees to be able to pollinate most effectively.

Zucchini (in the foreground), spaghetti squash (middle),
acorn squash (top, quite small, right in front of the tree trunk)

The spaghetti squash is the most fruitful so far of all the squash plants, with many blossoms and accompanying fruit beginning to swell up:

Turning back toward the house, there are some more very tall daisies growing up under our South-facing windows. I enjoy looking out the kitchen window and seeing their sunny faces looking up at me:

And opposite those, is a giant tomato plant. It's really quite impressive, if I do say so myself. (I have a less-impressive one, too (a cherry tomato), growing in one of those inverted planters hanging above the pepper plant. It's not dying, but it doesn't seem happy, either. Perhaps the upside-down life is not the cherry tomato's cup of tea.)

In any case, there is a very happy tomato plant in my garden, growing in a large bucket with no drainage. The largest tomato on it is about the size of a small plum, and they're all still quite green and very fuzzy:

I love how, every time I touch this plant (even for just a moment),
my hand smells strongly of tomatoes after.

Mmmm, so lovely!

Gardening teaches me balance in so many ways. Besides the practicalities of providing the right ratios of water to drainage and sunlight to shade, gardening most definitely provides respite and perspective in my life. It reminds me that some things happen so slowly that they seem to go by fast. It renews my sense of wonder and fascination with nature and science. Gardening reminds me to be flexible and adaptable, and most of all, to appreciate the journey.

Thanks for visiting my garden! I hope you'll come again soon.

How do you use nature to help you find balance? Do you enjoy watching your vegetables bear fruit (and which ones are you most excited about right now)? How does your garden grow?

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"Live a balanced life—learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some."
Robert Fulghum

This post is part of my series on balance, inspired in part by the October 2010 Carnival of Natural Parenting. Without balance, we feel burned out, we lose perspective...we fall down. How do you find balance in your life? What does it mean to you to be in balance? Does it come easily to you or do you have to be more intentional about it?

I'd love to host your guest post for my series on balance! Contact me at anktangle@gmail.com if you're interested in participating.

Blessings to the Earth

Welcome to the Earth Day Blog Carnival!

This post is part of the Earth Day Blog Carnival hosted by Child of the Nature Isle and Monkey Butt Junction. Each participant has shared their practices and insights of earth friendly, environmentally conscious, eco-living. This carnival is our way to share positive information and inspiration that can create healing for our planet. Please read to the end of this post to find a list of links to the other carnival participants. Happy Earth Day!

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There's an evening meal tradition in my family, where we take a moment before eating to hold hands and recognize our gratefulness. Sometimes the things we're grateful for are said out loud, and other times, we keep them to ourselves. My husband often says he's grateful for me (for making the meal) and I often find myself feeling grateful to the food itself: that we have the resources to acquire it, the skills to prepare it, and healthy bodies to process it into energy for living our lives.

On nights when we take a longer moment for gratefulness, I find myself sending blessing energy to all who were involved in the meal sitting before me. I thank the farmer who grew the rice. I thank the truck driver who brought the cheese to the market. I thank the cow for living in a perpetual lactating state so that I can have cheese to eat (something I never truly appreciated before being a breastfeeding mother myself). I thank the spinach seed for growing into a strong, green, vitamin-rich plant; I thank the leaves for knowing how to photosynthesize. I thank the soil that housed the spinach on its journey, for all its nutrients. I thank the sun for its warmth and radiant energy, for never failing. I feel thankful that I have copious amounts of fresh, clean water to drink with my meal and use to water my own growing plants.

This is where the ritual changes: I send positive energy to those who don't have enough clean water for drinking and washing, and I thank the people who are working hard every day to change that. I even send light to the people who say that the problems of others (and the problems of the Earth) are not any of our business to try to fix, that we should always think of ourselves first. My hope for them is that their hearts will be opened and their minds softened; that they will one day see themselves as an integral part of a much bigger picture.

I recently read a book called The Gentle Art of Blessing, and in the fourth chapter the author, Pierre Pradervand, begins to describe a ritual of blessing a meal. I immediately recognized this practice as the same gratefulness time that I've been observing. He writes, "Blessing nature in its manifold manifestations and gifts is an essential part of blessing.... And blessing your meal and those who helped produce it might even get you thinking and concerned about the working conditions of those who produced it."

When we are truly grateful for all that we have, we can no longer take it for granted. We will be compelled to work for change, for the betterment of the lives of others, for changes in the way our food supply is handled, and in how migrant workers are treated. We will eat seasonally, locally, and sustainably. We will stop having a battle with food and our bodies and instead see them both as resources that we should appreciate, enjoy, and treat with gentleness and respect. We will be inspired to grow something green and edible, or purple and flowery, or tall and carbon-neutralizing.

That is my hope for this Earth Day, that we each plant a seed within ourselves: to vow to treat Mother Earth and all the gifts she provides (including other human beings) with the assumption that each and every creature is precious, worthy, and beautiful. Only then can we begin to make a difference.

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Visit Monkey Butt Junction and Child of the Nature Isle to read all about the Earth Day Blog Carnival.

• Going Green in 2011 - Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama discusses the way she and her family are going “greener” in 2011.
  
  
• Our Greatest Teacher - Amanda at Let’s Take the Metro shares her experiences with her children and nature, their greatest teacher.
  
  
• Dreaming of Spring Gardening - Erin of the Waterloons talks about the ultimate in local food, her backyard garden.
  
  
• Earth Conscious Minimalism - Nada at miniMOMist thinks minimalism can help you save the world — as long as you don’t just toss everything in the trash! Check out Her list of places to donate (bet you haven’t thought of them all!).
  
  
• Blessings to the Earth - Amy at Anktangle believes that a simple act, such as being intentionally grateful for our food, is just the catalyst we need to bring about large-scale change.
  
  
• Eight Movies to Inspire Change - Mrs Green at Little Green Blog shares her top 8 movies that have inspired her to take action to make the world a better place. She’d love to hear your suggestions to add to her viewing list!
  
  
• Can I Have a Green Period Too? Kelly at Becoming Crunchy shares the environmental impact of switching to sustainable menstrual products, along with offering a great Mama Cloth giveaway for anyone interested in making the switch (and for those who already have and want to increase their stash!).
  
  
• An Eden to Call Our Own - Lucy at Dreaming Aloud shares how learning to care for the Earth starts in her own garden.
  
  
• Elimination Communication - Melissa at the New Mommy Files discusses the environmental impact of diapering, and why elimination communication was the best choice for her family.
  
  
• The Living Earth: A Meditation in Science and Reverence - Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante asks you to pause to wonder at the blessing of the fact that our living planet is here at all.
  
  
• Earth Day Anthem - Amanda at Let’s Take the Metro created a poem in honor of Mother Earth, women and nurturers everywhere.
  
  
• The Plasticity of Compromise - Zoie at TouchstoneZ shares how she is working to compromise on healthy family living and avoiding plastics whenever possible.
  
  
• Earth Day Resolutions - Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares why she has decided to make Earth Day resolutions, what those resolutions are, and how they are a step up from her current efforts at green living.
  
  Is it time for you to say “Enough!”? Mrs Green at My Zero Waste asks you to rise up and say ‘Enough!’ on Earth Day.
  
  
• Homeschooling with the Earth - Terri at Child of the Nature Isle shares her desires and dreams for Earth-based learning and the ways her two young children have already started a natural curriculum.
  
  
• Beyond the Green Sheen - Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction offers some advice on how to avoid greenwashing and make purchasing choices that really have a positive impact.

Reducing Environmental Impact

I've been thinking a lot about the environment lately, partly because it's Springtime—one of my most favorite times of year—and partly because Earth Day is tomorrow. I do my best to reduce the impact I (and my family) have on the environment: we cloth diaper, recycle, compost, only have one car and take public transportation as much as possible, we live close enough to a grocery store to walk there—and we actually do...most of the time. We got lucky enough to rent a place that already had high-efficiency appliances installed, so we take advantage of those. Now that it's sunnier out, I've been more intentional about opening the curtains before turning on any lights (I live in the often-cloudy PNW, remember).

But I want to do more! For instance, I know we use more water than I'd like, so I'm going to work on limiting length of showers, and stretching out times between running the dishwasher, and then running it very full. I'd like to be more diligent about cooking at home and cooking vegetarian (because I know that the meat industry has huge environmental impacts), even though we're usually very intentional about buying sustainably and humanely farmed meats. I also aspire to get over my fear of my sewing machine (I know, it's totally irrational and nearly impossible to injure myself with a sewing machine) and finally complete all the projects I have lined up. I really like making things and using crafting as a creative outlet, and—even better—it saves us money and allows me to reuse things that might otherwise get thrown away (or kept indefinitely).

Another thing is, I know we run our dryer way more than we need to, and I've begun to see a little bit of wear on some of my diapers from putting them through the dryer (as I used to do almost all the time). This weekend, I asked my partner Jaymz to rig up an outdoor clothesline for us. Since we don't have room for a more traditional long line (strung across the back yard we don't have, for instance), I had dismissed the idea in the past. But then I realized we have plenty of vertical space that is under-utilized, so why not use that?! He even figured out a way to tie the line on so that we didn't have to put any nails in the wood, and we used rope that we already had lying around. This morning, I added an extra loop at the top for the octopus, and now I have a perfect place to sun and dry my diapers in the fresh air.

I've been surprised at how enjoyable it is to stand outside hanging the diapers up on the new clothesline. I can wear Daniel on my back if he's awake, and we both get to bask in the sunlight and enjoy the cool breeze. It's so satisfying to smell the fresh, dry cloth when I take it down bring back in: I didn't know hanging things to dry could be so fun! This feeling of enjoyment has been really inspirational to me—if this feels so good, imagine what making just a few more small changes will feel like!

So, those are a few things that are in the works in my life, aside from my ongoing quest to remove clutter. I'm looking forward to how making these small, seemingly insignificant changes are going to end up impacting my life (and our budget).

What are you going to do this year (or even today!) to make your corner of the Earth a little greener? Do you have any special plans for celebrating Earth Day tomorrow? I'm excited to hear your ideas!