Today is the final day of Low Impact Week, and I must say that I have very much enjoyed it. It was exactly the push I needed to make some changes towards more sustainable living. Thanks Crunchy Chicken, and to all the rest of you – I’ve learned a lot from reading about your experiences and ideas.
My household will continue to turn up or off the A/C – not just because it’s more energy-efficient to open the windows, but because we’re cheap! Keeping appliances unplugged will be more of a challenge, as it is such a nice convenience to have things at the ready.
I love my clothesline!!! I did two loads of wash last night and everything dries so fast with our wind here…I’m not sure about some things, like socks – they get rather stiff. However, I rarely wear socks in the summer, so this won’t really be my problem! J Sorry, honey!
The running outside will be good on nice days, but I will head indoors when the weather doesn’t cooperate. Yesterday, I found out that running during a high wind advisory is not…advisable.
I will continue to buy local food as much as possible and hopefully extremely local food, as my garden is slowly showing signs of life. On Tuesday, I planted a raspberry bush and a Catawba grapevine. These two will take a few years to bear fruit, but I’m patient… Our meal of locally-raised bacon-wrapped pork chops last night was amazing – they were prepared with fresh garlic from the farmer’s market. I had to supplement the community-garden broccoli with some of the frozen variety just for volume, but I could definitely tell a difference and the local veggie won out.
I’m also going to keep pushing my dear husband on the grocery bag issue – persistent nagging is just one of my many talents, but he’s pretty amenable to change, if it’s well reasoned. I will also use my powers of nagging to wear him down on the recycling – he’s decent about it, but I know that just tossing everything in the garbage is “easier” and he’s a slave to convenience.
Since I didn’t manage to get through the first couple of days without using disposable cups (during the race and at the bar), I had resolved not to use a single one the rest of the week. I have kept that vow, but since I managed to not remember my reusable glass at work, I’ve been a tad dehydrated the last two days! Fortunately, I ran back into the house this morning and grabbed a glass and a spoon. Yea!
Tonight I will drop off my first donation of the Junior League “year” at the Jumble Shop tonight on my way to my “Cooking With Herbs” class at the local botanical gardens. I haven’t planted any herbs because I don’t really know what to do with them, but hopefully after tonight, I will be an herb and spice master! …or something like that. J
I sent off my first book on PaperbackSwap yesterday, with a second to follow tomorrow (a book about the band Phish – don’t even ask why I own this, since I never really got into jam bands – oh, well, at least it’s going to a good home), and I requested my first one – an Erica Jong novel I haven’t got around to yet.
So here’s to the end of Low Impact Week and the start of a Low(er) Impact Life!
