see the changes.

one of my goals for 2009 and beyond is to reduce my contributions to our overflowing toxic landfills as much as humanly possible. they say 10 parts recycling to one part non-recycling is pretty good.

my contribution to the landfill for the week is the little brown bag on the right which holds whatnots that couldn't reasonably go in recycling or in my compost pile. the 2 recycling containers predominately contain packaging...all the empty containers and various wrappers of stuff that i've bought and of course a "few" of john's beer bottles. all of our recycles go down to ft. lauderdale where they are mechanically sorted and sold.

i would like to take a tour of their facility someday.

in keeping with these conservation/sustainability efforts there are several other areas i am trying to deal with.

1. reduce my power consumption. this month my electric bill was lower than last month.. only $35. i am paying .10 per kwh. because of my low consumption and the fact that i'm only paying .10 per kwh i have discovered through the advice of the local solar installer that it wouldn't make much financial sense to have a solar pv system installed. financially no, but in my heart i do wish it would make more sense to have one. and...according to the fl. state incentive program rules, people do not qualify for the grant money unless they are using a crap load of power at a much higher rate. according to their rules, i don't qualify. so.... i will just continue to figure out ways to reduce my consumption as much as possible. i really have no power hungry appliances, except for the kitchen stove and the fridge (which will be replaced with a smaller one soon), no microwave, no dishwasher, no clothes dryer, i don't use a hair dryer and i have very few lights. the well pump comes on occasionally but apparently that doesn't use much and.... well whatever.

2. when you have your own well and your own septic system it makes you think twice about what you put in your drain since everything you pour down the sink or shower or toilet goes right into your own well water and drainage field. you think... well i'm not putting that crap in my own system. funny how we don't care when it's a public water and sewer system... it just goes away somewhere......... so, we use no chemicals and nothing basically that is poisonous or toxic like chlorine bleach for example (very bad) or whatever scary stuff it is that's in most of our brand name cleaning products that constantly get washed down the drain destroying septic systems and polluting our water supply. i like all the 7th generation products which are basically made from coconut oils and plant essenses. they are very concentrated too so a little goes a long way. you could probably drink the stuff without much of a problem. baking soda and vinegar are really good for scrubbing toilets and showers and sinks and then of course there's simple green which smells delightful. my tub might not be bleachy white but really, it's not that important.

3. no yard chemicals whatsoever. weeds are nice... you can eat most of them and i don't give a flying crap if the grass looks doesn't look like a freakin golf course.

4. future projects: install some rain barrels to use for water conservation and to water the food gardens.