EARTH DAY - What are you doing to better the environment?

[54Belair]

No chemicals of any kind on the lawn.
No herbicides or pesticides.
No artifical fertilizer at all. Just old chicken poop.
I have a compost pile out back that gets all the lawn clippings
I absolutly refuse plastic bags at the grocery store now.
If its only one or two Items I tell them to save the sack...
I dont throw any aluminun away at all.
Put in a special place for recycle of course.
Unfortunatly we ahve no glass recylers around.

 

[Momma Hen]

Good thread...I've been wanting to start doing more myself, so this is a great way to get new ideas!

Like many- I compost, we do the light bulb thing, I garden, no pesticides or chemicals on garden or lawn, recycle cans, mulch around my trees with grass clippings in Spring, Summer, & Fall. In the winter I mow all the leaves to bits & mulch over the grass clippings, to help the trees retain some moisture thru those hot dry spells w/o rain.
To help cut cost I will: check out books from the libray rather than buy them new. I utilize all 2nd hand stores, thrift shops, etc for clothing, craft supplies, just whatever. I have an *errand day*.

I'm not sure if our town recycles newspaper or glass but I plan to find out. We're kind of out in the sticks so I have my doubts.

I like the rain barrel suggestion & picking up along the roadside. Especially involving your kids- good for you chickenfarmer for teaching your child to be responsible & what it means to care!

I'll be checking back on this post for more ideas.

 

[Kelly FG]

great topic Shelly!

I use my own reusable totes for groceries-they are made of recycled plastic
We use all "twisty" bulbs
We put thermal drapes on our drafty sliding doors this winter to conserve energy
We never keep lights on unless we need them, shut water when brushing teeth
We use our sprinklers manually most of the time
I have a big compost pile, all clippings, coop waste, bunny waste & some food waste goes in.
Lots of food scraps are feed to our animals.
Making my organic garden even bigger this year
Shop local for organic food
Try to shop at local Mom & Pops instead of greedy big box stores.
No toxic chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides used in my yard-I'm getting rid of them in the house too.
Adding a clothes line to dry stuff outside
Trying to make less garbage-we freecycle tons of stuff we used to throw away & we get great stuff for free instead of buying it.
Discontinued lots of our newspaper & magazine subscriptions to reduce waste
DH & I both bring coffee(in travel mugs), breakfast & lunch from home everyday.
Both of our vehicles are over 5 years old, we have no plans of getting new ones. Mine is really good on gas-DH's truck isn't but he uses it for work. I will NEVER drive a gas guzzling vehicle again.
We don't have central air, only turn on our wall units about 4 times a summer.
We have gotten estimates to convert to solar energy, but its $$$$ & we are still deciding if we'll move off Long Island in 5 years or less.
I do all my errands & shopping in on the same day in one well planned trip.
We just don't buy "stuff" anymore & I'm giving more & more stuff away.
I go to the library for books & DVDs instead of buying them.

Our downfall is our long commutes-we both drive 100 miles a day but that is average for Long Island. Also our house is big, too big. I sort of wish we bought a smaller house.

This calculator puts it in perspective
http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/#

 

[Lunachick]

We have a three system compost thing going on: 1. throw all yard scraps in bin 2. compost tumbler for regular stuff, kitchen scraps, leaf debris etc. 3. the old heap out back for overflow of old plants, grass clippings etc. No chemicals, all organic. Have veggie garden - use compost for the yard. Have a well, use that water for sprinkler system, have rainbarrel for extra watering. Our town picks up for recycling - Newspapers, magazines, cardboard, glass and cans together. They will also pick up yard junk like metal and wood etc. During a drought a few years ago, we would put plastic buckets in the shower, you know, waiting for the warm water, the cool water went into the buckets, and I used that water for indoor plants and such. Also after we boil water for eggs, let water cool, water plants! Turn off lights when not in use. Hey, I could go on, but thats the basics.

 

[coocooforcocoapuffs]

This thread rocks.

We live in Seattle, where you can recycle just about everything curbside. So, we do a lot of recycling, but it's easy so we can't take a lot of credit for it.

We compost like crazy. Big yard waste bin, two 'green cones' for food waste (though once our chicks grow they will probably do a fair amount of our food waste composting! lol). We have a worm bin, too.

I make my own household cleaners (with the exception on dish soap which I haven't figured out yet).

We use cloth napkins, cloth cleaning rags (the cloth diapers - another thing we did to help the earth - make the best cleaning rags).

We're moving towards better light bulbs. Sometimes the quality of the light they produce feels icky to me, and living in Seattle where it is gray for most of the winter, I need good light!

No pesticides or herbicides.

We use biodiesel in our furnace.

We buy local and organic whenever possible/affordable.

We buy a lot of second hand stuff. Clothes, furniture from Craiglist, etc.

I would like to:
Buy more local.
Use cloth shopping bags more often.
Grow more of my own food.
Take the bus more often. This is hard in a city that has a lousy transit system (for a city its size), but it can be done.

 

[SpottedCrow]

I like the rain barrel idea, but what do you do about mosquitos?
We have EEE and West Nile over here.
When I changed the coop, I'd take the whole pan over to the compost heap and toss it in.
I use tarps and wash them off when I clean the chicken room.
I use newspaper for the floors, and when I change that, out it goes to the compost too.
Shredded newspaper also makes a good mulch.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

screen over the rain barrel keeps the mosquito's out

 

[Picco]

Two of the best things you can do to help the environment are to not eat beef and to drive less frequently to reduse emmisions. The main reason the amazon is being deforested is to provide more grazing land for cattle. I like beef so I still eat it but I try to find beef that comes from sustainable sources and I have cut back a bit. Organic is a good step but sustainabe agriculture is the key. I also try to limit the packaged foods I bye, the less packaging the better. I never by milk in a plastic container - only the paper carton, its biodegradable and the milk tastes better.

 

[CarriBrown]

Spotted Crow-
You can put a few drops of cooking oil in the water. It will float on the top so the mosquitos can't land on it.
We have horses and West Nile is a huge concern in this area. That is what our vet advised us to do.

 

[SandraChick]

Carrie-

Around here all the farmers put a couple of goldfish in the watering troughs....They absolutely love to eat mosquito larvae and it doesn't bother the livestock at all!

Of course, if you're in a situation where you can change your water regularly, then there's no problem.

If the rainbarrel was for the garden, I'd think the goldfish thing might work too- but I'm not sure

Sandra