Going green

[adoptedbyachicken]

I will not allow many chemicals on the property (drives hubby nuts) has to be organic and bio-degradable. No chemical weed control or bug stuff, has to be natural and safe. All cleaners same. Have Geo-thermal heating and all energy wise appliances. Want to look into wind power for here, we almost always have wind. Really hard nosed about the packaging of products. Buy the spiral light bulbs that are in Frigo-seal like food containers so the package can be reused. Would love to see more products offered like that. Other than that it has to be in very little if any packaging. Recycle well hubby and I battle that all the time, but mostly I win. Sadly we live so far out of town lots of stuff has no where to go here. Hubby is the best composter ever though, and loves doing that.

I'm really into local shopping too, I just can't abide something that could be grown here being shipped in from hundreds (or even thousands) of miles away. I struggle with the chioces some days but mostly I just can't wait till I have the garden fully up and going on this property so I don't have to buy produce. We have acheived self sufficency in meat totally, just need to get the vegies and most fruit. I can't live without Bananas and I'll never grow them here, but I can sure do most stuff.

 

[chickenannie]

People in this area (the county) found a lot of "green" businesses locally and then published a GREEN PAGES directory like a small phone book.

Now I know where to go to get my car converted to veggie oil and where to buy recycled paper products etc etc...

It's great, I highly recommend doing it in "your" town.

 

[TheMartianChick]

My household is not green by any real means. I plant a garden each year and we live in an area that has a mandated recycling program. Most of my neighbors put out 1 bin while we put out 3each week. I think that we are a bit more diligent about the sorting than they are. Of course, in order to be green we would need to actually cut back on some of the pre-packaged items that come in containers and end up in our bins!

I was raised in the country and moved to the city as an adult. Now, I want to get back to the country and do the "right" things environmentally. I could probably do more here if zoning were a bit more permissive, but I am really tired of the cold and I have an old back injury that acts up. Due to the injury, I have a really unnatural fear of slipping and falling on the ice.

Soo... The plan is for us to move south when my youngest daughter graduates from high school. We've spent the past several years building a business plan for a farm that includes a lot of "green" techniques. We like the idea of using the all natural detergents, growing vegetables hydroponically, raising chickens for eggs, ducks, etc...The plan would allow me the time to write and give my husband the ability to engage in metalworking as art.

We also like the idea of using solar and wind power. Unfortunately, solar and wind technology really shouldn't be used in our current home unless we were going to stay here forever. Even then it might not be a sound investment because the property values are fairly low and even with the government rebates, we would never recoup the money that we spent on equipment. Our home will be converted back to a 2 family when we leave, so it probably isn't a good idea to leave that kind of technology in a home that will have people moving in and out.

One of the things that I like about this site is that I get really good ideas from everyone about the types of things that can be done to become more sustainable and green. Although we have a few rental properties that can provide us with a small income, we will also need to cut back dramatically in order to be able to afford a more expensive mortgage in a rural environment and the costs of having kids in college.