pet peeve

You all know I don't spend much time on this blog complaining about anything. I prefer to keep this space about the bright side of life as much as I can. But I also want to make the world a better place and sometimes you have to speak up!

Recently I stopped at the small local grocery store to pick up just a few things. I don't shop there often, but when it is most convenient it works fine for a few necessities.


I did not have reusable bags with me, and was in a hurry so I wasn't paying attention at the checkout. And my purchase of SIX items was packed into FIVE plastic shopping bags. These bags were so obviously underpacked, that I felt like I was walking out of there with an armful of plastic and a few groceries.

Here is what these groceries looked like when I got home and re-packed them, just out of curiosity.


Does that really look like too much to handle? It actually looks EASIER to carry, if you ask me.


One bag. ONE. That is all it took. The milk already has it's own handle, and everything else fit into one bag and actually weighed about the same as the milk when I held it in the other hand, so nice and balanced. It just makes no sense to me why someone would put this many items into five bags for their customer to set in their car and then carry into their house. What a waste. Can the stores not see the cost savings to them in using less bags? Not to mention the post-consumer waste reduction in sending a customer home with one-fifth of the packaging material?

This happens more often than not when I am shopping, and not just at the little local store. Every once in a while I notice that a grocery bagger has actually used the space in the bags efficiently, and it surprises me. Guess it's time to start emailing some of my favorite stores and see if we can encourage some change.

fourteen?!

Somehow I just can't believe my Daisy is fourteen today. It is amazing how quickly that time has passed by us!



Jason took her out today for a lunch date instead of dinner, because there is an evening event at the library she wants to attend (have I said how awesome our teen program is at the Athens library?) and then she is having a few friends over to celebrate tomorrow night.





In these pictures she is sporting my newest creation and birthday gift to her, a skirt made from neckties. She is completely in love with it and I am sure she will wear it often. It looks great on her and twirls out to a full circle- and who doesn't love wearing something that twirly?







I am so proud of the young lady Daisy is becoming- she is trustworthy, helpful, and honest, and is still very much my sweet little girl even as she heads towards becoming a woman. I enjoy very much the time I get to spend with her and love watching her try out her wings as she gains more and more independence. She is an awesome daughter, sister, and friend- a person I am thankful to have in my life. I love you, Daisy girl. Happy birthday!!

boots

Remember these? I pulled them out a few weeks ago and tried them on Lyle, and he basically has not taken them off since. He asks for them as soon as he wakes up some mornings!



They are perfect for every outfit and activity, in Lyle's opinion- including watching one of his favorite movies over and over again,



or going for a walk at the park. And as if he did not get enough attention because of his adorable train conductor hat that he always puts on backwards, the boots put him right over the top into toddler rock-stardom when he wears them out. He gets so many compliments and he just eats them right up.



And the pretty hair doesn't hurt either.

astronauts, or what to do with a paper bag

The box is a flattened mess now, and ready to go to the recycling drop-off. But I had these photos from a few weeks ago when it was in all it's glory, as a spaceship on this particular day.



Astronaut #5 and Astronaut #2 (because of how old they will be on their next birthdays, of course) stayed busy doing some spiffing up around the cabin of their craft. Spaceship #9 never looked so great!



After the decorating was complete, Astronaut #5 even had time to try on that new helmet with the heart-shaped viewing window. For special occasions, I'm told.

trellis

I came up with a solution for my runaway Jasmine plant, and I am very pleased with how it turned out.


I started by screwing a spiral anchor (like you use for a dog tie out) into the ground at the base of the plant. I thought this would be a good way to secure the bottom of the trellis, and we had this and never really used it- I love when I can finish projects with things we already have around the house! Then I drilled holes and put in screw eyes along the top and side of my space. I then strung plastic coated clothesline from the top down to the base, and tied each piece so that the line was fairly snug. I finished by tying some more line from the side screw eyes over to the furthest vertical line, twisting around each of the vertical lines as I went. It looked sort of like a spider web when I was finished.



Then I pulled all the vines down and untangled everything. I cut away any dead stuff and trimmed a few of the super long pieces down.


Then I attached the vines to the trellis wires with twist ties, all with the closures on the back side of the trellis where I can reach them easily to remove them once the vines have taken hold. Voila! I am so happy with how it turned out, and am looking forward to watching it fill in as the summer progresses.

Before:


After:

back yard

I'm finally getting around to sharing some more photos with you of the yard. We haven't done much of anything out there, but things are starting to really come to life! We'll be surprised every few weeks for the first year as we discover which plants flower and develop and when.



Here is what the back yard looks like- you can see the 3 apple trees there at the end which are going to be beautiful when they get ready to flower. Hopefully we'll even have some fruit in the fall! (by then we'll be all set up and ready to bake apple pie and maybe even can a little apple sauce if there are enough...)





Here you can see the deck- there are 3 stairways coming down- one at each end and another which leads directly to the composter. I'm not sure about the state of the compost in that bin though- we need to do a bit of learning in that area. It seems to be a decent bin but it looks pretty dried out and there are a lot of fruit flies hanging around.



Below the deck there is a large raised bed which was planted by the previous owner with a mosaic of sorts, so that as the plants develop they will make a nice design from up on the deck. I'm sure we'll leave this as it is for the first year for sure, just like the rest of the yard.



One of the things I love so much about the house and yard are all the little treasures that were left for us to enjoy- the little mirror in the corner, old wrought iron bits of gate here and there for plants to climb up, and the great little metal rocker (i almost love it more because it is missing one arm rest). I have always admired this type of vintage objects adorning a yard or garden, and I am sure we will accumulate more ourselves. It just gives the space a unique charm, and of course we are always looking for ways to repurpose old things instead of trashing them!







We'll have more pictures in the next few days of some of our projects as we continue to settle in- hope everyone has a great week!

field trip

Today we toured the Athens-Clarke County recycling facility with a group of our homeschooling friends. It was a very educational trip, as well as fun! We learned a lot about recycling in our area, and got to see how the process of separating all the materials works, after we put the cans and bottles in our recycling bin and set it out on trash day.

There was a wonderful classroom there with lots of visual aids for learning about recycling. We talked about why it is important to recycle and learned about some of the things that are being made from recycled materials. Then we headed out for the tour, stopping at the big scale that they weigh the trucks on (our group weighed 1126 lb!)







Then we saw some of the huge piles of materials waiting to be processed, and watched as the mixed containers (plastic, glass, aluminum) went up a conveyor belt and were sorted by hand (yes- by hand!) into the different groups. We also saw the workers having to pick out (again, by hand) all the items which were not supposed to be there, such as non-recyclable plastics and trash.



Then we saw how the sorted materials go up into a bailer to be compressed and tied into large cubes, and then carried off by forklifts. It is amazing how much stuff there was.





One of the things we talked about was using less in the first place, in order to create less waste (recyclable or otherwise) in the end. This is really huge. Our guide told the kids we need to think about the things we buy before we bring them home. Think about how long they will be useful to us and what we plan to do with them when we are through using them. So many people think nothing about throwing stuff into the trash, because once it is out of their home they don't have to see it anymore. This needs to change!! Our attitude about how much of our resources we use and what we do with it when we are done needs to change. We'd like to plan a followup trip to the landfill next so the kids can see what happens to all the stuff that cannot be (or isn't) recycled.

This brings me to something else I wanted to share here- if you have not watched The Story of Stuff yet, I'd like to urge you to do so. It takes just 20 minutes and will help you understand more about the impact our consumer driven lives are having on our earth, and what we can do to change our attitudes and habits. Take the time to watch- you won't be sorry!

wrapping

I posted last year that we were using pieces of fabric and cloth bags for wrapping our gifts. We love this and do not plan to ever go back to buying paper gift wrap! For us, it is a tremendous improvement- there is less waste, the gifts are still very pretty, and for many people it is like getting a bonus gift! Even if you do not sew, the fabric can be used in scrapbooking or other craft projects, or for decorating purposes. At the very least, the recipient has a creative way to wrap another gift in the future.



This year, I was excited to pull out a box full of holiday printed fabric given to me by my aunt. I don't often do much sewing with holiday prints, but when I saw how much she had (and there is a lot of it!) I knew it would be perfect for wrapping our gifts this year. There was also a whole bag of thin satin ribbon which made tying the packages up a snap! What a great way to use this fabric which had been sitting in a box for years.

**Pictures and info about all the handmade goodness inside these packages will follow after Christmas!

water, water (wasted) everywhere

With the state of water availability here in Georgia, we have been working extra hard at our house to make sure we are not wasting water. It's amazing what you notice once you start paying close attention to your water usage. We really take clean water for granted in this country, and the convenience of being able to just turn on the tap or flush the toilet whenever we want to.

As we've been learning very quickly in the southeast US, our water is NOT unlimited. That, in addition to the fact that is also something we have to pay for, is a lot of motivation to change our habits and the way we think about our water usage.

One thing we have started doing is catching water in bowls and buckets. I try not to put any water down the drain that could possibly be used for something else. The picture above shows a half gallon (8 cups) of water that would normally be wasted while waiting for the hot water to get to the faucet. Actually in our bathroom it takes a little more than this- I can run 8 cups, dump it out into our larger bucket, and then get 3 more cups while the hot water finally gets to the tap and I get a washcloth wet for washing dirty faces, etc. Think about all the times in a day you run water down the drain waiting for the hot water!! It is probably around a half gallon each time- that's clean, usable water (that YOU are paying for!) going right down the drain.

So we dump that water from the bathroom sink into a larger bucket that stays in the bathtub*, and use it to fill the tank of the toilet for flushes. The bucket also catches water from the tub faucet when waiting for hot water. Doing this has cut way down on the fresh water that is used to fill the toilet tank- reusing water that would have just gone down the drain.

And there are so many other times we have found we were dumping water down the drain! The leftover water from the kettle after making coffee in the morning. Half-drunk glasses we find all over the house. Even the sink full of rinse water from doing dishes- which can be used for soaking the breakfast dishes the following morning if you leave it in the sink overnight! There are so many ways we can use less water, if we just pay attention and stop mindlessly using it like there will never be an end to the supply.

Here are some links with lots more ideas for how you can save water around your home as well as in your community:
http://earth911.org/water/water-conservation/
http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/
http://www.americanwater.com/49ways.htm
http://www.eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm

*Water sitting in a bucket can be a serious drowning hazard for kids. Please do NOT do this if the bucket is accessible to a small child in your home. We keep our bathroom door closed tightly at all times in order to make sure this will not be a danger. (And since we have a 1 year old who loves to splash in the toilet too!) As soon as we become home owners we will be installing some sort of greywater recycling system, and get rid of the bucket. This is just a temporary fix for us.

freecycle

I was on the email list for Freecycle back at Fort Irwin, but that list had nowhere near the traffic of our list here in Athens. I jumped right in when we got here, because I needed to get rid of some stuff and am not interested in doing a yard sale at this point. We are always interested in acquiring new and useful things through "used" channels too, so we figured we'd give it a shot.



Pictured above is our latest score- a single and double papasan chair!! I was completely thrilled that we got these- the list moves very quickly and you have to check it often in order to get a chance at the really great stuff. These are perfect for us because we have a spacious living room in this house, and we also left our sofa in California so we were a bit short on seating. The cushions need a little cleaning but really are in very good shape- I'll probably just get a couple of fitted sheets and alter them to make good washable covers anyhow. I'm thinking a solid and a stripe, or something like that. Everyone is really enjoying piling in together and it's nice to have a spot for everyone to sit once again. They were still on the porch in the picture there, but we've gotten them into the living room now and they are great.

Our other great find was hooking up with a girl who works in a bakery- we got a bunch of day-old bread and muffins, scones, etc. A great person to know! We've given away a number of things too- clearing clutter from our home and helping out other people who need stuff we have to give.

So check out Freecycle if you don't already use it. Sometimes you get really great things that you were in need of anyway, and it keeps usable items out of the landfills and brings the community together through the generosity of the members. An awesome thing to be a part of!

Freecycle directory US
Freecycle directory Worldwide

packing

I sealed 2 small boxes and one large one today. Decorative stuff and wall hangings, etc. If I do a little every day, it won't seem like so much work, right? Man, we have a lot of stuff. Fortunately there is always someone moving in or out of military neighborhoods, so boxes and packing materials are easy to come by. I was pretty amazed recently when we were at the local U-Haul place to see all the expensive packing accessories they sell (and I am assuming, people actually buy?) such as specially marked and color coded tape. Personally, I'm sticking (HA!) with the plain ol' brown stuff that the movers left behind when they packed my friend Ashlie. She collected enough extra rolls for us to do our entire move with. How's that for using the available resources to their fullest?! And I'll treat myself to one or two new Sharpies after I use up the various half-dead ones laying around the house.

Edited:
GAH! I found this and I am pretty sure I'll need to find time to make one before the Official Packing begins. Which is in 2 weeks when my parents get here. Mom will be helping me pack while Dad occupies the kids and does other odd jobs (take down clothes line, fill holes in walls, etc.) Hmmmm maybe Mom & I both will need an apron for packing... so much sewing to do, so little time...