When Recycling Causes Family Problems

A certain family member is causing me fits. Here's the deal; We do not have curbside recycling for glass. We have to wash it, save it, and then take it to a recycling station which is at the fire station. So I grabbed a box and started putting glass in it; I even labeled it "Glass Only" for said-family member's benefit. Three times, said-family member went ahead and put the glass out with the recycling and three times the recycling guy, threw it back on the curb.

So today, said-family member, got disgusted with the recycling guys and tossed it all in the garbage. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Man, all that rinsing and cleaning and sorting for nothing. I swear. It's hard living with people who don't give a rip. But I do have a plan. This time I'm hiding the glass-only box!

Do you have family members like mine?

By the way-the same thing happened while camping last weekend. I marked one bag for trash and one for bottles and cans. And guess what happened to it? It got thrown away IN THE GARBAGE! Sheesh! What's wrong with these people?

Freecycle Feeds Hungry Dog- Mine!

The latest beneficiary of Freecycle. This morning there was an email in my inbox from someone who had free dog food to offer. She'd bought it for her dog, but the dog wouldn't touch it. It was "Fit and Trim" food...smart dog. So I quickly emailed her back, got her address and picked up the dog food. My dog hesitated for a moment at the "diet" food, but in the end she decided to eat it. Lucky for me she's not that picky.

Freecycle is a wonderful site. Just click on the link, http://www.freecycle.org, plug in your city and you'll see all the cool things people want to give you. What a great way to not waste a thing. The woman who offered the food, first tried to donate it to the Humane Society but they won't take unsealed food (a good policy, I'm sure). Without Freecycle, she would have had to throw it away. Instead, my Togo got it. I took a photo of her with the food, to send with a thank you note. What a cute dog I have! ~Karen

Aw...poor little blog

You've been so neglected. Truth is, I've been really busy writing. My other blog has gotten all the attention. But I promise to come back more often, if nothing else, just to spend time with you. ~Karen

It's Time!

I've read that when gas prices reach $4 a gallon, then people will make changes in their transportation mode. I'm not sure if I believe that or not. I think we'll go to amazing lengths in order to keep things convenient. Most people I talk to are NOT considering riding the bus. I spoke with my mom about it earlier this week and we decided that we want to learn to ride the bus. I don't know why it's so scary, but somehow it is. Both of my parents are at that age which they must consider whether or not to continue driving on their own. Independence is so important and I hate the idea of that being taken away from them or anyone else. It's a good time to learn to ride that bus. What in the world are we waiting for? Have you made any changes in transportation? ~Karen

Eco-Friendly Bathroom...Not!

Just look at a few of the products in my bathroom. Those bottles are ALL shampoo bottles. Do you see a problem? I do. None of those bottles are recyclable. They all end up in the trash...and then the landfill. So what's my plan? Well, first of all, I'm going to look for products that ARE in bottles that are eco-friendly. Second- I'm going to write to the companies of the products I otherwise love, and tell them I have to switch to another brand. We'll see what happens.

Oh and see that toilet paper roll? Yeah, every time I empty the bathroom garbage, I look through it for the rolls so I can place them in the recycling bin. Why is it that I'm the only one who will bother to do this? Though our bathroom is small, I think I'll add a small recycling can for them. I've found that if things are convenient, my family will do it.

For some reason, it seems that when I'm in the kitchen, I'm constantly thinking of ways to save, ways to conserve, and reuse and recycle. But I'd have to say that my bathroom is my least eco-friendly room. But that, my friends is about to change. What is your least eco-friendly room? ~Karen

Drip...drip...drip - Not in my house!

I've made many changes that I haven't even talked about here. One I noticed the other day and thought I'd share with you. It's simple and obvious but my wasteful former self didn't think so. Our dishwasher is one of those that does OK...not great...but OK. If there is something leftover from dinner that's stuck to the plate, I have to rinse it off before loading it up.

What I used to do was turn the hot water on and leave it on while I rinsed and loaded. Well, no more. Now I only rinse the things that need rinsing, and often I just use my $1 scraper instead (or with just a smidgen of water). And I turn off the water inbetween. In fact, the sound of running water is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me now. It's like when your kids were little and you heard their cry practically before they cried it.

Heaven help the child (or husband) who wastefully leaves water running! The wrath of Karen comes down upon them in hasty measure. ~Karen

It's Raining, it's pouring...

...grab the buckets! Last night it started to rain and rained hard all night long. In fact, it kept me awake, not because of the sound (that's relaxing), and not because my roof leaks. I couldn't sleep because I was imagining all that wasted rainwater!

Remember a few weeks (months?) back when I posted a picture of a stick I put up the end of a drain pipe? The purpose was to water one of my pots. Well, someone here commented that flooding a plant would not be good for it. So this morning, I went out and sure enough, it was flooded; water was sitting on top of the soil and the rain was still coming down. So I took the stick out and got a tall, plastic garbage bin that we use to separate laundry and put it under the downspout. Problem one solved.

Then I looked around at the other places where water was just pouring off of the roof. We have rain gutters, but one of them leaks at a corner. So I grabbed another garbage bin and put it under that one. Then I saw another one. I put a bucket off of the playhouse "leak."

At least I'm thinking, right? All of this isn't a permanent solution. But I definitely need to come up with one. I'd love to be able to, at the least, water my patio pots during the spring and summer with rainwater. I'm wondering if I can find a wine barrel to use; this is wine country after all. One issue that I can forsee being a problem is mosquitos; our city ordinance doesn't allow standing water because of West Nile Viris; there's even a fine if they catch you. But I am told that mosquitos won't populate around covered water.

I'm just beginning to think this all through. If you have any thoughts or ideas for me, please do share. In the meantime, I'll just run around like a crazy person when it rains. ~Karen