Thanks for all your comments on my 'Blog Action Day' post about over consumption. Like i said in my post, we by no means think we're perfect, FAR from it infact but we're trying to make a difference with the small things that we do and our lives are happier by doing so. After reading many other Blog Action Day posts in blogland i've come up with a few new things to try out:
~Buy dried beans, pulses and grains more often rather than buying in tins.
~Take paper bags (recycled) to the grocery store when i plan to buy fruit and vegetables, or loose goods such as the beans and grains mentioned above instead of using their plastic bags. We have a our fruit and veg delivered once a week in a cardboard box and no bags, they then take the box back to be reused.
~Sew my girls (and myself) some summer clothes now that the weather is starting to warm up. I'm came across this gorgeous skirt tutorial today and will be whipping a few up with fabrics from my stash. I'll also be digging out my Japanese craft book to sew up a few dresses, skirts and headbands and my vintage/retro patterns to make some shorts and tops.
~Start buying organic more often. We find organic a little too expensive for our budget but i'd like to make a gradual change over if we can.
~Eat more vegetarian meals, although we probably eat meat 2 to 3 times a week i'd still like to try and reduce that.
~We consume quite a lot of dairy-milk, eggs, butter for baking, cheese. I don't think we'd be willing to reduce what we do consume but we buy our milk from the milkman supplied by Aussie Farmer's and we eat free range eggs. I suppose we could change to organic eggs and butter but i'm not sure how that would fit into our budget.
~Grow our own food. I'd LOVE to move to the country, build a straw bale house and live a simpler life. We'd have chooks and a big veggie patch, rain water tanks, solar panel's, a composting toilet and everything else that comes with being self sufficient. Until then we have to make do with what we've got which isn't much, we rent so there's no chance of rainwater tanks, solar panels or a composting toilet. We have a garden at the front with a few olive trees and 3 nectarine tree's but out the back is mostly concrete.
The front- these pic's were taken last year, it's a lot tidier now...sort of:)
The side of the house where our compost bin now lives and a possible place for the veggies?
There's also this little piece of grass that could be a possibility
Today the girls and i got busy making pots from newspaper using this tutorial and planted some seeds.
We planted some lettuce in a large plastic box we had lying around the yard and in the pots we planted two kinds of tomato and broccoli.
We have a number of other seeds to plant too but need to buy more supplies. I may try a no-dig garden like i planned last year but never got around to or i may ask my gardener to dig over somewhere in my garden, not sure how much he'll charge for that. I'm not doing it and i doubt Kev would be willing, i could bully him though which is what i normally do :P
If you're interested in starting your own garden the next issue of Mixtape will have an article on the subject written by Sooz. You can order your copy here which will be hitting the streets the first week in November. I have no clue what i'm doing, i'm just giving it a go and hoping for the best, plus the girls are enjoying it and it get's them outside instead of bugging me to watch a dvd. Get outside and plant something, you may find you have green thumbs you never knew you had!
PS. i'm going to be visiting the Save water, save energy expo tomorrow morning. I'm hoping to be there around 10-11am and have a 2 for one voucher for admission. If anyone os going along and would like to share this with me please email me today.
