My brother is also a poster boy for environmental care. When his old car was requisitioned, he got himself a hybrid
I'm sure my sister does something environmentally friendly too. But right now I can't think of anything specific, except she uses open source software, which is sort-of hippie and the hippies are a kind of environmentalist.
Not to be outdone, I
But by far, the
"Wow! I haven't seen one of those in years!"
"My dad had one of those when I was a kid!"
"Hey! Does that thing really work?"
"I hope your blade's sharp!"
"Why are you using that?"
"That's quite a workout!"
We've had a few people want to try it out. One actually did quite a chunk of the front lawn (not all that well, I might add). One lady offered to mow our lawn for free "just for the pleasure of using a push-reel mower again . . . as long as the blade's sharp."
We've also had other people offer up their lawn care services and leave their business cards with us while we were mowing. But for now we're sticking with our
We've had only one person commend us for our environmental ways. A lady from the apartments south of us assured me that if she had a lawn, she would use a push-reel mower. "Mother Nature is my goddess, dontcha know, and I think we hafta give back to her everything we can since she already gave us everything."
Unfortunately, the summer sauna weather compelled her onward and me back to my lawn before I could tell her that if I were to worship a heathen god I would choose Thor. After all, those Nordic/Germanic gods were the original tree-huggers.
What do you do or (don't you do) to be "green"?
10 comments:
I love that our county has recycling bins for each house. Now I recycle everything possible and actually feel wasteful when I vacation somewhere and I have to throw away a cereal box. My first and most thorough lesson in recycling was in Germany (as you can probably relate). My friend was dividing up each piece of her garbage, explaining to me how she did it: "This is cardboard so it goes in this bag. This is clear glass so it goes in this box. This is cardboard but it had the frozen fish in it so it's just garbage." etc.) And I reuse/bring my own bags at the store, a perk when you get a discount per bag at some stores. (I did that once after returning from my first trip to Europe. The checker and other patrons looked at me like I was crazy. Now it's hip.)
Does buying used books count as recycling? Saves printers from having to print more of the copies of the books. It's kind of like recycling. (Reminds me of Lionel Hutz: "Those are kinds of evidence.") Stretching it a bit?
Wow. A lot of the above. One car family. Local produce. Walk. Bike. And a push lawn mower. Ours is a fancy German one that only needs sharpening every five years (supposedly). But still, I see people stop their cars to ask Tim what it is he's pushing. We are way cool.
When I read that a Starlet decided to only wash her hair once a month to save the environment, that spurred me to do the same as I always do what Al Gore and the Stars do. When we fly to Europe, I will buy a tree to offset my carbon foot print (with the money left over from buying indulgences while in Rome). We also read our magazines and newspapers on line now (since they are no longer delivered in printed form,ask you father when he came to this realization.) Since I drive the required 4-wheel drive gas guzzler, I plan all errands for one day and accomplish them in an efficient grid. As a result our 2002 Jeep has only 56,000 miles on it which I think is quite an accomplishment. When our corporation had work for me to do, I worked from home. Also though we use a gas mower we only mow every other week and irrigate the lawn with SRP water and grow citrus trees around our yard to help cool the ecosystem. We haven't used pesticides in the yard for about 26 years so the lizard population increased and they and the birds eat the nasty insects and spiders. Also, we don't smoke or burn wood in our fireplaces. And the piece de resistance: we eat fartless beans. Al Gore would be proud.
Fartless beans, eh? I wondered why the house smelled so much better since the level of BS hasn't changed.
Aagh! I've been outed as a bike and buser! I guess I'll have to post some of my bus adventures now.
Loved this post. As always, thanks for the update. I'll be smiling all day tomorrow remembering this post. Please give a shout out to your mom and dad. XO, Kathi Porter
Wow, how do you get fartless beans? I need some of those.
Well, first I have to say what I don't do. I don't use cloth diapers. I do feel bad about this, but I gave it a try for three weeks, and hated it. My soul is black with the grime of carbon. But, Lydia is basically potty trained now, so at least our use of diapers has been restricted. I also don't recycle - I want to. I should. But here they don't pick up recycling at all, so I need to find somewhere to take it to. Which is not hard to do, I'm sure.
We do only have one car. And probably always will, since Avram, despite having a driver's license, still hates to drive. And when I need a lawn mower, I plan on buying the push kind. (I like the idea of saving money, and the environment). I grew up with an electric lawn mower. I would not recommend one of those, because every time I mowed the lawn, I also had to splice the wires back together. The cord was completely spotted with black electrical tape - but at least I was learning electrical talents, right?
We use reusable bags at the grocery store. They don't say anything, but I don't think they're thrilled, either. Except at Aldi. I love Aldi, and I wish I could have shopped there my whole life.
Also, we usually buy things from Goodwill instead of new. That has to save the environment (and our pocketbooks) something. I'm like you, I'm thrifty - I meen environmental.
Living in Moab is kind of a invitation to be green. Most people in town pay for wind power instead of coal(Not that we get it) and many people buy food from our local farmers markets(Yes in a town of 5000 we have two) In our new house(which hopefully we'll get) we're thinking about putting in solar panels and zerascaping our front yard.
Why? Well to be honest it's cheaper in many ways to make these improvements to our lives. We made sure to buy a good car with good gas mileage(We couldn't afford a Hybrid).
On the other hand I've become painfully aware of other peoples supposed "green" efforts. There is a lot of guilt out there about the environment and people will do anything to alleviate that guilt including justifying certain actions as being good for the environment.
I'm not in general an environmentalist I believe people have a right to a certain standard of living that cannot be produced by restricting and protecting everything on earth. There has to be a compromise.
However I recently have become concerned about the Moon. Now with a new resurgence in interest in our neighboring sphere I wonder what will keep it safe from the things that have ruined our world? I hear talk of people carving ads on the surface of the moon and even a race to find Moon landing sites and collect their artifacts(Their almost 50 years old making them old enough for historical designation) I worry that we think the Moon will solve all our problems and instead of fixing what is wrong here we'll just continue with business as usual until we need to find another world to rob.
Oddly now I worry about a airless wasteland in space and what will happen there.
First I have to say that yesterday I mowed the back lawn and nobody said anything to me! Of course, not that many people were out and the cars still slowed down to stare.
Equinox: What I particularly like in Germany is that a lot of the public trash also separate the trash from the recyclables, so when you're done drinking your cola light you can toss the bottle without feeling guilty. I also like using my own bags and we do that a fair amount here, although I hate packing them. And yes, I think buying used books counts as recycling.
Artax: A German engineered push lawn mower sounds like what we should have held. Ours needs to be a third taller and a third wider and it would be perfect. Also, glad to know we're not the only ones who are stunning our neighbors.
Mutti: As always, I am merely trying to be like you. But I guess I should just be trying to be like Al Gore.
Old Cowboy: One of these days I'm going to go to the store and find that you can buy organic dairy products from cows who don't fart.
TOKD: Yes, do share your bus stories.
Kathi: Thanks! I love your avatar, btw. Also, you should check out my parents' blogs if you haven't yet (REC and Old Cowboy).
Thora: If only you had grown up in Germany, then you could have been shopping at Aldi your whole life. But then you would have had to use an electric mower your whole life, which as you say, is a bad idea. And there are plenty of things I don't do to save the environment as well. Bathing among them.
Mr. Schenck: I agree, there's too much misdirected guilt as far as the environment goes.
Oh, and I did remember something my sister did to help the environment as a small child. It even made the national news. I hope she will share it with us.
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