Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad

My parents celebrated their 25th anniversary with us this weekend. It’s a good time to point out that a big chunk of my inspiration for all this sustainability stuff was their doing. I was raised composting, hanging washing on the line to dry, and freezing all winter since the thermostat was set so low. One of the big taboos at home was leaving the bathroom light on.

This was all very annoying when I was a child. Sweaters indoors seemed like a way lame plan- why did we invent indoor heating anyway?- and I got pretty sick of hearing about how much electricity the drying machine used. I just wanted fluffy towels like in the commercials.

Tonight I’ve got my washing on a rack in the spare room, and seeds soaking downstairs to be planted tomorrow, and the heat’s been off for weeks- I’ve been wearing a sweater all day. I shut off the lights in the kitchen and bathroom compulsively. This is all my parent’s fault.

Mom and Dad taught me to live frugally, to distinguish between my wants and needs, and to budget. They taught me how small things can add up- especially in electric bills. They taught me to keep myself busy without a tv. They taught me to make things with my own hands. They taught me to go outside and play. They taught me not to waste anything. They apparently taught me better than I realized.

So thanks, guys, for living together so wisely and well for the last 25 years. You’ve been the best role models we could want, and we’re working on living up to your example.

Progress: By Hand

I started March’s goal with three listed projects. I only finished two things, and I started a bunch more.

Original:

1) Scarf, knit. Progressed ~6 inches, but have succeeded in carrying it around with me, so I’m getting more done these days.

2) Quilt, sewn. No real progress, though I looked up quilt making, and found a new stack of squares.

3) Weighted Companion Cube, wood and fabric. Bought all the fabric, which is now buried under other items in the Gentleman Friend’s apartment.

Added:

4) Flower, sewn. Finished!

5) Nuno-zoris, woven. I’ve marked a stack of teeshirts for dismantling. I’ve also begun debating whether to use a cord base, or try something less bulky, like another teeshirt strip for a base.

6) White Dress, alteration. I’m using the unnecessary waist ties to replace the uncomfortable shoulder straps. I’ve chopped off the straps and the ties, and now I just need to fit it and sew it back on.

7) Lampshades, watercolor. Got some lampshades for practicing from my gentleman friend’s lovely mother.

8 ) Plate, painted. I had a ratty old plate- glass with a shiny paint showing through- but the paint was chipping. I fixed it up with a dark green underlay. I hope it chips more, or maybe I should chip it more, because I wish the chipped pattern looked cooler. Plus, if it chipped more, I could add a third color. But for now, finished!

Ok, so I started more projects than I had, finished two projects I hadn’t started, and mostly just gathered supplies. But I have been finding more ways to work making things into my day, and it’s been very satisfying to plan out how to remake and refurbish my stuff so it works better. All in all, relaxing and refreshing, and woo.

So, April! I had this one planned out already, and it’s partially started. In April, I’m gardening. Since forever, my parents have gardened, and I tried deck vegetables last year. This year, though, I have a bright, sunny deck, with areas of partial shade, a composter, and a plan. Well, not really a plan, but I have a hydrangea, a kalanchoe, and a rosemary bush somewhere about. I killed a couple of houseplants this winter, and  I’ve got the remnants of the pots from last year’s latent peppers, so I have a few empty planter spaces. Plus, my mother informs me that my father, who shows his love through vegetables, has already got a few tomato plants started for me. She’s packing up some herbs, and there were strong hints at a geranium. I am told that geraniums are difficult to kill. We’ll see!

I want to plant some vegetables and flowers in my garden, with a view to both edible harvests and beauty. I need a bigger planter for the hydrangea, so that I can grow that to a viable bush. I’ll also need to get the composter going again. Biking Person was kind enough to give me two spaghetti jars of dirt, so I can get the cultures started, as soon as I find an outdoor plug for the unit. Because it should probably stay outdoors, to isolate it from the housemates, just in case of smells. I’ll also need to build it a tiny hut, since we have a tiny, curious dog (Ruby), and its lid doesn’t latch shut.

Plenty to do, and I’m psyched by the prospect of veggies and hydrangeas (my favorite flowers) and creating things from dirt, sun, and water all summer! And possibly fall. It is DC, after all, the summer lasts. I am slightly nervous, given my tendency to kill plants, about how this will work, so I’ll probably be calling my mother for advice pretty often. I wish there was some sort of gardening reference for total deck garden beginners. Actually, there probably is. Hm.

Six Month Summary

As of March 5th, this blog was six months old. As of September, I’ve started packing my own lunches, biking to work (when I wasn’t riding the bus), made a shopping bag and “audited” my plastic use, tried out some resolutions to make my holiday season sustainable, culled my belongings, and attempted composting a few times- all in an effort to live better, whatever that means. Biking and culling were the biggest successes. I haven’t started a good composting culture yet, and I have still have an odd relationship with plastics.

The biggest change I’ve made, though, wasn’t due to a monthly goal at all. By moving to Old Town (necessitating the culling and negating the biking to work), I’ve decreased my footprints of all kinds (except the kind that I actually walk with). It’s allowed me to sleep more, get more exercise, and use stairs at home instead of the elevator. After the flurry of move-driving, my car sat unused for almost a week: barring some specific errands and classes, it’ll stay right where it is. Since it’s been sitting, the price of gas has gone up 15 cents a gallon. The closest grocery stores- Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Giant, MOM’s, and the farmer’s market- are all well stocked with organic and/or locally grown foods. Now I have to pay utilities separately, and I can have more direct control over how much energy I use- since I’ll know how much it is. And I have three house mates who are wonderful, and wonderfully tractable, and whom I’m secretly (not very secretly) hoping to inflame.

Inflame with sustainability, that is. Anyway. A while back, I took myself to task for not having defined what sustainability means. I’ve worked on that a bit, and I’ve come up with something round about but better than nothing.

One definition of sustainable living isn’t going to pertain to everyone- and it shouldn’t. Everyone’s got a different pet “green” issue- no plastic vs no cars vs global warming doesn’t exist because it’s cold out vs no nukes, etc. I’m not a zealous environmentalist. I don’t think this problem can be solved with one fix (no oil!). In order to live sustainably, I must first and foremost be an open environmentalist, willing to consider differing points of view, and informed enough to determine which makes sense. Next, I must live practically and thoughtfully, with a view to finances and the human, environmental, and moral costs of my actions. Under this all, though, I must be able to live- work and play and learn and all that stuff. So much of sustainability is seen as limiting- we can’t do this because of those whiny polar bears, we can’t eat that because of the toxic wastes. I think the emphasis should be on how much can we do, individually and as humanity, while still living within sensible boundaries- how much can I do with how little?

The unanswered question there is, how little is little enough? I’ll leave that hanging for now. I suspect it has something to do with “little enough so that everybody can use the same amount”, but given the different ways to measure that (carbon footprint? resource use?), and that merely by living in the US I’m using way more than my fair share, it’s intractable. The answer to climate change and sustainable living is not “move to a developing nation and start subsistence farming”.

I think large environmental issues will only be solved through meaningful government and industry action, and only after we make some big technological innovations. I’m not holding my breath for government or industry help, though, and I’ll do my small part to vote with magic machines and my money (for all it’s still worth) in the meanwhile.

That’s what I’ve got. Muddled, but let me know what you think. I appreciate discourse, after all- that’s first!

Odds and Ends: I never did hang up that biodegradable plastic bag from Harris Teeter outdoors (I forget where I promised this, but I did, and someone asked a while ago, and I still haven’t done it). When I find one, I’ll hold onto it until I get some duct tape, and fulfill my promise. Also, remember that debate I was having with the conservative blogger? It’s been so long since she called environmentalists Nazis and cited the Heartland Institute as a more authoritative body than the IPCC on the question of climate change that you’ve probably forgotten- I had, hurrah for archives. I pointed out certain factual and logical inaccuracies, she responded with silence, so I’ll take the Godwin’s Law victory and let it lie.

Thanks for your time, and your comments, and I’m excited for the next parts.  Keep coming back, but, oh ho, you’ll have to, since I cleverly told you all about the last six months without revealing March’s goal!  Mua hahaha.  Ha.  I’ll let you know once I think of it, or by Wednesday.

Handmade update: Knit scarf, three inches done, one completed stripe.

Motion, Sickness

The bulk of my move is finished. It was a bit of a nightmare, since I caught some sort of plague last Wednesday, only it wasn’t the quick violent death plague, it was the lingering hacking plague of delirious pain. As I recall, several of my excellent friends actually moved all my stuff- I remember is waving my arms in an attempt to help, and coughing. Then buying them pizza, and trying not to cough on it. But now I’m here, and my Black Death has subsided to a dull headache and scratchy throat, and I can begin my new practically carfree city life of small footprint living!

Except Alexandria won’t let me park my car for good until I get a parking pass, so I had to drive to work today, and I have to drive out to McLean tomorrow and prove I am being paid to work so I can sign my lease so I can prove I live in Alexandria (still) so I can park my car on the street. Then! Then I can live the carfree life!

I haven’t done the green “coming out” to my roommates yet. I think they suspect something- they’ve been warned I am bringing over my composter, so they have to have some idea. But I waited until I was alone to fish a bottle out of the trash to recycle today, and I assume it’s only a matter of time before I get all uppity about running a half load of dishes/laundry and not using drying racks or something.

I like my housemates very much, and I think this is an interesting fact about their living situation prior to my arrival: Between the three of them, they own 1 spoon, and 1 copy of Rock Band. Or at least, I’ve only found 1 spoon in two days of hunting. They’re all well-adjusted young professionals otherwise. I suppose if I bring my composter and silverware over at the same time, I could just sneak in the former and bide my time about it, since they’ll be so happy about being able to eat soup all at the same time finally?

Progress: None

Except for the multicolored mold colony growing on my abandoned compost- they’re making great progress. It appears they’re about to progress from the agricultural age to the industrial age, though, so I should get all deus ex cleaning soon (wonder if they’ve invented literary traditions yet?).

So, when I said last week or so that all I needed to do was find some “live” dirt, I a) realized that here in DC, I have no dirt that I’m technically allowed to dig in, and b) started putting my life into boxes, limiting my time and energy to dress up like a ninja and dig a few handfuls out near the parking lot. Though actually, if I really wanted to be subtle about that, I should probably dress as a gardener.

I’m going to go ahead and declare this Compost Failure February. The stuff is gross enough that I just need to dump it, clean out the bin, and move it this weekend, then start over again.

Meanwhile, I haven’t had much time to put up some stuff, but here are a few quick links so I can get my blog on before I go set more things in more boxes.

1)The governor of Maryland is sponsoring a bill that would limit the state’s carbon emissions to 90% of something by 2050. That sounds nice, in the vaguest sense of nice. I heart lowering carbon emissions and all, but a bill that just says they should be lowered? All that is, is a bunch of dead trees and hot air. More concrete plans, please, MD legislature? I do wish to be impressed.

2)You know how those fashion industry types are all concerned about the planet and stuff, in between when they’re telling us to buy new clothing every 2-3 months? A show at the London Fashion week highlighted designers making ethically produced clothes– based on the principles of fair trade, sustainable fabrics and dyes, “timelessness”, and recycling fabrics. Estethica had hits and misses, (misses! har!), but most of their clothes were much more tastefully nice than the vast majority of fashion week freakiness. At their website you can look through the different designers and collections (I’ll highlight the ‘colouring changing knickers‘- my my. not exactly my ‘favourites’, but they have a certain cachet). It’s not exactly as sustainable as the Salvation Army, or making it yourself (with stuff from the Salvation Army!), but it’s better than fashion types usually do.

(get my blog on? argh. long day.)

Progress: Reduction and the Next Step

It would appear that moving is going to keep me from posting as often as I’d like for a few weeks, but there’s a progress report due.

Reducing is going slowly, but it’s still going. Last weekend I took my gigantic pile of random stuff to the Salvation Army, and since then I’ve gathered another pile of stuff. Progress, but not enough, plus I’ve still got caches in 3 or 4 corners. Fortunately, moving is going to force me to finish this all in the next few months. Besides the Salvation Army, anybody have any advice on places to donate things?

While I was cleaning out, I found my (plastic) bag of useless plastics from the Nov. goal. It was apparently stuffed in a box in a fit of guilt, and not discarded.  I finally tossed it- I didn’t get to the pillow stuffing idea, and I’ve made my peace with that.  “Reducing plastic intake” was another goal that didn’t go well- but I have made progress on it since I last reported, actually.  I’ve stopped getting plastic grocery bags almost entirely (maybe 2 in the last month?), I try to buy food and objects with no plastic or the smallest amount of plastic wrappings, and I’ve also given up the thinner plastic vegetable and fruit bags from the supermarket- I just put food in my basket loose now, and wash them at home.  They need a washing anyway.  Reassuring to find myself working on goals after the month is up, but still a long way to go on that one.

Next goal for the month will be composting. I’ve already fired up my unit, with the dirt and the brussels sprout leaves and baking soda and such. Ok, it’s not actually going to be composting, so much as figuring out how to compost successfully with the Naturemill Plus. Twice I’ve had to unplug my unit and leave it on the porch, because the smell is too much to handle. This is either because a) the unit is not as smell-isolated as it claims to be, or b) because I’m doing it wrong. I have a horrible feeling it’s the former (seriously, how could I be doing “put the food scraps in the top part” wrong?), but I need to dig out the instructions again and do some experimentation.

I would have included a picture of what the stuff looks like now for you as a special treat, but I checked and it looked pretty gross, so I’ll wait for a less gross, more successful dirt batch. The last porching of the composter was this morning, since I had invited my future housemates over for brunch and bonding and didn’t want to start our relationship with a noseful. I did show it to them, though, and waft a bit their way- none of them seemed overly concerned. Let’s see how they do when it’s in their kitchen…or, more likely, on their porch.

The Composter Is In

UPS finally allowed me to have my package today, so ta-daa!

She’s a NatureMill Plus, and she’s surprisingly soft and light. The deal is, I put stuff in the top, along with sawdust (or other “browns” like all-purpose flour), baking soda, and dirt, then I plug it in. In two weeks, all that undergoes a messy metamorphosis into very strong dirt. There’s a picture of it open- it’s got a heating element and a mixing bar, then I push a button and it dumps itself into a tray to “cure”.

Now, I am aware this is not “real” composting. I am aware that I should build a container and put it in the sun and dump in some worms, then watch it lovingly and take its pH level and turn it and drain it and coddle it and all that rot. (Hah!). My parents taught me how to for-real compost, though since we lived in the woods it was actually more like “put this in that pile and let nature occur”. In this apartment though, and my next apartment, I have no woods or even yard, and very little sun, and no place to experiment. Plus, let’s see how the new housemates handle rabid guerrilla recycling before I spring worms on them.

What’s in it for you? Why, you’ll receive fresh pictures of my first few batches, of course, plus I’m now taking applications for loads of uber-dirt, to be delivered every two weeks or thereabouts.

I need to go dig up two cups of regular lame dirt to get this baby going- but then, I can eat a banana, cut the peel into 4in-pieces, and watch the magic happen.

Gratuitous accessories shot: