I seems hard to accept that my comfortable pace has gotten faster. It snuck up on me I guess.
The lake was uber busy and crowded this morning. On the first lap, I saw what I am pretty sure was a mostly dead scorpion on the sidewalk. I am not sure what the likelihood of seeing one in Iowa is though. It rained last night so lots of displaced critters. If it wasn't a scorpion then it was a very large spider that was....squished weird and mostly dead. I wanted to stop and check it out but was stuck between walkers and a cyclist so thought I would just look on my next lap. I couldn't find it and even if I had I would have either (a.) just hop over it and hope a dog or kid didn't get to it. (b.) find a stick to poke it off the path or (c.) flag down a shoe wearer and have them get rid of it.
I saw two adorable Boston Terriers and a Bull dog. I still am amazed at how uncanny it is to see dogs and their families and how they always seem to resemble each other or certainly look like they belong together.
As I was passing a group of three older gentlemen, I overheard them discussing climate change nuances. It made me think of the things we do in our household to lessen our impact. I do wish I had cloth diapered my children. I know that there is a water issue debate about it yet every time I throw away a diaper I think that my son's dukey laden diaper will be around far longer than he will from being buried in some landfill.
We do use cloth bags when we shop. We have no qualms about hand me down clothes or my favorite, thrift store shopping. We recycle using Des Moines wonderful program. Why everyone here does not take part really annoys me. It doesn't cost any more than regular trash service to use the recycling program and you don't have to sort plastic, paper and glass. It all goes in the pretty blue bin and is sorted at the recycling facility. So it is sheer laziness and disregard that must be the reason.
My dear and clever husband just started watering the garden with siphoned dish water. He does the dishes. Its his thing to do and he enjoys it. I do kid stuff. I have got it pretty good in the husband department!
We have been discussing how to use bath water as well. We also eat many whole foods so not a lot of waste from packaging.
We bury our kitchen waste in the back yard or put it in the compost bin. We have quite a bit of kitchen waste. Onion peels, orange peels ect. that make our soil rich and nutrient dense.
Our two Ford Festivas that we drive get 42 mpg. Granted we drive 2 but there are at least half of our trips out that we only need to drive one. There must be more that we can do. It is work and takes some conscious effort. Are you "green"? Is it something you have to work at or just part of your lifestyle? Did you run on this fine day? Notice anything while you were out?
Hope everyone is having a safe and relaxing Memorial Day.
I am getting the heebie jeebies thinking of stepping on critters barefoot. I give you so much credit, girl!!
ReplyDeleteBIG KUDOS on all the ways you are lessening your environmental impact. We are bit recyclers and we're lucky to have a "green bin" (compost) pick up (no charge!) weekly as well. We barely have a bag of garbage per week these days!
I would like to be more "green." Compost and a garden would be right up my alley. Unfortunately we live in an apartment. I do grow my own herbs outside and try to buy "whole foods" whenever possible.
ReplyDeleteMy hubby and I also bought a clothes drying rack so they clothes can air dry -- instead of using a drying machine. Saves on power and $$.
We are trying to be green. I have my own organic little garden, we try to recycle and re-use as much as we can. But most importantly, we commute by bike or on foot. We are lucky enough to live about 2 miles from where we work, and even though it's a crazy hill, the hubby ALWAYS bikes (yup, even in a foot of snow), and I either walk or bike. We make sure to get all of our car errands done in one weekly trip.
ReplyDeleteWe do as much as we can to be green. Re-usable shopping bags, organics in food and fabrics when we can, cloth diapers, recycle and buy goods made from recycled when there is a choice, earth friendly cleaning as much as possible as well. On the cloth diaper thing and water use. Yes you use water to wash them but it also takes water to produce a disposable diaper, so that balances out in my book. Our son has not had diaper rash once since switching to cloth when he was 5 months. And now they have the one size diapers so it's even more affordable. Cloth can be resold or handed down to a friend. It only took us about $500 to buy our stash, you can spend that much in less than 6 months on disposables.
ReplyDeleteWe do a lot of the same things that you do to "be green." It has just become a part of our lives, and I agree with you that it aggravates me when I don't see people trying to recycle. It really doesn't take much effort, especially if it's free and you don't have to sort it!
ReplyDeleteDidn't run today - recovery day after my half - planted some peppers, tomatoes, and green beans to our veggie garden! My snap peas, onions, carrots, spinach and basil are already going strong! Hope you enjoyed the rest of your weekend!
i'm green, but i know i could be greener. it is out of laziness on my part, i'll admit. But i live in nor cal, where on the us spectrum we're pretty green as a whole..but there's still LOTS to be done;-)
ReplyDeleteWe're pretty good about being environmently friendly; most of it is plastic. Gosh, who invented that?
ReplyDeleteIt has become a necessary evil in our society.
You inspire me to be more green. I think I could do a much better job also.
ReplyDeleteI cannot count laps either. Even if it's just two! That's so cool that your comfy pace has gotten faster. That's always a nice surprise.
Can't wait to hear about your Dam to Dam 20!
I'm impressed with how green you are. We've been working on making changes as well.
ReplyDeleteI have a way hard time with bugs.... As for being green we are making little changes all the time.
ReplyDeleteI am a huge recycler and use the cloth bags for every store:) I try to do what is best for Mother Earth....lesson the carbon footprint. I know that there are other things that I can be doing too:)
ReplyDeleteNice job on your running Angie! Is the heat and humidity bothering you at all? I am noticing that my training runs have been slower than usual:(
We've been using shopping bags for at least 15 years. We are composting. 90% of our food is not processed (think of carbon footprint of food production). We recycle. We donate clothes.
ReplyDeleteI am sure we could do a lot more. Biking to the store or farmer's market would certainly be something I could do. There are some nasty hills on the way but I need training. :)
We should start using our gray water in the garden. In CA that is especially important.
We do our best to be green - we keep the house warmer/colder in the summer/winter to use less energy; use reusable bags; compost what we can; recycle what we can; walk to school and to run errands as much as possible; drive my civic when we can't... In fact, one of the things I'll be talking about in my freelance gig will be water conservation.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there's more we can do though.
My wife and I recycle what we can. We ven have a recycling cetner in our garage to put stuff the truck won't pick up. Our footprint is relatively small on trash day compared to the rest of the neighborhood. And folks with little kids - holy smokes they generate a buttload of garbage. We're not perfect, but we try.
ReplyDeletethe exercise schedules that are described here are awesome and many times greatly designed to reduce your inappropriate fat!
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