Hilarious! Earth Gets One Day. The Other 364 We're Cranking the AC in Our Hummer and Then One Day A Year, Ooh, Separate the Plastic.

I supposed I should do my annual Earth day post. I missed posting on the actual day (April 22) because I was at my Twin Cousin's wedding. They purposely scheduled it on Earth Day and did everything they could to make it a very earth-friendly wedding: They were married in a beautiful grove of trees. The decorations were all done by mother nature: nothing was added. The music was provided live by an amazing violinist. The bouquet was an artichoke and they even included a part about "I will leave the earth better than I found it" in their vows.  The whole thing was really beautiful.

We had a great time at the wedding. It was wonderful to see my Twin cousin and I love her new husband. I am so happy for them! I got to spend some time with family and take a road trip with Drek and Ash. We had a great time! 

So, what have I done since last Earth Day to save the planet? Well, I've planted twenty two trees (two of which died. Sigh.) four raspberry bushes, a blueberry bush and a strawberry patch.

Thank's to Drek's awesome birthday present, we recently started composting! 

We're trying to eat more local food. By "local" I mean "things we produce ourselves." We have a wonderful garden this year and should have lots of vegetables within the next few months. We got honeybees! Our hive is doing fantastic, I discovered I LOVE being a beekeeper and we'll be able to harvest our own honey in the fall! We did have chickens, up until last week when Sun, Charlotte, Anna Lucia and Ji Yeon were all eaten by a coyote. They didn't lay a lot of eggs, but we were getting three our four a week. Poor chickens. I suppose they were getting old. Anyway, we did still buy eggs, but it was either from a neighbor who owns lots chickens or our backyard neighbor. Our backyard neighbor has already started to raise a whole coop of chicks. In a few months they will be old enough for us to buy so we can have our own chickens again. 

 Recently I've decided that I just don't want to drink cow's milk until I can actually own the cow myself. That means for now and the foreseeable future we don't drink milk or eat cheese. I've also cut out sugar, which basically means I've taken one huge step towards Vegan this month. I still use butter and cream, though, because I'm lazy and they are delicious.

We're trying to use less gas: Drek rides his bike to work everyday and Ash and I either take the bus or ride our bike and bike trailer most places. I try to carpool as much as possible. 

Drek set up rain barrels to catch and store water so we can use that to water our trees and garden. I try to be really conscious about the electricity we use by making sure lights are turned off, things are unplugged when not in use, we don't leave phone chargers plugged in, and such. I've managed to get our bill down to $20-$35 per month. We still don't own a dryer so for a full year now I've been drying laundry on a clothesline, which is very eco-friendly. 

I've also tried to be more aware of packaging: When I'm shopping I mostly try to avoid packaging, but when it's unavoidable I try to buy as little packaging as possible. This has affected things like butter: I buy the brand that comes in a one pound block, rather than the little individually wrapped sticks. I've started saving my produce bags and taking them back to the store to re-use. I actually love doing this because it's so much easier to reach into my cart and pull out a bag to fill with apples, then to look around for the role of bags, navigate my cart/toddler over to it, pull one off, navigate back to the apples and then fill it. 

So, mostly this year I've just made little changes, but I use those changes almost everyday. I'm hoping they add to big things. I didn't have an awesome wedding to promote Earth Day, but I did attend one and that was very cool.

Goals for next year:

Make more of an effort to buy organic. I know it's healthier. I know it's better. It's just that it's more money and I hate spending money.

Produce a higher percentage my own food: Through gardening, chickens and honeybees!

Stick with no milk, no cheese, no sugar.

Reduce waste

Do another month of  self-imposed non-consumer store/shopping ban.