Honoring Mother Earth Each Day

[Bamawing]

I am sooo jelous of your lawn, Anthro. At the moment, I have a beautiful space filled with dandilions. This will maintain until Dan gets the time to kill them all, ruining all my chances for dandilion tea this year. He also does nasty things to clovers. Back when he managed to talk me into weeding, I was instrutcted to pull up the only green thing in the yard: crabgrass.

And eventually we'll be moving to an upscale neighboorhood where a single dandilion will probably be looked upon as a sence of bad neighborship.

I don't understand for the life of me why people cover thier yards in a plant that is so fragile a leaf laying on top of it for more that a day will kill it. At the same time, we take great pains to kill all plantlife that is very difficult to kill.

God likes clovers, damnit.

[itchychick]

God likes clovers, damnit.

He'd love my lawn then!

Have to agree with you anthro about governments being the least likely source of solutions, but at the very least, they should not hinder the process...

[anthropositor]

Clovers are legumes.  Organisms in their root systems nitrogenate the soil.  Dandelions too are worthwhile.  I just don't remember why right at the moment. 

I do not mow my clover or dandelions until they are finished blooming.  Seems sort of like interrupting sex otherwise.

[anthropositor]

When I make my morning coffee I like to preheat the cups.  If I am going to use hot water to do so, in the cold months, it takes nearly a gallon of cold water coming out of the tap before the hot water begins coming out to heat the cups.

Well, you might say, just throw the cup of water in the microwave and heat it up.  No pollution.  Right?  Wrong.
My microwave uses 1200 watts.  Distant power generation is using coal or oil or nuclear energy or hydroelectric generation to produce the energy that warms my cup.

So rather than having that initial cold water go down the drain I fill a plastic water jug with it.  When I go outside, that water replaces the water in the cat watering bowls or the dogs big watering container, or the chicken watering containers.  This is one reason my water consumption is less than half that of a similar sized household.

Just thinking about the things you are doing CAN make a real difference!  Do you leave the faucet running when you brush your teeth or shave?  Do you flush water without lumps?  If yes, Why? 

Do you use a new toothbrush every two months?  Why?  Because it has become unsanitary?  Nonsense!  It is no more unsanitary than the second or third day you used it.  Just dampen the bristles with a small amount of hydrogen peroxide (a few drops will do perfectly) or a dash of alcohol.

It is the toothbrush makers, interested in selling more toothbrushes, that encourage us all to throw our toothbrushes away while they can still be used for many more months. 

And when those toothbrushes are eventually too worn to be used in the mouth, the may still be useful for a wide variety of other household needs.

[Bamawing]

I'm pretty bad to Mother Earth. My town doesn't have a decent recycling program at all, and I do leave the water going when I brush my teeth (but only while rinsing. It's easier that way). But one change I found easy to make was to keep a dry towel in the kitchen for drying my hands on. I save tons of paper towels. I also use cloth hankerchiefs. They're better for the environement and travel easier in my pocket.

I also carefully cut those little plastic rings that coke cans come in. Just seeing one picture of a seagull stuck in one of those has insured that I'll never let another come from me.

[Wooley]

Oh how I love Freecycle!

DH is updating our bathroom and the old bath and panel were in our back garden. They were under threat of being sawn in half to go to the tip, but today someone from Freecycle replied to my ad and came around and picked it up.  He was so grateful... but so was I.

Everyone's a winner with this!!!

~ Woo ~

[Uncle Matt]

Well, I have an interesting item to add to the mix...

I recently read in a newspaper (a well-respected one..) that if the UK was to switch off everything for a whole YEAR, so no electricity, no gas burning, no fossil fuels of any sort, and we just went back to a hunter-gatherer society it would take China a DAY or two to make up the difference in CO2 NOx and SOx emissions.

Now, whether there is any truth in this statement, or whether it has been manipulated by the statiticians, I don't know.

I'm not saying we shouldn't do our bit, but it needs to be looked at in perspective. At the end of the day, the world runs on money, so the cheapest way is THE way.

Matt

[LIGA girl]

I recently read in a newspaper (a well-respected one..) that if the UK was to switch off everything for a whole YEAR, so no electricity, no gas burning, no fossil fuels of any sort, and we just went back to a hunter-gatherer society it would take China a DAY or two to make up the difference in CO2 NOx and SOx emissions.

This is quite possibly true (or close to it), considering the population of China and the level of technology that is used there, which would be more likely to generate larger amounts of CO2, as these are (currently) cheaper technologies. (Not to mention the fact that a lot of our manufacturing and other dirty work gets done in China ... it is cheaper for us that way)

At the end of the day, the world runs on money, so the cheapest way is THE way.

I beg to differ here, as at the end of the day, the environment will not be able to sustain the damage that is being inflicted on it through the outputs generated by this way of thinking. Yes, it is cheaper now to use coal and petroleum products rather than to invest in cleaner energy sources, but such will not always be the case. And the cost of the socalled "cheap" energy sources will be a damaged & polluted earth .... what will be the price of cleaning that up?

The aspects of the environment that are common to us all (for example, the atmosphere) are being polluted happily by everyone as the damage is being shared around, even though at the end of the day the consequences of that damage will be shared by all alike, regardless of how much each nation has contributed to it. We cant afford to take such a narrow view of this damage and its consequences.
LG

[anthropositor]

Gotten quite a bit of rain in the past few days.  Had a lightning strike which was very strange.  Actually, it sounded like a shotgun blast at short range.  Just a single sharp crack.  The first instant I thought it was an ex-con with whom I have had a certain amount of friction, but I immediately realized it wasn't because the kitchen window wasn't shattered and I wasn't leaking all over the carpet.

Anyway, I have been sort of wandering around trying to find the evidence of the lightning strike.  None of the trees appear to be struck.  One of the trees out by the barn still has a pretty good section cradled in its' upper branches from a strike about four years ago.

Anyway, while I was wandering around I noticed another thing different about my yard and my neighbors.  All over my front and back yard were newly emerged mushrooms of several varieties.  Maybe all told, a few hundred.  My neighbor's lawn?  Not one single mushroom!  Do you suppose that along with the weed sprays and insect sprays, he has also declared war on the fungi?  Naw.  It must just be collateral damage.  But it is food for thought that mushrooms cant seem to grow over there. 

[anthropositor]

I was about to leave on a trek to town.  It occurred to me I ought to pick a few dozen of those mushrooms for the chickens.  (My chickens get quite an eclectic diet).  I have a hen that still lays several eggs a week after four years.

Anyway, I'm in the back yard in a tux shirt and gray pinstripe trousers, and a police car goes up my driveway and past my barn maybe a quarter of a mile.  My dog Cloud is going off and I'm standing there with my hands full of mushrooms.  Felt sort of silly.  So I threw the mushrooms to the chickens and brushed my hands off and went to see what the cop was up to back by the pond.

Well Rod and I had met on perhaps one other occasion.  I don't even remember when or why so maybe it was before the stroke.  During one point in the conversation he mentioned that the ex-con I mentioned earlier is once again out of circulation.

Funny, it's still an overcast day.  I actually thought it was dreary.  The clouds haven't gone away, but everything just seems brighter somehow.  When Rod told me about it, I did my best not to exhibit any unseemly delight.  Boy, that was hard.  Now I will go about my Technicolor day.

[Bamawing]

Ooh, be careful about mushrooms, Anthro. It's hard to tell what's good to eat and what's deadly.

I know exactly how you feel about the ex-con, though. We had a few problems some years ago with drug dealers in our neighborhood (interestingly, they decided to set up shop next door to the captain of the Neightborhood Watch). It was darn nice when they left.

[anthropositor]

Quite so Bama.  I eat no wild mushrooms without proper identification.  There is an old saying worth remembering.

There are old mycologists.
There are bold mycologists.
There are no old, bold mycologists.

But apparently the chickens can eat just about every mushroom that grows in my yard without harm.  I do not feed any mammals (my dog or the cats) any wild mushrooms at all.

[anthropositor]

In this Holiday Season, what can we do to reduce the destruction of the planet?  It's been a half year since the last entry on this thread.  Any fresh ideas around?  There seems to be considerable urgency to the array of problems.

[Bamawing]

I know that my favorite presents to give (and recieve) are the ones that leave no waste. Gift certificates for a day at the spa. A trip to see loved ones. CD mixes. I've been known to design webpages for Christmas presents. These are far cooler than the cheap ceramic stuff people tend to get me. Not that I mind, I guess... but I would rather have an expierence than a trinket, plus it's better for the Earth.

[LIGA girl]

I try to consider the environment in most of my purchases. Gift bags are more recyclable than wrapping paper so I am using them this year.

[anthropositor]

These things are certainly helpful.

A Grinch comment:  I have noticed that my children got about 10 times the toys I got when I was a child (rationing and wartime shortages and so on).  My grandchildren by comparison all have a small mountain of toys; probably 100 times what I got.  I wonder, is that is really all enrichment?  Or is some of it just further getting them used to high consumption in an exceedingly wasteful society?

And why do so many of the children's gifts have to be plastic junk from China?  A family outing in a nature setting is more likely to have favorable impact on the children than all the stuff that goes Honk Honk, Squeak Squeak, Jabber Jabber.

Of course, not all noise making toys are necessarily useless.  Maybe Chatty Kathy or the Baby Doll that just lays there angelically sleeping or making cute little baby sounds could be redesigned to pee and poo and spit up and screech and scream at unpredictable times, get earaches and sore throats and have a continuously runny or totally plugged up nose.  There are actually dolls similar to this used for the purpose of orienting and preparing prospective parents for the rigors of parenting.  If these dolls are used prior to the prospective parents actually getting the bun in the oven, the prospects of parenthood may even miraculously diminish somewhat.  Thought and experience have some contraceptive value.  And for those who want to enhance their parental skills to the PhD level, we have the Adolescent Doll.  Just imagine how much pollution these dolls could ultimately prevent!

Okay, I'm done.  The lynch mob line begins here.

[itchychick]

No lynching from me, I agree completely.  At a time when everybody I know is going nuts trying to get the hot gift for their kids, I'm thinking, "Oh no, not more junk coming in..."  I'm feeling very grinchy right now too.  I love Christmas, but I hate the overconsumption.  I'm not saying I'm guiltless, but I really do try and pare down, and get them the one or two gifts that are meaningful and useful... and that doesn't necessarily mean educational - they could be purely for fun, but I will never buy them something that has a one or two week lifespan. 

The older one is getting a set of these tiny models that he will build and paint, and then use them in battles against his friends, who also collect them.  I figure that's got at least a months worth of fine motor development in assembly, and probably several years of play.  The little one is getting building toys.  Lego and something called "K'nex" which can be made into anything over and over again.  We have a collection of about 10 remote controlled cars and truck in a box in our basement.  They were gifts from others.  They got about 20 minutes of playtime (collectively).  What a waste.

For the adults in my family, I am getting them either something that I know they need, or I'm making them a piece of jewellery.  My siblings and I don't exchange gifts, but we make an extra point of spending time together.  We focus on the kids instead.   My favourite adult gift though?  For my two uncles, who ALWAYS want to give us gifts, I've been donating to the local Children's Hospital in their names for the past three years.  I've asked them to do the same for me.  I also take the kids out to buy a few gifts for the local toy drives. I think it's important that they realize how much they have, and how important it is to think of others.  These are all little things, but hopefully, over time, they will instill the right values in my kiddies.

[totalfolly]

Sorry, I'm not in the lynching line, either, Anthro.  Admittedly, my kids are adults, so their gifts are generally practical, and have been for years--clothes, gift cards, kitchen items.  Even when they were little, tho, we tried to avoid the gift hype and went for toys where they had to use their imaginations to play with them.  A lot of my gifts these days are glass--boxes, dishes, sometimes a small panel or suncatcher.  My DH and I generally give each other a list of things we'd probably get for ourselves eventually anyway, altho I also add practical stuff to the things I get for him.  This year he's getting a frying pan of his own.    He mentioned the other day that it's been years since he made himself a grilled cheese sandwich because he doesn't want to use my pans since they need to be hand-washed.

I love using gift bags--they're pretty and can be used over and over. 

One year, my mother gave donations in our names toward the acquisition of "work" animals for families in a third-world country.  That was probably the best gift she's ever given me.  I like to make donations to support various endangered animals as gifts to my family.

A gift I've given a local pet rescue group for years is the creation and maintenance of a web site for them.  Lemme think...I started that almost ten years ago.

totalfolly

[LIGA girl]

I give my children money, the oldest is studying fine arts, the next one travels  a lot and the youngest is saving for a car so that is the most useful thing for them, I will also get each of them a small thing to go with it to make it more personal ( like a special glass tile for the eldest  ). With my family, my sisters and parents, we all buy for one person only within that group, we do a draw each year to decide who we get to buy for and that works well. I also have 3 young nieces who I buy for and that is where I am likely to overspend as I keep seeing things I know they will love, and that is how I choose for them, (tho I do try to make it something that is useful or educational and that my sisters wont hate me for, but of course that is not always possible  )

[Bamawing]

I am sooooooo glad I read this before going shopping!

You see, I've tried having empty stockings at Christmas. It just depresses me. So I'm determined to get *something* to put in them. The question is, what?

I admit that my first thought was just "stuff," but honestly, nobody wants that. Even I don't want that. So I'm going to have to get creative... which is not a problem. I've a rather creative person. This requires some thought... hmm....