make a smaller ecological footprint

They landlord paid to get all the ducting under the house replaced when they put in a new HVAC unit. They also put in energy star windows too. This will be great in the winter as the previous casement window allowed a breeze through the house during the Santa Anna windstorms.

However the unfortunate part is that I can no longer use my window swamp cooler. It will void the new vinyl window warranty to mount anything to them. So the downside now is that I must use an air conditioner in a house with no insulation. I’m not sure how to address this yet but I am turning on the air only when it gets over 85 degrees in here and keeping the setting at 80. The insulation is really the issue but My project for putting up trellises on the hot side of the house and having a vine grow and shade that area have helped a lot. I cant wait to own my own house and make it spend money on making my own house green.

All in time.

I just added a new goal of making my home more energy-efficient. Since it seems that my home is the biggest (now that I barely drive), I figured I could better track my changes that way. I am still working on ways to lower my eco footprint via my consumer choices, and I will track those here.

reusing old plastic bags more

so i’ve been working on this. walking when i can instead of driving. recycling more and consuming less, buying as much of my food as i can from the local farmers market have reuseable grocrey bags.
along with donating a lot of furniture to my sister when he got her own place. it saved her a lot of money, i got rid of stuff, and then she didn’t have to buy more furniture. it was great.
now i’m working on my friends/family to try and do more.

The National Wildlife Federation has some things you can do to help reduce your environmental footprint. They have a Good Neighbor Pledge

The site is also looking for donations, but you can see how you are doing towards reducing your carbon footprint.

As a note towards my own goal, I had 68 points of things we have done in the last 2 years. Every 20 points reduces a carbon footprint 2% for 2 years. Some points I cannot earn because we don’t have the proper equipment to do them. Anyway, I think I am going to mark this done as I do as much as I can right now to reduce my own and my family’s carbon footprint. I will continue to strive to improve.

riding the bike every day this week, and prob next week too (no car)

Ah how I love Kiss My Face, Dr. Bronners and Toms Of Maine to keep clean and green!

Further trying to be a bit cleaner and greener.
I got a second bike, second hand. A mid ‘80s Miyata Three Ten road bike, and I loves it! That and my old Motobecane have done wonders for keeping me from depending on automobiles.

I brown-bag all my own lunches these days, all vegetarian food, I don’t think I’ve eaten much meat in the last few weeks since substitutes have been available.

We still haven’t eliminated buying soda in cans but now that they don’t stay around long enough to pile up my family is making more of an effort to save them for recycling. One of our friends is disabled due to a stroke and now collects them for extra money. He goes around town on his riding lawnmower picking up cans and even trash off the streets. He says that in about 2 month’s time, he collects enough to take a pickup load to Sedalia and clear enough cash to make the trip worthwhile.
With the exception of a couple antique lamps, we are using energy-saving bulbs. Our city will except them for recycling although they still don’t pick up anything at curbside for recycling except paper.
We are giving all our excess plastic grocery sacks to some of the local gardeners selling fresh produce in the old Wal-Mart parking lot now that Wal-Mart moved to their new location.

We all argue whether Global Warming is real or not, but whoever is right or wrong, it simply doesn’t matter. Being smaller, living with less, respecting nature and the Earth are just nice things to do to be a better person. I want to be better since I know better.

I have no car, commute by bicycle or bus. I tried composting but it took too long to get the quantity of material my local place would take all at once, so my kitchen started to smell.
I use all biodegradable soaps (shower, dish, etc) but still use fluoride toothpaste. Can’t do it all at once I guess.
I recycle, but my trash waste is still too high for my tastes.

I want to buy the house I’m renting and totally green it out… we’ll see how that goes.

It’s a journey…