Water Conservation in the Bathroom

I've always know that water was a precious resource.  Really, I have.  It's just hard to appreciate something for it's preciousness when it is abundant.  Abundant until this summer that is.  It didn't rain here... for months.  I'm used to hot, humid days.  This summer we had hot, dry days.  It was like being in a desert, but this area isn't normally a desert.  We buy rice from a farm 200 miles way; that takes a lot of rain!  We didn't have "normal" weather this year.  Trees died.  The ground cracked.  A couple of groundhogs/woodchucks ate every plant in our garden.  It was bad.  I knew it.  I even started taking shorter showers.  (The agony!) Then this sign went up down the street from my house:

I took this picture during last week's rain (Issac's remains.) We're still in a drought because our water table was so low.

I've mentioned before that this summer we've had a very severe drought but this sign inspired me to do want to do even more.  But what else could I do?  I already made Mr. Green Stuff put in one of those dual-flush, low-flow toilets.  I cut my shower time in half.  (Did I mention the agony involved there??) We don't water our lawn or wash our cars.  We have a rain barrel.  We only run our high efficiency washing machine or dishwasher when they are full.  What else???  I needed another little thing.  

Then it hit me.  What about all the water I waste just waiting for it to get hot enough?  I remember reading somewhere about placing a bucket in the shower to catch wasted water.  I tried this but it didn't seem to catch much.  Then I realized that if I just put the bucket in the bathtub, run the water into it until it warms up enough to tolerate, then I could turn on the shower and no longer waste the gallon or so that was cold. 

I snagged this old paint bucket from the garage.

If those groundhogs/woodchucks hadn't been so desperate for food this year, I would have watered my garden with all this "found" water.  (We somehow manage to fill that bucket at least every other day - that was a lot of wasted water!)  Instead, I have the fullest window boxes of my life!

Naturally, I didn't plant peppers and basil in there this year!

I'm actually embarrassed to admit that I hadn't done more to save water but now it's out there.  I'm doing better... and so are my flowers.  

Has weather inspired you to make a change this summer?

Peace,

Stacey

Walking for Trash??

I just finished reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (no, not Bill McKibben that would make more sense on a "green" blog but really Bill Bryson - the funny one) and at one point he said, "93 percent of all trips outside the home, for whatever distance or whatever purpose, Americans now get in a car.  On average the total walking of an American these days - that's walking of all types: from car to office, from office to car, around the supermarket and shopping malls - adds up to 1.4 miles a week, barely 350 yards a day.  That's ridiculous."  Keep in mind that this book was published in 1998.  Have we gotten any better???  Really.  Have we?

I'm not going to get into how we should all be walking or riding our bikes when we go on any trip under 1 mile or 2 miles or 10 miles or whatever!  (I don't want to have to point a finger at myself, of course.)  This post is about a little thing that's much smaller than that.  Let me tell you what I did yesterday.

I took a walk.  A walk that wasn't for pleasure but to actually get some place.  Actually, I took two walks... but they were both so small that I can't in good conscience call them "walks" at all.  I walked 2 blocks - twice.  Honestly, I was just exploring my neighborhood.  Anyway, on the first walk I hung a right out of my driveway, walked two blocks to take a picture (you'll see that another day), and walked right back home.  I came home with these:

In the afternoon, I turned left out of my driveway.  I walked two blocks again, talked to some neighbors, and came straight home.  Other than crossing a side street, I never even left the sidewalk but I still came home with these:

Let me explain.  I didn't consume any of these things.  I didn't even walk far enough to get to a store.  I found them.  Then I brought them home and recycled them.  I do this.  It's one of my weird quirks.  I pick up other people's trash.  Someone has to do it, right?  Seriously, I think it's become a compulsion.  Last week I went passed a smashed up gatorade bottle without picking it up.  A block later, I turned my bike around so I could get it.  I couldn't get my brain to stop saying, "well, now, who is going to pick that up?"  Well, me, of course.  I was going to go pick it up.

I know what you're thinking.  And, no, I don't live in a trashy area.  I live in a nice, ("snooty" is too harsh, right?) quiet neighborhood in an upmarket (my thesaurus told me to use that instead of "snooty") kind of town.  People take pride in this town!  Yet, I still can't go for a walk or bike ride without coming home with trash.

Please, tell me you do this too.  Please.  Please...

Peace,

Stacey

How to Get Less Mail! (Thanks to catalogchoice.org)

I like our mail carrier.   Really, I do.  We’ve even hung out.  I just don’t want to see him every day.  Don't take that the wrong way.  I'm nice.  And, he's cool.  I just don’t want mail!  O.K., so I still want personal correspondence.  (Please invite me to your party.  I’ll be fun.)  The occasional random bill is fine, too.  (Most of those are online now anyway.)  It's junk mail that I'm trying to avoid.

 

Like all those ridiculous catalogs.  I don’t want catalogs!  What is this 1987?!?  Honestly, I don’t need any catalogs.  Ever.  If I can’t find what I need at one of my local stores or online, I’m pretty sure I don’t need it. 

Want to know how to stop getting all those catalogs… especially those ones that just tempt you into buying things that you know you don’t really need?

There’s a handy, little, unassuming website that helped me all but eliminate junk mail coming into my house.  It is www.catalogchoice.org and you’re going to love it!  No, I’m not financially affiliated in anyway but I have used it since January 2008.  It’s amazingly simple.  No more calling customer service numbers and begging to get off the mailing lists.  Just sign up, and then add the catalogs you no longer want to receive.  I told you it was easy.

It’s motivational, too.  It tracks how you're helping the environment by avoiding catalog waste.  It’s one of my simple, little things that actually snowballs into a big thing.  A big thing that keeps clutter and junk from entering my front door!  (Hooray!)  Seriously, in 5 years, I’ve saved 5 trees from being chopped down for catalogs that I didn’t want in the first place!  That’s one tree for every year I’ve used the website.  Plus, it’s awesome that now I no longer receive incredibly, irrelevant catalogs.

Seriously, give it a try, if you haven’t already.  I’m guessing many of you already use this site because it claims that together we’ve already saved:

782,349 fully grown trees

325,840,434 pounds of greenhouse gas

115,506,053 pounds of solid waste

AND

784,735,285 gallons of water

Most of that is not from me… or my mother-in-law!  Did I mention that I’ve started canceling some of her catalogs too?!  She’s actually saved 2 of those trees.  (Yeah!)  I had to request my password to sign her up because it had been so long since my last log-in.  (I think that shows how once we stop getting random junk, our name or address isn’t sold as much anymore!)

Does your recycling bin grow catalogs or food?

Have you received one of those “incredibly, irrelevant catalogs” in the mail this month?  Be honest.  We used to get some doozies.  My “favorites” were the ones for pet vitamins, mail-order steaks, and expensive dolls; none of which have any relevance in my house!  Now how do I stop getting those weekly grocery store flyers?  I need your suggestions.

Peace,

Stacey

Smoky Yoga Hikes

Like I said yesterday, we just got back from an amazing trip where we tried to walk lighter on the Earth and renew our spirits as well.  I can go on and on about how great traveling makes me feel… but, luckily for you, this post isn't about that.  One of the little things that I did on this trip was fitting some yoga in whenever possible.  I didn’t bring my yoga mat but I did manage to carry everything I needed for over a week on my back.

I'm loving my new pack!

I made time for a little yoga practice at the campground and without a mat, I just practiced right on the grass.  This was very grounding (get it?) as it brought me directly in contact with the Earth.  The grass was mostly dead and brittle from the severe drought but it was nice to be on grass nonetheless.

That's smoke from the newest wildfire. (We'd already taken down our tent.)

Most days I played on the logs that separated us from the other campsites.  (You can see my favorite log in that picture above.)  Somehow I don’t have any pictures of this but I’m guessing most of our neighbors do.  I’m sure they thought I was crazy because I was usually just seeing which balancing poses I could do on knotty logs that kept rolling.  As you can imagine my warm-up sun salutations worked out much better than my balancing-half-moons and warrior-threes.  

Look at all that smoke behind my mid-hike mermaid pose

How could I “walk lighter on the Earth” without actually walking though?!?  We did a fair bit of hiking while we were there.  I mean, really, we had to at least hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point near Jenny Lake.  Plus, you can’t see Old Faithful nor the Paint Pots from your car as you drive around Yellowstone!  Hiking was really fun for us.

The trail at the summit of Signal Mountain (elevation 7,720 ft.)

Of course, you can’t take me hiking (or pretty much anywhere outside) without some sort of yoga thrown in for good measure.

Notice my hiking shoes were needed to get down to Jenny Lake.

What about you?  How do you connect with nature when you're away from home?

Peace,

Stacey