Friday, February 19, 2010

Eggs anyone?


I am so happy to say that I am getting a basket full of eggs on a regular basis now and I LOVE it! I am able to share with friends and family but most of all I love that I have control over my food. I know what my chickens are eating and how they are being treated (spoiled rotten) and that makes me feel pretty darn good.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

A fun post about my new phone



I have been in desperate need of a new phone for some time now but I hate "new" things. So for Christmas my hubby bought me Sprint's new phone called "Reclaim". It is so up my ally. It is made from 80% recyclable materials with 40% of the casing made from corn-based bio-plastic. So far I've had no problems with the phone and I feel great getting something "new" when it is made from 80% recyclable materials.

My Mission

So as I have been spending a lot of time thinking about this lately and trying to "re-ground" myself. I wondered, what exactly is it I am trying to do here. So along came my "mission statement". It really helped me define what it is that is important to me here. In later posts I will talk more about what I am already doing and plan to do to help accomplish each thing on my list. So here it is:

MY MISSION IS TO REDUCE MY WASTE BY RE-USING AND REFURBISHING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AND ALSO BY LIMITING MY NEED FOR “THINGS” THAT I WON’T USE OR DON’T REALLY NEED. I ALSO PLAN TO EDUCATE OTHERS ABOUT REDUCING THEIR WASTE AS WELL AS MAKING MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND CHOICES THEMSELVES. I PLAN TO CONTINUE TO EDUCATE MYSELF ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF THE GROWING MEAT INDUSTRY TO BOTH OUR HEALTH AND OUR ENVIRONMENT. I WANT TO REDUCE MY MEAT INTAKE AND WHEN I DO EAT MEAT, EAT MEAT THAT HAS BEEN RAISED IN A HEALTHY WAY THAT IS BOTH BETTER FOR ME AND FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. I WANT TO REDUCE MY DEPENDENCY ON CHEMICALS LIKE ONES FOUND IN HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS, FERTILIZERS, PESTICIDES ETC… AND FIND ALTERNATIVES FOR THESE PRODUCTS THAT ARE BOTH EASY TO USE AND AFFORDABLE. MY HOPES FOR THE FUTURE IS TO BE ABLE TO BECOME A FOOD SAFETY ADVOCATE TO HELP CRACK DOWN ON THE FDA AND THEIR LOUSY FOOD “POLICING”. I HOPE TO CONTINUE TO SHARE THIS JOURNEY WITH MY FAMILY, FRIENDS AND ANYONE ELSE WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT IT SO THANK YOU FOR READING.

Monday, February 8, 2010

green update

Wow - I am really slacking on my posts these days. Life is just so busy. I just got done watching an amazing documentary that my sister bought me for my birthday called "Food INC" which I HIGHLY recommend. It was such an eye opener and really reminded me of a lot of the issues I have with the food industry. As usual it got the wheels turning in my head and I plan to make some big changes in my life.

My husbands parents raise cattle and have offered us a cow to slaughter for some time now and I think we are finally going to take advantage of it. I just have to make some room in my freezer first. Our chickens are doing fantastic and are laying daily giving me about 6 eggs a day. I also have a few roosters which I plan to move to my dinner table soon (or have my hubby do I should say). That one will be a first for me.

I continue to work with our green committee at work to reduce our waste as a City and offer better alternatives to the residents like recycling christmas trees into mulch to be used on city properties for landscaping and proper disposal of batteries, cell phones and other e-waste. My biggest accomplishment has been presenting our City manager as well as our City Council with a proposal (which was approved) that will save the City about $40,000 a year but also save a lot of paper products by eliminating paper delinquent utility notices and replacing them with an automated phone call. I am still working through the testing phase on this but it is going great and I have received a fantastic response so far. This was a very exciting journey for me and I am glad to finally be able to share it with everyone.

I continue to strive for reducing my waste, especially household and I do so by sharing my unwanted items, composting my leftover food scraps and buying only what I need and will use. I continue to reduce my meat intake and hope that others will follow in my footsteps too.

Thanks for reading!