Fiddlesticks

Looking back over this blog it occurred to me that I don't mention eco or green things much now. I realise that is because its become so much a part of our lives that I don't even think about it as a separate subject. There are parallels with having chickens. At first there was a lot of adjustment (and photos) so they were mentioned frequently but now that we've kept chickens for some 8-9 years now they're such a part of the fabric of our lives that its no longer that newsworthy. It just is

So to some extent it is with green issues. We always recognised that there was a limit on what we could achieve in terms of resources ( monetary, land space and time) and life stages. But here's where we are currently.

A few years ago we had a wood stove installed in the sitting room to make the open fireplace more efficient and to offset some of our electricity heating bill. This has been a really good investment and particularly useful for the edge of a changing season where a cold evening comes unannounced. There is no mains gas in the village and our house was built to rely on storage heaters for warmth. Solar panels are financially out of reach and even if not then our roof doesn't really face the right way so we'd not really get the benefit from them. We have an Owl energy meter which monitors electricity usage which is a fun gadget and certainly helps us to know if a light has been left on somewhere upstairs, but with energy prices changing upwards so rapidly its hard to know what we're actually saving as bills are un-compare-able .

We already have a water meter and water butts around the place so that's unchanged in terms of water usage. We try to be moderate but with teenage sons its not always possible - and I need them to be clean!

Car wise a few years ago we swapped an embarrassingly gas guzzling 4x4 jeep for a more moderate Honda CR-V which has a smaller engine and traction control rather than full 4wheel drive, but still has the capacity to take things to the allotment and back. Tim still uses a small hatch back for the commute as ever. Currently I'm driving more than ever to visit Mum in hospital ( an hour away) and take teenagers about the place. Living in a village with limited bus service it was ever thus . Not much I can do about that really. Its a life stage thing.

Recycling has been the real triumph for us. I already had quite a good system in place as it was but the work by the local district council in giving everyone recycling bins etc has made my life much easier.

We now have a food waste caddy that is emptied weekly. It takes all food waste, even things like cooked meat scraps, to be composted. We still put some peelings in our compost bin or outer leaves to chickens but nothing is going to land fill.
There is a large green bin for recyclables collected fortnightly. It now takes all plastics (bar polystyrene and those foiled type plastics like crisp packets) paper, cardboard, tins, bottles and tetrapaks. I use to have a carrier on the back of the kitchen door to take plastic containers that I would then take to a dumpster at the farm shop but I don't need to do this now. We can just put everything in one bin and it is sorted at the depot.
smaller black bin for anything not recyclable - so for us that's cat litter, vacuum cleaner fluff and any plastics not covered by the green bin. This is collected fortnightly and is often only a third full if that.

Brilliant! As it is our kitchen bin is now all recycling rather than rubbish.

We still have milk in glass bottles from the milkman so they're still washed out and put back out for collection.

We've reduced the number of papers coming in to the house. I either read things online or have just cut down as part of #less365 Magazines are another thing; I've reduced the number coming in the house - I'm reading more books - and those that I do read I tend to pass on to friends and relatives when we see them. There's a small pile of them in the hall; help yourself.

#less365 taught me to shop less and use up what I had which is a green idea in itself. It's not enough to declutter; you have to stop it building back up again! I still find myself having periodic chuck-outs.

We still have eggs and fresh veg and fruit from our allotment and garden. We supplement this with an order from Abel and Cole for things we can't grow and for meat and fish etc. I don't do the bulk shopping that I use to as it did take up quite a bit of room and with our lives getting busier with the boys and parents I've changed my cooking to quicker meals using fresh ingredients. I still bake and process but don't need the volume of dried goods I did previously.

One day we'll have bees again I'm sure . We lost our last hive in the very cold winter and decided that it was too cold and damp where we'd got them sited. Lack of suitable site since and increased family and work responsibilities means we've not really had the time to devote to bees but we have all the kit and knowledge so its just a matter of the right time and place.

We were always moderate spenders and energy users I think - sure we can improve on that but its by little degrees rather than great changes.. No one is a hobby shopper which again is eco since we're not forever bringing in new things complete with packaging. There are very few plastic carrier bags in the house and when I do want one ( for taking things to Oxfam for example) I have to really scratch around for one. I've got taking a fabric or reusable bag to town down to a tee.

This is where our life is now I think. Little tweaks along the green path are, I'm sure, still possible but with rapid change for our family - eldest has his GCSE's this month and then is off to college in September - major green advances aren't really on the agenda until we move through this period. Who knows what the future will bring. But for now - this is where we are.

Just finished this book. The premise is excellent and I found myself in agreement with a lot of it, particularly the chapter on corporate office culture; something I've bad memories of when I last worked in an office!

But.

Its hard going. The author is clearly a very clever and learned man and there in lies the problem. He's approached this book as though its a thesis so the language is over complicated, academic and therefore often needs more than one run at a seemly obscure sentence to determine meaning. This seems completely at odds with the subject matter!

I've read it as it was recommended to me and as a 'best seller' but having worked (and that is the right word) through it I can tell it doesn't need to occupy precious space on my bookshelf any longer. I've no longing to read it again

Off to Oxfam it goes..