Taking the challenge

As I catch up on the blog reading during my lunch hour, I was over at Garrett's blog and thought, you know what, I'm up to the challenge.

As our landfills overflow, cities have horrible air quality and especially how everything keeps getting more and more expensive, how do I now and what can I do to be come more responsible for my environment?

~Garden-we try to grow a lot of our own produce. Apple trees are planted, more to be added. Hot boxes are in the making so that we can do manure boxes(compost and heat). Then be able to use those through out the winter. We use heirloom veggies as much as we can and start out own seeds(heehee-David's office has 24 hour lighting and 75 degree temps-might as well take advantage of it!) I prefer not to freeze but dehydrate and now can most of the produce. Any waste-goes to the animals.
~Vehicles-the worst. We have two trucks, older. One tahoe and the grand am. Grand Am is on it's way out the driveway in the next two weeks. Tahoe spends a lot of time sitting unless we have dog shows to go to. Trucks-one is working right now, one is waiting for a fuel pump repair. David and I carpool to work now. Drop Meredith off on the way(avoids the school bus). All trips are planned with multiple stops and a specific route to avoid overlapping and being the most efficient. Making sure the tires are aired up, fuel tanks are full, and engines are running well.
~I walk. A lot. Instead of hopping in the car to go to the post office at lunch, I walk. I must admit I did drive to a store today that I can walk to, but considering the neighborhood I have to go through, chuck the savings for the safety. We have a sky walk system downtown for a reason.
~Home-we recycle, more then we throw away. Anything and everything. Any trash is not burned, but taken to the land fill and that's usually only once every two months. Shortly they will have one of those fancy incinerators, what are they called, plasma something? Very efficient and very environmentally friendly.
~Converting to a wood furnace system in the next couple of years. Solar too-working on costing that out right now. Should be able to be off the grid, rid of LP and able to survive the worst storms.
~We also avoid if we can massive amounts of pesticides and non-organic fertilizers on our property. That's lawn, garden and livestock inclusive. Ducks and Geese are great weeders, eat lots of bugs and the horses help with lawn mowing. Thanks to my good friend Dr Joe, we have knowledge of organic means to control livestock pests and some diseases.

Like Garrett mentioned, turn off the light when you leave the room. Unplug as you walk out the door-including computers and tv's. I know as far as household electricity goes, my biggest waste is the two dehumidifiers and sump & lift pump. That's where the solar comes in-run them off panels instead of the grid.

Mom and Dad have been working getting turbines up and running on a couple of their farms. Nothing yet, but coming closer to seeing that happen.

So what can you do to "green up" your world? Take Garrett's challenge--make a choice and difference.

Later gators..
C