WHAT WE DO

What We Do button (c) Katrien Vander Straeten

An Organic List of Little Changes We All Can Make to Make our Children’s Future Safer and Healthier

(read also “Manifest“)

(and read about our Riot for Austerity)

Please contribute ideas, suggestions and criticisms

  • Our Food Matters
  1. we have changed our eating habits: much less meat, more bulk dry goods in our purchases, very seldomly eat out.
  2. we’ve taken up the Independence Days challenge.
  3. we buy organic foods and as much locally grown (and processed, etc.) food as possible (read “The Tale of Two Tomatoes“):  shop at Farmer’s Markets and farm stands and subscribe to CSA first, shop “local” and “organic” at Whole Foods last.
  4. we grow more and more of our own food.
  5. we bake our own bread (in winter it also heats up the house!).
  6. we put up as much as we can of the season’s local crop for the winter by canning, root cellaring and freezing.
  7. we use only natural gardening practices in our garden.
  8. we are working on a winter harvest.
  9. we are working on an apiary
  10. we are working on a flock of hens, for eggs.
  • We Save on Energy
  1. we do the Riot for Austerity.
  2. we take the Freeze Yer Buns challenge: pledge 64 F during the day and 58 F at night; shut off unused part of house and heat that at the minimum.
  3. we had our house insulated and invested in a more efficient boiler for our heating, but we hope to heat most of all with wood harvested on our own property
  4. we don’t use AC but we have shade trees and use other ways to keep cool.
  5. DH  carpools to a shuttle 3 miles away that takes him into the city to work. I use the bike and the buggy (for Amie) when the weather allows.
  6. we buy from local bookstores as often as we can. Sure, the UPS truck drives by anyway, but mine might be the package that puts an extra truck on the road. And my extra buck can support the independent bookstore, which is always a good cause.
  7. we don’t preheat the oven, unless when cooking poultry, meat or fish (bacteria!).
  8. we cook stews and soups on the wood burning stove when it’s going anyway.
  9. we don’t preboil (e.g., when cooking pasta, potatoes, corn, etc.), don’t let pots/pans boil away and fill only with however much water is needed (e.g., when making tea).
  10. when doing dishes and laundry, we use the lowest temperature necessary – usually that’s “cold”.
  11. we use a tea-cosy (it’s that simple).
  12. we replaced all light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), even the one in the fridge.
  13. we hang laundry out to dry.
  14. we would use our push reel mower that we found at the landfill but then of course we don’t really have a lawn or grass to speak of.
  1. when doing dishes, we fill the sink.
  2. we only run the dishwasher when it’s full.
  3. we use one cup a day (we drink as much tea/coffee as we want, but in only one cup: less dishes).
  4. when brushing teeth or washing our hands, we don’t run the tap.
  5. we shower less: every other day, and are working towards every three days, etc.
  6. we use as much grey water and rain water as possible and want to get one of these under the sink toilet tank collectors.
  7. we want to install a wetland/pond area in our garden for watering our yard, though for now our rain water barrels have been sufficient (it was a rainy season, though).
  • We Reduce-Reuse-Recycle
  1. we compost kitchen scraps, grass clippings (from friends and neighbors, we don’t have a lawn) and fall leaves (got lots of those year round!) (compost facts)
  2. we recycle even the smallest piece of paper, the tiniest plastic cup or lid; so far we have reduced our trash to one small shopping bag a week.
  3. we Freecycle and set up exchanges with friends, especially for baby/children’s clothes, toys and books.
  4. we use no paper napkins/towels at home (we use a cloth wipe) and only the minimum at restaurants (stick it on: These come from trees).
  5. we use cloth handkerchiefs for blowing our noses. It’s a myth that using a hankie means “reinfecting” yourself, but we do keep in mind that in times of sickness we carry the germs around in our pockets, and we wash our hands and our clothes more often.
  6. we bring own reusable cups to coffee shops and work.
  7. we wash out ziploc bags and baggies and reuse them.
  8. we call up junkmail/catalogue companies and request being taken off their mailing lists (it works: most will).
  9. this holiday season we made all our present ourselves and as much as possible out of recycled material!
  • We Decrease Pollution
  1. paper or plastic? Neither, thanks! We bring own canvas bag to shop, they’re stronger and much more stylish anyway (amusing/disconcerting article on the topic).
  2. we don’t buy bottled water, EVER (according to the Whole Foods “The Whole Earth Weigh-In” pamphlet, “80% of the 25 billion single-serving plastic water bottles Americans use each year end up in landfills.”)
  3. when buying something, we consider its packaging (lots of nonrecyclable plastic? No thanks!).
  4. we say no to paper, styrofoam or plastic cups (we bring own mug).
  5. I do not buy leather handbags and would rather not buy leather shoes either. There are some alternatives and some that don’t even involve plastic like Simple Shoes, but they’re often too expensive. I only own three pairs of shoes at one time (sneakers, rain/garden boots, hiking boots).
  • Cleaning
  1. we use “green” cleaning products. I have recently discovered borax.
  • We Kick the Trash Taboos!
  1. we don’t flush drinking water down the toilet and use toilet cloth.
  2. about those diapers! > we switched to g-diapers and when those didn’t fit, to green diapers“, but with the next kid (huh?) we’ll use cloth.
  3. and about those pads and tampons? > I happily switched to the DivaCup.

A note on those Taboos: Most items on this list are straightforward and easy, but the last three might not be. I was as squamish about poop and blood as the next person… until I gave birth and started changing diapers. So I reconsidered the cultural taboos that made me recoil from excrement/menstrual blood and the honest consideration of their cost to the planet. Really, those 18-20 billion soiled, plastic and chlorine-bleached disposable diapers and those 7 billion bloody tampons and 13 billion bloody sanitary pads sitting in landfills in the US alone (and counting)… are they that much less disgusting?

  • For us Feasability = Adaptability

If our circumstances can’t be adapted, we have to adapt. That cuts both ways.

On the one hand, to the usual protest “What if local and organic food isn’t available? What then?”, we answer: “Well, then we’ll just have to starve!” (Note to oneself: don’t be too sassy.) Kidding. We protest strenuously the recent suggestion by Ms. Kaugman in the  New York Times that heroes like Sharon Astyk might be “carborexic”, obsessive-compulsive or otherwise mentally unhinged. (Much better to read Amanda Kovattana’s review of Sharon’s book Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front for Energy Bulletin and, even better yet, her blog).

On the other hand, what if peak-oil / global warming / food scarcity / Depression do occur, like Sharon is not the only one to predict? Seems to us that in that case it’s better to be prepared. Not in a head-for-the-hills survivalist manner, but prepared in the best sense, as adapted, by weaning ourselves off excessive oil consumption and other unsustainable practices and by ensuring our food safety by making eating and growing food ecologically sound and local again. Like Sharon, we want to face the peak oil etc.  full-on and take it as an opportunity for a different kind of well-being…

  • Community: Transition Towns?

This is a new element on the list, one I’m still pondering and tinkering with it, so stay tuned…

You can leave a comment here.