Earth Friendly

My parents did not know that they "recycled." They were frugal out of need and found a second use for nearly everything. I could tell you stories - but I won't today.

People who survived the depression lived by the motto, "Use it up, wear it out; Make it do, or do without."

When our children were growing, we did not adhere to the philosophy. With two full time working parents, our household took the convenient route more often. The girls had school and extra curricular activities and so did we. We didn't include recycling.

Now that the hubby and I are older and wiser, (I'm mostly older) we are more aware of the things we use.

Earlier this year, Swamptwitch and Robin began a recycling challenge for 2007 (S.P.E.A.R. Challenge 2007) that I am revisiting; Swampy introduced it on her post Talkin' Trash.
Robins entry can be found at Me -Talk- Dirty- One- Day.

This month, D (Kelly's home schooled daughter at Pass The Torch) is writing guest posts about Save The Earth Saturday. Last week she wrote about recycling.
She studied diligently and lists "need to know" facts about trash. I invite you to click over there and chime in.

I rejoiced this winter when our street was offered curbside recycling and many of our neighbors signed up.
I love it. No more messy boxes sitting in the garage waiting for someone to throw them into the back of the pick-up and haul away.

I now look on the bottom of food containers before purchase to see if our service will accept them in the green curb box.

We also compost. It begins in a small compost crock by my kitchen sink.
Kitchen Compost Crock at Giaim

Last year our thimble-size vegetable garden was fertilized from our home brew. The one butternut squash plant grew like a mutant from a B horror movie. It climbed the viburnum bush and opened its yellow blooms at the top and peaked into the neighbor's yard.

It was strange to see the squash hanging from the branches.


We hope to create a cane or bamboo disguise
for our black compost bins. They were well
hidden until we had to tear up our yard in 2006 to replace the $eptic drain field. (That wa$n't
a typo.)

Over the past ten years, we switched to
wildlife friendly products on our lawn to help it stay green. We are pleasantly surprised that the
aphids are controlled by the local sparrow population. Robins, Flickers, and other birds
find in our yard an insecticide free food source for their chicks.

We leave the majority of our flower beds
in tact through the winter to provide seeds, fruit, and
shelter for the wildlife that remains through the winter.

There are so many little things we can all do to make our little corner of the world a better place.

The Creator said the earth was "Good" and appointed us stewards of His beautiful work. Let us all do our part to treat it well.