the Village Knittiot

Over the last several years, Mr. Knittiot and I have been going through the slow and complicated process of learning more about our impact on the planet and taking small, practical steps toward reducing our overall ecological footprint. We are a long way from where I want to be, but too much focus on the big picture and not enough on the simple, daily contributions results in discouragement.

Back at the beginning of the year, prompted by a post on Worsted Witch, I began to think about my new year’s goals in a different way, an ecological way. At the time I meant to post them here, but I hadn’t quite gotten back in the swing of things. Today, while reading Pocket Farm’s post on the value and ingenuity of the victory garden, I was reminded of at least one of them — planting a garden.

Some of you may recall that I had big plans last summer to create a grand, elaborate garden to meet our produce loving needs. However, it turned out to be a much larger project than I had the energy to deal with. This year, I would like to actually get it off the ground. Apparently people who do this kind of thing on a regular basis start their planning now, so…I guess I ought to get going on that.

Somewhat connected to the gardening goal is a desire to learn how to can tomatoes. Mr. K and use very few processed foods, but one of the things that I haven’t figured out how to get rid of is the canned tomatoes. Sometime fresh just isn’t affordable or useful. My stepmom used to get a huge case of tomatoes in the summer and can enough to last us all winter long (at least she did the summer I lived with her). I doubt I can get a whole winter’s worth out of my small backyard garden, but perhaps I can find a local source to supplement. One thing my stepmom did was instill a deep fear of accidentally poisoning myself by doing something wrong. So I have this vague feeling that canning tomatoes is a combination of science and magic, and messing up either will have fatal results.

The other thing we have focused on a lot is reducing the amount of garbage that goes in our trash bin. To further those aims, we are looking to get into the worm business. The Worm Lady sells an excellent vermicomposting solution, which works well for apartment dwellers. One pound of worms can go through as much as 3 lbs. of garbage a week! So, that is on the list of environmental purchases.

There are some other things I want to do, like replace our shower head with one that uses less water, come up with better solutions for conserving energy around the house (I am one of those people who has the bad habit of leaving lights on in other rooms of the house when I am not using them), and participating in the one local summer challenge.

As usual, I will continue to simplify my life, reduce my consumer spending, limit the number of miles I drive (and carpool whenever possible), get more of my books from the library, bring my own bags to the grocery store, buy local products when possible, use non-petroleum based soaps and detergents, clean with all natural products (vinegar, baking soda and castille soap are all I need to keep the house clean and sparkly), support organic farmers and try to be happy and enjoy every moment of my life. It is short after all and you can only do what you can do.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Greening up the Village. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.