Happy Belated Earth Day!

[Soundy]

Capt Deb ... Check out multi packs of those bulbs ... the bulbs we got were alot cheaper in 6 packs ... Home Depot had an 8 back that was $11 ...Walmart , same brand , 3 pack $9 ...

I like shopping the farmer market ...don't so much like sitting there with a million eggs ...we are  trying to find more egg customers since when school lets out I will lose customers for 6 dozen a week ... we are getting 20 a day most days now and if things go like they did next year it will be around 32 a day ... That’s alot of eggs


Kaybo ... when checking out house look at how old any appliances are that are in the house ... check windows ... big source of heat and cool air loss here if the windows are old or not installed right  and also if not energy efficient to start with ... insulation is another thing to check ... have a friend that has a thing that measures heat exchange ...looks like a radar gun police with a little screen facing user ... you can shoot walls and especially around doors and windows and it reads various shades of green, blue , reds , oranges and yellows so shows where there is insufficient insulation ... don't know where you could rent one ... I would imagine that a house inspector would have one or some other tool to measure this ... and that is another house must ...have an inspection ... have known a few that took a several thousand reduction from seller by not having an inspection ... if someone offered me a deal like that I would think something was being hidden ...most banks are going to require an inspection so that may not be an issue ... better to shell out several hundred dollars ($400 -$800 here) than have something cost you thousands later

People laughed at the extra expense we took on when we built our exterior walls 6 inches thick instead of standard 4 inches ... now we laugh when neighbor with a smaller house spends $75 more a month to heat and cool their house than we do … walls paid for themselves in the 6 years we have lived in the house ..neighbor  had their house built by pros who put in the latest windows , used best insulation etc …

We just decided to build a house and did it … we hit all the heads of the nails in our house (well my sons hit some of them ) and we were armed with what knowledge we gained from reading and just knowing that when it does get cold thicker walls would help … our floor is cold in the winter and we need to finish off house by insulating them and savings will be more … we usually don’t turn on AC until end of May or into June … thicker walls also mean it take more outside heat to heat up the house

[CHD63]

Somehow I did not see this thread until just now.  So glad you started it, Deb.

We have been recycling fanatics for many, many years.  We have a great recycling center that takes just about anything so once every two weeks or so we take the accumulated items to the center.  They just recently started taking old electronics (the biggest curse for our environment, in my estimation).

We carry our own bags with us at all times (see http://www.reusablebags.com/).  That site has some ultra compact ones that I carry in my purse and in the glove box of the car.  Also have produce bags that I use in the grocery store and re-use.  Every year at Christmas our kids get another one of these little goodies in their stockings.

We are at that tender age where we simply cannot eat a complete big meal at a restaurant without being miserable so we take in our own compact, stack-able containers and put half of the meal in to take home for the next day.

We have pretty much converted to almost all CFL bulbs now ..... have not had to replace a single one yet.

We have a lovely locally grown Farmers' Market that operates about six months out of the year so that is wonderful.  Lobbying now to get a Whole Foods or Trader Joes within easy driving distance ..... not here yet.  When we were younger we had a huge garden and canned and froze many things for the winter.  Now we only grow tomatoes, green peppers, and herbs.  Just bought one of those Topsy Turvy tomato trees for the deck so we'll see out that works this year.

We drive a hybrid car and love it.  Always looking for more ways to save/recycle ..... so keep the ideas coming.

Soundy, I wish we lived close enough to come buy your eggs.  I do buy the organic cage free brown eggs whenever I can.  When our kids were still living at home, I made all of our own bread ..... now I make most of it, but not all.

We also have 6" walls and our heating/cooling bills are half of what comparable sized houses are without it.  However, we were not ambitious like you were, Soundy, to build it ourselves.

For a small donation to National Arbor Day Foundation, you can get "free" trees ..... we have several in our yard.

Every little bit we can do just makes good sense, no matter your reasons for doing so.

Clarice

[Soundy]

Something I didn't think about earlier as part of the re-use part of reduce ,reuse and recycle is the re-use of items normally thrown away

examples ...

for camp hand wash station I use one of those big refillable laundry detergent bottles that have a push spigot ...I do use liquid but use the ultra that has less water , more detergent and so use smaller amount ... but I buy it in the plastic bags that you pour back into your empty bottle ... I bought and used a second bottle with a spigot so I could carry the empty with water in it to use at hand washing station on campouts ... you can buy one made for camping that is very similar and $30 ...
 
I have a Welch’s grape juice bottle in the fridge that is maybe a year old ... washed between and reuse to mix juice from concentrate ... juice in the cardboard tube is about half price for same 48oz ...and the tube even if it gets tossed will decomposed ...I do from time to time put news print and small amounts of cardboard in compost pile ...to much mats up but a little in home compost pile will compost ... I save the metal ends from the tube for tin punch ornaments made with Scouts and at school ...

plastic containers that food and other things come in can be recycled but why recycle then buy plastic containers for storage??  ... I use them to store food , to store small craft items , to make crafts from etc ... just make sure to thoroughly  clean anything you are putting food into ...also have assorted plastic containers that my 15 month old grandbaby loved to play with …

I save colorful paper along with some news print to make recycled paper with groups of kids several times a year ...messy , fun and if they don't like results it can always go in recycle bin...

A bit ago I was thinking and thought of other things but am drawing a blank now …but look at what you use and what you can save to reuse in a new way … and when you are through reusing it you can always recycle it …

[Lizard]

I have to share.  In central CT they just started taking all plastics marked 1-7.  Previously they only took 1's and 2's.  We also have a single stream recycling program, where everything goes into a blue garbage bin and its sorted at the recycling center. I'm so excited!