The price of greed

This CBS 60 Minutes show on the Deepwater Horizon travesty, and the story of one of its survivors is amazing and horrifying. When will we ever, ever, ever learn? When? WHEN!!!!

Garden 2009: Summary of What Worked and What Didn't

One of the purposes of this blog is for me to keep track of the things I'm doing and learning about sustainability and food security and the like, through my own gardening efforts. I didn't post much about my garden (or anything else for that matter) this summer, but I thought I should at least make note of how some of the things I tried turned out.

I'll start with what went well:

1) Potatoes: Potatoes are plain-packaged miracles in my opinion. I was astounded again this year at how many potatoes will grow from just a quarter-potato planted in the Spring. I planted a section of Yukon Gold potatoes this year - the section was about 5 feet square. I probably planted the potatoes too close together, and I didn't hill them up as much I had intended, yet I got over 40 lbs of potatoes out of that little patch. Some of them were hands down gorgeous! Smooth, creamy, perfectly formed spuds. I have since made a whole lotta potato-leek soup and mashed spuds, which are now in my freezer for Winter. Not to mention the bounty of new potatoes and butter we had over the Summer itself.

2) Carrots: These grew and grew whether I thinned them or not, and tolerated quite the variation in temperature and moisture - I was so enthralled with them I wrote a little post all about it a couple weeks ago...

3) Perennial Herbs: I was so happy that my lavender plant made it through last Winter, despite the many nights of bitter cold we had (and by bitter cold I mean -45C at times, and often many nights in a row of -30C). Not only did it survive, but it thrived and produced lovely flowers that were loved by a lot of bees and bugs. By virtue of a late September trip to a lavender farm just outside of Victoria, BC, I found out that my particular variety of lavender was edible! So I harvested my lavender flowers (probably past their peak, but oh well) and made some delicious lavender scones, like you see in the picture above. I also made some lavender and sage tea with honey, which is also quite tasty. Which brings me to the sage - another plant that just grew like crazy this Summer. I have harvested a huge jar-full, enough to last me over the Winter, for certain. My thyme and rosemary also did well, and I fully expect to see them survive over this Winter, providing there is enough snow to insulate everything nicely, like there was last year.

4) Perennial Salad Greens: I grew three varieties of greens from seed: Salad Burnet, Burnet Saxifraga and French Sorrel. All of these sprouted well and grew quite profusely. Both Gord and I and our guinea pigs enjoyed these greens over the summer and into the late Fall (i.e., now). I am keeping my fingers crossed that they live through the winter - the odds are fairly good since they are quite well established now.

There were several things that didn't go well, some of which I've complained about already, and some which I haven't mentioned yet:

1) Cucumbers: I have absolutely no luck with these. Last year they were killed by frost and this year the seedlings were fried by a hot spell after a cool, dry spell. I had been trying to conserve water becasue of the dryness early in the Spring, and apparently I was a bit too stingy with the H2O.

2) Beans: These things were fried more than once, and were very slow to get going in the adverse conditions of cool dryness followed by hot dryness. Later in the summer they had a burst of growth that happened so fast the beans were past the fresh eating stage before I even noticed there were beans at all. They were even past the pickling stage, they were that big. Fortunately they were a dual purpose bean, in that the seeds themselves could be dried and used for soups. So I have a whole cupboard full of bean pods drying.

3) Tomatoes: Dead. Killed in a late frost (in June). I didn't have the motivation to try again.

4) Pumpkins: Dead. Seedlings eaten by some sort of garden pest, perhaps of the deer or pocket gopher variety.

5) Chard and Kale: started out good, but the above noted pocket gopher decided to invade that corner of the garden after our 'mole repellent' thingies chased them out of the yard. All that underground burrowing killed a good half of the chard and kale after that.

6) Aspen tree "cloning:" Our property is full of trembling aspen trees, but there is one large gap in the treeline from what I assume was some over-zealous grading when the house was built. I want to fill in that gap with the same kind of trees, and when I saw this rooter pot device at Lee Valley tools, I thought it was the answer. I had visions of free trees in my head, and I enthusiastically made my way out into our woodlot to choose some prime cloning fodder. I followed the directions closely and soon had ten aspen saplings fitted out with attached rootpots. I don't know if it was a problem with the rooting hormone washing off of the exposed "wound" inside the rootpots, or my not keeping the soil evenly moist. (Watering these things was a tad more complex than the little instruction book led me to believe.) So instead of planting ten new trees, I killed ten trees instead. Not good.

Despite the disappointments I did learn a lot, and there were some things that did go well even in the tough conditions. I guess that's the most important lesson of all: when the going gets tough, I just need to channel my inner potato. And then maybe have some lavender scones with tea. :)

Thanks to The New Resilient

Thanks to Ryan and the folks over at The New Resilient, who have kindly published a couple of my gardening-related articles this Summer. It is an honor to have some of my ponderings included with the very informative and practical (not to mention tasty!) materials there. If you haven't already checked out The New Resilient blog, please do! It is chock full of good information on what people can do and are doing to work towards "post-collapse prosperity." And it's from a Western Canadian perspective, which is pretty cool too!

Ecological "Credit Crunch" gets a mention at last

This afternoon I came across this article on the CBC website. I was a bit startled to see it at first - I've become so used to environmental things being ignored that it surprises me when anything related to environmental sustainability actually gets published in the mainstream media.

The article talks about things that readers of this blog are likely quite familiar with: that we are increasingly outstripping the carrying capacity of our planet, and that we in the the 'western' world are the worst debtors of all in this regard.

A quick internet search revealed that September 23rd was this year's Ecological Debt Day - the day that the people of the earth had already used up the planet's capacity to generate resources and absorb waste for that year. In 2008 we will consume and excrete 140% of what the earth can give and take. According to the Global Footprint Network, humans first exceeded the earth's biocapacity in 1986, and each year we exceed it earlier and earlier.

This 'financial crisis' we're going through in the world now really pales in comparison. When we're cannibalizing our planet and poisoning it at the same time, it seems pointless to get too worried about some numbers on a scale that go up and down each each day, representing some kind of abstract derivative financial 'product'. How is it that the surreal and abstract became so important and the real and concrete faded into invisibility? Paradoxes like these always stretch my brain.

The Tao Te Ching is full of paradoxes too - maybe that's why I like is so much. I came across a modern interpretation of this text a short while ago. Here are a couple quotes to ponder from that version - I've bolded some of the lines that seem to get to the crux of the matter for me:

Chapter 19:

Get rid of sanctity.
People will understand the truth
and be happier.

Get rid of morality.
People will respect each other
and do what's right.

Get rid of value and profit.
People will not steal
if they do not desire.

If that's not possible, go to Plan B:
Be simple. Be real.
Do your work as best you can. Don't think about what you get for it. Stay focused. Get rid of all your crap.

And from Chapter 24:

Keep your feet firmly planted
unless you want to fall on your face.
Learn how to pace yourself
if you want to get anywhere.
Don't call attention to yourself
if you want people to notice your work.

Nobody respects people
who always have excuses.
Nobody gives credit to people who always take it.
People who hype themselves
have nothing else to offer.

Think of being in touch with Tao
like eating at a buffet:
Take only what you need.
Save some for everybody else.

It's way past time we stopped gorging ourselves at a buffet that was meant for everyone, for all generations, and rediscovered joyful moderation. And, of course, it's time I took my own advice and stepped up what I can do to only use my fair share.

Sharon tells it like it is....

Sharon at Casaubon's Book has written a most excellent post today! Her posts are brilliant on a regular basis, but this one is just....well, beyond phenomenal. Do check it out for yourself, especially if you've been wondering what all this peak oil stuff is all about, and even more so if you've been avoiding checking into what this peak oil stuff is all about....

Edited to add: and if you're ready, head over to Daharja's site and see what she and her family have been doing to prepare for this whole peak oil thing....

My Post-Apocalyptic Career?

This afternoon I came across a re-run on TV of the show, The End of Suburbia. It is a 2004 production, and it's interesting to see how things have progressed in the 4 years since it was made. In it, James Kunstler was talking about what kind of career he could expect to have in post-peak oil society. He noted that his current career as an author would have to change since mass distribution of books would certainly be unlikely when mass transportation of food isn't even possible. He said he would probably start a small newspaper in whatever urban village he found himself in at the time. This got me thinking: What would I do? I'm a psychologist, and I doubt there will be much call for this kind of work when everyone's busy meeting the fundamental needs of life like growing, harvesting and storing food, fetching and carrying water and trying to stay clothed and warm/cool.

I work in a jail setting, doing mostly crisis-related, problem solving kinds of stuff, very much in a triage-like environment. A lot of the time, being a psychologist in a jail is akin to what I imagine being a surgeon in a M*A*S*H unit would be like: do what's got to be done, do it quick, and do it right the first time. Maybe familiarity with how people act in certain crises would be helpful, and I could be useful for a while in helping people deal with and adapt to unfamiliar circumstances. (As long as I was adapting alright myself, that is.) But when it becomes apparent that the emergency isn't a short one but a long one, what then? I do have some skill in helping people deal with chronic stressors, but really, I doubt people will have time for this kind of thing, what with the above-noted food/clothing/shelter issues to face. I probably won't have time for it either, since I'll be dealing with the same immediate concerns myself.

So what's an interconnection-loving, paradox-pondering, pattern-seeking, 'head-shrinking' kind of gal to do?

I really have no idea. After going to school for so many years with just one focus, and then applying that knowledge in such a specialized area for another bunch of years, it's hard to see yourself doing something different. I hope to become more knowledgeable about plants and herbs, but that's going to take a long while. There are lots of willow bushes on our property and I could make things out of those to barter with, like baskets and such, but I'm unskilled in that area as well. I do love the irony of a psychologist becoming a basket weaver though!

What about you? Have you thought about what you might do when the current ways of doing things just aren't feasible anymore? Are you trying to steer your kids/nieces/nephews away from occupations like "computer game designer" towards some more universally practical work path? Do you have any hobbies that will come in handy, like woodworking or winemaking or quilting?

Canadian Film: "Be The Change"

I wanted to help spread the word about this film by David Chernushenko, Canadian filmmaker and environmentalist (among other things). Its full title is: Be The Change - Living Lightly and Loving It.

It's not a doom and gloom film, but rather one that is a "celebration of the human spirit" and shows how living sustainably is a rewarding way to be and to act. According to the website, the film was even made locally to the film maker's Ottawa home base, and bus and bike directions are given to the film's premiere in Ottawa, this coming Friday, June 2oth. The trailer for the film is encouraging, not despairing, and fits well with what a bunch of bloggers have been talking about lately -- that people want to be part of something joyous and uplifting, not a movement that only talks about sacrifice, hardship and guilt.

Have you had a joyful moment related to sustainability recently? One that comes to mind for me was when I used my mesh produce bags at the grocery store and the teen-aged bag-person said, "Hey, that's cool." Tasting my home-grown kale in my noodle stir-fry yesterday was also pretty darn good!

A great day at the CSA!

It was another fair weather weekend, and this time I finally made it out to the CSA farm!

It was a Saturday perfect for onion planting, and by the end of the day I had helped in the planting of 4 thousand baby onions! There were four of us working on this task all day - Graham and Alison the farmers, along with myself and one other shareholder, Ben.

Our first task was to gently remove the baby onions from their greenhouse flats, separate them and shake off most of the soil mix (into a bin for reuse). Then we placed them in special trays lined with moistened burlap, to fend off the dry air made worse by the brisk wind. After this was done, the trays were mounted on the transplanting attachment, which is hooked up to the back of the small tractor.

As you can seen in the picture below, the transplanter is sort of like a paddle wheel. Each paddle consists of a soft rubber cup that firmly but gently grasps each individual onion and plants it, as the wheel goes around. Two people sit on the transplanter (you can seen the yellow seat backs there) and alternate placing the individual onions into the rubber cups as they come around. The onions are spaced out one every four inches, so the paddle wheel turns fairly quickly! After a while I got the hang of it, but not before planting a few onions upside down!

Afterwards, it was very rewarding to see all the neat rows of onion shoots lined up in the field, ready to be watered by the drip irrigation system. Ben, the other shareholder there that day commented aptly, "These onions are going to taste really good when we get them!" Yup, they sure are.


The farmers made the day very enjoyable, answering all of our questions and showing us how their organic operation works. Graham described how he lets some fields lie fallow in certain years, and how he uses green manures and nitrogen-fixing crops to keep the soil rich in nutrients. We were encouraged to look around, take breaks as we felt like it and reminded that "it's got to be fun." I sure had fun, and I wouldn't doubt it for a second if the baby onions knew it!

At the end of the day a reporter from Vue Weekly magazine came to the farm. She was doing an article for an upcoming 'food edition' of their magazine. She had already interviewed an agriculture professor, as well as people at the Peas On Earth Organic farm, and the proprietor of one of my favorite restaurants, Bacon. Among other things, the reporter asked if we thought that eating locally and organically was a trend with people we knew. I answered in the affirmative, but added that I see it as more than just a trend, that it will become just the way people eat, again. We talked a bit about how escalating fuel prices will be part of this, but also people's increasing interest in knowing what their food does, and does not, contain.

It was a great day at the CSA!

A letter to my elected representative: feedback requested

In response to Thich Nhat Hanh's encouragement to write 'love letters' to our politicians, to GWAG's advice to write to our elected representatives regularly as part of our civic duties, and in response to Greenpa's clarion call to take action with regard to the horrible practice of food profiteering, I've written a letter.

This is the first draft of the letter, and I would really like some feedback on it, if people have time. It is quite long, but I wanted to provide suggestions instead of just criticisms, and I also wanted to make sure that my passion and convictions were evident on a number of topics. The letter is addressed to my recently elected member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly, Jeff Johnson. It turns out that this guy has experience as a 'pit boss' in the futures trading industry. So he could either be the best person to send this letter to, or the worst one. But I'm sending him something one way or the other. And then I'll send copies to the Alberta Premier too, and to the Minister of the Environment again. And then I'll modify it to send to the Prime Minister and the Federal Environment minister, even though they blew me off last time.

So if you have time, please do check out the letter and leave a comment with any recommendations or suggestions.

Thanks!

We're going to the Earth Day Festival!

UPDATE: We're not going to the festival today, due to the amount of snow that fell overnight and the very poor road conditions. It's -10C right now, with windchill it's -19C. About six inches of snow has fallen. We're disappointed, but relieved not to have to go out into the snowstorm. Our tai chi instructor said that they won't be doing any demonstrations anyway, since they expect no one to be there except the vendors.
____________

April 22nd is designated as Earth Day around the world. In Edmonton this year, the Earth Day festival is being held today, and both Gord and I are going. Our tai chi club puts on a demonstration there, and we are going to participate in the mid-afternoon. It will be interesting, because it is supposed to snow some more again today. That will make for some chilly tai chi!

I went to this festival by myself last year because Gord was away, and I'm looking forward to going together this year so we can both look at all the neat displays and and listen to some live music. Last year I was still a bit of a chicken and didn't look at too many of the displays or ask many questions, but this year I plan on changing that. There was a solar hot water heater vendor there that I especially want to ask some questions of this year. Plus there is some really tasty food available from some local producers and restaurants that I would like to try. It's still Buy Nothing month though, so I won't be buying anything other than food while I'm there. We'll be bringing our own stainless steel water bottle, thermal mugs and cutlery too (specifically, our bamboo sporks), so we don't need to use any disposable cups or cutlery. I don't have any non-breakable plates to bring...hmmm, I do have some reusable plastic bowls though....

We will be taking public transit as much as we can as well. We still have to drive for about half an hour before getting to the light rail transit station, but from there we will take the LRT train to where it connects with the free diesel hybrid shuttle bus that will take us to the festival site itself, Hawrelak Park.

It should be a fun day!

A snowy day...

In contrast to last weekend's summer-like temperatures, this weekend we are getting a Spring snowstorm. It's not that bad where I live, but some areas of the province are getting 10-20 cms of snow. I'm grateful for it actually, because it has been a pretty dry Spring so far.

So I'm doing inside things today, which I don't mind a bit either. Some bread-baking, some soupstock-making, and some regular Saturday things like dusting, laundry and book-keeping. And some blogging of course!

This morning, while doing another one of my favorite things, reading, I came across two really interesting articles in the latest Westworld Magazine, which we receive as part of our AMA membership. The first was a short piece describing the work and life of The Urban Farmer, Ron Berezan - how neat for this local permaculture guru to exposure in this magazine! It seems as though words like 'permaculture,' 'locavore' and 'foodshed' are becoming more and more mainstream these days. What a great day it will be when these concepts reflect just the way things are, and when people just can't imagine treating the earth any other way than with respect.

The second article was a reminder that we still have a long way to go in this regard. The author of the article states,

"For me, as for many Albertans, the cumulative impact of this latest oil boom is only now lurching into focus, the rousing parade of economic numbers, buoyant immigration figures and housing starts slowly turning sour as familiar places become unrecognizable. Soon, one can’t help thinking, the archetypal Alberta land-scapes of bald prairie and foothills and rolling fields with patches of parkland bush will exist only in carefully cropped, soft-focus postcards. Meanwhile, one immediate consequence of the boom is the steady loss of Alberta’s agricultural land to residential and industrial development..."

The author goes on to report that despite the perception of Canada being a 'breadbasket' nation that exports a lot of food, it is actually a net importer of food if you take wheat out of the equation. Alberta actually imports 85% of its vegetables. All around the Edmonton area where I live, top grade top soil is being stripped off the land, and large subdivisions are being grown instead. Where farms used to stretch to the horizon, now I see closely clustered rooftops, surrounded by asphalt, with some tiny saplings planted in the depleted soil.

"Only five per cent of Canada is capable of producing food, and only 0.5 per cent of such land is Class 1 (characterized by ideal climate and soil quality), yet the loss of superior farmland is a countrywide phenomenon – from the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia to the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario to B.C.’s Okanagan and Fraser valleys. And it’s particularly significant in Alberta. In 1971, 1.5 per cent of Alberta’s Class 1 land was occupied by urban development; by 2001, the figure had jumped to 6.5 per cent, and has continued to increase since."

Only 6.3 % of Alberta's landmass is Class 1 farmland. So why do we keep scraping off and paving over the land that we need to grow food? One of the people the author interviewed for the article seems to have an answer:

“The land is a reflection of our whole attitude, and what it’s showing us these days is a complete lack of accountability. We have such powerful means to intervene in the world, to reshape it, yet we have no real sense of the long-term effects of any of our interventions. All the same, I remain eternally hopeful.”

Despite the snow outside today, I can still hear a robin singing merrily, as if the sky were blue, the leaves green and the worms abundant. I guess the robin is eternally hopeful too. I hope that it won't be long before the robin shares her vision with the rest of us.

A Decluttering Find

Last month I took a week off of work and did some enjoyable and relaxing things. One of the things I did was clean up my office a bit. I de-cluttered my shelving unit, and lo and behold, what do I find but my fountain pen!

I had been pining for a fountain pen for months, and had been looking around online for somewhere to buy a nice used pen. There were a couple of times where I almost ordered a pen, but I held back. I wanted to hold the pen in my hand and write with it before I bought it.

The funny thing is, when I saw this pen, which was sitting there in my pen holder pretty much out in the open, I remembered having this pen for years and years. But I stopped writing with it some time ago, sadly in favor of a disposable felt tip pen. I'm glad to have found my good old pen. I had to soak the top part in water overnight to dissolve an ink clog in there, but now it writes perfectly once again. So that's another bonus to de-cluttering: finding things you forgot you had, thereby preventing a 're-buying' episode.

Unfortunately, one of the first things I did with the pen was to record my two infractions to the buy-nothing challenge yesterday: buying a green tea latte and a lemon danish at the grocery store coffee shop before grocery shopping yesterday. I had the money out and the danish in my mouth before I realized what I was doing! So it's off to Crunchy's Sunday Confessional tomorrow...

Hooray for the CSA! - Part II

A few weeks ago I wrote with some excitement about having connected with a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm.

Yesterday Gord and I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Sparrow's Nest Organic Farm from whom we have purchased a share in this year's harvest. We met the owners and stewards of Sparrow's Nest Organics, Graham and Allison, whose enthusiasm and dedication to living a sustainable, earth-friendly lifestyle was evident right away!

We were welcomed warmly and invited to look around the 70 acre farm, eventually joining Allison and Graham back at the greenhouses. As you can see from the picture, it's still very early Spring here in northern-ish Alberta, but in about six more weeks the huge drip-irrigated fields you see behind the tractor will be seeded with all sorts of delicious vegetables!

We are one of about 40 shareholders in this year's harvest -- ours is a 'working share' where we are are welcome to work two 8-hour days on the farm in exchange for a partial refund of the share price. We plan on meeting, if not exceeding, this commitment and we will undoutedly learn so many things about gardening in a way that enriches the soil rather than depleting it. I'm confident we will be enriched by the experience as well!

Back at the greenhouses we were greeted by the happy sight of onion and leek seedlings poking out of an array of seed trays. One of the regular shareholders and friends of the farm was already there, carefully weeding the seed trays in the balmy environs of the first greenhouse. It was a treat to inhale the fecund aroma, and warm up a little on the chilly Spring day. My camera fogged up, but I managed to get one fuzzy picture of the little seedlings before my camera battery gave out. If you look closely, you can see the green haze of the seedlings poking out of the soil.

In the second greenhouse, Allison was transplanting heirloom tomato seedlings and Graham was installing an energy-efficient furnace. We spent an enjoyable and informative half hour asking questions and talking about things like the joys of eating locally, future plans for the farm, and the challenges of living sustainably, especially in a province where the top priorities are oil and cattle. As our conversation drew to a close, I noticed some flags fluttering outside the greenhouse, and Graham confirmed these were indeed Tibetan prayer flags, placed there last summer by another friend of the farm.

There is no more hopeful sight than a seedling poking up through the soil, toward the sun. We left Sparrow's Nest Farm feeling similarly hopeful and inspired, knowing that people, like seeds, also break out of their shell, look upwards and outwards, and face the world with awe, humility, optimism and determination to grow wherever they are planted.

A Few Good Things

Gord and I have been doing a few good things lately to lighten our footprint on the earth. We are by no means even close to what No Impact Man and his family are doing, and we have a long way to go before we even get close to what the Austerity Rioters have started, but we're doing not too bad in terms of Crunchy Chicken's Low Impact Week goals. Here are a few of our good things:

• Using our own cloth bags when we buy groceries.
• I'm using a Diva Cup.
  
• Unplugging as many of our appliances as we can when we're not using them (e.g., toaster, cell phone charger, rarely used lights, clock radios).
• Turning off one light if we turn another one on.
• Changing as many light bulbs as possible to CFLs - will change more when we can buy the proper sized bulbs for our other fixtures.
• Using a programmable thermostat and keeping the heat low overnight and when we are away (but not too low for Corky and Scooter).
  
• Line drying clothes occasionally - this has to become more frequent and I just have to get used to having some things be 'crunchy' when I put them on.
• Using cold water for washing all but the dirtiest clothes.
  
• Very recently starting our own garden (hee!)
• Buying produce from farmer's markets when possible (there is one every Wednesday when we go to Tai Chi, so that is very convenient).
• Using dishes and cutlery more than once before putting them in the dishwasher.
• Composting (we have done this for almost two years now).
• We recently bought a reel mower, but we're not too happy with it. We're not sure if we're just inept in our operation of it, or if it just doesn't work very well.
  
• Conserving water via low water usage appliances, low flow, toggle- equipped shower heads, low flow faucets and toilets. We made these changes when we first moved in here in 2003 because we are on a cistern water system and have to have our water trucked in.
• Planting trees - we bought two more little spruce trees to plant this week and will be planting 5 more aspen poplars in the Fall.
  
• Switching to BullFrog Power for all of our electricity. This is a new service to Alberta as of June 5th and should kick in soon on our bill.
  
• Hardly eating any meat - I'm lacto-ovo vegetarian and Gord eats meat maybe once a week, so we're doing pretty good there.
  
• Using recycled TP and paper towels, and trying to use these sparingly. I have yet to find a decent recycled facial tissue. I may have to stop using those.
  
• Taking my compostables home from work, like banana peels and cherry pits, to add to the composter when I get home.
• Choosing items with less wasteful packaging, and avoiding take-out products.
  
• Recycling virtually everything we can, from paper, to plastic, to glass, cans, cardboard, milk cartons, everything. We throw out very little -- most things can be composted or recycled.
  
• Trying to buy fewer things overall. This is hard in our consumption-driven society, but we are getting better at it, I think.
  

There are more things I would like to start doing, but they will become harder and harder and more expensive too:

• Installing a solar powered hot water heater.
• Getting some solar or manual powered lamps, a radio and some proper batteries for power storage.
• Replacing my CRT monitor with a flat panel version that uses less power.
• Using less gas/diesel - this will be hard since we live 50+ kms away from work, one way.
• Buying only local food and going without if it's not local (i.e., within 100 miles) .
• Putting fewer things in the refrigerator - some people unplug theirs entirely!
• Buying second hand items, including clothes. I'm reluctant to wear clothes that strangers have worn though, I don't know how to get over that.
• Getting and learning how to use a solar oven. They sell them at the Earth's General Store, but I've never really looked at them closely - I will rectify that!
  

Time to have a nice cup of tea, I think, and ponder the myriad things....