One Small Change: April 2010

It's a little late for this posting, but better late than never!

So, the change I committed to for March for Hip Mountain Mama's One Small Change challenge was to install and use an outdoor clothesline for at least some of my laundry in order to save the energy used with the electric dryer. Well....if you live in Colorado, you know that it was A VERY SNOWY MONTH! Like, seriously snowy. I feel like it snowed every day in March. Needless to say, it wasn't completely conducive to outdoor drying. I did get my new retractable clothesline installed and have used it a couple times. Sheets drying on the line weren't as picturesque as I'd envisioned.

Frankly, my clothesline isn't hung high enough for the sheet drying to be very functional. And Brian thought our bed smelled like dirt. That's probably because in my disorganization of hanging the sheets, they may have hit the dirt a couple times.

This is also going to be a tough change for me because I'm a working mama. Laundry doesn't always coincide with being home the next day. It's usually done when I'm out of underwear, on whichever night of the week that happens to be. Diapers, same thing. So, if I'm doing laundry at night, and I'm going to be at work for the next few days, it's tough to do the air drying thing.

But, I'm glad I've taken a step in the direction of using the sun for drying. I will continue to try to work at least one load of diapers a week around days when I'm home to dry them outdoors. And I think and hope that the snow is gone for the year, so that should help too. So, my one small change for April 2010, the last month of this challenge, is actually a very big change for our family. We're planting our first vegetable garden!! With the help of the neighborhood boys, we (well, I took on a more supervisory role), built this nice looking raised bed out of concrete blocks.

Before we could move any further we had to deal with Lake Peterson, which formed at the base of our yard, in front of the garden, as soon as it was built. After installing a modified french drain, we imported a wonderful mix of soil, compost, and sand this past Friday.
Sadie loved playing in the yard while we worked. And she even tasted the goods. Yum, dirt!

Now it's patiently waiting for its first seeds.

I've also started some seeds indoors and love coming home every afternoon to check and see if anything new has sprouted.

I can't wait! What a wonderful change for us. I'm so looking forward to being able to grow our own veggies this summer.