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.

One Small Change: March 2010

For February's One Small Change challenge, I made a commitment to make small changes to the energy usage in our home.

I continued to keep our thermostat at a reasonable 67 degrees, and although I was FREEZING in my home a lot of the time, it made me feel good that I was making a difference in my energy consumption (and possibly my utility bill). I'd pile on a few more layers, warm up my rice pad, and curl up under a blanket. Sadie doesn't seem to mind, so I figure I should get over being a bit chilly.

Actually, as I looked over the past few month's natural gas bills, I found that my average daily usage decreased about 14% during the month of January (when we first turned the thermostat down) from the same period during December. Yeah!!!

I also found myself becoming much more conscious about turning off lights that weren't being used. I've always liked having lots of light in a home as the sun sets and into the evening. It has always made things seem a bit more cozy to me. This month though, every time I left a room, I'd turn its light off. I lit candles if I was needing that cozy vibe.

I also worked on addressing the "vampire" power use in our home. Vampire power is the energy that small appliances use when they are plugged in, even if they are turned off. This month I always unplugged the coffee maker, coffee grinder, two cell phone chargers, and overhead cabinet lighting when not in use.

Good habits to continue to work on and to teach Sadie as she gets older!

For March's One Small Change, I've finally gotten around to purchasing a retractable clothesline for our backyard. It should be arriving soon, and as the days get longer, lighter, and warmer, I'm so excited to start air-drying some clothes and Sadie's cloth diapers. Drying cloth diapers in the sun is better for them anyway...it removes stains and keeps them soft. Hope I don't have to fight with the Homeowners Association here in my suburban neighborhood too much!

One Small Change: February 2010

In January, as part of Hip Mountain Mama's One Small Change challenge, I made a commitment to bring more cloth into our daily lives and subsequently reduce the amount of paper and plastic products that we use and therefore throw away. I happily continued using my reusable grocery bags, lunch bag, and coffee cup.

I bought some reusable produce bags from Qwerty O on etsy.com. I love these bags! I think the clerks at the grocery store are somewhat annoyed (because I end up putting more than one type of produce in a bag together), but I've been really happy with the change.

Although I always used to save my plastic grocery bags when I still used them, I'll admit that I never saved the produce bags, which meant they went right in the trash. What an easy and important change to make!

We also used cloth napkins all month, and we will definitely keep up this habit! It was fun to go to my local thrift store and choose a fun and funky assortment of cloth napkins. We usually use them for a few days and then put them in the wash.

I actually didn't buy or use a single paper towel all month! (which wasn't really part of the plan...but it just ended up that way) The only time I felt the need to have a paper towel around was when heating food up in the microwave (to minimize splatter, you know), but I ended up either using a plate to cover the bowl being heated, or just let a little splatter happen.

I also purchased some cloth sandwich bags from Qwerty O's Etsy shop. It was great to buy them from this shop because they're actually sewn by her daughter who is saving all the money she makes from their sale for college!

So, I didn't actually use these great bags this month...but that's not because I was using plastic instead. I just don't really use baggies that often, and lately have been taking salads for lunch, which I don't need the bags for. But I'm happy to know that I have them to use instead of plastic baggies.

Overall, I am very pleased with the small changes we made in January.

So, for February, I'm turning towards our energy use. Actually, in January (without planning to), we turned our thermostat down three to four degrees. When Sadie slept over at her Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's house at the beginning of the month, the room she stayed in was much cooler than her room at home. And she slept through the night for the first time in months! So, we immediately turned our home's temperature to a more reasonable 66 degrees (from my preferred 69/70 degrees) and we've kept it there all month (I'll admit it's because Sadie has continued sleeping through the night and I'm convinced that's part of the reason...poor thing was just too hot!).

So...along these lines, I'd like to continue making small changes that will affect our household energy use. I plan to be more conscious about turning off lights that aren't being used. I also want to start evaluating the "vampire" power use in our home. Vampire power is the energy that small appliances use when they are plugged in, even if they are turned off. Studies have shown that this energy can account for around 10% of residential energy consumption! The easy ones to start with will be cell phone chargers, microwave, computers, and hairdryer.

I look forward to making this one small change in February!

One Small Change: January 2010

There are a lot of blogs out there that I stumble across as I wander around the internet. Many of them are written by like-minded mamas who inspire me every day as I work to make lifestyle changes, make responsible decisions as a consumer, and raise my daughter in a conscious, natural way. I came across Suzy's blog over a year ago when we met through the Widespread Panic group on Ravelry, a social networking site for knitters. Susy lives in Colorado and goes to a lot of the same concerts and festivals that we do. Although we've talked about it a lot, we have yet to meet in person...but I'm always on the lookout for her and her knitting when I'm at Red Rocks or at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch.

Suzy owns a business called Hip Mountain Mama which sells wonderful environmentally friendly products for natural families. I was so pleased to be able to purchase some of my christmas presents from her this year.

In December I learned about a new challenge that Suzy is embarking on, and she's welcomed her blog readers to join her. The idea behind One Small Change, in Suzy's words:

"We are passionate about educating others about sustainability and passionate about building community. Our desire to create a community of individuals who want to make a positive change has led to the creation of our One Small Change project. We want to challenge each of you to make 1 change each month leading up to Earth Day (April 22, 2010). It can be small or it can be huge, but all we ask is that you decide on something you will do to make a positive green impact and follow through with it. If everyone makes 4 changes between January and April, this can have a huge effect."

Suzy now has 150 people signed up to take part in this challenge and has created a page where you can see what changes other families are making here.

I was really proud of us when I realized that many of the ideas Suzy offers for this challenge are already a part of our household: recycling, cloth diapering, making your own natural cleaning products, bringing your own bags to the store, using rags instead of paper towels to clean up messes, and using reusable lunch sacks...

However, there were several things on Suzy's list, and ideas that I gained from other bloggers who are taking part in this challenge, that inspired me to start making small changes as part of this challenge.

So, here goes...January 2010: One Small Change in the Peterson household

MORE CLOTH!

As I've blogged about before here, cloth diapering has been wonderful for us...we're so pleased with it. In light of that, I'm hoping to bring more cloth use into our household. Specifically, by using cloth napkins, cloth/reusable ziplocs, and cloth produce bags.

I'll write about our progress and February's change next month. Until then....what changes will you make in 2010?