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Chicken lady
4-22-18, 7:20am
I am in a mental place where this feels more solemn than celebratory this year. So if you are doing something to celebrate, or if you are making an environmentally positive change, or if you want ideas for positive change, please post!

dh and I will be planting trees.

dado potato
4-22-18, 7:57am
Planting trees is truly solid.

I am continuing with raising 2 batches of sprouts at a time. I seem to have best results with fenugreek, pea (I get a pound bag of dry green peas at the grocery store), and daikon radish. But I vary that with kamut, clover, alfalfa, mung beans, hulled rye, & broccoli... Most of my sprouts are consumed in salads or sandwiches. If I were to do a teach-in module on sprouting, I would point out: significantly less packaging, living-fresh salad greens with significantly less diesel/reefer transportation, raising food at home cuts down on trips to a grocer. The sprouting seeds can be obtained from certified organic sources. Since the consumer is in charge of growing the sprouts, and they are ready in only a few days, there should be no trace of herbicide, pesticide, or fertilizer chemicals in the product.

Yppej
4-22-18, 8:10am
This past year I've given up plastic water bottles and started adding organic products into my diet. I also have fuzzy plans of each vacation going forward visiting someplace closer to home, but one relative in Florida may throw that off. I definitely plan to stay east of the Mississippi though.

iris lilies
4-22-18, 8:43am
You know, I have nothing really against planting trees IF they are correctly sited and then cared for judiciously.

DH just planted part of his orchard at the bottom of our hill and he claims these trees will not grow tall enough to block our view. In fact, they may enhance the view by providing a vista of tree tops that we look over to see the distant church spires and hills. We shall see. I told him that if they geow too tall, we will be topping them.

But—and you all knew there was a “but” coming— most people do not choose correct trees for the site, do not consider the impact of them on nearby plants and structures, and do not take care of them. I could list a bunch of trees that are currently giving me fits. Trees, The Enemy.

ApatheticNoMore
4-22-18, 8:53am
I also have fuzzy plans of each vacation going forward visiting someplace closer to home, but one relative in Florida may throw that off. I definitely plan to stay east of the Mississippi though.

does distance matter so much as means of transportation? Flying anywhere versus say Amtrak or Greyhound bus or something across the country ...

(truthfully I haven't taken a vacation out of California in some 6 plus years, but that's as much I seldom have very many vacation days and use them as days off here and there than that is a conscious choice)

Yppej
4-22-18, 9:00am
My mode will be car going forward. I do not enjoy flying, and would not like the close quarters of a bus for the same reason. I took Amtrak once and was just sitting on the tracks for literally hours as we waited for freight trains to go by since they had priority over passenger trains. If the US had better rail service I would use it for some trips. It also doesn't go to many places, and car rental is not cheap once you get to the nearest terminal and have many miles to go.

Chicken lady
4-22-18, 9:15am
My trees came from the soil and water conservation district. They are native and selected for the locations we wish to tree.

Tammy
4-22-18, 9:33am
Solar panels were installed on our roof this winter and now are making more electricity than we are using. Even in hot PHX where we use AC 9 months of the year.

5 trees planted since this fall on our previously vacant lot. Carefully researched and chosen and cared for by my almost-OCD husband. Iris lilies would be proud.

catherine
4-22-18, 9:38am
For Earth Day, I could go and volunteer at any number of events in my area, but to be honest, I'll be doing the greatest service to the community by just cleaning up my own yard and gardens today. They really need it.

Zoe Girl
4-22-18, 10:19am
I believe my tax return is in, and I want to see if there is room in the nature based retreat I want to go on in July. The rest of it, I do a lot of already. I have a reusable grocery bag almost 30 years old! I just keep washing it, replaced the handles, etc. I feel wasteful however preparing to move and all the stuff that goes into the trash or goodwill.

Gardnr
4-22-18, 11:21am
I'll be spending my time in my own gardens. Cleaning up all the beds (only got 1/4 done yesterday), spreading my beautiful homemade compost over those beds in preparation for June 1 planting and starting my veggie seeds in the greenhouse. I finished my transplanting yesterday.

I've long been a low consumer of plastic and an avid recycler of what I do consume. Alas, some products leave us no choice such as fruit and veggies in clamshells that are no recyclable. It breaks my heart to start throwing these in the garbage.

Chicken lady
4-22-18, 12:27pm
Has anyone used biodegradable marking tape? This plastic stuff is upsetting me. The biodegradable stuff says it completely breaks down in 6-24 months, and 6 months is too fast. I guess I could make a point to walk around and replace it every few months.....

Zoe Girl
4-22-18, 5:02pm
What are you marking Chicken Lady? Does it have to be tape?

Chicken lady
4-22-18, 5:07pm
We are clearing out non native invasive and poison ivy and replanting with native understory trees. We are also marking native trees we find in the process. Dh brush hogs everywhere else to keep things under control, so trees must be gaily festooned with streamers to avoid certain death.

no metal or glass, because he doesn’t want to die because he messed up.

edited to add - we are talking hundreds of trees.

Rogar
4-22-18, 8:58pm
Hung laundry on the line, planted spring green seeds, didn’t drive and ate vegetarian. Nothing super special but my carbon footprint was probably a lot smaller than Al Gore's Earth Day.

Zoe Girl
4-22-18, 10:23pm
edited to add - we are talking hundreds of trees.

Oh that makes sense. I was thinking yarn but I think it would be too thin to really show off the marked trees. It would be waaaayyyy too much to yarn bomb the entire thing

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/yarn-bombing-graffiti

Baldilocks
4-23-18, 4:19am
I kind of started this last year. I will be going car lite. I am blessed to be within 2 miles of my Job, church, 4 stores, the bank and a library. Pending weather and the need to haul something big, I will take my bike instead. Last year I biked to work up until December 20th, when I took time off for the holidays. In January we had snowmageddon, so I was slow starting up again. Unfortunately the alternative is my truck that gets 12 mpg.

dado potato
4-23-18, 9:04am
Baldilocks,

I use my bike for various errands, and as my RV. (There are great daytrips I can take on my bike from my doorstep.) In the Northern Highland of Wisconsin the bicycle season is limited.

Stay visible, my friend!

Float On
4-23-18, 10:07am
I believe my tax return is in, and I want to see if there is room in the nature based retreat I want to go on in July. The rest of it, I do a lot of already. I have a reusable grocery bag almost 30 years old! I just keep washing it, replaced the handles, etc. I feel wasteful however preparing to move and all the stuff that goes into the trash or goodwill.

Hey, congratulations! This is a pretty big deal for you isn't it? I seem to remember a few years where you really struggled with filing your taxes. That says a lot about how you are handling all the job stress and to be motivated to file. I just wanted to acknowledge that!

Float On
4-23-18, 10:13am
We weren't very ecological on Earth Day. We actually decided to go for a drive down into Arkansas. Northwest of Harrison it has a very "highlands" feel to it. Deep ravines, lots of spring-fed water creeks, long range views of Boston mountains, the peak of dogwood season, lush green grasses. We ate out and put 100 miles on the truck.

Zoe Girl
4-23-18, 1:16pm
Hey, congratulations! This is a pretty big deal for you isn't it? I seem to remember a few years where you really struggled with filing your taxes. That says a lot about how you are handling all the job stress and to be motivated to file. I just wanted to acknowledge that!

Thank you, it means so much. I am getting better I think, slowly. My temporary counselor was pretty clear that I need to keep up with counseling to keep up the progress. Hopefully they will see the change at work since my review is due very soon.

Chicken lady
4-24-18, 6:28am
I think working on your own land is just as earth friendly as joining a public project. Probably more, because you don’t drive.

Zoe girl, hopefully many of the things you send to goodwill will find new homes and the people buying them will avoid packaging and increasing the demand for new products.

Thank you you for the ideas that made me think. I am going to get some seeds for sprouting. I remembered how much I like alfalfa sprouts on my sandwiches - yummy, fresh, healthy, and more environmentally friendly than lettuce grown with too much water in a water insecure location and transported halfway across the country.

mschrisgo2
4-24-18, 11:38pm
On Earth Day, I hitched a ride in a carpool to go help clean up part of the river I live on. The high water the last 2 winters has washed soooo much trash down stream. We're only 4 miles from the mouth of the river, so it's really good to catch it here. I ended up feeling really disappointed in my fellow humans though- to let all this mess happen in the first place. Awful!

Baldilocks
4-25-18, 5:08am
Baldilocks,

I use my bike for various errands, and as my RV. (There are great daytrips I can take on my bike from my doorstep.) In the Northern Highland of Wisconsin the bicycle season is limited.

Stay visible, my friend! You as well. I'm all about lights, mirrors and highly visible clothing. Especially when it's raining or snowing. :laff:

Teacher Terry
4-25-18, 11:54am
We went to our local earth day event. It was huge and tons of people. We bought a wind chime made out of old wine bottles for our patio. We had a great time talking to people and the food was good. It was a perfect day to be outside and we took one of our dogs.

Rogar
4-25-18, 12:27pm
I do some bike commuting and am lucky enough to have a bike and walking path a few blocks from the house. I can do a lot of shopping and errands by bike. The city even plows it in the winter.

Another vote for staying visible. I have a front light that I leave on flashing mode on the trail. I've had a few close calls with other bicyclists who this they are in the tour de France. One was almost a head-on with a cyclist who was texting while biking of all things!