Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

Ooooh, now I see it! :laughtears

Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

This is a topic close to my family. We are about to embark on a new journey. We are selling everything we own, buying an RV & a piece of land. We'll live in the RV while building our own home. We're looking in to our county laws about construction materials. We're thinking an earthship, cob, straw bale or papercrete type of structure on the property but our main house will be lumber. We plan on using solar & wind power (which is plenty available where we live). We will have to truck in water but that's ok. We'll make sure to use it wisely. We're going to grow our own produce & raise animals for food, as well as for an income. Our plan is to also make an earth oven so most of our cooking can be done outside, weather permitting. We use a solar oven at times already & will continue.
We'll have a compost pile and plan on doing some earth worm growing, as the liquid that comes from their piles is great for gardens. We look forward to selling some of the worms some day but I'm thinking it'll be a while before we have enough to sell.

Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

Wow, you all are living my dh and my dream, lol!

We had gotten so far as to purchase property in SW CO but the cost of building/water rights/etc was prohibitive.

Awesome! Your plans are just about exactly what we had planned on doing! Only difference was that I actually considered living in a yurt there...but they don't have a very long lifespan(as far as I know).

I would totally like to live in a cob house(I think) but it would be difficult for me to build it. Dh is a printer and says we should do a papercrete home since he has a neverending supply of paper.

When we were first married, we went to a seminar thing that had a bunch of classes on all these topics. Wish I could go back and learn some more, but now we are across the country.

I could gab and gab on this forever, lol!

Can I live vicariously through you? :shifty

Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

We considered a Yurt but feel it's a bit too windy here for that. I know what you mean ... I could gab about this all the time too. The more I think about it the more excited I get. Yes, you can live vicariously through me. I'll post updates on my blog as often as possible. :)

Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

I've been looking into more ways too. I also find myself on the property committee of our church, and I am looking for ways to "green" our church too. Keep those ideas coming!

Trisha

P.S. We also started to take our own pyrex containers if we eat out.

Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

I really love when churches use fair-trade/Organic coffee. Equal Exchange has a program for churches. :tu

Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

Wow. This thread is really old, but it has been the most inspiring to me, so I wanted to post my list.
We:
~Use cloth everything: bags, towels, tp (well, I do, not hubby)
~clean w/ vinegar
~use an indoor clothesline
~use CFLs
~I've gone no 'poo (less packaging)
~buy more organic
~breastfeed (hehe... just me again! ;))
~try to cut down on meat
~drive a really fuel efficient car (it's not really safe to walk here)
~wash baggies to reuse
~use what I have instead of buying new
~flush less :bag
~use bar soap instead of bottled
~recycle cardboard and cans (that's all we can do here)
~reuse some cooking water to water plants (tomato and lettuce... which are not doing so well, btw, not because of the cooking water :shrug3)

I'm sure there are more, but that's all I've got for now. I'd love to be able to conserve electricity more, but that's a "someday" goal. Our apartment is SO energy inefficient.

Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

hmmm... i'm new to the forum, and love this thread... but I see that it's been almost 2 years since anyone's posted LOL....
but i'll add my stuff anyways :O

-we recycle everything
-use cloth everything (with almost 3 in diapers)! (tho DH refuses to use cloth TP)
-we compost
-raise free range chickens, and eat (and give away) the eggs
-garden during the summer
-make our own cleaners
-limit our meat consumption
-buy organic as often as we can/afford
-buy used as much as possible (you know, non food items :P~)
-buy locally when possible

Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

- cloth diapers
- free range eggs or our own depending on the time of year
- butcher and wrap our own meat
- starting a composter
Creating less waste is definitely something I'm thinking about lately and more ways to do it. :scratch

Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

- raising chickens for our own eggs and some meat
- saving up to purchase local grassfed beef
- starting a garden again this year
- food acraps go to the chickens
- cloth diaper
- cloth wipes
- mama cloth (when applicable... I'be only had seven AF since we got married almost five years ago)
- one-car family as much as possible (other than church, I leave the property MAYBE once a week)
- using bones and roasted carcasses to make stock and broth
- hand me down clothing
- going to thrift stores and garage sales for what isn't hand me down
- clothesline when weather permits

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Re: Treading lightly on the earth
 

This is such an awesome idea. We love fruit, and it is good for children to know how food gets to the table. When we move planting our fruit trees is the first line of business!