Sustainable Living
February 15th, 2008
I have the pleasure of serving the children this week with Jeff and Carol Morgan. Let me just say that these jokers do not mess around. You want to find out about how to create sustainable living for your own family, spend 1 hour with Jeff and Carol and you will be dreaming. I have been wanting to have an in-home kitchen composter for years now. I have done online research and havn’t really found what I thought would work for our family.
In about 5 minutes Jeff shared with me a cheap, simple and effective way of composting all kitchen waste. I can’t wait to start when we get home. I have been thinking through now for some time, how to begin developing sustainable living. How does a typical suburban family pull this off, practically? I don’t even own any land, except about 2 feet around 2 sides of our town home in a planned development. Can I do this with no land? Well, yes, and people all over the world with very little space are doing it and doing it well.
As Christians, it is something that we need to seriously look at. Recycling, using less consumable paper products like paper plates etc. are important issues that I don’t think most people think about. I guess it depends on your theology and your exposure to the rest of the world. Are we not as Christians to be renewing this world, as we wait for The Father to bring about total renewal? I tell you what, no one in Peru uses paper plates or paper towels. You even have to bring your own TP when you are out and about, and it isn’t necessarily a conservation thing it is a cost thing.
Anyway, my mind is churning with thoughts about this, but here is another helpful resource that may help you just start thinking. Jeff told me about ECHOa ministry in SW Florida that is fascinating. I plan to take the kids over for a homeschool field trip. I see earth boxes (homemade) or maybe square foot gardening in our homeschooling future. I may not live on a farm, but darn it I am going to have a garden.
Entry Filed under: Simple Faith, Homeschool
3 Comments
Add your own1. Emily C | February 16th, 2008 at 9:02 am
I use the sq ft gardening method and LOVE IT! I actually tried to change it to a “traditional” garden last season and saw how much more work and less productive it was! And btw would love you to share about the kitchen composting…though we have slightly more than you as far as land goes, I don’t want this huge smelly box in our yard, yet every time I get rid of my food waste (especially produce stuff), I know this could be easily composted…somehow….
My brother works with the Americorp groups all over the US and has made me far more aware of the importance of exactly what you mentioned; RIGHT ON! Currently trying to find balance between convenience and conservation…(I love my swiffer mop but the landfill probably doesn’t like it so much…)
2. admin | February 16th, 2008 at 10:06 am
EM!!!!! You Greenie form MN:-)So good to see you posting:-) Of all my friends of COURSE you would of done the SQ FT gardening.
OK - for the composter - get a 5 gallon bucket (with lid) from Home Deport and drill 8-12 1 inch holes around the bottom inch of the bucket near the base. Set in a larger tray, maybe like a plant tray to catch overflow water. Fill it half way with cow manure that you buy in bag form form Wal-mart and then add about 1,000 red wigglers (buy online or at a bait shop) and wet it down then set it out on your porch.
Everyday add everything from your kitchen, meat and paper napkins inculded. Just don’t add anything too salty. Keep it moist and you will find your waste gone almost by the next day. You will not believe what Jeff and Carol are doing with this down in Peru. It is AWESOME! Self-composting toilets for goodness sake! In about 4-6 months you will have home grown compost for your sq ft garden:-) I am going to do the square foot garden and last night I figured out how to do it in our courtyard. Jeff says one 4×4 sq ft garden will produce enough produce for one person. So you make a few for each person in your family and say good buy to organic prices at publix:-)
Bring the boys and come down for a day. We can build one together. Greenie-Chicks with power tools. Yeah baby!
Kisses to the boys and Matt!
3. truevyne | February 17th, 2008 at 10:28 am
We give all our kitchen scraps to our grateful chickens. In turn, they reward us with some great fertilizer.
A friend called and asked me to bring her some chicken poop for her garden when I visited for a crafting party. Buck helped me obliged by shoveling out the chicken coop into a chicken feed bag and putting it in the back of the van. On the bag he wrote the word “recycled” in big black letters over top of the words “chicken feed” already printed on the bag.
Last night, we saw her and my husband mentioned giving her “a whole lot of crap lately.”
Oh, dear!
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