My bit for the environnent

Shredded paper mulch, we recently cleaned out our filing cabinet!

Some Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes i harvested yesterday

The kids patch next to the cubby.

I like to think myself a bit of a greeny, i'm definitely not a hard core greeny but there is certainly an aspect to my personality which wants to save the environment and be energy efficient. I believe we have been given the responsibility to look after God's world and that we should do our best to achieve this. So as i was pondering this, i thought it might be a good idea to analyse this and make some plans for future improvements i would like to make.

I sat down and wrote a list of the things i already did, and this list was long. But is still feel as though there is a lot more things i could be doing. There is also some things that i already do but could do a lot better. So here is my list of things that i want to do in the near future and some things that i am working towards:

Composting/recycling: We already recycle most things that can be recycled a through our council recycling. But I have been thinking and talking about doing some intensive composting. i have just inherited 3 half rain water tanks which i will use as compost bins. My plan is to compost everything organic. So getting a third bin for the kitchen (Rubbish, recycling, composting) and putting in it, all paper, cardboard, hair, fabric scraps, tissues, vaccum cleaner dust and of course food scraps.

Curtains and pelmets: We have ridiculous vertical blinds in most of our house, they are horrible. They don't keep out light or heat. We have bought roller blinds for most of our windows which helps to keep light and heat out but we would like to make thick, heavy curtains and pelmets for all of our windows to further their insulation properties. In an ideal world, we would also have double glazing but this would be very expensive.

Gas cooking: We currently have an electric stove/oven and my mum has a huge (6 burner) gas stove that she doesn't need for just herself. We have talked off and on about swapping the two but both houses would require plumbing and electrical work which costs money. But we should do it!

Getting door snakes/seals: i really notice the cold air coming in under the doors and i made some door snakes a few months ago to use, but i haven't finished them and now i've lost them.

Eating more vegetarian meals: There is no denying the health and environmental benefits of eating less meat. We currently eat 1-2 vegetarian meals a week, i would like to increase this to 5 and so we would become weekday vegetarians. Hubby is still coming around to this idea but as i find more delicious veg recipes, it is becoming more of a reality.

Grow more food: we already have a large garden but it wouldn't even account for 1/2 of our veg needs. I have always had a dream to grow all of our veggie needs and we are slowly working towards this. I have learnt a lot about gardening along the way and i really enjoy it, each year i am planting more and more and getting better at it.

The biggest and hardest thing for me at the moment is to consume less (not just food). A significant budget cut due to us buying some solar panels will help with this, but i need to reduce the amount of stuff that i buy. I am slowly changing my mindset about this and instead of just going out and buying something from Big W, i stop and think, can i make this, can i buy it from an op shop or can i borrow it. I still have a long way to go.