Sunday, April 30, 2006

My weekend

Weekend was great, really good weather. Got up early on Saturday and hike up to Devil's Marble Yard, and was done before anyone else was there. Though my body is tired, I'm ready for the next trip. Of course I don't think I can convince my wife to let me go again next weekend, the weekend after that is Mother's Day. So we'll see. She, her mom, and the baby went to the celtic festival, so it gave me an excuse to slip away.
I thinned out the lettuce a bit, most likely I'll have to thin more but I'm taking baby steps on the garden.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Excited for the weekend

Saturday's weather is looking great for going hiking. My friend Sam has never been to Devil's Marble Yard, so we decided to do a good day hike on Saturday. I dusted off my old climbing shoes just case I get the urge to traverse anything. I haven't bouldered for about seven years, but I have been eyeing boulders in the hills of Amherst while I'm driving all winter long. I need to pick up a small pack since the only backpack I have is huge pack I have for week long trips. I'm excited, hope it doesn't rain.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Difficult outlook on future

It is difficult to find information out on the web that covers the topic of living more simple. Most of the stuff I am finding is the extreme far aspect of the topic. Nothing that really has baby steps from living your life now and what things you can do to be more responsible. The idea did cross my mind to take on the task myself, but I know that is more than I can handle right now. But some of the things I have been doing to help are the following. Conserving gasoline when I drive, by not accelerating as fast as my car can go off the stop light. Recylcing cardboard and plastic bottles, my city doesn't take glass anymore. I'm putting food waste in a compost pile so that my kitchen trash doesn't stink as fast and it doesn't take up so much room in the outside trash can. When my bath soap runs out, I'll switch back to the plain old Irish soap bar instead of the liquid in a bottle. The bar is cheaper and when I'm done I don't have a big bottle for the trash, (think it last longer too). I have also been looking at labels to see if the products I buy are made in the US.
So you can see it isn't much but it is a start.

Struggling to fine resources

It is difficult to find information out on the web that covers the topic of living more simple. Most of the stuff I am finding is the extreme far aspect of the topic. Nothing that really has baby steps from living your life now and what things you can do to be more responsible. The idea did cross my mind to take on the task myself, but I know that is more than I can handle right now. But some of the things I have been doing to help are the following. Conserving gasoline when I drive, by not accelerating as fast as my car can go off the stop light. Recylcing cardboard and plastic bottles, my city doesn't take glass anymore. I'm putting food waste in a compost pile so that my kitchen trash doesn't stink as fast and it doesn't take up so much room in the outside trash can. When my bath soap runs out, I'll switch back to the plain old Irish soap bar instead of the liquid in a bottle. The bar is cheaper and when I'm done I don't have a big bottle for the trash, (think it last longer too). I have also been looking at labels to see if the products I buy are made in the US.
So you can see it isn't much but it is a start.

Struggling to fine resources

It is difficult to find information out on the web that covers the topic of living more simple. Most of the stuff I am finding is the extreme far aspect of the topic. Nothing that really has baby steps from living your life now and what things you can do to be more responsible. The idea did cross my mind to take on the task myself, but I know that is more than I can handle right now. But some of the things I have been doing to help are the following. Conserving gasoline when I drive, by not accelerating as fast as my car can go off the stop light. Recylcing cardboard and plastic bottles, my city doesn't take glass anymore. I'm putting food waste in a compost pile so that my kitchen trash doesn't stink as fast and it doesn't take up so much room in the outside trash can. When my bath soap runs out, I'll switch back to the plain old Irish soap bar instead of the liquid in a bottle. The bar is cheaper and when I'm done I don't have a big bottle for the trash, (think it last longer too). I have also been looking at labels to see if the products I buy are made in the US.
So you can see it isn't much but it is a start.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

What I did on this Saturday

Figure I type out what I did today. 9:00 am got out of bed and ate some Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal. Got dress and took out the kitchen trash and baby's diaper trash. 10:00 pull out spare bike to put air in the tires and check gears and brakes. Also put on bike rack and loaded both bikes. 11:00 (ish) pick up friend to go riding for a bit. 12:15 Cleaned bikes and put them up. Ate some lunch (Baked Spagetti leftover and flatbread). 1:00 (ish) showered and hung out with son. 2:00 (ish) ran errands with the family, bought some supplies. 4:00 returned home to allow my wife to feed the baby. 5:00 went out to eat Mexican with family. Picked up a movie on the way back (Jarhead). 6:30 (ish) watched movie. 8:30 (ish) got ready for bed. 9:00 fired up laptop to read news and post some blogs. 11:00 posted this blog and fell asleep...

Garden: Entry 5 (oops)

I noticed yesterday that one row of lettuce is really close to the row of lima beans. Don't think it will like that as they start coming in. So I'm force to take drastic measures, going to have to yank out the row of lettuce. I think I can do that without damaging too much of the lima beans. I need to thin out the other row of lettuce since it is all too thick, too many seeds actually sprouted. Also in my yard I noticed that a lot of the acorns actually sprouted and start growing mini-trees all over my yard. First time that has happen in the fourth spring in my house. Tomorrow I'll be pulling up mini-oak trees for most of the day.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Trucking Along

Well I am continuing to follow along this path of simplicity. Currently things are going good. I went through my closet and pull out enough clothes to fill a box for Goodwill. I think I could fill another box if I try hard enough. I did replenish my closet a little bit, bought four shirts from a store that sells discontinued items. I also pick me up a used banjo, (one of those items of must do before I die list), I'm pretty impress that I have learn so much in two days. My wife picked up some Humus and we ate flat bread and lettuce today for lunch. Tomorrow I visit with family so it will be interesting if any topics come up that deal with a person's responsibility to this world. (Like boycotting Wal-Mart).

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Shopping Responsibilty

I attended a panel discussion titled "Wal-Mart: The high cost of low cost" It was very eye opening and confirming for some notions that I already had about the mega store. I'm still digesting a lot of the information, so it is too soon for me even to tell you what I really think. But in short, there are many points for why companies like Wal-Mart really hurt people. Besides the raping of global resources around the world, there is the fact that they don't pay their employees squat so most have to get government assistance. So I have been shopping locally since the money I spend will typically stay in my local economy. Why should I save three dollars to buy a book of Amazon only to have all my money go elsewhere. When I can get the same book (faster) have over half the money stay in my local area. Sorry this post is scattered and I'm not expressing myself accurately.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Garden: Entry 4 - Bugs

Bugs, bugs, bugs. Well I was working in my garden today, actually expanding to another section of 3' by 5', and the gnats were all over me. I had forgotten what it was like to have a swarm of bugs annoy the heck out of me. I also found a bunch little white grub bugs in the dirt, not sure if that is a bad sign of things to come. I did take a shower this morning so maybe they were attracted to that.
My neighbor gave me a few peanuts to grow, looking foward to see if I can eat a little handful of peanuts that I grew myself. Some of my lettuce has started to sprout up, I need to hurry up and plant some more types of lettuce and spinnach, so I can have a good variety of food. I'll plant a few tomatoes maybe this weekend for my wife. I still want to have potatoes, but I haven't really look into doing that.