We went for several years without TV in our house. Having grown up with no electric, running water, or indoor toilets, this was not hard for me. I remember the best times of our lives playing games with my family. The new game Apples to Apples is a favorite (even of the members of our family who still have no electric). My cousin and I have laughed ourselves out of our chairs several times. We use a small electric lamp on a small table instead of the oil lamp. We also used to play “dictionary”. A specified person would spend a week combing the dictionaries for strange words. They would write the correct definition on a scrap of paper and leave the others blank or provide a made up definition. They would do this for about ten definitions or so. We would sit around trying to guess which was the correct definition. (before you accuse us of destroying trees, the scraps were the backs of paper that had already been used, and afterword they got recycled and turned into greeting cards, but I digress)
Milles Bournes is a great family game, or do as my cousin does and build your own board game. She uses the cardboard from cereal boxes for the materials. We used to play a game with guests called “tell me a story”. Living in the frozen north where it is dark for months, you cannot always provide sufficient light for games, so we would tell stories. Someone would pick a topic like: “the biggest trouble I got into as a child was…”
Little ones love this game because it bridges the generation gap. They realize that mum, dad, grandmum, grandpop, uncles, aunties, librarians, EVERYONE, got into mischief as a child. We sang songs together and even made up songs. My dad was a champ at giving old songs new lyrics-he was Wierd Al long before it was cool.
We have TV now that the kids are grown and I don’t always like it. We have TV free times in the mornings and specified evenings (in our case it is for meditation,scripture readings, and worship as well as family time)
I found the whole concept of a project called “no impact man” kind of strange, because my family has had very low impact for generations, and it seemed to me like just the way things are.
This post was submitted by Michelle Chamberlin.
Sustainable. Locavore. Environmental steward.
I’m all for it. Really. My blood runs green. It does.
I compost.
I raise heirloom plants.
I own a Prius.
But I could be so much better.
A friend and I went to see the movie, Fresh. Of course, after watching the film, I swore I would never eat mass-produced food again, I would patronize the local farmer, I would eradicate all of the bad choices I make on a daily basis and SAVE THE WORLD.
Then I went home, had a Diet Coke and an Oreo.
But I digress…
The thing is-I really thought my family was pretty eco-savy. But we’ve also become eco-lethargic. So my family and I have embarked on our own year-long experiment to reduce our carbon footprints while positively impacting our environment. We like to call our project: “No Impact Man-Lite.”
We’re attempting to make substantial, meaningful changes…a little bit at a time, focusing on practical tips other parents and families can implement to improve their relationship with the environment. I’m writing about our successes-and misses-at www.growingdays.blogspot.com
From eliminating my beloved Diet Coke cans to fostering biodiversity through my heirloom plant business to deprogramming our consumerist kiddos…we’re working to lower our impact-one day at a time.
This post was submitted by Julie Thompson-Adolf.
This year, by growing as much food as we can on our small city lot (including hens for eggs!), my partner and I reduced the number of trips to the grocery store, saved money, ate less meat, cooked great meals together, were darn proud of ourselves, and had fun doing it.
This post was submitted by Jen McIntyre.
We only get coffee if we have our own cup with us - no cup, no coffee. We only shop for food if we have our cloth bags. We save all the shower and bath water to flush the toilet, wash the floor, water the plants, and don’t shower daily. If we are buying cheese (from the market) we wrap it in a cloth napkin, we never need any kind of plastic. We compost food scraps, recycle all paper, tin, glass. Pick up from the street and collect number 5 plastic lids and collect other number 5 plastic from random places to take to whole foods for Preserve recycling. We pick up the menus that are delivered and send them back to the restaurant or recycle them. We try to get to all those free terrible coupons in plastic bags before the supers of the buildings on our blocks do (they just get tossed), and we recycle them, and use the plastic bags they come in for trash (the very little we have). We open carefully and re-use any envelopes that come in the mail. We shop from our local farmer’s market and are CSA members - eating locally and seasonally is much better for us and the planet. We ride our bikes everywhere, never take a cab. If we are going far, we’ll take the train. I bartend once a week and have a no-straws policy strictly in place. Most all of our clothes are hand-me-downs or second-hand/vintage, and we don’t throw any clothes in the dryer and only wash with cold water - to save energy and the life of our clothes. we use the library for books and movies. we have a strong unplug policy, always unplug phones, computers, the tv, all of it when not in use… um, i might be missing stuff but that’s where we are at and how we live. This is exciting to get to have a community sharing the No Impact Cleanse week in unison.
This post was submitted by Stig.
Cheap, easy and fun. Sexercise works by using the body, heart and mind in more ways than imaginable. Take your time, there is no rush. This is a ball in your court kinda workout. Try partner yoga, a brisk walk to get the blood flowing. Basically the idea is to use sexual activity not as a goal to finish quickly, but as a means to exercise your love for your partner, your creativity, and your body. Trying to extend love making for the both will help stimulate blood flow, heighten attention and lower blood pressure. The release of hormones alone will detoxify your body! Try it. Relax, enjoy and take your time. Plus, its on the cheap, doesn’t consume much and helps others while helping yourself!!
This post was submitted by Kevin.
5 years ago, I started walking and cycling to school with my kids. In the town where I live, people routinely drive their kids to school in vans, SUVs and station wagons on journeys of 2 miles or less, the most polluting. We’ve found this is great time to spend together. The kids arrive at school energized and at home at the end of the day decompressed. We’ve used the time to study spelling words, learn times tables and all the states and capitals. It’s saved me a gym membership - I walk 5 miles a day. It’s also saved us the $650 bus fee. Now my son is 11 and goes to middle school, he walks and rides by himself, giving him a great sense of independence and me a sense of freedom that I don’t have to play taxi.
On October 7th, I organized a walk to school day in celebration of International Walk to School Day for our elementary school. 150 kids walked that day, despite bad weather, about a quarter of the school population.
This post was submitted by Melissa Gough.
->Bicycle to work, weather permitting. Fun and invigorating.
->Usually climb 8 flights of stairs to reach office. More exhausting than bicycling.
->Recycle (city pick-up, no big deal)
->Eat vegetarian. No problem as long because I still have chocolate or sugar.
->Compost veggies. I don’t take it out because my husband refused to place the bin by the front steps like I wanted.
->Bought a CSA farm share. The squash, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes are great but I could do without some of the greens.
->Use fans instead of air conditioning. Requires several showers a day.
->Use cloth bags instead of plastic at the grocery store, when we remember
->Replaced our windows and insulated our house.
->Set the thermostat at 68, day and 65, night. Wear sweaters.
This post was submitted by Marcia Landa.
I was never a big fan of mowing so reducing the size of the lawn by making the gardens bigger was a no-brainer. Any landscape trees and shrubs that die I replace now with natives that produce fruits for birds and other animals (Paw Paw and Blueberry were my latest additions). I also try to use native, low water use flowering plants like Black-eyed Susans in the garden.
My daughter and I planted a butterfly garden this summer using native plants that attract caterpillars and butterflies. We’ve had fun with this project; watching the stages of their life from egg, larvae, chrysalis to butterfly. We’ve also worked on improving the wildlife habitat in our yard by thinking about the four wildlife needs (food, water, cover, and nesting areas). Above all else - we don’t use chemicals anymore. The quest for the perfect American lawn comes with a price (to the wallet and to the environment). And as I’ve come to find out - lawns are boring.
This post was submitted by Dave DeVault.
Within the city I cycle to work, to shops, everywhere I need (about 50 km/week). I use the car only on weekends, to reach with my family of four the house we have in the countryside. It is a smallish car, 9 years old, fuelled with LPG, and the only one we have.
This post was submitted by Vittorio Marletto.
Remember those old fashioned lawn mowers our grand parents used to use? I was surprised to see that these things are still being manufactured and sold at local hardware stores. So, I did some research and here’s what I found.
Pros:
-No Gas = zero emissions!
-A lot less noise. I can listen to my baby monitor or communicate with my wife while mowing.
-Just as easy to push as a standard push mower. Possible because reel mowers are much lighter.
-Much less maintenance than a standard mower.
Cons:
-Occasionally leaves a grass blades standing.
-Must clean yard of twigs and other debry before mowing. Generally a good idea anyways!
-Won’t mulch leaves as well as a standard mower.
Well, I decided to jump on the go-green band wagon and buy a 20″ Scotts Reel mower. I was initially surprised at how easy it was to push. It made a bit more noise than I wanted, but it is still much less than a motor running. The quality of cut is MUCH better and I’m guessing healthier for the grass. The one thing that I don’t like about the mower is how many blades of grass it leaves standing. I didn’t think it’d leave as many as it did, but it does. So, you can either live with it or mow those areas again. If I hadn’t gone back over those areas, I’d guess I’d have mowed the lawn in about 3/4 less time than I would have with my self-propelled mower. When I got done and looked back over my lawn, I was overcome with a feeling of happiness. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it was because I had gotten some exercise while not sucking in fumes. Or maybe it was because I was doing something good while not having do any measurable amount of extra work.
This post was submitted by Joe Kissell.