Envious of those able to be green, that is. I like “being green”. You know, environmentally conscious? But has anyone noticed that it’s a lot easier to be green in a city? Ironic, isn’t it, how the further removed from nature you get by moving to a concrete city that the easier it is to be green in your choices? I live in the middle of nature here, but it’s awfully hard to be green when there’s no mass transportation (and it’s too frickin’ cold to walk - hello, the wind chill is -48 right now… what in mother earth’s ass am I doing walking even two blocks to work? I’m gonna freeze my skin black walking back home in the morning if this wind doesn’t die down!), no recycling whatsoever (even for newspapers or cans), no organic anything, the “farmer’s market” is mostly a joke, (and only open for about 2 hours, one day a week, for 2 months, usually while I’m sleeping, thank you very much for this job), and you have to travel 60-90 miles ONE WAY to buy essential supplies like… underwear. Everything is shipped in from billions of miles away. Buying ‘local’ is a joke on most things. I consider “made in Montana” about as local as I can get, and frankly, there just isn’t a whole lot that’s locally available.

My house is not really my own - I rent it from my parents. I can’t make changes to it to greenify it for two reasons: a) uh, it’s not mine, hello, and b) I am just not that rich. It’s all electric everything, meaning, it’s an electricity HOG. It’s poorly insulated. The toilet-that-ran-for-months was finally fixed after my mother gasped at the $80 water bill - something I’d asked my father to do many times (it’s not exactly a normal floating ball toilet, okay? It’s weird. I didn’t know how to do it.)

I’m trying to greenify my life a little, nonetheless. My car gets good gas mileage, and I don’t go very many places, really. I fill up maybe twice a month on average. I’ve purchased a couple canvas bags and use them not only for groceries at the local store, but to tote things around in everywhere. I just purchased a $20 aluminum water bottle to spare me from constantly buying single-use beverages to pack to work, where the water is pretty well undrinkable. That’ll save money and reduce garbage.

I use cloth pads. When I started this cloth pad venture a couple years back, I never thought I’d like them as much as I do. I can’t imagine going back to spending $10-$15 a month on bleached, chemical-drenched feminine hygiene products when cloth is cheaper, reusable, and far, far more comfortable. I just need to make more of them. My stash is a bit small. *lol*

I’ve been freezing more of my leftovers for later, instead of just throwing them out. Reducing waste there, and in buying more things in bulk, and things with less packaging (read: fresh food, not processed food) helps considerably - and I eat better, too.

I use paper towels only for messy jobs - cat vomit, for instance - and for cleaning up kitchen spills. Never for wiping my hands after I’ve washed them. (I’ve yet to break friends of this habit, despite the ever-present hanging towels and reminders.) I intend to buy a few packs of cloth napkins to cut down on paper towel usage there, too, but I’m afraid I’d need quite a few of them.

I’ve been slowly transferring my cleaning to natural products. I like (and use) Method’s products, which are nice, but expensive, and available only at ONE store, in a city I rarely get to… so I do plenty of cleaning with baking soda and vinegar - this, by the way, makes a nice, nontoxic toilet cleaner, but does use QUITE a lot of vinegar.

I’d like to do a bit more of that this year. I’d love to start a compost pile - especially with the chickens - but I don’t have the resources right now, and more, I may be moving into an apartment in late August (in a city, heh) and may not have any good use for compost anyway. Hmm. With any luck, I’ll find a way to get a house, rather than an apartment, though!

And moving, you ask? Why yes. This year, with my credit card debt 100% eliminated, and my car very nearly paid off, I’m headed back to school. And that’s another thing the city has that this beautiful little rural, close-to-nature town just doesn’t: opportunity.

2 Comments »

1. *smiling at you*

   Comment by amber — January 20, 2008 @ 8:34 am

2. I can relate! We have a place to recycle aluminum cans, but no other opportunity to recycle. My husband goes through a LOT of 2 litre bottles of soda and it kind of disgusts me to just throw them in the garbage. I’ve been trying to be more conscious, but you’re right, it’s hard in more rural areas.

   Comment by Christine — January 20, 2008 @ 5:47 pm

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