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Here we are, it’s been 30 days! I haven’t posted in a while so I have a LOT to fill you in on, bear with me.
Let me start with last weekend, Fake Patty’s Day!!! It was a really long day. I was up from about 8:30 to 3:30 and spent a solid 10 hours in Aggieville, but not just partying…recycling! For the first time, Students for Environmental Action (of which I’m vice president, let me know if you want to get involved!) took on the challenge of recycling at the bars on Fake Patty’s Day. We had bins in about 21 of the bars that were supposed to be used just for aluminum, glass, and #1 plastic, but of course many of them just filled up with mainly non-recyclable plastic cups or were hardly used at all. Because of this, we spent a lot of time taking recyclables out of the trash cans in bars and putting them into our bins. We collected a lot of green aluminum beer bottles and glass that way, but the real jackpot came from dumpster diving! It was far more time-efficient to avoid the packed bars and just take our bins to dumpsters and sort through the endless supply of cans, bottles, and cardboard. We ended up recycling 278 lbs of Cardboard, 59 lbs of #1 plastic, 1052 lbs of glass, and 579 lbs of aluminum. The aluminum alone brought $318.45 to campus. It was definitely a very successful first time and also really fun since we had so many people helping out!
My last two days of silence haven’t been perfect. I didn’t have too much trouble staying off the computer, which is surprising since I usually spend a ton of time on the internet. I did however use my phone each time, but for semi-necessary reasons. If I would have been really good about making plans the day before I might have been able to avoid it, but I didn’t want to burdensome on others and make them set things in stone the day before when they didn’t know what time they’d be doing things…(I’m just making excuses) Our society isn’t good at planning, but I don’t know if that’s completely a bad thing. I think this exercise has really decreased my dependence on computers. I no longer immediately open up my computer upon arriving home to check my email even though I probably checked it within the past hour, and I think I probably spend less time on Facebook, but not by a lot. I don’t plan on doing regular days of silence anymore, but I really do want to become less attached to electronic devices, as well as all material possessions in general. Maybe I’ll set certain hours when I can’t use a computer, or make a rule that I can only get on a computer if it is to do something “important”.
My nature meditations have been going very well. At first I had to make myself go out and do it, but as I started to get used to it and like it, and the weather has gotten warmer, it’s been easy to go out and experience nature most days, or at least lay in the yard. This has been a great stress-reducer and I plan on continuing it for sure!
In the last two weeks, I’ve taken three showers, two the first week and just one this past week. I can really tell that my body has been adapting to my decreased shower frequency. For example, my skin and hair are less greasy after three days without a shower now than if I went three days without one a month ago. Going three or four days without a shower has become pretty easy for me, but going a full week is a long time! In this last week I’ve started taking sponge-baths: hitting the key areas and washing my hair. This is a great water saving tactic, and will get you basically just as clean as a full on shower at a fraction of the water use. I estimated using three gallons for a sponge-bath compared to 25-50 gallons for a shower. I’m not planning on only showering once a week, but I’ll try to limit my showers to twice a week and supplement my hygiene with sponge-baths as needed.
I did some calculations to figure out how much water I saved this month. By taking 10 showers instead of 30, I saved 500 gallons of water. For about a week, I kept track of how many times I used the bathroom and didn’t flush the toilet. My average was about 8, multiplying that by 3.5 gallons per flush and 30 days, I saved 840 gallons of water just by letting my yellow mellow. That’s a total of 1340 gallons of water saved this month by doing/not doing these two things! This may sound like a lot, and it is, but when you look at how much water it takes to produce various things and foods it doesn’t look like much. You can save the same amount water just by not eating half a pound of beef (2500-5000 gallons of water per pound), as long as you don’t replace it with chocolate (2847 gallons/lb)!
Most people (myself included) don’t realize how much water and energy go into the things we buy. People can save a lot more water and energy by changing their diet and lowering their consumption than by directly cutting water and energy use. In general, it takes far more water and resources to produce animal products than plant foods. Here are some staggering statistics from the book “Diet For A New America” that will make you think twice about eating meat, even if it’s local and organic.
My quest to be vegan and eat more organic and local foods went pretty well overall. The things that tripped me up were things like baked goods that I know are hiding milk and eggs, but since they can’t be seen, it’s easy to ignore that fact. I did a good job at not buying these things, but they’re just everywhere! For example, there was no way I was going to pass up my mom’s pumpkin bread when I went home. That stuff is truly to die for, but somehow I had the strength to resist washing it down with a big glass of milk. Denying myself the satisfaction of milk after sweets is probably the hardest thing I did this month!
I bought way more organic food than I normally would have this month and definitely spent more money. By the end of the month, I stopped buying any food that was not produced in the U.S., but I wouldn’t say even 10% of my food qualified as local. I learned to cook with some new vegetables I’ve never used before and definitely ate healthier than normal. It took my body a couple weeks to adjust to the dietary change, but I’m definitely used to it now and I feel really good!
I plan to continue to minimize my animal product intake and food miles and increase the organitude of my food, but not super-strictly.
I’ve been planning on making some “How to be Eco-Tight” videos for this project, but I keep putting it off. I’m going to South Padre Island for spring break and I plan to do some filming there. Traveling will certainly decrease my eco-friendliness, but I’ll do my best and let you know how it goes!
Thanks for reading and commenting, I really appreciate it!
J
Well it’s been two weeks, I’ve showered 7 times total, haven’t received smell complaints, have been vegan other than some cheese that needed finishing, some cookies, chocolate chips, and brownies, oh and some hot sex. The first week I did half of a “day of silence”, this week I did a half-assed day of silence. I used my phone a couple of times, once to ask my roommate who was at the store to get me some chips (organic) and the other to ask a friend if it was a good time to come over to fill up a pitcher with beer (probably not organic) that was left from a kegger two nights prior. Could I have lived without tortilla chips and beer? Maybe. All I know is that I had some chips and some beer and I’m alive now. I can’t confirm that those things weren’t crucial to my survival. I also got on my computer two hours before my 24 hours was up, but that’s only because I had soooo much to blog about that I just couldn’t hold it in. Next week I’ll try to adhere more closely to the tenets of my day of silence, even if it means risking death by lack of fried, salted corn. Organic corn that is.
The other day I went grocery shopping and just splurged on organic produce. I dropped over a hundred bucks. Some of the highlights of my trip were: kale, spinach, shitake mushrooms, grapefruits, avocados, beets, various beans and nuts, peanut butter, salsa, roasted garlic hummus, various frozen fruits, and brown rice protein powder, along with several more plain-Jane items. I opted for organic with most things, unless the option didn’t exist or the price difference was outrageous. For example, organic apples, oranges, grapefruits, and celery are all comparatively priced to their non-organic counterparts, but an organic green bell pepper cost over five times the price of a non-organic one! ($2.69 vs. $0.50). As far as I know almost everything I bought was a product of the U.S. with the exception of organic Mexican avocados and some frozen fruit from Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica. Apparently they don’t grow mangos and pineapples locally. So I didn’t do extremely well as far as locality goes, but for pretty much the first time ever, I didn’t buy bananas since they are usually from Guatemala or even further south. I also bought honey from Hanover, KS. Honey is a controversial topic among vegans since it’s technically an animal product. Some people who call themselves vegans openly eat honey, which they know full well promotes insect slavery. Others who are “veganer than thou” think this is an atrocity. I am not on that level, nor do I ever hope to bee.
On my day of silence, which was a beautiful day, I wanted to go meditate in nature. However, I was busy from the time I woke up until about 7:30 PM with a performance that lasted half an hour. Since I had missed out on all the daylight, I decided to go to the tightest place to hang out after dark, the cemetery. I biked around there for a while. It was very dark, slightly spooky, and brimming with homeless people and high-schoolers cheesing. Okay I made that last part up. I found a comfortable spot near Roy and Eva Kiser, bless their souls, where I could lay down and see some stars and stayed until my feet were uncomfortably cold. It gave me time to recall, digest, and reflect on all the events of the day and previous couple days. It also gave me time to unwind and just think about nothing while watching the stars or closing my eyes. It was a very peaceful and rejuvenating experience. When I returned home, I found myself in a far greater mood than when I had left. I was transformed from stressed out and tired to upbeat and energetic. I would highly recommend it! I went back the next day to explore the trails at the far end of the cemetery, very cool area. Totally chill.
Ttyl.
Peace
I consider myself a button person. Not the “I like to push people’s” kind, more the “everything you need to know about me is on my bag” kind. Inspirational people, cultural statements, favorite Pokémon and more are on display for all to see. One of my very favorite buttons is green with swirls and reads “We have to get back to the garden.” I agree with the sentiment as a personal statement. I grew up in rural Kansas in a family of nine, so a garden was a must. My summer days were spent shucking corn and eating sweet peas right off the plant; ‘howing a row’ was a common punishment. Gardening represents a time in my life when I was most connected to nature. The thing I love most about my button though is the larger meaning – We have to get back to the earth, back to nature.
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That is my goal. To reconnect with nature in a way I haven’t since childhood. For my inspiration, I am using pioneers. They both depended heavily on and commonly feared wilderness. Nature was the basis for life: weather dictated everyday activities, many forms of medicine came from the forest, and nearly all food was either food was grown, hunted, or scavenged. Wolves, cougars, venomous snakes, noxious weeds, storms, and more also came from the environment.
The way I figure it, pioneers learned about nature in a variety of ways. They learned from first-hand experience, oral traditions, and through trial and error. I will be going about it in a similar manner. I will engage in daily nature observations, research pioneer skills (as I have no one to pass me this information orally) and I will weekly challenge myself to put my observations and data collection to good use completing tasks like building and starting a fire without matches and making water potable. I would love to hear if anyone has suggestions for challenges!
Ready? LET’S GET WILD!!!
Everyone in my immediate family has at least one tattoo. When I turned 18, it was expected that I would also get one, but I had never been crazy enough about any particular design to get one permanently inked into my skin… until the fall of 2009. While looking at a display of Celtic jewelry at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, I came across a tree of life. I became enchanted with this symbol which communicated the interconnectedness of all living things, and began sketching my own version of the tree because I knew that I had finally found something worthy of a tattoo.
The tree of life describes so much of what I value as a person, but unfortunately a tattoo on my back is not enough to keep me from getting caught up in the daily races and occasionally forgetting my place in the grand scheme of things. It’s so easy to get lost in all the noise. I want to live quietly: I want to be less offensive, selfish, and obnoxious. I want to live more peacefully, simply, patiently, and deliberately. Therefore, I will be walking my talk this month by taking time every day to meditate. I’ve already started to practice clearing my mind by doing this inside, but next week I will be moving out of doors so that I can more easily reflect upon my place in the natural world. Awareness and appreciation are the first steps in acting responsibly toward the environment and my fellow living beings, right?
If nothing else, at least Neil deGrasse Tyson also likes being connected.
In Overland Park, Kansas an edible schoolyard began almost 2 years ago at the Hiersteiner Child Development Center. This center is associated with Johnson County Community College and the college advocated for the edible schoolyard. JCCC was given $21,218 from the Sunflower Foundation and another $13,000 from a private donor. The Sunflower Foundation works to improve the health for all Kansans. Unfortunately I could not find much about this center, it is a daycare, not a school and I believe it serves the children of JCCC students and well as JCCC employees. I’ll have to do some more digging and hopefully find more edible schoolyards in this area.
Check out a video about the Hiersteiner Child Development Center’s edible schoolyard HERE
This is one thing I didn’t really think about for this project. I do need to do more research about finding out if this is possible for public schools and where to get the money to start a program like this. If the state is willing to fund it that could be a big way to get schools involved. Many if not all of the public schools are facing budget cuts and would welcome funding. This funding could go towards those who would be teaching about the garden and helping in it, so additional funding could save teaching jobs.
Since we are not in California and produce does not grow year round there needs to be other activities for students while there is no planting, cooking, harvesting, preserving, etc going on. A few of my ideas include researching fruits and vegetables that students have an interest in growing. The older students can become the overseers of each of these crops and teach others how to take care of them . Also students of all ages can learn about the benefits of eating local and organic. They can research global environmental issues, as well all know that in the future and now this information will be vital. In the late summer and fall upper level students can be taught how to preserve fruits and vegetables so they can be eaten year round. And with this preserved food they can learn to cook with these local, organic ingredients and learn about healthy eating. As a video I posted on a previous blog said, this generation of kids are expect to live a shorter life than their parents. They are expected to die of heart related diseases as well as diabetes.
I have all these good ideas, at least I think they are good. I feel that is what I am good at. I can come up with great plans and ideas but I have a hard time being able to implement them. For that I must turn to those in the community where I want to propose this edible schoolyard. Lucky for me, one of those people include my oldest sister. She is a outspoken voice in the community. So my goal over Spring Break is to talk to some of these people and see how they feel about this project and see what they may want to bring to the table. In the case of the first edible schoolyard in Berkeley, they had many community volunteers that helped make their garden a success.
Does anyone have any other suggestions of what to do during the off season in schools while nothing needs to be done outside?? All ideas welcome 
Ever since I began this blog, I’ve been very vocal about my project and findings that have come along with it. My friends are constantly noticing the millions of facts I continue to rattle off about waste. I’ve been explaining these findings to my communities and most people have been very responsive.
First I started by simply asking people what they thought about recycling. I asked people from my residence hall, classes, and even over the internet chatting. Most people refer to this ‘being green’ as something they supported. Statements were continually made about how recycling was “good” and that we needed more of it. Some people however, said that they didn’t recycle and they really never thought much of it. Global warming was something that they had no affect on, and people just needed to keep on living their life. But, many general statements were made about how we are running out of resources and we need to do something about it! That’s about where the conversation ended. The final statements were general and there was no more discussion. For the majority of people that I talked to they supported recycling and the efforts surrounding it. But only with intention. There was no action, no discussion of solutions, and no discussion of how we, the consumer, play a role with our waste.
Particularly when I was saying the facts that I learned in class or from my project, I had emotionally engaged responses. This is also when I found out the most about the actual actions of the people in my community and campus of K-State. I heard from a girl in my English class that she was in a newly formed group that collected recycling after three of the football games this year when everyone left the stadium. Now, remember, the local recycling plant only recycles plastics #1, and #2, reducing the amount that can actually be recycled. In the three games they picked up after, they recycled more than 8 times the amount that our campus recycled in the last year. WHAT?! That’s unbelievable. And no, I don’t know the exact figures because this is only word of mouth, but that number is astonishing. Just think of how much waste that has been in the past and continues to be at athletic events? And think of how many athletic events there are around the WORLD. I wonder how much of that waste has ended up in the pacific.
When I talked to my friend about this, I got to go a little more in depth about it. Her intention is great - I mean, she really supports reducing and recycling (even though I still have to pull things out of the trash sometimes). And I asked what she thought about the Pacific “Garbage Patch” or “Trash Island”. She told me that when she first heard about it, it made her sick. With more explaining, she told me she wished more people knew about it. Yes, I totally agree. I wish more people knew about it! But would that change anything? I mean, she still knows, but that doesn’t keep her from putting cardboard/plastic cups in the trash. And it doesn’t stop other people from buying more and more things continuing the cycle of consumption to waste. So would this knowledge of the Garbage Patch change anything? A professor here teaching one of the most popular classes at K-State always mentions this topic (which is how I found out about it). How many of those people are moved to reduce, reuse, and then recycle? If we’re going off of the ratio of my friends who took that class and found out, the answer would be not many.
I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the commuties here, or at least the one’s I’m involved in, have big intent to make changes and reduce the waste of plastic. However, the actions are lacking and it’s leaving a large impact on our world. This is what has to change. Action is needed.
Action is NECESSARY.
Question of the day: What’s your trash bin made out of? Plastic?
My garden is slowly beginning to look worse and worse, I know that it isn’t getting enough light. I think now that the weather is getting better, I am going to start putting all of my plants outside during the day so they can get light until I find an affordable way to get light to them while they’re inside. I feel like they not only are they not growing as fast as they should, but they are just very long and weak. One thing that is a positive side of that they aren’t doing well is that they are still alive and green. That is one thing I love about nature and plants, when you mess up they give you a little leeway and let you have the option to keep them going and make them healthy again. I find plants very comforting, they allow you to screw up and redeem yourself constantly. You can let them get a little too big for their pots or you can forget to water them right when they need it sometimes, but once you give them what they need, they spring right back to life. This project has really reminded me of how much I love growing things, something I’d sort of forgotten. So the more I thought about how much I was enjoying myself, something I’d been wanting to do for about a year now kept popping in to my head and finally I made the decision that had already been in the back of my mind for a while now, I changed my major to horticulture. I had been scared to do it for the normal reasons. I’ve already switched three times and I am only a sophomore and when it comes to science, not a fan. But the more this semester goes on and the more I look at my garden in my window and think of when the time comes when I don’t live in Manhattan when I have classes, southeast Kansas about one weekend a month, and Florida for Christmas Break, Spring Break and Summer, and I actually have somewhere where I could start a huge garden, the more I want that to be my way of life, not just a hobby. So, I finally did it.
If you remember my first blog at all, I wrote a little bit about how I really like that community feel of farming communities and that is something that I feel a commune provides. Well, I got reminded the other day of how gardening can bring people together. This little old lady lives across the alley from me and prior to Thursday, we’d never spoken before. I was out transplanting my garlic on Thursday and planting some flowers for my mom’s garden that I could give her on Mother’s Day in May and I saw my neighbor come outside to take her trash can. She literally stopped at her tracks and stared at me. I waved and said “Hello” and she half heartidly waved back and continued to stare at me. Then she began to walk my way, when she got in to my yard she began to ask all about what I was planting. We had a nice talk and I told her if she needed any help starting her garden in the spring, I’d be more than happy to help and she told me to stop by anytime. Needless to say, I was smiling ear to ear the rest of the time I was transplanting.
For the rest of this blog, I thought it would be really informative to take you through a hypothetical day on a commune from information I’ve gathered from various websites. On my last blog someone commented they had rather negative thoughts about communes and I definitely want that to change! There are communes and ecovillages that are bad and there are ones that are good, just like everything else.
Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage – this is a link to Dancing Rabbit’s newspaper which keeps everyone updated on daily happenings. Online Tour of Dancing Rabbit
The idea of school gardens is nothing new. In 1995 chef Alice Walker had the same idea and applied it in Berkley, California. As she walked past the same school everyday she began to think it was abandoned, the principle of this school then asked her to come and try a garden there. Two years later most of the asphalt was gone and in it’s place there was green. It was at King Middle School in Berkeley that the first Edible Schoolyard was started.
Middle school students were not only taught about gardening but about history behind gardening and the science of cooking food. In the early years of this project there were after school cooking classes as well as cooking meals twice a month for their class. A summer class was offered in the Edible Schoolyard. From interviews you will find that the kids in this school want to take this class, it is not a have to take it. They also find they like the food that is being good with fresh, organic produce that they themselves labored for.
The kitchen for the school was renovated so proper cooking classes could be held in it for the students. Many volunteers were vital in helping keep up the garden and teach about it for the students. I find this awesome that people would give their time to be a part of this but it does not really surprise me. They say kids born in the 2000′s are projected to live shorter lives than their parents. Many of them will get diabetes and some will get it before graduating high school. I feel like this is a cause I would be willing to give my time to and I am sure many parents and community member feel the same way.
I am hoping for the same reaction in the community I want to start this program in. My oldest niece will be a senior in high school there next year along with her 2 brothers (ages 14 and 9) and sister (age 12) hopefully they will be as excited about the project as I am. The community I am looking at is Bern, Kansas, a small community in northeast Kansas. It is a very small school who are facing budget cuts and I feel a program like this could not only get you grant money but could also save you food money in the long run. I am sure there will be some resistance and it will not be a year round experiment because unfortunately we cannot grow year round like California. But there are good people in the community that will hopefully help me carry out this vision. I guess we will see.
Just for a quick disclaimer, I have tried to post this a million times and I’m pretty sure its to no avail. If it has already been posted I’m sorry .
Before this class I have honestly never thought about what it is to truly be environmentally friendly. In all actuality I never even took the time to consider what it meant to be environmentally friendly. However the readings we have done made me realize that the reason that most people are not more environmentally responsible is because they are not environmentally conscious.
As of now it seems we are all stuck in the mentality that what matters is the fact that we make it to work on time, get the house clean, make it to class, put on our socially acceptable attire and pick up our under-paid paycheck with a smile. I believe that we are not conscious to the damage we are doing to the earth because we simply are not conscious.
I know that I for one have been in this lifestyle for years. I go through the motions of my day as opposed to experiencing my day. If I were to take the time to focus on who I am, where I came from, where what I’m eating came from maybe I would begin to enjoy what I do on this earth instead of taking it as a chore. I believe that if I were to meditate for an hour or two a day I would have time to reflect on my life thus far, and perhaps even have better hope for the future.
I researched exactly how to go about meditating and throughout the various websites I browsed I found that no one really has that answer. Several insist that prayer is the way to go, others find serenity in nature, some use cd’s but the way that intrigued me the most was from the people who said that they can meditate at work, over lunch break or even while driving. Of course I am not going to attempt to reach a meditation zone-out while driving, but that is the level I hope to get to. I am willing to try ever technique possible to achieve this peaceful state.
I am going to attack this in at least four stages. First I am going to try to become more in-tune with my body. So far I have found sites that say Yoga will bring on a more self-aware meditative state, but I’m hoping to find something a little less mainstream. My second focus will be becoming more aware of the natural environment. So far I found several ways to do this, some say just focusing for a few minutes on where what you’re eating comes from and others go out and meditate in the elements. I may try them both. My third project will be meditating to better understand my own mind. Sounds weird to me still but most of the articles that I’ve read about the subject says that I need almost have a conversation with myself after reaching a meditative state, and I think that will be interesting. My fourth and last focus (for now at least) will be the soul. I am honestly nothing near religious (although I was in a Catholic school for most of my life) but I think it’s important to realize that there is more to us then just flesh just as I believe there has to be more to the earth than oil.
I believe that my greatest difficulty to achieving my goal will be being able to clear my mind, let alone find the time to do so. I can’t remember the last time I was able to sit and just be. I’m very excited for the opportunity that maybe one day I will be able to do so. I believe that by meditating I will open myself up to realize what I could do for the earth as opposed to what I can achieve economically while I am here, or at least that is my goal.
