help! can't get there from here... with images!

Today was an exciting day. my daughter returned home from camp. she was glowing; gorgeous, young, healthy, full of life and exuberance. it filled my heart to be with her again. we went out to eat to celebrate, and had to take food home rather than waste it. which, of course saved the food but generated the wrapper. then my partner gave the food to the dogs any way... (oh happy dogs).

later i had to go to the supermarket to fill our empty cupboards. my food procuring pattern had been thrown off by poor planning (ever my culprit) for my bread making didn't get done and my going to the farm to buy milk didn't get done. and i realized i had a long way to go before i could make the prefered household cheese: monster. so i broke down, i bought plastic wrapped cheese, which i hadnt for weeks, packaged milk, juice, nutella (also in plastic), bread (also in plastic, twice over!), i even (gasp) forgot my bags and most ashamedly, head down and fingers fidgeting, got a plastic bag. aaaaarrrrggggghhh.

my daughter who is working on being a conscious (let alone conscientious) consumer, said tonight, "you have to enjoy yourself too." so you see, i am roadblocked, derailed, despoiled, and depressed. time for me to sit on my plastic pile and pout again. tonight was my worst night in two weeks. i had cut down on my purchases at the supermarked so much so, i was actually only spending around twenty dollars when i went in there. today i spent seventy, and then i had to go back for more.

but it isnt all her fault, i cant blame her; i do love nutella too. and if i really had it together, i would have made the nutella (how hard could it be to make)? and i definitely should have made the bread (which i really usually do do) rather than have had to buy it. and the shopping was so expensive because my new hobby seems to be canning. saving the bounty of now for later, including the shrink wrapped cases.

so my not so new discovery, was that in order to cut down on purchasing, need to make food. need to make food. must make food, mmmust mmmake fffood. of course it doesnt help that it is 3:30 am. and i am waiting for my canned tomatoes to cool.

so far this past week i have made: mozzarella cheese (yum!), a supposed goat cheese like cheese that came out like little rubber balls (eh?), butter (yum), granola, cucumber salad (half gallon), canned bean salad, canned tomatoes. those are just the things that are out of the ordinary for me to do (read new adventures in cooking). dont ask me what else i do, i dont remember now.

ah, but the point, the point was that after all this industriousness, i have not yet, nor do i see in the near future, me being able to be a waste free product. i mean, what would life be like if i were to can, and bake and cook and butcher and tend the animals and the garden and my family. i wouldn't have time for this luxury of writing, now would i? would there be an I left? i suppose that might be a good thing. sometimes sleep is even a luxury. next week i have to buy my daughter back to school stuff. hmmmmm, i'm sure there will be no garbage generated with that sanguine experience. hmmm, no time for sarcasm, i am only compost waiting to happen. and that is supposed to be an uplifting thought.

despite my inablity to get there from here today, the glories of the summer days and the deep rich smell of compost are hypnotic. dirt lives and we thrive of her bounty. enjoy the photos of my not-quite-off-the grid farmlet.

Advice for Reducing Waste

what advice do i have for those of us who want to reduce their waste?

change your focus. send your kids to camp (my favorite). stop eating. stay home. don’t go anywhere. don’t vacuum (also my favorite). don’t wash anything (another favorite). and certainly, don’t throw anything away! just sit in a big pile and cry.

seriously though. i have been buying much less of everything since i realized how dangerous plastic was and decided to boycott it. i notice how so much of everything i had been buying is in it. wow! plastic rules! plastic is everywhere! and wow! my cupboard has been getting pretty bare.

what i noticed was that my point of view has shifted. i no longer go to the store thinking, what do we want to eat, what do i want to buy, or what would make my family happy? but rather, is it in plastic and can i/we do without it? are there glass or metal container equivalents? what would make my family really miserable?

thusly, i have been able to reduce my waste and plastic consumption a lot. my lovely mate is supportive as he notes that we can easily see the back of the fridge now, on every shelf too. and i clearly see how much it needs to be cleaned. the good part is i seem to be losing weight too.

also, my concentration is being improved by the need to think a head more. i need to remember and prepare more for outings in the real world. do i have my bags with me? do i have any containers that i can use? what route do i need to take to buy locally most efficiently?

the truth is even if i don’t plan on shopping, i might think of something later on, or be distracted enough to just find myself walking around in some market chasing my 3 year old as he drives away from me in his car-cart.

really, it takes focus and dedication. looking at that great free ranged ham and controlling my impulse to buy because i don’t want the plastic, is definitely making me skinnier. spending much more time preparing food than it is to eat it, i realize how difficult life used to be before all these conveniences, and understand better why plastics and the tv dinners were embraced to begin with. sometimes i even want to hug a garbage bag, i mean a good hot dog, but then i want to shower.

boringly, i recognized that it would help the most if i just kept my bags and jars into the car. that means putting them there when they are emptied or washed. but that is me because my planning ahead capacities are limited to making sure my son has a snack and i have directions to where i am going. and since i try to limit my driving as well, i need to try to remember that my shopping will be done during the day while i am otherwise out and about.

changing my focus is changing my lifestyle. i go to the farm for milk and am working on making my own cheese. mozzarella, here i come!