Monday, October 19, 2009

No Impact Sunday

(NOTE: I wrote this Sunday night but didn't post until Monday afternoon due to being out of free dial up service this month)

Day One of the No Impact Experiment.
I've collected my trash (with the exception of toilet paper and private lady trash), recyclables and food scraps into one bag. At first it was driving me nuts that I wouldn't be able to put the food scraps in the vermicomposter, but, I've let it go and realized that the point is to look at the quantity in its entirety. Also, I put a separate container out for the food scraps so I can compost them ASAP.

I think I did well. Since I knew I was going to be collecting and having to look at this stuff, I bought less and used fewer things that generate waste.
So, there are scraps from peppers that I'm dehydrating, 2 paper bags from food that I've prepared (I think they held bulk purchased quick oats the peppers), some kale stems from dinner prep, bits of envelopes from bills I paid, a tea bag or two (heh heh...), and the remnants of netflix envelopes from movies I put in the mail. Oh, and a receipt from the food co-op, and the box and scraps from moth traps I bought and put out.

I was also to make a list of things I would be purchasing this week and then try to cross stuff off. I did pretty well. I went ahead with the moth traps because I'd already made a clear decision to diagnose the moth problem here and see if it is just cupboard moths or wool eating moths. If there are wool eaters I have limited time to deal with the situation before I lose my best blankets and sweaters.

As for other purchases, food...I bought a few pounds of apples because they are still at in-season prices and I can dehydrate some for winter use and for taking along as snacks in the car. I bought a bag of peppers to dehydrate as well so I would have a few more to help get through winter. Both the apples and the peppers are local (well...apples are regional) and organic. The dehydrater contributes to heating the main space of the trailer so I run it mostly at night when the heat is most needed. It's not much, but why waste it.

I got kale because I'm trying to increase my greens intake and put that in with my beans and veg in lieu of rice. I also got some organic white flour (I didn't see local organic) so I can make a loaf of bread or two this week with my sour dough starter. I was entirely out of white flour and can't feed the starter whole wheat. My attempts at entirely whole wheat sourdough bread turned into bricks so find that I do indeed want to use some white flour in the mix.

And finally some bulk organic almonds since I'm almost out of fake milk. If I run out this week and need some, I'll try to make almond milk. If not, the almonds go with the beans to make a complete protein and also make a good snack during the day rather than grabbing candy or something else with a wrapper I'll have to feel guilty about.

One thing that is interesting is that I immediately wanted to buy a bunch of prepackaged stuff that I normally wouldn't even think about buying. Possibly just because I was being conscious of my consumption and waste. I resisted. Partly because I'm keeping the trash/waste/whatever all in one bag and a container and will have to look at it again. Nothing like awareness.

I've also been very food focused which is weird because I have a mountain of food in this house..well, trailer. For breakfast I made pancakes from a premix I'd had lying around since last camping trip. I've still got one to eat tomorrow. They are organic, no dairy no egg and with flax. They may cure colon disease. Anyway, had them with peanut butter and honey that I already had lying around. Then, after supper (the core of which I made yesterday...big batch of black eyed peas and vegetables which will last for several days of suppers and is not entirely spiced so I can try to make it a bit more varied than it sounds), I mixed up some instant oatmeal for breakfasts when I'm out of pancake. Lately for breakfast I've been going to work and having coffee and candy or coffee and donuts so this will be a good time to reset to my previously healthy breakfast habits.

The basic recipe for the homemade instant oatmeal is this:
Quick oats (I used organic bulk quick oats from the co-op). Whatever quantity you have, grind up about 1/4 of it in the blender until pretty well powdered. Add about 1/2 cup sugar to 2 cups of oats, if you like it pretty sweet. I only have brown sugar in the house so that's what I added.
Then, add whatever you like. This time I put in quite a bit of oat bran and wheat bran because it's been in the cupboard for quite a while and I was a bit short on actual oats. Then I put in quite a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg because I like that.
If you like, you can add powdered milk or powdered fake milk, dried fruit bits, sunflower seeds, whatever. If you use soy milk powder you get a pretty good protein.
Mix 1/2 cup of your final mix with just a little bit of hot water and you're set. If you put in additives, it's good to shake the mix up before getting each day's allotment out because it will settle and separate.

I'm not online posting this live or doing the online survey for the no impact experiment this evening as I've run out of free dial up for this month...oops! I could run over to the library but it's pretty chilly out and well past dark so I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning when I can post using the public wifi at the IT center the Tribe runs.

So, in summary, I think today went well.
OH!! One other purchase today...gasoline. It was time to fill the car up. I couldn't get into the gas station in Plummer this morning that had gas for $2.43, there were several people in line and the idling time would have been unacceptable, so I went to Moscow and got 2 gallons at $2.69. When I got home this evening the cheap station in Plummer was not crowded and the gas had only gone up to $2.45. That's pretty good for this area. The other stations in town are $2.52 so I'm not sure what's going on. They are usually within a penny of each other. There is one I don't go to because I get noticeably lower mileage with their gas. Don't know why, but it's not worth getting their gas.

I think that as my main consumption today.

No I will continue to watch a great movie loaned to me by Sally (Hi Sally)..."Garbage Warrior"...fabulous. I'll blog about
it sometime.

No comments: