Small Steps to Big Changes

Posted by Dawn-Ann on July 28, 2008

It’s all about incremental changes around here because that’s the way I do things. I have to take baby steps or I start to feel overwhelmed and don’t stick it out. So here are some of the small things I have begin working on to make my home more self-sustaining.

Composting – I will write another article just on composting in a separate entry, but I have a compost bin and I save kitchen scraps to go into it. Vegetable material is best – no meat or greasy things, as that attracts varmints like mice and bugs. No animal waste (i.e. dog poop), for sure. Here is an example of a typical afternoon’s contribution to the compost bin. (You can’t really tell, but those onions had grown very limp and wimpy.)

Water conservation – In my area the climate can be quite arid. In fact, some years we are considered desert (although you couldn’t tell that from this year’s lushness). Therefore, water is expensive and sometimes in short supply. Besides that, there are environmental issues to consider and it just makes good sense to conserve water where you can.

We haven’t had to water much at all this year, which is a bonus, but some of our flowers are under the eaves and don’t usually get moisture directly from the rain, so I still have to help them out a bit. To that end, I have started a “liquid compost” bucket in my kitchen. It ain’t the most attractive thing, but it’s full of nutrients that my plants love. I put leftover coffee in it (hence the color) and rinse water, juice dregs from the grandson’s cup, etc. It sits for a couple of days, so any chlorine from water treatment has time to evaporate. Then I just take the bucket and pour it gently right around the plants, rather than a wholesale watering of the whole bed. Over time, this will save us a considerable amount of water.

Next up in the plans is a rain barrel or two.

Solar energy – This is VERY preliminary and I am gradually getting myself acquainted with the whole field of alternative energy sources. It is fairly pricey to begin with, but if you can get yourself “off the grid” it would pay for itself over time – not to mention the satisfaction of knowing you don’t have to rely on the standard electrical supply grid, which is so very fragile – much more so than most people think.

So here are pictures of my little “experiment.” It is a tiny solar panel that sits in our kitchen window (south facing, of course) and is attached to a power pack from Canadian Tire. I have learned that it takes a couple of days of good, direct sunlight to charge the battery, but then I can use it to charge things like my cell phone and electric toothbrush. Couldn’t run a microwave or anything on it, but it’s a start. Next, I’ll buy a bigger panel and attach it to this one in sequence. As I said, I’m experimenting and learning. We’ll see how it goes!