More Green Life.....

I posted below an Update on My Green Life.... but also wanted to show what we are doing in preparation for winter.
I have posted pictures before of our wood stove. We invested in it a few years ago, and it is WONDERFUL!  This stove has an outside air source so it does not draw cold air into the house and only heat one room.  Our house is not HUGE, but it is the biggest one I have ever lived in.  It is 1,900 sq. ft. and this stove heats the entire house well.  Because the door is sealed, we can put wood in at night, and safely burn it till morning.  It payed for itself the first 3 months we had it.

We live in an all electric house, so heating is more expensive than cooling. We don't keep the house that cool, as that can get costly, but we can keep the house warm all winter, and all it takes is a little planning!

This year we will be sharing wood with another family.  We have agreed to store the wood, since they don't have room, and they have been out getting wood. We have all participated to one degree or another,  in unloading, cutting and stacking.  We are in various forms of some finished, some not, some seasoned and some not.

We will most likely go through 3 or 4 cords of wood this winter between our two families.
A cord of wood is 4x4x8 TIGHTLY STACKED, not criss crossed like an apartment type stack.  When people buy wood today, they are not buying a real cord. It is usually called a "face cord"... Most wood is cut at 16-18 inches to fit a modern fireplace, so people get ripped off thinking they are buying a cord, when they aren't.

We get our wood in a few ways. A tree service gives away Orange Osage. It is a Poppy kind of undesirable wood, but does very well in a wood stove with a sealed door.  The popping doesn't matter because the door is shut. It has a similar quality to coal!  We also pick up wood after people have cut down trees waiting for the city to dispose of it.  Most people are glad to have you haul it away!

This year we had a friend moving away and they gave us some of their seasoned oak!

We should have everything finished being cut and stacked by the end of the month. It is a family project that we all enjoy...... and it is putting already cut down trees to good use. :)

Here's to being GREEN! :)

UDATE on my Green Life

I posted in August about wanting to be more green and giving up my paper plate habit. :)

It has been 6 weeks and I am happy to say, we have not purchased any paper plates in that time.
BECAUSE of that, we have saved some money that I have invested into some fun dishes.
I am rather eclectic in style so I have found Target to be a great source for fun and decorative plates and bowls.

We use bowls a lot because of the types of foods we eat..... We eat soups, rice dishes and pasta dishes or salads.  Instead of buying large plates, we bought some larger bowls and salad plates.  It has worked out really well!  We all like eating out of our pretty dishes way more than eating off of our paper plates. :)

We are also being careful not to use the garbage disposal. We have a dozen and a half garbage disposals outside who would love nothing more than to eat what we were planning to waste. :)
The only thing is, now that we have been feeding them regular scraps, as soon as we open the door we hear "MAAAAAA_MAAAAAA!!!"  I think they like our cooking! :)

We also got this old thing back out! More dishes means more washing.... but we have found it easy to do quick washes and save the dishwasher for 1 use a day.  Once it is full, it is the old fashioned way that works.  If you wash in hot soapy water.... not too much, and then rinse quickly with hot frest water, you wind up not using too much water AND no electricity. :)

I'm feeling crunchier by the moment. :)

So I'm SUPPOSED To Be Green

Not green as in Kermit green.... but green as in caring about pollution and what we use and throw away green.

I have gotten lazy. It is SO EASY to just throw away plastic, paper, magazines, boxes, cans, instead of recycling. We have no recycle bins in our area. It would make it easier if we did. In FACT, I'm going to do a little research for our area and find out for sure that there is nothing.

Nobody around here recycles. They even dump cans and trash in our ditch when they drive by. Makes me think of the stereo types for country people are sometimes true. :(

One of my Biggest FAULTS in this area is to use paper plates. It has been my staple china for a while. I hate it, that I have used these instead of real dishes!

So I am turning over a new leaf! For the past week, we have used paper plates VERY sparingly and now, we are OUT! The dishwasher is getting filled with more plates than normal, and I'm glad to see it! I am hoping we all withdraw from our old "Chinette" to our new "China" (not real china, just Target dishes) and continue to care about how we can do our own part to care for our planet.

After all, God gave us this place to live. Shouldn't we keep it as neat and clean as possible?
Did you know it takes oil to make plastic containers?

I wonder, how much we really are dependent upon oil, and don't even realize it.
Is there a place I could find a list of products that use oil?
I think that would be a fun project for school.

I like learning right alongside the girlies. :)

Time to google!