Ok...so after I had that little melt down before, our elctric bill this month went down. Geesh! It took long enough to see a difference. I only changed my ways for a day, then felt so very guilty about it and went back to conserving. I'm not real sure why the bill was so drastically high last month, but thank goodness it was $100 LESS for the bill we just got.

It's out to get me

In January, we didn't use our dryer unless we were washing blankets or towels. The dishwasher was used 1/2 as often. The furnace was turned down to 60* because we were just about out of propane. I obssesed about lights being on. What did all of that get me? AN EVEN HIGHER ELECTRIC BILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that tells me that either the electric company is ripping people off or it really just doesn't matter that I busted me butt for a month to try and make a difference.
It's back to modern conviniences for me. Dryer, dishwasher, heat. I am so very angry today. I will sstill try to make a difference in other areas. But really, does it matter?

Some new spoons

I have been extremely frustrated with the plastic spoons I have. They bend when stiring things, crack and the handles brake off, turn gross colors, and melt. So today I went in search of bamboo spoons. I got one for my birthday and love it. Hoping they were under $5 so I could afford them, off we went. I found them. For $3.75 a piece! I couldn't believe it! Personally, I think that's very innexpensive. The last plastic spoons I bought were more than $4 each. I started with one of each shape. I will get more I think in the future. And give them as gifts. They don't melt, discolor or bend. They are dishwasher safe. I've thrown my other one in there a few times.

So it's out with the plastic spoons/spatulas. The kids can use them in the dirt/mud this summer.

Something looks trashy

Coming to the end of the trash week challenge from Dave, I am not really shocked at the amount of garbage we went through. What I am however, is determined. Determinded to cut down on the plastic bags, paper products, and other plastic items. As I was shopping though, I realized something on that front...it's going to be nearly impossible in some areas. Paper plates/cups/napkins/towels/bags are out. Those things are easy to cut out. Already have that done. But nearly everything in the store is wrapped in plastic or in a can. Fresh produce is all in plastic. Frozen veggies (which I prefer) are in plastic bags. Bread...in plastic bags. I may go back to baking my own bread all the time again. But with the new baby due so very soon, that won't happen yet. Flour and all other baking items come in paper or cardboard. So anyhow, I'll spare you the rest of my thoughts about all of that. Here's the results in pictures...

These first two pictures are how we started out. Not much. But not typical days at home either with it being the holiday. A few paper towels, two milk cartons, cereal box, gift box, mac&cheese boxes, etc.


Ah...but then it gets worse. The left picture is one days total trash. I had some help with trash that day and they just threw it in the big trash can in the basement. The laundry stain bottle, a tide bottle, a furnace filter and some razors joined the rest of the garbage in there as well.

So after day 2, we got out boxes from Christmas gifts and plastic bags to sort trash into as we went. MUCH easier than trying to do it at the end of the day/week. From day 3-8 this is what we got. A larger box over flowing with cardboard items. Pop tart boxes, cereal boxes, 2 Pepsi One boxes, 1 Nellie's laundry soap container, crayon/marker boxes, etc. All will be recycled at hubby's work except the milk cartons. The picture on the right is the chip bags, foil wrappers from pop tarts and other misc foil.

Aluminum cans. They will just get added to the box outside for when hubby hauls scrap. Then there's the plastic. I stopped keeping track of every plastic thing we tossed. It was just too much. Both bags are full. There are atleast 5 milk jugs in there. 1 vinegar jug. Plastic bags from lettuce, salads, cereals, a couple of sour cream/cottage cheese/cream cheese containers, etc. All of which is crumpled and smashed to make more room in the bags for more plastic.

Last but not least is the other paper. There was another overflowing plastic grocery bag of paper towels and kleenex. But that must have dissapeared to outside at some point. I'm certain it did, otherwise my kitchen would have smelled of poop all week. We use paper towels as wipes instead of buying normal baby wipes. Not for long though!!
I'm fairly certain my husand is going to light this all up tomorrow. Maybe Saturday if the weather comes as they say tomorrow. But it will get dumped in the bin and light up like yesterdays trash. Hahaha. He will however be pleased that he doesn't have to sort through it for things that don't belong in the trash bin.
Oh...food garbage...that got taken out every other day as usual. Dumped out ontop of the snow in the field. No need for a fancy compost bucket here. Country living has it good sides.
So for now, the trash sorting and keeping is over. Children have learned a lesson in science and conservation. About where stuff comes from. About where our energy comes from and which appliances suck the most out.
The rest of the month of January will still be well spent. Conserving energy. Not using the dishwasher or dryer (except to dry the large blankets and if hubby dries his work clothes once a week). Turning the heat down just a couple of degrees, leaving the tv/dvd/xbox unplugged when not in use. Lights off if no one is in the room or the sun is shining. Things like that. Then we will compare our past couple of months electric bills with this months and see if we really can make a difference in that area. If the bill is still over $200-$250 I am going to cut the power completely and go pioneer. A bit drastic, I know. So I won't go that far, but someone from the elecctric ompany will be out checking out every nook and cranny of this house where electrical things are concerned.
Good-bye garbage. You'll make a nice warm pretty red fire this weekend.

*ok...so when I made this post, the pictures were side by side. I need a wider template or something.*

End of the week

For me, I've come to the end of my trash week. I don't think, no, I know that I could not do this for a full year. One week has been good. We are not your average consumers to begin with, but it still has been good for my family to see exactly what gets thrown away. We've talked about how it's pointless for some of it. How trees dissapear for conveince, how plastic is not such a good thing, etc. About how we aren't going to freak out and go all nuts about it, but change our own ways as we are able. A couple of them watched the video about where our energy comes from and how it goes through the chain to get the stuff to us. Next month I think my sister and our tiny babies are going to go to Omaha to the whole foods store. Yes, that's the closest one. 2 1/2 hours away. Pretty sad. Oh sure, there is an organic store in our little town and in our church's town and in the city, but none of them are bulk stores. They are wonderful if you like to purchase by the little box like a usual grocery store.
I bought a Brita pitcher last night. We do not have cold water in our kitchen. The pipes broke about 5 yrs ago and no one cares to fix it. So we have only hot water running through the faucet. It will be very nice to have cold water in the kitchen. And it came with a "free" water bottle. We've got 3 now. The kids love them so much that I can never use one. I think maybe I'll get them each one for their birthdays this year.
So as we get the rest of the trash sorted and take pictures of it for the girls homeschool education fair project, I will add our totals and maybe a few pictures later.

Trash and energy

So far, in the first week of this year, I have ran the dryer 3 times. Twice to remove the nasty dog hair and a third because I was tired and it was faster. When there are children with the gross flu at midnight, you do what you need to at midnight. The dogs btw, have been evicted. The house is animal free again! YAY!
We have run the dishwasher twice. Instead of 4 times everyday. Again, I was tired and having contraction pain last night. So the dishwasher washed the chilli bowls and spoons for me. Anna put the breakfast dishes in it this morning so I could just sit. But now the sound of it running (for 90 minutes!) is driving me nuts. I can just see numbers on the meter spinning like mad. I guess if we would have ran it everyday as usual, it would have ran 2,160 minutes in 6 days.
Go here and put in your zip code at the top. It's an eye opener when you see where your power comes from before it gets to you. Which specific mountains we destroy everyday. I want to put in solar panels. Or build a wind generator. Or something. Anything to keep those beautiful mountains the way God made them.

On the trash front, it's piling up. This is day 6. We were sorting it by bags. Well, bags have filled. Boxes have filled. The basement is looking like the landfil. Only much neater and organized. Atleast people can't drive by and see it over flowing into the ditches and highway. Cherokee's landfill is next to the highway. The trash is plastered up against the fence and spilled over into the ditches. I was very discusted the one day we drove out that way. Gross! Either people don't care or they just well...don't care! It takes energy and fuel to take care of all that trash. We do not pay for trash removal. We burn it ourselves since we live in the country.

Laundry calls. Time to get the cloth diapers going through the wash. I can't wait for taxes to come back. I will order another dozen so that we have make sure we have enough for the new baby too. Two in cloth diapers...won't that be fun. =)

Thrift store finds for today!

Some of the kids and I went to town to get groceries. That was an interesting trip. I had decided before going, that I wanted nothing to do with plastic bags. At all. So as we walked in the door, we bought 8 canvas bags. 99cents each. I thought that would be sufficient for the few things we truely did need today. I was close. We got out of there with only 2 plastic bags! Better than our usual 15-20! I didn't use any of the plastic produce bags. I just put the onions and things in the top of the cart. Got a few silly looks from that, but I just kept going. The very nice young man who was sacking the groceries, said he loves the canvas bags. I love my tiny little small town store. They're always so nice to me and any number of the 6 kids who get to go in with me, they prefer the canvas bags and they don't care that I didn't use the produce bags. Our little Fareway store is the best!

Anyhow, back to the point. I had done some research online for cloth napkins. Oh my goodness. I couldn't afford ONE! Even if I could, another thing I couldn't get out of my head was what it would take to ship it to me. Trucks, fuel, plastic, boxes, etc. So it's good that I couldn't afford to buy 75 cloth napkins at between $4 and $30 a piece! So today I took the kids into two of our second hand stores. We only have 3. One for kids clothes only and the other two for whatever, whoever. I found some cloth napkins and a couple of flour sack towels. For about $14 this is what I got today...

Not sure what to do with the brown placemats. I just wanted the 2 pretty napkins. LOL! I'll figure something out. If nothing else, I'll put them on the MOPSWAP table for someone else to use in their home. (MOPSWAP is a bring it if you don't want it, take it freely if you need it project at our MOPS group.) A most excellent way to recycle your kids clothes, your clothes, books, toys, household things, whatever you want to just be done with. What isn't taken, is all donated between a few local charities in town. Works great!

My oldest and youngest daughters had a blast! (the other girls were at Grandma's) My oldest LOVES thrift stores and to see how cheap we can get something we really need. She kept telling my youngest daughter that just because it's cheap doesn't mean we need it. LOL! Good girl! She did get a pretty little bowl for her jewelry though for just $2. And Liv got a bucket chair for $1 so I can copy the idea for Christmas 2009.

I'm going to give a shot at knitting a couple produce bags I think. I have some finer cotton yarn that would work great!