100th monkey, slow progress

Phase One of my effort to live a more sustainable lifestyle (initial recycling and conservation efforts i'm not really counting since it only required a little belt tightening; I know how to do that stuff): Composting

Not an easy project to start in the winter and may be near impossible to maintain depending on your living situation.  We have plenty of space on my (rented) property to have a compost pile/bin outside in the spring/summer, but I wanted to start now since I found out that the methane gas emitted by decomposing food and other material in landfills actually has more greenhouse effect than CO2.  Not to mention I will be needing some fertilizer for my garden by June, which I plan to quadruple the size of this year.

So here's the whole point of these "100th Monkey" blogs: I spent some energy doing research online and found an easy way to keep up your composting in the winter, and now I want to detail it really simply for you, so you can see how easy it is to make these changes that make a big difference (if EVERYONE just made them).

Bokashi:   A bacterial culture that naturally helps compost material break down faster (break down into nutrient rich soil).  Bought this indoor compost bin and one bag of Bokashi accelerator for $80 on line (with shipping).  Fits right under my sink, I keep a large jar on my kitchen counter and when it fills with food scraps I just empty it into the bin and sprinkle a little bokashi over it, mix it up with a wooden spoon and close it.  That's it.  And REALLY it's not that gross and doesn't smell bad and to boot it has this spout at the bottom, fluid collects in a compartment under the bin and you drain it out, sposed to be AWESOME for watering your household plants or even clearing clogged or slow sink drains, naturally!

Worm Bin:  But my Bokashi bin is only 5 gallons, so where was I gonna put that stuff when the bin got full?  After researching, it seemed like a worm bin would be the best, cheapest, indoor solution.  Found some easy directions online : http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/easywormbin.htm cost = $20 for two, 14 gallon bins and a dozen worms (although I think i'm gonna need more, like another 3 dozen maybe, they were only $3 per dozen at a tackle shop).  I haven't had to empty my Bokashi bin into it yet, so we just started it with damp shredded newspaper, some leaves, dirt and food scraps and when we opened it the next morning the worms had burrowed down into it and I think they're pretty happy.  This IS kinda smelly, and I'm thinkin we may have to put it downstairs in the garage, it can't be too cold though so it can't go outside.

By April we will transfer both of these to an outside bin, this indoor system is only necessary October through April (in New England).  We cut down our household garbage to one small bag this past week; that's five people, one full week. I think that's pretty good, imagine if every 5 person household only produced that amount of garbage per week?  I also cut way down on the amount of packaged food I buy, I didn't buy much to begin with but now I've even stopped buying the kid's juice boxes (they take small water bottles which we just keep re-using), ice cream or desert products, bagged shredded cheese or string cheeses (many bags are recyclable but those often are not, look for the triangle before you purchase that bagged food!) even breakfast cereal (made my own granola using items you can find in bulk bins at the health food store, it's delicious!!)

Final Thought Last night I was making my boyfriend and I a fritata for dinner, he looked in the fridge, found we had only 3 eggs and was PO'd he had to drive to the store and get more.... how dare he have to wait for his fritata!! How much in our modern lives do we take things like refrigeration, store bought eggs, driving a car, and grocery stores for-granted??  These conveniences will NOT be available to our children's generation if we don't learn to do some mildly inconvenient and easy things to care for our planet and conserve it's resources.... think about it.  Ta-ta for now, xo