Change the World Wednesday – 18th Jun

The world is in the grip of Cup fever

Everything is football or soccer.

Today finishes the first week; a week full of surprises and disappointments.

Australia vs Holland is due to start soon and I’ll be in front of the TV, although after Holland’s performance against Spain, I don’t hold much hopes for Australia. Still the world is full of surprises.

My first tennis ball sized guava came off the tree this morning, it’s a handsome brute and will make a full glass of juice.

Today’s CTWW, is about water, grey water.

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This week, find creative ways to use grey water. For example, Agnes, a true “greenie” and CTWW participant, uses bath water to flush the toilet. Some people take shower water and use it to feed their plants. My grandmother (way ahead of her time) diverted rinse water from her washing machine to a tub. Then, the water was sucked back into the machine for the next load’s wash cycle. The idea, this week, is to prevent as much water as possible from going down the drain.

After having my roof-top water tank fixed last week, finally; it has developed a slow drip. I am waiting for the plumber to come back and fix it. Meanwhile, the drip off the roof is falling into a bucket to be used on my plants.

Does yours just go down the drain?

The used water from the laundry and washing the bathroom and kitchen floors goes out into the yard to help scrub the yard clean before it goes down the drain.

I try to let only well-used or very dirty water to go down the drain.

The water that I rinse the dishes with also goes out for the plants. This is a new innovation for me. I now have a bucket under the sink and instead of rinsing the plates, etc under the tap, they get dipped in the bucket before going on to the dish rack.

With my steps at saving grey water, I now have more water than the plants need. It has been a long time since I have used the garden hose on the pot plants.

Even the water that I rinse the coffeepot with, goes on the plants in the living room.

Living alone, I don’t actually have a lot of grey water, but what I do have, I try to reuse.

Change the World Wednesday – 26th Feb

Her avatar

A sad note to start of the day. Lois, of Living Simply Free and a regular contributor to CTWWs and other environmental matters has decided to step back from blogging. Lois has been an inspirational source of what can be done, and I personally will miss her well thought out and pertinent contributions. She explains all in a post New Adventures, then follows up with Paradise Lot – I Thank You

Lois, good luck for the future.

No wonder it died; half its guts are missing…

I had a drama on Monday, of course, it had to be a Monday; perpetuating the myth.

My PC died again. Third time in as many weeks. All this began to happen after Brazil suffered a pane (power cut) that affected half the country three weeks ago. I was forced to reinstall XP again, to compensate for the corrupt config.sys file. But it has led me to believe that my PC needs to be rePCed.

Now I am not going to rush off and buy a new one (ecologically unsound), I am opting for a reconditioned one for a quarter of the price. Also, the reconditioned one comes with XP, not the horrendous Windows 8 that would be forced on me if I bought new.

I wouldn’t touch Windows 8 with yours…

I see they have put the ‘Start’ button back on, but why on earth up top, why not where people were used to it?

One of the things I hate about Microsoft is they force things upon you.

Like last night with my laptop at work, it upgraded IE, to 8. I didn’t want it upgraded and I couldn’t stop it. The only useful function for IE is to download FireFox; the programme is useless, pathetic.

</rant over>

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Now we must truck along. This week’s CTWW.

Water!

To begin, test your water conservation knowledge by taking this QUIZ.

 

THEN …

Install at least one low-flow aerator on a faucet in your home. These are relatively inexpensive from hardware stores and are easily installed (just screw them on).

 

OR …

If you’ve already installed aerators on your faucets, choose one other way to conserve water this week. Need some ideas? Eat no meat, pork or poultry (they all require a lot of water to produce). Reduce or eliminate spending (except for true essentials). Keep a pitcher of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap. Review your water bill history to determine periods of high use and make plans to reduce during those times (it’s also a good tool for determining leaks). Fix leaky faucets or toilets. Consider removing some of the lawn (or all of it) and planting native shrubs, plants, trees, etc. When refreshing your pet’s water, or changing the water in a fish tank, use it to feed your plants. Get creative and find a way to reduce your water footprint.

First part. Well, that was a failure – 1/5.

Second part. I have only one tap in the house, the kitchen sink, and it has an aerator. The other tap in the bathroom leaks, so I disconnected it because I never use it. Done √

Third part. In the heat of our present season, I take many brief showers to cool off during the day and night. I bought a large bowl to put in the shower to catch the run off, and that goes on my houseplants and garden. I am already eating less beef, so that is also a saving. I keep iced water in the fridge, rotating two bottles from the tap to the freezer to the fridge. My water bill is static, I always get charged the minimum, so my water use is below that level. Done √

Now I’m off, going to hunt a new PC.

 

Change the World Wednesday – 8th Aug

Garden boxes are all treated timber, but is it safe?

My thanks goes to all those who participated in Reduce Footprint’s  challenge last week; it certainly raised some awareness.

One reader (sorry, I can’t give you credit, I lost the link) covered toxic wood stains and timber preserving, an aspect that I hadn’t considered.

My post simply covered some links for further reading on the identification of plastics and their importance when it comes to our health.

This weeks challenge has been done, but taking account of your water usage is always valuable.

This week conserve water by not wasting it. Consider every drop which typically gets poured down the drain and find creative uses for it. Examine your water use and see where, and how, you can make improvements.

Or …

Already a super-saving, water-conserving hero? Then your challenge is to tell us how you do it … and you’ll get “points” for coming up with truly creative approaches.

The only water that goes down my drain is that which is detergent contaminated, all other grey water goes on to the garden and pot plants. Showering daily at the moment is not necessary with our current cold snap, so every second day, I just splash water on my face to wake up, and give the armpits a similar splash. That’s not possible here in the summer with our 40ºC+ (104ºF) days, some days two showers are necessary, but my showers are limited to three minutes. Being bald has it’s advantages, no hair to wash.

Now here’s some of the little things that I do. Use any excess hot water or vege water to splash on the dirty plates in the sink; it loosens or removes any grease and means you use less detergent.

Do you wash your cutting boards with detergent? Mostly, it’s not necessary; if you use a good stiff brush to scrub and a quick rinse, that’s all that’s necessary. I have four cutting boards in the kitchen, and it would be months since they have seen detergent. I’m not dead yet. I also use the scrubbing brush on my dishes and pots and pans to get rid of any ‘crusted’ deposits; then it just takes a quick wipe with detergent, a quicker dunk, and presto, clean!

Did someone mention ‘beer o’clock’?

I don’t use water to wash my yard down (this is a traditional thing with Brazilians). I sweep it. Raises a good sweat, and makes that beer o’clock even tastier.

There you go, that’s my offering for the week.

Have a great week and a better weekend.