Blog du Wren

Project of the Month

One of the many benefits of all this free time I've arranged for myself is the interesting projects and experiments I've been able to play around with. I've posted about some of them before (puzzles, games, and food just to name a few). Now I would like to take the opportunity to share with you some of the environmentally related projects/experiments I've been playing around with. Conveniently, they've all been month long projects which has put me into a nice little routine.

In February, I experimented with 2 ideas. Firstly, I wanted to look at my personal transportation impact, esp. regarding automobile driving. I'm a firm believer that one of the best ways to lessen our personal impact (in many cases) is to simplify. In terms of transportation, I felt like simplification is best achieved by driving less. I gave myself the ambitious goal of driving less than 10 miles a day on average. That means a trip to Bellingham on the weekend must be offset by 8 or so days of not driving at all. Over the month of February, I closely watched my miles. By the end of the month, I was slightly over. Perhaps 100 miles a week is a more achievable goal. Give it a try and let me know!

The second February experiment was with home heating. With Ma in NZ, I was in control of the thermostat. As anyone who visited during that time knows, keeping it set to 63 makes an extra sweater a must. But in looking at the bill afterwards, the amount of natural gas saved was nothing to sneeze at.

March's environmental project of the month was unsubscribing from catalog mailing lists. We get tons at the house that we never even look at, so I thought: save the paper, save the fuel to ship and deliver them, and save the mail carrier's back. Done and done.

April's EPotM definitely falls into the experimentation category. I've decided to take a small foray into vegetarianism, at least for the month. (Those who know me know how I have wrestled with this before.) My experimental step for the month is to purchase no meat. I've got too much in the fridge to go cold turkey, and I hate seeing good food get thrown away on my behalf. But to the best of my ability, I will be doing what I can.

Wednesday April 4 2007

File under: environment

Toggle Comments (9)

comment?

on Wed 04th Apr, 2007 10:46 pm PDT Mom said:
I'm curious about the use of the word "purchase" in this post. Is this a new form of vegetarianism where you only eat meat that someone else has purchased?
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on Wed 04th Apr, 2007 10:56 pm PDT Ham Hock Harry said:
Dang. It looks like you'll have to put off installing that meat faucet then.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5jAKz8SFjU
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on Wed 04th Apr, 2007 11:54 pm PDT Horge said:
No more purchases... Mmm... Sounds to me like a month of racoon burgers and roadkill sandwiches.
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on Wed 04th Apr, 2007 11:58 pm PDT Horge said:
Otherwise, glad to hear you're becoming a nice ol' hippie in both the tree-hugging and twig-eating sense.
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on Thu 05th Apr, 2007 09:46 am PDT Saxtor said:
Come the end of April look for Wren foraging for meat behind McD's and JitB. Freeganism at it's finest.

Also, is it vegetarian if your Mom purchases the meat you consume? _zing
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on Thu 05th Apr, 2007 05:07 pm PDT Saxtor said:
That said, very good on you for doing your part and telling people about it. That is definitely a great way to get people to clue in.
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on Thu 05th Apr, 2007 05:58 pm PDT Andrew said:
Peace man! I am a hippie! Bong, Bong! ...um. wait. i mean, meat is bad.
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on Thu 05th Apr, 2007 08:59 pm PDT Jule said:
What have you done with Wren???? We want him backkkkk.....
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on Sun 08th Apr, 2007 10:51 pm PDT dave said:
i'm gonna buy some meat and give it to you.
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