My Green Year

After months of steeping and percolating, it's time to turn that intention into action.  The Giant Step that really just takes one second to accomplish.  So here it is...the moment is here...Will she? Will she? ...She will.

"Today and every day I will do one thing to make my life greener."

That's it. It is not so earth-shattering, but it is something I have been test-driving for nine months or so.  I started out just reality-checking. Not every day, but "whenever", and have found enough small things to be done that I think can make a difference.  My thoughts right now are that it does not have to be a huge disruptive, life-changing action, but just a small act that would not be something I would do normally, or that I was already doing.  As small as choosing not to buy that case of plastic water bottles, or buying a new set of recyclable grocery bags for the other cars. Or something bigger...

Of course I have to ask myself, will there be an end-point? A day when I just can't think of anything more I can do? What if my resolve falters?  OK.  So, I will log it just for one year. That is only 365 things to do...not impossible.  I was actually going to launch this back on Earth Day, but "Life" intervened, and there is nothing wrong with October 17th.  In the spirit of that old sixties slogan, "Today is the first day of the rest of the year."   And I know I can rely on like-minded friends and others to help me along the way...

What about "cheating"? What if I am tempted to "count" something that I have actually already done in the "test-drive phase?"  To reduce this temptation, I will disclose a few things that have already happened.

As some people know, I have been keeping backyard chickens, supplementing their chicken kibble with our food scraps, then composting their waste in a stacking bin system.  I let the chickens out to free-range in the garden, where they have eaten all the snails and slugs and many other "pests" as well...So far, so good. I do have to make the rounds at least twice a day with the poop-scooper and rake to collect their offerings and deposit them in the bin. We also have three Labradoodles who similarly free-range in the garden and have eaten my gardening clogs, a gnome, a patio chair cushion and many other useful items as well. One sad truth:  Poop Attracts Flies. Dog-poop+Chicken poop= More Flies.

In the mid-summer, the fly-visitors were increasing in number and one day, when I noticed about twenty at once buzzing around the compost, I hastened to the local garden supply for a relatively benign, non-chemical solution. Bingo! The hanging plastic fly-attractant-filled traps are amazing.  To our horror, our first one was filled within a week.  The boys estimated at least 800-1,000 fly victims. Three more traps followed and were filled just as quickly. It soon became clear that while we had most likely effectively eradicated our original flies, the filth-scented traps were attracting the entire neighborhood's fly population. With that many flies, it can take hours for them all to creep into the filth-chamber, and in the meantime, they hang around and do what flies do.

Jumping forward a few weeks in time...my compost pile is beautiful! I am getting ready to photograph it for the International Compost Photo Competition (which I will be initiating shortly in Finland), and, as I am lovingly sifting through the dark, coffee ground-colored richness, I unearth a fork-full of pale, skin-colored, writhing, maggots.

A quick perusal of the internet reveals that these are not highly desirable "soldier fly maggots"--a favorite chicken treat--and that some permethrin in the compost would take care of them. I do have permethrin in the garage in case of chicken mites, but it is a neurotoxin dangerous to cats, fish, and amphibians (I saw a newt seven years ago in the yard and you never know). This information, and the knowledge of how quickly maggots develop, forced me into immediate alternative action. As I carefully balanced 12 cooking pots of boiling water down the two flights of stairs (multiple trips) to boil the beasties in their lair, I asked myself more questions:  Is this misguided green overkill? Could I put my efforts to better use? What about the gas and water used to boil the water? And then (as my "Master Composter" training tells me), I have basicially ruined the fine biochemical balance of the hot compost, as it will take weeks of turning or a truckload of dry green and brown matter in just the correct proportions to get it going again.

So that leaves me with some open-ended existential questions to contend with as I go along, and my "Green Thing of the Day" to still come up with... 

I respectfully ask the reader for comments, advice, and support.

Thanks!

Kristin