Feeling Green

Today I am going to pat myself on the back for the things I do right. Of, course, immediately I remind myself that bragging about oneself is not good. Drat. Why do I always have to be so self-righteous? I am feeling green today, but it was not caused by any conscious political agenda.

I have stopped eating red meat, apart from on special occasions. It has been claimed that beef production causes relatively much greenhouse gases. My husband and I eat a lot more vegetables, particularly roots. Breakfast consists of simple, old-fashioned oatmeal cereal and an apple. Yes, we have changed our diet, but we have not made it complicated or rigid.

I walk to work. Anything else would be silly. It takes less than five minutes. Presently we are in the process of moving to another house, and then my walk would be about 15 minutes. I look forward to a reasonable walk. (Frisking around in sleek looking hyper-expensive training gear on my free time does not fit into my life style.)

We have one car. It is a medium sized car, an older model, but it is very fuel-efficient. It is a 2005 Toyota, which runs on petrol. In Norway the lowest octane available is 95. I think it burns cleaner. We need a car here in the village, but we do not need it every day.

I just mended my husband’s favourite wool shirt, itself a throw-off from family. (It is partly moth eaten and both sleeves were ripped – but he loves it.)

I get most things second hand, by the way – it is more fun that way: Great stuff, good prices. Less waste on the garbage heaps – at least for some time. Sometimes I pick up give-aways. There are several used-stuff networks, Finn.no, local groups, or Missions’ Stores – where all they have is donated and they resell it as a fundraiser for missions. Great idea! Money given to missions is never wasted.

I do not have a dryer these days. I air-dry the clothes. It helps them last longer, I think.

If I need to find gifts, I like to buy things locally. If I look long enough, I normally find something. The village is small, but the stores have good selections. Who cares if it may be a wee bit cheeper in the big warehouse outlet in the city. I like my local stores to stick around. So, I need to support them with my shopping sometimes.

We regulate the heating with wood burning stoves. I wondered about the eco-friendliness of that – and found out that wood rots in the forest, a natural decomposing process, and it is the same fumes and gases produced there as when burning the wood, and in addition, it goes faster. I wondered about deforestation issues, but learnt that cutting down trees for fuel is necessary for the management of certain types of trees.

We sort our garbage in three categories: Paper, plastic&metals&glass, and biodegradable food waste. My husband is pretty strict about this.

There are most likely areas we can improve on. Anyone who reads this will most likely wonder: but what about…? There is room for improvement, I am sure. For it to work for me, though, it should not be too drastic and not dreary. I like the simple life. I am naturally local.