I started this blog to keep track of my journey into austerity; my family's continuing march to reduce our footprint on the world and be more conscious of our impacts on the environment.
I started out taking readings and averages of my family's usage for things like water, gasoline, electricity, waste, etc, and compared it to national and regional averages. A plan was made to reach a low impact lifestyle that would barely show up as a blip on a map. And, in the first year, I was very quickly working my way there, having cut our usage and waste by at least 50% in some categories, and up to 80% in others.
Next was to start working on making our little half acre into a sustainable garden. Not only were there plans for vegetation, but also plants that could be used for things other than food. Such as hot peppers to make garden spray from, corn for the husks, herbs that can be dried or pressed for oil for homeopathic uses.
The final step, the one I never did get to start, was to populate the land with livestock. Chickens, first, then a milking goat or two. Other animals would be introduced as city ordinance allowed.
Meanwhile, inside the house, lots of changes were taking place. The twins were still potty training, so we had them in cloth diapers, using cloth wipes with a solution I made. I was downsizing the amount of dishes in the kitchen, one set per person, to reduce excess water usage from long periods of dish washing. Plans were in the works for rain water collection, grey water system, a composting toilet...
Then things happened. Things called life. Slowly things stopped being tracked and accounted for. Efforts weren't being made to reduce waste or keep usage down. Disposable items were making their way back into the house more and more. And suddenly everything was back to what it was before. I stopped even trying, feeling that any effort would be wasted, and just let my blog and all I wanted to do be pushed to the side.
But, I never forgot. The desire to start everything back up has always been there. It's been discussed, but never made it far past that. So many things have changed in the past few years, that no matter how great the desire to to back to my plans were, it seemed like it would be harder this time. The kids are older, my health is worse, our finances are in complete disarray... but those are nothing more than excuses. Yes, there are things that will be harder this time around, but it's not like cutting back on all the conveniences that made our footprint as big as it was when I first started was easy the first time. It's always about sacrifice. About doing better. About showing my kids how to be better.
So, I'm pulling out my old charts. I'm looking up averages, and seeing what ours are. I'm starting slow, like changing the products we use for cleaning and personal use from store bought chemicals full of things we don't need to homemade products that are better for us and the environment. We've already been using a homemade dry laundry detergent for months, now I'm working on switching to no shampoo and homemade toothpaste.
And, maybe, just maybe, I can remember to keep blogging about it all this time. Even if no one reads this, and this is all just for me, it's good to keep a diary of my progress. Good and bad.
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