It's good to be green, 2

The last post with this title was about holiday-themed fun with food coloring; this one concerns another kind of green: environmentalism. When we bought our house a couple of years ago, Dear Husband and I decided to try to reduce our carbon footprint. I built a compost heap behind the shed in the back yard for food scraps (egg shells, carrot peelings, apple cores...). We turn off our Christmas lights when we go to bed. I wash our laundry on "tap cold" and hang almost everything to dry on lines in the back yard in the summer and on drying racks in my study during the winter. We even hand wash dishes instead using the dishwasher (mostly!).

In warm weather we try to leave our car in the garage and use other means of transportation. We live just half a mile from the grocery store and so try to walk when we can. However, buying food for two people once a week, plus the occasional bag of cat food or kitty litter, is really too much to carry, even with each of us lugging a large LL Bean tote bag. So DH finally bought me a "bag lady cart." To the left you can see me adding a name tag to the cart after returning from my first trip with it. All of our groceries juuust fit. This will make going to the store so must easier. It's good to be green!

We are both functional bicycle riders (as opposed to biking for fun or exercise). When the weather is warm we bike the 2 miles to church, which is also work for him, and I try to bike the 3.5 miles to campus as often as possible. Here you can see my get-up:

Biker Graduate Student

Biker Graduate Student comes complete with a $50 refurbished, second-hand mountain bike from the local cycling co-op. Affixed over the rear wheel is a plastic crate large enough for a backpack stuffed with laptop, library books, and graded student papers. The bag has pockets for an umbrella and a reusable water bottle (not included). Comes with a bike lock. For an extra $10 you can get the square, hooked, bungee-cord net--perfect for containing her jacket or lunch bag over the bumpy streets!

The action figure's helmet and sunglasses tell motorists to take her seriously. Remove the reflective vest to reveal a snazzy sun dress and sensible black flats. She is ready to zip across town to teach all morning and research all afternoon! Even if she stays late on campus for meetings, the bicycle's safety features include detachable front and back lights, a chain guard, and a cheery bell in the shape of a frog for warning pedestrians to get off the *$&#% bike path!

Click here to view her companion, card-carrying union-member student action figure.

What do you do to be "green"?