Loco for Locavore!

A few years ago, I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp (her husband) and Camille Kingsolver (her older daughter). For anyone who is not familiar with the book, Kingsolver describes on the book’s website: ”Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Harper Collins, 2007) is the story of a year in which our family deliberately fed ourselves on products grown close to home, and what we learned from the experience.” I was inspired by the book. Earlier that year, I’d read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and I was already going a little bit nuts about the whole Locavore thing. I’d had a Community-Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) share for several summers in a row, and that particular summer (2007), a friend and I were growing a fairly decent sized garden of our own on her property.

A beautiful, exhausting labor of love

After I read Kingsolver and co.’s book, my locavore fanaticism hit a new high. I poured over every freaking label in the grocery store searching for the most local box of cereal/can of beans/carton of milk possible. When I’d come home with one over-priced sack of groceries. My partner at the time would stare at me in amazement and horror when I’d arrive home over an hour later with just one bag of groceries, particularly after he saw the receipt. His expression seemed to be asking, “How is it possible you spent all that time in the grocery store and bought almost nothing to eat for so much money?” I’d ignore his bewildered gaze and calmly unload my local cheeses and apples and hazelnuts.

Organic Broccoli--$4 a pound.  Yikes!

Slave to the Web

My month of reducing my superfluous web browsing is over.  Looking over my list of what I said I would not do online, it is clear that I part-succeeded and part-tanked this challenge. Here’s a brief report card of how I did with each item:

     1. I'll be abstaining from all items listed under "Super Superfluous." 

This was a mixed bag. In terms of social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), I abstained almost 100%.  I accidentally logged into FB the very first day.  That’s it.  If this were the whole of my “Super Superfluous” category, I’d get an A.  But it isn’t. While I managed not to peruse online stores for things I don’t need, and avoided YouTube and strangers’ blogs, I totally looked up every cast member of Game of Thrones on IMDB.  AND I spent over an hour late at night reading stupid gossip on EOnline!  Grade: C 

"Moon of my life, my sun and stars" Credit: HBO

      2.  I will spend no more than 15 minutes daily looking at friends' blogs and the news 

          online.

Aside from gossip “news” on EOnline! (so not news), I did keep myself in check here. Grade: A

It's kind of like dating. But it isn't.

(FYI: I took no special pictures for this post, nor did I scour the internet for appropriate images.  Thanks to my friends and family for having adorable pets.)

Ten days into "No Superfluous Web Browsing" month and I’ve only logged onto Facebook once, entirely by accident—you’re a hard, hard habit to break, Facebook.  As soon as I saw my feed pop up and realized my mistake, I logged out IMMEDIATELY, I swear.  I know I’m not missing anything *too* crucial, because I set it up so I get an email for any messages to me, any events, and any notes or tags (I’m on to you, QH).  But I do kind of miss it.  I feel a little out of the loop.  So I’m trying to redouble my efforts to add more connection to friends outside the social media universe and that’s proving to be a little, how should I say it, humbling…?

Look at that humble face! (Friends' dog)

Quit Your Superfluous Web Browsing Already!

Superfluous
--adjective
1. being more than is sufficient or required; excessive. 
2. unnecessary or needless.

3.  Obsolete. Possessing or spending more than enough or necessary; extravagant.

I'm seeking to greatly reduce my "Superfluous Web Browsing" for my Operation Consumption Liberation challenge in August.   You may be asking, what exactly qualifies as "Superfluous Web Browsing."  Excellent question. Here are some examples of what, in my subjective opinion, isn't, might be, and totally is "superfluous web browsing":

A letter to my Facebook friends.

In preparation for No Superfluous Web Browsing month, I just posted a shorter version of this as a note of my Facebook page. 

Dear Facebook friends,

Perhaps you've been following my "Operation Consumption Liberation" project on my blog.  If you've haven't, here's the gist of it: every month I've been giving up or restricting my consumption of a different object or behavior.  These are things, I feel, in which overindulging has a negative impact, be it on my physical health or success, or on the environment.

For August, I'm restricting the amount of time I spend consuming all the random crap the internet has to offer.  I want Superfluous Web Browsing to consume less of my time.  I'm still pinning down exactly what I think "superfluous web browsing" and what I will allow myself to do. (Like, looking up the weather forecast?  Okay.  Reading Wil Wheaton's totally geeky blog late at night? No, no, no.)  But here's the one parameter for this month I'm set on: No Facebook.

The July Power and Water Report

It’s the last day of JULY and my month devoted to reducing my water and power consumption!!!  Tomorrow, I’ll put up the post that defines my August challenge to reduce my “superfluous web browsing” (in addition to taking a Facebook hiatus).  But before moving to the fresh and new, here’s my end-of-July wrap up.  First, I want to report what I did to reduce my water and power consumption in the rooms that my home tour did not visit.  Then we’ll look at my month-end bathroom water stats to find out how mellow my water yellowed. (I know, eww…)

Underthings tumbling

As my month of reduced water and electricity consumption starts to wind down, it's Laundry Day, where we pop into my laundry room to look at how I've been cutting water and electricity use in that realm of the household.

But before we poke through my present dirty laundry, let's look at my dirty laundry a few years ago.  I wrote last time about the dish washing process at Punta Mona, the permaculture organic farm in Costa Rica where I spent the summer of 2009.  In many ways, the things I'm doing this month are things that I had to practice while at Punta Mona.  For example, my showers:  like at the Mona, I get in, get wet, and then turn off the power.  Then I shampoo and lather.  Turn on water to rinse.  Turn off, condition and shave.  Turn on water to rinse.  Done. 

For the love of God, please do not urinate in the showers!

Actually, the above description leaves out a Punta Mona step I've been including in my showers: every time I took a shower while at Punta Mona, I washed at least 1 piece of clothing, even if it was my bathing suit.  At home, I do this while the water warms up (which was NOT part of the Punta Mona shower experience).  Since I frequently shower post-running, I pre-rinse my running bra, running pants, and sometimes a shirt or underwear under the running faucet while it heats.  Then, after I'm all soaped up, I soap my clothes up.  And then when I rinse, I also rinse them too.  This process adds a little to my shower time, and I'm not sure it is the most effective method.  But it has cut down on how often I need to do laundry.