Keeping it Green

For those non runners in my life a little post about another aspect of my life I have been working on. We have been trying to keep life as green as possible in the E-Speed household and so far so good!

It has been just over a year since I started taking the bus to work. I cannot tell you how nice it has been. I have been reading a ton and saving myself a ton of driving related stress. I am not sure if I am saving much money. The commute is $2 each way. Since I have to drive once a week to get to the track and I get a ride home on Thursdays from Jen it doesn't make sense to buy the monthly pass. But I am saving a ton in piece of mind and I hardly ever have to get gas. I have become a bit of a hound for singles though since the grocery store seems to run out of 5 ride passes often. Other than a couple of strange incidences and frequently having to race to get to the stop on time (speed training!) riding the bus has been pretty painless and I am so glad I made the switch!

Last year I kept bugging the hubby to let me buy a push reel mower (aka manual, no motor!) but he didn't seem too keen on the idea. Well the last mow of the season last year I broke the cord on the lawn mower and after a frustrating evening spent trying to fix it the hubby let me buy our push reel mower. With our mower broken and the timing of our vacations and storms etc we actually ended up getting a notice from the city the day I purchased the push reel mower (a little peeved about the notice because we got it the night before a predicted three days of rain and the notice stated we had to 'abate the nuisance' within 48 hours or suffer the city doing it for us and putting a lien on our property). We had actually tried to purchase a push reel mower a few days before but the stores did not have any in stock except for the floor models so I had to do some online research to locate one in our area. Well we got it and I mowed the lawn that night after putting it together.

After the third mowing the yard looks great and added bonus I can mow any time because the mower is pretty quiet! The first two mows admittedly looked a little ragged, but I did mow the first time at night in the rain because of the notice and it took a second mow before everything evened out. I haven't timed it but I am pretty sure it doesn't take any more time than it did with the regular lawn mower. And added bonus you get a bit of an upper body workout pushing the thing around.

Last year I built a rain barrel and because of our busy lives and our lack of handy man skills it took me until now to finally get the thing attached to the gutter coming off of our garage. Well I am happy to report that after just one storm the thing is already full. It is crazy the amount of runoff that comes off of your houses and goes straight into the storm system. If you haven't built a rain barrel yet this is a super easy way to take a green step, lower your water bill, and give your plants water they will benefit from. If you are local check out the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District Website, they are offering some rain barrel workshops in June and July! I'm debating making a second one since I am sure once summer comes we will go through that water quickly.

On a sad note Euclid stopped picking up recyclables. This is disappointing because most people just won't recycle if it involves any additional effort. I just checked the Euclid website and they finally have offered a reasonable alternative, so for those Euclidians like me trying to find a place to put those recyclables head on over to Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School, 18491 Lakeshore Boulevard. The collection bins are in the parking lot. Their previous solutions involved about 6 different drop off sites all for only one type of recycled product and none for plastic. Not convenient at all.

So in a nutshell that's what I have been up to in an effort to decrease my impact on the planet. It isn't much but it is a start!