Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Crazy environmental dreams

If you didn't have a spouse, significant other, roommates, kids and/or nosy parents to impede your crazy environmental dreams, what would you do?

What would you do?


If they aren't listed here, add 'em to the comments!

30 comments:

Doyu Shonin said...

We have done ALL of these things at one time or another in our 33 years together. We were 70s off-grid/off-greed apostles back in the day. Now, with the first Social Security check coming in another month, we mostly go back and forth about the need for our fridge, freezer and dryer. I'm afraid I won't get to try that one again in my lifetime, alas.

Anonymous said...

I'd give the dryer away. I never use it but the hubby does. We live in the desert. Don't need it!

Anonymous said...

Get rid of the cars...

Tina said...

I would go totally off the grid, grow all of my own food, rely on preserves and hunting/fishing for winter rations. I would stay warm with wood heat, and have my own artisian well. My cabin would be tiny, but well insulated. I would have a porch. I would not live near a highway.

Of course with 5 children and a husband, this is not even a remote possibility.

CaraM said...

Get rid of the dryer!

Laura said...

I am alone with my dogs and chickens. I probably would need a significant other in order to do the rest.

Prairiemom said...

My SO has been really understanding and supportive at my environmental efforts. The one currently blocking me from my dream of urban chickens is my nosy neighbor, who really just needs a hobby. Chickens are legal here as long as they aren't causing a disturbance, and most of my neighbors would be fine with it, except for this one. *sigh.
We have looked at buying an acreage, about 5 acres just outside of town, but there are financial barriers there. For now, we will just have to dream.

Cherie said...

Fortunately, a few years ago my husband got on board with environmentalism so we already do some of the things on the list - have bees and chickens and grow our own food.

I do wish we lived closer to an urban area so as to reduce our fuel use.

Anonymous said...

Luckily my husband mostly supports my crazy. ;) Still can't convince friends and family we're not insane... but they don't have to liv with me either. ;)

Rachel said...

Is it crazy that I already do two of those things currently? Some of those things I have no interest in doing though, like going vegan/raw or live in an RV.

Michelle said...

I'm already raising much of our food, and I have hens and rabbits already... goats are coming soon - once the fence is up!

Rivenfae said...

Finny thing is aside from the yurt/tepee, rv, and commune I'm trying everything thing else even with my kids. The point there is if I want to do those things then I need to do them while I am physically capable of doing them. Also while my boy friend is physically capable as well. Waiting until the kids are gone is not really an option for me. Waiting "until the kids are grown" just means it's very likely you won't get to do the things you want to do with your life.

So why wait...? Move out to a farm and raise your own food! turn off that fridge! ..And... turn off that AC! you don't need to waste that power. I got along fine as a young child without it, we lived without it here until the end of the summer. It's not necessary in reality, it's a crutch that people use to stay indoors and be glued to the internet or TV.

nika said...

Laura: you could hire help - MUCH less trouble than a significant other...

i am not sure how an RV is green?

You do not have to wait until the family is grown...

I have a DH, we have 3 kids and we raise our own chickens, have dairy goats, have gardens when there is no snow pack, use no oil to heat - use high efficiency biomass boiler in the basement, plan to get deeper green... homesteading is such a wonderful life and work (when i am not in the lab working that is - which i also love).

dont wait - get started!! i put together a handout to help people in many situations (urban to rural) to begin to integrate animals into homesteading - that link is here - http://www.scribd.com/doc/44776693/Appropriate-use-of-animals-in-permaculture (let me know if this link doesnt work for you)

you can even download that doc to print if it floats your boat.

Anne said...

I'm already doing several of these things with the husband and kids, but several I know I'd be fighting them to get them done such as the yurt and the composting toilet. It's darn difficult to turn off the air conditioning here in the desert, but I could bundle up a bit more in the winter. Of course, I could always move.

Matriarchy said...

I would start planning my own retirement "commune." I would rather start my own, than join one. My teens are squeemish and lazy, but they are leaving for college. I may not be able to get my SO to give up heat and A/C in our current house, but I might be able to get him to pee in a bucket, and I can use cloth wipes myself. I want to compost humanure and use dilute pee to fertilize in the garden.

Dea-chan said...

I feel that while vegetarianism is often useful and non-destructive, being vegan is a choice made by privileged in a privileged society. "Oh lemme just go buy my specialty Vegan/Probiotic/b-12 vitamins because I'm doing this for the earth".

^ my own personal pet peeve. You just need so many extra inputs that you can't supply if you're vegan. Fer crissakes, we're omnivores and have canines! :-D

Green Bean said...

Oh fun, I love polls!! I'd totally move to a farm but those damn pesky kids and that darnned husband and his job. Sigh. Someday.

Chile said...

Have done darn near everything on that list that I wanted to do. Zoning regs are what's holding us up from going as far as we want in the gardening to grow all our own food.

Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

I want to add another selection:

None of the above.

Are these items what it takes to be considered really green and not a poser? I'm having a hard time keeping up because the bar is always being raised to high. I realize that country farm living appeals to you Chrunchy and so many of your reader but it's not my green dream. I appreciate having electricity and work to keep my use under 15 KwH a day. I like flower gardening to food gardening because until I bought my house, I had room for neither. This year, I tucked herbs and vegetables among the lavender I planted in my flower bed. I camped in an RV as a kid year round on vacations and trips as a kid and in a tents as adult. It taught me to appreciate the outdoors and I got to see a lot of the country on road trips. I don't think I'd like to do it year round, campers aren't very insulated fur winter use (experience here.) I appreciate be able to turn on air conditioning when it hits 90 outside and the heater on during the winter (at 58)so my pipes won't freeze. I live consciously and seasonally. Isn't that enough?

Debbie M said...

I would set the air conditioner much warmer. He would bicycle more places.

Amy in Tacoma said...

I'm with Condo Blues -- none of the above (other than perhaps going vegan). My passions would be helping people in urban communities live more sustainably, and environmental justice.

Last year when I was looking for a job, I came across a few environmental internships, some in the environmental justice arena, and I remember thinking that if I didn't have a family to help support, I'd love to do that.

Aimee said...

I'd put on a backpack and start walking. I'd like to walk from Alaska to Mexico. I have some experience, I know I can carry everything I need to camp out.

Sam said...

I reader this on my rss reader and didn't see the poll and thought you were referring to dreams while sleeping. And I came prepared to write about the dream I had a few nights ago about making a baby with Bootsy Collins (for those who don't know, I'm child free by choice and don't have any baby yearnings or anything) so most of the dream was pretty dirty, really. But eh...it was just a dream :)

fragmentaerie said...

I could do so much of this, easily, but I live with my parents (college kid) and they think more technology is always better.

Anonymous said...

I have been using cloth wipes and pad for two or three years. I would like to live in a strawbale, Tumbleweed Home,Cobb house, but in the middle of my small city so I could bike to work and walk to the farmers market; however, I am a Home Health nurse so I have to drive to see my patients. Maybe become a freegan!

Crunchy Chicken said...

CondoBlues - "Are these items what it takes to be considered really green and not a poser?"

Nope, not at all. Just things that are hard to get buy-off from the "saner" people in our lives.

Oldnovice said...

My fantasy was to move to a rainforest and study rainforest "medicine" with the local "witch doctor". That was when my kids were young. Now that I'm old, I'm pretty happy to simply share with my first grandchild.

Manhattan Air Conditioning Service said...

I go vegan at least twice a week to ensure I am not eating too many of them.I also like to use the solar energy as much as possible as alternative energy.

Emma said...

I already am vegan it no that hard.
Btw raw is not very eco as it seems

Anonymous said...

I would add using a clothesline in my backyard, but in rainy Seattle that will only work a few months of the year. I do not understand why veganism is environmentally correct since so many of the substitute products are made from petroleum - acrylic sweaters, paraffin candles, vinyl purses, belts and shoes - I could go on there. And many of the substitute food items, particularly for dairy, are not locally grown like soy, palm and coconut oils, etc.