Omlet Smart Autodoor - New in box

[Willow]

I thought it might be interesting to post our green new year resolutions here

 

(1) This year I will get a drying area sorted in the garden close to the laundry room so I actually put clothes out to dry instead of only using the dryer

 

(2) When my wood stove is finally fitted I will use that during the day to warm downstairs instead of the gas heating

 

(3) Put in green cone I got from freecycle and start using it (between chickens and composting that should reduce food waste to zero)

 

(4) Walk within the village

[Couperwife]

oooh, what a great idea

 

right, I shall:

 

1. recycle more (fallen off it a bit lately - now, where is that compost bin again)

 

2. shop in town (that way I can take my rolser trolley and not the car)

 

3. use charity shops more

 

ok, thats it for now

 

cathy

x

[chickenanne]

I'm going to throw no food away. We don't waste that much anyway, but I'm going to get more organised and throw away none, or as close as I can get to none without food poisoning.

[Couperwife]

glad you added that last bit chickenanne - I had visions of you getting extra dosings of penicillin

 

cathy

x

[Charlottechicken]

I'm going to throw no food away. We don't waste that much anyway, but I'm going to get more organised and throw away none, or as close as I can get to none without food poisoning.

 

I will aim to do this as well . I am trying to put no food waste in the bin. At the moment the wild birds are feasting on bread made of flour past it's sell by date (I couldn't use it any more as I could taste the extra, erm, protein ) and mum's old chip pan oil, they love it! Any meat and fat s"Ooops, word censored!"s also go out for the wild birds (chopped finely of course) and are snapped up, or pecked up

 

I will empty my compost bin regularly (now would be a good time!) and get another one to go alongside it.

 

I will continue to use charity shops, and source more gifts from them (that'll please some folk...not!).

 

[Lesley]

I will look at the compost 'bins' this year - they are large areas surrounded by corrugated metal and I tend to ignore them

 

and, I will harvest stuff as soon as it is ready instead of leaving it until it is tough instead of tender.

 

...and I will stop breeding hybrid x hybrid chickies and concentrate on a pure breed.

[Looney]

What a good thread

 

We are aiming to reduce black bin waste. I've already started saving up plastics that we can't recycle locally here but that can go in my parent's recycling bin in Lincolnshire.

 

We are keeping a log of what we spend on food, drink, household stuff. The aim is partly to encourage us to spend less and partly to try and only buy what we need and reduce waste.

 

That's it, until I think of more!

[chickenanne]

[.... At the moment the wild birds are feasting on bread made of flour past it's sell by date (I couldn't use it any more as I could taste the extra, erm, protein ) and mum's old chip pan oil, they love it! Any meat and fat s"Ooops, word censored!"s also go out for the wild birds (chopped finely of course) and are snapped up, or pecked up

 

They are both really good ideas: it's stuff like old oil and fat trimmed from meat that I was thinking would be almost impossible not to throw away.

[TAJ]

The one thing we are bad at is plastic - not that we use much, but milk bottles are the thing I need to do more of - our door stop colections are only paper/card, tins & glass. Very little food waste - what there is goes in cats, hen & compost bins depending what it is.

 

All jars are reused for preserving, wine bottles for home made wine, and food generally is home grown or bought lose so we keep packaging down. However we are not like a family on the news this week who throws out only 1 bin of rubbish for a whole year! did anyone else see this?

 

Tracy

[Charlottechicken]

However we are not like a family on the news this week who throws out only 1 bin of rubbish for a whole year! did anyone else see this?

 

Tracy

 

Yep!

 

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=56933

[Willow]

(5) Reduce black bin rubbish

 

I'd been working on that last year but we plateaued at about 2/3rds black bin a week for family of 4. I've been glad I got it down as much as I did as we've not had our bins collected since 3.5 weeks now and it's not too bad even with extra rubbish from Christmas but still plenty of room for improvement !

[Lavenders_Blue]

My green resolutions are:

 

1) To be mindful of what I buy so I don't later have a load of unwanted stuff to throw away

2) To be conscious of food packaging as the only plastic we can recycle here is bottles

3) To get the compost bin set up - we have now been in our new house for nearly 6 months and I feel terribly guilty about all the banana skins and peelings etc that have been just thrown in the bin

4) To start a veggie plot in the garden

[docsquid]

My green resolutions are

 

1. To buy less, and what I do buy will be good quality so it lasts longer, and recyclable, and preferably made locally (hard to achieve sometimes).

 

2. To be much more self-sufficient with food. My preferred options are

 

a) Grow it myself - can do more now we have a greenhouse and chickens. This includes hunting and eating wild food from our country site

b) Get it from local farm shop(s)

c) Get it delivered as this is more eco friendly than driving to several shops

 

3. To eat meat no more than once a day, and to have at least one meat-free day each week. This is not because I am veggie (although I was years ago), but because it makes sense to have a more mixed set of protein sources in the diet.

 

4. To install a wood burner and use this to heat water and downstairs of the house.

 

5. To install solar panels at our country site to avoid using a generator for power.

[TAJ]

The one thing we are bad at is plastic - not that we use much, but milk bottles are the thing I need to do more of - our door stop colections are only paper/card, tins & glass. Very little food waste - what there is goes in cats, hen & compost bins depending what it is.

 

All jars are reused for preserving, wine bottles for home made wine, and food generally is home grown or bought lose so we keep packaging down. However we are not like a family on the news this week who throws out only 1 bin of rubbish for a whole year! did anyone else see this?

 

Tracy

 

Our local council will change to door step plastic bottle collection from April ..so will that make my new challenge too easy?

 

Tracy

[Lavenders_Blue]

Our local council will change to door step plastic bottle collection from April ..so will that make my new challenge too easy?

 

Tracy

 

Definitely not! Our local council also collects plastic bottles but no other plastics. This is great for milk bottles and squash bottles etc but it's phenomenal how much other plastic I still throw away. Buying meat is a nightmare as it nearly always comes in a plastic tray. Cottage cheese, houmous and the suchlike are now an occasional treat as I can't recycle the tub it comes in. Many fruits (thinking of strawberries, grapes, raspberries) come in non recyclable plastic trays..... I could go on!

I am starting to find ways to cut down the waste, including planting some fruits and veg this year but it ain't easy. So don't worry, your challenge is definitely still a challenge!

[docsquid]

Our council have got pretty good at recycling now - you can put in plastic food trays, except polystyrene. They also take the cardboard tetrapak cartons, which we couldn't recycle before. We recycle a very high proportion of our waste now.

 

The only problem is that they are going to replace our more flexible large tubs with a single blue wheelie bin once a fortnight, and this is less flexible for cardboard, in particular.

 

Ah well, at least they are trying.

[Willow]

Well we're one month into the year how is everyone doing ?

 

Woodburning stove was finally fitted and although I'm not very good at lighting it and keeping it going yet DH is and we've been using that instead of heating during the day (we both work from home). I'm especially glad now I replaced main doors with double door so we could open up most of downstairs as it works well with the stove.

 

I've also been doing much better with only walking locally although not perfect.

 

No progress yet on setting up an area for drying clothes in the garden or installing my green cone. I've been looking at the garden and suspect I ought to sort boundaries properly before embarking on any other projects. And we've realised we need another wood store much closer to the house and that will need to go in same area as I've earmarked for clothes line although both should fit.

[docsquid]

My green resolutions are

 

1. To buy less, and what I do buy will be good quality so it lasts longer, and recyclable, and preferably made locally (hard to achieve sometimes).

 

Not doing too well at this, but at least everything I've bought has been needed.

 

2. To be much more self-sufficient with food. My preferred options are

 

a) Grow it myself - can do more now we have a greenhouse and chickens. This includes hunting and eating wild food from our country site

b) Get it from local farm shop(s)

c) Get it delivered as this is more eco friendly than driving to several shops

 

3. To eat meat no more than once a day, and to have at least one meat-free day each week. This is not because I am veggie (although I was years ago), but because it makes sense to have a more mixed set of protein sources in the diet.

 

The eating less meat is going very well and I'm up to three meat free days a week for me (less for him). Have got a lot of seed potatoes and onions, set up the greenhouse, and got a lot of plants for a permaculture garden in our orchard. Going well on this one. All veg and food now delivered. Chicken food and bedding comes from local farm shop. I'm getting better at thinking of uses for things that were previously waste too.

 

4. To install a wood burner and use this to heat water and downstairs of the house.

 

No progress on this. DH is losing interest as it will be very expensive. But he is renewing interest in solar for hot water, so that is something.

 

5. To install solar panels at our country site to avoid using a generator for power.

 

Have the security brackets all made and just waiting for a weekend with decent weather when we can get suitable help to put it up.

[Lavenders_Blue]

My green resolutions are:

 

1) To be mindful of what I buy so I don't later have a load of unwanted stuff to throw away

2) To be conscious of food packaging as the only plastic we can recycle here is bottles

3) To get the compost bin set up - we have now been in our new house for nearly 6 months and I feel terribly guilty about all the banana skins and peelings etc that have been just thrown in the bin

4) To start a veggie plot in the garden

 

Well I have managed number 3. The compost bin went up two weeks ago and it's nearly half full already! (okay there is a lot of pooey chicken bedding in there I had been bagging up ready for composting)

 

DH has been out to get wood for the raised veggie beds. He works for a building firm and found some left over timber just the right size on a site that will do the job, so this will be doubly green! Hopefully we can get these dug out and planted in the next couple of months... I say hopefully...!

 

I am working slowly towards the other two.

[Charlottechicken]

So far, I've not thrown any food away, all bits go to the hens, wild animals or compost heap as appropriate. Compost bin was emptied onto the veg patch a while ago and hens are allowed out for supervised scratching on it

 

Managed to keep up with using charity shops as my number one source of clothes and household shopping, not that it is particularly hard

 

I have not yet got around to installing a second compost bin, way too yucky down the bottom of the garden, I'll wait till Spring.

 

I also have a couple of builder bags which I am hoping to make into potato/veg growing bags this year too. I've already picked one to pieces and saved the thread to sew it back together with

[Lesley]

I will look at the compost 'bins' this year - they are large areas surrounded by corrugated metal and I tend to ignore them

 

and, I will harvest stuff as soon as it is ready instead of leaving it until it is tough instead of tender.

 

...and I will stop breeding hybrid x hybrid chickies and concentrate on a pure breed.

 

Mine are all waiting for slightly better weather.......honestly!

[chickenanne]

I'm going to throw no food away. We don't waste that much anyway, but I'm going to get more organised and throw away none, or as close as I can get to none without food poisoning.

 

Oh, not so good . I'm a bit embarrassed about it, as whilst we really don't throw much away at all, there's still been the odd well-past-it's-best thing in the back of the fridge.

 

We have been really good about making stock from the Sunday roast bones and peelings, and have been good about less meat generally.

 

However, reading this has shaken me up and I will de-clutter the fridge tonight and hopefully that will set me back on teh straight and narrow!