Saturday, April 18, 2009

Glorious Weekend

This year spring has been slow in arriving..at least here in the North East. Is been chilly and rainy for about a month now. Finally the sign of spring I've been waiting for! A warm, 75 degree, sunshine filled weekend!

Even the sesonal allergies that have me and everyone else in New Jersey sneezing and popping antihistamines can't bring me down.

I've had piles of organic leaf compost and shredded mulch in my driveway since mid-March...today is the day! I can get started on my vegetable garden, clean out my flower beds and make everything look fresh and new again, a much awaited, longed for task.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Other People's stuff

Re-using, re-purposing and recycling other people's stuff...it's an amazing feeling. We are always on Craig's List looking for articles we may be able to use and keep out of a landfill. Most recently, we got a free pool! More than having a great pool for our kids to swim in this summer, we kept a huge amount of materials from being thrown into a landfill. We are reusing a huge amount of previously manufactured materials.

Sure, we could have gone out and bought a new above ground pool and built a large wood deck, using all new virgin materials, but at what cost? Manufacturing, transporting and storing all of these materials is a huge contributing factor to the degradation of the environment.

There are literally thousands and thousands of items that still have lots of usefulness left in them, that end up in the garbage, because they are unwanted by their current owner. The old addage, "One man's trash is another man's treasure" has never been so true and important.

I am very grateful to the family that thought enough of the environment to see their unwanted, but still very useable pool and deck, go to a family who would recycle it and enjoy it for years to come.

Just about anything can be re-used, re-purposed or recycled from one person to another. Cars, clothes, toys, furniture, decorations, plants, the list can go on and on. We believe it is important for our future to reuse and recycle whenever possible, it's a gratifying feeling to make something new again. Try it!