Are we GREEN & SUSTAINABLE enough?

[karen @rawchocolateheaven]

Thought I would start a thread on being Green,
What does it mean to you?
What changes have you made in your life / home?
Any tips you can offer to help a family become more green?
Garden share or allotment news?
Wild foods?


Well kicking off, For our family going green has meant a complete lifestyle change, literally from having several cars and a motorbike (mine xxx) to just the van for work, and getting great push bikes then remembering how hard it is to cycle..then add a toddler strapped to the bike!!

We started to grow our own veg a few years ago, beginning at first with suplimenting our veg box from Riverford or Sunnyfield to now growing in the good months close to 100% of our food needs, we buy from local farmers markets and local shops any exotic (bananas/mangos etc) fruits and rather naughtily out of season veg like cucumbers & celery.
We have an allotment and are in the process of building a ellaborate system of boxes in our sunny front garden.

For me Wild fooding has been the greatest move into being green. From our house I walk a rough circle and gather when the seasons are right a huge variety of food. If I combine it with a trip to the beach I can literally feed our family for long periods of time.
Over a number of years I have expanded my knowledge and am now confident in collecting a variety of foods in most months of the year, I admit I struggle a bit in the deepest depths of winter!
But the summer is more than abundant.

We harvest rainwater and filter it in our GS2 water filter for drinking.
from www.green-shopping.co.uk (http://www.green-shopping.co.uk)
We hope to invest in a grey water recycling system to cover our toilets and washing machine.
Our toilets currently have "save a flush systems (http://www.saveaflush.com/)" in them, a great system that allows you to flush only what you need each time you use the loo.

Our garden never gets tap water, we use the little stream behind our house.

Our businesses and because we have 2 and 1 of them is sign making we have really struggled with it's sustainability, example; until recently when we supplied a banner it was PVC and not degradable, at the end of it's life ending in landfill for a few thousand years!! now thankfully the sign trade is getting wise to the needs of the environment and now we can offer a fully recyclable banner.
We do offer a recycling service whereby we collect and clean and reuse signage, keeping costs down for the customer and significantly reducing what we send for waste.
The Inks for our printers are all eco inks, now thats not as green as it might lead you to believe!!! manufacturers are shady in their descpritions, it means Economical in cost and it's print coverage....a little like the diesel at the pump...more miles for the same amount of diesel = less CO2...but it's apoor offset!!! like Bio Fuel....it's not the answer!!!
We are working slowly towards "cleaning" up all aspects of this business it will take time but we are in this for the long haul!

With My Chocolate Business I have managed to take things much further,
all the packaging is from Londonbiopackaging (http://www.londonbiopackaging.com/) who offer biodegradable packs and a close loop system for massive users!!! lol not me yet!
My cacao is imported but I make bars in the summer using fruits, nuts and berries that grow in the hedges round our home.
I only buy organic & fair trade products, choosing local if possible.
A brilliant find the other day was honey from Hythe, a village very close to us.
I also use herbs that I gather or grow myself to flavour chocolate...
and the huge big Green saver is that I only make vegan chocolate, no DAIRY & NO REFINED SUGAR....this is by far the greatest single way we can lower our CO2 footprint

BE VEGAN....Especially eating natural local foods, as packed processed foods have high CO2 prints logically, as they are using plastics and big factories tend to produce them!!!

We have managed loads on a very limited budget....we are planning to be "Off Grid" this way of living on the edge of a city in a normal street is not going to be easy.
With time we will grow all our own food, cover our roof with solar and PV panels to provide all our hotwater & electric needs, complete or grey water system,
I consider what we have achieved and am happy but not yet ready to sit back....
this is the way forward...this is our future...and we are loving it xxx

[Sasta]

Well done Karen that's amazing, you're already doing more than everyone I know put together I think :victory:

[Jax]

I can certainly vouch for your biodegradeable chocolate packaging................I have a lot of it on my compost heap!!! :o:o:o :peace:

I have to say I am seriously considering one of the water filters, and if you want to see a bit more of what our members have said that own one check this link (http://www.rawinuk.com/showthread.php?t=314)

Another member is compiling a list of UK water springs on Facebook so if you know of any let her know here (http://www.facebook.com/friends/?ref=tn#%21/group.php?gid=103649426873&ref=ts) http://www.rawinuk.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[karen @rawchocolateheaven]

Adding to our life, we have a huge TV, well the huge one we had went bang at the beginning of last year and my mother in law couldn't bear the idea that we had only a portable that was ancient....so bought us a new telly...this gave us a brilliant opportunity of buying a "eco" tv, a Samsung (http://www.samsung.com/uk/experience/television/eco/) LED tv, I know not everyone gets a grand + to spend on a telly but the benefits of this one are it's HD, you can fiddle with the settings to reduce electric consumption, we have it on the lowest setting to getting the cheapest running costs, it's nearly 60% less than our previous plasma! and for a whopping 40 inch tv I think not bad!!

Rather more extreme last year we had our gas hot air heating system removed and a woodburner installed....this means quite a lot of work for my man chopping & gathering deadfall but the results are free heating...It does mean wearing jumpers in the winter indoors, but hey I thought that was what we allways used to do!!!
We bought a machine mart basic wood burner for around £300 and the building work to enlarge our fire place was also £300 but considering our combined gas & electric bill for the 08/09 winter was £600 I figured in a couple of years it would have paid for itself!!! yipee

All our light bulbs are either LED or low watt.

as i remember things i will add them to our list!!

[haverawcake]

You have done really well Karen - I am very impressed. I can live in awe of your achievement!

We too have made great efforts to be as green as possible in our lives.

When we moved to our 3 bed 30s semi in Cambridge about 5 years ago it was in need of renovation and have we tried our hardest to eco-renovate it as best as we can. We did some of the work ourselves and had some people come along and do some work for us but we were always very insistent about the eco-friendliness of all products used, which was a challenge at times.

We painted the interior completely in Ecos Organic Paints (http://www.ecospaints.com/index.htm). Our flooring is a combination of natural untreated wool carpets (I don't think they do them anymore - they were imported from Germany by the company) and Happy Step Underlay from Construction Resources (http://www.constructionresources.com/default.asp). We also got solid wood flooring for our hall from the same place which we treated with products from Ecos Organic Paints (http://www.ecospaints.com/index.htm). Our kitchen/diner, bathroom and toilet floor is Marmoleum Natural Linoleum (http://www.marmoleum.co.uk/default.aspx?menuid=274) which is made from natural materials.

We have low energy lightbulbs and do our best to turn things off when we are not using them. We borrowed an Owl Electricity Monitor from our local climate change group who lends them out for a few weeks to monitor our energy consumption which was helpful.

We installed a Heat Recovery Ventilation System from ADM Systems (http://www.admsystems.co.uk/website_dec06/adm1.html) which has done a brilliant job of ventilating our house without needing the windows open and letting all of the heat out in the winter. We had terrible condensation problems before that and they are all now eliminated. We installed the system ourselves but the company supplied all of the products and gave us a comprehensive plan with a visit here to inform exactly us how to install it all and then came and checked it all afterwards. I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Last year when our aging boiler finally gave up we replaced it with a system from Solar Savings (http://www.solarsavings.co.uk/) which includes Solar Hot Water and a condensing boiler. In the summer we don't need to use the boiler at all for hot water and in the spring/autumn the heating of the water is partly done by the solar and partly by the boiler. We did look thoroughly into other options and this seemed to be the most appropriate option for us at the time. I really wanted a wood burner but it did not seem to be the best idea in the end for our house so I gave up on it!

We stopped shopping at supermarkets and just use our Riverford Vegetable Box (https://www.riverfordsacrewell.co.uk/) which is delivered to us by the lovely Martin and Julie in the Cambridge area. We do not eat meat or dairy and use the great Daily Bread Wholefoods co-op (http://www.dailybread.co.uk/) near us in Cambridge for some essentials.

We only use eco-friendly cleaning materials and body care products as well as recycled toilet paper. We have also used washable nappies with our little children.

As I am still breastfeeding both my 5 year old and my 3 year old they are getting nutrition from a very efficient source with minimum impact on the environment.

It has been busy with 2 small children, my husband with a full time job and my business but we are finally realising our dream of growing our own vegetables in our garden. We are lucky that 30s semis come with proportionally big gardens and even though ours was in great need of a lot of work when we arrived here it is finally getting to the stage where we can use it as we want to. We are of course gardening organically and are attempting our vegetable patch biodynamically this year. When we moved here 5 years ago we planted organic apple and pear trees and a grape vine to add to the flourishing greengage tree already there. We also created a herb spiral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herb_spiral.svg) (our second one as we had also made one of these in our tiny London garden where we used to live). Now the vegetable patch is starting up having had a couple of lots of green manure grown on it and dug in. Here we were planting the green manure (I know the grass needed cutting but we had more important things to do).

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff127/annetteandbabes/IMG_3340.jpg

We are also making our own compost with a Tumbleweed Composter (http://www.tumbleweed.com.au/) (very soon to be for sale on the Have Raw Cake And Eat It website) which is great for easy composting of all those fruit and vegetable peelings and scraps as well as grass cuttings and cardboard. It is also easy to use - even my 3 year old has a go at tumbling. We have a water butt with a tap to water the garden which collects rain from our guttering.

As for the business, I use biodegradable bubble wrap and recycled brown paper for packaging as well as re-using boxes and other packaging materials that I have received with supplies. Any unusable cardboard boxes go into our composter but most is re-used. The products for sale in the online shop are either Certified Organic or produced without agricultural chemicals.

We do not fly for holidays anymore as the impact on the environment is so great. We have found a great raw diet friendly alternative to holidays. We have got ourselves a little pop top Eriba Touring Caravan.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff127/annetteandbabes/IMG_4183.jpg

These funky little things are not like the usual white boxes which have to be thrown away after 15 years or so - they are made with a very strong construction and many last for 30 or 40 years if they are looked after, so in that respect they are environmentally friendly in our throw away society. It also means we can get away from it all in the countryside away from the technology of computers etc. and all of the things we live with these days. What has amazed me with it is how happy we can all be in there without all that 'stuff' we seem to accumulate at home. Some books and toys for the children, a fridge and cupboard full of food, a few clothes and we are off. We have loved it so far - going for long walks in all weather,
playing outside, just 'being' in nature.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff127/annetteandbabes/IMG_4199.jpg

It is such a simple lifestyle and when I get home and see all the clutter - loads of books on shelves, toys, just the 'stuff' we acquire in our lives' around I wonder why we have it all. The caravan is tiny - we all sleep in our big beg which is a seating area and table in the day so it is highly efficient in terms of space. As it is so small it really does not use that much power compared to running a whole house and we do not bring many 'gadgets' with us - OK, maybe the blender, food processor and dehydrator but they are essentials for our raw food travel!

The idea of being off grid absolutely fascinates me and I would love to be completely self sufficient in term of food and energy. I guess we are a very long way off from that but it is something I researched extensively and would like to move towards being more self sufficient in more ways as time goes on. I have an ambition for a solar heated green house in the future but that plan is on hold at the moment with so many other things going on, but maybe one day! As we home educate and I run a home based business our lives are in many ways quite flexible and living an alternative lifestyle is quite possible. With the children being home educated they are in a sense protected from the influence of the culture of computer games and designer clothes and consumerism that dominates society so much these days. Luckily there are many like minded families in our home education group in Cambridge for the children to spend time with.

[Jax]

Well I'm in awe of you both, you've achieved so much.

All I can boast is a glut of tomatoes last year, not bad for my 2nd year of trying to grow anything http://www.rawinuk.com/images/icons/icon11.gif I even managed to rescue the weak seedlings that came into their own after the more healthier ones had produced so much already. Unfortunately I can't begin earlier this year as I don't know for how much longer I'll have the garden, which is a real shame :(

Which kind of leads me on to an idea that Karen and I have been mulling over recently. Annette I noticed that you use a food co-op, I know there used to be one in Southampton many years ago (Fruity Nutters (http://www.veganviews.org.uk/vv98/vv98foodcoops.html)), but I've been unsuccessful in finding anything nowadays which is a real shame with the advent of the 'grow your own' revival etc. As you know we have a very successful Raw Pot Luck (http://www.rawinuk.com/showthread.php?t=275&page=12) every fortnight running in Southampton and Karen and I were thinking along the lines of perhaps integrating a food co-op into this. Some of the regulars are already into growing their own, and we thought it would be great if they brought their excess produce along to swap with smoebody else, thereby creating a much bigger range of fruit and veg than you would normally have.

THEN we got onto thinking about perhaps allotment or garden sharing with those in the group that haven't got the facilities and sharing or swapping the work with others too - say like me who can't kneel down (surgery!) so Karen doing that, whilst being taller than her I can do the higher jobs and perhaps earning a 'food credit' that then you could swap for the produce of others (There's also the skills/knowledge swap aspect while you're at it too) http://www.rawinuk.com/images/icons/icon12.gif I guess a little along the lines of the Capital Growth Project (http://www.capitalgrowth.org/big_idea/).

I've always wanted to be able to 'go off grid', but unfortunately having been a single mum on and off for the last 21 years finances have not allowed it, it always seems to come down to money but the paradox is that if you could make the changes............you'd save money :rolleyes2: If only I was Gary Neville (http://www.off-grid.net/2010/01/15/soccers-swampy-bugs-out/)!!!

[karen @rawchocolateheaven]

We are trying desperately to fill our boxes with good compost, if anyone has any ready in a composter/heap and feels able to bring a bag round that would be a huge help.
As many of you know our ultimate aim is to produce a garden like John Kohler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDfx60AJRiM) (should be a utube clip) his garden is all in boxes, with trellis and watering systems. His productivity is incredible he aims to feed 60 people from his front yard (american) we aim to feed us 7 and about 15 more to start with, using our allotment to grow root and large veg and the garden to grow leaves, herbs, berries etc
If we can combine our growing space with other peoples (hint, please advertise here what you are growing) we could have a weekly veg swap.
or maybe even a system where anyone growing something can bring surplus to our house and we could have a mini swap space. I know this takes time and effort.
So right now I offer this
If you can contribute a little time each week to weeding or hoeing on our allotment, or a packet of seeds you have not the space to grow?
or some compost to add to our garden, or poles to make into trellis.
then please do do this. Then by summer we can all start reaping the early rewards.
quick starters and great growers are
Kale
Spinach
pak choi
lettuce

get all the root stuff going, carrot, turnip, beets, potato etc

pot herbs!

Just get growing xx

[karen @rawchocolateheaven]

What can we really do on a budget?
Well to be fair I think living on a budget can be quite a green thing...
less luxury holidays! while it might seem like you are missing out on those nice "cheap" flights to Florida, really you are contributing towards saving our planet by investing in a tent and camping in a local beautyspot...we have enjoyed some of our best holidays camping in the New Forest, I remember a few years ago spending 2 weeks in Florida, well the best part was, and because I booked the flights I could do this, I managed to get us landed in Miami on the day of the Raw Food Farmers Market...brilliant, so we were stocked up as soon as we got there on local organic tropical fruits & foods....however after this highlight I was dissapointed...I love the sea, but one filled with big scary posionous brown ones was not inviting and the casual stroll on the beach landed us all with a plague of itchy bites! then back at the villa, yes a pool to plunge into backing onto a lake sounded lovely....the first 6ft crocodile that chased my hubby up the banks kept us well clear of the lake and well even I got sick of the chlorine in the pool after a few dips!!
And a trip to the local shop to replenish our fruit stores took about an hour as it was miles away!!
We did find 2 cheap champion juicers that mum & I bought and bought back home...finishing off our trip nicely by getting our plane delayed and no luggage arrived with us...it arrived sometime later all taped up in "home land security" tape!!! the juicers it turned out when scanned were mistaken for bombs!!! brilliant !!!
So summing up on a budget camping using our local organic farm and the scattering of farm shops across the forest, paddling and even buying a dingy to play in the river that ran through the camp site, walking to brockenhurst to get fresh fruit all is literally worlds away from what we used to call a luxury holiday, now, I feel we actually have a holiday....

Join A Gym....?
Well I used to and believe me there is nothing more boring than running on a tread mill staring at a TV screen!!! now lack of funds pushes our family into the great outdoors, sometimes cycling as a family or walking to the common, taking it in turns to carry our tired child can be a "work out" in itself!! All those hours spent in a traffic jam waiting to get to the "sanctuary" I called the gym...looking back and comparing what I thought was relaxing and enjoyable, was not! now I just done a decent pair of boots and off I go, to traffic, no queues for the showers, no rushing to make a class list, no sharing a sauna (we have our own jacuzzi) well there are lots of benefits best of all it costs nothing to to it our way!

One big Luxury...?
Keeping sane often is gauged by how we percieve things should be...if we live in a road with new Jags and Posches (like we do) we are often taken with the thoughts that we are somehow missing out on things!
Not jetting off round the world seems to be frowned upon, mmmm!
So a few years ago we had a chat about things we could to to reduce our carbon print, and still feel that we were part of the great rich world! We settled on buying a jacuzzi...very nice...although we realise that it uses quite alot of energy to keep 1700 litres hot all the time...outside....
We tried to look at other areas of our lives that could off set this huge use!, well I think we have managed it.
Sometimes it has been small steps like using washable nappies for our son, and my totally believing in the power of breastmilk so not even buying a single bottle! nor a cot or in fact any of the percieved normal "equipment needed" to raise a child! His mountain of toys and the near NCP car park of ride on toys have all come about from non shop trips, our numerous walks along our local river have yielded a ride in car and a ride on trike, one trike came from a front garden find, lady had put it out with a sign "help yourself" his prize possession of a genuine scale model sit in metal car came from months of negotiations and bartering a few signs for this very expensive collectors item! many things have been hand me downs from older cousens & friends children. We have bought a few wooden toys that have been hand made from local enterprises! Other small steps is second hand clothes, this sounds easy but getting good quality stuff often takes alot of time, trawling several shops, yes they all stock mountains of stuff but this is a direct reflection of the mountains of cheap clothes primark & asda churn out!!
Finding real quality is possible, I target monsoon and designer or high end high street names, if visiting a posh little town it's well worth a trip round the charity shop as the local population all driving their new Jags & mercs have all but their D&G or Prada jackets somewhere.....one local shop had a Prada jacket but size 12! me being a big 14 had no hope with this zero lycra item!!
Make it yourself?
Can you make it? a nice jumper...learn to knit, can be thought of as an expensive option but it could last you years longer than the £10 one from a cheap shop!,
Keep old clothes that are not really good enough for the charity shop, cut them up, sort the fabric.
Any that is soiled or damaged keep for rags,
keep like fabrics together and good pieces will eventually make a throw or patchwork skirt or as one friend of mone owns a pair of trousers, she cleverly matched colours & fabrics and the result is very clever.

Have you tried living with no loo rolls?
Most people don't bat an eyelid at using a hankie, blowing their nose then carefully folding the snotty pouch into such a fashion that it wont fill a pocket if you sit down quick.....or using clothes & wipes to tend to a babies bottom? what difference is there in continuing this trend and using cut cloth squares for the family?
Check it out on line and you can even buy colour coordinated squares to suit all the family, just bag up and launder as you would have done with cloth nappies!
Simple when you really start to think about it
However all these little efforts often mount up and combined they are quite spectacular.
And once started and the habits in place it's not easy going back to wasteful days!

Talking of waste.....

We have a 2 bin system in Southampton. One for recyclables not including glass and one for general rubbish.
We have a rule in our house if you think it can be composted do that first, recycle everything.
The result running 2 business and our home and we still don't allways need to put the bins out!!!!!! brilliant....a little thought sometimes at the shop (do you really need the plastic nicely washed veg? or can you use your own bags even to put the veg in to be weighed and wash it your self) and you are doing your bit!!!

:peace:

[karen @rawchocolateheaven]

Jelly fish...brown poisionous big ones... from the story above

[Jax]

OOOO Karen look what I just found...................he's a local lad!

Jack B Green (http://www.jackbgreen.co.uk/)- water efficient products for homes, schools and businesses in the Hampshire area

[ani]

I try or am very trying for the neighbours :(
I grew bamboo and cornus to make things with - oooh they grow :O
I have stinging nettles behind the house and creeping nicely into my garden
they make fab smoothies.
I have a washing up bowl in full of water and rocks in the garden
had a beautiful frog in there.
I also want dragon flies and damsels - they will come.
All my household products are eco so I don't gunk up the water flow.
I have a bathroom shelf with baking soda, acv, rose water, avocado oil,
coconut oil, sea salt and sadly the last bar of pure rice bran soap
that is all my tooth, face and body care sorted.
I did sort of get straw hair from too much baking powder and not enough acv
so I have just bought a bottle of the most eco friendly shampoo I could find
but I know even these aren't so good so will go back to other means soon.

I really worry about our water (message to myself - I will not worry)
I only have a brita filter as for years I have been unsure of the best one
to get but now I am going to get the filter that Karen has by the end of this year.
Meanwhile I am trying to find springs in this area (shame it means a car journey)
and would love to have any input on my 'springs in the UK' on FB
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2792&id=100000543196710#!/group.php?gid=103649426873&ref=ts
I have been to a couple of places but not been able to find any
so please anybody know anything in this area it would be great.
I do know Fulking near Brighton has a great one
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIQHB8Ajz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIQHB8Ajz_o)_o (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIQHB8Ajz_o)

Most of my furniture is very old
and the only new stuff I have is second hand.

I want to get a new fridge freezer as mine if def on its way out
but i heard the more eco friendly are more dangerous for our health
so i am not so sure which one to get.
bring back the old stone larder that mum still has in her house.

I recycle as much as I can
I was disappointed recently as all my ali/foil
went to our disability unit at work
and we were collecting from FOE as well.
We had lovely loads for them every year
then with the economy going down Barford had to close the unit.

Luckily gyms bore me
I can't see the point of driving miles to a gym (I do understand why).
I go walking with my neighbour and her dog
and have a trampet for bouncing on
(daughter says I am bouncy like Tigger and she hasn't even seen me on here).

It would be great if big pharma would leave us alone to look after our health
I have a site on FB against CODEX. Sadly my account strangely closed down
and I had to start new one.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2792&id=100000543196710#!/group.php?gid=24651187799&ref=ts

I love to forage but don't know many wild plants
but I do know the safe ones are very potent and healthful for us.
I have a very wild garden sadly I have 1/2 of it dug up at the moment
to try and eradicate the scary bamboo which decided to take over
mine and my next door neighbours garden.
The last few years I have been smoothieing/juicing nettles, dandelions, nipplewort, plantain, clover, grass, parsley, thyme, oregano, blackberries, raspberries & their leaves from the garden and adding them to salads along with rosemary, borage flowers & sedum (recently) etc.

[ani]

just been directed to this by an angel
:first:
http://www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk/Moon_Planting.asp

[Rawalchemist]

:708:Everyone on here seems to be doing so well with being earth friendly and working to ensure sustainable methods are researched and implemented wherever possible - so lovely to be part of a wonderful community - thank you so much.

Our journey has taken a big change this year, from one where we lived on the land in our yurt full time, collecting water from a spring and sharing a kitchen with friends and growing a large amount of foods and timber, sharing permaculture skills and foraging days etc... to living back in a house again!

This came about when we found out dad had cancer - we had to return to Northampton from Glastonbury pretty sharpish to be here for him and now we are staying.

Up until December last year we had not lived in a house for 4 years! We miss our yurt very much, but our rented cottage is perfectly lovely and is right next to a bountiful spring for water - thanks for the GS2 filter tip! we are saving for one now.

As a permaculture diploma student I am finding it harder to adjust my studies to not living full time on the land and finding ways of logging how I design my new business, new home and lifestyle to fit permaculture ethics and principles, but once I have time to sit down and do it I hope it will flow just as it used to.

Well, enough babble...we have a veg box from Riverford every week and have started sowing this years salads and herbs. Most of this years food will be in containers until we sort our bigger raised beds to fend off bunny attacks (used to love bunny burgers):hand: we have a nettle infested veg plot at the bottom of the garden that up until last week was reserved for chickens but we have decided not to have any now and make it a veg plot instead and convert to out building into a mushroom room and greenhouse....far more productive and cost effective!

We are lucky to have a large rear garden with two mature eating apple trees and plenty of room for soft fruit.
Our house is over 200 yrs old and has a lower room that we will convert into a un-cook kitchen for the raw food business. An old coal shed which could be made into a pantry with little work, but need a wood store too...And a large outbuilding which we ideally want to make into a meditation space for hosting events etc, but we will have to see.

In the house we have oil heating and a open fire, but we will remove the fire place and put in our old morso stove for next winter, add a stove fan and hope that will lessen our oil bill a little. We are not able to put up panels or turbines as we are on a managed estate...grrr.

We use no chemicals in the house and all our foods are sources ethically whenever possible - apart from emergency losses of planning :D.

Used to have a landrover but it died recently so now have just found a smaller peugeot deisel car - will need a 4x4 again as we live in the sticks and as Ant travels 15 miles to work this needs organising when it is deep snow.
Our car use is the highest contributor to carbon footprint!

We never holiday abroad.

Our thermostat never goes above 20 so we add another jumper...lol

I think there must be more, but will leave it at that for now.

Love and truth

[Jax]

OOOOO am quite excited as we've just had our EON free energy meter delivered :victory: Hopefully this will show what appliances are using more energy than they should and just how much is used in total!