Nice!
We recently added an external shade to our slider in addition to the curtain and it made such a difference. We can see through it so we actually leave it down all summer and then raise it when it cools off. We have a few skylights and got external shades for them that do the same thing and they kept us much cooler this summer.
My no tea bag tea is working well. I have a functioning system for just me, or me and others. I’ll probably save the remaining tea bags for visitors or going outside the home, and also have fancy tea in bags for that.
I still have a big herbal and green stash in bags (although less than ever before in my adult life) and as I replace I’ll go with loose for those. Which I already knew I was comfortable with because when I treat myself to overpriced green or herbal there are no bags.
The black tea is also cheaper for a similar or better quality! There’s a box and a plastic layer, but the tea bags have that too, as well as individual bags that could be paper or could be microplastics
I don’t know that I’ve ever posted in here but I’m feeling a bit sad about our whole country burning so here’s an essay:
-Have not bought meat in ages, haven’t explicitly gone vego due to husband but have severely cut down. We have eaten all veg meals in our house over the last week or so (I can’t remember much further than that), only pizza at others’ house/bbq at friend’s over the weekend included meat. Feeling more energised about maybe reversing it to be meat mondays and everything else veg for the week. It’s a work in progress. Also this helps cut down our plastic usage.
-Bought our weekly fruit and veg at the farmer’s market because use it or lose it.
-Don’t have air con so have been using our fans due to passive house design and also solar panels mean that fans use minimal energy.
-My last vollie shift at the food bank for the year tomorrow, will probably rescue some more fruit/veg destined for the composter and make chutney. Already made 5 jars of mango chutney for family Christmas presents from rescued mangoes.
-We have opted out of Christmas presents with parts of the family and instead we usually gift something homemade. Along with the chutney, I did grab some things for some nieces/nephews but all were second hand off buy nothing.
-Gifted a couple things on buy nothing instead of throwing out. Also got a few things I can use off buy nothing. I love buy nothing!
-Collecting any plastic that does make it into the house (mainly from the food bank) to take to the local plastic recycling centre as council no longer recycles them.
-I don’t own a clothes dryer, the one positive to living in a sunburnt country.
-Still loving my Ethique shampoo bar.
That is all for now, apologies for the essay. 
I bought the items for Ponder and Duckling’s Christmas stockings. I bought as wisely as I could based on the amount of use I think we’ll get from each item, its durability and the packaging. Ponder got some highlighter pencils to use once his current supply of highlighters runs out. I’m also giving him a stapler-less stapler, and some colourful metal clips so that he can find them to reuse them at work. Duckling got some magnets for the Fridge which should result in several minutes of play at a time. I also got more art supplies for him, and while I don’t think I bought the best stuff, I bought the best of what was available and am now able to make a list of ideas to Do Better Next Time.
Over the past few weeks I have acquired a Bodum French press and a printer via BuyNothing. I gave away a 10-cup drip coffee maker, a alarm clock/radio, fabric paint, and a lot of Christmas wrapping paper/ribbon/boxes (that I had been holding on to forever and will never use) via the same. Thrift stores in my area are shit, but BN is decent.
I reused wrapping paper and ribbon from a yankee swap to wrap gifts for my family. It’s pretty sturdy paper, like a brown paper grocery bag, except with a holiday print on one side. I also wrapped gifts in homemade tote bags (2 gifts in one!).
A cashier asked if I wanted a printed receipt. I asked if it could be emailed, and they said yes.
I biked to work and back today! I am deeply out of practice, but I did it anyway even though it was cold!
I’m getting better at communicating with Mr H about environmental goals. He responded well to this graphic:
Soooo our big environmental goals for 2020 are:
I like this, thank you. After feeling like I’m not doing enough, it reinforces the reasons why we bought where we did. We are already on our way to all of those six things, although we can keep improving, as anybody can 
Also, I just realised that I bought no new clothes for myself except for a few pairs of underwear 
I had intended to not get anything new to me but you know, that’s a lot harder. At least all my new things were only new-to-me I think we actually did pretty good on the Buy Nothing year anyway, I bought a new Le Creuset dutch oven and frying pan as I had to use some gift vouchers and I hadn’t replaced the old, less long-lasting ones that no longer worked on our induction stove. The old ones went away on buy nothing. Oh and I also bought a Halloween costume for my cat, which I felt very guilty about but was dreaming of for a whole month. Of course, she refused to wear it. And a friend gave me a pair of earrings for my birthday. I think that was it?!
Also, if people haven’t heard of it, Ecosia is a search engine that supposedly plants trees using the profits (rather than google).
Gave away via BN: dog nail clippers, dog crate pad (
), 1 Christmas-themed plate, Christmas-themed decorative throw that my mother gave me some years ago. Really hoping someone will want the other stuff I have posted. I don’t want to move it.
Went for a walk to get coffee with friends this morning, and we all brought keepcups for our coffees.
I bought local honey at the farmers’ market to add to Christmas gift bags; aside from some of the gifts my nephlings specifically requested, all the gifts I’ve bought are in line with my environmental values.
Oh, and just paid an invoice for work my neighbour did in my front yard: can I claim credit for hiring someone who is super local, thus eliminating a commute??
Yeah, it’s in line with my “build local community” value.
I took two flights a few weeks ago after not flying for a decade. I was pleased that both airlines were totally fine with all three of us using our own cups (even for alcohol for the two that were very excited about ordering a drink on a plane). A super super small thing but I think it’s still progress when companies put common sense and customer service over CYA rules
My spouse and I had a chat about goals for 2020 and he suggested we take a closer look at what we’re doing environmentally and in terms of addressing justice issues! He loves the spreadsheet we downloaded and modified from MMM for finances and wants to do something similar for climate and justice efforts so we can sort of see where we can make big impacts and measure progress!
I’m working on a spreadsheet but it’s sort of hard to do at the level of detail that I’m interested in. I found good calculations to use for electricity, flights, and driving. Does anyone have a good way of calculating carbon footprint of the food we eat, goods we buy, services we spend money on (perhaps based on $$ and % of plant based meals?) and/or water (based on gallons used) and/or waste (maybe we’ll start doing waste audits so we would look at lbs of garbage, % diverted to compost & recycling?), or other suggestions for spreadsheet-y ways to measure and set goals for climate impact?
I put my baby in a cloth diaper for the first time. 
it goes well. (Trying to not feel guilty it wasn’t until she was almost 6 weeks. The 4+ appointments per week have been killing us)
