Living A simple green Life: This weeks challenge by my good friend Small

Welcome

Welcome to my wee blog.My name is Andy ( The Dafthermit ) . For the last 20 odd years i have ben trying to get back to a simpler way of life and finally in my old bus up here in the Scottish mountains i am finally getting there. My time now is spent taking pictures of the highlands ,making films to show the world the beauty all around and writing something that has surprised me having had a few of my stories published , Having picked up a camera and laptop in 2008 i have really enjoyeed the journey the camera has taken me on again having had a couple of pictures in national magazines, last year three of ,my films where shown at the Loch Ness film festival. anyway i hope you enjoy your visit to my wee blog

love and light

Andy

Thursday, 21 January 2010

This weeks challenge by my good friend Small

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Change The World Wednesday

Welcome! If you are new to our challenges, please click HERE.
Let's jump right into a new challenge, shall we? Here it is:
This week only use reusable mugs/glasses. Yep ... for seven whole days, refuse anything that isn't reusable. Bring your own mug to your favourite coffee shop ... haul your own glass to the soda dispenser at the corner convenience store ... carry your own mug/glass to fast-food restaurants. If a drink comes in something that will be tossed out ... either don't buy it or use your own vessel.
So ... are you up for this challenge? Hopefully, we'll reduce a lot of waste this week!
Last week's challenge asked us to read food labels and refuse to buy things with unhealthy ingredients. Something interesting that I noticed is that the closer one gets to the center of the store, the more likely the food labels will contain a long, unhealthy list of ingredients. Shopping the perimeter of the store is where one will usually find the most natural and healthy foods.
Here's this week's Honor Society:
Harmony wrote a brilliant article. In the opening section she says: "Imagine. A world free of pesticides..." And then: "Imagine--taking care of yourself..." It's a wonderful post ... I hope you take the time to read it!
Kate stopped by and asked "What about genetically modified food?" After reading her article Genetically modified food proven to cause organ and endocrine damage, I'm adding that to my list of foods to stay away from. Kate also wrote a post about how one company silently changed the ingredients in a product, adding unhealthy levels of sugar. You can read that article HERE. It reminds us that we can't just read the labels once and assume that they'll be consistent from then on ... we have to always read the labels.
Ange joined us saying that her family has been doing this for some time. My mouth watered at the thought of her wholemeal flour frozen blueberry muffins.
Green Gal initially took on the challenge ... she'd been planning to pay more attention to these kinds of things so our challenge was timely for her. But then ... Noah's Bagels & Starbucks flavored drinks diverted her attention. That's okay, Green Gal ... these challenges are all about awareness.
Mrs. Green wrote an article entitled "A week of reading food labels". By the way, I'd like to congratulate Mrs. Green for winning 2nd place in the Green Web Awards under the category of Green Living Advice Sites for her other blog ... My Zero Waste. The competition was fierce and truly, she missed 1st place by only a few votes. Congrats Mrs. Green!
Aine Butler-Smith joined us and asked an interesting question ... "Does eating out at a restaurant count?" So I ask you ... when you eat out, do you choose your meal based on health, nutrition and the environment ... or do you throw caution to the wind?
Eemilla dropped in ... always great to have you with us, Eemilla!
EcoGrrl took the challenge ... and decided to focus on eating out. Her plan is to eat vegetarian in restaurants to minimize the likelihood of toxic ingredients. By the way ... Congratulations to EcoGrrl for winning her Farmer's Market's slogan contest! WhooHoo!!
Danny from Conservation Nation join us and said "I'd rather eat something with things I can read and understand." I second that!
Mommy Tyme accepted the challenge and she passed the word HERE. She also offered us another great tip: "Instead of throwing out those old sweaters (the ones that are past the donation point) or shirts..One thing that we do is cut them into thin strips and hang them on the trees. ... The birds will have them all built into their nests in the next few months." That's a great tip!
Rewinn took the challenge and wrote a wonderful article entitled "Food Rules, Omnivore Drools". In this article he includes a "New Rule: Any foodstuff that has to tell you what it is for, is not something you want to put in your body." Brilliant!
What A Card joined us and wrote a fabulous article about SOLE Food. SOLE stands for Sustainable, Organic, Local, and Ethical ... and What A Card shares, with us, how those ideals work in our food selections.
As always, the Honor Society did a great job!
I've Stumbled and Tweeted your articles!
Thanks, Everyone!
WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!

I'm reading: Change The World WednesdayTweet this!
Posted by Small Footprints at 9:00 AM
Labels: Change The World Wednesdays, CTWW, reusable glasses, reusable mugs

6 comments:

sissy said...: great challenge this will be good ias i alwasy do this ..as always good idea thanks
Aine Butler-Smith said...: Great idea! Thanks for putting forth the challenge. Aine
mrs green @ littlegreenblog.com said...: Gosh, fab challenge. I've just written up about it and found some scary statistics in my research. 23 billion disposable coffee cups used every year in America alone... http://littlegreenblog.com/green-technology/waste-and-recycling/using-reusable-cups-and-glasses/ Thanks for the congrats on the Green Web awards and thanks for another great challenge which will no doubt raise alot of awareness about this issue.
harmony said...: Good challenge. I have been trying to use my own coffee mug, lately, but will definitely give it a go! Thanks for the nice comments on my blog regarding last week's challenge. I appreciated them!
kate said...: Our local Sherpa-owned coffee shop encourages you to bring your own cup by giving you a discount. problem is getting my forgetful husband to remember to bring one! I usually just make a pot at home but he likes to go in and chat with the townspeople on his way to work...maybe I'll start leaving empty mugs in his car? :)
Green Gal said...: This one will be easier for me, as I already abide by this most days. I will discuss this in the same post about my challenge with last week's sometime this week. Thanks!

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Little Green Blog » Using reusable cups and glasses: Using reusable cups and glasses to save landfill waste and resources.; Posted by Mrs Green at January 20, 2010 2:04 PM

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A wee film about us on STVs the HOUR SHOW click on STV logo to see the film

Andy the Daft Hermit lives 45 minutes outside Inverness with his wife Mel in an old bus parked in a layby. This current home of theirs is the longest they have ever stayed in one spot. “I’ve been travelling now 25 years,” said Andy Lowe. “Mel’s been travelling 15. One of the reasons we’ve come and stayed up here is because of Mel’s health. I wanted to bring her to the mountains for fresh air and clean water and just a slower pace of life.” Mel has had breast cancer twice, skin cancer once, and for three years believed she had bone cancer after being wrongly diagnosed. Andy’s belief in the restorative powers of the north made them pack up ‘The Black Bus’ that they live in and cross the border into Scotland. New Highland home for hermit couple Andy and Mel “I think we both believe in trying to get to a more simple way of life,” said Andy, “but it’s strange for us because we are sort of hermits, or we like to live separate, but it’s not being anti-social… it’s just the way we are that allows us to be creative.” Andy first began travelling when he left the army. Fed up with bureaucracy he packed a rucksack and left for France and has been travelling ever since. By investing any money the couple have earned into solar panels and wind generators they now live a self-sustaining existence, without electric bills, and collect rain water “straight from Heaven”. “It’s not easy,” said Mel. “There might be time when there might not be enough facilities around, but you always find a way, you know?” Rather than rejecting technology, Andy blogs about his travels online and collaborates with artists from around the world via his ‘Scratchy Heid Film Studio’, which he runs from a static trailer next to the couple’s bus. He explained his philosophy: “My belief is that if you can go through life and you drop dead and you’ve got a balance there that slightly outweighs the good than the bad, you’ve done alright. “Yesterday, with what Mel’s been through with the cancer and all that, I had a woman on one of my sites there that thanked me for the writing, for the positive things, and to me that’s worth everything. You can keep your millions, we’re not interested. That is what we do.” To check out Andy’s artwork and video projects check out his website. MORE FROM THE NORTH