Dirt costs *how* much???

Went to Richie Feed and Seed today to get a quote on some soil. We are turning most of our backyard into a vegetable and fruit garden and our soil is a bit questionable (potential contamination) so we are creating some raised beds.

Turns out for the amount of soil we require it will cost us somewhere in the neighbourhood of $800.

I'm sorry? What? Run that by me again... Did you say $800????

<picks herself up off the floor>

Ok then.

I need to come up with a new plan.

I'm thinking of getting a truckload full of compost from the Trail Waste Facility. But I need more than just compost to make me some soil.

I better get investigating because my seedlings are ready to get planted.

Also I bought 3 new tomato plants at the organic farmers' market this morning. One is an heirloom variety called 'Brandywine' and the other two are a yellow cherry variety (not sure of the name) that I know is the most delicious I've ever had because I bought oodles of them last summer at the market.

Ooo and I had a look at my gooseberry plants this morning and they have gooseberries on them! Quite exciting as this is year one for them in the garden so I wasn't expecting them to fruit.

Been away

For various reasons, I decided to take a short break from posting. The biggest was starting a new job but I think almost as much was a desire to disconnect a bit (from the computer, from the dialogue....). I just needed a break.

But I'm back! Who knows, maybe its the sunshine or the fact that I'm already enjoying the herbs in my garden, or maybe its the sight of my lovely seedlings growing strong in my greenhouse, but I'm feeling a renewed energy.


While I've been away I fell off the Riot wagon a bit. I've been feeling the guilt associated with that and expressed to a friend how I didn't want to post about it. My great friend said essentially that "maybe falling off the wagon is terrible, maybe its not, but shouldn't we at least be able to talk about it?"

Fair point I thought.

So let's talk.....

Consumer spending was my biggest weak point. I came to realize that I live a pretty freakin' comfortable life. While in all other categories I'd say we were already below the average, on consumer spending I'd say we are quite a bit above. Which seems crazy as I hardly ever bought clothes, and I can't stand 'stuff' so avoided buying it whenever possible. But I am a home owner and even though we haven't put much money into our place, it doesn't take much before all of a sudden we've spent a lot. And this was my problem over the last few weeks. The first was the purchase of a new washing machine. Its a front loader and will replace our water-hog top loader. AND...we decided not to buy a dryer. How's that for a commitment? Also, we scored the washer at 50% off which really was an absurd deal. But the bad news is, that one purchase pretty much adds up to our 10% of consumer spending right there. We'd have to not buy one extra thing all year. And I'd actually attempt that, except our deck is falling down. It's a multi-story deck and its rotting away. At this point its downright dangerous. So it needs replacing. We'll use FSC certified wood of course, but the cost alone will basically put us at average household spending. Two items. Ok, two BIG items. But that's what I mean by living a privileged life.

So anyway, all that to say that I'm feeling bummed that I'm obviously not going to succeed in making any reductions from the average when it comes to consumer spending even though it feels like I'm doing a lot.

While I'm in a confessing sort of mood I may as well talk about food. Other than eating too much restaurant food (nothing new there), I'd been pretty good. Until this weekend. I was too sick to make it to the farmers' market on Saturday. So tonight I went to the herb and spice and bought some food. Some fresh, decidedly un-local food. I blame the sickness - my body wanted healthy and yummy food. So I bought some rice cakes, and some cilantro from the States and 2 apples from New Zealand, and some hazelnuts and papaya from god knows where. I'm sure I'll be feeling v. guilty later but for now that papaya is SO GOOD.
I did buy one local item - some fermented beets from quebec. Have been curious about fermentation as a method of food storage for sometime and I have to say, these beets are pretty tasty. Supposed to be quite healthy too.

Anyway, enough rambling. But before I go, I want to share this wonderful post from GreenPa. It made me smile. The wonders of water.

Gasoline Wednesday

Another good week for my gasoline consumption. Here are the numbers:
Bus = 41.8km
Car= 4km
Feet=20km

That works out to 0.3225 gallons of gas.

Which means for the Riot for Austerity I am holding steady at 4% for last week. Average for the last 3 weeks is 3%.

Consumer goods day

Last week we bought..... no consumer goods. :)

What we did buy:

Some great food from the farmer's market.
Gas for the car
Other random food items from Loeb, Nature's Buzz, Arturo's.
A pizza

Think that's about it.

So for the Riot this week we are at 0%. Combined with last week we are at 2%.

Foody Friday (one day late)

Lost a few days this week (as in, I got lazy and didn't write it all down thinking that my memory would be enough. It wasn't).
So here are my estimates:
30% local
5% dry bulk
65% wet goods

This is what I am working towards. (scroll to the end to see the section on food)

Not a good week generally food-wise. I am starting a new job in a week I had a few lunches out with colleagues. Next week will be more of the same. So I'll just have to make sure I'm being really good with lunches and dinners.

Worst meal (local-wise and organic-wise) of last week was:
Brunch at the Vanier Sugar Shack. Eggs, bacon, hash browns, beans, pancakes. Only thing that was local was the syrup. But let me tell ya it was TAS-TY.

Best meal of last week was:
Roast leg of lamb (from Almonte), Roast potatoes (from a friend - local), Roast carrots from Terre a Terre. For dessert - apple cake made with spelt flour from Little Stream Bakery, apples from the organic farmers market, maple sugar from carp, butter from Organic Meadow, egg from Almonte, milk from Organic Meadow and a little bit of non-local brown sugar, vanilla and spices.

And since I'm talking about food, here is what I got from the the Organic Farmers' market this week:

• carrots


• apples


• potatoes


• parsnips


• spinach


• arugula


• cheese


• butter


• a raspberry pastry from Little Stream

*just about all items were local. Only questionable items were the cheese and butter. They are from L'Ancêtre. Is questionable because the milk comes from a number of farmers and they don't say where they are located (although I think they are all in Quebec).

Gasoline Wednesday!

Here are the deets for last week:

Bus=16km = 9.94mi = .0994 gallons gasoline
Car=27.3km = 16.963mi = .424 gallons gasoline
Feet=16km = 9.94mi = 0 gallons gasoline *doesn't include walks for fun

So for this week I used 4% of the average amount.

And my average for the last 2 weeks is 3%.

Sweet.

A request - action required by 3pm

From the David Suzuki foundation:

What's at stake?

The bill – C-377, the Climate Change Accountability Act - would set science-based emission reduction targets for Canada.

What's happening?

The bill is stuck before the House of Commons environment committee. Some members (see partial list below) have been blocking progress by not letting other members of the committee talk. If the filibuster continues, this bill could be killed.

What you can do now

If you want real progress on climate change to happen, let committee members know you want them to end the stalemate and allow the committee to get back to work. They meet 3pm EST Wednesday, April 9, so tell them to let the bill go through ASAP.

Please call, email, write or visit the following members of the Environment Committee and Government responsible for blocking the work of the Environment Committee. Copy your own Member of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and your local newspaper:

Luc Harvey, MP for Louis-Hebert,QC, Harvey.L@parl.gc.ca Tel:(418) 648-3244
Maurice Vellacott, MP for Saskatoon-Wanuskewin, SK, Vellacott.M@parl.gc.ca Tel.: (306) 975-4725
Jeff Watson, MP for Essex, ON Watson.J@parl.gc.ca (519) 776-4700
Mark Warawa, MP for Langley, BC, Warawa.M@parl.gc.ca (604) 534-5955
Hon. John Baird, MP for Ottawa-West Nepean, ON, Baird.J@parl.gc.ca (613) 990-7720
Right Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, AB, Harper.S@parl.gc.ca Tel (403) 253-7990

Consumer Goods Day!

Oh man, I'm crap. I didn't even make it through one week without forgetting to do one of my new posts. In my defense I thought that Consumer Goods Day was Monday. Ooops!

Anyway, the good news is that my list of consumer goods purchased last week is short.

Items bought last week:
1. A variety of (new) fuses for the house
(tenant thought that one had blown but hadn't so was an unnecessary purchase - dang!)
$10.

This means for the Riot we are at 4%. For now.

*Consumer goods does not include: food, services, and consumable essentials. My list includes:

• soap (laundry, dish, body etc.), local, bulk and organic as much as possible


• 100% recycled paper toilet paper - am inspired by Unstuffed, Crunchy Chicken and No Impact man but I'm not ready to go there yet


• deodorant


• soil for gardening - will be getting my soil from here this year - no packaging and local!

-probably a few more things but that's all I can think of for now.

The bottom line is that consumer goods means 'stuff'. Clothes, books, cds, vases, lamps, cookie sheets, cell phone, video games etc.

Foody Friday

My goal for food (as per the Riot) is:

70% local
25% dry bulk
5% wet goods (conventional foods, processed foods fall under this category).

I finally started keeping track of the food that I'm eating on Monday, and since then I did approx:

40% local
5% dry bulk
55% wet goods

Best meal was dinner on Monday:
Made a frittata with spinach from - Terre a Terre, peas from Ferme la rosee (frozen in the summer), cheese from Organic Meadow, 2 eggs from Almonte, milk from Organic Meadow, salt. Yummy pickled beets on the side (thank you to L's Mom).
dessert - stewed apple and rhubard (frozen in the summer), with Mapleton's vanilla icecream (Elora, ON)

Worst meal (actually worst day) was Wednesday:
-cafeteria muffin for breakfast
-buffet Indian food for lunch (veg)
-lemonade and cookie (at Aunt Olive's)
-delivery pizza for dinner (not veg)

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

Gasoline Wednesday!

Since I only decided to do this on Monday I don't have details for the whole week. Instead I can do the last 5 days. So since Friday I:

Took public transit (bus): 16km
Used a car: 3.3km
Used my feet: 14km *doesn't include walks for fun

The Riot calculates everything in miles and gallons so the calculation looks like:
9.94 miles public transit (100mpg)
2.05 miles car (40mpg)

So that works out to 0.15 gal used for 5 days.

And as far as the Riot goes that's approx. 2% of average.

Which is cool. But this was a really good week and didn't include trips to see family (which we have to drive to), or any major errands (which might have required a car).