Re: [pf] What are some ways?

· Nice to know we think alike!
  Bits I left off mine are below the quotes from Sharon.

At 12:49 1/10/2000 -0700, Sharon Flesher wrote:
> I'll give you a handful of steps my family takes:
>
>1. Drive less (or not at all, if possible). ...walk, bike or take transit
whenever possible. Those ready for a supreme challenge can sell their car
and THEN figure out how to get by without it.
> ...
>8. Use cold water for your laundry.
>9. Take short showers instead of baths. And unless you really sweat a lot,
>you probably don't need one every day. (That probably sounds like sacrilege
>in America!)
>10. Get rid of your gas or electric mower ...


· My family has been religiously using buses for commuting the ~40 minutes
in to their work or study, for at least 10 years now. (I've retired.) It
hasn't been easy; my daughter finds buses jerky and irritating (except for
some really new ones) and the lost time a real problem. My wife is able to
read in the bus.

· However, we're far enough out that we don't have evening buses to our
village, so we've kept that Honda Civic for emergencies and times like this
evening (it's Monday here in New Zealand): my wife is staying in for a
monthly Greens policy meeting, then catching a bus as close as she can (a
50 minute walk away). We have rain today, so one of us will drive up to
that bus-stop and bring her home. On other occasions, I'll walk up to meet
her, and we'll walk back together.

· For about as long, we've been using cold-water clothes-wash; also, we've
only washed the dishes once a day (by hand), or more recently once every
two or three days. My example is catching: the others only cook a few times
a week now.

· Similarly, over the years we've decreased our shower frequency. For most
of us it's when we feel we need it, typically about twice a week. Even for
our 23yo daughter, it's only every second day.

· I agree about the push-mower, if you've just got that suburban little
patch (or two) of grass. Against the wishes of the rest of my family, I
stopped mowing entirely in about 1991. For a while there was concern that
the City Council would require us to "reduce the fire risk" and mow the
back yard, at the instigation of the neighbours (who see us as lowering the
value of their new houses), but after a couple of somewhat acrimonious
"discussions" nothing has happened. However, we have a perennial
ground-crawler grass, kikuyu, which has deep roots, so it would take a real
drought before it dried enough to be a real fire risk. There's only a few
people whose opinions I value, and that doesn't include the neighbours
(with one exception).
  So I'd say: as a minimum, mow about 3 times every spring, and once in the
late fall, if you've got ordinary grass with dry dead leaves and flammable
seed-heads.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/index.html
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