Selfsufficientish.com

After buying the SS-isher Bible I was flicking through it and noted some things I wanted to do and things I've done already.

I was wondering what changes you've made to your lifestyles in the past 6 months to be come more self-reliant/sufficient-ish/eco-friendly?

Mine:

1/ Moved from a flat to a house with a garden
2/ Made some raised beds and started growing my own vegetables
3/ Rented a house with a conservatory so I can use it as a greenhouse
4/ Started a compost heap
5/ Re-use or recycle and reduced my landfill to 1/8 of what it used to be
6/ Changed to a mooncup (ladies will know!)
7/ Started walking into the town
8/ Started buying from local greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers and hardware stores and using a rucksack instead of plastic bags
9/ Work from home more often to reduce need for car
10/ Made the decision not to buy frozen food, allowing us to unplug the freezer and reduce electricity usage
11/ Boycotted T£sco due to the Hugh F-W fiasco with the annual meeting
12/ Changed all the lightbulbs to energy savers and always switch off when we leave the room
13/ Only turn TV on when there's something on that we actually want to watch
14/ Turn all appliances off at the plug where possible when not in use
15/ Put lids on pans to conserve heat
16/ Only kettle boil water that will actually be used
17/ Converted to Ecover or white vinegar, lemons and bicarbonate of soda for cleaning
18/ Only flush when necessary
19/ Use loo rolls, newspaper and plastic bottles/food trays for plant pots/seed trays
20/ Use Green People products to reduce chemical usage in the bathroom

I appreciate these are quite basic things but I'm proud that we've stuck to them and have a list of things we would like to achieve in the next 6 months. If nothing else - our bills have reduced considerably!

well done!

i have
1. got an allotment
2. started saving plastic trays bottles etc for growing
3. reduced my waste to a carrier bag full a month
4. almost cut the supermarkets out of my life
5. signed up with a green electricity supplier
6. decided to do without a tv
7. started cooking more from scratch
8. signed up to a veg/fruit box scheme
9. cut down taxis to when absolutely necessary (i.e. if its too dark for me to walk home by myself safely)
10. used freecycle a few times
11. started using a mooncup
12. decided to do without a kettle, toaster or a microwave
13. installed a sava plug on my fridge (ok this isnt really self sufficient but its reduced my electric bill and i found it made the fridge colder too)

Ooh - forgot to add:

21/ Stopped wearing make-up
22/ Put a 'brick' in the cistern

Hey E-E - I haven't heard of a Sava Plug - where d'ya get those from?

i got mine from a shop called EcoHamster. it's basically a plug that sends electricity to your fridge in short little bursts instead of constantly so you use less but the fridge still stays cold. it's not suitable for all fridges - the suppliers will give you a list of makes and models, but its good for basic fridges that don't have a digital display or an ice dispenser/water filter attachment.

Bought a second hand scooter to even more minimize our (small) car use. Unfortunately it is a fuel engine scooter, and not an electric one. But I'm quite sure I cannot buy an electric scooter here on the island. Actually, I'm quite sure there is not even a single electric scooter driving around on the island. Importing one would be too expensive...

eccentric_emma wrote:i got mine from a shop called EcoHamster. it's basically a plug that sends electricity to your fridge in short little bursts instead of constantly so you use less but the fridge still stays cold. it's not suitable for all fridges - the suppliers will give you a list of makes and models, but its good for basic fridges that don't have a digital display or an ice dispenser/water filter attachment.

wow, that sounds interesting! Never heard of it.. It does not influence the life span of your fridge negatively?

I'm working on getting more green cleaning products as the "normal suspects" wear out - seem to have a cupboard full of non green from heaven knows when at the moment (or perhaps I should clean more )

The cat now has an old washing up bowl full of dry compost instead of t***o's cat litter. It has been a painful transition (mainly for me, not the cat) and there have been some "accidents" but we now have a fully sustainable moggie-bog!

1. Got an allotment,
2. started cycling to work,
3. Got veg delivery box,
4. Grow more of my own,
5. Only buy food from UK, of shipped from Europe,
6. Make more things from scratch,
7. Got a compost heap,
8. Use freecycle,


Want to do more, but money is restricting us at the moment.

Badger Bob wrote:The cat now has an old washing up bowl full of dry compost instead of t***o's cat litter. It has been a painful transition (mainly for me, not the cat) and there have been some "accidents" but we now have a fully sustainable moggie-bog!

What a fantastic idea! Mind if I use it too? I have a very old lady puss cat who uses a litter tray and I guess if we just fish out the poo the rest can be re-composted with the added bonus of the extra nitrogen!

Oohh - I guess that makes the first of my list of changes! lol
2 Stopped using shampoo and conditioner and use simple olive oil soap and olive oil instead (Went to the hairdressers for my annual shearing a couple of weeks ago and they commented on how soft and wel conditioned my hair was!)

3 Leave the bath water in use it to flush the loo - as well as 3 pees to a pull!

Struggling here as we've been doing the other stuff for more than 6 months!

4 Bought a shopping trolley with funky blue flowers on it!

5 Acquired alpacca poo as fertiliser for the garden

6 Given up on "complicated" skin care products and now simply use witchhazel and an organic shea/seed oil butter instead - and my skin is much better for it!

7 Gone to part time work so that I can have more time at home to work on the important stuff

Milims wrote: <snip> I guess if we just fish out the poo the rest can be re-composted with the added bonus of the extra nitrogen!

We just dig it all into the topsoil in the fallow part of the garden (under trees and such) I don't know if there are any health implications but as we are leaving it for a year I can't imagine there would be a problem. The top six inches are the best place to bury anything organic according to my outdoors bible "How to sh*t in the woods" (by Kathleen Meyer).

Badger Bob wrote:

Milims wrote: <snip> I guess if we just fish out the poo the rest can be re-composted with the added bonus of the extra nitrogen!

We just dig it all into the topsoil in the fallow part of the garden (under trees and such) I don't know if there are any health implications but as we are leaving it for a year I can't imagine there would be a problem. The top six inches are the best place to bury anything organic according to my outdoors bible "How to sh*t in the woods" (by Kathleen Meyer).

There have been many conversations on ish about this over the years.

Cat poop can harbour toxomoplasmosis(sp?) (which can be fatal, or cause birth defects in the unborn child) and can be dangerous for young children - apparently healthy adults would suffer 'flu-like' symptoms for a few days.
Also the poop from any carnivore (including humans) contains pathogens which leach into the soil, these can be dangerous when the fruit or veg comes into contact with the soil.

There is, as far as I know, no problem with the urine and I think it is fine, if not good to add to your compost.... but the poo, I either flush (when I was on mains sewerage) or bin. But then, I have a young child in the house... and I am sure others have different thoughts.

Yes I checked out toxoplasmosis when I was told about this method of cat convenience. I was assured that as long as the solids go into ground that is not used for growing edible plants then it would be OK. Since the cat is nearly 20 she will have aquired some immunity to it anyway.

Great thread!
Hmmm let's think...
1. Stopped buying too much food.
2. Started spending accumulated hours earned on local exchange scheme on bags of nettles, cleavers, horsetail & ladies mantle to be dried & used in soap/ skincare stuff/ herbal medicine.
3. Encourage people on exchange scheme to earn hours by weeding their gardens/allotments & passing on the nettles/ cleavers/ horsetail etc to me.
3.Finally reused the last plastic carrier bag in what was a huge collection.
4.Make all own bread for family & fab neighbours - instead of doing it once a week or so.
5. Reduced bin waste - could do with one a third of the size of the wheelie now.
6. make seed pots from newspaper
7. started foraging again.
8.Started asking myself "Do I actually NEED this?" before making a purchase - surprised myself by the amount of times it's a "no"
9.Cut food bill in half.
10. Got name on list for allotment - the garden is getting crowded

Yea, everybody! Just wanted to say that. We've been doing most of the above for years, having had it trickle down from parents and grandparents, and having an amenable spouse helps. The more we all do and sort of quietly spread the word, the better, as more and more people follow our good examples.

I'm still always looking for ways to cut energy use, save fuel dollars, stretch what we have, so thanks for that bit of info about the fridge thingy. One of our sort of hand-slappable offenses as far as energy use goes is the number of fridges and the huge chest freezer that are going all the time. In them are all the meat and dairy products we grow for ourselves. They're older models, so presumably they'd work with the above-mentioned gadget, and I hope we can find something like it in New Zealand.

I did think of one way to cut our electricity use the other day: I have to use boiled hot water to clean our milking machine every day (milking 1-2 cows and 10-20 goats with arthritic hands makes the machine a bit of a necessity). With the woodstove going everyday, I've been putting the water on there and hauling it out near boiling to the hot water boiler in the barn and letting it finish off out there. Instead of an hour with the electricity plug in, it's only on there for 15 minutes. Every little bit helps.

And yes, toxoplasmosis can be in the cat poop/soil/environment for a long time.

Andrea
New Zealand