My husband, kids and I were outside walking around our land
and planning our spring and summer goals on a recent sunny day. We were down by
our pond listening to the birds, while the kids were watching toads jump in the water.
I was standing under the fronds of our Weeping Willow Tree and I thought how
very lucky we were to own this land, this home place where nature and green
abound.
It struck me as it often does in spring, how beautiful our land
is. How fresh the air, how star studded our night skies are here in this little
rural hamlet. How beautiful the green grass is that my kids get to run on whenever they want. In that moment, living a rural lifestyle seemed idyllic. All thoughts of the extra work it takes were lost.
And while I was smiling at my good fortune, a whisper of sadness for
all those who don’t enjoy these things pulled me back to the present. What can I do to help preserve this for our
kids and their kids? What can I do to make the air sweeter and the grass
greener for all families?
The answer to these questions was just a click away. I went
to EarthDay.org and read about the
progress made over the year and as I do every year, I chose our Take Action
movement.
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Last year, we chose to plant trees and recycle
even more than we usually do. That’s saying a lot since we recycle everything
and don’t even have trash pick- up service here. My husband handles all our
trash and recyclables each week by taking them to our community Convenience Center. It’s a dirty, smelly job, but he knew that
was part of the cost of owning land. He thought and still does think it's worth it.
This year we chose to Reduce our Energy Consumption.
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Since
we don’t live in an urban area, our electricity is a bit higher in price per
kilowatt because it takes more lines and power poles to get it to us. We have
been warned for months that our electric bills will go up dramatically this
summer, so our reasons for wanting to reduce our energy consumption is both economic
and environmental.
By going to the EarthDay.org’s Take Action Page I
found we were not alone in our desire to save money and the environment. This
was the 3rd listed movement!
Here
are some facts from EarthDay.org regarding using less energy:
The Issue
Did you know that nearly half of all greenhouse gas
emissions in the US are generated from the energy we use to power our homes and
cars? That adds up to a big environmental impact and a hefty toll on our
wallets at the end of the year - close to half a trillion dollars!
What
we can do:
The good news is that we can all take small
actions to manage our collective energy appetite. This Earth Day, we have
teamed up with WattzOn to provide
their leading energy management tools to our community free of charge. Take action
by creating an Earth Day Energy Center account and start saving energy and
money - typical monthly savings are as high as 20% through simple habit changes
and small projects!
It took me seconds to take the pledge and get
started.
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Our first task will be as they suggested, cleaning
our dryer vent. When the weather warms up, we will be putting up an outside
clothes line! I’m excited about this because that’s how my Mom and Grand Mom
dried their laundry and I can remember running through the fluttering sheets on
a warm summer’s day. The feeling and the scent of those perfectly clean
smelling sheets stays with me to this day!
Join
Us April 22nd!
Whether you want to reduce your energy consumption,
help restore the forests, or support environmental education there is one
simple thing you can do today to help make our world a better, cleaner, greener
more sustainable world for ourselves and for our kids-
Go to EarthDay.Org and
read.
That’s it. I feel confident that you will be
inspired and the cause you feel most strongly about will find you.
And please remember no matter where you live, urban
landscape or rural hills, take time to step outside and take in the beauty of
the day.
If you don’t like what you see- help be the change!
Please share in comments- What will you do to help
on Earth Day this year? Do you support Earth Day every year?
11 comments
Drying clothes outdoors in the warm weather is a great way to cut down on energy usage. I too dread the high power costs this summer. We do what we can with ceiling fans but they still creep up. We're also going to try the spring peeper frogs this weekend. My kids have not gotten to experience seeing them.
Thank you so much for this. As a middle school counselor I'm always talking to kids about how they can give back to the community and be "green". Now I have more ideas and thins to do with them. Thanks!
I support Earth Day every day of the year-not only the designated day! I have been slowly but surely lowering my energy consumption where possible. I live in a small city--so less light usage etc--less driving is about all I can do for that. When I was much younger I used to go out and help clean up the rivers and streams in our area.
Hi Literary Winner,
It sounds like you have taken great steps to lower your energy consumption!
I bet you kids will love seeing the frogs this weekend too!
Hi Erin,
Thank you for your supportive comment. It truly made my day because I have a 6th grade daughter who wants us to be greener as well. So glad I could help you teach our kids!
I have a closet that I can hang clothes up to dry in. I cant hang them outside as the wind blows dirt near me.
Hi Tara,
Having a drying closet is a great idea! I wish I had an extra one for winter to hand my girls lightweight clothing in.
Hi Michelle,
So glad to hear you are "green" year round! I think reducing energy consumption is one way we can all help our earth daily. My daughters asked if the could help with a park day clean up this year, so hopefully we can start doing this as a family too.
I want to plan to go out in the forest and clean up trash. We have a hill down the road that people use for snow sledding, when they break, the weirdos leave the trash there...not nice!! Figured we could take a day to go out and clean it up!! :)
What cool website and initiative! Love your plans for energy use reduction, that's something we are constantly working on, too, for our home as we face the same challenge in our rural area. Every day is Earth Day around our home (as I'm sure you suspected!) :) but I do love that there is a dedicated day! We were thinking of participating in a road side clean-up this year.
Your home sounds like it is in a beautiful location with all of the beauty of nature. We have a small yard, but it backs up to a deep forest that is owned by the Army Corp, so we are lucky to experience the beauty as well. We always plant new plants for Earth Day. Last year was a blackberry plant. We are already really good about using lower energy consumption light bulbs, recycling, and not being big consumers. However, we could definitely cut back on non-essentials that we splurge on too often since every manufactured item has an effect on the environment.
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