Tuesday, March 1, 2011

February Review for "Anyway" Project

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

  • start planning the garden (ordering seeds, etc): inventoried seeds, some old beans went into the soup pot, and I ordered some new varieties to try
  • convert toilet to low-flush mechanism: not done yet

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

  • selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted): still here!
  • eating down the stores through February to reduce outside purchases (challenge): a few more things off the priority use-up list; spent less than $100 on purchased food!

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

  • thermal pot cooking: all soups, stews, yogurt making, and rice cooking done in this
  • walking for shopping and volunteer work (use car as little as possible): lots of walking!
  • I kept the art room closed up with the floor vent covered when I wasn't using it

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

  • "put up" granola for the summer: used up squash likely to go bad before the butternuts do and a half dozen pints are on my preserve shelf
  • make hot sauce from canned and stored food on hand: did this with some friends and it was a lot of fun
  • start making custom-sized socks: first pair done and "my pattern" written up
  • starting next year's Christmas presents by using up my re-discovered yarn stash with a new knitting book I got: no projects started

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

  • co-learning with a celiac neighbor how to make polenta (an economical gluten-free "fast food"!): between weather and health issues for both of us, never got to it
  • began planning to build an outdoor oven with neighbors: never got to it

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

  • volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis): did a set of maps and reports for them

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

  • Nordic walking to enjoy whatever sunshine we have this month and get fresh air: also did some Nordic skiing and snowshoeing with a friend
  • fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books): more time devoted to art than to reading!
  • continue with art journal: also joined the Milliande Art Community for Women while putting together a few journals; have participated in one art swap

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