Day Three Re-Cap

The goal: in addition to keeping up with the no shopping except for food/no garbage challenge, clean transportation was added to Day 3. The idea was to find alternate ways of getting around, whether that be walking, biking, taking the bus, carpooling, etc.

For me this was a bit of a challenge. Walking to and from work wasn’t an option – it probably would have taken me three hours each way. And the household bikes don’t have headlamps, so can’t be used in the dark (which it is these mornings). Bussing it was possible – I often take the bus anyway. But because Alan needed to get to work at around the same time I did, I opted for carpooling both to and from the office.

I had a late morning meeting downtown and used the most fuel efficient pool car from work to attend. I also took the opportunity to run all other errands at the same time, including my lunchtime grocery shop.

Last night was harder. I had a dance class at 6. Luckily Joe made dinner, so I could leave the house early and walk to class. This took about 50 minutes of brisk walking with occasional running thrown in for good measure. Certainly by the time I got to class I was warmed up and ready to rumble! Coming home I joined a carpool situation so I didn’t have to walk back in the dark.

So not ideal, but not terrible either.

In the garbage department, you can see from the photo what I threw away: one used up SOS pad and a tiny piece of plastic from the cheddar cheese I purchased the other day. And shopping? I only bought groceries.

Today it’s Food Day…a time to attempt eating only local foods. I already know this is not going to be pretty. I’ll tell you why in my next post.

Part 2 of the Dreaded Grocery Shop

Photo credit: www.ehow.com

 Well, I have to give credit to the Great Canadian Superstore. I just went there to pick up some groceries that I neglected to purchase yesterday (see my last post to find out why) and I see that they have added a whole new bulk food section to the store. To my surprize, I was able to get just about everything I needed without the added packaging: sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, baking soda, baking powder, and even some dark chocolate almond bark (I’ve been craving chocolate for three days but didn’t buy any because of the packaging). The bulk section also has things like white and brown sugar, flour, and all the items it had before like beans, soup mixes, candy, etc. There’s a lot more I’d like to see there, but still…it’s a pretty good start.

Along with some bulk garlic and some bananas, the only things I bought that had packaging were some toilet paper and taquitos. Yes I know: the taquitos, from one of the inner convenience isles, are not a good choice. My youngest has been nagging me for ‘junk food’ and I justified the purchase by telling myself that the cardboard box they are in can be composted and they at least aren’t wrapped in plastic.

Day 2 Recap: the Dreaded Grocery Shop

I’ll start with the good news. Apart from one empty packet of sample sized conditioner given to me by my hairdresser, I threw nothing in the garbage yesterday. The packet – although paper – was foil backed, so couldn’t be composted. We have a very good waste diversion program at work, so all the paper I used either went back into my ‘re-use’ box or in the bins that, when full, are picked up by Raven Recycling. My lunch I brought from home in re-usable containers. I used my metal thermos for water, and I even brought some of my grammie’s hankies to work with me to use in place of Kleenex.

Now to the bad news. I needed groceries, so after work I headed in to one of the big box grocery stores we have in town. It started off OK: I found Yukon-grown potatoes, beets, yams, brussel sprouts and celery sticks, all in bulk. All of these I put in bags brought from home.

The pasta sauce was in glass bottles, which can be re-used and then re-cycled. But then it went downhill pretty fast.

The pasta was in plastic. The cheddar cheese was wrapped in plastic. The feta cheese was in a flimsy plastic container that won’t stand up to many re-uses. The mustard? In plastic. The European weiners? In plastic. The brown sugar was also in plastic, as was the bread and the tortillas. All this will soon, if not right away, end up in our landfill. I was so depressed I didn’t even finish buying everything I needed, and will have to go back today.

Some time ago I read about one woman who, as a show of protest, took everything she was purchasing out of the plastic bags in her local grocery store, put it instead into her own cloth bags, and left the pastic waste for the store to deal with. I’m not that person, but I may let the local grocers know how I feel.

Today’s task focusses around transportation. Stay tuned!

Re-cap: Day 1

It was a pretty good start to my No Impact Week.

In terms of garbage created, here’s my pile:

Ziplock bag that held a 'science experiment' that used to be grapes, an empty brown sugar bag, and a bit of broken chain found in a box I was cleaning out from Iris' room.

As for buying things, I did OK. I toyed very briefly with the idea of checking out a new restaurant in town that people have been raving about, but instead made ‘clean out the fridge’ meals: a black bean and squash soup and apple crisp using some of the apples I brought back from my recent trip to B.C., plus a kale stir fry which supplemented the Asian-style caribou brisket dish that Joe made.

 I did, however, take Joe out for tea. We used ceramic mugs but I guess the two tea bags we used should be added to my garbage count since I’m betting Tim Horton’s doesn’t compost.

Today’s task: eliminate all garbage, both at home and at work. Since I have to do a grocery shop, this could be challenging.

No Impact Week

I have been following No Impact Man’s  blog for quite some time now. I’m sure by now you will have heard about him, what with both a book and a movie having just been released. Colin Beavan is the New Yorker who spent a year making changes in his behaviour so that he would reduce his ecological footprint to almost zero. It meant no cars, busses, airplanes, taxis, elevators, tv, refrigerators, washers or dryers, no food in disposable containers, no disposable anything…the list was a long one and he did things that I have no interest in trying (like giving up toilet paper). 

Now he and the Huffington Post are inviting people to try a No Impact Week, which starts today. A year was too overwhelming for me, but a week – that I think I can handle. And while I generally shy away from these kind of group ‘events’, I’ve decided to give this one a whirl.

Today’s task: curb my spending, and collect all the garbage I create in one place so that I can see exactly what kind of volume I am producing.

I will blog about my successes and failures each day, and by the end of the week I hope to have a better idea of exactly what kind of impact I’m having on the earth, and what I’m prepared to do about it over the longer term. Wish me luck.

By the way, if you have any interest in joining me, you can sign up here.

It’s Really Happening!

I’ve done it. I’ve taken the plunge and booked my flight to Paris, from where I’ll travel to the start of the Camino de Santiago at St. Jean Pied de Port. I leave here April 9th and will be on the trail by the 13th (accounting for one night in Vancouver and one night in Paris).

It seems I may be taking this journey alone after all, since Iris has figured out that she can’t afford the trip. I’m a little bit scared and a lot excited. And I still have a lot of work to do, including pulling out my Spanish books again. Peter, I wish I lived close to you and Lulu so I could hire her as a tutor!

Watch for the Signs – More from Van. Island

 

More West Coast Pics

Here are a few photos from the five days Lucca and I spent on the west coast of Vancouver Island. We stayed in Ucluelet, our days filled with hiking parts of the Wild Pacific Trail, wandering along beaches, and poking about in the little shops in Tofino and Ucluelet. The weather was perfect the whole time we were there and the combination of century old trees, mountains and ocean was pretty awe-inspiring.

Stellar's Jay

Part of the Wild Pacific Trail

Sunset at Long Beach

More photos coming tomorrow.

Message from an Elder

As I mentioned in my last post, last night our family went to the home of friends of ours, to mark the fact that their 12 year old son, along with this boy’s cousin, had both taken their first caribou this year. After a meal of all this land and water provides, including caribou, moose, bison and wild salmon, there was a small ceremony and gifts were given to the two boys to help them continue to provide for their families and communities.

One of the boy’s fathers told a story handed down to him from his own grandmother: when it is time for us to leave this earth, and as we walk along the path to meet the Creator, we must first walk past every single animal we have killed in our lifetime…every gopher, every grouse, every caribou, even the smallest of creatures. That is why we must always treat these animals with respect. We must only kill them if we are in need of food. We must take great care when cleaning the meat, treating it with the reverence it deserves. We must always remember to give back to the land as a way of showing gratitude, because if we just take and take and never give back, then the land will start taking something from us, and we may not like what it takes. We must always leave tobacco on the land as a way of saying thank you, and we must share the meat with all those in need.

While the grandmother has been dead for several years, there is no doubt in my mind that she was there last night, with a smile that lit up the whole room.

I’m Back

And a great trip it was! And a great homecoming. I came back to a houseful of people and a huge Thanksgiving feast. Joe cooked not one but two ducks, not one but two chickens, and all the veggies, fixings, and desserts you could possibly imagine. Today we’re going to another feast, to commemorate the fact that a young boy in this family took his first caribou.

But before I talk further about the present, I should tell you about the past couple of weeks. The first few days of the trip were business related; a conference in Regina. As always, I came away with lots of new ideas and it was good to re-connect with people I’ve met in the past at these meetings. 

Then it was on to Vancouver, to visit with my daughter. It’s great to see her so happy and settled. On Saturday we went exploring and had some great East Indian food. Here are a couple of snaps from the day.

Later that day I met up with Lucca, ate more delicious food, and we packed for our trip to Vancouver Island. Off we went to Nanaimo the next day, where we picked up a car and headed north of the city to Free Spirit Spheres, where we spent our first night. It was quite magical sleeping in Eryn…that feeling of being back in the womb, all enveloped and loved. Here are a few photos.

Eryn's ceiling

Looking out one of her windows

The sphere was decorated with rune symbols, and the owners provided a book and a set of runes so people can figure out what they all mean. Here is Lucca holding the book.

Many visitors leave comments and drawings in the guest book. This person even wrote a song about Eryn. I will play it on the piano when I have a moment to hear what it sounds like.

My view of the outside world from the upper bunk

Outside view of Eryn

 There are many stories of people conceiving their babies in these spheres (one woman wrote in the guest book that all three of her children were conceived here) and one of the people who owns the spheres was dealing with her second bout of cancer and decided to reject all medical treatment and instead spend three months by herself in one of the spheres. Several years later, she appears healthy and says what happened in that sphere was nothing short of a miracle. The couple are now working on developing healing spheres, with massage tables and the like, and they’re building one that is to be used as a broadcast centre, with an editing suite, an area to do interviews, and a Murphy bed so VIPs can sleep in there at night.

The next morning Lucca and I headed off for the first of many hikes were were to take over the next several days. We managed to get ourselves lost, but a young man pointed us in the right direction and even walked with us for 20 minutes or so. We found everyone around here so friendly!

Back from the hike, the mother of the people who own the spheres loaded us down with a huge bag of apples from the trees on the property. They were delicious – crisp and sweet. For the next week we ate apples morning, noon and night, and I have come back to Whitehorse with a fair quantity of them.

From the spheres we drove west across the island to Ucluelet, but that my friends is a chapter that I will keep for another day.