January 23rd, 2008
Tree Hugging Family Co-blogger Jennifer
I’m hoping that most of you who show up end up sticking around for a good long while. If that does turn out to be the case it would be much nicer to get some introductions under way.
I’m thinking I’ll go first since I seem to be the first one to this party.
I’m Jennifer and I suppose I should start by giving you a little background on where I’m coming from with this whole green living topic.
First a picture so you know who is talking to you here. Now, you should know I don’t photograph well. And although I do tend to do an awful lot of eco-friendly things; it’s not like I carry a camera around with me to capture the moments. It would be cool if I had a picture of me hugging a tree. Sadly, this blog title, while spiffy, is a tad misleading because I don’t normally do that.
I did however manage to dig up a photo of me planting trees. The picture you see to the side is me at a Humboldt County peninsula beach clean up and tree planting Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America celebration. Long name, good cause. The picture’s a bit fuzzy because my little shot it and she was way excited (and thus shaky) about planting her own tree.
Was I always into sustainable living?
Sort of; I did typical stuff. Carried a reusable coffee mug, recycled, turned of lights when I left the room, etc. After my son was born my family and I moved to Humboldt County and that’s what changed my thinking from typical green living to “what more can I do.”
Humboldt is pretty cool. There’s a lot of untouched spaces like beaches and forests and of course the ever inspiring redwood trees. There’s many green minded and creative people in a smaller community so it becomes easy to get attached to the idea that sustainability should be the norm not the exception. We lived in a tiny town and a tiny house, with no electric heat, within walking distance to the beach and with these amazing views of the ocean. We had to learn to keep the house warm without wasting wood, which was good because it got me thinking about how to conserve natural resources — or if you even can if your heat is wood based (more on that another day).
We spent a lot of time out close to nature. We bought local organic foods from the co-op and farmers market because that’s what was close by. We bought old furniture and fixed it up and painted it. We generally started to live within less space on less resources. And it was nice. I met people who lived entirely off grid and decided that was a major goal of mine.
Since Humboldt I’ve tried to change the way my family does things at home and in the community. Sometimes we take bold steps and sometimes small; but I try to keep us thinking about it. Hopefully, your family is taking steps as well and if you aren’t or you’d like to take more this blog will be a good place to start gathering ideas.
Any other regular characters on this blog?
Being that this is a green living blog for families I’ll likely be mentioning my son. Since I don’t want to keep introducing him, I’ll do it now. The boy to the right is my son Cedar Blue.
He’s into sustainable living as well, although I doubt he’d call it that. He’s cooked on solar cookers, gathered water from rain barrels, gardened organically, created art with natural resources, ‘helped out’ when we built our passive solar house, recycles, built solar powered toys, and loves garage sales.
Besides trying to live green we’re also unschoolers which means Cedar doesn’t go to school so he’s around a lot. Thus he tends to be a topic of conversation.
Anything else that’s interesting about me you can learn by visiting here.
What about you?
Why not introduce yourself in the comments. What steps are you and your family taking to live lighter upon the earth. Or maybe tell me what you’d like to be doing. What kind of green activities do your kids love?
I’d also love to see picture of you and your family doing green activities as well. You can send them to me at the email you see in the sidebar and that way other readers and I can see what great things you’re doing to make a difference.
Lastly, I’m hoping to cover topics that will actually help and or inspire you and your family so if you have any ideas or suggestions you can leave them in the comments or shoot me an email.
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