Sustainability and Family Values

This is a little something I wrote on the blog of my college class that I thought I might share with you. Enjoy.

I realized that there are a lot of things that I am doing that are sustainable practices. I have cloth diapers that I made myself that I use to diaper my baby. All of our laundry is done in cold water. We have a rain barrel harvesting system in place, we grow all of our own vegetables. I raise my own chickens and milk my own goat (and yes I live in the city, so this is possible). I sew all of my daughters clothes. I grind my own wheat that I buy from local farmers. We don’t own a TV. We harvest our goat kids for meat as well as a few cattle. We have almost no solid waste, which means that our garbage is taken away less than once a month. We have no plastic bottles in our house because all of our food is made a home. I make all of our mayonnaise and mustard, chocolate sauce and nutella. I make my own cream of wheat from the wheat that I grind. I have no gallon milk containers because I use glass. All of my things are stored in glass that I reuse over and over again. I take very short showers because I only wash my hair once a week. My baby only takes baths in 1-2 inch water, etc. The only thing that I don’t do great is that I drive. We live in a rural city that is very small. There is no other choice but to drive, and I think that my carbon footprint, if you will, is greatly reduced by many of the other things that I do. For example, I save a cup of crude oil every time I change my daughter’s diaper. That feels good.

I have chosen to become really involved in the game of being sustainable. I do it for the environment, yes, but I do it for myself as well. My family is happy knowing that I make all of our cheese. We get to harvest our chickens when we want, and I don’t have to wonder if they were given antibiotics. My eggs come from the hens that laid them right outside my window. My daughter gets to come with me to milk the goat every day, and she reaps the benefits of drinking raw goats milk and raw goats milk cheese. These actions have drawn us closer as a family because we are forced to confront what we are doing in our lives and what effect those actions have on others. I think that is what sustainability really is.