My Rants of frustration

My attempts to make a shirt out of that old dress are not going as well as hoped ...what this means is the mice and birds did not magically appear in the room to assist me when I screwed up so I have to actually putz with it myself and take up time grrrr I hate that

It will work out but when I get frustrated or annoyed with a project I set it aside for a while till I feel like doing it well

My E-bay items are not selling as well as I hoped I cleaned a closet and have some great shoes up (my kids sports and dance shoes that no longer fit) again a grrrrr I want to make enough money to buy something cool like a neato Worm Bin

A couple of things I have done of some small note
I put a power strip in the kitchen to plug all the small appliances into so I can turn the whole thing off when the appliances are not in use. This is supposed to save energy by having any non used appliances turned off completely so they don't use what is called Phantom Charges.

I still want a Cent-o-meter thing that I saw on the TV show Wa$ted so I can show my Dear Dave that my efforts actually make a difference in the amount of energy we use. he thinks that by turning off the big appliances that is all we can really do . He does realize that it saves energy but he looks at BIG things rather than the small stuff if it does not make a HUGE dent in the power savings to him it is not really worth the effort.

Being a penny pincher (I can squeeze a penny till it sits up and begs for mercy!) I like the small things that save pennies cause I know pennies add up and often in our lives together it has been my pennies that have saved us .

So it came as no surprise to me when I asked Dave if we could switch kitty litter. The look I got ...hmmmm how to describe it... It was the look of a man who was being patient with his wife's latest hobby...

how condescending of him!

Does he not know I check this stuff out !!

of course he KNOWS that but it was just the look that annoyed me.

I checked the price of Feline Pine Kitty litter VS our usual kitty litter

I buy the most generic cheapest cat litter available much like diapers to me it is good enough to poop in I do not think bodily functions should cost a great deal of money I would prefer they be free. but Alas we have not evolved that far

so I have to pay for my indoor cat to poop

I love my indoor cat . I am NOT an animal person sure I think they are cute and cuddly but I am not into animals like some people are I do not think they should be treated poorly but I also don't think they need tons of pampering

The Feline Pine cat litter was interesting looking my son who is in charge of kitty litter boxes had to ask 3 times if I was SURE that this stuff was kitty litter
It looks like food pellets

Smells like trees real trees not that fake pine stuff
now the cost

I was shocked really I pay something like 3.50$ for a plastic jug of scoopable cheapo kitty litter

Feline Pine was in a thin plastic bag (what out of recycled paper lined with wax to protect it that stuff at least makes a good fire starter!) for $3.68 for 7lbs comparable in price

NOW here is the neat part the bag says this is 4 weeks worth of kitty litter

WHAT?? this tiny bag will last for 4 weeks? sure it will

well so far (it has been several days) either my cat has found someplace else to go (entirely possible she thinks she owns the house) OR this stuff works really great

no stink (I have an open top litter box the kids broke the top trying to stand on it)

No mess ..because the pellets are so big even the craziest of scratchers wont mess up the floor with this stuff

AND

no dust

cool product I will let you know if I like it enough in a few weeks

MY worms Oh dear what can I say
I think my family needed more than just one pound of worms
don't worry they are still surviving and thriving I just need to have a different type of system set up for them

my DREAM is to have a nice worm bin like the Can O worms my friend Laura told me about (one of the awesome Hot Mama's from a mommy board I have been a part of for 4 years!)
but I still don't think that one would be enough for the peels and fruit cores we go through in a weeks time not to mention coffee ground egg shells and vegetables

I need bigger bins and more of them and stacked I tried Walmart and bought some bins they are tiny our Walmart is the process of remodeling so it was either smallish or super size...so I will separate out some of the worms and get them in there to get them breeding and attacking some of our trash and still have the bigger bin going on but with a better configuration.

Another thing I did that really REALLY annoyed me

I was looking for this cool Earth Day countdown button. I tried getting it to work on my blog spot but I lack the understanding of complicated things like that so it did not work..at any rate I clicked on this check the size of your carbon Footprint thing ...

I WAS PISSED

it says I live the lifestyle of someone who needs 3 1/2 earths to support

they did not ask any questions about things I do in my effort to conserve energy NO they asked about stuff like "do you drive a hybrid" hell no most people in this world don't have the money to buy a hybrid no matter how badly they lust after the latest greatest gadget!

do you carpool yes I do mainly cause I never go anywhere alone we fill my van with my kids and head off . What annoyed me most is the most I drive in a week is perhaps 60 miles TOTAL in a week and that is TOPS usually I myself drive much less my dear Dave has to drive much more he drive about 68 miles every day to and from work he cannot carpool

The annoying thing was it asked do you drive between 5-100 miles there is a huge difference between 5 and 100 miles

did it ask about things like farming? no

Are you a Vegan ?
No sorry I would starve to death I am a HUGE meat eater and I love my eggs and dairy products I live on a farm and most of the time have produced my own eggs organically so PPPPBBBLLTTTT!!! and It assumed that I ate only beef instead of mostly chicken and pork which again is a BIG difference in methane producing animal poop!

what about the weather stripping I put on my house?? you know the duct tape with the foam strip behind it? What about the CFL's I put in? What about the power strip in my kitchen TELL ME what about the POWER STRIP!!!! that was an annoying thing to rearrange and clean my kitchen counter to get the right working configuration of appliances to work with one power strip

all these little efforts make a difference I know they do!!! I am not wasting my time or energy doing this ...right???

and then it hit me

If this pisses me off what about someone who does not know as much as I ..and granted I don't know a lot (you read it here first folks I Sue just admitted to not knowing a lot about this subject GASP)

So what about those people who would think "hey Earth day is coming I am going to do some good for the Earth" and they take this quiz and then instead of being INSPIRED to do more they feel hopeless
and helpless despair that no effort they make could POSSIBLY be meaningful

Well here I am SUE here to tell you this

Don't be intimidated by the super Crunchy(what my Dad used to call granola crunchers) who are very well meaning people who are doing all they can for a greener life that is great for them and terrific and I applaud their efforts to live a life that makes little impact they do have a lot to teach however their lessons need to come to us in a way that makes us want to change. Most of the western world is not ready to give up all of it's wasteful ways we want it to be a painless transition..

Going Green is not a competition it is not a game to see who can save more by making more sacrifices it is a lifestyle a way of looking at things

You have to decide what works best for you and your circumstances what can YOU do

For example
with children

I mostly cloth diaper my youngest and I breast feed (I nursed all my kids ) FOR ME this is easy I can do this I do not cloth diaper ALL the time but at least 3 of his dipes a day are cloth I am slowly moving toward a time when I can do it all the time I need to make more covers yet again..

NOT everyone can or is willing to cloth diaper their kid

should they be ridiculed? should they be voted off the island?

no I bet they make other efforts that I cannot

things like...buying local grown produce

if you missed it I shop at Walmart!!

So in conclusion of this rant I will say

Don't get frustrated ..don't be intimidated and find things you can do that will work well and keep looking for more options

every little bit helps!