Back to Basics Day #3

Back to Basics Day #3

Doing: Cleaning out the pig sty study. Shredding old bills and documents to put in the compost bins/ worm farm and use as mulch. Giving the hand mower a test drive after DH and FIL fixed it (the ball bearings had seized). Signing up to get my superannuation annual report via email instead of snail mail.

Making: Too busy cleaning and shredding!

Dinner: Homemade pizza. Kids = their own toppings, adults = Home made rocket and walnut pesto/ roasted cherry tomatoes/ olives/ feta.

Challenge/s: Environmentally friendly cockroach control! The recent humidity has meant a population explosion and despite extra care with food cleanliness, our kitchen is currently host to huge brown outdoor cockies at night - eeeeeuuuuw!!

Solution/s: Sprinkling Borax around is a popular method, but I won't use it because my kids get their little fingers in everywhere. I have been using "Lo Line" Cockroach Traps which are effective but I need to replace them every night (each one catches about 6-8 roaches on the sticky paper), so I go through the 10-pack pretty quickly - and at about $18 per pack it's working out to be a bit expensive. So I'm going to try the Citrus Spray recommended recently in a post on Aussies Living Simply - just need to buy some more oranges first!

Transgressions: Accidentally tipping a whole bin full of recycling into the normal bin instead - on top of stinky wet kitchen rubbish. I declined to retrieve what I couldn't reach :-(

Reading: Cradle to Cradle, McDonough and Braungart.

Utilities: Gas 33.9MJ/day average for November = 33% of the average Australian daily use; Water average 495L/day = 84% of the average household use for my region/ 79% of Australian average; Electricity average 12.8 kWh/day = 78% of average Australian household use.

Contemplating: Actually weighing the amount of garbage we throw out each week, to get a better understanding of how we relate to the average amount of rubbish Australian households discard (11.9kg of rubbish and 3.1kg of recycling each week). I'm not sure if I can cope with this amount of extra work but I'm thinking about strategies...