Falling Leaves for Yummy Compost! :)

Sorry I wasn't posting last week - had a bunch of posts planned, and still need to get some pics (of 'final products' he he..) and was kinda busy... (and my SD card is full /sigh/ Not sure if it's very eco to buy a new one? Or how to store and back up pics and little films safely in a zero waste way?)

So, let's see.

On Monday Dad and I took a neighbour's leaves off her grass - we need the leaves for our compost and she's had a hand injury! (Beware chemicals-sprayed thorns in your hand!! She's had 2 operations already and it's still not good! Her neighbours sprayed a fruit tree that's close to her roses, and apparently it then all got infected badly?)
It's good to have a big mouth (sometimes) though.

On Tuesday we got more leaves, as another neighbour I spoke to while handling the leaves (she gave us an odd look!) told a guy who didn't know what to do with them that our Dad might take them. So Sis and Dad went off and got a big load from a local sometimes-marketplace.
(Dad brought the guy a beer and was happy to chat about all evils of modern world afterwards too.)

On Wednesday I finally got to bring the 'zero waste reusable plastic containers' to a lady who makes the yummiest cheese ever!! (With walnuts or dragonwort or other yummy spices!) She was in town for a mini-event: November 11th is St Martin's Day and widely celebrated in Slovenia with new wine and ducks or geese!
Mom bought some cheese in a plastic foil ('Do you have the containers with? Do you want me to unwrap the foil?' the lady asked with concern - Mum shook her head and took two and phoned me and sent me to town with containers for future exchange. That involves a castle and a friendly pub owner. We'll see how it goes! :)
/We had to first empty some old cottage cheese plastic tubs from raspberries and such. This year almost 90% of our freezer stuff was in reusable boxes!:)/

On the way home, I caught the sub-mayor's wife handling the leaves!!

You can guess what followed. :)

Next day, Dad and I took the leaves. (There weren't many but I was furious at their pretty bags full of leaves and grass and other compost stuff whole year! I think a sub-mayor oughtta be an example, no?)
She was quite happy to give 'em to us, and told me she 'didn't know what to do with them'! /sigh/
My Dad had been embarassed to ask sub-mayor, his pal, and so I was at first a bit shy about it too.. Seeing how the other neighbour gave us leaves gladly, I decided to approach Mother Sub-Mayor directly - and, yup, sometimes women can be wiser!!:)

I was also in contact with some guys from another town, reading and listening to some stuff.. (That I wish I didn't know perhaps! /sigh/)

I still feel quite guilty for not doing more, you know!

At least we saved some bags of leaves from the incinerator!!
Any organic matter or plastics is BAD in an incinerator, as toxic dioxins and other poisons may be formed! And of course, when it's all mixed together with other trash, it can't be really usable, can it?

If composted, it'll make yummy compost for our garden!

Oh, and we made some YUMMY zero-sugar pear marmalade!! (That I'm now quite addicted to! /sigh/)
Previous years, often Uncle's pears just got thrown away to the compost (at least the compost got 'em!:) this year when apples are scarce, I thought it would be wise to get all the pears we can!
And yup, Uncle deserves at least a small jar! :)

I talked trash to Mother Sub-Mayor, one of the local girl scouts (they might be interested to hand out cloth bags!! Keep your fingers crossed!) and today, surprisingly even to my not-very-eco cousin! (He had good info on what it's like in Austria!)

November is a good month to sort and start again your compost, if you don't have one already? :)

What do you do with your organic waste, is it collected separately where you live? (Here it isn't, yet. Many people have compost, but not everyone. I was happy to see at least one new BIG compost heap (made of leaves mostly) - maybe result of my talk and articles? I'd love to think so!:)

And remember, November 21st-29th is European minimizing waste week!! What will you do to celebrate it? ;)

Thanks to the lovely Danda's blog for the info - apparently in Slovenia there is no official organizer? :( They just want to build incinerators??
I did see the 2nd biggest Slovenian city put up a notice for getting funding from EU for an incinerator there? :(

So, this week was full of ups and downs, of good news and bad.. I got invited to help film a documentary, it was sort of short notice though.. Got some cool new info though..
And today I just saw a local MP and almost invited myself to a meeting...? ;)
Probably better to get my act together and know what to say though!:) Any suggestions? ;)

Been Busy Busy Busy :)

I'm really sleepy, but YESTERDAY I BAKED!! OMG!! :)

Bread and bagels, for the 1st time ever!!! :)

It was FAB!! :)

/Still need to practise on the results a bit, but I think the pics are publishable!:)/

Also, Dad and I re-shoveled our awesome compost ('man's work!';) and today I used eco methods on Uncle's shrubbery (instead of him pouring toxics on it!)
I feel muscles in places I did not know existed!

Oh, and I taught cows how to eat grass. Seriously.
I have three new best friends now!

Hope you had an EXCELLENT day too!! :)

Feeling Dangerous!! :)

Well, today was another AWESOME day!

Problem:


Solution:



Action:


This bookish girl is feeling quite BADASS!! :)

Dad and I demolished the tomato summerhouse (wood survives winter better when under roof!) I forgot to photograph it 1st though!

We also 'unplugged' the beanpoles, and were left with the above!

We had a fab trip on Saturday (eco-coloured!), a marvelous hike yesterday, and today Dad and I took care of the garden, before the rain starts. (Mum's caught a cold, Sis was wondering if she caught one too, and Dad's hand is still injured a bit and not totally 100%, so I got to do some of the FUN stuff I've ALWAYS wanted to do!

You know, the really COOL stuff that usually Dad's done!)

So, last week I personally grated 35 kg (= about 70 pounds I think!) of fresh cabbage! :)
/Tutorial upcoming! Along with other food preservation tutorials!
I'm a bit WAAY behind with some of them, not sure whether to put them on anyway?)

It's freezing cold here, last garden work is putting away everything, feeding the compost.. (And smaller bits of bean plant are better for the compost, as they make yummy compost more quickly!)

I LOVE chopping stuff!!
(Though Dad kept yelling: 'Away from your fingers!')

You know, it's all pretty ZEN! (I never thought I'd say something like this about gardening or any of the 'home chores'!)
I felt like a kungfu master and if you got it just right: it was EFFORTLESS! :)
And very efficient.

PS All that said, I didn't get it right 3/4 of the time and am still pretty sore, lol!!
Told Dad he must make me practice for strength all winter and all year so I'll be able to chop beanpole vine better next year!!

Gardening Experiments ;))

I am completely exhausted.

& what have I done? Nothing much.

Mum and I have been planting seedlings - tomato & pepper/paprika.

I'm rather a newbie at this, since I only started helping her in this last year.

'Oh I learnt it when I was married already!' she's eager to point out (probably hinting I can easily learn this on my own too - and possibly get married and give her grandkids asap too!).
Thing is, she had co-workers and neighbours to help & conspire with, and did a lot of random trial-and-error too, so I think all those precious years of experience are worth something too! (Plus, no sight of eligible bachelors falling from the roof at the time of speaking!)

So we made a pact. I am the apprentice, and she's my mentor. Sort of.

Oh. We even put it 'on the agenda'! To be done Monday after lunch immediately. uhm.
With all the laptop-drivers frenzy (& little kiddies around), it only managed to be done today. (YAY!! Sis finally got her new laptop to work!! The original shop (yesterday) and a small shop here - that finally fixed it all! - were involved.)

You probably know a thing or two about my Mum by now. If I'm disorganized, she's Mrs Disorganization herself! (I had to learn from someone, didn't I?)

It took probably at least an hour (altogether) to set things up, sort the still usable ex-yogurt pots (according to labels) etc.
Of course Mum has also 'always bought' the peat for the seedlings. I lamented this fact a while ago when we started the first trays already. Still, it had to be used up.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with what we did. Used ex-yogurt pots (mostly #5 & #6 plastics, I think - some were illegible) that had been previously used & already had names of the sorts written on them, & little special pots for this that were also previously in use. And ice-cream & quark plastic pots for the seeds.

She had wanted to buy one of these, but luckily I prevented it! (I thought surely it would be just one more thing to throw away!!)


Garbage: 3 yogurt pots that had been chewed though (?!) /poor mouse! - or whatever chewed it! you have to be pretty desperate to go chew yogurt pots, no?!/
To-be garbage: the bag from the peat! (am not completely happy about the styrofoam or whatsit in the peat either!) and seed bags.. :(
Not completely happy with the use of alcohol-'permanent' marker either! - sellotape+paper+ballpoint pen as an alternative seems even worse (!?) - (What did they use in old times..?)

Would love to use our compost, Mum said it would have to be sifted well (& an appropriate sieve made!) and maybe little animals could be a problem?
We have these little seedlings in the living room or kitchen, on a tray, on the window sill, & there are (mysteriously) too many ants already! (Did they come from the bought soil/peat or through the window? no idea!)

We intended to use toilet roll inners too, for a bunch of them at least, as experimental sideline, but then there were enough yogurt pots so we didn't!

So ideally next year we'd be better organized & use the time better (instead of me waiting for Mum to find things, or decide on how many to plant/sow)

A pack of seeds costs about 0.80 Euro, and pepper/paprika seedlings/plantlings are 0.50 Euro one, so this saved quite a bit of money! (at least 3x6 tomato plants will be needed, and some peppers, and later on other stuff..)

Mum used to buy the plantlings, but since we've got the greenhouse, she grows them herself. She's very free-spirit about it too: 'If they grow, they grow.' She likes to have extra to give to her Sis, if theirs do badly. And if ours did badly we got some from my Aunt too..

I'd love us to grow our own seeds, since the ones bought come in tiny little sachets that are most likely not recyclable and not compostable. (It would be good to check though.) Some are also not really organic, though Mum DID buy some organic ones the other week! :) YAY! (after I told her which shop has 'em!)
I'm curious about this idea: to eat & plant (cherry tomatoes) in the same day?! Is it really possible?!! Full details here (in one of the comments!)
(Actually Mum has saved her own seeds at times in the past, but 'sometimes they came out okay, sometimes they didn't.' Okay. Guess we'll just have to take this risk.)

And, lol, apparently we're not the only ones with weird seedling/plantling practices: meet Gary - random pic found on Flickr! :)

And some more interesting DIY ideas for yogurt pots!
(I like the last one - seems we COULD use those chewed up yogurt cups for some things after all!!)

Overall, I think we saved the world (or at least our house) from quite a lot of plastic clingwrap, throwawayable plastic bags, unnecessary food miles, and other horrors! - so basically I AM satisfied with it all! 2 hours of slight frenzy for all those yummy tomatoes and peppers all summer long!! That's basically nothing!
/& if I were a bit less frantic and perfectionistic - 'Mum, did I tuck 'em in allright?' I might even find this thing relaxing!/

Wish we'd done this when I was a kid already! (Little-Miss-not-so-Green might enjoy it too, but it would be better to do a line without her first.. I think she's not to be trusted completely yet.. maybe next year..?)

If you know zero waste (& non-toxic) alternatives for permanent markers (or more about using own compost for planting seedlings/sowing), please tell!!