In the Wilderness

Last month, my class went on a field trip to Stanley, ID.  This is my environmental literature class so we were out there learning about wilderness, what it really is, how its managed, and the rules and regulations.  It was a fun trip! We only have 7 people in the class and only 5 of us plus the instructor went.

The first day we went to the Forest service and he talked to us about Leave no Trace and how to respect the land.  I actually learned a lot more than I thought I would.  Most importantly, I learned how to poop in the woods should that moment ever arise.  Who knew it was such a big deal but believe me, as much as it was talked about, it is a BIG deal. Then we hiked up above Redfish Lake and at lunch.  I won't lie, I thought I was going to die.  I was getting over a bad chest cold and I haven't been running at all since I hurt my feet, so I felt like an asthmatic must feel.  I couldn't breathe and I just  kept coughing.  Still, as miserable as it was, It was worth it.

Next we went to the Stanley Hatchery where I didn't really learn much since I have been well versed in the workings of fish hatcheries over the last year and a half, but their facility was very, very nice.  It was interesting to see that this facility operated so differently from the others.  This was my 4th hatchery I have visited and so far they have all been very unique.

That evening, we camped out in tents and had a campfire and good camaraderie.  I got to know my classmates better and it was a beautiful night with clear skies and lots of stars.  The next morning, the only thing on the agenda was a hike up the Iron Creek Trail.  This trail was a 9 mile trail round trip that went up to the Sawtooth Lake.  It started out really nice and flat for the first 2 miles.

It went through a meadow, and over a creek

After this meadow, the trail went up, and up and up.  It was a gradual incline but still my lungs still hadn't recovered so it was a little strenuous. Eventually we were on some granite rock trails and on our way to the lakes.

I was having trouble breathing still, the air was thinner and it was quite the hike but I still loved every minute of it.  We finally made it to the lakes where we had a quick snack and then turned around and trucked right on out.

This was a fun trip and I learned a lot and got to experience some great wilderness that is literally right out our door.  It is a relatively short drive from the Valley to get to the Stanley basin, and it is worth it to hop in the car and go see some amazing wilderness.  I hope by next year I am in better shape and we can go explore these mountains a little more.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Last week for class we had to do a Lifestyle Analysis project.  I know.. what the hell is that?  Well, we were asked to choose three areas of our life that could be monitored and where we could potentially consume less.   Of the list of choices we were given, I chose electricity, garbage, and eating more efficiently. Being the closet conservationist I am (or wish to be) I was thrilled to do this project.  I wish I could say the same for my family but it was a learning lesson.  Fact of the matter is, a household of 7 people consume a LOT of crap.. we eat a lot of food, we throw a lot of stuff away and we use a lot of resources.  I have researched sustainable living for a while now and am intrigued by it.  It's not a new concept.. people were self-sustainable long before I ever set foot on this earth.

I am still working on the write-up report, but I can already see where some of the things we did really made a difference and others would need some more work. Technically water consumption was supposed to be tied into  Electricity section but in our case our meter wasn't very accessible so I left that part out.  Unfortunately I think it skewed our results.  For example, we take a lot of showers, and it takes a good amount of electricity to heat water up.  I should have turned the water thermostat down, but I didn't.  We could have taken shorter showers but didn't do that either.  I did however, limit my dryer use.  I only ran the dryer 2 times in the 5 days of reduction (for towels because I do not want scratchy towels) as opposed to 7 times in the first 5 days of observation.  I literally had clothes strung all over the house, but it really wasn't that hard of a thing to deal with.  It just required a little management. We also were very diligent about turning lights off and not having them on when they weren't needed.

Eating more efficiently.  What is that? Well, its reducing waste, reducing how far the food we eat has to travel, reducing packaging material, limiting meat consumption.  Locavore is a trendy new word for this, and it is something I have been leaning to for a while now.  I am far from doing this like I should but the awareness this little project brought me was good.  I found for me that it wasn't the fact that this stuff isn't available, because I have several sources for locally raised meat and vegetables.  We had our CSA this past year, Brent hunts and fishes for our own meat.  And really price isn't a huge issue either.  When you eat less meat you are paying less, and local meat is everywhere.  A lot of times price comes into play because you have to buy a lot upfront and in our case we don't always have that to play around with.  I would love to buy a pig and a cow to last us a year.  If I had the space, I would raise my own meat chickens, but that is just not something that we can do.  I didn't feel this portion of the project helped me a whole lot as I am pretty knowledgeable as to where to get the things that would lessen the impact, we just don't do it like we should.

Where I did see a huge change in impact was with our garbage.  We monitored everything! I made a makeshift compost bin out of a trash can, My chickens have been eating better than ever! And we double check everything to see if we can recycle it.  Just by doing these things we were able to decrease the volume of the trash that went to the landfill by 2/3rds.  I keep a bowl by the sink for chicken scraps and one for compost and every day I empty it.  I have a recycle bin upstairs now as well so paper trash from up there gets to the right place.  Really this was such an easy change, it took very little effort and it made a HUGE difference.

My goal now is to be creative and see if I can reduce the other things that were monitored.  I want to use a clothesline, build a real compost pile, monitor the electricity more (if not for conservation, but for the cost!). Can you see if there is anything you can limit? Maybe participate in a Meatless Monday, buy from the farmers market, hang the clothes to dry that dry fast, dry 2 loads at once, turn lights off when not using, reduce your shower by a few minutes.  The fact is these things add up and it isn't too difficult to cut these things back some.  Our dinner tonight was about 90% local.  We had elk meat from a friend, quail that Brent shot, potatoes that came from a few towns over, and apples from an orchard that we picked yesterday. It was all so good and it was the first meal in ages where there were no leftovers and everyone loved it all.

Decisions

This has been a pretty trying week for me.  I am struggling with a lot of different things and felt I needed to make some decisions.  This semester I took one more class than I had been taking the past 2 years.  Previously I have been taking only two per semester but if I wanted to graduate in the spring, I had to take three.  I knew this was going to be hard, but I don't think I knew how hard it would be, especially with all the other things I have going on.

I think what made this so hard to figure out what to do was the fact that I am doing extraordinarily well in my classes.  But what is happening is other parts of my life are suffering.  My kids are feeling the stress,my job performance is suffering, and my house is feeling pretty neglected  as well. So I finally came to the decision to drop my most demanding class.  This was a really tough decision and it didn't come lightly.  Brent and I had been discussing for a few days what all out options could be.  Could I quit my job? Would I be able to spend some time trying to supplement our income by making things to sell?  Should I cut back on work even more, only work 16 hours a week?  Maybe I would quit school altogether, work full time again.  I even considered putting the little ones in daycare for an additional day and I would use that time just for studying.  I have learned it is nearly impossible to study with kids around.

So that was it.  I figured this would allow me more time at home to get some things done, still work and bring some income in, and still finish my other two classes which I am certain I will do well in.  What it means is another whole year of school.  Granted I will only need one class each semester so I will be able to focus on it so that will make things easier.

Even though I dropped the class, I am still going to be pretty busy.  But I have some things I have been working on in my head that I want to implement.  I have a little fairy vision in my head of what I want my life to look like.  My life presently does not resemble that at all yet but I am really going to work on it.  Hopefully it will all be blogworthy and I still have some entries to make that I haven't gotten around to.

Some of the things on my list are:

• Make Halloween costumes.  I have all the supplies needed for Taylor's and I can tell it is going to be awesome!
• Make and stick with a weekly meal list.  We are wasting so much money each month because of impulse grocery shopping that it is uncalled for.  This definitely needs some intervention.
• Clean my freakin house.  I will be honest when I say I let it go this last month.  Time for a deep clean
• Organize.. I want to be organized everywhere! Kids toys, pantry, crafts, garage.. why is it so difficult. I see so many bloggers that make it look so easy.
• Paint.  We are working on Taylor's room now, I am going to make curtains this week and then we need to paint it.
• Schedule time to exercise.  Now that I don't have to run out and get to class by a certain time.. Spencer and I are going to make some use of that time to go walking.  I am not going to hit my birthday goal but by golly I need to get close.

So that's just a sampling of what I want to work on.  This weekend we are going to pick apples.  I am going to get a lot more this year so I can make loads of applesauce and I would actually like to try and can some pie filling.  I'm also going to make some smaller jars of apple butter again.  I love the fall harvest.  What are some of your fall festivities?