Photo courtesy of Fiskars
Why don’t we begin this brand new decade with a practical resolution? Yes, I know we’re twenty-two days into things, but I like to form my resolutions a bit before I actually launch.
What if we made a commitment to do one thing to move in the direction of sustainable living? Frankly, I can’t get my feathers ruffled over the climate change argument, ‘er discussion, because I don’t have a dog in that fight, or a chicken for that matter.
Here’s how I look at it: whether you believe in climate change or not, you can still see that we don’t take very good care of our home. As my mother always said, “Don’t foul your nest.”
It’s good advice. In the winter, with the leaves off of the trees and the underbrush, I can see the trash deposited there by those who race by in their cars and pickup trucks. Why is it that people think rural areas are their personal dumping grounds? It’s not just small stuff either. I can count on all ten fingers and toes how many couches, boxes of empty Bud cans, whiskey bottles and even toilets, HH and I have removed from the county ditches adjacent to our home.
Is this just an Oklahoma thing, or do other states have a problem with dumping?
Don’t make me pull out the video of the crying Native American.
Okay, I did.
I think we can all agree that picking up the trash and then recycling it, if possible, is a good thing.
What if we also used a non-polluting, really good, reel mower to take the top off of our lawns? That would be a step in the right direction. Don’t you agree?
Even better, what if that mower were free?
Let’s start off this brand spankin’ new decade with a contest!
The very nice people at Fiskars are letting me give one reader their new Fiskars® Momentum™ Reel Mower. Carol from May Dreams Gardens reviewed the mower in two separate posts: Part I where she put the mower together, and Part II, where she actually mowed.
The new Fiskars® Momentum™ Reel Mower
What’s that? Did I hear a collective cheer across the blogosphere?
Now, for the icky part we rebels would rather not discuss, the rules:
- In a comment, tell me one thing you’re going to do this year to help improve your world in some sustainable fashion. Be imaginative. My non-gardening, but very astute, BFF, Aimee, and I will narrow the contestants down to what we think are the three best answers, and then, dear readers, I’m going to let you vote on who is top dog in a poll.
- Make sure you give me your name and a valid email address in the comment form. If you win, it’s the only way I can reach you.
- Double Bonus Points (brilliantly lifted from my friend, Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening): “Tweet this giveaway on Twitter and in a separate comment include the link to your tweet. (Click on the date stamp of the tweet to get a url you can paste in your comment.” That way I can find your tweet.)
- The giveaway ends at midnight on Sunday, January 31, 2010, at Midnight.
- In order to give me time to read all the entries, the Top Three will be announced on Wednesday, February 3, 2010. A poll will be put together with the answers, and I’ll let you all decide who wins.
- I will then contact Fiskars with the winner’s information. Fiskars will ship the mower directly to the winner. This contest is open to persons in the United States and Canada. I’m sorry, my European friends. I’m told the shipping costs are too high, and the logistics too complicated.
As written above, to win this lovely prize, I need a comment telling me one thing you will do this year to make your world more sustainable. I’ve already given you a few ideas, now you help me.
What can we do to make Earth better and “greener?” You decide.
© 2010, Dee Nash. All rights reserved.
January 31st, 2010 on 4:57 am
What an awesome prize – that would be very helpful. Please pick me.
January 31st, 2010 on 11:17 am
Just tweeted you again about final day to enter. Hope this link works!
http://twitter.com/gettinggrounded/status/8456741896
And a PS to my previous comment: I promise I will actually USE the mower rather than hire that crazy guy that currently mows my small lawn!
January 31st, 2010 on 12:57 pm
I have already contacted seed companies for recommendations on what I can successfully grow for my family to eat on my small and shady yard. I am also trying very hard to make my grandson much more aware of packaging, and what are often considered lost arts, like quilting to reuse what we already have.
January 31st, 2010 on 2:31 pm
It would be fun to have one of these mowers again. Remember using one after we first got married until D dropped it down the basement stairs and it bent. I wonder if it could cope with a septic field. Great prize for some lucky person.
January 31st, 2010 on 4:56 pm
I have always tried to be as environmentally responsible as possible, and I keep after others to follow suit.
This year I resolve to plant as many native trees and plants as I can. This work, which is a labor of love for an avid gardener like me, will benefit people, wildlife and the Earth. I will not only plant them in my own yard, but I will plant them in the yards of neighbors, friends and family, and also in any parks or public areas that will allow it.
January 31st, 2010 on 5:19 pm
One thing my family has done is to reduce the amount of electricity we use. We knew our electric bill was high, but what we finally realized was that our wasteful behaviour was impacting the environment. To begin we checked our meter and for one week we used electricity as usual. The next week we were every conscientious about electric usage, turning off lights, not leaving a tv or radio on in an empty room. The third week we replaced our standard light bulbs with energy saving bulbs, bought small lamps to use instead of our overhead lights, took advantage of natural light and continued to use electricity as sparingly as possible. Our electric bill was cut in half! Not only did we save a lot of money we feel we have bettered the environment. I suggest that all families try this. Small steps make great leaps.
January 31st, 2010 on 5:20 pm
tweet: http://twitter.com/momunion/status/8467893183
January 31st, 2010 on 5:37 pm
“…one thing you’re going to do this year to help improve your world in some sustainable fashion.”
If we win this mower, I’d give it to my oldest daughter so she could use it and earn some green this summer, keep the planet green by not using a gas mower, and stop bugging my wife and me for money when she wants something like the latest technology gadget. She’s always trying to find ways to earn money and is willing to work for it. (Kind of like the character in the kids’ book Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen — it’s a good, quick read for kids about economics and lawn mowing).
We live in a neighborhood with a lot of retired folks–lemonade stands don’t do well in our neighborhood, but mowing people’s lawns might prove to be a lucrative business in the summer that would keep down neighborhood noise, CO2 emissions, and allow us to let their grass grow a little longer so it didn’t have to be cut so often! We do use a gas mower, so our only consolation right now is that it has a 4-cycle engine so it runs a little cleaner–we’d swap for a reel mower in a second, though, if we could afford one.
I’d like to say we’ll start a car cooperative, but I don’t think we could pull it off — I read about one that people can be part of and it makes a lot of sense. It said that any car sits idle for about 90% of the time (not if you travel in it for work, but for most of us with cars in parking lots at work) I’d vote for anyone who could get one going in our area. Does thinking about starting a car cooperative count?
If we don’t make the final cut (little mowing joke, there), I’m all for these two from above:
Andy up in entry #69 — I remember what it was like to be young, starting out life after college, and to have to get things like a mower.
Mosaic Mom in #65 — getting the mower, using it, spreading knowledge about it, and then donating it is a noble use pattern, IMHO.
We do a lot of the things on this list that others do too, so none would be new this year, like:
vegetable garden and berry bushes planted w/seeds from SeedSavers.org
compost food/leaves/clippings
no lawn watering
rain barrels
no fertilizing/pesticides on lawn (other than growing the grass thicker to keep the weeds from coming through again or using black plastic on our creeping charlie)
bike commuting to work seasonally (won’t risk riding on ice)
cloth bags at grocery store
solar panels for things like pumping fountain water and outside lights
clothesline in summer
shop Goodwill and donate things there too
shop rummage sales and Ebay
Buy seasonal produce at farmer’s market or food coop membership
Buy local beef (we live in the midwest, so there are many farmers around our city)
recycle
trade kids clothing with a lot of friends and relatives to get more wear out of them
live in town — older home, but walking or riding distance to schools, library, stores, etc.
This is a great contest–much better than a random prize drawing where you never know who wins. Even if my idea isn’t selected, I’ll happily vote for one of the three options we get to choose from this week.
BTW — Carol sent me
Here’s my Tweet link for double bonus points — http://twitter.com/crhansen4/status/8467759711
Thanks for doing this Dee.
January 31st, 2010 on 6:00 pm
My front yard needs some growth other than grass. I aim to plant more shrubs and vegetation and put raised garden beds into the landscape. This is my year to use the rain barrels to catch spring rains and continue vericomposting, along with regular composting.
January 31st, 2010 on 7:21 pm
I have started buying bottled water, I also have been using reusable tote bags instead of the plastic bags, I just started recycling, We plant a huge garden during the summer and grow organic vegetables and some fruits such as watermelon, We keep all of our lights, heat pump, and other electrical things off during the day! We also do not mow our yard we let someone have it for hay instead of using gas mowers!
January 31st, 2010 on 8:01 pm
I’m going to start a compost heap and use the compost on my garden. Also, I plan to ride my bicycle to work, and if I win this contest, of course I’ll use the lawn mower instead of my old, gas-guzzling, pollution machine.
January 31st, 2010 on 10:18 pm
“…one thing you will do this year to make your world more sustainable.”
If I win this mower I’d give it to my oldest daughter (she’s still at home and not quite a teenager). She could use it to earn green money by doing green work in the neighborhood. She could use it to mow our lawn and a lot of lawns in the neighborhood, which would eliminate more CO2 from small engines and put money in her pocket. We have a lot of neighbors who are retired folks, which means that lemonade stands don’t do so well, but a lawn-mowing service might. She’s a hard worker who is very environmentally conscious (she wrote letters to toy companies asking them to reduce the amount of waste in their packaging.)
I’d love to say I was starting a car sharing cooperative, because I just read about one that helps to take advantage of the 90% of the time that all of our cars sit idle during the day. I don’t think we can pull it off, but I’d be part of one if our community gets it going.
We already do a lot of other things people mentioned, so they wouldn’t be new this year: gardening, composting, mulching with newspapers, rain barrels, clotheslines, recycling, using Goodwill/garage sales/eBay/FreeCycle, sharing children’s clothes with friends and relatives, bike commuting to work, living in an older home downtown to lessen commutes and allow walking to places like school and the library, cloth bags at the grocery store, CF bulbs for lamps, Energy Star appliances, solar power for things like yard lights, no lawn watering or chemical treatment, and supporting local agriculture/farmer’s market/local beef producers.
This is a great contest idea–much better than a random drawing. I’m excited to see who to vote for this week.
Oh yeah — Carol sent me.
Here’s my double bonus tweet link — http://twitter.com/crhansen4/status/8467759711
Thanks for making this contest happen Dee.
If I don’t get chosen I’d advocate for #69 above instead — I remember buying a first house and having to find things like lawn mowers and can relate to the situation described.
January 31st, 2010 on 10:22 pm
I just baught a property with a large lawn and need a mower…
or a goat
January 31st, 2010 on 10:37 pm
1) I will use all the dead wood within walking distance in my fireplace insert that my neighbors want to get rid of. (there are lots of trees in my neighborhood and started this in 2009) and I will saw it up by hand without using gasoline or electricity.
2) I will approach my neighbor with the big open lot to create a community garden instead of having a bunch of grass to mow. We will give the produce away especially to the elderly on our street that cannot have a garden.
3) I will make mulberry syrup with all the trees around my property instead of letting the fruit go to waste.
4) Will lead a guerilla garden planted in the backyard of a foreclosed home that has been vacant for 3 years on my street.
5) I will reuse and recycle my neighbors curbside heavy trash items.
6) I will ride my electric bike and regular bike even more in 2010.
7) I will work from home more in 2010
9) I will continue to work with Waterman’s Farm using more Kaizen (continuous improvement) ideas to make them more money and be more successful.
10) I will buy half a side of beef from my father-in-law in 2010 to support my local farmer and family farm agriculture.
January 31st, 2010 on 10:39 pm
I would love to win this to mow my yard with! Thanks for having a great contest!
February 1st, 2010 on 12:10 am
We do all of the typical recycling things in our household. One thing that we are going to do this spring is to build a compost bin. We will recycle most all of our yard clippings, grass cuttings, table scraps and anything else that is organic.
The compost will then be used around the flower beds and in the vegetable garden. Thus saving us from having to buy chemical fertilizers.
February 1st, 2010 on 12:12 am
tweeted
http://twitter.com/Ardy22/status/8486395737
my email is ardy22 at earthlink dot net and twitter is @ardy22
February 1st, 2010 on 12:12 am
I’m going to start canning my garden veggies this year
February 1st, 2010 on 12:43 am
I am looking into composting. I also recycle everything I can.
February 1st, 2010 on 6:27 pm
Here in Maine, I began early by recycling bottles due to our mandatory bottle returnables law. Even when I lived in RI for 7 years, and it was not a state that had bottle deposits, I found myself scouring the sides of the road for them-turning in the ones that had deposits and donating the others to the recycling center just to keep the landfills clean.
I also have started using reusable grocery bags, paper and plastic were always convenient, but not good for our environment. I am using more natural items as far as housecleaning and personal care goes-and noticing a big difference as we slowly reduce our usage of toxic chemicals in the home. I find that natural products based on citrus and plant oils work just as good as other brands, which left me with a migraine after inhaling those chemical odors. We started a home garden two years ago as well, our first year was wonderful, but the second year due to the rainy spring and summer, our tomatoes suffered from blight, and we needed to take precautions to deal with that properly. My neighbor and I also like to compost our fall and summer yard waste, and we’ve even talked of adding some red wigglers to the mixture, it would be an awesome science experiment for the kids and the worms would have plenty of goodies to eat too
February 19th, 2010 on 12:18 pm
So this is Feb. 19, 2010 and I am looking for the 3 final of the lawn mover contest to be posted Feb. 3rd.
Hi Ronald, the post where we awarded the winner is here: http://reddirtramblings.com/?p=14579, and and the runners-up post is here: http://reddirtramblings.com/?p=14650. HTH~~Dee