Conservation Projects?

[tortoise]

My 8 year old is very interested in conservation. It's been on the back burner until he had a chapter in his science book about natural resources and conservation. He was interested enough we're starting some related projects, like tracking measures of our consumption and seeing if he/we can use fewer resources -- or what it would take to use less.

Seems like SS-ers have done similar projects. What have you done with your children to teach about conservation and to reinforce Reduce, Reuse, Recycle?

 

[baymule]

Trash. We are an unbelievable wasteful society. it takes us two weeks to come up with a bag of trash. We recycle every bit of food scrap. Between the dogs, chickens and pigs, no food scrap hits the trash. We buy very little in the way of bottled drinks. We make gallons of iced tea.

Scrounge. We are building a barn right now. We scrounged 18 telephone poles and paid $80 for all of them. I scrounged used lumber, pounded the nails out and stacked it up. We hit the cull rack at Lowes, buying lumber at half price. This effort took years and filled up the garage at our old house (not the telephone poles, they were on property we used to own). Family and friends thought I was nuts, but in the end, it saved us thousands $$$$.

In your son's conservation efforts, you might want to research what native plants grow in your area and which ones might be endangered or need a little help. You might have a micro climate that would be a good spot to plant a native plant. Plant flowers that have staggered bloom times so hummingbirds, butterflies and bees have something to eat all season into the late fall. These flowering plants can be food bearing for you as well, or just eye candy.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Children? I had to work on my DH, lol! We're a lot like Bay in that we produce very little actual trash. DH has always been good about recycling things like paper, glass, plastic, and aluminum - all the normal stuff. I had to teach him water conservation. His response was - "we have a well". My response was - that pump runs on electricity and that septic system can get over loaded! He was a city boy way back in 2000 when I 'adopted' him, lol!

Now we are on a mission to reduce electricity costs. We're changing to LED lights, unplug the hot tub except on weekends when it used to run 24/7. The heating element went out in my dryer so even though we've ordered the part to fix it - we will continue to hang out clothes the majority of the time and use the dryer only when absolutely necessary.

We try to never make a special trip to town on weekends. I try to do most of our shopping during lunch on a work day.

I believe the little things count!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I have been out of paper towels for about 3 weeks now and using flour sack fabric, which I cut each towel into 4, to make it about the size of a paper towel. The stuff I don't want to use these towels on....if its too filthy or greasy, I use newspaper.
I recycle all cans and plastic and because I live in a flood zone, I save all glass jars and bottles to burying low spots.
My 6 chicken tractors are made of used lumber and extra supplies I had about and most are covered with used feed sacks. I don't let my kids rip the sacks open.....I unwrap the wire that holds its closed to get the feed out, so I can use the sacks for whatever I need, like saving leaves or sending firewood to a friend in need.
I buy these cheap plastic containers with lids at one of our local grocers, but I get several uses out of each and put them in the freezer and fridge and send DS to work with food.....if I lose one, its no big loss, but more versatile than ziplock bags and easier to wash.
No kitchen scraps in the garbage.....I get mad for even a banana peel.
I bought a reel mower and need to put it together. Hoping that helps me for my trimming, which is really normally done by chicken tractors anyways.
Fresh vegetables at a stand, rather than canned at the store.....cheaper, healthier and less resources.

 

[Britesea]

We are running the spa 24/7, but I have it set just high enough to keep the water from freezing. I didn't want to empty it for the winter, because it is also an emergency water stash (not for drinking, but for all the other stuff like laundry, dishes and baths). Most of the lights in the house are the old compact fluorescents; we are switching to LED's as they burn out. I buy bulk whenever possible and pour just what we need into recycled bottles- the one I use for dish detergent is over 4 years old and still holding up! Since I caved in to my vet's pleas and am feeding our LGD on good quality puppy food for the first 2 years (instead of feeding her my homemade food), we've been using the bags to hold trash (she goes through 1 30# bag every 2 weeks).
My friends know to give me the extra paper napkins from when they buy fast food (they always give you whole handfuls!) and I use those to wipe the grease off the skillet, etc before I wash them. Right now I have to throw them away, but once the woodstove is installed I think they will be great for fire starters.

 

[tortoise]

We are experimenting with how little we can use the clothes dryer. Today's laundry only took 10 minutes - one pair of permanent press pants. Everything else is hung or on a drying rack. 2 weeks ago, we threw everything in the dryer for 40 minutes. I also switched to "light soil" washer cycle and I can't tell a difference - that is a few minutes less per load too.

I pulled out cloth diapers today. I just don' wanna buy another big box of "sposies". I had noted that in spite of line drying dipes, our electric bill was up the same amount as the cost of a box of sposies. Admittedly, I was doing A LOT of laundry then - 2 or 3 loads per day - and mostly items that can be used several times before washing. I'll try again *actually* trying to conserve resources.

I'm thinking of teaching DS8 how to sew shopping bags out of feed bags. Can't think of a reason why not!

 

[Amiga]

This growing season I am currently feeling the need to get the garden watering systems more sustainable. So far, since I don't have an exact plan nailed down, this is going to involve rain barrels, using rotting wood down the center of the raised beds for holding soil moisture and nutrients, and improving the mulch situation. Some of the gardens I work with are not on my own land, and those in charge of helping out do not understand watering. If I can automate the watering by having barrels set up, and plenty of mulch, and in-ground moisture holders, then things will go better as I cannot be there every day. And those things will help around here, too, freeing up some of my time for other projects.

Closer to home, I plan to implement something along the lines of the rain gutter garden concept - again to conserve water and to provide a more even water supply to the container vegetable garden.

Rain patterns are becoming more and more spotty here - so using mini-swales and rain garden concepts and mulch I aim to get the soil to soak up and hold more water for those long dry spells.

 

[tortoise]

This growing season I am currently feeling the need to get the garden watering systems more sustainable. So far, since I don't have an exact plan nailed down, this is going to involve rain barrels, using rotting wood down the center of the raised beds for holding soil moisture and nutrients, and improving the mulch situation. Some of the gardens I work with are not on my own land, and those in charge of helping out do not understand watering. If I can automate the watering by having barrels set up, and plenty of mulch, and in-ground moisture holders, then things will go better as I cannot be there every day. And those things will help around here, too, freeing up some of my time for other projects.

Closer to home, I plan to implement something along the lines of the rain gutter garden concept - again to conserve water and to provide a more even water supply to the container vegetable garden.

Rain patterns are becoming more and more spotty here - so using mini-swales and rain garden concepts and mulch I aim to get the soil to soak up and hold more water for those long dry spells.

I like the idea of putting wood under soil to hold moisture. I want to try it just because, although I'd have to start a garden elsewhere because our existing plots are fine for moisture. DS8 is old enough for his own little garden somewhere, right?

 

[Amiga]

Of course DS8 is old enough for a garden!
I have done this - using wood that has just started to rot a bit under the soil. One remarkable experience was installing an herb spiral in a downtown area. There was a circular concrete area with dirt in it. Dead dirt. We scraped out the trash that was in it, shaped it up into a spiral (like a snail shell) and added compost and the wood underneath. It was fabulous! And did very well in a very hot summer, in the city, surrounded by buildings and concrete and asphalt.
@tortoise - a great source of ideas would be a book like Introduction to Permaculture. The illustrations are great, and there are hundreds of ideas you could take for conservation projects - I mean, something real, not just a concept demo.

Worm farm? Bee hotel? Willow tunnel?

 

[Denim Deb]

One thing you might want to talk to him about, and that would make a good project would be invasive species. There are so many plants and animals that have been introduced either purposely, or accidentally that have made a real impact-some positive, some negative-on the native plants and animals.