It occurred to me the last time we were at the farm and watching the kids feed kitchen scraps to the chickens that I could help with that! I gave up trying to have a compost pile ages ago when I was no longer actively gardening and now that we have a trash service instead of burning our trash ourselves it’s so easy to toss everything in the kitchen trash to be picked up on trash day.
I’m going to go through the fridge and keep an eye on the produce and start setting aside bits of lettuce, celery and so forth as I use what we have for salads and take the trimmings out for the hens. They should like that.
Another thing I’ve been able to help with lately is collecting things like the cardboard tubes from paper towel and toilet paper rolls. Audrey can cut them into shorter sections and use them to start seedlings! Then there are the empty plastic water bottles for mini greenhouses. She cuts the tops off and starts her seeds, then slips the top back onto the bottom. In cold weather she can leave the caps on the tops of the bottles to hold in the warmth. And it just occurred to me that Audrey might have a use for some unused plastic ice trays I’ve got stashed in the utility room. Our fridge has an ice maker and I don’t need the ice trays anymore…at least not that many of them.
I’m also saving glass jars and lids. The lids on pickle and jam jars these days can be reused when sterilized and the jars can be filled and put through a water bath canning kettle. It will greatly cut down on what we throw away that ends up in a landfill.
She can also use empty plastic bottles like the gallon containers I buy vinegar and distilled water in so often. We go through a lot of vinegar and distilled water and she can reuse those bottles. We are also saving aluminum cans for the kids to crush and take to the metal re-cycle center.
We still need to make time to get the riding mower we haven’t used in several years loaded on the trailer and taken out to the farm for Audrey and David to use. We have our guys that come every two weeks and do whatever we need done as far as mowing and trimming and some cleaning up now and then. The mower is just taking up room in the garage. It has a cart that attaches on the back and makes a good garden tractor for picking up pine cones, broken branches, grass clippings, or whatever. Mower and cart are in decent shape and just need to be used.
I’ll close with something funny I found on Gab a couple of days ago…
Rural Texas Knitter 