What changes are you making?

[GLC1968]

You've touched on my pet peeve....people with acres of GIANT useless lawns that they never even use, and waste gasoline mowing them week after week on massive rider mowers. All because they want their little plot to look like a miniature 'estate' or some such idea.
Huge lawns use our precious fuels, create only barren wasteland as far as wildlife is concerned, and give nothing productive back in return. Plus people pour chemical fertilizers and weedkillers (herbicides) on them- thus polluting our earth more and more. Even the earth worms can't survive in them.
Last year I rode my bike on a suburban type road, past dozens of houses in a row with 1/2 inch ugly barren mowed lawns. As I rode, I heard the unusual sound of crickets getting nearer. Turns out there was one house that had allowed their whole lawn to become a tidy little meadow. As I rode past it, I was greeted by a heavenly chorus of crickets singing, and i saw butterflies all over the wild flowers there, and also there were little sparrows flitting over the wild grasses and flowers, eating the abundant seeds. It was so lovely!
Then I passed that house and continued riding past the barren silent expanses of lawns again. Might as well just roll out plastic astro turf.


So you go Mr. S....plow that back 40 and plant it with FOOD!
The time has come for the nation wide return of the individual "Victory Garden".

I have issues with this, too. It's even worse when (in the middle of an arid summer) we bike by these homes and see 15 - 20 auto sprinker heads going at NOON - what a waste! Precious water - to grow lawn that no one ever uses!


We have barely over one acre. The front is sort of lawn - but it's basically grass/weeds/wildflowers for now and we don't water it. We only mow it when absolutely necessary and we don't own a riding mower. The rest of our property houses goats, chickens, veggie gardens, berry brambles, grape arbors and about 20 different fruit trees. We also have a few nut trees arriving in November! All of it is organic - every last growing thing.

Even if you live in a suburb that is deed restricted, you can still plant small plots in the back private areas (or do container gardenting on a patio or balcony) and everyone can compost on some scale. 'Victory gardens' will hopefully become more and more prevalent in the coming years.

[redrhodie]

I'm a news junky, but now, I avoid following the news at all.

I'm the opposite. I can't stop watching the news. It's driving DBF nuts!

[PamNY]

I'm thinking of buying another house closer to work so I can walk/ride. Even though I'm only three miles from work now, that's too far to cycle in a suit and uses 1/4 tank of gas/week (for 30 miles total) because the engine never warms up.

Have you considered a Xootr kick scooter for going to work? I go everywhere on mine, including dress-up and business occasions. It folds easily to go indoors and you can carry a ton of stuff.

You do need fairly smooth sidewalks or streets, and you will get a lot of attention if scooters aren't common where you live.

Web site is:

http://xootr.com/

Pam

[TxDoc]

I'm thinking of buying another house closer to work so I can walk/ride.

Would LOVE to do that... problem is, right now I have to work in two different hospitals (soon to become three) depending on the day of the week, and so I would need three homes!!!
Aside from jokes, Ike actually left me without a liveable home, and I have yet to figure out where I should live to make the various commutes easier!
As per changes - the main change is that I'm trying to save money (which I've never been very good at). And it's mostly to get back on my feet after the hurricane, and to deal with the fact that right now we only get paid our base salaries
Investments... I'm trying to avoid the generalized selling fever and letting everything as it is for the time being.
But yes, the big change is getting rid of unnecessary expenses, much less dining out, no five-times-a-day starbucks coffee, less shopping for clothes/shoes/etc - and really learning how to live on a budget to save as much as possible.