Simple Days

Lately, with my time off between jobs, I have had lots of time around the house to myself.
It's quiet during the day because Abigail is at School, she attends the Colonial Country Day School is what I think it's called & cousins are at work. I usually clean up the kitchen & house in general, so they don't have to & I keep up on my chores. I do laundry & I try to keep my room in order. It's more work & more challenges than the last place I lived in but so worth it.
I also enjoy watering the plants & trees in the backyard. I don't do that everyday since it's not necessary, but I will most days depending on precipitation.
As I do that, I try to ponder what green things I can do to improve the reduction of my carbon footprint. I have started using less water for dishes & have gotten back into recycling since Port St. Lucie does that.
I want to help out with getting the rain barrels Andrea wants to attach to the gutters after they get installed but that is something a bit down the road yet. I have reduced how much paper I use including for hygiene purposes & it's just fine. I use products that are recycled as much as I can find them & also want items to be compostable. The bags they use for Sun Chips are 100% compostable & are fully degraded in approximately 13 weeks. I plan to buy a bag soon & compost it so I can see just what happens. I'll make notes of my weekly observations when I do.
I also use less energy. I keep the TV's in the house turned off when I am not using them, all lights & electronics remain off during the hours no one is home if they are not being used.
The power usage goes up when everyone is here, understandably.
I no longer use any kind of incandescent lights myself, however, 2 remain in the bathroom I use. They will be replaced after they burn out. No sense in wasting them.
I feel good & bad about switching over to CFL's. Since I know that they contain Mercury & have to be sent away for special handling to be recycled safely, I decided I want LED lights anywhere I can install them. They are even more energy efficient, last far longer & need no special care to be recycled.
If you ever drop & break a CFL, try to get away from it immediately before it breaks. Find anything you can to place over your face. A breathing mask of any kind helps. If you suspect there is any Mercury on your clothes, you will need to place them in a plastic bag & bring them to a facility to be taken care of. If it's one of your favourite outfits, kiss it goodbye. Next, you will need to bring another plastic bag & good masking tape with you to clean up the mess. Wearing sturdy rubber gloves, use the sticky side of the tape to pick up all of the glass pieces & Mercury powder from the surface which it contaminated. All debris must be contained & brought to the facility to be disposed of, in order to be Environmentally safe. Disposal of these light bulbs into the standard trash will allow Mercury to enter the ground contaminating soil & water.
All of this is not worth it to have CFL's. I'll pay the higher price for LED's, if they need to charge it.
Until next time, have a Green week. :-)