A Nigel update…
Life continues, you know. Nigel’s physical therapist is very happy with the results both of them are achieving. Nigel can now raise his right leg without using his hand. It’s sad to think how happy that makes him. I keep thinking back to last Christmas when he was still on two feet. We will get there…I know it…it’s just I’m not a very good waiter! We’ve had a new shower installed which has made all the difference in the world for him. I still have to help him in and out as we haven’t worked out all the bugs of him doing so independently. I just don’t want him to slip and fall and hurt himself…that’s been known to happen when he had two good hips! But, I do think we’re on the path to good things.
Global writing challenge…
Last year, I joined the wonderful women from Is This Mutton, MK’s Adventures in Style, Deb’s World, Grownup Glamour, and Frugal Fashion Shopper for a global writing challenge. Later, Suzy from Suzy Turner, and Leslie from Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After, and I joined in on the fun permanently! Rosie chose this month’s theme. We are also bidding a very fond (and sad) adieu to Gail, Jill, and Anne with this month’s prompt. This is one of my favorite posts to write and to read! On top of the wonderfully different opinions and thoughts, the writing itself is wonderful! I hope you’ll visit all of these blogs because you are going to be amazed at, not only the diversity of the ideas, but the stories of each person. There’s also a link party at the end of this post!
If you want to participate…
If you’d like to join in, we post on the third Thursday of the month. You can link up with me, Gail (for the last time) or Debbie.
- January: TBD
Growing up green…
No, I’m not Elphaba, but I did grow up green! My grandma Luderman, about whom I’ve written many times (in the early days of the blog) was a first or second German-American. I learned many things from her…turn the lights off when you leave a room, a tissue can be used more than once (usually), and collect the seeds from your flowers to use next year. Grandma didn’t believe in throwing anything away. She would always patch things until the coat or whatever was more patch than original item! I’ve found myself doing the same thing. I learned how to darn so Nigel’s woolen socks could be used longer (there was nothing wrong with the rest of the sock…just the heel). I also used those darning skills to repair the holes in my favorite gloves of all time! And, this may be the farthest out there patch job ever! The fitted sheet on our bed sprang a hole because Nigel is always moving his feet around. At first, I patched it with fabric I had on hand. When that patch eventually gave out, I decided to just sew a seam right up the sheet. Our mattress isn’t one of those super duper high ones so the sheets were always a wee bit big anyway.
Dumpster treasures…
I’m not 100% sure what my dad did was green or not. He loved to visit the dump and see what treasures he could unearth. One of those was a metal horse bank with Beauty embossed on the side. Guess who has that? The other thing he found somewhere was a black Jaguar car that was actually a radio. It never worked particularly well, but I loved it because he gave it to me. I passed it on to my oldest son when we thought we were downsizing in 2015.
Dump problems…
But, I digress. The real story I want to tell is when my community began to realize a dump was a big problem for several reasons. One was no one wanted a dump near their homes. Ya’ll know what a dump is, right? It’s exactly what it sounds like. You take your unwanted junk there, and you dump it. It’s usually unused land, and the owner bulldozes dirt over it because it gets sti-inky! Another problem were the methane gases these sites generate. Still another was the realization that you can’t keep dumping your crap (pardon my French) and expect to have a planet to survive upon.
A little history…
So, some fellow, I really can’t recall his name right at the moment, came up with the idea of having a recycling center. People could bring their recyclables (or not) to this center, and they would be separated into various categories. Great idea, right? The problem was the county didn’t have the funds to provide the labor. It became a community volunteer effort. The county could provide a place to collect the items, but it didn’t really have the funding for much more than that. The state, however, had mandated (I think) that each county or combination of counties had to have a recycling plan in place by a certain date.
R-Days…
I don’t know all that was involved in getting this set up, but eventually, each month, a Saturday was set aside as an R-Day. Local groups could sign up to work the event and receive a portion of the profits from that day. I was in a philanthropic sorority at the time, and we had to do so many community service hours per year. But, we also appreciated money in the kitty, too! So, we signed up to work R-Days. I’m not sure who provided the big dumpsters we used, but they were huge. I had to really throw those items to get them into the dumpsters.
More dumpsters…
This sounds like an easy enough situation, right? Well, in theory, it really was. The reality was some people would come with barely sorted bags of their stuff. Some of it was just plain trash. Luckily, we had a dumpster for that. Others wouldn’t rinse out their glass or cans. I had beer running down my arms more than once! And, the smell was horrendous on warm days. The cold days were better in that you couldn’t smell the recyclables, but they were cold!
Just a cog in a little machine…
Eventually, funding or grants were found to construct a building to actually sort the glass and other kinds of recycling into the proper places. I worked those, too. We had to stand around this gigantic circle that looked like a gear. A giant belt would start moving, and things would tumble onto the circle. It also rotated. Think Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate candy episode…only not as clean and certainly not tasty! We had to wear safety glasses and special gloves because some of the glass was broken as well as sharp areas on cans. We would toss the appropriate items into the correctly labeled bins.
The MRF…
At some point, this volunteer-staffed recycling effort did employ a few people. The R-Days became a thing of the past as the county worked with the garbage companies to provide people with containers for recycling. In the beginning, they were two little bitty tubs. We would fill both of those up within days! I would actually go through our own garbage pulling out the recyclables, and then go in and yell at the offending party! You could also go to the Materials Recycling Facility (fondly called the MRF…merf) and drop things off. Sometimes, you would have to pay a fee…like for tube tvs and the like. When we moved, Nigel took some of my dad’s old telephones (and I do mean old) there because they were metal. One of the guys who worked there quickly nabbed them and said he’d love to have them. I was glad someone rescued them before they went under the grinder or whatever.
Wrap it up, Marsha!
Today, I happily pay a fee to have my recycling picked up every two weeks. In fact, our recycling container is always full while our garbage can has barely anything in it! I know Nigel thinks I carry it too far, but I want this planet to survive for my grands and their babies and their grands. We’ve got a long way to go to help heal this planet, but going green is one way to start! So, can we talk? Have you ever done anything like an R-Day? Did you have a grandparent who was always after you to turn off the lights? How do you feel about recycling programs? Please leave me a comment or two, and we can talk. I promise to respond as soon as possible.
Thank you!
I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting, subscribing or emailing! It truly means so much to me! If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.
Where you can find me:
Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style, Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez Mireile, Suzy Turner, and Away from the Blue as well as Deb’s World and A Fresh Cup of Coffee. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping Bag, Doused in Pink, I do deClaire, Mummabstylish, Style Splash and Elegantly Dressed and Stylish as well as the Senior Salon Pit Stop (Esme’s Salon) and Slices of Life. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend every Thursday with Melynda, Lisa, and Sue. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!
What others are saying…
Suzy “writes about her love for the colour green and shares practical ways she incorporates sustainability into her life, from recycling and shopping second-hand on Vinted to embracing the charm of pre-loved furniture.”
Mary Katherine is taking a break this month.
Penny “thinks that Going Green is very much about changing one’s lifestyle to be more environmentally aware to reduce one’s personal waste and carbon footprint. However, if she was younger she would definitely be acting in a far more radical way. However, there is still much one can do and maybe 2025 is a year to make some changes!”
Gail from Is This Mutton “Gail recalls the green initiatives of her childhood, which were more closely linked to frugality, and outlines her current approach to Going Green.”
Jill writes: “As this is my swan song post for the challenge I am focusing on the impact appreciating the natural world can have in our every day lives.”
Debbie “Debbie goes green in a slightly different way with fashion and native flowers. She also shares some eco friendly products.”
Leslie writes, “ Leslie has been going green since the dark ages of her junior year of college!! Before going green was even a thing!! Stop by to find out how.”
Rosie “has chosen 3 of her favourite eco-friendly ideas that she implements in her life.”
And, now, it’s your turn!
If you’d like to link up your Personal Style posts, you may link up here or at Gail’s or Debbie’s blogs!
I love how the community got together for this. Recycling products and waste is so important.
Thanks, Rosie! I was really happy when it all came together. I didn’t mention that this took a year or longer to all come to fruition. I just try to as much as possible to help our planet.
I think it was a comedian’s post or something talking about the 16 recycling bins in Germany which made me laugh out loud.
It’s true, though, we have been recycling a lot of things for quite a long time. I say “we have been recycling”, but actually the question is always what happens with the things we separate in our recycling bins. Some of it gets re-used, some gets burned, some gets shipped off to countries, often poorer countries.
Also every town has their own regulations which often confuses people more than helping them to stick to it!
So the best way would be not to buy some things to reduce the waste right from the start. Unfortunately, that’s not always as easy for everyone, for lack of money, lack of transportation, etc. I’m very much guilty myself, but I’m trying!
Cat
https://catswire.blogspot.com/
Yes, the best way is not to buy the stuff. I’m glad that many retailers are choosing different ways of shipping and using less packing materials (until it’s a bottle of shampoo that leaks all over the rest of my stuff…true story). Our trash is actually taken to a facility that incinerates it and turns it into steam to power downtown Indianapolis businesses. So, while I don’t throw much away, I also know it’s not being dumped somewhere. We also have to be careful of what we put into the bin. For example, we can’t put bags of paper in because they’ll just toss that. They don’t want to go scrounging around in a bag, and I don’t blame them. I really should investigate to see what truly happens to our recycling as the waste management company we had before was bought out by a huge corporation.
Thanks, Cat, for the thought-provoking comments. I appreciate them.
I’m so glad your husband is improving.And we always want it faster than it happens, don’t we?
I love it when people come together to find a solution like this.
Xoox
Jodie
Thank you, Jodie! I’m glad he’s improving, but gosh, it’s been a long year. It did take a bit of time for this recycling center to come about. Then, there was a bit of infighting before the county eventually took it over. But, the man driving it was insistent on getting something started before the county could fund it. We actually had a lot of fun during those R-Days. I always thought the facility should have been named after him because he really did spearhead the whole thing.
Where I live, the recycling is now thrown into the same bin with the trash on one of the pick up days. Supposedly they take it somewhere and it goes on a conveyor belt and recyclables are separated from the trash.
I sometimes fear that’s what happens to ours…that the separate bin (and bill) is just another money grab. But, I honestly hope they’re not doing that. Our county has a recycling station, but it’s such a far drive that it made sense to pay for it here at home. Thanks, Lisa!
I always enjoy these posts because I learn so much about how others do things. Your post was no exception. I’m pleased to hear Nigel is doing well. We have a transfer station that recycles things and also gets rid of general waste. We’re not on the garbage collection route so we have to take our rubbish to the transfer station to get rid of it but we get a few free visits a year. Recycling things is free though. Another great topic for us all!
That’s really interesting. Our neighborhood fees include garbage pickup, but we have to pay for recycling. It’s much less than we would pay for driving to the recycling center in our county. I do love these prompts and, like you, find them fascinating as we read about other countries.
Thank you, Debbie, and have a wonderful holiday season!
I am pleased to hear that Nigel is making good progress.
Another interesting topic for the challenge , always interesting to read how we do things in different countries. I can only imagine the many challenges of volunteering at the recycle centre. I think we all try our best to recycle and be aware of the impact we have on our planet. I do worry for my children and grand children .
Thanks, Jill. He still has a long way to go, but he’s definitely improved. It’s made a huge impact on his mental health, too. It is fascinating to read about others’ experiences in different countries. Even though it was smelly in the summer, and freezing in the winter, I really enjoyed those R-Days because we got to interact with so many people in the community. Now, we have recycling bins at home…we have to pay for them where I live now. My hometown provided them. I am hoping we reach a point of turn around and save this planet for the future children.
A great community initiative. My parents and grandparents were all very frugal- I describe some of their measures in my post. It was more to do with economising in those days rather than saving the planet as such. Good luck running the challenge next year, and look forward to reading the posts.
Thanks, Gail! I have very big shoes to fill! I am so far behind reading blogs and commenting, but I’ll be over to yours soon. Our community recycling center was born of need as well as legislation. We just had this fellow in the community who was determined to get things started sooner rather than later. Thus, our R-Days were born.
I am so sorry about Nigel’s situation – I so empathise with this! But it’s great he is slowly improving. Do give him my good wishes.
Yes, in the past everything was about reusing and recycling although we didn’t know it was called that!
Nearly every town and indeed village in the UK is either near a local dump or has one. We all use them. We also recycle the small stuff as the council collects recycling too. Now most of the dump stuff will either get sold (there is a dump store) or burn in the local incinerator. Where the recycled council stuff (plastic, glass and tins) goes I don’t know. But good news – in my area we do recycle food waste and I do know that this all goes to a special centre where the food along with the garden waste is is made into compost for the garden. Now isn’t that a great thing to do. For around 4 years I went back to live in an area that didn’t recycle food and I found it quite disgusting to put my food waste in with ordinary rubbish – yuk! it is so good to be back where this type of waste is made good.
Thank you, Penny! I will let him know. He is beginning to walk more with his cane which has really boosted his confidence. It has been a very long year for him (and me).
Oh, my goodness! I don’t know if it was because my maternal grandparents were first generation German-Americans, or if that’s just the way they were, but they really did recycle and reuse everything. Grandma had a compost pile in the side yard. I remember asking her what it was for and was amazed when she told me she used the soil for her plants. She had the greenest thumb ever. I really would love to have a composting something here, but I’m not sure what that would look like as our Home Owners Association is so strict. We have huge open areas for drainage, and I’d love to see them planted with wildflowers or a community garden. I’m actually not sure if there are dumps in Indiana any more. I think part of the reason my small community up north developed the recycling center was because of legislation (smarter people in office then if that’s the case). I always smile when I think about my dad going to the dump, though. I don’t know what all he found there besides my horse bank, but I’m quite sure he found other things.
I remember taking things to the recycling center. Now it’s so convenient we just have a bin to toss things in. It’s sad that convenience still doesn’t motivate people to recycle more. I really do try to reuse and recycle as much as possible. It’s so important!
After we moved two years ago, we thought we’d just do without the recycling bin (we had to pay for that but not for trash). I finally convinced Mike as often as we were driving our recycling, having the bin would be cheaper in the long run. At first, the only one they could give us was a little one. We could fill that up in a week! Finally, they got the bigger ones in, and that’s almost always full. I think I’m better at the recycling than reusing (which is probably more important). Thanks, Laura!
Gosh, Marsha that was fascinating! In Portugal, we have recycling bins all over the place that we just take our ‘junk’ to (the same for general waste too). I’d never even thought about how it all actually works.
I love finding old things and giving it new life, so the fact that your dad used to do that, is awesome! I love watching TV shows and YouTube videos about upcycling things!
Glad to hear you’re hubby is slowly getting better. I hope you both have a wonderful festive season!
Big hugs
Suzy xx
Thanks, Suzy! I hope you and Michael have a fabulous holiday season! That’s amazing you just take your stuff places. We sort of have that here. But, we have to drive so far, it made sense to pay to have recycling picked up at our house. I’m not sure how it is in Portugal, but everything is shipped in boxes here so we have lots of boxes. I worry that our recycling is taken to the same place as our trash and all dumped into the same place with nothing actually being recycled. I’ve been wrapping Christmas presents, and my kids always laugh at the gift boxes. They are so old, but why get new ones. Most stores don’t give them out anymore here. I’m just hoping something happens soon so our poor old world has a chance at survival (and us, too).
I am so happy to hear that about Nigel!! Little by little!
I also love that little horse!
Thanks, Erin! He’s proud of himself for those little gains. That horse is one of my treasures. I really need to tell my kids about it so they know.
You have so many interests and abilities. Enjoyed reading about your town’s recycling efforts. We can take the odd things like paint, appliances, tires, etc. to Citizen Collection Stations which are manned by sanitation employees, I think, who help us put things in the right location depending on what they are. Once we get this whole house cleaned up, I imagine we will have things to take to our area station. I am the one who runs around behind everyone in our family turning off the lights. I was mortified when I first met PC and he would go to work or out for the day and leave all the lights blazing and the TVs on!!
Hope Nigel sees continued improvement in the coming year and is soon moving much better and feeling stronger. It has been a year, huh?
Thanks, Leslie! Our town (county?) does have days when they will accept appliances, tires, tvs, and such. We don’t usually have those kinds of things. There is also a new recycling place which is manned by I’m not sure who! They will help you (if you look helpless), but I know my way around recycling bins. It’s a bit of a drive so it was just less expensive to pay to have it picked up at our house.
Mike still leaves the tv on. That drives me nuts.
Yes, it has been a year. 2025 can only get better, right? We’ve all had too much on our plates these last few years.