hello, i'm new here and thought that this would be the place to find out how to amend my lifestyle to become more self-sufficient and in keeping with the cycles of the natural rather than post-industrial world. instead of a lengthy post about myself and my non-existent achievements, i'd rather use this space to discuss how a 'normal' denizen of the U.S. semi-urban environment can change what is within their power to change about their consumption cycles, growth, sustainability, etc. let's just say that i look upon myself as an formerly unwitting, yet unwilling regular person who has to engage with a certain amount of the insanity that goes on in our current incarnation of 'civilization', but am looking through the bars of my cage and wondering how to fix things. the first step is fixing oneself, correct? well...i'd like help (HEEEELLLLLP!).
background is that i grew up in an urban ghetto. although we rented our own house and had a backyard, no one in our family ever took that as an opportunity to do much other than occasionally prune the landlord's rosebushes. we had some pre-existing plum & orange trees, but they appeared to be in their last useful years (or perhaps were suffering from some disease), so not knowing anything about these we left them alone. the family ate typical mid-20th century American fare----white bread, lots of potatoes and canned goods, pork chops/meatloaf/fried chicken, pepsi and cheddar cheese. i had not always eaten this way, due to an extended stay with my half-brothers' East Indian family, but at the time of my association with those people was too young to help in the kitchen (or merely seen as an obstruction, don't know) so did not pick up much other than the idea that there were other ways of eating out there and WonderBread was not the only way.
they did have an eventual effect on me that was deeper than i realized at the time---after a summer stint with some relatives on their small cattle ranch, i realized how miserable the lives of animals grown for food are. upon returning to the urban homestead, my family was quite dismayed that i was in a full-stage teenage rebellion against their meat consumption (rejecting of such was viewed as a rejection of them and their moral values, even though i did not go around harping on anyone's choice of food and merely adjusted my own eating) and reading Laurel's Kitchen. more than 20 years later, i still do not eat animal flesh of any kind but obtain valuable calories from milk & egg products, although try to pick the more humane choices if financially possible. other than that, i am probably one of those 'unhealthy' vegetarians that everyone discusses. we try to cook at home, but that usually ends up being a combination of prepared products, fresh vegetables and rice or pasta. i would like to get away from the evil soy conglomerates and their Tofurkey, and really hate what is still called 'bread' in supermarkets, but sometimes just need a quick sandwich to fill my stomach. i've never been able to successfully grow AND harvest anything, but would like to try. my "stick a seed in a pot and wait" method has only produced things that look like weeds, so i must be doing it wrong (again *sigh*).
my partner and i live in an apartment, which we obviously cannot remodel to make more sustainable. although we would love to move off to some land of our own and start a real Homestead, that is probably not going to be a part of our financial future and even had we the money, i can't see it pencilling out unless everything were SUPER cheap and involved zero financing. we live just outside of Portland, Oregon in an apartment building which has electric everything, but because we are on the middle floor have not needed to run our electric heat even once in the past year. i can't say the same for our air-conditioner---this apartment faces almost exclusively southwest, and so although ideal for winters is excruciating during summer. i recently put up that see-through insulating film on some of our windows, and have no idea how this will affect solar gain through the winter. we did change out some of our lightbulbs, which decreased our power bill, but i'm not totally convinced on those (through my own experiences, and also reading the article here on the main website which backs up those experiences). it seems to me that incandescents make a lot more sense, at least over the wintertime as one is at least getting heat as well as light.
our apartment has washer/dryer hookups but also a laundry room (full wash & dry is about $1.75 per load, with about 3 loads per week) on the premises. we never purchased the units to go into our own apartment, because as far as i can tell manufacturing has fully adopted the 'planned obsolescence' model and every unit that i researched seemed to last only 5 years. at $500-$600 per unit (x2) which does not include the electricity to run the darn things, i just don't see how buying them can pencil out if they only last that long. i remember my grandmother's Kenmores which ran for over a decade and only needed servicing a few times, even though more than 6 people were using them on a daily basis, and wonder why we don't make appliances that tough anymore, then remind myself of the aforementioned business model of planned obsolescence which forces everyone to buy everything new all over again every 5 years, and that seems to answer things. we don't want to engage in that level of wastefulness, and in reality simply can't afford to and yet no one seems to have a problem with it around here. our landlord has specifically prohibited putting up a drying line on the deck, and our bathroom has no windows (i will never understand this method of building, but it seems prevalent in apartments. no windows in the steamiest rooms in the house are a common feature of apartment living, but then you get lectured by your landlord about appropriate ventilation being necessary to keep down mold---go figure!).
the property is also surrounded by lawns (badly kept and not watered, which is a blessing at least), so we have only our own 5 ft by 10 ft deck to grow on and i doubt that the owner would welcome any attempt at composting on-site. this deck faces due west, and only sees full sun past about 2-3 p.m. so i have no idea what could be grown there, especially over the winter with the low light conditions we have here in Portland. it is covered on top and sides, so only gets sun from the front directly.
sorry for making this so long, but it's a way of explaining that we have little experience and very few resources to achieve our sustainability goals. we try to shop more responsibly, but money is a concern (and sometimes mere convenience) so that does not always get put into practice. what would the experts on this site, if they were faced with the same limitations, do? what would they grow? would they grow? what would they make from scratch vs. purchase? would their efforts go into making smarter buying choices alone? are my fixations on what we eat obsessive, or simply the result of sticking with the areas where actual change is possible? are there significant areas i'm neglecting? is my math just all wrong (quite possible!)?
thanks for reading, if you've stuck it out.
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