I am GREEN and so can you!!

Remember back in elementary school, when your teachers would send you home with an assignment that pertained to environmental responsibility? Your assignment was simple; walk around the neighborhood and collect one bag of trash, or make sure to turn the lights off when you left the room, stop letting the water run while you brush your teeth, take a shorter shower.

Pretty simple stuff for a kid to accomplish. Planting the seed of positive Earth stewardship at a young age to help our generation become Earth saving fanatics.

I'll admit, I'm okay with this form of brainwashing.

As of late, I have become a green machine. Currently I am so fixated on this issue that I am attempting to change every and all design habits I have.

Rain gardens, native plantings, permeable paving, native stone, fabric instead of plastic, mulch instead of rock, etc. I can't get enough. I bathe in their glorious environmental impacts. I yearn for their promise of clean water, healthier soil, happier flora and fauna, cleaner air!

Not that I didn't consider all of these variables in previous designs, but now I am taking it to a new level. I am becoming one with the MN Greenstar Organization and LEED, with the rules, regulations, and point systems they have set up for me.

If I could, I would tear down my house* and start anew! I keep reusable grocery bags** in my car, I bring any and all recyclable materials home from work where I insert them directly into our much too tiny recycle bin which I now believe needs to trade places with our garbage can that has yet to have more than 1.5 bags of garbage in it per week. I want a little scooter so that my trips to the grocery store, parent's house, friend's houses, and maybe, just maybe work will not require a car!!

So, maybe I am starting to sound like a hippie/tree hugger, or maybe I am starting to sound like I am jumping on the bandwagon with the newest money making/spending trend. I like to believe that my little steps are making a difference.

Hello, my name is Gidge and I'm an Earth-saving-aholic.


*I would love to do this although I believe that my neighbors would begin to resemble Frankensteinish mobs due to the fact that our houses are physically linked together, identical clones all in a row.
**Thanks Cub for making them a dollar... Boo Oprah for trying to jump on that cash cow and selling yours for $7!! AND! either way you slice it, those suckers hold twice the amount of groceries and you can carry them by their straps over your shoulder without fear of broken handles and food all over the parking lot! GENIUS!