The Composting Complication

Many years ago I didn't recycle.  We had a recycle program in the area, but it was unwieldy and required lots of work on the consumer's end.  I don't know if it was capricious youth, laziness or just a complete disregard for Mother Nature, but I could be heard saying "I recycle via landfills."  How dreadful.

These days it makes me happy to see so much of our total waste go out to the curb in the recycling bins.  I try to be a good citizen and recycle what I can.  There's a "within reason" added there.  I believe it's important not to waste more fossil fuels driving across town to recycle something that has one tenth the value of the fuel expended.  But we're quite fortunate that our recycling collects most things and it's quite easy for us to recycle.

The one area we completely fail is in the composting realm.  I look at all the food we throw away and I wish we had a better alternative.  There's first the small dog issue.  And out stupidity in figuring out that composting won't work anywhere near the house.  She can sniff out even the most boring foods at great distances.  We don't have a fence and we're in an empty neighborhood so the dog has free reign. An alternative would be a composting bin/fenced area.  We have lots of deer and apparently small coyotes that are indigenous.  They'd make a grand mess of most solutions.

What I do try to do is compost anything that won't be a direct attractor for our dog or local fauna such as peelings, shells or other non-edible but bio-degradable items.  Maybe in the future we'll be able to compost more.  For now, it's the disposal or trash if that's not an option.   Hopefully we'll be able to be better citizens in the coming years with regards to composting.


The Big Boy Update:  Toy rearrangement.  Old toys, in a new location or in a new configuration magically become new toys.  I spent the last day taking toys from the bedroom to the basement to the toy closet and back and finding new ways to stick toys in other toy containers.  Today, he's so happy.  He's got a whole new land of toys to play with. 


The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Her feeding is a bit more regular.  She's getting better at eating her full meal with only one or two stops to burp or think about her level of fullness.  She's still a little difficult to work with, so for the most part, my husband and I do her feedings.