Earth Day 2010 - What are you doing to help the Planet?

Pahrump, Nevada - Today is a day we should sit back and reflect upon what we have done to improve the health of Mother Earth and what we plan to do in the coming year. Think of it as a sort of New Year's Resolution, except that instead of quiting this, getting more of that, blah, blah, blah, we focus our attention and energies towards something much more important...our world, our earth. Whether is it small steps or big leaps, doing something, anything, to help the health of our planet will pave the way for a better future.

So, what DID you get Mother Earth for the big day?? Presents are welcome, actions are preferred. I have noticed that by necessity, people living out of their vehicles are conservationists. We don't have access to unlimited supplies of water like those living in sticks & bricks. I thought I was pretty good about this practice, using water very sparingly, but since meeting up with other van dwellers here in Pahrump, I have learned many valuable lessons. One example is the use of spray bottles. There are tons of applications for this, such as misting dirty dishes prior to washing, wetting your toothbrush and mouth, spraying on yourself to assist with "sink showers",...the list goes on and on. I only used 2 ounces of water in a week for brushing my teeth...now THAT is conservation!

Some people may not realize how important water conservation is to our planet. I read a statistic recently that stated 1% of the total electricity consumption of the United States is used in the treatment of our water. Per a 2005 statistic, the United States uses 3.8 trillion Kilowatt Hours/year. Thus, this equates to 38 billion Kilowatt Hours per year for water treatment alone. We can significantly reduce this power consumption by utilizing water conservation in our homes and daily lives. Take shorter showers, don't leave the water on while doing dishes or brushing your teeth, do full loads of laundry, etc. Little steps can go a long way to preserving our world.

One of those little steps that I am doing in my rig...Worms! I just "harvested" my first batch of compost made from my vermiculture bin (worm composting). I learned some valuable lessons from this first attempt, but still ended up with a flourishing worm population and plenty of 'castings' to help fertilize my plants. Which leads me to another thing I am doing in my rig...growing a little indoor garden! I've successfully planted green onions and basil, while unsuccessfully planted tomatoes (second attempt will happen in the next few days). So far, the plants are doing extremely well. I'll give ya updates in the months to come.

So what did I get our planet for Earth Day? A present and an action. I bought another solar panel formy rig and will be installing it tomorrow. Trying to make a big difference a little bit at a time...