It's not easy being green.

I want to be green, and I mean that in the politically correct sense. I want to be more environmentally friendly in my sphere of influence, mainly my home.

I have to clarify, I am not a flaming environmentalist. I say that because in my part of the country eco-terrorists are common. Those people who are willing to sacrifice property and people to save a tree. I don't camp in that neck of the woods, and smack me silly if I do.

I am incredibly intrigued by solar power. I have read several articles lately explaining how solar power is very feasible and affordable to install in my overcast part of the country. I pass by a house every day on the way to JM's school that has solar panels. I am just so intrigued. I did some surfing tonight and found out that we could get them installed on our house for a song. We will probably do it in the future. Both my husband and I think it's a good environmental, financial, and prudent thing to do.

I am also incredibly intrigued by biodiesel. The more I hear about hybrids, I am not so intrigued. They still consume gasoline, and there are non-hybrids out there that get better gas mileage than hybrids. I think they are on the way to becoming something, and I am willing to wait a few years to watch the technology improve. But--they still consume gasoline.

I like biodiesel. I like thinking about using grease recycled from Burger King fueling my car. I like thinking that grease is an incredibly renewable resource, unlike carbon fuels. I like that I live in a city where almost the entire fleet of city buses uses biodiesel....nice huh?

To obtain a biodiesel vehicle, you must take a diesel engine car and convert it to biodiesel. It's not too hard of a conversion to have done. It's hard to find a passenger vehicle that is a diesel. You are pretty much stuck with an 80-90's model Volvo. You have better luck getting a full sized diesel pickup, but car seats are hard to install on those, and the leg room is tough on the kids.

The solar panels on our home will probably happen before the biodiesel car. But on the cars, I am hopeful of the coming technology. Just because hybrids still consume carbon fuels, I prefer to focus on the biodiesels.

Other little things I do to be green. I compost like crazy. What can be composted? Anything that isn't greasy from our kitchen. So any leftover foods that aren't butter laden, vegetable scraps, garden debris, rotten food found in the back of the fridge (if anything, the composting has started on those things), etc. Things I compost, my chicken's waste (nice fertilizer for the garden when that has been in our compost pile for awhile!), stale or moldy bread, rotten eggs, dead plants, leaves, hay from the chickens, dog waste, dead pumpkins after Halloween, grass clippings, etc.

Things I don't compost: Aggressive weeds or plants. They just become aggressive in your compost pile and ruin it. I recommend pulling those plants and laying them out on your cement driveway to completely kill them in the beating sun, then send in your yard debris pile for the garbage man to take.

Anything greasy. Butter, drained fat from meat, cheese, raw or cooked meat. Some resources tell you not to compost your pet's waste, but I do. They say that because some animals have worms and that can become a biohazard on a small scale. Well, I know my pets don't have worms, and I know what they eat. If you can say that about your pet, you should be fine.

In the past I have kept a worm composting bin in my basement. That was fun, but got a little tedious since we already had the compost bins outside. Plus, our chickens eat things as well like apple cores, bread heels, lettuce hearts, onion skins, potato skins, etc. So the worms almost starved. We put them in the compost pile and they are happy now.

I have eluded to our chickens (see some of my posts from July 2007 giving a fairly lengthy explanation of them). One cool thing is their manure. If you take fresh chicken manure and put it around your garden plants, your plants will die because the manure is so strong. Put it into a compost pile of some kind and let it "cook" there for awhile. It looks more like actual dirt then, but it is marvelous fertilizer. When I use that for fertilizer on my garden, I am not using synthetic fertilizers, which helps the whole organic gardening, and again, stays away from toxins that are harmful to the environment in the long run.

So that is what we do.