Stacey Alcott

Week 6: Transportation -- I normally use public transportation to go to campus. I haven't been able to find a way to use it for my job in Vancouver, though. Living in Oregon City, that's a long time to be on the bus and there would be too many transfers. What I've decided to do is, rather than using my car to pick up the kids from their bus stop, we have been walking. It isn't a far distance, but we take their backpacks to their house from their bus stop and then we walk back to my house from their house. This, 4 times a week, is way better than using the car for the short distances. I live 1 block from their bus, they live 2 blocks from their bus, then it's three blocks to my house. We have been doing this, even when it's raining. We then use the car to pick their sister up from preschool, but I usually plan a grocery pickup or some fun activity so it's not just one reason to use the car that day.

Week Five: Community -- I have a friend that has been coming out and helping me with my plans for planting. We went through her seeds and I have been drawing out my plan. We have spent the last 2 Tuesdays with the kids I watch outside, clearing out last years crop of tomatoes, and putting them in the compost bin. She takes the time to teach me, and the kids, about what the ground needs. I wouldn't be able to do this without her. I do not like to get my hands dirty. I do not like to get sweaty. So, having a friend to help me helps make me go outside and do the things I wouldn't normally do. I feel guilty that she's doing the work in my yard, lol.

https://www.change.org/p/save-the-oregon-coast-ban-the-planting-and-start-removing-invasive-european-beachgrass

I went ahead and signed the survey Osvaldo posted in the first week, we'll call this week 1, 2, or 3 (I have been behind and want to make sure I am on track).

I watched "The Story of Bottled Water," for this weeks challenge and learned that bottled water tests more polluted than tap water in most cases. Tap water also passes the taste test more often than not when compared to bottled water. I have always been okay with tap water. California we had filters on our tap, but it was still tap. Here in Oregon, where I've been most of my life, there hasn't been much of a need for filters. I used to drink bottled water a lot, but then I realized I could just refill them and be just as happy. I like the bottled water for laziness purposes, so now I found a bottle that makes it so I only have to drink 2 bottles a day. This makes me drink more water, keeps my water cold (or warm if I want it that way) for the entire day. I work in places that offer refill stations so it's awesome. The only thing I can say is that Vancouver water isn't the greatest for taste, it tastes like Arrowhead water to me. I actually can tell the difference on some of the bottled water and refuse to drink Arrowhead, lol. Just a preference, it seems kind of salty to me. I have watched many videos about water and this one touched base on the fact that a good chunk of the bottles go to other countries for disposal. It drives me crazy that they can't make it into more bottles, or sanitize the recycled ones to reuse. In any case, if I do buy a bottle for water I try to use it through the day or longer.

Week one I didn't understand what we were doing and I put something down about meal planning. I never actually did anything with it so I'm going to use that for this time. While I wasn't successful at eliminating my wastefulness, there was a decline in fresh products being tossed. I made it easy on myself for this time and just wrote down the protein (meat), carb (potato, rice, or noodle), and vegetable. I also mainly focused on dinner for this time around. Maybe I can upgrade to include lunch and breakfast in the future weeks. I would really like to get intense about all this meal planning. I'd like to make it into meal prep at some point, too.

I decided to choose recycling everything I can. I am pretty good about this already so it shouldn't be too difficult. I try to reuse everything I get that can't be recycled. I work at a Vietnamese restaurant and they use these plastic bowls and containers that are wonderful for storing lettuce and cilantro in my refrigerator. It's helped me reduce my food waste and I don't feel as bad about the plastic. I also use them for my hair wrap projects. I can put beads in them or anything else that I need to. Clear lids allow for seeing what is in each container and I reduce waste by reusing. I also saw a post on social media where someone is going to use old Keurig pods (since they can't be recycled as far as I know) to plant seed starts. I already remove the coffee grounds to use in my compost so why not use the pods for that instead of tossing them out right away?

I am totally new to this and am not sure what I'm doing. I'm hoping I can learn some things about meal planning as I'd like to open a fast food restaurant that centers around healthier foods.