Laura Standley

When I get started on planting some produce, I am contemplating on getting some preying mantises or ladybugs as my natural, eco-friendly pesticides. However, i would like some more insight from those of you who have gardens and if you've had experience with lady bugs or preying mantises? What eco-friendly fertilizers and pesticides do YOU use? 

Update on the transportation eco-challenge. As a current stay-at-home during this global crisis, I have no place I really have to go, so I un-selected the use of public transportation. Instead, I selected walking. My fiance and I take our son and our dog out for a walk around the neighborhood pretty much every day. There is a little nature pathway that we like to walk through on our walks. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it because when we are out, we tend to not be on our phones. 

The eco-challenge for riding public transportation has a goal for riding the bus each day. I only plan to take the bus once this week when I go to Craft Warehouse for some crocheting items. I calculated the miles to Gresham from Sandy and back. This also involves walking to the bus stop which is a good 15 minutes from my house. So, I guess I'll be killing two birds with one stone for session 6 eco-challenge! This will be on a weekend when Shaun can be home with Andrew. 

The day after the 4th of July, my next door neighbors, my fiance and I picked up left-over plastic firework pieces off the ground, mainly for the sake of our dogs who play in the neighborhood park. We were repulsed by how much $#!% people leave behind. You would they that they are aware of how frequent dogs and children play in that park. 

I did a little research on the water my area receives. I live in Sandy and surprisingly, the water that serves the small city does not all come from the Portland Water Bureau, whose primary source comes from the Bull Run Watershed. Sandy buys about fifty percent of the water from the Portland Water Bureau during fall, winter and spring seasons. The other two sources that serve Sandy are "Brownell Springs, a city-owned natural spring on Lenhart Butte, and Alder Creek, a small tributary on the Sandy River" (City of Sandy, Oregon).

I also learned that the Portland Water Bureau's second source of water comes from the Columbia South Shore Well Field. In the "About Us" section of the Portland Water Bureau's website, that secondary source "serves to augment supply during summer months, allow the bureau to manage turbidity issues in the Bull Run watershed, and can meet the daily demand of the City on its own when necessary."

The links for my sources are listed below. Feel free to poke around for more info. :) Also, a picture of the infamous donut shop in town. Mmm, donuts...
City of Sandy, Oregon: https://www.ci.sandy.or.us/water-sources

Portland Water Bureau: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/29343

Oookay, I just got done watching The Story of Bottled Water. Plastic is disgusting. It's sad that's its used everywhere. It's difficult to avoid. 

I already decline offers of straws and I use reusable bottles. In fact, a water bottle I got from the hospital after my son was born is made of plastic but guess what? I still have it and I plan to keep it because it's an easy reminder for me to drink water because it's so big. I use that one at home while I take a more portable one with me elsewhere. 

Anyway, back to the video. My initial thought was that burning the plastic is better than having them end up in the oceans, but then--it's no better because burning them pollutes the air which the pollutants still reaches the ocean. The marine ecosystem is still affected. So, yeah---it's still not good...plastic just needs to go away. Period. 

I went ahead a checked of a few things I already did in regards to using water sustainably such as the amount of water flushed, a water-efficient shower head, making sure we don't have any pipe leaks, and using reuseable water. My house was built last year, so everything that was put in are water and energy efficient. I will however, be watching a show on plastic bottles. I'll keep y'all posted on that!

I re-watched the "Cowspiracy" documentary but this time, with my fiance in hopes I can get him on board so that doing my eco-change would be easier to do.

I also visited Schedeens Farm Fresh Produce in Boring and bought a handful of fruits such as apples and berries, as well as a Farmers Market in my hometown of Sandy. I loved how juicy and fresh the berries tasted compared to store-bought!

I calculated my carbon footprint and this is my result. I am already making a move towards living more sustainably. Being a stay-at-home Mother has helped with that. I'm not saying I won't be returning to work once the COVID situation clears up, but saying at home and not being able to go out as much as I did definitely changed my carbon footprint dramatically. The only things I know I need to do to make it better is to eat more sustainably and produce less waste.