capstone summer 21

Another ecochallenge that I am taking on (for session 8) is using deck materials that have already been used to make a larger deck instead of keeping more lawn in my backyard. This will mean less water required for watering a lawn. 

I've been keeping track of my purchase, and I notice something. I had some periods of not spending at all, and then at some periods I would buy things here and there. I do notice how wasteful company deal with packaging. It's great that Amazon would offer option to receive everything in one package one day, but it results in a longer delay in...

Over this past month I have made efforts to eat mainly vegan or at the very least vegetarian. I have slipped up more than a few times, but generally I feel better when I eat like this. Last summer I ate vegan for the entire 3 months and I definitely saw the benefits of it. Unfortunately it takes more willpower and planning then I have had this...

I just moved to Eugene on Monday and my partner and I have been trying our best to buy local and support Eugene's many small businesses. Our biggest haul was from a company called "Marley's Monsters" who sell a lot of handmade reusable items (marleysmonsters.com). We ended up getting the reusable cloth "paper" towels,...

Under the "consumption and economy" tab I chose to not buy anything except items required for health and safety. This went quite well for me I believe. Since the start of this class, I have really been able to lower my ecological footprint by lowering my food waste, etc. and this next step helped even more. I used to shop quite a bit...

I am visiting family out of town this week which has presented a great opportunity to support local businesses I wouldn't otherwise be able to support. We have been buying coffee from local coffee shops and shopping from local jewelry and clothing boutiques. It has been really fun to do this while traveling instead of going to a mall and...

I went on a walk today downtown. I discovered a few parks that brought an interactive experience for community members. (It ties into my project so I will be adding it). One of the parks was Tanner Springs Park. It is a sustainable park that was a formerly a contaminated industrial site. It is now a sustainable natural park. It was like looking...

This week I watched the story of bottled water, it was interesting to hear,  I had no idea how much. bottled water we go through or that some brands of bottled water are really just filtered tap water. I think coming from Oregon we get kind of blessed with tap water that actually tastes good. This makes sense for me as whenever I go out of...

My bathroom has a leaky faucet AND the toilet recently started running non stop. I've been extra conscious about  about tightening the sink handle and jiggling the toilet handle to prevent wasting water, but I finally contacted my apartment neighbor who's in charge of building maintenance and we scheduled a plumber for this monday.

Hola! Class, I volunteer for a community activity once a week for 1-2 hours online chat for the aging with disabilities: they present with signs of memory loss and some in early stage Dementia. Families set up the online skype, Facetime, via desktop, laptop etc.,and I'll engage with each individual about topics specific to their life history....