23 weeks 6 days ago

Spring Mills, PA

With one yard of holiday fabric, I make a large bag with a drawstring closing - about 22 by 36 inches. These bags can be filled with multiple gifts - using samll boxes inside for something fragile. I have not "wrapped" a holiday gift for 15 years. As soon as gifts are opened, the bags are returned to me for refilling at the next birthday or holiday gift opportunity!

Dark Green

Cleaner - All Purpose

I grew up in a rural community, where home grown and home prepared food was the norm. Canning and freezing our garden crops made summer months busy. In fact, canning green beans and tomatoes was one of the few dating activities we could afford! My college education in nutrition helped keep our family eating wholesome, locally grown foods with minimal processing whenever we could. Farm land was always regarded with stewardship in mind, and family vacations were camping in national and state parks in tents. Hiking, biking, birding, learning to recognize animals by their calls, tracks or scat was and still is a part of not only our lives, but our children and four granddaughters. We carry photos of fawns and grouse and pheasants in our wallets with photos of granddaughters! Our granddaughters appreciate gifts given in their name for humanitarian and environmental causes, and they write us poems about nature as gifts! We built a passive solar home in VA in the 1970’s but had to move away from that, and are now in a 200 year old log home that we have insulated and wired and “recycled”! We do not have air conditioning, but in summer use an attic fan and close drapes when the sun could overheat a room – reversing this process in winter weather. We are members of Penns Valley (Central PA) Conservation Society, Sierra Club, and Habitat for Humanity. We recycled before it was a word in common usage, from shared clothing, books and toys to carrying groceries in fabric bags and taking plastics we could not reuse to the recycling center. I have not wrapped a holiday gift for years, as I made a dozen fabric bags with drawstrings that are filled and reused. In holiday fabrics, they look as festive as the boxes wrapped with throw-away paper and ribbons. We no longer garden much, but share our land with younger neighbors who do. We are trying to buy more at Farmer’s Markets and have considered CSA’s but find summer schedules of the retired don’t often fit with the volumes of veggies available. One trip every 7-10 days to the grocery store suffices. We have planted more than 1700 trees in a riparian border, and will be planting about 40 acres of switchgrass in a few weeks. We hope that in a couple of years the US will have the technology in place to pelletize our switchgrass so we can burn it in our pellet stove. We are considering having a “Carbon Footprint” Party to share more ideas and encouragement with neighbors.