Dylan Broten

This weekend I spent at least an hour outside each day. I did a combination of finding local parks to walk through, and walking around my neighborhood. This is not something super new for me, but I often forget to do this and spend a lot of time indoors. Its very nice to get fresh air, and a nice walk. This definitely something I will keep doing at least once a week.

This week I tried to reduce my shower usage. I normally take 30-40 minute hot showers and I tried to cut that back a lot. While it felt a bit nice to not waste so much time and water in the shower. I actually really missed it, because hot showers have become a time for thinking and meditation for me. Hopefully I can find alternatives or maybe compromise. I think time off of computer screens and noise to just think is extremely important, and showers have become my way of forcing that on myself. I'm a bit conflicted about this but I think it also made me realize how much that time meant to me.

I recently switched from using regular paper towels to reusable ones. We got a bunch of them, and they are bio degradable, made of bamboo and washer friendly. I use paper towels often because I keep my house very clean, so this has definitely saved a lot of waste, I often use a roll or two per week. Now we can just use these washable towels. Eventually, you do have to replace them, as they will get dirty but they last long enough to save money, and since they are made of bamboo they can even be composted!

This week I switched from soap bottle-based laundry detergent to these sheets. They cut down on waste not having a large plastic bottle that you replace every month, and work just as well. They come in a recyclable box and that's most of the packaging. I've been looking around my house to find other products like this that I can replace for a more eco-friendly solution pretty easily without impacting efficiency. I believe that small changes like this can add up over time and make a big difference.

Me and my family have a tradition of creating a large-scale halloween party/ maze, and sometimes scare zone for our community. This year is the first year we decided to do this since we moved to Oregon, but we did this yearly back in California before I moved 8 years ago. Here are some pictures from previous years.

One year we made a dragon.

Another year we made an insane asylum.

Recently I visited some more local farms, including many that allow you to pick your own food. The first is Oregon Heritage Farms. https://www.oregonheritagefarms.com/

Heritage farms is known for their apples, and they make great apple products, including bread, and caramel apples. The farm was beautiful had had fun activities for kids. The next farm was Smith Berry Barn.
https://smithberrybarn.com/
They have a rotating selection of U-pick items. Right now they have apples, pears, and peppers.
The last one we visited was the French Prairie Gardens.
https://fpgardens.com/
They have a lot going on. They have a u-pick section with rotating crops, as well as a large kids playground, live music, beer and wine bar. The place was very busy and beautiful. All of these farms offer local natural and organic foods, which we then took home and made meals with. I would recommend any of these places if you don't mind a drive.

This week I wanted to talk about something I've mentioned briefly; My local dairy farm Schoch Dairy and Creamery.
https://www.schochdairy.com/
Schoch is a local dairy farm that is part of the Helvetia community. They sell farm-fresh milk, chocolate milk, and eggs. They sell on an honor basis, making you drop off money in a tin, in return for taking their milk from an open fridge. That is an example of our trustworthy farm community. They sell all their milk in glass jars, and it costs less if you return previous jars so that they can reuse them. Each milk half-gallon costs 4.50$ with chocolate costing an extra dollar for 5.50$ There is an additional 2$ deposit which you do not have to pay if you return bottles. The milk is all safety pasteurized. Me and my family are big fans, and regulars at Schoch and we recommend it to everyone!

Another project I did this week is replace my lightbulbs with Smart LEDS. I also did a bit of research on the benefits of LEDS. Here is an article on those benefits from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
https://www.iup.edu/energymanagement/howto/led-lighting-benefits.html
Some of the stand outs from this are that LEDS are significantly more efficient at converting electricity to light, and not heat. LEDS are about 80% efficient when compared to traditional bulbs at 20%. LED's contain no toxic chemicals and are 100% recyclable. Another nice benefit of the LEDS that I got is that they are customizable via an app. I can turn them off and on, and adjust color and brightness as well as schedule times, all from my smartphone app for them. I am also planning on replacing the lightbulbs throughout the entire house with LEDS.

Here is some information I came across about Portland landfills, and my local landfill that I use in Hillsboro.
https://wmnorthwest.com/landfill/hillsboro2.htm