Lea Avelar

For my sixth ecochallenge this week, I decided to drive less. I only used the car to get to work, and stayed home the rest of the time. Instead of going out for coffee, I made my own at home. Instead of eating out, I cooked my meals. Not only did I reduce how much I drove, but I also ended up saving money. I realized that most of the time when I use the car, it's just to grab something to eat or drink, which I can easily make at home. This challenge helped me see how small changes in my daily habits can cut down on unnecessary driving and support more sustainable transportation choices.

For my fifth ecochallenge, I helped my family host a lunch for relatives visiting from Seattle. To make things easier and more enjoyable, everyone took on one dish so no one felt overwhelmed. I made a cucumber salad, my sister prepared guacamole, and my brother grilled the meat. When our cousins arrived, they saw us cooking and offered to help out too. One cousin made the rice, and another helped with the dishes. Since everyone pitched in, the lunch came together quickly and felt like a true group effort. It was a nice reminder that building community can be as simple as sharing a meal and working together.

For my fourth ecochallenge, I decided to focus on saving water. I’ve always enjoyed taking long showers, so this challenge has been a big shift for me. Now that I’m timing myself, I’ve realized that five minutes is actually plenty of time to get clean. Shortening my showers made me aware of how much time I used to spend just standing there, not really doing anything. In those moments, it’s easy to forget how much water is being wasted. Overall, this challenge has been eye-opening, and I’m glad I’ve made this change to help conserve water.

For my third ecochallenge, I decided to look into how to pickle jalapeños, or as we say in Spanish, jalapeños en escabeche. This week, we happened to have a bunch of extra jalapeños that probably would’ve gone bad, so it felt like the perfect time to try it. I didn’t have all the ingredients, but I made do with what I had, and the recipe still turned out really good. I followed a simple tutorial I found on YouTube and went from there. Now I just have to wait three days before I can taste my pickled jalapeños!

For my second ecochallenge, I want to commit to using only reusable bags when making purchases. I already bring my tote bags to the grocery store, but I often end up taking the plastic produce bags and I want to stop doing that. This weekend I made my own reusable produce bags using an old lightweight curtain. I managed to upcycle it into four bags. I plan on making more, but for now I’ll start using these.

For my first ecochallenge, I decided to dedicate more time to being outside, so I spent the day in my backyard. It’s a large space, so I quickly found things to do. First, I picked up dog poop and did some light gardening. I mainly focused on pulling weeds and repotting a few plants. Some of the weeds I pulled out were safe for our rabbits to eat, so I gave those to them as a little treat while I worked. I also cleaned our rabbits’ area by raking up their poop and making sure they had fresh water. We don’t throw away the rabbits’ poop. Instead, we save it and use it as fertilizer. Our fruit trees and plants love it. Right now, the rabbits are shedding their fur, so I started collecting it to try making yarn. This is the first time I’ve saved their fur. In the past, I would just throw it away. I’m excited to see if I can actually make my own yarn, although I need to do some research on how to get started.Thinking about sustainability, I believe saving the rabbit fur and trying to do something useful with it is a step in the right direction. Overall, I really enjoyed spending time outside, especially since it was a nice, sunny day.