Kameko Lashlee Gaul

This week, I was more sick than I think I've ever been in my life, so I didn't get out into nature a ton or put any efforts towards restoration like I wanted to, but the time I did spend outdoors was very healing. On day 4 of my bedrest I made myself a nest on the porch and sat outside to feel the sun and notice the birds and it felt incredible. I stayed out there for a long while. As I'm reentering the world again, too, I'm noticing that everything feels way brighter and more vivid in a really strange way, which makes it extra cool to notice flowers and moss and tree growth patterns on my walks around my neighborhood. I also can't walk that fast right now, so I have lots of time to slow down and observe, for once :-)

This is more of a future commitment than a present action, but for the nature-related challenge this week I RSVP'ed to a friend's wedding where instead of an after-party, they're spending the ceremony day doing ecological restoration and planting trees. This is a really cool and inspirational concept to me and it makes me think about how I can incorporate environmentalism into both the everyday and the ritualistic aspects of my life.

This week I focused on biking everywhere I could, which isn't uncommon for me. Especially since we've been having such a warm winter, I've been going nearly the whole week every week without driving. I live walking distance from my work and just across the river from school. The exception is that I often drive to get groceries, so this week I affixed a larger, sturdier basket onto my bike so that hopefully I can bike to do my next big shop.

This week for our community challenge I cooked breakfast on multiple days, for multiple visiting friends and family members, instead of getting takeout or going out to eat. I'm already amazed at how much money and plastic I've been saving by buying groceries in bulk more and more often, and it feels extra good to share my food with loved ones after cooking it from scratch.

This week I got incredibly stressed out about water conservation, both my own water usage and the water usage of those around me. I timed my showers, made sure I wasn't leaving the tap running while washing dishes, and finally curbed my habit of drinking straight out of the tap (a lot of water goes down the drain that way) but I still notice a lot of my neighbors washing their cars with a hose (it's winter?!? Why????), my roommates taking a lot of long showers and baths, and people around me using refillable water bottles. So now I'm plotting on ways to spread the word about water conservation. Open to suggestions if anyone has any. It seems really dismal, especially with the AI boom right now, which is deplorable to me. I mentioned the water necessary for paper production to one of my professors who requires printed assignments, and she replied by saying that when the water shortage finally comes, we'll be in one of the most water-rich places on earth, and people will be begging us for water, which is totally not the point.

This week I focused on meal prep where I could, which was both simplified and made complicated by the fact that I was super short on money this month. (The brakes on my bike snapped and were surprisingly expensive to fix.) When my money ran out, I utilized the PSU food pantry to stock up on beans and rice, and I've been buying cheese in a bulk loaf every month so that I don't use a ton of plastic and I don't have to replenish it often. It's not my favorite thing to eat the same meal every night, but as an undergrad, sometimes that's what needs to happen, and I can at least rest easy knowing that I'm not throwing anything away besides recycling an aluminum can every night.

Also, I read everyone else's posts and want to mention Winco as a shopping alternative in case you want to reduce waste but don't have a farmers market sized paycheck. (Obviously shopping local is ideal, but not always possible.) They're community owned, you can bring your own containers and buy in bulk, they're really cheap AND they're open 24/7. Also, the People's Food Co-op on Alder matches every food stamp dollar you spend on produce, if anyone has food stamps.

This week, for our energy use focus, I chose to change my habits around the house. For me, this looked like soaking dishes before scrubbing them instead of just washing under a continuous faucet stream, washing all my laundry on a cold/cold cycle instead of warm/cold, and turning all the lightbulbs in the house when I wasn't using them. (I actually got into a disagreement with my housemate about turning the lights off during the day— he thinks it's a safety issue and we might get robbed if the lights are off. Hopefully we can reach a compromise.) Overall, I found that implementing these changes didn't affect my quality of life at all, and I'm looking forward to seeing other ways I can improve my energy use in my day-to-day routines.

For the waste eco-challenge, I thought critically about what areas of my life are the most frivolous in terms of plastic waste, and concluded that my snacking habits aren't super eco-friendly. Specifically, every time I go to the gym, I get a protein bar at the student store immediately after. I always feel guilty about the plastic waste, but I haven't course-corrected until now. So this week I decided to try making my own protein bars at home, using this really simple recipe (I'll link it below) and storing the bars in the freezer so I'll have a good amount of backstock. I had all of the ingredients at home already, so I didn't even have to go out and buy anything. If I'm being entirely honest, they didn't come out quite as delicious as the Barebell ones I like, but I think with time and effort I can refine my technique until that changes.

https://www.acouplecooks.com/homemade-protein-bars/#tasty-recipes-165321-jump-target