Welcome to the Friday open thread for the Living Simply group. If you are not familiar with our group, the basic idea, from our profile, is:
A group to explore and share sustainable, simple living ideas among fellow progressives. For the urban, rural, or wannabe homesteader, this is a place to share information to simplify everyday life. Sustainable skills such as gardening, food production and storage, do-it-yourself projects for the home or farm, and backyard chickens and other livestock, as well as eco-conscious philosophies such as cooperative living, eco-cities, the Slow Food movement, and being a mindful consumer are but a few potential topics of interest here.
In case you missed the party, here's all the fun stuff posted to the Living Simply group this week. Check them out:
wide eyed lib's Free Food: Foraging in the Park across the Street, originally posted to wide eyed wanderings.
cordgrass's Living Simply: Zero waste for the ladies, posted right here to Living Simply.
nikasi23's Tasty Bits v1.16, originally posted to Environmental Foodies.
As for what's on my simple (living) mind lately, I have to admit: vacation. It's summertime, and the July 4th holiday weekend is just around the corner. Of course, we live a pretty frugal lifestyle--there will be no jaunts across the Atlantic to Europe or cruises to Caribbean islands for us--but no matter. We can keep it simple, cheap, and relatively green by loading up our car and going tent camping. We live in a somewhat rural area not too far from Washington, DC, and there are plenty of interesting, beautiful, and wild places to visit within a few hour's drive. One of my most favorite places is Shenandoah National Park, and we travel there often. While I prefer to support the National and State parks in our area, I will admit that during our most recent camping trip to the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia we stayed at a KOA. The extra "amenities" that the private campgrounds provide--like pools and playgrounds--make camping with a young child a bit more fun for all involved. Our little one doesn't need a lot to keep entertained (we don't watch television and he'd prefer to be outdoors, even if just playing in a pile of dirt, to anything) and is quite the trooper on hikes, but when the park campgrounds are crowded and it's too hot for a 4-year old to hike more than a mile or two, the promise of a splash in the pool is an extra treat that makes the KOA a good compromise!
So next weekend we'll find a campground somewhere within a few hour's drive and head out for a couple of days of just chillin'. Since we'll just need a primitive campsite, the cost will be affordable. Most of our camping supplies have been accumulated over the last several years as we found this or that on sale, and we won't need to purchase anything other than groceries (which we'd need anyway). And since we won't be wasting jet fuel to get to our destination (or much electricity while we're there, for that matter), the trip will have a relatively minor impact on our carbon footprint. Yes, we'll have to drive to get there, but we'll stick somewhat close to home and we drive a small, diesel engine car that gets approximately 40 miles per gallon. We've become masters at packing simple, and can deftly pack our camping supplies and food for a family of three into the small car. I know plenty of parents who say they couldn't do it without the extra space that a minivan or an SUV provides, but trust us, it can be done!
The open thread is yours! What are you doing to live more simply? Any summer travel plans or green and frugal travel tips?