Recycling and Oil Conservation, Country Style

When you live out in the country as I do, and the nearest town of any size is 50 miles away, driving is not an option, it's a necessity. I have to buy gas to go to work, 50 miles away. I have to drive to the store, 15 miles away. My husband drives to work, 50 miles away. Most of my sons are at least 200 miles away. My siblings are farther. Almost all my gigs are at least 50 miles away. So we drive a lot. I've had my car since 2003 and it has almost 200,000 miles on it.

But we conserve where we can:

We buy used vehicles. We buy vehicles with good maintenance records that are easy on gas. We consolidate trips--no running to town for milk; it has to be more than that to warrant a trip. I carpool when I can, usually two or three days a week.

We recycle; it's part of our lifestyle. No, I don't separate paper and plastic yet, although I'm working on that. What I do--I buy used. Used clothes, used books, old furniture and tools. Yard sales, flea markets, antique malls, auctions are my haunts. Almost eveything in my house has been in another house in some other time. I'm an antique nut. I find old stuff is better made and suits me better.

Clothes? Goodness, America is awash in clothes! Great storytelling clothes can be bought on Ebay every day, as well as at Goodwilll, etc. Clothes for my administrative job can be found at yard sales and resale shops.

We garden. We grow a lot of our own vegetables so they don't have to be trucked from California or Mexico or wherever. We can our food, eat fresh from the garden, and buy at the farmers' market.

We heat with wood. That contributes to global warming, I suppose, but it is how people have warmed themselves for centuries, and we have 80 acres of trees. It makes sense.

We don't have TV. We don't have X-box or Nintendo. We live simply. We don't need a lot of entertaining. A night in front of the fireplace or on the porch listening to the whippoorwills keeps us entertained and happy.

I buy a lot of gas. I have to fill my tank at least twice a week, usually three times. But it's a 12-gallon tank and it goes a long way. I try to do my part for conservation by not contributing to the oil-fueled economy of new stuff. Maybe it's not enough. It's what I can do now.