Cartier in July

This month has been a bit trying for our household. We have improved in some areas, such as making trips to the grocery together instead of separately and also the same for driving down to Denver. We found ourselves buying new furniture this month and we were taken aback by how much waste by the way of packaging this created.  Our HOA provides a recycling dumpster and that helps us stay a bit more “green” than we would be without it.

After receiving our energy audit we realized the biggest change we can make (as renters) is to change our bulbs to more efficient light bulbs. Our house is considered leaky by XCEL standards of air leakage. This problem was around several windows and our sliding glass door. The energy audit was complicated and I had difficulty digesting it. Cody should be able to answer my questions when I send them this way.   I hope to forward the information to my landlord and ask if he is willing to make upgrades to our townhouse.

Finally, we all attempted to go an entire day without producing waste as Jenny challenged us to do. This was extraordinarily difficult. I, Jessica, almost made it the entire day and in the evening I ruined my efforts by opening a packaged item.  This made me realize how easily and carelessly I created waste.

All in all, it was a learning month and we have much more to do. Composting is still going well and is keeping our food waste out of the landfill. We are enjoying the summer months as you can see by the photo of ginger in Peru Creek.

 

June

Things have been quiet around Cartier during the last month. Summer is finally upon us and we are enjoying it. Our main focus this month has been reducing trash.  We have done this by joining the HC3 composting program and I imagine it is an expense we will continue after this challenge is complete.  The $10 a month is worth it in our opinion because all of our old food was going straight to the landfill. Jess was able to get buckets and lids from her work so we did not need to buy new things to start composting.

Living in Summit cove is a bit difficult because we do not venture towards Frisco or Breckenridge often and we wish there was a pick up location closer (or taking it straight to the landfill) for the compost. I imagine composting smells better in the winter but for now we have mixed sawdust in with our buckets while we fill them up. Rinsing the buckets with a vinegar solution has helped keep the odor down as well. f

By a lucky chance we used the last of a few bottles of cleaner and have taken the chance to replace them with cleaners using simpler chemical compounds and hopefully more earth friendly.

Our energy costs were low this month and we hope this trend will continue for the rest of the summer. We do not water our yard with a sprinkler but do have several flower boxes that are watered regularly. Our plot at the community garden is near to producing and we look forward to our first salad from the plot.

We are hoping for more ideas and guidance on ways to become more sustainable in July.

 

 

The Cartier Household

Our household consists of three working professionals and our adorable corgi, Ginger. Jackie, Joshua and Jessica are all full-time Vail Resorts employees that earned our bachelor degrees at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Penn State and Oklahoma State, respectively. We live in a three bedroom townhouse located in summit cove.

We all moved to CO to pursue skiing between 2012-2014.We live for those bright summer days on backpacking trips, 20″ powder days and to see all the beautiful foliage in the fall. Jackie had a personal goal last year of hiking 100 miles in the month of August and completed it! Ginger was with her every step of the way. We enjoy cooking together and eat family style meals several days a week. 

We look forward to being a part of this challenge and spreading the word about living more sustainability.  We wanted to compete here because there are many places we could improve our home and the energy audit can help bring those to light. I expect this challenge to be more difficult for us because we rent our home and do not own it so we might not be able to make all of the changes recommend.