The Drum People . . . . . . . . . Call 1-256-538-0246

Building drums from river-recovered and recyled wood came naturally to us.  We could not imagine cutting a new tree and depleting Mother Earth of more precious oxygen.  Everyone can live a greener life, and even the smallest changes in life style make a difference because, as my friend Em says, "as if every single [act] matters, because it does." 

I told Em that I pick up trash every day and we remarked about the astonishing ignorance of people who toss beer cans, cigarette butts, dirty diapers, and an entire batch of "Angel Food Ministries" applications (with all the private information) out their car windows.  When I began my clean-up effort, it was a prayer for Mother Earth.  I picked up 27 garbage bags full of trash on one mile of back road in my town.  After I got that mile under control, I started patrolling more roads. 

My faithful companion, Toby the Trash Dog, is an excellent spotter of plastic bottles.  Toby began his life tossed out.  He was the best piece of trash, and the ONLY piece of trash, that I have ever kept.  

After I had been picking up the roads for a year, someone shot a hunting arrow at our house.  I live in a small southern town, and I am a yankee.  Townsfolk were waging war over a controversy involving their right to keep unregistered junk cars in yards.  They assumed I was against the ordinance.  In fact, I spoke out against the ordinance: first they tell us what we can have in our yards, next it will be the color of our houses.  I have a sweat lodge in my yard.  What if someone objects to the thousands of prayer ties hangins all over our yard?  What if that is suddenly outlawed.   

Em wrote me a poem about my trash efforts, and it really meant a lot to me.  Thank you, Em, for understanding.  Here is her poem.


Our Green Living Efforts: Maybe someone can gain from our experience . . .

• Military showers - years on the powwow trail taught us to rinse, turn off water, soap up, then rinse.  Our water bills are the lowest in town, and we do not stink!
• I water our house plants when I change the dog's water bowl.
• I put buckets in the shower to catch water in the summer to water outdoor flowers.
• Drywall buckets under window air conditioners catch daily water for lawn and flowers.
• A simple water saver - I never leave the water running when I brush my teeth.  I fill a glass, turn water off, brush, rinse with water from glass and use rest of water to rinse the sink.
• Dishwashers are more efficient than washing dishes by hand.  But from years of camping, I learned to fill a pan with soapy water and wash all pots and pans by hand from one pan of water.  That lets me fill dishwasher to maximum capacity.
• Use cold water to wash clothes.  Line dry clothes, or hang from hangers.
• We sided our house with telephone poles downed by Hurricane Katrina.  For 20 cent a board foot, we have pine board and batten siding that will never rot, no termites will eat, and it will not destroy the Earth by being buried and wasted.
• We have two wood burning stoves and heat exclusively with wood.  We help seniors in our town clear fallen trees from yards and gardens.  By cutting only dead trees, we not only help people with free tree removal, but we heat our home for free.
• We shred all paper and use it for packing.  We put one bag of trash out for pick-up about every two weeks.
• We live one hour from a recycle center, but our friends have curb-side pick-up for their recycling.  Their store is only 20 minutes from our house, so we formed a recycling chain.  They also provide packing materials from their store, which otherwise would have been thrown away.
• We collect old bricks and have built a beautiful little pathway all around our house with recycled brick.
• Compost vegetable matter and grass clippings.  We live on a rocky hill and can't grow a vegetable garden, but I can still topdress all of my hearty perennials with compost - a natural fertilizer.
• In the summer, I take a nice soak in the tub after working in the garden all day.  But the thought of wasting all that water killed me, so I carry it outside in buckets and water the lawn.
• I gather pine needles from surrounding trees and use it to mulch weeds. 
• Turn off all lights.  Unplug everything you can so that you break the circuit.  "Vampire energy" is lost by all of those gadgets with built in lights.  Unplug cell phone recharger.  Turn off computer and printer.  Not only will you save electricity, but you will save money.
• We've switched to the new energy-saving light bulbs.
• I use a headlamp to walk through the dark house, and threw all of those energy sucking night lights away!
• I carry cloth bags to the grocery store and don't use plastic.
• I buy water in five-gallon jug and use the same washable bottles rather than generating more plastic bottles.
• I put my electric can opener away and find it's handier to use the old manual can opener.
• I make notepads from printed computer pages (web research) that does not get shredded.  Great for grocery lists, phone messages, etc.
• The THRIFT STORE!  My favorite place - I just bought 6 sweat shirts, 2 flannel shirts and 3 pairs of jeans for a total of $21.00!  Our rule is that we do not add storage.  If we get new (recycled) stuff, we have to discard or take our old stuff to the Thrift Store.  But usually our clothes are so full of glue and holes that they just need to be trashed.

We think about saving the resources of Mother Earth every single day, in every action we take.  It has become our way of life.  We build green, we live green and we encourage everyone in our lives to take part in saving our beautiful planet, Mother Earth.  Blessings to all of you who share our convictions and walk the walk. 

We'll see you down the Red Road on the Green Path!