LITTLE HOUSE AND GARBAGE

Before I explain the title of this post I thought I would let you know that our new puppy is adorable and doing very well. Having never owned a pet before I was a little nervous my first day with him by myself while my husband was at work. I had a mild feeling of panic that was akin to the first night home with your first baby when I put him in his crate and he wouldn't stop barking. What to do?! Well, I got some good dog training advice here and started right away to train the dog not to bark. He's been very good today after only one day of bark training but we'll see what happens tonight. Last night we went to bed and the dog barked for about 15 minutes straight. I hope I don't get any flaming comments if I said we just let him "bark it out". One more thing, it seems handling the dog has curbed my hand eczema. We'll see if that continues.

Now, after thinking it over a bit, I thought I would write about the most interesting thing I observed in the Little House series. Maybe Laura never mentioned its presence but I'm pretty sure of this one thing -- the Ingalls family did not roll their garbage to the curb each week to be picked up by the municipal garbage truck. In fact, I'm sure they rarely had any garbage to speak of. Time and again I read about how they used scraps of cloth to make a Christmas present or leftover for something. And they never, ever wasted food. Frankly, it shames me to think about all the stuff I throw out and all the stuff I'm pretty much obligated to throw out because it's packaged in a certain way. When I think about the impossibility of living like that now, I remember the Basement Tape where Jonathan Daugherty explains how his family is striving to solve their garbage problem without the help of the local garbage company or landfill. Their family strives to use less and disposes of the leftovers in an efficient manner. I wish I could remember which Basement Tape that was on. Maybe someone else out there could provide that information. While our family isn't in the position to do what the Daugherty's are doing with their garbage, it still bothers me that I'm not creative enough to sew some special something out of my daughters worn out dresses.