Kerry Lyles

I'm calling my EcoChallenge this year an "EcoChallenge Decathlon" since I'm taking on multiple different activities over the course of the 15 days. Make sure to read to the end, and I look forward to hearing what you all challenge me to take on!

October 1-15
1.Energy Day: Solar hot water heater research & cost analysis
2.Be the Change: Advocacy Day: write to 3 companies/representatives advocating eco-friendly policies
3.Food Stuff: Meatless Monday, Wednesday, Friday
4.Water Ways: Establish 3 new water- saving practices for our household
5.Food Stuffs: Meatless Monday, Wednesday, Friday
6.More with Less: Eliminate 15 things from our house that are cluttering, complicating, or otherwise competing for our time and attention
7.Food Stuffs: Meatless Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Start of Car- free weekend: 3 days of alternative transportation
8.Car-free weekend + Rain barrel installation
9.Car-free weekend + Rain barrel installation
10.Zero Waste Days: stay tuned for more details & Meatless Monday
11.Zero Waste Days: stay tuned for more details
12.Be the Change: Advocacy Day
13.You choose my Challenge! Pledge $50 or more and you can pick an eco-challenge for me for today!
14.You choose my Challenge! Pledge $50 or more and you can pick an eco-challenge for me for today!
15.You choose my Challenge! And let’s go out with a bang- pledge $100 or more and I’ll do just about any eco-related Challenge you can come up with!

My EcoChallenge Blog

October 14th, 2011

We're approaching the end of the EcoChallenge and our water conservation efforts have definitely risen to the top for me when I think about what we'll carry forward. The shorter showers have been surprisingly easy--and that extra five minutes in the morning is nice! Our rain barrel was FULL after a day and a half! I'm thinking we'll never have to run the hose from spigot to water in the front yard again. And Mark has been researching grey water systems for the bathroom that use sink or shower water to flush the toilet (in the meantime I think I'll go back to our bucket system since that's a heck of a lot cheaper). All in all, I'd say it was another successful year! And I'm sure we'll have a lot of new things to take on next year, with Baby Lyles no doubt increasing our footprint quite a bit once he or she makes their appearance in the Spring.

October 10th, 2011

My EcoChallenge is proving to be tougher than I thought it would. I will start with the weekend's success though: we now have a rain barrel installed and collecting the rain that, as if on cue, started pouring down just after we finished hooking everything up! What are we going to do with rain barrel water in a place where it rains, seemingly, nonstop? We have a number of plants under the porch and eaves of our house that we'll use it for all winter, and then come spring we'll use it for all the nonedibles in our yard. Because we have shingles on our roof that could possibly contain asbestos we're not using it for any edibles, or do water the chickens. Mark handled installation, but it seemed to go smoothly and didn't take very long. On the EcoChallenge fail side of things was my planned car-free weekend. Yeah, that didn't work at all. First I'd forgotten we were driving to Corvallis on Saturday. Then it rained all weekend, and since I'd already failed at the full 3 days I skipped the biking in the rain to multiple grocery stores and just drove. We may have the 1 car thing down, but won't be going car-free any time in the near future, that's for sure. Oh, and Stella guilt tripped me into driving on Friday night too--just so she could come. Geez. Now onto the final week of the EcoChallenge and hopefully more successes along the way!

October 7th, 2011

Almost half way through the Challenge and my challenge this year is keeping track of what I am supposed to be doing each day :-) And it looks like I am going to have to push car-free weekend until next weekend because I completely spaced that we were driving to Corvallis tomorrow... AND need to get our rain barrel supplies on Sunday...so foiled before the weekend even begins. But my shorter showers is going really well! Today I felt like I even had time to spare in my 6 minutes! And my de-cluttering project is in process; I'll continue that this weekend (perhaps even approaching the hundreds of CD's that we have stashed in a cupboard taking up space... don't tell Mark).

October 5th, 2011

A coworker of mine posted this (her EcoChallenge is to be a vegan for 2 weeks) and I thought it was appropriate for my Meatless Wednesday: "On October 5, 1947, in the first televised White House address, President Truman asked Americans to refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe."

October 4th, 2011

Today is Water Day and I started off by setting the timer for my 6 minute shower. This is probably about 4 minutes less than my average shower. I'm committed to 6 minute showers through the 15th and beyond that will probably try and do it 2-3 times a week, since while doable it's not my ideal way to wake up--rushing through a shower. My other water saving ideas includes setting up a grey water system for when we wash veggies--basically reusing that water for the chickens--and rain barrels for watering the non-edibles in the yard.

October 3rd, 2011

Today's Challenge is meatless Monday. And as someone who was a vegetarian for a decade, you'd think this would be easy-peasy. Alas, it threw me a curveball while planning for the day because I'd forgotten the meatless days planning into my challenge while meal planning and grocery shopping for the week. And out went my lunch plans with a friend to a place that has an amazing Reuben. I'm also continuing my EcoChallenge from Day 1, and doing some follow up research on solar water heating today too.

October 2nd, 2011

Day 2's Challenge was to write 3 letters advocating for healthier polices. Since food policy has always been high on my personal priority list one of the letters was related to food marketing. Another issue that irks me endlessly is that of bottled water--and the fact of the matter is there is very little governing the labeling of bottle water (ie where it comes from, often a tap in some big city where the distributor is located), so one of my letters was on that subject. Finally, Environmental Working Group, a great group with an action center that touches on all these topics, has been working on a new law that would require chemicals to be tested before they are allowed in cosmetics/toiletries, etc. From their website "The Kid-Safe Chemicals Act would require that all chemicals be proven safe for children before they can be sold." Sounds like a good idea, right?

October 1st, 2011

Day 1 of the EcoChallenge and I've barely had time to do my own EcoChallenge between addressing all the new website issues that have emerged on this website. BUT, I just finished doing some initial research on solar hot water heaters so I can consider today a success. And a to-be-continued challenge. We're interested in a solar hot water heater for a couple reasons--the payback time is much shorter than for solar electric systems, and we're interested in reducing our gas bill and since we have gas heating and already run that next-to-never (think set to 60 if I'm lucky) our gas water heater is a better subject for reductions. Energy Trust of Oregon has some good info on their website (http://energytrust.org/residential/incentives/solar-water-heating/SolarWater) about the incentives and then I found this super-useful how-much chart on Solar Oregon's website: Solar water heating system—saves 2,200 kWh/year Pacific Power customer $8,500 Total installed cost* - $880 Energy Trust incentive ($0.40/kWh) $7,620 Amount homeowner pays contractor - $1,320 Oregon tax credit ($0.60/kWh, $1,500 cap) - $2,286 Federal tax credit (30% of $7,620) $4,014 Final cost to homeowner *Prices for solar water heating systems range from $6,500–$10,000 Looks like the next steps are to get in touch with Energy Trust and Solar Oregon to attend a workshop on solar water heating, and then conduct a site analysis. We have a south facing roof, but we also have quite a few trees on our property so we'll need to make sure it's feasible to go solar.

Comments

From: Emily Utter

I love this challenge! Good luck with the rain, and I'm blessing you with no flat tires :)

From: Jacqueline Meyer

Good luck!!! Love, Jacqueline and Chris!

From: Patrick Scofield

You can do it!

From: Sarah Vandervoort

Good luck!

From: Robert Flath

Good luck Kerry

From: Lillian Whitsett

Way to go, Kerry - future generations (Anneke) thank you!

From: Andrea von der Ohe

Good luck Kerry!

From: katherine lyles

Go Kerry! I' ll try to come up with a challenge idea (with Mark's help!)

From: Elijah Davidian

What a great program. Best of luck meeting your goal! -Eli & Abby

From: Eva Marcotrigiano

Love you! :)

From: Susan Macdonald

That's awesome!

From: Ron Geiger

Go Kerry Go! Yes, we're going solar. Very exciting. All is well here. Max is 5 and awesome!

From: Marc Vaccaro

Cheers!

From: Sarah Bianco

You are an inspiration and I totally respect your efforts!! Hope you can reach your goal! -Sarah

From: Lesley Swick

I kicked in an extra $5 b/c that picture of Mark is so darn cute...

From: Kelly Liggett

You're over the hump!

From: Joy Eggerichs

Yippie!

(back to list of individuals)

My EcoChallenge(s)

Water Conservation

Energy Efficiency

Sustainable Food Options

Alternative Transportation

Trash Reduction

My Fundraising Goal

$1000

My Pledge Tally

$1000

My Pledgers

• Marie Brown
• Emily Utter
• Jacqueline Meyer
• Lillian Whitsett
• Patrick Scofield
• Sarah Vandervoort
• Robert Flath
• Andrea von der Ohe
• katherine lyles
• Gail Zatz
• Peter Christeleit
• Elijah Davidian
• Lynne Brown
• Eva Marcotrigiano
• Susan Macdonald
• Theresa Amoroso
• Ron Geiger
• Katharine Comeau
• Kate Rinder
• Jill Harris
• Marc Vaccaro
• Sarah Bianco
• Lesley Swick
• Kelly Liggett
• Mark Lyles
• Betsy Asai
• Sarah Menzies
• Joy Eggerichs
• Liz & PJ
• Liz & PJ
• Celeste & John Janssen