Whoa Sister!

Ok sister, you need to be easier on yourself! Yes, you have consumed and purchased non-vegan things in the past. You have a great handbag and shoe collection that are mostly made of leather, but selling or donating those things will not necessarily be good for the environment. If you get rid of the things you use, you will have to replace them. Whatever you replace these things with will need to be manufactured and delivered, all which have effects on the environment. Using old things and not consuming more is good for the environment too! Maybe just hold off buying any more until what you already have in your collections runs out. And of course, if it makes you feel good to down size what you have, by all means do it!

But really, Lara, you are my inspiration for this whole journey and I'm sure for many others out there as well. Think of all the animals we are saving from this point forward. We are doing great things. Yes, we have a long way to go to be TV(total vegans). Keeping things you love that were made with leather will not lessen the positive impact you will have on our world. I found a vegan blogger from Seattle you should check out. She makes all kinds of vegan ice creams and one of her postings put it all into perspective. Visit http://www.veganicecream.blogspot.com/ and visit her post A Very Bad Vegan.

About composting...yes, Portland has yard debris pick-up every other week which includes composting. Also, we have a regional government called Metro where you can get a compost bin and learn all you ever wanted to know about worms and composting. Visit www.oregonmetro.gov to see more. We have a Metro bin in our backyard that has gone unused for the 2 years we have lived here, until now that is. Since my fruit and vegetable consumption has quadrupled in the past few weeks I have started using it. Actually, it is quite simple. I have a bowl on my counter with a towel over it. Every time I have something that can be composted I put it in the bowl. The towel just deters pesky fruit flies from gathering. At the end of the day, I take the bowl to the compost pile and drop it in. We have so much less garbage that we are thinking of changing to a smaller can!