It is now 17 days since we started the ‘Reduce Challenge’ – and we had to take the garbage out for the first time. The good news is that it was only half a bag. The bad news is that it was mostly paper towels and the dog has a bladder infection.

I know what you are thinking – what are we doing with the dog and cat waste. Right now, I am embarrassed to say, we have not picked up the dog poop in the yard. As for the cat, we have two bags sitting outside. I have been procrastinating if we can actual compost the waste.

After some research I found you can compost both just don’t use it with your vegetable garden, which could contaminate your home grown produce and land up in your (very unhappy) belly. If you have room in your backyard, you can bury an old garbage bin (note: far away from your vegetable garden) to use as a pet-waste composter. Composting cat-litter is also a responsible way to keep potentially hazardous parasites and waste — like e. coli, toxoplasmosis, ammonia, and nitrate — out of our landfills and waterways. That’s also why pregnant women and people with immune deficiencies should never clean a cat box.

Whether you’re scooping for a kitty or a pooch, composting your pet’s waste will prevent it from polluting waterways and from taking up space in landfills.

We are doing a 30 day ‘Reduce’ Challenge, the main idea is to become more eco-friendly. I got the idea from a news clip I saw on TV about a couple that is doing a 365 day challenge to reduce waste. They do not buy clothing; they make their own bread and yogurt; they even take there own containers to the grocery store to purchase meat.

To reduce waste, we have now purchased a compost, it is very slick. Once the activator is put in (that is a fancy word for manure), you simply add the food and give it a good spin. The main area we, well, Dirk and my niece Nicole, needs to improve on is actually composting – I seem to spend a little too much time sorting through the garbage – pulling out items to be recycled or composted. It is actually really gross. I even found a fork in the garbage – how did they think that was an item to be thrown out?!

BUT, with that being said, we have yet to throw out the household garbage, with all bins being less then half filled.

NOTE: For those that are partaking in the challenge, please post your comments below so I know how you are doing – maybe someone has a great idea to share.

This past Sunday, Dirk and I went over to Vancouver for the night. Since our usual dog sitter was unavailable, we drop our dog off at my mom’s place. Monday morning I called to see how she and our dog were getting along, here is our conversation;

Me: Hi Mom, how is everything going with Mya?

Mom: Good, she has been enjoying running from the front door to the back door barking at the passing neighbours.

Me: Yes, you definitely feel safe when she is in the house.

Mom: I know, I opened the front door on purpose so she could bark at the mail lady, she is a real bitch. I was in the my bedroom when she walked up the front step. She barely had the mail in the box when Mya started to bark, scared the shit right out of her. I was in the bedroom just killing myself laughing.

Me: Huh?

At this point I hung up and ran into the hotel bathroom to tell Dirk the story. That prompted a follow up phone call later, as we could still not understand how she came to hate the mail lady. We had questions; Did the mail lady fold her mail? Did she get the mail wet one too many times? We rarely see our mail lady, so how did this happen. Here is the condensed version of why…….she walks on my mom’s lawn.