Living Green in a Down Economy

KUOW's Ruby de Luna has been covering how people are living green in a down economy. Her interview with us aired yesterday and you can reach it here.

Getting Started on Our Victory Garden

Making Do in Hard Times

Yesterday my husband Dave and I tried to get prepared for our visit from Ruby de Luna of KUOW. She had phoned and asked if she could be present when we began to create our Victory Over the Recession vegetable garden. Although the recession made us commit to growing vegetables this year, it is something that we’d talked about for years. We even had a bit of a foundation lain in the form of a shallow box of two by sixes that a previous owner had used in the exact place we chose. Our yard is shaded by many Doug firs, but the unused space behind the garage gets lots of sun in the summer. Ruby wanted sounds and I wanted a deeper box so we went to Home Depot and purchased cedar two by sixes to double the depth of our box.

Ruby arrived at 11:30 AM. KUOW is going in multiple rooms of our house all day every day so I feel as though the staff members are friends and have developed pictures in my mind of how each looks. Ruby is as beautiful as her name and more beautiful than I pictured in my mind and is shown here at work. She isn’t bigger than a minute, but refused help with her equipment. We chatted a bit while she set up her equipment and discovered that she knows my brother Tim Haeck of KIRO radio.

While Dave measured and sawed the pieces of wood Ruby captured the sounds of his work and our grandson Gabriel helping GrandDave attach the new wood to the existing frame. When the box was completed we took Ruby in the house to warm up and she interviewed us about how the recession is impacting our family of six.

In all honesty, we know that there are people who are suffering much more than we are. So far ours is more the anxiety of what the future holds than what is happening now. We are a thrifty lot by nature and so far the recession has only effected us in theory since Dave will likely lose his job at Seattle Flight Service sometime in the next year and lay-offs in the Peninsula School District are likely. I am not likely to be laid-off, but my job may look different next year because of the potential loss of 50-75 clerical staff and who knows how many certified.

So we continue to save money however we can, always happy to learn new ways to do that. You can bet that anything I discover will be shared here!