Richton Park Herald

Actually, I called this part one because its the first article I've written for this new version of the Herald. My wife and I have been "going green" for a long time. For example, its now in vogue to capture rain water and use it to water your plants and garden. We've been doing that for 30 years, no kidding!

What else have we done? Well, I've gotten rid of my gas powered mower and weed whacker, and replaced them with electric powered ones. My weed whacker has a battery and when fully charged, I make it all the way around my property before it starts slowing down. The mower gets plugged into the outdoor outlets, so it has a cord. My wife has to cut the grass because I get too frustrated dealing with the cord (hear that guys?!). So I just do the trimming! Sweet!

What else do we do? We compost and have a sustainable garden and everything looks great because the compost is super nutritous for the plants. We have a solar powered water feature in our back yard. And we recycle, which we've been doing as long as Richton Park has offered it.

What's our latest "going green" thing? Well, we operate a business that requires us to use a lot of coolers loaded with ice. What do we do with the melted ice water? Just drain the cooler and dump the water down the street? Oh no! We drain the the water into pails and buckets and use it to water our plants, flowers and garden!

Speaking of water, you know water costs a lot now-a-days. When you water your grass, it behooves you to do just that, water your grass. Don't water your sidewalk, don't water your street and have the excess go down the drain and especially don't water the sewers. We have a storm sewer in our backyard and the water from our sprinkler was hitting the storm sewer cover. I quickly adjusted the sprinkler so the water hit the grass instead of going down the drain, along with my money!

If you have any "going green" and/or money saving ideas, please submit them to us and we'll be sure to post them.