Recycle- Reduce- Reuse

I give all credit to California for making everyone here so green conscious. I remember in elementary school when they kicked off the whole Recycle, Reduce, Reuse campaign and in high school we got the blue trash bins just for recycling! I was telling my friend how I find it odd that when I go anywhere else in the world, the recycle bin is a foreign concept! But this weekend, I might have figured it out. We live in California. Where the weather is never bone chilling or plastic melting, beaches are always beautiful, mountains are lovely and enough trees for a thousand woody wood peckers. Actually, I might just be speaking for northern California... I only recall palm trees in Southern California. Regardless, California pretty much has it all! Surf, Ski, Rock Climb, Hike, Sail, you name it and we got it! It's no wonder we love the earth enough to make an extra effort to throw away our plastic and paper in the bin next to the trash. 

This Sunday morning however, I took it up a notch. Inspired by numerous people, aka peer pressure and wanting to be cool, I dug my first compost hole. It was a glorious 3 feet by 3 feet. In it was dried rice, dirty grapes, old peaches, wet paper towels and stale bread. I covered it with the soil we got from union city that was made from compost! Mind you, it sounds like a little hole but it was very hard work because parts of our backyard has never been used before so the soil has turned into clay. I can't wait for it to be healthy again! Maybe I will plant some sort of fruit tree! Strangely this experience had a very spiritual affect on me. It felt very holy to bury my trash for some reason. I wonder if other people feel like that too. Connected to something greater because they are protecting the Earth that was given to us as a gift. 

So I don't know the logistic of compost... Like: 

• How deep the trash is supposed to go? How much soil should you cover it with?
• How long does it stay in there before it turns into something else?
• What the heck does it turn into?

But I decided I will keep doing this. Hopefully I am composting correctly. Slightly tragic if I am not.  One day, maybe just maybe, I'll have my own *Mango tree. It really does give you a sense of peace doing such a barbaric thing as burying your left overs. But you should give it a try! 

*For those Mango lovers out there, there's no way Mangoes can grow in California. I guess we don't have it all.