Earth Camp Commitment

My Earth Camp Commitment is to start my own compost. How I will accomplish this is first purchasing the wire that will be around the compost holding it together. Placing a bucket underneath my sink specifically just for anything that is able to be in the compost bin such as bananas, tomatoes, lettuce and etc. I will dump this bucket daily into the compost bin, and water it three times a week. Then soon I will have my own soil for gardening. Also I will have less smelly trash. I would like to keep doing this same routine till my children have children, hopefully they will have a compost bin of their own.

The thing that motivated me to make this commitment is how on the first day we watched a video about how to produce your own soil by using compost.  The steps we learned are very easy and only take a little bit of time and energy to be successful.

As stated before on how I plan to accomplish this commitment is by purchasing the wire which will be holding the compost together. Placing a bucket underneath my sink specifically for anything that will be able to go into the compost bin. My mother will be helping me, making sure I contribute to my compost bin daily also that I water it.

How the earth will be different due to my Earth Camp Commitment is by spreading the word to people by telling them how we can use our compost to produce soil instead of throwing it away. Starting with a small group of people, moving it to a community and then hopefully everyone will soon learn about using their compost for good.  Jesus, one of our camp leaders, taught us how composting is really easy, and even kind of cool.

How I would remind myself of my Earth Camp commitment is by placing my desktop and wallpaper as a compost bin, since I use my laptop and cell phone daily.  Every time I open them, I will be reminded that I need to compost all of the food scraps from my kitchen.

Questions & Answers

What did you think camp would be like and did it turn out that way or differently?

I personally thought camp would be very boring, non-exciting and the longest twelve days ever. At first, I didn’t really talk to anyone but soon I gained two new best friends and many new friends. We all were like one big happy family, looking out for each other, helping one another and sharing jokes. I also learned a lot from the activities the staff had us do, I learned about crypto bionic soil and how it is formed and why it is very important. Basically I was wrong about what I thought Earth Camp would be like, and am very happy that I was wrong.

What was your favorite activity and why?

My favorite activity was the one Jacob had us do with the water from the river. There was a bucket that represented all of the water in the Colorado River.  We all individually got a card with a river or canal stating how much water would be taken out or being put in and where it would be going.  Moving from upstream to downstream, we used measuring cups in this activity to give an idea of how much water was being transported.  In the end there wasn’t much at all left for the people in Mexico, which was very shocking to me knowing that majority of the water is used in the United States for our use, mainly where crops are planted. I’ve always wondered how the water system and everything worked.  Thanks to Jacob, I now know how everything is divided up.

What did we do at camp that impressed you the most and why?

The thing we did at camp that impressed me the most was using the five bucket system. As a group of 24 people, we saw how much waste we all produced every day.  We divided all of our waste into five buckets: compost, plastic film, recyclable, chicken feed and trash. We measured all the buckets daily, my team was in charge of the chicken feed which didn’t increase much everyday. The majority of the time I saw the compost and trash increase, which made me think of all the waste we produce daily.

Who inspired you the most during camp?

The person who inspired me the most was our team leader, Jesus.  Listening to everything he does to conserve resources was really inspiring.  He’s had his own compost bin for many years, and uses cloth instead of plastic or paper.  He taught us about different plants, animals and the history of the places we visited.  He also taught us about the Anasazi and how they were divided up into four different tribes. I am very thankful I got to meet Jesus and hear everything he had to share with us.