sunshine

joined 1 year ago
[–] sunshine@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago

The mushy flipflops!! I can't believe I forgot about those things. I had a pair as a gift when I graduated and they lasted me years. Once they died I wanted a new pair. Coughed up for the same brand and they.....leave weird black rubber bits on everything.

[–] sunshine@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago

Here's my example: Nice Hoka shoes are typically 100$+, but Sketcher's Work Sneakers are ~40$. The Hokas would last a lot longer and be more ergonomic, but that price is way out of my reach. The Sketchers get disintegrated by a year of use.

What I do is add arch supports and gel shoe inserts (9$ iirc) into the Sketchers, and replace those when they wear. It adds about two years of life to the shoes! :)

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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by sunshine@slrpnk.net to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net
 

Based on the excerpt from this Discworld book, what other items do you use regularly that would fit in this theory? (Boots and shoes are fair game!)

Text transcript for people who want it:

[The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.]

Bonus: suggest ways you can repair/restore your item/other people's items.

[–] sunshine@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

"Meat and parts – raw pet food. Great for pets with allergies or special diets."

This is a great guide with lots of good info! I like the above quote from the Benefits of Meat Rabbits. Extra meat from fryers would be an excellent sustainable source for feeding rehab falcons or other birds of prey!

[–] sunshine@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago

Home-raised meat sounds like the best option for people who like to or have to eat meat. Without any interest in discussing veganism or not, I think that raising meat hens, meat rabbits, or any other healthy, sustainable meat source is good. I think I saw someone discussing meat rabbits over on /animal_husbandry?

The meat industry itself is incredibly suspect, and being able to provide your animals with a healthy, enriched life before they provide you with nutrients in turn seems perfectly solarpunk and sustainable to me.

The hardest part of backyard livestock is humane euthanasia. In some states and cities, dressing your birds in your own yard may be illegal (due to coyotes or health concerns) Have you looked into a butcher who can humanely kill & dress the birds for you? There are plenty that will do that service for larger animals (sheep, cattle, any wild game carcass you bring in) for a small fee. My local butcher will do birds in small batches, too.

[–] sunshine@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 year ago

One good way for people in apartments to start some sustainable living is regrowing veg whenever you can. I don't necessarily mean container gardens/etc, but using veggies from the store to grow new ones in water trays left on the windowsill. There's lots of guides online!

Keep in mind that this is in your house and can't be affected by any right-to-garden laws, but I have heard of certain brand name veggie companies wanting to make it illegal. :) What they tend to do is trim off all that root fiber to make the veg "prettier" and thusly it can't regrow. Or they deliberately make sterile crop, but that's a whole other bucket of worms. Pick your veg wisely, especially from a farmer's market if you can!