Just before Earth Day rolled around last year, The New Mexican issued a challenge to readers — try to follow a list of a dozen "green" actions for a week and then rate your success.

Only two intrepid souls accepted the Green Week Challenge: Rancho Viejo project coordinator Anna Mondragon and Santa Fe attorney Frank Herdman. The New Mexican checked with them recently to find out how many of the practices had stuck with them a year later.

Most were pretty simple — turning off lights, not letting the water run when brushing your teeth. Mondragon and Herdman were already doing some. But both made a concerted effort to diligently observe all 12 during that week last April.

Reactions to their efforts, published in a story after the week ended, were mixed. Mondragon said her friends and colleagues either found the challenge too simple — "we're already doing all that" — or expressed disbelief she had really done all the actions.

Herdman, a busy attorney, said he received a lot of support for taking the challenge. And he inspired at least one person. "He told me with my busy schedule if I could do it, he could do it," Herdman said.

Mondragon's Green Week efforts stuck with one very important person: Her 4-year-old daughter, Raji. She still follows her parents around reminding them to turn off lights or a water tap.

For various reasons, Mondragon and Herdman found it hard to steadfastly stick with all 12 actions for the whole year.

Mondragon's mother-in-law moved in with the family in November. "She's from the East, and they don't have much concept of water conservation," Mondragon said, although she noted her mother-in-law was starting to understand the need for saving water.

Mondragon still walks to work a couple of blocks from her house, and her daughter attends a preschool nearby at Santa Fe Community College.

Herdman, a cyclist already, found the goal to stay out of his big truck and walk or bike to work easy during the challenge last year. His office is three miles from his Casa Solana home. But staying out of his vehicle for the whole year proved tough, especially when the weather got cold, the days short and his schedule increasingly more hectic. "It was more the logistics thing. I like to bring work home with me," Herdman said. "Sometimes it can be voluminous."

As the weather warms and his schedule eases, he hopes he'll be biking to work more often.

Mondragon and Herdman's challenges point to the difficulty of really being green through all types of home and work life changes.

Biking and walking to work, or even hanging clothes outside to dry in order not to use an electric dryer, is a problem for people with severe allergies in allergy-prone New Mexico. People suddenly faced with an illness in the family or, in these tough economic times, as families share households, can find it hard to get back into the green habit.

Two changes out at Rancho Viejo will help Mondragon meet two of the Green Week Challenge goals over the long term. Beginning April 9, a city bus began serving Rancho Viejo, connecting riders to Santa Fe Community College and downtown Santa Fe.

The subdivision also now has a recycling center. Once a week, Mondragon takes all the recyclables from her house, her parents' house nearby and her workplace to the recycling center. "The recycling center has been a big hit out here," Mondragon said.

Mondragon still shares a ride into town every Saturday with her mom and dad, who also live in Rancho Viejo. They do all their errands and grocery shopping that day, using cloth bags for their purchases. She also plans to do more shopping at the local farmers market as the produce season gets into full swing.

Mondragon no longer times her showers, so she's sure they're a little longer than the five minutes allowed under the rules of the challenge. But both she and Herdman said their busy schedules keep them from taking long showers anyway.

Herdman has added drip irrigation and an expanded rainwater-harvesting system at his house, sending water through underground pipes directly to trees and other landscaping. He and his wife also added a 4-by-8-foot hoop structure in the front yard where they are already harvesting lettuce and radishes. They buy most of their other food the nearby La Montanita Co-op Food Market, which buys much of its produce and meat within New Mexico or Colorado.

Saving shower water to use on landscaping seemed the least viable action for both Herdman and Mondragon. It is a big water-savings action many people could take, but it requires a little more planning and effort.

Even low-flow showers for five to six minutes can generate several gallons of gray water. Over a summer, that could mean several hundred gallons of reusable water for families. Carrying the water out in buckets is one option, but heavy and messy. Another, for people who have an operable window in the bathroom, is a small hand pump connected to a hose that can feed the water outside to a mulched tree or bush basin.

Mondragon and Herdman said taking the challenge helped hone their commitment to living a less energy- and water-consuming lifestyle. Part of it was simply practicing a heightened awareness of their own actions.

"I finally feel more comfortable that I'm doing this more at home and at work," Mondragon said.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.