Category Archives: water conservation

Energy Tips For The Summer – Wow this one is real long

Posted on by
Reply

What more can I say. This is actually a pretty thoughtful list and like I said long. I will do the first 5 or so and then:

http://www.floridapsc.com/publications/electricgas/20summer.aspx

  1. Close shades, drapes and blinds during the day (all directions).
  2. Wear light weight clothing (short sleeves, shorts, cotton).
  3. Set the air conditioning thermostat at 78 degrees or higher. Raise it a few degrees higher when away in the day. A lower air conditioning temperature makes your costs much higher. Setting your air conditioner at 70 degrees instead of 78 can almost double your operating cost!
  4. Don’t choose a lower air conditioning temperature when you first turn it on. It won’t cool faster –- whenever it’s running it’s cooling as fast as it can. Set low, it cools longer, not faster.
  5. When weather is mild, use fans instead of the air conditioner. Your central air conditioner will use about 100 times more energy than a fan at medium speed.
  6. If you have ceiling fans, run the fans and the air conditioner at the same time but set the air conditioner a few degrees higher, to 80 or 81 degrees. With the breeze from a fan, you should feel as cool as you would at 78 degrees with no fans – but you’ll reduce your costs by about 15%-25%.

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Some Of These Energy Tips Seem Aimed At The Dim Bulbs

Posted on by
Reply

But then again they could be 10% of the population and the tips are supplied by Dominion. I mean really a producer advising you how to not consume. Still.

http://www.dom.com/about/conservation/summer-tips.jsp

10 Tips to Save Energy and Keep Cool This Summer

  1. Raise your thermostat to 78º. This is the number one way to conserve energy.
  2. When you are away from home for more than eight hours, raise the thermostat setting and you can expect to see a 1% savings for each degree of setback. This will reduce the amount of energy used to cool your home while you’re away. You can learn more about your thermostat online by visiting the U.S. Department of Energy website.
  3. Keep shades closed when the air conditioner is on. Sunny windows account for 40 percent of unwanted heat and can make your air conditioner work two to three times harder.
  4. Check and clean filters. Cleaning and replacing air conditioning filters monthly allows the system to run more efficiently.
  5. Install ceiling fans. Don’t underestimate the importance of ceiling fans. Moving air over the body provides a cooling effect. The use of ceiling fans can mean savings of around 25% on cooling costs and can make the temperature seem 10 degrees cooler.

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Earth Day’s History is Fascinating – and 1970 was so long ago

Posted on by
Reply

I celebrated the first Earth Day but I think it was Gaylord Nelson’s day, the April date. I do not know. I was a freshman in high school. I think I did it by myself because I don’t think anyone was interested. I think I drew a picture of the Earth and hung in my locker. Something like that. It was pretty lame, but you have to start somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day

Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth‘s natural environment. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network,[1] and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.[2] In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day.[3] Earth Day is planned for April 22 in all years at least through 2015.[4]

The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. He proposed March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. About the same time a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.[5][6] Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Green Funeral Services – the other half of dying

Posted on by
Reply

Getting “laid to rest” is a two part process. There is preparing you and there is the ground you go into. Yesterday I covered the ground you go into part with Roselawn Cemetery which is a dated term I suppose but it is what I know. Today we take a look at the services that get you there. Jenn Bormann is with Butler Funeral Home and she was at Earth Awareness Fest with Clada Parker. They had with them a woven willow casket complete with a basket style top and an optional silk liner. Wow is all I can say. A casket you could leak out of, that is a very winning concept! Sorry I probably wasn’t supposed to say that but I am a loud mouth sometimes. Anyway I found this story about them in the SJR and I will put up their website as well. I did not want to just copy text from their website, because that is way to commercial for this nonprofit.

http://www.kirlin-egan-butler.com/

http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x155906923/Tim-Landis-Butler-Funeral-Home-gets-green-certification

Tim Landis: Butler Funeral Home gets ‘green’ certification

Posted Sep 25, 2010 @ 11:30 PM

Not only is it possible to go green. Among the newer trends in the funeral home business is going out green.

BUTLER FUNERAL HOMES and ROSELAWN MEMORIAL PARK of Springfield have obtained certification from the national Green Burial Council for sustainable funeral and cemetery practices, eco-friendly products and even organic snacks at the wake.

Butler is getting in early on the green-certification trend as far as central Illinois goes, but president Chris Butler said he expects others to follow.

“Some of this includes elements people are already asking for. They just don’t call it ‘green,’” Butler said of practices that include non-toxic embalming fluids or no embalming at all, using only natural stone, limiting loss of natural habitat, biodegradable caskets, burial shrouds instead of caskets and use of renewable products.

Butler Funeral Homes Inc. is among the city’s older businesses. Forerunner funeral homes date to 1893.

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Gardening Is Good For Your Soul – If you believe you have one

Posted on by
Reply

I find gardening to be very spiritual in a way. Nothing like getting back to mother nature where there are no media devices and the birds are singing. The sun is warm and there is a breeze. It feels like life can go on forever.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/vegetable-gardening.html

Growing Organic Vegetables

By Eric Vinje, Planet Natural

If the thought of a ripe, juicy tomato makes your mouth water, or imagining snapping a crisp pea makes your fingers itch, then growing organic vegetables is for you. Everyone knows that home grown veggies and fruits taste a million times better than the varieties purchased at the grocery store. So, go ahead, grow your own — it’s easy to do.

Planning Your Garden
Whether you are starting a new garden or improving an existing one, it’s best to start with a plan. A well-planned garden will not only be more successful, it will be better organized and easier to manage. Consider the following:

Face South
Make sure your garden site gets plenty of sun by situating it facing south. 6 hours of sunlight is the minimum your garden will need. Also, be sure there aren’t any trees, hedges or other obstacles (like your house) shading your potential plot.

Avoid Weeds
If the area you’d like to garden is full of weeds, be sure to get rid of them before you start preparing your garden site.

Start small — or don’t
Most experts recommend starting small so that you don’t become overwhelmed. On the other hand who wants to do more prep work each year enlarging their garden? If you feel pretty certain you’ll want a lot of beds one day, go ahead and go big right from the start.

Water
Of course, you’ll need access to water.

Slope
Try to find a spot with 1.5% or less slope. Otherwise, plan to terrace your garden to prevent the soil from washing away with the rain.

Garden Design
There are countless ways to design your garden — from the practical to the fanciful. Consider the following to determine your design.

Row Gardens
Row gardens are what most people picture when they think of a garden. Crops are planted in parallel lines, with space between each row. Easily organized, row gardens can have lower yield than bed gardens and can sprout more weeds.

Raised Bed Gardens
Raised beds are just what they sound like — plots that are higher than the surrounding land. In these gardens, all plants are grown together without rows. The bed must be small enough that you can reach into it to pull weeds and harvest your veggies.

:}

This is a huge site. Go there and read and read and read. More next week.

:}

No Dig Gardening – An approach I have never heard of

Posted on by
Reply

I love their use of compost. I hate their use of fertilizer. I can not attest to this approach because I have never tried it, but it seemed interesting.

http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/build-a-garden.html

Building a Vegetable Garden
Your Complete Instructions for Natural Gardening Success

The No Dig Garden is built on top of the ground, so you can start building a vegetable garden anywhere. This is natural organic gardening at its simplest and best.

Preparing a vegetable garden of this sort is extremely attractive for those sites that have poor soil or invasive weeds.

It’s also a great way to build a garden for those that can’t, or don’t want to, dig a good size vegetable garden!

Follow the natural gardening no dig diagram below, but first thing of course is to choose the site. Make sure it is roughly level and ideally most of the area gets at least 5 hours of sun a day.

If it’s not as level as you’d like it, roughly smooth out the humps and bumps, then fill the gaps and any lower edges with soil, sand or whatever organic material is at hand, such as bark, leaves, twigs, washed seaweed, paper, jute, wool carpet or similar. As this rots down, you will need to add more compost to these low areas and gradually build them up.

If the ground is on too much of a slope, build some terraces for easy maintenance. Get your creative juices flowing… you can make a grand affair with formal retaining walls or just shore levels up with branches, bricks, rocks, planks, corrugated iron or other obtainable materials.

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Composting Saves A Huge Amount Of Energy – But generates methane

Posted on by
Reply

So it could be a net wash for the environment.

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/12003/help-the-environment-and-yourself-recycle-your-food-waste

Help the Environment and yourself, Recycle your Food Waste

March 26th, 2012

MikeTheGardener MikeTheGardener, member

Billions upon billions of pounds of food waste every year are thrown away with the regular garbage pick up. This puts a tremendous strain on not only our environment but our wallets to pay people to come pick it up and hail it off to a local landfill.

All is not lost though. You can do your part and solve this problem by recycling your food waste. By recycling your food waste you are create what is called compost. Compost is the end result of organic matter that decomposes.

Your food waste doesn’t simply sit in your kitchen and rot away, which wouldn’t be too pleasant, you actually do something with it and that is you bury it. I will get to more on that in a moment.

The first step is to get yourself a giant Tupperware bowl that, from now on, you can put your food scraps into. Everytime you have leftovers that would normally go into the garbage you redirect that food waste to your Tupperware bowl.

When the Tupperware bowl gets full you will bury it in your backyard. Dig a hole about one to two feet deep and empty the contents of the Tupperware bowl into the hole. Now cover the hole with the dirt. That is it you are now done. You have just recycled food waste.

Now comes the exciting part that you don’t actually see, but trust me it is happening. There is an entire ecosystem that lives underneath that top layer of soil. When you bury food they work hard decomposing that food and give back to you compost.

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Growing Vegetables Is A Great Way To Exercise – But mainly it is good food

Posted on by
Reply

Here is a site with the basics.

http://www.environment911.org/99.Growing_Your_Own_Food_Small_Vegetable_Garden_Ideas

Growing Your Own Food: Small Vegetable Garden Ideas

Growing your own food has its advantages. It’s a low-cost source of fresh vegetables, herbs, and legumes. You retain control over whether chemically-laden and potentially dangerous pesticides and fertilizers are sprayed on your food. Plus you get the satisfaction of chopping and sautéing food you personally planted and harvested with your own hands.

The sense of self-reliance that comes from growing your own food in a small vegetable garden can be exhilarating. The task appeals to primal, survivalist instincts. Furthermore, many nature lovers regard organic home vegetable gardening as good for sustaining the environment.

 

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Vegetable Gardenig The Oprah Winfrey Way – Well she did the interview

Posted on by
Reply

I suppose if she has a vegetable garden her “people” do it for her. Michael Pollan says some interesting things but besides becoming a vegetarian he does not have many answers. Who knows how good a gardener he is. But you can find more here.

http://www.oprah.com/world/Michael-Pollan-Omnivores-Dilemma-Environment-and-Food/6

Eating Green
Healthy Vegetable Garden
The Oprah Winfrey Show | April 22, 2009

Michael says eating vegetables you grow yourself is the “single greenest thing you can do” and can save money as well. “An investment of $60 can save you $200 in fresh produce,” he says.

Gardening can break your kids’ love of junk food too. “You will find your kids eating vegetables from your garden that they would not eat any other way,” Michael says. “How my son discovered vegetables was from growing them in the garden.”

Looking to develop a green thumb? Join our

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Balance Your Vegetable Garden – Some things grow together

Posted on by
Reply

My wife is a big believer in the idea that some things grow well together and some things actually inhibit each others growth. Her example is onions and potatoes. She believes that from growing to storing onions and potatoes should never be together. Here is a site that agrees with her.

http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html

COMPANION PLANTING

Many plants have natural substances in their roots, flowers, leaves etc. that can alternately repel (anti-feedants) and/or attract insects depending on your needs. In some situations they can also help enhance the growth rate and flavor of other varieties. Experience shows us that using companion planting through out the landscape is an important part of integrated pest management. In essence companion planting helps bring a balanced eco-system to your landscape, allowing nature to do its’ job. Nature integrates a diversity of plants, insects, animals, and other organisms into every ecosystem so there is no waste. The death of one organism can create food for another, meaning symbiotic relationships all around. We consider companion planting  to be a holistic concept due to the many intricate levels in which it works with the ecology.

By using companion planting, many gardeners find that they can discourage harmful pests without losing the beneficial allies. There are many varieties of herbs, flowers, etc. that can be used for companion plants. Be open to experimenting and find what works for you. Some possibilities would be using certain plants as a border, backdrop or interplanting in your flower or vegetable beds where you have specific needs. Use plants that are native to your area so the insects you want to attract already know what to look for! Plants with open cup shaped flowers are the most popular with beneficial insects.

Companion planting can combine beauty and purpose to give you an enjoyable, healthy environment. Have fun, let your imagination soar. There are many ways you can find to incorporate these useful plants in your garden, orchard, flower beds etc.

 

Following is a our plant guide (with some tips) to help you “work in harmony with nature.” Yes- we do practice companion planting at Golden Harvest Organics LLC. We always have.

Note: This guide is not intended to solve garden problems as the suggestions may work differently in various situations or perhaps not at all. Don’t let that discourage you from giving the ideas a try! What works for some may not work for others and vice versa. Experimenting is the only way we can gain new insight for our own individual gardens.

This page is Copyright © Golden Harvest Organics LLC and the information may not be physically or electronically copied, printed or otherwise distributed without specific permission from our company.

PLANT GUIDE

ALFALFA: Perennial that roots deeply. Fixes the soil with nitrogen, accumulates iron, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium. Withstands droughts with it’s long taproot and can improve just about any soil! Alfalfa has the ability to break up hard clay soil and can even send its’ roots through rocks! Now that is a tenacious plant! Alfalfa is practically pest and disease free. It

:}

The plant guide is huge. Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}