If your summer garden is kicking out cucumbers faster than you can eat them, these simple ideas will help ensure that none go to waste.
In this post I’ll share an effective and safe method for controlling spotted lanterflies. I’ll also explain how showing hornets a little love can aid you in this battle.
Cook fantastic, inexpensive meals with Textured Soy Protein. Follow my tips and not even the staunches carnivores in your family will realize they’re just eaten a meat free meal.
Saint Joseph’s day is a day of sharing and helping others. You don’t need to be Catholic to celebrate St. Joseph’s day, you only need to be willing to share your good fortune. Just like on St. Patrick’s day, when everyone is Irish, on St. Joseph’s day, let everyone be Sicilian.
Patching over damaged upholstery is easier than it sounds and a great way to reused old fabric. With just a few simple tools, that no household should be without, and some old mattress ticking I was able to give this wing back chair a new lease on life.
High density polyethylene (HDPE), the plastic used to make milk jugs and other food safe containers, is the most commonly recycled and ecologically friendly of all plastics. Help keep HDPE out of the landfill and learn how you can recycle HDPE at home to make bowls, cutting boards and just about anything else you can think of.
Wood Turning is a long term hobby of mine. I like to make functional objects, such as bowls, using discarded logs rather than purchased lumber. Wood bowls, when properly cared for can last hundreds of years. When we lived in DC I sometimes sold them, now I occasionally give them away as gifts. Here are some of the ones I’ve kept for myself.
Joe, myself and our cats are together at home these days, like most people are, under a “shelter in place” order, waiting for the number of new Coronavirus cases to subside and for widespread testing to be put into place. Since today is Earth Day (and this will surely be the most unusual Earth Day of the past 50) I… Read more »
We replace our garden’s post-hoc collection of old beds with uniform raised beds, made from old sheet metal and other reclaimed materials. In this post I’ll tell you how I constructed the beds and a little about the advantages of raised gardening.
In early 2020 the effects of 1°C climate change are many; unprecedented wildfires, the second lowest amount of Arctic sea ice on record, and a winter that barely arrived. To avoid even larger impacts, the international community has set a goal of reducing carbon emissions to limit warming to 1.5°C, yet we are not on track to achieve this. The… Read more »
I tend to find a lot of cool old bottles when walking in the woods. Unfortunately, the best ones are usually broken. I don’t like to leave broken glass just sitting around, so I try to take it with me, when possible. It seems like a waste to recycle antique bottles, and the broken ones aren’t really recyclable, so I’ve tried to come up with ways to repurpose them.
Citizen science initiatives help scientists document biodiversity and ecological relationships at a time when species are disappearing at an alarming rate. Since its inception in 2008, iNaturalist users have mapped when and where more than 250,000 species sightings have occurred. Such data, collected over years can help identify long term trends in biodiversity not always possible by traditional funding.
Lately I’ve read many wonderful blog posts on sustainable living and how to go “zero waste”. Zero waste is more of an aspirational than a fully achievable goal, but rethinking habits and decreasing the amount of stuff we throw away is a great way for individuals to begin to reduce their environmental impact. Here are some of the steps we’ve taken… Read more »
When we think of innovative technology, toothpaste usually isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But maybe that should change. Lindsay McCormack, CEO and founder of Bite toothpaste bits, has reformulated tooth paste into a tablet. Because these come in glass containers, nothing need ever hit the landfill. For this reason, I personally hope toothpaste tabs kick Proctor and… Read more »
In November, we visited the Jewish Museum of Maryland which has put together a traveling exhibit called Scrap Yard: Innovators of Recycling that will run through April, 2020. The exhibit tells the story of the scrap industry and also the people who built it up. Scrap collectors were often recent immigrants and other marginalized people, who had few other… Read more »
In the Baltimore area, we are fortunate to have a diverse selection of Reuse centers nearby. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, Reuse centers are a bit like thrift stores, but better, because they have reconceived and broadened the concept of what’s of value and hence reusable.
Why a blog? 2019 seems to have marked a turning point in the global climate crisis, or at least in the public’s perception of the issue. About six in ten Americans (62%) say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming. More than one in five (23%) are “very worried” (Leiserowitz et al., 2019). Average global temperatures have warmed… Read more »