Archive for March, 2008

I was watching today a show on the DIY channel called From Junky to Funky. What they do on the show is find what some would consider junk and repurpose those items into something useful. Like in the picture above from MyGreenGarden.ca What a great idea to recycle old items and wouldn’t it be great if we all did that, it would sure keep a lot out of the landfill. So this is the first of the Junky To Funky Series and we will start in the garden.

When you think about redesigning your Garden, start with the 3R’s of the environment. Reduce/Reuse/Recycle. Go around the house, the garden and all the sheds you have and look at everything with a fresh eye. Look at all the “stuff” you have and ponder what you could use it for that maybe it was not designed for.

• An old pile of bricks, could be turned into a new patio/dining area or maybe a path.
• An extra piece of wood fencing could be turned into a table top.
• Old chipped flower pots that are no longer pleasing to the eye, could still be used as planters, but bury them in the ground instead for easy planting and removal of annuals.
• Old pressure treated fence posts could be used to mark the perimeter of planting beds, or used as steps in an incline.
• Old Patio furniture can be revamped with new Garden Furniture Cushions and a little paint.
• Old wrought iron fencing can be used as a trellis to train vines or as decoration on an outside wall.
• Old tires can be reused as planters.
• Turn an old hose into a soaker hose, simply use a whole punch to punch wholes in it at different intervals, lay it in a planting bed around the flowers, then turn the water on, on a timer.
• Broken up concrete can be used as stepping stones.
• If you hand your clothes out to dry, use an old bleach bottle with a handle and cut a big opening opposite the handle. Place your clips in there and before you put up your line, thread the line through the handle of the bottle , and now you have the clips handy as you are hanging the laundry.
• Another use for used plastic water bottles, is to cut the bottoms off, leave the cap off and bury upside down next to water thirsty plants, that way the water goes straight to their roots and you wont need to water so often.
• Spare wood can be turned into bird houses.
• Hang an old mirror on the side of a shed, it will give the garden a new perspective.
• Old paint cans can be decorated,, filled with sand and used for keeping your small gardening tools in so that they don’t get rusty.
• Create a Compost bin out of some old wood, anything organic can be thrown into the compost pile.
• Save old sheets for those freezing winter nights to protect you more delicate plants.
• An old wooden ladder can be used to decorate the side of a raised planting bed or hung up on a wall for architectural interest.
• Large pieces of broken colored glass can be used as a rain chain. Just wrap thin wire around the glass at different intervals then hang from a corner of the house of shed. Don’t forget to put something under it to collect the rain.
• Use old wine barrels to collect rain.

Put your noodle to work and you will find uses for all those old things, and make your garden more interesting to look at while helping out the environment at the same time.

If you have any other ideas please share them with us, in the comments…

http://www.customcushions.net/chair.aspx

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Earth Hour Goes Global

Today is the day

Join the rest of the world

When millions of people turn off their light

On March 29th at 8pm

join the movement against Global Warming

by turning your lights off for one hour

Turn out for Earth Hour

Earth Hour Lights Out America

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Everyone loves to spend time outside and living green. And when our experience is in line with nature, it is all the more enjoyable. Even in our own little haven, our garden, we must conduct ourselves in a way that preserves and reduces any impact we have on our resources and our little environment.

When gardening , the predominant thought should be, if it didn’t come from the earth, it shouldn’t be going in the earth. In other words, pesticides and fertilizers are really poison to the earth and the ground water. They are manufactured chemicals that, yes, might make your grass greener or makes those pesky pests go away, but what are they doing to the earth under your feet and do you realize that all those chemicals eventually end up in the ground water.

The same goes for the hardscapes that we use in our gardens. Using products that have a minimal effect on the environment, like Sunbrella Outdoor Cushions on your patio furniture, choosing the right decking that uses recycled materials, and finding different uses for objects that would otherwise end up in the landfill is important.

Here are some steps we can all take to get closer to Living Green in our Garden:

• Reduce the area that you use for a lawn, lawns are water hogs.
• Plant more native and drought tolerant plants.
• Collect rain water.
• Learn to Compost, and use that to enrich and fertilize your soil.
• Use Mulch to help maintain moisture in your plant beds.
• Group plants together with the same water needs.
• Learn about using Beneficial Insects, instead of Pesticides
• Put old objects to new uses in the garden.
• Remember the 3R’s, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, also apply to gardening.
• Use recycled and environmentally materials in your hardscapes.

http://www.cushion.com/

green gardening organic gardening sunbrella water conservation

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Don’t forget about Lights out America, and Earth Hour

March 29th 8-9 pm, turn out your lights, for just one hour!!!

Join the World…

Earth Hour Lights Out America Lights out movement

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Drug addiction is widespread in society these days, it has become so commonplace that no one is surprised anymore when they hear about celebrities being addicted or even the kid down the street. What you don’t hear about so much is the damage that drug addiction does to the individuals involved, the families, friends and society as a whole.

Addiction, no matter what the substance of the addiction, is a disease. Once it gets a hold of someone, it is like a virus. If you look it up in the dictionary one of the definitions of a virus is, “a corrupting influence on morals and the intellect; poison.” Poison, that is the true outcome of what drugs do to a person. The effects of drug abuse include not only physical but also psychological, legal, financial and social. It gradually turns a normal fun seeking person into a drug seeking robot, to the exclusion of everything else, and that is the point at which Drug Rehabilitation is the only way out of the vicious circle of drug addiction.

Taking the first step towards Drug Rehabilitation is probably the best decision an addicted person can make and often times that decision is made by someone else, a family member or friend. But no matter who makes the decision, it is momentous decision; Life changing.

A good Drug Rehabilitation Program can help not only treat the addiction but also with the treatment of underlying psychological factors which help the person figure out why they chose the addiction and that way of life. Some of the available treatments include Drug Detox, 12 Step Programs, Holistic Healing, Pain management, Alternative Medicine, Herbal Therapy, Massage Therapy, Health and Fitness, Personal Training, and Tray Therapy, Art Therapy, Nutritional Counseling, Massage Therapy, and Spiritual Counseling.

What type of treatment is chosen is not of importance, what is of importance is that the choice is made to recover.

http://www.careflorida.com

careflorida.com drug abuse drug rehabilitation intervention

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In case you haven’t heard yet, Lights Out America and Earth Hour are events that started last year where many cities throughout the U.S. and the world turned off their lights simultaneously for one hour. It was a great success and a trend has begun.This year the event will be happening on the same day, March 29th world wide…If you would like to join the Global Lights Out Movement, all you have to do is turn your lights off for one hour on March 29th, from 8-9pm, wherever you are.

Check out all the cities involved: Is your City Involved?

Sponsor a candlelight dinner at home or better yet your favorite restaurant, invite your family and friends. Make it fun… Make it every year, make it more often…

If you’d like to get more involved in this and other projects, Sign up at Earth Hour, Join the world…

Tell your friends…send them this link: Join Lights Out Movement.

Earth Hour Lights Out America Lights out movement

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Composting is not only a great way to fertilize your garden, save money by making your own natural fertilizer, but most importantly you are keeping all this stuff out of the landfills, which is becoming a problem in cities all over. It is in our best interest to learn how to composts, it’s part of the Three R’s of recycling.

If you are an avid gardener you understand the value of composting. But most of us regular folks who just dabble in gardening once a week, haven’t taken the time to fully understand what composting can add to the environment and keep away from the landfills.

Here are some of the benefits of composting:

• Using composting helps improve the structure, texture and aeration of soil, and helps in improving water retention in the soil.
  • Clay Soil : If you have Clay soil you know very well how hard it is to handle. It’s is extremely hard soil composting can help break up clay soil.
  • Sandy Soil: With sandy soil you know that the water just slips through, composting can help retain some of that water.
• Composting provides food for the microorganisms which help keep soil healthy and balanced.
• Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are produced by composting which eliminates the need to be adding other amendments to the soil, especially keeping out chemicals.
• Almost any organic material is food for the compost pile.
• Easy, just takes a little time investment.

For more information on how to start your own composting bin check out these resources:

• Compost Guide: A complete guide to composting
• U.S. EPA- Basic Information on Composting

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The price of oil is at an all time high of $105 a barrel. Opec’s decision not to increase production has not helped along with the steady decline of the U.S. dollar. The price oil is about 75% higher than it was a year ago. If that is not enough impetus to move in the direction of alternative energies, I don’t know what is.

We are being held hostage to our own addiction to oil, it is our drug of choice. Let’s at least admit that. We send billions of dollars to foreign nations to purchase oil, money that could otherwise be put to work right here. While the middle east is experiencing an economic boom due mostly to high oil prices, the U.S. and Europe are facing recession. Didn’t the same thing happen back in the 70’s. I was a kid but I remember the lines, do you? By not addressing our dependence on oil, the story repeats itself and here we are again in the same place we were almost 40 years ago. We didn’t fix the problem then , and the problem is still not fixed. What are we waiting for? Can we muster the vision that the last generation didn’t have?

The House of Representatives has passed bill H.R.5351 adding $18 billion dollars in new taxes on the biggest Oil companies over a 10 year period, which comes to $1.8 billion dollars a year. Sounds like a lot of money, but lets not forget the oil companies earned $123 billion just last year. The purpose of the extra taxes is to put them to work on renewable energy industries, keeping jobs and the money here helping the economy. The bill also gives credits for more efficient homes and Plug-in Gas/Electric Hybrid cars. Read More.

Unfortunately it now has to pass the Senate and then Bush is already expected to Veto it. A similar bill passed the House last year but stalled in the Senate.

How about we give it a push, let’s let the Senate and the president know how we feel about our dependency on foreign oil.

E-mail your Senator… Your Senator Here

alternative energy h.r.5351 oil prices

bibi

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As I was stumbling around the net yesterday, I came upon the story about the arson on the Street of Dreams development. It really made me sick. Sick to think that someone can be so engulfed in their own thoughts and beliefs that they would think that doing what they did is acceptable and will further their cause somehow. Do they not realize that they did more harm than good to the environmental cause. They might have made happy the few extremist crazy enough to do the same, but the average person who believes in protecting their environment will condemn their actions.

Violence gets you more violence, that’s all. If a person or group believes so fiercely in their cause enough to commit violence to get their point across, then let them claim their actions. By hiding in anonymity only shows how much of a coward they are and how little their cause deserves to be examined.

Every instance of violence diminishes the importance of the cause that they are trying to bring to light, in the eyes the average observer. Instead of trying to force your views down the throats of others, invite them for a drink, sit them down and talk to them. Convince people that your way is best. Change the laws, vote the law makers out, do protests, petitions, referendums, get the word out, go online, go on TV. But if violence is all you know, then expect no more sympathy than Osama bin laden gets. A terrorist is a terrorist. Do the rest of us environmentalists a favor, and stay home.

environmental terrorist extremists street of dreams

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If you’ve ever had to shop for bar stools than you know that it’s not easy. Recently we were remodeling our house. We did a basic redo of the whole house. But the most drastic change came in the Kitchen/Family room area. We changed the floors, moved walls opening the living room/family room to the kitchen and dinning room. What was there before was a 1980’s layout were every room was separated by walls from the other rooms, so it looked all chopped up.

What was not there before that I wanted above anything else was a Kitchen Island. It was a choice between putting together a couple of kitchen cabinets and then topping it off with a counter top or buying a ready made piece. I preferred the look of a ready made piece because it looks more like a piece of furniture, and it doesn’t have to look the same as the rest of the kitchen cabinets. I found a great piece at IKEA, and it was very affordable.

But, then came time to look for the Bar Stool for the breakfast bar. It was more difficult than I thought. IKEA had some but none that caught my eye, I also checked a couple of other furniture stores but no luck. So then I went online and I finally found a place that had what I was looking for. Quality Bar Stools has a large selection of bar stools, in wood , metal, aluminum, wood/metal combos, indoor/outdoor, contemporary and traditional styles. They ship directly through UPS and FedEx, have conditional free shipping offers.

Check them out there is bound to be something that fits your needs.

http://www.qualitybarstools.com

bar stools qualitybarstools.com

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The fluctuations in the weather worldwide make you think…

• Feb 19: Kuwait Dust storm disrupts air and port traffic for the second time in 2 days. Read More
• Feb 19: 72 people die of Cholera after floods ravage Mozambique since late January. Read More
• Feb 20: Flash Floods kill 26 in the Philippines. Read more
• Feb 22: UN study says that World fishing grounds are affected by climate change. Read More
• Feb 22: Madagascar Cyclone Kills 29, leaves 70,000 homeless. Read More
• March 1: Severe drought in China causes drinking water shortage for millions. Read More
• March 2: Hurricane strength winds cross Europe killing 13 people. Read More
• March 3: Flooding in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 4 killed/ 3 missing. Read More

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, than how much is a video worth? When it comes to promoting your niche, video may be the best way to go about it. If you can captivate an audience with a “how to list” on your blog, just think what you can do demonstrating the virtues of your niche or product in a couple of minutes of captivating “how to video” and sound.

There is a site called AskMrVideo.com where they teach business owners and developers how to use “How to Video” to create products, training aids and tutorials and better content to attract more traffic to your site.
Membership to AskMrVideo.com gives you access to software downloads, tutorials and articles that teach how to use video more effectively throughout your business. Whether you have a product, business or website to promote, the tutorials will help bring your business up to the next level. Also available to members are online seminars, audio programs, workbooks and more.

Some of the things that you can learn through AskMrVideo.com :

• Add a “Talking FAQ” video to your site
• Create realistic backgrounds in 3D
• Create Transparent Flash Video
• How to add video to MySpace
• How to put your video on the Amazon Video Widget
• Create video interviews
• Animate still images with Photoshop
• Combine Music and video

And many more tutorials and articles with a wealth of information on making video an integral part of your business. AskMrVideo.com gives you the tools necessary to put video to work on your website and boost your bottom line.

Check it out…How to Video

askmrvideo.com how to video

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Will your Candidate be Green enough? Do you know how they stand on the issues? Here’s a peek…

John McCain

• Believes that climate change is real and that greenhouse gases are damaging the environment, but even if the science cannot prove it, doing nothing is not an option.
• Introduced Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007 .
• Committed to using Nuclear Power, conservation, and new technologies.
• Would sign a Global treaty but has to include both India and China.

Hillary Clinton

• Would develop new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, focusing on global deforestation.
• New mission for Department of Energy would be to move in the direction of energy independence towards solar, wind, bio-fuels, hydro-power, geothermal, and other renewable sources.
• Market based cap and trade system to reduce carbon pollution, including efficiency and fuel economy standards, to lower the U.S. contribution to Global Warming below the 1990 levels by 80%.
• Opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Fund new research by taking away subsidies from the Oil Companies and putting that money to work in the Alternative Energy Field.
• Believes turning the focus on Green Building and Alternative Energy could create millions of jobs for the American Economy that could not easily be outsourced.

Mike Huckabee

• Whether or not Humans have caused Global Warming or not, believes it is our responsibility to leave the planet in better condition for future generations.
• Would pursue all areas of alternative energy including Wind, Solar, Clean Coal, and Bio-diesel.
• Would put limits on Greenhouse gas emissions.
• Supports drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Supports increasing offshore drilling.
• Would create a profitable market for alternative energy by making the government the biggest user.

Barak Obama

• Would implement an economy wide cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Proposes a new International Global Warming Partnership.
• Plans to introduce a National Low Carbon Standards (LCFS), to speed up the introduction of low-carbon non-petroleum fuels.
• Create a new Technology Transfer Program within the Dept. of Energy, who’s mission would be to export climate-friendly technologies to developing countries.
• Incentives to maintain forests globally and manage them sustainably.
• Domestic incentives that reward forest owners, farmers and ranchers for planting trees, restore grasslands and undertake farming practices that capture carbon dioxide.
• Believes the cap on emissions would create a market for Clean Technologies.
• Reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

Source: CNN.com: Elections 2008

candidate stance on environmental issues environmental issues political candidates

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