Another way to do Christmas lights

This year we decided to forsake the traditional strings of lights we normally display in the front of our house. Instead, we purchased 2 lanterns at Pottery Barn and put candles in them. We light them every night for a few hours, and we love the subtle effect.

A new kind of Christmas tree

When we were in Montreal last month, we biked up a mountain (less impressive than it sounds - not a very steep grade), and at the top was, in addition to a breathtaking view of the city, a series of interesting gardens. One idea that caught our eye was a simple teepee-like structure that was built from sticks and vines.



We've got a lot of that type of material in our yard, as we are adjacent to a woods. So on Thanksgiving day, Tom, Molly and Tommy built our own structure from sticks and some invasive vines we found in the woods. We used tufts of goldenrod as 'ornaments.' We also attached lights for illumination at night.

Making stock from scraps

A number of months ago Ayliffe and Mitzi introduced the group to a new way of making soup stock using vegetable scraps. The process is actually quite simple: Every time you find yourself with parts of your vegetables that you don't use, like broccoli stems or potato peelings, instead of putting them into your compost, stick them in a freezer bag (gallon size), and keep it in the freezer. When the bag is full, put it into a stock pot, and fill the pot with enough water to cover the vegetables (about 18 cups for us). Put the pot on the smallest burner you have, on low. It will take a long time for the water to heat up, but keep it below a simmer for about 2 hours (you don't want foam to develop). Check it at the 2 hour mark, stir it a bit, and then check it about every 1/2 hour after that, for a total of about 4 hours. Pour it into a strainer that is over a large bowl. Compost the vegetables now. Then, you can make your favorite soup from this stock. You can also do this with chicken carcasses.

Anyway, Tom and I have been experimenting with this, and the results have been superb. I don't think I have ever eaten soup this good before, and the stock makes all the difference. And it's a great way to use your (clean) vegetable scraps.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Training the Neighbors

Many of you may know that Tom and I begin to gather our neighbors' leaves this time of year to put on our woodsy area in our backyard. It serves as a good mulch and provides rich nutrition to the soil. Right now is prime gathering time but we are currently distracted by 2 things: the Green Garage work, and our recent vacation up north. So we haven't been able to take the short drive around the neighborhood yet to rob our neighbors of their organic gold. I'm sure they're disappointed because it has to be great fodder for neighborly conversations for months to come. Anyway, we arrived home from vacation late Monday night, and Tuesday morning while I was sipping my tea waiting for the sun to rise, I saw some forms out in the garden that I couldn't quite place. Was it a deer sleeping out there? As the sky lightened, I saw that our considerate neighbors behind us had taken their leaf bags and deposited them in our garden, knowing that we needed them. I think I'll take them over some cookies, and hope they spread the word. Maybe next year ALL of our neighbors will make a donation, saving us the effort of even going out. And that, folks, is how you train your neighbors.

Biking in the Cold Weather

At our last Tuesday meeting, we talked about biking in cold weather. In this video, Tom describes the process of preparing for his morning bike commute.

Arthur and Me

In early October, Tom and I took a 10-day vacation to 4 cities in Canada. We dropped our car off in Stratford, Ontario, and then took the train to Kingston (by New York state), then Montreal, and finally to Toronto. We have done train travel before and find it fits us very well. Unlike car travel, we can sleep or read, and there is no 2-hour wait at an airport like plane travel. Besides, the leg room is to die for.

But can I suggest one more hidden benefit? Sometimes you meet the greatest people. Once, when I was traveling alone to Milwaukee, I sat next to a man who worked for a major TV news organization, and spent many hours discussing the changing role of media today. I had such an occasion once again on this trip. This time, Tom and I boarded a crowded train from Kingston to Montreal and couldn't find 2 seats together, and finally settled across from each other on aisle seats. My seat mate was an elderly gentleman who welcomed me with a warm smile. I noticed that he was wearing some sort of a uniform jacket and that the jacket was decorated with numerous medals. I assumed he was a veteran. Almost immediately, he began speaking with me, friendly sort that he was, and since I love meeting new people we quickly got to know each other. His name was Arthur Brough and he was from England, but was currently in Canada visiting a niece. He was to turn 90 on October 24th, and was heading to Montreal to catch the plane back to England for his party.

I asked Arthur about his history in the armed forces, and he told me a fascinating story about his time in the army in WWII. He told me, in fact, that he had been a prisoner of war in Poland for 5 years. He said that he had put down his remembrances into a book. I told him that I certainly would love to read that book, at which point he reached into his bag and pulled out a book titled 'My Wasted Years - 1940-1945'! Would you mind, I asked him, if I read it right now? He was delighted to have me read his story, so I spent the next 3 hours or so reading Arthur's story, pausing to have him clarify points. I can't tell you all of the details of his story, but he was captured in France, taken to Poland via cattle car, and taken to a main stalag (Stalag 13, in fact), where he was put on various work details and sometimes sent out to Polish farms. He tried to escape numerous times but was never successful. Two things I'll remember about his story: First, he had an uncanny ability to remember the food he received from the Red Cross or kind Polish citizens (he mentions any special food in great detail), probably because he was half-starved most of the time. Also, I was struck by the kindness shown by British soldiers to their guards. When they received food packages from home (yes, they did get through), they would share the food with their guards because, he said, that was the British thing to do. I wonder if I would be so generous.

After he was liberated by the Americans in 1945, he married a young woman named Vera and worked as a crane operator. He and Vera had no children, and he lost her 5 years ago. As he told me this, he pulled a small locket from inside his shirt. On one side was a photo of Vera, probably taken at the time of their marriage, and one the other side was his photo. He had to wipe away the tears when speaking of her.


So there is my train travel story. Tom took a photo of us before we got off the train, and I promised Arthur I'd send it to him. He gave me an address card with a picture of him and Vera on the front. Tomorrow I'm making a special batch of my chocolate chip cookies, and I'll send them along with the photo for his birthday. After all, he really does love packages of special food.

The Marshmallow Effect

I was reading Paul Krugman's column, Cassandras of Climate, in the New York Times this morning and it made me think of kids and marshmallows. Perhaps I need to explain. The point of the column is that climate scientists have become Cassandras, meaning that they have the ability to predict upcoming disaster, in this case accelerating global warming, but they are equally cursed with the inability to get anyone to believe them. Krugman points out that our models show that the decline is happening much faster than earlier predicted, and we still are not, as a nation, paying attention. At least not enough to agree to do something about it.

Why is this, he wonders. I wonder too. If you'll allow me to dredge up an old gem from my college days, I'll offer up my 2 cents worth. I was a psychology minor, which as life has gone on has proven surprisingly handy. One study that stuck with me was called the marshmallow experiment, a way of measuring the ability to defer gratification. In the study, 4-year-olds are given a marshmallow and told that if they wait 20 minutes, they'll receive another one. Some children waited and some didn't. They found that those who waited grew up to be better adjusted and dependable, and scored over 200 points higher on the SAT. What this study told me, too, was that those who were able to foresee consequences probably came out ahead.

So here we are, at a time when there is near consensus on the existence and dangers of future climate change, when we are nearing or have passed peak oil, when our homes and cars in recent history have grown to enormous proportions, and we are tooling along, too busy or distracted to really bother. We haven't spent the time to think ahead and defer gratification so we can alter the future of this planet. We are the kids who can't wait 20 minutes for the next marshmallow. Wendell Berry considers the most urgent question of our time: How much is enough? We haven't been able to answer this question yet. So why do we continue to consume and ignore warnings from our most respected scientists? In my opinion, just like the impatient 4-year-olds, (and to paraphrase Bill Clinton): Because we can.

So, I ask you, is this our model of behavior? Is this truly the best we can do? I know there were some kids in this experiment who waited the 20 minutes. Let's hope at least some of them have seen this huge hurdle we have to overcome and can help keep us focused on the future.

Fall Biking

We have been serious bikers for a number of years now, but have never been able to move beyond our immediate vicinity because we didn't have a bike rack to transport our bikes. This past week, however, we got a new rack attached to our car and took our first long-distance trail ride to Romeo. We got the bikes up on the rack (very easy!) and drove up a few miles to Rochester Hills to pick up the Paint Creek Trail. After many years of riding along the sidewalks of Troy and Rochester (and some portions of street) to get up to Rochester, this was a luxury. It also enabled us to go much farther along the trail. In fact, we left the Paint Creek trail and biked another 10 miles along the Macomb Orchard Trail until we arrived at Romeo, where we stopped at a nice Irish Pub for lunch. Then we biked back to Rochester, about 30 miles round trip. I must admit that 30 miles represents my limit right now - but it sure did feel good, and I had no soreness the next day, always a good sign.


Today we are heading up to East Lansing to have brunch with our son, and will be bringing the bikes, as we have located a Lansing River trail that winds through the beautiful river walk on campus and extends another 7 miles or so west. This ride should total 20 miles - more to my liking. Next up: Taking the Paint Creek Trail up to Lake Orion. This is a great way to see Michigan in the fall.

Rain Barrel Update

Since we are nearing the end of our rain barrel use for the year, I thought I'd poll the group to see how things went with our barrels this year. I sent out an e-mail asking for input and received a number of responses. I'll summarize.

First, it was a wet, cool summer, so for most of us our rain barrel use was somewhat down. A couple of us did drain our barrels once or twice over the summer, but rain did seem to come at regular intervals, so that situation was amended quickly.

One trend I noticed was that - no surprise - rain barrel use accelerates if you have potted plants. Even in a rainy season like the one we just had, pots pretty much need to be watered every day. Same for vegetables. They require more water than most flowering plants - and double that for tomatoes. Erica used rain barrel water as fertilizer for her tomatoes.

Some people did attach soaker hoses to their barrels. The Bradleys report that their barrels drained quickly with soakers attached.

A few people expanded beyond plants with their rain barrel water. The Carters used it to wash their car and to clean their driveway after some work. I also used the water to wash our car and rinse out things like my compost bucket. We had some work done here over the summer, and I was able to direct workers to rinse their materials in the rain barrel water.

Regarding maintenance, the Bradleys report that they will be fixing the stand for their 55-gallon barrel this year. It's leaning and needs to be enlarged. Martha found that an old fashioned rag mop was great for cleaning it out.

This is our 3rd or 4th year with our barrel (can't remember), and I will say that each year I come to rely on it more. When it is dry, I somehow have found it inconvenient to have to use a hose, and besides, the water from the hose smells funny, like chlorine. And then there's the whole thing about unwinding and winding up the hose after a small use - I just don't want to do it. So I think I have entered the 'other side' and have become a full rain barrel convert. I don't want to speak for the others, but I would guess they have too.

Car sharing - how it's working out

It's now mid-August and Tom and I have been sharing a car since May, ever since our son arrived home from college and confiscated our other car. For the most part, it has been surprisingly painless. Of course, a lot of this has to do with the fact that this is summer. Our usual schedule has Tom biking in to Pleasant Ridge every morning (about 40 minutes) to catch the bus downtown. I join him (with the car) after exercise, and we throw the bike in the back of the car for the ride home. So we technically do take a car downtown and back each day, but if you think about it, to keep me on my morning exercise schedule, we would have had to use both cars.

We have a history of being chintzy with cars.....Decades ago we bought a little Civic that our kids used through high school until it was ready for the junk pile, and none of them had cars in college. Part of our history, you should know, also involves living for 3 years in Tokyo, which got us used to public transportation and the most ancient form of transport possible, walking. I tried biking there, but there were way too many people.

So anyway, now that Tom is retired and our schedule is a bit more flexible, we are back to figuring out a way to get around that requires the least amount of expense and carbon output. We have been adapting to the biking lifestyle more and more for the past few years, but this is the first year that we have been on a more scheduled life, with a 9-5 summer at the Green Garage. And so far we're not missing the second car. Now, I'd like to see how this is going to work when winter sets in. As I recall, though, last winter the second car spent quite a bit of time parked in the garage. We're on more of a schedule this year, so we'll have to see.

But for now, today I take the car and Tom may fight the raindrops. Tomorrow Tom will take the car and I, as we are in wedding mode, will bike up a couple of miles for a pedicure, bike back, and then Maureen will pick me up to get to Berkley for a dress fitting. If anything, car sharing is great for family coordination and cooperation!

Let the feasting begin

This is the best time of the year for vegetable gardeners - the stuff is coming in! Tonight we had fresh beans and cherry tomatoes with our dinner. We're picking every day. We moved our vegetable garden close to the house this year, and I'm loving it. It's only a few steps out the door to retrieve something good for dinner.

I've learned another lesson this year. For most of the growing season, I have been discouraged by a succession of problems - deer eating our broccoli, the peas browning up on the vine, our basil deciding it didn't want to be planted with our sage (tempermental). Our tomato plants were also pretty tiny for a long time. A few weeks ago, however, I was excited to see lettuce coming in (yes! in July). And then the beans took over for the peas. And now the tomato plants, still a bit spindly, are beginning to produce. So, as with so many things in life, patience is the rule. It will all come in time.

Biking becoming a lifestyle

I haven't made many updates to the blog this summer because we're not doing much new. But we are accelerating our adaptation to a different lifestyle in some ways, one of which is our use of bikes for transportation. Many people use bicycle riding for recreation, and there's nothing wrong with that, but we are primarily destination riders, and I think that has helped us keep bicycling as part of our daily routines.

By destination riding, I mean that we use our bikes as a substitute for a car when we have to get somewhere. Our most consistent use of destination biking has been getting to the fitness center in the morning, which is about a mile and a half away -- perfect for a short commute and perfect for a great warm-up. We usually start in April and ride until October or November, giving us about 7 or 8 months of riding. It's hard to describe why this has worked for us, but I'll try. First, it's wonderful to get out in that fresh Michigan summer early-morning air. The temps usually range between 50-60 when we're riding (around 7:30 AM - 9 AM) - great biking temperatures. Also, you get to park your bike right up next to the building instead of the parking lot and stroll right in. Nice. In addition, you pay attention to things you wouldn't normally see when driving, such as the neighbors' flowers or the interesting clouds that day. Finally, I guarantee you'll smile at someone somewhere along your ride - it's courtesy if nothing else. Watch people's faces when they're driving. I do when I'm paused at an intersection. They all look grumpy. Bike people usually smile and wave.

This summer Tom has been working at the Green Garage every weekday 9-5, so he has had to adjust his exercise schedule. His solution has been to bike about an hour down to the Pleasant Ridge area and catch the bus to Detroit (he puts his bike on the front of the bus). I'm sure it's no surprise to you that he has lost weight.

Yesterday I was thinking about our daily rides, and considered the fact that so far I haven't been rained on. So I asked Tom if he had encountered rain in all of his commutes, and he has not. Amazing. I don't know why this is, but we were thinking that perhaps it doesn't rain as much as we think it does. Even if you have a rainy day, it usually only rains for a short period before clearing up. We have learned that biking when the skies are threatening is no problem - 99% of the time nothing comes of it. But it takes a change in mind-set to head out on the bike when there is a questionable sky. I would encourage you to try it - you may find that regular biking becomes a habit that's surprisingly hard to break.

Lasagna garden magic

Mitzi Carter sent in these 2 photos. They each show a zucchini plant, and they were planted in the ground at exactly the same time. The one on top was planted in their lasagna garden, the one below into the regular garden bed. Quite a difference!

A new way to get to work

This summer Tom has been working at the Green Garage Monday through Friday, 9-5. Ah, the retirement life! Anyway, he has developed a new way to get there that doesn't require a car. He heads out shortly after 7 AM and bikes down to Royal Oak, where he catches a bus to Detroit. He puts the bike on the front of the bus, and once down there, gets back on the bike for a short ride to the Green Garage. It takes about 45 minutes to get to Royal Oak, so the commute is a little longer than it would have been in a car. Also, because he has an extended work day and has to miss his usual exercise, this provides a good substitute. Some days he repeats the process coming home, but most of the time I'm down there so I bring him and his bike home (yes, you can fit a bike in a Prius). An added benefit: some quality time outdoors. I also bike every day to exercise, and can attest to the great benefits of biking in the cool summer morning air.

North Cass Community Garden

This is a new garden in downtown Detroit. It's called the North Cass Community Garden, located at Willis and Second. There are 60 plots altogether, each about 4x8. They rent for $25 a year, and this original group sold out immediately. The gardens are the work of Sue Mosey of the University Center Cultural Association in Detroit's midtown area. The lot used to be filled with weeds and other invasive plants, not to mention garbage and other assorted items. Now it's a beautiful spot for people to meet and tend their plots. Some members of the Green Garage are taking care of 2 of the plots, but we are not nearly as creative as the people who came up with this Eiffel Tower trellis for their tomato plants!

Vertical lasagna garden

Here is another idea for your lasagna garden. We moved our garden from the farthest corner of the yard recently and decided to place it up against a south wall closer to the house. That way we'll keep a better eye on it. In order to grow our climbing vegetables, Tom constructed this trellis from wood we found in the woods and some wire. It's attached to the house at the top. Right now we're growing peas up the trellis, and later we'll switch over to a later-summer crop.

Insights into DTE Energy's Green Current Program

The Winter 2009 edition of "From the Ground Up" the official publication of the Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, contained an article by Brigit Macomber about Detroit Edison's Green Currents program. The program is supposed to offer residential and business electric customers in Southeast Michigan, for an additional cost on their electric bill, the opportunity to choose that all or part of their electricity be produced from renewable resources.

In reality, 85% of the premiums are being spent on marketing and administration and the remaining 15% is used to buy "renewable energy certificates" which states that green energy was produced somewhere at a certain point in time.

Now it seems that the program is not generating enough money to cover the cost of the marketing so DTE is requesting that the Michigan Public Service Commission force all DTE customers to pay for the Green Currents program. To read an on-line article on this topic go to: GreenCurrents or GreenWash? or to send a message to the Michigan Public Service commission: Take Action.

Spring

First flower of the new year!

A new type of furniture polish

I knew that title would grab you. I mean, who doesn't want to read about furniture polish? Anyway, I do have a new idea that will allow you to reuse a product, keep you healthy, and save you money. What's not to like?

The bottle shown above is from a Bobbi Brown product that I use. I recently ran out of the product and was wondering what I could do with it. The bottle is actually quite nice - very heavy, solidly constructed - and I thought it was a shame to put it in the recycling bin. At about the same time, I was reading Home Safe Home by Debra Lynn Dadd, and she had many recipes for homemade cleaning products. One, for furniture polish, consisted of 2 parts olive oil and 1 part lemon juice. So I mixed it up and put it in the bottle. It worked quite well, and you don't need much to clean a few rooms. Regular furniture polish contains a surprising number of toxins, so I consider this a win-win-win.

Think about it next time you're throwing a nice container in your garbage or recycling bin - set it aside and see if you can find another use for it.

18-Year Mystery Solved

It's an adventure living with someone who is a) an engineer, and b) determined to make our home as energy efficient as humanly possible. The past couple of weeks the adventure has revolved around the shower. Tom has been turning down the heat on the hot water tank to save energy, and for the most part it has been a great idea. Our shower, however, has been cooler than I like, and so Tom has been tweaking the temp ever so slightly to determine the exact threshold that will satisfy my need for a warm shower and keep the dial turned low. Last week, after 4 days of goosebumps, I had a conversation with him, specifically asking him to run this experiment next summer. But once on a mission, he is hard to deter.

As the conversation progressed, I could see that Tom was puzzling over the fact that the shower temp seemed cooler than any other faucet/shower in the rest of the house. Of course, I said - it has always been this way. How long, he wondered? Why, since we owned the house - 18 years, I said. Apparently I had never communicated this fact to him, and since he never uses hot water in the sinks, he never knew this. I had assumed that this is just one of the mysteries of our house, one of those vague little things you never question, and just accept.

So Tom made a quick call and found out that shower heads, when installed, are set at a cool temperature to prevent scalding. When we turn our shower on, we are getting a mix of hot water from the tank and cold water to cool the water down. And, of course, we turn up the hot water in the tank to get it warm enough. Seems crazy.

So Tom adjusted the thermostatic mixing valve in our shower (5 minutes) and went downstairs to turn down the hot water tank. Success! Now we're not overheating our water, but have enough for a warm shower on a cold winter day.

And it only took 18 years.

The 5-Minute Shower

Mike McCarty is great. Even when he is on vacation he is looking for something that will help our group. So when he recently returned from a trip to Chicago, he brought back an idea from the Shedd Aquarium - the 5-minute shower timer. Apparently they give them to you for free, and he wondered if we would like some. And we all enthusiastically said yes! Well, that's not quite true - some in our group are a little protective of their somewhat longer showers, and remained diplomatically silent, but in the end we all agreed to try them. That's taking it for the team!

At last week's Tuesday meeting Mike brought a bag of probably 25 of these timers. Each of us took one and decided we'd talk about how they work next week. They affix to your glass shower door, as shown in our bathroom, above, or to your shower wall. I tried ours out the first day and proudly timed in at 4 minutes. I actually stared at the thing for the final minute, watching the last few crystals make their way downward, wasting all kinds of water and defeating the purpose, I suppose. I always knew I took a pretty short shower (probably due to the fact that while growing up I was competing for bathroom space with 2 sisters), and I'm sure this is why I had no problem trying it out in the first place. But lest you think I am a world-class brownie, I can divulge here and now that I do NOT shut off the water when I brush my teeth - I'm more of a brush-brush-spit-rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat person. Sorry.

So for those of you who tried your timers once and then hid it in the linen closet....I understand. But, Mike, we thank you.

Item of the Week

Right now our group is looking at No Waste. A few years ago this area was called 'Recycling,' but we have learned that recycling is really the last resort after reducing and reusing items. Much of our recycled material has been heading overseas at a huge energy cost, and now it appears that the value of our recycled material is sliding downward, causing much it if to remain unprocessed (and here). So recycling is not the final solution. Darn.

So we have to begin thinking about the first 2 items in our recycling mantra: reduce and reuse. A couple of weeks ago I challenged our Tuesday group to pull items from our recycling bins and every week we'll brainstorm different uses for these items. So today we start with the humble Early Gray 100-oz tin can. I buy these with some regularity because we have Earl Gray tea drinkers attending our weekly meetings. Normally these go into our recycling bin, but this particular tin was plucked out yesterday for our group meeting.

One thing I will say for our group -- we have imagination. So here are some things we recommend: fill it with sewing notions; keep seed envelopes inside it; good for loose herbs; use for gifts (especially chocolates); give it to your local kindergarten teacher (they are always collecting this stuff); store small amounts of beans, grains, etc; take it to Teavana and they will fill it with their own tea; and finally, put it up on freecycle. I can testify that people will pick up ANYTHING from your house if it is free. Trust me.

So there you have creativity at work. I'll keep an Item of the Week page up on the site for all of you who one day will reach into your garbage or recycling bins and wonder, 'Now, what could I do with this?'. We're here to help. Remember, small is big.

Natural cleaning

Last week when I cleaned I noticed that I have, bit by bit, reduced the number of cleaning products I'm using. I don't think I set out to do this - maybe I'm getting lazy and don't want to cart that caddy around the house with me. In any case, here's how it looked last week.

I started in the kitchen. I keep rags to clean with (you can buy a dozen or so, packaged up like washcloths at Target for about $5), and I pulled out 2. I got one wet (just water) and wiped everything down, followed by the dry cloth. That worked fine. ''[Please note that in case the Department of Health and Human Services finds this post, I do keep rinsing the cloth!]'' Next I took the cloths to the living room and family room. I wiped down the glass surfaces with the wet cloth, once again followed by the dry cloth, and used the now slightly damp dry cloth for all of the wood. So no more Pledge or windex-type products. I did use some of Denny Voss'
Naturally Clean floor cleaner on the floors because I really like it, but I do use just water on occasion.

Upstairs in the bathrooms I am using a concoction developed by Tom while I was down and out with a bad back (leave it to him to develop a new cleaner for me!). I mix white vinegar with a drop or two of dish soap and a little water (no exact measurements needed) and found this worked quite well for all of my surfaces, and in particular my shower doors and mirror. When I'm done cleaning I dump the remainder on the floor of my shower and wipe it down.

Now, I still use a toilet bowl cleaner (Naturally Clean again), and the one toxic cleaner I still feel the need to hang on to is Soft Scrub (for sinks). But compared with the number of products I used to use, I'm way down.

Have I scared you away from my house? I hope not! But give some thought to the products you're using, and experiment a little. You may find you need less than you think.

Disposing of medicines

Yesterday I gathered up all of my unused medicines for disposal. I found all kinds of stuff, including children's medicines, and considering the fact that my youngest just turned 20, I guess it's time for them to go. I got everything into boxes - you can see our cat Calvin inspecting them (on the counter.....yes....I know....). In my research, it was recommended that I call my local pharmacy first to see if they participate in a take-back program. My CVS here in Troy does not, but they recommended that I call SOCCRA, my local recycling center. So I have made an appointment to take them in.

Before I take them in, however, I am going to do a couple of things. First, there are some perfectly good medications (like vitamins) that I simply don't want, and I'm going to see if anyone wants them. Second, for things that are no longer useful to anyone, I have read that I have to do the following: For solid meds, add a bit of water to the container to discourage people from looking through the trash and taking them; for liquids, add salt or spices; cover blister packs with heavy tape; in fact, cover all packages with tape and wrap them in plastic bags. Then throw it into the trash. In case you haven't heard: Do not put anything into the toilet or sink - it all goes to our water system and our system is not equipped to filter out these toxins.

This seems like a pretty imperfect answer, so we are working on ideas for reducing the medications that need to be thrown away or somehow recycling. Reducing could include simple things like finishing your meds as you doctor prescribes or buying the minimal amount, and purchasing more as needed. Recycling programs are beginning to pop up also -- read more about this on our medicines page.

Winter garden interest

A few years ago we decided to cut our backyard in half with a dry creek. On one side is our traditional lawn, but on the other side we have developed a woodsy-type area. We covered the grass with wood chips and mountains of leaves. We already had a flowering pear tree, and added a river birch and swamp oak. Then we planted bushes: ninebarks, red-twig dogwoods, serviceberries, winterberry, and a couple of elderberries. Add to that other native flowing plants, and it is quite a sight in the summer.

So I thought you might like to see it in a Michigan winter. We don't cut back anything, so you see it as it is. I have noticed that we have a lot of critter and bird activity - still - because of the trails they leave in the snow. It's endlessly interesting.

Handkerchiefs

This past Christmas Tom asked for handkerchiefs and received 3 from our daughters that were hand embroidered. I think he got the idea originally when we lived in Japan and all the men carried handkerchiefs to blow their noses or wipe their faces in the summer heat. It's also a great way to reduce paper consumption. So he carries one on his person (back pocket) regularly now. He uses it to wipe his hands in the men's room, wipe things like his glasses or camera, and of course when he sneezes, coughs or needs to blow his nose (but that would eliminate the other uses if used first, I think).

This is a little idea, but you might find it useful. And out daughters, I'm sure, wouldn't mind embroidering them for you!