Tree Music

When I first saw this, I was amazed.  The most amazing thing to me though, is how strongly memories of my childhood came flooding back to a climbing tree I spent hours in growing up. It was a huge mimosa, one of those ancient ones with five branching trunks, and limbs that went up and up. My sister and I used to climb that tree up to the skinny branches where they held us only because my sister and I were lightweight kids with great balance.

I remember one brach grew up, then out, almost straight. It forked, and we could hang upside down from that fork, with only our legs keeping us from falling on our heads. I loved that branch most, among all the branches of the tree. There were parts of the tree where the bark was rubbed smooth from our climbing hands and feet. We were called monkeys, and when our cousins came over, the tree was full of monkeys.

Amazing how one video can spark decades old memories, in moments.

Diego Stocco – Music From A Tree from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

To Cut or not to Cut

I have a fairly big lawn. I say lawn, but really it’s more of a pasture that I cut with a lawnmower. Do not picture uniform green grass, weed free when you think of my lawn. No, my lawn is full of byhalia grass, the kind grown for cows. I have plenty of wild green onions, thorns, thistles, baby trees, and baby privet hedges shoots coming up in my lawn. Part of the reason is I have never tried to kill all that stuff and grow only grass. I have never seeded or put down turf. I have never fertalized my lawn.

Thistle

What I have done is cut it when most of the grass is over mid calf. Yes really. Byhalia grass is the kind that grows very tall, and splits into a ‘Y’ at the top. It grows faster than everything else and from one week to the next, it can grow knee high, if there is enough water. That’s something else I have never done, water the grass. I figure, if it dries up and dies, less for me to cut.

We got some rain last week (after a month of nothing) and now the grass is growing. I would love to cut it with a reel mower, but as I said, it’s a big lawn and I can’t see me chopping down a thistle with a pushmower. A reel mower would be quieter, more of a workout for me, and certainly easier on the land. However, I don’t want to spend all day on the lawn, so I think my riding mower will be what I choose one more time. Plus, the riding mower is paid for, and I would have to purchase a reel mower if I wanted to use one.

Back yard

I have decided to let some of the back yard go back to full pasture though. See where those three trees are, the evergreen and the oak and whatever that other tree is? I used to cut behind them, but now, I’m just going to cut in front. That still leaves me plenty of space to have a yard. It’s hard to tell, but this is standing on my back porch and looking out. See how there is a line with high grass and such, then my yard? That higher part gets cut with a bushhog about once a year. So, now everything behind my trees will match that.

If you have a largish yard, how do you decide what to cut and what to just ignore? I heard someone say the other day, if you are keeping your yard up just because you think you are expected to, but you don’t enjoy it, then stop. I think that’s a very freeing idea. I don’t ‘play’ in my yard. No outdoor games, no running in the grass. No one can see my yard, or my house from the road. The state of my yard has no impact on my neighbors house values, so, I am tempted to completely stop. What would it look like if I never mowed it again?

If you felt you could stop mowing completely, would you?

A talk about mushrooms

I saw this a month or so ago and I found it to be amazing. I have always liked mushrooms and fungi and I remember enjoying when we talked about them in school. There is so much more to them than I ever realized. I just enjoyed this video so much and I had to share.

From the TED site: Entrepreneurial mycologist Paul Stamets seeks to rescue the study of mushrooms from forest gourmets and psychedelic warlords. The focus of Stamets’ research is the Northwest’s native fungal genome, mycelium, but along the way he has filed 22 patents for mushroom-related technologies, including pesticidal fungi that trick insects into eating them, and mushrooms that can break down the neurotoxins used in nerve gas.

Check out his video

The food we eat and how we eat it.

Saw a link to an interesting article talking about how we eat, and how that’s changing. The trend is still toward food that is fast and easy, but we are moving to healthier choices. Food Trends

A blog I follow frequently is all about Wasted Food and how people, universities, grocery stores, and businesses are trying to cut down on their food waste. Wasted Food

If you have not seen the trailer to this new movie about food yet, check it out. Food, Inc.

Enjoy.

Déjà Poo: The Living Machine Sewage System

Déjà Poo: The Living Machine Sewage System

Posted using ShareThis

From Wired.com

Picture the lobby atrium of a new, green building, one filled with leafy plants and trees. Now imagine that those trees are growing in waste collected from the building’s toilets.

If that idea has the whiff of failure about it, well, sniff again. Increasingly, building designers are managing sewage in-house—really in-house. The Port of Portland, for example, is integrating waste management into the lobby of its new headquarters under construction. The Living Machine uses soil and bacteria to filter out pathogens, essentially turning wastewater into nonpotable water. But the signature element of the system is the plant life that grows up and out of it—right into the lobby. “It’s going to provide a kind of greenhouse feel,” says Greg Sparks, engineering design manager for the port. “It’ll soften the hard edges of the typical office building.”

Everybody likes trees, but (aesthetics aside) sending poop from the bathroom to the lobby may seem sort of icky. In environmental terms, though, it’s a solid choice. Just as photovoltaics can help take a building off the power grid, living machines take strain off the pipes and municipal wastewater facilities on the “sewage grid.” They also show that being green means thinking more creatively about our brown and yellow.

1 Wastewater from the entire building flows into a holding tank where solids settle, like in a septic tank. The reclaimed liquid up top gets pumped to the lobby.

2 Garden-like “wetland cells” layered with plants, soil, and rocks collect the water and capture biological compounds and pathogens.

3 On its way out of the garden, the water is further sterilized by ultraviolet light in the pipes. Then it’s recycled back into the plumbing system.

Bean Soup Recipe

Last night, I made a simple soup of black beans, black eyed peas, and chickpeas. I have all these dried, so I measured 1/4 cup of each, then quick soaked them. Quick soaking still involves an hour of soaking, so it is not as quick as some other cooking activities. After they soaked, I rinsed them, saving the soak water for my plants. I put them back in the pot, covered them with fresh water, and added a fourth of a cup of brown rice. I cooked the soup for about 45 minutes. During the last 15 minutes, I added some precooked shredded chicken I had in the fridge. I seasoned everything with a small amount of salt, and a teaspoon of lemon and pepper seasoning. It turned out great. I like beans to still be on the firm side instead of squishy or soft. If you like beans just this side of mush, you should probably soak longer, and then cook longer than I did.

Today for lunch, I had this again and it was even better the second time around. The lemon and pepper seems to have had time to really soak in. When I make this next time, I think I will add some diced onions and celery, and sliced carrots. It is great as is, but I like to make something new each time.

Another benefit of this dish is the low cost. All the beans were dried, I had the rice and chicken on hand, as well as the seasonings. You could say I ’shopped from the pantry.’ Even if I had bought everything last night, this still would have been a cheap dish since I only used one-fourth cup of the beans and rice. I still have plenty left for my next soup creations.

Beth’s Thank You to Oprah

Beth has a video and blog post about Oprah’s learning about the plastic problems in our environment. Got check it out.

Resources about Swine Flu

The Swine Flu, now more often called 2009 N1H1 flu, is not in Mississippi yet but it is good to be prepared. There are many ways to prepare. First, try to make sure you don’t get the flu. Wash your hands often, at least 20 seconds with the soap and use a nail brush when you can. Avoid sick people, up to if flu is in your area, put of medical visits that can wait. By no means cancel needed appointments or procedures, but if you are just going in for a check-up, doing it later.

There is a lot of talk about possible quarantines and shut downs of many public places and businesses. If this happens, it is good to prepare now.  A great post on how to prepare, if it turns into something much worse than it is currently can be found here- Casaubon’s Book Blog.

We are not there yet, so in the meantime if you want to read more about the flu and how to protect yourself, check out this information: http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p2553.pdf.

World Health Organization is up to date on the outbreaks around the world.

What are you doing to prepare? Anything, or are you waiting to see if it gets worse?

Green Moms Carnival at Fake Plastic Fish

Just wanted to let everyone know Beth at Fake Plastic Fish is hosting the current Green Moms Carnival. Go check it out!

No ‘Poo and Water

I have read a lot about the “no ‘poo” movement. This is where instead of using modern shampoo, you forgo hairwashing (the most extreme option) or you wash your hair with natural alternatives like baking soda followed by a vinager rinse.

National Public Radio had a program a few weeks ago talking about this movement. Part of their report really got my attention and took my thoughts in a new direction.

The current trend of frequent shampoos may have started on May 10, 1908, when the New York Times published a column advising women that it was OK to wash their hair every two weeks. At that time, once a month was the norm.

Once a month! Can you imagine? If I go two full days without washing mine, it starts to feel on the grungy side and I usually have to wash it at the end of that second day. I have been considering the no ‘poo alternative, but have not made that particular leap.  Continuing to think about how often I wash my hair, and how I wash it, I began to think more about these women who washed once a month. I wonder how many of them had easy access to water? It is so easy for us to wash our hair now, we stand in the shower and the job is half done. Even if you wash your hair in the sink (as my mom did mine when I was a little girl) the water is there, the drain to take it away is there and of course the shampoo is there.

So.

How much of our clean hair habits are simply due to the ease with which we can get hot water? If I had to haul water and heat it myself, I think Iwould find it much easier to go longer between washes. If part of the goal of reducing our footprint is water conservation, should less hairwashing be part of the program? If I just washed my body, and skipped my hair, (either covering it with a showercap, or just rinsing it when I rinsed the rest of me) I could probably take a three-five minute shower.

How dirty is month old hair, or even two week old hair? I don’t know, I have never gone that long without washing it. But, looking at our past, how often we bath is a cultural policy. Could we change our policy, our standard of what is ‘clean’ and what is ‘dirty’ on this one issue of hairwashing? I think for me, as long as I have water available, I will be washing at least every two days, and usually each day.  Although, it sure is interesting to think about.