Catching up!

Whew! What a weekend – lots of good things happening. It’s been a while since I posted, so I’m going to cover quite a few things today. Here goes:

First a follow up to my –>previous post about Arbor Day – we planted our tree! It wasn’t as easy or quick as I thought it would be. There was a lot of pre-planning involved. From deciding where to plant to what kind of tree to buy, everything required some careful consideration. We decided to plant on the northeast corner of our backyard, so the tree will be getting sun pretty much all day. Then we needed to decide if we wanted an evergreen (stay green all year) or a deciduous (shed leaves in fall) type of tree – picked evergreen. Next choice is how fast you want the tree to grow – slow, moderate, or fast – we opted for a fast tree as we’re not sure how much longer we’ll be at this house. Finally, we needed to pick the type of tree. We went with a –>Brazillian Pepper Tree – grows quickly and has that classic shade tree look. The guys at the nursery told us this hardy tree will grow quickly and thrive in our Southern California climate. Will post pictures of our tree as soon as I get a chance, but here is one that is mature. Look at the vibrant green, can’t wait until ours is that big!

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This post from –>The Way We Live caught my eye; hadn’t really thought about ‘green’ housing before. Prefab houses, if done right, combine attractive design with sustainable materials and systems. This particular prefab is located in Venice, CA (love that city by the way – spent much of my college years there!) and was designed by Jennifer Siegal. You can see more excellent prefabs at her site –>Office of Mobile Design.

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Did some spring cleaning in the garage this weekend. Recycled what we could, sold what we could, gave away what we could, but we still have lots of stuff left. What to do? Here’s a –>great link from the Green Advice blog for –>Freecycle.org, a grass roots online community of folks who are giving things away for free. One more way to recycle rather than throw away. You know what they say about one man’s trash…

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Although Walmart has its share of problems, they are doing some good things on a couple of fronts. One, they are starting to carry some organic food products in their stores. Go organic wherever possible. The other is that they carrying compact fluorescent light bulbs that are subsidized by the local utility and a bargain at 94 cents for a 24W bulb (replaces 100W) and 74 cents for a 20W bulb (replaces 75W). Your store may or may not have these – I’m in San Diego and have seen a couple of stores with these subsidized offers. Here’s a –>great page on Walmart’s site that discusses the advantages and savings to switching from standard incandescent light bulbs. Also check out –>18seconds.org to see how the US is doing in switching to CFL bulbs.

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One –>fellow blogger has got a great eco-wishlist going. They are –>tracking their progress point by point. Great list of things for all of us to attempt.

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Got my hands on some crucial music as well. –>Stephen Marley just released his –>first solo album Mind Control and it is very Ital! –>Stephen was part of the original Melody Makers with his brother Ziggy and two sisters. His voice is, of all the Marley clan, probably the closest to his famous father’s. He’s sung lead on numerous tracks over the years on MM albums (I’m partial to the work he did on Joy and Blues) and often produces and collaborates on albums with the younger Marleys. I highly recommend his album – especially the more rootsy tunes on it. –>Listen to sample cuts here.

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Well that’s it for now.

Arbor Day – April 27, 2007

For years I’ve seen Arbor Day come and go on the calendar and my only thought has been: “cool, a day to plant trees.” The thing is, I’ve never planted a tree on the day. So given my new outlook on all things green, I plan to plant one with my family this coming Friday.

Here is a collection of links you mind find useful for Arbor Day information and activities:

–> Arbor Day history
–> National Arbor Day Foundation
–> Arbor Day celebrations by state
–> Arbor Day for kids
–> More Kids
–> Arbor Day for teachers (activities suggestions)

What are the benefits to planting a tree? Well, aside from looking great and providing shade, there are some substantial green benefits. Trees purify our air by absorbing C02. Planting them prevents soil erosion and can help restore areas that are damaged by humans, animals, fires, disease or other natural causes. From –> Vanity Fair’s Green Issue: “It may seem like a very small contribution, but if 5 percent of the U.S. population were to germinate one tree in one year, there would be almost 15 million extra trees absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.” Talk about offsetting our carbon emissions! Trees are one of the best ways to accomplish that and frankly, it’s not that hard.

Companies are –> getting into the act. Citibank, my bank, has a –>Plant-a-Tree Program that will plant a tree for everyone of their customers who switches to paperless statements. A double-whamy! Save a few trees by foregoing paper statements and let them plant a tree for you. I encourage Citibank customers to take advantage of their program; I did this morning – twice! Maybe there are companies doing something similar out there. If anyone knows, please share. I do know that most of the companies I owe money to offer paperless statements via email, so take advantage of that.

So who is planting a tree on Friday?