Environmentally friendly, green ways of living
There are 363 posts filed in Green (this is page 33 of 37).
I’ve found our rainwater tank seems to focus rain. A sprinkling of rain fell overnight. Though my wheelbarrow was out it only collected enough water to fill up a mug.
I didn’t expect much to have been added to the tank this morning but I was surprised. The tank showed 12 to 15 new gallons! That’s from just half the roof, too. It always amazes me just how much water can be collected just from the rainfall.
That hawk I mentioned seeing in our backyard over Thanksgiving? It’s apparently moved in. I looked up again at lunchtime today to see it perched happily near the creek in my neighbor’s yard. I walked outside for more pictures but it flew into the woods upon my approach.
I got another good look at it about 15 minutes ago, again hanging around near the creek. Turns out it is a red-shouldered hawk. He’s probably looking to scoop up any frogs or snakes that hang around the creek. My bird book says they’re timid and it shows!
My telephoto lens doesn’t do it justice but I’ll post what pictures I have tonight.
For the past few days I’ve consistently noticed Carolina Wrens flitting around the hiding places directly behind our house. While they’ve appeared at the feeder for three years now, they’ve always returned to a nest somewhere in the nearby woods. Until now, that is.
I’m guessing by their behavior that there’s now a nest hidden somewhere near my back door. I’m scratching my head as to exactly where it could be, as there aren’t a lot of hiding places for a nest, but the way they retreat behind what plants we do have rather than to the woods makes me think their home is very close to our home.
I love Carolina Wrens as the little birds have serious lungs on ’em. One of the cheerful little guys can practically wake a neighborhood.
Update: When I said “near my back door,” I didn’t expect it was literally right under it! Two wrens came flying out from under the deck when I walked out this afternoon. I haven’t peeked under there yet but I’ll bet money that there’s a nest under there.
A study by an Australian scientist shows that laser printers pollute the air with microscopic particles potentially as harmful as cigarette smoke. Lidia Morawska, a Queensland University of Technology professor, made the discovery when studying office air filtration and ventilation systems.
A study led by the physics professor found many laser printers emit clouds of ultra-fine particles that she compared with cigarette smoke and motor vehicle emissions. “They are so small you can’t see them.”
Although her team has yet to analyse their chemistry, she warned that such small particles “can get deep into the lungs”, leading to respiratory and cardiovascular problems. Some particles were potential carcinogens.
Printer manufacturer HP disputes the findings. In the meantime, y’all might want to move that printer away from your desk (after you print out the study, of course).
I had a little fun on Craigslist this morning:
Wanted: Desalination Plant – $1
Reply to: sale-446914297@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-10-12, 8:41AM EDTWilling to trade lightly-used lawn mower in good condition for large desalination plant. Must have capacity for several million gallons per hour.
Will throw in weed whacker and accessories for water pipe that can reach the coast.
* Location: Raleigh
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interestsPostingID: 446914297
Of course such a thing does not exist, as the biggest dasalination plant in the world, Dubai’s Jebel Ali plant, produces 300 million cubic meters of water per year according to Wikipedia. I toyed with changing “millions” to “thousands” but I thought it was funnier with millions.
Looks like the tide is turning towards Rodger Koopman being the new District B city councilor, booting Jessie “Needs to Listen More” Taliaferro from office. I’m hitting the streets again today to get the word out about Rodger.
The election is Tuesday. Will you be voting?
We just got through washing our cars and boy do they look great! In spite of the water restrictions we weren’t even sneaky about it. In fact, we were hoping someone would call the water police on us because then we could show how we did it completely with reclaimed rainwater.
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I feel like the dog that finally caught the car it was chasing: now what? I’ve got a tank full of 330 gallons of rainwater and nothing yet to do with it. Spent some time yesterday with Travis at Lowes, looking for some piping I could use to hook up a garden hose to the tank. Out of a long aisle there was exactly nothing I needed. Guess I’ll have to be more creative.
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After months of no significant rain we finally got a drenching today, and boy is it wonderful! By my estimate we’ve gotten at least 1.5 inches so far with more to come tonight.
Remember that big honking tank I purchased a few weeks ago? When I heard the rain was on the way, I slipped out to Lowes this morning and bought a flexible downspout pipe. I then spent 15 minutes attaching it to just one downspout, thinking I’d attach the other downspouts later.
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Greg has alerted me to opposition forming against the BNAF, the Butner pathogen lab I wrote about earlier this summer. I can’t find any other links to the opposition, though. Bummer.
According to Greg’s post, the DHS will hold a public meeting at 7 PM on Tuesday, September 18th at South Granville High School. Wouldn’t it be great to see biohazard suits in the audience?
It all makes me wonder … is Ebola drought-resistant?
