We love our Earth

It's Earth Week--which will become irrelevant only when people understand that EVERY day is an Earth Day, and we must protect the habitat which supports OUR life.

Locally, the colleges are hosting awareness events (see events list --->), while in the nation's capital, Bill McKibben is leading a rally in front of the US Chamber of Commerce to protest the money pollution that’s corrupting our democracy and wrecking our planet.

It's cold and wet here, while wildfires and tornadoes are ravaging the South.  Globally, flood events are increasing.  Earth has a fever and is not a happy camper.

What can a person do?  No, don't stop breathing. Not yet anyway.

First, stop using plastic as much as possible. This stuff is deadly. You can get inexpensive reusable shopping bags almost everywhere these days (you can even make your own), and you only need to train yourself to take them into the store with you. Keep them in a handy place, by the door, in the car (or bike basket!), to remind yourself. I'm getting rather good at this--though it has taken some time, because old habits are hard to break and you have to be persistent--if I can do it, anyone can.

Now, just how bad is plastic? From Sharon at Casaubon's Book:

We all knew that plastic never breaks down entirely, but I don't think everyone realized that what happens is that plastic fragments and mixes in with your water, your soil, your food, and the food and water of plants and animals, and then it makes its way into our bodies. How is a really troubling and scary story.

Now this is stuff never, ever meant to be ingested - full of endocrine disrupters (messes with your hormones), carcinogens (warm plastic mixed with liquid creates dioxin among other things), traces benzene (liver cancer) and all sorts of things that no one ever meant for us to eat, breathe and bathe in.

Now this plastic warms the planet a couple of times - when it is manufactured from oil, when it is recycled (if it is, most isn't - more on this in a minute), and when it goes into a landfill and helps mix with organic garbage to produce methane. And since cancer treatment isn't exactly low input, you could argue that it warms the planet again - when we have our surgeries and other treatments from the illnesses caused by becoming a plastic world.

The plastics industry has spent a long time convincing us that plastics are recyclable - they have those nice arrows, so they must be ok, right? But in fact only a few varieties of plastic are recyclable, plastic recycling is quite energy intensive, and after you recycle that plastic container into a bumper or recycled plastic lumber, that's it - next stop is the landfill or your water table.

So, if we could all just stop using so much plastic, that would be a  HUGE improvement.

We can talk more later about planting trees, buying local food, and reducing the amount of waste we place at the curb to be trucked away and dumped in a landfill.

Giving up fossil fuel energy is going to be more difficult, given the extent of the problem. But I was encouraged to hear that nationally, retailer Costco (which we don't have here in WNY, but nonetheless)  is going to start selling and installing solar panels. That's pretty mainstream. Yay!

I am always looking for new ways to develop this site into a helpful resource for people who find the idea of a vibrant and sustainable community appealing (we need to work together to make this happen), and I have added some new links to the local and regional category, including:


Allegheny Defense Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the natural heritage of the Alleghenies and Pennsylvania’s only national forest, the Allegheny National Forest. They have been engaged in monitoring and research, education, participation in the public decision making process, litigation, and promoting responsible outdoor recreation since 1994, and are currently involved in defending our area against the ravages of the oil and gas drilling industry.  Cathy Pedler represented the group at last week's forum on fracking at JCC,  and she is very knowledgeable and formidable.

Renew Chautauqua County is a new "green" site developed at no cost to the county through a partnership with Blue Springs Energy, and it provides connections to rebates and incentives, educational resources, tips to manage energy consumption, finding local contractors, and helpful interactive tools.

Prendergast Library --I don't have to explain why this is a valuable resource.

If you find my blog and all its various links useful, please share it with your friends so that they too can make use of the information here.

Tonight at JCC -- GASLAND

This is just a quick reminder about the free showing of Gasland tonight, beginning at 6:30, at the Student Union on JCC's Jamestown Campus.

File this under protecting and preserving our way of life.

Co-sponsors of the event are JCC’s Sustainability Committee and Earth Awareness Club, UB Green, the Niagara-Buffalo League of Women Voters, and the League of Women Voters of Chautauqua County.  The film, Winner of the 2010 Sundance Special Jury Prize,  will be followed by a panel discussion featuring representatives from Protecting Our Water Rights, Frack Action Buffalo, Allegheny Defense Project, Universal Well Services, and the Independent Oil and Gas Association, moderated by Dr. Minda Rae Amiran from the League of Women Voters of Chautauqua County.

If you are unable to attend, but would like to view this film,  you can watch it online for free at this link.

Pride of Chautauqua-- big thumbs up!

Thanks to a last minute reminder from Jessica at Roots & Wings Farm, our CSA, Tom and I visited the Farm Bureau's 4th annual "Pride of Chautauqua" event at Chautauqua Suites yesterday afternoon. The event showcases local farmers--very important to those of us looking for local food sources to help the health of the planet and of ourselves.

We were not disappointed--except that maybe there weren't MORE farmers representing at the event, to underscore the great wealth of resources we have in this huge agricultural county. Nevertheless, the participants did themselves proud with their displays, information, samples, and products for sale. We had a great time and came home with a boatload of information, contacts, and goodies.

I'll be  reworking my "Local Foods" page (which is down at the moment for renovation) in order to share all of this new information with you.  Though I give credit to Wegman's for the increasing number of organic products they have available, it's even more satisfying and reassuring to meet the people that actually grow your food and to be able to see for yourself how it is handled. Recent exposes like "Food Inc." can really kill an appetite.

We aren't vegetarians, so we're really happy to have found SEVERAL local sources of grass fed beef, pasture raised poultry, pork, and even goat! (Okay, maybe I'm not that happy about the goat. For some reason, I think of them as pets. But, they give milk!)  If Tom starts bringing home some of the fish he catches instead of just playing with them, we'll have an amazing variety of local goodness--along with our CSA share and all the local farmers markets. The Fredonia Farmers Market even operates during the winter months at Wishberry on Main Street, and yes, you can actually grow things here when it's cold outside if you have a greenhouse. WHY are we buying our food from South America and Asia? Do we love the oil companies that much?

We had pleasant conversations with Tim from Stand Fast Farm and Steve from Green Heron Growers and look forward to doing business with them. Had our first taste of grape pie--you probably don't believe that I've lived most of my life in this grape growing region and never had grape pie, but it's true. Tasted Concord grapeseed vinaigrette, too, from the Brick Village Gourmet , whose chefs entertained with live cooking demonstrations and free samples. Representatives from the dairy association were on hand with samples of their products, including my favorite, Chobani Greek yogurt (not exactly local, but nonetheless made in upstate NY). We bought maple syrup and goat milk soap.

What a great place this is!

Today is better

The snow flurries I was watching the other morning went from bad to worse, and by late afternoon, we had at least an inch of white slushy stuff blanketing everything and creating havoc on area roads.

But that was winter's last gasp. Yesterday the sun came out and temps rose into the 50's, melting most of the snow and allowing a much more productive day. We'll still have the muddy paw prints for a while (the cat, normally an indoor pet, got into the act yesterday too, lured through an open door by robins on the lawn), and it's too soon to put away the winter clothing, but we are on our way to "real" spring.

I bought some packets of seeds yesterday, beets and beans and squash and chard.  Even though I can't plant them for several more weeks, I feel like I'm moving forward again. Tom got his fishing license.

 I got a haircut and new walking shoes. Time to get up off the couch.

There are several FREE events next week that should be of interest to people interested in treating our earth more gently.


Tuesday, April 12   9 am - 3 pm   
SUNY Buffalo
Great Lakes Wind Energy Development
in New York State
Will include three panel presentations featuring speakers from industry,government, and various stakeholder groups
FREE, but seating is limited, so pre-registration is encouraged.
Click here for more info and registration.


Thursday, April 14  6:30 pm 
Jamestown Community College

"Gasland" --screening of the academy award nominated documentary about fracking,
followed by discussion, free and open to the public
More info at this link.

April 16-22 Earth Week at SUNY Fredonia
Many free public events throughout the week
View calendar here

Hope to see you out there!

P.S. Our CSA, Roots and Wings, was featured in this article in the Post Journal!  We have also been buying eggs from Jessica's chickens at Labyrinth on Wednesdays. They are SO much better than those from the store, and it's nice to know where your food is coming from!

Rainy day blues

This is probably my least favorite time of the year. It's muddy paw print season. Though we get a few moments here and there when it is possible to pull on the rubber boots and garden gloves and do some "clean up" in the yard, we're still on the cusp of winter. It's cold. There are still a few dirty patches of snow around--blackened shrinking mountains of it around the edges of parking lots. Rain is in the forecast most days, but the overnight temps are still quite frosty. I'm looking out the window at snow flurries this morning. They will become more liquid as the day goes on.

Tom has taken a few bike rides, but I've mostly been hunkered down indoors, reading and stitching, waiting for "real" spring to arrive, when things start turning green and leafy. We get out for yoga, church, the library, shopping, sometimes lunch--but we tend to be very boring people these days. I'm sad about the sorry state of our world and end of life in these United States as we once knew it (or thought we knew it, since it was mostly illusory), but especially sad that so many people remain in fantasy land until they get blindsided by reality, inevitably followed by scapegoating instead of personal responsibility.

When I ponder the dark side of human nature, I really, really appreciate the loyal companionship of my dog.

Alas, I'm experiencing a little "down time" here, but will be proactive and maybe even "perky" again soon. Life goes on. Who is old enough to remember Sam Jaffe drawing the symbols on the blackboard at the beginning of every episode  of "Ben Casey"--man, woman, birth, death, infinity? Wow, these blasts from the past come out of nowhere sometimes.

Another week goes by

Well,  for a couple of days it was near 60 degrees and the evidence of spring was popping out all over my front lawn. I was able to start some of the trimming and clearing of winter debris from my garden. I was a happy camper.  Tom literally was a happy camper, spending another weekend in the woods with a hiking group from Ohio.

And then we woke up to this the other morning.

That was actually the worst of it (it was actually beautiful!)--central NY got more than we did--and the sun has melted away most of that by now. It isn't warm, though. We're back to daytime highs in the 20's and overnight lows in the teens (maybe even single digits tonight), and I'm back under my blanket, reading books. Let me know when it hits 40 again!

The calendar says spring, so we know winter has to let go  in the near future. I'm narrowing down my choices for the veggie garden and deciding whether I have enough windowsill space to start some plants from seed after all (and wondering if the cat will leave them alone if I do). We went out for yoga on Wednesday morning (Tom is taking this series of classes with me), stopped at Labyrinth for a delicious bowl of soup for lunch, and then picked up some more reading material from the library. Yep, that was our big day this week. Winter isn't our social season.

The world has been such a hellish place lately that I've been thinking we need to address our personal preparation for disaster. We won't have a devastating earthquake or nuclear meltdown here, but tornadoes and other severe storms are not unheard of in this area. Nearby towns were struck last summer, and our next door neighbor in Cleveland lost five trees in her back yard. (Fortunately, they missed her house.) At the very least we should be prepared for a power outage. Water. Food that requires no refrigeration and very little cooking. Matches and candles. We experienced some of this during the blackout in the summer of 2003, and for a couple of days, it wasn't too terrible. What if it was longer? What if the ATM's stopped dispensing cash and the gasoline pumps stopped operating? How well would you cope?

Here comes the sun, but...

I've been getting outdoors a little bit more now that temps are rising above freezing and the snow is shrinking (slinking?) away.  It's very springlike today. I can see the tips of my crocuses and daffodils peeking above the soil as if to ask, is it time yet? Of course the back yard is still a great sucking pit of mud.

The disaster in Japan continues to be frightening and overwhelming, but as always, life goes on.


ACTION ALERT!  The latest assaults on our environment and attempts to poison us (aside from the radioactive chemicals from Japan that will be making their way into fish, farm animals, and farming soil, and therefore, plants) come locally from Sealand Waste with a typically shortsighted plan to greatly expand their landfill in the Frewsburg area for disposal of construction debris. Never mind that there is already a landfill  in Ellery that can handle this kind of waste.  Never mind that runoff from the proposed site is likely to contaminate the Conewango Watershed with chemicals like arsenic. What's a little arsenic in your fish and drinking water?


The NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation will soon decide whether to issue a permit to Sealand for the landfill, and they need to hear from many of us why this is a very bad idea (and there are many reasons) before the deadline of MARCH 25.   Send letters to David Denk, Regional Permit Administrator, NY DEC, 270 Michigan Ave., Buffalo NY 14203-2915 or phone 716-851-7165.   More information for making your case is available on the Carroll Concerned Citizens website.



I filled my bird feeders the other day and the word got around quickly. The feeders were soon emptied.
The herd was moving away from the house by the time Tom got the camera, but they were close to knocking on the back door when we first saw them.  (Maybe they wanted to say thank you..)  Today I'm refilling with a different blend, safflower seeds with hot chili peppers--which birds are supposed to love, other animals not so much. We'll see if this reaches its intended recipients this time.

I'm thinking more about this year's garden, which I'm going to have to buy plants for because I don't have room right now to start seedlings indoors. I'm wondering if I'll be able to get heirloom plants--certainly not from the "big box" stores--the kinds that produce seeds that will in turn produce plants like the parent plants. It's something I feel I have to learn to do (seed saving) in order to save "real food" in the age of Monsanto. There is definitely a cold frame in my future, maybe even a small greenhouse.