It’s hot out. However, if you’re environmentally conscious and want to avoid cranking up the air conditioner, there are ways to stay cool AND save energy. Take advantage of cooler temperatures during the morning and evening hours, and use a fan during these times. Invest in heavy, dark shaded drapes or blinds in your home and keep them closed to block the sunrays from beating heat into your home.

Cook smarter during the hot summer months, and grill meals outdoors, to avoid turning up the oven and heating up your home. This will save energy and keep your home cooler. When spring approaches, be sure your windows are updated, and free of any leaks so heat won’t enter your home. Lastly, don’t use your dryer during the summer and hang clothes out to dry. Not only will they smell great, you won’t create unnecessary, “artificial” heat in your home. It’s easy to turn on the air conditioner and enjoy a cool home, but it is terrible for the environment. Beat the heat this summer, save energy, and help the environment with these tips for staying cool.

Going green – everyone is doing it. But how does one take the first steps to being environmentally responsible and living “green”? There are a few easy changes you can make to ensure your carbon footprint is minimized. First, limit the amount of times you use your car, and carpool whenever necessary. A good rule of thumb is that if it takes you less than 10 minutes to drive somewhere, give yourself extra time and walk instead. Similarly, eating fewer meals outside of the home, and cooking more meals inside reduces waste.

Other ways to partake in a more green lifestyle are to recycle and compost. Inquire about your town or city’s recycling facilities. Oftentimes, it’s as easy as requesting a separate garbage container and separating your plastic and paper to be picked up on a different day. Invest in a compost bin and fill it partially with soil. Dump all food garbage into the compost bin, remembering to rotate the pile at least every two weeks. Eventually, you will have rich soil to use in your home garden. Going green doesn’t have to mean an entire lifestyle overhaul. The move to a more conscious style of living helps make giant strides in improving our environment, and our world.

It’s so easy to look at what has happened in the Gulf of Mexico and blame BP for the oil spill. That’s not saying that BP was not at fault because truly they are. It’s simply saying that we have drilled in very deep water for a long time without a large incident like this and have been really lucky considering the amount of drilling that has taken place as well as the risks and shortcuts that have come to fruition.

Those who have lived on the Gulf Coast for a long time have seen evidence of oils spillage over the years. There has been oil that has been recovered on the beaches and out in the ocean just never in the amount that we see right now and of course never devastated the wildlife and fisheries like this spill has and will. But we should have known something like this would eventually happen. Even though the oil companies have a lax plan for these occasions they knew it was possible because they had a plan. But it was always worth it so they could deliver oil to the American public as cheaply as possible. It just turns out that we will be paying for this cheap oil for a long time and the bill will be higher than we ever thought.

Sometimes I think we spend more time than we should making our homes, yards and gardens beautiful while we neglect beautifying what is most important; our inner world. I know far too many people who are either burned out or close to being burned out that it’s not even close to being funny. The term “burned out” is also extremely interesting as it implies that we each have a fire that burns inside of us. So if we had a fire that needed to be tended every day for our life sustenance, would we not spend a good deal of time making sure it keeps burning?

Being able to tap into ones “fire” or lack of is not always an easy thing to do as most of us are just walking through life not paying attention to anything that comes from within. We have been told to pay attention to everyone else; the kids, your spouse, your boss, politics, news and everything else but you! However, if you continue to pay attention to everyone else at your own expense, be prepared to eventually burn out and join the throngs or other people that are oblivious to their own fire. Or make a different decision today to tend to the fire that makes you tick. May it always burn brightly!

I believe that a huge population of Americans no longer prepares meals from the basic ingredients. A growing number of people are content to choose from the wide variety of fast food restaurants of varied price range. There are frozen foods that require 1-5 minutes in a microwave or longer in conventional oven. And then there are the people who prepare meals from boxed easy to make food-stuffs that require nothing extra or maybe one additional ingredient. This is a sad trend that disconnects people from understanding what our actual food is and where it comes from.

The true nature of food can only come about when we see and touch the actual ingredients and mix and change these ingredients to the food that we share and eat together. This is the basic thinking behind the growing slow food movement gaining in popularity around the globe. People are reacting to the basic disconnect behind the food industry and how it relates to our eating habits. Many of us are thinking that it may not be a good thing that food is fast and we have no idea what our food is and are choosing to understand our place in the world by understanding the food we eat.

It does seem to be a little strange to be talking about post caps around the Christmas Holiday season but you would be amazed at how many decide to beautify their outdoor spaces and decks this time of year. Most do it for parties and entertainment purposes while others do it because they are going to have company and want to make a great impression. Since installing assorted post caps are very easy and quick compared to other things people could do, it does make since. You can also choose to get the solar caps or other lighted post caps that can really lend  a whole other element to the space as well as safety.

Another advantage to improving your décor with wooden fence post caps is the price. You would much rather spend your hard earned money on gifts and great holiday food items than a bunch of décor that will only be used once a year. These are great twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and fifty-two weeks out of the year. They will add beauty and fun to your outdoor areas that you can enjoy during the holidays and every season thereafter.

My husband and I recently returned from a trip to Central Texas. The purpose of the trip was for a campus visit at UT Austin to look into their graduate program at the School of Architecture. During my tour I visited a couple studios, visited the Architecture library and archives, and took in a lunch forum about Sustainability. There were nicely packed box lunches provided for attendees. The discussion basically centered on legalizing sustainable practices in our building codes at a federal level. The speaker, a lawyer with a passion for environmental law, made some very good points. She shared though that while there are some cities talking about initiatives, they are not DOING much about it. While she was speaking I began to look around the room of 40-50 attendees and the white boxed lunches on their laps. Lunches consisted of sandwiches wrapped in foil and then butcher paper, chips, cookies, etc. There were also canned and bottled beverages.

I hoped, especially because of the topic being spoken on, that there would be recycle bins for the boxes and butcher paper. Drink containers are pretty much a given anymore, so I wasn’t as concerned about that. So when I walked back into the hall, there it was, a large bin marked “Trash” piled high with white boxes. How disappointing. Why are our governments (city, state, federal) all talk and no action? Could it be because their “constituents” are too? They represent us. They will not change until we do.

My deck is my escape; it faces west overlooking a woods and pond. The pond is surrounded by wild raspberry, goldenrod, honeysuckle and poison sumac. The trees are home to birds and squirrels, the brush to rabbits and the pond to frogs, ducks and the occasional crane.

In spring the trees wear a dusting of green and red buds; spring beauties and tufts of grass appear in the woods and the peepers sing at night!

In summer the trees wear assorted greens, ducklings dart around the pond bumping into each other with scolding parents trailing behind. Birds are busy endlessly collecting and delivering food to babies. Rabbits make occasional appearances and quickly disappear again. The pond is the hub of activity; ruffled by ducks splashy arrivals and departures, ducklings bumping their way through the day and frogs hiccupping and belching round the clock.

In autumn the trees wear yellow, gold, orange, and red, the sky vibrant blue, and the pond is full of reflected color. Squirrel activity is more frenetic than playful.

In winter the deck requires bundling up and sometimes a little shoveling. The trees are black and pewter, the brush mottled browns, the pond is brushed nickel unable to reflect the white sky and owls talk during the night. Everybody should have one!

Hallelujah! Amen Brother! Finally a study showing what most Americans who know anyone that is gay already knows; you cannot convert a gay person into being a heterosexual. Please forgive my entrance into the subject as it is not meant to be snide or sacrilegious. It’s time we realize that just because we don’t understand something or fear it doesn’t make it wrong or unacceptable.

Growing up with a great uncle that was gay as well as another uncle and several cousins had an impact on me as I saw so many people turn against people who happen to be born gay. No one in his right mind, especially back in the 60’s and 70’s, would ever have chosen to be homosexual. To make that choice back then, and now in some places, would mean potentially loosing your family, your church and many of your friends. It was great to be raised in a family that championed love over everything else and I was taught God is love above all things. Maybe people who are different than us were placed in this world to see how the rest of us would treat them? I tend to think it is us, those of us who proclaim love and forgiveness as our mantras, who will be judged far more severely in the end for we choose to love or hate; people who are gay didn’t get a choice.

In the print and marketing world there are many alternatives to be green from t-shirts, bags and pens to card stock, recycled and reused products. I had never thought about changing our company’s marketing focus to the use of green materials because I had never thought to ask and until recently, nobody every showed me. I like the fact that most of us do not throw away reusable products so that $1.00 item that would normally end up in the trash may cost less up front but you have to continue to replace it.

Instead, if you were to spend a little bit more for an item that is generally reused, that item keeps your brand and message in the forefront. Another advantage is the fact that many of your customers are looking for ways to help the environment and if they can do that by working with you, they will and they will feel good about it. More and more people are aware of the carbon footprint the products they use are leaving as well as the importance of sustainability and how it affects our eco systems. With this said, it just makes more since to market with green products and since there are so many, you still have a great many choices and price points