Some Forms of Life Are Protected
I was driving through Kansas last Tuesday night, wondering how I could avoid the anti-abortion signs “gracing” I-70, most of [...]
The Shit Hits the … Engine?
Actually, this is not a post about sewage. It's a post about turning trash into energy, as in Back to [...]
How Genre Fiction Helps My Social Life
Last Friday I attended my first writing conference in years. Oddly enough, the very first seminar I attended suggested that [...]
On 9/11 Anniversary, a Need for Sunshine
If we are truly to restore the United States of America, we have to begin by illuminating what our government [...]
What You Need to Create Local Foodsheds
Last Friday I slipped into the Local Foodshed Commons and Conference, part of Boulder County's Eat Local! Week sponsored by [...]
Fourmile Canyon Fire
On Monday I walked around Walden Ponds, birding. I had planned to be there the day before, for First Sunday [...]
Restoring People and Buildings
The Front Range of Colorado (the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains) is a good place to be if you're [...]
Women’s Groups: Do We Still Need Them?
I'm supposed to be celebrating small adventures on this blog until I manage to have some bigger ones. In that [...]
Plas-Tex PolyWall for Humid Rooms
If you're renovating a bathroom or other space that needs water-resistant/waterproof walls, PolyWall may be of interest to you. It [...]
Reducing CFCs, Faking Carbon Offsets
Most people probably don't think that one environmental good can be used to greenwash in another area. But just that [...]
The Couchsurfers of August
For two years I've been a member of HouseCarers, a service that unites people who need housesitters with those who [...]
Plate Lunch in Denver Two Times
Starbucks latte and shortbread cookies do not really qualify as palate cleansers, but then again, I'm talking latte between two [...]
Are Small Wind Turbines the Answer?
While reading back issues of Sustainable Industries, I came across an article titled "Land of the Free? Permitting Woes Create [...]
Exploring the East Side of Kansas City
On Friday my brother and I moved my father into the apartment where he'll be staying for two weeks. If [...]
Do Ecosystems Need Disturbance?
The spring 2010 issue of Cultural Survival has a thought-provoking article titled "Conservation Refugees." It's written by Mark Dowie, who [...]
Getting Warm
This morning I walked the Santa Fe Trace trail behind my sister's house, armed with one of my father's canes. [...]
Will More Flowers Help Bees?
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) has been noted in beehives worldwide since 2006. In this disorder, the bees don't simply die [...]
REI Versus the Grump
I just got a cool new catalog from Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), which has several stores in the Denver Metro [...]
Plastic from Poland to Mexico
I know plastic travels that far because the trash exhibit I saw in 2004 at the Centro Ecologico Sian Ka'an [...]
The Feminist Versus the Electrician
Finally this month I called an electrician to fix a switch that's been going out for months. I come from [...]
Will You Have Blankets or Whitewash with Your Glacier?
There's no getting around it: The Dirt is a great blog. I could spend all day reading it and learning [...]
We Should All Live This Way
Kenny Kirkland of Woolly Egg Ranch in the Tennessee Valley in California (yes, you read that right) is living the [...]
A Family Gathers. Will the Children Break Their Heads?
The day my brother flew back to Kansas City, Todd and I drove to Angel Fire, New Mexico. Bradleys from [...]
Water Is the New Energy
Gentle reader, you may have been scratching your head over that headline. I mean that water is becoming as hot [...]
Could It All Be Different?
While the US Social Forum was happening June 22–26 in Detroit, the media ignored it, for the most part (as [...]