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If your kids are showing interest in living a cleaner, greener life, you’ve got to encourage them. Here are a few ways you can get them in the spirit and hey, if you use your broadband internet providers out there to find some other ideas, let us know in the comments!
Be Part of the Community: Odds are your community has some sort of green activity – a community garden, a farmer’s market, Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone wants to know what they can do to “go green,” and for everyone buying locally is the first and most adoptable answer. Here are some highlights to buying local:

Flavor and Nutrition: When you buy local food from your farmers market or farm stand, you are buying food that is in season. In season foods means foods that weren’t tricked into growing when and where they normally wouldn’t. Local, in season foods mean less of what you don’t want: insecticides and growth chemicals, and more of what you do: flavor and nutrition.

Cost Savings: Food that’s sold in the grocery and big box stores automatically comes with a price tag that accounts for the gas used to truck or fly it in to you. When you buy your produce locally, you’re dodging that inflated gas tax as well as keeping your own carbon footprint low by not driving far to make your purchase.

Supporting your Community: Buying local keeps your money in your community. You money is your vote so when you choose to buy an apple from a farmer two miles away instead of an orange trucked-in from two states away, you’re voting to help your community thrive!

Organic fertilizers are capable of feeding plants while being very environmental friendly. They build the soil around them too. Soil that contain an abundance of organic material tend to be airy and loose, which helps retain moisture and nutrients. Plus, they help soil organisms grow and build healthy roots. Also, the material that organic fertilizers are typically made of come from plant, animal, and rock sources. Microbes slowly break down these materials. This results in long term nutrition and steady growth.

Unlike organic fertilizers, synthetic fertilizers are capable of growing plants quickly. However, Read the rest of this entry »

When trying to determine if buying bottled water is safe and worth the asking price it is important to evaluate the situation that you are in when you find yourself buying it. Are you purchasing a large number of bottled waters just for the convenience, because you dislike the taste of tap water or find yourself needing a drink on a hot day? Rather than opting for a bottled water that is creating more waste and cost find an alternative.
There are several different options Read the rest of this entry »

There are several debates on whether glass is safer than plastic or vise versa. It really depends on what you hold higher in your scope to be more important, convenience or the environment. Plastic bottles and such were approved by the FDA, but the FDA reported they found traces of the chemical bisphenol A and they reported it was harmless and were safe for consumers to use for daily life. But, later on studies by the FDA showed that this chemical, bisphenol A, could lead to some serious health and behavioral issues.Never heard of this before? Get up to speed here. These things were not mentioned in the first Read the rest of this entry »

Integrated pest management is important because it keeps the decisions as to the method of management all in one place. This means that the person deciding what do use in the treatment of one pest already knows what sorts of preparations are in place in the treatment of another, thus the home doesn’t get a double dose any of one chemical but instead gets the most effective and safe applications of what is really needed.

Pest management is often necessary in the modern world. Critters Read the rest of this entry »

The question of whether turning the thermostat up in the summer will make a difference has a very simple answer: Yes. There are several ways turning up the thermostat can make a difference, the first of which is the energy bill for the household. When the difference between the inside temperature and the outside temperature is less, the cost to maintain the difference is less. What that means is that if a household keeps its internal temperature at seventy-five during the summer and the outside temperature is in the nineties then it Read the rest of this entry »

Turning the thermostat down in the winter can make a difference in monthly heating bills. The savings can be a little or quite dramatic depending on current usage. No matter how much the savings are every dollar is important. It is recommended that thermostats are set around 68 degrees, but not higher than 70 degrees during the day. At night the thermostat should be set at 58 degrees. The heat should be low or off when leaving the house. There may be an adjustment period when setting the thermostat lower, but Read the rest of this entry »