This is Earth Week and Arbor Day is on Friday, so it is the perfect time to find ways to improve the health of our lives with plants and eco friendly practices.

My husband watched “Green Fire”, a movie about Aldo Leopold the “father of modern conservation”, and is now reading his book, Sand County Almanac.  Cedar Rapids held a fabulous event last weekend called Eco Fest sponsored by may local organizations.

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Week or Arbor Day?  Is your community doing a ‘clean up project’ or other event to beautify your area?  Have you been able to spend time outdoors appreciating the wonders of Mother nature?

Share your thoughts at the Eco Family Blog http://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/isuecofamily  or our Eco Family Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/ISUEco-Family  !!

Kristi

We invite you to come and tour our new office space, meet staff, and learn about some of these programs including
♦ Parenting Education Consortium
♦ 4-H (K-12 Youth Outreach)
♦ Eco Family
♦ Master Gardeners
♦ Play and Learn
♦ Nonprofit Management Academy
♦ Family Finance
♦ Expanded Food Nutrition Education Program
♦ and so much more!

Stop by on your way home from work or bring the kids – we’ll have a fun hands-on Science activity for youth to try.  You’ll be be able to visit with a Master Gardener about any of your plant questions, learn tips on how you can live a more eco-friendly life,  gets tips for balancing your finances, hear about many of our upcoming classes and events  and much more! 

Questions?  Email benesh1@iastate.edu  or call Linn County Extension at 319.377.9839. 

Please note: The handicapped entrance is at the back of the building and you may use the lift at the bottom of the stairs to reach the second floor.  If you need any special accommodations to attend or have any questions, please let us know in advance.

Hope to see you live and in person!!

Kristi

YOU TOO can get in on the action by signing up for Month 3 of the Eco Family Virtual Conference and start exploring the educational resources we have gathered for you on ENERGY! You can still watch the recorded sessions on Water (January) and Living Green (February) and explore those resources, too!  It is only $70 for your whole neighborhood or extended family, provided you can get them all in the same place – might have to plug in the big screen or rent the movie theater to get all your closest friends there! Better yet, call your local county Extension office and see if they are hosting an Eco Family Virtual Conference there!  You have to bring your own snacks!

As Sara Stikx said “I peeked” at what is coming next month, and it is SO amazing that I can’t wait to try some of the new ideas! Tell us what you are learning about living green in 2013!!

Kristi

Eco Family Virtual Conference Sessions will be held the first Thursday of each month from 6:30-8:00pm:
• January 3- Water (watch the archived session after you register!)
• February 7- Living Green
• March 7- Energy
• April 4- Stuff
• May 2- Food
• June 6- Neighbors

Do the math, if you want all 6 sessions, it is actually less than $12 month. (if you miss a session, you still get the monthly archived on-line gathering and access to all the materials!)  Pick what fits YOUR family’s schedule!

Get all 6 monthly topics for $70 or choose one for $15. Register now!
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/linn/news/live-green-13-eco-family-virtual-conference

How will YOU live green in 2013?

Kristi

Think about your meals in the last week.  Do you know your food and where it comes from?  My family is enjoying venison this winter born wild near our home. I probably saw the doe as a fawn a few years ago.  She would have eaten acorns, corn and birdseed (from our birdfeeders!) as well as  lots of vegetation in the wooded area and the yards in our neighborhood. I tried to grow broccoli and brussel sprouts last summer and now have a much greater appreciation for how long it takes to grow, keep the bugs out, share with the deer and when to harvest it so it is just the way we like it!

What do you know about YOUR food? Tell us about it at the Eco Family Blog http://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/isuecofamily

Kristi

You don’t need thousands of red wigglers to do this, we started with just a handful and they reproduced so much that we shared worms to get at least 16 households, a high school ag classroom, a couple of 4-H clubs, my egg farmer and a young agronomist in the composting business.  Well, not really “in business’, but we were able to expand the opportunity for individuals and families to divert food waste all over Iowa and beyond, 20 fold!

We now have two vermi-compost bins in the office.  The Super Snack Lady, our school nutrition educator, snagged a pickle bucket from a local restaurant and it became the  second one now residing in our volunteer coordinator’s office.

People ask if it smells.  No, unless we wait too long to put the scraps in the bin and they have started rot. Then I bury the really ripe pieces a little deeper so the worms will work on it right away.  But, I have to tell you, the harvested compost smells SWEET and FRESH! Our little friends prefer to be ‘incognito’, so we cover them with about 3 inches of shredded office paper and they do their work quietly and quickly each week without fanfare. The perfect environment is 55-75 degrees fairenheit, dark and moist with a 50-50 mix of green and brown goods.  The green goods are high in nitrogen and include things like avocado skins and pulp, banana peels, apple cores, kiwi and broccoli trimmings.  The brown ingredients are carbon based and include coffee grounds, tea bags, paper towels and that sort of thing. There are some things that do not compost well - meat, dairy, salad dressing and other fats.  We do, however, add clean, crushed egg shells about monthly for some calcium to the mix and to keep the pH balanced.

How much food waste does your household throw into the garbage can each week? Would you consider composting it? Tell us about it  at http://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/isuecofamily/

Kristi

There is still time to get in on this exciting family learning opportunity!

Eco Family Virtual Conference Begins Jan. 3!

Would you like to leave a lighter footprint this year? Why don’t you include it among your new year resolutions this year! Learn how – as a family!

Join Sara and Sam Stikx, Eco Family Super Heroes for the 2013 Eco Family Virtual Conference!
YOUR family is invited to:
• explore sustainable living resources
• conduct citizen science activities
• watch & create your own avatar video
• have fun together!

REGISTER NOW and pay using PayPal.  The entire 6 session virtual course is only $70 per family.

Learn more about this earth-friendly, family fun event!

Your choices do make a difference.

Kristi

New Year’s inspires a degree of sentimentality and anticipation in me.  I inherited boxes of photos and memorabilia from my mothers’ house a few years ago. She was the self-appointed, albeit, unorganized, family historian and I was ‘blessed’ with what remained of ‘family’ items after her home was sold.   I am slowly scanning and labeling photos, school report cards, newspaper clippings and taking photos of other personal items from my ancestors. I plan to pass the items on to relatives and others who can enjoy them. 

I am, however, keeping a few items that bring me joy.  I put my mother’s wedding dress and my father’s wedding suit on display in the guest room.  I am repairing worn aprons from generations of family cooks and fashioning some ‘new’ ones from the old patterns! All this stimulates much reflection, insight, and gratitude. I am reminded of the environmentally friendly practices that my ancestors lived by.  Saving grease in a can, feeding the chickens the table scraps, collecting rainwater in a cistern for baths and clothes washing, hanging clothes to dry. My grandmother, Lucy, wouldn’t have said it was earth friendly, it made economic sense to use what was available. My great aunt Velma shunned paper towels because we all had dishcloths. My grandfather, Willis, didn’t buy new equipment, he fixed what he had or traded for something he needed. My father and his brothers shared common tools so each did not have to purchase his own.

As I enter the new year, I look back for wisdom to use as I move forward. I am fascinated that I’m doing some of the same things my ancestors did for the same and different reasons.  All because it makes sense economically, environmentally and socially.  This combination is called the triple bottom line of sustainability.  It is a concept that families, neighborhoods, communities, cities and states can use to make sense in our changing world.

My husband and I co-own some equipment with friends.  Other items we borrow or rent so we don’t have to maintain or store them.   We ‘traded’ babysitting with neighbors when our children were young. I have rain barrels to collect rainwater for the vegetable garden and fruit & nut plants. My neighbor shares her chicken eggs and manure and I share vegetables and fruit jelly. I hang dry clothes indoors in winter.  My table scraps go to the compost pile and I am using Velma’s dishtowels and Lucy’s aprons everyday.

How are you looking back to gain wisdom for the new year? How are you moving forward with the Triple Bottom Line to Sustainability ? Tell us at the Eco Family Blog http://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/isuecofamily

Kristi

Spiritually, Winter Solstice, is a time for reflection and releasing the old and readying ourselves for the new. It is considered a “birth day”  of a new season, of weather, phase of life and is celebrated various ways in many, many cultures. Over the years, my Winter Solstice celebrations have included hikes at the local nature center to hear stories and legends, feed the wildlife and honor the earth for its gifts of life all year long.  I have participated in candlelight vigils, wrote letters of gratitude and forgiveness, and baked special treats. When it snows, I create a spiral labyrinth in my front yard.

This year, 12/21/2012, you may have heard it is the last day of the Mayan Calendar. I think that means we start with a clean slate, an invitation to co-create our future, working with nature to find the best way to support human, plant and animal habitat on this planet. One way you can do that is participating in the Eco Family Virtual Conference! Give your family a winter solstice celebration that lasts until the summer solstice! 

What are you doing this Winter Solstice? Share your thoughts with me on the Eco Family Blog http://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/isuecofamily

Kristi