F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies

Environmental Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:01:00 +0000

Sat 4/1 - Winter Gardening Workshops - Vegetable Gardening 106, 2 - 3:30 pm, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 27 Pleasant Street, Brunswick. The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust is offering a series of six workshops on vegetable gardening, aimed at beginning and novice gardeners. At this last workshop in the series, learn how to identify and control common garden pests and diseases. FMI contact Linton Studdiford 798-5899

Mon 4/2 - Sustainable Vehicle Design: Vintage Utility Vehicles, 6 - 8 pm, Sustainability and Energy Alternatives Center at SMCC, 2 Fort Road, South Portland. Stuart Vreeland of Yarmouth, collector and aficionado, will provide an historic perspective of small practical vehicles, featuring the Piaggio Ape, for decades the simplest and cheapest form of transportation in Europe and developing countries around the world. Southern Maine Community College in South Portland is hosting a series of free community discussions with the owners and builders of a wide range of alternative vehicles, covering technical aspects, design philosophy, performance data, legal issues, cost, efficiency, historical and current trends, and personal anecdotes. FMI contact John Braugitam, 741-5958 , or Ruth Morrison, 741-5856 , at SMCC.

Mon 4/2 - Livestock 101 Online Course (must register by March 30). A four-week course sponsored by the U Maine Cooperative Extension. Basic livestock care for small-scale livestock producers; general information on the care of cattle, sheep, goats, equines, pigs, and poultry for people just starting out or thinking about raising these animals. $25. Includes program information, supporting resources, email access and conference calls with presenters. High-speed Internet connection required. FMI see www.umaine.edu/livestock/blog/2012/03/08/livestock-101/ or contact UMaine Extension Educator Donna Coffin 564-3301 or 1-800-287-1491.

Tue 4/3 - Energy Quest #8: Energetic Maps! How Geospatial Data Can Help Tell Your Energy Story, 7 - 8 pm, online webinar at http://islandinstitute.adobeconnect.com/energeticmaps. Join the Energy for ME team to learn about how mapping technologies can help us understand and tell stories about energy use.

Tue 4/3 - Green Energy Maine PechaKucha, 7 - 8:30 pm, Frontier Cafe, 14 Maine St (rear of Fort Andross Mill), Brunswick. Pecha Kucha (pe-chak-cha) is a chance to present what you are passionate about. Ten presenters will treat the audience to a smorgasbord of art and other inspirations. Kay Mann will discuss Green Energy Maine, why she created the web site, and what Mainers can do to shift from oil and gas to clean and sustainable energy sources. $5. Reserve your tickets by calling 798-6964.

Wed 4/4 - Kitchen Licensing Workshop, 10 am - 3 pm, Common Ground Education Center, Unity. Designed for farmers and others interested in home-food processing for resale. Learn about licensing requirements, food safety, and liability insurance. Morning panel moderated by Cheryl Wixson, MOFGA's resident chef. After lunch, participants will tour MOFGA's Common Kitchen. Afternoon program will discuss labeling requirements, organic certification, and a round table sharing of experiences. $35 for MOFGA members; $40 for non-members. Includes lunch. Please note this course is very popular and fills quickly. Will be offered again in December. FMI see http://www.mofga.org/Programs/Events/KitchenLicensingWorkshop/tabid/1588/Default.aspx

Wed 4/4 - Grow Your Own Organic Garden, 6 - 9 pm, Scarborough High School, Room E103, 11 Municipal Drive, Scarborough. Learn the basics of soil science and how to enrich soil to produce healthy high-yielding plants, making and using compost, principles of crop rotation, incorporating green manures and managing nutrients, differences between cultivated plants and weeds, weed control strategies, and natural insect control. $5. FMI call 730-5040 or see http://scarborough.maineadulted.org/courses/course/mofgas_grow_your_own_organic_garden

Wed 4/4 - The Last Five Percent: The Most Remote, Magical, and Pristine Corners of the Ocean, 6 pm, Franklin Theater, Waynflete School, Portland. An evening with filmmaking pioneer and ocean conservationist Feodor Pitcairn, including a screening of his film "Ocean Odyssey." Go on a high-definition journey through the last untouched five percent of the ocean: from the kelp forests to the Galapagos, from Indonesia to Belize, and from Polynesia to the Azores. Free, but donations will be accepted to benefit 10th, 11th and 12th grade scholarships for Sustainable Ocean Studies. FMI call 774-5721, ext. 318, or see http://www.waynflete.org/summertime.

Thu 4/5 - King Coal and Appalachian Activism: The Fight to Save Appalachia from Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, 7 - 8:30 pm, Smith Auditorium, Sills Hall, Bowdoin College, Brunswick. More than 500 mountains and 1.2 million acres of landscape have been destroyed in Appalachia by mountaintop removal coal mining. Some of this coal comes to New England to fuel power plants that sell electricity to Maine. Come hear Chuck Keeney, a West Virginia historian, talk about the impacts of mountaintop removal mining, what the people of Appalachia are doing to stop it, and how we can help here in Maine. Free, but space is limited; RSVP online at http://supporters.nrcm.org/site/Calendar?id=101021&view=Detail

Fri 4/6 - Earth Stations: A Planetary Way of the Cross, 3:45 - 5:30 pm, the Bandstand, Deering Oaks Park, Portland. Evoking the traditional Good Friday practice of journeying the fourteen Stations of the Cross, this powerful event invites solemn reflection on behalf of the wounded Earth, and our role in its healing. Designed for those concerned for the Earth, regardless of religious affiliation. Prophetic and inspirational words from the world's astronauts and poets and religious leaders from many traditions will be interspersed with silence as we walk slowly from one "station" to the next. Organizations supporting this event are the Maine Council of Churches, the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine, Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Interfaith Power and Light. FMI call the Rev. Kitsy Winthrop 773-7738.

Fri 4/6 - Backyard Poultry for Eggs or Meat, 5:30 - 8:30 pm, The Long Branch School of Maine, 20 Main Street, Bowdoinham. Learn from Brett Thompson what it takes to successfully raise chicks to egg laying adulthood. Instruction includes fencing and other predator deterrents, feeders and waterers, along with a demonstration of what to feed and how often to water. Housing will be discussed along with a demo of different types of an M.C.U. (Mobile Chicken Unit). Meat production will not include slaughtering, but you will get addresses of places to transport your birds for same. The course emphasis will be on the health, happiness and safety of your feathered charges. Bring a copy of the chicken ordinance for your town. $40. FMI call 666-8900 or see www.longbranchschool.com

Sat 4/7 - Children's Day at Fields Pond, 10 am - 4 pm, 216 Fields Pond Rd, Holden. A free day of nature programs for children and families. Fields Pond Audubon Center features a visitor center, an 85-acre pond, and a 192-acre sanctuary with trails ideal for nature study, wildlife-watching, walking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. FMI call 989-2591.

Sat 4/7 - Endangered Species Road Watch Training Session, 10:30 am – 2 pm, Goodall Memorial Library, 952 Main St, Sanford. Want to do something that is both good for you and good for Maine's wildlife? Maine Audubon is recruiting volunteers to take part in a special survey for endangered species along roads in southern Maine. Lunch provided; families encouraged to attend. RSVP to Becca Wilson 781-2330 ext. 222

Sat 4/7 - Composting Talk, 10 - 11 am, Longfellow's Greenhouses, 81 Puddledock Rd, Manchester. C.J. Walke, an avid composter and organic orchardist with MOFGA, will discuss the uses and benefits of compost in the garden. FMI call 622-5965.

Sat 4/7 - Organic Gardening Talk, 1 - 2 pm, Longfellow's Greenhouses, 81 Puddledock Rd, Manchester. Caragh Fitzgerald, an Extension Educator for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, will discuss how to avoid pest problems and to manage your plants with natural products and natural fertilizers. FMI call 622-5965.

Sat 4/7 - Vermicomposting Workshop, 1 – 3 pm, Belfast Free Library, 106 High Street, Belfast. The Belfast Co-op is hosting Mark Follansbee, of WormMainea, for a workshop on composting with worms: an introduction to vermicomposting, setting up and maintaining a worm bin, making a bin with the group, seeing a bin in action, learning about harvesting and using vermicompost, and Q&A. You can pre-order red wiggler worms for $20/pound, and vermicompost kits (worm bin plus 1# red wigglers) for $35 by email ; be sure to mention the 4/7 workshop in Belfast. FMI email Kate Harris, the Co-op's Education Coordinator, or call the Belfast Co-op at 338-2532.

Sat 4/7 - Backyard Poultry for Eggs or Meat, 9 am - noon, The Long Branch School of Maine, 20 Main Street, Bowdoinham. Learn from Brett Thompson what it takes to successfully raise chicks to egg laying adulthood. Instruction includes fencing and other predator deterrents, feeders and waterers, along with a demonstration of what to feed and how often to water. Housing will be discussed along with a demo of different types of an M.C.U. (Mobile Chicken Unit). Meat production will not include slaughtering, but you will get addresses of places to transport your birds for same. The course emphasis will be on the health, happiness and safety of your feathered charges. Bring a copy of the chicken ordinance for your town. $40. FMI call 666-8900 or see www.longbranchschool.com

Mon 4/9 - Chemicals and Our Health, 6:30 – 7:30 pm, Pejepscot Day School, 646 Lewiston Rd, Topsham. Hear a panel discussion about safer consumer choices and policy actions. FMI call 725-1229.

Tue, 4/10 - Forum - UMAINE: Clean Tech Innovation Partner, 7:15 - 10:30 am, Wells Conf Ctr, UMAINE, Orono and Wishcamper Center, USM, Portland. E2Tech heads north to Orono for talks and tours of five clean tech research centers. Meet leaders from these centers to learn how their current projects and capabilities have spun off successful businesses and how they may be able to help yours. This special event will bridge north and south via video conferencing with attendees in Portland, providing a chance to network virtually and learn more about the cutting edge facilities, technology and people available at UMAINE to support clean tech companies. $15 E2Tech members; $25 non-members. $15 Orono attendees. Video link between UMaine and USM will end at 9:30.

Tue 4/10 - Apps for Gardeners and Plant Lovers, 5 - 6 pm, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Barters Island Rd, Boothbay. Learn about numerous informative, helpful, and downright entertaining apps available for iPad, iPhone, or iPod in this indoor/outdoor class taught by Director of Education and Staff Botanist Melissa Cullina. $10 members; $12 non-members. Pre-register by calling 633-4333, ext. 101, see www.MaineGardens.org, or stop by the Gardens.

Tue 4/10 - Tails of the Kennebec & Sebasticook, 7 pm, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick. Enjoy a presentation by Nate Gray, fisheries restoration biologist, with the Maine Department of Marine Resources. FMI contact Ed Friedman 666-3372 .

Tue 4/10 - Chemicals and Our Health: Consumer Choices and Policy Decisions, 7 pm, Shift Sustainable Home Goods, 56 Maine St, Brunswick. Most commonly used chemicals have never been tested for safety before they are sold. Join the Environmental Health Strategy Center for a discussion about toxic chemicals in our products and their impacts on human health. Get useful tips for reducing exposure and an explanation of the policy solutions needed to protect ourselves and our families. Free. Call 729-4050 or email info@shiftofmaine.com to register.

Tue 4/10 - Grow Your Own Organic Garden, 6 - 8 pm, Abbott Room, Belfast Free Library, 106 High St, Belfast. Learn about the basics of soil science, how to enrich your soil to produce healthy, high-yielding plants. Also learn the basics of making and using compost, the principles of crop rotation and how to incorporate green manures and manage nutrients in the garden. Other topics will include distinguishing between cultivated plants and weeds, and controlling weeds and common insect pests using natural methods.

Wed 4/11 - Protecting Maine's Land, 7 - 9 pm, Gilsland Farm, 20 Gilsland Farm Road, Falmouth. Tough economic times present challenging questions for land conservation. Representatives from Maine's land trusts will describe the land they are working to acquire, and the challenges they face. Find out how you can make a difference. FMI call 781-2330.

Wed 4/11 - From Plants to Products Forum, 8 am - noon, Biovation, 55 Industrial Park Rd, Boothbay. Learn about opportunities in bio-based product development. Hear from Maine companies who are already shifting toward more sustainable production while growing their businesses and Maine's economy. $75 registration fee ($25 for students) includes breakfast, lunch and 2012 individual membership in the Sustainable Bioplastics Council of Maine. Register online at https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/338/donate.asp?formid=biomeet&c=6566363

Thu 4/12 - Children's Story Time and Seed Planting, 10 am, Shift Sustainable Home Goods, 56 Maine St, Brunswick. Calling all little hands. Read Uno's Garden by Graeme Base and plant seeds that will ultimately decorate the sidewalk by the store. All participants will also be able to take home a planted seed of their choice, with instructions on care. Free. Call 729-4050 or email info@shiftofmaine.com to register so they can plan for supplies.

Thu 4/12 - "Permablitzing" our way to a sustainable future, 6 - 7:30 pm, Belfast Free Library, 106 High St, Belfast. Learn about the Belfast Area Transition Initiative (BATI) and its collaborative edible garden projects or "permablitzes." These are informal gatherings during which a group of at least two people come together to build edible gardens where someone lives, share skills related to sustainable living, build community networks, share food, and have fun! Permablitzes are free events, open to the public, with shared food, shared work and time to relax and have fun. Also learn about the BATI edible gardens and food security group, the local economy working group, a public transportation project, and a collaborative zero waste initiative.

Thu 4/12 - Backyard Chickens, 6 - 9 pm, Old Orchard Beach High School, Room 101, 40 E E Cummings Blvd, Old Orchard Beach. Thinking about raising chickens for eggs or as pets? Learn to raise happy hens with the basics of backyard chicken keeping: coop and yard setup, chicken breeds, baby chicks, winter care, composting, garden interaction, nutrition, health, and local resources. Instructor Stacey Collins raised her first chickens on a postage-stamp urban lot. She has an organic vegetable and fruit garden and runs Backyard Harvest (www.mainebackyardharvest.com), a chicken and garden consulting business. Get the full scoop on the benefits and drawbacks of chicken keeping in urban and suburban settings. Dispel some common misconceptions and leave with a good sense of what is really involved in successfully raising chickens in your own backyard. $35. FMI call 934-7922.

Thu 4/12 - The Future of Aquaculture: Welfare Challenges in Aquaculture, 6:30 - 8 pm, Sam L. Cohen Center for Interactive Learning, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, 350 Commercial Street, Portland. With an ever growing global population, what role can aquaculture play in ensuring a sustainable food source? Pete Southgate, of FishVet Group, will discuss critical challenges keeping fish healthy in aquaculture environments. Seating is limited, please call for reservations! FMI contact Patty Collins at 228-1625 or lectures@gmri.org

Fri 4/13 to Sun 4/22 - Solar Workshops at the home of Dr. Richard Komp, 17 Rockwell Rd, SE, Jonesport. All you can learn - in ten days, or a weekend, or two... A week with Dr. Richard Komp, including two weekend photovoltaic assembly workshops. Program presented by experienced MeSEA trainers. Sessions include "Solar PV Assembly," how to start a "PV Cottage Industry," how to "Rebuild a Solar Hot-Air Collector," and how to "Combat Climate Change." $75 one day session (Sat or Sun). $125 two day extended session (Sat & Sun). $475 full ten day intensive program. Includes noon meal. FMI call 546-1639 or 497-2204.

Sat 4/14 - 19th Annual Maine Garden Day, 7:30 am - 3 pm, Lewiston High School, 156 East Avenue, Lewiston. Workshops, Educational Displays & Trade Show. Advance registration only! Seating limited; first come, first served. Maine Garden Day Schedule: 7:30 – 8:30 Registration, refreshments & trade show, 8:30 Workshops Begin, Half-day (HD) 8:30-11:15, Quarter-day (QD) 8:30-9:45; 10:00-11:15, 11:15 – 12:15 Lunch and Trade Show, 12:15 Workshops Begin, Half-day (HD) 12:15-3:00, Quarter-day (QD) 12:15-1:30; 1:45-3:00. $50 per person (lunch is included). FMI call 1-800-287-1482 or 743-6329 or see http://www.umaine.edu/gardening/maine-garden-day/

Sat 4/14 and Sun 4/15 - Top Bar Beekeeping 101 - Weekend Intensive, 8:30 am - 4 pm, Shelter Institute, 873 Route One, Woolwich (5 miles north of Bath). Two full days of learning with like-minded folks, concerned about our environment and the health of the honey bee. History, Bee Biology, Bee Diseases, Hive Management - each session with relevant details and anecdotes. $200 ($175 early bird). Include breakfast and lunch. FMI see http://www.goldstarhoneybees.com/

Sat 4/14 - Kitchen Garden Design Workshop, 9 am - 2 pm, Bosarge Family Education Center, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay. Ellen Ecker Ogden, an expert gardener and designer, cookbook author, nationwide speaker, and founder of The Cooks Garden seed catalog, will be at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to present a hands-on class, "Growing Food Artfully: Kitchen Garden Design." Participants are invited to bring photos of their properties to help with the design of their own beautiful and productive veggie gardens. $50 members; $60 non-members. Pre-register by calling 633-4333, ext. 101, see www.MaineGardens.org, or stop by the Gardens.

Sat 4/14 - Endangered Species Road Watch Training Session, 10:30 am - 2 pm, York Public Library, 15 Long Sands Rd, York. Want to do something that is both good for you and good for Maine's wildlife? Maine Audubon is recruiting volunteers to take part in a special survey for endangered species along roads in southern Maine. Lunch provided; families encouraged to attend. RSVP to Becca Wilson 781-2330 ext. 222

Sat 4/14 - Attracting Birds to Your Backyard, 10 – 11 am, Longfellow's Greenhouses, 81 Puddledock Rd, Manchester. Mike Windsor, the Adult Educator and Naturalist for Maine Audubon's Gilsland Farm Center, will describe how you can have an assortment of birds in your yard. Mike's presentation will be followed by a short presentation by the Augusta Area Bird Club. FMI call 622-5965.

Sat 4/14 - Brunswick Barter Market, 3 - 5 pm, Shift Sustainable Home Goods, 56 Maine St, Brunswick. Free and open to all. Anything can be brought to trade: preserved and fresh food, handmade items, seeds and plants, books, tools, or your time and skills. Inspired by the Portland Trading Post events, the guidelines are no cash changes hands (swap or simply "gift" things -- your choice), no swapping until everyone's there, find a home for all your stuff before you leave (or take it home yourself). If you bring a food item with multiple ingredients, please label. Even if you think you have nothing to offer, come check it out! For details, see the Merrymeeting Permaculture and Transition Meetup site at http://www.meetup.com/Merrymeeting-Permaculture-Transition/.

Sat 4/14 - Lawn Care Done Easily and Well, 10 am and 2 pm (Brunswick and Cumberland), 10 am only (Falmouth), Skillins Greenhouses. Want a lush green lawn safe for kids and pets? This class gives you the information and resources you need to have the lawn you want. Discover how to create a self-sustaining lawn that safeguards the health of your family while saving you time and money. Class participants receive a Skillin's 10% discount coupon for use on the weekend of your class. Customers who attend 8 classes in this series (starting with the March classes) receive a $50 Skillin’s Gift Certificate. FMI Brunswick: 442-8111 (1-800-339-8111); Cumberland: 829-5619 (1-800-348-8498); Falmouth: 781-3860 (1-800-244-3860).

Sat 4/14 - The Grass is Always Greener: Sustainable Strategies for the Home Landscape, 2 pm, Skillins Greenhouses Falmouth location only. When it comes to gardening and caring for our earth we are in it for the long term. These sustainable ideas bring you better results year after year. Class participants receive a Skillin's 10% discount coupon for use on the weekend of your class. Customers who attend 8 classes in this series (starting with the March classes) receive a $50 Skillin’s Gift Certificate. FMI 781-3860 (1-800-244-3860).

Mon 4/16 - Rachel Carson in My Life: Memories and Meaning, 5:30 pm, Lee Hall, Wishcamper Center, Portland. Martha Freeman, USM, author of the book, Always Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964, will discuss a special collection of letters from Rachel Carson to her Maine summer neighbor Dorothy Freeman.

Mon 4/16 - Sustainable Vehicle Design: Human Powered Vehicles, 6 - 8 pm, Sustainability and Energy Alternatives Center at SMCC, 2 Fort Road, South Portland. Enclosed and/or recumbent bicycles and tricycles, often with electric assist. The most efficient and healthy transportation on the planet. Presenters are Allen Armstrong, builder, and Ethan Davis, Wildfire HPV, Kennebunk. Southern Maine Community College in South Portland is hosting a series of free community discussions with the owners and builders of a wide range of alternative vehicles, covering technical aspects, design philosophy, performance data, legal issues, cost, efficiency, historical and current trends, and personal anecdotes. FMI contact John Braugitam, 741-5958 , or Ruth Morrison, 741-5856 , at SMCC.

Mon 4/16 - Film Screening: A Sense of Wonder, 11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Lee Hall, Wishcamper Center, Portland.

Tue 4/17 - Film Screening: A Sense of Wonder, 12:30-1:30 p.m., Brooks Faculty Dining, USM, Gorham.

Thu 4/19 - Film Screening: A Sense of Wonder, 1:00-2:30 p.m., Lewiston-Auburn College, Room 287, 51 Westminster Street, Lewiston.

Film to be screened in three locations of the University of Southern Maine during the week before Earth Day. In this 55-minute, one-actress play, Rachel Carson recounts the challenge of getting her message to Congress and the public amidst widespread personal attack. Discussion will follow the screening. For more about the film, see asenseofwonderfilm.com.

Tue 4/17 - Youth 'Pickle Labs', 9:30 - 11:30 am and 1:30 - 3:30 pm, Cumberland County Extension, 75 Clearwater Drive, Ste 104, Falmouth. These two-hour, hands-on, multi-media educational programs teach children 7-12 years old about the science behind food preservation. Students will learn about food preservation science with pickles. In the process, they’ll dissect a pickle, identify pickle flavors through smell and taste, play pickle Jeopardy and sample different pickled products. Each session limited to 24 participants. $2 per child. To register, call 781-6099 or 1-800-287-1471.

Wed 4/18 and 4/25 - Organic Farming: Principles and Practices, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm, Royal River Natural Foods, Freeport. This course, sponsored by Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, is for those who are considering converting to organic or starting an organic farm. Learn about soil science, meeting crop nutrition needs with organic materials, on-farm compost production, the use of cover crops, organic methods of weed, pest and disease control, organic livestock production, organic certification, and marketing organic farm products. Hear experienced organic farmers discussing organic production of several popular commercial enterprises. Both days are approved for 3 pesticide applicator recertification credits. $75 individual (2 days), includes lunch. $30 each additional participant from the same farm or household. $30 students & apprentices. $45 per day/per person (but they strongly suggest you attend both days). FMI see http://www.mofga.org/Events/IntroductiontoOrganicFarmingShortCourses/tabid/296/Default.aspx

Thu 4/19 - 2012 Portland Community Food Forum: Creating a Healthy, Accessible and Resilient Food System, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm, Woodfords Congregrational Church, Portland. A full day of communication, connection and action planning among people working within the Portland, Maine food system. Learn what is happening with our local and regional food system, discover connections, plan collaborations and champion one another’s work, identify gaps in the local food landscape and create ideas for filling them, increase participation in the food security conversation that is already happening, broaden the vision about how Portland can be fed locally, join working groups, develop action steps and craft ideas for new projects, and explore opportunities to keep the conversation and action moving. Local organic lunch provided and coffee/tea/snacks available throughout the day. Free. Register at http://portlandfoodforum.wordpress.com/

Thu 4/19 - Youth 'Pickle Labs', 9:30 - 11:30 am and 1:30 - 3:30 pm, Cumberland County Extension, 75 Clearwater Drive, Ste 104, Falmouth. These two-hour, hands-on, multi-media educational programs teach children 7-12 years old about the science behind food preservation. Students will learn about food preservation science with pickles. In the process, they’ll dissect a pickle, identify pickle flavors through smell and taste, play pickle Jeopardy and sample different pickled products. Each session limited to 24 participants. $2 per child. To register, call 781-6099 or 1-800-287-1471.

Thu 4/19 - 50th Anniversary of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, 5 - 8 pm, Hannaford Lecture Hall, USM, Portland. A panel, moderated by Naomi Schalit, Executive Director of Pinetree Watchdog, will commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring by discussing Carson’s influence on five female environmental leaders in Maine. FMI see http://usm.maine.edu/environmental-science/rachel-carson

Fri 4/20 - Earth Day Celebration: Songs & Stories for a Small Planet, 10 - 11:15 am, Gilsland Farm, 20 Gilsland Farm Road, Falmouth. Join Maine Audubon for a rollicking performance by "Stand-Up Chameleon" Jackson Gillman. Laugh and learn about our connection to the natural world through participatory songs and movement, and Jackson’s uncanny insect impersonations and rib-tickling stories. $10 Maine Audubon members. $15 non-members. FMI call 781-2330.

Fri 4/20 - Mother film screening, 6:30 - 9 pm, First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, Kennebunk. The film "Mother: Caring for 7 Billion" brings to light an issue that fuels our most pressing environmental, humanitarian and social crises: population growth. In 2011 the world population reached 7 billion, a seven-fold increase since 1811. The film illustrates both overconsumption and inequity. Grounded in the theories of social scientist Riane Eisler, the film strives not to blame but to highlight that overpopulation is a symptom of a larger problem - a "domination system" that has glorified the domination of man over nature, man over child, and man over woman. To break this pattern, the first step is to raise the status of women worldwide.

Sat 4/21 - Urban Runoff 5K Race, 9 am, Deering High School, Stevens Avenue, Portland. Runoff is water that flows over the surface of the ground, picking up pollution as it flows. This spring, a new kind of runoff will be seen in Southern Maine! The inaugural Urban Runoff 5K and walk will raise awareness of water pollution and raise money to support clean water education in local schools, then lead into The City of Portland's Green Neighbor Family Fest. $15 pre-registration; $20 race-day registration. FMI see http://www.urbanrunoff5k.com/

Sat 4/21, Earth Day Clean Up: Scarborough Marsh, 9 am - noon, Scarborough Marsh, Scarborough. Spring is here and it is time to clean up the marsh, beaches, the Nature Center, and the grounds for the new season. Join Maine Audubon, Friends of Scarborough Marsh, TogetherGreen, and the Scarborough community for a workday, and help make our corner of the earth a better place. Groups are welcome! FMI see http://maineaudubon.org/our-locations/scarborough-marsh/

Sat 4/21 - Earth Day Work Day, 10 am - 4 pm, MOFGA's Common Ground Education Center, Unity. This is a great opportunity to meet other MOFGA supporters, learn about organic landscape maintenance, get some fresh air in your lungs and dirt under your nails. Lunch and volunteer t-shirts will be provided. If you're interested but can't make it, call MOFGA to talk about year-round volunteer opportunities. FMI call 568-4142 or email volunteers@mofga.org.

Sat 4/21 and Sun 4/22 - Trail Maintenance Weekend, Back Country Excursions, 42 Woodward Rd, Parsonsfield. Winter cleanup and trail repairs. Expect a little riding each day followed by some trail work. Pick a day or stay the weekend and ride and work both days. No fees just bring a little food to share for any meals you might want to do here. We'll do some trail pruning raking and bridge repairs, etc. We will provide most of the tools, but bring your work gloves. Saturday night accommodations are available: first come, first served camping or group bunkhouse. Reservation required as this weekend often fills right up. FMI call Cliff Krolick 625-8189 or email info@bikebackcountry.com

Sat 4/21 - Container Gardening, 10 am and 2 pm, Skillins Greenhouses. Whether you live in a condo, apartment, or want to use small spaces, gardening in containers provides a creative use of limited space. Let Skillins show you how to grow season long flowers in creative ways. Class participants receive a Skillin's 10% discount coupon for use on the weekend of your class. Customers who attend 8 classes in this series (starting with the March classes) receive a $50 Skillin’s Gift Certificate. FMI Brunswick: 442-8111 (1-800-339-8111); Cumberland: 829-5619 (1-800-348-8498); Falmouth: 781-3860 (1-800-244-3860).

Sun 4/22 - The Bicycle Coalition of Maine's Great Orono Bike Swap, 10 am - 2 pm, University of Maine, Orono. Cyclists of all ages and ability levels can buy and sell bicycles while supporting the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Volunteers will be on hand to offer advice on all bike-related subjects. FMI see http://www.bikemaine.org/events/bike-swap, call 623-4511, or email cecelia@BikeMaine.org.

Sun 4/22 - Season Extension: Hoop Houses and Cold Frames for Early Spring, 1 pm, The Urban Farm Fermentory, 200 Anderson St., Bay 4, Portland. Learn how to build hindged hoophouses and simple coldframes to get the growing season started. Topics to be discussed: construction, seed / plant selection, site / solar orientation. $12. FMI call 773-8331 or see http://www.urbanfarmfermentory.com/classes/season-extension-hoop-houses-and-cold-frames-early-spring

Tue 4/24 - Vernal Pools, 6:30 pm, Topsham Public Library, 25 Foreside Road, Topsham. Vernal pools, small wetlands that appear only temporarily in spring, are center stage this time of year. Find out why they are important, and what they are studying in the Cathance Preserve's vernal pools. Amanda Shearin, Ph.D. Candidate in Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Maine, will conduct a lively presentation regarding this unique and precious habitat. FMI call 798-1913 or email crea@creamaine.org

Thu 4/26 - 50th Anniversary of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, 7 - 9 pm, Maine Audubon Gilsland Farm Center, Falmouth. Environmental Health Strategy Center Associate Director Amanda Sears will participate on a speaker panel discussing the 50th Anniversary of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

Thu 4/26 - "Living Downstream" Film and Discussion, 6 - 7:30 pm, Auburn Public Library, 300 Main Street, Lewiston. Based on the book by ecologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Living Downstream follows Sandra during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. A brief discussion will follow on initiatives in Maine to reduce harm from toxic chemicals. FMI contact The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing, http://www.dempseycenter.org/, call 1-877-336-7287 or email info@dempseycenter.org

Fri 4/27 - Spring Gala & Auction: Pitchfork to Plate, 7 - 10 pm, Harraseeket Inn, Freeport. Join neighbors and friends for an evening of champagne, desserts, entertainment, and a live & silent auction to benefit Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation and its mission "to continue and improve Wolfe's Neck Farm's long tradition of sustainable agriculture, education and recreation while preserving its open space." $50 per person. Reserve tickets by calling 865-4469. FMI see http://www.wolfesneckfarm.org/spring-gala.html

Fri 4/27 and Sat 4/28 - Maine Land Conservation Conference 2012, at the Frontier Cafe in Brunswick, and The Red Mill, Mt. Ararat Middle School and Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsham. Maine Coast Heritage Trust presents the Maine Land Conservation Conference in support of Maine's land conservation community. The conference provides training on best practices in land trust management, land transactions, fundraising and stewardship. It provides a forum for learning about the most pressing issues facing land conservation today. Note: Country Edible Plant Walk and GIS Mapping Workshop have filled to capacity. FMI see http://www.mltn.org/meetings/conservation-conference.php

Sat 4/28 - Edible Landscaping Made Easy, 10 am, Longfellow's Greenhouses, 81 Puddledock Rd, Manchester. Lois Stack, University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Ornamental Horticulture, will help you plan your landscape to maximize vegetable growth and make the most of your growing experience. Grow and enjoy fresh vegetables from your own garden. FMI call 622-5965.

Sat 4/28 and Sun 4/29 - Top Bar Beekeeping 101: Weekend Intensive, 8:30 am - 4 pm, Squire Tarbox Inn, 1181 Main Rd, Westport Island. Combine a weekend class by top bar bee keeper, Christy Hemenway of Gold Star HoneyBees, with a stay at an historic inn on Westport Island. Learn how to raise bees in a top-bar hive and make honey. Includes two nights lodging (April 27 and 28), breakfast, lunch & refreshments; classes on Saturday & Sunday (April 28 & 29). Single occupancy and 1 student $415; double occupancy and 2 students $590; double occupancy and 1 student $430. Prices exclude 7% Maine lodging tax. FMI see http://www.squiretarboxinn.com/specials/

Sat 4/28 - Vegetable Gardening, 10 am, Skillins Greenhouses. Learn how to safely and smartly grow your own food. Class participants receive a Skillin's 10% discount coupon for use on the weekend of your class. Customers who attend 8 classes in this series (starting with the March classes) receive a $50 Skillin’s Gift Certificate. FMI Brunswick: 442-8111 (1-800-339-8111); Cumberland: 829-5619 (1-800-348-8498); Falmouth: 781-3860 (1-800-244-3860).

Sat 4/28 - Container Edibles, 2 pm, Skillins Greenhouses. More and more of us want to grow some of our own food as naturally and conveniently as we can. Let Skillins show you some new tricks with vegetables and herbs that can be grown indoors and out. Class participants receive a Skillin's 10% discount coupon for use on the weekend of your class. Customers who attend 8 classes in this series (starting with the March classes) receive a $50 Skillin’s Gift Certificate. FMI Brunswick: 442-8111 (1-800-339-8111); Cumberland: 829-5619 (1-800-348-8498); Falmouth: 781-3860 (1-800-244-3860).

Sun 4/29 - The Bicycle Coalition of Maine's Great Portland Bike Swap, 10 am - 2 pm, University of Southern Maine, Portland. Cyclists of all ages and ability levels can buy and sell bicycles while supporting the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Volunteers will be on hand to offer advice on all bike-related subjects. FMI see http://www.bikemaine.org/events/bike-swap, call 623-4511, or email cecelia@BikeMaine.org.

Mon 4/30 - Sustainable Vehicle Design: Maine Electric Vehicles, 6 - 8 pm, Sustainability and Energy Alternatives Center at SMCC, 2 Fort Road, South Portland. Three-wheeled home and kit built electric vehicles are a study in simplicity and practicality. Presenters are Art Haines, SUNNev, and Bill Drinkwater, EV Maine. Southern Maine Community College in South Portland is hosting a series of free community discussions with the owners and builders of a wide range of alternative vehicles, covering technical aspects, design philosophy, performance data, legal issues, cost, efficiency, historical and current trends, and personal anecdotes. FMI contact John Braugitam, 741-5958 , or Ruth Morrison, 741-5856 , at SMCC.

Sat 7/21 - Save the date - Green Living Expo, 11 am - 6 pm, 77 Warren Rd, Denmark. Whether you are tied to the grid or tired of the grid, come to this laid back and informative green living workshop to learn now you can green up and simplify your living situation. $45-$75 self-assessed sliding scale includes workshops and community sauna to end the day. Bring your own lunch. FMI contact Jen Deraspe 595-8260 or see http://ntnretreats.com/wp/?tribe_events=green-living-expo/

December's Sustainable Living Tip: Gift Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:53:00 +0000

Still looking for the perfect gift? Sustain your relationships, your community, and your planet with these ideas for the holidays or any occasion.

Help make the world a better place by making a gift of a charitable donation. Changing The Present is one organization that makes it easy to find the perfect charity and personalize your gift with a greeting card. You can even create a wishlist or a gift registry to help your friends and family give you the perfect gift in return.
Share your love of our country by giving a National Park annual pass. This $80 pass is the ticket to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites: national parks, wildlife refuges, forests, and grasslands. Maine State park passes are also available online.
Support your local businesses with a gift certificate to your local downtown merchants. For example, the city of Bath, Maine, offers the "Gift of Bath Certificates" accepted at over 70 local restaurants, shops & entertainment venues. If your downtown doesn't offer a similar option, put them in touch with Main Street Bath to learn how to make it happen in your community.
Help bring an end to world hunger with a gift from Heifer international. A child or family will receive training and an animal to help them become self-reliant, and your loved one will receive a personalized card in honor of your gift.
Adopt a sea creature through Oceana.org. Your donation will support marine conservation, and you can choose to send a plush animal toy or cookie cutter that represents your favorite creature.
Support your local farmers with a farmers market gift certificate. For a list of winter farmers markets in Maine, see this article from last year's MOFGA newsletter or search LocalHarvest.org for farms and markets in your area.
Give a free lunch (or dinner). Buy the ingredients for a healthy, organic meal, and give them along with directions to your loved one. For some ideas of good meals to give, check out the Make-Ahead Meals blog.
For close friends or family, offer to give a cooking class. This might be the year to share the secret recipe from your Aunt Marge. Or maybe it's time to try some new recipes on your own and share what works best. For some ideas, visit the world's largest collection of vegetarian recipes.
Ever commiserated about the time it takes to clean house? That's a perfect excuse to give a green house cleaning without casting aspersions. Who wouldn't appreciate a "One Time Deep Clean" from a company like Green Clean Maine?
Give a guided walking tour to a place you love. Whether you call it a date or a micro-vacation, your gift will be memorable and unique.
Spend some time to consider an important person in your life and write a poem just for them. To help get you started, read these tidbits of advice on writing poetry from poet Charles Simic.
Share the Earth's bounty by sharing seeds. When you include stories from your own experience gardening, or even a small sample of preserves, you make your gift extra meaningful.
Give an empty mailbox with the gift of less junk mail from 41pounds.org.

Environmental Organizations

Here are more gift ideas for you. How about a gift membership to one of the following environmental organizations?

The Appalachian Mountain Club works to promote the protection, enjoyment, and understanding of the mountains, forests, waters, and trails of the Appalachian region.
The Bicycle Coalition of Maine works to make Maine a better place to bicycle. By joining, you can help improve bicycle safety, create more bicycle-friendly communities, and advocate for better laws affecting bicyclists.
The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust works to conserve the remarkable diversity of the natural heritage of Brunswick, Topsham and Bowdoin. The Land Trust has conserved hundreds of acres of critical open space through easements, gifts, and purchase.
The Cathance River Education Alliance works to use the natural resources of the Cathance River Preserve to promote ecological awareness and nature-based learning among students, educators, and the public.
Chewonki works to help people grow by providing educational experiences that foster an understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of the natural world and that emphasize the power of focused, collective effort.
The Environmental Health Strategy Center works to promote human health and safer chemicals in a sustainable economy.
The Friends of Casco Bay work to improve and protect the environmental health of Casco Bay. By joining, you help monitor water quality, organizate coastal cleanups, and collaborate with partners to protect the Bay from pollution.
The Friends of Merrymeeting Bay work to preserve, protect, and improve the unique ecosystems of Merrymeeting Bay through advocacy, education, conservation and research.
The Island Institute works to support the island and coastal communities of the Gulf of Maine: recognizing that everything in the region – human and environmental – is connected.
The Maine Appalachian Trail Club works to manage, maintain and protect of the Appalachian Trail in Maine. It is responsible for all Trail structure design, construction, and maintenance; for monitoring activities in the AT corridor; and for basic public information and education regarding the Trail in Maine.
Maine Audubon works to conserve Maine’s wildlife and wildlife habitat by engaging people of all ages in education, conservation and action. Maine Audubon connects people with nature.
The Maine Coast Heritage Trust works to conserve and steward Maine’s coastal lands and islands for their renowned scenic beauty, outdoor recreational opportunities, ecological diversity and working landscapes.
Maine Conservation Voters works to ensure that the protection of our water, air, forests, wildlife, landscapes and natural heritage is a political priority in Maine.
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association works to help farmers and gardeners: grow organic food, fiber and other crops; protect the environment; recycle natural resources; increase local food production; support rural communities; and illuminate for consumers the connection between healthful food and environmentally sound farming practices.
Maine Rivers works to protect, restore and enhance the ecological health of Maine's river systems.
The Maine Solar Energy Association works to promote public awareness and use of solar energy and other renewable and nonpolluting energy sources, energy conservation, and green building practices.
The Natural Resources Council of Maine works to improve the quality of Maine's rivers; to reduce toxic chemicals threatening the health of Maine families and wildlife; to decrease air and global warming pollution, and to conserve Maine lands.
The Nature Conservancy works to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Nature Conservancy protects more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide -- and operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.
Physicians for Social Responsibility work to build a healthy environment and promote sensible security policies.
The Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club works to protect Maine’s wilderness heritage, fight global warming & promote smart growth, safeguard Maine’s clean water and coastline, promote clean air and energy efficiency, hold public officials accountable, and support pro-environment candidates for public office.
Wolfe's Neck Farm works to continue and improve Wolfe's Neck Farm's long tradition of sustainable agriculture, recreation and education while preserving its open space.
The Center for Biological Diversity works to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. They do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
The Conservation Law Foundation works to protect all parts of New England’s environment, using the law, science, and the market to develop innovative, pragmatic solutions.
Greenpeace International works to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace.
LightHawk works to provide donated flights to conservation groups as a tool to accelerate conservation efforts.
The Natural Resources Defense Council works to use law, science and the support of 1.3 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.
The Ocean Conservancy works to create concrete solutions that lead to lasting change -- so we can all experience a healthy ocean for generations to come.
The Toxics Action Center works to clean up hazardous waste sites, reduce industrial pollution, curb pesticide use, ensure healthy land use, replace dangerous chemicals with safer alternatives, and oppose dangerous waste, energy, and industrial facilities.
The Union of Concerned Scientists works to combine independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
The Wilderness Society works to protect our nation’s public lands, the 635 million acres collectively owned by the American people and managed by our government.
The Worldwatch Institute works to deliver the insights and ideas that empower decision makers to create an environmentally sustainable society that meets human needs.

Environmental Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:52:00 +0000

Environmental Happenings

Saturdays, 11/12 to 4/30 - Brunswick Winter Farmers Market, Fort Andross Building, Brunswick. Locally grown and produced vegetables, meat, cheese, eggs, fish, plants, bread, yogurt, kefir, soap, maple syrup and treats, wool, baked goods, artisan crafts, prepared foods, wood products, locally roasted coffee, musicians and more. For more information, visit http://www.brunswickwintermarket.com/.

Saturdays, 12/10 to 4/21 - Portland Winter Farmers Market, 9 am - 1 pm, Maine Irish Heritage Center, State Street between Gray & Danforth, two blocks from Mercy Hospital, Portland. Root and greenhouse vegetables, storage crops, dairy products, eggs, tempeh, grains and breads, flour, meats, honey, jams and preserves, and much more. For more information, visit http://www.portlandmainewintermarket.com/.

Mon 12/19 - Rally for Clean Air in Maine, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm, Monument Square, Portland. Join the Natural Resources Council of Maine for a holiday-themed rally and fun street theatre performance to tell Maine's federal Senators, “Don’t put coal in our stockings! Support the EPA’s new mercury air toxics rule and give Mainers the gift of clean, healthy air this holiday season.” Take your picture with Santa Claus and the Grinch under the Christmas tree in Monument Square.

Fri 12/23 - Belfast Winter Farmers Market, 9 am - 1 pm, Aubuchon Hardware, Rt 1, Belfast. Quality products from people you know. For more information, visit http://www.belfastfarmersmarket.org/.

Sat 12/31 - NRCM's Polar Bear Dip and Dash, 10:30 am, Back Cove parking lot (across from Hannaford’s parking lot), Portland. Join the Natural Resources Council of Maine for a 5k walk/run and their 4th annual polar plunge into the Atlantic Ocean (at East End Beach on Cutter Street) to support their work to curb global warming. Register at http://supporters.nrcm.org/register. The cost is $30. NRCM encourage you to collect pledges to support their work to reduce global warming pollution.

Tue 1/3 - Permaculture (Not-to-be-Missed) Movie Night: Gasland, 6:30 pm, University of New England Blewett Hall room 006, 716 Stevens Avenue, Portland. Join the Portland Permaculture group for a potluck supper (bring a dish to share and your own potluck kit!), movie, and discussion. For more information, visit the Portland Permaculture meetup page.

Thursdays 1/5 to 6/7 - Guided Trekking at Beaver Park, 7 - 8 am, Beaver Park, Cotton Road, Lisbon. Join the park ranger along Beaver Park trails for a brisk guided morning walk.

Sat 1/7 - Writing Workshop on the Penobscot River, 1 pm, Eddington Salmon Club, Route # 9, Brewer. Exercise your mind and your body with a writing workshop paired with a nature walk. Explore what river restoration will mean to fish, wildlife, and human communities through writing exercises and field observations. Cheryl Daigle is the community liason and outreach coordinator for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, and her writing appears in Orion magazine and elsewhere. Holly Twining, a Maine Audubon naturalist, will lead the walk. Advance registration necessary. For more information, email htwining@maineaudubon.org call 989-2591.

Tue 1/10 - Renewable Energy on the Farm at the Ag Trades Show, 9 am - 5 pm, Augusta Civic Center. Sponsored by the Farm Energy Parters Network, this day of presentations provides a unique opportunity to learn from the experts about renewable energy options for the farm: solar heating, small wind for electricity, biomass for heating, geothermal heating, and solar photovoltaic. For more information contact Claudia Lowd, Maine Rural Partners Energy Innovation Coordinator at claudia@mainerural.org or 581-4523.

Wed 1/11 - Book signing of "What's Gotten Into Us," noon, Portland Public Library. Author McKay Jenkins will be giving a talk on toxic chemicals, health and the environment, and signing copies of his book "What's Gotten Into Us: Staying Healthy in a Toxic World." For more information, visit http://mckayjenkins.com.

Wed 1/11 - Making Financial Sense of Small and Medium Community Wind Projects, 8:30 am - 2 pm, Hilton Garden Inn, Freeport. Join Windependence, Maine's Community Wind Resource, for a practical, hands-on workshop focused on the financial incentives and policies that can assist the development of community wind projects up to 660 kw nameplate capacity. For more information, email sue@mainewindependence.org or call 751-0749.

Wed 1/11 - Notes on a Lost Flute, 6 pm, Cram Alumni House, Bowdoin College, Brunswick. Join Friends of Merrymeeting Bay for their annual meeting and potluck, and a presentation by ecologist, linguist, eco-historian, and activist Kerry Hardy, author of "Notes on a Lost Flute: A Field Guide to the Wabanaki." The public is welcome.

Thu 1/12 - Keeping Foundations Warm and Dry, 7:30 - 11:30 am, Ramada Inn, 352 North Street, Saco. Learn how to avoid mistakes in site drainage and foundation construction. Designed to educate residential building professionals on construction practices that minimize the risk of indoor air quality problems in new homes, this presentation includes complete coverage of the energy provisions contained in both the building and energy codes. Registration fee $10; register by contacting Donna Mottola at Deering Lumber, 283-3621 or dmottola@deeringlumber.com.

Thu 1/19 - By Land and By Sea: Leveraging Co-ops for Business Success, 9 am - 5:30 pm, Common Ground Education Center in Unity. A one-day conference for all Maine farmers and fishermen on the co-operative model of doing business. Snow Date: Friday, January 20, 2012 same time, same place. Cost: $25. Space is limited; register online.

Thu 1/26 - The Building Shell, 7:30 am - 3 pm, Ramada Inn, 352 North Street, Saco. Learn how to provide healthy indoor air quality while achieving all of the goals of a new home's building shell: protect occupants from rain, wind and snow; control the flow of energy, air and moisture between indoors and outdoors; provide light and a mechanism to enter and exit; exhaust pollutants out of the building; and create a comfortable indoor environment. Designed to educate residential building professionals on construction practices that minimize the risk of indoor air quality problems in new homes, this presentation includes complete coverage of the energy provisions contained in both the building and energy codes. Registration fee $10; register by contacting Donna Mottola at Deering Lumber, 283-3621 or dmottola@deeringlumber.com.

October's Sustainable Living Tip: Weatherization and Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:01:00 +0000

[I forgot to post this article from our October newsletter to this blog. Better late than never! -Fred]

Weatherization has gotten swept up into the maelstrom of partisan politics. A recent article in Newsweek magazine called the federal weatherization program "Obama's Big Green Mess" and prompted comedians like Jon Stewart to ridicule the effort as "Weather Blunderground." Earlier this year the Maine legislature ordered a probe into how a federal weatherization grant was spent (the probe discovered no malfeasance).

Whether you agree with the criticism of how $5 billion in federal money has been invested, at least the press is paying attention to the issue of how we're weatherizing our homes. As Oscar Wilde said, "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

So let's talk about weatherization. In this month's tip I want to share some ideas about how we should go about weatherizing our homes, and what needs to happen once everyone is living in a weatherized home.

Weatherizing our homes and buildings is a great idea (especially in Maine) because it saves money, conserves resources, and protects public health, if done right. The wasted money and horror stories reported by the media are due to poor training and incompetent workers.
The first step is to examine your structure. It would be a good idea for a competent weatherization technician to conduct a simple walk-through inspection of every home every year to check for obvious moisture, ventilation, and heating equipment problems. Carbon monoxide from malfunctioning oil and gas burning appliances can kill you whether or not your home is weatherized.
Before embarking on a major renovation, a competent professional should conduct a thorough energy audit, including a blower-door test and an infra-red scan. This examination will reveal how air and energy flow through the building. Work should be performed according to the recommendations in the audit. Once work has been completed, an energy auditor should check the quality of the work done. No weatherization job is complete without a check out audit.
Weatherized buildings stay comfortably cool in the summer and warm in the winter by controlling the flow of air and energy. It is essential to prevent unwanted moisture from entering the building, to vent the moisture that is introduced into the building (such as in the kitchen and bathrooms), and to eliminate or vent sources of indoor air pollution. Before you start sealing up cracks and adding insulation, make sure you understand how moisture and air enter and leave your structure.
Once you have an energy audit in hand, you can do a lot of the work yourself. If you want to develop your skills before trying your hand at caulking or installing insulation, contact your local community college. Many now offer weatherization training that you can complete in just a few days or evenings.
At a minimum, your weatherization goal should be to ensure that your home can survive an extended loss of power during winter without the risk of frozen pipes or property damage. Once your home has been properly weatherized, you should be able to turn down (or even shut off) your heating system and go on vacation for a week in February without worrying about frozen pipes.
If you own an older home, you'll likely discover that you must compromise energy performance in order to retain your existing structure. For example, there is only so much room in existing walls or ceiling to add insulation. In this case, it's even more important to have a complete energy audit so you can make an informed decision whether to attempt a weatherization project or build a new structure.
Improving the physical structure of your home is just one step in bringing your energy efficiency up to a sustainable level. The next step is getting control over how much, how long and how intensely you heat and cool.
Along with weatherizing our homes, each of us should create heating and cooling zones inside them. Think about how you use your living space, and make a long-term plan for your heating and cooling needs. Are you wasting money to heat rooms you rarely use? Do you like to keep different rooms different temperatures at different times of the day? Even if you currently have an inflexible central heating system without any zones, it's still worthwhile to develop a zone plan for the day when you upgrade your heating system. The better you can identify the areas you need to heat or cool, the more efficient you can be with your energy.
Once you have your zones, controlling them is the next step. With a manual thermostat, you can turn down the heat when you don't need it, then turn it back up when you do. If you find yourself forgetting to do this (or you just like gadgets), you can invest in a programmable thermostat to do it for you. A new company has even announced a "smart thermostat" that learns how you use your home and doesn't have to be programmed. Check out the Nest Learning Thermostat.
So you've done everything you can to improve your energy efficiency for heating and cooling your home. What next? Now you are in good shape to go to a sustainable energy source.
The easiest sustainable energy system for most homeowners is one that converts the sunlight hitting your roof into electricity. In particular, the most trouble-free, long-lasting configuration is a photovoltaic solar array that is connected to the grid. This mean that panels are installed on your roof, an inverter is installed in your home, and when the sun shines, if you start generating more electricity than you can use, the extra goes onto the grid for your neighbors to use. Except for the fact that your electric bill goes way down, you'd never know you were using solar electricity. All of your existing appliances (including space heaters) work just fine with solar electricity, and unlike an "off-grid" solar system, you don't need any batteries to store the electricity your solar panels are generating. They just cleanly and quietly create power for the electricity grid, with you being first in line to use it. Best of all, in Maine, you can "net meter" all the electricity you send to the grid, which means if you send a kilowatt hour to the grid when it's sunny, you get to use a kilowatt hour of grid power when it's not. At the end of the year, you net what you sent and what you took, and pay the difference. Since you'll be producing most of your electricity in the summer, but need it in the winter, "net metering" is a great feature of solar electricity that makes the finances work out in your favor.
If you decide to install a solar electric system, take a careful look at how you are heating your home. If you have really done a good job weatherizing, you may discover that electric space heating is a viable option. If electric heat isn't a complete solution, it may still be appropriate as part of a zoning plan for rooms that are seldom used or that need an additional heating source (such as rooms on the north side of your house). When planning the size of a solar electric array, be sure to include a scenario in which some or all of your water heating and space heating needs are met by your solar electricity, just to compare how much you'd pay for clean energy you generate yourself versus other forms of energy.
Although electric space heaters are just about 100% efficient (i.e., they convert all of the electrical energy they consume into useful heat, unlike combustion heaters which always waste some fuel without converting it to useful heat and must vent hot combustion gases as outdoor air pollution), you can do even better. Heat pumps move heat from one place to another; each unit of electricity used to pump this heat can deliver more than one unit of heat. In other words, instead of sending your electricity into a resistor inside a space heater, you can send that electricity to a pump to move heat around. The typical way to move heat around is to put a fluid in a tube, depressurize it in an area where you want to absorb heat, then circulate and pressurize it where you want to release heat. A ground-source heat pump, or geothermal system, takes heat from the ground and moves it into your home. An air source heat pump takes heat from outdoor air and brings it inside (just like a freezer in reverse -- your freezer takes energy out of the cold air inside it and moves that heat into your kitchen). Although heat pumps are more complicated and expensive than electric space heaters, you may discover that your heating load is high enough that the extra expense is worth it.
What else can we do with the solar energy being freely delivered to every address in the country? A second way to harness your share is a solar hot water collector. These systems are almost as easy as a solar electric system. Solar collectors outside get hot in the sun. A liquid (usually anti-freeze) is pumped in a loop to bring that heat inside, where it warms a hot water tank. The hot water can then be used for domestic purposes (sinks, showers, washing machines, etc.) as well as space heating. A big advantage of solar hot water collectors is that they are between three and four times more efficient than solar PV panels at capturing the energy in sunlight. A big disadvantage is that it is hard to share that energy with your neighbors. Also, there is no net metering program for hot water: use it or lose it. Unfortunately, you get the most hot water during the summer, and no one has figured out a clever way to "bank it" for use in the winter when you really need it.
Even though solar hot water systems don't have the flexibility and net metering that is possible with solar electricity, many people are using them to heat their homes. It just takes a lot more planning and work to make use of solar hot water as an energy source compared to solar electricity. You should start with a comprehensive energy audit including time-of-day energy use calculations to get the most return on investment.
A third way to harness solar energy for space heating is a solar space heater. Like a solar hot water heater, this is an efficient way to collect solar energy. But unlike a solar hot water collector, a solar space heater uses air (a simple fan) to move the heat from the collector to inside. As with solar hot water systems, extra heat from solar space heaters can't be shared with neighbors or net metered. Nonetheless, solar space heaters work just fine in Maine's climate and per unit of energy are the most afforable way to collect solar energy.
Other forms of renewable energy besides sunlight get progessively more difficult to maintain. Wind power, for example, is usually not a good solution for individual home owners for two reasons. First, few sites have consistent wind of sufficient force to generate much electricity. Second, wind turbines break down. Whereas solar electric panels have no moving parts, wind turbines by definition move. Those moving parts break, and diagnosing and fixing problems becomes a significant challenge for owners of small-scale wind turbines. In general, properties along the coast and along ridge lines might be suitable for wind installations, but you should do careful research before erecting a tower and turbine. If you do have a good location, you can grid connect and net meter your wind-generated electricity just like solar electricity.

Environmental Organizations in Maine

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:06:00 +0000

The former F.W. Horch retail store in Brunswick is now under capable new management; my next venture is an online F.W. Horch Sustainable Living Handbook. While that's under development, you can still get my Green Tidings newsletter.

Each month I consult many organizations and web sites to put together Green Tiding's calendar of environmental news and events. I look for anything happening that looks fun or interesting, directly related to saving the planet. While I have some ideas about how to make this calendar easier to produce, easier to use, and easier to expand to cover more communities in Maine and beyond, I thought I'd start by posting my list of sources.

Environmental / Nonprofit Groups

Maine

Regional / National / International

Educational Institutions

Governmental Agencies

Local

Maine

United States

United Nations

Web Sites / Media / Blogs

Business Groups

People and Businesses / Organizations

Colin Beavan, No Impact Man
Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute
Heather Chandler, The Sunrise Guide
Lisa Fernandes, Maine Permaculture
Gil Gilroy, Frontier Cafe + Cinema + Gallery
Al Gore, The Climate Reality Project
Al Heath, Cold Climate Home
Christy Hemenway, Gold Star Honeybees
Bill Lord, Maine Solar House
Kay Mann, Green Energy Maine
Bill McKibben, Bill McKibben
Jason Peacock, Green Homes of Maine
Gary Reysa, BuildItSolar
Brett Thompson, The Worm Wiz

If you know of other people or groups that organize interesting events or consistently make environmental news, please let me know! (And my sincere apologies to anyone I inadvertently left off my list of sources.)

September's Tip: Take a Solar Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:21:00 +0000

Plan to take part in the the world's largest grassroots solar event on Saturday, October 1. The National Solar Tour lets you see how you can use solar energy, energy efficiency, and other sustainable technologies in your home.

According to the American Solar Energy Society, in conjunction with the National Energy Awareness Month,

"an increasing focus of the tour is on energy-saving techniques and sustainability through green building design, energy efficient appliances, and use of green materials during remodeling. Tours also provide helpful, real-world examples of costs and how to save money with federal, state, and local incentives."

The Maine Solar Tour

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Part of ASES National Solar Home Tour and NESEA Green Building Open House

~ All tours are free of charge.

~ Sites are open 9 AM to 5 PM unless otherwise noted.

~ All phone numbers are the 207 area code, unless noted.

~ Terms used:

PV = photovoltaic (i.e. turning sunlight into electricity)
kW = 1,000 watts (a measure of power)
kWh = 1,000 watt-hours (a measure of energy)
grid tied = connected to the public electricity grid
AC = alternating current (e.g. electricity on the grid)
DC = direct current (e.g. electricity from solar panels)
inverter = a device to convert DC to AC power
ICE = internal combustion engine
thermal = converting sunlight into heat
domestic hot water = hot water for sinks, showers, etc.
LEED = Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design

Tour I: Acadia Region

Organizer: Frank John, 185 Flye Point Rd., Brooklin, ME 04616

Phone: 359-8968, E-mail: maine.johns@gmail.com

Site I-1. Brooklin, 185 Flye Point Road.

Owners: Frank and Shari John, 359-8968

Frank and Shari have two PV systems: the first is 1.92 kW grid-tied system with a battery bank. A second grid-tied array was added in early 2010, a 3.68 kW nominal feeding a 4 kW Fronius inverter. They use a Tarm wood gasification boiler to heat their house and provide domestic hot water year 'round. They will also have electric vehicles on display (Toyota Pickup, Suzuki motorcycle and a bicycle!).

Site I-2. East Blue Hill, 45 Clayfield Road.

Owner: Arnold Greenberg, 374-5170

This off-grid home uses energy efficient appliances and a 1500 watt photovoltaic array. Arnold has lived off-grid since 2000. Clayfield Road is off Jay Carter Road.

Site I-3. Blue Hill, 219 Kingdom Road.

Owner: Dick Bartlett 374-3230 (Kingdom Bikes)

This home has a 2 kW grid-tied system with backup and evacuated tubes to heat domestic hot water. It is a very efficient home.

Site I-4. Hancock, Three Pines Bed & Breakfast 274 East Side Road.

Owners: Ed and Karen Curtis, 460-7595

We live in an off-grid, 1.7 kW solar electric, passive solar timberframe home, with battery storage and generator backup. We operate a year-round bed & breakfast, have an organic vegetable garden and fruit orchard, and raise rare-breed sheep and chickens. http://www.threepinesbandb.com

Site I-5. Little Deer Isle, Coveside Lane.

Owners: Kimball Petty / Deb Marshall, 348-2648

This grid-tied system has a 900 W wind generator, a 1.3 kW grid-tie PV system with battery back up and a new 4.7 kW direct grid tie system. All small ICE on lawn mowers etc. have been replaced with electric . There are 3 vintage GE Electrak electric tractors and attachments to see as well a solar electric 16' converted electric outboard boat and an electric launch. There

is a 1985 VW vanagon being converted to electric that can be seen.

Site I-6. Sedgwick, 91 Bayview Ave.

Owners: Ann Logan & Chris Eckels

Ann and Chris have a lovely new 3-story home using a 90 evacuated tube array to provide domestic hot water and to assist with their radiant heating system. More info at: www.downeastsolarhome.com

Site I-7. Salisbury Cove, 43 Bay View Dr.

Owner: ?ue Turner

This is a rammed earth home with 5.06 kW of photovoltaics and a 60-tube solar hot water array with a SuperStor storage tank and an electric boiler.

Site I-8. Penobscot, 150 Pierces Pond Road.

Owners: Carsten & Joanne Steenberg, 266-0225

This lovely home has a 20-panel PV system. More info at: http://dragonflycovehomes.com/pierce_pond_home.htm and

http://www.vrbo.com/293346

Tour II: Central Maine

Organizer: Claudia Lowd, Orono, ME

Phone: 949-5106, Email: claudia@mainerural.org

Site II-1. Brooks, 75 Hall Hill Road.

Owner: Peter Baldwin, 722-3654

Peter's off-grid passive solar home has a 600-watt PV array assembled over the years, a 256 sq. ft. solar water heater and a large wind generator. Peter is always experimenting with new ways to use renewable energy in his life.

Site II-2. Hampden, 188 Emerson Mill Rd.

Owner: Lee Landry, 589-4171 or 570-4222

9:00 am to 12:00 PM ONLY thanks!

Part Owner/Solid Fuel Projects Supervisor ReVision Energy LLC (1.5 m. from Dysart's) 60-tube Apricus evacuated tube solar thermal array on a 105 gallon storage tank.

Site II-3. Orono, Main View Apartments, 95 Main St.

Owner: Richard Pare, 866-5651 or Claudia Lowd 949-5106

Tour Hours 12-3:00 PM ONLY thanks!

This 24-unit commercial apartment building has an active 48-panel evacuated tube solar thermal array installed in 1988 which creates all the domestic hot water for all 24 apartments all year round and pre-heats the water being used in the forced hot-water baseboard heating system.

Site II-4. Orono, 22 Mill Street.

Owners: Roberta/John Bradson, 866-4110

The Store-Ampersand A commercial bakery and coffee shop with a large passive solar entrance. It works so well that the entire first floor of the store needs no heat all winter.

Site II-5. Orono, 29 Gilbert Street

Owner: Cindy Carusi, 866-0608

The collector on the roof is a 40-tube evacuated tube solar thermal array. The tank in the cellar is an 80-gallon Steibel-Eltron storage tank and pumping station. It's all connected to the furnace, which kicks in when there isn't enough solar heating.

Tour III: Downeast

Organizer: Richard Komp, 17 Rockwell Rd SE, Jonesport ME 04649.

Phone: 497- 2204, Email: sunwatt@juno.com, Web: www.mainesolar.org

Site III-1. Harrington, 44 Heron Cove Rd.

Owners: Leonore Hildebrandt / Robert Froese, 610-2929

This 2500 sq.ft. home was designed and built in 1990 by the owners. It is off-grid with a 900 watt PV system and heated by passive solar energy backed by a wood stove. Robert and Leonore, both writers (www.flatbaycollective.org), have practiced sustainable living for over 20 years -- harvesting firewood, caring for fruit trees, and growing a vegetable garden.

Site III-2. Jonesboro, 262 Looks Point Road.

Owners: Lee and Jody Rose, 434-5444

This home features flat plate solar hot water collectors for domestic hot water and to heat an indoor heated pool. This home also uses a high-efficiency gasification wood boiler to provide most of the home’s heat and back-up domestic hot water usage. 1/4 mile gravel drive. May have to use pull-off. Look out for walkers in the area.

Site III-3. Jonesport, 17 Rockwell Road SE.

Owner: Richard Komp, 497-2204

Home self-designed and built in 1988 with 500 watt off-grid PV, passive solar heating and 4 TAP air heaters, 'Hypocaust' under-floor thermal mass, wood backup, and PV/thermal hybrid for hot water. Featured in the May-June 1997 Solar Today. Look for signs.

Site III-4. Kennebec (Machias), 35 Cross Road (Bobcat Pass)

Owner: Gillian Gatto, 255-4515

This is an owner-built passive solar home with a large solar dome studio for Gillian's woodprints and other art work. The indoor bathroom has a composting toilet and thermosyphon water heating system from the wood cookstove. A 200 watt off-grid PV system with inverter.

Site III-5. East Machias, Downeast Salmon Foundation, East Machias Aquatic Research Center, 13 Willow Street.

483-4336, dsf@panax.com, www.mainesalmonrivers.org

This building was the powerhouse for a hydroelectric dam that was removed to make it possible for atlantic salmon to swim up the east branch of the Machias river. A large 240 volt AC grid intertie PV system plus a vertical axis wind generator furnish almost all the electric power and passive solar south windows aid with winter heating.

Site III-6. Stuben, 62 Sunset Bay Drive.

Owner: Tom Hitchins

Type of Building: This superinsulated residence is constructed with an Insulated Concrete Form basement and a Structural Insulated Panel shell. Green materials were used where reasonable. House is heated by high efficiency condensing boiler using propane, and a soapstone Rais woodstove. Hot water is solar with propane back-up.

Tour IV: Kennebec Valley

Organizer: MeSEA 497-2204 Tour Hours: 10 am – 4 pm.

Site IV-1. Hallowell, 11 Inn Road.

Owner: Scott Cowger, Call 800-622-2708 or visit www.maplebb.com for directions.

Maple Hill Farm Bed & Breakfast: A full-service inn and conference center with a heavy demand for energy. The innkeeper is a former State Representative. Maple Hill Farm was the first DEP certified 'Environmental Leader' green lodging establishment in Maine, meeting such criteria as energy efficient upgrades, the usage of non toxic cleaning products and reduced energy usage.

In 2003 the owners decided to decrease energy costs as well as their carbon footprint by installing a large 10 kW Bergey wind turbine atop a 100 foot tubular steel tower on the high point of their land, 1000 feet from the buildings. In 2006, they added extensive solar electric and solar hot water systems to the property.

The largest solar power array in the state, it has 15 kW of electrical generating capacity, and 202 vacuum tubes for domestic hot water production with 320 gallons of hot water storage in the basement, saving more than $20,000 in power costs over the past two years. Their system saves a tremendous amount of fuel oil (for hot water production) and offsets about half the electrical needs of the facility. You can monitor the output of the solar electric system, as well as view details of all the system components and get directions on their web site at www.maplebb.com.

Site IV-2. Palermo, 401 Marden Hill.

Owner: Paul Armstrong, 993-2803

Contemporary 3,000 sq ft house, built in stages since 1994 as time & money allowed. Hillside site allows enjoyment of outrageous views & good breezes. CMP wanted the cost of a house mortgage to bring power, prodding us to alternatives. Starting with a generator we have added photovoltaics & a wind turbine for our current 'tri-bred' system. Recycled lumber used in construction.

Site IV-3. Starks, Maine Solar Energy, 535 Sawyers Mills Road.

Owner: Floyd Severn, 491-3461, info@mainesolar.com

With 43 yrs in solar business, 35 in Maine, Floyd has extensive experience with Off-Grid applications of solar PV and thermal systems. Here is the off-grid, thermal-mass design home. Including 5, flat-plate solar thermal collectors, using non-toxic anti-freeze, and 540 gal. stainless steel tank for pre-heated water. Attached green-house and 35, 130W PV modules, (4.6 kW array), and 48 V battery bank, 24, 2 V deep-cycle batteries. http://www.mainesolar.com

Tour VI: Midcoast

Organizer: Jennifer Hatch ReVision Energy LLC, 109 Fox St., Portland, 04101

Phone: 221-6342, Email: jen@revisionenergy.com

Site VI-1. Belfast, 83 Crocker Road.

The GO passive house has reduced energy loads with an annual heating bill of only $300! The team from GO Logic designed this home to bring energy performance in line with affordability. Besides being Passive House Certified this home is also Net Zero, making the same amount of energy it uses over the course of a year and is LEED Platinum rated.

Site VI-2. Biddeford Pool, 32 Sea Spray Drive.

Owners: Bill & Renate Riggs

This home has both a solar domestic and solar space heating system. The Riggs wanted to cover as much of their heat load as they could with solar so utilized the entire south facing roof on their Sea Spray Drive home. There are five 30 tube Apricus collector arrays which totals 150 tubes. This systems provides the domestic hot water for this house as well as supplements the heating supply. When the solar is not able to keep up with the heat load a high efficiency propane boiler turns on to provide seamless heat and hot water. The boiler installed is a Triangle Tube Excellence 110 modulating, condensing gas boiler.

Site VI-3. East Waterboro, 62 Townhouse Road.

Owner: Terry McIlveen

This home features a solar hot water space heating system. There are 90 evacuated tubes heating a 160 gallon solar storage tank. Terry incorporated solar space heating to reduce his oil consumption and loves the savings he is seeing! This system is designed to provide 100% of the domestic hot water load and a portion of the heat load.

Site VI-4. Falmouth, 160 Woodville Rd.

Owners: Claudia King & Lindsey Tweed

The house was originally built in 1975, using passive solar features & a wide variety of salvaged materials, including posts & beams from a 1800's mill building. Low indoor comfort, due to poor shell insulation & high air infiltration, led to the current renovation, a deep energy retrofit to drastically reduce energy needs, with Net Zero as the goal. The current renovation includes new exterior rigid foam insulation, new windows, & new cladding, while reusing or keeping the original salvaged materials used when the house was built.

Site VI-5. Freeport, 12 Merganser Way.

Owners: Fiona & Rob Wilson

The owners of a coastal property sought to build a new home that would sit well with their existing cottage which they had enjoyed for many years, while living as a true modern companion to their eclectic oceanfront neighborhood. Generous porches present a welcoming entry towards the street in harmony with the neighboring structures. A simple compact form rises dramatically and opens towards the ocean. Corner windows are carefully placed to capture spectacular coastal views and ensure privacy. Deep set windows and slatted exterior sunshades

prevent overheating in summer while maximizing winter sunlight. The 1,800 square foot 3 bedroom home is on track to receive LEED Certification.

Site VI-6. Freeport, 10 Cranberry Ridge Road.

Owners: Melissa & Eric Coleman

Built in 2006 by Wright-Ryan Construction and designed by Richard Renner (both of Portland), this home was designed with careful consideration to utilize non-toxic, environmental, recycled and local building materials wherever possible. Passive solar design, good insulation, and energy efficient appliances keep this home’s energy loads to a minimum.

This home features include: solar power, radiant heat, local birch, granite and slate, custom millwork, triple pane glass windows and heat recovery ventilation to circulate fresh air through this well insulated home. There is a solar thermal system covering the domestic hot water load of the house with excess heat circulating through the radiant heat distribution and a 2 kW solar electric system that produces over 200 kWh of clean electricity each month. Located within the beautiful Wolfe Neck area of Freeport, this LEED Platinum home is not one to miss!

Site VI-7. Gray, 4 Pennel Lane.

Owners: Tim & Lydia Jilek

View how a pellet boiler works to heat a home by visiting the Gray residence of ReVision Energy staff Tim Jilek. The Jileks installed a boiler that run up to 90% efficiency and a solar hot water heating system covering the domestic hot water load and a solar electric system producing over 400 kWh of clean electricity each month! Tim installs solar systems for a living, so he knows how they work!

Site VI-8. Rockport 181 Mill Street.

The Bright Built Barn, is a 700 square foot single level space which takes a barn form and contains a studio, a workshop and an office for a couple on their Rockport, ME property. The project is the practical outcome of an in-depth collaboration between Kaplan Thompson Architects, Bensonwood Woodworking Company, a team of green engineers, and a visionary client to create a super green, offsite fabricated net-zero building that can be adapted and replicated over time. Designers, building fabricators, high performance building experts and solar energy professionals from all over the northeast participated in the project.

Site VI-9. Sanford, 65 Sand Pond Road.

Owner: Cliff Babkirk

The Babkirks recently installed twenty-three 235 Conergy P solar electric panels to their roof, to total 5,405 Watts. The systems utilizes twenty-three Enphase micro inverters, one under each panel. This system is expected to produce 7,388 kWh of clean, renewable electricity each year! See how their system works online; the Babkirks can pull up that information from their data monitoring system reading what the panels are doing in real time!

Site VI-10. Scarborough, 6 Minuteman Drive.

Owners: Deb & Jim McDonough

This family home features 60 evacuated solar hot water collector tubes heating a 105 gallon dual coil solar storage tank. This system is designed to cover most of the domestic hot water used with back up coming from an oil boiler. This is a retrofit installation on a standard construction house. This house also has retrofit radiant heat, and cellulose re-insulation. The solar hot water was installed in 2007. Solar electricity was installed in 2009. If you’ve never been to this house it is a wonderful place to stop. Deb & Jim are excellent hosts and explain the systems beautifully.

Site VI-11. Woolwich, 231 Murphy’s Corner Road.

Owners: Ben & Michelle Tipton

The Tiptons moved from Vermont to Maine and built their home to provide their family both with comfort and reduced energy so to be less reliant on energy expenditures, allowing that money to be spent on other matters. They built a timber frame home with help of the Shelter Institute in Woolwich. The building is just over 1,000 square feet. There is no basement in this home. It is well insulated with heat coming from a centralized wood stove and radiant floor distribution.

The energy loads are low as the Tiptons considered every appliance, its purpose and estimated usage. They live comfortably but also conservatively. There is solar hot water heating the domestic hot water and also part of their radiant space heat. Solar electric panels act as an awning to also provide shade in the summer months. The home is passive solar by design. They recently added a pool which also acts as the heat dump for the solar collectors.

Site VI-12. Boothbay Harbor, Heliotropic Technologies, 60 Campbell Street.

Owner: Michael Mayhew, Tour Hours: 10 am - 3 pm

This was an existing seasonal cottage that was situated with very good southern exposure and elevated ocean views, that has been retrofitted into a super-efficient cool place. It was cost-effectively improved and is now a local landmark. Latest tower/dormer addition has R-80 ceiling & R-45 walls insulated with urethane foam and reflective barrier. Deep energy retrofit, Energy Star Appliances, Grid Tied PV, Local Materials, Passive solar, Radiant floor heating, Solar domestic hot water, Solar Heated, Sunspace, Super Insulated Walls/ Roof, Single Family

Residence.

Site VI-13. Kennebunkport, Cape Porpoise, 189 Mills Rd.

Owners: Bill & Debbi Lord, 967-1295

Photovoltaic roof with utility interfaced photovoltaic system. There is a 1000 gallon storage active solar heating radiant floor system. The installations on this home have been featured in many national magazines. This home is not to miss if you are in the Kennebunkport area. This Cape Porpoise home has its own web site, www.solarhouse.com. Architect: Solar Design

Associates, Builder: Tim Spang.

Site VI-14. Camden, 82 Annis Road.

Owners: Eric and Laura Evans

This single family residence features: grid tied PV, Solar domestic hot water, wood heat, night window covers, and solar powered hot water and grid-tied solar electricity.

Site VI-15. Falmouth, 34 Hartford Avenue.

Owner: Stew MacLehose

Building Features: Daylighting, Energy Star Appliances, Energy Star rated, Passive solar, Solar domestic hot water. This is a module home designed to meet net zero energy status. There is solar hot water collectors heating a 160 gallon storage tank preheating tank for the radiant floor. An electric boiler serves as the back up.

Site VI-16. Georgetown, Williams Farm, 133 Williams Road.

Tour Hours: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Building Features: Alt Fuel Vehicle, Radiant floor heating, Solar domestic hot water This tour showcases a 60-tube photovoltaicpowered solar hot water system that provides 100% of the domestic hot water for Williams Farm from May to October and radiant heat for a 180 square foot attached greenhouse. The tour will emphasize the key elements of efficient system design for producing solar hot water in northern latitudes and will also demonstrate how to set up a web enabled logger that can monitor over 100 sensors at a fraction of the cost of commercial loggers. Also on display will be a battery powered riding lawn mower and a Toyota Prius.

Site VI-17. Woolwich, 61 Delano Road.

Owner: Guy Marsden

Building Features: Energy Star Appliances, Grid Tied PV, Heat recovery ventilation, Instantaneous hot water, Passive solar, Radiant floor heating, Rain Barrels, Solar domestic hot water, Solar Heated, Super Insulated Walls/ Roof. Self-installed micro inverter based grid-tied 4 kW solar array on workshop powers 53% of the power for home, and 2 home based businesses on an annual basis. Solar building heat in super insulated workshop uses 4 4' X 8' collectors and an 80 gallon storage tank backed up by propane and wood stove. Heat recovery ventilator used in winter months. Solar DHW in house feeds propane on-demand water heater. Solar charged electric lawn mower conversion started with a 22" Craftsman gas mower.

Site VI-18. Washington, 722 Old County Rd.

Owner: Sasha Kutsy

This small, owner-built off-grid solar home features: Energy Star Appliances, Instantaneous Hot Water, Local Materials, Non-Toxic Products, Off Grid PV, Passive Solar, Rain Barrels, Recycled Materials, Single Family Residence, Sunspace, Super Insulated Walls/ Roof.

Site VI-19. Mt. Desert, Bale Out, 126 Oak Hill Rd.

This Straw Bale residence Features: Energy Star Appliances, Local Materials, Non-Toxic Products, Passive Solar, Radiant floor heating, Recycled Materials.

Site VI-20. Hartford, 275 Labrador Pond Road.

Owner: Lee Holman, 388-2510

100 year old cape. A pair of 80-watt PV panels make up this low-budget electrical system along with a propane refrigerator & kitchen range and wood heat. This system runs a laptop computer & printer, 12v SHURflo pump for water at the kitchen sink, some lights, a radio & a few other electrical devices.

Environmental Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:18:00 +0000

Fri, 9/30 - Wild Plants of Maine taste test, 5 pm, Shift Sustainable Home Goods, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. Interested in wild edibles? Join Tom Seymour, author of Wild Plants of Maine, for a free talk at Shift in Brunswick (formerly F.W. Horch). Taste testing will be a part of the evening, too! For more information, call 729-4050.

Fri, 9/30 - Multimedia Presentation of Alaska Wilderness, 7:30 pm, First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, 100 Main Street, Kennebunk (next to the Kennebunk Public Library). Emmy-award winning filmmaker Richard Kahn has spent the last twelve summers paddling through wilderness on rivers in the Brooks Mountain Range and North Slope of Northwestern Alaska. On Friday, Richard will share a multimedia presentation of his travels in the wild, undeveloped, unprotected, and threatened wilderness of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The presentation will be accompanied by music from composer John Luther Adams, and the record company, Cold Blue.

Fri, 9/30 & Sat, 10/1 - Volunteer for New England Cottontail Rabbits, 9 am - 12 pm, parking lot for Crescent Beach in Kittery, Maine, on Sea Point Road. The Wildlife Volunteer Corps has teamed up with Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge to restore habitat for endangered New England cottontails for years. Come help make sure these rare bunnies survive. RSVP online at action.defenders.org.

Sat, 10/1 - 2011 National Solar Tour. Homes and businesses throughout the nation will welcome visitors to tour their sites and see how they use solar energy. Many sites in Maine will participate on this national tour date -- see list under September's sustainable living tip.

Sat, 10/1 - Apple Day, 10 am - 2 pm, Gilsland Farm, Falmouth. Join Maine Audubon for a day celebrating fall and Maine wildlife. Enjoy cider pressing, children's activities, live music by folk musicians The Sea Slugs, delicious and healthy food, face painting, a wildlife exhibit table, and a nature scavenger hunt. At 10:30 am, children's local author and illustrator Cathryn Falwell (author of Pond Babies, Splash, and Mystery Vine) will present a reading and activities from her new book Gobble, Gobble; and at 11:30am, Ed Morgan a.k.a. The Music Man from the Children's Garden will perform original and classic singlaongs for children ages 1-99. For more information, visit habitat.maineaudubon.org

Sat, 10/1 - Paddle on the Sheepscot Bog, 10 am - 12:30 pm, Palermo. Join the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association and the Sheepscot Wellspring Land Alliance for a paddle on the Sheepscot Bog. The bog, accessible from the southeast corner of Sheepscot Pond, is actually a mosaic of many diverse wetland types encompassing 1,300 acres; its exemplary peatland ecosystem is unique in the watershed. The group will paddle into the bog’s remote and quiet interior, which includes a large kettle pond, by way of Deadwater Slough. This event is free to the public. Participants should bring their own kayak or canoe. For specific directions to the put-in site, contact SVCA at 586-5616, or email svca@sheepscot.org.

Tue, 10/4 - Maine Wind Industry Initiative Business Networking and Reception, 5:30 pm, Maine Maritime Museum, Bath. A wine and cheese reception sponsored by Tetra Tech, followed by a wind industry update by Angus King and business to business networking. Learn from Paul Williamson about recent activities to market Maine capabilities that are bringing opportunities and investment to Maine. Also view the new Maine Maritime Museum exhibit Aloft!: Topsails to Turbines; August 19-November 27; an exhibit exploring the wind driven economy of Maine, past to future. Please RSVP to pw@mainewindindustry.com

Fri, 10/7 - The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of American Horticulture, 4 pm, Woodlawn Museum, Route 172 (Surry Road), Ellsworth. Peter Hatch, director of grounds and gardens at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, will be present for a book signing at 4 pm, and a talk at 5 pm, followed by a question and answer session. Hatch’s presentation is part of Downeast Heirloom Apple Week. From October 1-9, the Downeast Food Heritage Collaborative, a partnership between the College of the Atlantic, Woodlawn and Healthy Acadia, supported by a grant from the Hancock County Fund at the Maine Community Foundation, will feature a series of activities aimed at educating people about Maine’s rich apple history including talks by national experts, school programs, a daylong apple festival on October 8, and an apple pie contest during the Woodlawn Farmers' Market on October 9. For more information on Downeast Heirloom Apple Week, visit woodlawnmuseum.org or call 667-8671.

Fri, Sat and Sun, 10/7, 8 and 9 and/or 10/14, 15 and 16 - PV Workshop Series, 17 Rockwell Rd, SE, Jonesport. Each weekend begins on Friday evening with a free lecture, from 7 to 9 pm, and includes hands-on workshops Saturday & Sunday from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. Program: PV and How to Start a PV "Cottage Industry", Friday, 7 pm, a free lecture by Dr. Richard Komp. PV Assembly Workshop: participants will experience the complete PV assembly and encapsulation process. Saturday Oct. 15: Special Solar Air Heater Workshop. Rebuild two solar air heater collectors in a solar home; learn solar heater design principles. Fees: one weekend for $150; both weekend sessions $275; one day $80. For more information, call 207.546-1639, 516.669-2442, or 207.497-2204 by September 30.

Fri, 10/14 - Chemicals, Obesity and Diabetes: How Science Leads Us To Action, 8:30 am - 5 pm, Colby College, Waterville. The Environmental Health Strategy Center, in partnership with the Goldfarb Center at Colby College, will bring together national and state scientific and public health scholars, practitioners, and advocates, as well as national and state policy-makers, faculty and students to explore two questions about chemical "obesogens": 1) What is the current state of the science that links chemical exposures to obesity, diabetes and other diseases? 2) What public health policy actions are appropriate based on the current evidence? For more information, visit www.PreventHarm.org. Registration fee: $50 (includes lunch).

Mon, 10/17 - 2011 Fall Beginner Beekeeping School, 5 consecutive Monday evenings, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, UMaine Regional Learning Center, 75 Clearwater Drive, Falmouth. Over 500 new beekeepers have been trained in this course offered by UMaine Cooperative Extension since 1992. For more information, please see the schedule and the registration form online at

http://umaine.edu/cumberland/programs/2011-fall-beginner-beekeeping-course/

If you are interested in participating in the course, please return the form with a check for $80.00 (made payable to CCEA). The fee is for an individual or couple and covers the cost of the textbook, a bee disease publication, beekeepers reference notebook and other materials. Please return the registration form before October 12, 2011. The course is limited to 46 registrants. Enrollment is done on a first-come, first-serve basis. This course always fills up fast. Registrations may also be taken over the phone by calling 1-800-287-1471 and using a credit card.

Sun, 10/23 - The Great Maine Apple Day, noon to 4 pm rain or shine, Common Ground Education Center, 294 Crosby Brook Rd, Unity. Celebrate the history, flavor and tradition of Maine apples. Educational workshops and talks: apple art, cooking with old time apple recipes, Maine's rich apple history, wine and cider making, organic tree care, see & taste rare & heirloom apples, bring your own varieties to show and taste, identifying your mystery variety -- our Dream Team of Maine apple identifiers will help you identify your apples. Apples, apple products, home-made goodies, cheeses and other local products. Apple pie contest: bring your apple pie to share! Tasting will be at 3:30 pm. Sponsored by MOFGA, Fedco, and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Admission $4, $2 for members of MOFGA & Maine Pomological Society. For more information, visit www.mofga.org

Tue, 10/25 - Birds Lecture, 6:30 pm, Cathance River Nature Preserve, Topsham. Find out about the birds we can expect to see this winter as Stantec biologists tell us about the migration of some of our favorite avian friends. Where do they go when they are not here, and what brings them back year after year. Learn about some truly amazing journeys and discover a new appreciation for the songbirds we take for granted in our own backyards. For more information, contact the Cathance River Education Alliance at 798-1913 or crea@creamaine.org

Sun, 10/30 - The Art of Local Food, 4:30 to 6:30 pm, The Summit at Point Lookout, Northport. Come savor the best that Maine has to offer: wonderful local foods and drinks, Maine-inspired artwork, live music, and a breathtaking view of Penobscot Bay at NRCM's 3rd annual Art of Local Food event. Dozens of local restaurants, farms, bakeries, and other culinary professionals will be creating the finest appetizers, nibbles, and desserts. This year, NRCM will also hold an Art of Local Food Art Sale. 50 Maine artists have contributed artworks inspired by the beauty of Maine for sale the night of the event. A cash bar will feature an assorted of Maine beers, wines, and liquors. Enjoy live music provided by Tom Luther on piano and Justin Walton on guitar. Tickets are $40 per person, all of which supports NRCM’s work to protect Maine’s environment ($20 of each ticket purchase is tax-deductible). For more information, contact

Joyce Gracie at (207) 430-0128 or jgracie@nrcm.org.

Environmental Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:35:00 +0000

Fri 5/13 - All Species Parade, 4 pm, downtown Maine Street, Brunswick. Come in costume or mask, help carry the puppets ~ only three rules apply: no live animals, no motorized vehicles and no banners or messages. Brought to you by Spindleworks and Arts Are Elementary.

Sat 5/14 - Wolfe's Neck Farm Spring Festival, 10 am - 2 pm, 134 Burnett Road, Freeport. Enjoy food, music, games, demonstrations and learning activities in a country setting. Explore the trails and gardens, interact with the animals, learn about seeds and plants, and try your hand at fiber arts. Come watch for newborn lambs and get up close to a Belted Galloway cow. For younger children, there will be craft activities, face painting, a hay pile and tractors to climb, as well as hayrides and fiddle music. Admission: $5/person or $20/family; Members attend free!

Sat 5/14 - International Migratory Bird Day, 10 am - 4 pm, Maine Audubon, Gilsland Farm, Falmouth. This day-long event celebrates the migratory birds that are making their way north for the summer. 10-11 am: Live Raptors Demonstration $15/$10 for adults, $10/$5 for children - advance registration is required. Noon - 2 pm: Piping plover and Least Tern Protection Seminar - FREE. Noon - 2 pm: Have a Blast with Birds - Kids will be blown away by this fun series of bird-related games and activities. FREE. 2:30 - 4 pm: Backyard Birding Basics - This crash course covers identification, habitat concepts, and how to make your backyard more bird-friendly. $10/$15; advance registration is required. For details, visit the Maine Audubon web site.

Mon 5/16 to Fri 5/20 - Commute Another Way Week. Since 1995, this annual event has challenged hundreds of employers and thousands of commuters throughout Maine to show their support for sustainable transportation options. There are all kinds of ways to go green with your daily commute in Maine: carpooling, public transit (bus, ferry, rail), bicycling, and walking are just a few!

Wed 5/18 - Sustainability through Innovation: A New Perspective, 7:30 am - 12 pm, Hilton Garden Inn, Freeport. Have you ever wondered how to protect your online business image? Or your innovative ideas? Or what to do to reinvent yourself when the economy heads south to keep your business afloat or even expand it? Or what concrete steps you can take to become more innovative and expand your bottom line? If so, please join Maine Businesses for Sustainability for their spring workshop. MBS Members $40
Non Members $60. For more information, contact MBS at 338-8908 or info@MaineBusinessesforSustainability.org.

Wed 5/18 - Brett Thompson, "From the Ground Up: Soils", 6:45 pm, Community Room, Patten Free Library, Bath. Part of a six-week series for beginner gardeners, featuring Master Gardeners from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension as instructors. To register for an individual session or for the entire series, please call Patten Free Library at 443-5141 x12, or sign up in person at the reference desk. This program is free and open to the public.

Thu 5/19 - Compost and Soil Management, 5:30 - 6:30 pm, Cumberland County. Eric Sideman, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association's Organic Crops Specialist, will lead the workshop with about 30 minutes of presentation and time for open questions/discussion afterward. This will be an outside event at the home of a MOFGA member, with a rain date of June 2. There is limited space in the backyard; to secure yourself a spot and get directions email mofgacc@gmail.com.

Fri 5/20 to Sun 5/22 - Northeast Livestock Expo 2011, Windsor Fairgrounds. The Maine Beef Producers, The Maine Sheep Breeders Association and the Boer Goat Breeders of Maine have again joined together to present the annual Northeast Livestock Expo. MOFGA is sponsoring this event along with many other organizations working to promote successful livestock production in Maine. The livestock expo draws beef cattle, sheep, boer goats, rabbits, equine and alpaca for shows, youth events and auctions. See the schedule of events. Volunteers are needed. For general information about the Northeast Livestock Expo, contact Kim MacKay by phone at 207-453-7890 or by email at cnkangus@roadrunner.com.

Sat 5/21 - Annual Plant Sale, 9 am - 1 pm, Wolfe's Neck Farm, Freeport. As soon as the soil thaws, you can start digging up those perennial clumps that need to be divided. 'Tis a perfect time because the roots love the cool soil. If you don't want to re-plant all of those clumps, the Wolfe's Neck Plant Sale would appreciate any extras! Pot them up, water them well, and either drop them off on the Farm's front lawn on Friday May 20th, or call Linda at 865-6916 to arrange for early drop-off. Volunteers gladly welcome!

Sat 5/21 - Animal Tracks and Tracking, 10:30 am, D.A. Hurd Library, North Berwick. Learn the skills of a tracker, how to observe and record wildlife, and make plaster casts of their foot tracks. Each participant will make and keep a plaster cast. Taught by Jocelyn Hubbell, Cornerstones of Science Executive Director and former park ranger/naturalist. Parents are encouraged to attend this family-centered program; children age 7 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Space is limited, so please pre-register by calling the D.A. Hurd Library at 676-2215.

Tue 5/24 - Preserving the Harvest: Hands-on Food Preservation, 5:30 – 8:30 pm, UMaine Regional Learning Center, Tidewater Farm, Falmouth. Ever wonder how to preserve all those great garden vegetables? This hands-on food preservation workshop will teach you the basic steps for canning and freezing. Workshop leaders will be Kate McCarty. Bring a pot holder to class. Cost: $10. For more information, contact Lois Elwell at 780-4205 or lelewell@maine.edu.

Wed 5/25 - Wallace Pinfold, "Landscaping: Garden Design", 6:45 pm, Community Room, Patten Free Library, Bath. Part of a six-week series for beginner gardeners, featuring Master Gardeners from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension as instructors. To register for an individual session or for the entire series, please call Patten Free Library at 443-5141 x12, or sign up in person at the reference desk. This program is free and open to the public.

Tue 5/31 - Vernal Pools, 6:30 - 8 pm, Topsham Public Library. Vernal pools are center stage this time of year, and this talk explains what they are, why they are important, and what people are studying in the vernal pool on the Cathance Preserve in Topsham. Join Amanda Shearin, Ph.D. Candidate from the Ecology and Environmental Sciences department of the University of Maine as she discusses how to identify common vernal pool amphibians and invertebrates, what makes a vernal pool ‘significant’ at the state level, and the larger ecological role of vernal pools. FREE and open to the public.

Tue 5/31 - Fish Friendly Turbines? 7 pm, Morrell Meeting Room, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick. Join Friends of Merrymeeting Bay for a talk by Alexander Gorlov on the topic of fish friendly turbines. For more information, contact Ed Friedman at 666-3372 or edfomb@comcast.net.

Sat 6/4 - Linton Studdiford, "Growing Vegetables", 10:30 am, Community Room, Patten Free Library, Bath. Part of a six-week series for beginner gardeners, featuring Master Gardeners from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension as instructors. To register for an individual session or for the entire series, please call Patten Free Library at 443-5141 x12, or sign up in person at the reference desk. This program is free and open to the public.

Sat 6/4 - Backyard Farmer Field Day, 11 am - 3 pm, Wolfe's Neck Farm, Freeport. In conjunction with Cumberland County Extension and Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Wolfe's Neck Farm will offer workshops and demonstrations on how to make backyard farming projects successful. From fruit trees to ruminants to food preservation and beekeeping there'll be plenty of knowledge to gain from the pros.

Thu 6/9 - Vital Maine Communities Conference: Building Boom in a Recession, Lewiston. Sessions will help community leaders learn how preserving historic buildings is critical to a feasible downtown revitalization strategy, explore how to grow communities with compact development surrounded by rural open spaces, examine the new statewide building and energy code and discover the latest in green rehabilitation practices. For more information, contact Roxanne Eflin at the Maine Downtown Center 626-3117.

Fri 6/10 - Vital Maine Communities Conference: Making Maine's Downtowns Work, Skowhegan. The dynamic keynote speaker will be Kennedy Smith of the Washington, D.C. based Clue Group. Kennedy is the former director of the National Trust Main Street Center and is an internationally respected leader in asset-based downtown and community development. A dozen workshops will provide practical training with real solutions for Maine. For more information, contact Roxanne Eflin at the Maine Downtown Center 626-3117.

Sat 6/11 - Sally Ward, "Growing Annuals and Perennials", 10:30 am, Community Room, Patten Free Library, Bath. Part of a six-week series for beginner gardeners, featuring Master Gardeners from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension as instructors. To register for an individual session or for the entire series, please call Patten Free Library at 443-5141 x12, or sign up in person at the reference desk. This program is free and open to the public.

Sat 6/18 - Bernardo Feliciano, "Caring for Shrubs and Trees", 10:30 am, Community Room, Patten Free Library, Bath. Part of a six-week series for beginner gardeners, featuring Master Gardeners from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension as instructors. To register for an individual session or for the entire series, please call Patten Free Library at 443-5141 x12, or sign up in person at the reference desk. This program is free and open to the public.

Tue 6/21 - Active Communities Conference, "Walking, Biking, Physical Activity and the Built Environment," Bowdoin College Campus, Downtown Brunswick. The theme of this year's conference is "Linking Transportation, Economic Development, Health and People, to Improve the Quality of Maine Communities." The keynote speaker will be Mark Fenton, a renowned national expert on walking, biking, physical activity and the built environment. Brought to you by the Maine Department of Transportation, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Maine State Planning Office, Maine Department of Conservation, Maine Office of Community Development, Maine Office of Tourism, Maine Downtown Center, Bicycle Coalition of Maine, GrowSmart Maine, National Park Service, and the Maine Safe Routes to School Program. Agenda and registration information coming soon! Questions? Contact Dan Stewart at 624-3252 or dan.stewart@maine.gov.

Sat 6/25 - Bonnie Studdiford, "Culinary Herbs", 10:30 am, Community Room, Patten Free Library, Bath. Part of a six-week series for beginner gardeners, featuring Master Gardeners from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension as instructors. To register for an individual session or for the entire series, please call Patten Free Library at 443-5141 x12, or sign up in person at the reference desk. This program is free and open to the public.

Wild Plants of Maine book signing postponed

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:30:00 +0000

The Wild Plants of Maine book signing scheduled for this Saturday at our store has been postponed. More details as soon as I know when the new date will be. -Fred

Environmental Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:19:00 +0000

[Note: Our email newsletter had the wrong date for Gary Hirshberg's talk at Bowdoin College. The correct date is Wednesday, April 13.]

Mon 4/11 - Wes Jackson, "Consulting the Genius of Place: An Ecological Approach to A New Agriculture", 7:30 pm, Kresge Auditorium, Visual Art Center, Bowdoin College, Brunswick.

Dr. Wes Jackson, founder and president of The Land Institute, has pioneered research in perennial grains, perennial polycultures, and intercropping. All the grains that feed billions of people today -- wheat, rice, corn, etc. -- come from annual plants, which sprout from seeds, produce new seeds, and die every year. The plant breeders at the Land Institute are crossing modern grains with wild perennial relatives to develop crops with the deep, dense root systems that make perennial plants so resilient and resource efficient, without sacrificing too much of the grain yield that millennia of selection have bred into annuals. Due to the high demand for this event a limited number of tickets will be available at the door. Additional seating will be in Beam Classroom where the talk will be projected. Audience members from Beam Classroom will be invited into Kresge Auditorium for the Q&A at the end of the talk.

Tue 4/12 - Green Home Lecture Series Session 3: Your Home's Core Systems, 6-8 pm, ReVision Energy Showroom, 142 Presumpscot Street, Portland. If you're considering a home renovation, an upgrade to your home's systems, or just want to learn more about greening your home, then this series is for you! The six-week lecture series is designed to help homeowners make good, green decisions about their homes. Cost $10/session. For more information, and to register, visit: http://www.maineusgbc.org/

Tue 4/12 - Portland Greendrinks, 5:30-8 pm, Port City Music Hall, 504 Congress Street, Portland. Portland Greendrinks is a chance to network with myriad Greater Portland eco-enthusiasts, support a local non-profit, and enjoy some (wallet-friendly) brews! Pay $2 at the door if you bring your own beer mug, $5 if you don’t: profits go to tonight’s featured non-profit organization, Cultivating Community. Extra Brownie Points if you commute green to Greendrinks: walk, take the bus, or visit GoMaine’s fun, interactive ride board, perfect for one time trips!

Wed 4/13 - Women's Bike Clinic Series: Bicycle Maintenance, 6 pm, Colonial Ridge (off East Hardscrabble Road in Auburn). Back by popular demand, all you wanted to know about bike maintenance but were AFRAID to ask! Enjoy a relaxed, knowledgeable, basic, hands-on bike maintenance clinic and feel more confident about you and your bike. Join the Maine Cycling Club for a 3 part series on bicycle maintenance (Wed 4/13), shifting gears (Tue 4/19) and road riding (Tue 4/26). Hors D’oeuvres and wine will be served. Cost: $40 for the series or $20 each. RSVP to rufit@megalink.net or call Barbara at 240-9139 to reserve your spot.

Wed 4/13 - Geothermal Greenhouse Tour, 10-11:30 am, Hutchings Greenhouse, 445 Riverside Drive (new name for Bradley Road), Eddington, Maine. No registration required. Come and see an open-loop geothermal system that provides very efficient heating for a large greenhouse. The system's installer, Dan Herweg from Airotherm in Brewer, will be present to answer technical questions. Thanks to this geothermal system and wood-fired heating, Hutchings Greenhouse has not burned a drop of oil in two years! For more information, please contact Claudia Lowd (cleanenergy@mainerural.org / 949-5106).

Wed 4/13 - Antonio Rossmann, "The End of Western Water," 4 pm, ES Common Room, Adams Hall, Bowdoin College, Brunswick. This lecture will explore the crunch that the Southwest and California find themselves in, and the difficult issues that crunch raises about water and land use decisions in particular, and questions about national development policy in general. Antonio Rossmann is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and teaches water resources and land use law at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

Wed 4/13 - Gary Hirschberg, "Green Business: Doing Well by Doing Good," 7 pm, Kresge Auditorium, Visual Art Center, Bowdoin College, Brunswick. Ahead of his time, Gary Hirshberg has led the way in merging business with social responsibility. Since 1983, Gary has overseen Stonyfield’s phenomenal growth, from its infancy as a seven-cow organic farming school to $360 million in annual sales. Before casting his lot with cows and becoming CE-YO of the world’s leading organic yogurt producer, Hirshberg directed the Rural Education Center, the small organic farming school from which Stonyfield was spawned. Before that, Gary had served as executive director of The New Alchemy Institute -- a research and education center dedicated to organic farming, aquaculture, and renewable energy. Prior positions include serving as a water-pumping windmill specialist and an environmental education director with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He has authored books on wind-power and organic gardening and is author of the best selling: Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World (Hyperion Books, 2008). In addition to receiving eight honorary doctorates, Gary has won numerous awards his corporate and environmental leadership. This lecture is part of the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay Speaker Series.

Thu 4/14 - Protect Maine’s Children from Toxic Chemicals Lobby Day with the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine, 8:30 am - 1 pm, Augusta State House. The Environmental Health Strategy Center needs your help to show our legislators that Maine residents want to strengthen the Kid Safe Products Act, promote healthy school grounds, and keep toxic materials out of Maine landfills. For more information, contact Laura Stevens, Community Organizer, Toxics Action Center, 871-1810, laura@toxicsaction.org.

Thu 4/14 - Food+Farm Series: Of Farms and Fables, doors 7:00 pm, show 7:30-9:30 pm, SPACE Gallery, Portland. The annual sustainable food event with SPACE Gallery features films, talks, a meet-and-greet, and a work day at Turkey Hill Farm. Of Farms and Fables is a performance that engages artists in farm work and farm workers in storytelling and acting. This theatrical reading will create a dialogue about local agriculture, farming, and the future of small family farms in Maine. For more information, visit http://www.space538.org/

Thu 4/14 - EcoCinema: The Fish Belong to the People, 7 pm, Frontier Cafe, Brunswick. This documentary chronicles the lives of the fishermen of Port Clyde, Maine, as they work to save their fishing grounds from the government and a market structure that values destructive efficiency over sustainability. EcoCinema features a periodic series of award-winning documentaries and dramatic films about life and work in resource-based communities that are struggling for sustainability and environmental justice. Each film is a timely and emotional portrait of a marginal or unconventional place whose aspirations and challenges convey a universal message.

Fri 4/15 - Food+Farm Series: An Evening with Anna Lappe, doors 7 pm, talk 7:30-9:30 pm, SPACE Gallery, Portland. Join Anna Lappe for a discussion of her new book, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. Anne Lappe is a founding principal of Small Planet Institute and Small Planet Fund, and for more than a decade has been a key force in the growing international movement for sustainability and justice in the food chain. For more information, visit http://www.space538.org/

Sat 4/16 - Food+Farm Series: Wake Up the Farm with Cultivating Community, 9 am - 12 pm, Turkey Hill Farm, Cape Elizabeth. This free, all-ages work day is a great opportunity to help Cultivating Community get ready for the 2011 growing season. With activities for all ages and skill levels you'll be able to get your hands dirty and ask the CC staff about your farming and gardening questions. The morning concludes at noon with a soup and bread lunch to thank you for your hard work. For directions, visit Turkey Hill Farm online at http://turkeyhillfarm.org/home.html.

Sat 4/16 - Wells Reserve EcoDay, 10 am - 3 pm, Wells Reserve at Laudholm. This multi-faceted event is sure to have something for everyone! The EcoDay includes a Green Fair with environmental organizations and conservation-minded businesses, a beach cleanup from 2-3 pm, demonstrations by beekeepers on how to keep a hive, the Laudholm 5k (register here), volleyball tournament, nature walks, speakers, as well as fun activities for kids like face painting, geo-caching walks, and crafts.

Sat 4/16 - Green Fair, 10 am - 4 pm, Plants Unlimited, Rockport. The annual Green Fair at Plants Unlimited in Rockport is being held this year to honor the volunteers that are working hard to make green contributions in the state of Maine. Volunteer with one of the many participating organizations to receive a free meal ticket to the fun, family-friendly barbecue. Visit the Plants Unlimited website to see how you can get involved.

Sat 4/16 - Food+Farm Series: The Greenhorns' Young Farmers' Mixer, 3-5 pm, SPACE Gallery, Portland. Are you a young farmer in Maine? (A "young" farmer is anyone under the national average of of 57!) The Greenhorns is an organization dedicated to recruiting, promoting, and supporting young farmers in America. This afternoon mixer is a great opportunity to meet your peers and enjoy some good eats from Local Sprouts, Flatbread Co. and Maine Root. There will also be volunteer massage therapists on hand (to work out those farming knots!), as well as representatives from The Greenhorns and MOFGA.

Sat 4/16 - Food+Farm Series: The Greenhorns Film and Q&A, doors 7 pm, film 7:30-9:30 pm, SPACE Gallery, Portland. The Greenhorns is an organization that recruits, promotes, and supports young farmers in America ("young" being defined as anyone under the national average farmer's age of 57). This documentary film explores the lives of America's young farming community, and chronicles the promising beginnings of an agricultural revival based on an interest in sustainable lifestyles. The film will be followed by a Q&A with Greenhorns director Severine von Tscharner Fleming, a farmer, activist, and organizer based in the Hudson Valley, NY.

Sun 4/17 - Food+Farm Series: Intensive Growing Workshops at Urban Farm Fermentory, 9 am - noon and 1 pm - 4 pm, Urban Farm Fermentory, Portland. The folks at Urban Farm Fermentory have put together a couple of workshops for this year's Food+Farms series. Session 1: 9 am to noon, Introduction to Urban Gardening; Session 2: 1-4 pm, Season Extension Techniques and Sheetmulching. Cost: $15 per class. For reservations and more information, visit http://www.urbanfarmfermentory.com/skills-classes.

Mon 4/18 - Multimedia presentation by Jacinda Martinez, Frontier Cafe, Brunswick. Part of the Earth Week celebration at Frontier Cafe. Artist Jacinda Martinez makes plant-based clothing.

Tue 4/19 - Local Foods Breakfast at Local Sprouts, 8 am, Local Sprouts, Portland. To celebrate the rich local food community in Portland and throughout Maine, join Local Sprouts every third Tuesday of every month to eat a delicious breakfast cooked with all local ingredients and network with food organizers, advocates, and producers. This is a great chance to promote your work and organization to folks involved in the local food community. For more information, search for Local Sprouts on Facebook.

Tue 4/19 - Green Home Lecture Series Session 4: Mechanical Systems and Alternative Energy Systems, 6-8 pm, ReVision Energy Showroom, 142 Presumpscot Street, Portland. If you're considering a home renovation, an upgrade to your home's systems, or just want to learn more about greening your home, then this series is for you! The Second Annual Maine Chapter of the US Green Building Council's "Green Home Energy" series continues through April and into the first week of May. The six-week lecture series is designed to help homeowners make good, green decisions about their homes. Cost $10/session. For more information, and to register, visit: http://www.maineusgbc.org/

Tue 4/19 - Women's Bike Clinic Series: Shifting Gears, 6 pm, Colonial Ridge (off East Hardscrabble Road in Auburn). Back by popular demand, all you wanted to know about bike maintenance but were AFRAID to ask! Enjoy a relaxed, knowledgeable, basic, hands-on bike maintenance clinic and feel more confident about you and your bike. Join the Maine Cycling Club for a 3 part series on bicycle maintenance (Wed 4/13), shifting gears (Tue 4/19) and road riding (Tue 4/26). Hors D’oeuvres and wine will be served. Cost: $40 for the series or $20 each. RSVP to rufit@megalink.net or call Barbara at 240-9139 to reserve your spot.

Tue 4/19 and Wed 4/20 - Film: Economics of Happiness, 6 pm and 7:30 pm, Frontier Cafe, Brunswick. Part of the Earth Week celebration at Frontier.

Wed 4/20 to Sat 4/23 - Timber Framing Workshop, Hidden Valley Nature Center, Jefferson. Participants in the four-day workshop will learn the basics of timberframing in a hands-on setting, from harvesting the trees through the milling process, joinery techniques, and finally construction. For more information, contact gary@hvnc.org or call 586-6752.

Thu 4/21 - EcoCinema: On Coal River, 7 pm, Frontier Cafe, Brunswick. Featuring co-director Adam Wood. EcoCinema features a periodic series of award-winning documentaries and dramatic films about life and work in resource-based communities that are struggling for sustainability and environmental justice. Each film is a timely and emotional portrait of a marginal or unconventional place whose aspirations and challenges convey a universal message.

Thu 4/21 - Earth Day Extravaganza: I Am Part of My Environment!, 2-3:30 pm, Children's Museum, Portland. The Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine is turning their entire second floor into one giant ecosystem for Earth Day! Visit Snowshoe O'Hare to learn about animal homes, meet Ivy Sproutsalot and plant a seed in the greenhouse, and make a crafty bug or insect with Six-Legged-Sue. Kids will learn how they are connected to each character and the environment. The CMTM will offer eco-friendly snacks, games and a really good (really green) time at this Earth Day Extravaganza! The event is free with Museum admission (admission is $9 per person, children under 18 months free).

Fri 4/22 - Earth Day Tour with Jerry Therrien, 10 am - noon, Hidden Valley Nature Center, Jefferson. Join naturalist Jerry Therrien at the Hidden Valley Nature Center for an Earth Day walk. April is the month when wildflowers start blooming and vernal pools are exploding with life, so the tour is sure to be exciting. $5 suggested donation. To make a reservation or for more information e-mail gary@hvnc.org or call 586-6752.

Fri 4/22 - Earth Week Live music: Zemya, 7 pm, Frontier Cafe, Brunswick.

Fri 4/22 - Urban Earth Day, 11 am - 6 pm, Monument Square, Portland. This year, MENSK, Flintstonecar, and The City of Portland are hosting Urban Earth Day, a celebration to promote a more healthy, sustainable future. The day's events in Monument Square will involve activities for children, street performers, local farmers, craftspeople, and vendors.

Sat 4/23 - Earth Week Film: Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?, 2 pm, 4 pm, 6 pm, and 8 pm, Frontier Cafe, Brunswick.

Sat 4/23 - Wild Plants of Maine book signing, 11 am - noon, F.W. Horch, Brunswick. Author Tom Seymour is scheduled to be on hand to sign copies of his book, Wild Plants of Maine. The book is a guide, including recipes, to wild plants that are edible or otherwise useful and found in Maine.

Sat 4/23 - The Great Cloth Diaper Change, noon - 4 pm, Peekaboo Children's Center, Westbrook. The Great Cloth Diaper Change is a global event being held Saturday, April 23rd, to break the Guinness Book record for most diapers changed simultaneously. Be sure to register for the event to put Westbrook in the running and contribute to raising awareness for eco-friendly cloth diapers.

Sat 4/23, Earth Week Films: Red Gold and Eastern Rises, Frontier Cafe, Brunswick. In collaboration with Fly Fishing in Maine.

Sat 4/23 - Dogwood Tree Planting, 9 am - 1 pm, Bayside Trail, Portland. Meet at the Elm Street trailhead (behind Trader Joe's) to help Portland Trails plant 101 dogwood trees. Rain date is May 7th, for more information and to sign up, call 775-2411 or e-mail Portland Trails at info@trails.org.

Mon 4/25 to Sun 5/1 - 2011 Midcoast Sustainable Living Fair, Round Top Farm, Damariscotta. The goal of the Fair is to encourage sustainable products and practices and to educate the public on the need for them. This will be the fourth annual Midcoast Sustainable Living Fair where consumers can learn about energy-saving and affordable options for a more environmentally responsible lifestyle.

A movie and four workshops are scheduled from 6-8 pm each evening, Monday through Friday.
On Saturday, tours of the Chewonki Foundation campus will be conducted at 9:30 am, 11 am and 1 pm. The movie Deep Green will be shown at 11 am and 1 pm.
On Sunday, a local food picnic will be held from noon to 4 pm at Round Top Farm.

Although all events are free, donations are appreciated. For more information, visit the Midcoast Green Collaborative online.

Tue 4/26 - Coyote: America's Songdog, 6:30-8 pm, Topsham Public Library, Topsham. Biologists say the coyote is the most persecuted animal in the country. Geri Vistein of Project Coyote will discuss the history, biology, and misconceptions of this animal. The focus of her talk will be on progressive management strategies that will allow humans and

coyotes to coexist. Brought to you by the Cathance River Education Alliance. Free and open to the public.

Tue 4/26 - Green Home Lecture Series Session 5: Healthy Homes and Green Kitchens and Baths, 6-8 pm, ReVision Energy Showroom, Portland. If you're considering a home renovation, an upgrade to your home's systems, or just want to learn more about greening your home, then this series is for you! The six-week lecture series is designed to help homeowners make good, green decisions about their homes. Cost $10/session. For more information, and to register, visit: http://www.maineusgbc.org/

Tue 4/26 - Women's Bike Clinic Series: Road Riding, 6 pm, Colonial Ridge (off East Hardscrabble Road in Auburn). Back by popular demand: all you wanted to know about bike maintenance but were AFRAID to ask! Enjoy a relaxed, knowledgeable, basic, hands-on bike maintenance clinic and feel more confident about you and your bike. Join the Maine Cycling Club for a 3 part series on bicycle maintenance (Wed 4/13), shifting gears (Tue 4/19) and road riding (Tue 4/26). Hors D’oeuvres and wine will be served. Cost: $40 for the series or $20 each. RSVP to rufit@megalink.net or call Barbara at 240-9139 to reserve your spot.

Wed 4/27 - Stop the Madness: The Attack on Maine's Environment, 7-8:30 pm, One Longfellow Square, Portland. Our legislature has introduced over 50 bills that are putting development ahead of the protection of our health, wildlife, and natural resources in Maine. We are all at risk from declines in our air and water quality and loss of our natural places. Participants will be joined at One Longfellow Square by Pete Didisheim, the Natural Resources Council of Maine's advocacy director, who will outline harmful bills and explain how we can help. Space is limited, so please register by contacting Todd Martin at tmartin@nrcm.org or (207) 430-0115.

Thu 4/28 - EcoCinema: Shelter in Place, 7 pm, Frontier Cafe, Brunswick. EcoCinema features

a periodic series of award-winning documentaries and dramatic films about life and work in resource-based communities that are struggling for sustainability and environmental justice. Each film is a timely and emotional portrait of a marginal or unconventional place whose aspirations and challenges convey a universal message.

Sat 4/30 and Sun 5/1 - 5th Annual Organic Workshop at O'Donal's Nursuries, Gorham. The 5th Annual Organic Workshop is a weekend-long event, with free workshops ranging from composting, planting and growing organically, natural pest and weed control, benevolent bugs for your garden, solar and wind power - and the list goes on! To see times and descriptions of workshops, visit the O'Donal's Nursuries website at http://www.odonalsnurseries.com/.

Tue 5/3 - Green Home Lecture Series Session 6: Landscape, 6-8 pm, ReVision Energy Showroom, 142 Presumpscot Street, Portland. If you're considering a home renovation, an upgrade to your home's systems, or just want to learn more about greening your home, then this series is for you! The six-week lecture series is designed to help homeowners make good, green decisions about their homes. Cost $10/session. For more information, and to register, visit: http://www.maineusgbc.org/

April's Tip: Best Ways to Save Power

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:17:00 +0000

Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis has focused attention on our country's dependence on nonrenewable, radioactive uranium for 20% of our electricity. This month's tip explores ways to cut the typical residential power bill in half, which would allow us to safely and quickly power down all of our nuclear plants without needing to build new power plants to replace them. I also discuss why former nuclear power advocates (such as me; I worked for Pacific Gas & Electric during law school) no longer support public subsidies for fission power, now that we have better technology for managing the grid.

In a nutshell, here's what each of us would need to do to cut our household power bill in half:

turn off lights when you leave a room
install motion sensors on outdoor lighting so it automatically turns and off as needed
remove unnecessary lights
install task lighting so you use energy to focus light just where it's needed
replace all incandescent light bulbs with CFLs or LEDs
replace wasteful refrigerators with Energy Star models
use a drying line or a drying rack instead of an electric or gas clothes dryer
if you must use a machine to dry your clothes, use high-efficiency washing machines with a high-speed spin cycle or use a spinner to wring most water out of clothes before drying
in homes with air conditioners and electric heaters, condition a smaller space or accept a wider range of indoor temperatures (a little hotter in summer and a little colder in winter)
in homes with electric water heating, do the following:

wash clothes in cold water
install low-flow showerheads
install aerators on all sinks

in homes with well pumps, do the following:

check for leaking toilets
install low-flow showerheads
use a rain barrel for exterior watering

replace wasteful desktop computers with laptops
replace wasteful televisions with Energy Star models
turn off and unplug electronic devices when not in use
cook with microwaves instead of electric ranges or ovens
use solar chargers for recharging personal electronic devices (cell phones, etc.)
use solar chargers for rechargeable batteries
replace wasteful night lights with efficient LEC or LED models

Let's start by imagining the impact if we were able to cut the typical residential power bill in half. Residential electricity use is 38% of our country's total (the commercial and industrial sectors are responsible for 37% and 25% of electricity consumption, respectively). Cutting residential power bills in half would save almost 20% of our total electricity demand, just about the amount of energy the nuclear power plants across America supply. In other words, cutting our residential power bills in half and improving efficiency in our commercial and industrial sector by just a few percentages would allow us to shut down all of our nuclear power reactors without needing to build new power plants to replace them.

Shedding 20% of our load and shutting down our nuclear power stations permanently would free up resources to invest in improving our transmission and control infrastructure. Engineers, managers, and lawyers currently required by our nuclear power industry could use their time more productively to make the transition to a fully sustainable power system. We would also stop producing nuclear waste in the commercial power sector, limiting the scope of that problem to the military, medical and other industrial sources of radioactive waste. Plus, we wouldn't need to open lands around the Grand Canyon to uranium mining, as is being proposed now.

The average household in the United States uses 920 kilowatt hours of electricity per month. Here in Maine, we use on average 500 kWh per month. In England, the average is 390 kWh per month. My family uses between 250 and 380 kWh per month, depending on the time of year and who's visiting.

If you are a typical family, your lighting and appliances account for the majority of your electricity consumption. In 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration, lighting and appliances accounted for about 60% of residential energy use. Air conditioning was just 16%, water heating was 9%, refrigerators were 8% and space heating was 6%.

Maine leads the nation in showing what happens when you shut down a nuclear power plant. Now that Maine Yankee is closed, we have higher electricity rates and lower household electricity consumption. We replaced nuclear power with efficiency and natural gas. Although it seems likely that we will be storing nuclear waste in Wiscasset for generations, we are no longer importing large amounts of radioactive materials through our communities and our risk of a nuclear catastrophe is much lower. (By the way, even though we no longer have a nuclear power plant in Maine, most Maine electricity rate payers are still paying each month for nuclear power plants in other states. CMP's standard offer is 19% nuclear, for example.)

My personal experience in our home shows that it is not difficult to cut household electricity consumption in half. We expect to be able to stay below 250 kWh per month on a consistent basis once we switch all of our household lighting to LED. (The recent improvement in light quality of LEDs now makes this a viable option for us.)

Given that we could shut down all of our nuclear powers plants just by taking relatively easy and common-sense steps to improve the energy efficiency in our own homes, why do energy experts say nuclear power is a necessity? Are nuclear power plants needed for the reliability of the grid? Do they help prevent climate change?

Since nuclear power has never been economically viable, the industry has developed through political connections. Experts who claim nuclear power is necessary do so for political reasons.

In terms of grid reliability, hydropower is the best reserve because it can be almost instantly turned on and turned off. Nuclear power, in contrast, provides significant challenges to grid operators because it is very difficult to adjust the output. Once a nuclear power plant is up and running, it is typically intended to run at nearly full power for months, producing roughly the same amount of power day and night, whether the power is needed or not. Grid operators must bring in or drop off other power generators to match the supply to the load to maintain a constant voltage for every power customer.

Nuclear power makes much less sense in today's world than it did in the 1970s. As communication and computing technology has improved, we are much better able to manage a diverse mix of power sources.Today, nuclear adds almost nothing in reliability to a grid that combines hydropower, coal, natural gas, biomass, and distributed sources such as solar and wind. Nuclear is a relatively inflexible power source that other power generators must accommodate. Maine's section of the grid, for example, dropped nuclear power and still maintains a high level of reliability.

In a few months, we could shed 20% of our total electricity load, begin decommisioning our nuclear reactors, and enjoy the same level of reliability in our electricity grid as we have now. Shedding loads can happen very quickly. In my house, for example, we were able to shed 25% of our load the day we moved in by replacing the refrigerator and installing CFLs. Similar efficiency opportunities are available to every homeowner in America. There really is no good reason Americans are wasting so much electricity and paying for nuclear power plants to supply it.

In terms of climate protection, the question is whether it would be better to shut down our coal power plants instead of our nuclear power plants. My personal feeling is that we would be in a better position to make the transition to a fully sustainable power grid if we shut down all the nuclear power plants first, and then tackled the coal power plants. The nuclear industry is a huge distraction from the research and engineering work that needs to be done to improve the way our grid operates so that we can power our homes, businesses and factories entirely by clean, renewable sources.

Looking to the future, we have plenty of other clean and sustainable power sources we can develop to supply all the electricity we need. Solar and hydropower could supply our needs many times over.

In the end, whether we continue to expose ourselves to the expense and risk of nuclear power is a political choice. The industry depends on tax payer support to operate now; it will require enormous new government subsidies to grow.

Each of us can do our part to make it possible to choose a nuclear-free future by bringing our household electricity consumption down to half the national average. I hope this article has given you some ideas you can try in your own home.

Green Spring Cleaning - March's Sustainable Living Tip

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:48:00 +0000

You can clean your house from top to bottom without harmful chemicals. The key to a healthy house is keeping it warm and dry in the winter, and cool and dry in the summer. Keeping your relative humidity around 40% is ideal. That level of moisture in the air feels comfortable, but still allows counters, dishes and clothes to air dry. Mold and germs thrive in humid conditions, but none can grow on dry surfaces.

In the winter, your indoor air relative humidity often drops far below 40%. In that case, hanging laundry to dry indoors helps put more moisture in the air. You save money and energy, and make your home more comfortable!

In the summer, your relative humidity can rise above 40%. Running fans in your kitchen and bathroom is a good way to exhaust excess moisture before it leads to mold and mildew problems.

It's important to think not just about the water you're adding to your indoor air, but also what else you're putting into it. Any cleaners that contain petroleum-based fragrances are compromising your indoor air quality and increasing the chances your family will suffer from respiratory disease. Likewise, bleaches and ammonia add unnecessary chemicals to your indoor air and can damage cells in your lungs.

The best "chemical" in your cleaning arsenal is plain water. Plant-based surfactants and acids can help water do a better job of dissolving and rinsing away dirt and grime.

Your decisions about which cleaning chemicals to use have consequences far beyond your own home, especially if you are on a municipal sewer system. The dyes and foaming agents that look pretty in your sink don't look so nice in the Androscoggin River. But even if you are on a septic system, it's important to think about what goes down your drain. Anything that kills germs in your house will also kill the beneficial bacteria that break down your waste. Rather than trying to kill every bacteria in your home (an impossible task), concentrate on removing the dirt, grime and water they need to grow.

One final consideration to bear in mind when buying cleaning supplies is unnecessary packaging. How many 16 ounce spray bottles do you really need? Buying in bulk saves money, cuts down on trips to the store, and keeps literally tons of plastic out of the waste stream. Remember, refills not landfills!

Environmental Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:46:00 +0000

Mon 3/7 - Start Your Farm Business The Right Way: By Planning To Make A Profit!, 9 am to 4:30 pm, MOFGA's Common Ground Education Center, Unity. Workshop led by Richard Wiswall, owner/operator of Cate Farm in Vermont, and author of The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook. Registration: $50, which includes lunch. Register online.

Tue 3/8 - Portland Greendrinks, 5:30 - 7:30 pm, Empire Dine and Dance, 575 Congress Street, Portland. Portland Greendrinks is a monthly happy hour to connect people who care about the environment and sustainability. The events are a great opportunity to relax, have a drink, and meet new people who care about environmental issues. The Environmental Health Strategy Center will be the non-profit host for Greendrinks next week, at the door collecting a $2 donation from people who bring a mug and $5 from those who do not bring a mug. Inside the event there will be a variety of free local beers and lots of great people to meet. For more information, contact Rachelle at 699-5789 or rcurran@preventharm.org.

Wed 3/9 - Home Energy Efficiency Workshop, 6:30-7:30 pm, City of Bath Council Chambers, Bath. The Midcoast Council of Governments will conduct four workshops to educate homeowners on the financial benefits of making energy efficiency improvements and to provide guidance on easy, inexpensive and effective ways homeowners can improve their home's performance. Energy auditors, building contractors, heating equipment contractors and other experts will be on hand before, during and after to answer your questions. Several home energy audit coupons worth $200 each will be given away at each workshop. For more information, contact Jason Bird at 443-5790 or jbird@midcoastcog.org.

Thu 3/10 - Green Tea Breakfast, 7:30 - 9 am, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland. What do the arts and sustainability have in common? Find out at the next Green Tea Breakfast sponsored by The Sunrise Guide and Maine Businesses for Sustainability. Jennifer Hutchins, executive director of Creative Portland Corporation and Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance, will present and lead a discussion on their vision for Maine, the LiveWorkPortland.org promotional campaign, and how small businesses can benefit from initiatives in the arts. $8 MBS members and SunriseGuide advertisers, $15 all others. Tasty treats provided by Coffee by Design and the Rosemont Market and Bakery.

Thu 3/10 - An Exploration of the World’s Most Amazing and Mysterious Fish, 7 pm, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick. Join Friends of Merrymeeting Bay for a presentation featuring James Prosek, artist, author and activist who follows the incredible, ubiquitous and endangered eel from New Zealand to Maine, Japan and the Sargasso Sea. Eels are our only catadromous fish species, spawning in the ocean and living in freshwater rivers for 15-50 years before attempting to out-migrate back to their spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea. For more information, call Jim Mason, Executive Coordinator, Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, at 619-1945 or fomb@comcast.net.

Sat 3/12 - Environmental Action 2011, 9 am - 5:30 pm, Bentley University, Waltham, MA. The premier community activist conference in New England, Environmental Action 2011 will offer over 20 workshops, discussions, and panels, designed to help you prevent pollution, tackle climate change, ensure clean drinking water, protect open spaces and develop skills and strategies to create healthy and safe communities. For more information, Visit www.MAEnvironmentalAction.org or call (617) 747-4362.

Wed 3/16 - Home Energy Efficiency Workshop, 6:30-7:30 pm, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick. The Midcoast Council of Governments will conduct four workshops to educate homeowners on the financial benefits of making energy efficiency improvements and to provide guidance on easy, inexpensive and effective ways homeowners can improve their home's performance. Energy auditors, building contractors, heating equipment contractors and other experts will be on hand before, during and after to answer your questions. Several home energy audit coupons worth $200 each will be given away at each workshop. For more information, contact Jason Bird at 443-5790 or jbird@midcoastcog.org.

Thu 3/17 - Kitchen Licensing Workshop, 6:30 - 9 pm, Houlton High School. Co-sponsored by MOFGA and Southern Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District. For those interested in processing food at home for resale. Contact: SASWCD, 532-2097, Ext. 3, or angela.wotton@me.nacdnet.net.

Tue 3/22 - Ag Day at the Maine Legislature, Hall of Flags in the State House in Augusta. Approximately 20 agricultural organizations generally participate. MOFGA will have a table.

Tue 3/22 - The Future of Local Food, 6:30 pm - 7 pm, Freeport Community Center, Freeport. John Piotti, Executive Director of Maine Farmland Trust, will provide a window into the world of local food, presenting about the struggle farmers have finding land, where local agriculture is headed, and how we all play a part. Admission is $5. For more information, contact the Wolfe's Neck Farm Education Coordinator at 865-4469.

Tue 3/22 - Backyard Composting, 6 - 8 pm, Belfast Free Library. Free presentation led by MOFGA's Organic Landcare Specialist C.J. Walke. Would you like to learn how to turn your food waste into a usable soil amendment for your yard or gardens? Have you tried composting but were not satisfied with the results? Join us for an hour-long presentation on composting in your backyard. Learn different ways to build your compost pile, what to use for materials, and how to cater to the microbes that make it all happen. The presentation will focus on home composting, but will also address different approaches for larger, farm-based composting systems. There will be plenty of time for discussion, questions and answers. The Belfast Free Library, the Belfast Coop and MOFGA are co-sponsoring the event.

Sat 3/26 - Maine Garden Day, 7:30 am - 3 pm, Lewiston High School, 156 East Avenue, Lewiston. The 18th annual Maine Garden Day features workshops, educational displays, and a trade show. $50. Advance registration only! Seating limited; first come, first served. Register online.

Sat 3/26 - Organic Orcharding Workshop: Renovating Old Trees, 10 am - 2 pm, two locations: Swanville (on Mount Desert Island) and Palermo. This course is focused on pruning and feeding non-productive fruit trees in order to bring them back into fruitfulness. This workshop will be taught by Tree Warden Phil Norris in MDI and MOFGA's Organic Orchardist CJ Walke in Swanville, ME. Please bring pruning tools and a bag lunch with you. Fee $30. Pre-registration required.

Sun 3/27 - Seed Swap and Scion Exchange, noon - 4 pm, MOFGA's Common Ground Education Center, Unity. The Maine Tree Crop Alliance, the Maine Seed Saving Network, Fedco and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association will host the eleventh annual combined Seed Swap and Scionwood Exchange. For gardeners and orchardists, it’s like the most wonderful flea market in the world. Not only that but most of the best stuff is free! Please bring any seeds, scionwood, or cuttings you have to share freely with others. Last year scionwood from well over 100 fruit varieties was given away. Labels and tape and markers will be supplied. On sale will be T-shirts, books, grafting supplies and rootstock. Please note that this event, formerly held on Saturdays, is on SUNDAY this year.

Tue 3/29 - Green Homes Lecture Series: "Greening" Your Home Overview and Financing, 6 pm, ReVision Energy Showroom, 142 Presumpscot Street, Portland. This is the start of a six-week lecture series designed to help homeowners make good, green decisions about their homes. If you're considering a home renovation, an upgrade to your home's systems, or just want to learn more about greening your home, then this series is for you. In this first session, Peter Taggart of Taggart Construction will provide an in-depth overview of "green" building: energy efficiency, occupant health and environmental impact. Learn about available financing, incentives, tax rebates and how to manage your home's energy efficiency improvements or green renovation project like a pro.

Sat 4/9 - Exploring Faith and Sustainability in an Age of Climate Change, 9 am - 5 pm, Maple Hill Farm, Hallowell. Maine Interfaith Power and Light and Maine Audubon invite clergy, lay people, community leaders, and others to a summit for people of faith who care about protecting life on the planet. Facilitated by Good Group Decisions. Keynote speaker will be Malcolm Burson, Climate Adaptation Program Manager, Maine Department of Environmental Protection. $25 (includes lunch). Register at www.meipl.org. For more information, call 721-0444 or email info@meipl.org.

Sat 4/9 - The Healthy Home book tour, time TBD*, Shubert Theater, Boston, MA. Anne Olivo writes, "You are invited to see and hear Dr. Myron Wentz and his son, Dave Wentz, authors of The Healthy Home. The book tour will be an event to remember, with audience participation and engaging presentations to demonstrate the science behind the solutions in the book. More importantly, you will walk away armed with information to start protecting your family from the toxic burdens society has created, packaged, and sold to you as 'necessities' for everyday life. ADMISSION IS FREE to this life-changing event. Take this chance to discover what you can do to improve your family’s most important resource -- your health. You don’t want to miss it. *No time has yet been announced for the Boston event. For further information, contact Anne Olivo at anne_olivo@yahoo.com."

Thu 4/14 - Protect Maine’s Children from Toxic Chemicals Lobby Day with the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine, 8:30 am - 1 pm, Augusta State House. For more information, contact Laura Stevens, Community Organizer, Toxics Action Center, 871-1810, laura@toxicsaction.org.

Valentine's Day Collage Card Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:51:00 +0000

Learn to use recycled materials to make fabulous cards. Join us on Thursday, February 10, from 6 to 7:30
at our store (F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods and Supplies, 56 Maine Street in Brunswick) for this free workshop. The focus will be on a Valentine's Day card, but the techniques can be applied to any kind of card you might wish to make in the future. Space is limited to 15 people, so please reserve your spot now by calling 729-4050. Children accompanied by an adult are welcome. All materials will be supplied.

Environmental Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:26:00 +0000

The United Nations Climate Change Conference is taking place in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10, 2010. Representatives from the world's governments are meeting to decide what, if anything, to do about climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012. You can learn more about the conference and even "virtually participate" through the official UN Climate Change Conference web site.

Events in Maine

Wednesday, December 8 - Last of the Kennebec Log Drives, 7 pm, Bath City Hall Auditorium. Join Friends of Merrymeeting Bay to hear Dave Calder talk about the last of the Kennebec Log Drives. A former log driver, Dave grew up in the Skowhegan area and started working on the river drive at the age of sixteen. Dave worked on the drive 10 years until it ended in 1976. Following that, he worked in heavy construction until he retired. Dave has written some songs and stories about river driving which he performs on occasion. Aside from writing he enjoys reading, gardening, some traveling, and time with his grandchildren. Dave lives in Canaan with his wife, Maureen, their dog and three goats. The FOMB Winter Speaker Series takes place monthly from October-May on the second Wednesday of each month. For more information, contact Ed Friedman at 666-3372.

Thursday, December 9 - Sustainable Season's Greetings, 7 - 8:30 pm, F.W. Horch, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. Join us for our next Sustainable Living Talk, featuring Shari Burke. Sustaining our own personal peace of mind, sense of well-being, feelings of joy, and personal connections with others can be challenging during the frenzy of activity that is culturally and often personally expected of us in December. Come discuss how we can meet this challenge to create a different kind of holiday experience -- one that is more meaningful and joyful for us and better for the planet. Free and open to the public. Space is limited; please call us at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

Friday, December 10 - Ventilating New & Existing Homes, 8 am - 12:15 pm - Central Maine Power Company, Augusta. Properly ventilated homes minimize the risk of exposure to indoor environmental pollutants (radon, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, combustion pollutants, chemicals) and minimize the risk of moisture damage in the building envelope and subsequent biological contamination. This program stresses why controlling ventilation in a home is necessary to protect occupant health. It will discuss the most common sources of indoor air pollution in homes and how they get there, and what physical processes are present (air flow, pressure, moisture) that affect indoor air quality. The program provides practical strategies to achieve core ventilation goals. Limited space available. To register, contact Dick Tarr at Lapointe Lumber Company, 622-5025.

Local permaculture groups in Brunswick and Portland have several events planned. You can learn more about these groups and their events using the Meetup web service. Check them out at

A transition town group is active in the greater Brunswick area. Find out more about them and their events at

http://www.meetup.com/Transition-Town-Brunswick/

For more news about Maine's environment, check out Maine Environmental News

Reusable Gift Wrap - December's Sustainable Living Tip

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:27:00 +0000

Dress up your gifts in reusable raiment. It's a simple, easy way to "give green" this season. Here are some ideas and inspiration to get you started.

Reuse. Common items can make interesting and practical gift wrap:

dinner napkins
reusable shopping bags
bandanas
scarves
hats
towels
fabric squares cut from old clothes
hair scrunchies (for tying up)

Furoshiki. Try using a simple square piece of cloth (called "furoshiki" in Japanese) to wrap just about anything. Like origami paper folding, furoshiki gift wrapping is an art. Learn more about this tradition here:

Furoshiki techniques

Make Your Own Gift Bags. Add an extra element of originality to your gifts with homemade gift bags. Here's a blog showing you how to make these in a snap:

Make Your Own Holiday Gift Bags

Track-a-Sack. If you'd like to encourage a friend or family member to try using a reusable gift bag, consider giving them a gift in a "Track-a-Sack" WrapSack. The sight of an overflowing trash bin the day after Christmas inspired The WrapSack founders to start selling reusable gift wrap bags. But they knew that just because something can be reused doesn't mean it will be. So they invented a way to track the progress of each bag as it is re-gifted. In their words, tracking gifts bags is "not just to protect our planet but also to see the journeys they take and hope that those journeys will bring people together so that there is just a little more peace on earth."

We sell Wrap Sacks in our store, available in a variety of sizes and patterns. In addition, we also offer reusable greeting card covers to eliminate the waste of paper envelopes.

Decorate Recycled Paper. While most people will be happy to receive and give gifts in reusable wrapping, others just won't get it. For them, consider rescuing and decorating paper from the recycling bin to use for gift wrap.

Children's Art. If you have school-aged children, you probably have a larger supply of drawings and paintings than display space on your refrigerator or walls. Your child's artistic excess makes great wrapping paper, especially for gifts given to their proud grand parents and teachers.

Plain Brown Paper. You can make classic and classy plain brown wrapping paper from paper shopping bags turned inside out. This paper provides a sturdy protective covering, and has the added advantage of being easy to compost. I'm often asked by concerned gardeners and home owners whether they can successfully and safely compost colorful holiday wrapping paper due to the coatings on the paper, residues from the bleaching process, and chemicals in the inks. While I personally shred and compost all types of paper, including wrapping paper, uncoated unbleached plain brown paper is the best for composting.

More Ideas. For more information and inspiration, check out the stories of these people who have gone to extremes to live with less garbage:

Sustainable Season's Greetings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:32:00 +0000

Join us here at the store, F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods and Supplies, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick, for a discussion with Shari Burke titled "Sustainable Season's Greetings," on Thursday, December 9, from 7 to 8:30 pm. The talk is free and open to the public.

Shari is a sociocultural anthropologist and self-professed Christmas junkie with an interest in the intersection between cultural and personal stories. With her husband Bill Burke, she founded the Center for Cultural Preservation to help people record their own life stories and to create space where community members can come together to share and listen to the stories of others. Through years of listening and helping people tell their stories, she has learned how to cut through cultural noise to discover what better ways are possible to experience the holidays.

"I learned a long time ago, through unhappy experience, that cultural ideas about what Christmas should be do not work for me," says Shari. "So I threw out what didn't work and came up with my own ideas about what does work. Everyone tells me how peaceful Christmas is at my house. I like that because it shows that the possibility for a better way is there for all of us -- we just have to find it."

Sustaining our own personal peace of mind, sense of well-being, feelings of joy, and personal connections with others can be challenging during the frenzy of activity that is culturally and often personally expected of us in December. According to Shari, we can meet this challenge to create a different kind of holiday experience -- one that is more meaningful and joyful for us and better for the planet.

Shari will discuss some of the larger issues surrounding Christmas in the United States, including the increase in waste production and personal stress, and offer practical solutions that will allow us to lighten our environmental impact while simultaneously brightening our own holiday celebrations. She welcomes your personal stories as well. Attendees are encouraged to share their own ideas about creating a meaningful holiday if they so wish.

"We have much to learn from each other," notes Shari. "We'll provide a calm space for listening to one another and for exchanging ideas."

More information about the Burkes and the Center for Cultural Preservation is available online at www.CenterForCulturalPreservation.com.

This talk is part of the F.W. Horch series on sustainable living. Each monthly talk is held on the second Thursday of the month at the F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies store, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. Space is limited, so if you are interested in attending please call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

Good Giving Day the Friday after Thanksgiving at F.W. Horch

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:16:00 +0000

Come visit our store in downtown Brunswick to celebrate "Good Giving Day" on the Friday after Thanksgiving between 9:30 am and 6 pm. We'll share ideas on celebrating the holidays with practical gifts that minimize waste, and acts of generosity that build community. In addition, we will collect food and funds for the Midcoast Hunger Prevention Project. Bring in a donation and you'll be eligible to win a free gift in one of our hourly drawings.

Every year we look for ways to give back to the community that supports us. We sell organic seeds, gardening tools, composting and canning supplies, but we realize that growing and preserving your own food is not possible for many in our society. That's why we are raising awareness and support for our local soup kitchen and food bank, helping to provide healthy and nutritious meals to those who are in need.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is conventionally known as "Black Friday," associated with crowds marking the start of the Christmas shopping season. Among counter-culture activists, it is celebrated as "Buy Nothing Day," a protest against mindless consumerism. Being a sustainable living store, F.W. Horch seeks to provide you with gift and giving ideas that sustain meaningful relationships, cut down on the amount of waste generated during the holiday season, and make a positive difference in our community and beyond.

You don't have to choose between fighting the crowds at the big box stores or staying home alone in protest! Join us on Maine Street to shop at local businesses, support local organizations, and strengthen our community.

Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program
MOST NEEDED ITEMS

Tuna
Peanut Butter

Baked Beans – regular & large
Rice – small & medium

Pasta
Spaghetti Sauce
Canned Tomatoes – regular

Canned Fruit
Canned Veggies – Green Beans, Corn, Peas

Soup
Hamburger Helper – Tuna Helper

Instant Potatoes and Stuffing
and…

Any other non-perishable items you would like to donate including personal care products.

Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program – 84A Union Street, Brunswick, ME 04011
207.725-2716 www.mchpp.org mchpp@suscom-maine.net

Brunswick Earth Art 2010 Event

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Fans of the Earth will be able to join with others to promote creative ways to curb climate change on Sunday, November 28 in Brunswick. Earth Art 2010 will take place that day from 2 to 3 PM on the Town Mall. This will be one of many gatherings worldwide between the 21^st and 28^th sponsored by the climate advocacy group 350.org. Led by Bill McKibben, the group intends for Earth Art to “spread a warning” as well as “a message of hope… to cope with the most dangerous problem we’ve ever faced, and begin to work our way towards a clean, renewable future” (from www.350.org).

Brownie Carson of the Natural Resources Council of Maine is scheduled to give a welcome speech. There will also be an open mic for sharing environmental action ideas. The event will culminate in a group photo to capture attendees’ costumes, banners, and other visual art. The emcee will be Brunswick and Bowdoin grad Tyson Weems, who recently founded a Maine non-profit called The Health League in order to promote personal, community, and environmental health.

According to the 350.org website, “350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide – measured in Parts Per Million (PPM) – in our atmosphere. Measurements indicate we presently have 388 PPM. The group considers 350 to be “the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.” That will take collective will and creative action. Using art to help celebrate, educate, and activate, writes McKibben, is a way “to reach past people's heads to their hearts.”

Everyone who cares about Mother Earth and wants to see constructive action to deal with global warming is invited to attend this event and make a statement. Participants are invited to wear a costume, bring a creative piece of Earth Art on a large poster or banner or just come and support others. It’s a celebration and call for constructive action.

Jeff Gillis from Well Tree will be photographing the event from his bucket truck. The event will take place rain or shine. For more information, contact: sfweems68@yahoo.com

Environmental Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:35:00 +0000

F.W. Horch hours: Mon by appointment, Tue-Sat 9:30-6, Sun Closed.

The US Gulf of Maine Habitat Restoration and Conservation Initiative is a public/private effort that has been working since 2008 to develop and implement a unified plan to restore and protect the ocean and coastal habitats of the Gulf of Maine. A draft plan, calling for investment of over $3 billion into Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, is now available for public comment. According to the Boston Globe, "The plan, when finalized, will be made available to the US Congress to be considered alongside similar plans for the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, Florida Everglades, and other degraded aquatic ecosystems whose ecological health is considered vital to the nation’s economic well-being."

Read and comment on the plan by visiting the Gulf of Maine web site at www.gulfofmaine.org.

Local Events

Wednesday, November 10 - Words for the Wild, 7 pm, Dresden Public Library, Bridge Academy, Rte. 127, Dresden. Join Friends of Merrymeeting Bay for the second presentation of their 14th annual Winter Speaker Series. This program, “Words for the Wild,” features Gary Lawless, Gulf of Maine poet, publisher and co-owner of Gulf of Maine bookstore in Brunswick. Canoeing down the Concord River in 1839 Henry David Thoreau penned the famous question: “Who hears the fishes when they cry?” As Thoreau and many others speak out from and of their heart-land, so too Lawless reaches deep into the Gulf of Maine bioregion to carry its message to all who will listen. Gary Lawless is a nationally recognized poet and has published 16 poetry collections, 12 in the U.S. and 4 in Italy including Caribouddhism and Poems for the Wild Earth. His writing deals with issues of environmental and social justice, and listening to the voices of the underprivileged and overlooked. Gary has traveled throughout the world, reading and sharing his poetry and leading workshops for traditional and nontraditional audiences. The FOMB Winter Speaker Series takes place monthly from October-May on the second Wednesday of each month. For more information, contact Ed Friedman at 666-3372.

Thursday, November 11 - Living Sustainably and Saving Money, 7 - 8:30 pm, F.W. Horch, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. Join us for our next Sustainable Living Talk. This month we invite "Mr. Sustainable," Guy Marsden of Woolwich, to discuss the practical steps he has taken in his own life to reduce his environmental impact. Guy notes, "I do not believe that sustainability comes into conflict with living comfortably. My family has made very few sacrifices in the process of reducing our energy footprint." Come find out how you can live more sustainably and save money, too! Free and open to the public. Space is limited; please call us at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

Tuesday, November 16 - Among the Bears, 6:30 pm, Colonial Theatre, 163 High St, Belfast. Naturalist and acclaimed black bear specialist Ben Kilham will present "Among the Bears," a slideshow and stories about New England's black bears. Kilham has lectured widely and been featured in a number of TV shows and magazines including Field and Stream, National Geographic and People. He has raised 26 cubs over a span of nearly 20 years and successfully returned them to the wild. His experiences have given him new and startling insights into the lives of bears. Black bears exhibit behaviors thought to be found only in humans and great apes, such as an intricate system of communication and cooperation, empathy and altruism. Admission will be $8, $5 for students and free for children younger than 8. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Sheepscot Wellspring Land Alliance, which conserves land in the headwaters of the Sheepcot River in Freedom, Liberty, Montville and Palermo. For more information about SWLA and its educational and recreational programs, visit swlamaine.org; or contact Buck O’Herin at 589-3230 or buckoherin@fairpoint.net.

Thursday, November 18 - Wine and Chocolate Party to Celebrate Environmental Health Strategy Center's 8th Anniversary, 5:30 - 8:30 pm, Whitney Art Works, 492 Congress Street, Portland. Join the Environmental Health Strategy Center to celebrate their work to secure a clean and healthy environment where we live, work and play, and develop sustainable solutions. Stop by for a glass of wine or to sample some organic chocolate, celebrate some of our heroes from the past year, and visit with EHSC staff and friends to talk about what's ahead in 2011! For more information, visit www.preventharm.org

Saturday, November 20 - Maine Pesticide Summit, 9 am - 3 pm, Brunswick Unitarian Church, 15 Pleasant Street, Brunswick. Laura Stevens of Toxics Action Center invites you to participate in a day of sharing, discussion and strategy around the issue of reducing pesticde use in Maine. Best-selling author, journalist and Maine resident Paul Tukey will be the keynote speaker. According to Laura, "Communities across Maine have been up in arms against pesticide use lately. From Scarborough to Camden, and Fryeburg to Yarmouth, citizens are saying 'Stop the Spray'! Opportunities abound for reducing pesticide use in Maine: We're one of nine lucky states in the US without a pre-emption law, making pesticide bans in towns legally feasible. And there is political support for change at the state level as well." For more information, contact Laura Steven at 871-1810 or laura@toxicsaction.org.

Sunday, November 21 - By Land and By Sea, 4 - 6 pm, The Peace Center at Midcoast Friends Meeting, 77 Belvedere Road, Damariscotta. Community Chowder Supper will follow a presentation, By Land and By Sea, that examines a growing movement linking farmers and fishermen around their common challenges and opportunities to build local foods systems and food security. Amanda Beal and Ellen Tyler, Tufts graduate students and local foods advocates, will share the outcome of this project in Maine. The supper will include seafood/sea vegetable chowders, breads and desserts Donations accepted. For more information, contact Andy Burt at 882-6848.

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Local permaculture groups in Brunswick and Portland have several events planned. You can learn more about these groups and their events using the Meetup web service. Check them out at

A transition town group is active in the greater Brunswick area. Find out more about them and their events at

http://www.meetup.com/Transition-Town-Brunswick/

For more news about Maine's environment, check out Maine Environmental News

Tip: Beat the Tax Credit Deadline

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:35:00 +0000

November's Sustainable Living Tip

Take advantage of the federal tax credits for energy efficiency. Purchase and install specific products, such as energy-efficient windows, insulation, doors, roofs, and heating and cooling equipment, to receive a federal tax credit for 30% of the cost, up to $1,500. Improvements must be "placed in service" in an existing home between January 1, 2009, through December 31, 2010.

Facts about Consumer Energy Tax Incentives

The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 extended many consumer tax incentives originally introduced in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and amended in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
A tax credit is generally more valuable than an equivalent tax deduction because a tax credit reduces tax dollar-for-dollar, while a deduction only removes a percentage of the tax that is owed. Consumers can itemize purchases on their federal income tax form, which will lower the total amount of tax they owe the government.
If you purchase an energy-efficient product or renewable energy system for your home, you may be eligible for a federal tax credit. For details, visit the Energy Star web site, Federal Tax Credits for Consumer Energy Efficiency.
Consumers who install solar energy systems (including solar water heating and solar electric systems), small wind systems, geothermal heat pumps, and residential fuel cell and microturbine systems can receive a 30% tax credit for systems placed in service before December 31, 2016; the previous tax credit cap no longer applies.
Individuals and businesses who buy or lease a new hybrid gas-electric car or truck are eligible for an income tax credit for vehicles "placed in service" starting January 1, 2006, and purchased on or before December 31, 2010. The amount of the credit depends on the fuel economy, the weight of the vehicle, and whether the tax credit has been or is being phased out. Hybrid vehicles that use less gasoline than the average vehicle of similar weight and that meet an emissions standard qualify for the credit.
The hybrid vehicle credit will be phased out for each manufacturer once that company has sold 60,000 eligible vehicles. At that point, the tax credit for each company's vehicles will be gradually reduced over the course of 15 months. See the IRS's Summary of the Credit for Qualified Hybrid Vehicles for information on the status of specific vehicle eligibility.
Alternative-fuel vehicles, diesel vehicles with advanced lean-burn technologies, and fuel-cell vehicles are also eligible for tax credits. See the IRS summary of credits available for Alternative Motor Vehicles.
The Recovery Act modifies the credit for qualified plug-in electric drive vehicles purchased after Dec. 31, 2009. The minimum amount of the credit for qualified plug-in electric drive vehicles is $2,500 and the credit tops out at $7,500, depending on the battery capacity. To qualify, vehicles must be newly purchased, have four or more wheels, have a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 lbs, and draw propulsion using a battery with at least four kilowatt hours that can be recharged from an external source of electricity. The full amount of the credit will be reduced with respect to a manufacturer's vehicles after the manufacturer has sold at least 200,000 vehicles. The credit will then phase out over a year.
The Recovery Act also provided a tax credit for plug-in electric drive conversion kits. The credit is equal to 10% of the cost of converting a vehicle to a qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicle and placed in service after Feb. 17, 2009. The maximum amount of the credit is $4,000. The credit does not apply to conversions made after Dec. 31, 2011. A taxpayer may claim this credit even if the taxpayer claimed a hybrid vehicle credit for the same vehicle in an earlier year.
The Recovery Act law also creates a special tax credit for two types of plug-in vehicles: certain low-speed electric vehicles and 2- or 3-wheeled vehicles. The amount of the credit is 10% of the cost of the vehicle, up to a maximum credit of $2,500 for purchases made after Feb. 17, 2009, and before Jan. 1, 2012. To qualify, a vehicle must be either a low speed vehicle propelled by an electric motor that draws electricity from a battery with a capacity of 4 kilowatt hours or more, or be a 2- or 3-wheeled vehicle propelled by an electric motor that draws electricity from a battery with the capacity of 2.5 kilowatt hours. A taxpayer may not claim this credit if the plug-in electric drive vehicle credit is allowable.

Living Sustainably and Saving Money

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 05:06:00 +0000

Guy Marsden of Woolwich will give a public talk entitled "Living Sustainably and Saving Money" at F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods and Supplies, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick on Thursday, November 11 at 7 pm. Guy will speak from his own experiences about his efforts to live as sustainably as practical while also saving money and reducing his carbon footprint. The event is free and open to the public.

"I do not believe that sustainability comes into conflict with living comfortably," says Guy. "My family has made very few sacrifices in the process of reducing our energy footprint."

Guy's presentation shares practical steps on the path to living sustainably -- from simple no-cost things like turning down the water heater, on up to installing solar panels. Along the way he will share anecdotes and personal stories about his journey. As an electrical engineer he will also demystify electric power: attendees will learn what a kilowatt hour is and why this measure of electrical energy is important to know.

Guy documents his solar installations, including the solar building heating system he designed and installed and the solar domestic water and solar power systems he installed, on his web site at www.arttec.net.

Space for this talk is limited, so those interested in attending are encouraged to call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

This event is part of the F.W. Horch series on sustainable living. Each monthly workshop is held at the F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies store, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick on the second Thursday of the month.

For more information about the F.W. Horch sustainable living series, please call 729-4050 or visit www.FWHorch.com.

Environmental Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 05:24:00 +0000

Environmental Happenings

F.W. Horch hours: Mon by appointment, Tue-Sat 9:30-6, Sun Closed.

Don't Forget to Vote!

Election day is November 2. As usual, there will be state bond issues.

Question 3 on your ballot asks, "Do you favor a $9,750,000 bond issue to invest in land conservation and working waterfront preservation and to preserve state parks to be matched by $9,250,000 in federal and other funds?"

For the full gory details of how this money would be used, you can read Part J of Maine Public Law Chapter 645. In short, $9.25 million would go to the Land for Maine's Future Board to leverage $9.25 million in other funds; $0.5 million would go to the Bureau of Parks and Lands to preserve state parks and properties managed by the Department of Conservation.

Local Events

Wednesday, October 13 - Climate Change: Perspectives and Realities, Surprises and Opportunities, 7 pm, Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center, Bowdoin College, Brunswick. Dr. Paul Mayewski, Director & Professor at the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine Orono, is a world-renowned glaciologist and climatologist. He will discuss his research findings from around the globe including Greenland, Antarctica, the Himalayas, Tibet, and Tierra del Fuego. Dr. Mayewski's research has documented abrupt changes in the world's atmosphere, produced naturally and by human activity. He has been honored with numerous international scientific awards, published more than 300 papers and led more than 50 expeditions to remote regions. This lecture is sponsored by Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, and co-sponsored by Bowdoin's Arctic Studies and Environmental Studies Programs.

Thursday, October 14 - Designing and Building a Photovoltaic Powered Solar Hot Water System with Internet Enabled Energy Monitoring, 7 - 8:30 pm, F.W. Horch, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. Join us for our next Sustainable Living Talk. This month we invite Phil Shelton to explain his "Zero Net Energy" solar hot water heating system. Phil asks, "Why add to your electric bill when you can power your solar hot water pumps from the sun too?" Come find out how you can use a solar photovoltaic-powered pump on an evacuated tube solar hot water system, and how to design and install a monitoring system that provides a more accurate measure of the hot water actually being delivered for use. Free and open to the public. Space is limited; please call us at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

Friday, October 15 - A National Ocean Policy: Moving Ocean Management into the 21st Century, 7:30 pm, Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center, Bowdoin College, Brunswick. The way in which the United States manages its marine resources is undergoing major changes. The new National Ocean Policy recently unveiled by the Obama Administration could have significant implications for many stakeholders and for the health of marine ecosystems. The Bowdoin College Coastal Studies Center is hosting a symposium October 15-16, 2010, to examine the implications of these policy reforms. The symposium kicks off Friday, Oct. 15, at 5:30 p.m., with a reception and poster session in Morrell Lounge, Smith Union, followed by the keynote address by former Maine Congressman Tom Allen '67, co-founder of the House Oceans Caucus. The symposium continues 8 am - 6:30 pm, Saturday in Smith Auditorium, Sills Hall, with presentations by experts including 2005 MacArthur Fellow and Visiting Coastal Scholar Ted Ames, Island Institute President Phillip Conkling, University of Maine Professor of Marine Sciences and Economics Jim Wilson, and others. Registration is required; the events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Bowdoin College web site.

Sunday, October 17 - 3rd Annual Kennebunk Green Living Expo, Noon - 5 pm, Kennebunk High School, Kennebunk. Educational exhibits will include renewable energy companies, green builders, and organizations ranging from local farmers to the Maine Energy Education Program, Efficiency Maine and Borealis Breads. Local food, music. Solar, wind, geothermal exhibitors. Energy efficiency products, services & incentives. Green lifestyle companies: jewelry, clothing & more. Raffle to benefit Kennebunk High green projects. Free admission. Co-sponsored by Kennebunk High School’s eKo Club and the town of Kennebunk’s Energy Efficiency Committee. For more information, visit Kennebunk High School's eKo Club web site.

Wednesdays, October 20 to November 10 - Fishes and Loaves: A Study of the Covenant between Land and Sea, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, The Peace Center of Midcoast Maine, Midcoast Friends Meetinghouse, 77 Belvedere Road, Damariscotta. What if there were no fish? This question is at the center of a five-week program of study and reflection about how our oceans and fishing communities are being affected by environmental changes. "Using films and guest speakers, we will learn about the environmental changes currently taking place in the oceans and how these are impacting Maine fishing communities," explains Andy Burt, co-creator of the study and the local facilitator. The public is welcome to attend any or all of the Wednesday evening programs from 6:30 to 8:30 pm beginning on October 20 at the Midcoast Friends Meetinghouse in Damariscotta. The study, sponsored by The Peace Center of Midcoast Maine, concludes on Sunday, November 21 with a program and Chowder Supper from 4 to 6 pm. For more information about the program or dinner, please contact Andy Burt at 882-6848 or 380-5387.

Thursday, October 21 - Maine Gubernatorial Candidate Forum On Energy, The Environment, And A Sustainable Maine Economy, 6:30 - 9:00 pm, University of Southern Maine's Hannaford Hall, Portland. Maine environmental organizations will host a forum for citizens to hear our gubernatorial candidates discuss topics critical to Maine's future, including clean air and water, climate change and energy, wildlife and land conservation, and a sustainable economy. The event is free and open to the public. The event begins at 6:30 pm with coffee and dessert; the forum will begin at 7:30 pm. Susan Sharon of Maine Public Broadcasting will moderate. Hosted by Conservation Law Foundation, Environment Northeast, Maine Audubon, Maine Center For Economic Policy, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine. MOFGA and many other environmental groups in Maine are co-sponsoring the event. For more information, email Judy Berk at judy@nrcm.org or call 430-4103.

Sunday, October 24 - The Art of Local Food, 5 - 7 pm, Summit at Point Lookout, Ducktrap Mountain, Northport. Savor an autumn evening with neighbors who love Maine’s environment. The Art of Local Food supports the environmental work of the Natural Resources Council of Maine and showcases the culinary talents of Maine chefs. Appreciate their artful use of the catch of the day, locally-produced fruits, vegetables, cheeses and meats, and other Maine-made products. Enjoy a cash bar featuring Maine beers, wines, and spirits, live music by Tom Luther and Justin Walton, and a breathtaking view of Penobscot Bay as the moon rises. For $40, all of which supports NRCM’s work to protect Maine’s environment (and $20 of which is tax-deductible), what better way to celebrate Maine’s bounty? Space is limited. For reservations visit www.nrcm.org/artoflocalfood.asp or call Joyce Gracie at 430-0128.

Saturday, November 6 - Go Green Expo, 10 am - 4 pm, Mount Ararat High School, Topsham. Save the date for the 4th Annual Go Green Expo. You and your family and friends will discover how easy it is to make your home a green home. Find everything from hybrid cars, to alternative energy, to recycled building materials and consumer products and services. All with sustainable living in mind. New this year is a “Go Green Science Fair” featuring exhibits from area school students. There will be a food court, children’s activities and wonderful door prizes. Admission is free and there is plenty of free parking for all! For more information, visit the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber of Commerce web site.

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Local permaculture groups in Brunswick and Portland have several events planned. You can learn more about these groups and their events using the Meetup web service. Check them out at

A transition town group is active in the greater Brunswick area. Find out more about them and their events at

http://www.meetup.com/Transition-Town-Brunswick/

For more news about Maine's environment, check out Maine Environmental News

Tip: Compost Fall Leaves

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 05:18:00 +0000

October's Sustainable Living Tip

Collect your leaves for making great compost. For quick results, make a pile at least three feet tall and three feet in diameter, add a compost activator, water thoroughly, and turn every few days. Another option is to allow your leaves to dry in the sun, then collect and store them under cover or in garbage cans for use throughout the year. Dry leaves are a good source of "browns" to add to your kitchen "greens."

Facts about Cold Weather Composting

To make compost, you W-A-N-T four things: water, air, nutrients and temperature.
Now that fall has arrived, outdoor temperatures start to fall below the range that supports composting. You can still collect materials, but the composting action will slow down the colder it gets.
Making a big pile of leaves helps keep the temperature in the center of the pile high enough to complete the composting process before winter comes.
The trick to successfully composting fall leaves is to ensure that you remember to provide the water, air and nutrients needed, in addition to building a large enough pile that will retain heat.
Water is essential to making compost. You'll need to water your pile of leaves to get things started, and you may need to add water every few days. Building a pile in the sun will help with heat, but will require extra water. Building the pile in the shade will retain more moisture, but doesn't take advantage of the sun's energy for heating things up. Some people like to build their pile in the sun and cover the top with black plastic. This keeps some moisture in and also collects heat to keep those microbes toasty.
Periodically turning your pile will allow air to circulate. Aerobic microbes require oxygen to do their work. In the absence of oxygen, anaerobic microbes take over. If that happens, be prepared for odors. Ensure an adequate supply of oxygen for your microbes by turning your pile every few days. And if odors do develop, remember the best remedy is fresh air.
A pile of leaves by themselves won't compost as quickly as a pile of leaves with some added nutrients. Compost activators supply the missing nutrients--mainly nitrogen. Other sources of nitrogen include manure and kitchen scraps. If your leaf pile doesn't seem to be "cooking," try adding water and an activator to speed things up. But once temperatures fall too low, if your pile isn't cooking you may just have to wait for warmer weather.
Besides building a big compost pile, you have other good options for using your leaves. Shredding them and using them as mulch around bushes and trees, or on garden beds, is a simple and sustainable approach. After all, your trees are expecting their leaves to feed their roots for next year.
Another option is to store your leaves to use when you take your kitchen compost out. Whenever you empty your compost pail from your kitchen, it's a great idea to cover your scraps with dried leaves. Now is the time to collect those leaves for use the rest of the year.
If you shred your leaves they'll take up a lot less space, and break down into compost quicker when you add them to your compost pile. You don't have to buy a shredder; a weed wacker in a garbage can works well. Just remember to wear eye protection and be prepared to get covered in little leafy bits.
We're often asked whether you can continue to add things to your compost pile in the winter. The answer is yes! Just don't expect much to happen. On the positive side, you don't have to worry about odors once things start freezing. That means you don't have to be as concerned about adding browns to your pile. Late fall and winter is the time of year when you can "dump and run" with your kitchen compost pail and get away with it. The rest of the year, it's a better idea to cover your kitchen scraps with a layer of "browns" (shredded leaves or sawdust or the like).
If you're the type that doesn't want to just wait until spring for your compost, consider bringing your composting action inside. Worm bins are a fun choice. You can use leaves as the top dressing in your worm bins. Simply bury your food scraps under the leaves and let worms eat your garbage. In a few months, your hard-working pet worms will turn both your scraps and your leaves into beautiful castings.
If you start your garden from seeds, you really ought to try worm castings for your seedlings. My favorite mix is half and half worm castings and coconut fiber (also called "coir"). Many people consider coir to be more sustainable than peat moss. Some peat bogs are being harvested faster than the peat forms. Coir, on the other hand, grows on coconut trees--it's the stringy stuff in the coconut husk. Plus, if you think about it, every coconut is just a big seed. The coir is designed to help that seed grow. So it makes sense to use coir for seedlings.
A great spot for a worm bin is down in the cellar next to your boiler. Worms like it dark and dank. You can provide a good home to some deserving invertebrates and save yourself the hassle of taking your kitchen scraps outside this winter by keeping a worm bin.
Now is the best time to start a worm bin to produce castings in time to use for your spring seedlings. It's never too early to be planning for next year's garden!

Solar Hot Water Talk

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Horch) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:53:00 +0000

On Thursday, October 14, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, we will host a workshop by Philip Shelton titled "Designing and Building a Photovoltaic Powered Solar Hot Water System with Internet Enabled Energy Monitoring." Please join us at the store for this free talk.

Solar hot water systems are a common upgrade to many high performance homes in Maine. While free solar energy heats the water in these systems, many of them rely on house electric power for the pumps that circulate fluid between the solar collector outside and the hot water tank inside.

"Why add to your electric bill when you can power your solar hot water pumps from the sun too?" asks Phil. "After being told by a 'professional' that it could not be done, I set out to design and build a system that was truly Zero Net Energy."

Phil's free workshop will cover solar hot water system design, basic plumbing techniques and low cost system monitoring devices. He will show how you can use a solar photovoltaic-powered pump on an evacuated tube solar hot water system. Harnessing solar energy for your pumps provide two advantages. First, your solar hot water system is more reliable; it continues working even during power outages. Second, your pump speed matches the available solar energy: when more heat is available, your pumps circulate faster.

During the workshop, find out how to design and install a monitoring system that provides a more accurate measure of the hot water actually being delivered for use. You will learn how to use inexpensive monitoring hardware to determine how much energy -- and money -- your solar hot water system is actually saving.

"All the energy for my entire system, including radiant heat for our greenhouse, comes from the sun," says Phil. "The performance of our system is posted live on the Internet at www.sunnyhotwater.com."

Phil is perhaps best known for designing and building the world's largest rotating globe for DeLorme Mapping in Yarmouth, Maine. Computer controlled, 42' in diameter and built with 3 miles of aluminum tubing, it made it into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1999.

Phil honed his skills as a wooden boat builder on Long Island, New York, before heading to the wilds of Washington County, Maine. He bought 30 acres of woodland, three miles from electricity, and built a log cabin from the trees on the land. After living for five years without electricity or running water (unless you count "running water" up from the stream with galvanized buckets) and with a second son on the way, Phil decided to move towards civilization. He landed a job at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine, and taught boat building for ten years.

His lifelong goal, as a boat builder, was to design and build his own boat and sail around the world. After ten years of off and on construction, the 42-foot gaff rigged cutter "Iwalani," equipped with a modified wind generator, was finally launched. Phil and his wife Amy left Maine in 2000 and successfully returned three years and 30,000 miles later. At Williams Farm, in Georgetown, Maine, they continue to pursue a self-sustaining lifestyle.

This talk is part of the F.W. Horch series on sustainable living. Each monthly talk is held on the second Thursday of the month at the F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies store, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. Space is limited, so if you're interested in attending we encourage you to call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.