Green Stirrings

There are lots of things happening around here. I have gotten involved in a number of committees that focus on environmental issues. The Green Team for the town schools is trying hard to have the new high school use a dishwasher and reusable partitioned trays rather than one use polystyrene trays. The town schools use then incinerate 220,000 trays per year. 50,000 are used at the high school. A new building with a new kitchen is going up and the choice so far is to stick with the current system. One of our committee members has been fighting this fight for 25 years!

The other group I'm getting involved with is called Transition. It is a worldwide movement that seeks to guide towns more gently into the changes that will come because of climate change and peak oil. I have been attending meetings and lectures and watching movies that try to put a hopeful spin on very scary possibilities. The group tries to motivate towns to build resilience and community. This is positive whether times are tough or not.

I'm doing my part here on my own little homestead. Green beans and peas are planted in the garden being soaked by this week of rain. Cucumber and spaghetti squash are sprouting in peat pots and will soon find their place in the garden. I'll post photos of these soon but for today, here are some photos of what my son has been up to:

Sailing! Nearly all the high schools around here have teams. I would never have imagined that as soon as the ice melted off the local lake, my son would be out on the water (in expensive safety gear that protects kids who fall in the lake from hypothermia) sailing. Alas, now that the water is warming and the chances to sit lakeside in the warm sun are here, the season is coming to a close. But, it's been great watching him and the team even in the cold.