We have been drawing up plans for our house for years, but putting a sod roof on our house is a new idea to me. My architects (Whole Tree Architecture) are comfortable with sod roofs. They have made several houses with a sod roof. Their studio has one. I have […]
We are edging closer and closer to a final plan for our sustainable, little house to be built next summer. We have worked out a plan that is cozy and ship shape. We have visited and seen photos of a number of Whole Tree Architecture Houses. I’m starting to develop […]
When you are building a non-traditional house, you spend a lot of time wondering about things that people building in the usual 2×4, drywall, aluminum siding and asphalt shingle world can take for granted. But Doug and I want to be green pioneers and explore new ideas about sustainable structures. […]
Dave Baumler is my pepper guru. (see my previous posts on his exploits The Brave New World of Not So Hot Peppers and Peppers in History and in Your Garden ) He grows an amazing collection of peppers from around the world by starting them in his house and raising […]
Popey would be proud of us. We have had a bumper crop of spinach this spring in our second season of growing food in our greenhouse.
A lot of things happen to you when a parent dies. You may find yourself dealing with their lifetime accumulation of possessions which can give you unexpected insights into your parent’s life. As we are cleaning out Doug’s dad’s house, I keep asking myself – What the heck was he […]
Last week at the UW-Madison Weston Lecture Series, I listened to Julie Lundquist, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at University of Colorado-Boulder, explain how meteorologists are going to help usher in the age of wind. (More precisely, 20% Wind – there are some serious people […]
Have you ever heard of Dengue fever? If not, you will soon. I was reminded of it as I listened to science writer Dan Ferber talk about a book he has written with Paul R. Epstein, Associate Director of the Center for Health and Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. […]
Where can you get the low down on climate change these days? The media seem to drop the ball right and left. TV coverage or your favorite newspaper can seem willfully blind. What can we do? Glad you asked.
Paul Murtaughis a professor of statistics at Oregon State University, and he has brought his number skills to bear on environmental issues with papers like, “The Statistical Evaluation of Ecological Indicators,” and “Performance of Several Variable-Selection Methods Applied to Real Ecological Data.” When he and M.G. Schlax published “Reproduction and […]
Digging in the Driftless 