It should not be there but it is...plastic trash filling our rivers and oceans.  Marine waste is often the result of poorly managed land waste.  The amount of human produced waste continues to rise, more than doubling between 1960 and today.  This trash finds its way into streams, rivers, and other waterways.  Those waterways eventually empty into the ocean where the trash that they carry chokes our sea animals and contaminates our native vegetation.  This trash improperly disposed on land accounts for approximately 80% of the marine debris which has floated up on beaches and seaside lands.

More than one-third of the debris cataloged on beaches comes from single use, disposable plastic packaging from food and beverage containers (things such as single-use disposable plastic cups, bottles, straws, utensils, and stirrers). The other 20% of items making up ocean trash is attributed to at-sea losses from accidental or deliberate dumping from ocean going ships and other sailing craft. and abandoned or lost fishing gear.  In beach cleanups, the top ten items collected are 1: cigarette butts, 2. food wrappers, 3. plastic beverage containers, 4. plastic bottle caps, 5. straws and stirrers, 6. miscellaneous plastic bags, 7. plastic grocery bags, 8. glass bottles, 9. bottle caps (not plastic), 10. Plastic cups and plates.  Reducing all of this trash on land is very important to prevent the tremendous marine trash beds that we now find swirling in the oceans.  

Pictured above is just one of the numerous types of cleaning vessels scavenging in our oceans.  They all work differently but their end purpose is the same ...to cull the trash out of the ocean and bring it back to shore to recyclers to reprocess and repurpose it or dispose of it properly. In many cases part of what the ships obtain is processed for fuel to propel them in their travels.  The ships also utilize solar and wind energy for propulsion.  Some 1000 rivers around the world empty into the ocean and the rivers are terribly contaminated by on land trash. Now barges to fit the waterways are patrolling here as well to clean and cull the trash before it reaches the ocean.

What can we do as parents to teach our children to take care of our waterways.  I find that if you let them have fun with a subject or play a game with it, the lessons learned stay with them. Since I am an artist, I enjoy playing the "trash into treasure" game.  We walk the beach (or walk wherever you live) and pick up various bits off recyclable trash that have been discarded..  Then we come back and each person turns his or her trash into a piece of "art".  It is so much fun to see what creative works come out of the trash.  If the kids want, we award a prize at the end for the best recycled treasure.  
           
                         It is fun to see creativity at work while cleaning up the environment. 

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on this planet.  It has been recorded growing at an amazing 47.6 inches in a 24 hour period.  

A crucial element in the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a grove of Bamboo trees releases 39% more oxygen than a grove of any other trees.  Planting bamboo is a good way to reduce the carbon footprint and help fight global warming. Bamboo can be grown in its own box or in a field ..... but watch out - it does spread when it gets started and, if not contained, can take over a landscape quickly.  It is a great soil conservation tool with a spreading root structure and a thick overhead canopy.  Although it does need water, it can tolerate extreme conditions that most plants cannot.   

Bamboo is so very versatile that we are now using it for many things in our modern, daily world.  I have in my personal life, bamboo sheets and towels, a bathrobe, dinnerware, and even a bamboo toothbrush.  Bamboo flooring has become very popular as a wood substitute and my next flooring might just be bamboo.  It can be harvested in 3-5 years vs. 10-20 years for most softwoods.  It can out yield pine 6 to 1 in biomass production.  It is also one of the strongest building materials we have today with a tensile strength of 28,000 psi compared with mild steel tensile strength of 23,000 psi. and it can be used for concrete reinforcement.

Lae Lae thinks that bamboo is a great plant for our world and all those concerned with a green environment.  It's not too expensive, fast growing and earth friendly. Yea bamboo!

A fun way to welcome spring!  Magic drawings!

How to make a magical drawing in three easy steps:
 
1. Squeeze lemon juice from a lemon into a bowl and then add one teaspoon of water.  Mix together to make an "ink".  

2. Take a q-tip or cotton swab, dip it into the lemon "ink", and draw a special spring picture or write a special message on a piece of white poster paper (not too thick so the light will shine through it and the heat will penetrate).  This will be invisible and will be your magical picture or message.

3. Hold the drawing (or message) on the paper up to a light or tape it to a window that gets plenty of sun and the drawing will magically appear.  

Why does this happen?  Because lemon juice is an organic substance that turns brown when heated.  

​If you want to send a surprise message to a friend, let the lemon juice dry but don't heat it.  Send the invisible magic drawing or message to the friend and give them instructions on how to heat it to reveal your special message or drawing to them.  

A nice way to celebrate spring (and friendship)!

Their first time out, the tracking dogs, trained in the U.S. and brought to the Kruger National Park, managed to catch a group of poachers who had just killed a rhino.  Since then there has been a tenfold increase in successful apprehensions of poachers thanks to the work of the K9 program.  In 2020 in the country of Kenya, there was not a single rhino who lost its horn or its life.  South Africa, which is home to 80% of all the rhinos on earth reported a 33% drop in the number of rhinos poached in 2020.  In addition to the tracking dogs, decreased travel due to the COVID 19 pandemic, intervention programs to combat poverty in the nearby rural areas and increased policing have also helped.  

​Rhinos are not the only animal to benefit from these efforts.  Elephants, with their ivory tusks, have also had a reprieve in 2020 and elephant deaths have plummeted by 97% according to the Kenyan Wildlife Service.  That is such good news.  We don't need to poach these animals who are innocently living their lives for our own human vanity and greed.  This is a step in the right direction and a victory for the animal kingdom.


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I am originally from Appalachia, a very beautiful area of the United States, but its economy has been dominated for too long by  industries like tobacco and coal, industries that I consider very contaminating for people and our world.  But my daughter just brought to my attention, one industry that is bringing about change in Appalachia (there are also others), and I am so excited to see what is happening. AppHarvest, a non profit organization headquartered in Kentucky, focuses on economically suffering communities reeling from job losses, such as those in the coal and tobacco industries.  One in three people in the area live below the poverty line and unemployment is rampant. AppHarvest offers at least 300, good paying jobs in each of their vegetable growing facilities, on line now and planned for the near future.  The "farms" are under rooftop in climate controlled growing warehouses.  They concentrate on manpower over automation to provide jobs growing vegetables using a hydroponics system with recycled, pesticide free, rainwater and solar energy. Starting in Kentucky, AppHarvest has plans to develop facilities throughout the country.  Locally produced vegetables from the warehouses will save on the cost of trans-continental growing, transportation  and distribution and won't require the energy consuming, polluting long hauling to market.  

In addition to good paying jobs for the adults in the community, AppHarvest is working with the school systems to teach container farming to high school students to show them the benefit of growing quality food locally and giving them a vision of sustainable jobs for their future..  The average American meal now travels an average of 1,5000 miles by the time that it gets to the dinner table.  These farms will produce more food for less money, with less environmental impact for a better future.
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This is Lae Lae's blog and although she is just in preschool now, she thinks of what the future will bring.  She tells me that she is very excited to hear about an industry like this one for the future that she will be a part of.  

​We can do it if we want to - let's work to create a just, sustainable, and healthy environment for us all!!

This is one of my favorite photos of my children growing up. At the time of the photo, we lived in the country on a 35 acre farm and they spent most of their time outside in the fresh air.  The farm we lived on incorporated a small lake (or a big pond) - large enough to have a boat to paddle around in or to fish from (although I don't remember many fish being caught)  and it had a small waterfall that the kids played in.  In this idyllic setting in the piney woods, the kids also had two dogs, two horses (they were pony size and one of them named Patches had a little limp in his gait as he trotted happily around) a milk goat, a rabbit, a ferret and a noisy little toad. (there were many more down by the lake). For a very short time we had a wolf cub who was hurt but not badly.  We found him near the house and put him in a big cage to rest.  We gave him goat's milk from Heidi our goat but he definitely was not happy.  He was a wild animal not a domestic pet so he was only with us for a few days before we let him go back to the woods.

​When we bought Misty, the other little horse, she was a bit "pudgy" but, as time went on, the "pudgy" got bigger and one morning we were greeted with a surprise and Misty had had a foal.  We named him Thunder and he made a lovely addition to our little farm.  

Those were sweet times, and although everyone has now moved on, I will always remember those days and the innocence of their childhood.

Hi! My name is Gumby...and on behalf of all my animal friends, I wish you a safe and peaceful Holiday Season! 

I came from an animal shelter to bring warmth and love into my family's life and there are many more just like me out there. I'm sweet and somewhat goofy and I'm a good boy (most of the time).  I'm full of life and I like to spread my personality around. I love people, especially children, and I come up to everyone with my tail wagging. 

The shelter that I came from has been recognized as a wonderful shelter and it was awarded a 4 star rating by Charity Navigator for financial health, accountability and transparency. It is a no kill shelter and has a policy that no healthy or treatable animal will ever be euthanized and it has a 100% live release rate.  It also takes in animals from other shelters that are overcrowded or that are having to close for sad and unpreventable reasons, so I am very proud of being an alumnus of such a great place. It provides medical care, fostering, a crisis help system, a community food bank, education and youth programs and camps, and community outreach, all to promote and support the human-animal bond and to get animals into happy "furever" homes.  There are many other great shelters out there providing wonderful services as well.  There are simply a lot of animals that need care in these unprecedented times and shelters are quite often stretched thin right now.

In all of your holiday plans please don't forget the animals that give the world so much. Please remember them, both wild and domestic, in your love and giving at this time of the year....there is great need and we will give you so much in return!

Lae Lae and her holiday dove send you best wishes for the season.  Worldwide, we have had a very rough 2020 with a global pandemic, political turmoil and economic instability all around us.  It has changed the way that we interact with each other and the way that we view our world.. 

Despite that, it is important to remember some traditions that make us happy whether we celebrate via Zoom or gather virtually to watch a performance or a concert.  Whether religious, spiritual, cultural or just social we can share with family and friends, if only at a distance....and we can look forward to sharing in person next year.  

Some of the traditional seasonal celebrations are:  Christmas which is celebrated in a religious ceremony with the Nativity or in a secular celebration with the arrival of Santa Claus. North of the equator it is a winter celebration with a possibility of a flurry of a white Christmas snow, or below the equator in countries like Australia and New Zealand, people wear shorts, and go  camping on the beach.  Rather than enjoying with a Christmas tree, in Australia they celebrate by decorating a Christmas bush.  Traditions vary as well; Instead of cookies and milk as in the U.S., children in England leave out mince pies and brandy for Father Christmas. In Iceland, there is not one but thirteen Santas, known as Yule Lads.  One Lad arrives each night in the thirteen days before Christmas, leaving small gifts in shoes left by the children.

Also a part of the season, Hanukkah is an eight day Jewish tradition  which celebrates the re-dedication of the second temple in Jerusalem.  Also known as the Festival of Lghts, the celebration is centered on the menorah.  For each of the eight days, a  candle is added to the menorah and lit by the ninth candle, the shamash.  Traditional foods are also a part of the celebration.

Kwanzaa is a relatively new celebration which celebrates harvest traditions in Africa.  Based on African traditions, the name means "first fruits" in Swahili.  Celebrations often include songs and dances, African drums, storytelling and  poetry reading.  On each of the seven nights of the celebration, a child lights one of the candles on the Kinara and one of the seven values of African culture is discussed. A traditional African feast is held on Dec. 31.

Boxing Day, Dec 26, started as a day to give alms to the poor but has broadened into a public holiday in Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  In England, soccer matches and horse races are held to celebrate.  In the Bahamas, Boxing Day is celebrated as Junkanoo with a street parade and in Ireland it is called Saint Stephen's Day where a special celebration called "Hunting the Wren is held with young boys parading a paper wren through town.

To finish the season, the Japanese celebration of Omisoka is held on December 31 as they celebrate the passing of the old year and the eve of the new year.  We, in the United States also celebrate New Year's Eve as well.  I believe that we can see positive steps coming as we look forward to the springtime and rebirth of our earth.

These may not be all the ways that you know of to celebrate but please remember to, despite the sadness touching all of us in one way or another this year, celebrate something good in the world, whether it is the happy chirping of a little bird or the whistling of the trees in the forest or the cries of a newborn child.  The world is still good and there is much good ahead.

As we enter the holiday season I want to share some small things that I am thankful for,  I believe that the welfare of all of us is deeply linked to the health of our natural world and to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Among the most important of these are the pollinators, including the honey bee, One of the hardest working little creatures in the world, the honey bee never stops for most of its short 122 - 152 day life. Not only do they pollinate our crops but they also produce honey, the elixir of humanity.

One example of the symbiotic relationship between crops and their pollinators is the almond growing industry.  Between February and Marhc of each year, almond trees bloom and bees forage among the blossoms for nectar.  When they do, they pollinate from tree to tree and each blossom they pollinate produces an almond.  After the almond season, the beekeepers move their bees across the U.S. pollinating more than 90 other crops and making honey as they go.  Thirty three percent of our global food production relies on pollinators.

​However, the increasing use of pesticides, such as glyphosate products, and the encroaching of the land that pollinators need have critically affected both the number of bees and the health of the bees.

I am not a commercial beekeeper, but I want to do my small part to give bees a safe and healthy place to land on their pollinating way.  To do that I have taken a portion of my yard and planted it in succulents and lavender and other colorful plants to attract the bees  I don't use any fertilizer or pesticide. This not only supports the bees but conserves on my water use and yard maintenance.They seem to like it and I enjoy watching them buzz from plant to plant.  

We want those who come after us to inherit a world where the wild is still alive and where all things work together positively in the cycle and balance of life.  Enjoy planting a bee happy succulent garden with your children and feel good about helping Mother Earth as she helps us!