There were seventeen sets of nail clippers. Books were on the shelves, books in boxes under the bed, and even more books in the attic. I found at least two dozen pairs of eyeglasses each with a sunglass inset. A microscope. Three weed whackers, four typewriters, and the boxes from every appliance he owned. At least 15 winter coats—why so many coats?
Posts tagged #Green Living Column'
Green Living: Bring Your Own Container, Leave with a New Way to Live
It is a song many of us sing every day: the last swipe of lotion on a dry day leaves a container empty; the final drizzle of olive oil escapes the bottle and sizzles on the pan; the old water kettle stops boiling; it is time to throw it all out and start over with something new.
How Your Grandmother Paved the Way for Green Living
My grandmothers were many things. Wise, kind, the best at giving hugs, and the best at baking cookies, as I’m sure your own grandmothers were. When I look around at things as they are today, I often wonder what my maternal grandmother, who lived her life as a farm wife, would have thought of the fast pace of our current world. I don’t have to wonder what she could have taught me about the ongoing efforts I make to live more sustainably, though. I learned those tips from watching both of my grandmothers throughout my life
Building with Natural Materials in the Mitten State
My relationship with natural building started in 1996 when I took a 3-week course from the Cob Cottage Company on the West coast. It was a life-shaping experience in living and building with others, filled with the use of natural materials harvested from the land, food from the garden, bread from the earth oven, evening music, and camping. I came back to Michigan with the advice of my teacher, Ianto, to build with strawbales in this cold climate. I met up with Fran Lee who lived on rural land outside Oxford with her brother and sister-in-law, and together we set out to create a structure that feels like a hug. Inspired by the books Places for the Soul by Christopher Day and Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, we set out on a journey that came to include Carolyn Koch, Gregie Mathews, volunteers, and experts as we practiced the ways of stone, wood, reed, straw bale, and earth. Strawbale Studio became the work of many hands and a labor of love created with much time and perseverance. A small building is a good place to start!
Rediscovering Recycling
Recently in the United States, the recycling movement is under attack. The federal government is dismantling one major environmental policy after another, and new quality-based restrictions by Chinese scrap buyers have sent the value of many recyclables into a free fall. This is hurting all recyclers, but especially those in Michigan, where landfill overcapacity had already put recycling at a disadvantage.
The Autumn of our Lives
One of the many reasons people enjoy living in Michigan is our four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. The seasons can also be described as birth, growth, maturity, and death, or child, teen, adult, and elder. Four seasons gives a year rhythm, and yet we are better at some beats then others. Culturally, we praise awakening and increasing—spring and summer, childhood and teen—far more than we appreciate maturity and death, fall and winter, adulthood and elderhood.
Permaculture Projects Take Root Across Southeast Michigan by Nathan Ayers
It was 2008, and the economy was crashing. I was scared about peak oil, climate change, and economic instability, and grasping for answers. A group of women in Ann Arbor were starting a new organization, and had heard about some of the community work I had done around sustainability. Through Transition Ann Arbor, I first hear the word “permaculture.”
