The 2nd Annual Dam Park Task Force Fish Fry will be taking place on Saturday, May 19th from 4-7pm at the Pine River American Legion.
Last year was busy. Buy your tickets early.
Tickets can be purchased at local (Pine River) businesses and the Pine River Information Center.
Here's the details!
Last year was a huge success, but the Dam Park still needs your help to get built. So, help out your community get the beach it needs and eat very well at the same time!
This month we're highlighting the need for water conservation, so, I've been delving into many different water related facts. I've stumbled upon (not using stumble-upon, BTW) the HUGE use of bottled water in the USA. Apparently, America opens up one thousand (1000!) bottles of water every second. That adds up to a tune of 30 billion (with a B!) bottles of water used every year in just the Unites States alone.
There are more stats, but I won't bore you. The basic topic I propose to you today, in a world where water is so scarce, is why do we drink so much bottled water? At an enormous increase in cost to us, we have decided that bottled water is something that we need to buy. It is a necessity to us.
BUT WHY?
Is it the taste?
Well, let's go back to the idea of a franchise. You can eat a cheeseburger at a Wendy's in downtown Minneapolis and it will taste like the cheeseburger you can get at a Wendy's in Anchorage. This is because these industries put so much effort (read *Spend loads of money*) in getting a product to look, smell, and taste the same everywhere!
The same can be said for the water industry. A bottle of Dasani is filtered (tap water) with a special blend of minerals that will make every other bottle of Dasani taste like every other bottle of Dasani. They put efforts (*loads of money*) into creating that taste; claim that it's a feature of their water, that Dasani's water is somehow better because of its taste.
Here's a video of a guy who, after drinking so much types and brands of bottled water, has, in fact, become a true bottled water connoisseur.
Four out of six is pretty good. But still, would the average bottled water drinker be able to tell the difference?
Blind taste tests prove that there is no discernible difference in taste between tap water and commercially bottled water.
The dude over at Subliminal Science made a little video where he tested this theory on his teenage kids. And, I understand, while it isn't the most clinically scientific study, it can show some of the basics behind the studies.
Pretty interesting, right? Tap water wins out over Dasani & Fiji waters to the average drinker.
So WHY?
Is it the fear of the dirty dirty tap?
There have been manymanydollars put into advertising to perpetuate the idea of tap water as unclean. According to the American Water Works Association, 35% of people who drink bottled water are doing so just because they think it's cleaner and safer than tap water.
If we look at this video (made by Annie Leonard of "The Story of Stuff" fame), we can get a large picture of what bottled water companies are doing in marketing.
Pretty neat video, right? It helps to put the entire process into context. With all of the negatives on drinking bottled water (Plastic Bottles Used, Money Wasted, Not as Tasty) we have to ask ourselves the ultimate question:
WATER BOTTLES. WHY?
We know that we are using enormous quantities of creating power to make these plastic bottles. And they DONT DEGRADE!
We are spending up to 1000 times what we should normally be spending on tap water. (If you were to drink your eight recommended glasses a day of tap water, you'd end up paying only 49 cents for the YEAR!)
We are being told that the bottled water is cleaner, healthier, and tastier than tap water. Tests have proven that this is not the case.
And this isn't even the worst part. Water is so precious and we're are spending (*wasting*) so much money on this product for no good reason. We have clean, tasty, and practically free water readily available right in our houses and we are NOT DRINKING IT!
Put this into comparison to some parts of the world where people must walk miles to get dirty and diseased water because this is all they can find. I found a quote from P.H. Gleick that just says it all:
"Suburban shoppers in America lug cases of plasticwater bottles from the grocery store back to homes suppliedwith unlimited piped potable water in a sad unintentionalparody of the girls and women in Africa, who spend countlessbackbreaking hours carrying containers of filthy water from distantcontaminated sources to homes with no water at all."
One of the most difficult problems that
gardeners face is proper use of water. They either use too much or too
little. The ones that use too much will set a sprinkler on and forget
about it during the day (wasting way too much water) and the ones that
use too little simply forget to set the sprinkler out (for those keeping
track, I'm one of 'em!)
So, what do you do if you are either of these bad examples? Do you
simply wait for the rain? No! You prepare your garden with a drip
irrigation system.
Drip irrigation is a method of watering your garden that will use
less water, less maintenance, and help discourage less weeds. There are,
however, different ways to set up a drip irrigation system, but they
all differ in how much time and money you want to put into them.
Here's a video to go over the basics.
If you're just getting started, I'd
recommend a simple soaker hose. Known as the “grandfather” of the modern
drip irrigation system, the soaker hose, as you saw in the video, is a
hose that has (tiny) little holes drilled into it to let water drip out.
The pluses for this method is that it is pretty darn cheap. However,
unless you move the hose on a regular basis (weekly), mineral deposits
from the water will clog the (tiny) little holes.
More advanced systems have something
called “emitters.” These will control the flow of water. These emitters
take care of the flow problem in long tubes and help regulate how much
water is actually used. Compared to a regular sprinkler system, which
can use up to 180 gallons of water per hour, properly installed drip
emitters can lessen the water needed to as little as one gallon of water
per hour.
So, get out and prepare for the upcoming gardening season. You'll be able to save water and money if you just plan accordingly.
In
our final blog post showing the different ways to save energy, I
thought it would be good to go over some of the different ways to
monitor your energy bill. I like to think that I am far too busy to read
(let alone understand!) my utility bill. There are numbers, kilowatts,
and other data that the average person just doesn't understand. So
here's a little guide on some different monitoring software that will
help you save money and more importantly use less energy.
1) Opower
is a company that will take data from your neighborhood and tell you
where you fit in according to energy used and money sent. It will
collect the data a send you a monthly report with all the different ways
you are spending energy. While knowing how much energy you use each
month is elementary, this program lays it out in an easy to read
format.
The downside to this program is that the
individual consumer can't subscribe. Opower works directly with utility
companies. So, if you're interested, you have to call up your electric
company to see if they will consider signing up.
2) EnergyHub is a set of gadgets that you plug on top of your outlets. You then place whichever device you want to
monitor (like your TV or computer) into this gadget. It will send the
energy used to a separate monitoring device that keeps track throughout
the month. It will also kill any electricity leaching to add savings.
If cutting costs is important to you,
EnergyHub may not be the best bet. With a minimum price tag of $300 per
kit, you will have to monitor your energy usage for quite a while before
this gadget pays for itself.
3)ThinkEco
has a similar product called a Modlet. If I were to suggest an
introductory device, this would be it. You plug in the Modlet into your
outlet and it will automatically (and wirelessly!) track energy use from
the device plugged into it. You can track on your computer, set up
weekly schedules and even shut down devices from your cell phone.
The price point is $50 per Modlet kit, so
if you want to track your refrigerator, computer, TV, phone charger,
and alarm clock, it will add up to a lot of dough. But, this may be a
good entry point for seeing exactly where you spend your money on
electricity.
Here's the bottom line, though. If you're looking to save money on
your bill, START SMALL! Turn down your thermostat a couple degrees. Stop
having the TV on for background noise. Change your bulbs to compact
flourescents. These are simple and cheap options. Once you start doing
the simple stuff, then you can continue on to the more advanced methods
of saving energy (like tracking). You'll have better results and you
will do more good for the environment.
For more information on how to use less energy, I'd recommend going
to the MN Power of One Portal. There is SOOOOO much good information for
whether you're just starting out or are already exploring alternative
energies.
I put up a short video describing why it's important to change your furnace filters frequently. If the visual aid doesn't help, I'm not sure what will.
Really, folks. Changing your air filter will save you money and keep the air you breathe in your home cleaner. The filters themselves can range in cost, but you don't need to spend a lot to get the desired effect. You just need to remember to change them. I put a reminder on my calendar to at least check them monthly.
I've found that buying several filters at a time will make the routine maintenance that much easier. Find a method that works for you.
I came across a wonderful article on Grist that covers the importance
of programmable thermostats (in addition to other heat saving measures
like proper insulation and sealing) when trying to save money on your
utility bills. Also, there are several comments below the article that
show (through physics!) why you save so much energy when you keep your
thermostats down.
The article dropped in 2008, but the data is still sound.
This month we are going to focus on the Energy Conservation pillar of HDT's mission.
With the first article, we would like to point out that buying and installing a programmable thermostat is not only a good way to save you money, but also help you use less energy.
A normal thermostat will monitor the temperature of your house and based on what setting you have it at, will heat or cool you house automatically. For example, if you set your thermostat to 68 degrees, it will start to heat your house when it detects the ambient temperature to be below 68 degrees. No problem, right? Well, your ol' fashioned run-of-the-mill thermostat will do this if you're in the house or not. So, unless you change the setting every time you leave the house you would be paying for the gas to heat the air when you're away at work, cooking classes, or perhaps the rodeo. In essence, your current thermostat is being asked to keep your house warm (or cool) even when you are not at home! Why waste the money?
Installing a programmable thermostat might be the solution for you. For as little as $30 you can get one of these bad boys, but the ones with the most useful setting will set you back about $50. Regardless of which model you get, they will all do the same basic thing. They can be programmed to heat and cool your house when you are in the house. You can set it to begin heating in the morning when you usually wake up and to stop when you and your family are off at work and school. It will kick back in when you head home and turn off when you head to sleep. You can even get ones that are pre-programmed to maximize energy savings.
If you're looking to get one of the deluxe versions, I've read that they can even monitor your furnace use and tell you when you need to get a tuning or when to change the air filters...based on how long your furnace has run! They may not be for everyone, because they can reach upwards of $300. (But it links with your cell phone!)
Here's a quick video from the EPA on programmable thermostats.
If you adjust your thermostat just one degree over 15 hours, you could save upwards of 2% on your fuel bill. Since most households spend about $1000 a year on heating and cooling, that thermostat would pay for itself in under a year. Hooray for saving money!
