GreenGeezer

Happy New Year: Enjoy Some Locally Distilled Spirits to Celebrate

We were glad to hear from Seth Fox, owner and operator of High Plains Distilled Spirits in Kansas, which we included in an earlier post on green business opportunities.   As Seth says,

"I have one of the smallest carbon footprints of any producer of spirits.  I am also installing a biomass boiler to help distill my spirits.  I only have two employees plus my wife so anytime anyone [writes about us it] is an honor......We take great pride in producing our vodka.  Of course it starts from the best grain in the world, right here in the heartland.  If we are going to do it, then we are going to do it right the first time.   That's our philosophy, and this is why we make very small batches and take our time to filter very slow.  Midwesterners work hard and expect an outstanding product without all the frills and expensive packaging. Most Wanted Vodka stands alone for delivering the highest quality and value you can get." 

"Green Homes for Sale" Pick of the Week

The past week has left me little time to post, but here's  a great green home in Golden, Colorado with a whole house water filtration system and whole house solar system.  I can't tell how well it is insulated from the description.  Well, here's your chance to be "off the grid" and have some real solitude.  I like the fact that it looks like an old mountain cabin, though it is newly built.  The view of mountains and forest isn't too shabby, either, though it would be a long walk to town....

Chapel Hill Development Employs Cradle-to-Cradle Principles

There is a new development planned for Chapel Hill, NC that fulfills our passion for green building and our love of the college town. It is also gratifying to see the development arise in town, where it will rejuvenate an area that needs it.  (At least that's what I read between the lines of the copy on their website.)   Note to developers who want their projects to be approved by town planning boards:  the local community loves this development.  The company vision of Greenbridge Developments is an inspiration, but should be a requirement for anyone planning to build dwellings for human beings:

"Greenbridge Developments aims to develop a new kind of community in existing neighborhoods that promotes human and ecological health. A community that restores the air, water, and soil on which life depends, and contributes to the quality, diversity, vitality, and prosperity of its neighbors. An essential component to this will be to embrace new construction methods, innovative renewable building materials, and forward-thinking renewable energy strategies capable of restoring our relationship to the planet."

Restoration

Whooping cranes have been spotted in a Kane County wetland, according to today's Chicago Tribune . 
Especially exciting is that the wetland was restored on the site of a former farm, and yet the birds read it as a wild space.   The whooping crane is an endangered species  and only about 200 exist in the wild.

"They obviously saw something they liked and they saw that it was isolated," said Ken Anderson, wetlands project manager for the county's Environmental Management Department. "There are no trails or anything around [the wetland] that would cause them to have some hesitation in stopping there.  It's almost an 'If you build it they will come' kind of thing," Anderson  said.

Photograph courtesy Luther Goldman/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Anna Wolfson's Work at Allyu Spa in Chicago

On Friday night we attended the grand opening of the Allyu Spa where we admired the beautiful natural wall finishes and adobe furniture created by Anna Wolfson.  Anna gave us a tour around the space, which uses vivid earth colors and VOC-free paints, as well as burlap died with iron oxide as a wall covering.   Anna is doing great work and seems to be generating a good buzz among interior designers and architects.  The walls absorb the light to create a soft, warm and intimate atmosphere.

Natural Building Winning Me Over

Wood Stove
Originally uploaded by Robbi Baba

This stove is placed so that it radiates heat into the cob walls which release it more slowly over time. Also there are niches in the right side so that sourdough cultures and yoghurt can be fermented slowly. This is taking me full circle back to my hippy days on the banks of the Washougal River in Washington State.....

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff is a twenty-minute video that manages to be both entertaining and horrifying at the same time.  Did you know that 99% of the stuff we buy is trashed in six months?   

California's First Solar-Powered Apartment Community

Solara, California's first solar-powered apartment community, is affordable, energy-efficient, water-conserving, and solar-powered.  Not to mention beautiful.

41 Installs Wind at His Kennebunkport Crib

George Herbert Walker Bush has installed wind power at his Kennebunkport mansion in Maine.  The turbine is a Skystream model made by Southwest Wind Power and

"'.. is capable of generating electricity once wind speed reaches 8 mph,' said Bob Greig, president of All Season Home Improvement Co. in Augusta, which installed the windmill.

'The structure can produce an estimated 400 kilowatts a month at a wind speed of 12 mph. An average household uses about 600 kilowatts a month,' Greig said."

I've been a booster of these beautiful, home-sized wind turbines for some time now.  Hope the PR can spread the word.

P.S. You don't have to be a millionaire to afford one.

I hadn't checked "Green Homes for Sale" in awhile and so was pleasantly surprised to find this beautiful Victorian in Oak Park .  It's always a challenge to transform an older home into a green home, but with full insulation, ceiling fans, energy star furnace, low/no VOC paints, triple-pane windows and rain barrels, among other green features, these renovators have managed to do it.