Living closer to the bottom of the food chain

Hello readers. As a part of trying to do my part to lead a sustainable lifestyle I am also trying to eat lower on the food chain - less meats and more plants. I am not a vegetarian however there are many healthy reasons to decrease the amount of meat that we eat including reducing the bad cholestrol in our bodies and controlling our weight. I am not an advocate of any specific diet but I do encourage my family to make healthy choices for their meals. Here is a link that I recently came across for juice recipes. I have not had a chance to try any directly from here but I have made juice from some similar recipes. Carrot and apple is very good. I want to try the watermelon and some of the others.
http://www.living-foods.com/recipes/juicerecipes.html

Time Magazine Article on BioFuels

Hello readers. I read a good article this week on bio-fuels and the effect upon the market and the environment.
The article states that when we increase the amount of corn grown for bio-fuel use we inversely affect the amount of corn that we grow for food purposes which makes sense. At the same time that we do this we are also decreasing the area that we we use for growing soy because the bio-fuel crop is more lucrative for farmers. By us decreasing soy output other nations such as Brazil increase their soy crop. Farmers in Brazil who increase their soy cause less grazing land for cattle so this causes ranchers to burn more of the Amazon Rain Forest to convert it to pasture for cattle. The effects are many. First the cost of feed corn goes up, the cost of flour goes up, the cost of soy goes up. The amount of corn that it takes to make one tank of ethanol can provide food for one person for a year. The net carbon affect on the atmosphere goes up because of the deforestation which will take possibly hundreds of years to equalize using soy new vegetable oil based bio-fuel.
Two things that we in America need to consider. One is increasing our use of waste vegetable oil to convert to bio-fuels and the other is to develop the use of sugarcane to convert to bio-fuels.
Corn and soy are food crops and should be grown primarily for those purposes. Using the waste oils from either provides an additional benefit while not impacting the use of them for the food chain. Using sugarcane for bio-fuel will increase the cost of sugar however the use of sugar in the American diet would greatly benefit from a higher cost - maybe we would not eat so much of it and many of us would be a lot healthier.
My thoughts for now.

Diesel prices

Hello readers. I am finally starting to make my biodiesel. I am setting up an appleseed biodiesel reactor this week so that I can make a set up batch next weekend. I have made a micro batch in my kitchen and made a larger batch in my garage and ran both in my VW diesel. When diesel went over 4 bucks a gallon I decided to go ahead and start making it from waste vegetable oil. I have to stop by a local Chinese restaurant tomorrow to see if I can take some of their waste oil to try my first batch.
Here is a quote from the Democratic National Convention, speaking Rep. Joe Donnelly.
"However, not everyone is feeling the squeeze. Thanks in large part to a number of tax breaks and taxpayer subsidies, the world's five largest oil companies each reported record-high profits for 2007." Our politicians realize where the profits are going to but at the same time the politicians are not doing anything to stop the war, bring our troops home, and reduce our dependancy on foreign fuel. We need to implement the technology that we have into the production of vehicles now. We know that salt water can be made to burn through the use of radio waves. How about a radio generator for an engine that is fueled by saltwater. It can be done.

JD Edwards Review of

Hello readers here is a link to an article published by JD Edwards on alternative fueled vehicles.
Surprising some of the vehicles that I thought would have made their cut did not but at the same time I did not expect to see the SUVs on the list. The article also indicates many misconceptions that consumers have towards these vehicles with regard to mileage per gallon of fuel. Some differences were as high as 19 mpg different from what was expected. Overall this is a good article if you are in the market for an alternative fueled vehicle.
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=435625

Science Daily

Hello readers. Here is a website that I just came across today. Has a large amount of information in the form of print news and articles, videos, images, and RSS. The site has a good layout with tabs across the top header with multiple topics ranging from health and medicine, plants and animals, earth and climate, to fossils and ruins. Left side margin contains latest news links along with links to the the same info as the tabs. The site flows easily enough and has some good information while limiting advertising space except for in the top header and along the right margin. Good job on a nice website.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/alternative_fuels/

Hello readers. Here is an interesting article from Journey to Forever in regards to school projects and teaching children about sustainable living.
http://journeytoforever.org/edu_garden.htmlggest
Once again, I suggest getting the book "Square Foot Gardening." The book provides a really good insight for building small scale gardens which allow you to grow your vegetables in a small space.

Automotive X Prize Race $10mm purse for fastest green car

Here is an interesting article that I just came across today. Automotive X Prize is the brain child of Peter Diamandis and was inpired by the prize that Charles Lindberg won by travelling across the Atlantic. The AXP is not so much about experimentation but more about convincing society that green vehicles can be not only good for the environment and economical but also safe, fun to drive, and still have some speed.
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=450035&topart=hybrids

Review of greentechnolog.com

Here is a blog that I came across recently, http://www.greentechnolog.com/. Greentechnolog has some really good articles and links. Reviews on the site range from basics of electric car technology to an article on a college auto club that uses waste vegetable oil, wvo, to run their diesel engines. Links include renewable energy groups, wind farming, solar technology, and more. I give this site two "green thumbs" up!

Aviation use of alternative fuels

Here is an interesting article from Scientific American about the quest for alternative fuels for the military as well as for commercial air traffic.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=flying-environmentally-friendly-skies-on-alternative-fuels

Square Foot Gardening - Book Review

Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew, is an excellent book. The book instructs people how to plan, build, and plant in your garden so that you are able to maximize your space, time, and effort in your garden throughout the growing season.

As outlined in the book, in traditional gardening, we set up our gardens in rows and walk between the rows to access the plants. One of the major problems with this method, as Mel points out, is that we inevitably pack down the soil between the rows and we must then work to turn over the soil and loosen it up for the next spring.

By planting as Mel instructs your garden requires less upkeep from one season to the next but yields more produce per square foot of garden space.

Here is a link to a Green Trust Sustainablility & Renewable Energy site. The site has some good information and products available.
http://www.green-trust.org/
I have a VW diesel and am in the process of building a biodiesel reactor to make my own biodiesel, which is an alternative to petroleum diesel formulated from clean or waste vegetable oil. Biodiesel can be used as a 100% fuel or mixed with petroleum diesel to power your diesel engine. Biodiesel can also be used as a home heating fuel. Be sure to check the compatability of your home heating system with biodiesel prior to using the fuel. Many local fuel oil companies are now carrying biodiesel under various names and percentage mixes. Your fuel company can let you know about the compatibility of your system to burn biodiesel.

Colorado and renewable energy

Here is an interesting article that I found about Colorado and the states ability to provide renewable energy to consumers, possibly as much as 10x what the state currently uses according to calculations by the Colorado Governor's Energy Office. This would be a great benefit, hopefully other states are also looking into implementing or expanding their states' renewable energy programs.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_7875808

Nanotechnology

Here is an article that I found on Green Energy News about a company out of California, http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2007/20070139.html. The company's products are available to customers at a cost of approximately 1 dollar per watt rating of the solar panel.

A friend of mine recently had solar panels installed on his home and he is now putting electric into the grid rather than drawing electric from it. Maybe if more of us were to do the same we could reduce some of the coal or fuel oil fired power plants.

Sport Fishing

I am an avid fisherman, however I strongly believe in maintaining the world's fisheries. I do keep some of the fish that I catch but I return most of what I catch to the water. Most of the fishermen that I associate with also believe in catch and release as well. The earth's fisheries are under tremendous stress from fishing pressure that is being exerted by commercial netting not by the sport fishermen or person who goes fishing to put some meat into his freezer.

Living in a cleaner world

I just started this blog to bring attention to ways to clean up our environment, live "greener," and focus upon renewable resources.

I am very interested in renewable resources, including biodiesel and solar power. I have made biodiesel from a recipe that I found online at http://journeytoforever.org/ but there are plenty of other excellent sites. The fuel is relatively easy to make. I used new vegetable oil but I would use waste vegetable oil, wvo, if I were making it for continual use.

Oil futures hit $100.09 today!!! Another reason to look to renewable energy.