Miami Beach 'Montauk' Monster washes ashore in Old Lyme, CT

This unidentified specimen was discovered January 11, 2016 in Old Lyme, CT

Edit: First named after the Montauk Monster, this new creature's legend shall live on its own rite and heretofore shall be dubbed The Miami Beach Monster!

This is a bit of an odd topic for this blog but seems worth writing nonetheless. My wife and I are between homes right now and have been renting in the beautiful Hawk's Nest Beach in Old Lyme, CT.

It's been an unseasonably warm winter this year and much has been said about the effects of El Niño. I happen to be a climate change believer (are there any left who aren't?) and think the effects of El Niño are compounded by the changing climate caused by manmade activities. Either way, it is obviously a warmer winter to this point. Last year in this climate, things were a bit delayed as well.

Sunrise on Sound View Beach
Old Lyme, CT

As a result of being between homes and living by the Long Island Sound, we've been spending a lot of time walking on the beach. Coastal Connecticut is absolutely gorgeous and many people from the nearby cities of New York, Boston and Hartford have summer homes here.

Each morning I've enjoyed taking our dog for a walk on the empty beach, watching the sunrise and looking for treasures that the tides may have brought to the shores. We have a growing collection of shells, smoothly polished stones and beautifully-etched sea glass.

But what I happened upon the brisk morning of January 11, 2016 is anyone's guess. It was an unusual morning on the beach, as a higher than normal tide overnight was caused by a storm the day prior. The freshly-smoothed sand rose much higher on the beach and with it was, frankly, a lot of garbage. I spotted children's beach toys, tangles of monofilament line, a plethora of plastic bottle caps and water bottles, glass beer bottles and soda cans in varying stages of decay.

This was not the worst of it, however. Peeking out of the sand was this beast. Measuring about 18"-20" in length with fierce fangs and claws, this monster had washed up overnight.

I showed the photos to a friend, Pete Garvin, who has lived in the area for years and he quickly identified this as similar to the Montauk Monster, first spotted in 2008. Unfamiliar with this legend, I did some research and I guess that turned out to be a raccoon... In 2012 the Brooklyn Bridge Monster was found. The folklore and the legend live on in 2016 with this latest sighting, the Miami Beach Monster!

WHAT IS THIS?!

Miami Beach Monster Characteristics:

• Wispy white tail like a badger or skunk
• Fangs like a bear or a fisher cat
• Claws like a badger or bear
• About 18"-20" in length

In case folks are worried about this rotting away on the beach, I did take the proper steps of calling the officials to remove it. The DEEP's website suggested contacting the town's Public Works department and so I did. As of yesterday evening, January 12, 2016, this specimen has been removed from the beach and we may just never know what it is!

Additional Photos:


For fun, I sent the photos to WFSB, who posted them online and on their Facebook page.

News Coverage:

• 1/12/16 - WFSB - Creature washed up on Old Lyme beach (Slideshow)
• 1/12/16 - WFSB - WHAT IS THIS? (Facebook Post)
• 1/13/16 - WFSB - Experts weigh in on creature found on Old Lyme beach (Reported by Kevin Hogan)
• 1/13/16 - WNEM - Experts weigh in on creature found on Old Lyme beach
• 1/14/16 - LymeLine.net - Mystery of the Beast on the Beach
• 1/16/16 - International Business Times - Unknown species: Giant jellyfish, pink blobs and a fish with teeth - Top five creatures that scientists do not understand

Remember this creature we showed you yesterday? Well Kevin P. Hogan WFSB did some digging today and has some answers for...
Posted by WFSB - Channel 3 Eyewitness News on Wednesday, January 13, 2016

WHAT IS THIS? A viewer sent us photos of a strange creature that washed up on the beach in Old Lyme over the weekend. See more photos here --> http://tinyurl.com/joj3m95
Posted by WFSB - Channel 3 Eyewitness News on Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Chasing Ice

If there are still any climate change skeptics out there, I highly recommend a documentary called Chasing Ice. It's the story of a National Geographic photographer James Balog who captured hundreds of thousands of images over a span of 3 years from 25 cameras mounted in extreme conditions around glaciers in the northern hemisphere. The purpose? To create time lapse videos that put a visual to the retreating glaciers that are indicative of a changing climate and ultimately contributing to sea level rise that scientists have been predicting for years. Not everyone responds to data. The imagery is undeniable.

Watch James talk about the film here: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/james-balog-chasing-ice-vin

Now, he's set up 8 time lapse cameras in Antarctica to see what's happening at the South Pole.

Just like the video of NFL player Ray Rice punching his then fiancé in the face in an Atlantic City casino elevator - the visual evidence is a metaphorical punch in the gut. You need to see this to better understand the changes that are happening beyond the focus of our daily lives.

I'm late to the party on this. Chasing Ice came out in 2012. Who knows how much more has changed since then. Please check it out, it's on Netflix and is a little over an hour long - well worth the time.

Pumpkin Spice Pancake Recipe

Perfect recipe for a fall breakfast!

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1 pinch ground clove

1 tbsp honey (alternate: 2 tsp organic cane sugar)

2 large eggs lightly beaten

1-3/4 cup 2% milk

2 tbsp avocado oil (alternate: 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted)

1 cup canned pumpkin purée

Yields

16-20 4" diameter pancakes

Steps

1. Whisk together dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Form a well, or indentation in the middle and set aside.
2. Lightly beat the eggs and then combine with honey, milk and avocado oil. Pour into the mixing bowl and lightly stir everything together while folding in the pumpkin purée.
3. Over medium heat, lightly grease a griddle or frying pan with coconut oil, being careful to watch for the pan getting too hot. It is ready for batter when dripped water quickly splits apart.
4. Ladle the batter into whatever size pancakes you'd like to make. Optional: toss milk chocolate chips into the batter after it is on the pan.
5. Watch for bubbles on the top surface, flip to cook the other side.
6. If desired, drizzle with maple syrup and enjoy!

Notes

To save time in the morning, mix dry ingredients and store overnight in an airtight container.

NASA warning of 'megadroughts' coming to USA

As everyone is aware, it is snowing a lot in the Northeast this winter. The pictures coming out of Boston, MA are pretty much unbelievable.

This, of course, has many folks joking about climate change being a farce. Queue the "Al Gore is fat" jokes from this crowd.

That said, snow melts. New England will deal with it. It's a mess, but it ultimately takes care of itself.

Unless we can learn to economically desalinate ocean water, I'm not sure how the Western half of the United States is going to deal with this.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/14/us/nasa-study-western-megadrought/index.html

It's surprising that anyone jokes about any of this any more. Or that politicians haggle over whether or not they 'agree' with scientists. I don't know when scientific evidence became a thing to 'decide' about whether or not to 'believe'.

Thanks For Giving Thanks

Let me get this straight.

On the third Thursday of every November, we sit around a glorious feast and speak our thanks for the friends and family with whom we share it. We mention those no longer with us and discuss our gratitude for the armed services. We take some time to reflect on life and enjoy each others' company.

Or do we?

This year, we cut our meals short and scrambled out to snap up the Thursday door busters because Black Friday has spilled over into Black Thursday. But really Black Friday deals started online Wednesday. When the real Black Friday rolls around, at 2:00am, we dash out to beat the crowds but lines have already formed. Chaos ensues and at the end of the day we have a car full of great bargains and possibly some bruises.

Small Business Saturday is lost in the shuffle because Black Friday deals are still available (*while supplies last), and also Cyber Monday starts on Sunday. But it’s not Cyber Monday anymore, it's now Cyber Week.

On Cyber Monday, all the brick and mortar stores have re-branded their Black Friday deals to be Cyber Monday specials and nobody has any idea if they have indeed gotten the best deals or not.

Then, Giving Tuesday rolls around. A day meant to donate to organizations who are trying to do good in the world. But by now, we are exhausted from all the hunting for bargains, we question our sanity, and hate our society because this type of stampeding for extra deep discounts brings out the absolute worst in people, and we have no money left because we’ve spent it all on material possessions we probably didn’t need but couldn’t pass up.

So, were our words spoken on Thursday all for naught? Were they real?

How about if Giving Tuesday moves to Thanksgiving Thursday, spills into Friday, coincides with Small Business Saturday, and then takes over Cyber Week. That way, we’ll pre-spend our money on doing good in the world, have less to spend on stuff we don’t need, and don’t have to leave the dinner table.

Now, please pass the pie!

iOS7

I've never claimed NOT to be an Apple diehard. I've been using Apple products since I was in elementary school and have never personally purchased any computer that was not natively running an Apple operating system.

When it comes to the iPhone, it took me a few years to get on board. Due to the lack of availability on my provider's network at the time it first came out, I was not an early adopter of the iPhone but whoooey did I want one badly.

That said, I was one of the masses who pre-ordered the iPhone 4 when Verizon first started carrying it in early 2011. Fast forward to October 2013 and that very same phone is still with me. I'm well past my available 18-month upgrade pricing to get a new phone but have yet to feel the need to upgrade to the iPhone 4S or the iPhone 5. My phone works fine, has a decent camera, and aside from slowing down because I've clogged it up with apps and photos, there is no reason to get a new one.

Recently, Apple unveiled iOS7 and the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.

What does any of this have to do with the premise of this blog, you're asking? At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I'll continue.

When iOS7 was announced as a free upgrade, and supported on the iPhone 4, of course I was excited. As an Apple diehard, I'd followed one of the live bloggers from the Apple event and was intrigued by all the new bells and whistles.

Fast forward to a month after upgrading and I wish I could pay to downgrade. If you have an iPhone 4 and have not upgraded to iOS7, don't.

Today is 10/24/13 and "Today"
has been clicked. The date is selected
but is off the screen on my iPhone 4.
Clearly designed for the larger
screen of the iPhone 5.

Does it run? Sure. Does it have all the new bells and whistles? I guess. It's hard to tell when I'm waiting longer for apps to open, have all kinds of problems with iMessage, Facebook won't even load anything, and sometimes my phone just decides not to be connected to the internet anymore. It looks like it is, but it's not. I've even noticed a view of the Calendar that is clearly designed for the larger screen of the iPhone 5 (see photo at right). IOS7 is plagued by bad UI/UX and my experience thus far with it on my device that's a few years old really tells me something, and this is what ties this post back to this blog.

Amidst Apple discontinuing the iPhone 4 and 5, leaving just the 4S (free with upgrade pricing), 5C (new) and 5S (new), they had to find a way to get people like me to upgrade their hardware. I fall into the category of people (in Apple's eyes) who can afford to upgrade and they need me to because they are losing market share to the plethora of Android devices. The problem they face is that I didn't (key word) NEED to upgrade. As I stated before my iPhone 4 is in perfect working condition.

Heck I still have (among about 5 other iPods that have come and gone from my life) an original iPod Touch that is perfectly serviceable as a music and video playing device, for Pandora, etc. what Apple never did to me with that device was to offer an iOS upgrade that rendered it useless - instead whatever iOS version that came out at that time was simply not supported on the device and it would not let me upgrade if I tried. Thank you for that, Apple!

Long story short, I believe that Apple intentionally allowed the iPhone 4 to run iOS7 so that enough of us suckers would upgrade (for FREE! aren't they nice?!) and have a bad enough experience with it that we would finally give in and buy a new phone. It's been well established on this blog how I feel about waste in today's society, and this whole theory of mine highlights the mindset that seemingly will never stop... That we have to constantly upgrade our stuff for the purpose of keeping the economy going, at the expense of the environmental implications of all these iPhone 4 devices that were otherwise perfectly fine and the environmental and personal cost of all these iPhone 5 devices that will offset them. It's the whole concept of buying a car, maintaining it, and keeping it for years and years until it won't run anymore vs. leasing and getting a new car every few years. There are so many implications of the production of that new car every 3 years that far outweigh any slight gain in fuel economy.

I'm a 'buy it, care for it, and use it for a long time' kinda guy. And I don't appreciate my friends at Apple forcing me into a different mindset with my now sluggish iPhone 4.

Nissan Leaf...Reserved

June 16th, 2010... The day I reserved my Nissan Leaf.



About two years ago (and two years after we bought our Prius) I vowed that my next car would be fully electric. Back then I figured it would be a plug-in Prius, or something else from Toyota. After all, they lead the way in hybrid technology.

Gotta admit, before the Leaf, I never even considered buying a Nissan. Why the change? Well because the Leaf is the first fully electric car for the masses. Skeptics will argue about the longevity of the battery life. Or that 100 miles in a single charge is not far enough. After all the $100k Tesla Roadster goes 245 miles per charge.

We don't have that kind of dough in my family. In fact the Leaf, admittedly, is a bit of a stretch too. But I fully believe that to see the world change in the ways that my wife and I want to see it change, takes sacrifices. It's not cheap to go solar and it's a risky move to buy the first mass-produced electric car. But heck, we only live once and why not take a chance on something new. Revolutionary. I can't wait for the day that I am plugging my car into an outlet whose electricity is produced by the solar panels in the back yard.

Toyota affected serious change with the Prius and I applaud them for seeing a niche and going after it with gusto. Next time you are driving around, count how many hybrid vehicles you can find. Every major automaker has at least one model.

Will more electric cars come out with longer ranges than the Leaf? I sure hope so!! With China set to have 200 million cars on the road in the next decade, I can only hope that before long, I can't drive anywhere without seeing hoards of clean, quiet electric vehicles.

Green = Gratitude

As 2009 draws to a close and I look back at the most recent year that will too soon become a distant memory, a feeling of reflection is sweeping over me.

2009 was a year unlike any I can remember in my life. As an environmentalist, whatever that means, it's incredible how much negativity enters my life. Polar bears facing extinction. Pollution not being mitigated. Atrocities to the land and the living creatures across the globe are rampant. An unthinkable plastic vortex in the ocean. Houses constantly re-sided with vinyl, a known toxic material. Oceans rising. Poor people on distant islands suffering at the expense of wealthy nations that for all intents and purposes seem they could care less about. Barack Obama won the presidency in convincing fashion and brought with him a renewed sense of Hope. Then Sarah Palin released a book and was suddenly in the media spotlight again. (Editor's note: Recall that she is in favor of shooting wolves from helicopters and drilling for oil in one of the world's last pristine landscapes). How? No, seriously. I thought her 15 minutes were over.

This is a lot to swallow for an optimist. "Environmentalists" tend to be optimists. We have to be because, well, we care about something other than ourselves. And that "thing" we care about leads us on a Sisyphusian struggle. Actually, I seem to be using the nomenclature—Environmentalist—hesitantly here at the end of the year. I'm not sure why but by the end of this post hope to have clarity.

People care about all kinds of things. The history of humankind has been nothing if not unimagineable. I don't practice any form of standardized religion. I'm not an atheist though. I fear death and find beauty in every single detail of my daily life. That may seem unreasonable but as an aspiring photographer, noticing details is in the fabric of who I am. I believe there is some sort of explanation out there for why the hell we exist on this intricate planet and can't even comprehend how we humans have discovered as much as we have about the universe.

That said, we live on this planet. This is our home. This is our only home.

Try to imagine what your house would look like if you burned toxic chemicals in each of your rooms all day every day. What if when you went to work, your neighbor brought over a giant bottle of bleach and dumped it on your flower beds? Or if he drilled holes in your roof? What if you decided to plant a vegetable garden and down the street, a small factory constantly dumped toxic sludge into the ground, eventually contaminating your own dirt and ruining your vegetables?

Grim. Thought I said I was an optimist...?

The trouble I am having here at the end of the year is not that President Obama hasn't fixed the economy or paid off the national debt or cured cancer or finished my upstairs bathroom. The problem I am having as an optimist is that the groundswell of support for the green movement seems to have plateaued.

My mother still has her reusable shopping bags from the 1970s. She and my dad once owned a Honda Civic that got 40+ miles to the gallon. In the 1980's.

Why do we go through these phases? Are we really so shallow that we care about the polar bears and our carbon footprints only when gas is over $3.00 per gallon? Why? Why does the price of the fuel our cars burn have ANYTHING to do with caring about living responsibly? See, this is where I have gotten lost this year. The green movement started as people really caring, I think, and then after the presidential inauguration, health care became the only thing we talked about. Michael Jackson, the king of pop, died. That's a big deal. Is it big enough for CNN to turn into E! and report on nothing other than 24/7 coverage of MJ? Until the balloon boy story captured our national attention for what seemed like an eternity. Seriously, is this what we care about?

I don't want to call myself an environmentalist anymore. We shouldn't have to. Caring about issues that matter should not require a movement. Or a label. I feel like the quality of life in our country is not getting better. Sure we txt, tweet and have Mafia Wars to get us through the day. But are we also spending time outside? Breathing fresh air?

According to the movie Food, Inc. (Editor's note: This movie should be required viewing for all Americans), 1 in 3 Americans born after the year 2000 will develop early onset diabetes. 1 in 2 for African American babies.

What are we doing? Changing our light bulbs and using fewer plastic bags is not enough. These are great things to do but in the grand scheme of things we as a people need to fundamentally change our definition of the American Dream. If we keep up with this pace of buying McMansions with toxic drywall from China and eating food that is making us sick, what are we really dreaming of?

I had the good fortune of meeting artist David Brown yesterday. He lives in a straw bale house with no electricity and no running water in Old Saybrook, CT. My wife recently helped him adopt a stray cat that needed a home. This was one of the most gentle and kind souls I had ever met. He is so grateful for the simplest things in life.

Hence, the title of this post. People call people who speak up about caring about natural things "Environmentalists" and we people supposedly are part of the Green Movement. But if you boil away capitalism and Americanism and corruption and everything else, all we people really want is for it to be mainstream to live natural lives and to be grateful and appreciative of what we were born into.

I don't mean we all should live like David. I don't think I could. As a society, there are some luxuries I don't think we could do away with and still have a functional society. But there are so many things we could live without and expectations of those things that could away, revealing a less stressful and more enjoyable way of life.

We as a country have completely lost our connection with the land on which we live. We don't farm. We don't need the sun to tell time. We heat and have air conditioning so the seasons don't really matter. Fruits and vegetables are made to look ripe through unnatural processes throughout the year.

Here at the end of the year, and decade, I want more than anything for us to stop and really think about what is real. And what we actually need in our lives in order to be happy.

Aiki Farms and Ed Begley Jr.

My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting one of our heroes yesterday, Ed Begley, Jr.

Ed has been friends with Robert Burns (pictured below demonstrating good composting techniques), of Aiki Farms for years. Robert is an organic farmer in Ledyard, CT and had a small event at the farm to teach some of the practices of organic farming and to get people to come out learn about the challenges small farmers face.

Begley was the star of the event and most participants had seen his show, Living With Ed. He has been an actor since the '60s and has been an environmental activist since 1970.

His show, Living With Ed, is a glance inside the life of he and his tolerant wife, Rachelle. He walks, rides his bike to make toast, she drives a Prius, he cooks in a solar oven, collects rainwater to water the garden, has solar panels, etc.

Why is he one of our heroes? Because he lives among peers who care about big houses, lavish lifestyles, ritz, glamour, and fancy cars. And he has been riding his bike around LA for almost 40 years. I respect that. He is a down to Earth guy who was comfortable chatting with us, answering our questions, and eating fresh vegetables from the farm.

All in all a very memorable, and inspiring Sunday afternoon, if I do say so myself.

Battery-powered lawnmower

I mowed my lawn today.

Historically, this has not been something worth writing about. But today was different. Today was the first time in my life that I cut the grass and could hear myself think. The first time I could smell the fresh-cut grass as it was being shortened without breathing noxious fumes. The first time I didn't spill gas all over the place while filling my carbon dioxide spewing machine.

Enter my new Neuton CE 6 battery-powered lawnmower. It's quiet, maneuverable, and fun-looking. Is it a super powerful manly man beast of a machine? Of course not. I could care less about all that. Then again I am the kind of man that is not impressed by a Hemi, Hummer, or hog.

However, as I mowed under the solar panels that had charged the batteries running this new clean cutting machine, I did have a growing sense of getting somewhere. Lawnmowers are far worse than cars when it comes to polluting, and I am happy to have eliminated that portion of pollution that had been coming out of my yard.

I am so looking forward to the next generation of automobiles that are 100% electric and are charged at peoples' homes, where photovoltaic cells and small wind turbines are commonplace and no longer the exception. It seems that with the right people making the right decisions, that future doesn't have to be too far away.

Norwich, CT...Plastic recycling pioneers

I have not posted anything in a very long time. Several topics are in the queue but a job change and time constraints have prevented time for writing. With that said, it was going to take something big to break this funk.

And big indeed... Norwich, CT, in conjunction with recycling hauler F.E. Crandall Disposal Services Inc. have a new contract under which starting July 6, town residents will be able to recycle all plastics #1-7 in their blue bins.

From The Day, 6/21/09 by Claire Bessette

With the new program, residents will be able to add small metal items, aluminum pots and pans and even aerosol cans to the blue buckets.

All plastics numbered 1 to 7 can be recycled, including plant pots and those plastic garden-plant crates or “flats,” yogurt containers, plastic eating utensils and plates, plastic CD cases and DVDs. Styrofoam and foam plastics still are out, but clear plastic vegetable and egg containers are in, along with medicine bottles and hard plastic caps.

Newspapers, advertising fliers, magazines, catalogs, phone books, hardcover and paperback books, paper of all colors and envelopes with plastic windows and shredded paper in paper bags will go into the blue buckets starting July 6.

This is truly great news. My wife and I have been trying to get this done in Waterford, CT on and off for the past six years. Since Willimantic Wastepaper Co, is involved, perhaps we will soon be able to take part since our recyclables go to the same facility.

"We can increase tonnage for recycling. We get paid (for materials) and we don't pay $60 a ton to send it to the incinerator," Public Works Director Joseph Loyacano told the City Council last week.

Exactly!

June 28, 2009 Update...My letter to the editor was published in The Day today.

The Greening of Southie

This looks like it will be great:


Trailer - The Greening of Southie from Wicked Delicate Films on Vimeo.

Quick Tip for a clogged drain

Instead of spending a small fortune on a bottle of harsh chemicals that translate into basically dumping your money in toxic form down the drain in the form of Liquid Drano (or even a less harsh organic equivalent that is probably even more costly), instead try a small plunger that you can probably buy at the dollar store. Just be sure to plug up the overflow holes in your sink or bathtub. I have found plunging a stubborn drain to be much more effective than the Drano method.

Roofing materials given a second life

We've been working on a project that included removing part of our roof, and with it two layers of shingles and several roof decking boards (tongue and groove). You know, just a little weekend project ;-) So anyway, like all our projects we wanted to figure out a way to make this one as green as possible. Unfortunately, rather than putting on a metal roof or a green roof, we went with 50-year asphalt shingles. I say 'unfortunately,' because those options would definitely make us feel better about ourselves. But the rest of the roof is asphalt and this section needed to tie into the rest of the roof.

Anyone who has ever re-roofed a house knows what an incredible mess it makes. Most people hire other people to do this terrible job, there is usually a dumpster involved, and a big pile of asphalt, wood, aluminum and nails heads off to the landfill. In fact, I would be lying if I said that's not what happened when we had the front out our house re-roofed last year. But we all learn from our mistakes, and this time we did the work ourselves, and therefore took care of the aftermath ourselves as well.

The first step was to separate out the old demolished gutters and drip edge. Those we took, along with some other metal we had laying around, to Calamari Recycling in Essex, CT. We have brought several loads of metal to them in the past, and they give you a decent price for your scrap metal which they sell to companies that melt it down for re-use.

The second step was to separate the shingles from the roof boards. We didn't just scrape all the shingles off and then remove decking, instead we cut off chunks of wood and shingles. So we separated the two materials into piles, removing and collecting most of the nails along the way as well (those will head to Calamari in a subsequent trip).


Once we had the shingles separated from the wood, we drove the shingles up to a place in Bloomfield that Nicole found online. This company, Incorporated Industries, LLC, happens to be the only company in Connecticut that recycles asphalt shingles. They grind them up, separate out the nails (we were nice enough to do this for them), and sell the ground up material to companies that mix it in with regular asphalt for paving roads, driveways, etc.

The big pile of wood, which also contains scraps from the framing lumber, will be chipped up in a rented wood chipper and used for mulch.

All of these steps, in addition to re-using the bricks from the chimney we removed as a walkway for the garden, have taken what would otherwise be several loads of landfill material and turned it all into reused material.

Pedaling feet become a renewable energy source

This is so great, and the company that installed the technology has plans for widespread distribution at a rapid pace. Living in a time like this can be depressing sometimes, especially with the current financial mess in this country, but we also live in a time of unbelievable exploration and innovation.

From WSHU:
With energy costs shooting up in the region and across the country, there's been increased interest in renewable sources of energy, like solar and wind power. WSHU's Craig LeMoult has the story of another potential energy source - fitness buffs.

Listen to the story at WSHU.org.

Furnace Replacement Rebate Program

When I was researching the boiler we got last fall, I found some information about a Rebate Program in the state of Connecticut. I emailed for more information and at the time, it was an unfunded program that was still being established. The Office of Policy and Management was collecting names of people that were interested in the rebate, with the promise to send out the paperwork once they got funding. Well, a week or two ago, I got a packed in the mail with all the forms I needed to fill out, and I strongly encourage anyone thinking of replacing their furnace or boiler to look into this. It's a simple form, and as long as your new unit is better than 84% efficient (I'm not sure why anyone would purchase a new system if it WASN'T at least that efficient, it will qualify for this rebate, which is a maximum of $500.

Here is the information from the website, but by all means head on over, sign up, and recoup some of your expenditures. All of the forms are now right there online for you!

The Furnace Replacement Rebate Program is an incentive program for Connecticut households to replace their existing residential furnaces or boilers with more energy efficient models. The program is designed to provide rebates of up to $500 to households that purchase and install replacement natural gas, propane or oil furnaces and boilers between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2017. Rebates will be available for replacement natural gas furnaces or boilers that meet or exceed Federal Energy Star standards and propane and oil furnaces and boilers that are at least 84% efficient. The amount of the rebate will decrease as your income rises above a certain level. The Office of Policy and Management, authorized by Connecticut General Statutes Section 16a-46e, is responsible for implementing this Furnace Replacement Rebate Program.

The Furnace Replacement Rebate Program has a retroactive start date of July 1, 2007. Furnaces or boilers purchased and installed prior to that date will not qualify for a rebate.

For further information call 1-866-940-4676.

FSC Certified Wood

Nicole and I are in the midst of doing a project on our house that requires a fair amount of lumber. We tried for weeks to track down FSC certified wood and I am very sorry to say that we were not able to find any that made sense for us to buy. What I mean by that is I did track some down but the company is an hour away, they would have charged a couple hundred dollars to deliver the wood, and at that point it was a deal breaker. I do not believe that any of the local lumberyards purchase old growth wood, although some of the wood does come from Canada, where the rules are lest strict about managing forests. If you are setting about building anything, I do encourage you to see if you can find FSC certified wood. They are very strict about their certification, which factors in the forestry management, shipping distances and practices, etc. It is with head in hands that we were not able to use this kind of wood. Not every battle can be won, I suppose, but it stinks to want to do everything we can and not really be able to do something this important to us. Kind of like our desire to recycle all our plastics.

Conservation movements (tongue in cheek)

Blinker Conservation - Ever notice how people are using their turn signals less and less while driving? I'm calling this "Blinker Conservation." This must be a conscious effort to save both car battery life and blinks out of the blink lifespan of the turn signal bulbs. Well done, people. Every little bit counts... or something.

Recycle Bin Space Conservation - Who likes clutter? Not me. Not many people. And when you can save space in your recycle bin by throwing soda and beer cans all over my road, why wouldn't you?! Luckily, my hands have the physical ability to pick up these items and place them into my recycle bin. In fact sometimes I return them to the store and get your 5 cents, which helps pay for the corn starch dog poop bags I use to pick up Guinness's #2's. So, basically, thank you for helping pay for bags to pick up my dog's poop.

Just to reiterate...

This project is not quite full. Drop me a line if you'd like to participate!

eWaste

"The Computer Recycler" reached out to me to tell me about the new eWaste initiatives they are starting in Cromwell, CT. I encourage anyone interested to check them out:

We're working to setup programs with several towns and businesses in CT to help keep electronics out of CT's landfills.

We've recently expanded our operation to have the ability to service all of Connecticut, and now, with a recent partnership, we are not limited to just computer related eWaste; we can now accept all electronics, including TVs, monitors, and many other items most electronic recyclers do not accept. We can also now accept most appliances, refrigerators, air-conditioners, microwaves, even water-heaters... We're really excited about this expansion, and happy to do our part with going green for the state. You can check us out at www.thecomputerrecycler.com, and per your blog's inspiration, I've decided to start my own regarding CT's eWaste as well. :)