During a 2009 stop at a Home Depot in Alexandria, Virginia, President Obama called on Congress to pass a tax credit that would help homeowners pay for energy-efficiency retrofitting projects, and he referred to insulation in particular as “sexy.” “Most of this stuff is going to pay for itself,” the President stated.  “You put in the insulation, you weatherize your home now, you will make up that money in a year or two years or three years, and then everything after that is just gravy.” Whether you agree with his politics or not, if you
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As a young girl growing up on a farm, the idea that milk was healthy was firmly implanted into my head. My family drank three glasses a day—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Nothing was sweeter than sitting down to a hearty meal complimented by a cold, creamy glass of milk. Unfortunately, this childhood pleasure did not
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Thankfully, the dog days of summer are almost over now, as the temperatures in most places are finally starting to moderate into the range of the tolerable. The summer of 2012 has been the hottest we have seen in quite some time, and unless you have been spending the last three months holed up inside your home with the air conditioner blasting away, the chances are that you and your family have been suffering a good bit. Of course, for those who live off-the-grid, power supplies are always at a premium, and therefore air conditioning
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There are very few situations in life that have ever caused me to lose my cool. I am quite proud of the fact that I can keep a level head when everyone else is stumbling around in a blind panic. However, there is one scenario that for some reason completely fills me with dread –
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The development and urban sprawl that continues to push away from our cities and pushes our suburbs out to the countryside are devastating natural environments. Building new subdivisions means tearing down trees, draining wetlands, and plowing over meadows and fields. Instead of a native environment and an abundance of ecosystems, we end up with treeless lots spread with perfect green lawns. When we destroy the natural landscape and replace it with manicured lawns and non-native plants, we destroy the wildlife that came before us. We create sterilized, pesticide-laden, and well-pruned lots instead. And we end
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