Election season is upon us once again. With five (or fewer) weeks to get ready, I’m sharing my latest research on this year’s general election in Pennsylvania, which boasts candidates of five parties. Not being a fan of parties myself (or the bias they can inflict on voters), I still thought it beneficial to review the general platforms for these groups. (Election spreadsheet included!)
I’ve felt very isolated during the pandemic, despite using social media more than I ever had before. We’ve seen a sacrifice of quality time for quantity time in recent years, leaving us feeling more isolated, and our addiction to social media plays a huge role in that. In this post, I contemplate my own priorities and whether I’m up for a new approach to my connectivity.
A major component of my pollinator garden is finally taking off this year: the milkweed, which I hope will host many generations of monarch butterflies. The three different species in my garden have gotten varying reviews from monarchs, milkweed bugs, and aphids. After seeing it in action, I’m happy to share what I’ve learned in case you’d like to grow your own too.
Gardening is part science and part art, but the art component is far more demanding than I’m comfortable tackling on my own, and the moving target that is nature eliminates much of the certainty that comes with the scientific component. After several years of analysis paralysis, I decided it was time to get some professional help – by way of a landscape designer.
What I thought was a stress-induced grooming habit for my kitty Siegfried actually turned out to be the result of fleas (though we couldn’t find any on him). It turns out that indoor cats can, in fact, get fleas, despite a common belief that they can’t. Fortunately fleas are pretty straightforward to deal with, as long as you follow instructions to the letter.
The world is talking more about decarbonizing our energy and transportation sectors, and one hot talking point is hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cells can store energy like a clean battery, and hydrogen burns cleaner than fossil alternatives. However, the various processes of isolating hydrogen from input materials mean a range of environmental impacts, especially since the bulk of hydrogen is still produced using fossil fuels.
Probably the only thing that makes me retreat indoors during summer is mosquitoes. I can handle heat and rain in high quantities, but once I become a buffet, I’m ready to call it quits. Mosquitoes aren’t just annoying; they can carry serious diseases. There are a number of natural solutions to help keep these pests away if you’re looking for an alternative to synthetic repellents.
Once you’ve paid for weatherization work at your house, you may be curious how effective it is in saving you energy (and money). By employing data points called “degree days,” we can get a reasonably accurate view into how much energy gets used before and after weatherization work while keeping an eye on how much heating and cooling demand existed during the period in question.
About a year ago, we finally weatherized our attic. Many people know that weatherization includes air sealing and insulation; many people do not know that those things have to be done in a very specific way in order to work… and the previous owner of our house was not one of those people. Doing the job wrong is ineffective at best and dangerous at worst.
We recently got a set of concrete steps put in at our house. As part of my atonement, this post summarizes what concrete is, why it’s so bad for the environment, why our governments can’t get enough of it, and what can be done to reduce the climate, health, and environmental justice impacts associated with the second-most-used substance on the planet.