Our first Earth Hour

We had friends over for a dessert potluck last night ( I highly recommend dessert potlucks). Everyone left just after 8:30, so we said goodbye by candlelight. They walked out into gentle blizzard....winter's last hurrah.

Because I couldn't see them..I forgot about the dirty dishes. Because there weren't any lights on...we all gathered by the candles in the living room. We sat close together and talked...for 45 minutes. It has been a long time since we all gathered in the living room to sit together and talk. Maybe we should bring out our candles more often.

Earth Hour made the news for us, it was a quiet night with friends and family.


Photo: flickr earthhour_global

Don't Forget to Vote Earth Tonight

Sydney already Voted Earth....
4000 more cities and towns around the world plan to do the same.

Turn out your lights tonight from 8:30-9:30 pm to show your support for efforts to reduce global warming. Even Macdonalds plans to dim the golden arches.

Candlelight here we come!

Salamanders on the Move

We got distracted from our March actions because we got word the salamanders were moving. We participate in the annual WI Salamander Survey.

Each spring when the weather starts to get warm, after the first rainy night..the salamanders move to a nearby pond to lay eggs.

To find out if a pond has salamanders, we put 5 mesh traps into the shallow water. We check the traps each day for five days. This year we are surveying Dunn's Marsh. This is Julia, Patrick, and Ben putting in the traps. It is cold, wet work. We are crossing our fingers that we will catch some salamanders. Keep your fingers crossed!

Mark Your Calendar for Vote Earth

On March 28, 2009
we will join people in over 80 countries around the world in turning out our lights for 1 hour at 8:30 pm


This world wide demonstration is a part of Vote Earth and meant to make a visual statement to raise awareness about the impact of global warming. Watch the video to see whole cities turning off their lights in support of a healthier planet.

How much energy do you use?

Ever wonder how much energy your fridge uses? Or what about the difference between a light with a regular bulb and a florescent? It's easy to find out.

My friend John wrote a comment telling me about Kill a Watt. ( I love when people write comments by the way!!) It's an energy meter. You plug an appliance in and you can see how much energy it is using.

We did do this once..by checking out an energy meter from the Madison Public Library ( I love libraries!!) Now the library has newer ones called Watt's Up.

March Action: Reduce our Energy Use

Better late than never! Our goal for March is to find ways to reduce the amount of gas/electric we use.
We brainstormed ideas over dinner.

• Turn the lights out when we are not using them
• Get an energy audit of the house
• Continue to use our drying rack ( which Ben is pointing to)
• Continue to use flourescent bulbs
• Put a power strip on my computer so we can turn it completely off
• Graph our energy use for the past year on the MG and E website, so we can see what our use has been.

We did it

Three successes .

1. We got our trash down to 1 pound! Yeah!

2. Senator Risser wrote to tell us he has signed on as co-sponsor on the bill for an independent DNR secretary. This is one of the 4 conservation priorities we lobbied for last week. If you want to say thanks to Senator Risser you can email him. He loves fan mail.

3. Nate and Ben went one whole month without eating hot lunch. Go Nate and Ben!
First thing Nate said, when he woke up on Monday, March 2 ..
"I'm getting hot lunch!"