I started this blog entry back in November and I’m just now
caught up enough to actually finish it and get it posted. Whew! We all think Winter will give us a
chance to catch up and rest up.
Not so, Watson.
What’s been happening?
Fall was a busy firewood season just as we harvested the
last of the garden and all beds covered in leaves and put to bed for winter. There are sooooo many dead and dying Ash
trees because of the Emerald Ash Borer.
That shiny little insect came here from Asia in wooden shipping pallets and
has proven to be incredibly invasive and, sadly, many huge beautiful trees are
coming down one way or another. Unfortunately, no more Ash baseball bats, while
firewood is extremely plentiful.
So far, (fingers crossed) it has been a pretty mild December
and January and those woodworking projects I’d been stockpiling have pushed
their way to the middle of my radar screen.
One of my Christmas presents was a big box full of tools with
rechargeable batteries. Yahoo, someone
really knows what I like (and that keeps me out of his tools, somewhat). Needless to say, I had to try them and so
far I made two tables basically using the finest scrap wood I found in our
garage.
The beautiful tabletop was free scrap wood from a
sustainably operated company in Wharton OH, Care Caskets. During a tour of
their plant last fall, they said ‘if you see something you like, take it, its
yours’. So I immediately knew that
beautiful piece was going home with me and what use I'd have for it.
The other tabletop is reclaimed wood that in a former life
was a window sash in a 100 year old house in West Dayton. Next
up on my project list is to utilize the polished scrap slabs of granite from
our kitchen. I’m thinking perhaps
outdoor versions for garden tables and benches.
So more fun things for me to design and more wood working skills to
learn as I stay busy while wait for the Spring gardening season to begin.
Speaking of gardening, TDS is starting to get requests for
consults and folks wanting plans for new landscaping projects. Yeah! All those garden catalogues that come
in the mail daily are getting recycled and repurposed to help clients imagine
the possibilities. It is going to be a
terrific growing season this year!
Where we’ve been:
November 2015: As a
Planning Committee member, I helped out with the 4th annual Montgomery County Food Summit which
focused on local foods and ending hunger in the Dayton area. Dayton is too high up on the list of
communities that have huge numbers of citizens that are hungry or suffer from
‘food insufficiency’ as it is called.
Not a statistic that Dayton’s proud of.
I continue to be involved with the Environmental Education Council of Ohio and serve as a Board member
and Chair of the Communications Committee.
That means I edit the quarterly EECO Newsletter.
As mentioned above, I attended the Ohio Association of Litter Prevention and Recycling Professionals
meeting that toured the Care Caskets facility.
Mid November, I headed to GreenBuild
2015 in Washington DC. Great
learning experience. Terrific variety of
sessions – from deep in the weeds energy modeling techniques to, my favorites ,
Elizabeth Kolbert speaking about “The Sixth Extinction” that is occurring and
“Food is everywhere”, including rooftops in NYC.
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