Blog Action Day - The Environment

I don't recall where I first heard about Blog Action Day, but the minute I did I knew I wanted to be involved. Picking a day and asking everyone to write about the same topic in their own voices. It was a broad topic of "the environment" which left it open for people to talk about it in a lot of ways. It gives me the opportunity to wonder aloud about some things I've been thinking about. The house we've moved into is going to be our house for a long time. Unless something goes wrong the plan is this is the house that our grand kids will come to visit.

So, we've talked about how we can make this house more green. It's a newer house which is good. Compared to our last house built in 1890 it is a lot more green already just by keeping the heat inside alone. But, how can we take it to the next step?

We live on a hill that gets good wind. Are there options of small windmills that we could install in the woods that surround our house or even small ones on the roof that I've read about in cities? What about solar panels? We get next to no shade in the front of the house and I've heard about solar panels that blend right into the roof. Is that an option?

We've got a lawn sprinkler system that pains me a bit to have. I didn't run it once this year. But, I'm sure there is a way that I could collect rain water and pump it back through that from a reservoir rather then always using the water. Then again we'd have to get rain for that to work, but it is still an option I want to think about.

We keep hearing about global warming, pollution and the eventual death of the planet. Those things all freak me out, but at the same time I just want to focus close to home right now. If each of us did this the over arching benefits would help many I believe. Neighbors love to know what your up to so just think if I could show them how much money I was saving by using some other form of energy besides the good old power grid.

A lot on the mind. A lot of things to think about. Green is good and green is going to get bigger in the coming years. If you have some thoughts, ideas or links on ways that I can make my house and living in general more green here in New England please let me know. And if you get a chance check out what some of the other blogs taking part in Blog Action Day are talking about.