I have become so interested in going green, its the ONLY way to live in harmony with each other and the world.

I have been reading about larger ways to be green, buying green energy, growing switch grass to use in the manufacture of ethanol, instead of our corn. There are millions of way each of us can take the step to being green no matter what our economic level. So I thought it would be cool to write ten ways I plan on going green this summer and then tapping a few bloggers I admire to see how they might go greener this summer.

1. I plan on making a compost heap in my side yard. Yes they are a bit messy at first, but this is a mess that later g ives us awesome soil for our plants and helps cut down on garbage.

2. Make a LIST of all the things I need from the store before I go, so that I do not have to run back and forth to town 20 times a week. This will save much gas and wear and tear on my truck.

3.You know all those plastic bags we get from the grocery store? Well many folks are going back to the days of cloth sacks, and I will be making some as well. If you have any old decent sheets, these doubled up would be perfect for your lighter items! And you can get a lot out of a Queen sheet Set.

4. Set up rain catchers. Here in my part of the country, we do not normally get alot of rain in the summer, but when we do its a down pour. So I will be setting up some rain barrles of some type. This way I can water my plants from that first, before using city water. Our water comes from our local lake and summer is very hard on the lake, which is also used for recreation as well as drinking water. I hate seeing it drop in levels each summer, maybe if we all did this the water levels would not be affected as badly.

5. Collect all paper products, glass and soda cans for recycling. We here in my town do not have a recycling center but I am sure I can find one close by. It may even add up to some money too, you never know.

6. Help local Volunteers to clean our region. Our rivers and streams are one of the messes we seriously need to concentrate on cleaning. Here a few years back, it would not be surprising to see a few tires or a refridgerator in the river near here. Check with your local extension office for places that need help with cleaning efforts. It’s good for your kids and also gives you much needed excercise, all while taking care of our planet.

7. Practice daily blackouts. Pick a time each day for a few hours where all electronics will be shut off and unplugged ( many if not all electronics will pull in as much power or more, just being left plugged in!)

8. Recycle inside water waste. NO, not that waste. I mean, reusing water from dishes and washer. Did you know that you can even reuse your veggie water for your plants and they really benefit from that! The water you boiled the vegetables in have many nutrients that plants need and love.

9. Buy only recycled paper products and green cleaners for my home. You can get many great products that are made of recycled paper, such as toilet paper, printer paper, paper towels. And there are many lines of cleaning products made of natural products which are not only safe for the environment but safe for use in your home.

And finally, 10 -go through my closets and clean them out of clothes that are not being worn anymore but are still in great shape. This is great for those less fortunate and also means less energy is needed to make more clothes.

So, what do you think of my list? Any where I can improve on it? What about you, how will YOU be going green this summer? If you have tips to share, leave word here.

Now for my victims

I would love the following bloggers to let us know how they are hoping to go green and help the environment ~ Some of these bloggers I know personally, others I have not meet yet but read and admire so I hope they will also enjoy doing this with me.

Miss Shelby of Jericho4Kids.com

Work at Home Online - a Great blog to read fresh ideas about working from home online!

Mummifiedtimesfive.ne t

Bankruptcytomillionaire.com - this is a very good blog, the owner sure knows how to find the newest stuff to making money on the web, and he preservers. He will be a Millionaire in no time I am sure!

Hawksdomain Blog - my friend and one heck of a smart lady. I know she will have some great tips for us!

Okay all, leave word, go Green, and remember you can tap anyone with this too, don’t wait for me to tap you.

I was watching Forecast Earth on the Weather Channel this morning and the topic being discussed was  Palo Alto California and how the city ( and its a wonderful city I might add) is now going green by leaps and bounds.

According to the US EPA website Palo Alto  has the distinction of being the first California City to be named by the EPA as a Green Power Community. (1) IN December of 2006 the cities of Salem Orgegon and Palo Alto California both received this honor by meeting between 2 and 6 percent of the cities electricity usage by buying green power.  Palo Alto has nearly 16 percent of its customers purchasing Green Power and is the first California city to have this distinction.

If you are interested in learning more about this effort in Palo Alto, check the Palo Alto city website . And if you are interested in seeing which companies are doing this right and who is totally slacking check this website out -

US EPA - FORTUNE 500 Challenge: as of January 8, 2008.

Some of the names you will find on the list, PepsiCo, Vail Resorts Inc, ING, Univeristy of Santa Cruz * I am so proud* Lockheed Martin , Yahoo. This is a really awesome idea to pass along to cities such as mine. My state dervies most of its power from coal, and each time I watch a mile long train running coal out of the mountains I cry.

My next  post will be about how to  go green, as a city and as a family. The ABC’s of going green so to speak, and I will have a lot of time to do my research because as of now, my Jericho Blog is shut down. Archived into the vault of memories where it belongs.

Footnotes:

1.http://www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/buying/customers.shtml?page=1&companyid=479&print

Michael Adams telling Park Ranger where he’s been, originally uploaded by Robert Scoble.

Robert Scoble leads a charmed life, can you imagine being able to talk to the son of Ansel Adams? I have always loved Ansel Adams work and have a few posters of some of his work. One day I would love to own one of his photographs.
I remember being in Yosemite with my parents on many occassions, it was always a spectacular time for me. I guess this is where I got my love of nature, from my Dad and Mom driving us to so many wonderful places like this. If you ever get a chance to go to Yosemite, you will feel like you have stepped right into heaven.

Ah, the day I have been waiting for, Hardy Heron Release date!!! I have been using it in beta, but now as I write I am downloading the ISO Now I am not really good at doing this, but I am willing to attempt it again. I also preordered the Disk from Ubuntu .com. If I ever win the lottery I will be sending them some serious cash because the Ubuntu people have been a life saver as far as I am concerned.

Here is the download link if you are interested in trying it out and even if you are a windows user you can get the LiveCD so  you can try it without disturbing your Windows install. I am telling you right now you will fall in love with this Distro at first sight! And for those who are wanting to upgrade from a previous install of Ubuntu, please refer to this webpage:Ubuntu 8.04 LTS released

In the beta version I have not had one problem to call serious, a few hiccups here and there which were always fixed as soon as they occurred and were mostly due to my error not Linux .

Warning if you are going to download it though, as of now I am at 0 percent of a 699 MB download and the little time box is telling me it will take me a day and 11 hours to complete! I wonder how many people are hitting this?

As for the graphics and video issues some folks have, I have found almost all issues to have been taken care of. I still had to work a bit to get my DVD player to work correctly, but again its because of my lack of knowledge on the how-to’s not Ubuntus.

The FireFox is also a new version, and so far has been awesome to use. It is cleaner than the previous and to me feels a bit more comfortable to use. Gnome is also a new version, 2.22. Gnome is one of the different desktop environments you can use (others include KDE, XFCE, Enlightenment and even one from Sun Microsystems called Looking Glass, which I love but does not run properly on my machine)

So what kinds of software does Ubuntu give you? There is a Office Suite, Open Office which I will tell you right now rivals MS Office in every respect. I have yet to find one thing missing and I do have a copy of MS Office 2007 so its not as if I can’t do a side by side comparison. From the templates to the graphics, its all there. Open Office also has the Presentation software called Impression, as well as a Math Software ( compared to Excel is great)

For Graphics we have GIMP, the latest version is 2.4.5 with 2.5 in development. You can check it out at the website here . I really like GIMP and its not too far removed from the high end expensive Adobe Programs, however I will say this, you have to learn how to use the program ( there are no so many easy to do it buttons for a lot of the functions you want to do in photo manipulation and such) Over all I feel its just as good as  Adobe Photo Shop which I also own.

Also, Ubuntu gives you SUPPORT! There are forums for Ubuntu and this is the place for help with any situation you might have. There has not been any time since I began using Ubuntu where I had a need for help and did not get it in spades!!! ( what happens when you call MS for support??????)

And music? I have a few awesome choices to choose from, MPlayer, Audacious, Songbird ( my personal favorite because it has skins, which are called feathers and it plays all my music no matter what form it was saved in) And video playback is getting better to with the GNOME Movie Player, which even includes plugins for MythTV, YouTube  and even lets you share your playlists! This is really nice, to be able to search for movies online via this application and not the internet itself.

Hard drive space and RAM requirements for Ubuntu? How about 4 GB hard drive space and 256 RAM! That is right folks, no being told you don’t have enough RAM to run the darned OS, no check sheet to see if your system is up to par

You can order the Kubuntu on disk or download it as well here .

edit @ 6:37 pm est -

I just read a fantastic write up on Hardy here at Ubuntu Geek , love this website. It has been a huge help to me many many times! Please check this site out, and if your into Ubuntu bookmark as well, there are always posts that inform and help!

Sunset, originally uploaded by JB/John.

Well, since TechCrunch just announced Flickr video, and I had to go see it.Very cool , can’t wait to try this out for myself!

Also decided to do a bit of photo blogging. I have so many groups, most of which are located in California of course.
I saw this, and once again had to ask myself if those of you who still live back there ( I am in Kentucky…. for now) realize how damned blessed you are to live there. Yeah, I know you do
what a way to end a day, wish I were home.Just to let everyone know, that is my only goal in life, to get home.
night all….