Respect to a Dynamic World

Respect to a Dynamic World

This is my latest Blog at for the Aldo&Leonardo Science and Art Collaboration. Interesting I get a job continuing Aldo Leopold Ethics, but more importantly I get to study my passion of the combination of Art and Science. We are currently working on the long term goal of a book and or Exhibit in the Smithsonian about the one month residency Colorado Art Ranch has put together over the years. 

Aldo & Leonardo, a partnership between Colorado Art Ranch and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, is a project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. The project is inspired by the scientific wisdom of Aldo Leopold and the artistic genius of Leonardo da Vinci. Our endeavor is an interdisciplinary collaboration of artists and scientists designed to celebrate the lands, resources and opportunities protected by the Wilderness Act. In 2013, we are hosting one-month residencies in six diverse wilderness areas. Artists will work alongside wildland research scientists and gain firsthand knowledge of the wonders, complexities and challenges of our nation's wildest places. The result will be a body of work that creatively illustrates the value of wild areas and honors the scientific efforts to preserve wilderness for the next fifty years(Pound,Lawless)

Photo &Blog ~Ryan Mudgett

The role of beauty and its position in conservation was always a very serious matter to Aldo Leopold, which can be seen in his most famous book A Sand County Almanac. Without finding simple pleasures in nature it may be quite difficult to listen to what your environment has to tell you. Leopold writes at the beginning of the section “Song of Gavilan,” “The life of every river sings its own song, but in most the song is long since marred by the discords of misuse.” Here he is speaking of a global cycle of anthropocentric perturbations which includes land and water misuse. He goes on to say “Overgrazing first mars the plants and then the soil. Rifle, trap, and poison next deplete the larger birds and mammals; then come a park or forest with roads and tourists. Parks are made to bring the music to the many, but by the time many are attuned to hear it there is little left butnoise”(Leopold 159). This noise Leopold speaks of is best tied in at the end of the section where he writes “That the good life on any river may likewise depend on the perception of its music, and the preservation of some music to perceive, is a form of doubt not yet entertained by science” (Leopold 163). We can appreciate rivers by learning how to listen to their harmony. Each drainage and its corresponding riparian habitats have their own melody. It’s up to the listener to decide whether or not they enjoy the music or not.  It can be tough to appreciate all the splendors of nature when you are constantly reminded of all the harm we have done. I think it is time to find joy in all of the complexities that our wilderness provides us no matter what landscape you live in. There is nature everywhere, and don’t forget we humans are part of it as well.  Even if you are not quite sure what it is that makes your landscape so amazing, a sense of wonder can often lead into a journey of passion and stewardship for the land and waters that you call home.

ecuador may 24

Last day working with the cows and horeses, it´s bittersweet but i am looking forward to what we are doing next. Im hoping its the chickens! It doesn´t involve so much shit shoveling... This morning was fun though everyone was energized and in great moods!

this mornings class we talked about green manure and mulch. We talked about specific ways this can be implented depending on where in the world you live and what kinds of materials are avalible. after that we went off into the forest to collect materials to make bokashi. It´s really cool that everything we need is so close and is sustianably used. We collected a lot in the orchid forest, currently none of the orchids are bloomed but it  was neat to say the least.

This afternoon i taught one of the new girls how to make the matte spoons and helped with loose end transplanting.

Im looking forward to this weekend though! going to canoa agian and it´s ecuadorian independence day so it should be a great fiesta!!! It´s my last real weekend with the friends i have made at the farm so we are sure to make it a good one!

ecuador may 22nd and 23rd

Wednesday May 22nd

Woke up early and worked with the cows again. They were all in thier plces so it made things really easy! I had to go collect the grass i talked about earlier for the cows this morning. Man i didn´t realize how heavy it was! and sharp!! It rained lastnight all night so the roads were really muddy and washed up making it difficult to carry the leaves the distance i did. But im a lot stronger now ;) It was an adventure!

More class after breakfast. Our main focus today was composting which was super interesting and relevant to bringing back home. We talked abuot invisible urban composting anmd the two methods of that: hole and trench. When i get home im looking forward to trying our the hole composting. I believe it will work really well at my house! ç
Once agian today was cultural day. We took a little hike to a HUGE tree that has been taken over by parasite. It was trully amazing. Apparently the local people look up to the tree because it is able to survive and create beauty with the parasite. Later we made rings out of old nuts from a native tree the practially has no use. Nicola and Dario believe that everything has a use and this tree is continully beingh cut down for because many believe it does not. So they have come up with a way to make it useful. and not to mention provide great gifts made by myself to bring back home!

May 23rd
 Cleaned more stales this morning. Dirty work, but it´s worth it. Clean, happy animals = healthy animals ;)
After breakfast was another class in permaculture. We leanred more about compost. Primiarly hot and cold composting. We then went to the garden and made our own hot compost pile. We used dryleaves, green leaves, manure, little bit of soil, and lots of water to complete the pile. Its about 4 ft tall now but when fginished composting  in 3 weeks it will shrink down to about a foot. It was so easy to do this! i know i can do it back at home for sure. Hot compost has to be made all at one time and it´ll have to be at a much smaller scale with less compost remaing but hey! i can use it on my house plants :) We also talked about 15 day composting and bokashi. We took a more in depth tour of the farm as well. looking at all the random things around the farm. It was all so interesting. We discused the solar and biomass systems the farm uses as well. The solar system here at the farm was actually donated by a company from Colorado! So cool! along the tour nicola introuduced us to a dye that natives use to paint themselves and dye thier hair. Im the only one with blonde hair on the farm so i was voted to use it to dye the tips of my hair orange. Its really cool haha!  today was a great day full of information, applied application and fun!

5/24/2013

The class has been going well, i wish we were staying for the whole thing. today we taked more about compost, mulch and green manure. i was surpried to learn about green manure, which is just plant matter. we talked a lot about micro organisms and how to capture then for gardening and compost use. we taked about bokashi, a japanese method of culturing bacteria. first you cook rice, then mix the rice with a bit of water, place it in a jar with a mesh ld and burry near water. this sits for about 10 days and micro organisms should colonize teh rice. you can fed them molasses water. later we gathered material to make a larger   scale bokashi. we gathered forest material with micro organism and legume leaves for nitrogen.all this material was shredded and mixed together for thebokashi. we wont be here for the final product but i hope it works.

ecuadar may 20th and 21st

Monday May 20th
So many new people arrived on the farm today for the permaculture class that starts. There´s such a wide variety of diversity, culture, and language surrounding us. People from all over the world, Columbia, Italy, France, Canada, Austriala, New Zealand and Belguim!
It was overcasty today making work in the garden a lot more barable than last week. I started out by laying new irrigation lines in the new beds we made last week. Its really cool to see how much this section of the garden has come together in the time i have been here and how much i have helped to make it what it is now! I then helped weeds some radishes, ginger and then on to the onions. I really enjoy weeding. It may seem dorky but i love it and its super relaxing. I really looking forward to tomorrow morning because we will finally be working with animals as morning chores !!

Tuesday May 21st
This morning was awesome. Super disorganized but fun haha. We were assinged to work with the cows and hores. Yet, none of them were where they were supposed to be! After rounding them all up and cleaning thier stales we were able to feed them and that was that. I learned that the cows and horses are feed (when not grazing) this really tall plant (ill have to get the name later) that grows naturally on the farm. They love it! Afgter breakfast was my first class in permaculture. Today we went over the basic principles of organic farming in depth and detail.
Quickly they are:
1- return all organic material to the soil
2- feed the soil, not just the plant
3-create biodiversity
4- plant in associations
5-. proctect your insect populations
6- crop rotation
7- grow what grows well, don´t force it
8- minimize tillage
9- happy animals are healthy animals
10- PREVENTION not cure

Nicola is so educated in this area. She is an organic certifier and has certified farms for organic farming all over the world. and when i say ALL over the world i am not eggarerating.

Later in the afternoon i helped do random things in the garden, it was a good educational day.

5/22/2013

today was cultural day. i love these days. it is great to learn about the ways people live her, its so differnt drom the US. we began the day with class. We talked about compost and teh differnt ways it can be done depending on teh material you have. we leared about hot compost and proceeded to build one in the garden. i had never heard od hot compost before and was very interested. i am hoping to duplicate this when i return home. we also learned about the differnt levels of carbon and nitrogen in differnt materials. i didnt know much of what was taught today so i was very happy.after lunch we began culture day. we went to visit a giant tree which had been taken over by a parasitic plant, it was amazing. after, we carved rings out of pine nuts, this was awesome. i am making rings for everyone before i leave.

ecuador may16th, 17th,18th, 19th

May 16th
Helped in the kitchen this morning. The ladies in the kitchen speak no english and have the coastal accent which was interesting to work with.  We cut some fruits and helped set the table. Not too difficult, but a lot of fun:) After breakfast we were assigned our jobs for the day. In the beginning we started out by finishing up the irrigation in the big part of the garden. It´s important to make sure this system will be running smoothly for the dry season  where it rains very very little. The sun was out all morning but it was nice being able to work with the water to cool off every now and then. Later in the day i learned how Sergio makes the matte cups and spoons that we use for our meals. I helped scrap out the matte fruit (which isn´t eatten because apparently it doesn´t taste good. I don´t want to try it either i think it smells like paint thinner, ICK!) I really enjoyed this activity is was laid bacl and the volunteers were able to hang out and share our stories with eachother. The spoons we worked on will be used for a schoo fund raiser for the childrens environmental school here on the farm

May 17th
I cut my first pineapple this morning! I know, it´s crazy haha but hey i learned something new :) The pineapple came from the farm, it´s neat that they use fruit grown so near. I learned that it takes over a year for just one pìneapple to grow! That´s sooo long for just one fruit!
After breakfast we headed up to the garden agian. I was chosen to work on making beds in a different section of the garden that had recently been weeded out since the rainy season. It was hard work. The soil here is very thick and very rough. Most of it being a hard clay material. Tillage usually isn´t a part of sustianable ag, but in this case and in this location it is vital to helping create air pockets for planting. After that, i planted cucumber in one of the new beds we made. the roots of the cucumber already smelt like cucumber! it was neat. After lunch i learned how to and helped transplant a hole bunch of sesame plants. Transplanting was an intesteriing process that required lots of water and being very very gentle with the plant. Im hoping they turn out great in thier new home!  since it´s friday we are about to head to canoa for the weekend! i am very much looking forward to a break from the farm and experincing a more culture in the area!

The Weekend
This weekend was really laid back. Got to eat some locally made empanadas and spent some time on the beach. Even though Canoa is somewhat of a touristy area there are still a lot of locals and a lot of different things going on. It was a great weekend!

5/21/2013

lastnight there was a opposum on the roof it was a bit scary. i saw it crawling around and then heard it attack something near where we sleep. then to top the night off a bunch of bats came flying through our room very close to my head, it was a long night. Today we began by cleaning the cow and horse pens. we fed them all and separated the baby cows. i enjoyed this work. after breakfast i helped cut bamboo for a fence around the garden.  i never realized how heavy bamboo reallyis and it grows so tall. after we planted zapayo, we filled holes with pig compost and then planted two seeds in each hole. we got about 4 rows done.  after lunch we started the permaculture course.we began withthe principles of organic farming and then the values of organic material. i was surprised how much i already knew. thefirst day was pretty basic and got me very excited for teh rest of the classes

5/20/2013

Today we began by making more garden beds, we cleared teh ground of weeds and began to prepare the soil for planting. We planted carrots, cucumber, and beets. we weeeded the beds of okra and cabbage and finally replaced plastic bottles which protect teh plants from leaf cutter ants. in the afternoon we planted trays of seeds. many i had no clue what they were ond other i was more familar with. i checked out the seed i had planted only 4 days before and found that they had already sprouted. to finish the day i helped carve mate spoons, this was a great way to experince the work done by locals . one of teh natives cut the fruit and then split it into 8ths we pulled teh hard shell from the friut and scraped it with a metal spoon. it has a woody feeling when complete

Ecuador! May 15

WEDNESDAY MAY 15Th

Today i was able to sleep in a bit, we haven´t yet been assigned a morning chore that consit of feeding and cleaning out the animal stales. It was so tranqul waking up in such a beautiful place. Our room is full of windows with no screens it was so cool and relaxing i probabñy could have laid up there all day. It was raining a little in the morning and i felt it on my face. Breakfast was after everyone finished thier morning chores.It was watermelon oats sugar and juice. After breakfast i was assigned to help cleaning out an area they call the secret garden. It was so overgrown frm the raining season and full of weeds. I  first worked on pulling up old irrigation then cut down old tress and through out old seeds.Today i learned that only 3 of the ten hecters of the farm are actually used for farming. After clearing out the garden i was given the offical tour. It´s so amazing to see sustainable systems actually implemented in other oarts of the world! Everything about the farm is sustainable they use
dry composting toilets
compost EVERYTHING
resuse ALL WATER through grey water systems adn collecting rain water to be purified and used for drinking
there is a zero waste policy
and solar showers for warm shower (which currently doesn´t work)
Today was culture day so we went out fishing as tge locals have done in the past and continue doing today with a simple net and someone to dig under rocks to find hiding shrimp. Even though we only caught 5 it was a great experience. Later in th day we collected cococa seeds and made chocolate over a hot fire. mmmm

May 16

today we helped out in the kitchen, we chopped fruit and helped prepare breakfast. after we ate we finished building the irrigation system and built more garden bed. i also helped plany trays of seeds, i planed a vaiety of seeds which will be plnated once they sprout. in teh afternnon we helped one of teh locals make mate bowls out of an indigious friut, that was a great time. I began to feel sick before bed and wasnot well throughout the night. i woke up with a fever and was sick the rest of the day. i am finally feeling a little better but not 100% yet. we ended out week with a trip to canoa to enjoy the beach.

May 15, 2013

Today was a culture day, we began by working with the livestock. the farm has pigs, horses, cows, chickens, and guine pigs. they do not eat any oth the animals but use them for trade or sale. the cows are used for milk and cheese. all of the manuer is used for compost, they have pig compost and then horse and cow mixure. the farm also uses worm composting. They really utilize everthing, even the waster from humans. the toilets are dry compost and eventually it is used for fertilizer for fruit trees.
for our culture activity we went shrimp fishing. with one of teh locals we walked down the Rio muchacho river. we had to hold teh net on the edge of the waterand pull the vegitation from the banks, this caused teh shrimp to be washed into our net. we only ended up catching a dozen or so but we dod cook them for dinner. later in teh day we made chocolate. we roasted cocao beans in a clay pot, once they were toasted we chracked thier shells and and ground them with pure cane sugar. the cocao is grown on the farm. we miked the grounds with fresh milk and poured it ouver fresh bananas also grown on teh farm! it was amazing

May, 14, 2013
we have been in ecuador for about a week now. So far it has been a good time. We arriver to Rio Muchacho farm and got a tour of the entire facility. The far belives in zero waste so every thing is used until it is gone. the river is teh main source of water for showers, laundry, and sinks. drinking water is colleced rain water which is then filterd.
We began our work on teh farm by hooking uo a drip system irrigation line. we also made many new garden bed by weeding, and turning teh soil. we added compost to enrich the soil and finally planted peppers, cucumbers, okra, and beans.  we worked in teh morning for a few hours and then break for lunch,  in the afternoon we work for a few more hours usually lighter work

Ecuador¨monday may 14 and tuesday may 14

 MONDAY MAY 13th
i had to leave the house early this morning, we have a full day of travel ahead of up. I met Paula at DIA and we quickly made it through security. Our first plane went to Miama, then from Miama to Quito, Ecuador. Once arriving to Quito it was already dark and going through customs was a little difficult. Neither of us speak spanish fluently and I can only understand verbs here and there. Everyone was so nice and helpful though so this wasn´t a huge problem. As soon as we left the airport we were able to find a really nice helpful taxi driver (who did not speak any english) but was still very bvery helpful to say the least. He took us to the bus station and also helped us purchase our tickets to Canoa. The bus ride from Quito to Canoa is a 7-9 and didn´t leave until 10pm. It was a long trip, and i tried to sleep as much as i could but it was also very uncomfortable.

TUESDAY MAY 14th
It was nearly 5´30 am when we arrived to Canoa and was a ghost town. We sat in a lit ally until the sun came up and then made our way to the beach where we laid down until the Rio Muchaco Farm office opened at 8:30. The beach was amazing, and the water was really warm as well. After such a long trip here it was very relaxing. After registering we were taken to the farm in an old red truck. The drive up to the farm was kind of far but so awesome. So many little homes all with some sort of garden or farm animals of thier own. Once getting to the farm i was amazed at this place i would call my home for the next month. I learned that this area used to be a desert when nicola and dario first purchased the land 30 years ago. Since then they have been planting over 400 trees a year to make it the paradise it is today. I also learned that Ecuador is nearly 95 percent deforested about only a few km of natural trees still remain.
The room the gave us to stay in is shared with 4 other girls. It´s on the top floor of the main house and basically the center of the farm which is 10 hecters big. Two of the volunteers are from Boulder, Colorado and know my really good friend Dax! Such a small world ¨:) They are both very fimilar with the gunnison and crested butte area giving us tons of commmon ground.Everyone here does their best to speak only in spanish, and it´s great! Only being here a day i feel like im picking it up again and am able to understand them since they aren´t as fast as the locals who are said to  have the coastal tounge. The do not pronounce thier s or z. Lunch consisted of rice beans and juice. all coming from the farm except for the rice.
After lunch i helped installing the irrigation system. At ths time of year in Ecauaor it is the end of the wet seasn going into the dry making irrigation needed. The water is pulled from the river. We worked on the irrigation of only about 20-30 of the 100 plus beds on the farm, so theres still tons of work to do on that.
After we were done working on the irrigation we all enjoyed an Ecuadoran orange :) it was delcious! We even ate it the way the locals do thwere they cut off the peel and slice just the top off, then you drink the juice out. Dinner was similar to lunch except we drank tea insted of juice. After that we went to a tienda down the street to have a few cervezas! SUCH A GOOD FIRST DAY!

(sorry for any mispelling and missing letters, the keyboard here at the internet cafe are old and quite different than those in the states!)

And on that Note,

I am "ringing off" for the semester.  Thanks to anyone, especially people besides Dr. Coop and Dr. Sellen (not that you guys aren't great, I just figured from the start that you would be the most prolific readers of this blog) who took the time to take a few ganders at my rather wordy posts.  Just the thought that even one or two other people would read these posts has kept me writing them, however late and/or sporadically.  Even if you happen to find these posts months, semesters, or years down the line and decide for some reason to read them, even just to snicker at my own extremely lengthy ranting, thank you.  Whoever you are reading these, I owe you all my greatest thanks.  Most of all, I also owe Dr. Sellen, Dr. Coop, and everyone at ORE a resounding "thank you!"  Thanks Dr. Sellen for your continued encouragement, advice, and help with getting me started with this blog deal in the first place.  Thanks to Dr. Coop, who together with his wry humor and calm wisdom, even in the face of my often-worried insistence on doing things "right," helped me through this entire semester and this internship.  Not to mention, if it weren't for this gentleman, I wouldn't be going to school at Western in the first place, so thanks very much for that too.  Finally, and most of all, thanks to the whole crew of grinning people at ORE for their kind acceptance of my own work and my humble, yet hopefully important help over the last seven months.  Thank you Maya, Bart, Lindsay, Kristen, Kerri, and, last but not least, Luke for your continued help, support, and good humor.  You are all good people, and ORE certainly has its collective heart in the right place.  Good luck to you all, and may all of you and your families be healthy and happy.  Thank you all for everything.  I will leave you all to it; see you in the Fall, have a great summer, and go play outside!

Sincerely,
Josh

The Proposed DIY Auto Garage

Hail loyal readers.  As the final blog post of my own various musings and/or ranting, I thought it would be a good idea to spread the word about a certain project that me and some Environmental Studies comrades have started in Dr. Coop's ENVS 301 class.  Though Coop, who is more likely to read this than anyone else, already knows quite a bit about this venture, I am writing this to hopefully get the word out to even a few people who haven't heard something about this, as well as to the ENVS kids of next semester who may happen to stumble upon this handy-dandy blog.  Also, I think that the message and goals of this project relate nicely to the various principles of ORE that I have been rambling about for the past few months.  Anyway, our project involves establishing what we have come to call a "DIY Garage" on campus (or possibly somewhere else, depending on various location considerations) as a place where students would be able to work on their vehicles (or have someone else help and teach them how to) without freezing and while hopefully learning some important skills that they can carry with them and cultivate for the rest of their lives.  So, how does this relate remotely to what I've said about ORE's guiding philosophy?  I'll tell you how.  First of all, this project has the potential to save students a whole lot of money, as they wouldn't need to take their vehicles to a shop to have 'em maintained.  Furthermore, the education that they would receive at the garage would allow them to make wise choices in the future regarding repairs, and thus avoid being swindled by less-than-ethical repair shops.  Secondly, helping students to keep their vehicles well-maintained (similarly to ORE's EnergySmart program helping people to keep their houses well-maintained) and properly tuned would help them to reduce their vehicles' air emissions and improve their fuel economy.  Finally, there is the education piece of the garage.  I am most excited about the garage's potential to teach people a few things and inspire them to learn some other exciting stuff on their own.  Just as ORE's programs don't throw the education aspect out of the window, so can this garage maintain a focus on students' learning more than how to crack books and write papers.  My greatest hope is that the DIY Garage may inspire students, and even other people in the community, as to the possibilities of learning how to do many useful and peaceful things instead of being glued to their iPhones or whatever, so that we may, slowly at first, remember the greatness of not only learning, but also doing all of these different things.  With this in mind, I leave you all in peace for a little while.  If anyone who happens to read this can please spread the word around town and around campus, I will be forever grateful.  Over the next few years, I plan to work hard on this project, and will do my best to help this happen, so please get in touch with me if you would like to help in any way, however seemingly small.  Until next time, cheers!

The "EnergySmart Fun Facts" and Other Assorted Rants

Now that the booklet stuff has been taken care of, I can finally begin to yammer about a few things that, maybe by some miracle, a few other people will find interesting.  This time, for the sake of propagating some of the research that I did earlier in the semester, I will share some nifty stuff regarding turning off light switches, recycling, and a few of the other responsibilities that come with living in modern houses (or nearly anywhere, for that matter).  This stuff was dubbed "EnergySmart Fun Facts," and was compiled from various websites that I poured over, so much of the credit does not go to me.  One of these days, this information may actually appear on some pamphlet or the like, although ORE's Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency has a lot of these already.  Nonetheless, for your enjoyment (not to mention for the sake of irritating power companies), here they are.

EnergySmart “Fun Facts”

Light Bulbs:

- Incandescent light bulbs lose up to 95% of their energy to heat, with only around 5% being converted to light.

- Most incandescent bulbs last about 1000 hours, while florescent bulbs can last around 10,000 hours.

- One 60-watt light bulb uses enough energy in one hour to power a Super Nintendo for 6 hours.

- The amount of energy used by one 40-watt light bulb (in an hour) could power a CD player for around a half-hour

 

Computers:

 

- Setting computers to "sleep mode" will save a great deal of energy, as a computer in sleep mode will use anywhere from 0-6 watts of power.

- Computers even use energy, ranging from 1-2 watts, when turned off

- Many LCD monitors use almost no power when not displaying an image or when turned off.

- Laptop computers use less than 1/3 the power of some desktops.

- Screensavers that display any images do not save power.

Water heaters:

- Water heating accounts for about 18% of the typical household energy bill

- Cold water requires no electricity, whereas the average water heater uses around 2500 watts of power.

- The wattage of a typical water heater is equal to about 250 clock radios all blaring at once.

- Every 10* reduction in water heater temperature saves about 3-5% of power.

- The amount of energy used by a typical water heater is more than the power output of 3 1-horsepower small engines.

Recycling:

- Recycling aluminum saves up to 95% of energy and air pollution as compared to making new materials from Bauxite.

- Plastic recycling results in a 70% energy savings.

- Recycling paper results in a 73% air pollution savings.

- Recycling Steel results in a 60% energy savings.

- Being a "recycling role model" has been statistically shown to increase the rate of recycling among friends and neighbors (probably coworkers as well).

 

In other words, doing some of this stuff doesn't operate in a vacuum.  Live by example.  Recycle by example too; it can't hurt.  Being such a damn fundamentalist about recycling, I could probably stand to learn how to not enforce this sort of stuff so much.  Really, if people can stop for a single second before they pitch stuff and think about what the hell they are doing, I would be willing to bet that all of the ridiculous stuff in people's garbage cans - not to mention all of the crazy stuff that me and a few other people found in the dumpster outside of Mears the other day, which ranged from a working microwave to some unopened beer (which we did not drink, in a victory for good judgment) - wouldn't be so unthinkingly and unceremoniously winged out of the figurative (and sometimes literal, in the case of a television set, courtesy of a couple of kids in Ute Hall) window.  So, I will leave you all to it, and please, think what you can make out of stuff before just mindlessly pitching things.  Look up some "scrap jewelry" or something, and it is clear that there are a bunch of cool things that you can make out of so-called "junk."  I realize that people can't hang on to everything, but, at the same time, some of the things that can be made from supposed "garbage" are truly amazing, and if more people did stuff like that, we would be in a completely different world right now, where people's garbage cans wouldn't spill all over the street, but where some of that stuff may be used to beautifully adorn their homes.

The "Final" Scoop on ORE's Pamphlets

After delivering the last batch of those nifty little booklets, it seem appropriate to leave anyone who happens to care enough to go nab a few with a some handy little statistics.  And, although these are fairly accurate (there are a few math idiosyncrasies that I didn't quite figure out, as I can't account for somewhere around 20 pamphlets), it is handy to remember Mark Twain's wise statement that "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."  On that note, here are those statistics, and, though I do like that quote, they are not overwhelmingly inaccurate.

Locations of ORE Pamphlet Stashes and Delivery Amounts as of 5/4/13 and 5/6/13

On Western’s Campus

Kelley Hall:

Main Recycle Bins:

-           4x EnergySmart + 1=5x

-           7x ORE Information +3=10x

-           6x Local Farms First

-           10x EnergyWise

-           4x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

-           7x Green Business Directory

Student Room:

-           6x Green Business Directory

-           2x Local Farms First

-           5x EnergyWise

-           4x EnergySmart +1=5x

-           3x ORE Information +2=5x

-           2x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

Downstairs Table #2:

-           2x Green Business Directory 4x?

-           0x Local Farms First

-           4x EnergySmart +1=5x

-           4x ORE Information 5x?

-           5x EnergyWise

-           1x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

Upstairs Table #1:

-           0x Green Business Directory

Upstairs Table #2:

-           0x Green Business Directory 5x?

-           4x ORE Information

Upstairs Table #3:

-           2x Green Business Directory

Taylor Hall Downstairs:

Recycle Bins #1:

-           0x ORE Information + 5 = 5x

-           3x Green Business Directory

Recycle Bins #2:

-           4x ORE Information + 1 = 5x

-           3x Green Business Directory

Leslie J. Savage Library:

Main Table:

-           2x Green Business Directory + 1 = 3x

-           9x ORE Information + 1 = 10x

-           3x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

-           8x Local Farms First + 2 = 10x

-           10x EnergySmart

-           10x EnergyWise

College Center:

Main Booklet Table:

-           20x ORE Information

-           4x Green Business Directory + 1 = 5x

-           15x EnergySmart + 5 = 20x

-           23x EnergyWise

-           1x Local Farms First + 2 = 3x

-           10x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

Freecycle (Undetermined):

-           7x Green Business Directory

-           9x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

-           5x ORE Information

-           3x Local Farms First

-           5x EnergySmart

-           5x EnergyWise

Around Gunnison

Natural Foods Market:

-           3x Green Business Directory + 2 = 5x

-           5x EnergySmart

-           5x EnergyWise

-           6x ORE Information + 1 = 7x

-           3x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

Mocha’s:

-           5x Green Business Directory

-           5x ORE Information

-           3x Local Farms First + 7 = 10x

The Bean:

-           7x Green Business Directory

-           7x ORE Information + 3 = 10x

-           4x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

-           17x EnergyWise

-           4x EnergySmart + 1 = 5x

-           1x Local Farms First + 14 = 15x

PawsAbilities Thrift Store:

-           5x Green Business Directory

-           5x ORE Information

-           5x Local Farms First

Brick Cellar (undetermined):

-           9x Green Business Directory

-           10x Local Farms First (undetermined)

-           10x EnergyWise (undetermined)

-           10x EnergySmart (undetermined)

-           10x ORE Information (undetermined) +9x

-           3x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

Mario’s Pizza:

-           5x ORE Information

-           2x Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency

-           4x Local Farms First + 6 = 10x

-           8x EnergySmart + 2 = 10x

-           9x EnergyWise

-           2x Green Business Directory

 

Of all of these pamphlets, Local Farms First was undoubtedly the most popular.  The Green Business Directory and the Pocket Guide to Energy Efficiency were also reasonably well-received, and ORE's informational booklet did alright.  EnergySmart and EnergyWise weren't very popular at all, however, which leads me to believe that some people actually like exorbitant electricity bills.  Or, better yet, maybe people just like looking those programs up on the computer, instead of taking actual booklets, so that they can use even more electricity.  Who knows.  Anyway, as near as I can tell, the total number of ORE pamphlets that delivered is around 725.  A few of these booklets were already there when I came along, but the vast majority were hand-delivered by me.  My roommate also deserves some credit, as he occasionally tagged along for a bit of camaraderie-inspiring conversation.  I also have a few pages worth of the total numbers of booklets that were delivered and actually taken from all of those different places, although I don't want to usurp this blog's entire first page with more mumbo-jumbo sort of interesting records.  So, if you are one of those readers who actually likes picking up pieces of paper instead of staring at websites, or, better yet, even if you are someone who gets off on all those nifty little Macintosh gizmos, please take a moment to forget about the ridiculousness of the "21st century" and pick up a few booklets if you haven't already.  Also, for anyone who reads this blog next semester, you to are more than welcome to cruise around town or around campus and read a few of 'em, too, so please do!