It's Official - Earth Day in Brandon is Cancelled!

As I sit here watching a snow storm, yes a snow storm, just received the email that Earth Day 2011 in Brandon is cancelled.  They will not be re-scheduling this year.  Good thing I celebrated vicariously by reading other people blog posts and Twitters!  According to organizers of the Facebook event page, the white spruce seedlings can still be had by emailing Tom at t.keep@brandon.ca or calling 729-2171.  Too bad, but really...it's snowing!

Earth Day 2011 in Brandon - Maybe...

Word came this afternoon that our Earth Day celebrations may be canceled.  Scheduled, well, re-scheduled for Sunday, May 1st, Mother Nature seems to have decided to rain and perhaps snow for the next twenty four to thirty six hours.  Oh, good!  Driving into Brandon today I noticed that the flood waters have seeped past the barricade on 1st Street, just north of the bridge.  Rain is not really what we need right now!  Stay tuned, we should know whether Earth Day will proceed by Saturday night and we'll post it right away.

Good Friday and Earth Day! Celebrate!

Hope you're celebrating today:  so many things to celebrate!  Saw an excellent Tweet this morning from @AndrewJParker:  'In a perfect world, every day would be Earth Day and every Friday would be Good!'  Too true!  Also loved the Tweet from @jerryjamesstone: 'Happy #Earth Day: Reduce, Reuse and Retweet!'  Earth Day is about putting aside the time to really think about what you're doing to improve Life on this Planet!  If you only do one thing - it will help, really!  Every little thing each person does adds up to some Big things!

How to get started?  Well, this Earth Day I'm recommending that everyone start reading a little green/environmental news every week - to start to keep up with what's happening on this Planet and to start to get informed.  Follow a blog, get RSS feeds, drop into a website once a week, follow them on Twitter for fast, snappy updates.  Here's a few of the favorites from Aagaard Farms:  Grist, Mother Jones, Rodale, Treehugger, Mother Nature Network.  If you've got a tiny bit of spare cash and want to make a difference check out Kiva, Philanthrope and Heifer International.

What are we doing for Earth Day?  Farmer Man is potting up seedlings and planting some melons.  He's being very Earth-friendly and using homemade pots from recycled newspapers (which may count as 'upcycling').  We love the PotMaker, a handy little gadget that lets you form plantable pots from strips of newspaper.  It's especially perfect for seedlings that tend to be brittle and hard to handle because you plant the seedling out in the garden in the pot, which will just break down!  We've had our PotMaker for years, I think we got it from Lee Valley Tools.  It's become a bit more widely available the last few years and can be found at garden centres and through many seed catalogues!  A most worthwhile investment if you start much of anything from seed.

Earth Day in Brandon - New Date!

Earth Day is coming to Brandon, but it's not when you may have heard!  Due to wet conditions, Earth Day has been moved to May 1st, giving Princess Park a chance to dry out.  Festivities begin at Noon.  Check out the Facebook event page here.  Lots of great things for kids of every age including live music, jugglers, face painting, giveaways and a chance to win an Earth friendly bike!  There should be some hybrid cars to view, too.  Aagaard Farms will be there, talking about CSA and selling seed potatoes.  Hope to see you there!

Brandon's Earth Day Celebrations!

Sunday was the City of Brandon's official Earth Day celebrations and it was a resounding success! A great turn-out on what started as a nice, sunny Spring day but turned a little cool and cloudy. (We finally got a little rain later in the day, and we are absolutely not complaining!) The big draw was the opportunity to buy an awesome rain barrel for a mere $25! I had a good look and it was an excellent barrel and a fabulous deal! Info on composting, recycling, conserving water was there, the Community Garden Network was there, Habitat for Humanity was well represented by our friends Menno and Evelyn Isaac. Marquis Project was supplying coffee, free bison burgers were supplied by the City and the organizing committee, the City had their compost there and people were filling buckets and bags. (I don't actually know if there was a charge for the compost) Some great vendors were there like Pollock Farms with certified organic spelt flour, Common Ground bakery from St. Boniface and Wild Wind Natural Skin Care. We were there selling seed potatoes, including some of our exotic varieties, and talking about CSA and the upcoming Farmers' Markets. It was a great day in the park!

Follow the Voyage of the Plastiki!

In all the Earth Day blogs, web site entries and news reports, the one I found most interesting was the Voyage of the Plastiki! The Plastiki is a boat made entirely of garbage plastic. it looks fantastic! It's making it's voyage to bring awareness to the pollution of our oceans. Did you know that, particularly in the Pacific, between North America and Japan, there are floating 'islands' of garbage thrown out by humans. These islands are large, floating, whirling masses of lightweight plastics largely, products that could be recycled. The pictures I saw were compelling, 'ghosts' of sheet plastics twirling in the current, sea lions wrapped in plastic, birds with their heads trapped in pop can holders! I mentionned littering in my Earth Day post because I see it around us all the time. People think our quiet country road is a good place to dump garbage - we've had everything from bags and boxes to old TV's and mattresses dumped in our ditch. Funny thing is, the Brandon Dump is about the same distance from town as we are, just in the opposite direction! Public ads about littering have been around since the '70's; why are we still doing it? And in such quantity to create floating islands? Check out the Voyage of the Plastiki here, follow the blog to see what's happening daily and check out some of their events and info!

For Earth Day - A Bath!

Happy Earth Day to everyone! It's hard to believe that the event has been happening for 40 years! And people are still littering..........The Hens decided to get ready early with a little bath. Chickens have dust baths; they find or dig out a little hollow, jump in and use their feet and wings to throw dust up on their backs. Then they shimmy-and-shake it through their feathers. Throw some more up and do it all again! (This would go great to music!). It's certainly dry enough here for them to have easy access to dust, so they are happy and clean Girls!

Westman, Get Composting!

Earth Day is just around the corner. Is there a more perfect thing to do for Earth Day then to start composting? Not only would you be recycling/reusing kitchen scraps and garden waste, keeping them out of the landfill, but you would also be making yourself the most wonderful, natural fertilizer/soil amendment. So, I just heard that the Green Spot is going to have all their composters on sale for Earth Day - 25% off the regular price! One day only!