North Creek Forest in Bothell

Spring in January 2010

Been so warm outside these days, really feels like spring. Grass is starting to grow, daffodils are up a few inches or more in places, primroses blooming and for sale at all the groceries, weeds growing, and we hear they are worried about getting enough snow for the Olympics next month up the road in Vancouver, B.C. And no, this warm winter in the Puget Sound Convergence Zone has nothing to do with Global Warming, or as we should call it, Global Climate Change. What I don't understand at all is why so many people who have learned to read and write and supposedly understand what they read have decided not to use their abilities to discern what scientists keep telling us. The glaciers are melting, that's a fact. But don't take my word for it, or the National Geographic's word for it. Go read for yourself. Ok, so now we just call it Global Change. Not just climate, or maybe not even climate, and certainly nothing to do with the weather. Changes in the global envir

Net Zero Water, Seattle Elementary Demo Project

Here's a demo project that gets close to reusing all its water, or net zero water. "The classroom toilet composts and treats waste on site rather than flushing it into city sewer pipes. Water washed down sinks doesn't flow into storm drains but recirculates to a 14-foot-high wall filled with plants, which will eventually soak it all up. For now, excess flows through the wall. Plenty of "green" buildings strive to generate as much energy as they use, but Bertschi School's new science building is one of dozens nationwide taking it a step further. They're attempting to unplug from the municipal water and sewer system to collect, recycle and reuse water and wastewater on site, a concept often referred to as net zero water. The U.S. Army has a goal for several installations to reach zero water, energy and waste use, and last week it designated Fort Riley in Kansas, Camp Rilea in Oregon and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, among others, to be

Spring in the Rain Garden

Now that I'm making sure my plastic will be finally laid in the landfill, after being cast out of the recycling facilty if it does not meet the requirements, or after being recycled into park bench or decking material, and what's left goes in the landfill to stay forever, now that that's all figured out, I can focus back on my little rain garden project. Just visited a yard where the drainage is a real problem, lawn all squishy and mossy. But here we live on a hill, near the top at nearly 500 ft so we don't get drainage from above, except of course from the up the cul de sac to our east. A river of storm water runs along the front of the curb, and if I could just figure out a way to channel it into the yard, I'd really be in business. But back to the drainage from the roof of our split-level, and the channeling into this little swale. Here's a new picture of the daffodils and a few plantings. The red twigs were just stuck in as cuttings to root, but those

The Convergence Zone

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