Archive for the ‘Community’ Category

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Bigfork’s Sculpture Project to commemorate Elmer Sprunger

Saturday, July 12th, 2014

By Catherine Haug, July 12, 2014

The Bigfork Chamber of Commerce and CFBB (Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork) plan to commemorate Elmer Sprunger with a statue by Eric Thorsen in the Sculpture Garden. To reach their goal, they need the help of our community. To learn more about the project, or to donate, see:

Elmer Sprunger Sculpture Project (bigforkstatueproject.org).

Ever since I was a child, I’ve been in awe of Elmer Sprunger’s art. He is known for his landscapes featuring wild critters, but he made his living making signs, such as this one that used to stand guard on Bigfork’s Electric Avenue, next to the old IOOF Hall that housed the Bigfork Summer Playhouse in the early years:

Tourist Guide Map by Elmer Sprunger

Tourist Guide Map by Elmer Sprunger

Posted in Community | Comments Closed

Stopping MRSA and other drug-resistant bacteria

Wednesday, April 30th, 2014
Bars of Snowbunny Soap

Bars of Snowbunny Soap

by Catherine Haug, April 30, 2014 (Photo, right, by K. Mansfield)

I’m sure you’ve heard of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), the bacteria that is not easily controlled by antibiotics, and is responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans, that likely lead to death of the patient. At least 23,000 of them die as a direct result of those infections (1).

Environmental and health scientists believe that raising livestock in CAFOs, and on feed laced with antibiotics, is responsible for this deadly bacteria. And, in fact, could be creating other antibiotic resistant bacteria as I write this. (3)

What can you do to protect yourself and your family? You’ve heard me rant about this before on this site, so I’ll keep it simple: (more…)

Posted in Community, Ecology, Home & Ranch, Kitchen Hints | Comments Closed

2014: International Year of Family Farming (& Gardening)

Monday, April 7th, 2014
Veggie Landscape Garden

Veggie Landscape Garden

by Catherine Haug, April 2014 (Photo, right, from Mercola: Who Knew Vegetable Gardens Could Be So Revolutionary?)

Did you know the UN has designated this year, 2014, and the International Year of Family Farming, to bring attention and recognition to the family farmers that are helping to nourish the world? This includes all of us who have gardens in our front or back yards.

Read on for:

  • You can garden ‘even if’;
  • Food for your garden

(more…)

Posted in Agriculture, Community, Compost, Ecology, Gardening, Landscaping, Shop Local | Comments Closed

PBS Videos: The Lexicon of Sustainability

Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
Chickens at feed

Chickens at feed

by Catherine Haug, March 2014 (photo, right by Keith Blaylock)

Check out a very informative and entertaining series of short videos that explores new vocabulary associated with farming, food security, and other sustainability topics. From the Lexicon of Sustainability home page:

“For the past three years we have conversed with the foremost practitioners of sustainability in food and farming. They have shared their insights and experiences… and contributed their words to our rapidly growing Lexicon of Sustainability. To spread their knowledge our photography project has grown to include short films, study guides, traveling shows, a book and lastly a website where people can add their own terms to this ever-evolving lexicon.”

Read on for more about, and links to the videos. (more…)

Posted in Agriculture, Community, Compost, Ecology, Food-Nutrition-Health, Gardening, GMO, Livestock, Organics, Shop Local | Comments Closed

The problem of plastics pollution

Saturday, January 18th, 2014

Recent Studies State Chemical In Plastic Liquid Containers Contain ToxBy Catherine Haug, Jan 18, 2014

(photo of plastic pop bottles, right, from npr.org (3))

This month (Jan 30, 2014), Citizens for a Better Flathead and Waste Not Project are hosting a movie night/panel discussion on recycling more in the Flathead (see Event Notice: Movie Night on Recycling More in the Flathead, Jan 30. 2014). Attendees are encouraged to bring questions and solution ideas to the panel, and a documentary film: Unwasted: The Future of Business on Planet Earth, available on YouTube (1) may give you some ideas to bring to the event, or inspire you to action in your community. The film was produced in 2011 by Seattle-based, green facility maintenance firm Sage Environmental Services2 in partnership with PorterWorks,3 a sustainable solutions company.

High on the list of things that are difficult to recycle here are plastics. We can currently recycle milk jugs and plastic pop bottles, but that’s about it.Yet plastics pose a great threat to the future of our planet.

From Dr. Mercola’s article on this film and topic (2): (more…)

Posted in Community, Ecology, Recycle, Repurpose | Comments Closed

Want to comment on an article?

Friday, December 13th, 2013

by Catherine Haug, Dec 13, 2013

We get a LOT of spam comments on our blog articles (in the hundreds, daily), and that is getting very annoying because I have to review each one and decide if it is a valid comment or spam. We do have software that does a lot of that work for me (Akismet), but lately it has missed much of the spam.

What is spam? It is nonsense comment text, or lots of urls that have nothing to do with the article. People get paid to do this, to get our readers to check out the links. Often the links are pornographic or otherwise unacceptable within the bounds of our mission.

Until I can resolve the problem, I have disabled the comment feature of our website.

If you wish to comment on an article, please send it to me in an email and I will post it. Send to cat (at) essentialstuff (dot) org. [ address disguised for security].

Thank you for your understanding.

Posted in Community, ESP Matters | Comments Closed

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