Share and Voice: LED Holiday Lights

The holiday season is now upon us and what better way to do a share and voice than Christmas lights! The holiday season often means a lot of green and red lights and decorations, but one of those colors should be your main focus this season. LED holiday lights have been around for several years now and while they may cost a bit more than traditional lights, they can provide significant benefits over incandescent bulbs. When Minnesota Power decorates its annual Christmas tree in Duluth they use only LED lights. So what are some of the benefits of using LED Holiday Lights? LED lights have a lot of benefits, including, they are 75 percent more energy efficient than traditional Christmas tree lights, they last ten times longer, and they're also more durable and they are cool to the touch so they reduce the risk for a fire hazard. Here's the difference: The energy of one seven watt incandescent bulb can power 140 LED lights. Something else to think about...if you plan to ditch those old energy eating strings of Christmas lights, you can do it in a green way. Airpark Products & Services in Duluth has partnered with the Recycling Association of Minnesota to safely recycle your old strings of lights. Last year the "Recycle Your Holiday" program recycled more than 100,000 pounds of lights. This year their goal is to double that. The recycled light bulbs will be crushed and the glass recycled, even the wires will be recycled. The copper inside will be stripped and marketed to area vendors. I thought this was an awesome article and now I know where I can recycle my old Christmas lights when they burn out. 

Source: LED Holiday Lights 

Reflection: Weeks 9-12

I know that many people have probably said this many times already, but really where has the time gone??? It seems like we just started the semester a couple of weeks ago and learned how to blog for crying out loud and we're actually almost to Christmas, (Crazy)! We've learned a lot on interesting things the past few weeks which included:

• My Political Representatives
• Healthy People 2010/THOMAS
• Issue Overview 
• Photo Essay

The political representatives assignment was a very good yet challenging assignment for us because it made us figure out who are local representatives are along with the bigger fish such as the president and senators. This was an important assignment because by knowing who are local reps are the better chances we have at advocating important issues in the future if need be. I mentioned challenging above only because the elections were just finishing up when we did the assignment so people were changing in offices.

The following week after finding out who are political representatives were we had to pick an issue/bill using Healthy People and THOMAS to advocate for followed by a full issue overview the following week. I chose a bill regarding smoking because it's something that has affected me personally growing up and still to this day. Both my parents smoked from the time I was born until now. My mom passed away 10 years ago but my dad continues to smoke quite profusely even in the house which absolutely drives me bonkers and is why I don't visit home very often. I've had respiratory problems from Bronchitis to Pneumonia my whole life because my parents smoked a lot and that's a big reason why I chose the Youth Prevention and Tobacco Harm Reduction Act Bill of 2009. Kids are affected by tobacco and advertising every day no matter if they want to believe it or not; it's impossible to get away from advertising and marketing campaigns because technology is everywhere! It's really a shame because some kids don't have a choice if their parents smoke like in my case. I'm very passionate about this subject not only because of my health issues, but because smoking and tobacco is extremely bad for you (i.e. various cancers, respiratory problems, and emphysema), it's nasty and smells terrible especially on people. The overview portion of our bill that we chose gave me even more staggering and mind blowing statistics regarding tobacco and its effects on people and society. I learned a lot more of vital information about tobacco and smoking after doing some research for the overview section so I'm glad we got the opportunity to do that.

Lastly, we conducted a photo essay on anything that we wanted regarding the environment. This was probably my favorite assignment to do the past weeks because the essay I chose is something that I've been doing my entire life which is living off the land including: hunting, fishing, and wild ricing among many other outdoor things. I'm glad that I got to share pictures of myself and my family doing what we've been doing for well over 80 years or so now and probably even before that. Hunting, fishing, and wild ricing is something that I've been passionate about my whole life and they're things that I will pass down to my children and grandchildren just like my dad and grandfather did with me.

In closing, it's been a very fun, interesting, and extremely fast paced last few weeks and I can't wait to see what's in store for the final few weeks ahead. I'm also looking forward to getting to know some new blog members and what they have to say. Again I still can't believe that the semester is just about over, unreal.            

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 4 Weekly Update

I have to admit that at first this SMART goal was a bit harder than I imagined, but after some resilience and dedication I am now able to follow my goal to a T. In case anyone forgot my goal is: I will drink five or fewer bottled beverages (Gatorade, Vitamin Water, Soda, etc.) a week and recycle all of them when finished drinking them. The hardest part of following my goal at first was that I purchased two cases of Gatorade and Vitamin Water prior to my SMART goal. I still did pretty well though I thought considering but still went over my quota. I recently tweaked my goal and added five beverages instead of three and found that to be much more manageable. Since I switched my goal a couple weeks ago I haven't gone over my goal. The holiday break didn't seem to hinder me at all in staying on track with my goal and I think it actually helped because I drank most of my beverages out of glasses. In fact, on black Friday I purchased a Bisphenol A free stainless steel water bottle to drink out of so I don't drink from plastic bottles. The best part of the purchase is that it was insanely cheap and good for the environment all at the same time! I don't plan on changing my goal and will stick to the five or fewer bottled beverages a week. Suggestions and advice are kindly offered and appreciated.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain  

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

From way long before I was born my family and I have been living off of the land in some way, shape, or form. When I say that I mean that we hunt, fish, blueberry pick and wild rice among other things such as: we've built our own houses, hunting shacks, and cabins along with burning wood for a heat source. My dad taught me at a very young age how to hunt, fish, blueberry pick, and wild rice and still do all of these things today. The picture above was taken a few years ago at our family cabin on Lake Vermillion of myself and my uncle Fred after we cut some firewood for the cabin.

 

These two photos are of our family's hunting shack and cabin. The one on the right is our family hunting shack which is located in Buyck, MN on the Echo Trail. We built this shack with our own hands in 1994 but had previous shacks long before I was born. The picture on the left is our family cabin which is located on Lake Vermillion in Cook, MN was constructed by my family members in 1970 and stands like the picture shows today. We use both of these sites for extended periods of time throughout the year especially during the MN grouse hunting, deer hunting, and fishing seasons.

These two photos represents the fishing that our family has done for many years. The picture on the left was taken last spring on Lake Vermillion of a walleye that I caught which was 27 1/2 inches and weighed around 8 pounds. I released the fish right after we took this picture. The picture on the right was taken by myself last spring of my dad and brother while fishing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. We catch the fish and eat them for a food source not only during the fishing season but throughout the year. We have huge fish fry's during Memorial Day weekend and usually throughout the season depending on what we catch. We use the family cabin pictured above as base camp during the MN fishing season on Lake Vermillion and we use the shack when we go to the BWCA. We clean the fish ourselves and recycle/compost the remains of the fish in the lake for other fish, birds, and animals to eat.

  

These photos represent the deer hunting and grouse hunting that my family has been doing for around 80 years. It all started with my grandfather who began hunting in the area around the 1930's. We process all of our deer ourselves. What I mean by that is we skin the deer and cut it up and package it ourselves to make ground venison, chops, jerky, steak, and polish. After we are finished cutting them all up we donate the hides to hides for habitat and we compost the remains in the woods for the other animals to eat. We gut the grouse out the same way and compost the remains as well in the woods. We usually make wild rice grouse soup with the breast of the bird. We also used to trap animals such as beavers, mink, otter, fisher, and pine martin, but we haven't trapped in some time now. As for the pictures, the picture on the left is of my dad with a grouse he shot this past deer season and the picture on the right is of myself and the deer I shot a few weeks ago. It was an 11 point buck with a 13 inch spread and 10 inch tines.

   

These photos above represent the wild ricing that my family and I have been doing for many years. My dad began wild ricing around 30 years ago or so and still does it to this day. I started ricing around 5 years ago and go every year now thanks to my dad passing it down to me and my brothers. We used to harvest and process the wild rice on our own but now we bring it to a guy in Cass Lake to get it processed. We use the rice to make hot dishes and casseroles or we simply just boil it in hot water. The picture above was taken this past fall in the Brimson, MN area around Two Harbors. The people above from left to right is myself, my brother Craig, my nephew Jacob, my older brother Jerry, and my Dad. My other nephew Tyler is taking the picture. The bags in front of us are filled with wild rice. We picked about 320 pounds total that day between all of us. It was a good day! My dad has taught me a lot of valuable things/skills that I will pass down to my kids and grandkids and for that I thank him very much.