new cat

hey everyone. sorry i haven't been updating my blog lately. life has been crazy since school started, my new job started, and i was rear ended by a drunk driver (all in the same week!). but i thought i'd take a minute to upload some pics of our new cat, clutch.

A Truly "Green" Yard

When we think of summer in America, almost immediately we think of backyard barbecues. Nearly half of American home owners have a lawn (50/107 million). This can have a huge impact on the environment if our yards are not taken care of properly. So here are a few tips on how to keep your lawn green the way nature intended (or at least close to it):

-Bigger is not always better
A smaller lawn means less mowing and less chemicals. Plus it can
leave you room to get more creative with walkways and "steppable"
plants (creeping thyme, etc). Just make sure anything you plant will
work with your region.

-Mowin' it old school
Using a gas lawn mower for one hour is the equivalent to driving
11 hours (according to the EPA). Using a mechanical push mower is
energy and emission free (and a good workout).

-If you don't want it in your house, don't put it on your lawn
Using herbicides and pesticides on your lawn is not only harmful
to the environment, they also get tracked into your house on shoes
and pets. A good alternative is aerating your lawn on a regular basis
(and make sure you use the old fashioned push model too). Using
pesticides will also disrupt the natural balance of bugs in your lawn,
killing not only the bad, but the good along with them.

-Don't let the man get you down
Scott's company (part of the $40 Billion lawn care business)
promoted Clover as a natural way to feed your lawn it's daily dose of
nitrogen. That is until they introduced "weed and feed", which kills
clover.

-Stay true to your roots
Deeper roots help your lawn stay healthy in long periods without
rain. Rocks and earthworms will naturally aerate and fertilize your
lawn. A great way to fertilize and reduce your carbon footprint is
using a compost bin. You can purchase one at your local garden center
or build you own.

I hope this helps you enjoy a guilt-free summer. for tips on green gardening, check out this link. If you have any tips of your own, feel free to leave it in the comments.

The Hippies were right!

A quote from the Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda says," Life is a chain. All things are related. When any link is harmed, the other links are affected." Kelli and I have been trying to lessen our "Ecological Footprint", which basically means our affect on the environment through the way we live. We soon realized that we needed to make some changes. Before you call me a tree hugger, think about how much you enjoy the outdoors. whether it's camping, hunting, or just walking through a park. It seems like an oxymoron to enjoy something so much and not give back at all. We started by locating our local recycling agency.
Most cities provide recycling pick up w/ the trash pick up, but since we live in an apartment, we have to take our recycling directly to the plant. But it was something simple we could do to get a start on things. We have been walking/riding our bikes to destinations close to our house, which not only helps the environment but saves on gas! when we go to the grocery store, we started taking our own permanent shopping bag (the bags you get at IKEA). You can also do the basics, remembering to turn off the lights you're not using, turn your air conditioner off when you leave the house, using low energy light bulbs, etc.
Las Vegas is one of the lowest cities when it comes to the amount of people that recycle here, so we have been raising awareness in our community and at public events so people can learn more about taking care of the environment.
For those of you who enjoy Jack Johnson's music (who doesn't? seriously...) you should check out his website by clicking here. Before Jack started doing music, he was a professional surfer. So he has been raising awareness and helping people learn how to help out mother nature. you can watch videos about different environmental organizations, and for each video you watch, Jack will donate $1 to that organization. the best part is if you sign up for the newsletter you get opportunities to take short quizzes about the environment and for each one you take you get a free Jack Johnson music download of a unreleased rare track!
So contact your local recycling plant and check out some of these websites below:

• Calculate your Ecological footprint
• Earth 911
• Jack Johnson's All At Once website
• Episode of 30 Days (from the guy that did supersize me) "going off the grid"

Don't forget to check out this video below of Jack Johnson's green studio! (here's the direct link if it's not playing below)

First Friday

Every Month on the first Friday, Las Vegas has a art and music festival down town. It is part of an effort to clean up the area between the strip and Fremont st. if any of you are familiar w/ that area it's pretty ghetto. but now most of it is art museums and music venues. We were trying to keep it cheap for the fourth so we decided to go there since it's only $2. T

There was a lot of interesting artwork, everything from political to spiritual. everything, including the music, is local. in the different art rooms, the artists are there to talk about there work, it was fun to meet them and see if you were really understanding the message they were trying to send with each painting. Then as we drove home, we could see fireworks all over the valley, it was pretty cool to see them coming from so many different places.

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Vacation

Some Pics from our Vacation and Utah, and the Stephen Marley concert...

Visit from Willy (Kelli's Dad)

This weekend we got a surprise visit from Kelli's dad. He has been driving his Harley from courdelane Idaho down through Arizona back up through las Vegas and SLC and back to visit all his kids. we got to hang out with him for about 4 days which was a lot of fun. We went and saw some of the freebie Vegas stuff and hung out on the strip w/ him. Kelli rode with him on his bike a few times and had lots of fun here are a few pics from the trip and a video of the fountains at the bellagio.

Our New Apartment

Hey Folks,
we are just finishing up on the move. the new place is pretty sweet, so we took a "tour video" for ya to check it out (see youtube video below). we are a little further away from the strip, which is good and bad. we are just glad to be in a not so ghetto area. hope everyone had a great easter. peace!

New Blog

Thanks for checking out my new blog. I think I've just grown tired of the myspace and facebook thing and this is much more simple. I'll mainly use this for posting photos of our escapades here in Vegas and an occasional video. I am not a huge typer but I'll try and get some text in there too. For now enjoy some random photos!