Markus Kayser – Solar Sinter Project from Markus Kayser on Vimeo.
“Solar-sintering aims to raise questions about the future of manufacturing and trigger dreams of the full utilisation of the production potential of the world’s most efficient energy resource – the sun. Whilst not providing definitive answers this experiment aims to provide a point of departure for fresh thinking.
This project was developed at the Royal College of Art during my MA studies in Design Products on Platform 13.”
2011 GreenBuilt Tour
June 11 & 12, 2011 10am-4pm
It’s never too early to think about volunteering for the tour! If you are interested, please complete this form and send it in…
The 2011 GreenBuilt Tour Guidebook is available by clicking on the image below. We suggest you pick up a copy (rather than print it) at the following locations (coming soon). Or, you can pick a home to start your tour and pick up a guidebook at that home. 
2011 GreenBuilt Tour Kick-Off
Reception
June 10, 6 – 9 PM
Come join the fun at the annual Kick-Off Reception and greenAwards presentation on Friday, June 10, 6 – 9 PM, at a 2008 GreenBuilt Tour home in Corrales. Live music, beer & wine and plentiful appetizers will round out the evening. Directions will be sent to those who have made their online reservations. Click here for more information.
Cost: $30 USGBC-NM member/$35 non-members. Click here to make reservations.
Recent animal die offs have been making the news. Ecologists claim that this is a normal occurrence,
Famed Harvard biologist EO Wilson says, that, thanks to technology, we’re better able to share news of such events … and try to connect the dots. “This instant and global communication is just a human instinct to read mystery and portents of dangers and wondrous things in events that are unusual,” he says.
However massive deaths of any species raise my eye brow. Specific reasons/theories are not implied; rather, this is in hopes of supporting personal awareness and research.
The following is a one-month TIMELINE of recent bird & fish deaths (mid-Dec 2010 —> mid-Jan 2011) (sent to me by fellow master naturalist Carissa Nichols)
12.15.10 – Thousands of dead fish wash ashore on Florida beach, blamed on cold weather
12.17.10 – Dead fish wash ashore at lake beach in Indiana, blamed on winter storms
12.18.10 – Thousands of dead fish turn up in bay in Philippines, unknown causes
12.22.10 – More than a hundred dead pelicans turn up in North Carolina, unknown causes
12.23.10 – Hundreds of dead sea creatures wash ashore in South Carolina, blamed on cold water
12.23.10 – Ten tons of mostly dead fish found in fishing net in New Zealand, unknown causes
“This film is not funny.” – Steven Peabody, Colorado Board of Real Estate Professionals. Anthropologist Wade Davis calls it “no less than the most spectacular archaeological and anthropological discovery of our lifetimes.” Dr. Jerrold Sapphire, Author of “VANISHED: Why Bad Things Happen to Bad Civilizations,” calls it… well, you’ll find out what he calls it. But when a lost backcountry skier high in the Rocky Mountains stumbles on a monumental complex of structures – apparently completely uninhabited – the only thing that experts agree on is that we may never know what really happened to “The Lost People of Mountain Village”
If you like this please buy the DVD, I did!
http://www.lostpeopleofmountainvillage.com/
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Drought Warmest in 1,000 Years
By John Fleck
Journal Staff Writer
The drought of the last decade in the Southwestern United States is likely the warmest in more than a thousand years, new research suggests.
The warm, dry weather is consistent with predictions of the effect of rising greenhouse gases, but scientists cannot rule out natural variability as the cause, according to work by a team of scientists published Monday in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
But while there remains some uncertainty about whether human-caused climate change is responsible for the current drought, greenhouse warming caused by fossil fuel emissions appears likely to create problems in the future, the scientists said.
“We are on the path toward abnormal warming,” said Park Williams of the University of California Santa Barbara.
Even without warming, we are using our water unsustainably, said University of California Los Angeles scientist Glen MacDonald, who led the team of scientists.
“We have a supply and demand issue no matter what,” MacDonald said in a telephone interview.
The drought has hit New Mexico’s two major river basins hard.
Flows on the Rio Grande from 2000 to 2009 averaged just 77 percent of normal. The Colorado River, which New Mexico shares with six other Western states, has experienced the driest decade since record-keeping began a century ago.
Using tree rings, the scientists tried to find a period in the past that was similar to the current drought, said Connie Woodhouse of the University of Arizona. Looking back across the last 1,200 years, they were able to find longer dry spells, Woodhouse said, but none is as warm as conditions today, she said.
“We probably have not had as hot a drought,” said MacDonald.
The West’s forests have already suffered, according to Williams. Some 18 percent of the forests experienced either wildfires or bark beetle infestations.
Projected warming and drying is likely to make that worse, Williams said in a phone interview.
Growing population and rising food demand will place increasing stress on the region’s water supplies, MacDonald said.
With little chance to develop additional supplies, life in the West going forward will require new approaches to how we use water in our cities, especially for outdoor landscaping, MacDonald said.
We also will need to rethink our approach to agriculture, which uses 80 percent of the region’s supply, according to MacDonald.
Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: Drought Warmest in 1,000 Years http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/14232467836newsstate12-14-10.htm#ixzz18JdMW4oN
Subscribe Now Albuquerque Journal
The Code of the West has a multitude of meanings, for example it’s a book by famous western writer, Zane Grey, it implies carrying a gun in the old west, it’s the cowboy ten commandments, it’s a way of life integrated into the law of Larimer County Colorado, but most importantly, it’s a moral compass by which we should all live our lives.
-
Live each day with courage.
Take pride in your work.
Always finish what you start.
Do what has to be done.
Be tough but fair.
When you make promise keep it.
Ride for the brand.
Talk less, and say more.
Remember that some things aren’t for sale.
Know where to draw the line.
The first snow of the year and all the food turned out well, I couldn’t have asked for a better Thanksgiving 2010. The pumpkin pie and wild turkey were the highlights (although I haven’t tried the pecan pie yet). Mashed potatoes are good with green chile, a first time try, and the sweet potatoes were good with marshmallows, another first. The green bean casserole might get the axe next year and the bacon is now a new tradition. This was the best thanksgiving meal we’ve ever cooked. If you’d like a recipe for the sides or cookies leave a comment.
If you want to make a pumpkin pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe…
Or follow these instructions, which made me become a real pumpkin, pumpkin pie snob.
1 sweet pumpkin (pumpkin pie pumpkin) I got mine from Sunflower Market (don’t use a Halloween pumpkin, not sure the difference? You’ll find out when you try to cut into it).
- Cut 1 sweet pumpkin in half
- Scoop seeds and stringy stuff out of both halves
- Place both halves cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet
- Cook @ 350 degrees (F) for 1 hour
- Remove and let cool
While it’s cooling make the pie crust:
- Whisk together in a medium bowl 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour and 1/4 tsp salt
- Cut 5tbsp COLD butter into 20 small cubes (each tbsp 1/4erd)
- Add to the flour slat mixture and blend with a pastry blender till butter is forming chunks
- Add 4tbsp COLD crisco shortening and blend with pastry blender till mix is in small chunks
- Add 3-5 tsp of ICE COLD water till chunks thicken into small balls
- Gather into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and place in freezer for 10-15mins
- Scoop the pumpkin from the shell
- Place in a food processor and blend till completely smooth (should make about 2 cups)
- In a medium bowl slightly beat 2 eggs
- Add 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- Mix with fork till blended in
- Add 1 tbsp all purpose flour and mix with fork till blended in
- Add 1/2 tsp salt and mix with fork till blended in
- Add the pumpkin, 2 cups, or as close as you have, from the food processor and mix till blended in
- Add 8-10 oz of evaporated milk, mix till blended in
- It should be of a runny consistancy
- Remove pie crust ball from freezer
- Pie crust should be flaky but yet sticky
- Lay pie crust ball on lightly floured rolling surface (big enough to roll out 12+”‘s)
- Spread pie crust ball out with hand on rolling surface till mostly flat in a circular shape
- Roll with lightly floured rolling pin till pie crust is thin (about 2-3mm thick)
- Remove from rolling surface and place in glass pie pan
- If pie crust doesn’t easily come off rolling surface place glass pie pan on counter and flip the rolling surface upside down and scrape pie crust off gently with spatula.
- With pie crust in a glass pie pan trip edges and press with fingers
- Pour pumpkin mixture in and cook at 450 degrees (F) for 10mins
- Reduce heat to 350 degrees (F) and continue to cook for 50 mins or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean from the center
- Set aside and let cool for 2-3 hours
Cut and serve with real whipped cream, you’ll never make pie from a can again.
I was warned by both my mother and father that wild turkey breast was dry and gamey. I combined the knowledge of internet and self to make this neither dry nor gamey wild turkey breast. Try it, I can’t imagine a better thanksgiving turkey.
1 wild turkey breast – skin off, no bone, about 3-4lbs, thawed.
In a large zip lock bag combine the following:
- any thawed juices
- 8-10 candied ginger cubes
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3 cups ice
- water to fill remainder of bag
Place bag in large bowl in case it leaks, brine overnight about 12-16 hours.
Allow 2 hours to cook depending on elevation and size of breast.
- remove breast from brine and pat dry with paper towel
- place in standard turkey cooking pan with raised rack
- cover all of the breast with a good coat of softened butter
- Fresh herb mix: rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic
- Combine and chop till small enough to rub on
- Rub herb mix all over breast (top and bottom), it should stick well on the coat of butter
- Lay breast bottom side down on rack in pan
- Drizzle with olive oil
- Grind sea salt and pepper healthily on top
- Cover entire top of breast with 1lb thick cut bacon
- Chop 5 small apples in 1/4′s place on rack in pan around breast
- Add 3 cups chick broth to bottom of pan
- Cover with foil
- Place on top baking rake and bake at 335 degrees (F) for 1 hour
- Baste with broth from the bottom of the pan
- Place back in oven on bottom rack and continue cooking for another 1/2 hour or till middle of breast 
reaches 170-175 degrees (F)
- Remove let sit 15mins
- Slice and enjoy the best wild turkey breast you’ve ever eaten!
I don’t usually don’t blog about food but on the day dedicated to food I thought I would share our meal and the wild turkey recipe that exceeded all expectations… Also, I suppose that it was a somewhat sustainable meal being wild turkey and mostly local & organic ingredients.
- Wild Iowa Turkey Breast