Green Living

Margarita pizza is very popular in Italy and has its roots in Naples Did you know pizza did not become popular in America until after WWII? When soldiers who were stationed in Italy came back home from their service, they spilled the beans on a little unknown secret the Italians gave away. It was the [...]

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Estimating Pond Volume

by Michael OLoughlin on January 12, 2012

It is important to know the volume of water in your backyard pond for a couple of reasons. When you are constructing your water feature, you will need to know the volume it will hold in order to get the correct size pump to recirculate the water effectively. Poor water circulation will result in a [...]

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Home Heating System Repairs

by admin on January 6, 2012

 …and How to Stay Warm While You Wait!   Inevitably, the heating system in your home won’t fail on a crisp, October morning, but on the coldest, harshest day of the year! If the failure occurs in the morning on a weekday, you may be fortunate enough to have a repair professional available that day [...]

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Whether for resale value or just the daily enjoyment of your home, sustainable landscaping designs are great investments.  Sure, you can create your own garden and landscaping plan.  But starting with a professional’s design ensures that all of the latest developments are incorporated.  After that initial stage, handling maintenance yourself will be simpler and more enjoyable.  [...]

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Home Improvement projects often show up high on homeowner’s list of New Year’s resolutions.  But without proper planning it’s easy to spend too much or hire a disreputable contractor.  Then the home improvement project that should bring you joy turns into a home improvement nightmare. Here’s a list of five New Year’s resolutions that will [...]

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When there’s a bumper crop of fresh herbs, the best way to preserve them is in oil. Here’s a great recipe to do this. Pluck leaves from the stems and pack them down in a measuring cup. Place two hard-packed cups of herbs in a blender or food processor. Add 1 cup of good-quality cooking [...]

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Infrared Saunas

by admin on December 23, 2011

Infrared vs. Traditional Saunas Saunas and their relatives (like the Native American sweat lodge and the Japanese onsen) have been in use for thousands of years, offering health benefits and relaxation to users.  Traditional saunas are wood or electrically heated. Steam is created by pouring water over heated rocks. In the 1900s a new type [...]

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Do you lie awake at night worrying about your carbon footprint, the ozone layer or our rain forests? We can all make a difference in a variety of ways. We’re here to offer some resources to get you started with our list of the top 10 Twitter experts talking about renewable energy on Twitter. Each [...]

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A staggering three to four million dogs and cats are euthanized in the US every year. That’s more than 10,000 animals per day and over 400 per hour. It’s easy to understand, with numbers like these, how animal shelters across the country are literally bursting at the seams with unwanted animals. These sobering statistics shine [...]

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After Canadian actor-turned-designer Jody Racicot moved with his wife into an empty new home, he built her a dresser and promised her it would be better than anything they could afford to buy. To both of their surprise, he did just that, and suddenly the actor had a second career as a modern furniture designer. [...]

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With the arrival of December and the holiday season, most of us are pulling out the Christmas decorations and getting ready to deck out every last corner in order to ensure that our houses are “holiday ready” in every way from the last touch of tinsel to the last dusting of powdered snow. But as [...]

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Going green is all the rage these days, but there’s nothing new or trendy about spending less money on home energy needs. The latest home heating and air conditioning units, as well as water heaters, are more energy efficient than ever – helping soften the impact on the environment as well as a homeowner’s wallet.   “Energy [...]

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What do you do in the fall when your hanging baskets are spent? You can throw them out or compost the plant material and old potting soil, saving the pot for reuse next year. And while recycling the pot is great, repurposing it and getting another use out of it is my preferred choice. Last [...]

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When to Prune Evergreens

by admin on November 21, 2011

Loosely defined, evergreens are trees and shrubs that do not lose their leaves all at once in the fall. They do shed leaves or needles, but do so a little at a time throughout the year. Pruning evergreen trees and shrubs accomplishes several things: It helps control size and shape of the plant. It helps [...]

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Passive Solar for Home Heat

by admin on November 3, 2011

Unfortunately, a whole generation of homeowners has grown up since passive solar construction was hailed, back in the 60s and 70s, as the solution to all our problems. Passive solar construction is easy, too easy. Americans seem to like complex, high-tech solutions to problems, embodying plenty of what salesmen call “bells and whistles. There are [...]

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You can find anything on Twitter! Yesterday we featured resources for kitchen cabinets. Today, in part 2 of our kitchen series, we’ll continue with professional kitchen designers who can help you realize your remodeled kitchen vision. Each of these experts  has an amazing website packed with ideas. 1. Susan Serra, CKD, CAPS, @SusanSerraCKD, has a [...]

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Even if you have a large vegetable or flower garden, you may be able to start your own winter vegetables in a cold frame. You will save money, raise superior plants, get plants that are directly acclimatized to your locality, and you can produce a far greater variety of plants. A great advantage of starting [...]

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We all know a home must be well insulated to keep it warm and cozy in the winter and cool in the summer. The better insulated your home, the less you pay to heat and air condition it and the more energy you save. That means insulation is a green building product…but is it really green [...]

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Cloche Gardening

by admin on October 17, 2011

Very few gardeners in the United States, other than Martha Stewart use the English method of cloche gardening.  However, it is interesting to study the process and perhaps adapt some aspects of this gardening technique in our own home gardens.  A cloche looks like a tall glass water bottle with the bottom cut out.  The [...]

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Looking at the images of Haiti’s earthquake and the devastation that followed was a wake up call for me.  It’s hard to stay worried about the surcharges on your cell phone bill while you watch a terrified but unwavering husband wait outside the rubble of his home for days to see if his wife will [...]

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