This was published on Apartment Therapy yesterday and someone shared it with me today, so I thought I would share it with you too. This is such a beautiful and simple installation by Sam Spenser from Goldsmiths College in London. Fabulous!

   

The Watercone is the most effective invention that I have seen to get clean drinking water. Amazingly simple, portable and brilliant. The only problem now is cost, but I believe they are working to get these mass produced, so they will be more cost effective to provide to the villages that need them the most.

I just bought the book Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Response to Humanitarian Crises. The Watercone is described on page 285.

This is my first posting via ShareThis. Here’s what happened:

My friend, Tangelia (the knower of all things awesome), sent me this article published on Green Upgrader via email. From her email, I linked to the site. When I finished reading, there was a little button at the bottom that said “SHARETHIS” with a little icon. Curiously, I clicked on this and went through the steps of sharing. First, I picked my blog application (WordPress). Second, I filled in my url and password information. And lastly, the link that you see below appeared on my website. Pretty cool.

To follow up, I went into WordPress and am now writing this little ditty about how the link got right here….all this for a link. I really thought it would duplicate the article onto my blog, but I guess that would defeat the purpose of sharing the information and driving people back to the original site. Still a good thing, but seems rather lazy. 

Flush Your Toilet With Recycled Gray Water

Posted using ShareThis

I would like to share some links today about gardening. You can learn about gardening in your own yard and how people are using gardens in communities all over the world. Or if you don’t think you can garden yourself, you can find local farmers to purchase your food from. 

Last week, we purchased 11 rain barrels. We turned one into a manual rotating compost bin. This will give us compost faster than our 3 bin system. The remaining barrels will be linked together under the deck for all of our outdoor watering needs. We hope to plumb our shower and kitchen sink too, but more research is required. My husband wants an outdoor shower as well, so we will see how far we can get!

Here are a few links I have been studying. The Spin Farming method is how we would like to plant our garden next year. Very organized and productive!

Spin Farming

Victory Gardens

Local Harvest

Somerton Tanks Farm 

Your Backyard Farmer

Seasonal Ingredient Map from Epicurious

City Farmer

Diggin Food

Vermont Compost  

Instead of hitting the grill, I decided to so something different with our crop and came up with this: Squash & Onion Surprise. It was a real surprise that it tasted so good! This is part of the current seasonal crop for our area, so we are trying to come up with some dishes to whip up in a dash with ingredients that we have around the house.

Here is what I did…

Heat about 1-2 tablespoons real unsalted butter in the pan.

Toss in 2 medium squash and 6 small, white, sweet onions (chopped).

Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the top of the veggies (I use a fresh peppercorn medley with a little kick) - if you use salted butter, salt accordingly.

Sauté until onions start soaking in the butter or turning a yellow brown color.

Pour in about 1/4 cup water and place the lid on top to steam and soften the squash.

Once all the steam has evaporated, pour in 2 tablespoons of half and half (or other organic milk) and 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour.

Toss until creamy and top with flax seed to serve.

This made about 3-4 side dish servings. We served this along side a Dr. Praeger’s Tex Mex Veggie Burger (no bun) and steamed broccoli.

YUM. YUM.

Photo by me. 

We have a little experimental garden this year and this is our first pickin’. We are so excited to eat from our yard! We will grill these with some olive oil and spices for dinner. This morning at the local farmer’s market, the vendors had squash, onions, cucumbers and potatoes, so I think we are on the right track. My cucumbers aren’t doing so well, but we have got a few hot peppers on the way. 

The compost bins have been started for next year and I am harvesting some worms. I think they are almost ready to step up to their new home in the compost pile. 

Photo by me. 

 

A friend just sent me a link to this….

Way Basics

This company sales furniture building blocks (zBoards) that are made of post-consumer recycled paper. The zBoards can be recycled with no waste when you are finished with them. This is easy shopping and easy assembly with no tools. Way Basics are also the founding members of the Sustainable Furniture Council. Their tagline says is all: Keep it simple. No waste. No rules. No tools.

 

notNeutral

This is purely a designer shopping site with lots of fun items for your home. I just love the simple and bold designs from the Rios Clementi Hale Studios in Los Angeles. This is where you go for alternative color palettes and contemporary design.