Of course landscaping involves a lot of greenery, but were you aware that landscaping can make your home environmentally greener, too? In the same way our bodies feel cooler in the shade on a hot summer’s day and warmer out of the wind on a cold winter day, our homes can benefit from some carefully planned landscaping that will save you energy and money. The right, properly-positioned tree can cut your energy consumption by as much as 25%!

Take advantage of some natural energy-saving landscaping by following these suggestions;

• Canadians want to take advantage of the sun's heat during the winter, so plant deciduous trees on the south and west sides of your home. Their leafy canopy will shade your house in the summer, yet they will shed their leaves in winter to allow the sun’s warming rays to filter through.
• Plant a windbreak of evergreen trees or large shrubs on the north or northwest side of your home to prevent cold, arctic winds from robbing your home of its heat.
• Build a wall or berm near, but not against, your home to create a dead air space that will act like insulation, slowing the escape of heat from your home.
• Leave areas of lawn open on the south side of your home to create a ‘snow-field’ that will reflect the warming rays of the sun on your house during winter.
• Erect a fence on the north or north-west side of your home to reduce the winds cooling effect. Best to use a semi-open design that allows some air movement, as solid fences divert air over them and can create a wind tunnel effect.
• A concrete or stone patio on the south side of your home will act as a heat-sink, absorbing the sun’s warmth and keeping that side of your home warmer during winter.

Did you get all 'dolled-up' to go out for dinner? Did you know that steak you ordered did too?

Just as we ‘make ourselves up’ to look, feel and smell more attractive, so do restaurants and food producers to prepare the meat, poultry and fish they sell. Perhaps that steak you are eating is a ‘three dressed up as a nine’.

Here is a look at some of the ways food producers and restaurants improve the look, feel, smell and taste of the meat, fish and poultry they sell.

Meat Glue, also known as transglutaminase, is an additive that restaurants and food producers use to create a single ‘cut’ of meat out of smaller pieces. Transglutaminase is an enzyme that bonds proteins together. It’s use is generally designed to make use of smaller pieces of meat that would otherwise be thrown out or made into less profitable meals like stew.

Some examples of where meat glue can be applied are steaks, fillets, roasts, cutlets, sausages, hot dogs, processed meats, imitation crab, fish balls, and chicken nuggets. If you have eaten any of those in the past couple of years, you have probably eaten meat glue.

It would appear that there is no known health side-effect of consuming meat glue, but if you want to avoid it anyway, or feel this practice is unethical, ask your butcher, your meat supplier, or your waiter if the meat you are considering contains glue. If they don’t know or appear unwilling to say, order something else or go elsewhere.

Brining is a process similar to marinating in which meat is soaked in a mixture before cooking. When marinating, we use species and herbs. When brining, we simply use salt – and sometimes sugar.

Brining is a technique that makes a remarkable difference in the moistness and taste of the meat. But surprisingly, even when just about all other food must state the level of sodium it contains, brined meat does not, even though a ready-to-cook supermarket roast can be up to 10 percent brine - eight times the sodium content of the original meat.

Because the amount of salt left in the meat depends on how concentrated the brine used is and how long it soaked in the solution, it is difficult to say exactly what the sodium content is. But based on tests, brined poultry, as an example, can absorb up to 1600mg of sodium per pound.

Gas mixtures in packaging is another trick employed. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) involves adding gas mixtures that differ in composition from air to packaged meat. The exact gas compositions employed vary between products, but there are 2 main types: high O2 and low O2.

MAP is used to make meat maintain that red look that consumers link to freshness a little longer, to reduce moisture loss (and weight), to make that fresh smell and texture last longer, and/or to inhibit the growth of microorganisms. 

* * * * *

Maybe now is a good time to look into locally-grown meats, free-range options, or vegetarianism.

“What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.”
~Mary Pickford

In today’s e-world, pens just don’t have the same place in our everyday lives as they used to. But it is still a good idea to have one handy at all times – just in case. Make it an environmentally-friendly pen.

While disposable pens do not have a huge impact on our landfills in terms of total mass – since they are quite small – they do total in the millions each year. And most will stay in the ground for a long, long time. You can blame the various marketers who convince companies to hand out disposable pens at just about any function, but we don’t have to take one.

So be green with your writing habits by refusing free disposable pens – and at the same time sending a message to the company offering them so they make a better marketing choice next time – and use a refillable pen when needed. Or a cartridge pen - the best second choice.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Have you decided how to show your love how much you care this year? Maybe you should act like an animal!

Check out how these animals show love to their mates. Did j’a know…

• Male angler fish are a fraction of the size of females, but when they find a mate, they fuse themselves to her body and start using her blood supply as their own, effectively becoming one creature.
• The male bowerbird builds big, elaborate twig structures called bowers, and decorate them with anything they can find, even garbage! Females pick the male with the best bower.
• Male dance flies give a female presents to attract her. They catch prey and wrap it in silk - a tasty present no female dance fly could ignore!
• Male seahorses impress their ‘mares’ by sharing parenting duties; they carry the eggs for a month, give birth to around a thousand tiny babies and then assume all responsibility for parental care! They also greet each other each morning with a dance to confirm their bond.
• While female sac-winged bats roost on tree trunks, males hover in front of them beating their wings to fan the females and waft scents from the pouches for which these bats are named.
• When albatross’ find the one they love, they entwine their necks together and flap their wings.
• Male and female prairie voles form lifelong pair bonds, cuddle and groom each other, and share nesting and pup-raising responsibilities.
• Nothing shows love quite like the dung beetle. After a male beetle rolls up a ball of dung, their partner rides on the ball while together they search for a good place to bury it. How romantic!

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Okay, so we all have a good understanding of the basic family relationships like "grandmother", "grandfather", "aunt", "uncle", "cousin", but what the heck is a "second-cousin"? And exactly how evil a thing does a cousin have to do to get themselves "removed" from the family?

Let’s see if we can help clear that up.

Your second cousins are the people in your extended family who have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents. Third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents, fourth have the same great-great-great-grandparents, and so on.

The word "removed" is used to describe a relationship indicates that the two people are from different generations. For example, your mother's first cousin is your first cousin, once removed.

Still confused? Try the following chart;

Common Ancestor	Child	Grandchild	Great-grandchild	Great-great-grandchild
Child	Sister or Brother	Nephew or Niece	Grand-nephew or niece	Great -grand-nephew or niece
Grandchild	Nephew or Niece	First cousin	First cousin, once removed	First cousin, twice removed
Great-grandchild	Grand-nephew or niece	First cousin, once removed	Second cousin	Second cousin, once removed
Great-great grandchild	Great-grand-nephew or niece	First cousin, twice removed	Second cousin, once removed	Third cousin

Instructions for Using a Relationship Chart
1. Pick two people in your family and figure out which ancestor they have in common. For example, if you chose yourself and a cousin, you would have a grandparent in common.
2. Look at the top row of the chart and find the first person's relationship to the common ancestor.
3. Look at the far left column of the chart and find the second person's relationship to the common ancestor.
4. Determine where the row and column containing those two relationships meet.

Are you a green handyman? Workshops are wonderful places to give items you plan to throw out a second use. Try these simple suggestions;

• Store extension cords in empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls to keep them from getting tangled.
• Plastic food containers have hundreds of uses in the shop. Keep a supply on hand at all times. Use the ones that can’t otherwise be recycled.
• Old leather belts are another handy item in the shop. Use pieces of the sturdy leather to protect decorative nuts when tightening, or line vice grips with pieces to protect delicate items you are clamping.
• Rub an used candle along the edge of your saw blade before use to add a little lubrication and to keep the teeth clean and sharp.
• Worn out toothbrushes can be used for cleaning a myriad of things in the shop.
• For mixing, painting and many other shop tasks, an old sauce pan works great and is extremely durable.

“I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.” ~Carl Sandburg

“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.” ~Bertrand Russell

“I'm so poor I can't even pay attention.” ~Ron Kittle

“You must believe in free will; there is no choice.”  ~Isaac Bashevis Singer