The Great Maryland Lawn Mower Event
This year we decided to redo the back yard. It had once been grass, that was then dug up an turned into a bicycle pump track. Unfortunately this led to a lot of mud. Combined with muddy paws and shoes all over my kitchen floor it was more than I could bare. So finally, after two years of filthy floors Mr. Jones agreed to convert back to a regular old lawn. We’ve decided we’d rather spend our time doing things that don’t involve constantly digging in the backyard anyway. So..back to mowing the lawn. We have an old hand-me-down gas mower that is a complete overkill for our small city yard. We’d consider switching to electric, but it’s been cost prohivitive given that our goal is reducing our debt, not increasing it. Luckily for us Baltimore City is again hosting to ‘The Great Maryland Lawn Mower Event’ on August 14. On Saturday morning Mr. Jones (who has already pre-registered here) will be trading in our old mower for a shiny new Neuton CE 6 battery-powered mower. Best yet, this mower which retails in the $400+ range is available at a substantial discount for only $175. (They also have the CE5 available for $135 if you don’t need the larger cutting deck). This is a great opportunity for all Maryland residents to put a dent in their pollution output without banging up their wallet.
More on the Neuton CE6:
Cut a 19″ path with our larger model. The Neuton CE6 Mower gives you the powerful performance of a gas mower with convenience of DURACELL® battery technology. There is no gas or oil to spill and no engine emissions to pollute the air. Neuton is the only mower powered by DURACELL®. With 360 watt-hours of battery energy, it has plenty of power to mow through even tall, wet grass. The Neuton CE6 mower is ideal for lawns up to 1/3 acre (about 15,000 sq. ft.) on a single charge. If you need more time, just drop in an optional spare battery and keep mowing!
Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap
Boy am I sorry I didn’t see this sooner! I was posting a comment on the Baltimore Sun this morning and to the right saw and ad for the Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap. I had never even heard of this, but I was immediately excited. Woohoo, someone is organizing clothing swaps in my very own city! I love clothing swaps because you can shop for free and reducing your carbon footprint by reusing the clothes that someone else no longer wants. I love to swap out my closet at least twice a year and since I discovered clothing swaps I don’t have to feel bad about it anymore; It’s glorious. I clicked on the link and noted that they were having a swap this Saturday, May 1 from 10am – 6pm in Mt. Vernon. I’ll be out of town on Saturday celebrating my Dad’s birthday, so unfortunately I’ll have to miss this one. The good news? They are traveling all over the city (and have been since early April) through the middle of May. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for the next swap so that I can spruce up my wardrobe for Spring. The Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap has it’s own website here where it says:
Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap:
Style & Sustainability Through Common Threads
April 18 – May 17, 2010All ages, genders and sizes are welcome to participate in a new kind of shopping experience that benefits the environment and the Baltimore community. Donate, trade or take clothing and accessories in an exciting, outdoor, store-like, money-free exchange. (Even if you do not donate, you may take up to three items!) The Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap will travel to a variety of locations throughout Baltimore city for one month.
The swap is free and open to the general public.
Their mission is simple, “The Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap’s mission is to raise awareness about recycling, focused on secondhand clothing and accessories, through an exciting and free service that benefits the environment and brings together the Baltimore community.” There are two very important differences from the little clothing swaps that I attend (usually put on by friends at my local bar/restaurant The Parkside):
1. You can only bring Ten (10) items to donate
2. You have to tag your items
Still, choosing only ten preloved items to donate may be the hardest part and if shopping for free means that you have to fill out some little paper tags I think it’s worth it.
Here are the remaining events; see you there!
Saturday, May 1
Mount Vernon Park, North Square
699 North Charles St
Baltimore, Maryland
10 am – 6 pm
JUST ADDED:
Sunday, May 2
Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar
Underneath the Jones Falls Expressway at Holliday & Saratoga streets
7 am – noon
Sunday, May 9
Patterson Park (specific address not yet determined)
10 am – 6 pm
Friday, May 14 – Monday, May 17
Maryland Institute College of Art, Mount Royal Station, Frost Plaza
1300 Mount Royal Ave
Baltimore, Maryland 21217
Fri: 11 am – 8 pm
Sat-Mon: 11 am – 5 pm
Family Tree: Elizabeth Flesher died on January 9th? Spooky…
So, out of curiosity I did a search of my name on Google and found an interesting image of a headstone (shown above). Even more interestingly, I found a history of my ancestors, our German heritage, time spent in West Virginia and learned that the original Elizabeth Flesher actually died on January 9th, 1856. I was born to the day 122 years later, spooky.
Reading about all of this family history inspired me to start a family tree that I could share with my daughter and she can update if she chooses when her family grows. I’ve also sent links to family in hopes that they will complete some of the missing pieces and add photographs of family that I don’t get the opportunity to spend time with as we’ve moved apart over the years. I think it’s neat to have a visual path to our ancestors. While it doesn’t go all of the way back to the original Elizabeth Flesher, it does help us better understand our roots. Most interesting though is that my husband’s family also comes from West Virginia, even though we met in Baltimore City. I’m going to try not to think really hard about whether or not our trees will cross cross if we dig deep enough…
Oh and the best part about MyHeritage.com is that you can see which celebrity you most resemble using their face recognition software. It says I look like Beyonce and Angelina Jolie? I wish!
The only thing that could possibly be more amusing is that my husband appears to be a match for Chairman Mao…I actually had a little bit of Coke Zero come out of my nose when I saw this one:
Hey! What happened to my Spring?
Well, here in Baltimore Spring has sprung and gone. We went directly from cold weather sweaters to hot pants and flip flops in the last 3 weeks. With temperatures hovering just below 90 degrees at the end of March I’m not sure what to expect this summer. While I am certainly enjoying turning off the HVAC and tossing open the windows I am left feeling completely unprepared. I hadn’t yet switched my closet over to spring and now I’m going straight to summer! (I have a tiny, dark little close that requires me to make creative use of hangers, bins and shelves.) Worse yet; it’s too hot to wear shoes and my feet are in no conditions to be let out into the light yet. My friend and I are going for a pedicure after work so I can have some spring pruning done on my tootsies. And, yes, I know I should do it myself at home and save money, but…. I usually pamper myself once a year with a good professional pedicure and then I’ll do it myself from there. Oddly enough this usually takes place on Mother’s Day in preparation for the summer in May, not April! Fortunately I can perhaps even justify this (at least to myself) becuase I’ve saved up so much money by not using my credit cards or buying new clothes, etc for so long now. (I wonder if this rationalization will work on my husband too?) Anyway, I digress… The biggest issue at present for me though involves the garden and backyard. In years past my husband and I had built a pump track and dirt jumps in our backyard so that we wouldn’t have to drive out to local trails to have some fun on our bikes; we could just ride at home. Unfortunately this led to a permanently muddy kitcken floor thanks to my husband, dog, and daughter. Worse yet, the berms helped to collect water which I’m certain led to an increase in our burgeoning mosquito population. Finally, as 30 soemthing adults it was generally frowned upon by our parents and others because we couldn’t hold a proper barbecue or patio dinner with such a mess in the back. So… finally, now that we’ve decided to focus our moutain biking efforts on downhilling, we are flattening the back yard and putting in a real adult lawn and deck. (I do get to have a horseshoe pit, though which is pretty super). This means disassembeling wooden ramps, filling in some very large holes, removing rock supports and a whole lot of digging. We’ve felled a tree and are ready to rototill and pickup topsoil, then plant grass seed. Seed can really only be planted in the fall or spring and with the weather so hot we are really falling behind in getting this all done. If that weren’t enough we’ve got taxes, Easter and lots of family birthdays… and well, maybe some time to spend to ourselves doing other thigns like maybe eating, sleeping, or even saying hello to each other…sheesh! To dig the hole even deeper, litteraly and figuratively, I it’s also time for the annual moving of the plants in my front yard and mulching. I landscaped my front lawn because it’s better for the environment and local wildlife for a variety of reasons, but it is also very draining on my personal scheudule and my pockets. I’ve even taken a vacation day from work trying to get caught up on my gardening nightmares and I’m still falling behind. I’ve been shoveling, separating and transplanting all week. This weekend I’ll be digging, moving, mulching and weeding. If you see me unconscious in the garden, I’m likely just exhausted and please feel free to revive me with coffee. Don’t even get me started on herb and vegetable gardening that needs to be started immediately… So far this entire year seems accelerated by the crazy climate in Baltimore and what I really want to know is, “Hey! What happened to my Spring!?!” Help…
Baltimore Trash & Recycle: 1+1 = 6.13.09
Baltimore City is going to decrease trash pick-up an increase recycling city wide beginning June 13, 2009. The new One Plus One program means that each neighborhood will now have one trash pick-up and one recycling pick-up each week, which is great news for heavy recyclers like myself. I’m hoping the move will encourage my neighbors to recycle more as well. In Lauraville our new days are Wednesday: Trash and Friday: Recycle
Here’s a press release from the city:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, June 22, 2009
One PLUS ONE is Coming Soon!
Sanitation collection schedules; items to be picked up
Will change starting Monday, July 13, 2009
Public Works Director David E. Scott, P.E., reminds citizens that major changes in trash and recycling collections will take effect starting Monday, July 13, 2009. “This is going to be the biggest change to sanitation collection to take place in Baltimore City in nearly 50 years. This is a challenge to us and to the citizens of Baltimore to make this transition as smooth as possible.”
After Monday, July 13, the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Solid Waste, will begin picking up trash once a week and recycling once a week. Residents will then be limited to setting out three 32-gallon cans of waste on their trash collection day (96 gallons) but they may continue to set out an unlimited amount of recycling on their recycling collection day.
After Monday, July 13th, trash and recycling will be picked up Tuesday through Friday. There will be no trash collection in Baltimore city on Monday, July 13, 2009! Under the new schedule, if a holiday occurs during the week, Saturday will be the automatic make up day. There will be one point of collection for trash and recycling. Residents should set out their recycling where they now set out their trash.
Residents will be able to set out trashcans no later than 6 a.m. and set out waste the night before as long as it’s in a can with a tight-fitting lid. Using trashcans with tight-fitting lids has always been required by law in Baltimore City.
Postcards with the new days of service will be mailed to every address in Baltimore City. Residents can also call 311 or go to baltimorecity.gov or cleanergreenerbaltimore.org to learn their new days of service.
Contact:
Celeste Amato Robert Murrow
Telephone: 410-545-6541 Telephone: 410-545-6189
email: Celeste.Amato@baltimorecity.gov email: Robert.Murrow@baltimorecity.gov
For more inforamation visit the Department of Public Works website or the Cleaner Greener Baltimore website for your specific recycling days.
Bikram: What’s your experience?
I’ve been practing yoga for at least a decade both in classes and at home. I do have a tendency to get unmotivated working out on my own, so I searched for classes in my area again. Close to my home is http://www.bikramyogahampden.com/ which looked interesting and has classes at hours that are convenience for me (at night). I’ve traditionally practiced the common hatha yoga, but have tried a few other styles from time to time. I enjoy the flowing combinations and even manged to keep up for power and cardio yogas fairly easily, but bikram sort of scares me. The entire concept is to do the normal yoga but in a 105 degree room. I typically don’t do well in the heat, I’ve even passed out walking down the street in Miami in March, but I downhill mountain bike during summer and this seems an excellent way to increase my endurance, strength and flexibility in preparation for race season. Have you tried Bikram? What has been your experience?
Lauraville Market Connection
I spy something new in the neighborhood… What was once an abandoned gas station on the corner of my neighborhood in Lauraville (Baltimore City, MD) now appears to be a farmer’s market of sorts. Many developers had plans to turn the area into anything from apartments to a yoga studio, but no one has actually broken ground. Over the last few weeks I noticed that someone had been building raised planters, covering the old parking lot with mulch, and adding a colorful mural to the abandoned white building sitting on the corner lot that reads “Market Connection”. I was walking to my local grocery store and stopped in today, their first open day. The sign indicates that they will be open every Tuesday from 4-8pm. Unfortuantely, there wasn’t anyone providing any information on the market, but a quick dig through the blogosphere when I got home revealed this post “New Weekly Market to Open in Hamilton-Lauraville Area”. The article gives information on how to become a vendor and information about the market. This is exciting for two reasons: 1. perhaps I can start hawking my recycled t-shirt wares and 2. this looks like an interesting blog in its own right. The market was alive with neighbors milling around and checking out the wares ranging from jewelry stands to nurseries selling native plants. I am very excited to have something much more interesting to look at on my corner than an old abandoned gas station, so three cheers for the Tuesday Market Connection! Perhaps I’ll see you there soon.
The Market Connection will be held through October each Tuesday from 4-6pm at 4500 Harford Rd., Baltimore, MD. 21224.
Summer Swap Announcement: 06.14.09 5pm @ The Parkside
I have good news everyone! Our friends at The Parkside located in NorthEast Baltimore City, MD at 4709 Harford Rd. Baltimore, MD 21214, have offered to host our upcoming summer clothing swap. The swap will be in full swing by 5pm and will run through 9pm. Please bring at least one bag of clothing (feel free to bring more) and accessories and then swap them out for something new. We will have demonstrations on how to refashion/recycle clothing that you love. Please bring only items that you can wear on your body (jewelry, bags, clothes, shoes, etc). This swap is open to men, women, and children and the more folks we have the better selection of clothing we’ll have to choose from, so bring a bag of clothes and a few friends to enjoy a glass of wine, or a tasty beverage, dish, and do some free shopping on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at The Parkside.
If you would like to volunteer to help sort clothing or provide racks/hangers please contact me.
*Unfortuanately due to issues at recent events, if you are unable to bring clothing to the swap a donation of $5 will be required for entrance to the swap. However, as long as you have at least one article of clothing to swap your admission will still be free.
