THINGS WE'RE DOING TO HELP SAVE THE PLANET:

1. Trying to live simply and not impress people by displays of wealth or ostentatiousness. (Not that we have a lot of wealth to display).

2. Recycle no. 1 and 2 plastics, mail, paper, cardboard, glass and cans.

3. Get our news online.

4. Never have the heat on higher than 65 (except when old people visit) and off at night in the winter

5. Built a trombe wall in the bathroom for solar heat in the winter to keep the pipes from freezing when the heat's off.

6. Using concrete blocks filled with styrofoam peanuts for our bathroom and laundry room foundations to help insulate the water pipes. Dave used scrap styrofoam sheets left over from construction sites to line the inner walls of the foundations as well.
And he covered the pipes with insulation.

7. Driving small stationwagons with good mileage, we need four wheel drive but Subaru helps out with that. Our trip to South Dakota only took one tank of gas to get there, one during the week we were there, and one tank to drive back, even though it was a couple of states away.

8. Only one works and the other stays home to care for children so we aren't both commuting and paying for day care, and our children know there's someone there.

9. Wash clothes with cold water.

10. Have a lawn that's only big enough for the dog to roll on his back, water by hand, and when it gets really hot let it basically go dormant. Also using a push mower for cutting the grass. It's good for the leg and arm muscles.

11. The water we use goes back to the ground or the septic system and is filtered back to the land.

12. Using water from our well that is not chlorinated.

13. Xeriscaping other areas of the courtyard, letting everything outside the courtyard go natural.

14. Trying to eat more vegetables, fruits and beans and cutting down on meat consumption.

15. Composting organic matter trash, including gardening scraps.

16. Using solar lights outside.

17. Using those squiggly lights inside.

18. Getting our pets spayed and neutered.

19. Eating leftovers.

20. Wearing clothes until they wear out, the ones the girls outgrow go to recycling.
(Goodwill)

21. Using chipped dishes even though it's bad feng shui.

22. Not littering, and picking up trash of others.

23. Choosing vacations that don't require air flights (we did fly to Florida for Dave's father's funeral).

24. Reading, listening and watching, books, cds and dvds from the library.

25. Taking advantage of our neighbors' generosity in letting us use their greenhouse and eating food from it which is pretty darn local.

26. Using a water restricting faucet in the shower and a low flush toilet.

27. Dave moved his office 25 miles closer to home to avoid the longer commute.

28. Adopting children and pets who need homes.

I know this might sound self-righteous but maybe it might help others with suggestions. Also, any suggestions from others would be appreciated. If we all do our own little steps, we can make a big effect.

Back to Reptile Gardens in South Dakota. The top shot is looking up in their atrium, the second is a remarkable (or so I thought) tree which is actually upon closer examination, a tree made of a bunch of potted plants out in the field. Then the last two are where the girls actually got to touch and observe reptiles under the supervision of young people at the park. I don't know who Gustavus was.

Gram Elfring leaves today, she's been here for 16 days. She and we and Dave's brother and sister and spouses all went to Glenwood Springs together. It was great fun and Gram got her first massage at Splendor Mountain Spa. Mary, our sisterinlaw received a massage given with Sue Wilmot's feet as Sue supported herself with parallel bars suspended from the ceiling. We all got along together and it was a fun time, the girls liked seeing their aunties and uncle.

Yesterday we finally got a rain to soak all the dried out vegetation. This morning it's only 73 degrees and it feels great.

The band members I used to live with in the '70's. My boyfriend was the lead guitar player(blonde), three of the other guys went to Brown, I told my mom that living with them was for intellectual stimulation. Mostly it was a lot of fun, wisecracks, sarcasm and competition with foosball and ping pong to see who had to do the dishes.

We're eating from the greenhouse, radishes, spinach, chard, lettuce,squash and beets. More is growing, tomatoes soon.

Rory and the new kitten, who is still unnamed, but who is getting to be part of the family.

The hike to and at Hanging Lake, near Glenwood Springs, Colorado

On our first venture to Custer State Park we found this lake with a swim beach, which was remarkably warm after wading in our frigid creek. The girls would have liked to stay and play by the water all day. We found an indication of some of the life in the lake, the little snail.

The last shot is from the fire lookout near the lake, showing the devastation from a forest fire in I think 1988. This was before all the big fires that are now raging in the area. We could see a lot of fire mitigation work along the road sides, but there was so much downed wood and thick trees that you could tell how easily fire could jump from tree to tree.

This morning we have a gentle rain mist coming as a relief to our searing, dry heat. When we were evacuated for the Hayman fire here, I realized how a rain can be so much more powerful than all our efforts, including helicopters and planes dropping water and all the efforts of the fire fighters. While we at the lake at Custer a huge trailer was set up as a portable kitchen for the fire fighters, although they were mitigating instead of fighting then.

P.S. If you enlarge the top photo you can barely see the redwinged blackbird I was taking the photo of. Even though he is hard to see, I like the way the sunlight reflects off the reeds in the photo.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I don't know how far their reach has extended, but living in the West you see bumper stickers that say "Where in the hell is Wall Drug?" or something to that effect. On our trip to South Dakota we have found out that it is in Wall, S.D. It's on the edge of the Badlands, which Frank Lloyd Wright waxes poetically about regarding the eerie shapes and desolate moonscape-like white rock outcroppings. What amazed me about the area is that there are lush prairie grasses on the soil on top of these sterile looking shapes.

Anyway, Wall Drug is on the edge and its claim to fame was that it became successful by offering free ice water to travelers. It promoted the offer by using Burma Shave type billboard ads that progressively carried on a one-sided conversation with you about Wall Drug until you arrived at the destination.

It's gigantic now, taking up a whole block in a town where that's about all there is, except for a few restaurants and maybe under 10 other businesses. The drug store has a cafeteria itself that sits over 500 people.

The ice water for us was lukewarm, the day was hot, the place was crowded and I think they were having a hard time keeping up.

Many of the workers are from abroad, their name tags said from places like Russia. We noticed that too at Mt. Rushmore, the concession workers are from Switzerland and Germany. I asked a young woman from Russia at Wall Drug if they had any really soft sweater/jackets for children. She said no, not in her part of the store. The whole store is partitioned off into smaller stores, a courtyard and indoor road/aisles, so you can get to the whole block area by going from one store to another. I then asked her if there were any other parts of the stores that had clothes and she said we close at 9:00. A very good valid try.

Emma had wanted an extremely expensive soft, fluffy sweater/jacket at Custer State Park or maybe it was the gift shop at the Visitor Center at the Badlands. The price was so high we told her to wait, we'd check Wall Drug later. When we got there we searched and searched for something her size. Finally at one last store area, down under the hanging clothes that were too big for Emma, off a hanger just stuffed down there, was a small, exactly Emma's size, soft fleecey sweater, black with subtle pink trim, with South Dakota printed over the heart area. It had started out at $24.00, but if you bent back the price tag that was folded over, it was reduced to $12.99. It was perfect. She loves it and it has a nice zipper, like the first one she wanted, for good flexibility in Colorado's ever changing weather.

Anyway these shots were all taken from inside Wall Drug. I was up on the jackalope too, but I think I won't include that photo.

Oh yes. Our friend Bruce had requested any boob shots from our vacation. The shot above of the lady with Dave is the only boob shot we got. There were a lot of dummy type people scattered around the store where you could take your picture with them, if so inclined. One old guy was sitting next to a plaster bargirl and his wife was taking a picture of him holding her plaster breast and kissing her. That would have been a better shot for Bruce, but I didn't get the camera at the ready in time. It was a sight.

Oh, and now I know why those bumper stickers show up, they give them out free with each purchase.

There are secret bonuses in these two photos. If you click on them to enlarge them you will see next to the dam some animal like a beaver, that we did not know we were getting a shot of. Also on the needles if it's enlarged you see a helicopter flying up near the top.

Here are the starting pictures from the trip to South Dakota, the car shots, showing what our girls do best, snack and play gameboy, a shot of my horrible rash on my neck that I think I got from too much sun at the renaissance festival the day before, and of course the dinosaur that was located right outside our motel window. Who would have thought that we would be right next to the Flintstone Village, we never did go in to see the rest of the critters, but at least we had one near us as we slept.

Here is the famous Bullock Hotel in Deadwood

For you Deadwood fans, here are some of the neat buildings there.

Oh yeah, here are the big faces.

These are shots from the mammoth site. A sink hole filled with bones was found and a big building built over the site which they are slowly excavating. It was really interesting and I can tell herbivore teeth from meat eating now. Those guys were big.

Reptile Gardens in South Dakota was pretty neat. The staff was knowledgeable, funny, and kind. Ana loved seeing all the different reptiles, she has always wanted to be a herpetologist. Dave even found a really nice cloisonne box of a gecko from China, which we got him for Father's Day. The kids got to have some hands on experience with a leopard gecko and a big snake, I really enjoyed the orchids and plants in the big greenhouse area. We finished up the day with a great Bavarian dinner close to our motel, jaeger schnitzel and wiener schnitzel and wonderful black forest cake for dessert.