While in New Jersey, I did an hour-long television interview with EBRU.tv, a Turkey-based satellite television network. I’m not sure when the show will air (after September 10th) but when it does, I’ll send y’all the webcast link. The show airs in Turkey as well as in the rest of the world wherever folks watch their tube via satellite. You may want to get into my good graces now before I become a star cuz once the hammer drops, I may not have time for you. I expect to be as big in Turkey as David Hasselhoff is in Germany. It could happen!!

While preparing for the interview, I bedded down at a beautiful KOA campsite and recorded some night sounds for your listening pleasure. (10 minutes). This is a great download for falling asleep at night in the big, noisy city. Think crickets and rain!
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There was a Leave It To Beaver episode where Eddie Haskell asserts that he has a girlfriend but no one can meet her cuz she lives in Niagara Falls. So I went there to see what the attraction was, albeit 50 years late. She wasn’t there but in her stead I found a force of nature so beautiful, enchanting and powerful that I quickly forgot my sorrow.

I spent an entire day sitting in different spots along the Niagara waters, inching my way towards the great falls. At first I heard gurgling whispers, but soon the waters turned into a complex symphony and finally a deafening roar. These are the sounds of the Great Lakes as they gravitate towards the sea. I recorded an audio podcast of this water’s journey to the frothing mouth of Niagara Falls. Download it to your Ipod - it makes great ambient music for bedtime, baths and other meditations. (44 min)

 

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I discovered Buffalo was not named for those large, hairy mammals once found roaming North America and now taking wing in sports bars all over of America. Locals tell me it was some French explorer who proclaimed the local river to be a ‘beau fleuve’ or ‘beautiful river’. However, I prefer the idea of some mythical flying buffalo that tastes like chicken.

Buffalo is an interesting case. The city sits in an idyllic part of the country: Lake Erie to the West, Niagara Falls to the North, and the Adirondack mountain range to the East. Like most of the cities surrounding the Great Lakes, its growth was fueled by the Industrial Revolution and its close proximity to Lake Erie shipping. But much of the goods that use to move on the waters now move through the St. Lawrence Seaway, a channel built in the late 1950’s connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. And much of the manufacturing has moved overseas. Since the early 1970’s, population growth has significantly declined back to early century levels, with many of those people moving out to the suburbs. While unemployment is low, nearly a quarter of the residents survive under the poverty line and many of Buffalo’s beautiful houses and buildings lie vacant. Of course, the cost of living is low also and this has attracted significant investment in the city recently. You can buy a house for under $100k!

One such building is the Buffalo Central Terminal - the massive Art Deco railroad station which has been vacant for over 30 years. I had an opportunity to tour the facility, which is now used for parties and weddings. Thanks Pete.

However, there is one start-up company putting many of these old buildings and houses to good use…or reuse, that is. Buffalo Reuse is a building deconstruction and salvage company and a community-minded alternative to traditional demolition services that send good, often-vintage reusable building materials to the landfill. Buffalo reuse then sells these materials and in doing so, preserves a bit of Buffalo’s unique character. All in all its not a bad deal for everyone. Property owners help keep their air and water cleaner by conserving resources. The cost is a little higher but it is coming down and is partially offset by tax incentives. Work is created for local residents. Home builders and rennovaters have access to cheaper building supplies and inexpensive vintage fixtures. Thrifty artists can find art supplies that fit their budget. Yup, everybody wins.

In the following conversation, Executive Director Michael Gainer talks about who is buying reused building materials and what he sees for the future of hybrid deconstruction services and Buffalo Reuse. He also talks about how Buffalo Reuse is working to improve their price competitiveness with traditional demolition services through smarter deconstruction practices and an appeal to people’s nostalgia, conservation-mindedness and pocketbooks.

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Over two months on the road and I’m getting real tired of visiting a city without any cultural context from which to work. I have had a few tour guides during my journey, some familial and some happenstance. But I found myself in Ann Arbor looking for a hotel in Buffalo and unhappy with the decision. So I finally let down my guard and gave CouchSurfing.com a try.

CouchSurfing.com is the second generation of travel web sites to connect travelers who want to experience their travel locations from the comfort of a home, as opposed to a hotel/motel. You are the guest of someone with roots in that place so they can clue you in to the best flora and fauna that city has to offer. The site also acts as a social networking site and while reviewing my prospects in Buffalo, it became clear to me why all these people were opening their homes to complete strangers - they too were traveling the world sleeping on the couches and spare beds of complete strangers. There’s some security measures that give you more confidence your guest, or host, is not an axe murderer. And on top of all that - it’s free. Couchsurfing.com hosts are paying it down, creating karmic opportunities for their future travels and building a better travel experience. Well, at least that’s what the brochure said. Here we go…

On my way to Buffalo, stopped by the Burch Farmers Market in North East, PA to buy some fresh, local produce for my hosts…just in case they had me in mind for dinner. I met Tim Burch, a sixth generation apple/grape/peach farmer, who just opened a market along Sidehill Road, less than two miles from busy Interstate 90. But it might as well have been 200 miles - it was grapevines and little pastoral farm houses as far as the eye could see, the sound of cicadas and no freeway to be heard or seen. Of course, I never would have found the place had it not been for the I-90 road work stopping traffic and sending this grid-lock evading tourista in search of alternative roots. And boy did I find them. Besides local fruit, the Burch Farmers Market featured yummy-looking pies, local Amish crafts and some tasty wines made with local apples, peaches and grapes. I bought the Reflections of Lake Erie table wine for my hosts, along with a basket of peaches and some white corn.

I talked a little conservation with Tim the farmer, here is the audio clip of our conversation.

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After meeting with book buyers in Ann Arbor, I travelled along the southern edge of the Great Lakes on my way to Buffalo. It’s been a long road and there are still some miles to go. The Interstate Toll Roads in this part of the country are in great shape, if you like to drive cars. But I have been longing to shed the hybrid for an older transportion method.

It occurred to me that we measure progress in paved roads built, tracks laid and miles jouneyed. Take a look at my odometer on the map and it’s clear I too measure my progress using the old standard. These old metrics have been witness to the American evolution from a backward English, third-world colony to the first-world power we are today. But it is clear to anyone who lacks clean, local drinking water or clean air to breathe that there is a heavy price to pay for this progress. Do we ever consider these basic, more critical measurements when determining our standard of living?

I think it important to consider how we measure our lives and fortunes. Cost of living, net woth and disposable income give no account for water or air quality. What are they worth? And how do you measure that worth against the dollars in our checking accounts? It seems clear that we need new metrics. We need new standards by which to value our lives.

How many houses in your city dry their clothes on the line? I know many Home Owners Association (HOA) rules don’t allow homeowners to dry their clothes outside on a line- it’s an eyesore. To me a home is supposed to look lived in, not a display or trophy designed to create a sense of safety and to prop up real estate values in the neighborhood. Sure these are important values to a homeowner but where are the rules promoting the real important values? When you line dry, you are reducing the greenhouse gasses you emit and contributing to cleaner air and cleaner water. These values should not be outlawed.

As I edge closer to the east coast I caught wind of Vicki Wozniak, a homeowner in Edgewater, New Jersey who let her backyard garden roam free and ran afoul of the town because her house didn’t look like the others. These are our standards - the number of homes in a neighborhood that look alike? Do orderly gardens necessarily create safer neighborhoods? Not likely as long as there aren’t old camaros up on blocks or trash strewn all over the yard. Plus, more gardens mean less runoff into our tap water and absorb more carbon dioxide, reducing the homeowner’s carbon footprint. For more information on this story, check out this article.

Maybe if we focus on what is really important to our neighborhoods - clean water, clean air and the security to let our kids play - we won’t need to waste our time and energy trying to enforce the old order. Sometimes a little disorder is just the ticket.

Before I jet outa town, I would like to spotlight a cupola local Columbus features I enjoyed.

The Norwich Marathon runs each March from the “Why Not?” bar on High Street. These crazy cooks drink 2 beers, 2 shots and then go for a run - to a liquor store 3.5 miles away to buy more! Then they get back and chug a pitcher. I guess that’s one way to warm up an Ohio winter but I doubt I’ld survive the training regimen.

Anyway, the “Why Not” had a great jazz quartet playing one night when I happened by (on my way to the Library!).

I had the pleasure of meeting the engineers behind Simply Living, a non-profit based in Columbus who help people do just that - live more simply. I sat down with Marilyn, Sarah and Suzanne to talk about how they live simpler lives and how they find their joy without consuming copious amounts of natural resources.

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I spent some time out at the Olentangy River Wetlands Research Project at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. You always hear that the wetlands are important. What’s the big deal? Besides looking beautiful and being home to a variety of animals, birds and marine life, they have a pretty useful function in our lives.

One, they purify our drinking water at no additional cost to the consumer - you don’t need to buy water filters, plastic bottles or import water from other parts of the country. When wetlands are working properly and defending a water source in sufficient numbers, they filter out the pollutants from farms and urban waste that gravitate towards the water source during rainstorms and the spring melt. They keep a lot of the dirt from clouding our waters as well. For our water quality, wetlands are the last line of defense! Check out that dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico to see just how well-defended is our water.

Two, they keep the flood levels lower. When floods come, these areas act as flood reservoirs, capturing flood water that might find its way to your front door. I know floods are a natural occurence but I didn’t know they could be reduced in this way.

In Ohio, as it is in many other states, 90% of the wetlands have disappeared over the last two centuries of development. However, in 1988 it became U.S. policy that there shall be no net loss of wetlands forevermore. And if a wetland is lost or developed, one of equal size or bigger must be created somewhere else. However, despite this control, wetlands are still disappearing. Oh well, we can always get our drinking water from somewhere else, right?

For all my grousing over climate change and global warming, what could be more important than our drinking water? And yet, this seems to be a most difficult problem to combat. I don’t live near a river where I can affect goverment policy. I don’t know how to alter my consumption decisions to protect wetlands. I’m sorry I don’t have an easy solution for this one. I know that organizations like The Nature Conservancy buy property and work with property owners and local governements to protect wetlands. Perhaps contributing money to these organizations is a good start. Or identify a local wetlands project by contacting the local chapter of The Nature Conervancy. Many of these projects are donation-driven and can use your help. Besides, what better way to protect your tap water than supporting local wetland conservation efforts?!

At the end of the day, I slowed my motion and rested my elbows on the railings of a bridge arching over the Olentangy. As the sun set, the geese landed in the nearby waters for their nightly repose and the cicadas came out to play.

Here are the sounds of the Olentangy River at dusk in Columbus, Ohio. Expect to hear a gurgling river, crickets, cicadas and an occasional goose! This is a great download to help you fall asleep or surrender to your meditation (12 minutes).

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In Columbus:

The Book Loft
631 South Third St.
Columbus, OH 43206
614-464-1774
(German Village)

Simply Living Bookstore (in the Clintonville Community Market)
200 Crestview Road
Columbus, Ohio
(Great Coffee!)

Pearls of Wisdom
3522 N. High St.
Columbus, OH, 43214
(614) 262-0146

These shots were taken on the southern edge of Grant Park in downtown Chicago. The town sponsored a conservation art exhibit called Cool Globes.

Chicago gardens get their 15 minutes of fame every year at the Lincoln Square Garden walk and Green Fair. But instead of a buncha booths showcasing how things can be done, this fair shows how things are done - you can actually walk around the neighborhood visiting private neighborhood gardens.

I visited a few homes to see how their garden grows and discovered a Chicago on the verge of a conservation revolution. For instance, Eric and Kerry here educated me how Chicago is moving from a half-hearted recycling program to one that better guarantees the recycleables make it to the recyling center.

Before, residents were encouraged to blue bag their recyclables but many of the bags were thrown in with the trash. Now they have dedicated bins picked up by dedicated recycling trucks. This is the third year in this test program in only two districts but, if successful, may be adopted city-wide.

It’s funny to see that their is such a huge spectrum of recycling habits. In Billings Montana, there is no city pick up but you can pay a private hauler to pick up your recycleables. In San Francisco, everyone has the bins and seems to be using them. In Seattle, the city fines you if you overuse their bins. And in Chicago, they’re tip-toeing up to the plate. Anyone care to speculate why these cities have such different conservation habits?

It was time for tea with Debbie Johnson, Anne Rohner, Laurie Fagen and Asia and it was wake up time for Mongo about an issue i had never thought about before. These ladies are attempting to buy produce grown locally and in season. They figure that when you buy foreign produce in the winter, you are supporting global warming through long transportation lines. This makes sense - if you buy local produce, you have no choice but to follow the seasonal food patterns of your local area. One way she guarantees her produce is grown locally is to harvest her local farmer’s market.

Lastly, I met Bruce and Erika of Horigan Urban Forest Products who make beautiful, custom furniture out of urban trees. Yes, when a tree goes down in Chicago, they are there to pick up the pieces. To me, this was a new twist on the buy local theme. Urban lumber, or city wood, is another way we can go green. These guys can tell you the actual address where your new armoir came from. Think of the stories you can tell your friends. Prices are competitive with other custom made furniture.

On an intersting note: They modeled their small-scale saw mill and kiln off a California state program that built 5 of these and gave them away!

Thanks to Rebecca Blazer and the Friends of the Parks for working hard to make this event happen.