Green Thursday (on a Friday:) The Cold Hard Facts

Refrigerators are energy hogs. Anything that you can do to make them more efficient will save you money.

Most people do not usually think of their refrigerator when planning to reduce the energy costs of their home. In most households, the refrigerator is just that big box that sits in the kitchen full of food. The reality is that it requires a pile of energy to drive the compressor and frost free fans that keep your food and other items at a safe temperature.

Begin conserving energy by placing your refrigerator in a location that is not in direct sunlight. Keeping the sun off of your box will keep it from getting extra warmth that must be offset by more energy to keep your food fresh. Position your refrigerator away from heat vents and your stove, too. Both of these will create more heat to battle.

Electric motors and radiators both work better when they are clean. This makes the motor run cooler and more efficiently with less internal friction. Radiators do a better job when air can flow over them freely. Your refrigerator has both of these items. So, keeping them as clean as possible will reduce the amount of energy that your refrigerator needs to do its job.

Every time that the door of the fridge is opened, some of the cool air escapes. Set times that the refrigerator is not to be opened. This will help a lot if you have family members that like to just stand and stare into the cold abyss. If you have a side by side freezer/refrigerator, try to remove everything that you might need for the next several hours with only opening the door once. These two efforts can reduce your energy loss by a quarter or more.

Unless you have to, do not put hot or warm items into the box until they have cooled to room temperature. Items like milk that make the journey in and out of the refrigerator need to be replaced before they can warm up. This makes them last longer, and your refrigerator needs less energy to re-cool them.

Put a thermometer into your refrigerator. This will let you check the precise temperature that you are keeping your food. Check it near the top and near the bottom to get a good idea of how cold it is. If it is more than 40 degrees, you may need to lower your settings a little. If it is less than 35 degrees, you can raise the temperature a little. Keeping the right setting will keep your food better and conserve as much energy as possible.

Keeping your freezer and refrigerator at least one half full will save in the long run. This is true because the cold or frozen food will give extra cooling power to keep the interior cold when the door is opened and closed.

Here in the LipsYard house we have a bottom freezer refrigerator in the kitchen, and the old one in the basement (for fruit and beverages.) Bottom freezer units use less energy than top freezers. Most people use the refrigerator more than the freezer, so having it on the bottom puts your most used food at a higher level.

Every Green Thursday (and the odd Friday) we post information that you can use at home to save energy, and the planet.

I can see my house from here!

October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched a metal basketball with long whiskers into Earth orbit. Sputnik circled the globe every 98 minutes, happily beeping away (Listen here.)

Nasa has a great online history of Sputnik.

Back then the tiny satellite was a harbinger of coming doom, of nuclear missiles raining down on us.

Today, satellites are a forgotten cog in our technological life. Here's a shot of the LipsYard from space.

So what lies ahead for America in space?

How about back to the Cold War? The Bush Administration plan, released a year ago, takes a go–it-alone stance, using strong language that asserts U.S. unilateral rights in space while possibly also being intended to "negate" the rights of other space-faring nations. In ominous tones, the document threatens in one section to "dissuade or deter others from either impeding [U.S.] rights or developing capabilities intended to do so" – raising the specter of preemptive action against other nations’ dual-use space technology.

I'd like to make a personnel suggestion for our manned mission to Mars.

Candy Corn Plant

Check out the Candy Corn plant (Manettia luteorubra,) sometimes called a firecracker vine, is native to Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.



It is a rapidly growing vine that does well in the summer and fall in the LipsYard garden.



Kids love candy corn (and so do I.)

Kid's parents love to have health care coverage for their tots. Unfortunately, President Bush doesn't think that's a good idea, as he vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have expanded health coverage for poor children. He thinks it's too expensive. The war in Iraq isn't?

To override Bush's veto, supporters need to convince about 15 more House Republicans to vote for the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP.

Stirring up a Hornet's Nest (Wasp really)

Holy Moly! More bugs in the LipsYard. Those pesky paper wasps (Polistes dominulus) were building this nest (flung to the ground in a panic,) under the gutter cover. Paper wasps build clusters of hexagonal paper cells. Mixing masticated (chewed) wood pulp with adhesive saliva, these paper nest cells act as larval nesting chambers for the young wasps.

Here's a juvenile peeking out of it's cell. Creepy.

Even more creepy is the Hornet's nest (or are they rats?) stirred up in Congressional hearings on Blackwater, the private contractors we've hired to do the military's work in Iraq. AsRep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) stated, "We're paying them more than our troops, and getting less. Privatizing is working exceptionally well for Blackwater. The question for this hearing is whether outsourcing to Blackwater is a good deal to the American taxpayer, whether it's a good deal for the military and whether it's serving our national interest in Iraq."

Not to mention the fact that civilians keep getting killed whenever they're conducting operations.

Mum's The Word

Welcome to October. Here in the LipsYard garden, as most plants are calling it a season, our mums are just coming on.

Their full name is Chrysanthemum, which is also their scientific name.

Chrysanthemums come in a wide variety of colors, and can grow to be 2-3 feet high.

Mum is also the word on when and why the White House mysteriously switched postitions on global warming 180 degrees. They even hosted a big international summit on the topic last weekend. Didn't they call that "flip-flopping" when John Kerry made an informed decision?

Green Thursday: No more plastic water bottles

Skip the bottled water. The oil used to make plastic water bottles in America is enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year!

We're not very good about recycling them, either. Only 1 in 6 makes the green bin in the garage. I cringe at the overflowing garbage cans at summer festivals, peppered with empties.

Do the green thing, and drink tap water out of a glass. Blind taste tests show we can't taste the difference, and tap is better because it contains flouride to keep your teeth from falling out of your head. And at $2, $3, even $4 a bottle, think of the money you'll save.

Every Green Thursday, we post information vital to the environment.

Bye, Bye Sunflowers

Remember the sunflowers back in July? Our tall friends, following the sun from East to West are past their prime and starting to die. Time to say goodbye to Helianthus annuus.

Here we are using the garden fork to dig out the sunflowers.

They have a substantial rootball just under the surface.

This pile will be tied up, then put out for yard waste next month.

There's quite an empty spot left by our 'happy face' plants. It won't be long until everything is out of the LipsYard garden. Kind of reminds me of how the White House is getting rid of all the happy faced 'Yes-men.'

I can't wait until it's time to plow the whole place under and start fresh.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning (Glory)

The vines have been growing for most of the summer, finally we see some color from the Morning Glory (Ipomoea tricolor.) This one is called 'Heavenly Blue.'

The Morning Glory flowers open the widest in the morning, and are a perfect way to greet the day. Its seeds are the source of a hallucinogen with LSD-like properties (so I read on the internet, but never tried,) mostly used in Central and Southern Mexico.

Morning Glory was also the title of a 1933 movie starring Katharine Hepburn and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. She won the best actress oscar for her roll:

Eva Lovelace, would-be actress trying to crash the New York stage, is a wildly optimistic chatterbox full of theatrical mannerisms. Her looks, more than her talent, attract the interest of a paternal actor, a philandering producer, and an earnest playwright. Is she destined for stardom or the "casting couch"? Will she fade after the brief blooming of a "morning glory"?

Also making his annual fall appearance at the United Nations, America's Morning Glory, President George W. Bush.

Life's Disappointment Turned Around

When asked what my biggest dissappointment in life is, I always reply: "The failure of Burlington, WI to put up signs reading "Boyhood Home of Lips LaBelle."

Kim Nelson has turned that around for me. We've met as team owners in the Matthew Blades in the Morning Fantasy Football League. Kim, being from Burlington, as am I, wanted to beat AJ of the Morning Show this past weekend. To that end, and to Jill's dismay (another team owner,) I traded her my best running back for the weekend and a bowl of fruit. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, but we tried!

Now if Kim could do something about the Bush Administration, that would be swell.

Attention small bugs, come here

The buggy-ness in the LipsYard continues. These dewy mornings are great to see the webs built by spiders in the yews (Taxus X media Densiformis.)

They look like little satellite dishes aimed at the sky. I'm guessing now that these photos are up, the NSA will be looking for a way of tapping into their data stream, searching for terrorists and all.

Green Thursday: Everglades de-listed

Why have Florida's Everglades National Park been taken off a U.N. list of World Heritage sites considered "in danger?"

Politics.

The Bush Administration, embarassed by the inclusion on the list (the only one in the United States, but don't worry, with their ignoring global warming, I'm sure we'll have plenty to add to the list, soon,) had Todd Willens, a deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department, persuade the World Heritage Committee at a July meeting in New Zealand to take the Everglades off the list, despite recommendations to the contrary by the National Park Service and the committee's science advisers. Smells of Karl Rove to me.

Is the list of politicized departments doing "the people's business" endless.

Every Green Thursday, we post information vital to the environment.

Kale, Kale, the gangs all here

Another fall plant turning a nice purple is Kale (Brassica oleracea.) We've always seen it in other plantings, but this is the first year we've tried it in the LipsYard beds.

Not enough Senate Republicans turned color today to do the sensible thing by supporting the Webb Dwell Time Amendment. It didn't get enough votes to pass, again.

It requires our troops have a 1:1 deployment-to-dwell ratio for active units and members. The Department of Defense's historic policy and current goal is a ratio of 1:2. Currently, Army units are deployed for 15 months with 12 months at home. It is not unusual for Marines also to have less time at home than the length of their last deployment.

This amendment is vital to the continued morale and effectiveness of our Armed Forces, which are breaking under the strain of unprecedented long deployments in combat zones.

This Dwell Time Amendment provides a safety net under our troops. However long a servicemember has been deployed, they deserve at least that much time at home. It is a very simple, common sense amendment.

After 4 1/2 years of occupation in Iraq, it is time for the availability of troops to dictate the operational tempo, not the other way around. Hopefully the Democrats will hit the campaign trail next year and tell voters that they need to send more Democrats to Congress and put a Democrat in the White House to end this madness.

Sedum and weep

Even though its 80 today, Fall is still all around us, expecially in some trees starting to turn, and in the Sedum (Sedum spectabile ) in the LipsYard front beds. The border varieties of Stonecrop are a dependable choice for the late summer and fall garden, offering foliage interest earlier in the season, then a colorful display of flowers in the fall. Autumn Joy is by far the most popular of these, a familiar sight when it begins to produce green broccoli-like buds in mid-summer, which gradually open into enormous dusty-pink flower heads, finally deepening to rich bronzy-red. Even the dead flower heads have good winter effect.

The Sedum are alive with bees, too. Can you find Mr. Bumble Bee? He's uncovering lots of hidden pollen, just like Congress is uncovering lots of Bush Administration scandals. The latest involves the State Department, and their Inspector General not looking into fraud and wasteful spending in Iraq, where they've spent over $3 billion, including $600 million for our biggest foreign embassy ever.

Here's the story

1170 photos of different kinds of Sedum


There's even a Sedum Society

Annual physical day

Every year we head to Dr. King's office for our annual poking and prodding to see how the body is doing. In honor of that, here's 10 things you might not have known about your body.

1. The average human body comprises enough fat to make seven bars of soap, enough iron to make a medium sized nail, enough potassium to explode a toy cannon, enough lime to whitewash a small chicken coop, enough sugar to fill a jam jar, and enough sulfur to rid a dog of fleas.
2. A complete skeleton is worth between $5,000 and $7,500 to a medical student your skull alone would fetch only about $450.
3. Your mouth produces about one quart of saliva per day.
4. Demodex folliculorum has eight stumpy legs and a tail, is about a third of a millimeter long, and loves nothing more than to recline in the warm, oily pits of your hair follicles. Most adults have this mite, usually on the head, but especially in eyelashes. And often, they’re in nipples.
5. You have approximately 4,000 wax glands in each ear.
6. The average adult stool weighs about 4 ounces. And half of the bulk of your feces comprises the dead bodies of bacteria that live inside your intestines.
7. The average male foot exudes half a pint of sweat each day.
8. If it weren’t for the slimy mucous that clings to and lines the walls of your gut, your stomach would readily digest itself.
9. The average person will pass about 11,000 gallons of urine in a lifetime.
10. A man weighing 200 lbs. would provide enough meat to feed 100 cannibals in one sitting.

from "5 People Who Died During Sex (and 100 Other Terribly Tasteless Lists)" by Karl Shaw

Hey, look at MY BUG!

The ups-manship in the LipsYard neighborhood continues. First there was Rex's Cecropia caterpillar, then Penny's Cicadas, now Dick is in on the act with the Praying Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina.)

He found it in some shrubs and put it in a jar for show and tell. (Thanks to neighbor Peggy for taking the photos.) Dick thought that an ant would make a tasty meal, but the Praying Mantis eats mealworms, grasshoppers, roaches, and crickets. The female usually eats the male after mating. Ouch!

Green Thursday: Bug Off

All that rain a while back has really driven up the number of mosquitoes (Diptera Culicidae) in the LipsYard. Not only are they obnoxious when trying to work in the garden picking raspberries and such, but also dangerous, with the threat of West Nile Virus.

We've always looked for repellents that contain DEET, but that can irritate eyes and can cause blisters and rashes on some users. Fortunately, you no longer need to rely on chemical repellants, since natural, plant-based oils work just as well.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found repellants containing oil of lemon eucalyptus, such as Repel are as effective as low-dosage DEET products.

Bite Blocker a soybean, coconut and geranium-oil concoction is another option, and quite a few outdoor magazines have given high marks to BugBands, rubber bracelets treated with geraniol, an essential oil derived from a variety of plants including roses, lemons and carrots. The bracelets can be worn on wrists or ankles and used for up to 120 hours ($4.95 each.)

Way Out Wax's Garden Peace collection, which uses hemp, citronella, lavender and geranium oils to repel mosquitos with 100% soy wax candles in garden-party-suitable 2-lb. tubs ($20) and water-based sprays ($6.)

Hawkmoon Soaps Bug Off Lotion is natural ,DEET free and smells great!

Another option would be the mosquito predator: put up a Purple Martin (Progne subis) house, or even a Bat House (just so they don't take up residence in your attic!)

Buzz-Off Clothing has Permethrin, a man-made form of a natural insect repellent found in the Chrysanthemum bonded into the fabric.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

The Return of Lunch with Lips

After a brief summer vacation, Lunch with Lips is back!

Every Wednesday, Debbie Lazaga and I pickup Cousin's Subs, Chips, and Chocolate Chip Cookies to take to a WKTI listener's business. Seen above is the friendly staff at Cousins, Hy. 100 and Oklahoma.

We play Office Olympics (like a baby shower from hell,) Swag it forward (delivering promotional chochkies from the last winning office,) and eat like pigs!

Today's winner is Peg Bradley at her Luggage Store on South Loomis. You could be the next! Just grab a piece of company letterhead, jot down your best reason(s) for winning, and fax it to Lunch with Lips 414-967-5266. We announce a new winner every Friday afternoon at 4:40pm.

There are just a few simple rules:

1. Your business can only win once

2. We can feed up to 20 people

3. You provide plates and beverages, we bring the rest.

Six Years Later

why do they hate us?

Bush said it is our freedom

do we have any left?

a 9/11 haiku by Mark Rabinowitz

Web spinning

Remember our little lady spider friend from an earlier blog? READ HERE. The Black and Yellow Argiope (Argiope aurantia) is doing well in the Day Lillies (Hemerocallis) ...

...and recently layed this egg sack, now attached to the garage siding.

With the recent outbreak of mosquitos (Diptera Culicidae,) its nice to see one caught in the web.

Speaking of caught in the web, here's a shot of General David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, testifying in the first of three hearings this week on the future course of the unpopular 4-year-old Iraq war.

A recent New York Times/CBS News Poll found that Americans trust military commanders far more than the Bush administration or Congress to bring the war in Iraq to a successful end. Five percent of Americans said they most trust the Bush administration to resolve the war, the poll found; 21 percent said they would most trust Congress; and 68 percent expressed the most trust in military commanders.

A separate poll shows that an overwhelming numbers of Iraqis say the U.S. troop buildup has worsened security and the prospects for economic and political progress in their country. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed in a poll conducted by ABC News, Britain's BBC, and Japan's public broadcaster NHK said they want American forces and their coalition allies to leave the country immediately. This was 12 percent more people than harbored those views in a March poll, just as the troop increase was beginning.