Category Archives: Uncategorized

According to the US Energy Information Administration, roughly 22% of energy use occurs in our homes, 28% occurs in transportation (2/3 personal, 1/3 commercial freight), 31% in the industrial sector, and 19% in the commercial sector.  It’s easy to write … Continue reading →

One terawatt (TW) is equal to one trillion watts.  It is an enormous quantity of energy, equivalent to the output of a thousand Bonneville Dams.  Nearly impossible to comprehend, but it happens to be a useful unit for measuring energy … Continue reading →

I haven’t forgotten about the sustainability series, but as so often happens with my writing other projects have gotten in the way.  I promise the next installment within two weeks. On Marys Peak this evening, a riot of cloud.  Too … Continue reading →

Fossil fuels are the primary driver of our current non-sustainability crisis.  We take it completely for granted that we can jump in our cars and drive, that grain from Minnesota can be delivered to China for a manageable cost, that … Continue reading →

Sustainability.  Sustain-ability.  The ability to be sustained.  Sustained for how long?  10 years?  50 years?  200 years?  How about a million years?  If, for any reason, the lifestyle of our ape ancestors had been unsustainable on the scale of million … Continue reading →

**Look for a new post in this series each Saturday.  At present it looks like there will be nine installments.**   It has always been a primary goal of mine to help right the imbalance between humanity and the planet … Continue reading →

October 8, 2014 marked the second total eclipse of a “tetrad” – a series of four lunar eclipses each six months apart.  In April, we stepped outside our front door just before midnight to catch a glimpse.  This time, the … Continue reading →

My dad likes to rank things in terms of points – each day on a scale of 1 (blizzard) to 5 (beautiful), summing the whole year for an “enjoyment index”; each aspect of life quality summing to an index; etc.  … Continue reading →

I’ve gotten behind on posting Homestead wildflowers.  The maples are leafed out now, casting the understory into shade and marking the end of the main sequence of ephemeral flowers.  There are still some new ones appearing, and I will keep … Continue reading →

I’ve been putting off posting photos, hoping to have time to create a longer photo essay.  That’s probably not going to happen so let’s get some pictures online… I didn’t have much planned for graduation celebration, but then Kelly called … Continue reading →