Happy Bird-O-Ween! (with a Lubbock Nessie sighting!)

Dupree Park this morning

 

Last day of the month

The real truth - Nessie is a Cormorant.

Give those Canadians what for! (they're ba-ack)

Give that egret what for!

Yep, it's cold

A line of cormorants 

The lonely guy with egrets and a heron

The lonely guy with gulls

Heron, king of the gulls

May natural beauty surround you!

How about recycling some plastic at home? (#2 HDPE)

So, have you been looking for a new project to tackle/melt?

[I've not had a lot of time for projects lately, but I have run across something I really want to try, and it's definitely a mesquite huggery thing.]

Recycling, it's been a bummer this year.

The writing has been all over the wall. We've pushed way past peak recycling. The problem? We create garbage far beyond our ability to recycle it. More and more recycling facilities are shutting down or turning away the garbage we send to recycle. In that whole Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle mantra, we've focused way too much on just Recycle.

What's a Mesquite Hugger to do? (Focus on Reducing and Re-using, you dummy!)

Recently, I learned of a way to do some plastic recycling at home: recycle #2 plastic at home! (And use it on some DIY projects I've been wanting to tackle.)

Longer, More Detailed HDPE Recycling with Slingshots!

Shorter, Easier Version with a Blender!

While most recycling is a bigger process than you can (practically) tackle at home, it appears that high density polyethylene is something you can tackle with a toaster oven, a blender, some baking paper, and some shop scraps.

Examples of recycled HDPE lawn furniture

If you've seen recycle-plastic lawn furniture and playground equipment, it's more than likely HDPE, so why not make your own recycled lumber and build whatever you want?

My brain has been swimming (maybe dog-paddling) with things I can build with recycled HDPE stuff. Imagine being able to make your own waterproof building blocks for all kinds of stuff. I've even been eyeing all the #2 recycling around me. Who knew bottle lids and laundry detergent bottles came in such great colors? When I get the cargo bike built, it's gonna need some rear decks...

What are you gonna build?

For the really ambitious among you, this could turn into something big - imagine siding a house (or maybe a solar-powered backyard shed) with HDPE planks/brick you've made. How about building that little white picket fence you always dreamed of? Create your own HDPE samurai armor for special occasions? Panniers? A canoe? Paddles for your canoe? (Yes, I know, my imagination is a little limited today, but I'm hoping your mind is now swimming with some very plastic ideas.)

Maybe we're looking at this whole recycling idea all wrong - maybe it's time to stop relying on others, to get our hands dirty, and to build our own stuff instead of contributing more to the mountains of unrecycled recyclables! (Me, I need to finish this post so I can clean the garage to make some space to practice what I preach.)

Go get 'em, melt 'em, and make 'em into something else!

¡Viva la HDPE revolucíon!

May you be well and joyful. May we all work for better (for all)!

More Random LBK Wild(and not-so-wild)Life October 2019

Happiness

Peace at Dusk

Burrowing glare

Cormorant

Luke Ellis (live at SB's)

Radial Preyer

Newborn

Sunny Soft

Tall Birds 1

Tall Birds 2

TJ's House

Great Blue Dawn

Be well, friends!

The Writing's on the E-Wall: Personal Health = Eco-Health

I keep finding myself in doctors' offices with my family. We're mostly in the UMC system, so each office has the same electronic reader board that displays a new e-poster every thirty seconds or so. It's smart. We are an A-D-D culture trapped in a tiny room. The scrolling images help us not to go bonkers and give us lots of great health advice that we wouldn't sit still for anywhere else.

Apple, heart, lifestyle changes

Besides the A-D-D thing, I've always been a compulsive reader. If there's a printed word, I can't resist. It's astounding how many cereal boxes I've read as I sat there munching sugar-coated goodness.

So, as we sit waiting for doctors, I have no choice. I have to read. Really - I absolutely have to!

Scale, apple, shoe

What I've come to notice is that the health posters keep telling us the same things to help us live a healthy life:

• Eat better food
• Exercise
• Lose weight
• Lower your stress
• Avoid inhaling smoke

Woohoo! This one even has a pic of a bike!

Those messages play over and over. It's amazing how many times I've seen them without making this one simple connection - all of the eco-health-save-the-planet-climate-strike messages I read just as voraciously say the same thing.

Eat Better

• less and cleaner meat
• more locally-grown, chemical free veggies
• less processed foods
• less processed sugar (There goes my cereal box!)
• less food served in plastic, stryrofoam, and cardboard

Exercise, Be more Active, Lose Weight

• utilize people-powered transportation as much as possible (biking, walking, etc.)
• use stairs
• ride a bike
• get outside
• ride a bike
• garden
• ride a bike
• turn off the TV, phone, computer, tablet
• ride a bike
• get off your butt and on your feet
• ride a bike

(all about the boodie)

Lower Your Stress

• drive less
• sleep better/more
• turn off the electronics
• exercise
• eat better
• spend time with good people

Avoid Inhaling Smoke

• from tobacco
• from vaping
• from tailpipes (cars, trucks, lawn equipment, generators, boats, motorbikes, etc.)
• from coal power
• from natural gas
• from clearing forests

So, there you have it - save yourself and get the added bonus of saving the planet. Not a bad deal at all!

I pray that you are well and getting better. Thanks for reading, friends!

Another Lubbock lunch-hour micro-Adventure

Suburban

Updike

Target

All terrain?

You don't have to go far.

Be well, friends!

Friday Morning, Pigeons on a Roof

It's Friday. I sat in the car this morning praying before going in to work. It's been a stressful week and I realized I'd been leering through a very stressed filter.

After praying, I took a deep breath, let it out, and opened my eyes. Across the parking lot, a flock of pigeons huddled on a roof. They were finding shelter from a cold, wet wind. And they were busy being pigeons, hawk-stretching and Jagger-fluttering.

I am very thankful for urban birds. I know, most people find pigeons, dove, grackles, sparrows, and starlings to be nothing but nuisance. But I'm learning.

It's no good to yearn for nature all the time living in a suburb or city. These birds who thrive alongside us bring nature to town. No, they're not (very) exotic, but watching a grackle placing acorns in the road to be smashed by cars or witnessing a sparrow pair reusing and recycling our castoffs into a cozy place to raise a family, well, it's better to me than anything I've heard David Attenborough narrate because I am there, I am a live witness. I've always liked music better live, and now I'm realizing that tiny snippets of nature in person satisfy the soul in a way that footage of grandiose nature on film never will.

Get out and watch a bird (or bug, or bunny, or prairie dog) soon. See if it's not a better thing than your big-screen tv or that yearning for a mountain that's six hours away.

May your prayers for peace be answered, even if the answer is smaller than you expected. Breathe deep and well, friends! (Happy Friday!)