I got the used shoe blues
My latest recycling quest smells like feet and is flecked with Virginia red clay.
Should I buy a travel offset?
As I write this, I am about to set off on a trip to New Orleans. How much CO2 will this produce, and should I offset it?
Crop mobs are not as ominous as they sound
They’re like flash mobs that, instead of sowing confusion, sow seeds.
More hobbies all the time, i.e., here come the fruit trees
As if hens weren’t enough, we are also adding a mini-orchard to our little homestead this year.
Deer hunting for beginners, and other recent reads
I’ve been doing a lot of Dominion-related reading lately, plus some stuff about Tom Perriello and the Parkway.
Worms, mushrooms and the intangibles of growth
Browsing a new book: Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff.
Online shopping experiment proves less than green
I turned to the intertube in my quest for a cotton shower curtain. Why did I think I needed such a thing?
Dogged by controversy
The fight over the Virginia City plant isn’t the only bad environmental PR Dominion’s recently endured. In Northern Virginia, residents fiercely opposed the 500-kilovolt TrAIL line between Meadow Brook and Loudoun, though it did end up receiving state approval in 2008. Actor Robert Duvall, a Fauquier resident, lent his name to the fight, but neither […]
Dominion stokes the coal industry, but says it's a friend to the environment
It’s a dim, drizzly afternoon, and I’m riding around Wise County with Kathy and Gary Selvage. I can see what they’re pointing out—evidence of surface mining—but I can’t see it the way they do. READ MORE Dogged by controversy: How Dominion’s shiny green image gets tarnished The Selvages have lived here for decades, and they […]
Wading into mountaintop removal
Today, I hope you’ll take some time to read the feature I’ve written for C-VILLE about the power company Dominion.
When local food means opening the freezer
For us, at this time of year, locavorism is much more about eating stuff that was grown months ago.
Black market pickles, and other recent reads
Cul-de-sacs are actually more dangerous for kids, and the number of the cars on the road is decreasing. Who knew?
Making contact with my wasteful side
As a (nearly) lifetime myopic, I am chained to distressingly wasteful products.
![February 2010: Perpetual motion [with photo gallery!]](/Image/--2205/--ABODE/FebAbode.jpg)
February 2010: Perpetual motion [with photo gallery!]
Many homeowners share a familiar plight: living in a house that isn’t “finished,” according to some mental list of as-yet-uncompleted tasks. When everything on the list is crossed off, the house will be done, and the occupants can live in a state of satisfied accomplishment. At the Batesville home of Robin Dripps and Lucia Phinney, […]
February 2010: The center of the network
Kristin Szakos is a soft-spoken person, but she’s found a strong voice in local politics. In 2008 she was a local coordinator for the Obama campaign; in 2009, she became a candidate herself and captured a seat on City Council. If you imagined that both races involved a lot of e-mailing, phone calls and organizational […]
Our sad little winter garden
Despite glorious winter gardens in the past, this year we met our Waterloo.
Joel Salatin takes down conservation easements
The guy is a true iconoclast. And makes a compelling case.
Want to hear something cute (and true)?
"And plants gives us oxygen. And without all of this the human race will end."
The dirty Chesapeake and other Green Reads
What is a "native species," anyway? And why are you mad about your husband’s car?
I would prefer to open that door myself, thanks
Somewhere, coal is being burned so that I, an able-bodied person, can walk through a door without opening it myself.
UVA’s Casteen is fourth highest paid, Virginia Tech prez close behind
The presidents of UVA and Virginia Tech are among the ten highest-paid public university executives nationwide.
