It's not easy being green

[et's daddy]

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- John Ivanko uses wind power, solar power, and a wood stove to meet the energy needs at his bed-and-breakfast, Inn Serendipity. He serves food from his organic garden and composts the leftovers. Even the bath tiles at the inn were chosen with the environment in mind -- they were produced from recycled windshield glass.

As a result of all this, the two-unit inn in rural Browntown, which Ivanko runs with Lisa Kivirist, was listed as one of the "top 10 eco-destinations" in North America last year by Natural Home & Garden magazine.

It's not easy being green, but such efforts are about to be recognized further through an environmental certification program called Travel Green Wisconsin being created for Wisconsin lodgings, restaurants and other tourism businesses.

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i figured this belonged in Natural World as he is using wind power and recycling and those things

personally i love the idea of alternative energy

[Yelekiah]

So do I. I hope it catches on.

[novaceleste]

What an inspiration!!! I am hoping in the VERY near future that it will be in my budget to do something similar. I would like to see "suburbia" turn green!

[+Sherapy]

In the meanttime there are lots of things we can do to head in that direction ......... ET another wonderful thread

[novaceleste]

I agree Sheri Berri! We should all tell our civic associations to shove it, and all put up solar panels and windmills!

[Michelle]

I wish we could utilize solar panels, but we live in a heavily wooded area on the side of a mountain. On the bright side, we don't need air conditioning very often in the summer.

One day, we hope to gain access to the cave we THINK is behind our house on our property and maybe expand our living space. It would be much more efficient to maintain and there is a very good possibilty that there is a fresh water spring. The biggest problem, besides money, would be the fact that we live in a historical area. The guidelines are very strict.

HGTV has some very good links to green homes and neighborhoods.

[novaceleste]

I wish we could utilize solar panels, but we live in a heavily wooded area on the side of a mountain. On the bright side, we don't need air conditioning very often in the summer.

One day, we hope to gain access to the cave we THINK is behind our house on our property and maybe expand our living space. It would be much more efficient to maintain and there is a very good possibilty that there is a fresh water spring. The biggest problem, besides money, would be the fact that we live in a historical area. The guidelines are very strict.

HGTV has some very good links to green homes and neighborhoods.

WOW, sounds cool to me! Woods are better than solar panels. Though can't you put them in a clearing (if you have one)?

[Michelle]

We have a small clearing on one side of the house that only gets about two hours of sun a day so a solar panel wouldn't do much good. Thats even after we spent a small fortune getting 16 trees cut down a couple of months ago. Most of the trees are a couple of hundred years old so we try not to take them down unless they are dying and posing a danger.

[novaceleste]

We have a small clearing on one side of the house that only gets about two hours of sun a day so a solar panel wouldn't do much good. Thats even after we spent a small fortune getting 16 trees cut down a couple of months ago. Most of the trees are a couple of hundred years old so we try not to take them down unless they are dying and posing a danger.

I'm glad to hear you want to keep your trees. I've always wanted to see one of those dome houses. I think those are the way to go! They may be goofy looking to some people, but I say "If you don't like the way it looks, then don't look at it!!"

[et's daddy]

seems to me they could make a huge amount of energy with a wind turbine on Mount Washington

Mount Washington, the highest summit in the Presidential Range (6,288 feet/1917 meters) and the highest peak in the northeastern United States, has earned itself a fierce reputation. Indeed, Mount Washington has the reputation as the "most dangerous small mountain in the world." Hurricane force winds and sub-freezing temperatures have been recorded for every month of the year. The climate is similar to that found in northern Canada and Alaska. The highest wind speed ever recorded over land was measured from the summit of Mount Washington at 231 mph (371 kmh). Hurricane force winds (> 75 mph/121 kmh) are measured on average of 110 days per year.

source

[novaceleste]

seems to me they could make a huge amount of energy with a wind turbine on Mount Washington

Mount Washington, the highest summit in the Presidential Range (6,288 feet/1917 meters) and the highest peak in the northeastern United States, has earned itself a fierce reputation. Indeed, Mount Washington has the reputation as the "most dangerous small mountain in the world." Hurricane force winds and sub-freezing temperatures have been recorded for every month of the year. The climate is similar to that found in northern Canada and Alaska. The highest wind speed ever recorded over land was measured from the summit of Mount Washington at 231 mph (371 kmh). Hurricane force winds (> 75 mph/121 kmh) are measured on average of 110 days per year.

source

Thanks for the insight! Souds like a prime location to me! I do like watching the travel channel and HGTV, thye have some very imaginative houses.

[KGS3333]

What an inspiration!!! I am hoping in the VERY near future that it will be in my budget to do something similar. I would like to see "suburbia" turn green!

That's the sad thing, isn't it, that being ecologically friendly usually means having wealth, and how exactly does one acquire wealth: being a slave to the system, ie. participating in the destruction of the environment in order to make a living...

What's also sad, is that new houses nowadays could be built very ecologically friendly at a similar cost as non-ecologically friendly houses, but developers being what they are, couldn't care less and simply keep churning out cookie-cutter houses. Morons.

Oh, and what about existing homes, can they become more ecologically friendly: easily. Here in Canada we even had a program set up by the government whereby citizens were given rebates for improving the ecological friendliness of their homes; but alas, when the Conservative government was elected one of the first things they did was cut the program. Morons. Needless to say, I'm really hoping there's an election this year; there's nothing I enjoy more than not voting for the Conservatives. I really hope that the loser Conservative MP who got elected in my riding gets turfed bigtime. The guy has done absolutely NOTHING in the time he has been MP except mail us a calander. I have not heard or read his name once in the news, not once has he stood up and spoke on behalf of our riding (that I know of). No wonder 70% of the electorate DIDN'T vote for him. (Canada needs some serious electoral reform, btw.)

Spammingly yours,

KGS