Spreading green ideas
Part 3, page 104.
Our GHG emissions (calculated through to 2008) are about 1% below 1990 levels.
Decreases seem to be significant in residential energy use and heavy duty gasoline vehicles while increases are significant in light duty gasoline trucks and off-road gasoline vehicles as well as halocarbon production and use.
Not great but we are moving in the right direction at least. The Kyoto target for Canada is 6% below 1990 levels for 2012.
This past April I spent a week in the woods at MacPhail Woods taking a university course, Environmental Studies 209 – Ecological Forestry, learning about forest ecology, sustainable forestry practices, forest restoration and the Acadien Forests.
It was an amazing experiential learning course and everything we learned has stayed with me and I think it will stay with me and will be built on by my own experiences as I work in our family woodlots and observe nature throughout the seasons. We learned about plant identification techniques, assessing forest health, ecological diversity, pruning and harvesting techniques and so much more. We also got to take a piece of the woods at MacPhail’s and design a restoration plan and then actually implement it.
Ecology, plant biology and forestry had never really entered my thoughts on what I might want to be doing but after this course I intend to take a few more biology courses to see if that’s something I might want to pursue.
In house news we tilled up a garden, planted some more trees and shrubs (native plant like service berry, bayberry, red osier dogwoods, high-bush cranberry and common elders from MacPhail’s nursery) and planted some mint and rhubarb donated from my Mom-in-law’s garden. I also found a patch of ostrich fern (fiddle heads) downstream from Carragher’s pond and planted an ostrich fern in the woods next to our house. We have started some herbs and tomatoes (the tomoatoes are 2 feet or more already!) and have plans for a much bigger garden this year.
We built a bedroom for our daughter, also creating an office nook we hope to finish soon. The bedroom is small but expandable, with a whole wall built from storage shelving and very cute. It also has an 8 foot ceiling creating storage space above it as it’s on the second floor where our ceilings are vaulted and 12′ tall at the center. There are more plans for construction projects this summer and much more landscaping work to do as well as a wood shed to build.
We’ve also added another addition to our household, a 4 month old Siamese mix kitten named Stella. She’s settled in nicely and is getting used to the attentions of an almost two year old who is VERY excited to have a kitty in the house!
It’s shaping up to be another very very busy summer, maybe I’ll be able to take a break this year though to relax but somehow I doubt it!