Recycling in Sierra county

Recycing Drive Pictures from November Recycling Day.























Recycling one aluminum can will save enough energy to run a tv for 3 hours or is the equivalent of 1/2 gallon of gasoline.
















We've become active in recycling for Sierra County. So far we've jointed the Bountiful Alliance's Recycling Project and have met some great people.


We've hosted a poster contest whose winner will be announced next week.

Sierra County Recycling Project Meetings 2nd Tuesday of each month. TorC library. Recycling happens last saturday of each month for now. We hope to get a regular collection station set up in the next couple of months.










Other Recycling Facts:
Paper

• If you had a 15-year-old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you'd get about 700 of them. A supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! This means in one year, one supermarket goes through 60,500,000 paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are in the U.S.!!!
• Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.
• Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
• The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Plastic

• Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!
• Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour!
• Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

Glass

• Every month, we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable!

Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute!

Facts from: Environmental Protection Agency, and Earth911.org.

More progress

Painting the windows and walls on the field side.

Phil caulking.

The last window!

We've replaced the windows in the garage/workshop area and have completed getting ready for the steer that is coming tomorrow. He's a retiring roping steer from Andy and Kathy. Should we call him Hamburger? We've got some fence work to do but it is in shape enough for him to graze the fields.

Going Solar

We've been working over the past few months to get our solar panels up and working. There are a few steps left and after the inspection in January 2009, we are ready to go. This is a 5.4 kwh system. We won't go off the grid, but it will be interesting to watch the meter go backwards.

One more step on our quest towards a sustainable future.

Pecan Treats

Pecan dipped in chocolate

After having spent the last couple of weeks in the field, it's time to hit the kitchen for making some of the treats to give away for the Christmas holiday.

PECAN BRITTLE

1 1/2 c. pecans, halved or in pieces1/4 tsp. salt1 c. sugar1/2 c. light corn syrup1/2 c. water1 1/2 tbsp. butter
Sprinkle the nuts with salt and warm them in low oven. Mix the sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 cup water and heat slowly, stirring until dissolved. Continue cooking over moderate heat. The mixture is ready when a small amount dropping in a cup of cold water becomes brittle (260 degrees on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat and stir in butter and warm nuts. Pour immediately onto a buttered cookie sheet. As soon as cool enough to handle, cut in strips and wrap in wax paper, or wait until completely cooled and break into pieces. Yields about 1 pound

SOFT CARAMEL CANDY

1 c. butter1 lb. brown sugar (2 1/3 c.)Dash of salt1 c. white corn syrup1 (15 oz.) Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk1 tsp. vanilla
Melt butter, add brown sugar and salt; stir in milk and corn syrup and cook over medium heat, stirring all the time until it forms firm ball stage - 236 degrees. Take off of heat and stir in vanilla. Pour in generously buttered 9 x 9 inch pan. Cool. Best if left all day before cutting in squares.

Thanks Cooks.com. I get the magazine (Cook's Illustrated) and these are some good recipes.