Reading about Hokie Bird...

My sister-in-law emailed me this picture this morning and I thought I would share! It's Abby reading the Baby Hokie's First Football Game book that we got her (I think before she was born!). I think she's preparing for the upcoming football season and the VT/Alabama game (her mom when to Alabama!).

Can you guess where I was?

If you guessed the Williamson County Landfill, you are correct! I got to take a tour of it on Friday as part of the Environmental Leaders class I took earlier in the spring. It's a really neat place! I was warned of rattlesnakes before I went, but didn't see or hear any while I was there. When you drive up you have no idea its a landfill. They don't take household waste, so its not stinky like you'd think. They do some pretty incredible things there that are sustainable and earth-friendly. In fact, I think he said they've had 24 different countries come to see what they do. The people from China stayed a week to study the place.

Below is a pile of ground up houses.

Lewis, who runs the place is a genious! He knows trash and had some pretty eye-opening stats to share. Did you know that Williamson County produces 2x the national average of waste?

Just one of the fun things I get to do at work!

In garden news, the plants are going nuts. We've been able to eat some broccoli and some lettuce. We may have some cauliflower and snow peas ready by the end of this week. Here's an updated picture at the request of Heather! And for the record, that's only about 1/3 of the garden!

April Showers Bring May Flooding...

We've had quite a bit of rain so far this month! So far the garden is liking it! This picture was taken of the cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli on April 25th...

Ten days and four inches of rain later...

We had a CRAZY thunderstorm this morning and got close to another inch of rain. The 5.08" is total since May 1st.

The sun is out now, but they say more storms are on the way. Fortunately, none like the tornado-filled ones we had in April!

Eight down, one to go...

Spring is a busy time in the life of an environmental nonprofit! I have participated in eight events since March 31st and have one more to go next week. So far! This weekend we participated in the Nashville Asthma Walk on Saturday! It rained.

Not sure if you can see it in the picture, but everything at our booth was soaking wet. It rained (hard!) from the time we got there at 7:15am until about 9am. I ended up throwing away some of our stuff.

I stopped for a brief minute to get my picture taken with Snow Bird. He's the Channel 4 weather mascot. Honestly, I just wanted to be under a tent for a minute.

The walk was at the Nashville Zoo. So after standing in the rain for almost two hours, it let up and we walked three miles through the zoo. This giraffe is as close as he looks... no zooming in! He came right up to us! He kept looking at the ditch between us and him and seemed to want to cross! He never quite figured it out though.

Jeff got me a gift card to Blue River Canyon Day Spa for my birthday that I've been saving. So eight events down, one to go on May 14th... massage will be schedule for May 16th! Packing, loading up, and breaking down these booths have worn me out!

Southside Elementary & Junior High

I spent today (the first day of Clean Air Week) at Southside Elementary & Junior High in Lebanon, TN teaching approximately 900 K-8th grade students about air quality! They were super kids and made it a lot of fun. I'm feeling it now though! I'm tired and my feet are aching! I did seven presentations in a row!! I don't know how teachers do it all day! This was my first time going into the schools for my new job, but hopefully not the last. Here are some pictures from today!

Those are 4th graders who are taller than me!

I had the most fun with the little ones. These were 1st & 2nd graders who were acting out the levels of the Air Quality Index for me.

Becky's Latest Creation

Since I haven't posted in a little while, I thought I would show our five faithful readers what I made our niece for her birthday. Abby turned two last week! We weren't able to go to the party this weekend because I had to work the Nashville Earth Day Festival. We heard they had lots of fun though.

Marta gave me the idea last year, but I ended up making the rag doll instead. I painted the stool and her name and used rub-on decals for the birds and flowers. Then I sprayed it with a clear coat to seal it all.

Here's a picture of Abby playing with Uncle Jeff in February. He was teaching her how to dump all 64 Crayons onto the floor at once... hence the guilty looks from both of them!

Even before Dave Ramsey, there was...