Climbing Pt Dume...and realizing im not alone on this quest for self preservation

Okay so... I went climbing at point Dume out in malibu this saturday with theta xi and had a BLAST!

Aside from meeting more of the guys, I had an awesome time enjoying nature. So we got there and me and my friends mike and Bob went to go explore the tide pools. Its so awesome how so much life could be sustained in such a small area. Then a bunch of us set up the climbing gear and we began to climb. it was awesome. i had bought climbing shoes at the used gear sale here at the gym wooden center and they worked GREAT! REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. So i reused and i found absolutely nothing wrong with them and i saved a ton of money on my car insurance. wait climbing shoes. okay lame. but yeah, being up on that rock was amazing. You could just stop and stare out at the ocean or at the beach below you. The earth is an amazing, wonderful place that if we all took a second to stop and appreciate would be worthwhile to preserve.

On the way back we somehow started talking about sustainability and how, sustainability is really becoming much more popular. Is it because it is cool and hip, or do people genuinely realizing that we need to preserve our planet? Im sure there are those from both ends of the spectrum. However, we also talked much about what we had talked about in class, such as eating low on the food chain, the ubiquity of commercial corn, food inc, and simple living. It was awesome to hear how so many people are interested in the things that we are learning, people from all different backgrounds. We also talked about the three R's Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle and how recylcing, although a great alternative to landfills is in fact the lowest amongst those three. My friend Beth who is an agricultural economist told us that plastic bottles are only truely recycled once and then thrown away for quality issues. It made me think that, although i do recylce which is good, it would be better to never use bottles in the first place. Why dont they just put everything into aluminum cans? Plastic really is a killa'!

I had such a good time on Saturday not only because of the wonderful experience but also the confirmation i had that others care about our planet too. Thanks World!

Composting...stinkiest job ever! haha

So today I worked with Brian Hengesbaugh of Theta Xi on composting. We started our epic journey at about 430. We hopped into the trunk of a tiny suburu and drove to the botanical gardens all the while bumping and smashing oour heads on the cars ceiling. We made it to the botanical gardens to collect dead leaves, "browns" that serves to prevent molding and the buildup of excess molding. In our compost we mix in 'greens" which are basically any wet organic matter, usually from the kitchen and "browns" which are dry organic matter such as dried leaves, etc. When we got there the botanical gardens were closing... :( But we were resourceful and collected the leaves on the side...Epic. Haha there were spiders and bugs and webs all in the leaves but we got down and dirty. After filling up to large garbage bags with the dried leaves we walked back to the house and got to work on the compost. Our site is basically a large pile enclosed on all four sides by wooden pallets. so we took out all the organic matter (OMG it smelled so bad, because it was beginning to rot) and mixed it with the browns we collected. Then we put it all back in, one smelly morsel at a time. In the decaying mass were beetles, baby maggots, earwigs, and even a black widow. did I mention how bad it smelled? We hadnt mixed it for about two weeks so it was rotting and smelled like the bowels of the earth had just relieved itself. Next week were going to have to turn it over and mix it again. Were also going to have to add warm water to aid in the process. We dont use worms because we cannot effectively control the temperature in our setup. Afterwards we ate dinner and swam. YAyyyy!

Epic journey today.

Progress Report

So this last week I attended the sustainability meeting for Theta Xi and we discussed implementing solar panels on our roof to become both more sustainable and cost-efficient in the long run. It is however extremely costly with an 8 kW system costing approximately $110, 000 to purchase and install. There are however, a number of government incentives and tax breaks that help lower the costs of installing and running solar systems. Descriptions of the rebates can be found here:

http://www.recsolar.com/californiarebate.aspx

This will help out the house's electricity bill and will also set a precedent for the other Greek houses to consider installing solar panels as well. Right now we are applying to the alumni board to grant us money to go ahead with the project. We are appealing under the terms that this is a major house renovation that will benefit and save money for the fraternity in for the long run.

Also I am slowly taking over duties for composting the house's organic wastes. Brian Hengesbaugh who currently runs it is teaching me the way we do it. We alternate between a later of greens (kitchen scraps), then a layer of browns (decaying leaves which we collect from the yard) and add hot water every other week. I'm enjoying learning the ropes, but sometimes the kitchen scraps smell. But its all good, we are doing a good service. The compost we acquire goes directly to fertilizing our garden which after a recent harvest, is again in the beginning stages of growth.

I am still working on documenting all the resource activities and energy outputs of the house and will have most of it done next week.

As for getting into contact with nature, I am joining the fraternity tomorrow to go rock climbing at Pt. Dume in Malibu.