Grand Opening Date Set

We have finally chosen a grand opening date! We will have our grand opening celebration set for August 13th. Specials will abound, from morning until close. We hope to see you there! More details will be coming soon.

In the past week we have accomplished a lot. Many thanks to United Prairie Bank, the Mountain Lake Economic Development Association and the Southwest Initiative Foundation for funding our new adventure.

We are so looking forward to seeing many of you there...

Trying to Vacation Green

We leave on vacation TOMORROW! It can't come soon enough now, as I am not being very productive at work and can basically only think about starting the adventure tomorrow. We are heading to Maine to visit my brother, sister in law and 2 year old nephew. I can't wait, as they moved there last August and I have yet to see where they live. They bought 80 acres to start an organic farm and live in a yurt. Yes, a yurt. If you want to learn all about how to build and live in a yurt check out their blog at (http://mainelyyurts.blogspot.com). We get to hike, see the beautiful area, eat some delicious seafood and hang out with the homesteaders.

Part of the adventure is getting there. We are not flying, as it is one of the worst things people can do for the environment and we are not driving since gas costs a million dollars these days and our cars are not that fuel efficient. Instead we are taking a bus, then a train and then a bus again. We take the bus from here to Chicago via, the megabus (http://www.megabus.com/), where at least one seat on the bus is a $1. We got two round trip tickets for $20, definitely a good deal. In Chicago we get on my favorite mode of transportation.... the train. I LOVE the train. If I could only travel via train I would be happy. It's so relaxing, a great way to see the country and good for the environment. I can't wait to travel via train to the east. I've only ever traveled by train to the west, so I look forward to a new train adventure. Then we get on another bus and then Maine. It's not the shortest way to travel, but a rewarding one.

I have done nothing of great importance in the last week from my list. B,Q and I ventured to a park we had never been to this week again. It is called Pine Point Park and is in Washington County. It was a lovely spot with some old pine trees planted years ago. The place was quiet, we only ran into one woman on a horse and a couple with two dogs. It was a beautiful day once again, warm and sunny and enough water for the Q to cool off. We left feeling happy and content with another place to hike in the future and unfortunately full of ticks. We pulled off a half dozen on both B and myself and at least 15 off the dog. Yuck, but part of nature I guess.

When I get back from vacation I need to get to a store and buy the light bulbs to make the change to all CFLs in our house. An easy task to do and one that will make a difference.

Spring is here. wonderful weather, birds, animals, the beginning of our hiking season

So I am already not doing very well with writing a post every week, but here I am again.

I think in my head I had determined that I would officially start my pledge on May 1st. We are now 9 days into the month. Here's what I've found thus far.

It is not hard for me to participate in the no collection of the plastic bags. Over the last few months I have tried VERY hard to remember to bring reusable bags with me anywhere I go. And have done very well with it and then to make it even easier my pal Regina sent me a chicobag (http://store.chicobag.com/). This is the most handy reusable bag around. It stuffs easily into it's own sack that is easy to keep in any purse, carry with me, basically there is no excuse not to have this with me always. The website of chicobag's says that the average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags a year!!! Thankfully I'm well on my way to not being a part of that trend.

I also ran a 5k recycle run (http://www.thegrandrounds.com/default.asp?PageID=1016) for the Minneapolis park and rec board the Sunday after earth day. It was a great run around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. I paid my entry fee of $25 and a lot of this money is going to future earth day activities in Minneapolis which I can strongly support. It was my fastest 5k run thus far. And after the race my husband and I got to enjoy a show on the lake of loons, swimming diving, flapping their wings at one another. They were headed up north for the summer but made a pit stop on Lake Harriet that morning which we were thankful for. My coworker and I plan to sign up for the Urban Wildland half marathon in Richfield in August. The entry fee for this race goes to the Wood Lake Nature Center for their environmental education programs. It will be my first half marathon and training thus far has made me realize just how far 13 miles is, but that's a whole different story...

In the past week we've had beautiful weather so B, Q and I have decided to get out and check out our closer parks to enjoy the lovely weather. On Monday we went to Fort Snelling State Park and hiked Pike Island. It's a hike we've done any number of times and really enjoy and we are thankful that it's so close to home. This time was particularly enjoyable, as we got to see the island with high waters from both the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. In one of the little coves near the island we had the exciting experience of watching a beaver swim through the water, notice us and then slap it's tail at us before it dove below and disappeared. This was something we had never seen before. It made Q quite excited, but thankfully he was on his leash so he couldn't chase the beaver and find himself in more trouble than usual. On that day we also saw at least a dozen deer, blue herons, a green heron, ducks as well as a number of other birds. Wednesday we trekked out to Afton State Park and enjoyed a 2 hour hike through the woods, prairies, past the St. Croix river, which also had very high water.

I have pictures of both of these adventures, but they are still on the camera and I have yet to figure out how to get them from the camera onto this blog. Hopefully there will be pictures sometime this weekend from our adventures.

Earth Day... the beginning

Today is Earth Day, the 38th Earth Day to be exact. And Earth Day gets me thinking about what I do for the environment. I consider myself an environmentalist, not a hard core one, but one none the less.

I work for an environmental nonprofit, the Minnesota Environmental Fund (www.mnenvirofund.org), and for the last few years we have been doing an annual fund raiser asking for money to off set our administrative costs so we can pass more money along to our 21 wonderful member groups. My workplace is like the United Way, except we raise money for environmental groups. The last few years I've sent out my standard emails saying, please give me money and I'll do a 3 mile walk in the fall and that's it. I try to remember to send out thank yous to those to give me money, but even sometimes in that I fail. So this year, I am going to make more of an effort for the environment for the money that you may or may not give to my organization. Either way it's time I step up and do more for Minnesota's environment, besides just asking for donations from all my friends and family.

So to start I am making a summer pledge. I will pledge to do 10 different things between now and September and I will blog about how each one goes here. Here are the 10 things I have decided to do between now and September 1.
1. Try not to collect any new plastic bags, by always remembering to bring my own bags when I shop... whether it be at a grocery store, shopping mall, farmer's market, etc.
2. Take the bus, bike, run or walk to and from work at least once a week (hopefully more now that the weather has turned nice).
3. Do at least one organized "run" that raises money for the environment.
4. Shop at farmer markets once a week for as much of our grocery shopping as possible.
5. Shop and eat as much "in season" food as possible.
6. Change all of the light bulbs in our apartment to the energy efficient type (compact fluorescent).
7. Compost all food scraps that can be composted.
8. Recycle anything and everything I can, including all the typical recyclables, as well as clothes, shoes, electronics, etc.
9. Shut off and unplug appliances when not in use.
10. Get out into nature to remind me to do all the above (visit 10 parks I have not been to in at least 10 years).

So I embark on this journey. Maybe no one cares about how it's going, except for me, but I will post weekly on how my pledge is going.