Animals
Most Eggscellent!
Spring. I don’t know about you, unless it’s weeds, don’t you just love seeing those fragile little green sprouts popping up out of the earth?
The incredible, versatile egg.
Speaking of fragile, did you know that you can use eggshells as seed pots? Here’s how.
- Crack the shells open, remove the egg, then rinse the shells.
- Pick the bottom of the shell with a thumbtack and make a hole for drainage.
- Fill the half shell with potting soil.
- Plant and tend your seeds as recommended on the back of seed package.
- Place them back in the egg-carton for support until ready to plant in the garden.
When it’s time to transplant them, gently crush the sides and bottom of the shell to let the root of your seedling grow into the earth. It’s biodegradable so you just plant the whole thing and the shell will easily compost. The eggshell contains soil-happy minerals and works as a fertilizer, too.
Egg salad to green salad – all from one egg. That’s most eggscellent!
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See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
Yellow Pages Gardening
The Yellow Pages. A very useful tool. Not only for locating a local pizza joint, but quite possibly use as a booster seat. Some make raised beds for herb gardens. And, on occasion Zoos actually give primates old books to interact with for enrichment – many even find them tasty.
No monkeying around.
Even though the Yellow Pages are made from recycled paper and lumber sawdust, you may not get as excited as the apes. If you’d prefer to let your fingers do the walking on the keyboard rather than on paper, you can easily choose not to receive the book at YellowPagesOptOut.com.
Rather than sending the Yellow Pages straight from the doorstep into the recycle bin, now you can be even more environmentally conscious. Just opt out.
Opt In To Learning With Green Living Science.
Rachel Klegon and Mary Claire Lamm of Green Living Science are up-cycling Yellow Pages in a very cool way. Find out about it in their guest blog below!
“Green Living Science is partnering with YP to provide a phone book recycling competition, Project ReDirectory, with fifteen Detroit Public Schools. This competition challenges students to collect phone books to win the first place prize of five hundred dollars. Schools will decide how to spend the prize money but some have already established that they will have a field day event while other schools will give pizza parties!
Green Living Science will be using some of the phone books collected to make a raised bed for herbs in the Lincoln Street Art Park. Those classes participating in Green Living Science’s in-class lessons will be given a free field trip to visit the Recycle Here facility and Lincoln Street Art Park. When students come to visit they will see how phone books can be reused to make neat new projects!”
Back To More Monkeyshines.
Interested in seeing apes interacting with the Yellow Pages? Click on these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RacMM6bROPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJO6c9rWdws
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at
www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
Cheers to the New Year!
Here’s hoping it’s a blast!
Green Resolutions.
Resolutions. Who can get their hands on last year’s list? It’s probably wadded up back in a drawer somewhere with forgotten aspirations. I guess the problem is sometimes the goals just seem daunting and unachievable.
Little Means Big.
If you’re looking for some green and cause minded resolutions other than putting your recyclables to the curb each week, here are some pretty easy ones to stick to. Even past the first week of January.
• Smile every day. It makes a difference. Really.
• Give someone an unexpected hug once a week.
• Pay it forward. Go “no trace camping”, start a garden, donate a little time to a local cause or shelter, or lend a helping hand to a neighbor.
• Cut back on paper towels and use dish cloths or fabric napkins instead. You’ll help to eliminate the 3,000 tons of paper towels that end up in landfills EVERY DAY.
• Try re-usable bags at the grocery. Over 1 million plastic bags end up in the trash EVERY MINUTE, so pop some in your vehicle to always have one on hand.
You’re probably already doing some of these, but think of this list as a thought starters for your own “resolutions” list.
So Happy New Year, everyone – make it happen!
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon and www.justbeacartoon.com
The Fortitude of Fruitcake
Fruitcake. It’s one of those things. Either you love it or hate it. No in-between as far as I can tell. Me? I’d rather up-cycle that brick of fruit.
The Gift That Keeps On Giving.
Don’t have a fruitcake on hand to re-gift and are in a pinch for a last minute present? No worries, there’s still time to get that special someone something without without having to battle shoppers at the mall. Perhaps a membership to a favorite Museum or a Zoo for year long enjoyment?
Maybe a membership to a local harvest in which fresh food and goodies are enjoyed throughout the year http://www.localharvest.org.
Or, how about help wash down that fruitcake with a Monthly Wine Club Subscription http://www.theorganicwinecompany.com/owc/pages/shop_wineclub.shtml. Then just pop a note in a card telling the giftee what awesome gift they can look forward to. Done and done.
So, cheers everyone, and have yourselves a very merry Christmas!
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon and www.justbeacartoon.com
Clean Green Pipes
The Holidays can be draining – or not. With all the festivities, holiday meals, and primping, have you noticed the water in your kitchen or bathroom sink may not be moving quite as quickly as it should?
Wash your troubles down the drain, naturally.
I’m sure you’ve used drain cleaner products found on grocery shelves or at the hardware store, but here’s something I’ve recently tried that I find works really well – if not better. Baking soda and vinegar.
• Pour in 1/2 cup baking soda into the drain.
• Then follow with 1/2 cup white vinegar.
• Let it sit for 2 hours and then run the warm water for a few minutes
It fizzes up kind of like a science experiment, who knew keeping your pipes running clean could be this much fun?
So, rather than using expensive drain cleaners try this and save your money for some extra holiday merrymaking. And oh, there’s a little something in it for Mother Nature, too 
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
Doodie
Heh, heh…he said doodie.
Zombie Apocalypse
Speck’s guest caption by Lisa Revard via Pure Michigan/Facebook.
Zombies. Pale faces. Blood. Ghostly eyes. Screaming. Running. More blood. My significant other loves the “Walking Dead”, but a bit much too much gore for me.
Zombies bite.
But, if you’ve got Zombie in your blood, all ages are welcome to participate in attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of Zombies. Guinness requires certain attire – pale faces, darker eyes and some sort of red coloring. The record to beat is held by a gathering in New Jersey with 4,093 zombies. So, get your Zombie on!
Part of the mission of this free event is to feed the hungry. Osha Kelley, master Zombie and creator of the festival, is also collecting food for Loaves and Fishes and hopes to fill 2 crates with non-perishables. Kelly says for the food drive “think of what they would eat for a last meal during a Zombie apocalypse.” Or just bring the kidney beans that have been tucked away in the back of your pantry. Kidney beans. Brains. I don’t think Zombies are that particular these days.
Want to know what type of blood runs in your veins? Stop in at the Red Cross Zombie station and find out. And oh! Be sure to get your zombie photo taken, too.
C ‘mon Zombie lovers, get yourself to the Zombie Festival in Kalamazoo this Saturday, October 20th and break a record and help feed the hungry. The living that is – not the Zombies!
Find out more at
http://www.zombierecord.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/ZombieFestival?fref=ts
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at
www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon.
Oktoberfest in September
Buster’s featured caption entry by: Emily Dimmell via Pure Michigan
Did you know that Oktoberfest kicks off in September?
For the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig in October 1820, the citizens of Munich were invited to attend the 16 day royal event. For years to come the celebrations were repeated and, later, the festival was prolonged and moved forward into mid September to take advantage of better weather.
Another theory is that back in the day without refrigeration, the purpose of the festival was to drink up the old stocks of beer to make room for the new brew that would be made with the fall harvest. Either way, Prince Ludwig had the right idea.
Here’s another fun fact. In 1996 Frankenmuth, Michigan became the only city other than Munich to be an officially sanctioned Oktoberfest celebration.
Moooosic to your ears.
The celebration goes on not only at the Pavillion but throughout the entire town this September 20-23. Even cattle get to celebrate! Brett Bassett, restaurant manager of Sullivan’s Black Forest Brew Haus says that after brewing each batch of beer, the spent grain is given to a local cattle farmer. Maybe that’s Sullivan’s wink to “green” beer.
So whether you enjoy the wiener dog races, riding on the electric riverboat, enormous pretzels, bier drinking or dancing to oompah bands – everyone can get into the spirit of things, even the local cattle.
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have going on at www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
It’s Alive!
Green Living Science is truly an experience. For big and small kids alike. Yes, it’s a recycling center, but it’s more than that. It’s a visual feast for anyone that appreciates art and learning. Rachel Kelgon, the Executive Director for Green Living Science, is guest blogging to share more with you.
“Raise your hand if you like art,
now raise your hand if you like dinosaurs.”
This is how I get even the most distracted third grader to get excited about the school field trip to the city of Detroit’s Recycling Center. That’s right, in Detroit, we use dinosaurs and art to teach about the three Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). Students regularly visit Recycle Here! to learn about an alternative way to dispose waste rather than throwing it in the trash. However, no trip to Recycle Here! is complete without taking a walk down the street to the Lincoln Street Art Park, otherwise known as Frank The Dinosaur’s home. Frank is an art installation made out of plastic trash that was recovered and reused to create a life size dinosaur. Frank found a natural home in the Art Park, which was designed to transform a vacant lot into a creative use for reclaimed material and gathering spot for the community.
As Frank’s head bobs in the wind, the students look at the towering sculpture in amazement and begin identifying the different items they recognize and use. We are able to begin a discussion about other ways we can use things that we thought were just trash. Frank is a reminder to everyone who visits the Art Park about the amount of waste we produce and the non-renewable resources we are using up. Frank is made from plastic, which is made from oil, which was created by fossil fuels (non-renewable resource), which was created by the fossils of dinoaurs. Frank has come full circle.
Want to plan a field trip/recycling program for your group or school? Contact Rachel at 313.744.2294
The Mighty Mac Bridge Walk
Buster the Dog’s featured caption entry by Jillena Rose
It’s on my list. Actually, it’s been for a while. Walking the Mighty Mac, that is.
This year marked the 55th Annual Bridge Walk. At the Bridge’s 1958 dedication ceremony 60 people walked over the Straits of Mackinac. And this year – from big kids to little, around 45,000 walkers became part of the tradition.
Yoopers and Trolls Attack the Mac!
Labor Day is the only time of the year that pedestrians are allowed on the bridge, but there’s more to the bridge than meets the eye than the breathtaking view. Bob Sweeny, Executive Secretary of the Bridge Authority, says that along with the grandeur also comes a responsibility to the environment.
Did you know that at midnight the decorative lights get turned off to conserve energy? And, to be even more energy and green conscious, the amount of lights that set the bridge all aglow are restricted. In hoping to make more of a difference, the lighting has also been reduced at the toll plaza and LED lights in the arrow board and toll canopy help lead the way now, too.
So next time you cross and are looking at the grandeur of the Mighty Mackinac, remember that the Bridge is doing it’s part, too!
Pure Michigan Mighty Mack Bridge Walk Cartoon
Pure Fun.
Caption by Pure Michigan contest winner Sue Bartlett
Who doesn’t remember going to the fair during the hottest month of summer vacation? Did that stop the anticipation of carnival rides, elephant ears and the lure of winning the big banana at the ring toss the on the midway?
This year the big kids even had a chance to win a pretty cool prize at the Upper Peninsula State Fair. A souped up Pure Michigan Roush 2012 Mustang.
Big Bananas. Pure Local Fun.
But the local fair is more than prizes and rides. It’s learning about livestock and witnessing the miracle of life. It’s learning about the environment. The UP State Fair even has a Green Forester Exhibit that teaches the significance of trees in our ecosystem. You can also interact with an exhibit on how important farming and agriculture is to Michigan.
The Fair. It’s about community. Where neighbors meet each other and cheer on their favorite pie in the baking contest. Or, marvel at the butter sculpting exhibit. Where family and friends can remember a summer day of chainsaw carving, lumberjack shows and tummy-aches from too much cotton candy and deep fried pickles.
Be sure to savor your summer. Look back fondly with time spent with your family and friends. Be a part of Michigan’s heritage.
As I’ve outgrown my childhood years, the lure and excitement still lives in my spirit – except for maybe the “guess your weight and age” game. Especially after a day of corn dogs and funnel cakes.
Spring Mills Elementary Caption Contest Winners!
Congratulations to Jacob S. and to Zakary K. for coming up with the winning captions for this Earth Day cartoon! Such smart and funny thinking from these up and coming writers and cartoonists!
