Lucas Blackwood Contemplations » Environment

Black fly season

Lucas — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:01:24 +0000

May is black fly season. The first two weeks of May only the male flies are out, and they are annoying enough but they don’t bite. The last half of the month, though, watch out! That is a dangerous time to be driving on the rural roads, as the black flies drive the moose absolutely crazy and they come running out of the deep woods into the highway in a vain attempt to escape the biting flies. As one drives through the countryside one can see the lucky horses that have owners that care enough about them to put fly sheets on their backs and over their faces. It may look odd to the casual tourist that doesn’t know much about horses, but I’m sure that the horses are grateful to have them!

Frank Lloyd Wright was my father’s favorite architectural designer

Lucas — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:53:26 +0000

When I was growing up, my father would take us kids out and drive around to look at open houses in different new neighborhoods. He made his living as an architectural designer and he was always looking for what the “other guys” were doing and what was the newest and trendiest thing in architecture.

He had designed the house we lived in, and although at the time I thought that it was not an attractive building from the outside, I have to admit that the interior layout was really very nicely designed. It wasn’t until I was a young adult that I learned that the inspiration behind the house was from the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright. I had never even heard of the name of Frank Lloyd Wright until the album “Bridge over Troubled Waters” was released by Simon and Garfunkel. I can remember asking my father who Frank Lloyd Wright was, and he told me that he was a famous architect. I always thought it was weird for Simon and Garfunkel to be singing a farewell song to Frank Lloyd Wright…. but it did pique my interest to learn who he was. And to be honest, he really was a very good designer!

Solar is made easy

Lucas — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 02:11:42 +0000

With all of the technological advance made in recent years, more than ever before solar is made easy to learn about and to purchase. From what I understand, solar panels that are installed on rooftops are used to generate electricity, and that the panels are expected to last for twenty years. Research has shown that after twenty years the solar panels still generate 80% of the amount of energy that they generated when brand new. Roof top solar panels can also be used to heat water, which can in turn be used to heat a house, but in northern climates such as New England or the United Kingdom that is not recommended as the sole source of heat.

Using solar power to heat swimming pools, by using special floating mats that are placed on the surface of the water in the pool is a very effective and popular way to bring a swimming pool up to a comfortable temperature, especially in cooler climates where summer time is very short. Recently my sister-in-law has been talking about wanting to install an in-ground swimming pool at her house, and I’ve grown interested in learning how she plans to maintain the pool. So far she has not mentioned heating it, or putting a fence around it.

Finally Some Rain

Lucas — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:52:46 +0000

We have had the most wonderful weather for long now. Unfortunately the need for rain has been great, so great that there has been a lot of fires just over the mountain. Some days you can look out and ever so faintly see the smoke that is continuing to billow from all of the wild fires going on over there.

So to wake up to a nice steady rain is a good thing today. Usually the rain depresses me and makes many of my bones ache but today is a good day all the way around. The lawn and the garden sure could use a nice soaking right now. There has been talk of water restrictions being put in place all ready and it is only April for heaven’s sake.

April Showers

Lucas — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 08:22:02 +0000

Well we haven’t held true this year with the old saying that April Showers bring May Flowers. I sure hope that we do get some rain soon, my well is acting like it is running on the dry side and that isn’t good news. I wonder who ticked off Mother Nature this year. We have had nothing but wacky weather for so very long, it’s getting old.

There should be more incentive

Lucas — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:15:42 +0000

With the global concerns about carbon footprints on the rise, consumers are looking towards their governments to give them some financial incentives to improve their homes in such a way as to reduce energy costs and the carbon footprints that we all leave. In the United States there are tax credits available for a variety of home improvement projects.

There has been some misrepresentation by some double glazing window companies as to whether or not consumers can receive any type of tax credit or scrapping bonus. I’ve heard that some companies give the consumer the impression that if they purchase these replacement windows then they will save money not only on heating and cooling costs, but through tax credits. The reality is that the companies are giving you a sale price on the spot, the future savings will be on the utility bills. The government does not have a program in place to reward the consumer for this type of home improvement.

In my opinion, there would be more people replacing their old windows with the new ones if there was a tax credit in place for that. Tax payers and consumers LOVE tax credit programs! Wouldn’t it be better to give people tax incentives to replace their old windows than to subsidize their heating expenses? That would be better for the environment and save money too!

Flower and Plant Care Info Online

Lucas — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:16:57 +0000

Who would have ever thought that you could one day (and that day is now here) get on a computer (a computer that fits on your lap, no less) and learn all that you need to know about flower and plant care and then order the ones that you want right then and there and then within a matter of days receive in the mail the ones that you had just a few days ago decided on. It sounds like something right out of “The Jetsons” the popular futuristic cartoon show from back in the days of my childhood cartoon watching days, in the 60′s, which ended up showing us the way of the future that actually came true in so many ways that they depicted it to be.

I don’t think that they ever did a show specifically about how to plants buy online, and the computers that they showed being used were not as small and handy as they have now become and they didn’t show that you could get on a computer and find plant care information and instructions from various websites like wikipedia and ehow.com, just to name a few. But if you didn’t get the chance to see The Jetsons back in the day and if you can find the re-runs on your current cable and/or satellite listings I would really urge you to check it out and see what it was all about. I think you will be surprised to see how much they portrayed the way that we live our lives in today’s high tech world as we know it.

Not something I think about too much

Lucas — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:59:21 +0000

To be perfectly honest, interior design is not something that I spend a lot of time thinking about. Sure, it’s nice to have colors coordinated, and it’s nice to have the furniture look like it was all designed in the same style, but being a guy who prefers spending time in his “man cave” or in the garage, I leave the details of the interior design of the house to my wife.

Today when I came home I noticed that my wife had put a boot tray by the front door, and had positioned some boots and shoes on it. And she had a couple of cardboard boxes marked “donate” filled with some old clothes on the floor nearby. I asked her what was going on and she told me that she had been looking at an interior design website that had led her to a webpage about living greener and she decided to put some of their suggestions into action. Well, I have to agree that it makes good sense to donate old clothes and leave the shoes/boots by the door, but I don’t know how easy it is going to be for me to remember to take my shoes off when I come inside. We never had to do that at my parent’s house when we were growing up, so it may take a while to get re-trained.

Can coal be clean?

Lucas — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:26:07 +0000

Over the past few months, I’ve been hearing a few people talking about “clean coal.” From time to time I hear something about new technologies being developed to make coal a “clean” energy source. I’ve watched a lot of television news stories about how coal is removed from the earth, how dangerous coal mining is, and how the economies of states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania depend largely on coal, but I am not convinced that coal is the direction we should be going. I think that we still need to be looking at solar energy, wind energy, and bio-diesel fuels made from algae.

Coast

Lucas — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:11:25 +0000

A trip to the coast is always a fun time. Today will be the last one of the season. My friends and I are gearing up to take the bikes down. We will mostly likely grab a bit to eat at the local seafood restaurant.

This restaurant always had good food. They have tables overlooking the bay which adds to the relaxing environment. We may encounter some heavy traffic in the way home since it is the start of leaf peeping season.