Brad

Christmas is a very special time of year. It is a time of celebration, family, spirituality and joy. Unfortunately, many of the of the ways we celebrate Christmas have negative impacts upon the environment. Did you know, for example, that a single string of lights may use more electricity than three 100 watt light bulbs? There are, however, some simple steps that we can take to help us walk more lightly upon the Earth during this holiday season.

For a complete look at ways to enjoy the holiday while minimizing environmental damage, read more here



I’d like to thank Princeton Press for sending out a new batch of birding books for my review. The first of these is Nigel Cleere’s Nightjars, Potoos, Frogmouths, Oilbird and Owlet-nighjars of the World. That title normally gets abbreviated to Nightjars of the World. I found this beautiful, full-sized, hard-cover book to be a wonderful addition to my library. Nightjars are among the most elusive targets for the bird watcher. In addition to being master of camouflage, they are generally nocturnal. While we might hear the call of the Whip-poor-will in the moonlit night, finding them and getting a good look at them is another matter altogether. Nightjars of the World uses more than 580 photos of the various species of Nightjars from around the world to let the reader get to know the entire order of Caprimulgiformes. By the way, did you know that the nightjar is the origin of the legend of the chupacabra, or mysterious goat sucker? You can read my full review of Nightjars of the World at this link or click the link below to find it at Amazon.com.

A new outbreak of salmonella poisoning is sweeping across the United States again, according to a report on ABC News online. California, Colorado and Minnesota have experienced hundreds of cases of salmonella poisoning in the most recent outbreak. So far, no deaths have been attributed to the bacterial food poisoning, this time around. ABC reports that 13 brands of eggs are involved from a single producer. The affected brands are: Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph’s, Boomsma’s, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemp.

Symptoms of Salmonella Poisoning

Salmonella is a bacterial infection that can cause severe diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, fever, and in rare cases in patients with compromised immune systems or other complicating issues, salmonella poisoning can be fatal. It is a serious health threat for the very old and young infants. Salmonella is able to hide in the body while it multiplies, gaining strength, immediately after the initial exposure.

Previous Salmonella Outbreaks

Salmonella is one of the most common types of food poisoning. A large salmonella outbreak occurred in 2009, and another was attributed to Serrano peppers in 2008 after tomatoes were originally blamed as the cause of the illness. As the source of our food supply increases in distance from us, the difficulty of identifying the cause of outbreaks like the current salmonella poisonings becomes more and more difficult. Reliance on large factory producers and distributors means that contaminated foods can be shipped all around the country before anyone realizes there is anything wrong.

Eat Locally to Take Control of your Food Supply Safety

Eating locally is one way to help control the risk of salmonella poisoning as well as other types of contamination. In recent years, there have been numerous food recalls as diverse as toxic melamine found in protein powder and bits of plastic found in Hot Pockets. Aside from protecting our own health, eating locally and growing or own food is also good for the environment. Transporting tons and tons of food across the country results in tons and tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the transport vehicles. In the case of the most recent salmonella outbreak, eggs are thought to the culprit and have been voluntarily recalled. Eggs are one of the foods most commonly associated with salmonella outbreaks. Raising your own chickens for eggs is one way to take control of this aspect of your personal food supply safety.

My wife has finally caught the writing bug and has begun writing for Examiner as the Manchester Nature Examiner. She has three articles posted so far, all about some of the common animals of New Hampshire.

There is some great information about Moose Watching in New Hampshire here, including where to find the largest of New Hampshire’s land animals.

Anyone who leaves in or near the woods of New Hampshire or most other New England states may have an occasional or constant problem with white-tailed deer eating your landscape plants or gardens. Choosing the right plants can make a huge difference. Just like people, deer like certain foods and dislike others. Choosing plants that deer don’t like can keep your landscape whole. Conversely, choosing plants that deer like can help attract them to your yard if that’s your goal.

Speaking of animals in the yard, we have a 3-month-old porcupine living very nearby. We see him grazing on clover in our yard almost every day. We are trying to wait and see if he moves along to some other place, or if we have to get a live trap to relocate him. Meanwhile, we got some great pictures and video of the baby porcupine to share.



Did you know that the amount of phytoplankton in the Earth’s oceans has declined by 40% since the 1950’s? Phytoplankton are the tiny free floating plants that are responsible for creating half of the Earth’s oxygen. They also form the basis of the ocean’s food chain. The loss of phytoplankton would affect almost every major ecosystem on Earth and reduce the Earth’s overall ability to support life.

Read more about what’s happening to the Earth’s life support system here.

In my Green Living column for the Manchester edition of Examiner.com, I have issued a Green Living challenge for August to readers. The challenge involves lowering one’s consumption of electricity compared to August of the prior year, or if last August’s information is not available then lower August’s bill compared to July’s bill. This is the first of a series of monthly Green Living challenges that I will be issuing to readers of my Green Living column. It includes ideas for reducing electricity usage throughout the home. I encourage anyone reading this blog to check out and participate in the August Green Living Challenge. I would also ask that you pass it on to friends, family and coworkers who might be interested in lowering their carbon footprint or just saving a few dollars on their electric bill this August. The idea is not so much to lower usage for one month, but to develop habits for using less electricity on a continuous basis.



Our herb garden is going great this year. As part of our effort to eat locally, we are now making dill pickles and drying and preparing spices and herbs for the winter. We use fresh herbs and spices whenever they are in season, and try dry enough to last until next summer. I just purchased an inexpensive coffee grinder which can also be used as a spice mill / spice grinder. It works great for things like thyme and basil as well as seed types like coriander. I wrote up a full review of the Krups F203 Grinder which I purchased from a local kitchen equipment store for just $19.99. By grinding my own spices instead of paying $3-5 per small jar at the supermarket, I’ll pay for the spice grinder with just five or six uses and I’ll have it for years to come. It can also be used to chop nuts for recipes and of course for its primary purpose, coffee grinding.

Every day we hear about how many gallons of oil BP has been able to siphon up through the cap that they installed over the spewing pipe that is all that remains of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. What we don’t hear is just how many gallons of oil were unrecovered and were released into the ocean each and every day. What we do know is that it is an extraordinary amount and that the end to oil leak is still months away.

Meanwhile, oil is washing up along the coast of Louisiana and much, much more is still drifting in the ocean. The containment booms, siphoning cap, oil skimming ships, and absorbent booms are unable to stop large amounts of thick, black oil from reaching the fragile marshlands of the Louisiana coast and destroying them. The oil will kill the marsh grasses that holds the soil in place against the constant erosion of the ocean’ waves. Furthermore, wildlife that isn’t directly killed by contact with the toxic oil and chemical dispersants being pumped into the gulf will lose singificant portions of their breeding grounds.

The ecological price of this catastrophe is incalculable. Yet there are those who say we should continue drilling, even before we review current practices to make sure that this sort of thing isn’t waiting to happen again next week somewhere else. Before making up your mind about whether we need a few months to check out the safety procedures that are in place for these deep water oil drilling operations, take a look at the pictures of the damage caused by the BP Gulf oil spill to the coast of Louisiana and the waters around it.

If you read my blog regularly, then you may know that I recently returned from a bird watching excursion to Jamaica. My articles about the experience talk about the flora and fauna and the wonderful time I had there. They also talk about the warm hospitality that I was shown wherever I went. This may seem like a stark contrast to the news that is coming out of Jamaica in the last fews days.

The government of Jamaica has declared a state of emergency in the nation’s capitol, Kingston as gangs of “thugs” have attacked several police stations in west Kingston, Spanish Town, and a couple of other surrounding areas with an arsenal of assault weapons. Some of Jamaica’s police officers have even been killed.

These gangs are attacking in a vain attempt to stop the extradition of a popular crime boss from Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town in west Kingston. Christopher “Dudus” Coke is the subject of an extradition request from the US government. It is alleged that he is heavily involved in gun running, drug trafficking and controls some violent gangs not only in Jamaica, but in the US as well. The fact that his supporters are all armed with assault rifles in Jamaica would seem to lend credence to the gun running accusation… I’m just saying.

He has said that he will not turn himself in and his well-armed supporters have declared that they will defend him with their lives. Already they have killed several police officers. These are criminals who don’t care about Jamaica as a nation or about anyone but themselves. They are not typical of the average Jamaican or anyone that I met while I was there just one month ago. They are a minority of the population confined to a few areas in and around the capitol, Kingston.

Jamaica is a great place to visit. The people are generally friendly and the area is usually as safe as any major US city. Right now, of course, people might want to avoid Kingston and environs, which, unfortunately, includes one of the island’s major airports, the Normal Manley International Airport. Visitors can still fly in to the Montego Bay airport, whose name escapes me at the moment…

Jamaica is a beautiful vacation destination, full of charm. The island is almost completely dependent upon tourism for the sustenance of its economy. The nation, as are many smaller countries, is in deep debt and needs the tourism revenue to stay afloat. In a few weeks, I expect all this will have blown over, Dudus will have been captured or killed and things will be back to normal.

Last night, May 11th, at around midnight, I heard a noise from the area on the deck where we have a bird feeder. I though it might be a raccoon trying to get into the feeder. I turned on the deck light, but couldn’t see anything so I got a flashlight and shone it through the window. No movement was visible, but the bird feeders that normally hang on the corner of the deck were gone. Stepping out on the deck with a flashlight, I heard very heavy pounding footsteps galloping off toward the woods. My wife saw a low black shape about the size of a black bear running off. Rather than go out and survey the situation in the dark, we waited until morning.
When we went out to check on things we found three bird feeders from around the yard missing altogether. Apparently, the bear had carried them off. We later found all three about 50 yards from the house about 20 feet off of one of our walking trails. The thistle feeder was crushed, and the mixed birdseed feeder was broken into pieces. We also found claw marks in the deck railing where the black bear had apparently tried to pull itself up to reach the feeders there. Another metal pole used to hold a bird feeder was bent by the bear as it pulled down the feeder there.
I had heard reports of several people throughout southeren New Hampshire losing bird feeders to black bears, but we hadn’t had any here before. To prevent bears from coming after your bird feeders, you can simply take them in at night. This will also prevent them from being raided by raccoons or other nocturnal prowlers.
The same goes for any chicken feeders that you may have outside if you have chickens. We had some covered steel trash cans with chicken feed stored outside near the house, but, fortunately, the bear did not find them. Today, I’ll be putting them into a shed to keep them safe and to avoid tempting any animals overnight.

Since we raise our own chickens and have lots of eggs, I’ve been looking for different ways to prepare them. I plan to try many different ways to make pickled eggs using a variety of spices and flavors. I bought several different kinds of vinegar to use as the base and will be combining them will various spices and other flavorful ingredients. I’ll post recipes here as I make them up.

I’ll try to use more and more home-grown ingredients as I get going. I’m a big fan of eating locally and controlling the source of one’s food supply. This recipe uses 4 ingredients (out of six total) that I have grown or produced on my little five acres. I’d like to try making sugar as well, but haven’t gotten to it yet. I could make it either from maple sap or from beets, either would have a different flavor than the cane sugar we are used to.

First, I wanted to start simple. This gives me a baseline to compare against. The first thing I’m trying is adding a garlic flavor.

This recipe makes 8 eggs in a 1 quart jar.

Ingredients:
8 eggs (from our own chickens!)
1.25 cups distilled white vinegar (5-6%)
1.25 cups water (from our well!)
1 whole medium yellow onion (from our garden!)
3 tablespoons minced garlic (from our garden!)
1/3 cup white granulated sugar

First hard boil the eggs. Place them in a saucepan of water deep enough to cover them easily. Bring to a full boil for about 10-15 minutes. While the ggs are boiling prepare a bowl of ice-water. Remove the ggs from the boiling water and place them in the ice water. Allow them to cool for a few minutes until no longer warm to the touch. If the ice melts add more to keep the water temperature ass cold as possible. This will help make it easier to peel the eggs cleanly.

Mix the water, vinegar, garlic and sugar in a small sauce pan. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a full boil while peeling the eggs. Remove the vinegar mixture from the heat.

Slice the onion as if you were making onion rings.

Alternate putting onion slices and eggs into the one quart jar (which should be clean and sterile). The jar should hold about 8 eggs without compacting them. Pour the hot vinegar liquid into the jar until it just covers the eggs. Put the cover on the jar and seal it tightly. Allow the jar to cool to room temperature. Once the jar has completely cooled, place it in the refrigerator. Allow the eggs to pickle for about 7 days.

The unopened jar of pickled eggs should keep for about a month in the refrigerator.

For those who are interested in small backyard chicken flocks, I wrote an article about getting your flock to pay for itself and even provide a little extra pocket money. This article is geared toward small flock od less than 20 chickens, although it does also have relevance for larger flocks as well. It provides tips for maximizing the income from your small chicken flock. It focuses on selling hatching eggs or day-old chicks rather than just farm fresh eggs. By hatching the eggs out before selling them, you can go from $2 per dozen to as much as $72 per dozen. It’s not a way to get rich, but it can cover the costs of your backyard flcok and even provide some extra spending money.