Is Bigger Really Better?

 It seems like the American dream has become a race to get more “stuff”.  We have become programmed to want more stuff, but it has to be BIG stuff, the largest house, the biggest car, the biggest screen and the most calorie ridden meal. But do we really need all these big things? I’m going to go against the American dream and say no.

What’s on the Agenda

      ·   The high cost of big things

      ·   Less things= more of everything else

      ·   Small is the new big

  

Debt-topia

The more we own, the more we owe. It has become a common practice nowadays to simply swipe a card, or sign on the dotted line for a loan, to pay for the things we want. Not many people save up for something and then make the purchase after they have enough cash. I can’t imagine someone paying cash for a house, but still. Instead of asking “how much do I need?” it has been twisted into “How much can I afford?”. After we buy all this stuff, it takes lots more resources to maintain and keep it all. Big is inefficient.  When we get the bigger house or bigger car, we buy into bigger bills to heat and fuel that lifestyle. We pay more than we bargained for because all this stuff makes us pay more than we need to, let alone more than we can afford.

Fun with statistics

      ·      The average American has between $8,000- $11,000 worth of credit card debt.

      ·      The average mortgage rate in the U.S. is 30 years, with 93% of those payments going towards interest               alone.

      ·      The average student has $20,000 in debt from college at graduation. On average, taking 10+ years to pay that off and paying $6,000 or more in interest.

      ·      As of January 2011, the average new car loan was 5 yrs and 2 months in length. The average car payment was $378 a month.

All this debt comes with lots anxiety and stress. I for one hate worry about money, bills, and fees. Does more stuff really mean more happiness? I remember fantasizing about how my dream home will have a library, an indoor green house, and lots more “stuff”.  Now that I’m a bit older, and have had a taste of reality, is all that stuff really necessary? What is life really about, or more importantly, what really makes us happy?

Less IS more

Life isn’t about “stuff”, it’s about the experience, memories and adventures, that we live. Looking back when we are old and grey, what do you think will bring us the most joy? That big empty house that we purchased, or the things that we experienced and shared? You can’t measure happiness, it is an idea; it’s all in our head.  When we spend less on things, we have more time and resources on everything else; the more important things in life. Most of us spend the majority of our life working. We work because we have to pay off our debt, the debt we acquired to pay for our things. We have these things because they are suppose to make us happy. One thing that most people believe in, is that life is short. We only have one life and we only live for so long. It turns out, most people hate their job. If everyone can agree that life is to short, then why do we spend so much of it doing something we hate? 

Life is too important and precious to spend unhappy or doing something you don’t enjoy. When you have less things, you get more of everything else. You can work less (or maybe at something you enjoy), trying to pay off our things, and spend more time on what really matters. The most important things in life can’t be bought, they must be lived.

Small is the new Big

So what’s the point of this whole post anyways, what is the moral of the story? The moral of the story today is that we don’t need to be wasteful and use lots and lots of resources for our happiness. The more stuff we own, the more it owns us. We all need to remember what makes us happy in life, and don’t lose sight of that when asking the question “how much do I need”. Buy what you need, be resourceful, and spend the rest of your time and money on what really matters. The less resources we use, not only means there is more to go around for other generations and individuals, but we have more of everything else. Be thrifty. Be efficient. Be open minded. I know we all need a job to be self sustaining, and I’m not saying we should all quit our 9-5 to become a care-free beach bum , all I’m looking for is a little self reflection!

I hope I didn’t offend anybody with this post, I just hope I was able to make a difference. If you agree or enjoyed this post, please share it with your family and friends. Everyone can use a bit of enlightenment every once in awhile.

~Daniel

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."

-Helen Keller

Sustainable Solutions

Who doesn’t hate paying for energy? Life takes energy; energy to power our home; energy to power our country's infrastructures; energy to power our vehicles; energy to cook our food… The list is endless!! The fact that our energy demands are always expanding is a bit of a dilemma in itself, but the real problem is how we plan on meeting these growing demands.

Ever since the beginning of the Industrial revolution, we have been obsessed with fossil fuels. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy burning things just as much as the next guy (man has always had a thing for fire), but if it’s anything other than a bonfire… it’s outdated and inefficient. Over 150 years has passed since the end of the revolution, the way we do energy has been unchanged compared to other technology advances. Burning fossil fuels such as petroleum, coal, and different natural gases, are finite resources that cause the most long term damage to our environment (some fuels do more damage than others). I’m not saying that we need to totally shut down our current infrastructure and make a chaotic change, but it’s time that we put more attention towards renewable resources.

So why should we make a change towards renewable energy? I could list all sorts of different reasons and facts that support a shift towards sustainable energy, but I’m just going to cover the three big ones in today’s post.

Sustainability

The Sun provides approximately 100 watts per square foot or 27,878,400 watts per square mile.
This is equivalent to 274,000,000 gigawatt years or 8.2 million Quads of Btu energy per year.  The entire human race uses, in all forms, about 505 Quads per year, so if collected well, gives us relatively 15,000 times our present day needs (Gathered from the U.S. Energy Information Administration). And that’s just one example of a renewable energy potential. Will we ever be able to collect all that energy? Not in a million years. The sun isn’t always shining across the globe, due to cloud cover (Just ask the residence of Seattle Washington), but the point is that we have potential.

We have access to several different forms of renewable energy, solar, hydro, wind, geothermal, that we will never run out of. The amount of energy we have access to be limitless. At the moment, we may not be able to acquire the renewable energy for 100% of our demands, but until we begin to become self-invested and dedicated to a renewable lifestyle, then we never will.

Clean

Smog in China from cars, power plants and factories

When you take combustion out of the equation, we can see through the smog. Energy from the different renewable creates possibly zero emissions and little waste/byproducts. There is no need to filter any fumes, or dispose of any radioactive/poisonous materials. We can greatly reduce our carbon foot print by reducing our dependence of fossil fuels. There is also less problems in the system as we acquire the sustainable power.

How many people have died from problems with a windmill or solar panel? Maybe we just aren’t exposed to those deaths or statistics, but the point is that there is less risk in renewable energy. Who here can recall japans recent nuclear meltdown? How about the oil spill in the gulf? Horrible disasters, if I do say so myself. People can point the finger at poor planning and irresponsibility for these disasters, but in the end I it’s just human nature. People make mistakes. People get greedy and cut corners on safety to save a few extra dollars. There have been other problems in the past, and there will be more in the future, but problems such as these simply don’t happen with renewable energy. Nonexistent emissions+ nonexistent byproducts= clean and sustainable energy.

Zero Foreign dependence

By collecting energy/fuel from local and renewable sources, we become less reliant on foreign fossil fuels.  I could get into detail about oil imports, but we all know about that crippling dependence. I’m sure it is important to have healthy relationships with foreign countries, and that imports has a part in that, but we have these untapped resources that we could be using to better our future.  Go for a drive, and there is a good chance that you will see several bumper stickers reading “Buy Local” or “Buy American”, our fuel and energy resources shouldn’t be any different.

Know and Doing

What is taking us so long on making progress towards a more sustainable future? Do people enjoy paying at the pump? Have we grown accustomed to city smog? People don’t like change. America needs to be more committed if any change is going to take place. Not only that, but too many people have their pockets lined with oil and coal dollars. Lobbyists in the white house can cause major problems when making change and progress. If we are going to make progress, we need to be stronger and yell loader than the oil barons.

Thanks for taking the initial step in the right direction by learning and reading about our future and our impact on the world. For more information about energy facts and ways to make our own positive impact, check out my Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter page, and maybe even take part in the conversations. You never know whose life and views you might change by adding to our change.

http://www.facebook.com/FullCircleLifestyles

http://pinterest.com/fullcirclelifes/

https://twitter.com/#!/fullcirclelifes

~Daniel

Build It Up, Compost It Down

I’m sure most people have heard of or have taken part in some sort of recycling; it’s not a new idea by any means. People don’t seem to have too much of a problem recycling a pop can or glass bottle, but what about recycling a banana peel or coffee grounds? Composting is just that, its recycling for our food. Composting seems to be somewhat over looked because it isn’t talked about as much as other forms of recycling, but it is a great way to reduce landfill waste and increase soil quality of your yard. It is basically the process of controlling the decomposition on organic materials. We’re going to cover a few of the following points today that will help you get started and elevate any concerns that you have with composting:

 Ø  Why Composting Is Easy

 Ø  How to fix any smells

 Ø  Preventing Pests

Do it-To it

Some people may have this impression that composting is a lot of work and that they don’t have time; in reality, Mother Nature does all the work. As composters, we really only have two jobs: 

1) Add material to the pile periodically.

2) Stir the pile periodically.

The secret to a good compost pile is what you put into it (kind of like life in general). Adding the proper mix will give you a more balanced composition and will keep any problems at bay. We can kind of relate the diet of our C.P. (compost pile) to our own diet. Most people like pizza, I know I do, but could you imagine eating pizza every day? Not only would we get sick of eating the same thing, but our bodies wouldn’t appreciate it either. We eat a variety of things in order to have a happy and healthy body; we even have created a “food pyramid” to help remind us. A C.P. is no different, it is just a compost pile only needs two types of things: brown (carbon) material and green (nitrogen) material.

If you ask most composting pros, they will recommend that you have 2 parts “brown” material to 1 part “green”.  Examples of Brown material: grass clippings, weeds, leaves, wood chips, tree bark, sawdust, hay or straw, pine needles, napkins and paper towels, wool, wood ashes, shredded newspapers, alfalfa, nut shells, houseplant trimmings or potted garden soil. These materials are usually on the “drier” and will add the carbon to your pile. Examples of Green material: leftover vegetables, fruit, and peels, leftover bread and pasta, coffee grounds, leftover molasses & honey, citrus wastes, rotted squash & pumpkins, unused herbs, tea bags and grounds, egg shells and cow/chicken/rabbit manure. These materials have higher water content and add nitrogen into the mix. Adding the materials is step one, so now we stir.

The Composting Equation.

I recommend stirring the compost pile about once a week, a good time to do it would be when you’re adding new materials (your already going be out there, might as will bring a shovel and save yourself an extra trip). The main reasons why we stir our compost piles is to provide aeration and moisture control. Those little microbes that are working day and night for us need to breathe just as much as we do. Mixing will help deliver the needed oxygen that is required for ideal composting conditions.  Moisture is important in decomposition, but we want to avoid it being too wet in the middle; giving it a good stir will help release any unwanted water buildup. On an end note, stirring is also good because it rotates the materials to the middle (making sure everything gets decomposed).

Why So Smelly?

If a compost pile smells like anything other than dirt, you are doing something wrong. There are two major offenders for a smelly pile: improper material balance or too much water. Fixing a somewhat stinky pile is easy, so don’t give up so soon on our dreams to a healthier yard.

The first thing you should check if the smell isn’t so pleasant is the amount of nitrogen (green material) you are adding to our decomposition equation. If you add to much green material to your pile, there will be an imbalance of ingredients. I’m sure our compost doesn’t really want to be gassy; he is just trying to tell us to change up his diet a bit. A simple fix to this is just mixing in more carbon/brown materials. The other reason is the pile might be on the wet side.

Our pile can get a little on the “fragrant” side, whenever the middle of the pile gets a bit soggy. Two easy fixes for a wet pile is to stir more and add more carbon/brown. By mixing the pile more often, we will release some of that built up moisture, with an end result of drying it up some. The other fix would be to add more carbon to the mix. Brown/carbon material has a tendency to be more on the drier side, adding more carbon to the pile will help soak up some of the moisture.

Pesky Pests

A compost piles should not attract animals to it. If you are adding the wrong stuff to your pile, then you might have unwanted visitors. You should NEVER add any meat or dairy products to your pile. Not only will you have problems with them decomposing, but it will attract pests. Do yourself a favor and just stick with adding only green and brown to your pile, anything other than those might cause problems.

I think we covered plenty today, so I will leave other composting topics for another occasion. We will be discussing other composting ideas and links on our Facebook page, checking out our other platforms would be a great way to stay more updated and involved. I hope today’s post was fun and informative. Just remember: The only person that should be responsible for our future is our self. Problems do not fix themselves; it is up to us to fix them.   

Happy composting,

-Daniel

How To Stop Feeding The Landfill

Earlier this week, we talked about the problems of food waste and how it affects the environment and our budget. Food waste has greatly increased over the past several decades; I feel it is time to begin to shrink our food waste.  In this post we will talk about different ways of how we can reduce our waste, save us money and make a difference in the environment. A few topics we will be covering are: 

 Ø  Containers 

 Ø  Meal Size Moderation 

 Ø  Food Planning 

 Ø  Composting

CONTAINERS!!

Having the right tool for the job is important. If you need to refrigerate something for another day, make sure to put it in an air tight container or wrap it well. Once the food is properly cared for, make sure to mark the date with a piece of tape. Food can lose freshness and taste quite quickly if it is just simply tossed in the fridge; being exposed to air will also allow it to go bad faster as well. Investing in a decent set of Tupperware containers will not only allow you to have a well organized fridge, but it will also save you money by keeping food fresher, longer. One thing that I can’t stand eating is a squished sandwich. 

When I was younger, I remember just throwing out lunch food because it was “soggy”. I broke that habit once I got in high school, but I still hate soggy sandwiches!! Investing in several sandwich containers will keep your lunch in good shape and will cut down on sandwich bag use.

Meals In Moderation

Let me be the first to say, my eyes are bigger than my stomach. Making to large of a meal for the family, or taking too much to eat on your plate, will inevitably lead to food waste. It is much more cost effective to take a little less food and then go for seconds, then it is to pile it on high and simply toss a 1/3 of it away. Only make what you need. A family can eat only so much leftovers, knowing your family limits or freezing a portion of the meal will make everyone happy.

Meal Planning

Planning ahead and shopping accordingly will reduce impulse buying and to reduce "over buying". Finding creative ways to reincarnate leftovers into another dish is a great way to use up what was purchased and add variety to the week. If you plan on making a dish that only takes a half a can of tomato paste on Monday, try and make something that will use the rest up in a day or two. Another advantage of meal planning is that you don’t waste time trying to figure out what’s for dinner. I know I have personally spent a good 20 mins trying to think about what I want to make for dinner, just to end up eating cereal in the end. Regardless of the subject matter, the outcome is always better with a plan.

Unidentified Frozen Objects

Can you recall a time when you open up the fridge/freezer, and pull something that puts you at a loss for words? It has happened to most of us (probably more than once), a good way to fight this unidentifiable food epidemic is to label and date things. It only takes a second to scribble a few words on a sticky note or piece of tape. Another great way of preventing food waste is to have a small inventory list on the side of the fridge/freezer. A food list is a great way to be reminded of what needs to eaten or what does not need to be repurchased. Food can get easily pushed to the back of the fridge, being lost and forgotten about because it is behind a jug of milk. Having a list will limit the ingredients that are thrown out because they were out of sight, out of mind.

COMPOSTING!!

Besides using the food that you purchase accordingly, composting is a great way of limiting our landfill deposits. You can compost most vegetable and fruit waste, but make sure not to compost meat, bones, fish, fats, or dairy. When compost is done properly, it doesn’t smell or attract flies. The simplest way to compost is to have a small container under the sink, next to the trash can, or in the fridge (we use an air tight coffee container), and just empty it every other day. It’s a good idea to not let the scraps sit inside for more than 3 days because it needs to get out in the air to allow nature to do its things. Compost not only reduces or landfill waste, but it also produces a healthy yard and garden.

Having a compost pile for yard and food waste can help keep a yard clean and produce some great soil. I feel that alot of people under estimate the power of compost for nutrient for plants. Once the materials decompose, what is left is a rich soil that is well balanced in organic matter. I could talk all day though about composting though, so I will get into more details in another post.

If you want to learn more about how you can reduce your food waste, or more tips on composting (that is if you can’t wait for when I will cover it again) here are a few site that might feed your appetite for knowledge:

http://chirls.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-cut-your-food-waste-and-your-food-bill-too

http://www.howtocompost.org/

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-501083_162-7063037.html

Until next time, I wish you all the best of luck on our progress towards a sustainable future.

-Daniel

 "There has never been a statue erected to the memory of someone who let well enough alone."

    Ellinger, Jules

Enough With Us Feeding The Landfill

This past weekend, I was forced to throw away a package of pepperonis and large bag of mozzarella cheese, both which I purchased some time ago to make pizzas. Instead of feeding my friends and family like intended, I was feeding the dump. I HATE wasting food, I have always hated it. Now that I’m an adult and buy my own food, I also have another pet peeve: wasting money on food that I ended up throwing away. Whenever we waste food, we do two things:

1) We waste our money.

2) We contribute to the landfill.

As I got all worked up about my wasteful experience, I decided that I wanted to write about food waste this week. It may not come to a surprise to anyone, but Americans can be pretty wasteful.

 According to the EPA in 2010, more than 34 million tons of food waste was generated, more than any other material category but paper. That’s a whole lot wasted food, but other specialists think that food waste is much great. Jonathan Bloom, creator of WastedFood.com and author of the 2010 book “American Wasteland”, says that Americans waste as much as half of the food produced every year. Somewhere between 160 and 295 billion pounds of food is thrown away every single year, which is the equivalent of filling a 90,000 seat football stadium to the brim at least once every single day. Regardless of who is more accurate, our careless food habits are having a negative effect on the environment as well as our pocket books.

Environmental Concerns

When food goes to the land fill, it not only takes up a lot of space but it also rots. As it goes through this breaking down process, the food releases green house gases. Landfills are a major source of human-related methane in the United States, accounting for more than 20 percent of all methane emissions. Why is this bad? It is bad because methane and other gas, when in large amounts, eats away at our ozone, contributes to acid and decrease air quality. It all comes full circle, we pollute the ground and it will affect the air.

Cash in the Trash

Whenever we pour a gallon of spoiled milk down the drain, or toss that forgotten package of pepperoni in the trash, we are literally throwing out money. Food costs and inflation are on the rise and not using what we buy is just making those costs even higher. Once it’s in our garbage, we have to pay someone to take our trash away. After emptying our cupboard, we go and buy more food. Do you see a cycle here? We all need to eat, that’s obvious; but we can spend less on that food budget if we are more conscious on what we consume.

Later on in the week, we will discuss ways to keep food fresh, proper ways of disposing food waste, and other ways we can make a positive impact on our environment, community and daily lives. So make sure to tune back in to learn more! Here are some other links and sources where you can investigate food waste on your own time.

http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/organics/food/fd-basic.htm

http://www.wastedfood.com/about/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste

http://www.endhunger.org/food_waste.htm

At the very least I hope my blog keeps you engaged and entertained. Maybe if I talk long enough, I can bring a few of you to the proactive side of life. ; )

Daniel

WHATS THE BUZZ ABOUT SAVING THE BEES?

Earlier this week, we talked about the worlds disappearing honey bee dilemma. Knowing about this problem is a great start to being part of the solution, but what else can we do to help our local bee population? We will be talking about several things that we can do on an individual level that can make a difference; starting from least engaging, to the most engaging.

Voting for those without a voice

Even though the bees do not have a say in government regulation, we do. Voting for the bees in the booths will give them a fighting chance out in the fields. Some pesticides are more dangerous to bee than others, allowing the use of these pesticides in our country is actually doing more harm than good. Here is a link to sign a petition to help put a ban on dangerous pesticides, it only takes a second to sign it and will let your voice be heard.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/bees/

Plan BEE

We all know that bees collect pollen as there food, but did you that many of the bee’s most beneficial flowers are on the government’s noxious weeds list? Bees get a majority of their pollen from wild flowers and weeds. A large portion of these wild flowers are considered to be pests and are killed very quickly; a good example of this is the common dandelion. In the early spring, before many other flowers have begun to bloom, honey bees are very dependent on dandelion blossoms to support their pollen needs. So a very simple, easy way to help honey bees is to refrain from killing the dandelions in your lawn. They’re actually quite pretty. And next time you see a bare patch, think about planting Dutch clover instead of grass. The bees thrive on various weeds in lawns, including clover and plantain (from which they collect pollen). Do you really have to have that perfect, manicured, chemical-laden lawn?

  

Call In The Experts

Honeybees naturally produce new bee hives by what is known as “swarming”. When the current hive location becomes too small for the current hive population, the colony will split in half; one half will stay and the other half flies away to find a new home. When honeybees are swarming, they are out in the open and are exposed to the elements. If you ever see a swarm, instead of panicking, you should quickly call in a beekeeper. Many beekeepers will gladly take the swarm off your hands for free (they can hive it and use that colony for honey production). The video below is a good example of what a swarm looks like and how beekeepers can catch one (please leave it to the professionals). Many local beekeeper groups have a hotline that anyone can call so that the honeybees are attended for properly. You would be surprised at how many beekeepers you may actually know, ask and find out! I’m sure your beekeeper friends wouldn’t mind an extra bee hive!!

BEEcome a Beekeeper!

Playing with thousands of sting insects is not for everyone, but beekeeping is an interesting and rewarding hobby for those of you who are adventurous enough to try it. My family just took up beekeeping recently actually, and we are excited for what this coming summer will bring. Depending on how much someone is looking to spend, as well as what the individual is looking to get out of it, beekeeping can be as cost effective or expensive as you make it.  A common misconception is also that beekeeping is a rural activity, which this isn’t the case. Urban beekeeping is a common practice and can very easily be done in a busy city. Even if you didn’t want to do the work yourself, allowing a friend or a neighbor to put a hive on your property would be a help to the local population and your garden. For more information on bees and becoming a beekeeper, several links are listed below. By helping our tiny friends, we are helping our yards, our food supply, and the economy.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/19/urban-beekeeping-for-begi_n_415082.html

http://www.co-operative.coop/Plan-Bee/

http://www.beesource.com/

Thank you for reading the Full Circle Lifestyle blog, you can also follow us on twitter, Facebook and Pinterest to show your support with your friends and stay up-to-date on news and facts. Small improvements today, will add up to a better tomorrow.

~Daniel

BEEWARE!

This week, I would like to talk a bit about the honeybee. These busy little bees do a lot for us and they go basically undetected and unappreciated from our day-to-day activities. As the phrase goes “out of sight, out of mind”, we don’t ever think about these important little insect because they are not really part of our daily lives… Or are they? It turns out, honeybees are actually very important to our wellbeing and to the economy; this post will hopefully shed some light on something that many don’t usually think about.

The Baseline

I’m sure we all have a decent grasp of what honeybees do, they pollinate. Pollination is great; it’s a huge part of the reproductive cycle of plants. When plants don’t reproduce, we basically don’t eat. Now I’m not saying that the world is going to end because plants can’t make baby plants, I’m just trying to get the point across. Honeybees pollinate about 1/3 of our plants each year. Bee declines can have a very close tie with many crops, for example, the almond industry in California (which had a crop value of $1.5 billion in 2006).  In 2000, the total U.S. crop value that was wholly dependent on honey bee pollination was estimated to exceed $15 billion. It is important that we be aware of the importance of our honeybees, because the little honeybees’ affects more than one might think!

Where could they BEE?

Since late 2006, the world has seen an astronomical decrease in bee populations. Most every country, between Taiwan and the United States, have experienced unexplainable hive die-off; some countries have experienced a disappearance of close to 50% (such as Northern Ireland) in a given year. Hive die off during the winter is normal and expected, but it is clear when a hive could not survive the winter due to the dead bees. Lately, the bees just have vanished without a trace. Scientist have been working towards solving these hive collapse since 2006, but it is very difficult to pin point any one culprit. Some of the listed causes have been: Pesticides, malnutrition, electromagnetic radiation, global warming, genitally modified crops, viral and fungal combinations, and immune deficiency.  In the United States, we have been calling it Colony Collapse Disorder.

Colony Collapse Disorder

In July 2007, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its "CCD Action Plan", which outlined a strategy for addressing CCD consisting of four main components:

      1)      survey and data collection;

      2)      analysis of samples;

      3)      hypothesis-driven research; and

      4)      mitigation and preventative action.

In July 2009 the first annual report of the U.S. Colony Collapse Disorder Steering Committee was published. It suggested that colony collapse may be caused by the interaction of many agents in combination. The bee industry has been recovering since the appearance of CCD, but it still exists and is very much a threat to hives and to our economy.

There have been many books, reports, and scientific journals that are written about CCD and how it affects each and every one of us. Here are a few books and sites to check out for more information on the topic:

Jacobsen, Rowan (2009). Fruitless fall: the collapse of the honey bee and the coming agricultural crisis. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781596915374.

"Saving the Honeybee" . Scientific American 300 (4): 24. 2009-04.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/07/disappearing-bees-progress-or-frustration-1.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391#.T59rCasV0kc

In the end, just let us be mindful to what is going on outside of our little box, and do what we can to make a difference in each of our lives. If you would like to learn how you can do your part in protecting our local bees, then stay tuned for part 2 of this post later on this week!!

~Daniel

“What lies behind us and what lies before us, are tiny matter compared to what lies within us.”

-quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes