Watch Out!

From the Neighborhood Network:

You may have seen reports in the news recently about West Nile cases on Long Island and pesticide spraying by both Nassau and Suffolk County in a number of areas throughout the Island.

There are steps you can take around your home to help prevent mosquitoes from breeding, and less toxic personal and yard repellents you can use to keep mosquitoes away.

Eliminate standing water on your property and clear clogged gutters on your house. Mosquitoes can breed in any water standing stagnant for 4 days or more.

As an alternative to DEET, look for repellents that have oil of lemon eucalyptus (the only herbal ingredient recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control). Products with oils of soy and geranium have also been demonstrated as effective in published studies.

For information about upcoming mosquito spraying, visit your county's web site:

Nassau County Health Department.

Suffolk County Vector Control

For tips on preventing mosquitoes, and information on less toxic repellents, visit the Neighborhood Network's website:

http://neighborhood-network.org/pesticides/

mosquito_prevent.htm

Or download a report on mosquitoes from the Sustainability Institute at Molloy College:

http://si.molloy.edu/education/pdf/

Mosquito_Report.pdf

Shifting to a Farmer's Life

"The Practical Homestead" might have its limitations on Long Island but it still is pretty useful.

 If you're interested in keeping poultry, transforming a flower garden into a vegetable patch, pickling or preserving foods or anything else to make your lifestyle a little more self-sustaining, this book will help.

It's designed for larger properties and probably far more work than we'd want to handle but it is packed with plenty of good ideas that can be scaled down or adjusted to fit ordinary lives.

Golf Tournament to Benefit Group for the East End

The Group for the East End is holding its first golf fundraising event at Sebonack Golf Club on Oct. 19.

The event will begin with breakfast at 8:30 a.m., gunshot start at 9:30 a.m., 18 holes of golf, barbecue lunch, and awards on the club house veranda.

The tournament is limited to 72 players, so please reserve your tickets today. The cost to play is $1,000 per golfer ($775 is tax deductible).
For more information on Sebonack Golf Club, please visit www.sebonack.com.
For sponsorship opportunities, please click here.
For sponsorship questions, please click here to contact us.
For event information, please visit the event website 

Situated on 300 picturesque acres on Peconic Bay in Southampton, Sebonack is one of just a few world class golf courses built and maintained with environmentally sustainable practices. Sebonack appears to have fashioned itself from the wild terrain. In fact, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak designed the course to look as though it were manicured by time.

Book Review: Who Speaks for the Environment

Published just two weeks before the Gulf Oil disaster, the updated "Should Trees Have Standing?: Law, Morality, and the Environment" takes on extra significance in arguing that the environment itself has an important place in the debate over how much human damage should be tolerated.


 Reviewed on Amazon

Electric Cars and Their Design

This Thomson Reuters story refers to urban traffic but given what we're seeing on Long Island (anyone noticed how bad the Park Avenue traffic is in Huntington these days?), we could use this here, too.

Solar Power Event for Kids

   reLI, in partnership with Whole Foods Market, Lake Grove and GreenLogic Energy, is offering a free event Saturday at noon at Whole Foods Market, 120 New Moriches Road, Lake Grove.
After a brief educational talk and assembling your car, we'll take the solar cars outside to capture the sun's rays and then race them!
Refreshments will be provided and each child will be able to take his or her solar powered car home.
Please note: Reservations are required and this activity is not appropriate for very young children as there are many small parts involved. At least one parent needs to be present for the entirety of the event. It takes approximately one hour to assemble the cars.
Register for the event online: 
We hope to see you and your kids this Saturday, July 17th at 12PM!

Book Review: Backyard Homestead

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!" may be the best food self-sufficiency book available today. The well-organized book packs hundreds of ideas into its pages, allowing readers to pick and choose what works for them, no matter how much space and time they have available.

Want to milk a goat or grow wheat? Keep bees or smoke meat? Make beer or bake bread? It's all here, along with plenty of other ideas that range from very simple to much more complex.
Reviewed on Amazon

Book Review: Wind Power Basics

"Wind Power Basics: A Green Energy Guide" is a step-by-step handbook designed for anyone wanting to understand all aspects of the energy source.

Author Dan Chiras first notes the history of wind power in the United States, how it was set aside as electrical grids were established and how and why people are returning to its use. He makes the technology and terminology easy to understand, while warning of its possible pitfalls (unhappy neighbors), as well as making clear the case for using green power. Some of the topics include site assessment, tower installation and various systems that work in different situations.

Reviewed on Amazon

Book Review: From Container to Kitchen

Even homeowners with a decent amount of room for a garden can appreciate the good advice in "From Container to Kitchen: Growing Fruits and Vegetables in Pots."

After all, poor soil or the need to use the yard in a different way can get in the way. And for those lacking adequate space, containers can be the perfect solution to high bills for poor-quality vegetables and fruits from the supermarket.

Reviewed on Amazon

Book Review: Fresh From the Farm

What a terrific book, arriving just in time for spring and summer daytrippers who want to check out local food.

"Fresh from the Farm: Great Local Foods from New York State" is a guide to shops and farms from the Hudson Valley out to Long Island's East End.  It's gorgeous and it's packed with information about farmers, cheese shops, winemakers and fishermen and their goods. 

 Subtitled "A guide to the best shops and farms, with recipes," the book covers the 100-mile radius from New York City, uncovering the great diversity in food products to be found by those interested in moving out of the grocery store aisles.

Reviewed on Examiner.com

Book Review: Last Chance

Larry J. Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation, makes a compelling case for urgent action in "Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth (Speaker's Corner)."

It's not, he argues, that the Earth will destroyed but rather our lifestyles are in danger, with no one to blame but ourselves.
Review on Amazon

Book Review: Life, Money and Illusion

Mindless growth, proceeding without regard to the consequences to the planet, comes in for scrutiny in "Life, Money and Illusion: Living on Earth as if we want to stay." What author Mike Nickerson lays out as an alternative is a rethinking of priorities, new policies and a general restructuring that preserves the Earth's health but still provides for its human and other inhabitants.

Book Review: The Green Zone

"The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism" can be a tough read, if only because the book is a relentless criticism of the extreme environmental damage caused by the military-industrial complex. That's not to say that the book shouldn't be read because it should: the environmental side isn't something we consider very often when thinking about the military.
Amazon review

Book Review: Red Alert

Looking to the past to save the future,scholar Daniel R. Wildcat writes in Red Alert!: Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge (Speaker's Corner) that people can tackle and resolve environmental problems by drawing on native wisdom.

Amazon review

Book Review: Learn and Play the Green Way

Take-apart Teddy, squish bags, desert in a jar--what's not to like about "Learn and Play the Green Way: Fun Activities with Reusable Materials," from Redleaf Press?

Designed for people working with infants, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarten/first graders, the book presents 100 projects meant to help young ones learn to repurpose and reuse items and, in the process, improve their sensory perceptions and their cognitive, social and language skills.
Amazon Review

Book Review: Energy-Wise Landscape Design

There are dozens and dozens of great ideas on ways to save money while making your property attractive in "Energy-Wise Landscape Design: A New Approach for Your Home and Garden."

Projects include ways to keep a home cooler in summer to protecting it from the cold in winter, using local plants to ensure the best use of water, tips on the right way to plant trees, limiting the use of off-site topsoil and lots more.
Amazon review