It's the most wonderful time of the year

I'm very excited for the house things and the sustainability things that are going on in my life right now! It's good to feel like you're making a positive contribution to the health of the world, even if it is in your own small way! And when the things you are doing can also coincide with house projects, even better! Also, when crappy things happen like break-ins and broken water heaters, you have to focus on positive stuff.

We finally replaced our back door today (see above!), with a door from Lowe's, made by Milliken Millworks. Milliken is a fairly local company (factories in Sterling Heights, MI, Cincinnati, OH and somewhere Pennsylvania), which is great, and most of their doors are EnergyStar or at least a lot more energy effiicient than the door we used to have. Lowes really walked me through the whole door-selection and buying process- if you ever need to get a new door for some reason, I would endorse Lowes as a good place to go!

Also got our new water heater in last week... it's not an energystar one per-say, but it will be a lot more efficient than our previous one that was 20 years old! And I set it on medium-low, because we don't need to have scalding water.

Yesterday, I met with a neighbor who is interested in helping me form a Neighborhood Watch group, and he had some great ideas. He also has tech-saavy web skills that I lack, and some mad martials arts skills, which would both be assets to any Neighborhood Watch type of group. This was a timely meeting, because yesterday one of my backyard neighbors got broken into- their front door was kicked in! This is maybe the 8th or 9th recent break-in in this area, which is unfortunate and ridiculous.

Today I am meeting with another neighbor who seems to be really involved in sustainability efforts here in Ypsilanti. Every time I looked up something about recycling or gardening or urban farming, her name came up! I finally just emailed her and said, "Hello! I think you are invovled in everything I would like to be involved in. Can you share with me?" Luckily she did not think I was a huge weirdo, and we are meeting tonight to talk about urban farming, and the Transition movement in Ypsilanti!

I've also continued mapping out what I want my edible gardens to look like in the spring. I'm going to try to put together a price estimate of the total cost to build the raised-beds and get the plants I need, so I can start saving money now!

The Master Gardener program starts in January and I am so so psyched for it. I want to call the MSU-Extension office every day to see if they have our study packets yet. I've really missed schooling and active learning in a classroom setting, and I'm looking forward to returning to the classroom and learning about a subject that is near and dear to my heart: plants, growing things, and the earth!