By Jeff Feldman
Lately I’ve been reminded of a silly campfire skit I once saw. The campfire host is speaking to those gathered when another person races onto the scene, flailing their arms, shouting, “It’s all around me! Help! It’s all around me!” The host stops the person, and with clear concern, asks, “What is it? What’s all around you?” The second person smiles, shrugs, and nonchalantly replies, “The air.”
Goofy, I know. But lately I’ve been experiencing that same sense that “it’s all around me.” And I’m not talking about the …

A flip of the calendar page and we find ourselves in June. With temperatures now routinely rising into the 80s, winter has finally melted into memory. These are the days to start thinking about vacations, BBQ’s and household insulation.
That’s right, I said insulation. Adding insulation to your home is one of those things that very easily comes to mind on those shivery cold winter days. But summer is an ideal time to give a little thought to beefing up the insulating blanket keeping your home comfortable all seasons of the …

by Jeff Feldman
 
The Eastern Panhandle was flush with green events last month in honor of the 40th Earth Day. Films, lectures, and festivals brought crowds to parks, town centers, and community gathering spots throughout the area, all in recognition and celebration of the relationship we have with our planet. If you somehow missed out, or simply didn’t get your fill of such events, there are more opportunities to come: Friday, May 21 and Saturday, May 22 bring us the second annual Building for a Greener Future Conference and Eastern Panhandle …

by Jeff Feldman
 
As I lay down these words, snow still dominates the view out my window. In Fiona Harrison’s mind, though, the land is arranged in neatly-shaped planting beds, each the rich black of freshly turned earth just beginning to reveal the luminous green hint of good things to come. Harrison is a farmer, and farmers tend to think one season ahead of the rest of us.
Fiona Harrison runs Slaynt Vie Farm, a small-scale farm operation, part of the expanding movement of people returning to the land to raise food, …

by Jeff Feldman
“How’s the house?”
I am asked this a lot. In winter, this question is often followed with another question, either asked or implied: “Staying warm?”
These might seem unusual questions to ask the average homeowner. But factor in an unusual house—strawbale-insulated with no conventional heating system, and an unusually chilly winter with January and February lows regularly dipping to the single digits—and the curiosity makes sense.
I can’t always tell if people are asking these questions with genuine interest or suspicious skepticism. Sometimes I wonder if their real question is, “Do …

by Jeff Feldman
Some people wait for the stars to align before initiating action; for Barbara Humes, it had more to do with the Sun. Humes had been waiting eight years to see solar electric panels raised on the roof of her Harpers Ferry’s home. In late 2009, the pieces finally fell into place, and renewable energy came to her Ridge Street home.
Nature has been harnessing the power of the Sun since the dawn of time. Leaves converting sunlight to energy via photosynthesis are the original solar cells. Humans began following …

by Jeff Feldman
It all began simply enough. Earth pigments, ground to a fine powder, were mixed with water or rendered animal fat  to form a paste. This was the medium our cave-dwelling ancestors used to decorate  their humble abodes as much  as 40,000 years ago. From this prehistoric form of artistic expression forward, humans have used natural materials  to color, bind, and thin what, these days, comes from a can. But like so many things we take for granted in our mod-ern age, the paint we know today has traveled far from itssimple, natural …

by Jeff Feldman
I sat engrossed in Coal Country during last month’s American Conservation Film Festival in Shepherdstown. The film documents a range of perspectives on the issue of surface mining for coal in Appalachia, what many have come to call mountaintop removal. Interviews and footage depict miners expressing pride in their heritage; locals struggling to navigate a range of assaults upon their quality of life, health, jobs, and sense of community; and coal company representatives, lawyers, citizen activists, and elected officials each interjecting their own sometimes narrow view of the …

By Jeff Feldman
At his Glenmont Estate in West Orange, N.J., Thomas Edison must be rolling in his grave. As part of the Energy Independence and Security Act passed by Congress in December 2007, the incandescent light bulb — the very one Edison reputedly discovered 10,000 ways NOT to make before he finally got it right — will be phased out of use in the United States beginning 2012. The United States is actually a bit behind the curve on implementing this type of mandate for improved energy efficiency in lighting. …

By Jeff Feldman
On August 24, the federal government’s Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act, better known as “Cash for Clunkers,” came to an abrupt end.  With auto dealerships advertising this rebate program via jumbo-sized block-lettered banners, flashing signs, and blaring TV commercials, it was hard to be out of the loop on this as summer wound down.  In the end, nearly 700,000 gas-guzzlers were taken out of service with rebates toward the purchase of new vehicles being dispensed to the tune of roughly $2.9 billion.  The program improved the …