New DVDs and Books Purchased with Grant Money

We continue to purchase new materials and following is just a smattering of items for you to try. Click on a link below to place a hold.

DVDs

Vanishing of the Bees
Dirt, the Movie
Blue Gold:World Water Wars
Gasland
Books

Residential Windows: A Guide to New Technologies and Energy Performance by John Carmody
The World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky
Folks, this Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin
The Beekeeper's Bible

Pack a lunch; it's healthy, saves resources and money

Last night I heard on the ABC news that according to a recent survey by Accounting Principals, the average worker spends $37 a week or $2,000 a year on buying  lunches. Purchasing coffee can add another $1,000 to the tab. Folks, we can do a lot with that amount of money!

To save money and resources, we can make our own coffee, bring it with us in a reusable container and not waste all those paper cups and lids.  Also there is no wasting time standing in line or idling our cars at the fast-food window. Home-prepared food tends to be healthier and less salty too.

Some brown bag ideas can be found in the statewide Electronic Resources.  Go to the Gale Databases search for"lunchbox cooking" and limit  your results to full-text documents.  A cookbook to try is My Rustic Sandwiches: Great Recipes to Savor Artisan Bread.

The Mangrove Tree and the 50 Book Challenge

Are you taking the 50 Book Challenge?  I am....but I admit that I am reading a lot of shorter books in order to accomplish it  Remember you have a WHOLE YEAR to read 50 books and they can be books of any length.  Why not start with our 2012 Community Read book The Mangrove Tree?  Click on the link to place a hold on this lovely children's book.  This book has fantastic illustrations and is the story of our local Wenham hero, Dr. Gordon Sato.  He started the Manzanar Project and solved the hunger crisis in Eritrea by discovering how to make mangroves flourish despite inhospitable conditions.  Read about this amazing plant and the dedicated man who made it happen.  You can meet Dr. Sato and share in his work on March 29 at Gordon College.  A reception will take place at 6 PM and the lecture at 7:30 PM.  The book may inspire you to consider growing some extra vegetables this year to share with Acord or another local food pantry.  Please call the library for more information.

20 Mule Team Borax is a good cleaning product for the laundry room and bathroom and is touted as a less toxic cleaner. I spent some time learning about this product today (as well as using it as a water softener in the wash and to clean  hard water stains in the shower). 
Here's an interesting question I found in the statewide electronic resources:

Dear EarthTalk: I've heard so much about using Borax for green housecleaning. But if this mineral has to be mined, doesn't that negate some of its "green-ness?"

Go to Gale's Science in Context database and enter keyword "borax."  Scroll down to the magazine articles to read the answer to this question.

I'm looking forward to hearing Heidi Wilcox of the Mass. Toxics Use Reduction Institute when she presents a talk on the many ways in which toxic items are present in everyday items that we use in the home. She will also present alternatives and make-it-yourself versions at her talk at the library on February 15, 2012.

Save energy, resources and time with a pressure cooker.

I've missed making beans in my pressure cooker (the sealing ring needed replacement). A pressure cooker is a marvelous device that saves time, energy and packaging. Using dried beans rather than canned is less expensive, reduces the need for a metal can (that must later be rinsed and recycled) and gives the cook the option to use less salt.  I found a new sealing ring and overpressure plug on the Internet at Red Hill General Store and ordered them to make my 35 year old cooker act like new again!  For online articles on pressure cookers, go to http://www.hwlibrary.org/Online_Electronic_Resources.html  Scroll down to the InfoTrac Home Improvement Collection and type pressure cookers.  Or go directly to http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=PPHI&u=mlin_n_hamwen and enter  pressure cookers.