This Saturday, May 1st, ReUse needs folks to help plant trees with Re-Tree WNY. After this planting we will have literally and officially planted 1,000 trees in the historic Cold Springs and historic Masten neighborhood. I am not sure how many more plantings Re-Tree WNY will sponsor in the future so we want to make sure this one counts! We pre-dig the holes so this volunteer opportunity is really great for people of all ages because it’s not as strenuous as some other sites.
Please eat a hearty breakfast and dress appropriately; we will plant even if it’s raining.
I guarantee it will be muddy, so wear boots or sneakers you can get dirty. We will also do a Street Blitz in conjunction with The Great American Cleanup; neighborhoods across the country are sprucing and clearing litter from sidewalks–come out and join the effort!
We’ll begin at 298 Northampton at 9am and give you a quick tree planting training and put you into teams; we intend to be done by 3pm. If you’re under 18, please bring the waiver signed by a parent.

Try to carpool.  Parking is available behind the store on Eaton Street, near 158 Eaton.

As always, we will finish with a potluck and group massage (shoulders only–no feet). Caesandra is making her not-quite-famous-yet tater tot casserole, pear-n-spice bread pudding and whatever else she finds in the pantry. Feel free to bring chips, hot dog buns, cornbread muffins, cookies, salads, utensils or a crockpot of comfort food.

If you’re available this Friday, we could use a few extra hands to pickup the trees from the garage. Please meet us at 8am ReUse to carpool over call 885-4131 so we know to expect you.

This Wednesday (4/28) and Friday (4/30) we will be transplanting many of the seedlings that we’ve started in our basement and hardened off in coldframes in our backyard. We germinated seeds and distributed seedlings to support several community gardens, made them available to fellow gardeners at our Seedling Swap last Saturday, and still have some left to put into our own gardens and share with our Patchwork Neighbors who have adopted a bed.

Come out to our gardens at 326 Northampton on Wednesday from 2pm – 5pm to help us with transplanting our seedlings and other garden chores (and we’ll be there Friday too–but call ahead because we also have to go pick up trees). If you have adopted a bed and want to transplant a few into your garden, you can do that too! We are running out of adoptable beds; hurry if you want one–contact us at greenspaces {at} buffaloreuse(.)org or come out on Wednesday.

And whether you’ve adopted a bed or not, we can always use your help with garden chores during weekly Workday hours:

-Wednesdays from 2pm – 5pm

-Fridays from 9am – Noon

I’m doing some research to both justify and console myself with this whole worm-eating business. I am obsessed with worms. Although I have never eaten one, I am confident that I can make myself do it without hesitation or guilt. Now I just have to figure out how to avoid the indigestion–and curse of death.
I came across this silly song…
Version #1
Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I’m gonna go eat worms.
Big fat juicy ones, little tiny squirmy ones, I’m gonna go eat worms.
First you bite the heads off,
Then you squirt the guts out,
Then you throw the skins away.
Nobody knows that I eat worms three times every day.

Version #2
Nobody loves me, everybody hates me,
Sittin’ in the garden eatin’ worms.
First one went down easy,
Second one went down squeezy,
Third one stuck in my throat;
Fourth one choked me,
Fifth one poked me,
Sixth one got my goat!

EGADS! Michael just found the tune– It’s very odd.

Can Fox News be trusted as a source for facts? If so, eating worms and dirt is potentially healthy and can fortify one’s immune system! This might be accurate. I ate my boogers until I was ten and I practically never get sick and I have no allergies.

I also find it amusing that Michael will eat his scabs, but balks at eating a worm.

From Tara Bukowski …
I’m writing to ask a huge favor. The faculty and staff at my High School (Bennett) have decided to undertake our own extreme home makeover for one of our students.  His name is Louis and he has Down Syndrome.  His mother has MS and is wheelchair bound.  They are not on public assistance and yet are somehow still making it by.  We recently became aware of the situation in which this family was living.  The house is in disrepair, the mom in her wheel chair, does not have a bathroom she can get to, nor does she have access into and out of the house.  It is our goal on June 12th to fix up as much of the house as possible.  This consists of dry walling, painting, putting in a bathroom on the first floor, wheelchair ramps, garden and much more.  We are looking for help with everything!!  If you know anyone who knows anyone we would love it if you could call in a favor on Louis’ behalf.  This is a very deserving family who if you knew, you would want to help as well.  Attached is our formal letter and flyer which tells a little bit about Louis.  We also have a fan page on facebook called Louisville Good in the Hood which you can friend.  Check out the link below to meet Louis and some of the people who love him.  Thanks in advance for all your help!  Please contact Tara tara811 {at} gmail(.)com
Love Tara
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHxo2vgZLn0

Scott Ferris, a senior graduating from UB’s Visual Art Program is exhibiting his thesis work and he chose aspects of Green Demolition to document and photograph. The photographs are from the houses deconstructed on Michigan this past winter. The work will only be up for a few days. Scott will be there Tues night to meet folks and answer questions. I hope you can go and see his work because it offers some exclusive images.

The Pierce Arrow Commerce Park, located on 255 Great Arrow Avenue in Buffalo, has generously donated space for the exhibit 9am-5pm.  Please call ahead, (716) 874-1101 ext 135, or email twall {at} greatarrow(.)net

Kevin told everyone to pray for rain so we’d have enough water in the Big Arse RainBarrel to wash cars on Saturday–but now the forecast for Saturday IS RAIN!  drat!
We will have the Open House rain or shine!
If there are any tailgaters or other folks not using their fold-up tents this Saturday, we could really use 3-4. We are expecting a couple hundred folks on Saturday for the Earth Warming Party and need to have a place for the seedling swap, BBQ grill & potluck and a few other things. We’ll make an arcade out of them! If you can lend us your tent, please drop it off on the porch at 158 Eaton or at The ReSource.
We will be very busy this week with Thursday’s Earth Day and Saturday’s Earth Warming preparations so I don’t think we’d be able to go pick it up unless it’s on one of our regular routes.  Thanks!
Update: Our friend Chris Ziolkowski came through with a fine 20′x20′ tent. Thanks, Chris! So did Kathy McNally!

Thanks to all our friends and supporters who diligently voted every day! We didn’t win first prize, but being a runner-up is nothing to sneeze at – a $5,000 grant for our community programs.

Folks, we will be at the Green Expo this Saturday, sharing with the public about green demolition, landfill diversion and building community. These events usually cost the exhibitors a fee. We are very fortunate that last year Mary Fisher sponsored us and this year, Deborah Robbins of RUBBERFORM Recycled Products is sponsoring ReUse.  So, I wanted to give them props and share a little of what they do in case you’re not able to make it to the Expo.  They help clean up the environment by collecting rubber and they recycle the rubber into products for your home, work place (like safety mats), parking lots and other construction related needs–even stuff for playgrounds.  Their website features hundreds of eco-friendly products and it describes how using their product is better than some other methods.  For instance, buying one of their curb ramps instead of buying (an rebuying) gravel as a temporary fix for getting up curbs helps the environment and your budget.  We are interested in the hose ramps because we try to use the fire department’s retired fire hoses to fill the water barrels in the gardens so folks can water their vegetables.  The ramp would allow us to keep the hoses longer.  Protect the environment; buy American-made recycled products!

A pre-1994 toilet uses at minimum 3.4 gallons of water per flush.  In 1992, the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which mandated that, from 1994, the common flush-toilet use only 1.6 US gallons of water per flush.  In response to the Act, manufacturers produced low-flow toilets, which many consumers did not like.  Manufacturers responded to consumers’ complaints by improving the toilets.  The improved products are generally identified as high efficiency toilets or HET’s.   HET’s possess an effective flush volume of 1.28 gallons or less.

The only bad thing about these HET’s is that they can be very pricey. Here is a neat way to save money without shelling out a lot of money for something that sounds like a robot.

It’s simple, all you need is a 1/2 gallon bottle(milk jug) and some water.  By filling the bottle with water and inserting it into the top part of your toilet you simply save 1/2 gallon of water per flush.  Yeah, its not as productive as the HET’s but it’s fairly a priceless way to save money on your water bill.  If you have room within your model, you can add another bottle to save more, just be careful the bottle(s) do not touch any working parts.

Another way of doing this is by inserting sand or pebbles within the bottle instead of water, or you can insert rubber bricks in place of the bottle.  Those different ways just cost a little bit of money.  Why not just use whats around your house.

Caesandra found another fun option, the Sink Positive where after you finish–the washing of your hands helps fill the tank for the next flush!  Ingenious.

Join ReUse and PUSH for a karaoke contest tonight at 10 at the Essex Street Pub! Come cheer or Boo for Team ReUse or Team PUSH (of course you will cheer for us…we are much better singers) and enjoy a beer or two or five or six!

After asking around PUSH and ReUse I can be fairly certain that ReUse could win tonight’s competition. The only story I’ve heard about PUSH’s karaoke experience  involves  forgetting the lyrics to their song and getting booed by the crowd.  Although ReUse does have some amateur karaoke singers up in the competition, I’ve been told that Michael’s singing can drown out anything considering how loud he sings, so maybe his talent will make up for the newbies and bring us to victory!

It doesn’t really matter who the better team is(… ReUse), just come out and have some fun with us!