Gas calculator

I had to fill my tank today and noticed that the price of gas is trending up again. Curious, I looked up historical charts for gas futures, and found that prices do tend to peak in the summer.

I also found an interesting gas calculator site. It has a couple different applications. You can plug in the price of a barrel of oil to see what that means to you at the pump in dollars and cents. And you can figure out exactly how much a more fuel-efficient car would save you in fuel costs.

There is also supposed to be an application to track your MPG and cost per mile, but I couldn't get it to work.

Get Nettled

"Ouch!" - or is that "yum?"

Maybe it's a little of both.

Where I live in central Wisconsin, the nettles have poked their sharp little dark green noses up out of the ground.

Despite their nasty sting, nettles are my absolutely favorite wild plant. I met a man once who had grown up in Nazi-era Germany. He said he owed his life to nettles. After the war his family had very little to eat- but the abundant nettle patches near his home kept them from starvation. Since hearing his story I have held a deep respect for nettles.

But the more I learn about them, the more my respect grows. Did you know that nettles:

• Are full of iron, vitamin A and a slew of other vitamins and minerals and are used as a nutitional supplement for animals and people alike
• Have anti-inflammatory properties
• Are great for your garden
  
• Yield not one but two natural dyes - green from the leaves and yellow from the roots
• Have been used like hemp and linen to make clothing for over two thousand years?

This last point is especially intriguing, considering how dependent we are on cotton and how wretched cotton production is for the environment. Even organic cotton is hard on the soil and requires an obscene amount of water. Nettles, on the other hand, grow like the weeds they are with little or no irrigation, herbicides, pesticides or artificial fertilizer.

And they're tasty, too!

Pick the leafy tops in the spring when the plants are young (be sure to wear gloves!) Take them home, wash them, drop them in a covered pot with just a little water, and simmer until tender. Cooking neutralizes the sting. Look for a second crop after the weather turns cool and rainy in the fall.

Nettles are delicious eaten with butter, salt and pepper; in casseroles, soups, or omelets - wherever you might enjoy spinach. You can also steep the dried leaves for a nutritious tea.

Next time you come across a patch of nettles, don't just dismiss them as vicious weeds. Give 'em a try. You may find they grow on you!

If a Tree Falls in the City

Let me tell you about the art opening I went to last night.

It was no ordinary exhibit.

Sure, the gallery was oozing with pretentiousness, as befits an art reception in a small town that wants to be big.

And the art, although certainly beautiful, was not unusual.

It was the printed material, and a dropped phrase here and there, which gave away the secret of the show.

Every item on display - over 170 of them by 50 local artists ranging from large tables to a little bookmark adorned with a tiny jewel-like burl of wood - was crafted out of wood from the same butternut tree. A tree that might otherwise have gone to waste.

The Butternut Project is the brainchild of woodworker and treecycler Mark Duginske. Its culmination, the exhibit entitled "If a Tree Falls in the City," on display at Wausau's Center for the Visual Arts through June 14th, serves a purpose beyond those of showcasing local talent and preserving the beautiful wood of an aged butternut tree. It shines a spotlight on an environmental practice whose time has come: the recycling of urban trees.

Here is what Mark has to say about urban wood:

With the combination of the economic stress and environmental awareness, Americans are now focusing on the improved use of local resources including urban trees. Urban trees for many years have been considered waste. Because of nails, cement and metal the traditional log buyers and sawmills avoid urban trees. without a reliable market for the urban trees, municipalities carried them to local landfills and dumped them as waste.

Dumping trees into landfills is not only wasteful of both wood and space, it's increasingly becoming illegal in many states, including Wisconsin. Many urban trees are hauled off to be made into paper. But most of them are beautiful old hardwoods which could be put to better use.

Any one of the items in the show is far more beautiful than your typical stick of furniture from the mall. What if we were to stop shipping in stuff from across the globe and start thinking about making good use of the resources close at hand?

Likely we'd use fewer resources and have sturdier, more beautiful things.

And maybe we'd appreciate them more, having witnessed what goes into their making.

The Butternut Project is one of a number of ongoing creative endeavors using the recycled trees from Wausau and the Marathon County Park system. If you are interested in recycled lumber or products made from recycled wood. or have creative ideas for future events, educational programs or other activities utilizing recycled wood, please let me know and I will pass your comments on to Mark Duginske.

Click the link for more information on harvesting urban timber.