Category: Real World Green

  • DIY Grow Light PDQ

    DIY Grow Light PDQ

    We don’t have a lot of space at Casa Cairn, so we have to make a lot of stuff do double duty. And why not? Most of our stuff is really used very infrequently. I’ll bet it’s pretty much the same at your house.

    Today we’ll take a two bulb florescent light from the garage and press it into it’s twice a year role as a grow light. Note that you don’t have to buy special –and expensive– grow bulbs, but your light should have two florescent bulbs, one in the Daylight or Cool spectrum (toward blue around 6,000 K) and one in the Warm end of the spectrum (toward red, around 2,500 K). Many door growers are using red and blue LED lamps, but those are expensive (although cheaper to run than fluorescents) for a home project.

    Here’s your materials list:

    • 16 ft of 2″ x 2″ lumber. The longest piece needs to be about 4’6″ long (about 3 inches longer than your fluorescent fixture). The uprights need to be equal length, around 3 foot long or so. The feet should be at least 1 foot long. As I note in the video, the controlling issue for the uprights is usually your ceiling fan.
    • 4 – plywood triangles, about 8″ on each side. Cut up some scrap.
    • 2 – screw in hooks to hold the light
    • A fist full of wood screws, about 1″ long.
    • 2 – cleats or some way to secure the light and keep it from crashing down on your seedlings
    • 1 – 24-hr timer. You light should be on for 18 hours off for 6 hours. If plants don’t get rest, they can’t generate the hormones and enzymes they need to grow.
    • a length of line so that you can raise and lower the light. Note: the closer you put your light to the plants, the less “leggy” they will grow.

    This video was edited, including voiceover, on my iPad. Not quite as smooth a job editing as I’d like, but power was out for much of the project.

  • Workshop Bench from recycled Kitchen Cabinets & Counter RWG Video

    Workshop Bench from recycled Kitchen Cabinets & Counter RWG Video

    Recycling old kitchen cabinets into a new workshop bench on this Real World Green show. Upcycling or repurposing kitchen cabinets that would have been thrown out, we make these into an upcycled garage or basement workshop bench and storage cabinets. This how to re-use kitchen cabinets video shows one way to recycle construction materials, or materials from deconstruction of a kitchen renovation.

    These kitchen cabinets are from my parent’s house and we made them into a work bench for my sister’s basement workshop. There are all sorts of ways to re-use kitchen cabinets, they make great storage units in your basement or garage, and  if you don’t like the color, you can clean them with a grease cutting cleanser, sand them lightly, then paint them. Use a foam roller for best results when painting kitchen cabinets.

    When deconstructing a kitchen with the plan to re-use the old cabinets, be careful when removing the cabinets. Many times they are screwed in without the thought of someone wanting to re-use them with lots of screws. Kitchen counterops are usually screwed in from  underneath, but there may be construction adhesive holding them in as well. Use a pry bar, aka wonder bar, and gently wedge it between the lower cabinet and the countertop.

    How have you re- used kitchen cabinets? What ideas do you have to put cabinets and counters to a second use?

  • Drone Laying Worker in a Queenless Hive

    Drone Laying Worker in a Queenless Hive

    When we check our honeybee hives, we first just stand there and observe them. We could tell there was something wrong with one of the hives.

    note the large drone cells scattered about

    It was quiet, the hive next to it was buzzing with activity.

    We opened it up to hear this odd low frequency hum in the hive, not something you usually hear. One look at a brood frame told us we had a bad problem on our hands.

    The queen was dead.

    And to make matters worse, one or more workers had started laying eggs in the cells, and since workers are infertile, all the eggs are drones.

    Queenless hive, signs of the drone laying worker here

     

    So how can a worker bee lay eggs? If  a hive is queenless, her pheromone is absent, and a few of the workers can then begin lay eggs. It doesn’t happen everytime a hive loses  queen, and this is the first time it has happened to us.

    You can’t just put  new queen in one of these hives, as the laying workers will kill the new queen. You have two choices, either combine the queenless hive with a healthy hive nearby, or get rid of the laying workers.

    One of our Facebook fans explained how she did this:

    Rhonda wrote: “Not good. I had this happen last year. I took the hive that had some young bees and some older bees in it and moved at about 2000′ away from the original location, dumped all the bees out onto the ground-every one of them, then took the hive body back to the original location. The younger, drone layers had not been out of the hive yet, so they could not find their way back home. I then transferred a queen cell from another hive into that hive and before long everything was good again. I know, it as a bit chancy, but the other options weren’t much better.”

    Healthy frame of brood, note the curled up larvae.

    The laying workers are nurse bees who have yet to leave the hive, so they have don’t know any outdoor landmarks or orientation to return to the hive. The older bees, who are foragers, know the location of the hive, so when dumped out of the hive, they will fly back to its location.

    This hive was pretty weak, so I’m thinking right now i’ll combine it with the stronger hive next to it, and perhaps split the strong hive in  week or two, with a new queen in the split. * we did the beehive combine, click here to see how to combine beehives

    Have you dealt with a drone laying worker? Let us know below

  • Green Travel : Take the Train : RealWorldGreen.com

    Green Travel : Take the Train : RealWorldGreen.com

    Air Travel has a huge carbon cost, its not green at all. Consider travel by train, its very green, and much less stressful. Watch this episode of Real World Green and green your travel. How do you green your travel or vacation? Let us know below:

  • Green Your Car, Increase Your MPG : RealWorldGreen.com

    Green Your Car, Increase Your MPG : RealWorldGreen.com

    Learn how to get better gas mileage and green your car in this Real World Green video, on location at Eric’s dad’s house. Some more information than you need to know in this one, but still, you’ll learn some tips on getting better MPG from your car. Let us know your suggestions in the comments below:

  • Green Your Office Paper Use : RealWorldGreen.com

    Green Your Office Paper Use : RealWorldGreen.com

    Greening your office starts with paper use in your office or home. Recycled Paper is just the start to an eco office. Watch here as we show you a few ways to make your office more green, and less full of paper. How to you green your office and home? Let us know below:

  • Green the Office : Take the Stairs : RealWorldGreen.com

    Green the Office : Take the Stairs : RealWorldGreen.com

    Be Green and Healthy, forsake the elevator and take the stairs. Learn more in this Real World Green video. How to you green your health? Let us know below:

  • Improve Your Gas Mileage : RealWorldGreen.com

    Improve Your Gas Mileage : RealWorldGreen.com

    Improving your gas mileage MPG is one way to green your life, and its not that hard. Here we take a ride in Mark’s Shelby GT Cobra and talk about greening your car mileage. What’s your way to get better MPG? let us know below:

  • How to Recycle Glass : RealWorldGreen.com

    How to Recycle Glass : RealWorldGreen.com

    Recycling glass does not get as much notice as recycling plastic, but we have a lot of glass in our waste stream. Let’s look at how to recycle glass in this Real World Green video. Let us know your thoughts below:

  • Make Paper CD Cases : RealWorldGreen.com

    Make Paper CD Cases : RealWorldGreen.com

    Plastic CD cases are wrong in many ways, so why not grab some paper from the recycle bin and make your own Paper CD or DVD cases? Today we show you how to make paper CD DVD cases, or holders, or whatever you want to call them. How do you  make CD DVD cases? Let us know below:

  • Green Your Fast Food : RealWorldGreen.com

    Green Your Fast Food : RealWorldGreen.com

    You can green your fast food, sort of and its ok to eat donuts, just watch us first. Green your fast food, auto, and your life by being greener in your car and your take out food. The Labrador Retrievers join us in this video to help out with the donuts! Watch all our RWG Videos for more green info on carbon footprints and practical green tips on recycling, eco lifestyles, and having a green life, office, and home: link here.

  • Refurbished Tools are Green : RealWorldGreen.com

    Refurbished Tools are Green : RealWorldGreen.com

    Need a new tool? Consider buying a refurbished one instead and green your garage and home. Watch Real World Green to learn more. Let us know your thoughts below.

  • Green Your Laundry Detergent : RealWorldGreen.com

    Green Your Laundry Detergent : RealWorldGreen.com

    Laundry Detergents can cause sudsing in our waterways, and detergents with phospates can cause algae blooms in waterways as well. In this Real World Green show, we learn how to green your clothes washing, all while having clean green laundry

  • Green Sports Shoes, Sneakers, Tennis Shoes : RealWorldGreen.com

    Green Sports Shoes, Sneakers, Tennis Shoes : RealWorldGreen.com

    greening your athletics? yes, you can. Learn here how to recycle your old tennis shoes, sports footwear, sneaker, in this episode of Real World Green. let us know your thoughts below the video:

  • Toilet Paper: Green your Bathroom

    Toilet Paper: Green your Bathroom

    I was recently contacted by Seventh Generation about a new product they are coming out with, and they are going to send us some. we’ll see what it is. This reminded me of our Green Your Bathroom : Toilet Paper episode of Real World Green.

    Once our site redesign is complete, we’ll fully integrate the Real World Green video series into the Gardenfork site, for now you can watch them all on the RWG page here.

  • Green Your Gift Wrapping, Green Your Holiday

    Be green this Christmas with more ways to Green Your Holiday from Eric Rochow and Real World Green. Today, learn how to wrap presents in a green way, and see eric in his santa hat. fun. watch.

  • Real Christmas Trees are very green

    Real Christmas Trees are very green

    Buying a Christmas Tree every year, instead of using an artificial tree, is very green, in terms of eco-friendliness. Watch and Learn here on Real World Green.