The snow hasn’t melted for months in my yard (and yes, that is unusual for the Front Range of Colorado), but I guess it will melt someday, and I can get cracking on my landscaping, vegetable gardening and Xeriscaping projects for the year. At least all this moisture should be good for the yard. Also, home improvement site Networx.com is posting new stories about outdoor ideas, including my piece on landscaping for your climate. Hint: start by figuring out your climate zone from this psychedelic map.

I’ll use any excuse to put heavy trucks on my blog. I guess I never grew out of the little boy obsession with heavy machinery. This cement truck adorns the page because the latest piece in my series about green home improvement and construction at Networx.com is an article about ways to go green in building with concrete. Concrete is basically cement with chemical binders and additives. Neither is the most eco-friendly building material, but there are ways to improve the sustainability of concrete, and use it more sparingly than in traditional construction. Rock on.
My blog at EcoHearth.com is back for 2010, and better than ever. I will be posting every Wednesday with some jabber about businesses profiting (or saving) through sustainability. This week’s update is about food — one of my favorite topics. Restaurants plan to go more local and sustainable this year. Those are the top trends, according to chefs and restauranteurs.
Doctors, legislators and the American public all agree on the need for health care care reform. Yet the federal government has not discussed health care for 16 years. I remember all the optimism two months ago and the discussions of how President Obama was taking a smarter, better approach than the Clintons.
It may be all for nought. It seems Congress will once again fail to pass meaningful health care reform this year. Even doe-eyed patriots who trust their government have to believe health insurance and industry lobbies have undue influence and are fighting reform.
Fight back. Tell your legislator you want health care reform. And find out how much health care PACs and companies are trying to influence your legislators. It’s hard to remotely track every lobbyist and every Congressional staffer, but you can track the campaign funding for each legislator. Here’s my favorite online campaign tracking tool.
I used the database to look up my representative, Betsy Markey. She has received at least $7,000 from health care PACs since the November election. See more details here.