Thursday, February 26, 2015

Rain Garden Presentation

On Tuesday, March 10 at 6:00 pm the Live Sustainable, Lincoln County will meet in room 156 in the lower level of the Lincoln County Service Center, 801 N. Sales Street, Merrill.  During this month’s meeting Dan Marzu, Lincoln County University of Wisconsin – Extension Agricultural Educator will discuss the process of developing a rain garden.  Topics to be discussed include location for a rain garden, how to size the garden, and plants that can be used.  This is a free event and the public is welcome to attend.  For more information please contact Dan Marzu at 715-539-1078 or daniel.marzu@ces.uwex.edu.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Don't Miss Our Seed Saver Resourses On Pinterest!

Have you ever tried saving seeds from your garden to use next year? If you haven't you should consider giving it a try. Here's the link to our seed saver resources on pinterest.

Let us know what you think!


Thursday, July 11, 2013

Save The Date:“ Food Preservation Basics (Freezing, Canning and Dehydrating)”

Upcoming Topic:

August 2013- “Food Preservation Basics (Freezing, Canning and Dehydrating)” Would you like to preserve your own food but don’t feel confident enough to try it on your own? Would you like to know what items to purchase to be successful in home food preservation? Would you like to brush up on the most up to date science so you know your food preservation practices ensure you are producing safe food? Then you do not want to miss this presentation. We will discuss best practices, the reasons we do things the way we do them, and time saving tips when freezing, canning and dehydrating to ensure safe, high quality food. Hope to see you there!

Presenter: Amanda Kostman, Lincoln County UW-Extension Interim Family Living Educator

When: Tuesday August 13, 6:00-7:00 pm

Where: Lincoln County Service Center-Lower Level, 801 N Sales Street, Merrill


Friday, July 5, 2013

Here’s the Dish

Join us for ”Here’s the Dish”

Do you have garden produce that you don’t know how to prepare or do you want to lean more about cooking with them? Then this meeting is for you! We will be talking about tips and tricks for cooking with produce and share recipes that will use the produce in a way that tastes great! Please feel free to bring a recipe and or/favorite dish to pass. Your County Exension Staff will be on hand to answer your questions. Hope to see you there!

Presenter: Meghan Young, Lincoln County UW-Extension Nutrition Educator
When: Tuesday July 9th 6:00-7:00 pm
Where: Lincoln County Service Center-Lower Level, 801 N Sales Street, Merrill

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Barrel's of Fun!

At the first open meeting of Live Sustainable Lincoln Co we had an attendance of thirty people! We thought that was outstanding. Betty Ann Tubbin opened with a short business meeting. Followed by a twenty minute slide presentation by Dan Marzu about composting barrels and rain barrels. Following his presentation Amanda Kostman led us through a brain storming session to find out what the members of the group are interested in. You will find the results below.

We are off to a great start! Won't you join us? For more information contact Dan Marzu or Amanda Kostman at: 715-539-1072.

Dan Marzu spoke about rain barrels and compost barrels.
Live Sustainable, Lincoln County
Results of Brainstorming activity at 5-14-13 Meeting
and additional ideas from others submitted.

Gardening
• Gardens – how to best utilize space
• Vertical gardens
• Rock gardens
• How to do things cheaply
• Where to buy supplies
• Perennial sharing or Sale
• How to control bugs naturally
• “Farmscaping” – Grow food not lawns
• Permaculture – learn about it
• Growing worms and night crawlers
• Lake shore plants
• Buffer zones for water runoff
• What kind of cucumbers grow best in
Wisconsin
• Herb gardening
• Raised bed gardening
• Straw bale gardening – best thing to plant in
straw bales
• Strategies for garden diseases
o Peas
o Tomatoes
• Care of apple trees
• Care of rhubarb plants
• Growing blueberries and black berries
• Growing blueberries and raspberries
• Mulch
• Using beneficial insects
• Aquaculture
• How to build a greenhouse and where to
get the plastics that are strong enough
• Discuss how to grow indoors
• Container gardens
• how much a plot of land is at the
Community Garden? I think we should let
people know that the community garden is
available for those who want to garden but
don't have enough room to plant.
• gardening ideas

Composting
• How high in what nutrients can you get
your compost to be?
• Composting - building a compost barrel
• Composting
• How to keep it from smelling so much

Sustainable Building / Energy
• Making solar panels
• Solar panels
• Off “the grid” living
• Alternatives to treated lumber
• Big time/large/ milking parlors 1000+ cattle
– methane gas
• Alternative energy (residential use)
o Heating water
o Solar
o Wind
• Reduce energy use
• Wind and solar energy ideas
• Ways to save energy (household)
• Can we set us an “architectural” exchange
bank – so if people remove doors someone
else can adapt or use them?
• Portable coops with runs
• Sustainable energy

Food Preservation

• Beginning canning
• How to cook garden veggies
• Dehydrating fruits and vegetables
• Wine making
• Yogurt making
• How to preserve green and red peppers
• Canning – making jar baby food
• Food preservation: fermented food like
Kimchi
• Everything Canning (night classes or
weekends)
• Drying Food (dehydrating)
• Making jams / sauces
• Food preservation

Water Conservation
• Grey water reuse
• Large water systems – cisterns, etc. from
rain water Potable
• Making city water safer/less “toxic” – if you
filter you water, how do we properly
dispose of the filters (composting?) or reuse
somehow?
• Class on how to build a rain barrel
• recycle water

Others
• Encourage food stores to use the spoiled
vegetables for compost
• Get chickens legal in City of Merrill
• raising animals for food (and find out if it is
legal to have chickens, small pigs, ect in
town
• Community gardens (2)
• How to decrease the garbage we produce?
• Reduce, reuse, recycle ideas
• Reuse / resign clothing
• Educate – global warming is not anymore a
matter of opinion
o Reduce!!
o Reuse
o Recycle
• Activism:
o Use public space to grow food
o Change laws that farmers can sell
raw milk
o Stop selling bottled water
o A public kitchen with teachers
where people can preserve food.
• Card and spin wool
• Wild editable food (2)
• Natural cleaners and insecticides
• Cleaning w/o danger of chemicals
• Shrub and tree trimming
• Bee keeping
• Bee hive in bear country
• Work with county board to put solar panels
on public buildings
• Work with county board to work on
recycling laws for people who live in the
country
• Becoming an eco-community
• Low energy transportation
• Livestock care – from raising the young to
butchering or old age
• Alternative Fencing Ideas
• Marketing – home grown crops
• Educate about saving
• Educate and encourage organic methods