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ASPINWALL, PENNSYLVANIA
Aspinwall Borough
217 Commercial Ave.
Aspinwall, PA 15215
(412) 781-0213
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Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, CN Tower in Toronto, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour. Earth Hour 2010 became the biggest Earth Hour ever when a record 128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Asia Pacific to Europe and Africa to the Americas switched off. People across the world from all walks of life turned off their lights and came together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet. Earth Hour 2011 will take place on Saturday 26 March at 8.30PM. This Earth Hour we want you to go beyond the hour, so after the lights go back on think about what else you can do to make a difference. If you live in Aspinwall, purchase a motion sensor and turn off your lights when you go to sleep at night. Together our actions add up.
10 reasons why a personal trainer would be an asset in your lifestyle:
15 truly ground braking exercises!
by: TrainerJ
Animals in the Zoo is a beautifully illustrated board book where kids can sing and act out the motions and sounds of their favorite zoo animals.
The authors, Beth and William Hoos, live in Aspinwall with their three young children. It has taken two years to complete the project, and they are very excited about the book. The book was a real team effort combining Beth’s zoo and animal background with Willy’s business and marketing experience. Support these local authors and local retailers by buying the book at Aspinwall Bookshop or directly at http://www.animalsinthezoo.com.
The book idea emerged from Beth’s experience in zoo education at Zoo Atlanta where she designed children’s programs. Her experience merging activities about animal behavior into engaging, interactive, and fun programs for preschool age children eventually led to the idea for the new version of the classic song “The Wheels on the Bus.” As their own children embraced the new lyrics and started singing the song on road trips to the Carolinas and around town, they decided to share the fun through the creation of a board book.
“As we planned out the book, we approached watercolor artist Coe Steinwart to be our illustrator. Our family had come to love her illustrations in the award winning book, Elf on the Shelf. Coe loved the idea and embraced our vision beyond what we could have hoped,” says Beth Joy Hoos, author.
Each watercolor illustration depicts an animal displaying a natural behavior as well as children playing and acting in a similar way. While the orangutans are featured swinging through the trees, the kids are swinging on the playground monkey bars.
"As the illustrations developed, the bright, clear flow of watercolors helped me give each animal and child in the book action with an easy spirit and a sense of built in whimsy and fun!” says Coe Steinwart, the book’s illustrator. “Meet the purple elephant reaching its trunk high, the lion’s very loud roar, the blue snake slithering through the grass and my favorite, the pandas eating bamboo!”
She continues, “It was a delight for me to work with Willy and Beth and share their enthusiasm for this special book that so beautifully encourages a child's respect and insight into animal behavior."
Young children begin to make a connection and develop an appreciation for these exotic or endangered animals by imitating their motions and sounds to the classic tune. Young children get into this wonderful learning action quickly and love it!
Visit the http://www.animalsinthezoo.com for ordering information, to view a fun YouTube video or browse to the signed giclee prints for decorating children’s rooms.
Animals in the Zoo is available locally at the Aspinwall Bookshop (20 Brillant Ave.), Rosebuds (338 1st St.) and from independent book sellers nationwide, from Amazon.com and direct from the website http://www.animalsinthezoo.com. Support our local authors and our local retailers by buying the book and spreading the word!
Contact for book signings and wholesale orders:
Beth Hoos
At first glance, water seems abundant in our community. Go for a walk or drive, and you will pass many creeks and streams that flow into the Allegheny River. Rain falls consistently, and just when you think your grass needs the sprinkler a thunderstorm rolls in and the sky opens.
Last week many of us were caught off guard by the water main break. For just a few short hours we were asked to conserve water while it was being fixed. A similar problem occurred last winter with the heavy snowstorms. In these rare instances when we’re asked to conserve water, it can be just a minor convenience. Yet it wouldn’t seem this way if we established water saving habits throughout the year.
Why conserve water? Regardless of how much water an area receives through rainfall, its proximity to lakes, rivers, or reservoirs, most communities use 30-35% of their municipal energy for water and wastewater facilities. Even though water may seem abundant to us, the water that comes out of our tap is processed to the point where it’s safe for human consumption. If you waste it, you’re wasting all the energy that was used to make the water safe to drink. Likewise, the water that goes down the drain has to be treated by a wastewater facility, which also uses energy.
Here are some ideas for saving water at home:
These days we have so many choices on how, when and where we buy food, it’s hard to make smart decisions about what we put on our table. It’s easy to not think about where your food comes from, or why you can buy blueberries in the middle of winter, but the fact remains: The average meal travels almost 2000 miles from field to fork. Generally, the fruits and vegetables you buy at a grocery store were picked while they were still green and matured in a plane, in a truck, in a warehouse or on a shelf. When you buy local you drastically cut, and sometimes diminish entirely, the miles between you and your food.
Being a responsible consumer means buying local. Whether you have a favorite farmer’s market or grow your own, the benefits are immense and far outweigh any convenience a so-called one stop shopping store has.
A locavore is a person who takes advantage of farmer’s markets to purchase their goods and sometimes even services. Locavores know how important buying local is and have committed themselves to buying as much as possible as close to home as possible. They know that the advantages to being a locavore far surpass any ease you search out from convenience stores.
There are plenty of reasons to buy local, we have put together just a few:
More variety
When you buy from local farmers you don’t just get peppers; you get semi sweets, bells and bananas, hot, jalapeños etc. Local farmers are free to be creative in their choices regarding what they grow. You may just get tomatoes at the super market, but at the farmer’s market you can find heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and an assortment of others. Not sure how to prepare that squash? Just ask a farmer, or more accurately, the farmer’s wife! She is sure to know the perfect recipe to be enjoyed by all.
Keep local money in the community
It is estimated that every dollar spent in your local community generates double that in local income. The local economy reaps more rewards from small farms because the farm is more likely to re-invest their profits in other local businesses when they need seeds and other necessities.
Community awareness
When you buy local you get a sense of community that you can’t get from buying food at your local supermarket. Spending time in and around a farm is an appealing and unique way to form lasting relationships with your neighbors, friends, family and farmers. Many small farms have activities such as hayrides and festivals as well as days you can actually tour the fields where your food is grown. Bringing children and grandchildren to a farm is a memorable way to teach nutrition and hard work.
Safe food
There are various steps that food from the grocery store goes through before it reaches your table. When you limit those steps you also limit your risk of food contamination.
Less environmental impact
In general, our food travels almost 2000 miles to get to our table. Most of that travel is done on a plane or truck which deepens our dependence on petroleum. When you get produce from your local farmer you cut your “food miles” down almost completely.
Seasonal food is always new
Think about how refreshing an ice cold drink is in the middle of a hot summer day. It’s the same idea with a farmer’s seasonal harvest; a freshly picked ear of corn is much more enjoyable when it’s the first of the season and you haven’t had one all winter.
Fresh food is more nutritious
Fruits and vegetables that were freshly picked ripe are infinitely more nutritious that anything you can find in your local store’s produce department. Food that is picked green, packaged, shipped, stored and finally sold has so little nourishment that you are better off not eating it. In order to be healthy you have to eat healthy and your local farmer knows all about that.
It just plain tastes better
A cucumber just picked is almost a completely different thing than a cucumber that was ripened in a warehouse. Sugars turn to starches, plant cells shrink and food loses its flavor and color. When you buy local, you get a superior product that tastes better than anything that has been shipped to your area. Fresh produce explodes with flavor.
Local food is a breath of fresh air
A farm in your communities helps to lesson pollution in the area and leads to cleaner air. Farms provide fields, ponds, forests and more for the area’s habitat to thrive. Wildlife uses farm land to reproduce. Farmers respect the land and preserve nutrient soil and fresh water.
Wide open spaces
Having wide open spaces protects your community from becoming over developed. In turn this keeps local taxes low. After all, a field of corn can’t go to school nor does it need police protection or snow removal or any other service that would raise taxes. Plus, who doesn’t love wide open space?
Preserves farming and farming families
The American farmer is a dying breed. Many farm families simply can’t stay in business through these tough financial times. Many farmers only make 10% of every retail dollar spent. When you buy directly from the farmer and cut out the middleman, this percentage increases to 100%.
The future
When you support your local farmer, you are ensuring the next generation will have the ability to consume fresh, healthy and flavorful food. Buying local is like an investment in your community’s future. Without your support, neighborhood farmers will cease to exist, and without farms and farmers, we wouldn’t have food.
At Freedom Farms we strive to supply the community with the freshest produce available. We pick every single day to ensure we continue to offer healthy, fresh, high quality food at a fair price. We travel daily to various farmers’ markets in the area while continuing to offer an extensive list of products in our home market located at 795 Rt. 8, south of Butler. Go to our website at freedomfarmspa.com or Facebook us to find out more about when and where you can give us a taste.
Heather DeCann works at Freedom Farms. Visit the Freedom Farms at the Flea Market on Sunday mornings this summer at Commercial Avenue and Freeport Road.
Every Memorial Day, Aspinwall residents (former and current) gather in anticipation of the afternoon picnic. Setting off the day’s events is our annual parade, with participants such as the high school marching band, the Millvale trolley, baseball and Girl Scout groups, our veterans, and dozens of children excitedly riding their decorated bicycles. This yearly event draws the best from our town – friendly greetings, profound patriotism and the prospect of the summer ahead. Countless generations of Aspinwall citizens have made this day what it is.
But we cannot celebrate on this day without remembering the sacrifices of the men and women for whom this holiday was created. Scores of American soldiers have paid the ultimate price in order for us to partake and enjoy the festivities of this last Monday in May. Without their brave and honorable service, none of this would be possible.
So please remember while decorating your children’s bikes and firing up the grill to honor these men and women – past, present and future – for their selfless sacrifice. Keep a special thought for our soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq on that very day.
Memorial Day in Aspinwall is the essence of our town’s charm and beauty. Please enjoy the day while expressing gratitude to our armed forces.
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. And it is happening right here in Aspinwall! CSA is a mutual relationship between a farmer and a consumer. The consumer buys a “share” of the harvest and gets 8 different fruits and vegetables delivered right to their neighborhood, straight from the farm, each week for 23 weeks. The “drop site” is usually someone’s home who cooperates with the farm in exchange for a portion of their share. Harvest Valley Farms has a drop site for their CSA in Aspinwall at the home of Carol Balintine at 5 Center Avenue.
Harvest Valley Farms has a long history in Aspinwall. Operated by my brother Larry, my son, David, and myself, we have been selling fruits and vegetables in Aspinwall for four generations! I will never forget the stories that my father (Norman King) used to tell of him and my grandmother coming down from their farm near Dorseyville with baskets of tomatoes to sell in Aspinwall when there were only a dozen homes there. I personally started selling in Aspinwall with my father when I was eight years old. We always had a green van and delivered eggs and vegetables weekly to regular customers. In the winter we sold our own chickens and pork in addition to the eggs. Eventually we had to stop the “door to door “deliveries because the costs were too high. But instead we started selling at the Fireman’s Flea Market on Sundays. By this time the chickens were a thing of the past so we only needed a summer market. We stopped selling there once we started CSA a few years ago.
When I meet someone who lives in Aspinwall I always tell them that I grew up there because I spent so much of my younger life there. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. Learning to talk to people and sell at such an early age really helped to shape my life. And thankfully it happened in Aspinwall where everyone is so nice.
How does one judge the success of an outreach program like Green Streets?
Aspinwall has cleaner streets, alleys and train tracks?
Smiling faces – at the beginning of the event AND at the end?
Raffle prizes donated by local businesses – for the volunteers?
A huge pile of garbage bags at the Borough storage area?
Photographer from The Herald taking photos of the event?
Delicious food served by local businesses hence full tummies of volunteers?
Volunteers discussing how to make the event bigger and better next year?
At the risk of sounding like I am asking everyone to continue to be a litter bug – I look forward to next year and Green Streets being bigger and better………
Many of us recycle and feel great about doing so. It is a simple way to reduce trash, conserve raw materials, and decrease energy consumption. It is the first step that people take when they choose to adopt a greener lifestyle.
Another way to help the environment is to compost. What is composting? Instead of throwing kitchen scraps or yard refuse in the trash, you can combine these plant materials in a bin or pile. Eventually this waste will decompose into dirt which can be used as a soil amendment in the garden.
In order to compost, you will need a place in your yard to put the compost pile or bin. It is better to either construct a bin or purchase one, since an open pile tends to spread horizontally which is not a good thing if you have limited space.
Next, dig up a little soil where you will place your bin and set it aside. You will use this later to mix into the compost. You can then place the compost bin over this slight depression in the ground.
The refuse that you add to the compost bin will fall into two major categories: greens and browns. Greens are plant materials that tend to be wetter and full of nitrogen This include kitchen scraps (potato peelings, rotted fruit or vegetables, coffee grounds, crushed eggshells), fresh grass clippings, and old annuals. Browns are plant materials that tend to be drier and full of carbon. This includes dry leaves, dry straw or hay, and shredded paper. You will need about equal parts of greens and browns initially.
Please note that the kitchen scraps you place in your compost should not include dairy, meat, oil, or grease. The only exception is crushed eggshells, because it is mainly calcium and breaks down relatively quickly. Also, you should not add animal waste from a cat or dog because it contains harmful bacteria and pathogens. In addition, you should not add diseased plants, weeds that have started to form seeds, or plants that have been treated with herbicides or pesticides.
Once you have small amounts of green and brown materials, you can add them to your compost bin and mix in soil with a pitch fork or shovel. Some compost manuals advise you to layer the greens and browns together so that the materials break down faster. If you have the time, it’s also great to turn the pile once a week during the warmer months to speed up the decomposition process. You can add water if the compost seems dry or you have too many brown materials. If the compost begins to smell bad it’s a sign that there is too much moisture so you should add more browns.
Once the compost degrades completely, it becomes a great soil amendment for the garden. Because of its fibrous nature, it creates space between small particles in heavy clay soils and increases drainage. At the same time, it also helps retain water in sandy soils. It also adds nutrients to the soil, reducing the need to add chemical fertilizers.
In essence, the process of composting is nature’s form of recycling. It reduces trash and provides a direct benefit to the earth.
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