Our trusty Toro Electric Snow Blower died during the first blizzard of 2015 that slammed us with 2 feet of snow. I originally thought I could repair it by replacing the broken blade, but unfortunately the motor had also reached the end of it’s usefulness. Fortunately, I was able to buy a new Snow Joe […]
Breaking Ice Dams with Lady’s Lingerie
Posted on February 14, 2015 Written by 3 Comments
Do you have ice dams on your house? While the long term solution to preventing ice dams is proper air-sealing and insulation under your roof, people with ice dams want to know what to do now, not next spring. A good way to deal with them in the middle of winter is using discarded pantyhose filled […]
Snowflakes
Posted on February 9, 2015 Written by Leave a Comment
Our area has had over 60″ of snow in the past 17 days. That may not sound like a lot for some people, but on average we get 44″ of snow a year and it has been so cold here that it has not been melting between the storms. This morning Ellie took my phone […]
Climate Change is Causing More Intense Storms
Posted on January 28, 2015 Written by 2 Comments
As we were re-scheduling projects and meetings because of the incoming blizzard, a co-worker from another department asked me: Are we seeing more frequent and more intense storms because of climate change? Yes, we are. Even my colleagues that are not focused on the environment are changing the way they plan for extreme weather. I work for a […]
Be Glad It’s Snowing In January
Posted on January 20, 2014 Written by 2 Comments
I’ve heard a lot of people recently either complain about the snow or express their happiness about how warm it was this month. I realize that it is human nature to talk about the weather and that most people like moderate weather. However, you should be really, really glad, that here in New England it […]
Nemo – The Blizzard of 2013
Posted on February 9, 2013 Written by Leave a Comment
We are still digging out from Nemo, which turned out to be the 5th largest blizzard in Boston history. The official snow fall amount was 25 inches, though we have several drifts well over 3 feet around our house. Schools and business were closed Friday and the Governor declared a state of emergency and prohibited […]
Getting Rid of Ice Dams
Posted on January 7, 2013 Written by 10 Comments
Ice dams are those sheets of ice and snow that form at the edge of your roof. They often look beautiful and result and in long, lovely icicles hanging from your eaves. I love looking at them and as a child I loved breaking icicles off our roof and sucking on them. They were nature’s […]
Going for Solar: Removing Snow from Solar Panels
Posted on February 29, 2012 Written by 8 Comments
I love snow, but when snow is piled up on our solar panels it significantly reduces our electricity production! Most manufacturers recommend letting nature take care of clearing the snow from your solar array, and since we are grid-tied (meaning we are still connected to the electricity grid) we won’t actually lose power if the […]
When Living Green Isn’t What’s Best For Your Family
Posted on February 18, 2011 Written by 1 Comment
Wow, that sounds like an odd thing for our blog “When living green isn’t what’s best for your family.” I think it’s important for people to realize that sometimes you have to make choices, and if certain things and certain situations aren’t the right things for your family, that’s OK. For each person, lifestyle choices […]
Electric Snow Thrower in Action
Posted on February 17, 2010 Written by Leave a Comment
Last week, when the mid-Atlantic was buried in snow, most of Boston shut down in anticipation of snow that never arrived. This week, after actually receiving enough snow to shovel (about 8″), I took the opportunity to get some photos of our electric snow thrower in action. In about 35 minutes, we (I had occasional […]
