I’ve always done something to observe the day.
For the past 20-25 years it’s been rebuilding my compost piles and working in my gardens
I hauled in a large load of manure the other day and I’ll be forking it into the vegetable beds and then the extra will get spread on the lawn… the only fertilizer the grass will get all year.
I’ve never used any chemicals in the gardens or on the lawn, I’ve always gone organic
Back when I was in high school I organized a massive roadside clean-up on the very first Earth Day and ever since I’ve continued to observe the day in some way every year.
So far I have planted a tree or a grape vine each year for earth day. It is a sad thing to go by some of my former residences and see a lot of them get cut down as soon as the new owner moves in. A friend of ours bought the last house we sold 3 years ago. He was over last summer and complained about how much it was costing him for air conditioning. I said well Duh! You cut down a 35 year old oak tree that used to shade the whole house all summer long. He acknowleged that Yeah, that was the truth and asked “What tree can I plant to take its place in a year or two?”
I said well , take your cow to market, trade it for some magic beans, plant those beans directly under the Giants castle, Near the sunny side of your house.
He wasn’t as amused as my wife and I were.
I am lucky enough to live where you can grow soft fruits so I have a Cherry, Italian plum, sour cherry, and a green gage plum. This year I am putting in an apricot and Perhaps a pear tree. I always multch my lawns instead of throwing the grass away. I keep the grass at 3 inches high which means I only have to water once a month instead of every week. I grow grapes on the side of my house to assist the airconditioning .
I edited and sent off for review a biological assessment of three projects related to a longwall coal mine, including about a dozen methane drainage wells. Then I jumped in the truck, went up on a mountain top, and took pictures of some colleagues burning up a hillside of oak and juniper so the elk have more food next year.
Then I ate a pizza and answered the phone, called my insurance company about my broken windshield…
