Welcome Home!
The words “Global Warming” were just coming into the mainstream around the time my first child was born in the mid-1980s. With a child on the way, thinking about the world I would deliver her into, I remember pondering the vague warnings and troubling possibilities.
The future seemed to be very far away.
Today, global changes are hard to ignore. The future doesn’t seem so far away now.
My daughter, who is 22 and environmentally conservative, a child who has grown up watching rainforests burn and who can’t remember a time when the family didn’t recycle, is wiser than I was at her age.
Her children will be wiser than she was.
Each of us leaves an inheritance – a world that is better or worse for our having been there.
The good news is that now the focus on the future is sharp and clear. We know what we need to do to. It’s up to us to see that it gets done.
Sunday is Earth Day. A day designated to remind us that we are only guests on the planet. It is ours as long as we care for it. And for as long as we remember that our carelessness comes at a cost.
Big changes come slowly. Recycling, choosing green options for building and remodeling and conserving precious resources are all small steps that lead to a bigger reality.
A beautiful blue planet with a green future.
This week in Home
Dan and Sally Slankard are your typical retirees. Or are they? While they didn’t settle into a sedentary routine of golf and Parcheesi, they do reflect the lets-do-something-big mentality of so many who are leaving the work world behind them only to take on big jobs at home.
The Slankards took on the monumental task of fitting a wood-filled cabin into the forest, even going as far as choosing a salvaged fallen log as the centerpiece of the interior.
Our cover story tells the story of their adventures building a one-of-a-kind Priest Lake retreat.
This week’s Treasure Hunters are teens who have built a successful business turning junk into art and we’ll share the gift of a young woman who got a sweet new room for her 16th birthday.
And, finally, recognizing that Sunday is Earth Day, Kelly Lerner, a Spokane-based architect, designer and author who specializes in eco-friendly design, shares her own list of ways to be authentically green.