Green Tidings and Happy Holidays from F.W. Horch in Brunswick, Maine! May the season bring you peace and understanding in all matters, great and small.
Let me extend a heart-felt thank you for your support and encouragement. Please know that we don't take any customer for granted. We appreciate your business, and we'll do our best to meet the high standards you expect. On behalf of my children and all future generations, keep up the good work saving the planet!
Mark your calendars for "Composting and Recycling to Save You Money and Save the World," our next Sustainable Living Talk at 7 pm on January 11, featuring Brett Thompson, Master Gardener Volunteer. Come find out how to turn waste into wonderful soil.
Best wishes for the New Year!
Fred Horch, Owner
P.S. Our store will be closed the week after Christmas, December 25 to 31, so we can spend time with family and friends. Our web site will remain open for online orders. See you in 2007!
F.W. Horch Is Hiring
We are currently interviewing for a part-time sales clerk to cover our evening shift 4 pm to 7 pm, Tuesday through Friday, with additional hours as needed. This is a permanent part-time position. Our ideal candidate would live within walking or biking distance of our store on Maine Street in Brunswick. If you know a "people person" who is passionate about the environment, please let them know about this position. Sustainable Living Talk, "Composting & Recycling"
Join us on Thursday, January 11, at 7:00 pm at F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies for "Composting and Recycling to Save You Money and Save the World", a talk by Brett Thompson, Master Gardener Volunteer.
Whether you live in a city apartment or on a country farm, you can compost and recycle. Come to this talk to find out how. With the new "pay as you throw" trash ordinance in Brunswick taking effect on January 22, this is the perfect time to learn how to reduce your personal contribution to the municipal trash problem.
Free refreshments and informational handouts will also be available.
If you have attended past talks, please remember that we have moved the store! The new time and place for our Sustainable Living Talks are on the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm at 56 Maine Street in Brunswick.
News from Energyworks
Thank you to everyone who turned out for Energywork's "Going Solar" talk this month. It was a standing-room-only crowd, and a great opportunity to network. We'll try to schedule another one soon for those who missed it.
Here's the news from our renewable energy partner:
It's that time of year -- as we wrap up all the projects and look at the past year, we again have seen enormous growth here at Energyworks plus the expansion into Portland. We've completed two big commercial projects, one of them is the largest solar array in the state! We installed 90,000 watts, over a 1/4 mile of power rail and installed 44 solar hot water systems this year. According to the just-released report on the Maine solar rebate program -- one company installed 50% of all photovoltaic projects and one company installed 53% of all the solar thermal projects in the state -- that company is ENERGYWORKS and we are grateful to all our clients and friends who have shown so much support and interest in renewable energy. We are are looking forward to putting more renewable energy systems in place, one house at a time in 2007. Happy Holidays to all.If you're planning to go solar in 2007, the winter months are a great time to start talking with Energyworks!
Other news: Energyworks South co-owner Fortunat Mueller, P.E. recently partnered with the Breakwater School's Expeditionary Learning Center to build a solar hot water system. Students helped install the system components and learned about renewable energy technology. The school plans to use the system to reduce its carbon footprint and to teach kids about the benefits of renewable energy versus fossil fuel energy.
Energyworks South recently completed this combined 270-tube solar thermal / 5kW solar electric system in Cape Elizabeth.
What's Happening in the Local Environmental Scene
The Brunswick Sustainability Group will meet at Curtis Memorial Library during the last week in January, the exact day and time still to be determined. For more information about this group, visit the store or drop me an email. A listserve for the group will be set up shortly.
The Town of Brunswick will require all household trash to be placed in special "Brunswick Bags" starting January 22. In conjunction with the change in residential trash collection, the curbside recycling program will be expanded to cover paperboard and all types of plastic in a "single stream" recycling system. You will no longer need to sort paper, glass, containers, etc. for recycling. Brunswick bags, more information about the change, and a complete list of items that can be recycled will be available in our store, F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. Come by or give us a call at 729-4050 if you have any questions.
The National Weather Service reports that November 2006 was a record-setting month for warm temperatures in Portland, Maine. The average temperature for November was a record-setting 43.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The previous record was 43.0 degrees in 1975. Normally November has an average temperature of 38.3 degrees. The average low temperature for the month was 35.8 degrees, also a record. The normal average low is 29.5 degrees. During this November Portland never got any colder than 20 degrees, and there were three days where temperatures never got below 50 degrees.
Friends of Merrymeeting Bay will hold their annual meeting and potluck dinner on Wednesday, January 10. The public is welcome. Potluck dinner starts at 5:30, followed by the annual meeting at 6:15, and a talk at 7:00, "Rivers to the Sea: Forage & Feeding in the Gulf of Maine" by Ted Ames, Penobscot East Resource Center. The dinner, meeting and talk will be held in the Cram Alumni House, Bowdoin College, Brunswick. For more information, visit http://www.friendsofmerrymeetingbay.org/.
