Join the Colorado Bushel Basket!

Thanks so much for the warm welcome, Melissa! Kellie & I are so excited to be a part of APLS! Kellie lives in Evergreen, Colorado, and I'm about an hour north of there in the small town of Lyons. We are looking forward to meeting more Colorado APLS and really want to let you guys help us determine the course of our group!

So join our Facebook page and leave a comment below letting us know where in Colorado you are, what your interests are, and what you'd like to see us do as a group. Do you just want to share green living resources and events? Do you want to have a quarterly field trip? A canning party? A cocktail party (featuring local wine and beer of course)?

I love how each person I've encountered in APLS has a different passion and a different area of expertise and hope that APLS Colorado will enjoy that same diversity. Looking forward to meeting you...

APLS are growing in Colorado!

There’s something exciting happening in Colorado! No, I’m not talking about the Democratic National Convention. This is even better - APLS are growing! If you live in Colorado and have been feeling a bit left out of the regional fun, your wait is over – Julie from Chezartz and Kellie from Greenhab are teaming up to help APLS grow in Colorado!

They’ve actually already got the action started over on a Facebook group – check it out for info on some local events you might be interested in. Of course, not everybody is on Facebook, so they’ll also be coordinating through this site for any of you who don’t yet love Facebook. There’s also a fabulous little button they’ve designed – I’ll let them give you the code in their welcome post, which should be coming your way very soon.

Like all the APLS regional groups that have sprung up, what this group ultimately evolves into is up to all of you, and your fearless leaders. Sharing info about local events is a great starting place. Maybe you’ll also decide to use the space to organize shared transportation to these events. Maybe you’ll create some events of your own. Perhaps a listing of local food sources? What about reviews of local green businesses? Maybe you’ll use it as a forum for debating issues of interest to APLS living in your specific region. Perhaps one of you has some skill you’d like to teach others. Who knows? There are no rules, so you can help make this whatever you’d like it to be!

If you’d like to join in, please leave a comment for Julie and Kellie on their welcome post. Please let us know if you need to be added to the main bushel basket over on our sidebar at the same time.

If you’re not in Colorado, and you still haven’t found a group to call home, why not step up and take on the challenge? We’re all still learning, so the only requirement is enthusiasm! If you’re interested in organizing for your region, send us an email at aplscarnival [at] gmail [dot] com.

What part of the country will be growing APLS next?

And Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Great Lakes APLS Programming!

Sorry for the delay in Great Lakes APLS programs folks, it's been a little hectic around here. Between summer vacations, four sick boys, a bad computer virus and one of the eco 'burban boy's schools closing it's doors for good without warning, things haven't been running too smoothly here.However, things are starting to settle down and I'm BACK! Back and gearing up for back to school, the end of a hot and humid summer and the crisp, cool fall weather that brings all sorts of APLS fun! I have added everyone who has signed up to the Great Lakes APLS local group to our sidebar. If your name is missing, please let me know and I will add you ASAP. For those of you without blogs, if you have an email address you would like to share, please feel free to email me and I will make sure you don't miss any APL-Y goodness.

One last note of housekeeping - we have changed our Great Lakes logo just a smidge to make it more consistent with all the other APLS groups, so please feel free to grab the new image at the top of this post and set it up on your blog or webpage. If you need directions on how to do this, just leave me a comment here at this post!

And, most importantly, the APLS Carnival September posts are due by September 10th. The topic is the term "Affluence" and what this means to you. You can read all about the APLS September Carnival and where to email your submissions here and if you missed reading the August Carnival, it's not too late, you can still get caught up over at Better Living.

Stay Tuned! Must more APLS fun coming your way this fall!

APLS Carnival Topic for September

Hey all you party goers, have you recovered from the inaugural APLS carnival over at Better Living? (If you haven't made it over there yet, drop in.) Still reveling in the aftermath? Too hung over to think? Well, the party continues.

For the month of September, the topic is . . .

Affluence. What do you think of the term? Does it apply to you? Do you dislike the word? Feel uncomfortable with it? Are there certain responsibilities that come with accepting that term? Like last month's topic, this is a broad topic. Have at it. I can't wait to read what you all come up with.

Last month's carnival was amazing. Let's do it again.

Please submit your posts to aplscarnival (at) gmail (dot) com by September 10. All submissions will be compiled at posted at Green Bean Dreams on September 15.

Just a reminder...

The first ever carnival has been posted! Check it out if you haven't already done so - we got a lot of wonderful submissions on our topic question, what does living sustainably mean to you? Enjoy!

Calling All Lower Midwestern APLS!

Thanks for the introduction, Green Bean! For those who don't know me, I'm Lori from Life in Webster Groves, and I live with my husband in a small suburb just outside of St. Louis, Missouri. I'm a native Northwesterner, an architect by profession, a gardener, an avid soccer fan, and a dog-mom, to name a few characteristics, and I'm excited to be your friendly neighborhood APLS coordinator for the Lower Midwest. For now, the Lower Midwest will cover Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Kentucky. I would also love to hear from those from Southern Illinois who are so inclined, since the climate may be a bit more comparable to the Lower Midwest than the Great Lakes.

As Green Bean suggested, I'm looking for quite a few partners in crime that are willing to share success stories, listen to each other's frustrations or failures, swap recipes and gardening tips, and/or just generally serve as a support group for sustainable living. If we find we live close enough together we can arrange to borrow tools, swap produce, hit an occasional political rally or protest together, or meet for coffee sometime. I'm thinking that the breadth and diversity in this region, and the widely varying climatic shifts we tend to see should make our group discussions very interesting! I'll be taking suggestions pretty much from day one, and I expect this to be a very interactive process. So if you're interested in joining me in the Lower Midwest region, please comment on this post and let me know. If you'd rather join via email, you can do that ltepler (at) gmail (dot) com. And if you'd like to help me with the coordination efforts, you can let me know that too. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

For those with blogs, please go ahead and grab the logo and insert it into your own page. If you're a relative newbie like me, this is a fairly simple process. Just right click on the logo, hit Save As to save it to your own computer, and add it as a picture with a link back to this page. Feel free to email me if you need step-by-step instructions.

I have to say that I'm a bit swamped with a work deadline right now, but I hope to post my very first regional post in about a week. In the meantime, I'll be adding our lovely logo on the sidebar with a link to a (hopefully) growing member list, much like you see already in place for the Great Lakes. If you have any questions or comments, or just want to chat about what it means to be an APLS in the Lower Midwest, please contact me via email. You can also see what I'm up to by visiting my blog.

I'm definitely looking forward to meeting you all, virtually or otherwise!

- Lori

PS: If you are on facebook and haven't yet joined the APLS group, you can find it here. It's just another forum for discussing sustainability and what it means in our daily lives.

APLS Are Growing in the Lower MidWest

APLS season is spreading south from the Great Lakes. It has now moved into the Lower Midwest - Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. If you are in Southern Illinois, we're considering you a Great Laker but if you think of yourself as a Lower Midwesterner, instead, hop in here. The fantastic Lori from Life in Webster Groves has offered to act as organizer for your region. She would love some friends - lots of them - but, in particular, someone who would like to help co-organize in that region would be most welcome.

What does this mean for you Lower Midwest APLS? The sky's the limit. Trading growing and local food tips. Sharing tools. Swapping clothes. Personal get togethers. Political organizing to get green measures passed. Anything is possible and Lori sounds like she's got some fun ideas up her sleeve.

Stay tuned for Lori's official launch of the Lower Midwest APLS post (along with a cute little button) soon. Lori can be reached at ltepler(at)gmail(dot)com.

And don't feel bad if you don't have an APLS region yet. All we need is for somebody to take on the challenge of organizing! If you're up to the job for your region, send us an email at aplscarnival (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll get you set up!

What region will be in APLS growing season next?

Welcoming all the Great Lakes APLS!

Thanks to Melissa for the warm welcome to all the Great Lakes APLS in the bushel! I'd like to take a quick moment to introduce myself as your regional go-to-girl for the APLS group. I'm the eco 'burban mom, an APLS located in Michigan, a lovely, yet sometimes chilly Great Lakes State.
Are you a fellow APLS hanging out in an orchard just across the Bluewater Bridge in Ontario, Canada? Or maybe you are an APLS ripening in the rolling hills of Ohio or a hearty Indiana APLS enjoying all the bounties farm country has to offer. You might very well be sweet Wisconsin or Minnesota APLS sending me all that lake effect snow November through April and boy, do my sons thank you for those snow days! Or, you could be a big city APLS from Illinois enjoying all the sophisticated Chicago fun. We all may be different kinds of APLS, but living here in the Great Lakes region we have so many of the same characteristics.

Are you concerned about the rising water temperatures in the Great Lakes causing lake fish, critters, shore lines and plant life to change right before our very eyes? Are you looking for some innovative local food sources, like rice? Yes, you read that right, rice! It does exist right there in Michigan and Manoomin rice dates back to the original Native Americans. You might be looking for someone to commiserate with when the temperature is 10 below and your kids are stuck inside and you need to crank that furnace up just a smidge. Do you have a great green book or gadget you want to pass around? Well, then, you are in the right place!

If that all sounds good to you, maybe you might be interested in meeting a local APLS for coffee or planning a meet up. Hey, all those cool kids on the west coast are getting to know each other in the Northwest and in California, so let's not get left out and start something of our very own. Even if it means we'll be wearing mittens and scarves instead of flip flops and bathing suits. We will send those warm weather dwellers pictures of our lumpy and bundled up bodies so they can laugh and see how global warming affects us cold weather APLS.

I look forward to getting to meet each and every APLS growing right here in the Great Lakes region! Make sure to check back here on a regular basis (or add us to your blogroll) to see what's new or to find out who else has joined our group. There will be an updated list on the sidebar under our very own Great Lakes icon (designed just for us by a green superhero) to quickly tell you what's growing locally in our region on the APLS blog. I already know for a fact there is an APLS in Illinois that would love to show you the giant pumpkins growing in her neighborhood and I, for one, would love to borrow your dehydrator! So, do you want to swap recipes? Need to find a great green book? How about trading around a Kill-A-Watt or swapping some canning supplies? Well, let's do that and a have a bushel basket of fun while getting to know each other!

Email me at ecoburbanmom (at) gmail (dot) com to find out more, to be added to our regional group or check out my blog to find out about living in the 'burbs of Detroit and going green with four boys, two dogs and a husband. Leave me a comment right here and let's get this party started!

WELCOME Great Lakes APLS! We're so glad you're here!

APLS are growing in the Midwest / Great Lakes Region!

There's some exciting news for all you APLS in the Midwest / Great Lakes Region! The one and only Eco 'Burban Mom has agreed to act as the regional leader for your region!

What does this mean, exactly? Well, any number of things...it all depends on what you guys want to see. We've talked about the value of organizing in smaller regionally based groups as a way to share information about local food sources or the best thrift shops. We've also discussed it as a jumping off point to organize some "real life" get togethers. Maybe you'll want to use it to share canning supplies amongst yourselves rather than buying your own, discuss the greenness of those running in local elections, or share reviews of local green businesses. It can be anything YOU want it to be!

If you're feeling sad that there's nothing organized for your region yet, don't be! All we need is for somebody to take on the challenge of leadership! If you're up to the job for your region, send us an email at aplscarnival (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll get you set up!

Look for Eco 'Burban Mom's introductory post in the next few days! If you want to chat with her about APLS in the Midwest / Great Lakes Region, you can contact her at ecoburbanmom (at) gmail (dot) com.

What region will be in APLS growing season next?