Happy Earth Day Mother Earth!

Today is the 41st Earth Day! I encourage everyone to respect and protect Mother Earth, not only on this day but everyday!

We can all help keep our earth safe and protected. Considering we are the ones who use this precious resource as our source of life as well. If we feel we do not have the time or ability to take care of our planet, our planet may just decide that it no longer has the resources needed to give us clean air, food, and water. In this day and age we see this becoming an increasing problem, all over the world. This is directly our problem, as we as humans are the ones who have caused this. So it is also up to us to fix it, if we want to continue using earth's precious resources to supply us with the very things we need to survive.

I encourage everyone to do what you can or do a little more than you may be doing already to help protect and restore our planet. It doesn't have to be hard, just start small and work towards bigger things later!

Some of the things you can do now:

• Turning off lights, TVs, computers, and other appliances when not in use. Unplug cellphone chargers and any other appliance you may not be using at the time. These items continue to draw power even when not turned on. 
• Same with water. Turn off faucets while in the middle of brushing teeth. Take shorter showers or buy a lo-flow water saver shower head. Plant more plants in your yard which need less water than a lawn does, if you are someone who like to water your lawn. In the market for a new washer and dryer? Try a front loader that uses much less water. Give up plastic bottled water. This industry uses mass amounts of energy to produce bottled water. Buy a filter for your home faucet and some stainless steal bottles and you will have the same water that these companies are bottling and selling. Plus you'll save money!
• Recycling, including batteries, cellphones, and other materials that you may have to take somewhere to have recycled.
• If you live in town, try riding a bike or walking instead of driving to run small errands.
• Plant a garden and start composting.
• Buy more organic food. By eating more organic, less pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used in farming practices. Pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizer all end up in our water system, including groundwater. They cause our soils to erode, create oxygen depletion in water so fish cannot survive, they deplete the soil of much needed nutrients so our food is not as healthy, kill bees which are needed to pollinate crops, and much worse. We eat them too!
• Buy food locally grown. Not only does this support our own families in our own communities, it also using less energy to truck food all over the country.
• If you are financially able, I encourage you to check into some of the alternative energy solutions available. Solar, wind, and geothermal power, have made some drastic improvements in the past few years, making it a much more affordable and available power source.

As you can see, these are just a few easy options to get started in protecting Mother Earth. If we all try together we can keep this planet a wonderful source of life for us all!

Happy Earth Day!