Apple Picking

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Note: Images are not linked and belong to the author of this blog
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Every year we look forward to October. Not only do we have 2 birthdays and our anniversary to celebrate but there is Halloween, pumpkin picking, and apple picking. Our family loves aples and for the rest of the year the store bought ones will suffice. The apples from an apple farm are sooo good though! And you can pick from a variety of different apples. The apple farm we go to in located in Elbridge, NY and it has Washington, Cortland, Macintosh, Gala, and a few others that I can't think of.


Our family's absolute favorite are the Cortland apples. They are sour when you first pick them off the tree. After you let them sit for about 24 hours they become so sweet and tasty. Cortland apples do not brown when expose to oxygen (at least not for a very long time) so they are the perfect apples to use in a fruit salad. The other thing that is great about picking apples right off the tree is that they are huge! All of the children enjoy picking apples so it is a great family outing. If you have an applr farm nar you, make sure to check it out this year!

Pristine Amazon Rainforest is Targeted for Drilling

You would think with the popularity of people wanted to change the Earth for the better, projects like these would get crushed and pushed out. How long is it going to take for EVERYONE to make a difference?


Found at New Scientist Environment
Written by Andy Coghlan

Unspoilt Amazonian rainforests covering an area almost as large as Texas have been provisionally earmarked for oil and gas exploration.

A new report reveals that the area has been divided into 180 "blocks" designated for exploration by governments of countries that own the land on the western fringe of the Amazon. Their intention is to lease the blocks to oil and gas companies for exploration and extraction, taking a cut of any revenues as a royalty. About 35 oil companies are vying for the contracts.

However, most of the blocks overlap with huge areas of rainforest that would become vulnerable to illegal hunting and logging once breached by roads to service exploration activities. (see diagram, right, for details)

Exotic species

The threatened forests in the west Amazon are still pristine in comparison with the highly-exploited eastern Amazonian forests of Brazil.

They support hundreds of undisturbed exotic species, from jaguars and ocelots to harpy eagles and river otters, as well as large populations of indigenous people who oppose oil exploration on their lands.

"The western Amazon is pretty much intact, and the reason it remains remote is that there are no roads," says Matt Finer of the conservation group Save America's Forests, which has revealed the positions of the 180 blocks. "That's why we want an immediate moratorium on new road building before any contracts are signed," says Finer.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the article.