Friedman's Home Improvement stores have been serving Sonoma County for more than
65 years. In 1946, Barry Friedman's (VP Operations) grandfather opened the first Friedman's Brothers in Petaluma with his brother. The two brothers ran a salvage yard fixing old stoves and such, which led to the opening of Friedman Brothers. It is from these roots, that the saying "if we don't have it you don't
need it." originated. The brothers were green before green was in fashion.

Inspiration comes to Occidental, California in the form of a Free Range
Yoga Feast: The Lotus Feed, August 13, 2011!

Local Yoga Teacher, and Photographer Jenay Martin created the Lotus Feed,
an event offering mini mind mouth and body feeds:

+Yoga with Shiva Rea
+Harvesting and herbology with Iron Chef Cat Cora,
+Natural and cob building, with Janine Bjornson
+Meditation with Demetri Velisarius
+ & More!

It is a gathering to celebrate all that we receive from the Earth -
there will be a bounty of locally harvested food from oysters,

Join in Daily Act's 350 home & garden challenge! It is Sonoma County's annual challenge to grow food, save water, conserve energy and build community.

Started last year to help create more resilient sustainable communities, the campaign goal to plant 350 gardens around Sonoma County, was exceeded as schools, churches, businesses, city governments all joined in planting 628 registered gardens.

Plastic Is Drastic! Three families recently took on the challenge to become more aware of their use of plastic, and how to reduce it. Sponsored by Krush Wine Country Radio and Heritage Salvage, for three weeks the families tracked their plastic use and reduced it!

The Family Challenge is part of the Plastic Is Drastic campaign to bring attention to the plastic garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean.

Jere Gettle founder of The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company planted his first garden at age 3. For fourteen years he has been printing and offering heirloom seeds through his Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog.They now offer 1,300 varieties of vegetables flowers and herbs, the largest source of varieties in the USA. You may also visit and peruse hundreds of choices at the Petaluma Baker Creek Seed Bank!

Bug talks with Ari Derfel, Executive Director Slow Money and Co-Founder of Gather Restaurant in Berkeley.

Ari shares, "if we want an economy based on restoration and preservation and not extraction, then we need to invest in those things. Right now, 99.9% investment money continues to support our broken economy."

Share Exchange founder Kelley Rajala shares about getting local and creative with her multi-use facility on Green Scene Radio. Now open in Santa Rosa, this new cooperative is all about innovating our economy, creating local jobs and sharing our gifts with one another.

Mary Munat is passionate about taking non-garbage
out of the garbage. Last year alone, her team touched the
garbage of over two million people. Present at
over 150 events Bay Area wide, they separate compostable
food and paper, as well as recycleables from garbage.

It all started ten years ago following a Health & Harmony
festival where Mary was Volunteer Coordinator. She
listened to Julia Butterfly Hill, who was newly
down from sitting in her tree, Luna. Butterfly admonished
the eco-savvy crowd to walk their talk. She
observed garbage cans overflowing and little recycling.

Plastic Is Drastic 2011

As we begin this new year, Michael Bug Deakin,
sets his resolution to drastically reduce his use of Plastic,
and to help others do the same. His best scenario is to
get himself to zero use, yet with our deep dependency and
pervasiveness of plastic, this is out of reach. We
are going to do our best to reduce and provide alternatives
as well as educate others on how to do it!

Awareness is the beginning. Here are a few statistics
that may surprise you:

1 Million pieces of plastic are thrown away every 5 seconds in USA

Aqus Cafe is not your ordinary place to just buy a cup of coffee. The Cafe has been created to foster community; it is a gathering place, a conversation room, a wonderful 3rd space option. Aqus' main purpose in creating social capital is to provide a space for people to meet, connect and get to know each other.

John Crowley, owner of Aqus Cafe, believes that to fix the fabric of society we have to first start by meeting, connecting, getting to know and understand each other.