Constantine Harvest Festival was fun

The weather couldn't have been better for Constantine's Harvest Festival this past Saturday. The annual event was originally scheduled for September 13th, but was washed out by the rainy weekend courtesy of the remnants of Hurricane Ike. This is a nice festival that has improved with age. It started out pretty small about 6 years ago and now is a nice small town festival.

Water Street was closed off for the festival. There were bands set to play all day long (and into the evening, too) at one end of the street. Tons of free stuff like horse-drawn carriage rides, inflatable bouncy rides for kids, and kids games for only a quarter.

The crowd was pretty steady while I was there and it was great to see this festival become a bit more polished than past years.

Chance of frost tonight across Michigan

The chance of frost across Michigan tonight means that you better cover up any flowers or plants in your garden that you don't want to see turn brown just yet. I'll be covering up our tomatoes as we finally have a decent crop producing. Ironic now that summer is over and the days are much shorter. Oh well, I'll take what I can get out of my garden in Michigan during October. I'll be putting up the onions and potatoes this weekend. I meant to have an onion and potato bin built by now, but that hasn't happened. Just too busy.

So, save your gardens tonight with a sheet or something in case we get the predicted frost.

Have a Great Weekend!

Oil from algae in Sturgis

The Sturgis Waste Water Treatment Plant is the site for a group looking to make oil from algae a reality. A group, Optional Energy Partners, is setting up shop at the water treatment plant as that is a perfect place - plenty of algae. The other neat thing is that the building where the processing will take place will be powered by methane gas from the treatment plant. Just how does one go about getting oil from algae?

"You can press it to make the oil from it," Dr. Newman said, "you can actually ferment the algae flower to make ethanol."

Read all about it a WWMT.com.

Energy efficient compact flourescent bulbs cheaper in Michigan

This is from the AP via the Detroit News.

LANSING -- Michigan officials say now is the time to buy energy-efficient light bulbs because they are being sold at a reduced rate.

Starting Wednesday, about 500,000 compact fluorescent bulbs will be available for as little as 99 cents at Kroger, Meijer and Menards stores across the state. They also will be sold at Ace Hardware stores in the Lansing area and Upper Peninsula.

The bulbs are cheaper thanks in part to a state grant.

I have installed compact flourescent bulbs in all of our heavily-used light fixtures. They give off less heat, use less electricity, and provide a light that I find is no different than the traditional incandescent bulbs. For those not in the know, $.99 per bulb is a really good deal, plus they last much longer than incandescent bulbs.