September 20, 2005

IT'S EASY BEING GREEN

Sunday we headed over to Ballard for the Sustainable Ballard Fair. Sustainable Ballard is a non-profit organization working to build a "community self-reliance and sustainability is good foreign policy implemented locally." We learned an amazing amount of information on everything from recycled building materials, how to grow a green roof, organic gardening, alternative modes of transportation and energy sources to fuel them, and much more.

We completed the scavenger hunt questionnaire and each got our names in the raffle for a variety of prizes. Julie won a $50 gift certificate to a local outdoor clothing company called Kavu. She picked up a great new shoulder bag. I received a $10 gift certificate to Great Harvest Bread Company and a new Chinook Book. The Chinook Book is like an Entertainment Book but specifically for the Greater Seattle area and is full of natural grocers, environmentally sound businesses and restaurants, etc. We've used over half of last year's Chinook Book and love it. Winning the new one was a bonus because we had just bought a new copy about an hour earlier. Now we have twice the purchasing and saving power.

From the Sustainable Ballard fair we walked way down to the
Hiram M. Chittenden Locks
to gaze at the salmon ladder. The locks were built to get ships from salt water to fresh water. In the same way, the fish ladder was built to aid the spawning of the various types of salmon in the Seattle area. Attraction water (water moving swiftly in a direction opposite the fish) helps fish find the ladder. An underwater conduit drains salt water from the basin at the upstream end of the large lock into the ladder. The salt water mixes with the fresh water from the lake, providing an abundance of attraction water and an area for the fish to gradually adjust to fresh water.

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