Green in the Bathroom: Dual Flush Toilets

January 27, 2010
 | by ksbrooks
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Everyone talks about conserving water, and the new “in” thing is WaterSense faucets and toilets.  But those WaterSense toilets still use up to 1.28 gallons per flush – EVERY flush.  So, thanks to the suggestion of a friend, it made sense to me to look into dual flush toilets.

New WaterSense guidelines (from the EPA Web Site) are as follows:  “The effective flush volume has been established as 1.28 gallons, which is a 20 percent reduction from the 1.6 gallons per flush standard that became mandatory pursuant to the 1992 EPAct.”  The EPA claims that replacing an older toilet with a new, efficient WaterSense model can save a homeowner 11 gallons per toilet per day, which translates to nearly 4000 gallons per year.  With a dual-flush toilet, the operator is using close to 40% less water with nearly every flush (in partial flush mode). 

For your most common usage, urination, the flush water usage is only .8 gallons (partial flush).  Less often, for your other evacuation, the American Standard FloWise Dual Flush Toilet uses 1.6 gallons (full flush).  On average, considering a …

NEW CHILDREN’S BOOK TO BENEFIT ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION

September 8, 2009
 | by ksbrooks
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The Mighty Oak and Me Sales Will Support Foundation Reforestation Program

Nebraska City, Neb. (September 9, 2009) – The Arbor Day Foundation and author K. S. Brooks have teamed up to help replant America’s National Forests.  For each purchase of Brooks’ The Mighty Oak and Me this holiday season, a donation will be made to the Arbor Day Foundation to support the planting of a tree in our nation’s forests.  The trees are planted in conjunction with the U. S. Forest Service, which selects the sites and oversees the actual planting.

“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the life of the Mighty Oak than to help the Arbor Day Foundation plant trees on its behalf,” K. S. Brooks said.  “It’s especially fitting since the oak tree is America’s National Tree.”

The Mighty Oak and Me is a unique and innovative book which introduces children to ecology and the real-life world of trees through full-color photographs.  “The Mighty Oak and Me captures the beauty of a tree and its role while presenting …

Trees, Glorious Trees

July 25, 2009
 | by ksbrooks
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Okay, so I’ve got a “thing” for trees.  I’ll admit it.  I always have, ever since I was a child.

 

The first thing I ever wrote in school was after a field trip to an Arboretum about what we saw and lichen on trees.  As I got older, I spent many afternoons playing alone in nearby woods climbing trees and watching the world around me from my perch.  I spent one particular afternoon in Andover, Massachusetts in a patch of woods surrounded by a field so gold that I nicknamed it Lothlorien after Tolkien’s fictional forest.  I was so enchanted that many years later I referenced it in my first novel, “Lust for Danger.” 

 

Although writing has always been my passion, in order to eat and pay the mortgage I took

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I’m Covered in Trees….

July 18, 2009
 | by ksbrooks
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Sometimes being green takes shape in the strangest ways.  I never thought it would mean I had to cut down trees.

 

Where I live, the forest fire potential is pretty high.  So the park service asks that you “thin” your trees – so they are not touching limbs.  Ideally, they would like you to have one tree every ten feet.

 

My property was logged about twenty years ago.  Huge piles of faded, ghostly gray limbs clutter the ground.  And thousands of little, narrow trees, about five to six feet high, crowd each other in search of sun.  The forest is so thick that literally, if you tried to run into it, you would bounce off. 

 

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