Double-duty clothesline

...Years of having to deal with the plastic carried in by various family members and dinner guests (who seemingly have an inexhaustable supply) has led to the ultimate use of my clothesline.  For the ziplocs, a few years ago I had hubby drill some holes in squares of stone blocks (he's in the trade; use wood if you attempt the same), which I then stuck 3/16th dowels into.  Drill at a slight vertical angle all the way around the perimeter of the block.  There are more glamorous versions online if you look hard enough.  I, however, am all for Yankee ingenuity.

Need a reason to avoid plastic?  Read this.  Or this...

From the west-coast group, Algalita Marine Research Foundation, working to protect oceans from plastic pollution.  Click on the picture to see the whole 'Plastics Are Forever' educational brochure.

   

What I'm reading...

An excerpt (pp 187-188):

“We must…rebuild the bottom of the food chain we have already lost by restoring the habitats where forage fish are born and reared.  Estuaries and river systems are vital zones of food production and not simply “natural” spaces.  Nearly every wild fish highlighted [in the book Four Fish]—striped bass, European sea bass, cod, Alaska Pollock, Atlantic and Pacific salmon, bluefin tuna—depends upon a supply of forage fish whose life cycles are in turn dependent upon rivers and estuaries.  Herring, menhaden, smelt—all these small fish are the silver coin, the coin of the marine realm, and their hatching and rearing often occur in direct association with access to rivers that enter the sea.  Restoring these areas increases the food supply for the fish we eat most.  Deny the restoration and…abundance will inevitably be limited by a low ceiling of limited food.”

Paul Greenberg, Author of Four Fish

2010, The Penguin Press