Mid-Project Report on Rainwater Control

House roofs and gutters are not my favorite subject, but they are turning out to be key elements in managing our rainwater. When we bought this place, rainwater was simply an inconvenience to be kept out of the house, collected and disposed of, but it is now in addition a source of nourishment for the garden at a slight cost savings. Every drop that is saved for the garden is one we don't purchas from the municipality, which is not only grateful for the reduction in demand, however slight, but is helping cover some of our costs in order to cut its need for stormwater treatment.
We are still working out our system but what we've figured out so far:

• Metal roofs provide cleaner run-off than composite shingles, because rainwater doesn't pick up anything significant from the paint, whereas in running over shingles it picks up grit and gunk that you really don't need in your garden. Metal roofs, while more expensive up-front than composite shingles, are fair better in the long run because they don't have to be replaced every 20 or 30 years.
• Our photovoltaic cells don't seem to interfere with rainwater collection, so long as the lowest point of the installation is over a part of the roof that drains well into the gutter. The cells are covered in glass and the framework holding the cells are aluminum, both of which are pretty neutral as to rainwater.
• Our downspouts had to be re-routed to drain into our cisterns, rather than into our lawn. As a result, the flow of the gutters has to be checked and adjusted. 
• It is especially important to keep the gutters clean so detritus (mostly pine needles in our case) don't block the drains into the cisterns.  Here's another place that metal roofs beat composite shingling: the gunk you get in the gutter off a metal roof can go into your compost because it's all organic leaves, pine needles and probably some bird poo; in contrast, the gunk from off a composite roof can be laced with bits of shingle you don't want going in your food.
• Invest in a good-quality ladder so you can periodically clean your gutters and generally check on your system. A cheap ladder is poor economy since it takes only one fall to eat up all the cash you "saved".
• Formerly we had four downspouts releasing water either directly into the side sewer or into the yard, to flow eventually into the ally and eventually the storm drains. Now we have two downspouts draining into cisterns with overflow into our rain garden. Our replacement downpipes are roughly twice as wide as the originals, either to ensure that they can handle the extra flow or because that's now the standard size. We have a good quantity of old-school downspout pipe ready for use on some other project and are open to suggests as to how to re-used it!

The Shirt Cycle is both #Green and #Frugal

New Shirt, Old Shirt

Shirts wear out; that's just a part of life. But instead of throwing away worn shirts and buying new ones all the time, I use a simple cycle that gets me good quality at low price and minimal impact on our environment.
1. Buy used.
Good quality thrift stores almost always have shirts that appear to have been worn rarely for one-quarter to one-tenth of the price of new. Unless you're going to an event for which you would have bought a new shirt, a thrift store shirt will look the same to you, everyone who sees you, and everyone on earth except your banker.
Another reason to buy used in the USA is to help save jobs. Nearly every item of clothes is now made abroad in places where people work for starvation wages, pretty much killing off our domestic garment industry. The many labor and environmental costs of that practice are born by the first buyer, whose money goes abroad to continue the cycle. However, when the item is donated to a local thrift store, the new money you spend on it tends to go to local workers who staff the store. It's not a perfect substitute for a domestic garment industry, but it's something.
2. Buy natural fibers.
Unless you have a special need for polyester or whatever, cotton, silk, bamboo (a very nice fiber!) and so forth will give acceptable results or better in everyday wear. There may be a few situations, such as performance atheletics or safety gear, where artificial fibers have earned an edge, but most of the time you aren't going to be in such a situation. (And of course if you *are* unfortunately in an accident involving fire, the last thing you want touching your skin is something that melts. Natural fabrics will burn before they burn you!)
3. Rag Them.
When your shirt reaches the end of its usefulness as a shirt, you simple convert it into a rag if it's a natural fiber. Cotton rags are amazingly useful for cleaning, and can be used over and over.
4. Compost Them.
When your cotton rage has become too raggy even to use as a rag, you can shred it and compost it as long as it hasn't been contaminated with stuff you don't want in your garden (if you use your rag to clean up machine oil, trash it in good conscience - your health is important!)
I haven't composted a whole lot of rags, but the little bits of rag I added to my compost heap were gone when I turned the heap the next year, evidently processed by helpful worms into beautiful brown soil.
I prefer Hawaiian shirts with coconut shell buttons, mostly for the look, but I'm pretty sure the buttons would compost better than plastic.

4freeCLE: The Free CLE Newsletter! January 27, 2013

4freeCLE: The Free CLE Newsletter! January 27, 2013

In This Issue Webcast CLE On-Demand CLE In California In Illinois In Massachusetts In Minnesota In New York In Ohio In New Jersey In Pennsylvania In Tennessee In Texas Past 4freeCLE Issues Innocent, Your Honor: A Book of Lawyer Cartoons by Danny Shanahan Hardcover Buy Now ____ Need Credit Fast? See "Top 3 Bundles of Free On-Demand MCLE for Washington Attorneys & Others"

Webcast CLE Share Webcasts With Colleagues And Staff! Register and attend free webcast CLE for quality education as convenient as your laptop! January 29: How to Prepare Your Expert Witness for Deposition.Preparation of your expert is your responsibility as retaining counsel. By TASA.  January 29: Residential Lending after the Crash: An Update on How Dodd-Frank and the CFPB Have Changed the Rules of Home Loan Origination. Dodd-Frank amendments to the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), rulemaking by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and more! Also presented in-person (San Francisco). By Practising Law Institute. January 29: Top Open Source Legal Developments in 2012. Copyright, patent litigation, compliance programs and more. By Black Duck.  January 30: Tobacco Control: Comparing U.S. and Australian Labeling Regulations. The announcement does not state that CLE credit has been applied for but appears to meet requirements in many jurisdictions. Also presented in-person (St Paul). By Hamline University. February 6: Responding to Large-Document Subpoenas. Best Practices and Technologies To Avoid Wasting Money and Time. By Thompson & Knight.  February 12: Update on Brown V. Board of Education. How far have we come? Also presented in-person (St Paul). By Hamline University. February 21: Diversity & Inclusion in Law Practice 2013. Also presented in-person (NYC). New developments and best practices for achieving a diverse workplace. By Practising Law Institute. February 21: Ethics of Witness Preparation for Deposition and Trial. Two hours on the ethics of dealing with witnesses for deposition and trial. Also presented in-person (Chicago). By Clifford Law Offices.  Find more webcasts at 4freeCLE's Web-Based CLE. On-Demand CLE Recordings Provide Instant Education When You Need It!  Need an introduction to a new area of law? Try free, on-demand CLE! Disability Rights Overview. Basic information about the substantive requirements of federal and California disability nondiscrimination laws, including changes related to the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments of 2008. By Legal Aid Association of California. International Adoption - Highlights. Attorneys must be diligent when assisting families with oversea adoptions governed by state, federal, and international regulations. By Lexvid.   Parenting Plan Basics, Relocation, and GALS. For WSBA Moderate Means Program Participants (a program which itself is free to join!)  Find more on-demand programs at 4freeCLE's List of On-Demand CLE. If you're looking for help with a particular state, contact the publisher - we can help! Do You Prepare For Live Programs As For Any Other Meeting? In-Person CLEs State-by-State Many of these in-person programs are are eligible for credit in the states in addition to those in which they are held. They're also a classic way to establish those connections so useful to growing your practice; come equipped with prepared questions and plenty of business cards! California January 29/San Francisco: Residential Lending after the Crash: An Update on How Dodd-Frank and the CFPB Have Changed the Rules of Home Loan Origination. Dodd-Frank amendments to the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), rulemaking by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and more! Also Webcast. By Practising Law Institute. February 1/San Francisco: SCOTUS 2012 Midterm Review: Tackling Equality. By American Constitution Society.  February 6/San Francisco: Disability Discrimination. By AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP). February 12/San Francisco: Dream Act & Deferred Action. By ALRP. February 20/San Francisco: Introduction to Family Law Training. By Bar Association of San Francisco.  February 21/San Francisco: 40 Years after Roe: Examining the Social, Political and Economic Impact of the Constitutional Right to Abortion. By American Constitution Society. February 28/San Francisco: Confidentiality & HIV. By ALRP.  Illinois February 5/Chicago: Forum/MCLE on the Forgotten Guantanamo Detainees. By American Constitution Society. February 21/Chicago: Ethics of Witness Preparation for Deposition and Trial. Also webcast. By Clifford Law Offices. Massachusetts February 4/Boston: New Volunteer Attorney Orientation. By Volunteer Lawyers Program.   Minnesota January 30/St Paul: Tobacco Control: Comparing U.S. and Australian Labeling Regulations. Also webcast. By Hamline University. February 5/Minneapolis: Taking Action to Increase Equality: A Conversation among Bench and Bar. By The Infinity Project. February 7/Saint Paul: Religious Discrimination in the Workplace. By Hamline University.  February 12/Minneapolis: Searching Westlaw.com. By Hennepin County Law Library (HCLL). February 12/St. Paul: Update on Brown V. Board of Education. How far have we come? Also webcast. By Hamline University. February 20/Saint Paul: Book Signing & MCLE with Professor Jonathan Kahn. By Hamline University. New York January 29/NYC: Antitrust Developments: An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth A Pound Of Cure. Free to members of the American Association of Corporate Counsel.  January 29-31/NYC: LegalTech Show. Multiple programs; up to 12 credits. By ALM.  January 30/NYC: Housing Preservation Actions. By LAS. January 31/NYC: Negotiating a Commercial Lease. ByLAS. February 12/NYC: Litigating Child Custody/Visitation Cases. By inMotion. February 21/NYC: Diversity & Inclusion in Law Practice 2013. Also webcast. By Practising Law Institute. February 21+22/NYC: Naturalization And Citizenship.Free for participating staff and volunteers from non-profit organizations working on naturalization and citizenship issues. By NALEO Educational Fund, Immigrant Defense Project and Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Ohio February 6/Cleveland: Moot Court Night - Trial Advocacy Seminar. By Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.  February 6/Cuyahoga Falls: Mortgage Lending for Condominiums. By Continuing Educational Services (CES).  February 13/Cleveland: Making Sense of the Supreme Court. By Case Western Reserve School of Law.  February 13+14/Cleveland: Mortgage Lending for Condominiums. By CES.  February 20/Mentor: Mortgage Lending for Condominiums. By CES. New Jersey February 14/New Brunswick: 5th Annual Pro Bono Conference - The Year of the Provider. By New Jersey Bar Association. Pennsylvania January 30/Pittsburgh: Understanding Social Security Retirement. Free for attorneys employed full-time by many nonprofit legal services and public interest organizations. By Pennsylvania Bar Institute. January 30/Philadelphia: Protecting Product Design Under Trademark and Design Patent Law. By Dechert. January 31/Philadelphia: Quiet Title: Handling Cases Involving Problems with Title to Real Estate.Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program (VIP). February 2/Philadelphia: Custody Training. By VIP.  February 11/Philadelphia: Taking a Deposition. By Dechert. Tennessee February 4/Nashville: Handling TennCare Appeals. By Tennessee Justice Center. Texas February 7/Dallas: Disability Issues in Employment & Labor Law.  By American Bar Association Commission on Disability Rights (ABA/CDR). February 8/Dallas: Ethical Obligations and Mentally Impaired Clients. By ABA/CDR. About 4freeCLE 4freeCLE is delivered weekly and will always be free! Sharing Is Caring! Forward this to your fellow professionals so they may benefit! If this was forwarded to you, get your own subscription for free by signing up now!  If you are providing free CLE,contact the editor so I can give you free publicity.