Sign up for a FREE or reduced-rate home energy assessment!

December 28, 2012
~ from New Castle’s Sustainability Advisory Board

Mark you calendar!  Join us at the Chappaqua Library on Tuesday, January 8, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. for an informational presentation featuring our local energy expert Norm Jen, who will help homeowners to understand how their homes leak energy, how they can fix them—and how to take advantage of state incentives to pay for it.  Learn how you can increase home comfort, reduce utility costs, improve indoor air quality and lower overall carbon emissions. Homeowners are encouraged to ask questions about their own homes.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014
~ from HGHS Graduation Day

There are many tents like the one we’re in. The first time I ever saw one, I was three years old, on a family vacation in Canada, and there was a tent in the town’s main parking lot for somebody’s wedding.

July 19, 2013
by Gordon Platt

The Greeley House has come a long way since it was heated by fireplaces and cooled by open windows. The historic house and onetime residence of Horace Greeley and his family ushered in summer with a 21st Century energy assessment conducted by Healthy Home of Somers and Bedford, New York.

March 8, 2013
by Suzi Novak

Interested in the local food movement but think it’s too expensive? Join us for Real Food, Real Farmers, a free forum where you can become friendly with the people who could grow some of your food. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 17, at the Unitarian Fellowship, several local growers will talk about the differences between the food that comes from their farms and the products of industrial agriculture.

After a subsidized assessment, you decide whether and which suggestions to implement. Some simple, low-tech measures will save you money right away.

Monday, January 28, 2013
by Norm Jen

Wintertime is a great time for us homeowners to evaluate how well our homes are performing.  Insulation, air-tightness, and heating systems are all being put to the test as they work help keep us warm and comfortable.  Is your house performing well?  Here are eight signs that you house is chugging away to heat the great outdoors.

January 4, 2013
by Brian Kaminer

When I evaluated energy improvements to my home in 2008, I spent a lot of time looking at the financial return.  In order for this to work, I said to myself, the financial return must be there – and, as it turns out, it is.  The amount of air leaking out of my house was equal to having a 5-foot by 5-foot hole in one of my exterior walls, open all the time.  Heated and cooled air was being sucked out my house and money was floating away with it.  I was determined to capture those dollars.

Oil change, fuel stabilizer

Monday, November 19, 2012
by Norm Jen

For those of us who had a generator running for some or all of the Sandy aftermath, we know what lifesavers these things can be.  Many of the generators I saw running in New Castle were portable generators.  Before they’re put away, I would suggest having a look at the owners manual for storage information.  You’ll want to be sure the generator will be ready to go the next time you need it.  Instructions on storing a generator are in your owners manual.  Don’t have the owners manual?  Try searching the internet.  Still can’t find it?  The basic process is pretty simple:

November 16, 2012
by Norm Jen

With Sandy, this is the third time I’ve lost power for a significant period of time in two years (I lost power during Hurricane Irene and the Halloween snow storm last year, too).  In the coming weeks and months, there is sure to be plenty of discussion about what we can do to prevent such outages in the future.  Personally, two adages come to mind:  a) “You can’t fight Mother Nature;” and b) “Always be prepared” (compliments of my old Boy Scout days).  So when it comes down to natural disasters, I boil it down two words:  self help.  Apply these two words to our recent mess, and for me, I can further boil it down to one word:  generator.

Sign up for a FREE home energy assessment

Monday, September 18, 2012
~ from the New Castle Sustainability Advisory Board

On Tuesday, September 18, at 7:00 p.m. at the Chapapqua Library, ENERGIZE NEW CASTLE is sponsoring a Home Energy Assessment and Efficiency presentation at the Chappaqua Library by expert Energy Coach Dick Kornbluth. Drawing on his 33 years of experience as a residential retrofit insulation contractor and home performance contractor, Kornbluth will provide information to help homeowners learn how to take advantage of existing state programs that increase home comfort, reduce utility costs, improve indoor air quality and lower overall carbon emissions. Homeowners are encouraged to ask questions about their own homes.

Deadline for applications is June 10
June 1, 2012
~ from Bedford 2020

Exciting news . . . The B 2020 Business Task Force has received a grant to help local businesses go green. This grant will be used to hire an environmental intern to work with the Task Force in developing a pilot program to help small business owners take green steps that will benefit the environment in our local communities and help them save money.

See our list of easy-to-grow vegetables in “Read more…”

May 18, 2012
by Susan Rubin

The Chappaqua Community Garden is having a planting party on Saturday, May 19, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The garden is located next to the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps headquarters, located at 323 North Greeley Avenue. We’ll be planting seeds and seedlings. Experienced veggie gardeners will be on hand to help coach beginners and share stories of what grew well in past sunny and rainy summers.

May 11, 2012
by Susan Rubin

The Chappaqua Library will screen Mad City Chickens on Friday, May 11, at 7:00 p.m., as part of its Menus in the Movies series, led by food author and film buff Carol Durst.  Homemade (non-chicken) desserts and discussion—about backyard chickens—follow.

April 6, 2012

Editor’s Note: Coyotes’ pups have now been born and their parents must feed them. Watch your pets and small children, especially on hikes in natural habitats.  Parks are home to lots of wildlife.  Coyotes are at the top of the food chain in these parts and the mice they live on are in short supply. Below we’ve reprinted Steve Coleman’s advice on co-existence with coyotes.

Boom-and-bust acorn crops and a decline in mice leave humans vulnerable to infected ticks

Reprinted with permission from Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
April 6, 2012

Millbrook, NY – The northeastern U.S. should prepare for a surge in Lyme disease this spring. And we can blame fluctuations in acorns and mouse populations, not the mild winter. So reports Dr. Richard S. Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y.

March 26, 2012
from PTA President Mindy Berkower

At its meeting on Monday, March 26, at 7:15 p.m. at the Bell Middle School, the Chappaqua PTA will hold a free screening of “Bag It”—a gripping, touching and often funny (and award-winning) documentary about how we use and abuse plastic.  Ever wonder where plastic bags and other disposables go when you throw them away? Where exactly is “AWAY?”

Prevent identity theft; entrust your confidential papers to the shredder
March 16, 2012

You’ll find the shredmobile at the Hunts Lane Recycling Center on Saturday, March 17, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

There are still a few plots available.

Photos by Kevan Full, at kevanslens.com; see more pics of the seed-starting meeting and of the community garden at CVAC in Photo Gallery
Monday, February 27, 2012
by Susan Rubin

Spring is just around the corner!  Many gardeners try to get the jump on the season by starting seeds indoors.  This was the topic of a workshop given at the Chappaqua Library last Sunday by Suzi Novak and me, Susan Rubin, coordinators of the InterGenerate community garden at the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps yard on North Greeley.

March 2, 2012
from Bedford 2020

On Wednesday, March 7th at 6:00 pm at Grand Prix New York in Mt. Kisco, the Bedford 2020 Business Task Force is co-hosting an evening workshop on “How to Put More Green in Your Business.” The workshop is all about saving money, conserving energy and improving waste and recycling practices.

February 10, 2012
by Suzi Novak

Many of us in Chappaqua would like to try vegetable gardening, but have been daunted by too much shade or too many deer.  The solution?  A community garden, made possible by the generosity of the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the leadership of InterGenerate, a local non-profit established to give more people access to fresh, healthy food.  We are kicking off the 2012 season with a meeting and workshop on starting seeds indoors on Sunday, February 12 from 3:30 to 5:00 pm at the Children’s Program Room in the Chappaqua Library.

Hubby and the wovel (“wheel” + “shovel”—rhymes with “shovel”)
Monday, January 23, 2012
by Susan Rubin

It is 23 days into 2012 and on Saturday we finally got some seasonally appropriate weather. While I’m not a huge fan of winter and snow, I do realize that the cold dark stillness of winter is necessary for a green and vibrant spring. One thing I dislike more than snow is snow blowers. I can’t stand the noise and I don’t enjoy breathing in the toxic stinky fumes. Quite frankly, I harbor a deep concern whenever fossil fuels are burned. We’ve got to find ways to cut our addiction to gas, coal and oil on every level if we care about future generations surviving on our planet.

More photos in “Read more…”
Monday, December 12, 2011
by Noah Bressman

“Eww, he’s drinking fish water!” exclaimed a young girl at the Chappaqua Farmers Market.  And it was true. Using a LifeStraw, we drink water straight out of a fish tank containing a simulated ecosystem with fish, crayfish, and plants. And it’s perfectly safe!

“Energize Bedford” visited to enlighten New Castle

Tuesday, December 6, 2011
by Christine Yeres

At town hall last Tuesday, New Castle’s first “Sustainability Summit” filled the house.  Around 100 members of town boards, residents and students as well as emissaries from “Energize Bedford” met to discuss both how to reduce New Castle’s carbon emissions and how residents can save energy dollars while making their homes more comfortable (yes—last winter’s icicles are pointing the way).  In “Read more…” see what measures your neighbors suggested that will help reduce our town’s carbon footprint.