Holly Carlson

Ever feel overwhelmed by all the problems in the world? Wish you could do something about it?

Well, there's a way you can help without leaving your house or taking out your checkbook. We are living in the Information Technology age and a group of forward thinking people have come up with a way to combine the internet and advertising to benefit charitable organizations such as America's Second Harvest and the Save Darfur Coalition.

CharityUSA.com is the home page and shows all the charities you can help simply by going to their particular page and clicking on the appropriate button. For example, if you click on "The Hunger Site," that page will open and then you can click on the "Help Feed the Hungry" button. Advertising sponsors of the site pay for every click. You can click once every day. Each time you click, the sponsors pay for 1.1 cups of food. 70% goes to countries like Darfur, the other 30% goes to the American hungry. Funds are paid by CharityUSA.com, LLC. to the benefiting organization (s) in the form of a royalty payment.

Please, go to this site and click on the feed the hungry button. It takes only a few seconds and costs you nothing. While you're there, please click on the other buttons (Breast Cancer Research, Literacy, Animal Rescue, Rainforest conservation, and Child Health Care).

The whole routine takes me less than 45 seconds. So if I do this every day for a year, I will have provided more than 365 cups of food for the hungry, food for animals, help to children amputees, hundreds of books for children who don't have any, free mammograms for poor women, hundreds of square feet of the rainforest saved.

Please. You really can make a difference.

from the UUA website - submitted by Sheila McElroy

All these people, and others who label their beliefs still differently, are faithful Unitarian Universalists committed to the practice of free religion. We worship, sing, play, study, teach, and work for social justice together as congregations - all the while remaining strong in our individual convictions.

One group you may not know about is the Conservative Forum for Unitarian Universalists. Check them out at their website, www.cfuu.org.

The Conservative Forum for Unitarian Universalists was founded in 1985 to provide an institution within Unitarian Universalism for the expression of a full range of views on politics, economics and society, that while mainstream in society, are often not heard within the Unitarian Universalist movement. Activities sponsored by the Forum include presentations and events at General Assembly, the publishing of a twice-year journal, SIGMA, and the maintaining of our web site. Through these activities, we help provide substance to the freedom of inquiry, acceptance of on another, freedom of the pulpit and the pews, and the willingness to consider reasoned ideas which uniquely characterize our chosen faith.

Marolen Mullinax

Worm composting!! I've been reading about it and casually thinking about ordering worms. I saw an ad in last week's newspaper - the bargain-under $100 section. This guy is great and gave me all kinds of tips. The advantage to worm composting instead of the conventional way is that the worms do away with the need for heat. They are clean, don't stink, and quickly produce superior quality compost that is rich in worm castings. I have them in my house in a plastic bin. I give them shredded newspaper, cardboard, chopped up vegetable scraps, and a warm, dark place to do their magic. In about three months, I should have plenty of worms to share AND heaps of rich compost for my plants. It's not like the big outdoor pile where I put yard clippings, and I'll still bury stuff in my flower beds, but this is just an additional way to use waste and gain rich soil.

According to Robert Francis in his book, The Complete Book of Compost, "Red worms (Eisenia Foetida) are the only real choice for worm boxes. They eat large quantities, do well in confinement, and can take the warmer environment found in most homes. Known also as red wigglers and red hybrids, these 3- to 4-inch long worms are native to North America and might easily be found in a pile of compost or leaf mold sitting in your back yard. They're also sold in bait shops and can be mail-ordered through companies listed in the back of fishing and gardening magazines. don't try to use regular earthworms, or night crawlers, as some people call them. These bigger critters are much more temperature-sensitive and don't do well in captivity."

If you are a do-it-yourself type of person, the book includes information on how to build your own worm bin, as well as everything you need to know about the care and feeding of compost worms. Sky has a copy of the book and will be glad to lend it to you.