May 22, 2016 – Mike and Peggy Murder Two Hours on the Radio

One of the things I’ve noticed about America is that if you work on Sundays, you’re going to get left out of most of the good stuff–parties, weddings, Super Bowls, graduations, Sunday brunches, picnics, reading the Sunday paper, listening to NPR (and if you say that out loud in my presence, you can expect to find a dead fish on your doorstep on Monday morning), and more.

Well, I have worked on Sundays for pretty much the past decade, and when it comes to booking guests, I’ve heard every excuse in the book. But there comes a time when you soldier on and do the show anyway, if only to protest against a day that 90% of the population treats as a holiday (or holy-day, but don’t get me started) and that for you is just another work day.

Today is a day to soldier on. Fortunately, I have the stalwart Peggy Malecki from Natural Awakenings Chicago sitting in with me.  In the first hour, we will do a kind of potpourri of gardening, environmental and green living stories. Who knows where that will take us?

I should say, however, that I expect a visit from a horticultural buddy of mine, Annie Haven from Authentic Haven Brand out in California. They make a product called #MooPooTea, which is manure based. As they describe it,

Manure tea is very similar to compost tea, in fact, it is compost tea but uses composted livestock manure.

The manure is collected and composted in the sun over the course of several months.

The livestock are raised in pastures that contain native grasses, where the cattle are allowed to graze just as nature intended.

Manure teas are used as a soil conditioner in vegetable gardens, flower gardens, lawns and compost piles. Watering plants with manure tea conditions the soil so plant roots can better absorb nutrients. It also provides valuable nutrients, minerals and beneficial microorganisms that supports growing strong and healthy plants.

In the second hour, we welcome in Stephen M. Cutter, who I first talked to when I was doing my show at Progresso Radio down the dial. He and friends have developed an idea for a ride-sharing company…but not just any ride sharing company.

G-Ride, as they call it,

is a conscious rideshare company promoting the utilization of hybrid and electric cars, focusing on sustainability for both drivers and riders.  With our IMPACT into the market, we are planting a tree with every ride, and since rideshare companies are currently giving millions of rides per day, with G-Ride we could potentially be planting millions of trees per day, every 100 rides saving an ACRE of rainforest.

They’re hoping to launch the effort within months, and given the controversies surrounding the ride sharing company Uber, it should be interesting to watch what happens.

Last but not least, meteorologist Rick DiMaio is off watching one of those aforementioned graduations today, but in his place is Patrick Skach, who is retired co-op weather observer with the National Weather Service and a climate research contributor with the College of DuPage Meteorology Department…and a really good guy.

And it just happens to be Pat’s birthday today! As least some people don’t use every little excuse to take the day off.