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Story and photos by: Malissa Martin

When Suzanne Row and her husband Bill first bought their house she had a vision. She saw kids running and playing in the backyard while she sat watching and smiling. Fast forward 20 years and Rowe said her vision came true. The longtime Ferndale resident and her husband are moving to Florida in October to enjoy their retirement.

Rowe is a real estate agent and her husband just retired after working 20 years as a musical instrument salesman.

Rowe said it’s going to be hard to say goodbye to Ferndale and she recalls how the city has changed over the ff15616_rowe_gardenyears. “I’m an East Side Detroit person, and this felt like the old neighborhood. When we moved here it was kind of cool, but so different. Not so hip, but it still had that charm.” Rowe said.  Taking a stroll to get pizza at Michigo Pizza and Assaggi Bistro or going shopping on Woodward Avenue are activities she said she will surely miss. She will also miss community-enriching events like the Ferndale Perennial Exchange. “Everybody get together and it was bring-a-plant, take-a-plant. It was always a fun event.” Rowe said.

During her time in Ferndale, Rowe was an involved in city politics. She served on the Beautification Commission for eight years. “It was wonderful. Peggy Snow was the chairperson forever and I learned a lot from her; except I’m not real good at naming the plants even after all this experience.” Rowe said. She was also on the Property and Assessing Review board for about eight years on and off. Leaving the garden that took 20 years to create is a treasure Rowe said she has to painfully leave behind. “Every garden has got its own memories. It’s really hard leaving this.” Rowe said. Through the years she’s collected various plants and decorative pieces; most are gifts from friends who feed her green-thumb passion.

Although Rowe has enjoyed good times at her home, she’s had tough times too. The house behind hers caught on fire one night around 1:00 A.M. The fire spread to the garage and eventually crossed the fence to Rowe’s property. “All I could see were flames and my garage.” Thankfully, the wind blew the fire in the opposite direction so Rowe’s garage didn’t burn, but her garden wasn’t so lucky. Half the trees and grass were burnt. “No one could understand what it was like. That’s 12 years, but look how it came back! Isn’t it amazing how plants do that!? It’s just proof about life.” Rowe said.

The hardest part about leaving is saying goodbye to her friends, Rowe confessed. “I’ve met so many people.” Rowe said. She treasures the personal and professional relationships she’s made over the years.

Rowe plans to visit Ferndale, and it will be sooner than later since she’s selling her own home. “I’m still going to be back and forth. I can’t imagine never coming back. I look at it like this: that’s going to be our home base and who knows what will happen.” Rowe said she might do real estate part-time in Florida, but she’s really looking forward to enjoying her favorite pastimes: writing and painting.

Although Rowe is originally from Detroit, she said Ferndale has a special place in her heart. Moving to Florida is the beginning of a new chapter and Rowe said she’s ready. “It’s like a new adventure.”

Saying goodbye is always hard. So, to the beautiful city of Ferndale, Rowe says, “Ferndale you’ve been good to me.

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By Rebecca Hammond

DO YOU WATCH THE TV SERIES, PORTLANDIA? Ferndale is weird in some of the ways that Portland, Oregon is weird. Good weird. Fernlandia has become so dear to us, the five or six years Phil and I intended to live here have stretched to 30 (so far). This weirdness is some of the glue that holds us here, it and a neighborhood that is old-fashioned in its friendliness, with much calling back-and-forth and wandering about. Our town and its ‘hoods are a splendid combination of old and new, traditional but forward-thinking. It doesn’t take deep perusal to notice.

One obvious way is our yards. A couple of years ago I bicycled around this quadrant of Ferndale counting Fernlandia yards. If memory serves, there were then about 18 yards with no visible grass. All had been replaced with ornamentals, natives, vegetables. About 66 had gotten rid of half or more, and maybe 87 had replaced so much grass with other plants they went far beyond a lawn bordered by shrubs or flower beds. This trend has grown, especially on devil’s strips, where our sandy “soil” isn’t just inhospitable to grass, it seems actively opposed to it. Now, though, the Fernlandia approach is countered by more pesticide warning signs every year. Two philosophies on yards, two approaches to gardening.

Well, what’s wrong with pesticides, anyway? No matter which route we take, the point is to surround ourselves with property that pleases our aesthetics. If you want green, velvety turf, you must have to use chemicals, right?

No, not really. Remember TV gardener Jerry Baker? When we moved to Michigan from Germany in the mid-80s, television was a culture shock, and I remember three reasons: Oprah, Miami Vice, and Jerry Baker. Oprah and Miami Vice were the talk of mass media then, unavailable to those of us limited to the Armed Forces Network, as it ran six months behind. But we had heard of both. Jerry Baker, ex-Detroit cop turned garden maverick, was a new name.

Baker’s MO is producing a healthy yard and garden using nothing but grocery-store ingredients. His idea that a healthy lawn can stand up to pests is echoed by Bayer on its lawn-care site, which states that even nine grubs per square foot won’t damage healthy grass. Baker, now retired to Florida, recommends cocktails of odd ingredients like beer, ammonia (basically nitrogen), and liquid dish soap in a hose-end sprayer, powerful enough to need application only once every two weeks. The nicest lawn I ever saw was a Baker lawn, right here in Ferndale. Very Fernlandia.  Jerrybaker.com. Newcomer Tina Towell told me, when I noticed her husband Dick using a reel mower, “We were mow-ing about two acres at our previous home, so a city lot is a breeze by comparison. It doesn’t warrant the existence of yet another noisy, polluting gasoline engine. Our simple push mower not only gets the job done in short order, it also provides a bit of low impact exercise and a surprising sense of accomp-lishment. There is, as well, something very neighborly about it.

“Purveyors of elaborate, chemical-based turf regimens vie for our attention each spring to no avail. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s good enough. ‘Lawn order’ needn’t rule our lives.”

On June 7, 2014, the Washington Post ran an article in their Health & Science section called What To Know Before You Spray Your Lawn With Pesticides. What Philip Landrigan, professor of pediatrics at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine states may surprise you. Kids play in the grass, put fingers in mouths, and face high levels of exposure simply by that and being smaller. Growing faster, “they take into their bodies more of the pesticides that are in the food, water, and air.” And because of that growth, “These delicate developmental processes are easily disrupted by very small doses of toxic chemicals that would be virtually harmless for adults.”

In the same article, Gary Ginsburg of the Univer-sity of Connecticut points out that there is no scientific standard for the length of time we’re warned to stay off a sprayed lawn. Herbicides can still be detected in the urine of pets 48 hours after spraying. Ginsburg recommends staying off a treated area for at least two days, three being better. The chemicals are also tracked indoors, or blow in windows, and can be found on inside surfaces a week after spraying. They’re are also re-wetted by dew or rain, and it’s not even certain that they’re safer when dry.

Leslie Jones of the Pleasant Ridge Environmental Committee told me, “I think that many people, over time, have been sold on the idea of having perfect lawns at the expense of health, their own as well as the health of the whole ecosystem. I think it takes a very long time for these kind of ideas to sink in. We spend tons of money to keep our lawns perfect and our gardens free of weeds in the easiest way possible, by spraying or dousing everything with pesticides and weed killers. Better living through chemistry! That was an actual chemical industry slogan at one time. We shouldn’t tolerate a polluted, toxic environment whether it comes from carbon pollution, pesticides or industrial and chemical pollution. It’s bad for our health but also the health of our fellow earthly inhabitants. Humans need to respect and honor all life whether plant or animal. We are all connected and need to see and understand that connection on which all life is based.”

LuAnn Linker of Wild Birds Unlimited in Royal Oak said, “Remember, any chemicals that are poisonous to weeds and insects are just as poisonous to birds, pets and children. Opt for environmentally friendly lawn care products.” Fernlandia. We’re the Ann Arbor of Metro Detroit, the Lakewood of SE Michigan, the Portland of the Midwest. Keep Ferndale Weird. Becky Hammond is listening to wrens, orioles, and baby chickadees as she types this.

If something happened with our health, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a medicament. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotency and other states connected to erectile dysfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What people talk about “viagra stories“? The most substantial aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Causes of sexual disfunction turn on injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a state called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual dysfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this curing passes into breast milk.

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Story and photos by Rebecca Hammond

THE OLDEST RECYCLED ITEMS in your home, if you’re lucky enough to have your original windows, are the clever and elegant solution to balky windows – the sash weights. This Old House claims that, with care, original windows will outlast replacements. We love ours, even their leakiness, indoor air being more polluted than outdoor air, but only one still works as designed. You can waltz up to that one and raise or lower it with a fingertip. The rest apparently exist to infuriate us.

The book, Garbology, by Pulitzer-Prize winner Edward Humes, states that our curbside bins, into which according to SOCCRA we should put anything that fits, are actually an old idea. First used in NYC when the waste problem there became so huge, a czar of sorts initiated a mocked-buteffective army of workers that marched in whiteclad units in the streets. Residents were required to sort their garbage, which had lots of tin cans, which were made into the sash weights that may be in your house. (You may not want to know what else was recycled, or into what.) Why we humans come up with good solutions to problems and then abandon them is beyond me. Garbology makes another interesting point in a section on shows like Hoarders: We all hoard stuff, it’s just that hoarders value it enough to want to keep it. The rest of us store it elsewhere, imagining it gone.

NOW IT’S FEDERAL: The Flint water crisis remains in the news this week, having gone national. It occurs to me that the cheapest thing all along is to keep local water sources clean and drinkable. When Flint reconnected (at great enough expense requiring the charity of the Mott Foundation) to the Detroit system, I assumed that although the effects of having consumed lead would remain with anyone unlucky enough to have ingested it, the water now was again safe to drink. Not so. Pipes were damaged enough that lead is still a concern. It’s both heartening that charity groups rally to get truckloads of water to Flint and irksome that Lansing is not handling this, period. But when I hear from now on that regulations are too expensive, I’ll always remember Flint. Was this cheaper? Federal aid has been requested. The bill seems to go up by the day.

BACKYARD HABITAT NEWS: A screech owl sings from a neighbor’s big spruce most evenings. They have a sort of ventriloquist effect, making them hard to pinpoint with a flashlight. After maybe an hour of searching one night, I found the little songsmith near the trunk a bit above roof height. It was not a bit bothered by my search; in fact, it paid no attention to me until I made clicking noises, then stared me down, bold for something so small. It’s clumsy taking photos with a flashlight in one hand and a camera in the other; probably all I’d have needed is a hoop-twirling on one leg to be a vaudeville act, but I did get a few nice shots.

Notes from (slightly) Up North: Pleasant Ridge’s Environmental Committee are working with their city government on a sustain-ability plan, with SOCCRA on an electronics-and-metal collection site at the PR DPW, and on the following upcoming events, all nearby and open to the public. Thanks, Leslie Jones, for sharing this with us:

Monday, March 21 at 7:00 P.M. – The Effects of Pesticides on Health and the Environment, an educational seminar discussing why and how to avoid pesticides in the lawn and garden. Pesticides are linked to multiple human health concerns, as well as the decline of bees. Dr. Tom Kocarek, Researcher and Associate Professor at Wayne State University’s Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will outline the latest in scientific research involving the impacts of pesticides. Melissa Cooper Sargent, Environmental Health Educator at the Ecology Center, will provide tips to creating a lush and beautiful yard without pesticides. Community Center, 4 Ridge Road. The PR group will also be hosting a talk on Native Plants with Brendan Nolan on May 23 at 7 pm to be followed by a Native Plant Sale on June 4. Also at the Pleasant Ridge Community Center, free and open to the public. For further information and to RSVP, contact Leslie Jones at 248- 506-4754 or p.ridgeenvironmental@gmail.c om, and look for them on Facebook.

Claire Galed, co-manager of Huntington Woods DPW which works with their Environmental Advisory Committee, offered these New Years’ tips for a greener year:

• Start 2016 with a Pledge: landfill less and recycle more.

• For monthly information on recycling, sign up for the the SOCRRA e-newsletter at www.socrra.org.

• The New Year is a good time to ensure that recycling is easy and throwing things away is difficult. Have a container near your mail-sorting spot. Put recycling containers in your bedrooms and baths.

• Turn unused waste baskets into recycling containers (a great project for children and grandchildren). It is a good cold or rainy day activity, and can lead to increased awareness and more recycling. By making the container, there is ownership of the situation.

Rebecca Hammond prowls yards and the streets of Ferndale in search of owls. Their calls can be heard citywide, and by googling “owl calls.”

If some happened with our soundness, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a medicament. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotence and other states united to erectile dysfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What people talk about “viagra stories“? The most substantial aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as heart trouble. Causes of sexual dysfunction include injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a condition called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual malfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this curing passes into breast milk.

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By Rebecca Hammond

MICHIGAN HIKING TRAILS HAVE great displays of fungi in Autumn, with specimens here in Ferndale as well. Look up the USDA’s website on Michigan fungi. No matter how geeky this sounds, the names alone make it worthwhile: Hen of the Woods, False Tinder Conk, Swamp Death Angel, and one seen here in Ferndale, Dryad’s Saddle – one specimen can produce 100 billion spores.

One of the best parts of living in Michigan is constantly discovering things to do along roadsides. Some become favorites.It’simpossibletoignoretheviewfromtheCutRiver Bridge on US 2 in the UP, but I wonder how many people know it’s also a great stop. The east side has one of Michigan’s ubiquitous long wooden stairways; down, down, down to river and lake level. The views of the bridge, the rapids, and the lake change with each step. You can head up a path on the west side, and can return to your car across the bridge. Stone stairs on the bridge itself take you underneath to cross to the opposite walkway. Opened in 1947, the bridge is 641 feet long and 148 feet high. We’ve enjoyed a good leg stretch there for years.

And there’s Bruno’s Run. A 9.25-mile loop trail buried in the Land O’ Lakes that is the central UP, it’s a true slice of Michigan, wandering through a varied forest and along numerous small lakes and a river. If you like feeling far from people, find Bruno’s Run. It’s south of Munising on H-13. There’s trailhead parking along Moccasin Lake.

What seems to be a mere rest area along M-28 west of Munising on Au Train Bay is really a treat, with Scott Falls across the highway, and Lake Superior steps away. The lake is often a rolling and thunderous place here if the wind is from the north, pushing waves across 150 miles of open lake before they pound the shore at your feet. A small pictures rock rises to the right, not too visible from the highway. In October the beach was dotted with almost perfect sphere of grass, some eight inches across and weighing a pound (yes, I took one home), formed by the pounding of the grass-filled surf against a small sand bluff.

Considering that one milkweed pod can hold 300 seeds, the fact that the Ferndale Monarch project has given away almost 250 pods could mean as many as 75,000 seeds distributed. A green gift idea for a butterfly lover would be some packs of seeds, milkweed and maybe coneflower and d goldenrod, along with a book about butterflies, or a shirt or poster. Try Monarch Watch’s gift page for some lovely choices. They also certify as “monarch waystations” places that have a required number of monarch-friendly features. That could be a great gift (you can order a sign) for those who have already planted butterfly gardens. Check out Library or King Books for butterfly or guide books. Visit The Doll Hospital and Toy Soldier Shop in Berkeley for the mesh cages designed for raising caterpillars.

You may have noticed new LED streetlights along Detroit freeways. They use far less electricity than the orange-ish sodium vapor lights that often preceded them. The Detroit Free h Press and Forbes Magazine have had articles listing the advantages of LEDs, and one is enhanced night-sky viewing, even in urban areas. Forbes showed before- and-after pictures of LA, and the difference is striking. Glare is reduced and the new lights have better coverings, directing light downwards. The artificial orange haze that crowned LA and our city, visible from miles away, seems all but gone. Detroiters report feeling safer. Stars blaze on a darker, bluer background. The morning sky lately has been stunning, with a crescent moon rising, Venus blazing in the east, and Jupiter and Mars nearby. Orion is often due south when I arise, morning west through the early morning hours.

Michigan has three “dark-sky” preserves. House Bill 5023, sponsored by Peter Pettalia, seems to have cleared committee as of this writing. It would “designate the state-owned land encompassing Rockport State Recreation Area, Negwegon State Park, and Thompson’s Harbor State Park as dark sky preserves.” Michigan was, in 1993, the first state to set aside a dark-sky preserveL Lake Hudson in Lenawee County. Most of us who travel north come home with a common rhetorical theme: the stars.

The 60-year old Enbridge Oil Pipeline that crosses the Straits of Mackinac is still under scrutiny, a rupture there having the potential to cause an economic and environmental catastrophe. Representative Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor has introduced bills to gain more state oversight on pipelines, with more inspections, access to reports and plans, and higher standards for permits. This seems reasonable for a state with 3,200 miles of shoreline alone for Great Lakes. So far these and other bills have not made it past the early phases.

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Rebecca Hammond sews, writes, and teaches oboe in Ferndale. Find Funky Ferndale Crafts on Facebook

If something happened with our soundness, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a medicament. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotency and other states connected to erectile dysfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What folk talk about “viagra stories“? The most substantial aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile malfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as core trouble. Causes of sexual dysfunction include injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a condition called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual disfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this medication passes into breast milk.

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Story by Sherrad Glosson | Photos by Bernie Laframboise

When you ask Lori, a Ferndale resident, the reasons why she wants to help others deal with medical issues, one of them is because she’s been there… and is still fighting the fight.

Fibromyalgia came first. “It came out of nowhere,” says Lori. Not even accepted by the medical community until recently, it causes the brain to create pain signals by itself. It’s been compared to trying to move with broken bones. She tried different medications to subdue the pain in her hands, her hips, and her knees, but didn’t want to become addicted to any of them and they didn’t help, anyway.

Lori was prescribed many dangerous and addictive pain killers to subdue the pain in her hands, hips, and knees. “Medications aren’t really safe. They come with complications and side effects. Many of the medications I have been prescribed the side effect is: ‘Can cause death’.”

She began to research and seek other alternatives. One doctor had her try something different. He put her on Prozac, which treats the source of the pain signals. It helped. He also suggested she try medical marijuana.
Worse was to come. This past summer, Lori had a MRI and found out she had lesions on the brain and also was diagnosed with MS (Multiple Sclerosis,) a disease that affects the entire nervous system. It affects everyone differently, and Lori stood up to show me some of the effects it’s had on her. As she began to stand, she looked pretty stable, but when she stood on both feet she began to wobble, and immediately sat back down.

She says that this disease affects her balance as well as her train of thought. She can be in a conversation and completely draw a blank. From this personal experience, she did much research into alternative methods of dealing with pain.

Lori met Bill in December 2014 through a neighbor. Bill was an organic Tilapia farmer from Florida who moved to Michigan to grow medical marijuana. His goal was to grow clean, high-quality
medical marijuana for those suffering from autoimmune diseases. As it happens, he’s been growing his own marijuana to self-medicate since 1979. Bill’s undergraduate studies combined aquaculture with hydroponics, and he has been an organic farmer for most of his life. He is also a licensed fish farmer, composting specialist, and certified educator.

Together, Lori and Bill set out on a mission. Trident Apothecary (a fictitious entity, not a business) has goals of serving those with autoimmune diseases, protecting the environment by not using toxic pesticides, and mitigating their own waste production through worm farming. “We’re caregivers.” Lori says. “We welcome anyone with a valid MMMP (Michigan Medical Marijuana Program) card. We want to help, as organically as possible.”

Trident Apothecary has established a passive solar greenhouse to raise worms and fish to break down their waste and create organic soil for their plants. This process has been put in place to grow and produce the highest-quality products. The primary focus for Trident Apothecary is on the mind, body and spirit aspect, all integral parts of the healing or coping process.

Their new working project is to create a candy that will reduce the need for autoimmune patients to inhale medical marijuana via smoking. You can imagine that smoking is definitely not an ideal method for a child to receive her medicine, even if it is the only one to help them deal with their symptoms. Even learning how to do it at a young age could be baffling. Then you have adults who don’t have the desire to inhale smoke at all.

Since using Bill’s method over the last year, Lori reports her symptoms have improved. They are looking for other autoimmune patients to work with, to make the disease easier to deal with.

If you suffer from autoimmune disease and would like more information on Trident Apothecary and how they may be able to help, Lori and Bill encourage you to contact them at their Facebook page.

Lori also talks about the need to stay active and keep doing what you love. “To keep my hands working, I make suncatchers, jewelry, and other crafts using beach glass, beads, and driftwood. Multiple sclerosis has weakened my strength and dexterity. This is part of how I fight back naturally.”

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You can contact Lori and Bill through
www.facebook.com/TridentApothecary.

Lori’s arts and crafts are at www.facebook.com/Willowhawk-Glass.

If something happened with our heartiness, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a preparation. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotency and other states connected to erectile dysfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What people talk about “viagra stories“? The most substantial aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong heartiness problem such as core trouble. Causes of sexual dysfunction turn on injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a state called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual disfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this medication passes into breast milk.

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Story and photos by Rebecca Hammond

FRACKING: THERE IS A PETITION DRIVE to ban fracking that’s partly headquartered right here in Ferndale. One of two monthly meetings occurs at Renaissance Vineyard Church, a church with a focus on “Creation Care.” Former resident Todd Bazzett spoke to me about the issue. Todd found himself “horrified at the injustice of the DEQ not watching out for state land.” Land very near our rivers and lakes can end up being used as fracking sites. Fracking uses a huge amount of water, which ends up toxic and needing stored basically forever. It also requires large amounts of sand. Todd provided this statement:

“The Committee to Ban Fracking is working feverishly in the last few weeks of the campaign to collect signatures to get an initiative on the November 2016 ballot. The initiative will allow voters to ban hydraulic fracking, acidization of horizontal well bores and disposal of toxic frack wastes in the state. While Michigan has not been as heavily fracked as other states, oil and natural gas developers continue to seek mineral rights leases throughout the state and currently have enough leased land to install hundreds of wells. Michigan continues to receive shipments of frack waste from out of state and the application for a permit to expand the US Ecology frack waste storage and processing site in Hamtramck indicates that the trend is expected to continue. Signature gathering for the campaign ends November 11th 2015. Please go to letsbanfracking.org for more information about the campaign and local events in your area where you can sign the petition.”

RAPTORS: FOR THE LAST 14 YEARS OR SO, hawks have been a common sight in Ferndale. So when we hear a chorus of bluejays joined by a smaller, cuter chorus of nuthatches, chickadees, and titmice, we assume they’ve zeroed in on a hawk, attempting to annoy it into leaving. A month ago, though, I took a series of photos of a tall, dark shape in a tree across the street, and only when I zeroed in on the computer did I see the huge feet, eyes, and “horns” of a great horned owl, here in Ferndale. It’s my first sighting of one, but not my first encounter, which happened on a cold walk home from the WAB in January 2011. The 17 degree temps kept me focused and hurrying, vaguely thinking I kept hearing a train. At the moment when I finally stopped for a good listen, a woman taking out her garbage said, “You hear that owl?” Yes, I did.

FERNDALE MONARCH PROJECT: Want milkweed seeds? Look for our box in the atrium of the Ferndale Library (and thanks, FADL, for letting us put it there). Our project’s first summer is over, and with 283 milkweeds and 28 caterpillars handed out, and 244 butterflies released by page members, it’s a success. Some of what we learned:

• Milkweed seeds aren’t like radish seeds, sprouting quickly and mostly at once.
They’re like maple seeds,
sprouting all summer long,

usually after a rain.

• Maybe 10% of monarch eggs survive in the wild. Raising them indoors increases that to over 90%.

• When a caterpillar molts, it seems dead. It’s not. Wait.

• Each caterpillar forms a chrysalis at a different pace. Same with butterflies. Some hang motionless for a day, others are flapping around within hours.

There are plenty of places to scatter seeds besides your e own yard. I’ve tossed them along rail trails and dirt roads up north; along the Mason Tract Pathway and the Michi- gan Shore-to-Shore Trail.

“LEAVE YOUR LEAVES” was the title of my first column for Ferndale Friends years ago. A new reason to

leave leaves was brought to my attention at a native plants presentation at the Pleasant Ridge Community Center. If you want a healthy garden, begin with healthy soil, and provide the microbes in the soil the specific food they need to thrive. Mulch from Florida can’t feed them the way Michigan leaves or bark can. It would be nice to have immediate sources for Michigan mulch, but Eagle Landscaping & Supply, on Lahser in Southfield, has two types. We were told in PR that nature never strips down to bare soil. Better to leave it covered. In our small but tree-filled yard, we are well past ten years of raking leaves into flower beds. By June, they’re gone and the sandy soil continues to improve.

The Detroit Zoo has phased out the sale of bottled water. Go to their web site and read why, and you’ll wonder why we ever started buying it at all. For starters, it’s the number one con- a tributor to plastic waste in the US. I’ve often wondered what, had I been able to travel forward in time as a child, I’d be most surprised by. And although the variety of athletic shoes we each are pressured to “need” would certainly have been amazing, watching humans of the future pay as much for water as we do for pop would have been baffling. Maybe we just like having things to do with our hands. The caps alone provide a type of busy work akin to knit- ting (but with nothing use- ful at the end.)

More than 60 thousand plastic bottles will be kept out of the waste streameach year because of the Zoo’s effort. From their website:

“. . . it takes five liters of water to make one liter of bottled water, and . . .about a quarter of a water bottle of oil to produce, transport and dispose of a single bottle of water. Americans throw away 38 B billion water bottles each year.” Eighty percent of them end up in landfills. Follow the Zoo’s lead.

Becky Hammond oversees an urban milkweed e farm in Ferndale, MI.

If some happened with our health, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a preparation. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotence and other states connected to erectile malfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What folk talk about “viagra stories“? The most vital aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as heart trouble. Causes of sexual disfunction turn on injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a status called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual dysfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this medication passes into breast milk.

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Story and Photos by Rebecca Hammond

FERNDALE MONARCH PROJECT UPDATE: Our library’s butterfly garden is still sparse, this being its first year, but the plants are established and in bloom, except for the beautiful donated coneflower outside the children’s area. That was stolen, pulled right out of the ground. While I don’t blame the thief for choosing it, I wish they’d left it for the kids to see, and hope all others remain in place. Our Facebook page is still going like gangbusters. Page member Chantel Maloney wrote a piece about butterfly gardens for Metro Parent magazine, and we’ve given away about 250 milkweed plants. I see at least one Monarch a day.

Screen Shot 2015-08-31 at 12.16.41 PMBACKYARD HABITAT NEWS: A birdhouse out front is kept full of grass by house wrens, although they never live in it. They’ll take over any birdhouse just to keep others out. A fledgling downy woodpecker has discovered the house and is dismantling the nest piece by piece. It all looks rather experimental, but good thing the wren hasn’t noticed, those birds being the definition of aggressive. Woodpeckers like taking seeds from the common mullein towering over the front yard. Young tufted titmice are in the yard, their parents harassing our old cat during her naps out back. She’s 21 and deaf; they scream to no effect. Hummingbirds, as predicted, like the cardinal flower just planted; a Michigan native, it’s becoming increasingly rare.

PADDLING MICHIGAN: Phil and I like working our way through guidebooks and crisscross the state attempting all 60 of the 50 Hikes in Michigan, as well as Canoeing Michigan Rivers. Seeing wildlife is our biggest thrill (even when it leads to misguided notions like petting baby porcupines). We vow to rise early and hit whatever river we’re near for prime viewing time; coffee and books always slow us down. But the nearby Huron River provides most of our best wildlife viewing, no matter the time of day, or proximity to city life.

Two recent excursions through Lower Huron, Willow, and Oak-woods Metroparks took us past a doe, two small and very alarmed fawns, a few green herons (odd birds we first saw in Ontario last year, where their noises made us think people were hiding in the bushes mocking us), many turtles, a mink, and an immature bald eagle. Some of that stretch might convince you you’re paddling through the back 40 of Metro Airport. Using Canoeing Michigan Rivers along with a Huron River Canoe map and a Metroparks map allowed us to plan put-ins and a bike route back, our semi-new folding bikes fitting nicely in our old Mad River Explorer.

Jerry Dennis is a co-author of Canoeing Michigan Rivers, and his book From a Wooden Canoe may be where we got the idea of biking back to the car after a paddle. He and a buddy would stash a bike at the take-out, and one would stay with the boat while the other went for the car. For years we dropped off our mountain bikes, neither of us being too keen to sit alone while the other got to bike, then my neighbor Denise bought a folding bike for a friend to take vacationing. Light-bulb moment. Well, two light bulbs.

For one thing, if you take a trip and are not sure if you’ll want to bike, hauling bikes seems irksome. Do you risk leaving them on the car overnight? Do you put up with the hassle of unload- ing and reloading the car with them on the back? Although the folding bikes take up more room in the back of the old Prius than envisioned (I wrongly imagined that carrying them around in their duffle bags would be like toting an oversized tennis racquet), they are far easier to haul than bikes on a carrier. And they’re fun. I had mild unwarranted worries that each hinge could pop loose while aboard, causing me to suddenly be pedaling a bike flexing around like a Slinky, but no – they snap together and stay together. In fact, pulling them out of the canoe at access points and popping them briskly into place is one of the smug pleasures of owning them: onlookers are smitten with interest and admiration. Last-but-not-least in the list of advantages: no planning your exit from the river. You go till you feel like stopping.

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Rebecca Hammond likes August, September, and October, when Michigan bugs calm down a little, and the Great Outdoors here is more tolerable.

If some happened with our health, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a cure. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotency and other states coupled to erectile disfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What folk talk about “viagra stories“? The most substantial aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile malfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Causes of sexual disfunction turn on injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a condition called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual dysfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this medication passes into breast milk.

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Story and photo by Kevin Alan Lamb

Good citizens of Ferndale, the moment you’ve been waiting for is here! After a decade of overwhelm- ing demand your dog park will be delivered to Wilson Park, located at University and Hilton. No longer must you leave the friendly confines of Fabulous Ferndale to enjoy a silly and safe afternoon with your canine.

“It will open in mid-August, and feature a large and small dog play area,” says Lloyd Cureton with the Department of Public Works.

Screen Shot 2015-08-31 at 9.56.48 AMCome one, come all! So long as your dog is licensed, vaccinated, and plays nicely, of course.

“Parks and Recreation are still determin- ing the rules and guidelines, and will likely require Good Citizen Certification to rule out aggressive dogs and ensure they play nice.” Cureton explained.

Local vendors will offer the required Good Citizen Certification. There will be a waste cleanup area to ensure dog owners dispose of their furry friends’ business. While it is still under consideration, there may be a small fee to enter the park.

“There will be a pet-friendly drinking and washing area with an enhanced landscape surrounding the dog walking area.”

Access to the dog park will be through a wirelessly controlled gate which enforces the park’s hours of operation.

While there has been speculation of an intramural flag football league for dogs, the inability to find a “one-size-fits-all” football has ruled out the idea.

Current Wilson Park amenities include a baseball, basketball, and soccer fields, grills and picnic tables, an in-line rink, park benches, play structure and swing sets.

The dog park rules and regulations, when decided, will be available through the city’s website.

When asked if he had a dog who would be enjoying this wonderful addition to the Ferndale community, Cureton said, “Absolutely! My Frank can’t wait.”

Dog parks are an excellent source of both dog-dog social interaction, and dog-people interaction. They offer a shared community space to meet and engage other dog owners, set doggy play dates, and free your dog from the confines of leash exercise. With adequate physical and mental exercise, your canine will be less likely to participate in destructive or annoying behaviors.

In many instances dog owners must govern and worry over their pet’s antics; dog parks provide a healthy opportunity for owners to learn about their dog through observation and through more experienced owners.

The addition of a community dog park will reduce the likelihood of owners letting their dogs run free in on-leash parks, ensuring the Ferndale parks community is safer for children, dogs, and humans.

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For more information, dogs and their humans can contact the Department of Public Works at 248-546-2519. The DPW is open Monday through Thursday, 7:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.

If some happened with our health, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a medicament. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat emasculation and other states coupled to erectile dysfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What folk talk about “viagra stories“? The most substantial aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Causes of sexual dysfunction switch on injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a condition called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual dysfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this curing passes into breast milk.

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Story by Jeff Lilly | Photos courtesy of Ferndale Schools | Portrait of D’Anne McNeil by Jeff Lilly

Good habits learned early can lead to a lifetime of benefits. That’s the hope of every teacher and parent. In the Ferndale school district, one of the hoped-for benefits is a better, greener world

Five Ferndale schools were certified as “Green Schools” in a program managed by Oakland County. Signed into law in 2006 by former governor Granholm, the program gives interested schools a list of 20 environmental and energy-saving targets, fulfilling ten of which earns the school a “Green” designation, certificate, and flag. Fifteen targets fulfilled gets the school “Emerald” status. Twenty confers the coveted “Evergreen” designation. Currently, Coolidge Intermediate School, Ferndale Middle School, and Roosevelt Primary have achieved Green status, and Ferndale High School has made it to Emerald level.

John F. Kennedy Elementary School, however, has gone all the way and is currently the only Evergreen school in the district. Now in its seventh year of participation in the program, kindergarten teacher D’Anne McNeil and parent volunteer Susan Christin were the prime movers.

“I live in Royal Oak, and my kids had the ‘Oakroots’ movement in their school for Green School certification.” McNeil tells me, as I sit in a kindergartner-size chair in her classroom. The little whirlwinds have just left for the day, and the room still has all the evidence of their bustling activity. “I thought, wow, I want to do this for my school, too.” She hooked up with Christin, who’d had the same thought, and worked to turn Kennedy green.

It starts with educating the students on recycling. Students in Ferndale have a good head start, because many recycle already at home. In the classroom, McNeil says, “Anything paper, plastic or glass” goes into bins. In the main hallway, next to the office, is a large station where students can bring in electronics, batteries, and cords. A large container holds old prescription medication bottles, which are cleaned and sent to FernCare Clinic for re-use. The recycled electronics are purchased by a company that sends a bit of money back to the school, to be used to help run the program.

Another component of being a Green school is reducing waste. Kindergartners receive a “waste- free” lunch kit, including a water bottle, snack bag, and reusable napkin. Still, a lot of garbage is generated in the lunchroom, which is where parent volunteer Jennifer Krycian steps in, spending about a half-hour each day sifting recyclables from the lunchroom waste, doing things like rinsing yogurt cups and styrofoam trays. It’s a job that requires “rubber gloves and a strong stomach,” according to Krycian, but she believes in the program and the results.

“It sets a good example for the kids.” She says. It also has financial rewards for the school; a company that takes and recycles applesauce containers returned $190 to the school last year, for example. Other companies handle hard-to- recycle items like foil drink pouches. Krycian hopes that soon the styrofoam trays can be phased out in favor of biodegradable ones. She’d also like to get a few more volunteers to help start a comprehensive composting program. Still, the efforts are making a difference. The janitor, Krycian says, has noted that there’s a lot less garbage being produced in the lunchroom than before.

A third component of Green school certification is energy efficiency. McNeil talks about the solar cooker they acquired to make applesauce. The school has also installed programmable thermostats to cut heating and cooling bills.

Then there are the ecological initiatives. 6th grade teacher Greg Williamson raises salmon in his classroom for the DNR, releasing them into the wild. There are guidelines for adopting endangered animals.

The most visible initiative at Kennedy, however, is the gardens, supervised by Stacy Budzik and Jennifer Vermeersch-Bacon. McNeil shows me photos of the raised planters. “We grow kale, lettuce, beans, herbs.” She says. Some are sold to raise money, others are harvested and served at the school’s fall festival. Rain barrels have been installed on four corners of the school. There’s also a native plant garden, run by

Gretchen Abrams. The school’s latchkey program has students caring for the gardens, weeding, digging, planting, and refilling the bird feeders. Kennedy Elementary’s grounds are a certified wildlife habitat and a waystation for monarch butterfllies, as well.

Susan Christin, who gathers information and statistics and compiles and sends the needed reports and documentation to Oakland Schools for Green certification, acknowledges the positive effects of the program. “My kids and others now have a huge awareness of what’s recyclable. They also take the initiative to recycle on their own.” She says.

It’s a lot of work, and a lot of progress! D’Anne McNeil just smiles at my amazement, though. “The hard part was getting started. From there, we just added a little bit every year.”

Everyone doing a little bit can add up to a whole lot, including a greener, healthier world. Here’s to the teachers, parents, students, and

administrators of Ferndale schools, working hard to keep it green!

If something happened with our health, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a preparation. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotency and other states connected to erectile dysfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What people talk about “viagra stories“? The most substantial aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as heart trouble. Causes of sexual dysfunction switch on injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a condition called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual dysfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this medication passes into breast milk.

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Story by and photos by Rebecca Hammond

The mighty monarch is struggling.

Monarch butterflies, those beautiful and familiar harbingers of warm weather, are facing multiple threats, their numbers down more than 90 per cent. GMO crops, pesticides used on farmland and in home gardens, deforestation in Mexico (the winter haven of monarchs): all have contributed to this huge decline.

It’s time for the people to lend the monarch a hand. When I posted on the Ferndale Forum Facebook page that Ferndale should be a city-wide haven for monarchs, with as many milkweeds (a favorite monarch food) planted on as many properties as possible, the city yelled back, “Hey! Okay!” Within a day, a new Ferndale Monarch Project page was pulling in as many as two dozen “likes” a day; any time that slowed down, a reminder on Ferndale Forum produced a burst of new ones.

This is a community-driven project. We distributed about 15 packets of last-year’s milkweed seeds. Seeds can be unreliable with milkweed, so as my front-yard milkweeds began to sprout I began

digging up extras and offering them on our page. And they were snapped up. Green Garden Child Development Center in Madison Heights took two. Pinwheel Bakery was the next business to contact us, planning a front-window display. Renaissance Vineyard Church is the first house of worship to state an intention to plant a garden.

A request to Ferndale resident Douglas Christie for help with a logo and signs led to involving his artist brother Dan; the two are at work, and the prototypes are gorgeous. Jessica Keyser, director of the Ferndale Library, asked for a butterfly garden to be planted on the city’s cleanup day. Gretchen Abrams will add another at Ferndale High School late in May. Not only that, we’ve spread to Ypsilanti and Clarkston as well as Madison Heights and Pleasant Ridge, with interest from Highland Park. We’ve sent seeds to several spots in Ohio, and to Illinois and Colorado. A corridor of habitat up the metro area, and then the state, is our long-term goal.

A butterfly garden can be as few as two plants: one milkweed, and one nectar plant. Monarchs lay eggs only on milkweeds, monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed leaves. With these plants under such strain due to agricultural practices, I’m led to believe that if we save monarchs it’ll be in urban areas. One urban risk remains, and it’s a big one: the systemic garden pesticides called neonicontinoids, which end up in every part of a plant, reportedly being able to kill a monarch caterpillar after a few bites of leaf.

Nectar plants are common flowers many of us already had. Bee balm, coneflower, goldenrod (an important one, because it’s a late-bloomer needed by the last of four generations of monarchs to live, breed, and reproduce each summer, the generation that leaves here and flies thousands of miles to Mexico,) dandelions, and lobelia, to name a few.

Ferndale resident John Hardy told me he used to see many monarchs in his garden, but none at all the past few years. “I really miss the beauty and gracefulness they add to my garden. They also contribute to the ecology of the garden. There will always be a place for them in it, so I wanted to do all I could to try and make sure that their numbers are restored and they can once again return to the numbers seen in the past.”

Chantel Maloney was poignant: “I love butterflies and it breaks my heart to think that monarchs are becoming endangered. If I can help turn the tides simply by planting milkweed, then I have a responsibility to do that. I started last year on my own, trying to plant butterfly-attracting plants that were not treated with insecticides, but joining with the Monarch Project has helped me tremendously. It is empowering to know there is a community of people all working towards the same goal. Plus, the group keeps me educated and updated on events while also offering insights on gardening and attracting butterflies. It’s been a pleasure being a part of the project and I am excited for the positive change we can bring.”

Look for the Ferndale Monarch Project on Facebook and around town.

If something happened with our health, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a preparation. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotence and other states coupled to erectile dysfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What men talk about “viagra stories“? The most vital aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as core trouble. Causes of sexual malfunction turn on injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a state called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual dysfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this curing passes into breast milk.

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