Mountain Views News          Saturday, March 2, 2013

5

AROUND SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

 Mountain Views News Saturday, March 2, 2013 

LIVING WITH LESS WATER

By Christopher Nyerges

[Nyerges is the author of “How to Survive Anywhere,” “Self-Sufficient Home,” and other 
books. He leads self-sufficiency classes, and does a weekly podcast at Preparedness Radio 
Network. He can be reached at School of Self-reliance, Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041 or 
www.ChristopherNyerges.com]


“What’s Going On?” 

News and Views from Joan Schmidt

DUARTE AND MONROVIA’S 
YOUTH SUMMIT 2013 DID 
CONQUER THE WORLD!

 
For the third 
consecutive year, the 
cities of Duarte and Monrovia 
have worked together to present 
an OUTSTANDING summit of 
classes and most fun learning 
experience for many youths at 
the Duarte Performing Arts 
Center! 

 Upon arrival, youth 
participants registered, were 
given a tee shirt and treated 
to a Continental Breakfast. 
Afterwards they proceeded 
into the Duarte Performing Arts Center and given a 
warm welcome by Duarte Council Member Tzeitel 
Paras-Caracci. She reminded her listeners the event 
was designed by members of both the Duarte Mayor’s 
Council and the Monrovia Youth Commission and 
Teen Advisory Board, their peers! Council Member 
Paras-Caracci also recognized all of the many 
sponsors who make such a great activity possible. 
They included Nissan of Duarte, Foothill Credit 
Union, Think Together, the Sierra Auto Cars Family 
of Dealerships the Cities of Duarte and Monrovia, the 
Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, 
Southern California Edison, the Monrovia and Duarte 
School Districts, Duarte Kiwanis, Monrovia Rotary 
Club, Athens Disposal Services, Harem Sound, the 
Y-Life Project, Diane Balsamo of Wells Fargo Home 
Mortgage, Duarte’s Promise, The Alliance for Youth, 
and Donna Baker of Teles Properties. 

 Duarte Mayor Pro Tem Liz Reilly urged 
the participants to “listen and open your hearts and 
minds”. Monrovia Mayor Mary Ann Lutz was “thrilled 
to have this Summit for you...the most important part 
the cities and school districts to do this for you”. Duarte 
School Board President Ken Bell spoke of growing up 
in South Los Angeles and spoke of a social studies 
teacher “sparking my interest in law enforcement.” He 
then urged the participants to go through these classes 
and use what you can to make your life better.

 Next was the exciting part: Keynote Speaker, 
Lauren Potter. All “Glee” fans know Lauren as Becker 
Jackson, Cheerleader on the Show. Lauren dreamed 
about show business and becoming a star, “Something 
told me I would. I always loved music.” Lauren spoke 
of great home movies, and dancing by the time she 
was two, when she performed in a Recital and got a 
standing ovation which she loved! At sixteen, she tried 
out for Mr. Blue Skies, and won the role. It involved 
many hours of hard work. She loves he part in Glee; she 
had always wanted to be a cheerleader, but couldn’t. 
The show is in its fourth season and she still loves it! 

 Lauren speaks up for people with dreams. 
Reach up for them. She recalled being bullied as a kid, 
and speaks against bullying. She has even addressed 
Congress. Lauren feels Glee has done a public service 
to end the use of the “R” word. Lauren has worked with 
Special Olympics and President Obama has appointed 
him as a member of Barack Obama’s Presidential 
Committee on Persons with Intellectual Disabilities. 
(This honor was a real thrill for her.)

 Lauren was so inspiring that she received a 
standing ovation! After her address, Council Member 
Paras-Caracci explained the day’s activities-where 
classes were to be held and procedures to follow.

 Closing festivities included a special message 
by Ulises Gutierrez of the Y-Life Project, Special 
Performance (Live Taping), raffle prizes and more.

 Thank you first to Lauren Potter: You are 
truly a GREAT INSPIRATION to ALL our youth, not 
only those with intellectual difficulties! To the Cities of 
Duarte and Monrovia, deepest gratitude for providing 
such an OUTSTANDING learning experience for 
youths! 

For a week, residents of Pasadena 
were asked to do no outdoor watering. 
This was not because of a 
drought, or because there are too 
many of us residing here for the 
available water. This was because 
a major regional water pipeline 
needed repair, and it had to be 
shut down to make the repairs.

 Nevertheless, water is a scarce 
commodity when you have so 
many people wanting so much, 
living here in a coastal desert 
plain. It’s wise to practice water 
conservation all the time, and 
work such water conservation 
practices into our automatic 
lifestyle.

 The week’s outside water use 
ban had very little impact on me. 
For one, I no longer have a large 
outdoor yard with lots of flora to 
maintain, though I do raise some 
of my food. Also, except when 
I lived with my parents, I have 
never maintained a front lawn. 
When living at home, the upkeep 
and reseeding and fertilizing and 
watering of the front lawn was 
one of my father’s rites of spring. 
It was a ritual that my brothers 
and I were all expected to participate 
in. Interestingly, with all 
that focus on the lawn, we were 
not even allowed to walk on the 
lawn because – and yes, this is 
what my father told us – it would 
appear that someone walked on 
the lawn!

 Still, about 50 years later, most 
residents here in Southern California 
have the same fixation 
about maintaining a grass lawn. 
It is, in many areas, a status symbol. 
You will not be regarded as 
a “good neighbor” if you do not 
maintain your lawn to the neighborhood 
standard. You might 
even be accused – as I was on 
several occasions – of bringing 
down the property values of the 
neighborhood by not maintaining 
the status quo. Little wonder 
we spend so much time, money, 
water, and energy to maintain the 
green grass.

 When I did my usual early 
morning neighborhood walk on 
March 1, when the Pasadena watering 
ban apparently expired, I 
saw many front lawns with sprinklers 
flowing, and water running 
down the sidewalk and curb. It 
was as if these folks could not 
wait to get the green back into 
the lawn.

 I am well aware of the effect of 
peer pressure and the value that 
so many place on “appearances.” 
Still, there are a few of my neighbors 
who have eschewed green 
lawns and instead have beautiful 
front yard areas full of river rocks, 
succulents, and various drought-
tolerant bushes and vines. These 
yards are a pleasure to look at, 
and they tend to be places that 
support the lives of the “little 
fauna” – butterflies, insects, bees, 
ladybugs.

 In a few cases, I see attractively 
arranged food-producing front 
yards, with fruit trees, vegetables, 
and herbs, well mulched to maintain 
water.

 Living in the desert needed be a 
chore, nor is there a need to shake 
your fist at the water companies 
or local government. We chose 
to live here. It’s a desert. We can 
choose to live a water-wise life-
style here in the desert, or we can 
attempt to continue to “conquer 
nature.” The latter choice is not 
sustainable into the future.

 There are many, many ways to 
live with less water, and use water 
more wisely. Many of these methods 
have been widely publicized 
n the last few decades. I’ve included 
many in two of my books, 
“Extreme Simplicity” (2000), and 
more recently, “Self-Sufficient 
Home (2009),” where I shared the 
stories of people who took action 
on their own, without waiting 
for “government,” and without 
loans or assistance. I describe 
local residents who’ve figured 
out how to collect rainwater and 
use it on their properties to water 
the fruit trees and other flora. 
I’ve described those who have 
purchased or made composting 
toilets and learned to use them 
safely and hygienically. 

 In my “Extreme Simplicity” 
book, I describe how I have taken 
the dish water from the kitchen – 
as my mother did her entire life 
– and pour the used dish water 
outside on the kitchen garden. 
Yes, this requires buying dish detergents 
that are not harmful to 
the garden.

 There are many ways to save water, 
including – where possible – 
re-routing your household water, 
minus the toilet, so that the used 
water flows into your yard and 
garden. This is called grey water, 
and in most cases it is easy to do, 
wise to do, and illegal. Illegal to 
direct your used water into the 
yard, especially here in this desert? 
Yes, because city ordinances 
and Building & Safety departments 
recognize that not everyone 
do these water-wise practices 
in a way that’s both clean, and 
disease-free. No one wants a 
neighbor who breeds mosquitoes 
for the neighborhood. Yet, it is 
not “rocket science” to use grey 
water in the yard. Local government 
needs to recognize that this 
is a positive wave for the future, 
and they should find the ways to 
assist homeowners to do this easily, 
safely, and inexpensively.

 Still, if we are to “save ourselves” 
from our own pollution and over-
population, it will come from the 
grass-roots efforts of those who 
deeply desire to be a part of the 
solution. And there are plenty 
of positive signs today, from the 
voluntary simplicity movement, 
to the backyard urban farmers 
which are now all the rage. It is 
from these new pioneers that this 
silent revolution is taking place, 
which can provide living solutions 
to the many problems facing 
us today, including our ongoing 
water shortages.


Karen Herrera and Mayor Lutz


WORLD’S SMALLEST TELESCOPE GOES INTO ORBIT

 The smallest astronomical satellite 
ever built was launched from India on 
February 25 as part of a mission to prove 
that even a very small telescope can push 
the boundaries of astronomy.

 The satellite was designed and assembled 
at the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) of 
the University of Toronto Institute for 
Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) and launched 
from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in 
Sriharikota, India, along with its twin, 
also designed in Canada, but assembled 
in Austria.

 Each nano-satellite in the BRIght 
Target Explorer (BRITE) mission is a 
cube measuring about 8 inches per side, 
and weighing 15 pounds. The BRITE 
satellites represent a new concept in space 
astronomy: nano-satellites that can be 
designed, assembled, and deployed fast 
and cheaply.

 “SFL has demonstrated that nano-
satellites can be developed quickly, 
by a small team and at a cost that is 
within reach of many universities, small 
companies and other organizations,” 
says Cordell Grant, Manager of Satellite 
Systems for the Space Flight Laboratory 
at UTIAS.

 Up to now, such nano-satellites had 
been used only to monitor the Earth 
and experiment with new technologies. 
“Researchers, scientists and companies 
worldwide, who have great ideas for 
space-borne experiments but do not have 
the means to fund a large spacecraft, can 
now see their ideas realized,” says Grant. 
“BRITE has the potential to open an 
entirely new market for low-cost, high-
performance satellites.”

 “BRITE is expected to demonstrate that nano-satellites are now capable of performance that was once thought impossible for such small spacecraft,” Grant adds. But only small telescopes can fit within a 
20 centimeter cube. Therefore, BRITE is not intended to take pretty pictures, but will simply observe stars and record changes in their brightness over time. Such changes could be caused by spots on the star, 
a planet or other star orbiting the star, or by oscillations and reverberations within the star itself—the analogue of earthquakes on stars. The study of these so-called “starquakes” is called asteroseismology.

 To perform precise measurements of the brightness of stars, the telescopes need to be above the atmosphere. Otherwise, scintillation—the atmospheric effect that causes stars to twinkle—overwhelms 
the relatively small brightness variations of the stars themselves. By avoiding this, a very small telescope in space can produce more accurate data than a much larger telescope on the ground. Also, unlike 
telescopes on Earth, which are useless during the day, in bad weather or when the stars set below the horizon, telescopes in space can potentially observe stars all the time.

 As their name suggests, the BRITE satellites will focus on the brightest stars in the sky including those that make up prominent constellations like Orion the Hunter. These stars are the same ones visible 
to the naked eye, even from cities. Because very large telescopes mostly observe very faint objects, the brightest stars are also some of the most poorly studied stars.

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com.


Cordell Grant assembling the first BRITE satellite at UTIAS-SFL.