October saw some remarkable headway on the Pittsburgh Green House. Besides the physical space changing dramatically—mostly demolition, but construction began within the last few days of the month—I secured enough EcoLife lumber at cost thanks to Carter Lumber for our back deck. I also attended Green Build and met many vendors and manufacturers of green products that have the potential to be highlighted at the PGH. Our newsletter responses came back with overwhelmingly positive results, and we’ll be moving toward incorporating those responses into future newsletters. I’ve also begun working on a few net zero development projects that ACTION is involved with, which has been super exciting.
My month with Trees also went very well as the weather was nice and we’ve begun doing plenty of outdoor work. I made a few trips to Eisler’s tree farm with Lisa and Mark from Western PA Conservancy in order to pick out healthy, vibrant street trees that will be going into the ground starting in November. I participated in two Tree Pittsburgh Mulch Madness events where we mulched previously planted trees in order to help keep the soil above their roots healthy and provide a natural barrier for people and lawnmowers to avoid. Tree Pittsburgh hosted Arbor Aid, which was a great event that I put a lot of volunteer hours into. The space looked tremendous and it was very well attended with some really unique and beautiful pieces of woodwork. Once I’m rich I’ll be buying lots of good furniture from Arbor Aid.