Matthew 6:26  “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns.” Birds live relatively simple lives.  A person may not see much worth in a stick or in a leaf, but a bird can use those to make a home.  They depend on the resources around them and are never wasteful. You might be wondering what birds have to do with you, or Hiram College, or the TREE House. In reality, birds have a lot to teach us about using what we find around us and to create good, sustainable lives. Fortunately some people have taken this lesson to heart.  Jay and Annie Warmke, whom I met recently through a class field trip, are two such people.  With the mindset of a bird, they have used the resources around them to create a magnificent home.  In 1993, in the foothills of the Central Appalachian Mountains...

...and it's making a hole in your wallet! Energy analyst, Pam Pierce, joined us at the TREE House recently to conduct some of the initial steps in our energy audit. First, we conducted a “blower door test.” This entailed blocking off the front door and creating a semi-vacuum in the house. All doors opening to the outside had to be shut and all inside doors and cupboards had to be open to allow air to flow through the house properly.  While a fan, inserted into the plastic blocking off the front door, began to pull air out of the house, we SEEDS watched intently, praying that our eyeballs wouldn’t be sucked from our heads by the vacuum.  As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about.  The pull was much less dramatic than we imagined.  When the fan was switched on, it began to pull air in from the outside through...

A pioneer species, the dandelion grows where most plants can’t.  It is resilient and evolution has taught it to spread its seeds far and wide using no more energy than a gust of wind.  Even better than that, its deep strong roots accumulate nutrients that regenerate the soil around it, and it is edible and medicinal to boot.  Although many consider this flower to be a back yard scourge, these characteristics make the dandelion a nice metaphor, in some ways, for what the TREE House project hopes to promote in the Hiram community and beyond: a pioneering spirit, sustainability, and the ultimate goal of making a place ever better.  One of the first steps on the road to accomplishing all that is to know what we’re dealing with at the outset.  And that’s where an energy audit comes in.  Pam Pierce, energy and green home specialist of Learn About Green...

  Since we can't wait to learn more about the sustainability audit the TREEhouse is about to undergo, a few of the other SEEDs scholars and I took a quick tour of the house to see what we could imagine.  Not much academic content here, but our group seems to be congealing pretty well...    "I just think we come here to drink smoothies and talk about really radical ideas..." -Owen Schoeniger "Oh, come get a close-up of the book we found... Enchantments, "Everyday Magic for Modern Life"" -Nate Frances "That's why we should have tropical plants up there, you know, 'cause it's... warm in there. And we could have mangoes and pineapples...!" -Shova Alemagar...

Camouflaged amidst a row of houses along the quiet Dean Street just behind Gerstacker Hall at Hiram College, rests what appears to be an ordinary house.  A stone beaten path accented with towering maples lines the front of the house.  From the street, nothing distinguishes this house from the rest.  At least, not yet.            Starting this year, the TREE House (that stands for Teaching, Research, and Environmental Engagement) at 11745 Dean St. will begin to be transformed from an ordinary house into a buzzing hub of activity for the Environmental Studies department. A generous gift to Environmental Studies will make possible a renovation project which will include professor’s offices, classrooms, student workspace, and a place for public demonstration and workshops. But this is no ordinary residence-to-academic building transition. The aim is to incorporate sustainability principles into the house’s structure, energy and water systems, landscaping, social and...