It's Not Easy Being Green

My beautiful, loving wife happened upon an episode of an interesting show called "It's Not Easy Being Green", on the Sundance Channel. According to their website, the first season shares a family's quest to become self-sufficient and more environmentally aware. In the second season, they help others with eco-friendly projects.

The first episode I saw was from the new season (Episode 6, I believe), and featured a wide range of projects. One trendy couple installed a new passive solar water heater on their fixer-upper, but ran into problems due to a historic district zoning board. Another group put up a small wind turbine. The guys also built a smoker from a 55 gallon drum and smoked some cheese. I was a bit concerned about what type of chemicals were originally contained in the drum. They burned a rather large fire to decontaminate it, but I would still be leery.

The final project involved setting up a small field for pigs; complete with shelter, water and an electric fence. The pigs provided a dual purpose - obviously they can be used for meat -but they also till and fertilize the land. The former pig pen can make a great garden the following year. And it was rather humorous to see them eating sausages at the end of the show.

I found the show to be rather funny and informative, and I fully recommend searching it out. It has definitely found a place on my DVR; hopefully I can catch up on past installments. I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who is familiar with this. Are there any specific episodes I should look out for?