PHOTO COURTESY FORUM FOR THE FUTURE

Solar box cookers have been popular with campers and back-to-the-landers for decades. The Kyoto Box solar cooker, an updated design, has just won first place in the Financial Times Climate Change Challenge.

According to an article in Green Futures magazine, “The Kyoto Box uses the greenhouse effect to boil and bake. This solar cooker consists of two boxes, one inside the other, with an acrylic cover, which lets the sun’s power in and traps it. Black paint on the inner box and silver foil on the outer help concentrate the heat, while a layer of straw or newspaper between the two provides insulation.

In many parts of the world, wood for cooking fires is in extremely short supply and whole landscapes have been ravaged due to the need for firewood. Kyoto Box inventor Jon Bøhmer told Green Futures he “believes it could halve the need for firewood, saving an estimated two tonnes of carbon per family per year, as well as freeing women and children from the health risks of inhaling smoke from the cooking fires.”

Does this new solar cooker  really work any better than earlier designs?  We invite you to build the Kyoto Box solar cooker and tell us how it worked. You can post your results in the comments section below.

Yesterday, to coincide with Earth Day, representative Jim Moran (D-Va.) introduced the Plastic Bag Reduction Act of 2009, proposing a five cent tax for single-use bags — including grocery sacks, dry-cleaning bags, take-out food bags, retail bags and service station bags — to take effect January 1, 2010. The funds collected from the tax would be distributed four ways. Of the five cents, one cent would cover a tax credit for retailers implementing a qualified carryout (single-use) bag recycling program, one cent would go to the Land and Water Conservation Fund,  one cent would be dedicated to state and local trash reduction and watershed protection programs, and the remaining two cents would go toward reducing the national debt.

To find out more about the proposed bill, view a PDF of the Plastic Bag Reduction Act of 2009, read the National Plastic Bag Bill press release from Moran's page at the House of Representatives' website, or check out New bottle deposit, bag tax bills touted for combating pollution from the New York Times.

What do you think of the Plastic Bag Reduction Act — would you vote for a federal tax on non-reusable retail bags? 

FOTOLIA/ROLAND SCHMIT

They may not be kids any more, but these pretty goats  are probably just as giddy about fresh green grass  snacks and warm weather as any newbie.

Finally! Today is the first day in Kansas that's really felt like spring. We've gotten oh-so-close a couple of times before, but today's a perfect 66 degrees Fahrenheit, with the sun streaming down and literally not a single cloud in the sky. Even the slight breeze is warm. It's the kind of day where the only right thing to do is get outside and drink it in, let the warmth chase the chill from your bones.

Actually, winter is my favorite season, hands down. But spring more than carries its weight as a season to celebrate. Living in Kansas, it's the variance of the seasons — the melting and mixing that draws a new face on the earth and an altered mood into the air — that sings with life. The seasons here roll through constant change, usually in a moderate flux, sometimes calming into a steady hum, and, occasionally, exploding in roiling, earthshaking assertions of vigor. The changes seem to mirror all the moods and stages we go through, from rowdy jubilance to the quiet moments we each sometimes crave, to rest, reflect and regenerate. Though winter carries the most magic in my heart, it's the moving onward that's fully captivating and invigorating. And it's the full expression of each season that leaves us hungry for the next, so we can grasp the gifts and trials of each, fresh and eager with anticipation.

So, as it does every year, the land here is transforming. Colors that have hidden for months are peeking hello. The earth is softening in a gesture of hospitality to seeds and saplings, and all variety of animals and birds are making sounds, rustling and chatting as they shake out their fur and stretch high into warm wind. As all of this busyness is commencing, we're all looking forward to something, maybe seeing a particular flower or enjoying dinner on the porch. 

For me, spring's knob-kneed kid goats make everything right in the world. And there are few things more reassuring than the spattering, sliding and sometimes clamoring sound of spring rain on the roof. But truth be told, nothing says spring (or home) more than the deep, pungent smell of freshly turned soil. Every inch of our farm exuded that fragrance this time of year. Whether you were in the middle of the walnut grove or smack in the center of a field waiting for corn, it was inescapable, rich and smelled more than anything else like life. You can do anything with soil like that. It carries all the promise in the world, if you're willing to do your part. Even if you don't, not an inch will go to waste. A few weeks from now, flowers, weeds, grasses and insects by the dozen will be pushing and buzzing and thriving in and around that soil. There's nothing like that smell, nothing.

What are you most looking forward to, or already relishing, this spring?