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Earth Day 2026: Our One Acre

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As longtime readers might recall, Earth Day is an important day for our family. First and foremost, it is our youngest daughter Shannon’s birthday. My daughters’ birthdays are always such sweet days for me to remember, the days when we welcomed two darling babies into our family. Really, nothing can compare with this, and their birthdays always give me a happy spark.

On Saturday, we will be meeting Shannon and her husband, Mike, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for a day of festivities. I will be sure to post pictures next week.

Then, of course, there is the actual Earth Day, which to this family of Green Beans is a high holy holiday.

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, an ardent environmentalist, was one of the organizers, and when I clicked on Wikipedia to fact-check, I came upon a photo of President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon planting a tree on the White House lawn in honor of the first Earth Day. Back in those halcyon days, the Republicans were on board with Democrats, and they passed significant environmental legislation, “including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Superfund, Toxics Substances Control Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. It had seen the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the banning of DDT…”

All this legislation has directly affected Maine in a very good way. For example, when I was young, bald eagles in our state were a rare sight and were on the endangered list. Now, thanks to the Clean Water Act and the banning of DDT, seeing them is not uncommon, especially by our rivers. Truly, a cause for celebration.

But for this Earth Day, I want to narrow the focus and celebrate our very own yard, our one small acre that sits by the edge of the woods. We do what we can to live as lightly as possible. We use organic compost and fertilizers. No pesticides. No herbicides. Life, in all its various aspects, thrives—birds, mammals, insects (some of which we appreciate more than others), and people. After all, we raised two daughters here.

Here are spring snapshots taken in our yard for Earth Day 2026.

A nest I found on the ground,

a black beetle on the patio,

a six-spotted tiger beetle,

and birds at the feeder in the backyard. Sometimes they have squabbles.

In the front yard, I put together a little stone stack to honor my garden.

On our one acre, we have a charger that fuels our car. This has been a big part of our environmental journey.

Do we miss going to gas stations and filling our car with stinking gasoline? We do not. Charging in our yard is much more convenient. It costs us between $15 and $20 a month to charge our EV. As my Yankee husband would say, a pretty darned good deal.

And finally, here is our Chevy Bolt, which I have unimaginatively named “Bolty.”

Bolty took us through an extremely cold winter with no problems. Without hesitation, it started when the temperature was -20. The heater did shave off some of the mileage, but it was still over the 200-mile range, and Bolty brought us where we wanted to go. Once, when we went beyond Bolty’s range, we used a commercial charger, and within half an hour, we were 80% charged and on the road again. (We used that time to go to the bathroom and get snacks.)

A very happy Earth Day to you all!  And while it should hardly need to be said, may every day be Earth Day.

 

 

 

 

 

54 thoughts on “Earth Day 2026: Our One Acre”

  3. Thank you for inviting us to your Double celebration. I loved your tribute to your daughters and all the wonderful photographs, especially the green beetle, the gold finch and Bolty! We just bought a burnt-orange Bolt, and everyone loves driving it (although as you know I’m still very fond of my red Prius). Your post reminds us that small choices matter: Think Globally, Act Locally!

    1. Thanks, Judy! We are going to a restaurant called Popover. Not sure what else we will do. Shannon and Mike have an elderly dog, and although they hire a dog walker, there is a limit to how long they can stay.

      1. That’s right on Market Square area. If it is nice, they have quite a few tables outside. Great desserts. Have fun.

        Prescott Park and Strawberry Banke are a walk from there, but you can always drive by. Lots of construction going on in town. It’s starting to look a lot more urban sprawl than small New England town, but…

  8. Beautiful post. You and your family are doing great things to honor our planet. As you know, I’m not a gardener, but I do my best to live lightly as well–I harvested my first two pea pods yesterday! An EV is on my to-do list, but I’m still driving my late husband’s 2009 Toyota, and it’s such a sturdy and trusty old thing I’m hangin’ on, and I don’t go far. I got gas the other day for the first time since the price jumped!

    1. Thanks, so much! We kept our gasoline-powered Honda Fit for 15 years, until it couldn’t be inspected without expensive repairs. Then we got our EV. So I certainly understand.

  11. Happy Earth Day Laurie and happy birthday to Shannon too! 💚 xxx

  13. Love the whole post – but my eyes are on Bolty and its local ‘chef’ ! OMG – such should be seen far more often by now to make the world a better place! Have a very happy day!

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  19. So, Nixon was not all bad, politicians worked for the good of the people and the USA did good things for eagles. Where did that all go?

    Fortunately you have your home and daughters to make you happy. And Clif and an electric car too.

    There’s a lot of stuff in this post – good to have you back!

    1. In many ways, Nixon was a rotter. In other ways, not so much. And back in the day, the Democrats and the Republicans really did work together to pass environmental legislation, which in turn helped bring back the eagles. Amazing, isn’t it? And sad to think about what this country has become.

      Life is good on our little acre. Wish it could radiate outward to our state, the country, and the world.

  20. The African Drumming group I go to performed at a local Earth Hour on earth Day but sadly i couldn’t go because long before it was arranged my daughter asked to stay here overnight on her way to a wedding. Like you I do my best to treat the earth kindly and I see the wildlife her becoming richer over the years.

    1. On Earth Day, I was thinking of you and how much you have done with your property. Also I was thinking about how much I would like to visit you and see in person what you have planted. Lovely to read that the wildlife is becoming richer over the years.

      1. Oh what a lovely comment Laurie! I would love to meet you in real life and show you my garden. And to visit you and see your lovely home in the woods. Maybe I will do a post soon about my garden and woods.

      2. Too bad we don’t each have a Book of Everything to zip us back and forth. 😉 But we do have our blogs. Would love to see a post about your gardens and woods.

  24. As I have said before, I love how you celebrate often!

    Lovely series of captures (my favourite is the nest) to commemorate Earth Day.

    Looking forward to hear about Shannon’s day of festivities!

    1. Thanks, Ju-Lyn. I especially like how feathers are woven into the nest. I wonder if they come from the bird who built the nest or are found feathers.

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