It's been a busy week for the EOS Alliance Sustainability Team! At the UW Arboretum, Cari Baumgartner has been prepping the soil for spring, helping garden volunteers pack it chock full of nutrients for the greedy seedlings to gorge their lissome green bodies. Soon, the pitter-patter of field trip groups' feet will litter the quiet lanes and echo from tree to trellis like a gentle laughing rain. In addition to Cari's work at the Arboretum, she's helping Queen Anne Elementary School plan out a new native plant climate garden.

Hai Nguyen, Brianna Craft, and Kelly Ferron have been working on the zHome project with the City of Issaquah. The zHome development in the formerly sylvan Issaquah Highlands seeks to demonstrate a new way to offset the costs of urban sprawl by establishing a zero-energy, carbon neutral community, tastefully decorated with native plants.

Hai has been creating a 3-dimensional sketch-up model for the development, which, in the elegance of its accuracy, virtually outshines the genuine article. Brianna spent her week editing videos for the zHome development and technology, to lend color and motion to our visions of the brave new world dawning over the heads of we who dwell deep within the future's shadow. Kelly writes the zHome blog, and is busy as a bee in the Hundred Acre Woods preparing for the open house in September.

On Thursday, the whole Sustainability Team descended on Pickering Barn to plant some apple trees, train peas to a trellis, and put slugs to the knife. What will the next week hold, dear reader?