“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s” Do-It-Herselfer Didiayer Snyder!
Tom Darden is Executive Director of Brad Pitt’s Make It Right. Actor Brad Pitt founded Make It Right in order to help rebuild New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward and to be a catalyst for building energy-efficient, affordable green homes throughout the nation. On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed 4,000 homes in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward. Two years later when Brad Pitt toured the city, the neighborhood remained deserted and devastated; and Brad promised the families that he met there that he would help make it right. Brad then founded Make It Right to build at least 150 affordable, environmentally-sustainable (green), well-designed, storm-resistant homes for working families who lived in the Lower 9th. Ward and lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. The U.S. Green Building Council has named the Make It Right community the “largest, greenest neighborhood of single family homes in America.” One of the most famous stars of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition", Didiayer Snyder is probably the only fashion model who could build her own catwalk. Born and raised in Australia, Didiayer worked as a model since her teens; and as a Royal ranger for seven years, Didiayer learned to live off the land and became highly-skilled in “bushman’s law” and eco-travel~having learned to build shelters, find drinking water, and cooking camp bread which became the foundation on which she first developed her love for the planet. As Didiayer herself stated, “As I educated myself more about the thing we humans do to harm the planet, I knew I had to step up.” And step up Didiayer has. A longtime volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, Didiayer has contributed her carpentry skills and knowledge on sustainable living to communities throughout the nation~becoming their national ambassador in 2008 and working alongside construction companies to build 280 energy efficient homes in a week. Didiayer uses her professional organizations skills and educated homeowners on how to live an environmentally conscious, clutter-free lifestyle~lessening all of our carbon footprint on the earth. The former host of “The Travel Channel’s” hit shows “Amazing Vacation Homes”, “The World Best Beaches”, and “Off the Beaten Path”, Didiayer eventually joined the hugely popular television series “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” where she is proud to be the show’s green voice and the ultimate do-it-herselfer.
Joel Fisher - "The Wine Guru" - LA Winefest 2010
The LA Winefest is history and was one of the most successful to date. Our wine guru "Joel Fisher" is on hand to report on the activities, what happened, who was involved and, of course, the wine
. LA WineFest 2010 Raleigh Studios
5300 Melrose Avenue Hollywood, CA 90038
Burr Morse - Owner - Morse Farm Maple Sugar works - Maple Sugar
The Morse ancestors who helped settle Central Vermont were taught how to tap maple trees by Native Americans. Hot Rocks were used to evaporate the sweet sap until only sugar or "sinzibukwud" remained. Pioneers could boil a year's supply of sugar thus making Americans self-sufficient in sugar production. Ben Franklin promoted massive sugar production in the Northeast to make the country less dependant on "foreign" sugar. It's Sugarin' Time -Once America won its independence, and improved transportation helped bring cheaper sugar from the south, sugarmakers started boiling their product less, allowing it to stay in the more popular syrup stage, but the name never changed from the original "sugarin." Old timers say that we get a run of sap for every day of January thaw. Most years we get a January thaw and its duration can be measured in one, two, or three days. The sugar season, which occurs mid March thru mid April, always consists of one, two, or three runs. On the average, it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of pure maple syrup. We drill 1 tap hole in each of our maple trees, which gives 10 gallons of sap in an average year. So, 4 maple trees, 40 to 200 years old, are needed to make one gallon of pure maple syrup.
