A home listed by Full Circle Agent Michael Littleton is featured in The New York Times today in a story for their Real Estate section called, "What you get for...$210,000."

The article gives a snapshot of what you can get for that price in a few cities across the country. Click HERE to check it out!

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: Full Circle

     It certainly doesn't look like the thermometer is going to drop around here anytime soon. If you're like me, you're thinking about how this early heat wave is going to affect your electric bill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star program offers low to no-cost energy-efficient cooling tips to beat the heat. A typical household spends almost 20 percent of its utility bill on cooling, and by taking steps this summer to improve energy efficiency, you can save energy, save money and help fight climate change.

Try these simple tips to start saving today:

No-Cost

•  Program your thermostat to work around your family’s summer schedule—set it a few degrees higher (such as 78 degrees) when no one is home, so your cooling system isn’t cooling an empty house. With proper use, programmable thermostats can save you about $180 a year in energy costs.

• Check your HVAC system’s air filter every month. If the filter looks dirty, change it, but change the filter at least every three months. A dirty filter will slow air flow and make the system work harder to keep you cool, wasting energy.

• Run your ceiling fan to create a cool breeze. If you raise your thermostat by only two degrees and use your ceiling fan, you can lower cooling costs by up to 14 percent. Remember that ceiling fans cool you, not the room, so when you leave the room make sure to turn off the fan.

•  Pull the curtains and shades closed before you leave your home to keep the sun’s rays from overheating the interior of your home. If you can, move container trees and plants in front of sun-exposed windows to serve as shade.

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: Energy | Heat | Tips | Budget

While reading the depressing daily reports on the worst oil spill in our nation's history, I found a heartwarming story about a young New York artist inspired by John James Audubon to help save the Gulf birds.

Olivia Bouler, 11, has already helped to raise more than $70,000 to protect whooping cranes and other birds who are threatened by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A budding orinthologist who already knows she wants to study at Cornell University, Olivia was shaken by the growing disaster and wanted to do something. So she wrote a letter to the National Audubon Society and told them she had one skill to offer: drawing. “Eleven years old and willing to help,” she wrote.

Olivia is drawing birds and sending one rendering to every person who donates to oil relief efforts through the society. Learning of her effort, AOL donated $25,000 in her name to the Audubon Society and offered to host her portfolio at a site it maintains for artists. Cont...

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: Gulf | Oil | Artist

The Barber Street Park Project is almost ready to move on to the design phase. Volunteers have explored and documented the site, and now have a good sense of the design challenges ahead. But there's a little work from the initial clearing phase to finish up, and this mostly involves removing a large pile of bush honeysuckle that was generated during the first two volunteer works days.

Project leaders are looking for volunteers to help them move the bush honeysuckle pile at the Barber St. site this Sat. June 12 from 10am to 2pm. Other touch-up work includes keeping paths clear of vines. Some trash pick-up may also be necessary.

The Barber Street Park Project is a volunteer effort to design and build a neighborhood park here in Athens on an empty lot on Barber Street. Located at the top of Boulevard, the site is well positioned to serve as a neighborhood focal point and could easily be integrated into a future greenway network and/or a rails-to-trails project.

For more info about this project and to find out how you can get involved, check out Dan Lorentz's great blog HERE.

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: Boulevard | Athens | Park

We are proud to announce our sponsorship of the Athens Farmers Market this year. The Market is an organization of local farmers, craftspeople and volunteers working to make local naturally grown food, crafts and works of art available for the good of all.

Make sure you visit the Market, located at Bishop Park, Saturday mornings from 8am to Noon. Click HERE for more information, including a list of what will be available each week. You'll also see a link to the Market website at the bottom of our homepage.

Go get your veggies and support our local farmers!

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: Athens | Food | Sustainable

Full Circle and J.W. York Homes collaborated with a UGA LEED-Certified Professor and her design students last Fall to design a spec home for The Cottages at Hilltop, a sustainable-concept community.

Jared York was so impressed with one of the group's designs that he decided to build the very efficient, 4BR/3BA house plan the students created. The four UGA students, their Professor Megan Lee and Dean Laura Jolly of UGA's Family and Consumer Sciences School toured the completed home today.

The students were very excited to see their plans come to life! The 1,655 sq foot Energy Star home is a great use of space and includes a room downstairs with a pocket door entry that could be used as an office/den/4th BR. There are three bedrooms upstairs, including a master bedroom and two gorgeously tiled bathrooms.

Click HERE to see photos of this great example of sustainable design.

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: UGA | Sustainable

Full Circle Agent Briggs Carney participated in the 2010 Tour de Farm over the weekend.

Tour de Farm is a three-day, approximately 100-mile bike ride to many small local farms in and around Athens-Clarke County. This year's Tour de Farm was a huge success, as both riders and volunteers alike connected to and formed relationships with the agricultural landscapes of Northeast Georgia, the food grown locally and seasonally in our region, and the people working hard to produce this food sustainably.

"It was a really cool experience and one I would definitely do again," Briggs said. He said guest chefs prepared dinner each night using food grown on the farms and riders camped at stops along the way.

The group of riders were followed by a camera crew from CNN, so we'll post those videos when they are available. To check out photos from the event, click HERE.

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: Athens | Sustainable

About one-fourth of Americans say they'll discard a large piece of furniture when moving rather than recycle or sell it, reports a new survey. Since 40 million Americans move each year, that means about 10 million will leave behind a sofa or other large item, which often end up in landfills.

As we head into moving season in Athens, keep in mind your local options and don't toss your furniture in the trash. There are plenty of area non-profits that will even pick up that old sofa you no longer want! Put a phone call in to one of these places and RECYCLE:

Athens Habitat ReStore - 706-354-0936

Goodwill - 706-433-1900

The Salvation Army

Athens Thrift Store - 706-546-5596 drop-off or 706-357-9244 pick-up

Donations are tax deductible! Click HERE for more on the survey.

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: Recycle | Athens

Forty years after the first Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever. While climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, it also presents the greatest opportunity – an unprecedented opportunity to build a healthy, prosperous, clean energy economy now and for the future.

Looking for ways to make an impact? Click HERE for a few ideas and check The Flagpole for local activities, including the New Earth Day Festival.

As you go about your day, take this quote with you from the great Dr. Seuss:

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It's not. - The Lorax

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: Earth Day | Athens

The Classic Center & Athens-Clarke County Recycling Division invites professional and amateur Athens artists of all backgrounds to participate in a Request for Design proposal for a combination outdoor recycling bin. The unit shall be designed to have one bin for aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles, and a second bin for small cardboard and paper items (i.e.: newspapers, magazines, etc.).The primary goals of this project are as follows:

• Provide a pedestrian recycling option which will reduce the burden on our local landfill;

• Support of our local artists and the arts;

• Beautify downtown with artistic recycling bins.

Proposals due by 2pm June 11th. Selected artist recieves an honorarium of $500. Click HERE for more info.

Posted by Katie Throne

Tags: Athens | Recycle