Denver women who want to improve their home repair skills are invited to register for classes.  This is a great opportunity to learn from a master craftswoman how to do the kinds of things around the house that have mostly been left to the men.  Judy Browne is an amazing woman who had a great idea, Workshop for Women.  Judy was an AmeriCorp volunteer and learned how to build a home from the ground up working for 14 months with Habitat for Humanity.

Channel 4 Denver featured a story about Judy with a video showing how she teaches women how to do their own maintenance.  Have a look!  You can reach Judy at 303-284-6354 or you can email her to register for a class.

It's that time of year again when people start freaking out about their lawns. Climate change and global warming don't seem to worry homeowners as much as having the best lawn on the block. Xeriscaping -- well, someday, maybe, but not this year.  So out come the Scotts products, the fertilizer, the sprayers, the crabgrass patrol.

There's another way this year to help with the quest for the greenest lawn this side of the British Isles. Colorado State University Cooperative Extension has come out with a program that will put expert eyeballs on homeowners' lawns, CSU Lawncheck.  A memer of the Cooperative Extension horticultural staff will come out to your home and do a diagnosis plus recommendations.

It's not available everywhere in Colorado.  It will begin in the metro Denver counties of Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, El Paso and Jefferson, and in Mesa, Delta, Montrose and Ouray counties on the Western Slope. Just call the Cooperative Extension office in your county and make a date with an expert.  It does cost.  But $75 (plus mileage) hardly seems like a lot of money to pay for a personal visit.

Check out the CSU Extension website, and be on your way to a blue-ribbon, or shall we say green-ribbon lawn.

Denver is named as the number 9 city in the nation in 2006 for sustainability by SustainLane, an organization formed in 2004 to provide resources to governments, businesses and citizens interested in green livability.

Add to that today's United Nations' global warming report which finds earlier reports on the state of the globe more conservative than initially thought, and Denver becomes one of the few large cities inland that might be able to withstand the expected effects of global warming and still offer a welcoming and sustainable ambience to present and future residents.