Planning your big summer vacation? If you believe half the fun is getting to your destination, consider using trains instead of airplanes for your trip. While it may take longer to get there, train travel has a much lower carbon footprint than flying on a gas-guzzling plane. According to the International Energy Agency, car travel accounts for 71 percent of CO2 emission, planes account for 12.3 percent and railways just 1.8 percent. So go green and embrace the romantic and fun idea of seeing America by rail.

Many of us live in communities that have water restrictions, especially when it comes to taking care of lawns and gardens. A simple trick to help keep things cooler is to allow the branches on bushes and shrubs to stay full and as low to the ground as possible. Branches create shade, and if you add leaves and mulch on top of the soil, it creates a double cooling effect that reduces evaporation. Less evaporation means less water is needed to keep your plants healthy and alive.

Common kitchen scraps that are birds' favorite delights are eggshells. In the spring and summer months, female birds crave the calcium that comes from eggshells, since their body has been drained of calcium from laying eggs. To prepare eggshells for birds, rinse them and bake them on a cookie sheet at 250 degrees until they are dry, which sterilizes them. Place the eggshells near a feeder or on a flat surface, and watch birds of all sorts gobble them up.