I found an amazing book from 1948 called "Build It and Ride It." It has plans for a couple dozen soap box derby racers. I need to get to a copy shop and start scanning that stuff in and posting up on Bloomington Carbon Free Racing, but dizzam! this book rocks.
This could inspire a lengthy column about how "back in the old days" people had to make their own toys but I'm not in the mood, nor, I suspect, is the rest of the planet.
Suffice it to say that this is a well written book directed at young readers (and possibly their parents, though I also suspect in 1948 parents weren't too concerned with turning their kids loose with a bunch of tools and wood) that is definitely also a relic of a different time.
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Friday, November 26, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Giant leaf-sucking vacuums
Last week it seems the concept of doing away with the giant leaf sucking vacuums was being bandied about by the city. It really only makes sense. I, of course, turn all that carbon into compost, and would encourage others to do the same, if they garden. But not everybody like plants, or flowers, or food, or saving the planets, so we can expect everybody to do so.
This is a good example of a service that is nice but unnecessary. People have been raking their lawns for a long time, or paying some neighborhood kid to do it. A newer service like this is kind if cool but not necessary. I bought an electric leaf blower for $25 that can be reversed and used as a mulcher. The biggest pile of leaves can be turned into a pile less than 1/4 of the size in no time at all. Compost them, fill in holes, spread them on your lawn.
In my readings on compost, wide ad varied that they are, I have read about communities starting their own compost piles. IF these leaves were going to something like that then it might be worthwhile, however, I'm pretty sure these are ending up in the landfill.
This could be a good service for someone to get into. A monthly yard waste and non-toxic bio-waste removal (as in everything that is kitchen waste except for meats, bones and oils, the basic non-compostable stuff)with a composting facility where yard waste couple be mulched and mixed with kitchen waste. Stir, add water, and bada-bing. You got yerself a product to sell- compost.
This is a good example of a service that is nice but unnecessary. People have been raking their lawns for a long time, or paying some neighborhood kid to do it. A newer service like this is kind if cool but not necessary. I bought an electric leaf blower for $25 that can be reversed and used as a mulcher. The biggest pile of leaves can be turned into a pile less than 1/4 of the size in no time at all. Compost them, fill in holes, spread them on your lawn.
In my readings on compost, wide ad varied that they are, I have read about communities starting their own compost piles. IF these leaves were going to something like that then it might be worthwhile, however, I'm pretty sure these are ending up in the landfill.
This could be a good service for someone to get into. A monthly yard waste and non-toxic bio-waste removal (as in everything that is kitchen waste except for meats, bones and oils, the basic non-compostable stuff)with a composting facility where yard waste couple be mulched and mixed with kitchen waste. Stir, add water, and bada-bing. You got yerself a product to sell- compost.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Fucking sleep study
DAMMIT. I have to go back for the SECOND time to that creepy fucking clinic and have wires stuck all over me AGAIN and have some technician monitor me all night so I can spend a thousand fucking dollars on a goddamn machine to help me sleep better.
Or maybe, more pertinently, to make my wife sleep better.
I, of course, won't care if I die in my sleep. I'll be dead. Darkness at the top of the stairs, etc. But my kick-ass wife et al might bum on that, and meanwhile, while I DON'T die in my sleep from Sleep Apnea, my wife wakes up when I start sawing down the rain forest. So fuck it. Hopefully I'll sleep THIS time.
Or maybe, more pertinently, to make my wife sleep better.
I, of course, won't care if I die in my sleep. I'll be dead. Darkness at the top of the stairs, etc. But my kick-ass wife et al might bum on that, and meanwhile, while I DON'T die in my sleep from Sleep Apnea, my wife wakes up when I start sawing down the rain forest. So fuck it. Hopefully I'll sleep THIS time.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Mompocalypse-Alzheimer's is a bitch, and Death ain't much better
It's been building up to this for some time, but yesterday's attempted visit with mom quickly turned violent. We are setting up a new care plan meeting but our visits only agitate her and she hit both Blythe and I and went of on an obscenity laden tirade. She had to be restrained by staff.
Later that day, 9 Below Zero played at an interesting event for a guy named Bill Niswander. This is a guy who was a fixture around town for many years on the blues and jam scene primarily. I don't really know him or know if we ever played together at a jam or even really met. Recently he received a sudden terminal cancer diagnosis.
Sunday's event at the Player's Pub was both a benefit and an awareness event, but it also served as something of a living wake.
I did not want to go after the scene at the nursing home. But Mom, when she was still REALLY Mom, the person she no longer is, was a firm believer in nothing so much as "the show must go on," and so I put my depression on a back burner and dragged my ass in to Player's. It was pretty full. Bill is obviously a man loved by many people, and if there is any mark of of the worthiness any human being that is it. I got there in time to see quite a bit of Bill playing with David Baas, Cathy Spiaggia, and 9 Below Zero's own Paul "Wine" Karrafa. As they ran through a set of songs by Dylan and the Band, Pure Prairie and others, I was extremely impressed by Mr. Niswander.
Here was a man getting up to play music with his friends for quite possibly the last time. And there were tears in the audience, as any such event combined with booze will do, and who's to say those tears weren't fitting or appropriate? But from the man himself, I felt nothing but calm and dignity, and when he sang happy birthday to his son, who turned thirteen yesterday, a sense of real joy and gratitude tha he'd brought this young man into the word.
Love, dignity, and sharing music. No ego, no self pity, no anger. A mighty lesson; the end comes for all of us one way or another, quickly or prolonged. Love your people while you can, and face the darkness with your head held high.
Later that day, 9 Below Zero played at an interesting event for a guy named Bill Niswander. This is a guy who was a fixture around town for many years on the blues and jam scene primarily. I don't really know him or know if we ever played together at a jam or even really met. Recently he received a sudden terminal cancer diagnosis.
Sunday's event at the Player's Pub was both a benefit and an awareness event, but it also served as something of a living wake.
I did not want to go after the scene at the nursing home. But Mom, when she was still REALLY Mom, the person she no longer is, was a firm believer in nothing so much as "the show must go on," and so I put my depression on a back burner and dragged my ass in to Player's. It was pretty full. Bill is obviously a man loved by many people, and if there is any mark of of the worthiness any human being that is it. I got there in time to see quite a bit of Bill playing with David Baas, Cathy Spiaggia, and 9 Below Zero's own Paul "Wine" Karrafa. As they ran through a set of songs by Dylan and the Band, Pure Prairie and others, I was extremely impressed by Mr. Niswander.
Here was a man getting up to play music with his friends for quite possibly the last time. And there were tears in the audience, as any such event combined with booze will do, and who's to say those tears weren't fitting or appropriate? But from the man himself, I felt nothing but calm and dignity, and when he sang happy birthday to his son, who turned thirteen yesterday, a sense of real joy and gratitude tha he'd brought this young man into the word.
Love, dignity, and sharing music. No ego, no self pity, no anger. A mighty lesson; the end comes for all of us one way or another, quickly or prolonged. Love your people while you can, and face the darkness with your head held high.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Vermiculture
I started a vermiculture bin this weekend with 30 red wigglers from the Fishin' Shedd. I'm hoping to go to a vermiculture workshop this Saturday but time may not allow. In the meantime, fed the little fuckers a bunch of veggie cuttings on the damp paper bed. we'll see how it turns out.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Today's Hustler-style extreme closeup Heap Centerfold
OMG! That is soooo hot!Actually, it IS pretty hot. The white stuff you see is some serious chemical reactin' and what you can't see is the steam coming off of the pile. I suppose I'm going to have to wait until cooler weather to get a really good shot.
The Most Miserable Motherscratcher of the Morning...
was a punk driving his SUV on the B-Line between Kirkwood and 6th streets. He was apparently avoiding the construction on Kirkwood. He was grinning and thought he was pretty clever.
As they say, never a cop around when you need one.
But this is the third very stupid and very dangerous thing I've seen "young-people-who-certainly-appear-to-be-students-but-jeez-don't-want-to-label-anyone-unfairly" do in the last 12 hours (the first two being guys running stop signs... also in SUVs), the fourth possibly-accident-causing bad driving (the other being a person in the right turning lane who went straight... not so bad unless you're illegally merging into a single lane with the person who is in the correct lane.
Two days ago, while on my bike, a pedestrian and I were crossing on the crosswalk at 2nd and Walnut (with the "walk' light on for us, after we waited for the eastbound lane's green arrow to change) and some lady turning north on Walnut (and on the phone, driving one handed) forced her way past us. I'm sure that the cursing I leveled at her was loud enough for the person on the other end of the phone to hear. I certainly hope she hasd a nervous breakdown, or cried herself to sleep, or whatever.
Most of which adds up to just plain stupidity and highlights the fact that most people just shouldn't be driving. But the jerk this morning, quite obviously pleased as punch with himself for his clever rebelliousness, just needs his clock cleaned. That is the kind of dangerous arrogance that threatens bicyclists everyday.
Are bikers annoying? Yes, many are, and many exhibit their own brand of hubris and dangerous behavior. I sincerely feel sorry for any rational motorist who runs over some stupid biker who blows off a stop sign or whatever. But being two-wheeled and self-propelled most of the time these days I do see a lot of really ridiculous behavior from people in cars. Not to mention that we still haven't put our foot down as a society on people who are simply too old to be driving anymore. This IS a hard one; I know, I've had to take the keys from my own mom. But them old folks is dangerous.
As they say, never a cop around when you need one.
But this is the third very stupid and very dangerous thing I've seen "young-people-who-certainly-appear-to-be-students-but-jeez-don't-want-to-label-anyone-unfairly" do in the last 12 hours (the first two being guys running stop signs... also in SUVs), the fourth possibly-accident-causing bad driving (the other being a person in the right turning lane who went straight... not so bad unless you're illegally merging into a single lane with the person who is in the correct lane.
Two days ago, while on my bike, a pedestrian and I were crossing on the crosswalk at 2nd and Walnut (with the "walk' light on for us, after we waited for the eastbound lane's green arrow to change) and some lady turning north on Walnut (and on the phone, driving one handed) forced her way past us. I'm sure that the cursing I leveled at her was loud enough for the person on the other end of the phone to hear. I certainly hope she hasd a nervous breakdown, or cried herself to sleep, or whatever.
Most of which adds up to just plain stupidity and highlights the fact that most people just shouldn't be driving. But the jerk this morning, quite obviously pleased as punch with himself for his clever rebelliousness, just needs his clock cleaned. That is the kind of dangerous arrogance that threatens bicyclists everyday.
Are bikers annoying? Yes, many are, and many exhibit their own brand of hubris and dangerous behavior. I sincerely feel sorry for any rational motorist who runs over some stupid biker who blows off a stop sign or whatever. But being two-wheeled and self-propelled most of the time these days I do see a lot of really ridiculous behavior from people in cars. Not to mention that we still haven't put our foot down as a society on people who are simply too old to be driving anymore. This IS a hard one; I know, I've had to take the keys from my own mom. But them old folks is dangerous.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
6 years ago today
the adoption of my daughter was finalized in court. It was a great day. Each year we celebrate the kid's adoption day in a special way. Hopefully she won't choose Cheeseburger in Paradise again, but at least they have beer.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Ye Olde Heap Got to Stinkin' Yesterday
I did a little experiment I like to call "The Cellulose Experiment" over the last few days on the heap.
Using my big old 55 gallon trashcan I frequently use for staging and mixing I pulled most of the semi-intact foodstuffs and paper and cardboard out of the heap and put it in the can, mixed in a smaller amount of more refined compost, stirred like hell, and soaked the whole thing. Stirred frequently over the next couple of days.
Last night, I dumped it out. It smelled like a sewer/swamp, especially at the bottom. The smell disipated pretty quickly though (releasing methane into the atmosphere, though, so a bit too long without stirring, I'd say) and what was left was nasty, gunky proto-Black Gold. So in general it worked well, though I need to shorten the cooking time or stir more frequently to avoid the anaerobic conditions that breeds the stinks. I was worried it wouldn't disipate and I'd have angry neighbors with pitchforks coming after me. But I wasn't too worried; I, too, have a pitchfork.
Using my big old 55 gallon trashcan I frequently use for staging and mixing I pulled most of the semi-intact foodstuffs and paper and cardboard out of the heap and put it in the can, mixed in a smaller amount of more refined compost, stirred like hell, and soaked the whole thing. Stirred frequently over the next couple of days.
Last night, I dumped it out. It smelled like a sewer/swamp, especially at the bottom. The smell disipated pretty quickly though (releasing methane into the atmosphere, though, so a bit too long without stirring, I'd say) and what was left was nasty, gunky proto-Black Gold. So in general it worked well, though I need to shorten the cooking time or stir more frequently to avoid the anaerobic conditions that breeds the stinks. I was worried it wouldn't disipate and I'd have angry neighbors with pitchforks coming after me. But I wasn't too worried; I, too, have a pitchfork.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Dymaxian car pages
Seem to be proliferating on the web.
For the 10/10/10 350.org Bloomington Carbon Free Racing Street Challenge I think I'm going to try to build a Dymaxian.
For the 10/10/10 350.org Bloomington Carbon Free Racing Street Challenge I think I'm going to try to build a Dymaxian.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Black gold
Yep, so the 'post is 'postin' pretty effin' good. Threw in the grass clippings and now it smells (literally) like horse shit. This stuff is gonna be like uber-fertilizer on my beds next year.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Grass farmer
Mowed a little bit last night and put the clippings in a big trash can. The shit was HOT this morning! Tossed it in with the heap.
I do love the fact that the neighborhood was pasture up until maybe 1the 1960s (well, I love the house and love that there was pasture there, the replacement of the pasture with houses?...) and the "grass" is basically hay. Smells great.
I do love the fact that the neighborhood was pasture up until maybe 1the 1960s (well, I love the house and love that there was pasture there, the replacement of the pasture with houses?...) and the "grass" is basically hay. Smells great.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Today's compostings
Along with the usual kitchen scraps which includes cofee grounds and orange peels, some veggies ends and caps, etc., there was the first round of new green stuff going into the pile. The green in this case was leafy debris from pulling out some vines from a section of fencing, some tall grass cut from a flower bed, and some weeds. Also added to the 2012(13?) pile which started as the woody pits from Heap 2011, seen in title pic et al, and which now has miscellaneous cuttings, branches, vines, and other similar junk in it.
Heap 2011 is cooking pretty good even though it's just running on leaves and food scraps. I'm letting it sit for a few days, with only some aeration. The last few times I've done this the core temp has gotten pretty hot, and when I dig into the middle of the pile there is a sort of "frosting" or condensation that I'm assuming comes from the cooking nitrogen. I have gotten a strong whiff of what I'm assuming is methane when I've aerated prior to stirring a day later on the last few occasions.
Eventually, I'd like to have a separate methane composter. Dare to dream.
Heap 2011 is cooking pretty good even though it's just running on leaves and food scraps. I'm letting it sit for a few days, with only some aeration. The last few times I've done this the core temp has gotten pretty hot, and when I dig into the middle of the pile there is a sort of "frosting" or condensation that I'm assuming comes from the cooking nitrogen. I have gotten a strong whiff of what I'm assuming is methane when I've aerated prior to stirring a day later on the last few occasions.
Eventually, I'd like to have a separate methane composter. Dare to dream.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Tiny House is working
Well one bit of good news is that in addition to being comfy and easy to clean my tiny house used about as little electricity as a house can use, at least according to Duke Energy. Not sure why I should trust Duke Energy, but my bill appears to be about 1/2 of the average household bill. Let's hear it for Tiny Houses!
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