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From baloghblog – a snippet:

As I sit here, taking a break from life, far, far away from home…

The beer tastes cold and crisp, the warm sun being replaced by a cool breeze from off shore, and the birds are circling lazily on the updrafts. All feels well for the time being. But, like a distant rumble of thunder and a flash of light on the horizon, a feeling of uneasiness nags at me – a soft pang of guilt rolls into my subconscious.

“What have I done over the past 3 years to prepare for what approaches over the horizon?”

“What could I have done that would have been ‘enough’?”

The answer to those questions appear to be not enough and it’s never enough.

So in order to come to grips with those thoughts and emotions, I’ll do what I always do to work through overwhelming periods in my life… I’ll make a list. What should I do to fulfill my dreams, and to keep my feet planted firmly on the ground? Where should I be now or in the near future?

I should be in a home with a low mortgage payment and taxes, perhaps one I’ve designed myself, more likely one that I’ve made changes to, to suit my family’s needs. It should be in walking distance to the grocery store, shops, and services. Public transportation should be convenient and my friends and family nearby. I should know my neighbors’ names within 3 homes on either side. My plot of land should be manageable and I’d enjoy the bounty of a small productive garden and a range of fruit and nut trees.

Ideally, my home would be extremely energy efficient and insulated, and require only a small wood stove to keep us warm through the winter and several fans to keep us cool in the hot summer. This ‘dream house’ would include a small solar array to provide enough power for the lighting in each room, to run a high-efficiency chest freezer, the coffee pot, the computer, a stereo and occasionally a small LCD TV. The grid would supply the remaining electricity to power the refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and washing machine1. A solar hot water heater would provide hot water for showers in the summer, and an on-demand hot water heater would do the same in the winter, as well as radiant floor heating for the bedrooms in the winter, for the nights that the wood stove just won’t cut it. Homemade insulation inserts would complete the heating (and cooling) system – fitting snugly in the windows. The clothes dryer would be a fading memory, replaced by a clothesline in the summer and a highly efficient centrifuge and drying racks/lines in the winter…

Click here for the rest.

Rob (Onestraw) has built a compost bin that might bring tears to your eyes.  She is a beaut.  Head on over to his site for a look at how he did it. For those who are still in the one bin stage of composting check here and here for some information from Groovy Green.

I personally stick with the two bin method.  One is the nice black plastic composter with a lid – that one gets the coffee grounds, food scraps, etc from the kitchen mixed with leaves and leaf mold.  The ability to seal it up keeps the skunks out.  The other bin is homemade and gets all of the leaves in the fall for leaf mold, and green grass clippings in the summer.

Without further ado – here is the mack daddy of all compost bins.

(snif) "they should have sent a poet…"

[bonus question:  who said that and in what movie?]

With the heat now taking hold here in NY — and the water falling less and less — I’ve started feeling the urge to pick up a rain barrel. I’ve also been intrigued by the thought of pursuing some vermiculture — though I admit, picking up Daryl Hannah’s worm bin would be a fine addition to the back deck. Too bad it costs $900.

But back to the rain barrels. Probably the most popular commercial option I’ve been spotting around Ithaca, NY is The Rain Catcher. It has a nice appearance, can hold about 55 gallons, is expandable, and has some nice features (hose, screen, etc.) One thing I don’t like it that the top does not come off — so if anything falls in there, it would be kind of tough to get it out. The screen would stop most debris, but I find the built in top annoying. I’m currently seeing it for about $138 in the stores — which is a bargain considering that rising oil costs add more if you purchase it online.

Of course, I could make my own — but I’m just not sure when I’d get around to it. For those that have succeeded in this area, was it a piece of cake? Do you like the commercial models better?

In terms of grabbing a worm bin, I was kind of taken aback by how much a kit costs: Between $90-$190 dollars. Once again, you can very easily find directions for making your own — but there seems to be a bit more at stake in terms of air flow, moisture, and other factors. I’d love to hear from people who have established successful worm colonies in DIY ways — and even those that have bought one of the kits in stores.

And here’s another thing I’ve been wondering: For those living in areas prone to droughts, are you seeing the availability of rain barrels and other water conservation products in big box stores? I only ask because when I visited Home Depot and Lowes the other day, they had nothing in that category.

Thanks for any advice!

Sorry bub. I’m pretty liberal, but even I don’t buy this story.

AP:

Police in Iowa say a man caught with a large quantity of marijuana claimed all he had in mind was recycling.

A complaint by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office says the 30-year-old man told police in Iowa City that he planned to turn several large bags of marijuana into compost.

heh heh.

(via Raw Story)

122 lbs. That’s how much enters the waste stream each month from the average American home (family of four). Ridiculous, sad, and incredible at the same time, isn’t it? A study conducted in 1995 estimated that 96.4 billion pounds of edible food was wasted each year — not to mention all of that probably went straight into the landfill. Imagine the recycled compost that could be generated from that!

The fascinating graphical representation of our monthly waste, as created by the NY Times, is shown below. Click on it to be taken to a much higher res, readable version.

The Sierra Club has an instructional video up on how to make compost. We should all be making compost. If you need more info do a quick search using our search tool. We have quite a bit of info posted on making compost.

They also have other instructional videos available on installing a low flow showerhead, programmable thermostat and water heater wrapping.

What do you do when you ask a friend for a couple pallets but they bring you 13 or 14? Well, when you get the look from my wife that I got, you figure out very quickly how to get them off the front lawn. Here’s what I did with them.

First, you use three to build another compost bin.

Then you keep three because you want to build an earth oven, and you need a nice insulated base to get the most use out of it.

Then you spend some time with your recipricating saw and trim up all the boards that were going across the pallet. The plan is to use this wood in the earth oven, and since most of it seems to be Red Oak, your smoker when you cook ribs, pork shoulders, etc.

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This is a great example of getting the most out of a resource.

If you’ve purchased a “real” Christmas tree this year – ’tis the season to think about taking it down. My friend Meg passed on a non-traditional way to “reuse” your tree into the new year. Consider taking it out in the yard, decorating it with popcorn, suet, and birdseed. As the tree starts to break down, the needles will fall into your flower beds or garden adding nutrients to the soil. The birds, chipmunks and squirrels will take shelter in its boughs, and get a good meal from the food you’ve “decorated” the tree with.

I thought that this is a great idea. Here’s more info from the University of Illinois:

To provide the most shelter possible for the birds, place the tree on the south or east side of the house, away from the prevailing north and west winds of winter. Anchor the tree securely by setting the stump into the ground and securing the top of the tree with twine to nearby buildings or trees.

You may wish to do more with your old Christmas tree than just provide shelter for the birds. Old Christmas trees make excellent bird feeding stations, providing shelter while the birds are feeding. Decorate your tree with strings of popcorn, cranberries or raisins. Press suet into the branches or hang it in mesh bags such as those that contain onions and fruit in the supermarket.

Suet can also be provided as a mix with bird seed in suet seed balls. These may be purchased or they can be homemade. To make your own suet seed balls, mix bird seed and a small amount of peanut butter with the suet while the suet is warm enough to be molded. Mold the suet and seed mixture around a wire hook that can be used to attach the suet seed ball to the tree.

Popcorn will be attractive to cardinals, finches and grosbeaks. The cranberries and raisins should attract cedar waxwings, finches and any wintering robins in the area. Woodpeckers and nuthatches will be attracted to the suet, while the suet seed balls will attract juncos, chickadees, finches and native sparrows.

Be sure to let us know if you’ve done this in the past!

If you’re interested in growing some of your own food right in your own backyard you will have to be able to provide the necessary nutrients your plants need year after year. Modern agricultural practices here in America use large amounts of natural gas as the primary ingredient to produce commerical fertilizers. But there’s a probelm. “[Natural] Gas production has peaked in North America,” [Exxon]Chief Executive Lee Raymond told reporters at the Reuters Energy Summit. As less natural gas is available or as it becomes to expensive to rely on, how can gardeners and farmers produce the nutrients necessary to grow crops? One way is to compost.

Do you recycle? For most Americans this means simply separating certain items from the trash they throw away and placing these items in another container for garbage collection. Composting can be just as easy. There are several options for using nutrients that already exist in your daily lives as food for your garden. The key is to break the mindset of linear thinking. Many Americans have come to think in terms of buying what they need, using it and throwing it in the trash. Then the trash collector comes, picks up the waste and takes it to the landfill to be buried in the ground. From the store to the landfill- end of story. The truth is that’s only one option. Recycling is another. Recycling begins to address cyclic patterns that are different from our current linear patterns. You buy and use a product and then return it to be reprocessed and made into a new product. Composting is the recycling of nutrients. It works the same way only it happens at your home. You buy an item and use it, then compost it on your property. Later you add the compost to your garden to help grow food for yourself. If you can separate your cans and bottles into a recycling container you can compost. The key to successful composting is to make it clean and easy for you and your family. It is necessary to have a separate holding can for the organic materials you use and want to compost. This will reduce the number of trips you make outside to dump your compost material.

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