The Heart of Lubbock Community Garden Exercycle Water Pump Update

[How is that title for a mouth full of crunchy goodness?]

 

While it's not the square peg in a round hole syndrome, it's close. The pulley arrived in the mail Tuesday. I excitedly ripped the package open and ran to the garage to check for fit. So the shaft appears to be roughly 0.752", the pulley has a hole that's more like 0.748".

Ugh. It's the little things, or the slightly-too-little things that count.

So, I did what I do well when the going gets tough. I went to have coffee with Grizz. We examined the problem, and I found a solution. I handed the pump and pulley to Grizz and said, "Please fix this." (You should all be fortunate enough to have a Grizz to drink coffee with.)

This is Grizz fixing the problem.

Grizz fixed the problem!

This is my specialized exerbike fork spreader in action

The first belt was too short.

The second belt (pictured) was too long.

The third belt (62") was just right. 

Here's the maiden voyage - it pumps water well, but it's super hard to pedal and the belt slips a bit.

(Back to the drawing board, the bike boneyard, and the hardware store.)

 

Sheila wasn't too impressed by the pump, but she did like the compost pile and the greenhouse.

(You know how hard it is to impress a shepherd-princess.)

 

We are so close to having this thing up and pumping in our favorite community garden!

 

May your projects not need too many revisions or trips to the v-belt store, and may you live healthy and well in your community.

Making a Complex Problem Simple as Dirt (Part 2)

Twenty Ten Club: Pashon Murray

In our last exciting (com)post about compost, you got to meet Pashon Murray and learn of the surprisingly amazingly huge impact that something as simple as composting can have on shrinking your carbon footprint. Composting gives each and every one of us a chance to put released carbon back where it came from - the ground. Seriously cool stuff!

So, this is the follow-up where we look at getting our hands dirty - really, really dirty. [For those of you who really, really don't like the sound of dirty hands, we'll look at some options for you too, but it'll be in the third installment.]

But first, let's get to know you a little better.
So, do you come here often?
Do you eat food?
Do you live near any plants?
Do you breathe?
Do you live in an apartment, a home, or something exotic (like a hippie van or missile silo)?
Coffee, tea, water, or Dr.Pepper?
Paper or plastic?
How do you feel about earthworms? Mealworms? Black soldier flies and their offspring?

If you know the answers to these questions, you'll be better prepared to become a rocking composter.

Then there's two big things to know: what you can easily compost, and the ratio of green stuff to brown stuff.

What Goes In

As a general rule, unprocessed plant-based stuff composts, most animal stuff does not. There are exceptions on both sides, but that'll get you going. [One notable exception, the poop of herbivores (vegetarian animals) is very good for composting, but not everyone has a cow or horse in the backyard.] This graphic will help you with more detail:

Find the whole enchilada here

The Green and the Brown

Great info from Ecoizm: Composting 101

For those of you who want to keep it really simple - go 3:1. The recipe is 3 parts brown stuff to 1 part green stuff. This will help you create healthy and balanced compost. If you're balance is way off, you can end up with some really stinky slimy stuff or a pile of dry stuff that does not decompose into the good stuff. On the other hand, this is not rocket science. Do not be intimidated by composting. Even if you failed chemistry or biology in school. You can do it!

Well, you've made it through another episode of Mesquite Hugger! For our next exciting compost installment, we'll discuss the how and the where, and we'll talk about bugs! I can't wait - how 'bout you? And we'll work on a new hashtag! (#putitbackintheground)

May we be an army of simples fixing a mountain of complicateds!

Making a Complex Problem Simple as Dirt (Part 1)

Around here, we like exploring ways to have a big carbon-reduction impact on a tiny budget. If that appeals to you too, then stick around. We have some life saving to do.

Mesquite Hugger topics mostly focus on reducing the amount of carbon we release into the air (and sea). But this one is different. This post has to do with putting carbon back where it came from - the ground. And it's not some big, fancy, carbon-capture device created by a 16-year-old genius from Huggerville, Ohio. This is something people have been doing (on a very small scale) for a long time. To give you an intro, here is Pashon Murray: (She's so cool!)

The Soil Story with Pashon Murray

"Carbon is not our enemy."

"The problem, and the solution, are a simple matter of balance."

The Pashon Murray Sidebar

I first met (and developed a big-ol' eco-crush on) Pashon in a really brilliant Ford commercial that was an answer to a really obnoxious Cadillac commercial:

Cadillac ELR Commercial

Upside: Anything is Possible

Now wasn't that awesome?!! (It's probably her fault that I want a C-Max plug-in hybrid.)

If you want to learn more about her work, visit Detroit Dirt's website to learn more:

 Detroit Dirt Website

Back to Our Original Focus: (Cliffhanger alert!)

In our next exciting post, we'll talk about how you can get involved where you are in helping to level out the balance! Stay tuned...

Find it here.

May you be part of the solution without having to take out a second mortgage or nearly as much garbage!

Tiny Munching Invaders: Roly Polies in the Garden

It's good to be back in spring!

 

In our front yard, we have a recycled Food is Free planter where we grow food to (theoretically) share with the neighbors. If anyone needs a tomato or a pepper or whatever, they can come by and grab one. But last year, the little patch o' heaven wasn't really productive enough to do much sharing. We are hoping for better this year. 

 

 

However, the sharing has started early this year, and we are trying to figure out what to do about it.

 Nope, it's not Swiss cheese arugula - someone's been munching.

 

We have been invaded by roly-polies! (aka pill bugs, and lots of other names)

 

Over the last few days, we have learned a lot about these rather cool little creatures. First, they are not bugs. They are land-based crustaceans. (I think we should rename them crusty pills or pill crusties.) And, like everything else, they are great in moderation, but they are not so great when there are lots of them. And we have lots and lots and lots of them in the Food is Free planter - we created a little roly-poly Paradise City and they have populated with abandon. They like moisture, wood to munch on, and rotting vegetation. We added lots of water, lots of compost, and lots of wood mulch. Yep, it's Party in the Planter 2016. They usually just munch on the dead stuff, but they go after the live stuff when their numbers get high. And their numbers are high! It's time for a mass exodus.

 

Link here

 

What's a gardener to do? Our first attempt is in place - we made a honeydew list assault by slicing up a melon to work at attracting the roving hordes of crusties. I checked it yesterday morning and found the hordes to be lacking, but I am going for the Patience approach and let the melon get over-ripe. I will keep you posted.

 

Not too hordish yet.

 

May you not need guns to protect your roses, and may the crustaceans be your beneficial friends.

 

Bonus roly poly trivia:

 

There is a Roly Poly Japanese girl-pop band!

 

Earth Day Suggestions: #2 Get Down and Dirty

[Alternate title: Save the planet, save money, grow veggies, possibly have worms!]

This shirt helps me with my self-image issues.

Unlike yesterday's suggestion, this one is all about the dirt. But (and this is a big but) there are no car salesmen involved.

For me, Earth Day is about a few big things - tackling climate change, cleaning up the mess we've made, and finding ways not to make such a big mess for the future. Today's topic deals with all three and it's about making a little mess to drastically reduce some bigger messes.

It's all about COMPOST!

In the past, I did a little composting here and there, but last year I was blessed with a big wooden box that helped me kick up the composting in a fairly big way. (And I now have a Mediterranean gecko preserve in a box in the backyard too. Win-Win!)

The first thing you need to know about composting - it's cheap and easy! This may sound simplistic, but composting is just throwing a loosely balanced bunch of trash together, stirring it up occasionally, and ending up with a bunch of free fertilizer.

Why should you do it?

You can easily cut down your household garbage production by 1/3. You can cut down on greenhouse gas production in your local landfill and you can lessen the need for more landfills. You can save $ on fertilizer (or you can donate it to someone who will use it - like a neighborhood garden or grub farm). It could be your opportunity to finally have 1000's of worms as pets - if you decide to try vermicomposting.

Want to learn more?

Check out this infographic from a 2011 Treehugger article. (Good composting is timeless!) (Separated for easier viewing)

 

 

 

 

 

May we conquer our problems one food scrap at a time!

 

PS. For those of you who are all about the worms, Uncle Jim is having an Earth Day sale (for you big spenders).

 

Lubbock Local Wildlife: tiny spring harbinger with sticky feet

It's a bleary morning. I thought to post about my unhappiness with Daylight Saving Time (again) or to discuss time management (again), but then I remembered the overall focus around here (hugging mesquites) and decided to post a very bright point from the weekend. The first lizard of spring.

Item in photo is much smaller in real life (unless you are viewing it on a small smartphone)!

 

This little sticky-footed reptile was in the compost box yesterday evening. I actually spotted it and a sibling in the box a few days ago, but I had no camera at the ready. As for details, the little fellow is barely over an inch and is a Mediterranean gecko. What is most exciting for me is that I watched its parent grow up in the compost box last year. In my estimation, if your gardening practices foster generations of geckos, you must be doing something right. Daylight Saving be damned!

 

A picture of the parent last September - about 5" long

 

May we (I) stop griping and focus on the things that are going well!

Carbon Munching Garden: Lessons in Ollas, Self-Wicking, and Aquaponics

[Warning: This post contains almost no wheels and no electric vehicles.]

 

Fall just started. We had a little rain yesterday. I have been watching the garden begin to wither, and I realize how much I will miss it over the next months. We still have foour strawberries and seven tomatoes ripening, but I think that will be it for this year.

The ollas have been a success, and I am very much a fan of that approach. The self-wicking pallet planter had its struggles, but it has turned into a success as well. My wife made spaghetti sauce with roasted tomatoes (from the planter) last night. And it was delicious.

I have learned a lot of things from this year's experiments.

Get bigger planters!!!

 

With the ollas - use Gorilla Glue!!! Everything else I tried eventually broke down. Also, start with better soil and feed that regularly with good compost. And, no matter what, use bigger pots! It's just like an aquarium - the bigger the container, the larger your margin for error can be. Overall, I am a big fan of ollas in big containers!

Before compost

 

The raised-bed, self-wicking, Food-is-Free-Project, pallet planter? I learned two major lessons there. The first was the importance of soil that allows water to wick. I used soil with a high clay content, and the water could not travel through it. And the garden barely survived it first six weeks.

After compost

Things did get better when I mixed in good compost with lots of organic matter. The second thing I learned (and it seems really obvious) is that it is smart to add wicks to your self-wicking garden. A piece of cotton rope or  shoestring reaching from the bottom of your planter directly to the roots of your plant - it's a straw for your plant to sip from. Good stuff!

The Aquaponics setup - not a success - I hope to take another approach at that in the relatively near future. I blame the failure on poor lighting and lack of water quality monitoring.)

One other incidental lesson, move slowly near pollinators. The wasps love the garden and were ever-present. I was stung by three wasps this summer, but none were in the garden. Two, somewhat ironically, happened when riding a Vespa scooter - "vespa" is Italian and Latin for wasp. The other sting happened on a bicycle. Speed near wasps equals pain, but they love it when you bring them flowers slowly.

What's next? I am prioritizing projects. I would love to throw together a small greenhouse and keep the momentum going, but it looks like a better time to pursue minimalism. There's too much stuff - no money, time, or room for projects. (I am hoping to find some people who have decided to pursue maximalism so we can all feel good about our stuff.) So the greenhouse (and a much more productive garden) may need to wait until next season.

May your experiments thrive and grow (great food)!

Personal Carbon Reduction: Vermicomposting & Find Your Own Worms

 (Find it here)

Making mistakes. I include this in my list of special skills. Last year we tried vermicomposting (composting with worms) at our house. It did not go so well. I started with two 5-gallon buckets and $25 worth of mail-order red wigglers - the worms known for being the best vermicomposters out there. You probably don't need the gory details. It was an incredibly hot, dry, busy summer.  Worms don't like hot, dry, and busy summers.

(Find it here)

This year, I am planning to try again. Since I am too cheap to drop another $25 on worms, I am planning to catch my own by following the advice on this page:

Attracting Compost Worms in Your Backyard

My composter is already built, but if you want to join in on the fun, here are instructions for building your own 3-bucket or 3-tub version for yourself:

How to Make an Inexpensive Worm Bin from (3) Plastic Buckets

And while we are on the subject of personal carbon reduction and worms, check out this Grist article that combines the two:

What do we need to fight climate change? More worms.

May you and those slimy little guys form a garden-feeding, earth-saving pile of compost and worm tea!

(Find it here)

¡Ollas! (Oi-uhs!) Oy vey! - PCR Garden Progress

While it's still too early to plant, I snuck in a little more prep work this weekend. In a very short period of time and with very little money invested, I made 4 ollas.

 

Why ollas? They are reputed to be simple, efficient, and effective for watering plants with minimal water waste and consumption. And they are super cheap to build! (And I am super cheap! And I love to conserve water!) So I decided to build a few to try them out. I hear that tomato plants really like ollas.

 

Straight out of wikipedia.org:

Because water seeps through the walls of an unglazed olla, these vessels can be used to irrigate plants. The olla is buried in the ground next to the roots of the plant to be irrigated, with the neck of the olla extending above the soil. The olla is filled with water, which gradually seeps into the soil to water the roots of the plant. It is an efficient method, since little water is lost to evaporation or run-off.^[2]

 

I need to go back and do a little sealing with some silicone - the one I tested leaks a bit. In the bottom photo you see $11 worth of pots.

Two four-inch pots, glue, and a plastic sour cream lid.

I used a cordless drill with a stone to quickly remove casting lips on the drain.

Be sure to cut your lid in a perfect circle like I did! I tried to cover the entire bottom surface so that water would only seep out the sides of the olla. Glue the plastic over the hole in the bottom.

Glue the pots together. I used duct tape to hold the glue in place while it dried.

 

What will I do different next time? I will skip the glue and go straight to a silicon product. I will probably purchase a bigger stone bit to open the hole on top of the olla a bit more so that it will be easier to pour water into the olla. I will keep you posted!

 

May we find simple ways to eat better, healthier, and cheaper.

 

 

Click this line to see last Mesquite Hugger post about ollas and a group in Albuquerque that makes some grogeous ollas to sell.

Let's Talk Coffee: Conservation, Creativity, Composting, and Learning

Acorn coffee?!!! Keep reading....

Do you ever have those weeks when the world seems to be pointing you at some topic or other? I am having one of those, and it's pointing me to coffee this week. So, here we go!

A guy from work (Hi Matt!) was lamenting the poor flavor and the waste of K-cup machines. The conversation turned to more flavorful - and less wasteful - methods of brewing. These days there are lots of choices: French presses, old school stove-top espresso makers and coffee percolators, pour-overs, chemexes, etcetera ad nauseum. Oy vey! It's overwhelming. (I think I'll get the percolator out tomorrow and bubble up a cup or two.)

9 low-tech ways to brew great coffee with minimal waste

Refillable cups and mugs: My wife was turned away from another place this week. (She and I have been striving to get away from disposable dishes, but we both love our coffee.) I am needing to do a little research to find out what the local regulations are. When we are turned away, the issue is always blamed on health codes - never on company policy, but all anecdotal evidence leads to that not being the case. I'll update this when I have an answer. Until then, check out this Ask Umbra response:

Which is worse, a K-Cup or a throw-away coffee cup?

Other stuff

Have you always wanted to roast your own beans (That sounds inappropriately painful.) I read about this a while back and discussed it with Mad Science Rusty. As always, he was way ahead of the curve and had used this method for quite some time until stepping up to a real roaster. If you strive to be like MS Rusty (and you should) here is an Instructable to help you get started and help you find unroasted beans.

Roast Your Own Instructable (using a popcorn popper!)

How else would you expect a mad scientist to dress?

Devoted readers of this blog (Hi, Keith) may have seen a mention of Yellowhouse Coffee. Yellowhouse, J and B, and a few other coffee places around town freely share their used coffee grounds with local gardeners and composters. If you are intrigued but don't know what to do with those grounds, here is an article for you:

Composting Coffee Grounds

Free coffee!

Speaking of Yellowhouse, if you want to become one of those discriminating coffee connoisseurs who drink with their pinkies sticking out, Yellowhouse is offering another coffee class next month. Be sure to sign up soon - the spots always fill up fast. Tell them that the Mesquite Hugger's pinky sent you.

Sign up!

And now for something completely different for those of you overwhemled by acorns:

Acorn Coffee Instructable

I raise my cup to you, Dear Reader! May you drink joyfully and sustainably!

PCR: A Brave and Trashy New World - Composting at Home

This thing fit the Mesquite Hugger budget beautifully!

A compost pile, vermicompost, a compost tumbler, closed bin, open bin - I have been on the fence getting started with composting. Then it came to me in a dream. No, that's not right. Then I was driving home while lazily daydreaming and I saw a sign - "Free". And I was inspired by that sign. So, I pulled Lucy over and loaded up the free 2'x4'x3' shipping crate and hauled it home.

Now it's in the backyard filled with some overly ambitious spring weeds, some newspaper, coffee grounds, and lots of 1" holes.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: The EPA Advice for Composting at Home

The EPA Composting .pdf

Do I know what I'm doing? Not at all, but it's a start. The goal? More of that personal carbon reduction. Less garbage in the landfill and some healthy soil to grow vegetables. And I can use the compost on our foodisfreeproject.org planter.

I am now thinking of going compost crazy - I want to get some worms and do some vermicomposting, I want to build a tumbler from an Instructables plan. We can have three competing methods of compost and do a comparison. Compost party anyone?

I will keep you (com)posted.

May each step turn our garbage into something good.

More on Vermicomposting (Worms!)

Personal Carbon Reduction: The Carbon-Munching Garden Monster

Thanks to Greenpeace for the image!

 

With Spring on the way, things are changing around the Mesquite Hugger home. I hope to spend a lot more time outside, and I hope to ecologically clean up my act. That's generally a three-sided proposition for me: conserve water, reduce petroleum use, and cut down on carbon release. It's easy to point fingers at everyone else, but every revolution needs to begin at home.

Conserving water has already been happening - conservative fixtures and the homemade rain barrel have helped a great deal. We'll step it up with some rain gutter additions and another rain barrel or two.

The electric bike, the non-electric bike, and the bike trailer will help with petroleum reduction.

And the carbon thing - well, that's an area where we definitely need to step it up.

On Treehugger today, a great article appeared that explains the impact a garden can have on CO2 levels. And I am feeling pretty inspired in that direction. Check it out for yourself. I hope you find it as inspiring as I have.

Treehugger: Your garden eats carbon (so please feed it well!)

Along these lines, I hope to be posting more carbon reduction and gardening articles. I invite you to join me in gardening and cleaning up our acts this season!

On a more personal note, our family landscape has changed. There's a six-year-old whirlwind moving to town, and I am hoping to turn him into a junior backyard-farmer. I hope to share our adventures with you as well.

May we all chip in to make this world a very liveable place, and may you know peace.