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!

Distracted by the Tools (plus thank you!)

Another great one!

It's way too easy for me to get distracted by the tools.

For example, my goal of Personal Carbon Reduction has turned into an obsessive quest for an electric cargo bike. Very quickly I have transformed myself into a pseudo expert on all things cargo bike and electric bike and I find myself driving around in the pickup dreaming and scheming of cargo e-bike acquisition.

At different times I have obsessed about LED bulbs, tiny houses, backyard chickens, electric cars, aquaponics, minimalism, bicycles, batteries, dumpster diving, hot-rodded Power Wheels, the National Bike Challenge, clotheslines, citicars, solar panels, recycling, pallets, insulation, rain barrels, Instructables, wind generators, compost, local foods, bike lanes, and the coolest of all - self-cloning crawdads. (I have to admit, it's been a fun ride.)

But the real Mesquite Hugger goal here is to do less damage and to encourage others to do less damage. In this coming year, I will try to keep it between the lines.

May the real goals be things we work for, and may the tools be just that!

AND

It's been a big year here at MH , and you are the reason. We've gone from a 30-view-per-day blog to a 300-view-per-day blog. Thank you to each and every one of you for choosing to spend a little time here. May you blessed, and thank you for blessing me!

Where do we start? The EPA

Myron Ebell, a man who has made a career of denouncing climate change, is our new president's choice to head up the Environmental Protection Agency.

Do a little research.

Think for yourself.

Don't look at memes on social media to form your opinions.

May education and wisdom guide your actions.

An Opportunity to Learn More and Get to Work

Last night I had the opportunity to watch Before the Flood, a new documentary from Leonardo DiCaprio and Fisher Stevens (Streaming on Hulu)

If you have interest in climate, climate change, or the ability for humans to continue existing, please take time to watch this important film. If you feel moved to action, please visit the Before the Flood - Take Action page to find opportunities that are available to you.

May we all figure out what we care about and get to work.

Low-hanging Fruit #2: Let there be (more efficient) Light!

Okay, so you've sealed up and insulated your house and you are hungry to taste that next piece of low-hanging fruit. Well, look up...at your light fixtures.

[Alternative title: How to get paid $23.24 for installing 6 free light bulbs in your home!]

First and foremost: Turn off your lights!

Turn off your lights when you leave the room. It's that simple. If you are not in the room and the light is on, you are wasting energy, spending extra money, and damaging the planet. I know - it's harsh, but it's true. (My wife and I are working on doing a better job at this too.)

Second and pretty darned huge: Go buy some LED bulbs already!!!

JG and I ran by Lowes at lunchtime today. (She still has a bunch of incandescent bulbs in her house.) We found this deal on LED bulbs:

That's $1.66 per bulb!

So let's say, hypothetically speaking, that she bought this 6-pack of LED bulbs. (She did indeed buy a 6-pack of LED bulbs, but she bought the daylight bulbs which ran closer to $1.85 per bulb, but I did not take a pic of those.) She plans to install them this weekend.

Back in blogger world, I googled incandescent vs. LED and this was the first graphic that popped up:

Find the original here 

Now, here is where it gets even better - very few modern homes have less than 24 bulbs in the house. And it's not rare to find homes with closer to 60 bulbs. So, if your home is still running old school light bulbs, you could be saving big money just by swapping for LEDs. And that doesn't even factor in bulb life. Most incandescents are rated for 750-950 hours of life. LEDs tend to range between 10,000 and 50,000 hours. I have been replacing bulbs in our home for a few years now and have not had a single LED burn out yet.

Okay, Okay. Enough about money. Let's look at what's really important here: saving the planet!

Check it out - a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions!

Learn more here.

Imagine the impact if we all just switched to LED bulbs overnight. And this one is easy. It's easy on the budget, it's not labor intensive, and it saves you money. This one's a no-brainer. Just do it already!

A few more things about LEDs

• Various formats, shapes, colors, sizes and features (some are even controlled by smartphone apps!)
• Instant light (unlike CFL)
• No mercury hazard (unlike CFL bulbs - the twisty ones)
• They generate very little heat
• They are more rugged than incandescent or CFL
• They make you eco-sexy
• Don't forget that 90% reduction in CO2 emissions!

So, here are six radical ideas for you to pursue after you get your own bulbs swapped out - start giving LED bulbs gifts!

1. Have bulb swapping parties!
2. Have LED interventions!
3. Give them out for Halloween - save the planet while reducing cavities!
4. Don't go to Jarred - go to Lowes or Home Depot or wherever to show them that you really love them!
5. Coffee, tea, or LED?
6. They make great stocking stuffers!

Okay, that's about it for low-hanging fruit #2.

May you save money and save the planet! And, may you now have a lot more gift ideas!

PS. LEDs make great Christmas lights too.

Low-Hanging, Eco-Helpful Fruit for Everyday Life (Intro)

Sometimes it's okay to say it again.

 

While I was preparing for last week's big event, I spent some time on the EPA website. (Yes, I know that I am weird, but I like spending time there. I learn a lot.) This time I ran across this graphic on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions:

 

EPA: Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

 

Yep, 56% of greenhouse gas emissions come from electricity generation and transportation. Holy moly! So, let's all scratch our heads and find someone to blame. Let's see...who in the US uses electricity? And who's out there using all that transportation? We need to find these people and have a serious talk!

 

EPA: Carbon Footprint Calculator Try it out!

 

So now for the serious talk, Self. Yes, we need to act on a bigger scale and look at businesses and governments and all kinds of big stuff. But we also need to take a look at ourselves. And ourselves are often pretty darned lazy when it comes to change. So, Selves, let's look at what we can easily do to make an impact.

 

What I am really trying to say here is that the next miniseries of posts will deal with very simple and low-cost ways for each of  us to shrink our carbon feetprints. These won't be the buy-an-electric-car-and-move-into-a-solar-powered-tiny-house-on-a-communal-organic-farm posts. These will be posts where we look at our light bulbs and our drafty windows and some of our consumer choices so that we can find better ways to go about our daily lives in an eco-friendly fashion.

 

While we're at it, I'll be highlighting some older posts where we already covered a few of these topics. For you followers on Twitter, please watch for the MH Rewind image:

 

 

As always, thank you for reading! May a little simplicity lead to a lot of improvement!

 

PS. Really - try the Carbon Footprint Calculator. It's amazing what you can learn!

Forty Percent - Can You Do it?

I admit it - I am a fair-weather biker. I have a simple set of don't ride criteria

• water falling from the sky
• ice
• temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit
• temperature above 105 degrees Fahrenheit
• wind above 25 miles per hour

The local climate is semi-arid/plains/desert type stuff, so this criteria keeps me riding a lot. Strangely, National Bike to Work Week always seems to bring a monsoon with it. I rode to work on Monday. I will ride again on Friday (tomorrow). There has been rain, lightning, and cold in between.

I am thankful to be able to ride tomorrow - it's National Ride to Work Day!

Sure, I would love to be able to ride every day, but this week I will have accomplished a 40% reduction in gas-powered rides to work. If we could accomplish that on a larger scale - say a town, a county, a state...we could make a massive dent in our ecological well-being. We could slow climate change. Yes, I love bicycles, but bike riding is not the desired outcome. We need to reduce carbon production and release. That's the real goal.

So, how about you? What could you do to reduce the damage caused by your commute by 40%? Would you need a bike? A more efficient car? A bus pass? A carpool plan? Thicker socks? A schedule change at work?

If you can't get there, look at other parts of your life. Could you use 40% less electricity? 40% less water? Could you create 40% less waste? Could you help make it possible for others to make a 40% improvement? Could you inspire others to make a 40% improvement?

Just think, if an overweight, middle-aged dork-on-a-bike can do it, you can too!

May forty percent be the beginning of something amazing in your life!

Minipost: Super Cheap LED Lights to the Rescue

An ad from today's local newspaper - man, that's cheap!

Do you want to save the planet?
Do you want to pay less for electricity?
Are you a cheap !@#$% ? (I am!)

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then it's time to switch to LED bulbs in your fixtures.

Lots more great info here

 

So, let's do a little quick math. The average number of bulbs in American homes is 60.) If your house used 60 watt incandescent bulbs, those 60 bulbs would cost you $775.62 per year in electricity.

 

60 bulbs x $12.92 per year = $775.62

 

If you switched those 60 bulbs out for LED bulbs the math looks a lot better:

 

60 bulbs x $2.58 per year = $154.80 per year

 

And those numbers don't even take into account the short life of the incandescents vs. the extremely long life of the LED bulbs.

 

When all is said and done, each LED bulb uses around 1/5 of the power of an incandescent. Think how much coal and natural gas we would not have to burn if we just made that one switch. Think how much money you could save.

 

I have been replacing all of our bulbs for a few years now and have been stepping it up since the bulbs in the ad above became available at our local big box store. They have great, instant light, they put off virtually no heat, and I have never had an LED go out in the house.

 

So, what are you waiting for? Go buy at least one package and try it out, or do yourself a favor and buy a bunch.

 

May all eco-friendly choices become this easy.

More Save the World Resolution Denial

I sat down with my journal today to make a list of my "causes". I have come to realize that my causes have me overwhelmed a bit lot. So I decided to tackle the mongrel horde.

wildlife conservation
growing renewable/clean energy
reducing carbon release (petroleum and coal)
reducing hunger
reducing class disparity
reducing homelessness/serving those who are down
reducing gun violence

It's different when you see it as a list. It's different when you realize how closely related they all are.

I was a member`of the Horned Lizard Conservation Society for a while. It is a great organization with a very small focus. I love their mission, but the more I looked the more I realized that the cure for their little picture was a big picture change. If you specifically want to save horned lizards (that's a "horny toad" for you locals) you need to reduce petroleum-based pollution and and farming/sprawl-based environmental destruction. You also need to eradicate the feral cat population that we have so lovingly fostered. Big picture changes are needed to save these iconic lizards that have a very specialized diet (red ants) and are very slow and easy to catch. Yep, it's overwhelming, especially when cats are phenomenally successful hunters and chemical companies (like Monsanto) have a more powerful voice than our general populace.

What does it all mean?

I don't know, but here is where I hope to focus my efforts:
I will stop supporting retailers who sell guns. (Academy Sporting Goods, I will miss you.)
I will ride a bike more and do all I can to avoid carbon release in all forms.
I will educate myself and vote more responsibly for those who believe this world is in need of and worth saving.
I will educate myself and vote more responsibly for those who believe human beings are more important than corporate profits.
I will step up my own organic gardening and and support others who try to do the same.

Hunger, homelessness, and disparity - I need to find a better focus.

May you know your causes and may you work for what you believe.

Looking Past the Potholes: Citizens Climate Lobby

A long time ago in a junior college not-so-far-far-away, I took a motorcycle safety class. The instructor gave us some valuable advice - if you want to avoid running over something in the road (like a pothole) do not look at it. When you ride a motorcycle, you go where you look.

A still from the video (keep reading!)

One of the struggles in carbon-reductionist blogging is not focusing on the negative. There's a lot of dang potholes out there and it's really easy to hit them. The day I decided to start Mesquite Hugger I also decided to keep it a place where we look and work toward betterment rather than wallowing in the darkness.

Last week, I found something very encouraging and very much in line with the MH approach.

Another  still from the video (keep reading!)

 

I blogged last week about seeing Dr. Katharine Hayhoe speak at a meeting for the Citizens' Climate Lobby. I was very excited to see that the CCL is a group that looks past the potholes and focuses on ways to fix our obstacles. I have to admit that when I see the word "lobby" associated with politics, I think corruption and greed. So I had my doubts. But this meeting was not about that. It is a group that decided that small steps (like switching to more efficient lightbulbs and eating local) were a good start but would not have enough impact to slow climate change. They also decided that pointing fingers and calling names would not do the trick either. They realized there was a powerful singular force driving climate change - carbon release.

They went looking for a way to reduce the amount of carbon being extracted from the ground and subsequently being released into our atmosphere. And they have come up with a very good plan. And their plan involves working with (not against) the the US government to reduce carbon emissions, improve the health of the people, strengthen the economy, and give you (the US taxpayer) some money. For an overview, check out this video:

Citizen's Climate Lobby Intro Video

 

 

Yes, I am excited. Yes, I have joined and look forward to working with others who want to create a livable future for mesquite trees and the people who love them.

 

May you have a wonderful day and may you be excited about making things better for all.

Personal Carbon Reduction: Transportation Intro



From this great infographic

 

Step 1 (Pun intended.)
Let's start simple on the transportation. In most cases, the simpler the machine, the lower its carbon cost. If you want to go ultra-low carbon, start with a good pair of shoes. Range and speed may be low, but you can't beat your literal footprint for lowering your carbon footprint. I do more and more walking these days and find it to be therapeutic as well carbon neutral. And it helps me to stay more connected to what is happening in my neighborhood. [If my destination is within a mile, I try to walk.]

 

European Cyclist Federation (Carbon)

 

Pedal-Power
The next step for me is a plain, old bicycle. Super-low carbon footprint, improved health, improved budget, and a wider physical range (than walking) combine to make a bike a great way to get around. You can easily buy a quality used bike for less than it costs to buy one tire for most cars. [If my destination is within three and half miles (and I am traveling alone) I try to take the bike. In truth, I love to bike.]

 

Next, I'll throw a curve with a gas-powered motorcycle, scooter, or moped. While most of them burn considerably less fuel than your average car, many of them also emit a lot more harmful gases than your average car. So, yes, you will burn less fuel, but you can do a lot more environmental damage by riding one. We'll talk more about gas-powered two wheelers in the near future. [I am not ready to discuss my scooter addiction, but I ride a lot less these days.]

 

Bike vs. Car ($$$)

 

So let's talk about petroleum-powered cars.
Cars (and light trucks) are often the most convenient, luxurious, and destructive way to get around, especially in a suburban setting like Lubbock. They are also very expensive - taking up at least 30% of the budget in many American homes. If you are looking to reduce your carbon footprint, dependence on the car is going to be one of your biggest obstacles, and cars are deeply ingrained in our national culture. Take some time and think about it. How prominent is the car in your life, your budget, and even your self image? Is it worth it? (Ouch!) [I drive my little worn-out truck a lot, and I cringe each time.]

 



The Space They Take - Car, Bus, and Bike (Space)

 

Petroleum-Powered Buses

Buses are funny things in the eco world. As a single vehicle, a bus has a pretty ugly carbon footprint until you hit the "divide" button on the calculator. If there are 30 people riding the bus (instead of driving 30 cars) the carbon footprint looks pretty awesome. With a bus, it's all about numbers, and when you have enough riders, a bus is a pretty green machine. [I need to ride the bus a lot more. Since Lubbock buses have bike racks on the front, riding the bus is a great way to ride a bike during extreme temperature days. I can bike to work in the morning on 100 degree days and ride the bus home in the afternoon heat. The opposite works well on really cold days.]

Mother Jones Carbon Cost Graphic

 

Jet Travel

Ouch! It's truly astounding how terrible jet travel is for the well-being of the planet and the organisms that hope to continue breathing. We have to find a better way. [It's really rare for me to fly, and I am okay with that.]

Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles
If you've read this far, you are probably wondering about the electric vehicles that show up so often on the Mesquite Hugger posts. Well, you're going to have to wait - I am saving those for another PCR installment.

 

 May we find our way with as little carbon spent as possible.

 

 

 

 

¡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: There is a leek in the garden - reproducing itself!

My favorite visual pun in years - There's a leek in the boat!

PCR = Personal Carbon Reduction

There is a blizzard going on outside, so naturally, I am thinking about gardening. A few years ago I found a bag of potatoes that had been in the pantry a little too long. I took them out beside the house, dug a few holes, and dropped a potato in each. With very little watering I ended up with some impressive plants. Then I became busy at work, quit watering the plants, and they promptly died, snagit! But I have to admit, the initial stages of the planting were pretty cool.

Today I ran across an infograhic from the Cooking Stoned blog - it's not what you think - that shows several kitchen veggies (and a little fungi) that can be grown from kitchen scraps. Click the link to see the graphic and check out the blog:

Food That Magically Regrows Itself from Kitchen Scraps

I am thinking green onions, celery, garlic, potatoes, and leeks - leeks are an important source of punnery.

May your gardening skills sustain and prosper you while the garden monster munches carbon!

Bonus link for today: "Green Onions" Booker T and the MGs

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!)

PCR: Another form of self-watering garden - cheap and easy!!!

While searching out the method for building the self-wicking raised-bed planter, I ran across another interesting form of subterranean (big word points on that one!) watering setup. This one is simple, cool, and ancient. And it's cheap and easy to build. And it's been used for centuries. And it's easy to install. It's the olla - pronounced oy-uh.

These beauties are from the Growing Awareness Urban Farm (link below)

Yes - you can buy fancy, artsy, beautiful, ready-made ollas; but here at the Mesquite Hugger alternative growing lab, we believe in things like cheap, like DIY, like quick, like cheap, and ugly does not bother us if it's cheap and effective. Besides, these things are designed to be buried.

Check out the Closer to the Dirt link below to learn more about making and using your own ollas.

Closer to the Dirt: Experimenting with Ollas

For those of you who are not cheap and do have an eye for the aesthetic, check out this site from Albuquerque. They have some beautiful ollas with very reasonable prices (especially if you are local and do not have to pay shipping). The site is very informative and inspiring. I urge you to spend some time poking around there to see people who are working hard to make a difference in their community.

Growing Awareness Urban Farm

May we not ignore the past when learning how to thrive in the future.

Personal Carbon Reduction (PCR):The 1st Food Is Free Planter IS Built!

The carbon-munching garden (almost) lives!

 

A busy weekend with a project started and (mostly) completed - the first Food Is Free Project Self-Wicking Raised-Bed Garden is now built. We only need to add a little more soil and some plants. (What a mouth full!)

Thursday night I made my wife watch the FIFP videos that had me so excited. She was even more excited than I was by the time the videos were watched - so the project was green-lighted and fast-tracked. Friday at lunch I picked up free pallets from a Craigslist ad. After work I swung by my favorite sign shop and snagged some used coroplast signs. We found a neighbor with a new fence and acquired some of the old fence pickets for trim work. We had a tarp left over from one of my wife's neighborhood garden projects. We had an ugly old sheet that was ready for retirement. We had a few boxes of screws around. It all came together rather nicely. I did have to purchase some PVC and river pebbles. (Snagit, I wish our fair city had a working glass tumbler/recycler!!!!) We started buiding Saturday around noon and (even with significant interruptions) had it done by evening.

Swartzy stopped by and we put him to work. Thanks, man!

 

Now, we just need to get some plants going and a little sign to talk some neighbors into joining the revolution - the revolution won't be televised, but it will be blogged!

 

Do you want to build your own? If so, set aside 20 minutes and watch these three videos in this order:

 

The Story of Food Is Free

 

FIFP: How to Build a Wicking Bed Garden (Quick Overview)

 

FIFP: How to Build a Wicking Bed Garden! (Detailed video with ukelele music)

 

May you learn to love your neighbor, eat healthier, and strike a blow for carbon reduction with one tiny little garden - get out there and kick some carbon-munching garden butt!

 

I'd like to thank my wife, the Swartzy, the Food Is Free Project team, the pallet guys, Jennifer the pallet hurler, our favorite sign guy,Lucy the Wondertruck, and the weird guy who kept walking by our house and offering suggestions.

 



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.