When a plan comes together: The Pedal-Powered Pump

This is not a completion report by any means, but it is progress.

The people-and-pedal-powered pump project for the Heart of Lubbock Community Garden had a major leap forward - we were blessed with one of the two major components this week - the groovy retro exercycle:

Isn't she a beauty!

The exercycle has all the amenities - a seat, pedals, handledars, and the oh-so-crucial speedometer! A gentleman on 70th Street responded to our Craigslist ad and sold it to us for less $ than many of us will pay for dinner tonight. Yes, Grizz and I are thrilled!

The pump will tie into the black barrel

An overall garden shot - soon to be green!

(That pallet structure is a Motel 6 for solitary bees!)

Don't let the Lubbock-in-February-brown vegetation fool you - this is where the magic happens!

My favorite thing at the garden - a recycled window greenhouse!

(Why have I not built one of these yet?)

They also have some (not pictured) cold frames out there. Why haven't I built any of those yet either?

Now, we just need to come up with the other major component: pump (and some pulleys or sprockets, a  belt or chain, and some fittings to hook up the water hose).

Community Garden???

In case you just don't get this whole community garden thing, be sure to check out this Ted Radio Episode: The Food We Eat

My favorite quotes from this broadcast:

• "We do our flippin' best!" Pam Warhurst of Incredible Edible
• "A hundred years ago...you didn't eat ethnic unless you were ethnic." Mark Bittman
• "74% of all the food in the [grocery] store has been spiked with added sugar in some fashion." Dr. Robert Lustig

May you get involved with something that makes your community a healthy place to be!

When you gonna ______? (A live better sidestep)

Grizz and I discussed it over coffee yesterday morning. Most of us have that thing to get past. Some of us just skip from one to the next. What's yours right now?

Need some help? Just fill in the blanks.

Is your head swimming now? Mine does when I fill in those blanks. A lot of Mesquite Hugger motivation comes from chasing these statements. It goes something like this:

• I am going to start eating local after I grow some veggies.
• I am going to grow some veggies after I build a greenhouse.
• I am going to build a greenhouse after I trim the trees.
• I am going to trim the trees after I buy a saw.
• I am going to buy a saw after I sell some unused stuff.
• I am going sell some unused stuff after I clean the garage.
• Snagit - when am I going to clean the garage?!!!
• I guess eating local is going to have to wait.
• But wait, there is a five-gallon bucket and a little space on the porch - Honey, we're gonna grow tomatoes!

Mesquite Hugger blog posts often look like this.

Where do we go from here? Maybe it's time to figure out our I am going to statements so that we can figure out how to sidestep them. You don't have to be wealthy to live healthy, smart, or well.

So here's your challenge for this week. Identify one (or several) of your I am going to goals and get creative. Find a detour or a shortcut. If you get stuck, google it. Someone else has been there and may have good advice.

A few Mesquite Hugger suggestions to help with your planning: garden, transportation, energy conservation, compost, water conservation, recycling, xeriscaping, food production, food waste, homelessness, hunger, wildlife preservation, simple living, reducing meat consumption, minimalism, spreading the word, anger reduction. You can tackle the whole big world or a tiny piece of your little slice. Any improvement is a win for all of us.

If I can help, shoot me an email.

As always, thank you for reading! May our little sidesteps lead to huge improvements.

Keeping it real(istic) - Mesquite Hugging Plan for Spring and Summer

This is one of those pie-in-the-sky versus reality posts where I lay out the plan for spring/summer.

Vehicles, Stuff Purging, Garden, Compost, Local Politics, National Politics (Those last three may be a bit redundant.) These will be the focus.

Find it here

Carbon-Free Transport -I rode the (electric) bike to work two days this week. None too impressive, but much more so than most recent weeks. And it felt really good to be back on the bike. My body hurts from the exercise and I am glad. It is a start. (Spencer - the National Bike Challenge - Bring it on!)

On the bicycle front, yes, I have been drooling over cargo bikes, but I think I will pursue fixing up my tiny bike armada to cover most needs. Two main transportation bikes - the Motobecane mountain bike can transform into more of a commuter with light cargo capacity, the old Bridgestone can turn into a workhorse electric bike with heavier cargo capacity and the ability to pull a trailer.

(Speaking of cargo bikes - two big emails this week:
The Xtracycle Leap is now available for pre-order at $600 for the basic kit.
RadPowerBikes.com has a deal where you can register to to win $500 off of either of their two bikes.
The Mesquite Hugger looked at his budget and decided to keep riding his old bikes with small upgrades.)

ElectroPigeon 1 is most likely on hold for this spring and summer - too many other big projects demanding my attention.

The Pigeon Dream may have to wait 

Electric Car acquisition - not yet. Come on cycle weather! (Unless I find that mythical Upgrade to Electric grant or person who wants me to haul off their electric car. Anyone?)

Speaking of acquisition, I hope to do the opposite - it's time to get rid of stuff. Anyone needing a Lambretta, a Vespa, a Voloci (electric cycle), a half-completed electric Mazda pickup, or lots of other unwanted stuff - let me know. It's time to make some breathing room. I am open to bartering more than trades. I am tired of being owned by stuff!

Gardening - Stepping this one up in a big way. The overall goal is to put a significant amount of home-grown food on the table and to offer a healthy place for local bees to get their grub on. I will continue the olla gardening and the Food is Free project and I hope to build a dome greenhouse in the backyard utilizing pallet lumber and dome connectors.

 

dome video

Composting - Okay, it's a bit oxymoronic, but I am lazy and I like to build stuff, and the world offers a never-ending supply of compostable material. (And mice really appreciate the wooden compost box I am using.) So, I want to build a barrel-based compost tumbler. I learned last year that being a decent composter makes one a more successful gardener.

Check it out on Instructables

 

Politics - Locally I hope to campaign and work for better biking and pedestrian improvements. Nationally, it is time to get more involved with the Citizens Climate Lobby.

 

How about you? Any plans to green your routine? To cut the carbon? To de-stuff-ify?

 

May your plans lead to actions and may your actions lead to a better life.

How does your garden grow in a dome?

I know. I know. It was just a few days ago that I was posting a shower-door greenhouse design. But then something possibly cooler popped up - an easy, cheap, and recycled geodesic dome frame. The same me that loves Earthships and and container houses has also been a dome fan for most of my life. Buckminster Fuller is the man!

Checking out cheap greenhouse plans, I encountered an ad for domeconnectors.com. So I went to the site. I checked out their videos. I checked out their prices. I started scheming and dreaming. But I balked a bit.The connectors are very reasonable, but the lumber...

 I am thinking a Medium (and maybe a Small to serve as my fortress of solitude/birdwatching blind)

 

There are two problems with the lumber. First, and most important, is that we need trees more than we need boards. We need trees to absorb and sequester carbon. Trees are massively important in sustaining life on Earth. Want to clean the air? Plant more trees. Want to have a shot at slowing or reversing climate change? Plant more trees. Want to be part of the problem? Keep cutting trees down or encouraging others to cut them down. Second, I constantly skirt the fine line between cheap and broke. So, I let my enthusiasm for building a dome greenhouse waiver a bit.

Even so, I sent links to Knippa, Grizz, and my lovely wife to share the cool idea. Last night before dinner, my wife mentioned something that made the dome much more do-able - she has access to some reclaimed pallet lumber - 42 inch sections of 2x4. And they are pretty much free. There went my lumber issues! I love it when a plan comes together.

Ain't that cool?

So, now we have the frame figured out. Where am I going to find a recycle/salvage solution for the covering? (If you have any suggestions, please let me know.) And how do I want to make the door? Can I squeeze an aquaponics setup in there? Will it make my tomatoes look fat and my gardening dreams come true?

What a leaf! (inspiring video for aspiring domers)

May your green thumb be doubly so and your leaves be monstrous!

PCR Olla Update: Tomatoes and Pollinators equal success!

For those of you following the olla progress, here are a few photos and notes from the weekend.

Getting close!

 

These are the free tomato plants from the "Preparedness Fair" that have been present in almost every olla post. I have been excited for a week now watching this tomato start to blush.

 

A welcome sight!

 

We are seeing lots of pollinators passing through - this one showed up yesterday.

Success!

 

Yesterday I reached in to check the olla for water and found this hidden and fully ripe tomato. This is our first produce from the olla planters. It was rich and wonderful. My lovely bride and I enjoyed the first fruit of the garden.

 

In the immortal words of some singer from Indiana, may "we cannot forget from where it is that [our food] comes from..." or something like that. May you find a little joy today!

A Really Cheap Greenhouse (If You Don't Mind Digging)

(Find this image here.)

So there we were at at the Sinus Spectrum watching the kids and our spouses run wild, when my sister-in-law started inexplicably speaking my language. "Bryan thinks I'm crazy, but I want to build the kids a playhouse with a green roof." She pulls up a photo on her phone of a thriving green roof. The conversation rolled forward quickly as she got around to some even better buzzwords for me. "I really want to build a 10'x20' aquaponic greenhouse, and I want it to be completely off-grid." Now we're talking! So we started discussing details. She wants to start small with an aquaponic setup using a single IBC tote filled with veggies and tilapia and start expanding from there. When we got around to the off-grid portion, we discussed a solar water system for heating and solar electrical for cooling, and I remembered an older Treehugger article about building a greenhouse partially underground in order to insulate the space very well and to cut down the amount of building material (& $) needed.

All that is to say, for those of you contemplating building a greenhouse, here is that Treehugger article I mentioned:
Build a $300 underground greenhouse for year-round gardening (Video)

May you start your own healthy and delicious underground revolution!