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.

Lubbock in a Garden: Pedal-Powered Water Pump - More Progress! (Part 3)

(For all of you who've been following the Heart of Lubbock Community Garden series) 

 

See where it all started by clicking here and here.

 

Keeping words to a minimum. (Sometimes I talk too much.)

 

I really hate plumbing stuff, snagit!

(Nothing to see here.)

It's coming along.

 

Next steps:

• Create adjustable, sliding brackets for the pump
• Attach the V-belt and pulley setup
• Attach the new wheel (We will try to keep the speedometer intact.)
• Figure out the rest of the plumbing (Snagit!)
• Put it all together
• Have a super-soaker party

May your projects go smoothly, bless someone, and make this ol' blue marble a better place to live!

 

(And may the plumbing department not prompt male and female anatomy questions from children - ¡Oy vey, hermanito!)

 

 

PS. It would already be in the garden and pumping if it weren't for you meddling plumbing parts, snagit!)

Frankensteen Gardening: Re-Animating Veggie and Lumber Scraps

This is so simple! Buy the right veggies. Eat them. Put the scraps in a little water and give them a little sun. Watch them grow.

My lovely wife and my not-so-lovely self have been discussing veggie re-animation a lot lately, so she started with Romaine lettuce a little while back. In a short period of time we had a pretty amazing little plant, so I transplanted it into the food-is-free planter. Overnight it was mowed down by a marauding herd of roly polies. We cried a bit, and then she started over four days ago.

Celery with four days growth

Romaine lettuce with four days growth

The top view

If you want to learn more and want to Frankensteen your own veggies, here's a link to get you started: 17 Plants You Grow from Kitchen Scraps. There are lots of similar articles, but I chose this one based on the blog name - Black Thumb Gardener. (Be sure to check out the DIY concrete planter on that site.)

 

I also built a planter holder to hide my not-so-lovely 5-gallon bucket planters this weekend. All of the wood came from a house being re-animated about a block away from our house. Mostly rafters and floor boards.

 

 

This pallet and those two boards became a pallet planter too. More on both of these to come. The local alleys have provided nicely of late.

 

May you stand in your garden at midnight and yell, "It's alive!" (It's very invigorating, but the neighbors will wonder.)

Minipost: Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market this (and next) Weekend

I have it on good authority that there will be a giant praying mantis there! Need I say more?

 

If I did need to say more, you can probably find it here: http://lubbockdowntownfarmersmarket.com/

 

Strawberries will be gone quickly. Set your alarm!

 

May Saturday morning bring you something healthy and wonderful.

 

PS. There will be another Strawberry Festival next week too!

14 Random Pics, Updates, and a Mockingbird Serenade

 

 

1. This morning's sunrise - all taken on Salem Avenue on my morning bike commute. (Good ride!)
2. Table display from last night's Heart of Lubbock Community Garden Fundraiser (Much fun - donate!)
3. AJ article from Tuesday about Texas Agrilife's Russ Wallace and his amazing strawberry operation. (Be watching for the Strawberry Edition of the Lubbock Downtown Farmers' Market in the next few weeks.)
4. A blurry pic of our first tomato flower from the new MH Instructable planter.
5. Life springing (from what we thought were) dead prickly pear fragments on our back porch
6. Knippa rocking some cool shades from our epic adventure to the Goodwill Pound Store to get messenger bags for my bicycle pannier project.
7. What's left of my grandfather's armadillo sign (I have loved that sign for years)
8. The geckos are growing (in the compost box)
9. Things are getting cheap at the Sun Adventure Going-out-of-Business sale. It stinks that they are closing, but it is a great time for you to get ready to ride this spring and summer. Do yourself a favor - ride a bike as often as possible.
10. Lost and Found Goat on Lubbock Nextdoor this week
11. Feeling all legit with my new upcycled business cards!
12. West Texas Cycling Association bumper sticker spotted in the Covenant parking garage.
13. This giant soccer ball brought mirth to my Monday morning ride.
14. Little purple flowers from Saturday's Yellowhouse Coffee stroll. 

We have been blessed with lots of mockingbirds this season. This one made my day.

 

May your photos reflect growth, joy, progress, hope, and may they help you to recognize your blessings.

Lubbock Community Garden Party Animals and 10 Tips!

If you find yourself in the vicinity of  21st and Avenue X, you need to check out the Heart of Lubbock Community Garden. If you can't make it by, you can check it out on this video.

The Video (and Gofundme campaign)

 

While I do encourage donating money online for this cool and worthy campaign, I would rather use my money to party and still support the garden. On any other day of the year, that might be tough, but not today...

 

Yep, there is a fundraising party this evening right there at 40th and University. Check out the details on the pic. If you go, wink at Beth, start talking about dwarf seahorses, and then tell her the Mesquite Hugger sent you!

 

For those of you who are feeling jealous that Heart of Lubbock has a community garden and you don't, here is a link to a site that can help you get your own darn garden started.

 

10 Steps to Starting a Community Garden

 

May you and your neighbors grow something great, donate money to people who are trying to do the same, and create a better place for us all!

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!

Brainstorming the Greenhouse - Veggie Shower-O-Rama!

I feel an Instructable coming on. (This time it's Knippa and the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store that are to blame.)

Knippa is my hero lately. He took a corner of the garage, used a whole bunch of salvaged materials, and built himself a scooter workshop worthy of admiration and envy. He does that kind of thing a lot.

 

(Just showing off my wicked Powerpoint skills!)

Grizz and I were over at Keith's place checking out the shop (and stealing some salvaged lumber) and I noticed a pair of glass shower doors leaning against the wall. On the day before, I had visited the Habitat Re-Store and noticed a number of glass shower doors for sale. The overactive brain started its slow burn...

Hinges make everything better!

You see, I have been jonesing to build a greenhouse. Watching all of our Food-Is-Free Project garden plants wither and die this fall made me want a greenhouse to extend the growing season. The greenhouse could also be helpful in reducing evaporation in our oh-so-dry climate. It could be built from mostly or completely salvaged/recycled materials. If I paint it blue, I could find out which of my friends are Doctor Who fans. Shower doors have tempered glass and have frames that help with mounting hardware.

Will I build a greenhouse this spring? The odds are probably not in my favor, but I have taken the first step - I have a plan.

Are you looking for similar inspiration? Then check out this page from Inspiration Green. (I like the one with the red sliding door!)

http://www.inspirationgreen.com/greenhouses-made-from-old-windows-and-doors

 

May your winter daydreams be your spring reality! As Keith likes to say, "Eat locally, Mesquite Hugger!"

Your Saturday Grackle (posted on Sunday)

I found a natural, free-range form of pest control yesterday.

There I was Saturday afternoon tackling the backyard jungle, and I noticed I had a helper. Wherever I had just mowed, there was this female grackle pouncing on all the displaced bugs. She was quick, efficient, and very graceful. And she was the only one. The dogs noticed her and startled hassling her, so I shut them in the house. She kept a wary distance, but less than most birds would. And it was a treat to watch her at work.

So, we have a big spider on the back porch, the gecko in the compost box, a few ladybugs near the ollas, and a grackle working the yard. 

May you find help in unexpected places.

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!

Get Ready for Fresh Veggies in Lubbock!

It's coming!

A friend of mine is part of a long-term cancer study, and she occasionally gets a really big questionnaire to fill out. One sobering part of the questionnaire is the sheer volume of questions about a person's diet. There are lots of questions that deal with fresh/processed, mass market/organic, etc. It serves as a strong reminder that we should all be very aware of the foods we are shoving down our throats, especially if you couple that idea with all the studies of the health benefits/cancer-fighting benefits of eating fresh vegetables. So, snagit!, get out there and start eating fresh veggies!

Yep, you know I am going somewhere with this - we are just 17 days away from the opening round of the Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market. The first one this year is Saturday, June 20th. Remember, nothing can be sold before 9 and most of the really good stuff is sold by 10:30.

And for those of you who whine about living in a lame city (i.e. me yesterday), the farmers market is one of those things that helps hold the lameness at bay, so get out there, have a good time, support your neighbors, and support your health. I sincerely hope to see you there!

May you be the change you wish to see in the world!

PCR: Olla Update - Blessed with free tomato plants!

Flower Pot meets Olla (made of two 4" pots)

Saturday we went by the preparedness fair - lots of cool stuff there. I even had the opportunity to see one of the self-cloning crawdads I wrote about a while back. (Another Cool Aquaponics System and Send in the Clones)

'Went to a garden party...

The Texas Agrilife Extension group and the Master Gardeners were giving tomato seedlings to passersby, so I passered by and scored some free plants. (Thanks Linda and Vikram!).

That left me with four little tomato plants needing to be planted and a small stack of ollas needing to go underground. I put 4 and 2 together, and the grand experiment has begun. I found some old pots on the back porch and threw everything together. The compost box doubled as a planting table. It looks like things are falling in place. We now have tomatoes and ollas on the front porch. If they thrive, I'll post pics. If they don't, I'll invite you to the composting wake. Either way, we'll find a reason to celebrate.

May your grand experiments thrive.

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: 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.

Combating Lubbock Boringitis: Urban Tech

Imagine living in a place where there is always something to do.

In case you haven't heard, our fair city has once again been voted the most boring town in America. And it is not hard to see why we have such a reputation. If one is not interested in going to a movie, attending a sports event, or heading down to the Depot District to drink a lot of alcohol, well, you are going to have to do some digging.

Don't do it!

But there have been many glimmers of hope in the last few years. Two that stand out happen in the downtown area: the LHUCA First Friday Art Trail and the Lubbock Downtown Farmer's Market. If you have been fortunate enough to visit either of those recurring events, you've had the chance to see local folks out enjoying the place we call home and the company of our neighbors. And it's pretty darned awesome.

Another group that is working in the same direction is Urban Tech. They are an offshoot of the Texas Tech College of Architecture. In their own words:

A place for students to think, draw, design, model and create.
A product of ideas and information in public exhibition in the form of drawings and models and transportable information via digital media.
A process of civic engagement and exploration.
Urban Tech will clarify the public benefits of architecture, promote the creation of new knowledge and serve as a laboratory for ethical professional behavior where community needs supersede private agendas. (I really like that last sentence!)

Urban Tech has been stepping away from the drawing board lately and taking their work and ideas into the street downtown. And if you have not made it out there, you still have time this week to head over to Avenue J to see what's up and to support the idea of resurrecting our downtown to create an area where people would love to live, work, and play. Besides the cultural events, you can check out the functional art, the pocket park, and the prospective graphics on the windows. You can even pick up one of the cool t-shirts for $10.

Bands on Friday Night

Coffee in the morning and live music during the lunch hour and after work

Last night's Broadway & Gourmet on Ave J

If you are one of those who keep complaining about how boring our town is, here is your chance to truly be the change you wish to see in the world. Get out and support a future that can be.

May you live in an interesting place that inspires you!

PS. Be sure to check out a few of the other projects on the Urban Tech website. BIKE!

Lubbock: Thank you tiny predators!

I came home last night to find a tiny Mediterranean gecko munching on mosquitoes near our garage light. Being me, my spirit soared to see our sticky-footed visitor. 

This morning, I swatted a mosquito in the house. I fed it to our betta - she loves skeeters! And it got me to thinking. So, thank you to those prayerful mantises.

A mantis looks into the Mesquite Hugger living room.

Thank you to the spiders, the bats, the dragonflies. Thank you to the playa-pond dwellers: the frogs, fish, toads, and birds. In the worst mosquito season I have seen in Lubbock, thank you for fighting the good fight while eating local!

May your day be bite free, and may the little insectivores be blessed.

PS. Think twice before killing that spider.