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!)

A Cool Project Is Born: Lubbock Pedal-Power Water Pump

Grizz and I are stoked! We have been invited to help out on a very cool project right here in Lubbock. And it's a project we've talked about a great deal but we haven't actually tried - yet!

As you know, we love bicycles here at Mesquite Hugger. The bicycle is a very simple solution to a lot of complicated problems. Speaking of which...

Check this one out in great detail at permapai: Bicycle Pump Power

Beth (our favorite of all Lubbock gardeners) asked if we would help put together a bike pump to help with rainwater irrigation over at the Heart of Lubbock Community Garden. Can you imagine a cooler project for the likes of us? Nope, me neither.

So, Grizz and I have been scheming on the best way to go about this. We have a few old bikes around we thought about using, but then we'd need to build a platform to stabilize the bike. Then we realized that there are bikes around that would make an even better pump station - stationary bikes!

Here comes the Request Part

If any of you Lubbockites happen to have an old stationary bike lying around unused that you would like to donate to a very worthy cause, we could definitely put it to good use. We are looking for something similar to this:

My mom had this exact same exercycle when I was a kid!

I only posted this pic because I think Randy

may be my Tennessee doppelganger.

We could also use a rotary pump or parts of a pump that we could adapt for the project. If it has to spin to operate, we'd love to find a way to adapt it for the bike water pump.

If you have a stationary bike or a pump you'd like to donate, please email me from the contact portion of this page or contact Beth through the Heart of Lubbock Community Garden Facebook page.

And if you want to get involved with the HOL Community Garden, there is a spring cleanup day happening this Saturday at 12:30 (February 4), so swing by and get yourself involved.

To learn more about the garden, check it out on one of these three platforms:

https://www.gofundme.com/lubbockcommunitygarden

https://www.instagram.com/lubbockcommunitygarden/
https://www.facebook.com/heartoflubbockgarden

For those of you who want to build your own pedal-powered pump, here are some more resources to check out:

Instructables: Portable Bicycle Water Pump

(Have I mentioned lately that I love Instructables?!!)

A little different approach from Make Magazine.

Community Garden: Blog Drill Pump

To sum up, this project involves upcycling, rainwater harvesting, bicycle-power, local food,

petroleum-free power, and spending time with good people. Beth, thank you for inviting us!

May you find yourself in the middle of something worthwhile, and may we all be better for it. See you in the garden!

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!

Personal Carbon Reduction: Planning the Raised-Bed Garden Monster

Yep, that's what people look like in South Austin.

Earlier this week, I wrote about personal carbon reduction through gardening, so I have been looking around a bit to figure out how to get started. And I found something out of Austin that has me feeling inspired.

First, let me tell you that I do love Austin. I especially love South Austin. I have not found a cultural attitude like it anywhere else in Texas - defintely not in our conservative and often stifling Lubbock.

I also love white-board animation and pallet-based projects, and I am not opposed to ukele music.

All that is to say that I was really excited yesterday to find a Derek Markham  article on Treehugger that features some South Austin greenies teaching me how to build a self-watering raised-bed garden out of pallets and political signs. The project is almost completely out of repurposed materials and can be built by people with limited tools and skills. (All of which fit my budget, tool collection, and skill level!)

Treehugger: FoodIsFreeProject.org self-watering raised garden bed

And that lead me to watch a series of videos from the the Food Is Free Project - and I really like their idea of building better and healthier communities by encouraging neighbors to build these raised gardens to create a neighborhood food system of tiny shared gardens. (And their videos have white-board animation and ukele music.) I am impressed! Now, I just need to snag some free pallets and talk to my neighbors...

foodisfreeproject.org

May your small projects lead to big changes!

(Does anyone have any Randy Neugebauer or Glen Robertson signs I can cut up and use to keep the fertilizer where it belongs?)