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!

Fossil Free Friday: Pedal Power and a Plow

 It's been a little while since we featured anything bike-like that's not really a bike, but this week, that seemed to be the theme of the internet meandering, so here goes.

Let's Plow

Have you found yourself thinking, "Man, I would trade all of these crappy old bicycles for a single carbon-neutral plow?" No? Is that just me? Oh well. This idea is still pretty cool. Click the link under the picture for plans and a video.

Turn your old bike into your new plow!

Whatever Floats Pedals Your Boat

 

So, maybe you're more of a boater than a gardener. Or maybe you're a tiny houser who lives near water. Or you just find yourself wanting to build something named after a French snail. If any of those describe you, check out the next creation:

 

Tiny House + Boat + Bicycle Drive = Something really cool that floats!

Tiny Pedal-Powered Electric VW's

Y'all know me as a guy who wants a small electric car - the Citicar. [I had to bring in a Citicar somehow!] But my love for electric cars started at a very young age. And I hate to brag, but I owned scads of electrics cars as a kid. And they were awesome! (I still have most of them.) They were tiny electric slot cars like these:

 

Why am I reminiscing like this? Well, I was perusing Autoblog.Green this week and ran across a photo of VW's Electric Transparent Factory. One of the photos showed two people powering a pair of slot cars by pedaling electric unicycles. Are you finding it hard to visualize? Then click here: Pedal-powered slot cars at the VW factory!

 

I know a little guy who has a birthday in July - we may need to break out the old slot car track and build a few of these DIY Bike Generators from Instructables. I feel a carbon-free, pedal-to-the-metal car race coming on! (A mesquite-hugging dork can dream, can't he?)

 

May you find inspiration pedaling you to betterment!