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!

A Better (than my) Rain Barrel

Last year, Keith, Swartzy, and I had a rain barrel party in the driveway. And it went well. We took some free plastic barrels (Thank you, Grizz!), added some hardware, did a little cutting and drilling, and came up with some pretty effective rain barrels. And I have been amazed at how much rain we collect each time it rains. Actually, it fills up so quickly that most of the water has to be diverted. The 55-gallon barrel fills up long before the rain stops.

I hope to build three more rain barrels soon in order to take advantage of every drop I can.

 Photo from the CAGW post

 

A few days ago I ran across a Crafting a Green World post about a slightly different rain barrel approach that has a number of distinct advantages over the ones we made last year. The featured barrel uses less hardware and that hardware is easier to install. It has better provisions for filtration and mosquito avoidance, and it should be easier to service and clean out. I also like the idea of a cinder-block base. It is, however, lacking any type overflow. All in all, it looks like an improvement over mine, so I thought I'd share it with you, dear reader.

Check Out My [CAGW] Rain Barrel

May not a drop be wasted at your home!

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.

A Quick Followup to Several Recent Posts

A Day Without Waste

For the day:
a q-tip
a small saline packet
two three small lids from one ounce container (the containers were recyclable)
a square of wax paper
4 receipts
Then I went home and blew it all by working at cleaning out the garage. I feel like the owl from the old Tootsie Roll Pop commercials.

Aquaponics

The system is rocking along. The bell pepper plant's health is improving. The wheat grass is skyrocketing. The basil is sprouting and looking good. The spinach seeds have done nothing. The fish and water quality are great.

The Aquaponics Instructable

WOW!!! In creating it, I hoped that Keith, Swartz, Fester, Leyva, and Toni would read it. Creating an Instructable was a mountain I had hoped to someday climb. In five days, 2200 people have checked it out and 120 have added it to their "Favorite" list. Yesterday, it was added to the "Featured" section of Instructables! Wow! I am amazed and very thankful!

The electric bicycle (and battery pack)

Installed the new fork with upgraded brakes - stopping is a wonderful thing. The battery is now housed in a small toolbox which has a nice little meter for volts/amps/watts and a pug-in for the charger. Now I just need to create a way to anchor the box to the built-in basket. I need to do the math, but I think missed my goal of staying under $200. My biggest mistake was choosing to build a vintage bike that needed a full restoration and had no provisions for good brakes. Had I chosen a more modern used but good-conditioned bike from Craigslist I would have been closer to the goal and would have been on the road much sooner.

Rain Barrel Workshop
I admit it - I cheaped out. Instead, Keith, the Swartz, and I had our own little rain barrel workshop and built three (rough-looking) barrels for less than $50. Now, if we could just get some rain...

The Arts Festival
It rocked! We spent more than $50 there...

May your followups be rewarding!

Lubbock this Weekend - Rain Barrels and Art

A few quick reminders for the weekend:

The rain barrel workshop is Saturday:

Make and Take Rain Barrel Workshop - this is your chance to meet good people and complete a DIY project that can help make a dent in the greatest ecological issue of our area - water conservation.

The Lubbock Arts Festival is going on all weekend. I was extremely excited to learn that the Festival's featured artist this year is a Lubbockite who happens to be a great sculptor, musician, motorcycle mechanic, and all-around great human being - Greg Goodnight. If you run into Greg, please tell him hello for me!

May your weekend be filled with solutions and the wonder of human ingenuity!

Two Quick Reminders for this Week: Waste and Rain Barrels

No Waste Wednesday

Don't be a Straw Hog or a Napkin Nipper! 

Wednesday (April 9) is A Day Without Waste.

Rain Barrel Saturday

I was wishing this one had been last Saturday so that I could've caught this weekend's brief but wonderful rain!

The Make and Take Rain Barrel Workshop (Lubbock, 40th and University, 12-3)

May you not wake up on Sunday thinking, "Snagit! I missed it!"

Roll Out the (Rain) Barrel (Mark Your Calendar)

Happiness is a rain barrel!

(http://www.hoklife.com/tag/rain-barrel/)

A day late and a gallon short, so to speak, I learned that on Tuesday night Brad Lancaster, author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, gave a talk here in Lubbock. You can click on the title and visit his very informative website that is designed for people who live in areas of  very little rainfall to harvest and conserve our most precious natural resource. Snagit!!! Please check out the site.

While you are there, you can also check out a book on a subject that is near and dear to the Mesquite Hugger heart and stomach: Eat Mesquite.

For another local opportunity for you to learn about rainwater harvesting (and to use tools!), mark your calendar for the Make and Take Rain Barrel Workshop Saturday, April 12, 2014 here in Lubbock. If you want a rain barrel but do not have the tools, skills, or place to make one, this is your chance to work with others and make it happen!

I hope to see you there!

May your barrel runneth over!