Friday, October 15, 2010

Signs I Would Like To Carry At The Rally To Restore Sanity

I won't be able to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, D.C. on October 30, 2010. But I'd like to. These are some signs I would like to carry at the Rally To Restore Sanity were I attending, which I am not, because I can't. I'll have to settle with watching it live on Comedy Central. Maybe I'll carry my signs while I sit on the couch eating white cheddar popcorn and drinking a delicious club soda while I watch the Rally To Restore Sanity live on Comedy Central on October 30, 2010.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

SunChips Just For Grins


Now that the compostable bags have been eliminated from the bulk of the SunChips lineup, I figured I'd put up recent photos of my bags in progress. The oldest one has been in for a little over thirty weeks. Again, this has not been under ideal conditions. Now that the bin is very full things might progress more quickly, but it is what it is. So here you go, two bags from in the compost barrel tumbler and one that has been simply staked out in the yard to see what happens--a backyard recreation of a bag tossed from a car window and left to the elements in a roadside ditch. You'll also see a Quizno's cup that was labeled compostable. It has held up remarkably well, too. Anyway, for what it's worth, here are the latest pictures.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Frito-Lay and SunChips Back Away From Environmentally Sound Packaging

Thirty-two Weeks. That's about how long the compostable SunChips bag managed to last before Frito-Lay decided it would rather back away from tiny steps to protect the environment than listen to a few people complain that the bag is "too loud." Yes, because the compostable bag is loud (it is), people complained and Frito-Lay said, "Screw the environment. Late night secret snackers must be protected from this insidiously loud menace!"

Frito-Lay will continue to offer the Original Flavor SunChips in the new bag, but it is discontinuing the use of the bag in all other flavors. Apparently those whiny secret snackers only eat the more exciting flavors like Harvest Cheddar and Garden Vegetable.

I'm not pretending the new bag was going to save the environment. It wasn't. How many of those bags were actually getting composted anyway? (I can only vouch for three.) But it was a step in the right direction for a company that generally does more harm than good in the world of nutritionally sound snacking (I'm not picking on Frito-Lay, almost all such companies are equally guilty--but Frito-Lay is easily one of the largest and has a huge environmental footprint). Unless companies can take a stand and stick with such products we're not going to make much progress in the world of responsible packaging.

Certainly Frito-Lay realized the bags were loud. They most certainly spent tens of thousands of dollars on the marketing aspect alone, which had to have included consumer reactions prior to a full release. "It's really loud" could not have been a surprise reaction. If it was, then they didn't do their homework.

The company plans to do further research to find a quieter alternative. I suspect doing so will involve chemical additives that might not belong in a food container. But that's never stopped food and beverage companies in the past and it certainly won't again unless we force Government regulations upon them. In our current political climate that is unlikely.

In an ideal world we will see a quiet bag that is more readily compostable. Company estimates of 12-16 weeks for composting require ideal composting conditions. Most back yard composters don't quite live up to those standards of green and brown balance, temperature control, etc. We compost the materials we have and make the best of it. Where did I get my thirty-two week figure from at the beginning of this post? That's how long my bag has been in my composter and I bought a bag as soon as they hit my local store. Are my bags fully composted? No. They are still easily identifiable as SunChips bags and still have a degree of integrity to them. Like I said, ideal conditions.

I hope Frito-Lay reconsiders this decision and continues to move in the direction of environmentally sound packaging. It's unfortunate that this initial step ended in what I am sure will be dubbed a marketing failure. Maybe they should come up with some adds that feature the loud bag--perhaps with some new "loud" flavors. I'm not going to hold my breath, though. Frito-Lay and almost any food and beverage company of such magnitude have one thing in mind--profits. The environment and your health are probably not even second on the list of priorities. Heaven forbid a few crazies say they're going to boycott SunChips because the bag is too loud. That might mean a decrease in profits by .001 percent!

How about this one? I hereby refuse to buy SunChips because the "original" bag they are returning to ISN'T LOUD ENOUGH!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Tortoise Housing

We received two hatchling desert tortoises from a friend of a friend. They're cute! Since the hatchlings are vulnerable to both predation and, as we soon learned, Munch, I needed to set them up in a protected environment. So I built a tortoise box (box for a box turtle, you could say). I was able to keep cost down a little bit by going with redwood slats as opposed to larger boards. I cut those to length and screwed them to 2" x 2" corner supports to make the sides. Once I put the box together I put chicken wire on the bottom (to prevent them from tunneling out), put the box where I wanted it, and filled it with organic soil. I made a framed lid with chicken wire to prevent predators, added some shadecloth to the back, and we're good to go. I'm not the handiest guy on the block, but I think it turned out okay. I figure in a couple of years the tortoises will be big enough to be introduced into the yard with Munch and then the tortoise box will become a lettuce box. That'll be nice, too!

I added some rocks and rock "piles" that I hope are inviting places to burrow and hide. I have also planted various things along the front edge of the box--blue flax (probably get too tall if they don't eat if first), chia, nasturtiums, swiss chard, and chickweed, for a start. That will give them plants to forage on, crawl around in, and hide in. I think they'll like it. I even ran a dripper to the water dish so they will get water whenever the drip is on (the larger one in the picture, not the little one as shown).

I never thought of Munch as a big tortoise but compared to the hatchlings she's enormous! She was very aggressive, too, initially. She tried to bite them. I've put them in the same vicinity for small periods and she's still very interested in them but the head bobbing and biting seem to have stopped (I hope). With luck the hatchlings are both female. If one is a male that won't be a big problem, but if they are both males it could eventually cause problems. 

Saturday, August 7, 2010

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 21/13

Slowly but surely is the motto, I guess. There's not a lot change week to week but I did add a small detail section that (hopefully) shows translucent and broken spots in the bag where it is finally starting to break down in a noticeable fashion.

SunChips Go Compostable: Staked, Sunlight Fades...

Here's a side by side shot of the staked bag, the one that's mimicking roadside litter. The bag has been out in the open for several weeks now and the main change to the bag is the noticeable bleaching effect the sun has on nearly everything here in Arizona. Quite a difference, don't you think?

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Madame Brewer

I'm sure the comparison has been made. I mean, it has to have been made. Just sayin'.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix, AZ

We took a weekend to go up to Phoenix to stay at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel with our friends Ken and Marie. We had a great time and I managed to take a whopping three photos the whole time we were there. I guess that means we were having too much fun. We ate way too much (the "all inclusive" package turns out to be a smoking deal, by the way) and probably could have drunk way more, but certainly had our share. We only left the resort one time on a shopping venture. We checked out The Container Store, which was actually kind of cool. If you need a container for something, they probably have it. They are apparently the IKEA of storage. We actually bought a bungie office chair there. It's neon green. Then Joan and Marie went to a store called Last Chance, which is like a big Nordstrom bargain bin. Or so I'm told. Ken and I went into Lonestar and had a beer.

Sunday morning Joan and Marie signed up for a pedicure before we left so we met up at the little "cafe" and had a quick bite to hold us over till lunch. Then Ken and I broke out my petanque game for the first time. Petanque is a boules game similar to bocce. I guess you could say it's the French take on bocce. I like it--it moves quickly. Of course, Ken soundly whomped me two games in a row.

Once the girls were done with their beautification procedures we used the last of our food vouchers and had another fantastic meal before hitting the road. I have no complaints about The Biltmore. It's a great resort. But above all else, they have fantastic food. I enjoyed everything we had there. It was a lot of fun.

On the way back we stopped off to spend a small fortune at IKEA. A few weeks ago Joan and I went up there and purchased a desk for the office room we recently refinished. This time we picked up a matching tall bookcase and a low shelf for under the window. It should look pretty good but I'm not looking forward to putting it all together. Those Danish drawings can be confusing...

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 20/12 (Progress???)

It appears that the bags are finally showing some signs of breaking down. The adhesive or heat sealing or welding or whatever method they use to create the seams and closures of the bags has given up the ghost and the bags are no longer bag-like structures! The original bag is also showing further signs of breaking down, showing small holes and other translucent areas. Next week I'll take more detailed photos of that bag's progress.

You will also notice that the "staked" bag--the one meant to mimic the breakdown process of roadside litter--has bleached out significantly in the summer sun of Tucson, Arizona. Compared to the other "older" bags that spend their days in a very dark environment, the difference is striking. Even though we have hit the monsoon season we have actually received very little rain here at the house. I'd like to see the effects of some heavy rains on the bag. Cross your fingers and break out the drums, we need a rain dance!

I thought that Quizno's cup would have all but dissolved by now, but it's holding together pretty well. I doubt it would hold water for long and you certainly wouldn't want to drink from it, but it still looks like a cup. A crushed and disgustingly discolored cup, but a cup nonetheless. You wouldn't mistake it for some other bit of trash.

Monday, July 26, 2010

In a Word, Tedious [A Review of E. O. Wilson's Anthill]

Anthill by Edward O. Wilson, a review

I wanted to like this book. I really did. E. O. Wilson is a fine science writer and certainly knows his stuff, and maybe that's the problem with this book. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who feels the need to include every single detail and every possible bit of knowledge surrounding a subject even if none of it has much to do with the story? That's Wilson's Anthill. The overly detailed narrative and lack of action is like trudging through mud in heavy boots. Even when he gets around to writing about sex I found myself saying, "OK, yeah, I get it. Move on already!"

The first forty percent of the story reads like a transcript to an uninteresting PBS documentary on post-antebellum society where the most exciting aspect of the documentary is the word post-antebellum. The narrative picks up slightly when Wilson pens the Anthill Chronicles section, but not much. This section reads like the voice over for a Discovery Channel series following an ant colony. This is the section I kept reading for and I was, unfortunately, disappointed. The narrative falls victim to the same over-attention to tedious detail and also suffers from a fair amount of anthropomorphism--see, Wilson wants to make sure we get the part where ants and humans share many parallels so he frequently makes "just like humans" references. And guess what? Turns out people are like ant gods! That's right. The ants view our big shadowy tree-like selves as gods who like to leave manna from heaven behind for the ants to find.

The are plenty of problems with the basic storyline--believability, character consistency, etc. But any of those problems are overshadowed by the drudgery of the prose. I had to take a few breaks and read some other things in order to prevent my brain from solidifying. I can't think of anyone I would recommend this book to. Like I said, I really wanted to like this book but just ended up wondering why I stuck with it to the end.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 09 (or is it 17?)

It has been a few weeks since I did an update on this project. I've been having some fun and so the photo tracking of the bag compost project has taken a back seat to play time.

I have to say, there's still not a lot of change going on here. The two bags in the tumbler don't look too much different from each other. I would have expected some greater progress by now. Like I have said before, this is a small composter. It's not going to generate the kind of heat a large or commercial compost pile will create. I get that. But I still think it's taking an awful long time.

The "roadside ditch bag" is still intact, but it is definitely starting to bleach out and lose its color. That is a pretty good indication that the bag is starting to break down as well. Once the rain starts (oh, monsoons, where art though?), it should really get going. I wouldn't be surprised if this bag breaks down before the ones in the composter!

How about that Quiznos cup? It's progressing. Slowly. But it's ugly and I don't think it would be functional at this point.

And guess what? I threw some biodegradable spoons into my other bin several days ago. I'm not going to bother tracking them because I'm sure it will take a long time. But they are out there.

Monday, June 28, 2010

My Review of Prism Designs EO Atom Box Kite

Originally submitted at REI

Smallest member of the EO kite series, the Prism EO Atom box kite folds flat and is light and compact for easy transport and storage.


Impossible to Launch

By ckmotorka from Tucson, AZ on 6/28/2010

 

1out of 5

Gift: No

Pros: Colorful

Cons: Poor Design, Hard to Fly, Poor Stability

Best Uses: Fanning yourself

Describe Yourself: Intermediate

This is a horrible kite. It's nearly impossible to launch. I have tried it in various wind conditions and it continually nose-dives to the ground. Launch from the ground? Only if launching means repeatedly lifting a few feet and then slamming itself into the earth. I am currently attempting to undo a horrid snarl in the line besides. Do not buy this kite.

(legalese)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Munch Munches Lunch

Weird. I'm posting the exact same blog entry to both of my blogs. That's a new one!

Today Julian and I had a nice time watching Munch eat her(?) dinner on the patio. Munch, a desert tortoise, has been living in our yard for a couple of years now (two winters have come and gone so quickly it took me a while to actually believe it was possible!). She has been pretty active lately and we see her most mornings and late afternoons as she wanders around and nibbles the weeds and the various plants that she likes. I feed her whenever I see her. I have a jar of grassland tortoise pellets that she seems to enjoy as long as I soak them in water. In the video you will see some strawberries, but she didn't eat them. I often offer her all sorts of goodies from the kitchen but she invariably turns her nose up at just about anything I give her other than the wet food pellets. She has a particular palate and I have yet been able to crack the code.



Julian and Layla like to watch her crawl around. Julian also likes to squat down and look into her little house and try to call her out. Of course, she doesn't listen to him. Layla is sometimes afraid of her, even while being fascinated by her. She likes best to view Munch from the comfort of her grandpa's lap where she can point and say "Tortoise" over and over. Today's video was shot while Layla was still napping. She woke up soon after and joined us on the porch to watch Munch finish her lunch. Sitting on my lap, of course.

I think it's neat to know that barring unforeseen circumstances Julian and Layla will be able to watch Munch grow over the years just as we will watch Julian and Layla grow.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 13/5

Here we are at week thirteen with the original bag. I am willing to recalibrate the count down to week five, as that is how long the bag has been in my tumbling composter. I am also going to say that from the looks of things Frito-Lay's claim of a fourteen week breakdown period for the new SunChips bag is optimistic at best for the average home composter. I am sure a commercial composting operation would have much better results, hitting the fourteen week target relatively easily. But most of us don't have rigorously controlled conditions that are balanced by various means. Most of us have to deal with what we "produce" in our own kitchens and yards.

So let's say we are at week five. Bag number one is given a reprieve and gets a clock reset back from week thirteen to week five. So how do things look five weeks in? Pretty much the same. The bags are dirty and have lost integrity, but as you can see, there's still enough integrity that they can stand on their own and support a bent corner, etc. I have hope, though. It's getting very hot here in Arizona and there's plenty of steam coming off the compost when I open it up after a spin or two.

What about the bag I staked on the ground to mimic roadside litter? Lots of heat and Arizona sun has had very little effect on the bag. I don't even think it has faded at all. We'll see how it stands up to the monsoons when they arrive at the end of the month!

And that interloper, the compostable Quiznos cup? It's definitely showing some wear and discoloration. I think that whatever they spray on the cups to allow them to hold liquid has already broken down or is well on the way because the cup is discolored and appears to be taking on a brown tint. It almost looks like it was held to a flame. Considering how hot it must get inside that composter it might actually be literally scorched. It's not unusual for compost piles to reach internal temperatures that result in flames. This generally won't happen if the pile is kept turned, etc., and it's very unlikely in a tumbling composter that gets tumbled. But it's still going to get hot.

Forward we go! Someday we'll hit dirt!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 11

I was out of town last week. I took a trip to California to watch the first few stages of the Tour of California and then spend a few days in Napa Valley. So no update for Week 10, but as you can see, there's not much change.

The staked bag has changed very little, if at all. It has been lying on the ground in fairly hot, dry Arizona conditions. It has been in the 90s, no rain, etc. As you can see, even a compostable bag might last a very, very long time as "litter." The bag has been staked out for three weeks now.

A new edition to my compost experiments is a cup my daughter brought to me from Quiznos. Quiznos is trying to hop on the "Green" band wagon. I have to give them some credit for that, though I doubt very, very few will ever end up in a composting system. I know of at least one, however. We'll see how long it lasts. I do wonder what type of coating has been used to make the cup hold liquid better than plain paper would. It's probably not wax, since that would make composting problematic. I haven't done any research into this but it is probably sprayed with a plant-based coating of some sort.

We have two bags going in the bin. The original bag has been cooking for eleven weeks now. Like I said, the first several weeks were not under optimal conditions. The last few weeks have been under better composting conditions, but probably not commercial quality, very controlled conditions. I knew from the beginning that the estimated fourteen weeks would be unrealistic in my back yard. I think the second bag will break down more quickly because it was started in the tumbling composter as opposed to my "holding bin" composter. But we'll see.

I've attached a short video that compares the two bags by sound as well as feel. Not a lot of difference, but it is there.

For what it's worth, this is where we're at with what has become a new hobby of sorts--composting things that claim to be compostable. We'll see what happens when I come across some compostable plastic table ware. I'm not going to go out and buy some just to see what happens, but if I see some being used, I'll try to grab some.

Until next week, get that dirt cooking!

Friday, May 14, 2010

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 10 / Week 01

A lot going on, and very little, all at the same time! Like I said, I made the switch to the tumbler along with a fresh bag. I also staked out a new bag to just see what happens to it when it's simply exposed to the elements, such as being tossed out a car window and landing in the ditch.

Things in the ditch in Arizona don't necessarily break down the way they might in Michigan, for instance. Or Alabama. Conditions are dry and hot so unless something will readily degrade from heat or sunlight, it might sit around for years and years. Even banana peels have a way of lasting far longer than you might think. I don't know how many times I've been out riding my bike and noticed strips of what I call "banana leather" along the road from other cyclists who toss them to the side thinking they will quickly biodegrade. There aren't too many critters out there that will eat the bitter peel of a banana.

If you look at the picture above you will see the original bag on the left and the new bag on the right. Other than the one on the left looking dirtier, there doesn't appear to be much difference. The differences are subtle and you can't much see them in the picture, but if there was audio (I might do this sometime!) you'd hear a difference in the crinkle factor.

There probably won't be an update next week because of the Tour of California, but hopefully there will be a few ToC updates in its place!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

My First Batch of "Tumbled" Compost

It has been eleven weeks since I completed my home made compost tumbler. The other day I decided that since I was wearing a pair of rubber gloves I would reach into the tumbler and test the consistency of the compost. I had noticed that (almost overnight) the tumbler was spinning easily and felt much lighter than it had when I started. I have always read that compost should be the consistency of a wet sponge that has been lightly wrung, but I'd never actually groped my gross gruel to check--I just figured as long as it was steaming away, it was probably "cooking" pretty well.

What I found was that I had a tumbler full of nicely finished humus-like compost! Rich, black, and chock full of nutrients, I put a handful on my screen and rubbed it through. It was finally done!

I hadn't planned on it, but I ended up emptying the contents of the tumbler, screening the compost, and filling a storage tub with the black gold-standard of garden goodness. As with any home made compost, there were a few things in there that wouldn't screen through. I found a few small rocks (?!?!), which I tossed to the side. There were some mango pits, which I put back into the bin, figuring they would eventually break down in subsequent rounds. The same for some avocado pits and not-quite-broken-down squash stems and things like that. There were some avocado skins that still looked like avocado skins, but they crumbled pretty easily and most went through my screen accordingly. Anything that didn't screen that I determined to be "eventually compostable" went back into the bin for the next cycle.

I found some interesting things besides the rocks though! The picture above isn't everything, but it's a representative sample. What are those things? I asked myself the same question while I was sifting the compost, but I finally figured it out. Those plastic sleeves? Well, I am 99.99% positive they are the linings of oatmeal and tea bag packets! Those instant oatmeal packets and the paper wrappers around tea bags are apparently lined with some pretty durable stuff. Hopefully it doesn't leach into our food too much! I also found several small strips of clear plastic (you can see one in the picture). I knew almost immediately what those were--the remains of a shredded debit card! I knew a few pieces of it went into the bin at some point when I was adding shredded paper. The interesting thing is that all I found were the little strips of clear plastic, which means the rest of the card--the colored plastic, etc., is apparently made of some kind of biodegradable plastic. Cool! What's that other chunk, though? It is one of two synthetic corks that I found in the mix, somewhat broken down, but generally recognizable.

In the end the compost is nice. It should drain pretty well because there some pistachio shells mixed throughout that didn't break down much at all. I suspect there are still some more or less viable squash seeds in there that might sprout, but those are easy to spot and eliminate should it come to that.

I am quite pleased with the results and am looking forward to having a second tumbler in the future. My friend Ryan, who supplied the first barrel, is keeping an eye out for a second barrel for me.That way my compost will work on a nice schedule of filling and tumbling one barrel till it's "full," then letting it just tumble and cure and finish while the second barrel moves into filling and tumbling mode (after yielding excellent compost, of course).

I am still amazed that the kitchen sCRAPs and miscellaneous things like toilet paper tubes and shredded paper bags from sandwich shops and weeds from the yard can turn into something like this. I know there are some cities out there that have implemented curbside composting (some of them mandatory!) and can only imagine how great it would be if every community did this. So much usable waste goes into the landfill where, at best, it will, hopefully, yield some usable methane that could more immediately be used to propagate growth and nourish food crops and maybe, just maybe, eliminate some of the unnecessary and harmful use of artificial nitrogen-based fertilizers.

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 08 and 09

Well, there was no significant progress during week eight so I didn't bother posting. Week nine, to be honest, is much different. There are some developments to report, however.

First of all, I received a bag of free SunChips in the mail! SunChips followed through with their promise to send me some free chips for my posts. I expected a coupon for a free bag, but instead I received a large box with a bag of chips inside it. Now, seriously, if the goal is to be environmentally friendly, why would you send a box in the mail when a small envelope with a coupon in it would work just as well? I shouldn't dog them too much because, hey, they sent me free chips. I just don't think it was the best way to do it. They did use some shredded paper as packing material, but it looked like the brightly colored shredded stuff that is bought specifically for that purpose, not shredded newspapers or scrap. At least it wasn't polystyrene packing peanuts.

I have finally moved the bag to the tumbler. I have also put in two "fresh" empty bags in at the same time. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for bags in an a more ideal composting environment to break down. We'll see how we do compared to the official fourteen week estimate. As I write this I had another idea, too. I think I'm going to take one of those two new bags and pin it down to the ground next to the composter and just leave it out in the open. This will give us an idea of how long the new compostable bag takes to breakdown when some idiot decides to toss it out the car window and it ends up on the side of the road somewhere. I'll track that, too, I think!

I guess if I have moved the bag to the tumbler that means my first batch of compost must be finished, right? Right! I'll talk more about that in a separate post. It did a great job, though, I'll tell you that!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 07

Well, we're at the estimated half way point and it doesn't seem like a whole lot of progress has been made. Now, again, I remind you--this first bag is not being composted under ideal conditions and will very likely take twice as long as predicted. We'll see. As soon as the batch of compost in the tumbler is ready then I will start a fresh bag in the tumbler (along with this one, if it's still being broken down) and get a more favorable reading on the estimate given by Frito-Lay.

In the meantime, if you're not composting START NOW!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Growing Hops

Everyone the world round knows that the one thing you need to brew a good batch of beer is a good batch of hops. Especially of you like the good hoppy beers, like an Indian Pale Ale. My son-in-law has been brewing beer for a little while now and has been brewing some top notch American Ale and a few other varieties (including a stout I liked). He has quickly moved from bottling his beer to kegging it and trying a variety of brewing methods. The next logical step is to grow his own hops! (We're probably out of luck when he decides he'd like to start farming barley here in Tucson, but you never know.)

Hops is a rhizomatic plant, not unlike mint or strawberry in that sense--if you have ever grown either of those plants you'll know they can spread like crazy if you don't set some boundaries. For that reason it's pretty easy to propagate--you just cut off pieces of the rhizome and root it. Pretty soon you'll have a hop plant. I'm not saying hops doesn't require certain conditions--it does. It likes heat. It likes water. It likes sun. It likes well-drained soil. Water and well-drained soil aren't typical qualities of Tucson dirt. But you can mimic almost anything in a pot.

Freddie ordered up six rhizomes, two each of three varieties (I think--I could be wrong on the quantities & varieties!). Cascade, probably one of the most popular hops varieties used in brewing, was of course in the mix. He also ordered Willamette and Magnum varieties. There may have been another variety, but I'm not sure. Rather than try to grow them all himself, he divied them up--two at my house, two at his aunt's house, two at his house, etc. I received two rhizomes, Cascade and Willamette. I potted them in twelve inch pots with a well-draining soil mix on top of a base of volcanic rock for ensured drainage. Normally a hop plant can root up to fifteen feet, so I hope it doesn't get root bound in the pot. If it looks like that might happen, we can always get a larger pot, but it will simply be wider, not necessarily deeper. We could try to plant it in the ground, but it's much easier to control moisture within the confines of a pot.

It has been three weeks and I now have plants. The Willamette came up first and it is about three or four inches tall. The Cascade was a week or so behind the Willamette and it is only about an inch above the surface. Hops is a natural climber so we have decided to drop twine from the roofline and let the plants climb up that (after some initial training, of course). We haven't dropped the twine yet, but I'm thinking we'd better do it before it gets too hot out--I'm in no hurry to go shimmying around a tile roof when it's a hundred degrees out.

I'll be giving hops updates as it seems appropriate. We probably won't be harvesting any this year, though. If I understand it correctly, generally the first year is more about establishing the plant than it is about harvesting. We might get a few buds to work with. It would be cool if Freddie was able to harvest enough this year for at least one batch of beer. Maybe he'll be able to use his own home grown hops in his Belgium style wheat beer infused with his own home grown lavendar!

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 06

It's week six and the bag is still whole and even a little crinkly. I added a bunch of weeds from the yard this week so there's a lot more moisture and with the temperatures rising I suspect things are going to happen a little more quickly in the coming weeks. My tumbler is still not "finished," so I am thinking that I might add a new bag to the tumbler when it comes time to add a new batch to it. This bag might still be in the works when that happens, but it'll be interesting to see if the progress is any faster when it's in a proper composting environment from day one rather than starting it's compost life in a staging bin that isn't necessarily ideal composting conditions.

One thing is for sure, the tumbler is doing a nice job or converting the stuff that's in there. I think it'll be my first batch of real "quality" compost. That is, the best break down of larger pieces, even "burning," and general break down into soil-like compost.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Organic Bug Earth Day 40th Anniversary Celebration Giveaway

The folks at Organic Bug are celebrating Earth Day in style this year by sponsoring a nine day giveaway extravaganza--by doing a few simple things you can be entered to win forty fabulous earth-friendly prizes. The contest starts today so get on over to their website and enter the contest. Enter daily to win. There are also a few one time things you can do for added entries (such as blogging about the contest!).

Organic Bug is a good company specializing in organic (duh) and earth-friendly products. They have everything from delicious specialty food items to bedding, cosmetics, toys, even gardening products.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 05

Here we are about a third of the way into the estimated composting cycle of the SunChips compostable bag. As I've said in previous posts, the change has not been dramatic but I suppose it is greater than what you're seeing in the photographs. From the photos you'd probably think the only change is dirt. The bag has definitely lost some integrity in a way that's more tactile than visual. Still, it's a pretty good bag that could probably hold some stuff if you felt a need to transport goods in a dirty chip bag that's been in a fly infested compost bin for five weeks. Personally, I'd look for a better conveyance. And I definitely wouldn't carry anything edible...

You might notice that last week I received a comment from SunChips. I thought that was pretty cool. They didn't offer to send me any free chips so that I'd have more compostable bags for my bin, but, hey, what are ya gonna do? I'm sure they have a few interns who spend the day searching the internet for comments made on blogs and chat rooms--probably trying to head off any bad press if any might be found. Still, a couple of free bags would have been nice.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Spinners!

I've had a problem with doves bouncing off the back door for a long time now. Even though there is a covered patio, the sliding glass door acts like a mirror so the birds see another hopseed full of feeders. Of course, when they fly into it they find a surprise. I have had doves banging into that door at least four or five times a day forever. Only once has the result been tragic. That was a few weeks ago. A dove hit the door with impressive audible force and when I went to look, it was just sitting there on the patio looking dazed. I stepped out and picked it up and could hear the rattle in its chest. About that time it started coughing up blood all over my hand. I decided the trade a lengthy bit of suffering for a quick twist. I didn't really consult the dove on that decision, but I hope it was the right one. Since that day I've thought about how to solve the problem.

Non-glare films? Silhouettes of predator birds? No. These are all unsightly solutions. It just so happens that the perfect solution came along accidently and it only cost $2 plus tax!

Joan and I stepped into The Dollar Store to see if there were any appropriate Easter junk for the kids. There were these little cloth spinners with cute animals on them--they might not be Easter decorations but I was pretty sure the kids would like them. And, hey, they were only a buck. I bought a tortoise and a frog and hung them up from nails that were in the patio from previous unremembered hangings.

Well, wouldn't you know it? They hang in front of the door between the real hopseed and the reflective glass. Since I hung them up there hasn't been a single dove hitting the door--at least not that I have heard or seen.

It's a great solution and I suspect it works better than those cheesy silhouette things anyway. If you have a similar problem you might want to consider a similar solution.

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 04

Yesterday was very warm: 86°. Today it is currently 74°, but it's supposed to be about 84°. However, it's very windy today. We are supposed to have wind gusts of up to forty miles per hour. It''s important to make sure your plants are getting a little extra water when it's windy because the wind can really dehydrate a plant.

As for my SunChips bag, apparently week four is the week you begin to wonder if anything is going to happen at all. There's no discernible difference in the bag from week to week other than the bag gets dirtier. Ah well. Hopefully in a few weeks there will be some real change going on.

One interesting note is that some of the worms from the barrel next to this one have traveled into this bin by one route or another. That's good because worms really help break things down more quickly.

The bad thing? I was bitten by a horsefly while I was out there! Seriously! I hate those things.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Some Photos from Sedona, AZ

We had a great weekend in Sedona. We did a lot of hiking and vegging and it was a great way to recharge. The weather was fantastic for hiking--cool, not cold, and not too hot, ever. It got pretty chilly at night though. One night we went to dinner and when we came out of the restaurant afterward it was probably down to almost thirty-nine degrees. We shivered our way back to the hotel!

Click on the picture below and you'll be redirected to a full album of photos from the trip!

Sedona, AZ March 2010

Sunday, March 28, 2010

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 03

This is a little late going up, but it has been three weeks since I started tracking the SunChips bag in my compost bin. Though it is perhaps a little less crinkly and no longer as loud, the bag is still in pretty good shape after three weeks. It is, however, decidedly dirtier.

One thing I can tell you--have no fear of this bag disintegrating on top of your refrigerator and leaving your SunChips homeless and alone. The bag is clearly of hardier stuff than that. It has a lot of integrity.

With luck my tumbler will have completed processing the current round of compost in the next few weeks and I can move everything from the holding bin into the tumbler. I think progress will be more obvious in a more true composting environment.