SunChips Go Compostable, Week 02

So the new SunChips bag has been in the compost staging bin for a week. It has been covered by some compostables, but there's not a lot in that bin yet. I pulled the bag to the top of the heap for its weekly photo shoot and it doesn't look much the worse for wear having been in the can for a week. It's still pretty crinkly, that's for sure. One encouraging note, though--I think I'm getting a good "green/brown" mix in the staging bin because when I mixed it up there was definite steaminess going on in there. That's a sure sign that the forces are at work!

In case you're wondering, the green/brown mix is the ration of wet and dry ingredients in your compost. Green would be things like fruit and vegetables, grass clippings, coffee grounds, etc. Brown is the tougher, drier stuff--paper, cardboard, egg shells, dry leaves, twigs, that sort of thing. The ratio should be about 50/50 (by weight, not volume). My biggest challenge has been adding enough brown products to the mix. The green ingredients from my kitchen seem to pile up very quickly! My biggest "brown" contribution has actually turned out to be toilet paper tubes and egg cartons--I save the TP tubes up, slice them up the side and then run the flattened sheet through the paper shredder. The egg cartons (the fiberboard kind) I just tear into small pieces and add to the daily collection.

Now that the warm weather has arrived, I think, for good, the weeds are going to go crazy and I'm going to have no shortage of green mix. I better start stocking up on those toilet paper tubes.

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 01

The new SunChips bag is out. Early. It was supposed to make its debut on Earth Day, but it's in stores now and it's making itself heard--this bag is loud! I'm guessing the bag is predominantly cellulose, much like the window on an envelope. It's very crinkly sounding.

According to the bag and the online presentation at the SunChips site, it should take fourteen weeks to compost the bag in your backyard. That's a pretty long time, but it's much, much less than it would take for a regular chip bag to decompose in an anaerobic landfill! I thought I would take up the challenge and document my own bag as it goes through the composter.

My tumbling composter is currently full, i.e., I'm not adding any more until it's done "cooking." So, for now, the bag has gone into what is now my staging bin. I have, basically, a twenty gallon garbage can that has been modified for (wholly inefficient) composting. Until the tumbler is finished, or until I build a second tumbler, the old can is gathering my compost materials. That's where the bag has gone. Because of this, my guess is it will take more than fourteen weeks in my yard because the first several weeks are not going to be the most efficient. There's not much I can do about that at the moment.

So, here are a couple of quick pics of the bag and the bag as it sits in the staging barrel. Check back for weekly updates on the progress of my backyard composting of the world's first fully backyard compostable chip bag.

ADA Tour de Cure

Sunday was the Tucson Tour de Cure in support of the American Diabetes Association. The Tour de Cure was 100K bike ride, also called a "metric century." A hundred kilometers sounds better than sixty-two miles. I signed up for it about a week ago and was totally unprepared, but I would have felt very guilty had I not signed up. You see, one of my old students, John Armbruster, posted on Facebook that he was going to sign up for the shorter one. I told him he should do the full ride because it really wasn't any harder than the 50K. I told him I might ride with him. That was my mistake. As soon as I sent that part of the message I knew I was committed. Or should have been.

To be honest I had not been on the bike for more than a few little jaunts around the neighborhood with the kids since El Tour. Still, I tend to think I can ride sixty-five miles without too much thought. I'm not a "racer" or anything. I take it easy. I wasn't fast when I was a kid, there's no point in pretending now. Since John had never ridden that far before in his life I figured I didn't have too much to worry about.

And then came the weather.

A few days before the ride they began predicting a freak winter storm that would rush in and out but pretty much dump buckets of rain and cold all over the course during the exact hours of the ride. I was not looking forward to riding in the cold and the rain. Sure, I've done it before, sometimes on purpose, but it can be pretty uncomfortable when you're not in the best shape to start with. Joan told me to just blow it off and not go but I couldn't see how that was an option.

The morning of the ride I got up at 4:00 a.m. after about four hours of very restless and fitful sleep. I was a wreck, but I was on my way. I thought I was being blessed--the skies were clear and it didn't seem all that cold. I left the house at 5:25 and I made good time and arrived in Sahuarita at 6:15 in the inbetween light of early dawn. The organizers were still setting up so I sat in the car and tried not to think about feeling nauseous and too tired. When that didn't work I got out and took my bike from the rack and made sure everything was ready to go. I wandered off to the event tents and grabbed a cup of coffee in hopes the caffeine would set me right. Not being a coffee drinker, I should have known better. I visited the portable bathrooms three times while waiting for John to show up.

John arrived about fifteen minutes before the start and I found him at the start line along with a lot fewer people than I had expected. This was by far the lowest attendance of any charity ride or walk or run I've ever participated in. I don't know if this event is generally this small or if people had been scared off by the weather forecast. I for one was ready to believe we had lucked out and were in for a day of decent weather. At least most of the way anyway.

It didn't take long to find out that this ride was going to be anything but easy with or without rain. An out and back ride, the ride out was almost entirely uphill with a serious climb waiting at the end.Top that with a steady, heavy wind with gusts in the thirty-five mph range and it was tough. Not having any sleep didn't help either. Ten miles in and I was feeling about what I would have expected to feel near the end of the ride, not right at the beginning. I tried a bite to eat at the first stop, a quarter of a PBJ and regretted it nearly immediately. It wanted to come up. Later in the morning the same would happen with half of a banana. Clearly my gut didn't want to be there.

There were parts of the ride where we were struggling to go five miles an hour. It was crazy. At one point John got ahead of me only to end up walking his bike up a hill. I made it to the top but was more than willing to stop and wait for him. I was spent. The next time this happened I figured I'd walk with him. He was three quarters of the way up the hill and I stopped beside him and dismounted. Whoa! Wobbly legs! I had rubber band legs and was really surprised. I knew I was tired, but I didn't realize I was that tired. It made me light headed, too. This wasn't good--we weren't even twenty miles into the ride and the halfway point was more than ten miles ahead.

Just before mile twenty-two we both agreed we didn't have the juice nor the mental reserves to fight the wind any longer. We turned back. I think it was the right decision. I've never done that before, give up and turn back before a ride is finished. Oh well. I honestly can't say I would have made it back if I had fought my way to the turnaround. Even though the wind was mostly with us on the way back to the start we still had to struggle on the few hills that we came to. Then, just when we though we were home free, we made the last turn and hit a wall of wind as strong as any we'd encountered on the way out. Top that with the heavy bank of clouds filling the horizon and we wondered if we could make it back before the rain hit after all.

In the end we made it back with forty miles under our belts and just a few misty patches of rain arriving behind us. As with any really tough ride, now that it was over we were both very glad we had done it and were already planning to sign up for the Tour of the Tucson Mountains at the end of April. Hopefully we'll be smart enough and dedicated enough to at least train for it--it's a seventy plus mile ride (and usually has its own share of wind, too!).

Javalina Tracks

Julian and I went down to the playground this morning and the sand around the equipment was just full of javalina tracks! I tried to explain a javalina to Julian--"They're like pigs!"--but I'm not sure if he was making the connection between the "paw print" (Thanks, Blue's Clues!) and the animal. I guess javalina like playgrounds, too. I can just imagine them running around there when no one is around, going down the slide, swinging on the swings, all that good stuff.

Mike Doughty Show, Club Congress, Tucson, AZ 2/26/2010

If you recall, back in December I had the opportunity to interview Mike Doughty over the phone for WickedInfo. I felt like, and I know for a fact, having reviewed the taped evidence, I sounded like a dork. So it was with some hesitation that I went to the show--I wondered if I should mention that I was the guy who did that interview.

When we arrived I picked up a copy of his poetry collection, Slanky, from the merchandise table with the intent of having Mike sign it after the show. A few minutes later he was behind the merch table and I approached him with the book, miming for a signing. He was in pre-show rush mode so he asked if I could wait till the end when he'd come out and sign stuff, all the while making his way for the back stage area. I said sure and asked if he remembered doing a phone interview for WickedInfo and he did. Once again in dork mode, I said, "I'm the doofus who did the interview." He was very nice and said, "Oh, hey, great to meet you," and shook my hand and was once again on his way. He didn't call me an asshole, which is good. He didn't punch me, which is better. But there was no embrace and no exclamation that I had changed his life and boosted his career forever, either.

The show was great. He's on another Question Jar Tour which is just Mike and Andrew "Scrap" Livingston on cello and sometimes electric guitar. These two guys put out a pretty remarkable amount of sound. Scrap plays a lot of pizzicato finger-style lines and he's very melodic. I think Mike often employs a drop-D tuning which gives him a lot of bottom end. I was really pleased with the set list. He opened with "Ossining," which was unexpected. He sprinkled, as you would expect, quite a few cuts from the new album, Sad Man Happy Man, throughout the set. There were only two songs that I would have really liked to hear that he didn't play, but I hadn't really expected to hear them, either. These were "The Only Answer," one of my favorite Doughty tunes, and "Looks," a cover from some long-forgotton New York band from the 70s called The Student Teachers.

I suppose I should give some explanation of a question jar show. Prior to the show Andrew sets a gallon pickle jar on a table in front of the stage along with a stack of scrap paper and several pens. The idea is for the audience to fill the jar with questions that Andrew will read and Mike will answer throughout the show. This is usually done as a place holder while Mike tunes or re-tunes his guitar, etc. Sometimes it just seems like a good time for a question. Mike likes the weird off the wall questions more than the straightforward ones about his songs and the like. His answers sometimes indicate that--Yes, next question. No, next question. Seven, next question. He seemed to like one of my questions (If the universe is ever-expanding, what's it expanding into???) but his answer was ruined by self-proclaimed Math Girl when she started going on about how the universe isn't ever-expanding, blah, blah, blah. Damn you, Math Girl!

After the show I stood in line for what seemed a ridiculous length of time to purchase a few of the buttons they had put together for Haitian relief (a buck apiece with 100% of the money going to Haiti). Then I got in line for the signing. I opted for the usual "great set" line, got my book signed, we exchanged thank yous, and I wandered out to the lobby to find Joan (she had long abandoned me to escape the throng).

I've never felt comfortable approaching "celebrities" and talking to them. I mean, beyond "great show" what are you going to say? They're busy and have to have the same conversation a hundred times or more a night. And even though I've gotten a few of them over the years, I'm never really sure of the purpose of an autograph. I mean, I suppose it's a personal confirmation that, yea, I went to that show. For some I'm sure it's a hobby or even a business, but I don't get that, either. In the end it's just one more reason not to get rid of something somewhere down the line. "Well, I can't get rid of that copy, it's autographed." Not that we packrats need justification.

All in all the Doughty show was a great show. I highly recommend checking him out.

How To Brew Compost Tea (A Super Nutrient-Rich Liquid Plant Food)

First of all, compost tea is not for drinking! I can only imagine how foul it might taste. Of course, it might taste

pretty good. But however it tastes I suspect it would be full of pro- and not-so-pro-biotics!

Compost tea is a nutrient dense liquid plant food that is literally alive with beneficial bacteria and micro-nutrients that are harvested and propagated from your compost. I have read that the nutritional value to your soil is up to ten times greater than simply applying the compost directly (though, of course, there are plenty of reasons to do that as well). This liquid "fertilizer"--though I hesitate to use that term and all of its negative connotations--can be used indoors or out, should be generally odorless, can be sprayed or poured on the leaves, the soil, whatever, and really packs a punch for your plants. And it's easy and inexpensive to make!

There are some things you will need:

1 five gallon bucket (at least one)

1 sack of some sort for each bucket of tea you plan to brew. Almost anything will do as long as it's not waterproof and is fine enough to keep most of your compost out of the liquid. Some people skip this step, but then they have to filter the tea once it's brewed. I find that using a giant "tea bag" is much easier. I have used an old pillow case but a burlap sack or something of that nature will work fine. It should be big enough to hold a half to a whole gallon of compost.

1 simple aquarium pump. Usually the smallest ones are good for a ten gallon tank, but check the ratings to be sure. The one I bought was about six bucks.

1 aquarium airstone. Now, as you can see in the photos, I bought one long one--about twelve inches long. It seems ideal because it gets air throughout the bucket. Some people buy a gang valve and split it into three with a small airstone at the end of each tube resting on the bottom of the bucket. I'm sure that works great, but will cost slightly more than my one long stone.

You'll also need enough aquarium tubing to attach from the pump to the airstone allowing for full submersion of the airstone. I bought an eight foot section and it was plenty.

2 oz. unsulphured molasses

All told I put less than ten bucks into the "kit" and I am sure it wouldn't take long to spend a lot more than that on liquid plant food purchased at the store!

The first step is to put some of your excellent homemade compost into the bag. If you don't have any homemade compost, store bought organic compost is fine. (Make sure it's organic!)

Tie the bag off like a big tea bag and rest it on the bottom of the bucket.

Fill your bucket up with water from your rain barrel. If you don't have a rain barrel you can use water from the hose but you should let it sit in a separate bucket for at least several hours for the chlorine and whatnot to evaporate out. You'll want the bucket almost full, but not quite. Make sure your airstone is fully submerged.

Add your molasses to the water--this is booster food for your colony.

Dry your hands (don't want any shocking surprises!) and plug in your little pump. Your bucket of water should start bubbling away. The airstone is necessary because it is providing life-giving oxygen to your colony of beneficial bacteria.

Depending on the temperature, in twelve to twenty-four hours you will have a bucket of super-nutritious liquid plant food in the form of compost tea. As soon as you unplug the pump the bacteria start to die off. You'll want to apply your tea to your plants within four hours of that time. Also, the tea is light sensitive--it will break down quickly in the sun, so it is best to feed your plants with your compost tea either early in the morning or in the evening.

I think that pretty much covers the process. Get to it. Brew yourself a nice cup of Pu Erh and enjoy sharing your own cup of tea during your back yard garden tea party!

Ity's Rodeo Time!

It's rodeo week in Tucson so all the kids get a long weekend. Well, everyone wants to get in on the act so around here we're having Rodeo de los Vacqueros de las Tortugas. Ride 'em, cowboy!!!