High Summer in the PNW

The PV array on the roof produced 620 KWH of energy in June. That's more than 20 KWH per day! The next several days are forecast to yield completely sunny weather. Today I read the meter and did my monthly Green Tags attestation ritual. The regional energy monopoly, PSE will be calculating net-metering payments in July. This is the sunny season.

Two weeks ago, I climbed on my good extension ladder and using a L O N G pole and synthetic sheep's wool window washer-thing and a hose w/ a nozzle attached, cleaned dust and bird droppings from the PV array. The panels are visibly cleaner and since our big construction projects are done (for now at least) less dust will be flying around. Clean panels make for better power generation.

I received the soil analysis back from Twiss Labs. As I suspected, the soil in our main garden area is woefully deficient in Nitrogen. At a pH of 6.6 it's also a bit alkaline for some of the vegetables we've planted. Today I broadcast about 2 pounds of ammonium sulfate on our 320 sq ft garden. As instructed on the package, I then watered the fertilizer into the soil. As I type this Angel is giving the plants another drink.

Hopefully this will do the trick. We've had some spinach and some other greens but everything seems to be growing slowly.

The soil analysis indicated that we have plenty of organic material (that's good news, considering all the back-breaking work I did last summer). Phosphorous, potassium, and trace minerals are good too. Next year I'll emphasize organic supplements, but for now I decided to kick start the particular element that was lacking.

Since elemental sulphur is indicated as a way to lower the pH of the soil, I'm also hoping the application of ammonium sulfate may make the soil slightly more acidic as well. We'll see, won't we.

Our summer visitor dance card is filling up, which is exciting and fun. We have someone staying with us now (an old friend of Angel's) and have a near constant stream of friends and relatives staying in our guest quarters in the carriage house through mid September. Given all the changes in the past year, Angel and I are grateful for friends who have been able to make the trek up here to the 48th parallel.

The air is still, and the sky is blue and bright. It is just shy of 8:00PM.

Press On.

class warfare

Recently read a Bill Moyers interview w/ Robert Reich. Title: "Who Runs Government". There was lots of good (if painful) stuff there, and I encourage you to seek it out and read the whole article.

Being somewhat of a "data guy" I was struck by a couple of numbers. The Amigo paraphrases here, but carefully:

1. As late as 1980, the top 1% of salary earners accounted for something on the order of 9% of the national income.
2. By 2007, the top 1% accounted for 20% of the national income.

Now Mr. Reich was worried about coming across like a "class warrior". I don't get that part. It seems to the Friendly Venerable One that a) class warfare is deeply entrenched in our society, our economy. It's been around for a couple of centuries. b) the middle class managed to push things in a sane direction for a few decades as the world clawed its way out of the Great Depression. c) since then, the oligarchs have chipped away at what the rest of us have to live on.

The questions I'd like you to ask yourselves are:

1. How long will we stay on this path?
2. How much is "enough". The top 1% is now sucking up 20% of all income. Is 30% enough? 50% 75%? The Old Amigo can't answer that one. Probably each of you has his/her own answer.
3. What can you do about it? (Hint: you know the answer already).

Press on, brothers and sisters. Press on.

The Oil Swine

This just off the electronic presses:

The industry spent $44.5 million lobbying Congress and federal agencies in the first three months of this year, on pace to shatter last year's record. Only the drug industry spent more.

Last year's total of $129 million was up 73 percent from two years earlier. That's a faster clip than any other major industry, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

From the late 1990s through the first half of this decade, the oil industry spent roughly $50 million to $60 million a year on lobbying. It ramped up lobbying in 2006, when Democrats retook Congress, and further as President Barack Obama took office.

Does leave any doubt in your mind about:

1. Big Oil intending to stall or kill outright any efforts to move our economy to a more sustainable model?
2. Big Oil clearly putting the profits of a few incredibly rich criminals (DICK Cheney comes to mind, but he's far from alone) about the well-being of our entire society?
3. This having nothing to do w/ "free enterprise"? Big Oil has been nursing at the taxpayers' collective breast for a century. They've been engaged in criminal market manipulation to undercut competition for a similar period.

Reduce your oil footprint. Only you can do it. The most well-intentioned members of Congress are hopelessly outgunned in this. Any of them who try will be targeted for de-election, and if you think that Democrats are ineffective (they are), just keep in mind that the Republicans don't even want to change this. They are Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Insurance.

If we don't take responsibility for reducing our fossil fuel use, nothing anyone else tries to do will matter.

On the other hand, if we do cut our use, we can geld these swine.

A Moment of Silence

...is in order.

Late this afternoon, I learned on NPR that Bob Bogle, the founding lead guitar player from The Ventures, passed away last Sunday. Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Age 75.

As Robert Siegel stated, pretty much every guitar player in my age group was aware of, was influenced by The Ventures. They covered everybody's surf guitar tunes better than the originals. At one point I think I had accumulated something like 15 Ventures albums.

When NPR played part of The Venture's 1960 cover of "Walk, Don't Run" I swear that I could smell a roomful of hot Fender tube amps. Remember that smell? That time?

6L6 power tubes aglow, those amps line the sidewalk that leads to Paradise.

Resting, Writing

Nearly all our windows are sparkly clean now.

The PV panels have been washed (carefully).

Most of the north rain gutters have been cleaned of debris.

The past couple of days I have spent a lot of time climbing up and down a 20' ladder. After a while I got over my initial nervousness, but I continue to hold the Force of Gravity in great respect. My shins are all banged up from carting ladders around the property. Hands, knees, lower back... the usual suspects.

There are just a couple more windows that need attention.

The rain gutters on the south side collect much less debris than those on the north side; although I may clean them a bit... will clean them when/if we are able to add a rain catchment system. There is a short section of north side gutters that are difficult to access because of terrain. At some point, I'll need to get up there. This section is right above where I plan to put the biggest water storage tank, so maybe I'll be able to scamper up to the top of the tank and clean the gutters from there.

Yesterday, after reaching a good stopping point on the window, gutter, PV array cleaning frenzy, I got on the cross-trainer for 30 minutes. I feel that although I'm getting plenty of strength exercise, I need to maintain a cardiovascular program as well. This is challenging. So many "shoulds" leave insufficient time for "want tos".

Then, naturally, I taught a yoga class at the gym last evening. Fortunately for the Old Amigo, it was a gentle yoga class.

So today, I've done several blog postings (see my Modern Technical Manager and my Energy Efficiency blogs if you're interested). Next, I'll collect what remains of my wits and work a bit on my novel. I know how it should come out in the end, but there's a long ways between where I am and where it winds up... Said another way, I'm trying to limit my physical activity today to an afternoon weight training and cardio session. Some rest.

I think that 10 or 15 minutes of guitar playing are in order as a transitional activity.

Finding a Foothold

Poppies are so delicate, yet so tenacious. Yesterday, I noticed these little guys poking up through heavy gravel near the street. They receive only natural rainfall. They receive only the nutrients found in the local soil. Yet they grow and blossom. Perhaps we'll figure out a way to nourish them and allow them to extend their territory a bit more.

The space along the west side of the driveway would benefit from the color.

We are trying to encourage flower growth in our surroundings in the hope that this will help support bee populations.

Angel and I have even discussed teaming up with a bee keeper to see if s/he might want to put some hives out on the northeast side of our property. It is sheltered there and likely a good place for bees. We would give the beekeeper access to the property in return for a small share of the honey. I do not know if this would be of interest, and I probably would not take this step until such a time that it became feasible to fence the entire property.

Another time / another post.

Big Step

Yesterday, after lots of effort, lifting, sifting, and digging, we wrapped up the retaining wall project. The long side of this wall is nearly 40' from the stairs in the background to the leading edge near the camera.

We've filled behind the wall with over 60 wheelbarrow loads of "Roger's Magic Dirt" mixed with a modest amount of what passes for topsoil on our property. As I wrote in an earlier post, Angel & I sifted all the dirt behind the wall and let the rocks fall against the bottom part of the wall to improve drainage. The remaining soil is sandy and powdery with tiny pebbles. Mixed in with the Magic Dirt, we're hoping/expecting that the local soil will provide trace minerals.

You can see several plants that Angel put in place after I finished the small section of wall that moves off to the right. Once these grow and fill in, this ought to look pretty good. This part of the yard is very visible from the street and it is intended to provide a welcoming transition between indoors and outdoors.

Eventually, we're planning to put a poured retaining wall basically at right angles to the long edge of this one. When that happens, I'll remove the small bit and curve the long wall around to meet the poured wall. The poured wall will give us enough space along the south edge of our property to allow a small truck to drive to the east section. Having truck access opens up huge possibilities, including a greatly expanded vegetable garden and rain catchment.

There is one problem with this plan, namely the fencing. Much of the property around here is developed but not fenced. Oh, some of the properties have fences – some nicely done; others more funky, but the town has lots of unfenced properties. Several of our neighbors walk across our property to reach a nature trail at the eastern boundary of our lot, and we do not want to fence them out at all.

The deer, raccoons, coyotes, and so on are quite another matter. Deer decimate the gardens. Raccoons and coyotes do the same to chickens, rabbits, and house cats. If we go to the trouble of building a high intensity, small-scale urban ag system, we're going to need to keep the local critters from wiping it out. We'll revisit this as the story unfolds and we learn more.

After all the recent lifting and shoveling, it would be good today if I were to give my body some rest. The Amigo's knees and lower back feel a bit abused. On the other hand, there is so much to do... and it is so very satisfying to see the results of one's efforts.

Maybe one more cup of tea...

Retaining Wall, Dirt, and a Worm Update

Today I finished breaking up the fill dirt behind the new retaining wall. I am getting pretty good with a mattocks. The wall is nearly 40 feet long and I've already broken up and amended and back-filled about half that. Because of the way the ground slopes behind the wall, I'll need significantly more soil for the second half. Before I fill it, however, I still need to pass all the broken up dirt through a screen to filter out larger rocks. I let these rocks rest against the backside of the retaining wall to improve drainage. This is nice because I think it'll make the overall structure better and because it keeps me from having to haul rocks around the property. Been there; done that.

Dirt / Soil Analysis

Also today, I sent three cups of soil taken from "root level" in five different locations in the main vegetable garden to Twiss Analytical Laboratories down in Poulsbo. They'll do a comprehensive analysis of the soil and report back on a recommended amendment program. It is clear at this point that the garden isn't doing so hot.

Although I'd of course prefer to see thriving vegetables right now, I am not at all discouraged. We started, after all, with very poor fill dirt in the main garden. We're talking essentially zero organic material: mostly sand, gravel, big rocks, and some hard clay-like stuff. It was compacted and very difficult to work. Now I've gotten it all broken up and have a lot of organic material added in. A few years of organic gardening with lots of real compost and it'll be excellent soil, but it will be good to get a real analysis done so that we have a good understanding of our starting point.

This makes me wish we had some chickens & rabbits. Their droppings, added to the compost mix, are a good thing. Maybe some day.

(Marginally) Funny Story:

As per the instructions from the lady at Twiss Labs, I loaded my three cups of dirt in a zip-lock bag, put my payment and typed instructions (and contact information) in an envelope, and packed the whole thing into a small box. Then I took the box to the local post office to mail it.

The lady behind the counter asked me if there were anything "breakable, perishable, or hazardous" in my package. I said, "No." She asked if I wanted to insure it against loss or breakage. I said, "No, thanks." She weighed the package and printed out the postage sticker. As she was applying the sticker, she noticed the "To:" line on the label:

Twiss Analytical Labs

She suddenly got tense. You could just see the wheels turning in her head. Labs... Labs. Science. Danger!

"Uh, this is going to a Lab. What's in it?" she asked, obviously worried.

"It's dirt. From my garden. I'm having a soil analysis done because the plants aren't growing so well."

She practically sighed with relief.

I followed up with, "That's why I didn't think I needed to insure it against loss or damage."

Tension bubble pops! She laughs. Smiles. Happy moment at the Post Office Window. Shucks, I smile a bit as I type this.

On to the worms...

Ned, one of my regular yoga students, has had some success with vermiculture. Since my worms seem to be ignoring the food I put in the bin, I asked him how he feeds his worms. Ned says that he digs a hole in the material in his worm bin, adds some shredded newspaper, dumps his kitchen waste on top, and then covers it up with soil from the bin. It sounds as if his bin is similar in size to mine. Tonight I tried this "algorithm" in our worm bin. Let's see if the little guys figure out what they're supposed to be doing.

Feeling Our Way Along

I'm just about ready to dump the whole contents of the worm bin into the garden.  The worms are surviving, but they seem more than content with tunneling through their bedding.  All the kitchen scraps I leave (and I've tried all sorts of them) go moldy before they attract any worm-ish attention.

Clearly I'm not doing the worm thing right.  Still a garden can always use a few hundred more worms, so it'll probably be a good thing to put those guys out there.

Speaking of the garden, we're getting some produce.  Last night we had a very tasty salad from the thinning of one of the south rows.  Overall, however, I think that the garden lacks some key nutrients.  Our plants are not developing as quickly as one would hope and expect given the good conditions of sun and water.  This is not too surprising -- and not at all discouraging -- for one's first attempt at creating a thriving garden from notoriously bad soil.

There is a WSU extension nearby and I'm going to call them and see if they can recommend a soil testing service.  There are probably some good things we can do this fall to insure that next year's harvest is greater.

Angel and I have been very busy on the ornamental landscape front.  We've added a retaining wall (nearly 40' long!) along the west side of the driveway.  Yesterday, I worked the soil of about half of it.  Angel did a major weed removal and added a few more plants.  This area will eventually feature blueberry and blackberry fines, but they are merely twigs so far... albeit twigs that have green growing from them!

We are also developing a plan for a large, secondary garden just to the east of the main garden area.  This will require more fencing, but it's another great spot with southern exposure.  And this spot can be fed by rainwater captured from our roof!

Last night I realized that I have years' of projects available to me.