Graywater Use in CA

Angel and I have been talking about rain catchment systems and graywater systems. Why, you may ask? Well, last year, even with our small garden, our water use went 'way up during the hot summer months. We'd like to expand our garden. I've already started planning a drip irrigation system.

That's all well-and-good, but what if we really wanted to go all out with urban agriculture? As always, the Internet provides a wealth of learning opportunities.

For example, it turns out that California has some very advanced graywater legislation on the books. That's because, going forward, chronic water shortages will be a reality. The population, the development, the trashing of aquifers, the infiltration of nitrates into wells... all add up to a sobering sum. The Venerable Friendly One is pleasantly surprised to learn that Politics As Usual could actually take a back seat to getting something done about a serious problem. I suppose the fact that the CA Legislature was able to get something done is testament to the severity of the problem.

One wonders (only a little, actually) if the folks in Sacramento would have been able to get graywater systems legalized in CA if water supplies had been privatized as many on the Wingnut Fringe demand. Actually, I have no doubt that action would have been suppressed had the profit motive been present. ButYouAlreadyKnewThatDidn'tYou?

Factoid: 20% of all the electricity used in CA is used to move water around (i.e. water pumps)! I think that's due to the CA aqueduct, but Holy Guacamole, that's a lot of electricity... So water use ties directly into energy use!

We have friends and family in San Luis Obispo and we wondered about the water situation there. Angel googled "San Luis Obispo graywater" and got some interesting hits. In particular, she found a very nice PDF that describes various graywater systems, how they work, how much maintenance they require, and their relative cost.

Wherever you live, the Old Amigo thinks it's good reading.

United Breaks Guitars

A (non-musician) friend forwarded this to me. Allegedly, a musician named Dave Carroll had his $3500 Taylor guitar damaged by UAL baggage handlers. Mr. Carroll tried for about a year to get United to replace his guitar, but they just blew him off. So he made a music video about the saga. At just over 4 1/2 minutes, it's a tad long, but it's still funny. Sort of.

Water in SoCal

The good news is that, despite the fact that population has increased by about a million people during the period, LA is using less water than it did 25 years ago. It is perhaps less good to read that recent water use reductions in SoCal have come almost exclusively from residential restrictions.

Business and agriculture have powerful lobbies, so they're protected. Ordinary citizens bear the brunt of the necessary changes. Of course I agree that having a green lawn in a desert is beyond stupid. Even so, I wish that others in addition to private citizens had to step up. One wonders what the next round of restrictions will be.

And the encouragement of installing "astroturf" -- perhaps even subsidizing it -- ICK! Drip irrigation of xeriscape would be more appealing to me. The Old Amigo must have missed the call when the Powers That Be sought his advice...

Near the Solstice

Monday evening will be the winter solstice. Often, yoga teachers get together to mark such events with a special practice. We do 108 "sun salutes" (aka "Surya Namascar"). A sun salute is a simple sequence of yoga poses. Did you ever do "burpees" in junior high school PE? That's about the closest analogue of which I'm aware.

In each sun salute you:

1. Start standing
2. Raise the arms overhead
3. Sweep the arms out to the sides as you fold forward to touch (the neighborhood of) the floor
4. Arch up so that you flatten the back like a table top (careful with your neck!)
5. Step the feet back
6. Drop into the low part of a push up
7. Put the tops of the feet on the floor. Push the upper body up so that you're doing a back bend. Tops of feet, palms of hands on floor. Spine vertical. Fronts of the legs just off the floor
8. Reverse (sorta). Lift your bottom so that your body forms an inverted "V". Arms and legs straight
9. Step the feet between the hands
10. Arch up (like item 4.)
11. Fold forward (like item 3.)
12. Sweep the arms out to the sides and then overhead as you stand up straight.

That's pretty much it. Now do 108 of those. I probably won't do that many on Monday evening. On a "normal" active yoga class, I might lead the class in a third that many.

A group of local yoga instructors is going to meet at a nearby studio, late Monday afternoon. Angel and I are planning to join them. The Old Amigo has to teach a "gentle yoga" class that evening, so it'll be quite a winter solstice.

Hope you're all well.

Cheers

Interesting Vid from U of Minn

The Old Amigo follows a small handful of other blogs. One featured a YouTube vid from the University of Minnesota's Institute of the Environment. It's worth a look. And a thought.

First Snow of the Season

The forecast last night was for 31 degrees Obsolete, so I shut off the water to the greenhouse and opened the faucet at the sink out there. This AM we woke to find a light dusting of snow over much of the property. It stayed in the thirties for most of the day.

For much of the day we ran a small fire in the wood stove in our main room. Because of the heat recovery ventilator and the tight building envelope, the house stayed comfortable all day long. Once I got the fire going, the furnace stopped running.

Tomorrow's forecast calls for a high of 33.

I've hired a friend who works part time at the gym to do some of the heavy landscape stuff that I've been putting off. He's a young guy who does most of his work for a landscape maintenance company here in town, a good guy who loves working outdoors. He's in great shape and in a few hours has wrapped up a couple of projects that I'd been putting off while I focused on the novel (and tried to get the tendon in my right arm to heal... but that's another story).

So there's big improvement at the homestead, landscape-wise.

The book's on it's fifth or sixth revision pass. The Amigo has lost count at this point. A couple of friends have offered to read it and a few comments have trickled in. I think that one or two more revisions will be called for, but I would like to collect the comments for a while and consolidate the next set of edits.

That's the news from the 48th parallel.