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.

Granola

Well, maybe it is a little bit pathetic, but this entry is about granola.

In one of Angel's vegetarian cookbooks, I came across excellent recipe for oven-toasted granola. Now each weekend I try to make enough for the subsequent week. Rolled oats, sliced almonds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, raisons, dried cranberries, honey, and sunflower oil get mixed together and toasted in the oven for about 50 minutes.

All the ingredients are fresh and organic and from the local food co-op.

A few minutes ago I finished this week's batch. It's cooling on the countertop. After it's cooled, it'll go into an airtight container in the pantry. I'll have some for breakfast tomorrow.

It Happens

Those little beasties are clever. For the past week, the Amigo has been battling a cold. I was still able to teach all three of my yoga classes, but I couldn't face intense cardio or weight training workouts on Thursday or Saturday. Like most viral infections, this one ebbs and flows. The venerable Friendly One feels good for a few hours, but then... I know that it's been eighteen months since I've had so much as a sniffle, but still, I resent the drained feeling, the headache, the throat.

Friends asked us if we'd like to attend a play this afternoon. I suggested that Angel go. The play is some distance away, and I didn't feel up to a long drive in the car, didn't want to risk "sharing" this bug with our friends.

In the afternoon I roused myself and did a little laundry. The world doesn't grind to a halt because the Old Amigo gets a cold. At 2 PM, carrying an armload of clean linens into our bedroom, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror above Angel's dresser. My eyes are at half-mast, are heavy and dull. I sigh, realizing that I've got days of discomfort ahead of me, and turn to the task of making our bed.

Fresh laundry folded and put away, I return to the living room to relax on the sofa. The day is sunny and warm; finally my toes are warm. Sunlight streams in and I remove a few layers of clothing. Now I'm down to a single sweatshirt.

That, and lots of good reading material, are more than sufficient consolation. Time for some tea.

Blueberries

Yeah, I know. Three blog posts in one day is a bit much. But Angel & I just returned from an outing, and it's worth writing about.

Today it is sunny and breezy here at the 48th parallel. 63 degrees Obsolete and sunny is actually very comfortable. Today is the annual gleaning day at the Finnriver blueberry farm in Chimacum. Here's the deal: you pick berries. Fresh, organic blueberries. You give half of your pickings to the local food bank. You keep the rest. Angel and I spent about 2 1/2 hours out in the mild sunshine. We returned with about nine pounds of berries.

We did this last year too. Maybe it'll become an annual event. The people who own the farm are friendly, young folks. Lots of solar and wind energy systems around. Some nice looking buildings. Looks as though they're doing pretty well.

Now we're back and getting ready to have a bit o' late lunch. What a lovely fall day!

Book Update

The first draft is in place. Current page count is 543. I'm working through my first pass of editing and correcting obvious typos and, when I can detect them, awkward sentence structures and out-and-out grammatical errors (Thank you, CL!).

As I work through the draft, I take notes of potential areas of inconsistency. I also note changes that might improve the overall story. These sometimes come to me in the middle of the night, and when they bubble up from my subconscious they drive sleep before them like a frightened bird.

In short, things are progressing. The story seems to hang together; although it is impossible for me to tell whether or not it is any good.

The New Garden

It's coming along. I can work for a couple of hours at a time without excessive strain to back and arms. I have a large (but getting smaller) pile of Roger's Magic Dirt and a somewhat smaller pile of what passes for local soil. The latter is the result of many hours of hard work during which the Old Amigo breaks apart the local glacial till using a mattocks, sifts the rocky stuff through a heavy screen (1/2" galvanized mesh) and then carts the rocks off to the rock piles that lie near the wood pile.

I mix the sifted soil at about a 7 or 8 to 1 proportion with Roger's Magic Dirt. The resulting mixture contains some small pebbles and dimly resembles the "sandy loam" that plants love so much. This is my third such project, and this one will make for a nicely terraced extension of usable earth in one of the warmest, most sheltered parts of the yard.

At this point, it's becoming apparent that we'll need another 7 cubic yards of Roger's Magic Dirt to complete the project. Before ordering that, however, I want to use up all that I've already purchased and (if at all possible) construct some kind of ramp that will allow the dump truck to drop the next load *right* where I want it. That will allow me to mix in place (by renting a rototiller for a day) rather than shoveling into a wheelbarrow and carting the soil to its eventual spot.

Once I have the soil components piled near their eventual location, I'll be able to complete the retaining wall. That will produce said terraced extension.

It will also leave behind a final, flat sunny area in which the Venerable Friendly One thinks that raised beds would be ideal. That project will probably have to wait next summer. It will certainly require extensive fencing. Bambi and his buddies have showed up recently with industrial strength harvesting equipment.

One of my friendly neighbors claims that several members of the local deer population have degrees in mining engineering and are able to tunnel beneath fences that are too tall for them to leap. This hypothesis remains to be verified, but I do note that the section of our garden that is currently fenced has yet to be pillaged. This seems to be grounds for optimism.

A Ferry Ride

Last weekend was the annual Wooden Boat Festival. Angel and I rode the ferry over to Whidbey Island and back just so that we could take photos of some of the sites from an offshore perspective. The day was warm and bright, and there were many wooden boats in the harbor.

The shot to the right looks back towards Union Wharf. In the background near the right side of the photo you can see a yellow building. That is the new headquarters of the Wooden Boat Foundation. It occupies a site that formerly held some decaying remnants of something resembling a fuel depot.

This photograph looks back towards the Point Hudson Marina. You can get a better glimpse of the Wooden Boat Foundation headquarters. That's a big building. When it's open, visitors will be able to stand in upper galleries and look down on a shop floor where shipwrights are learning their trade.

Here is a beautiful boat under full sail.

At about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, the boats anchored in the harbor raise their sails and tack back and forth in front of the town. Quite a sight on such a glorious, September day. The trip over

to Whidbey and back took about an hour. Compared to some of the leviathans that ply the waters of Puget Sound nearer to Seattle, the Whidbey Island ferry is little. When the water gets rough, they have to cancel service.

Today, however, the crossing was smooth. On the way back a young folksinger/busker played his guitar and sang as he sat facing the sun. The kid had a good, strong voice. I admired his confidence and enthusiasm.

Later, we rode the bus back to the park-and-ride and picked up our car. This was the first time, the Old Amigo has actually gotten a senior citizen discount - an all day city transit pass for a dollar. What a bargain!

Some Updates

The Old Amigo realizes that he has been remiss in his blog postings lately. The reasons are manifold:

• We've had lots of family and friends visiting us this season. Angel and I are grateful for the company and the reassurance that people want to see us.
• I continue to look for work. Many, many hours of my life are poured into this channel each week. From what I can tell, the channel leads to an abyss.
• The yard. The yard. The yard. Heavy, satisfying work. A new retaining wall is underway. More soil trucked in.
• I've been working on my novel. It's immensely satisfying, and against my better judgment, I hope something comes of it. I have passed page 430 in my first draft. The effort has transmogrified into "what should I not write about?"

The list goes on and on of course.

Today, I dug a new bed in our main garden area so that Angel could plant two blueberry bushes that had been in pots for some months. The new bed is about 5' x 2' x 1.5' (L x W x D). I carted much of the soil down the steps in a wheelbarrow to dump near where we are building the new expansion area of the garden. I did sift some of the soil to combine with compost that I carted back up the steps in said wheelbarrow. Then Angel added some special "Dr. Organic" amendment for acid-loving plants and planted the two blueberry bushes. They look great and I fancy that they are already happier.

A single raspberry bush continues to languish in a pot, awaiting its turn. The work is heavy and must wait until I feel ready. Perhaps tomorrow.

Most days I weed a little. It is easy to fill one or two big barrels with weeds between yard waste pickups.

Also today, I "did the compost." This entails turning all the existing mixture from one bin to the other while adding food scraps saved up during the week. Our friends, D. & S. live nearby and they drop food scraps off at the house too. Angel also goes down to the Starbucks at the Safeway once each week and gets a bucket of coffee grounds to go into the mix. While I don't much like cleaning out used containers, the turning of the compost is generally fairly pleasant. Since I turn the mix each week, the reaction stays mostly aerobic and hence not very stinky.

This week I observed that the magic is beginning to happen. For a while, it seems that little is going on in the bins. Eventually, however, the microbes reach critical mass and things begin to cook. The mixture begins to look less like table scraps mixed with straw and more like, well, compost. If you've never done it, it's probably a bit hard to explain, but trust me on this: It is magical.

Perhaps I'll write a bit more on the creative process soon. For now, I note merely that it is an interesting phenomenon to experience. For me, writing a novel seems mostly to be about creating some characters and a scenario. Then I watch the characters interact and write down what I see. It, like the conversion of table scraps into compost, seems to be a magical process.

That's all from the rock at the edge of the continent on this day.

Press On

The Path

Yesterday I got the path I'm installing on the west side of the property more-or-less wrapped up. All the heavy work is done. Early this AM the Old Amigo figured out a way to trim it out nicely. I met the new neighbors... a young couple with two little kids. Great that we'll have some children in the neighborhood again. Nicki, that's the wife, came over and asked me what I was doing. "Trying to make the view a little bit nicer from your new kitchen," I replied. I think she liked that.

Angel volunteered to go over to Henry's to get more "Mt. Shasta Medium Bark Chips". I bought five bags there, but it wasn't enough to fill the frames to the right level. Unfortunately, now the guy at Henry's says that they have never heard of this product. Go figure. I still have a big pile of bark shreds from when I rented the shredder, but that's more useful for mulching. It's too fine to be placed anywhere that is exposed to the wind.

We'll get it dialed in. Even if we have to go over to Sequim and get some bags from HD, we'll figure out a way to wrap this up and make it look good.

Today is cool and windy, the dog days of August masquerading as autumn. It is nearly time to dismantle the bird netting over the main garden. Yesterday I chased Young Bambi and some of his friends out of one of our flower gardens three times. OTOH, we had a visit from a pair of bald eagles. They rested near the top of one of the big pines just north of us. Spectacular.

Well, I need to read some material for a job I'm bidding on. It looks interesting and the gig is with a startup with some smart guys. Could be fun.

Press on.

Energy Update

Went through all our electric bills this AM and updated my energy use spreadsheet. The Old Amigo was curious about something. Yesterday, you see, we received our notice from Puget Sound Energy that our annual production credit would amount to just over $700 for the previous 12 month period. That's in addition to the monthly bill reductions we get due to instantaneous PV output. Then there is the sale of Green Tags. That's not much, and it prevents me from "making any claims, public or private about our home being 'solar powered' (the Amigo is not claiming that!)"

Anyway, with one thing and another, I figure our total energy bill is about $1100 less per year than it would be if we didn't have that PV system on our roof.

We installed the system when the Republicans' renewable energy policies were in effect, which meant (big surprise) that businesses could deduct a percentage of their installation from their taxes but homeowners could deduct a percentage up to a (modest) total number of dollars. It's better now: homeowners and businesses get the same deal.

So I figure that we're getting a partially tax free financial return of about 4.4% on our PV system investment. Why tax free? Because we're not generating income; instead we're lowering costs. That's not bad. Plus, it's locked in as long as the price of electricity doesn't drop precipitously. I suppose that's a possibility. Do I hear hysterical laughter at that prospect?

Several times people have asked me "when's the payback?" for my PV system. This was usually asked with a somewhat superior smirk that implied I was stupid for installing the system at all. The implication that something that wouldn't pay for itself in five years or less was a waste of money. Now I've decided that the whole payback question is bogus.

We have to buy electricity anyway. The house is energy efficient (HERS index ~50... we use about 6.3 kW-hr/sq. ft.), so we're not using the PV system to offset a profligate use of energy.

If you were to invest in a bond fund that gave you a 4.4% rate of return that is likely to rise with energy prices, you wouldn't be considered stupid.

Would you?

The West Side

More progress on the path I'm installing on the west side of our garage. Yesterday I was able to level a space 3' x 8' and lay in a frame of treated lumber. Now I'm in the process of filling the center with ~4" of dirt.

The dirt is over on the east area - the newly terraced bit where I have 550 landscape blocks stacked. That project is in line after the path and garage-west cleanup/beautify. Anyway, I needed to get the dirt moved. That means the wheelbarrow. First wheelbarrow full, I noticed that the tire needed air. Seriously.

So I rummaged around in the garage to find the air hose. That took about a half hour. Then I hooked everything up and fired up my air compressor... first time in about a year. Turns out that one of the fittings was damaged slightly in our move, so there's a slight leak. It's still good enough to hold some air though. Got the wheelbarrow tire pumped up. Then the tires on the hand truck (one of those was completely empty). Finally I pumped up the front tire on the bike.

Then I bled the air compressor and opened the water valve on the bottom of the tank and put everything away.

Then I hauled four more wheelbarrows of dirt over. I think another ten or so will do it. Then I'll wet everything down and let it sit for a week. Then I will be able to pull up the frame and lay in some landscape fabric. When the frame goes back down, another 24 square feet of path will be ready for bark chips.

Little by little.

Teaser

You may have noticed that the frequency of my posts has fallen off a bit. Well, there's a reason for that: I've been working on a novel. Alternate earth thing. Kind of an adult fantasy w/ a bit of horror thrown in. I'm 275 pages into the first draft with a target of ~500 pages. Unlike my first attempt (about 20 years ago) this story has an outline and even has an ending that's sorta worked out... sorta.

So anyway, my good old buddy LLM suggested that I post a little sample in the blog. This is from a couple of hundred pages in. Remember, it is a rough draft. As I read it there are things that I want to change, but right now I am focusing on getting the story told. Then I want to go back and tighten up the writing.

I hope you enjoy it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She supposed, by the pulsing orange light that lit the alien landscape around her, it might be day in this world. Today, she tracked something larger. Something the size of a dog, but with bigger TEETH and a wiry, bristly coat. These things were all TEETH it seemed. They must have some senses, for they detected her and snarled when she neared. They’d seemed to have no eyes, though, or discernible ears.

She had climbed far up and lain very still and when one of these things had scuttled beneath her perch, she had dropped, thrown a large rock upon its back. There had been a satisfying crunch and a hissing yelp.

Alicia neared her prey. It still lived. Still had TEETH. But she reached forward like a snake and in one movement grabbed its hind leg. It tried to snap at her, but she turned in a flash and dashed its head on the stones. Over and over she did this, long past sensing any movement in the thing.

Then she began to feed. It had little power, but it was meat. It was blood and bone and gristle. She fed for a time and then clutching what was left to her like some hideous doll, she moved back across the boundary into the Place.

She wandered long but eventually found what she sought: a place in the rocks where she could fashion her lair. Of course it was already inhabited, but she enticed its current tenant, something long and sinuous, out with the smell of the prey she had brought from the boundary world.

If Alicia retained any capacity for love or enjoyment, it was love of the hunt -- especially the ambush. She made her way around and above the entrance to the place that she had marked as hers and there she waited. Barely breathing, unaware of the rank smell that surrounded her, unaware of what she had become, she waited.

The long, sinuous thing nosed from its place in the rocks. It could smell the carrion Alicia had left and it was hungry, but it was also cautious. It would move out and then dart back at some shift in the misty light, at some distant sound. Alicia waited. Two or three times, the sinuous thing almost reached the rent carcass before it retreated. Alicia waited.

Eventually, the thing’s hunger overcame its caution and it emerged fully. It was at least seven feet long. Easily the biggest prey she’d attempted. A risk, but worth it for what it might bring to her. Alicia waited until a split second before the thing’s jaws had closed on the bait. And then, committing herself fully to the attack, she leaped from her perch.

Somehow, the thing sensed her movement, and turned so that its belly faced upwards. Alicia had enough time to see that its belly featured barbs -- probably venomous -- that protruded several inches and then she landed full on its exposed neck.

Her initial blow did not kill the thing, but it stunned it. It tried to recover, tried to bring those barbs to bear on its tormentor, but Alicia had already sunk her teeth into the flesh just below the jaw. She reached underneath the thing with her right hand to hold the bottom of the jaw and force it back against her knee. She added the strength of her left arm pressing down in concert with the pull of her right.

Still it struggled, but clearly it was weakening. Alicia bit harder, burying her face as fluids gushed around her, blinding her, filling her nose, coursing down the front of her once beautiful body. She continued to bite, continued to bend the thing’s neck back and back and back until it finally snapped.

The long, sinuous thing, shivered and lay still.

If in life it could not overcome its attacker, its life force was strong and as that life force flowed into the thing that Alicia was becoming, it rocked her back and she lay panting. She panted the way one might expect a mother to pant in childbirth, but instead of birthing a child, Alicia was transforming into a twisted version of herself. Had another hunter come by just then she would have been helpless, but the helplessness passed quickly enough and strange energies surged into her.

And then she fed with abandon.

550 Stackable Landscape Blocks

It took the guys from Henery "Do It Best" Hardware two trips to get these blocks unloaded into the south side of the yard. I unloaded about a quarter of them. Angel did some too.

Local lore around here is that since Henery's is the only game in town, they think they have a license to gouge, price-wise. While some things may indeed be pricey, we have found them to be pretty darn competitive in most areas... and they delivered these bad boys for free!

Bill, the master bulldozer guy from Shold Excavating leveled this area beautifully. It will be a pleasure to work with the landscape blocks to begin terracing this part of the yard. That part is very cool. Once this bit is done, we'll double the size of our gardenable area. Bill also leveled the area to the immediate east of this, and we'll be able to terrace that as well... or perhaps add raised beds. Haven't decided on that bit yet.

But all is not perfection in garden-land. As I was getting ready to type this, I looked out the window to see a young deer looking for forage right in the middle of this area. Now we're right next to nature trails and open space, and the deer have lots and lots of grazable space. The thing is, they've become overly used to humans (some people tend to treat them like pets) so they tend to pillage gardens.

Our main garden is fenced. It is likely that we will need to fence this area as well once we're ready to start using it. So far the deer seem to take the path of least resistance. There are plenty of things to eat -- in our yard, the neighbors' yards, on the trails, and in the city parks and greenbelts (to say nothing of the state parks and national forests). We are, after all, at the edge of the continent up here. So the deer won't go hungry if we limit their access to our edibles.

Energy Update: July averaged over 20 KWH/day of PV energy production.

Retaining Wall In!

Well, actually the wall was poured a week ago, but we let it cure until today. Grumpy neighbors notwithstanding, it looks great. Bill, the earth mover guy was here today with a small bulldozer and a little hydraulic "steam shovel" like thing. "Little" should be in quotes too. I shudder to think what the statement for this project is going to turn out to be, but we've basically quadrupled our level, landscapable, gardenable yard space!

We also have a 10' wide roadway that runs along the south side of our property. This will allow us to bring soil amendments, stackable retaining wall blocks, and so on, right to the spot where they're needed.

It looks great (did I say that already? Who cares? It does!) and having that navigable path will make other projects a huge pleasure instead of backbreaking. It is so cool.

Also, Dan-the-builder (assistant & long-time buddy of Ray-the-contractor) mentioned to the Amigo today that he has another buddy who rebuilds old water pumping windmills. Now having small rain catchment tanks whose contents are pumped to a larger tank at the highest point on the property just might be too hip of a project to pass up. We'll see. Talk about $$ (I'd rather not).

Driest Summer on Record

Last week, the local NPR affiliate mentioned that this is the driest summer on record for this part of the country. That's sobering by itself, but then the report went on to say that "el nino" conditions in the Pacific are ramping up to push us in the direction of a dry winter as well.

Clearly, we need to get serious about a rain catchment system. We don't know if we can afford it, but at very least we need to see what it would cost!

Happily, last night brought with it a modest amount of thunderstorm activity. It rained off and on through much of the evening. Today has been overcast with brief periods of gentle rain. The garden has received a decent drink. Angel & I transplanted a couple of things.

Tomorrow, hopefully, we'll have a small amount of earth moving in prep for a little retaining wall just below the south wall of the main vegetable garden. More on this as it unfolds, but basically I consider this the first step in the (urban ag) development of the east side of our property.

We're also trying to make a rent vs. buy decision on a rototiller. It costs $70 to rent one for 24 hours. A new, fairly heavy duty model runs about $700. The big question is of course how many times are we likely to need to till the soil. Also, once the soil has been broken up and amended, subsequent rototilling could be accomplished either by hand or with a smaller, less brutish model.

Food for thought.

Summer Continues!

We have booked our calendar full of summer visitors this year, and our dear friends and relatives have begun their journeys to the edge of the continent to share food, wine, music, and sights with us.

While each season has its charms, summer in the Olympic National Forest can be pretty amazing. Angel took these shots on a recent day trip. Wow!

It is hard to post when so much else is going on, but the venerable Friendly One will try...



At long last, the garden seems to be perking up. Yesterday we ate some kohlrabi. Zucchini are getting ready and we'll probably have some tonight. Salad greens have been flowing -- some doing better than others. Even the broccoli is producing.

We have met more long-time residents. The story is largely the same: the glacial til has few nutrients. "Compost, compost, compost" is the spell that seems best suited to the invocation of successful gardens. So we are getting as serious as we can with composting. I turned a big pile just this AM in fact. We try to enliven the soil by adding nutrients.

A friend's wife keeps rabbits as pets. They graze in the yard or are fed chemical-free "rabbit chow". We collect the manure and it goes, together with some straw from the hutches, into the compost bins. Kitchen and garden waste are added to the stew. Eventually, the right proportions of wet and dry, green and brown, hot and cold are approached. We turn the mix to add air.

It is but a matter of time, I suppose, but patience is not an easy lesson to learn.

Monday (weather and contractors willing) we will move a bit of soil around near the driveway. We will add a small concrete retaining wall to the south of the main vegetable garden. The result will be a minimum of nine feet of clearance between the bank and the south property line.

This will allow us to bring small trucks and building materials to the undeveloped parts of the property. The Old Amigo wants an even larger fenced garden area outside his office. This will feature raised beds and, if it all works out, rain-catchment-centric irrigation. Right now it is a massively scraggly weed patch, albeit a sunny one.

Step-by-step, we journey.

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.

Another Sunny Day

I'm pretty much worn out at this point. I hurt in more places than I care to list. Some of you may recall our wind chime collection. Well, it's once again in place. The house is surrounded by happy, mystical sound. Angel & I have had some of these chimes for a long time, so this time around I've had to re-string and do other repairs on many of the pieces. The end result is good. As I type this I can hear some of the nearest chimes.

It is interesting (to me, anyway). The chimes sound pretty loud close up, but the sound drops off very quickly with distance. That's probably a good thing. Keeps the nabes from getting irritable.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Ray got the gates up. Now, when the gates are closed, no large (or even medium-sized) animal can pillage the garden without scaling or leaping over some kind of fence or gate. We had a few antique (circa 1900) hinges left, so I put a clear coat on six of them and asked Ray to hang the gates w/ those hinges. Today I pulled all the pins out, cleaned them, and greased the hinges. Then I drilled a hole in the deck so that the gate pin can anchor properly.

The gates need a coat of oil sealant, but that will have to come later... perhaps next weekend.

I also built a cool trellis-type-thing for the pole beans in the main garden. It is at the east end of the garden facing west. It's one of the first things I've built here using my shop. I used scrap wood. It would have looked a bit better if I'd had somewhat stouter uprights, but this has a bit of coolness as it is.

Speaking of the shop, I put in a couple of hours cleaning it a bit more. It's now quite usable. The next order of business is to begin sorting through boxes of fasteners and small parts and get those organized and usable.

Angel and I also put up a bird house today. It's visible outside the kitchen window. All we need are some finches or other small avian-type creatures to take up residence. It's too small for crows or ravens.

As we finished erecting the bird house, Angel noticed a large number of raptors catching a thermal just northeast of us. She counted 16 hawks all soaring, gaining altitude, with nary a flap. Again, the weather forecast said 61°F, but the outside temperature measured 68. I guess that was enough for an updraft to form.

While I did the above chores, Angel focused her attention on relocating the small scrap wood pile. The scraps are small; the pile is big, by-the-way. Rats had been living underneath the pile. They're gone now, but the mess they left behind was still there. Anyway, the pile is now mostly down the hill east of my office with the rest of the main firewood supply. Once the remaining scraps are relocated, we'll be able to landscape that area. It's one of the more visually appealing spots on our property. It's north of our porch, but it gets good sun from April through September.

Dinner was Cape Cleare salmon (that's a wild fishery) steaks. Some of the fishermen quick freeze their catch and bring it down to the local farmers' market. Angel got some yesterday. I poached the salmon in white wine with a few herbs. It doesn't need much. I brought it to a gentle boil, covered, in a stainless steel skillet. Then I basted the steaks a few times and turned them. Another three minutes and they were done. I served the salmon w/ brown rice and fresh cauliflower steamed w/ olive oil and garlic. For a wine, we had "Seven Deadly Zins," one of our favorites. Actually, I like this wine so much that I only took a couple of sips during dinner. I've been savoring my glass as I typed this entry...

As I type this, Angel reads a novel in the big chair by the window. In a few minutes we're going to watch the second half of Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai".

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

On evenings like this, it seems like it cannot really be the Wrong Rock.