The Planning Continues

Do you ever have the mood hit you, the "I've got money I want to buy something" mood? Yeah, me neither. However, in my defence this mood struck because the time to give gifts is at hand and I would like to give some thoughtful gifts this year. I want to 1)Spend moderately 2)Support a local business with my purchase 3)Witness the reaction of truly thoughtful/insightful gifts on Christmas morn.

So I headed over to Elliott Bay Books and began perusing the stacks, thinking of everyone on my list (except for me!). Hours later, I find a single book for a single member of my family, I decide that it is too overwhelming to find something for everyone in one sitting and make my way to the checkout stand with my eyes roving over the books on my way. Low and behold, right there in front of me, not two steps away from where I was (just leaving mind you), "The Urban Farm Handbook". Oooh....and it was written by a Seattle woman and it has recipes and instructions pertaining to our climate AND I'm "in the mood"? Needless to elaborate, I bought it too.

Open first perusal, I think this is gong to be a wonderful resource, chickens, goats, crop planning, preserving, it has it all.

Considerations Before Digging In

Since my new project is also something of an experiment I thought I should brain web out from the central project and see what my goals were, what obstacles I may encounter and what design features/elements I should keep in mind. I also have to collaborate with my upstairs neighbour Jez because the garden was started by her before I got here. Okay, here it goes:

Ultimate Goal: To build and tend a backyard garden that could sustain all of my food needs for one year-->Most of my food needs-->A goodly amount of my food needs

Major Considerations:
>Soil quality, I've heard sheet composting works well, but how long does that take? Will it work for crummy clay soils?
>Location of plants
>Types of plants to grow
>How much should I realistically add (amount of dirt to work) to existing cultivated soil
>Raised beds? This requires an influx of soil
>Composter, bin, system of bins, rotating drum (are these really considered "batch" composters or can you continually add material)
>Rain barrel(s), can I install them?
>Existing grass removal, what is the best way? Can I till it in? Use it for compost?
>Cost of materials. Trying to keep this as low as possible, existing, recycled or found would be best.
-->I should keep track of how many car miles it takes to import material
>Chickens?
-->How much is too much to handle?

This is just a starting point, I've also started a garden journal in a small notebook to keep with me so that whenever I mention this project to someone, I can jot their contribution (everyone has one, some more helpful than others) down. I've gotten some good tidbits this way, I've also gotten some, shall we say, colorful critiques.

What could be bad about this?

Lawn No More

Here I go again, a new project, bigger and better than the last one. Not that the last one was finished anyways but I would say it has been finished to the best of my attention span. Besides, I like the continuing challenge of juggling many projects at once, I can never really stop doing something because there is always a half finished/just started project to complete.

This new project is the backyard, which is sizable. Lately, I have been reading and listening to some new ideas that have changed the way I look at the simple everyday tasks and chores that I basically have to do in addition to work and any polo, mountain biking, reading, you get the picture. One of those things that I am required by life to complete is cooking or preparing food. More and more I am becoming aware of food safety issues, factory farming issues in regards to the economy and the environment, health issues regarding animal based foods versus plant based foods, energy arguments about the fuel required for us to be able to eat what we do. It became overwhelming and I sort of shut off to the specifics and said to myself, "I am going to eat the best food whenever I can" Best meaning least processed, most nutritious, best tasting, most local food I could find.

Kind of sounds like home grown produce from a backyard garden.

I also just picked up this book, "Living In the Village" by Ryan C. Mack about financial planning in our new economic environment and another book, "Eaarth" by Bill McKibben. Both are very recently published and both reference "strengthing the local community" through various means, one of which was a backyard garden (or community plots).

Then, just the other day on KEXP in the early Saturday morning hours, I heard a speaker who is currently farming many acres in California where some people had given up hope that the soils would ever produce quality produce, and where this farmer has some of the highest quality organic produce currently growing. He spoke of composting techniques, the benefit of backyard gardens to the biosphere and also the economy. He proposed the "Garden Party" as a new political party in the United States the only prerequisite is a garden plot in your yard, window or on your rooftop.

All these ideas are fluttering around my head, combine that with my love of building, creating, growing, temper the excitement with a bit of research, throw in a healthy dose of creativity and critical thinking and I think this backyard garden will come together for me. More to follow...

Suburban Hitchhiking

At what pont do you stop believing in your smartphone and realize the bus isn't coming? Normally, I would say immediately, right away. If you have any reason to suspect that your phone is giving you faulty or "whack" info, disregard! Turn off, look around and do some data collection of your own to formulate a theory or maybe a plan. Sometimes though, the information presented to me on that small device is so compelling that it tricks me into a false sense of security and then disappoints me much in the same way as when your pet behaves so well you feel confident to look away, for just a moment, only to have your carpets soiled. What a hassle!

I want to have faith in the application, the network, King County Metro's ability to produce a quality program and the information it provides me...because it is SO USEFUL, it could quite possibly the best thing about having a smartphone, on demand bus arrival times for any stop on the route you are currently standing. Seriously, it has changed my life and it makes taking the bus anywhere, one million times better. At least. Even without the "app", I knew the bus would arrive. It usually does arrive, on time and with no surprises. Late at night or early in the morning when you HAVE to catch the bus on time because it's the last one or you've got an appointment in the morning, the application will tell you it's delayed or early and by how many minutes. It isn't always correct though and that can have devastating effects, like leaving you an hours ride from home or a phone call to an unhappy voice deep under the covers.


Last night I was waiting for one of the last buses across the 520 bridge, I watch the numbers on the screen change from 2 to NOW to -1 without ever seeing a bus. Next bus in twenty minutes and it's coming from Redmond and regularly has three bikes on the rack already, leaving you to hold your breath as it approaches and you can't yet see if you'll have a space.

Really? Can I really believe that there will even BE another one in twenty minutes? After just having a betrayal like that?! I'll be a sucker if I stay and nothing comes by but I'll be a fool if I took one bad moment like that and rode all the way around for no reason. Like I said, it's usually accurate, so I don't really have a great reason to doubt that the next one will be there, at the same time, can I really trust it? That's what's running through my head and it is an awful feeling to have, the flow of your day can be seriously disrupted (first world problem!).

So what's a body to do? I need to take some kind of action, just sitting around isn't helping anything, if that next bus isn't there either, I'm going to feel mighty powerfully bad. I decide to stand out in the bus lane and try and flag someone down for a ride across. If it works, great, I've done it two or three times before during extreme weather events where the bus sservice is patchy, traffic is Bad and everyone knows it.

Someone has to come to the "last bus of the night" conclusion, right? I mean, we're all commuters here what's not to understand? Hitch hiker with a bike at a stop right before the impassable-by-bike floating bridge? Maybe he missed the last bus, that's quite unfortunate, I should give him a lift across. Wrong, nobody so much as slowed down in my fifteen minutes of thumbing it.

Maybe my lights and reflective bands weren't attracting the speeding cars very well or people don't have bike racks or people just couldn't react fast enough to help even though they wanted to. I did see mostly sedans and a fair amount of construction traffic, not too many trucks or minivans. I was in a state of "cautiously optomistic but also wanting to do something about my situation", I fully expected that next last bus to show up, but what if it didn't? That's a long way to ride late at night, definitely worth the calorie saving potentially preventative act of waving my arm back and forth.

In the end though, this story grew from my loathing of not knowing how much to rely in a technology I don't fully understand but that appears to be very "smart" and usually performs flawlessly...except when it doesn't. Dilemma!

Mmmm...nothing wraps my day up more perfectly than relaxing with a cool beverage on the back porch after having just completed some yard/home related chores, the sun hanging low in the sky like some overripe fruit forgotten on the branch. Fat lazy sun beams saunter down from on high to warm my entire body. I incorrectly asserted the last truly nice day had come and gone just a few short weeks ago. Today, wonderfully warm rays kept me outside for most of the day in shorts and a t-shirt, when just one day ago I was scarfed and hatted. Last tendrils of summer lingering about to tease us, always checking to see if we are prepared, hats and raincoats on the rack by the door, sunglasses and flip flops next to the coat rack.

As the temperature continues to trend negatively and the clouds become ever more present, any amount of sunshine, however it arrives, with a chill wind whipping the clouds across the sky or interspersed between violent bursts of cold rain, is like a glass of water to a man dying of dehydration.

Nothing kills the warm fuzzy buzz of an afternoon to myself in the sun then the threat of having to mow the lawn. What an absolutely horrible thing to do, fire up the exhaust bucket and walk behind it for thirty minutes inhaling a whole host of carcinogens and volatile chemicals. Oh honey, your lady calls, would you be a dear and expose yourself to potentially life threatening compounds? It would be like sitting behind an exhaust pipe of a car for 250 miles, I'd be breathing in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which the EPA says are "possible" (read: definitely) carcinogens and spewing as much CO2 as if I drove for 400 miles (avg. speed of 40mph).

I hate mowing the lawn.

The state of the lawn, in my mind, does not warrant the growling fury of the whirling gas powered blades. Since the grass turns brown towards the end of summer, it stops growing and just exists as a brown, slippery, dry layer over the dirt. It stops growing and doesn't need to be cut. But the dandelions don't stop growing, they grow abundantly, like an unfortunate skin disease, patchy and rough looking. It doesn't appear that we are downright neglectful of the house and yard, but above the lawn, the lion heads bob four to six inches off the ground, looking a bit like static; an appealing house with an attractive but fuzzy yard.

Please adjust your TV dial when viewing our house.

Farewell Summer, Fall is Falling and Winter is Coming

Ah, Friday, that day of days, the window to the weekend, prelude to the parties, time to transition from the monotony of the week into the mental relaxation that comes from no responsibilities. It doesn't always follow that physical relaxation goes hand in hand with the psychic let down, however, I'm getting ready for a fair amount of pedalling, carousing and 12 ounce curls tonight, weather permitting.

I think I may have been out and about on the last truly great day of the year last Friday, there were some seriously fast moving/changing clouds in the sky but if the wind hadn't been blowing, I'm sure it would've been seventy degrees out.

 

The weather has been cold enough to cause some small scrambling, pulling out hats, gloves, wool socks and rain gear, while packing away the shorts, sandals and sunglasses for what seems like an eternity as the winter approaches. I have a feeling that it will approach all too quickly, the Northwest is not known for it's long drawn out mild falls, no, more than likely it will be short, jarring and mild only in comparison to the winter.

Apparently, this year is a La Nina year, which is slightly odd because we just had one. Check out this totally not-in-depth reporting from our local news:

http://mynorthwest.com/11/548177/Skiers-brace-for-backtoback-La-Ninas

http://mynorthwest.com/11/556543/Prepare-yourself-La-Nina-is-back


So, potential deluges, floods and freezing conditions in the low-lands and, in the words of my ski bum friends "dumping" in the mountains. Is this cursory second-hand information enough to get me to buy a ski-pass this year?

Well, one thing is for sure make sure your fenders are on and your shoes are water proof, if everything goes to plan I'll be banging around town on my new coaster brake rain bike, no brake sludge and no cables to get gunked up.

Now it's off to the bike shops to hunt for some parts for this wet weather commuter....