NoVa Roller Derby April 26, 2014: Super Novas vs South-Jersey
Mountains
Monday, April 28, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
BioReactor Pile
In my dream house, there's a big victory garden with awesome soil. Part of the awesome soil is the ability to compost material to have a constant source of new nutrients and a place to dispose of debris. We already have a few raised beds... but last years problems with molding soil left a bad taste in my mouth.
Since I live in a place with an over abundances of people who favor asthetics over ascetics, I try to pay some head to making things look nice. Instead of just piling decaying organic matter in the corner of the yard, a tasteful bin to hide the compost and keep it neat seemed in order. Based on designs posted This Old House, I designed a 2 bay bin with a capacity of about 54 (2 x 27) cubic fee. It mostly uses scrap wood from pallets, so parts were essentially free, and repairs will be easy as it rots.
The base:
Sides:
I used a stud to space out the back so that it would be flat:
The aluminum track (perhaps from an overhead door?) will hold moveable slats that will allow the pile to be turned.
I carefully measured one piece, then used it as a guide to cut all the others. I gave the guide a name.
Middle slats in place:
All in a row.
Since I live in a place with an over abundances of people who favor asthetics over ascetics, I try to pay some head to making things look nice. Instead of just piling decaying organic matter in the corner of the yard, a tasteful bin to hide the compost and keep it neat seemed in order. Based on designs posted This Old House, I designed a 2 bay bin with a capacity of about 54 (2 x 27) cubic fee. It mostly uses scrap wood from pallets, so parts were essentially free, and repairs will be easy as it rots.
The base:
Sides:
I used a stud to space out the back so that it would be flat:
The aluminum track (perhaps from an overhead door?) will hold moveable slats that will allow the pile to be turned.
I carefully measured one piece, then used it as a guide to cut all the others. I gave the guide a name.
Middle slats in place:
All in a row.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Peppers!
My father-in-law shared a small gift from his seed stash, which I believe he sourced from Sandia Seed Company.
It's like a slow motion multiweek magic trick.
March 27:
April 6:
In spite of the seeds being a year old, most of them sprouted.
April 7:
And quickly...
April 17th:
There's a little spice in there. When I cut them back to one plat per plug, it was quite fragrant.
I'd like write "and the crowd goes wild," except that I left them outside overnight, and now they look angry and unhappy.
I have angsty teenage peppers plants.
It's like a slow motion multiweek magic trick.
March 27:
April 6:
In spite of the seeds being a year old, most of them sprouted.
April 7:
And quickly...
April 17th:
There's a little spice in there. When I cut them back to one plat per plug, it was quite fragrant.
I'd like write "and the crowd goes wild," except that I left them outside overnight, and now they look angry and unhappy.
I have angsty teenage peppers plants.
Friday, April 11, 2014
Wishing for Another Blog
The Girly and I live in a small plop of a town that's really just some lines drawn on a map that is the bigger, unincorporated city that we actually think about ourselves living in.
At one point, the town had it's own paper. That got sucked under the bus by the internet and the Recession. For a while, there was a great patch site. It was so good the town council gave the editor an award for the quality of coverage provided. That's right, the government was so hungry for attention it gave someone an award. It's looking more and more like patch is a thing that was instead of something that's actually tied to current events, or even things that are happening. I'm slightly jealous that some of the other arbitrary-line-on-the-map areas around have their blogs associated with them.
Suffice to say, I'm surprised that no one is ranting about life here. There's 23,000 people who collapse into unconscious stupor every night here. And no one has anything to say?
Unbefuckingleavable.
In light of my previously stated thoughts on the efficacy of personal blogs that are just navel gazing brain dumps, I'm now considering setting up a local site focused on the happenings around town. That's probably an outlet where writing about what I'm already doing anyway would be useful, and gets around the annoying problems about writing about stuff that I'm doing for a large entity that prefers that I am just another face in the blizzard.
On the other had, site statistics show that Oldsmobile, Volvo, and Rollerderby photography (oh, and a nod to vacuum cleaner hot rodding) are all hot topics that people flock here to see in droves. I have ~2000 hits on the Volvo timing belt article. There's a good argument to keep on trucking, I suppose.
At one point, the town had it's own paper. That got sucked under the bus by the internet and the Recession. For a while, there was a great patch site. It was so good the town council gave the editor an award for the quality of coverage provided. That's right, the government was so hungry for attention it gave someone an award. It's looking more and more like patch is a thing that was instead of something that's actually tied to current events, or even things that are happening. I'm slightly jealous that some of the other arbitrary-line-on-the-map areas around have their blogs associated with them.
Suffice to say, I'm surprised that no one is ranting about life here. There's 23,000 people who collapse into unconscious stupor every night here. And no one has anything to say?
Unbefuckingleavable.
In light of my previously stated thoughts on the efficacy of personal blogs that are just navel gazing brain dumps, I'm now considering setting up a local site focused on the happenings around town. That's probably an outlet where writing about what I'm already doing anyway would be useful, and gets around the annoying problems about writing about stuff that I'm doing for a large entity that prefers that I am just another face in the blizzard.
On the other had, site statistics show that Oldsmobile, Volvo, and Rollerderby photography (oh, and a nod to vacuum cleaner hot rodding) are all hot topics that people flock here to see in droves. I have ~2000 hits on the Volvo timing belt article. There's a good argument to keep on trucking, I suppose.
Blinded by the (Energy Efficient) Light
I'd personally feel bad tearing open a bunch of stuff to test it at the store. I'd hate to ruin merchandise.
That said, I'm really glad that someone opened one of each type of light bulb, gathered socket and switch adapters, and made it so you could actually see the color and brightness of each bulb and how much energy they actually use.
Brilliant!
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