Be joyful though you have considered all the facts
This is (four days shy of) Â two month’s worth of trash: one 30 gallon bag (our town uses PAYT – Pay As You Throw – and these bags cost $2 each, which is still way too little if you ask me) and an assortment of recyclables. Â I didn’t weigh all this before taking it to …
Continue reading “Two Month’s Worth of Trash and Terrible Faux-Pas!”
Well, that was cheaper and quicker than the PV. Took them seven hours to install the entire system. We have two Wagner collectors, Â one 92.5 gallon storage tank, in a drain back arrangement (it’s basically this Secusol system), with our super-efficient oil boiler as backup (second heat-exchanger). A fun addition was the monitoring system, which …
And here we go again. Nemo is upon us, starting to throw what will amount, according to the forecast, to buckets of snow. Of course the power is going to go: we expect it now. And as I alternate staring out the window with staring at the Wundermap, I realize how contradictory and conflicting my feelings …
Continue reading “Thoughts on Technology in the Face of a Blizzard”
With the help of my ancient but working bread machine, which makes a hearty and very slice-able whole wheat  loaf, I now bake one bread every other day. However, the ends never get eaten, and by the second day I have to cut off the entire crust for Amie because chewing on it hurts her …
In my journal I wrote: Understanding comes and goes as huge, crashing waves. One recedes and the other comes. It’s hard to catch your breath. I had just finished reading Stephen Jenkinson’s latest post, “There’s Grief in Coming Home,” when I looked up and I must have had an expression on my face for Amie asked: …
OVER FOUR YEARS OF RIOT! Four year summary coming soon (Yes, I keep promising) This is the Riot for the month of January 2013 for the three of us. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers! Gasoline.  Calculated per person. DH’s shuttle didn’t run …
I had an interesting day yesterday. It didn’t start out promising. My car had failed inspection the day before and needed fixing, so I was dropping it off in the next town over, at Mike the Mechanic’s. Â It’s not like Mike the Mechanic has an inviting waiting room or a replacement car service. It’s just …
Been thinking about that slope: will the soil support what we ultimately want to plant there, and how do we best prepare it? This south-west facing slope, relatively sunny – somewhat shaded from the southeast and northwest, more so as you go further down the slope – will be a fruit orchard: we’ll plant blackberries and …
Continue reading “Fruit Orchard on the Slope: Soil Analysis and Amendments”
Back to patterns! Having a plan for the slope has re-opened my mind for the immediate front: the balcony, the level stretch of garden up top, the top of the driveway. This is what it looks like right now: I already analyzed one of the more general  problems: the negativity of this space. There are some more specific …
Continue reading “Applying the Pattern Language (ii): Inviting Entry, Making Connections”
It cannot wait to get started in the garden, in particular to start the big Soil and Water Works. I want to plant stakes and dig dirt and maneuver wheelbarrows and roll rotten logs downhill. I even want to roll some of them uphill, that’s how desperate I am to get started. For today I …