Rain Barrels

Hi everyone!!

Just wanted to offer a more in depth writing on the rain barrels I made.  I acquired three 55 gallon drums from a place that does business with my company.  It was nice that the barrels were free, but they came from a place that does uniform cleaning and as such had a fair amount of thick detergent left in them.  This added an hour or two to the amount of time it took to prepare the barrels because they needed to be cleaned out.

After the barrels were clean, it was time to put in the spigots.  Basically I went to the Home Depot and said I wanted to put a spigot in a barrel.  Stan (the plumbing guy) said, "Well, this is what you need."  The part that fits into the barrel is threaded on the end in the barrel and has a female end on the outside. The particular barrels I used made things a little more difficult.  My barrels have no removable cover, and are completely sealed on the top, except for two bung holes.  If I had chosen to cut the tops off, or had removable lids, it would have been much easier to affix the spigot because a nut and rubber washer would have held it on sufficiently.

First I drilled a hole that was appropriately sized for the treads.  Then I used a liberal amount of two part epoxy on the treads and on the barrel where the fitting would attach.  After letting the epoxy set up for a few hours, I put in a bushing that fit the female end and then screwed in a pipe bib for the spigot.

The next step was to cut a hole in the top where the downspout would enter the barrel.  I used a chunk of downspout and traced the outside of it with a marker. Then I drilled two pilot holes and cut the piece out with a saber saw.

After this was done, it was time to get the barrels in place outside.  I used some cement blocks that were in my basement to raise each of the barrels high enough to fit a watering can underneath.  I detached the downspouts and cut them shorter and added a few elbows to get the downspouts to fit into the barrel.

All in all, it took about 6 or 7 hours to get the project done, but the reward was nice.  After the first rainfall, the barrels were all full!!  (and none of them fell over)

I additional problem I didn't foresee is that the barrels get full and the extra water needs to go somewhere.  I drilled a bunch of holes around the top, but when the water gets up there, it shoots out and sort of makes a mess of the surrounding landscape.  I haven't fixed mine yet, but the same fitting as was used for the spigot can be used near the top with some pipe attached to run the excess water down on the ground.

Have fun saving water!!

Tim

Hot....humid....and PLENTIFUL!

For someone who lives in Wisconsin, you think I would enjoy the hot humid weather we have been getting these past 3 weeks. Beats the cold of winter, right? Well, give me warm, but that's about all I'd have if it's my choice! 72 degrees, sunny, white puffy clouds in the sky, a slight breeze from the west, and no humidity please. Well, that's not exactly what we've been granted with here. Instead, 85-90 and HUMID! The good thing out of this, the garden is ripening up something real good!

Today after arriving home from work, we went out to water (we've officially almost tapped our rain barrels dry after 2 weeks without rain). In the process of watering, I noticed how plentiful the garden looked. To my surprise we had a few more zucchini's. I'm not exactly sure how well the zucchini will continue to grow. I'll be honest, I tried too many zucchini in a small raised bed and they are kinda choking each other out. Well, lesson learned.

Then I moved along to the broccoli. 4 out of 7 generous heads have started. In a few days, they'll be ready for harvest and will keep regenerating. The tomatoes are also coming along. Lots of green, nothing ripened to red yet.

Next, I got to the green beans. Now, our garden takes up a very small area of our yard. We had to keep the garden close to the house for watering purposes, so we have 4 raised beds that are about 15 sq. feet of planting area each (3x5 beds) and another that's about 3x6 (18 sq. feet). The beans are planted in rows in a 15 sq. feet bed. All of the planting I choose this year is based on it's ability to be preserved, in effort to help feed ourselves over winter. I planted tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, strawberries, zucchini & a sugar snap pea bean pole (these snap peas go straight to our stomach & never make it out of the garden).

Anyhow, I digress - back to the green beans. So I could see there are plenty of green beans to be picked. I grabbed an ice cream pail to put the green beans in. I decided I would count the green beans, you know, just a challenge to see how many green beans I would find! Well, 2 ice cream pails later and drumroll please.......371 green beans! Wow, from my tiny 15 square foot bed. I probably pulled out about this many between the last two times I picked too. Talk about return on investment, I'm sure that pack of seeds cost a mere $1.29.

I'm in green bean heaven! -L

How does your garden grow?

Well, I guess it's mid-summer already! I can't believe it, but our garden is proof! It officially looks "overgrown", and is producing very well! The green beans are coming along well! We've frenched, blanched, and frozen about 8 servings so far, with many many more to come! We also have 3 large zucchini that we will be cutting tonight and using a borrowed dehydrator to dehydrate them with. I read that if you dehydrate them and freeze them, they can then be eaten as "chips" (not sure I will really like that so much) or better yet, when you cook with them, they will absorb the liquid and regain original form (but cooked). I can think of many many yummy things to add zucchini to in winter: stews, slow cooked meals, soups, and baking with (zucchini bread and more!). Yum! We will also cut some of our zucchini to blanch and freeze. I read that you can also shred the zucchini and blanch and freeze it. This would be ideal for baking...since you need to shred it anyhow! Here are some pictures of what we've taken out of the garden.

    

Unfortunately we have some sort of grub thing eating the leaves of our broccoli. I heard that using soap, oil and water will get the pests off. Since we do not use any sort of chemical on our garden, I'm going to try our ecosafe dish soap mixed with water and oil and spray it on the leaves. Thankfully the grub hasn't eaten the broccoli itself, but I'm afraid it will go to that next. Yuk! I just hope it's not too late.  -L

Where does your garden grow?

When you have a moment, check out: eattheview.org. This is a great non-profit organization with a purpose - a campaign to plant healthy, edible landscapes in high-impact, high visibility places, whether it's the "First Lawn" or the lawn in front of your child's school. In regards to the "first lawn" they are referring to the White House yard! You can log on and sign a petition stating the following: that "the next President of the United States to plant an organic food garden on the White House lawn, with part of produce going to the White House kitchen and the rest to a local food pantry. The White House is "America's House" and should set a positive example for the country and the world. The new President would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had vegetable gardens before) and showing how we can meet global challenges such as climate change, food security, and fossil fuel dependence."

Cool! I'm on board with this. Click here to sign the petition, and then also check out what else they have going on.

Staycation

Over the 4^th of July weekend, we were compelled to have a staycation. A staycation is when you enjoy the activities of a vacation, but stay home to do it. Since gas prices, dining, and lodging are increasing in price, the staycation has become more popular. For instance, you could stay in town, forget the household chores and spend the weekend staycationing by reading a book, golfing, visiting the local museum or zoo. Basically staying close to home rather than going to a destination to get this accomplished. Over the 4^th, we staycationed in our own backyard. We pitched the tent under the walnut tree, BBQ’ed our dinner, enjoyed reading by the bonfire and made s’mores…all before we called it a night and nestled down in the tent. Upon waking up in the morning, I meandered over to the fire pit, pulled up a chair, kicked back and did some more reading. It was incredibly relaxing! The nice thing about staycationing at home is that when we do want to leave, we can just leave the dogs in the house like we normally do.

Since it was a warm sunny morning, Tim and I decided to go kayaking. We got out on the river and it was calm, there was a soft breeze coming through. When we kayak, we typically start the direction that goes against the current (on the Fox that happens to be south). That way the trip back is never hard work because we have the current with us. Well, as we headed toward our kayaking destination we went against the current and suddenly the wind picked up. Then it really picked up! Before we knew it, we had our work cut out for us. It was the kind of wind that’s low bearing on the water and when the gust comes through it makes the water shiver on top. The trip was incredibly difficult. If I looked toward the shoreline I was barely moving forward. If I stopped paddling, the kayak would start moving backward! We were determined however to get to our destination which is down by a non-operating lock. The water there is calm and there tends to be more wildlife since boats don’t go down that way anymore (too shallow for most boats). Finally, we arrived - and with much reward. As we were headed out of the lock channel there was an eagle flying overhead. We went up by shore and hung onto some overhung branches to watch the eagle. Eventually we lost sight of the eagle. As we continued down the channel, we saw a large bird fly from one tree to the next. Sure enough, it was the eagle and it landed in another tree and perched right next to another eagle. It was beautiful. We just stayed there and watched them sit up in the tree and spy fish. Eventually one left and we decided to head home. We floated down the river in our kayaks, like it was a lazy river. It was so pleasant as the sun warmed us and calmed our sore muscles (or at least mine, can’t speak for Tim on that one). We spent the rest of the day chilling out. It was a relaxing, yet adventurous staycation, right in our own backyard!

Try it sometime, you might be surprised how relaxing a staycation can be…and how much money you’ll save! The picture is our tent pitched in the back year. -L

Living Like Ed

A Little Book Review

Hi!  This is Tim.

This is actually my first entry here in our blog, so I hope you like it.

Lisa recently came home with some books from the library, and one of the books she borrowed was "Living Like Ed".  The author is Ed Begley, Jr.  He is an actor probably best known for his role in St. Elswhere in the '80's.  The book was rather good.  Basically, the book is about what Ed has learned about green living since he started being very conscious of the way he lived in the early '70's and how it effected the environment.  He hits upon the major areas where green living are important: home, transportation, recycling, energy, garden and kitchen, and clothing and skin care.  Much of the information is fairly common sense, but the book is well put together and an informative read.

One part I really liked was the simple metaphor of a tree.  Much of the information in the book is like picking the low-hanging fruit on the tree, like cleaning your furnace filter and conserving water.  Some of the information is like picking the fruit on the mid level of the tree.  You need a ladder, but not a very tall one.  Some of these are using a bicycle for transportation or buying things made from recycled materials.  Finally, there is the fruit on the top of the tree: installing solar/wind or buying a hybrid or electric car.

Another part I really enjoyed was blurbs every so often from Ed's wife Rachelle.  She is not quite as green as Ed but is learning to be.  She really puts the average person's opinion into effect.  Many of the things Ed suggests she is not very fond of, but she understands why many of these things are important.

The last part of the book is a workbook where you can write in all of the things you have changed and keep some dates and expenses to see the cost benefits of some of the green living changes as well as how much some of the more expensive changes cost.

I really liked the book and would definitely recommend it to anyone.  I know it's available on amazon.com and I imagine at Barnes and Noble as well, or you can borrow it from the library and be even more green.

Happy 4th of July!

The 4th of July means many things to different people.  Some of us think of it as a free day off work (yippee!).  Some of recognize it as a time to set off/watch fireworks.  Boating.  Picnic time.  And so forth.  What is it really?   Well, I'm sure we all know it's Independence Day!  Did you know back in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was signed, there were 2.5 million people living here in the land of the free??  Seems like a lot actually.  Guess how many today? 304 million - talk about inflation! Did you know that there are 9 places in the United States that have taken on the name Freedom?  The largest is Freedom, Calif., population 6,000.  There is also Freedom, WI about 15 minutes from where we live.  Population 5,241 (2000) - watch out Calif!  I drive past the Freedom exit off the highway often, and I never even thought about what Freedom means!  Want some more trivia about the 4th? Check out this US GOV site.   It should be a credible source :) Today I leave you with a picture of fireworks over Mount Rushmore.  Looks pretty cool! (I haven't been there, found it on the internet...maybe It'll be added to places to visit in my lifetime.)   -L

www.freerice.com

I’ve heard of the site www.freerice.com several times, but didn't check it out until recently.  If you have some spare time on your hands and enjoy vocabulary or word type games, please visit www.freerice.com.

In the middle of the FreeRice Home page you will see something like:

small means:
little

old

big

yellow

To play the game, click on one of the four definitions (“little,” “old,” “big,” or “yellow”) that you think is correct. If you get it right, FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice to help end hunger. In the example above, you would want to click on “little,” which means “small.” You will then get a chance to do another word the same way. You can play as long as you like and donate as much rice as you like. When you are finished, you do not have to do anything―your donation is already counted.

There are 60 levels, but they say that it's rare that people would get over level 50 (unless cheating I suppose).  In about 5 minutes, I donated 1000 pieces of rice and was at level 41. Fun!  

Check it out!  Not only can you help feed the hungry, but you'll also improve your vocabulary!

-L