Look at dem JUGS!!!

Okay, calm down, this is a family network.

Here in the great state of Texas we have officially hit summer. The summer high pressure zone (yes, I'm a weather geek) has parked itself over our great state for the foreseeable future. What does that mean? It means blazing heat for at least the next few months. Which also means temps in the bazillions. This week, starting monday, it will be triple digit fun and excitement!! Weeee!!! Ugh...

And along with that fun comes drought. Throat parching, ground cracking, plant dying, crunchy brown lawn, withering, life sapping heat.

Where simple tasks such as picking-up-those-cutting-sheers-I-left-on-the-lawn-near-the-garden-for-only-a-moment, turns into a 15 minutes swear-fest while I run my hand under cold water to sooth the new blisters. Not that I would ever be THAT careless...really, I wouldn't...WHAT-ever.

Any and all you northerners all worry about climate change while you complain about too much rain or how you can't stay ahead of cutting your lawn, blah, blah, blah.

Well La-De-freakin'-Da! We got a freakin' seat front and center!! Mid to lat June 100 degree temps???? Heck, as little as 15 years ago when I moved here, the 100+ temps wouldn't hit till early August. Well, that's the breaks. When we poop in our own bed, what are we to expect? Daisies?

But alas I digress. Back to the Jugs...

Okay, what the heck is that? Well, aside from the garden ghost, those are two milk jugs connected with 1/4 surgical tubing and a quick release connector. I picked up both from the good people at Home Depot. A little hot glue and a little while later I have basically a mini version of my rain barrels. Why? See that back tube on the left?

That's the weep condensation line from our A/C unit.

I saw it as a colossal waste of water. How much waste? Since I set up this little dealy, I am collecting on the average of 8 gallons of water a day!

Now one might say, "well, that doesn't sound like a whole lot". To which I reply, "Chew".

Here is the math: 8 gallons x 7 days = 56. That's one full rain barrel a week. Still scoffing?

And in an emergency, with a basic water filter, you have very drinkable water. That water coming out of that line is pure distilled H2O. It's like having a dehumidifier turned water maker right in your own home. Not like those don't already exist...

http://www.airwatercorp.com/

But this is the morons version of that.

It's really easy to cobble this together and if you live South of the Mason-Dixon

this is something I highly suggest doing.

Till next time: Green is Good!!!

Okay, sadly, I found out, it's not all about me.

Just an update to my massive audience of about 3, in the future, I will be posting links to articles and stuff I find interesting. I surf a lot of various "green" sites (god, I hate that term) and from time to time, I will be linking to other types of info for your perusing pleasure.

Topics will include: how to make soap from yucca plants, how to can fruit and veggies, how to make rope, making fire the old fashion way (without a lighter), seed bombs and what to do with those old 100 CD plastic containers (what the heck are those, you ask?) well tune in to find out!
That's me, mr. cliffhanger.

There are some great sites out there that I get inspiration from and I just want to help promote these sites and to give me, hopefully, more traffic. Huh, I guess it really is all about me. No surprise really.

To start off, here is a good site that has absolutely nothing to do with being...grrrr...green, but I still find informative and just fun to check out.

http://www.shorpy.com/

Have fun!!

And remember...

Green is Good!

Worm poop is good.

Okay, I here is my most ambitious project to date. I had to call up some skills I hadn't used in a very long time. Plus some others, I had to make up along the way. 

Composting, what is it? It's hiring slave labor to create rich earth. The labor is provided by worms. They eat our scraps and poop out gold! Um...brown, ah gold. 

Here is the finished project: 

Okay, what is involved in this little piece of urban insanity? If you never have welded before or have never used a cutting torch. I suggest you do a little reading up on it and if you can, get a friend who does know how to show you the basics. It will save you time, money and maybe your life. Always wear your welding goggles. I can't stress that enough. Your eyes are important and you don't want to fry them out of your head. 

Make sure you have these handy as well:

Yes, there is water in that bucket. If you live in a very dry area like I do, you want to make sure you don't become the talk of the neighborhood by starting a forest fire. 

That's said, let's get to it!

First the boring stuff. Making the crib or base. 

I had some scrap 2x4's laying around from old projects.

My wife always asks me, "do we need this stuff? It's taking up space!" And I always respond, "yes, I do and it will save us a little money as well". At first she looked at me like I was crazy, well she always does that, but this time, was different. No not really, it was the same crazy look. 

So I cut my pieces to length. They are the length of the barrel plus 1 foot. Giving my 6" of additional space on each side. Why so much? I wanted a wider base, because when the composter is full, it will be very heavy and I wanted to spread the damage out as much as possible. 

My next task was to cut in the notches. 

Since the barrel is of an odd length, plus the additional 1 foot. I had to do a little math to have the notches evenly spaced. 

This is all assembled:

Next, I wanted to bolt it together to make sure it didn't fall apart. 

I got my center points at each cross section, made a mark and drilled with a 1" wide butterfly bit. 

This was done on both sides. I then drilled a 1/4" hole for the bolt. 

Here's one completed cross section:

 

I did this at each cross section. You need a lot of patience and time. 

Next I put in the rails on which the little rubber wheels will sit.

As you can see I used 3" deck mate screws. Also the bolts are galvanized. This is going to be out doors, remember? 

With the rails in place, the wheels come next. 

Rubber caster wheels, made in the good old US of A. Got them from Northerntool for $2.95 a piece. Probably the most expensive part of this project. Well, maybe not. 

You can see by the black cross mark. that is my setting for the wheel. 

Here are all the wheels in place. 

Time to take it for a test spin. 

It's amazing when assembling something like this that I just pulled out of my...off the top of my head and it works the first time! 

I highly suggest being really anal about the setting of the wheels. I was lucky, plus I gave myself a little wiggle room for adjustment. All the wheels hit the barrel exactly. 

Here's a close up of the wheels in action:

Okay, the base is completed. Now onto the part that has FIRE. heh heh heh. 

The barrel.

This is a food grade barrel that I picked up from a local farmers market. This guy was selling them for god knows what, but claimed they were good for rain barrels. Right, whatever. But for $20 bucks, he was the man! 

But first there was a little problem. 

Canola oil. Still about a gallon left in the barrel. (note the garden ghost).

So I quickly rigged up a container with a funnel and poured it in. 

I know, it's not pretty but it worked.  I wiped out the remains with paper towels and the barrel was now ready. 

Sadly, I don't have any photos of me welding, since I was by myself doing this, but I got some really keen road warrior type welding goggles that compliments my bald head, thank you very much! 

At this point I would suggest having a couple of bandana's handy. One for your head and one as a bank robber type face mask. Things tend to spark and fly. 

Here is my gear:

This little rig cost me 50 bucks. A minor investment but something I will be using many more times in the future. 

Along with this deal, I suggest, some heavy leather gloves and a rod holder. We are talking a very very very hot flame.

Also, have more welding rods handy nearby than you think you will need and definitely more oxygen as you will burn through it faster than the fuel.  

So with flame lit I got down to work. Here's a close up of the first cut:

Okay, I know, it looks like a blind monkey cut this, but give me a break, I haven't cut or welded in about 27 years since my dad gave me the basics. 

Here's the opening:

Next I had to make the hatch. I took the piece I just cut out and added some steel "wings" and this little dealy:

what the heck is that??

It's this:

Okay, I ask again, what the heck is that? 

Well, yes, it's a bad photo, but I tacked it on to one of the "wings" and it will become the latch for the composter. Here's the finished product:

You can see I put two of those swiggly things on the latch and on the barrel itself and ran cotter pins through them. 

Here is a picture of those "wings" I keep mentioning:

(note the ghost toes)

I needed to hinge this cover on:

Drilled some holes. Short bolts with a bunch of lock nuts later and I have a working hinge. 

Here is the final project with the working hatch on the rollers, all painted and ready for use. 

I later added 6 handled placed at thirds around the barrel to aid in spinning it. 

What would I do different in the future? come up with a better latch design. Although this one works find, if the cotter pins aren't latched properly, there are serious consequences. 

Final cost: 50 for the welding, 20 for the barrel, 30 for the wheels and another 30 for bolts, hinge, extra oxygen and goggles. 

For a total of, roughly, 130 bucks. Not cheap, but certainly cheaper and much longer lasting than comparable volume composters out there. The cheapest I found at this 55 gallon range was 230. So I was 100 bucks ahead. 

Difficulty: about an 7. You need basic wood skills and medium welding skills. 

The only moving part is the wheels and the hatch. Everything is easily repairable. 

Next up on my train of green insanity. A basic drip watering system from rain barrels. 

Remember: Green is good!

Don't fence me in...

Okay, I'm back. I told you all that I would post something soon. Such none believers. 

So this weeks installment of my insane quest to make my backyard green while maintaining my sanity in the process is/was raised gardens. 

We had a raised bed:

This sucker was 4 X 4 and 3 feet deep. since we were so completely clueless at the time (3 years ago) we went along with the recommendations of a local nursery. Yeah, how to buy 1 1/2 cubic yards of dirt and give them our money. I was a tool. :( But no more!!

After going to the same nursery to check out their latest stuff (this was sometime in october), I had noticed that their test raised beds were only 6" high. WTF?? So I grab the nearest sales person by the throat, pin then down on the ground and forced him to divulge all his raised gardening secrets. Well, not really, but it sounded exciting, right? I asked him politely, WTF???? He was mystified as to why anyone at his nursery would give us such colossally wrong info. Fine, just spit it out.  

All I needed was 6" of something to corral the dirt and dirt.  Well, hell, we had plenty of dirt. 1 1/2 cubic freaking yards! 

So our back fence was in a advanced state of decay and between our fence and the neighbors chain-link grew several now dead trash trees (china berry and hack berry) So with crowbar and hammer in hand I went to town. 

for the moment I just ripped down what I needed.

cut them to 4 foot lengths

and set to work getting them read for the raised bed. 

The little U brackets will act as guilds for the rebar. However, dumb me forgot to take a pick of the L brackets for the corners. (I'll include a follow up post with a photo)

I began laying out my raised bed

You can see a little bit of the L bracket in this photo. 

I then began connecting the pieces. 

Yes,  I know the photo looks upside down, that's because it is. I took it that way, okay? get off my back. 

Here is the rebar (the most expensive part of this crazy thing)

These are 2 feet x 1/4" rebar. Each costs 1.25 a piece. Since this time I have improved my cutting torch skills, I will next time get a longer piece (save booku money) and cut it myself. 

I drove the rebar down till the top edge was even with the top edge of the wood. Thus placing the rebar 1 foot 6 inches in the ground. It's not going anywhere. 

Here is the completed layout. 

Note the garden ghost. 

Here's what it looks like today:

I constructed the PVC/chicken wire enclosures to keep out the &%@*!! squirrels. The hoops on the long bed will support 60% cloth to cut down on the intense summer sun. 

So there it is, our garden.  We are currently growing: Kale, lettuce, peppers, turnips, beets, onions, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber and squash. 

This doesn't include our herbs, fruit trees and berry bushes. That's for another time

Remember: Green is Good!

Cheers!

And just where have you been??

okay okay, I have been very lax in my blogging. WHAT-ever. Life gets in the way. 

So this is just a brief update, I will be doing another more extensive update later in the week. 

This update deals with my rain barrels. 

So the deal is this, my super creative idea for the crazy ass spigots, sucked. I ripped those leaking bad boys out and put in brass fittings. then smothered them in caulk.  

Then the link between barrels that transfers overflow to the second barrel was originally PVC and proved to be quite ridged. If I had to adjust the barrels, I was dead. 

Sooooo, I got this little handy dandy connector and life was better.

So now, if I need to move or repair any leaks or other issues, it's just a matter of unscrewing the connector, instead of swearing a blue streak at my stupidity. Which didn't happen...really. 

next up, raised gardens from old an old fence and after that, my home made composter which replaces my original fred flintstone versions. (yes, plural)

Remember, Green is Good!

Cheers!

Why hole so big????

To answer a quick question regarding the water barrels and why I had to cut such large openings in them.

Basically, there are two types of used barrels that you will find. Ones that have screw off tops (thus usually handle dry type goods) and the ones I have (which have fixed lids that are melted onto the barrel)

Now the reason for the large holes. it goes like this: I bent my brain trying to figure out how to drill the spigot and overflow holes and then cap them from the inside. There is no way to do it other than cutting an opening in the lid. Since I'm 6'2"  and 190 pounds, I had to make the large so I could fit inside to cap the spigot hole at the bottom. 

Also, bug control. if you have water barrels or any standing water for that matter (especially in the summer) and don't want to take daily malaria pills (although gin and tonics will also work), you can get these little donut type deals from Home Desperate that hold a dormant bacteria that once activated, go after the mosquito larva like they were popcorn. I highly suggest them, that is unless you enjoy itching your skin till it bleeds. Everyone needs a hobby. ;) 

So there it is. If you have any other questions, please write, I do respond to questions, because I need something to continually boost my ego. :) 

Cheers. 

What are those blue things? Part 2

Oh, Oh, HUH?

Mind you when I took the above photo with my crappy little phone, it was Sept 29th!!!

It wasn't even freakin' October yet!!!!!

Sigh. Soon we will be seeing X-Mass decorations on sale after the 4th of July.

Anyway, Part two of my little rain barrel ordeal.

Oh one other thing before I forget, when last I left you, I dug the hole and put in the blocks, while doing this I came across a little urban archeology...

A comb? whatever...

Okay, as you can see, I cut half moon openings into the tops of the barrels. I did this with a ZawSaw, using the metal blade. I first drilled a few large holes to allow the blade to pass through. It proved to be surprisingly easy. Took all of 10 minute for both.

They look kind of happy, don't they? Okay, that was very green geeky.

Bits I used...

Next, using 1 3/4" corer, I cut the over flow and pass through holes on each barrel.

here's a better pic

next I cut 1" hole near the bottom for the 3/4" pvc pipe. I used a 1" paddle drill bit.

Next, you need a short piece of 1 1/2" pvc , 1 coupler and a street elbow. I put the little piece of pvc in the hole...

and glued the coupler on one side...

and glued the street elbow on the other... Pushing them tightly together.

pointing up on the main barrel side and...

pointing down on the reserve barrel side.

Here is the completed PVC pipe on the main barrel.

It's pointed up so as when the barrel is full, the water once it has sort it's level will then drain into the backup barrel.

I next put together my system for the spigot and trash drain. it looks something like this...

However, this is how the final looks...

Note that the cut off is below the spigot. This is so no trash from the roof, bugs, bird poop, etc will spill off with the water, instead it will settle below the spigot. I put the shut off below the spigot as well so this way I won't lose any water. I can cut it off and still use the water while cleaning the trash trap. I did this because I plan to put in a drip system for my garden. No interruption of watering.

Much like the 1 1/2" pvc above I fit the 3/4" pvc in the bottom in the same manner. only this time, I just used an elbow street valve straight into the hole with a coupler on the other side. I used no additional short pieces of 3/4" pvc, just what you see.

Once everything was fitted and glued, I sealed everything with silicon sealant. No leaks yet :)

I now placed everything on a two high stack of 8" cinder block. Then joined the two barrels together...

This is the overflow go between.

Here's a wide shot of everything together...

I got some vinyl screen and had some old rope laying around. I have since replaced the rope with webbing that I bought over at REI.

All told, the whole set up cost me roughly 150.00, that includes lots of mistakes, cuts, and copious amounts of swearing.

I plan on adding more barrels to this set up but putting in an additional overflow to the back up barrel.

So far so good, no leaks. ;)

Next project will be a little side deal. Small herb gardens for my wife. Made from galvanized tubs.

Cheers!!!