Chad Files

Lately I have been following quite a few blogs that discuss sustainability and minimalist living. One of the sites I follow posted an interview with a young man named Tyler Tervooren. Tyler has recently launched a new e-book titled Take This Job and Shove It. I downloaded for three reasons:

1. You never know when a good situation is going to turn sour. Like your cool small company with a free form style of business being bought by a large mega conglomerate. Yea, I am dealing with that one at the moment. Everything is fine so far, but you never know when it is going to head south.
2. Tyler is a marathoner and into mountaineering. I run marathons on occasion, and very much enjoy backpacking — similar to backpacking just with lots of snow, ice, and high altitudes.
3. I love Johnny Paycheck and his famous song.

Last night I read it — it is short enough to finish in less than an hour — and really enjoyed the read. Several of the ideas are obvious if you have ever entertained the idea of flying a double bird salute and running out the door. A few of the topics Tyler covers I never would have thought of. One that sticks out is how me managed to use the credit card system to make $300 with very little effort. That is not something I think I will try, but it is extremely cleaver.

If you find yourself disgruntled, or not 100% happy with your current career path read the book. It is worth the effort.

I recently picked up a new hobby…brewing beer. It is something I have always wanted to do plus I like doing things myself, I enjoy a bit of chemistry, and I like beer so I took the plunge.

Having never seen beer brewed or talking to anybody that had brewed before I did what I always do when I find myself lacking a bit of culinary knowledge, I sought the advice of Alton Brown. Several years ago Alton did an episode of Good Eats (Amber Waves) where he brewed beer, and managed to make it look easy enough. I found the episode online and watched it a half dozen times. Then I started doing further research and found that several of the things Alton did were wrong. That is when I found a nice series of videos on the American Homebrewers Association website on how to brew.

Armed with that knowledge I purchased the Deluxe Starter Kit (I went with glass carboys) and a Nut Brown Ale Kit from Northern Brewer. The equipment kit came with all kinds of cool devices and instruments. The brew kit was simple and had an excellent instruction sheet. I brewed my first batch the day I got the kit.

The actual brewing process was simple. If you have ever made a batch of stock brewing beer from an extract kit is a simple matter. The only difficulty I had was cooling the wort (unfermented beer) it took a bit longer than I would have liked. I made the mistake of trying to cool the wort by adding ice (like Alton) all that did was make more lukewarm liquid. Eventually it hit the correct temperature and I finished getting the beer in the fermenter.

The next day the air lock started bubbling like crazy, which is a good thing. The only problem was the beer was too warm. We were having a series of 100+ degree days and the house was just not cool enough to keep the beer under 75 degrees (which is important). I added towels and ice to the closet (see the picture) and that helped some. I muddled on through the rest of the fermentation process (I did a primary and secondary) with the warm temps.

When it came time to bottle the beer I changed my mind and opted to keg it instead; even though I painstakingly drank 2+ cases of beer so I would have some bottles :). The change happened when I came across a few old soda kegs (free) and a mini-fridge (super cheap). The process of kegging was not terribly difficult, to my surprise. Of course, I did watch a series of videos on how to keg beer multiple times.

In the end the beer came out drinkable but not fantastic. I am still working on the best way to carbonate the beer with the CO2 cannister. Right now it is a bit flat. The beer is also a touch astringent which is a result of the fermentation temperature being too high. That problem is solved though, I found plans on how to make a super cheap fermentation cooler and did so (I did not drill a hole, I just used towels to cover the top of the carboy). Half of the nut brown ale is gone and there is a nice American Wheat in the primary fermenter at the moment. So far it is a great hobby and I have enjoyed every minute of it.

Longer and warmer days are here in Arkansas. To a few of us that means it is time to start the spring garden. If that is not the case in your household, then frankly it should be.

The act of planting a few plants that produce food is simple to do. You do not even need a yard — flower pots and window seal containers can be used to grow a surprising amount of produce. A single tomato plant can produce up to 25 pounds of produce. Even if you have to purchase a pot, dirt, and seeds, that is less than $1 a pound for tomatoes.

It does not matter if you are a Republican or Democrat, Black or White, Rich or Poor, Employed or not, anyone can grow vegetables. The act of growing our own food is something we have forgotten how to do in the country, and it may just be the one thing that can save us all. Get outside, breath the air, let the sun hit your skin, and most importantly grow something.

Lately I have been on a quest to minimize: buy less, consume less, own less, eat less, think less. Basically I want to simplify my life and just be. A big part of minimizing is getting rid of the old things that tie one down: debt, stuff, stress, work, etc. I took a long look at all of the things, and they all basically boiled down to one common denominator — money. Typical Americans work long and hard hours to make money to buy things — even if the things are not necessary — and if we cannot buy things outright we take on debt to get them. I am guilty, you are guilty, we are all guilty. I want to brake that cycle in my life.

The key component of minimizing my lifestyle, and ultimately being where I want to be in life, involves minimizing my need for money. This can be accomplished in multiple ways, and I am deploying many different strategies. However, there is one that stands out above the others because it solves many problems at the same time — selling my stuff.

Over time I have amassed things I do not need and no longer want. My thought is I can sell five of these items every week for the next year. By selling the stuff I get rid of the clutter in my life, and raise funds without having to work more. I can use those funds to pay off debts, or invest them — allowing them make more money.

I picked five because that is all I can manage to sell/ship at one time. The thought is if I sell five things a week and make an average of $100 a week, at the end of the year I will have over $5000. That is a nice little chunk of change that I can use to pay off student loans, invest, store in a college fund, start a business, etc. To track things, I wrote a little application to track the progress. Follow along, I will be writing more about this initiative as it progresses.

I am presently faced with a moral dilemma. During the last few years I have competed in a marathon, a triathlon, several long bicycle events and a few 5k races. Each time I do one of these I cannot help but notice the amount of resources that go into them. First off there are all the people driving around to haul stuff to the event and then to set things up along the course. Next there are all the participants, most drive and some come from far off places. Then there is the event itself; piles of paper cups and plastic water bottles, more people driving about on the course for support, goo wrappers, spectator trash, and so on and so forth. It is truly appalling when one considers the amount of energy and resources that go into these events.

The dilemma I face is that I really enjoy participating in these events, but seriously do not like the toll they enact on our environment. There are a few event organizers and organizations that are trying to change things, but change is slow and never easy. This very issue is a large reason why I no longer follow or support professional and collegiate sports. Think of the resources that go into a single professional sporting event. Now think about how much better off the environment would be if these organizations cut their seasons in half, or better yet took notice and try to make meaningful, sustainable changes to the entire way they operate.

At any rate, the registration deadline for the Little Rock Marathon is looming and I cannot decide if my desire to compete will out pace my greater desire to always consider how my life impacts the world around me. I fundamentally believe that exercise should only involve the most basic equipment and rarely ever involve transportation. However, it is good to have a goal for the time spent exercising, like a competition. I have until November 1st to decided…time will tell.

This morning I found the Cyberbike. This thing is an exercise bicycle that hooks into a Wii. That is all well and good, but how about doing this instead…

• Create, or modify, a real bicycle trainer that allows me to use my bike.
• Make a game that drops me into the Tour de France or puts me on a long ride out in the country.
• Have the trainer adjust the resistance as hills come into the screen. Also have the trainer track my speed and output so I can actually race other riders on the screen.

The possibilities for cyclist are boundless with a setup like this. Want to race against Lance in the 2002 tour? How about riding against Eddie Merckx? Want to race your local riding buddies along the Tour of California? Maybe you are a track guy and want to race along with Bradley Wiggins in a Madison? All of this would be possible.

I would buy the system in a heartbeat. It would make indoor training enjoyable instead of just a means to an end.

I am finding myself doing more and more graphic design work these days. My wife has taken up photography on a semi-professional level these days, and needed a postcard for some swag bags. Here is what I came up with; they look really cool printed on card stock.

Earlier this year I set a plan for the 2009 garden; I am happy to report the plan has been implemented, the results are another issue all together.

Like planned, I tilled up a sizable portion of the back yard. Before I started tilling I did not realize how crappy the soil around my house was. There was a very thin layer of usable topsoil followed by a thick layer of black Arkansas mud. Under that? You guessed it…shale. In all, I estimated there was about 6 inches of usable dirt. The quality of which would not do either. The only other option I had was to bring in some better dirt.

We brought in 6 yards of a compost/sandy loam mix. The dirt went directly on top of the plot and I mixed it in with the tiller. That mostly fixed the issue with the clay like soil, and gave me a few more inches of good dirt to work with.

Shortly after tilling the ground I put my tomato seeds in the greenhouse that I built. I started them in the jiffy seed starter trays then moved them to 20oz plastic soda bottles when they were a bit bigger. In theory the bottles sounded like a good idea. They were available and seemed large enough. What I did not count on was how it made the tomatoes grow. They grew straight up and did not branch much making them “leggy”. However, they looked healthy and survived several frost covered nights in the greenhouse. Next year I am going to use individual pots with a good quality potting soil.

Before planting I had to figure out how to keep the dog and the kids out of the garden. Fortunately I found some light duty fence at the hardware store. It is about three feet tall and does a good job at restricting access. The fence installation only took a few hours.

We planted most of the garden on Easter weekend. I had planted onions, potatoes, carrots, and lettuce several weeks prior. Everything went down in the ground and looked great, until May came along. Arkansas has received a record amount of rainfall this May. The rain pointed out that I had several low spots in my garden. The primary low spots were where I had planted the potatoes and tomatoes. All but a few of the potatoes rotted before they sprouted. The rain pounded the soil near the tomatoes so hard that it packed it down and has all but suffocated the small plants. The water also pushed my carrot seeds all over the place; I have had carrots coming in throughout the garden.

As it stands now the lettuce, squash, cucumbers, and garbanzo beans are doing well. The tomatoes and green beans are having a rough time. I have removed most of the carrots because they were interfering with the other plants. I have been forced to look at this years garden as an experiment instead of a viable food source.

When I tell most people that I have a reel mower they look at me as to say — “What? Mine is not real?” — then I spell it out, “it is a r-e-e-l mower”; you have got to love homonyms. Afterwards folks usually understand, then I get a plethora of questions about the whys and hows. The answers to those questions are a bit more involved…

The main reason I went with a reel mower is because power mowers are REALLY bad for the environment. According to the EPA the average gas-powered lawn mower emits as much pollution per hour as 11 automobiles do during the same time span. Lawn mower engines are known as two-cycle engines; the average two-cycle engine emits over 90 times more pollution per gallon of fuel than any car or truck. For me, using a power mower negates most of the effort I put out by riding my bicycle instead of driving a car.

There are other reasons I decided to use a reel mower: no gasoline, less noise, smaller when stored, easier to maintain. They also have the added benefit of allowing me to mow my yard while the kids are outside. Power mowers throw things all over the place, and do not stop as easily as a reel mower. With a reel mower it stops making noise when I stop pushing it, and I do not have to yank on it to start mowing again. That makes it easier for me to watch the kids and still get the yard mowed.

One of the questions I always get is “how well does it cut”? The answer is, good enough. Power mowers create a suction vortex under the deck that pulls grass and weeds up a bit, then cuts everything. A reel mower pulls the grass in with the spindle, then presses it against a cutter bar. Since there is no suction, the reel mower does not cut everything. However, since there is no blade swinging around when the mower is at rest, it is easy and safe to bend over and pull a missed weed out of the ground by hand. The reel mower does an excellent job of cutting thick healthy grass. What it usually misses are tall weeds and wild grasses; however, it will still get most of those. See for yourself, the picture on the left is of my yard right after I cut it with a reel mower.

I will say that the reel mower is harder to push than a power mower. It also takes a bit longer to cut my grass with as well. My front lawn is about an eighth of an acre and it takes about 45 minutes to cut with a reel mower. The reel mower also does not get as close to the edge of walkways and flower beds as a power mower. Of course, it also does not blow debris into my flower beds like a power mower does.

Another advantage of a reel mower is the cost. I bought mine from the local hardware store for $135. It has a 20 inch cutting width, has several height settings, and came with a bag to catch clippings. A comparable power more cost more than $200. The cost of ownership of a reel more is also next to nothing. With a power mower there are added expenses such as gas, oil, and spark plugs.

If you have a small to medium yard that is primarily covered with grass, and do not mind a bit of work, a reel mower is a great option. Otherwise, I would suggest looking into something different. As for me, I am sticking with the old fashion, no pollution option.

Over the past six months or so I have been working on establishing a bicycle collective in Conway. The primary purpose of the collective is to recycle old bicycles. There are several things we want to do with the old bikes and one of the projects is to create a community bike share.

To get things started I created a prototype bike to show how the bikes will look and function. The basic idea is to reduce all of the bikes to single speeds, or internally geared hubs depending on the bike. Each bike will have the same color scheme: blue frame with an orange fork, and handlebars if they are not chrome. I also want to put a rack or basket on each bike but those cost money. The prototype bike was created to show off so it has mostly new parts that are clean and shiny. That said, the frame, fork, handlebars, stem, seat post, and barrings are all original. Not bad for a 20 year old huffy that has been sitting in the rain for at least a decade.

Since I am going to be the one riding this bike, I built it to suit my taste. There is no rear brake and the chain ring is a thigh blasting 52. The ratio is 87.7 and not suitable for most folks. The actual share bikes will be something in the ballpark of 65.

I still want to get some decals for the bike: a logo on the head tube, our group name “Conway Advocates for Bicycling” on the top tube, and a list of sharing rules to put on the down tube. If you know of a place where I can get a small quantity of three color vinyl decals for cheap, please let me know.

Rebuilding the bikes is a slow process at the moment. Each one has to be completely disassembled, sanded, painted, and put back together. The construction, deconstruction parts are easy, the paint takes the better part of a weekend because of drying times and such. Hopefully we will have a few ready in the coming months.