Chad Files

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.

Roughly two months ago I came to the cold hard realization that the teardrop project had come to an end. I was trying to decide when I was going to have time to finish the trailer when something I had not given a lot of thought to hit me — was I really going to be able to tow the trailer without my truck? The answer was no. Our little 4 cylinder Altima has a towing capacity of 1000 pounds. That includes all passengers, gear, clothes, etc. My estimate for the trailer was 650 pounds. Add that to the body weight of the family, about 400 pounds for all of us, and we are 50 pounds over without any clothes or food; not to mention that the kids could never get any bigger. Buying a vehicle specifically for this purpose was not in the plan either so I decided to throw in the towl and halt production.

Shortly after that epiphany I had to decide what to do with the trailer and all of it’s parts. At first I gave some thought to finishing everything and selling it as a whole unit, but that idea quickly faded. Part of the reason it was not already finished was because I did not have any time to devote to it. That left selling the trailer off unfinished and getting what I could for it.

Last week the trailer sold on eBay to some very nice people from the St. Louis MO area. They came down this past Saturday and hauled it off. It was sad to see it go, but I am relieved because it is one less thing on my to do list.

On Sunday I put an ad on Freecycle to give away the remaining lumber. A nice gentleman and his son came over and took it all away. Now there is barely a trace of the teardrop at my house.

Last year we attempted to start some of our vegetable plants from seed in the house. It ended up being a total disaster. The plants could not get enough sun, they took space on the kitchen counter and table, and the planters became a hang out for fruit flies. Ultimately we ended up loosing all of the seedlings before they ever made it into the ground.

To fix the issue this year I decided to build a small greenhouse. I looked at several commercial options and many free, do-it-yourself plans on the Internet. Most of the commercial options were too big and expensive. The plans on the Internet were fine, but many were way more elaborate that what I needed; they did however give me an idea. Using some of the materials that I had from other projects I could build a small green house for just a few dollars.

I am not using my garden boxes from last year so I stacked them on top of each other and added some dirt to make a base. Then my wonderful wife took some PVC pipe we had from another project and made some ribs for the structure. She did this by drilling a hole half way through each of the supports. Then drilling a hole every two feet, starting from the end, on one pipe to make a roof truss. After the holes were drilled she used some bolts and nuts to secure the supports to the truss. With the ribs complete we jammed the supports into the sides of the base. The pressure from the arc on the PVC holds the supports in place. I have plans to secure them with strapping if they ever start to slip. I left the exposed structure open for a few weeks to see how it would do. Thankfully nothing budged.

With the frame in place it was time to turn my attention to covering the house. For that I used some thick polyethylene we had from covering a sidewalk while it cured a few years ago. We started by measuring and cutting squares large enough to cover the ends. Then we attached the corners and bottom of the plastic to the base using heavy duty staples. Slowly we wrapped the plastic around the end arcs one at a time using duct tape to hold it together. When we finished securing the ends we used some more plastic to make the roof. When we started securing the roof we discovered that clear packing tape sticks really well to plastic, and being clear it lets light in. The roof was secured one end at a time using packing tape and staples.

At this point I went around the entire structure and used packing tape to reinforce all of the corners. I also put tape over the roof bolts and staples to hopefully prevent the plastic from tearing. When everything was finally sealed the plastic immediately started fogging from the inside — which is a good sign that it is working.

The final task was to create some sort of access so I could get into the greenhouse. To do that I cut a large hole in the side of the roof between two of the supports on the back side. Then I cut a new piece of plastic large enough to overlap the hole I just made. Using some more packing tape I attached the new piece of plastic over the hole to form somewhat of a hinge. To make sure the door stayed shut I ran a strip of velcro down each side of the hatch and along the bottom. At first the adhesive on the back of the velcro did not want to stick to the plastic, but I found out by accident that it really likes to stick to packing tape. So I ran a strip of packing tape on the inside of the hatch door and the roof, and reattached the velcro to the packing tape. I also stapled the velcro to the base of the house where I could. The hatch is not very big, and it will require me to get dirty to get inside but that is no big deal to me.

Now that it is all said and done I need to put something in there to see how well it really works. I am also trying to find a small weather unit that I can put in the greenhouse and monitor from the outside.