“Let me underscore the obvious here: Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.”

Here.

“Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.”

Mark Twain, too lazy/tired to look for the original source.

I went to Greensgrow which was every bit as awesome as its reputation. I’m trying to grow as many different kinds of basil as I can in the front yard — in the house where pesto is an automatic in at dinner time, basil is king — and I picked up two plants from them. Called Valentino Basil, it looks a bit more crinkly than Genovese but not quite as wild as the Basil Lettuce Leaf I’ve ordered from Seed Savers. Once I’ve got those plants going, I’m going to try and get a plant from each of the big box stores to see how they all compare. As I find other nurseries, I’ll add them to the mix. With about 45 square feet, I’ve got plenty of room for many, many plants.

Unfortunately, I did see a cat doing some business in my fresh soil. I’m going to try chicken-wire on top of the dirt, which supposedly keeps the cats away.

And I got a bunch of lettuces that had already been started (picture in the raised bed below). I got two “Read Sail”, two green leaf, and one funkily named green leaf that I’ll record tomorrow. I like the idea of having lettuce that you can pick regularly and eat right away. I like that the seed packets all say “sow continuously.”

One worry: my soil, which was supposed to be a mix of mushroom soil and top soil, was crusty this evening. I know that we’ve had no rain but still, I though the mix would provide enough “stuff” to keep the soil from drying this way. I need to get busy with my compost; I feel as though last year’s pile is good for flowers but that the new bin, where I’ve been very careful about what’s gone into it, won’t be ready for awhile. May have to buy some compost…

Flowers: I’m going to try and grow a range of sunflowers in the big pots in the back but I also picked up some PANSIES — SUPREME clear blue sky and SUPREME yellow — for the pots up front. Planted them very close together with the thought that I would have to regularly add compost to keep them healthy.
We’ll see if they survive Easter Weekend without being stolen.

Last thing: got some great deals at the Re-store on some gardening stuff. Two tall trellises I want to use for beans and cukes for $4 each!

I have an awesome neighbor. He’s done many things, from serving in the navy to playing sax in a funk band to developing an inexpensive way to install a solar array on Philadelphia area homes. And sometime in the next few years, we’ll invest the sweat equity and put the panels on our roof.

In the meantime, we switched over to The Energy Coop for our electricity. We picked the all renewable plan which will mean that we’ll pay between eight and fifteen more dollars each month but that all of our energy will be produced through renewable sources (they have a cool graph here) as opposed to PECO where almost 50% of the energy is generated by coal.

When I called with questions, I was struck by how many of my questions were political in nature. The nuts and bolts aren’t that complicated — they take over the generation and transmission charge while PECO continues to be bill for distribution — but I wanted to know why more people wouldn’t make this switch. For $100-150 a year more, you could support an organization that’s trying to build an alternative infrastructure and one whose energy source has a much, much smaller environmental footprint. In terms of my great neighbor, doesn’t it make more sense to support an organization that’s affecting change across PA as opposed to financing and putting together my own power system, one that will really only serve me? What responsibility does a community have to each other, i.e., why couldn’t blocks organize around this issue? Why is the only reason most folks switch because of cost? What kind of campaign could get families and companies to think about these issues?

Man…

what’s best?

Living in a city with a far-sighted water department?
Attending a well-organized, informative session about how to use rain barrels?
Seeing 70+ of your fellow citizens show up in a church to attend such a session?

Yeah Philly…

Built the water barrel myself ($30 for a food grade barrel (found a better source since) plus about $11 in plumbing materials). Going to string chicken wire over the PVC and try and grow the three sisters here…

Mikhail Khodorkovsky:

To cut a deal with one’s conscience — to lie, keep quiet, “not notice,” hiding behind the claim that it’s “for my family.” To convince oneself that “such are the times,” or that “everyone does it.” Who are we really dealing with? How do we find out that the other party — the conscience — refuses to deal? When we find ourselves face to face with disaster? Or later, when we are tallying up our life and become painfully aware that there’s no more dodging the raindrops, that there remain only memories? But by then you can’t change anything

Full article here.

Math is hard and I ordered too much dirt. Now I have a series of beds that I need to figure out how to plant. I’m working off of two books: The Urban Homesteader and Square Foot Gardening. I don’t have the time or the inclination to try and start seeds indoors (next year, I hope), so I’m drawing plans to figure out what will grow where.

In the meantime, I’m trying to get two water barrels going. I had purchased empties from an ad on Craigslist, which led me to discover a cool business in Maryland and an invitee for school, but realized that the internet plans that abound for this sort of thing aren’t exactly practical. For example, the most popular link, from the city of Bremerton, suggests that you drill a hole and then use a pipe tap to create threads for your faucet. Two issues with this: the big box stores don’t sell the big pipe taps (the kits at Lowe’s and Home Depot all stop at 1/2″) and I’m dubious that the walls of a drum are thick enough to support these threads without collapsing or bursting. Could be wrong.

I went to my local hardware store — Monarch — which is a great store, mostly because the owner is as interested solving problems and will talk through anything with you. (I worry for the long-term health of this store because he is the show).

Our solution: copper faucet, piece screwed in, pieces of rubber to cut as a homemade gasket, and a bolt on the other side. Pictures coming soon.

I also discovered that the lids to the two food-grade water barrels I’d purchased did not come off easily. Apparently you need to tool called a “bung wrench” to get them open. A “bung wrench.” I wish I had taped the conversation I had with the person who answered the phone at Harbor Freight; he could not believe that such a tool existed and that I wasn’t simply making a prank call. The interwebs suggest that you can open the valves with pliers, something I’ll try later.

Tuesday night Underdog Landscaping delivered eight cubic yards of soil: six cubic yards of top soil mixed with two cubic yards of mushroom soil.

Note that my labor force engaged in a union action after loading exactly one wheelbarrow. They said something about dinner. Anyway, eight cubic yards is an immense pile of dirt. I shoveled from 6:30P until 11:00 P. (One of my students asked why I was so quiet the next day). Then I moved more on Wednesday and again today. All three beds in the backyard have been filled; I had so much dirt that I’m going to create a fourth flower bed in the back. I had enough dirt to re-do the side yard AND to fill the front.

My math: one cubic yard covers 27 cubic feet or a 3x9x1 bed. Eight cubic yards covers 216 cubic feet.

I filled three 4×10 beds, one 2×8 bed, one 3×8 bed, and the front yard, which was 5×9. That should be 205 feet, which makes sense because I have a little pile left. I should note that I used boards that were 10″ so I lost some on each bed.

Still, an absolute immense amount of dirt moved in four days.

I need dirt for my three raised bed gardens in the backyard. And I need dirt for the 4×9 patch I cleared in my front bed where I hope to plant an obscene amount of basil.

I call a couple of terrific landscapers each of which tells me that it will be more than a $1000 to come and clear the dirt in the front bed and deliver the eight cubic yards I need to fill the beds. I figure I’ll do it myself.

I know that the Fairmount Recycling Center has screened compost at $36 a ton. Some of my students had waged war with the internet to figure out exactly how much a ton of dirt covers. I know that I have three beds that each need 40 cubic feet of dirt and front bed that needs 45 cubic feet for a total of 165 cubic feet or about 6.1 cubic yards. (I divided 165 by 27 (which was my understanding of how many cubic feet ONE cubic yard of soil would be)).

One of the landscapers recommended a company that would deliver soil. Here’s the timeline:
1. Call Thursday; they take information and promise to call back. Quote me price of $385 for top soil/mushroom soil mix.
2. Call Friday (we’ll call you back).
3. Call late Friday (we’ll call you back. We’re almost out of soil. I’ll call you Sunday.)

Guess what? They didn’t call.