Gone Solar

Cells soaking in late-December rays. (12/26/16)

For as long as we have lived at our current home, my wife and I (well, mostly my wife) have maintained a vegetable garden from which we harvested multiple varieties of tomatoes, greens and other vegetables. Over a decade ago, my sons and I built our first composting pit with chicken wire in the backyard. Since that time we have added a smaller enclosed pit for wet waste before ultimately joining a community composting service. Two years ago, my wife leased a Volt after many satisfied years with the Prius. For a number of years now, my wife and I have discussed the possibility of having our home equipped with solar panels.

The next step seemed clear.

Our roof from a side street pre-installation. (11/15/16)

This past September, we met with contractors and received estimates and information about having a solar electric system installed as an end-of-year home improvement project. Just prior to Thanksgiving, we took the plunge and by mid-December, with the i's dotted and necessary permits acquired, our cells began collecting solar power and converting DC to AC through our basement inverter. (Full discloser: I am most definitely not entirely conversant in the ins-and-outs of the tech, so have chosen to use information from a FAQ page on Invictus Electrical's website for this post.)

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Racking for solar panels installed. (11/29/16) 

Moving forward, the Photovoltaic, or PV system, will convert sunlight directly into electricity serving a portion of our home’s electrical needs. The PV system is connected to our home’s electrical service panel to supplementing the existing utility service. After an inspection by our local municipality, a secondary meter called a net meter was installed for tracking the balance of energy used in contrast to that generated by the cells. Because we have a Southern-facing rooftop with no buildings and trees obstructing the cells, our PV system will work for us anytime the sun is shining. When the PV system is generating more electricity than our home is using, we will receive a credit for the excess power our utility.

Twelve panels installed and catching rays. Note that the angle of the sun is
such that the neighboring tree does not obstruct the cells. (12/26/16)

"Sunny Boy" the inverter, all moved and ready to rock in the basement.

Net meter installed! (12/26/16)

I often tell my own students that I regret not having paid better attention in high school and college science classes as my basic understanding of the science behind the technology is spotty at best. Fortunately, I have my wife to point me to sources to fill in the gaps as we continue to modify and adapt our home around us, and adventure which continues...

Reaping Some of What We've Sown

Under the hood: celery, kale and Swiss chard. (7/22/16)

Things in our vegetable garden have been going very well this summer. This success is due to my wife's strategic watering (despite drought-like conditions) and the use of new garden equipment, including more well-designed tomato cages and a row cover.

Last weekend, Anne and I harvested a nice amount of kale and Swiss chard. While I am not a fan of eating copious amounts of either leafy vegetable, I have become more accustomed to eating. In small quantities or as an ingredient both can be made more palatable. Despite my awareness of how each is a "super food," I have yet to acquire a taste for it. I am working on that, though.

This summer's backyard garden developments have been rewarding to be a part of. The row cover, and some well-placed bunny repellent, have created perfect growing conditions and kept away cabbage looper caterpillars from eating away at the vegetables.

Blackbeard the cat checking out the haul. (7/22/16)

Washed and ready to eat. (7/22/16)

Sauteed Swiss chard. (7/22/16)

Next up: this weekend we are taking the next step by taking on the challenge of wrapping the celery for future harvesting.

Continuing Our Composting Campaign

Something old for something new (-ish). (3/15/14)

Things change. As you get oder, I've learned, things change more quickly than one can imagine. The reminder of this truth I came across this week had to do with the evolution of our home composting here in River City. Long an advocate for sustainability, it was my wife who prompted me, along with our sons, to erect an outdoor composting pit made of chicken wire and metal posts behind our shed nearly ten years ago.

The original pit in action.
(11/21/2009)

Six falls later (and numerous leaves) later in August 2005, we took another step, adding a raised plastic cube composting bin in our backyard, primarily for kitchen waste. This second pit, a Deluxe Pyramid Composter,  became our primary receptacle for eggshells, fruit/vegetable skins and rinds, and compostable coffee filters, while we continued to use the larger original one for leaves and grass clippings. Along the way, we experimented with coir fillers and compostable bags with varying degrees of success. (FYI: not all bags which are said to decompose in a reasonable amount of time do--more often than not they seem just to muck of the pitchfork teeth when attempts to turn the pit are made.)

Now, after maintaining a five-year, two-composter status quo (in the intervening years I also installed a rainwater barrel to our house's gutter system), we have taken another step in our journey toward a measure of sustainability. (Recognize that the "we" is used in the most royal of senses--my wife does the thinking and I do the leg work--well, most of it.)  Three weeks ago my wife and I took another step toward more sensible sustainability ... by joining Community Composting in Rochester, New York.

Into the Deluxe Pyramid Composter.
(9/1/2012)

The way it works is very simple: we save our kitchen waste, or scraps, (the amount of which actually increases due to their ability to compost more complex materials than we can in our backyard) in a green plastic container and leave it our on the stoop each collection day. One of the systemic benefits of living in the city, all regular garbage, including standard recyclables are picked up on the same schedule as our little green bin.. With this past Thursday collection, we also experienced our first swap with Community Composting--they collected our green bin, left us a clean one and left a similarly sized white bin with compost for our use. This is just one possible outcome, the receipt of compost for personal gardening, with another possibility being the donation of the compost generated to community gardens and neighborhood associations.

There is a fee involved, but for those who do elect to participate, there is the satisfaction of contributing to a reduction in the loop of food to waste to food. Given the volume of leaves and clippings our small city tad somehow generates, our participation in Community Composting is not a replacement for the other things we have done in the past, but is just another way we can refine the process so it works best (or easiest) for us.

Shiva Loose in the Garden

Believe it or not, I had already prepped this bed once already this past May! (6/23/13)

When it comes to working in our small urban garden, I take on the role of destroyer. I break things down and make them ready, while my wife selects, plants and nurtures. In the garden each summer, I embrace my inner Shiva and happily make ready the bed by weeding, digging, turning-over and blending the soil. I happily take upon myself the task of waking early (before the heat and humidity set in), and get to digging in the dirt.


 

Shiva by Sanjay Patel.

The suggestion that Shiva-energy is at play seems appropriate (at least in a modern, Western sort-of-way) as it gives a positive and situationally appropriate connotation to the "destruction" necessary for successful gardening. As I understand it, Shiva does not destroy out of evil intent or as a means of ending the existence of something, but rather to reassert the truth that "all that has a beginning by necessity must have an end" and from that end a new beginning.

Making the ground ready is my role and the planting of the vegetables is my wife's. Tilling the earth, mixing in fresh compost consisting of wet waste from our kitchen--these things bring me a sense of accomplishment. This is not to suggest that I do not also enjoy assisting in planting, and on many occasions watering the plants in the early morning and late evening, my skills set is more in tune with the act of dismantling.

Of course, the greatest pleasure is in eventually being part of the small contribution to our table that the garden will (fingers -crossed!) have to our table in the fall.

Progress made early in the morning before going to the diner for breakfast. (6/23/13)

Things move quickly once re-energized with joe, toast and eggs. (6/23/13)

Fresh compost for blending into the soil (6/23/13)

Ready, set, GROW! (6/23/13)

...and so begins a new growing season with a variety of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplant.

Compostin'!

Something wicked is boiling in the pit! (6/03/13)

I had an early start this year to preparing the gardens. Unfortunately, that early start no longer seems so "early" and I am left needing to re-weed and return eh garden beds before planting any vegetables. I did, however, spend last evening tending to our compost pit, which in some way equates to gardening. Despite the appearance in the picture above, I had already weeded the nascent beds once, but as you can see, will need to do so again before formally kicking off my summer break gardening season.



Guess who didn't eat their green apple in tehir lunch last week. (6/03/13)

Currently, we use a Deluxe Pyramid Composter. The lid is hinged so you can open it with one hand, yet it can’t blow away though I use a brick to keep any prying critters from gaining entry. It is fairly large and surpassingly unassuming, holds nearly 12 cubic feet. A quick look inside revealed that it was time to turn over the cuttings in anticipation of using some fresh compost in the next few weeks. The interior did not just look unpromising, it was downright gross!



Coconut coire bricks + rainwater = satisfying garden experinece. (6/03/13)

Because there has not been many grass clippings to add to the composter in recent weeks, there is clearly a need to add some "greens" or, more specifically, "browns." Once the grass grows more fully, I should have more clippings to mix into the composter. Until then, we'll rely on the coconut coir bricks that my wife bought last year. Using the coir also gives me a chance to use the rain water recently collected in our rain barrel. It has been rainy of late and it is a satisfying exercise to use the rain water in tending our composting pit.




Mixing in the re-hydrated coir. (6/03/13)

Coir is the coarse fibers extracted from the outer shell of a coconut.  Last spring, my wife ordered a large box of "bricks." from an oknline garden store. By soaking the compressed bricks, they expand 5 to 7 times in volume. The intnetion is to use the carbon-rich coir to mainatin the approiate balance necessary fro compsointg nitrogen-rich kitchen scraps in the compost pile. Ideally, this also speeds up the composting process and improves the quality of the compost.

Niiiice! (6/03/13)

The dark, nutrient rich lower levels of the compost pit would seem to indicate that things are working rather well. I have done my best to turnover and add coir during the winter months, though other activities often get in the way.

(6/03/13)

If you were to explore any number of online gardening catalogs, you would find many bells-and-whistles available for purchase that are made to appear as though they are necessary for good composting. One such item would be the tabletop composter bags. We have a ceramic table top composter in our kitchen that we empty into the larger, outdoor compositor once or twice weekly. Ina n effort to make this transfer easier (and less messy), we purchased some decomposing bags.

Unfortunately, after two years of use, and multiple opportunities to pick them out of the compost heap, I have come to the conclusion that, despite the fact that these bags will decompose, the rate at which they do makes them more of a nuisance than a help. At this point the practice is this: when turning over the pit, I extract and collect the partially decompsing bags and dispose of them in the traditional waste basket. There, they can decompose slowly and not impair my ability to turn over the contents more easily.

Given the rich brown dirt, I am very excited to properly further prep and plant our vegetable gardens, an activity I look very forward to continuing in earnest this coming weekend.

Rain Barrel Redux

Rainy day Friday... the barrel back in business! (5/25/13)

This past weekend, at the tail end of our recent late-spring/early-summer "heat wave," I took advantage of the nice weather to unpack our rain barrel from storage and reconnect it to the downspout. It was not a day-too-soon as soon thereafter a band of intermittent showers moved in. Now all I need to do is get some plants in the ground... our outdoor hanging plants will only use so much of the rain barrel's freshly fallen contents!



Before (5/19/13).

After (5/19/13).



 

 

The Long Rain Barrel Good-bye!

Water dumped out and top removed prior to storing.

The fact that our Upstate New York winter is (fingers crossed!) almost over doesn't mean that I have forgotten about the ongoing winterization of my rain water collection barrel. Initially, I had intended to simply leave the spigot open and let the melt run through the barrel, draining out onto the patio.



Not quite what I had hoped would happen...

At last check, this plan was revealed to be a more than a little naive as the result (evidence by the pic above) was simply a pile of frozen ice and water which failed had to facilitate drainage.



Back to "normal," relatively speaking.

Adjusting the plastic accordion connector from the barrel to the original underground drain pipe proved easier than anticipated. This would allow for the original flow of rainwater (and melt) that had been interrupted by the barrel's installation last summer.



Looks warmer than it really is.

The heavy lifting consisted of disassembling the barrel's components, a task made more challenging by the frozen standing water collected within. Even with the unusually warn weather over the days prior the water had not melted enough to avoid the necessity of breaking the ice with a hammer to allow for removal and storage.



Accordion attached and barrel removed.

The rain water barrel's space is cleared until spring, when it will see a triumphant return, reattachment and return to function.

See you in the spring!

Stored atop the charcoal grill with porch furniture and large gardening tools, the barrel (significantly lighter after the water and ice has been bashed out of it) awaits, like I, the warmer temperatures of May.

K-Cup Conundrum

Though the appearance and taste is comparable (relative to flavor) the difference is in the design and materials.

Two years ago, for my birthday, my wife bought a Keurig single cup coffee maker for our kitchen. As someone who would often make a whole pot of coffee before work only to leave much of it behind to waste, it was a great purchase. Conscientious about material waste, we would collect the used k-cups and separate the "parts" for recycling every week or so (with grounds going into our table top composter for later addition to the larger outdoor one).

Shortly after the expiration of the patent on k-cups expired, our local (now regional) mega-lo shopping mart, Wegmans, started offering their own brand of store brand k-cups. (Much like national chain Trader Joe's, more and more frequently Wegmans is stocking store shelves with store brands of popular products rather than those with a higher level--and presumably higher price--of national name recognition brands.) Because they are priced lower than the national brand, they, like other store brand alternatives, are a potentially attractive purchase. Even better, when it comes to taste, the quality is very comparable to the more expensive brew. This is, of course, a good thing.

The downside comes when one is attempting to recycle the k-cups. As I cannot envision myself becoming a K-cup creative crafter, this is an important part of my purchasing process.



Wegmans brand Decaf k-cups.

Issues of taste aside (I am by no means a coffee connoisseur, so if there is a discernible difference in taste between Wegmans and Keurig's coffees, it is lost on me), the differences in packaging are only slightly visible to the eye, but moreso to the touch. The texture of the top gives away the truth that Wegmans uses a plastic top as opposed to Keurig's foil one. The cups themselves seem to be of similar design and composition.

Keurig brand Donut House k-cups.

Keurig addresses possible concerns around the environmental impact of their k-cups under the "" page of their website:

The manufacturing requirements of the K-Cup® pack currently make recycling difficult. The K-Cup® pack is made up of three main elements: the cup itself, a filter and an aluminum foil top. The pack's components prevent oxygen, light and moisture from degrading the coffee. Without the barrier the packaging materials provide, we could not maintain quality or freshness. However, we are actively working to meet the challenge of creating a pack that reduces environmental impact and continues to deliver an extraordinary cup of coffee.

Despite the challenge of matching the convenience of k-cup coffees with the desire to produce a product that is recyclable, Kuerig's product is at least relatively easy to disassemble for recycling purposes.

Wegmans k-cup post-mortem.

The plastic(?) top is difficult to remove without cutting with scissors. There are fibrous connective material that makes pulling it off easily very difficult. The small filter inside the cup also seems t be made of some sort of plastic mesh. This is also very challenging to neatly (and quickly remove) without cutting. Additionally, the glue used to adhere the filter to the edges is very strong.

Keurig k-cup post-mortem.

Two distinguishing features of the Keurig design are the small paper filter glued around the edges of the cup and the aluminum foil lid covers the top of the K-Cup. These are clearly composed of different material than those produces and sold by Wegmans and it is these different elements that the most significant difference is present. While the taste of the coffees may be similar, the ease with which one can disassemble the components for recycling is not.

While the foil top and paper filter are fairly easy to separate from the plastic cup, those plastic elements of the Wegmans k-cup are not. This occurred to me when I tried to prepare the stack of Wegmans k-cups I had set aside and realized that what had been, at best, a ten minute activity with Keurig's product became a much more arduous task that after 20+ minutes I had honestly lost the patience to follow-though on. Additionally, in Monroe County, New York, where we live, the aluminum foil tops are recyclable. The guidelines around the same potential for the plastic covers is not so clear on the county's website.

Since the Keurig coffee maker is here to stay in our household, in an effort to save time, frustration, as well as to remain as recycle-friendly as possible, we have continued to spend the extra money to get those cups that are more easily recyclable rather than the less expensive and cheaper Wegmans brand.

Sources:
Are K-Cups Recyclable? by Heath Robert, Demand Media.
Wegmans, Kodak and K-Cups by Rachel Barnhart, The Rochesterian.

Revisiting Rain Barrel

November 17, 2012

January 1, 2013

In mid-November I had aspirations of winterizing our rainwater barrel in advance of the winter snows. Early on, I had it in my mind to (possibly)  disconnect the rain barrel from the gutter downspout during the winter months.

The thought was to attach an additional extender (or simply reconnect the downspout using a coupling) to divert water away from the home's foundation. After doing some preliminary online research, including the quick read How to Winterize a Rain Barrel on eHow.com, and wandering the local hardware store for just the right materials, I went with a less complicated option.

I drained the barrel of water that had remained after the fall plants had been brought indoor, and left the faucet in the "on" position. The next steps was to... leave it alone. Once the melt begins in a few months, I'll reinspect to insure that the flow guide (not pictured above) leads away from he foundation, but there is really no additional other snow water at the base than would be present had we gone through the more extensive process. I am anticipating needing to replace the mesh at the opening, but otherwise, we should be good-to-go in late-May or early June.

This being our first winter with a rain barrel, we'll see how this minimalist approach to winterization works out.

Seen It (Again): The Garden (2008)

With our seven day Winter Recess taking place this last week of December, and having recently completed an extensive exemplification essay, I invited my AP students to earn some additional credit by taking in one of five prescribed documentary films.

The Task: while viewing one fop the films, students are being asked to track instances in whicc the filmmaker attempted to engage one of the three appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) through the use of music, imagery, and dialogue. After completing a graphic organizer of their observations, students are then being asked to develop three high level questions for use in testing one another regrading the use of the three appeals in documentary film making. Though I had already seen four of the five--with Waiting for Superman (2011) being the lone exception--it was time for me to revisit these films for myself.

I first came across the trailer for The Garden while perusing the online home of Oscilloscope Laboratories, the small film distribution company founded by the Late Adam Yauch (aka MCA) of the music group The Beastie Boys. After seeing the trailer I immediately connected it with the book Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman, a book I had previously taught in eighth grade. Both the film and the book deal with a community garden. Unlike Fleischman's book, however, The Garden is a true story, and as Ernest Hemingway famously said, "All  true stories end in death." This film is not about the death of any one individual, but the passing of an ideal.

In the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, hundreds of mostly Mexican-American families came together and turned a blighted corner of South Central Los Angeles into a 14 acre urban oasis—complete with guavas, papayas and enough fruit and vegetables to feed hundreds of families.

Directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, The Garden (2008) is the unflinching look at the struggle between urban farmers and the City of Los Angeles and a powerful developer who wants to evict them and build warehouses. The urban farmers consist primarily of immigrants from Latin American countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out. The film follows them as they organize, fight back, and demand a response to the question of, "Where is our 'Justice for all'?"

As aptly summarized on to the film's Facebook page, "The Garden explores the fault lines in American Society. It is the story of the country’s largest urban farm, backroom politics, land developers, money, poverty and power. If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?"

The Garden is currently available for instant viewing and rental via Netflix, or to be purchased on DVD.

Fall Compost Cookin'

The contents of our small composting bin on September 29, 2012.

These past two weekends, between coaching seasons, have been highly productive ones at home. In addition to raking the yards and getting the leaves to the curb just in time for municipal pick-up, I've also been able to begin winterizing a number of different garden projects. One of the more extensive projects my family and I have worked on over the past six(!) years is continuing to compost our kitchen waste and garden clippings, using two different composting "pits." There is a larger homemade one at the back of our yard behind the shed, and a smaller one we started last summer (pictured to the left).



Our small garden composting
bin prior to fall clean-up (11/06/12).

Composting, converting household organic waste into a soil amendment, contributes nutrients to in garden soil while also improving its structure. Because "more than half of the municipal solid waste collected in 2009 was compostable," according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data, composting also reduces the amount of landfill waste. In our family's case, especially when our kids were younger, it also provides an opportunity to teach a little science and sustainability.

Over the years, composting has become much less a task we have added to our "things to do in the garden" list and much more something we habitually do, much like trimming bushes or cutting the grass.

Though less a function of winterizing and more a role of ongoing maintenance, one of the jobs I tasked myself with last weekend was turning over the contents of the compost bin and evaluating the balance of "ingredients" to ensure that the contents of the bin will be usable in the spring. Turning the contents over is something I do regularly, as is adding "browns," and the fall is a perfect time to also add some of the many leaves which find their way into our yard.

September was the last time, prior to last weekend, that I had done any "work" with the bin. As you can see from the image at the top of the post, there was quite a bit of recent kitchen waste on the surface of the contents, including a number (supposedly) decomposable bags used in our counter top composter. Because there was "too much green and too little brown," I opted to mix in some compost bricks to amend the contents slightly in an effort to maintain a level of balance among ingredients.



Preparing Coconut Coir with rain barrel water.

My wife ordered a number of supplies to assist in maintaining our composting , including the aforementioned and bags and Coconut Coir bricks. These prepared contents of these compressed bricks replace peat moss and help to "cook" the contents of the composter.To prepare the brick for addition into the bin, I generally use rainwater (from our rainwater barrel) . Each brick can hold up to 10 times its volume in water.



Almost ready for addition to "the mix."

After mixing the contents of the small bucket well, the next step is easy: simply dump it in the composter and mix it up...


September 29, 2012, before.

About a month-and-a-half later, I returned to the composting bin to inspect its contents. As you can see from the image below, a number of houseplants and bags of household kitchen waste had found their way to the bin. Additionally, some the vegetables from our garden that had fallen from the plant and been sampled by neighborhood critters were also added periodically.

November 9, 2012.

After raking the leaves from the garden (which is sectioned off by a small white wire fence so that our dog can't get in and go to the potty), I added some leaves and more tomatoes that never made it to harvest.

November 9, 2012.

Once an appropriate amount of leaves have been added, I then turn over the contents of the bin with a pitch fork to aerate and better combine the cooking "ingredients." I generally also pull out any sticks or compostable bags that don't appear to be decomposing. I'm not sure this is necessary, they just tend to stick into the pitchfork and make a relatively easy task unnecessarily frustrating.

November 9, 2012.

Before winter really settles in, I'll likely repeat the steps once or twice, especially as long as there remain leaves on the trees to rake up. Much like cutting the grass or raking the leaves, there is something very rewarding about composting, a feeling which will be further experienced in the spring when we have some fresh useable compost to add to our small garden. Though its something of a "slow cooker" I have come to greatly enjoy the process of cooking compost.