My Green Freak

Tuesday Tour: Rainwater Collection

Every Tuesday, I'll be sharing some of the bigger projects that we've done around the house. 

This is our rainwater tank. It's 150 gallons. Jason has most of the gutters in the back of the house draining into the tank. He has some sort of pump hooked up to the tank that allows us to water the plants, grass or whatever. BUT...supposedly this really isn't enough to do that much good. He's wishing for a 3,000 gallon tank. That's sounds more like a hot tub to me. Which I'm all for but somehow I don't see either one of those happening anytime soon. So basically, we spent money on the tank, the gutters, the gravel/concrete bed for the tank, the pump, and the fencing to fence in the tank to get very little in return. So for anyone planning to collect their rainwater, just go for the big tank right up front. Or skip it all together and just get the hot tub. Or maybe even a pool. There's bound to be something green about a pool.

The Worm Saga Continues.

Jason took Abigail to get more worms over the weekend. I wasn't able to go due to some other plans but I put Abigail in charge of taking some pics to show me what I missed. Such a shame I wasn't able to go. ;)

Homestead Farms is a local farm that provides earth-friendly produce, dairy and meat...and obviously worms.

This is where the worms were kept. Which gives me some hope that the worms living in my kitchen CAN actually live outside...even in this Texas heat. I'll be sure to use that in my next argument to get them out of the house.

Inside of the worm bin.

The chicken house where they raise their free-range naturally-fed chickens. Somehow I thought free-range would be bigger.

They had lots of goats on hand for milk, cheese and soap. I'm kind of thankful none of that made it's way here.

The new worms fresh from the farm.

And now safely in their new home.

Seriously...

I'm getting as bad as Jason. While he may do some crazy things that I don't understand or have a hard time following through with, I do manage to do a few things to try and be more green. I work part-time outside the home and on those days I take my lunch and snacks with me. I use glass containers so that I don't have to worry about the "evils of plastic" when heating up my lunch at the office. I take my own silverware because I don't trust the office ones are clean enough...plus I'm lazy and don't want to have to wash anything while I'm there with the non-green "dangerous" cleaners. And I put it all in a re-used lunch sack that we've stashed away for this very reason and will use over and over until it actually falls apart. Then, of course, it'll head to the recycle bin. The only thing Jason wouldn't approve of is the one plastic baggie that I use to hold things like grapes or pretzels. I admit, I am a fan of the baggie. I don't see the point of lugging around another glass container just for grapes. And since we don't own any plastic, the baggie works for me. But, here's where I hope I make up for it.

I also bring home all my trash. Yes. Banana peel, grape stems, empty Sprite can, even the used napkins get carted all the way home with me to put in the proper recepticle. After all, it would be tragic to let the cleaning crew throw away my trash at the end of the day.

Oh, the things we do for love...because it has nothing to do with the environment. ;)

Awww...

I guess if you publicly complain about your husband leaving the water hose on the ground, you might just come home to a pretty surprise. Thanks honey! If he keeps that up, I won't have anything to blog about. ;)

Mosquitos anyone?

Remember the plastic bottle that was pulled from the trash a few weeks ago? Come to find out that was for a mosquito trap. Or maybe graveyard would be a better name for it.

Our front porch is shady during the day and for some reason, there are always mosquitos hovering around.  Well, we're in Texas so there are always mosquitos hovering everywhere. But it's really annoying when you open the front door. Especially if you spend any amount of time talking to someone at the door while you're both getting eaten alive by the ravenous bloodsuckers.

This contraption is supposed to help that. Rumor has it that the mosquitos are drawn to this mixture of sugar, yeast and water.

I'm not convinced. I haven't seen any mosquito carcasses yet. But it's so attractive sitting on the porch, don't you think? And if you happen to need a spittoon when you visit, you'll be all set.

They're heeerrre...

I'm not sure what I expected from the generous freecycler but I'm pretty sure this wasn't it. One cup. Really? How many worms are realistically in there? Four?

I see one little one...

and a great big one. So, there's two. Jason says there are more but I didn't really feel like playing in the mud to find out.

Two worms don't seem like that big of a deal really. Except they're still sitting on my kitchen counter...in their home...with the rotting food and the compost material. I'm giving Jason a few days grace period to play with his new toy but then they better find a new home or I'll be serving him worms for dinner. I'm sure there's some dish that I can find...one of those bizarre foods that Andrew Zimmerman eats or something.

I haven't asked what happens next with this worm saga. Do I even want to know? I'm not sure that I do.

It's coming...

Looks like we’re getting ready for a worm delivery. You can truly get everything on Freecycle…furniture, books, clothes, pets and even worms. So, of course, we had to prepare. Okay, we didn’t do anything. It was all Jason. But it was interesting to watch. For now. Until the worms get here. Then interesting will probably not be the word I’ll be using.

Jason bought The Worm Factory from Happy D Ranch. It’s basically a kit that you put together. It starts with a coir brick (shredded coconut husks) that you soak in water and then add compost and shredded paper.

It actually looked surprisingly easy. He squished some stuff in a bowl, threw it in the worm home and created the nice cozy bedding. Because even worms need good bedding.

And they even have food waiting for them. I knew those old bananas would come in handy for something. We never seem to eat all our bananas and since worms apparently prefer soft foods, it’s a win-win. Maybe Jason won’t freak out so much when I waste food now. I’ll just say I’m saving it for the worms and it’ll be all good.

So, we’ve got the crib, the bedding and soft food. Hmm…sounds more like a baby than some stinking worms.

Juicy Fruit

There's something very relaxing about walking through your own garden. There's a certain serenity that comes with being outdoors watching nature do its thing. Not to mention the huge convenience of not having to go to the grocery store. Just walk outside, pick a few tomatoes, and...oh wait. Scratch that. That isn't my garden. That's the garden that I see inside my head. The one that belongs to someone with money. Someone with time. Possibly a staff. And someone with a husband that has some sense of aesthetics. In this case, someone in Paris.

Now this...THIS is our garden. Can you see the resemblence? Okay, it's not Paris. But it's not a bad garden either. Jason is actually doing a great job with it. It took many arguments, slammed doors and temper tantrums to get to this point. 

Although, I'm still not a fan of those timbers. I'm all for saving a buck or two, but this could still use some work. Sorry honey.

But what concerns me the most is on the stepping stone. That's only one step away from being IN the garden. Suddenly, those green onions aren't looking so appetizing. Anyone local reading this blog will surely never eat a salad at our house.

While I'll never understand why our garden can't look like the one in Paris, at least there are plants growing...like the mini corn from the other day (which by the way is no longer there)...

and the big juicy tomatoes. Seriously. A person would starve if depending on this garden.

Supposedly, we also have lettuce, carrots, green onions, radishes, some other stuff I can't remember, and a pumpkin. I can't wait to see that one. It'll probably be one of those baby pumpkins that fits in the palm of your hand.

But overall, the garden is a good thing. Jason works very hard on it. Every day in fact. I don't know what has to be done to it EVERY day but obviously something does...or at least he wants me to think it does.

And someday, maybe, we'll actually get to eat something from it.

 

Thanks to TreeHugger for twittering about the blog today and to Jardin-école du Breuil in Paris for their beautiful photo.

Oops.

Even when Jason isn't home, things can get weird around here. He called me from school today and asked me to turn on the water faucet outside.

Umm...okay...but what for?

"For the misters," he says.

Completely unbeknownst to me, it turns out we have misters set up on the air conditioner unit. 

I'm not exactly sure why that is actually. I guess if you keep the unit cool, then your house is cooler? That seems to make sense I guess. He regularly keeps the a/c turned up pretty high during the day, especially on days when we're not home. I can be dripping of sweat for hours inside and he could care less, but let's make sure the a/c unit doesn't get too hot.

But I can still get behind this idea if it helps keep the house cooler. I do wonder why the hose has to be left in a pile in front of the house instead of hanging from one of those nice contraptions made to hold hoses.

That's okay though. He probably won't be asking for my help again. He's already convinced that things break when I simply look at them. Well...all I did was turn on the faucet. Really.

But somehow his contraption broke today sometime between the time I turned on the faucet and the time I turned it off. So instead of misting the a/c today, it pretty much just flooded the ground. Oops.

I wonder if I should tell him or just wait to see if he reads this?

In response to your comments yesterday:
Someone asked about freezing the suet before putting it in the feeder. It actually was frozen. Just shows you how hot it is in Texas...and how that seed cake recipe still needs a little more work.

Let's take a tour, shall we?

One of the things that makes life so interesting around here is that you can always find the beginning of a project or two. Jason is always trying something. Some things work great. Others...um, not so much. Not that I have a problem when they don't work out but I do find it rather humorous. Here's a little tour of random things I found around the house today.

This is one of our suet feeders. We have plenty of birds to feed and Jason's on a quest to make homemade suet. Except, we can't actually make true suet because it's made with animal fat...something we choose to avoid whenever possible. So, he's creating a concoction of peanut butter, crisco, corn meal, and bird seed. It's a good idea and I'm all for it. But we do live in Texas with over 100 degree heat. So naturally, the peanut butter and crisco melt and run down the tree. What started out in a perfect square only a few hours ago is now dripping from the feeder...

and falling to the ground. Birds that like to ground feed will be fine with this. I could be fine with this. But we do have a cat. So for me, this homemade suet quest doesn't really sound like a win-win situation. At least not for the birds.

I honestly don't know what's going on here. It's obviously corn from the garden. But it's rather small. And it's in one of the patio chairs. I'm not even sure how long it's been there. I'm thinking the squirrels might be happy it's there. Let's see how long it stays there.

I don't know about you, but that does NOT look like queso to me. But it is in the kitchen so be sure to look closely at anything before you consume it at our house. Some things I just overlook...like the corn above...but this one prompted some questions. Mostly I wanted to make sure it wasn't something that would kill me should I knock it off the counter. Come to find out, it's actually a mixture of corn starch and water...or glue rather. We don't have a big need for glue in this house so I'm certain a bigger project is on the horizon.

This one I'm a little bit scared about. It just came in the mail a few days ago. It's a worm farm. Thankfully, there are no worms here yet but it's only a matter of time. Apparantly, instead of throwing our leftover food in the bio section of our trash that ultimately ends up in the compost pile, I'm supposed to feed it to the worms. This can't be a good thing. For me anyway. Maybe for the worms. There was some mention of poop as well. There are several layers to this thing so I'm not sure how much worm poop we're talking about. And that little spout on the side...what's that do? I'm certain I don't really want to know. He mentioned putting it in the kitchen. I might not know what it does but I KNOW that there's no way it's going in the kitchen. This one can't be good for our marriage.  

I could have sworn I put this in the recylcle bin yesterday only to find it back on the counter this morning. Something about mosquitos? Not sure which scares me more...the worms or this.