Fuzzy Wolf's Howl

Well...

2010-05-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

Well, the fish didn't do so good. I got another type of water test kit and dumped out the old water. We'll see what happens this time, literally, I finally broke down and got a digital camera so I can take pictures without borrowing one.

On a different note, I got the URL I've been wanting. There is nothing there right now but a parking page but its a step in the right direction. The URL is www.psychologicalgraffiti.com

That is sort of my calling card, "psychological graffiti (c) tm" that is. I have wanted to do t-shirts for years. I know they are not what they once were but it is something I like.

The dirt garden is pretty much all in. There are a few plants that just don't like aquaponics, and since I am just getting started with it I wanted to go ahead with that. It succeeded in reminding me of why I wanted to do aquaponics in the first place. I have been hurting so bad since I finished getting the garden in that I haven't been good for anything.

I have made a little progress in other areas though. I took an old blow up pool and cut it so that it will make a liner for an in ground fish pond. I think it will be okay, and it was free. I believe it will be large enough for the next larger aquaponics setup. I don't want to get ahead of myself though. I will put my next usable energies toward getting the starter setup going.

Well, hang in there, stay positive and do what you can with what you have.

Fuzzy

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Something not quite right

2010-04-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well, something wasn't quite right. Whether or not it was the fish or the water, I don't know. What I do know is that one of the feeder goldfish had what looked like blood in it's eye. I don't know if this was from stress or some malady. What I do know is that I needed to know more. I broke down and bought a more complete test setup. It was pretty cheap, and will let me know a wide range of things. If the cause of mortality was something in the water it should let me adjust this.

I also found out something rather interesting. PetSmart carries a bio-innoculant, it is fairly cheap and was even cheaper after I filled out the little info card that got me another little plastic keychain so they can track my spending. Oh well, good for them. Most times I carefully mis-spell my name on these things so I can track who is selling my information to people I would rather not have it. I like to know who is honestly tracking my spending for specific in store targeted advertising and who is trying to make an extra buck by selling my info to any jerk who is willing to shell out what they are asking.

I picked up the last of the tubing to finish the deep channel addition to Travis Hughey's design. Next step is to rewash the gravel and refill the system with clean water. Then try out the innoculant, we'll see if it helps. This time too, I am going to use the test setup. The next post should have pics so keep your fingers crossed.

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Back in the game

2010-03-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, its been a while I know. Well, anyone who has been following my posts know that there has been quite a lot going on. With me getting hurt and then the loss of my grandmother, I have been extremely preoccupied. Well, I hope to remedy this.

Update:

-The aquaponics system has been reoriented to face south.

-The original gravel has been placed in the grow beds.

-The system has been filled and checked for leaks.

-The original salvaged pump has been ditched and replaced with a fountain pump.

-The pump has been plumbed, the system refilled and operation has is currently being checked.

I'll should be able to post pictures again by the next post. For those of you who have born with me through all of the stuff, a heartfelt thanks.

See you next time

Fuzzy

2010-01-01T06:35:00.000-08:00

I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. I also pray for these things for myself, my family and friends. 2009 had its difficulties, but it also had it's good points. I met new friends, found out who among my old friends were true, and personally grew stronger. Yes I discovered new limitations but I also learned to look towards new horizons.

I learned that simply relearning the things I lost is not really an option. I also learned that there is a need to do things with some level of permanence. I came more to grips with the impermanence of me. If I can make a positive difference in this world that is good, but even it is not permanent. I will continue to try to be a good force. I think though that I will try to pass forward the good that I do in the hopes that those who receive that good will do the same.

Happy New Year

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2009-12-29T22:27:00.000-08:00

Took some time today to take stock of where everything is with the aquaponics build. The weather actually has sent the autosiphon through a number of cycles. I did come to the realization that if I want the system to get full sun during even this portion of the year I will have to rotate it 90 degrees. Well, everyone makes mistakes.

It should be easy enough to construct a simple greenhouse to enclose the system.

Well, from the observations I made today:

1. rotate the assembly 90 degrees to take advantage of winter sun.

2. get another load of gravel to fill grow beds (the one I have may be too large, improper material and My driveway is becoming impossible.)

3. get better pump and use current one as back up.

4. Tighten all fittings

5. Fill, test for leaks and make final adjustments

6. Address greenhouse issues

7. get feeder fish and start cycle.

* Start some cold weather crops in a manner which will allow them to be transplanted into grow beds.

I'll keep you updated.

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Ends and Beginnings

2009-12-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

Well, 2009 is almost done. It brought the start of the aquaponics project and quite a few other things. The nasty fall that I had was one of them.

My grandmother passed on Christmas day. She will be greatly missed. She kept her farm going for over 30 years on her own. She taught us kids to love and appreciate nature. Her grand mother was full blooded American Indian (Native American) and a medicine woman to boot. Her grandmother taught my grandmother many things which, I'm sad to say many of which passed with her.

She was full of love and fire and would have stood against a full grown bear to protect one of her children or grand children. She also gave us a glimpse of that fire if we ever erred from what was right. One of her five children died young, she carried the hole left in her heart from that the rest of her days. Her other children were and are exceptional.

Her only daughter became a real estate agent/broker, mother of three, antique collector, took frugality to a level which can only be described as art, cared for her mother the last 9 years of her life, Play the auto harp and shows the fruits of love, kindness and generosity.

Her oldest son invented the first cash register to take cash, checks and credit cards, developed many of the formulas used in paints, worked on a project that went up on the space shuttle, was a physicist at Wake Forest University, received a number of patents for inventions, plays the guitar, put a son, daughter and wife through college, and is one of the best uncles a person could have.

Her next oldest son did architectural design, served our country fighting in the Vietnam War, played the guitar, became an excellent artist painting scenes which seemed to look real enough to step into, is the director of maintenance for Patrick County Schools, Patrick County Virginia.

Her next oldest son showed his artistic skills in many ways. Though modest about them, he could repair cars to better than new condition, built his own Mustang, did excellent artwork, could play any instrument set in front of him including but not limited to piano, guitar, concertina, banjo etc... he also plays keyboard full time and occasionally sings for a Christian group and is also one of the best uncles a person could have.

Her grandchildren have worked for NASA, The Department of Defense, USAF, Health Care, Volunteering to help the needy and the list goes on. It is impossible to quantify all of the positive impact a person has had on this world. For my grandmother the task is even harder as there is so much to list that it exceeds my ability at words.

Virginia May Boyd Pendleton, Grandma Burr, you will be missed.

Well, I'm finally getting to where I can get around without it hurting me too bad. I've gotten most of the feeling back in my right leg and will return to working on the Aquaponics project soon.

God Bless

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2009-12-12T14:08:00.000-08:00

Ok, as you definitely know, it has been a while. Well, as I mentioned, I had a nasty fall. This caused me to not be able to move much at first then as the inflammation from the fall got worse I lost the feeling in my right leg. I was very limited in what was possible. Generally when I get down to where I can't do anything I tend to also get down in mood as well. Also with the added costs of things extra funds have not been available to take advantage of off season sales on pond pumps which I have lately grown interested in.

I've not been totally slothful however, I have been watching the updates on multiple sites and mailing lists on their progress, trying to learn from their experience and in some cases, mistakes. I did come across a water bed heater with a thermostat control which may be able to be incorporated into the system should an additional heat source be needed. It was a roadside find and thanks to my passenger at the time being a reasonable sort as I was not getting around very well at the time it made it home with me. I may have also found a source for IBC's for only $80 US available from time to time.

I am hoping to hear from Travis soon on the progress of his latest project. Anyone who knows Travis Hughey, knows that God has granted the man wisdom. For some reason when people look at starting aquaponics, many start trying to make it into some sort of mad scientist's experiment. Travis looks at things through experienced eyes and finds the most robust and overall system feasibility possible. If a tried and true method will work, don't complex it to death. If the system has a problem, fix it but don't over fix it. The man is a veritable artist at finding a balance.

Anyway, the soccer goal I found thrown out will make a decent base for the temporary greenhouse for the small system. I plan on covering it in the clearest plastic I can afford. I figure that after I get a more permanent greenhouse set up I can schedule a move of the small system at the same time as the yearly cleaning of the gravel. At that time I can use the soccer goal as a window box garden for the west facing kitchen window for herbs grown in either pots or an aquaponics system fed from a fish tank. Of course that depends on how tidy I can make it look, if its too hobbled looking the wife will nix it.

Thanks for staying with, if your new, go back and read back posts and please bear with me. If your just getting into aquaponics I recommend Travis Hughey's e-manual Barrelponics. Travis makes it available free and you can either get it from his website http://www.fastonline.org or many other repositories.

Thanks for reading.
Fuzzy

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A long time coming

2009-12-02T21:43:00.000-08:00

First of all, let me apologize for not posting for ages. I do this with a grain of salt though, I had a bad fall not long after my last post and have been incapacitated since for the most part. As my functionality returns I have had to choose which responsibilities to again shoulder. None of you are low on my list of priorities, however I have to say that decisions had to be made as to what to devote what usable functionality I had to and I am only now getting to the blog.

I still haven't regained all of the feeling in my right foot. Nerves are strange things. The injury was to my back yet I feel, or don't in this case, the effects in my right foot and leg. I do have to say that the respite from the chronic pain in my right knee was refreshing in it's own way. During the recovery process, I sprained my right ankle and only knew it by being told that it was swollen and bruised by someone else. Odd experience to say the least.

The system is 90% complete and needs a little more work to begin cycling. The water from the "Tadpole pond" should jump start it well. I met a man who goes by the name Omo who was introduced to me as the "mushroom king" and have discussed using assorted by products of aquaponics in conjunction with other materials for mushroom production. I haven't been completely inactive just incommunicado. Stay in touch, we'll get back off the ground shortly.

Fuzzy

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Brains

2009-08-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Its really odd how the mind works, or doesn't. I've just spent the last 3 hours online doing math homework trying to put back the stuff that fell out. I'm sure it would be simple stuff for some of you, though it might have others running screaming into the woods. It is only college level algebra. Thing is, I have had it all before. I don't remember doing it, not most of it anyway. It isn't old age that's doing it. regular readers know I have some memory loss. For others, a quick synopsis;
Some years back, got all the symptoms of a minor stroke. Neurologist decided it wasn't a stroke. Complex migraines resolving into localized cascading neural discharge that had caused damage. In short, an odd form of epilepsy.
I'm no expert on the subject, I know more of the words now, but I've lost a good bit. I went from a job that payed well with good benefits to a job that I had difficulty doing that payed intermittently with no benefits in a matter of a few short months. It is no worse than many other families have faced and I am not complaining.
God. I'm not talking about some mysterious nebulous being or concept. I'm talking about the only thing, the only real strength I had. A very specific God. He has been mentioned as "The God of Abraham and of Isaac". He is also known as Jesus, God's Christ.

Growing up, I could always do pretty much anything I decided to physically. After an accident during maintenance had pinned my cousin under the rear of my mother's early model Ford Escort, I slid under the rear of the car and lifted it off of him. Having done this once, I knew I could do it again. Without the adrenalin it was more difficult, but I managed. I made it a habit of bench pressing the rear of her car at least three times a day. I rode a racing ten speed on average about 200 miles per week. I would ride about 25 miles a day during the week and push towards 80 over Saturday and Sunday combined. During this time I also worked as a brick mason's helper carrying brick, block, mortar and occasionally stone. When I joined the military in 1986 I had a 4.5 percent body fat ratio.

School was a little more of a challenge for me but when it came to mechanical things I was at home. I could take apart a car engine and simply by looking at the minute differences of that bolt, when it came time to reassemble the engine I could pick it out of every other bolt in whatever container I had tossed them all into. If I needed something to do a job I could usually make something serviceable in just a few minutes from what I had laying around.

While in the military I was hurt and had my knee bent inwards something "uncomfortably" close to 90 degrees. That pretty much ended my love of riding bicycles. That burning, grinding feeling really takes the joy out of that pass time. Though I am thankful for what the V.A. has done, they still don't have my confidence.

When the stroke like event occurred, at first it was just a situation of concentrate on getting to the next step. When it became clear that the steps I could now take weren't leading to being a good provider for my family *(at least not with any rapidity)* depression began to set in. When the instances began to recur and it began to be evident the magnitude of what I had lost, major depression hit me with hurricane force.

For the first time in my life I could not be the man my father raised me to be. I was not able to provide for my family. Not only that but I was now a burden to them where I used to carry them. Let me tell you, this was not a situation I was mentally prepared for.

I sank deeper and deeper into depression. For the majority of my life I had defined who I was by what I could do. Now, I was having problems doing the most simple tasks. I was having trouble not only putting coherent sentences together but getting words from my brain to other people's ears. I would know the concept of what I was trying to say but the word would not link with the concept. I would go the mailbox to get the mail and be exhausted by the time I got back. In my mind, I could do nothing. Since I defined myself by what I could do, and in my mind I could do nothing, I was now ... Nothing.

Where was God in all this? Same place he has always been. A lot of people ask similar questions. They all have a similar jist. How can a loving god ...? There is a strange thing though. How many of these same people are much like I was. Sure, they go about it differently, but it is much the same. I bench pressed the back of my mother's car, they go to the gym. I rode a racing ten speed many of them ride stationary bikes or use treadmills. They accept a resistance against their bodies which makes their bodies grow stronger. What has this got to do with anything?

It occurred to me while going through all of this that when a resistance is presented to our muscles, and we work against it, possibly aided by some sort of machine, we grow stronger. If we have a coach of some sort we can fine tune our bodies into perfect form. When we go through difficulties in our lives that push us down and make things difficult for the parts of ourselves not exactly defined by science it is a sort of resistance. People who lived through the Great Depression had an inner strength that you could feel just by being around them. When we have a "resistance" in our life paths we often complain about things being hard. Yet we also may spend time lifting weight and setting it back down.

Our brains are much the same. Older people who work crosswords or other mentally challenging puzzles which do not have real end results often show better overall mental cognition than those who do not take the time to do these things. I will sometimes tackle a mental puzzle just to find a solution. Sometimes it is for work, sometimes not. Yet when a difficulty comes along in life I feel somehow betrayed.

Doesn't it stand to reason, that if our muscles when used regularly against resistance grow stronger, and our minds when applied to problems improve, that our inner selves, our spirit when confronted with resistance if we work through it we would also grow stronger in that part of ourselves as well? I am not pointing any fingers. America has health problems which relate to physical inactivity. Our culture has problems which relate to not spending enough time in active thinking. A gym membership if never used does the member no good. A crossword puzzle book sitting in a box in storage will never improve a synaptic connection.

If someone were to pay several thousand dollars for me to have a gym membership with a personal trainer to coach me through all the difficulties of getting through the different stages of building my physic to tip top shape, should I sit at home all year and let it go unused? I know there have been times when I have been trying to regain at least a little of my strength so that I didn't have to strain so I could lift my still relatively little girl up and dance around with her to show her how proud I was of her about something without feeling that I would give out that I would have loved a personal trainer to tell me what to do. People in business spend mega bucks sending their execs to classes to get them to think in logical steps and efficiently, learning how to use the tools at their disposal in the most efficient manner, and they do it because they know it makes the company run smoother.

When I was going through all of the pain and depression, the resistance against my forward progress, I fought against it until I gave out, and gave up. I wallowed in depression for a long time. I then figured out that I had been living in a spiritual "gym". I had my own personal spiritual trainer and my fees had been paid. I had a wonderful wife and a few great friends who explained some of the simpler exercises to me and acted as my spotter when I was faced with exceptionally heavy weights. Best of all though, I finally figured out something I had read a long time ago. In Matthew Chapter 11 Jesus says, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I had often felt betrayed by this verse, what I was going through felt anything but easy. I really read what it said though and figured out something. A yoke is something usually put on an animal, but in those days people used them too. Sometimes to carry heavy weights or other burdens. It distributed the weight of the load over a larger area. It was something used to do work with. That verse doesn't say follow me and all you'll have to do is play and watch reality TV. It says there is going to be work involved. It says to me that His is easy and the burden which is attached to the yoke is light. It still says its a burden.

You know, it is really strange to me that since this was made clear to me, pulling my burden through the day hasn't been as hard. Its still the same stuff. Part of it might be the realization that I used to put on a physical contraption which looked a lot like a yoke just to build up my muscles. I don't know fully, but I do know this, every inch I carry the things that God allows into my life build the muscles of my spiritual body. I know we are not going to have the bodies we have here when we get done on this earth. I know this too, now that I am getting a little more familiar with the personal spiritual trainer bending down to praise God or even jumping for joy when I see Jesus isn't going to be any strain at all.

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Choosing what to grow

2009-08-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

Well, its almost time. The gravel will go in soon and as soon as the system cycles the fish will. I will be using some water and other materials from my tadpole project to jump start the system. This is normally done with "starter" from another working system or ordered from a supplier. It is not really totally necessary but it gets things moving a little faster.

I have been looking at my choices on what to grow. I want to grow things which are native to the season. I believe I am going to choose Park Seeds. They have a wonderful selection and also carry a decent amount of heirloom varieties. Although I don't plan to be fanatical about growing heirloom varieties I do plan on making use of them wherever possible. While some hybrids have higher yields and some have been bread for flavor In my honest opinion the old varieties just taste better and even tend to be more disease and insect resistant without all the extra fuss.

I also plan on ordering bees for the spring. I just don't have the time or the general umph to go around and hand pollinate every little blossom. Why am I making this choice? Simple, the plants I have grown which have had the largest output have been self pollinators. Not all of the vegetables I like are self pollinating. I love honey. Nuff said.

I had good results from the broccoli I grew earlier this year, it was very good. I may try a couple of other varieties just to mix things up but I'm pretty well set on having broccoli. I think I would like to try swiss chard. I don't know why, I just want to. First fall frost around here is end of November first part of October, by then I will either need to have protection for any sensitiver plats or not be growing any.

Brassicas are good cool season crops, with a little chelated iron they should do fine. As Travis has told me, leafy veggies do well in aquaponics. Health permitting I will make some headway this coming week. A little later this fall will be time for the trees. That is not the best time for harvesting wood for mushroom growing but it is what my shedule dictates. Work with what you have...

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Recovery

2009-08-05T01:24:00.001-07:00

Well, it has been a while hasn't it? All hope isn't lost however. Since aquaponics grows things in only 2/3rd the time we are still just fine. As those who have read all my post know, my health is not all that great. I had a period of seizures and otherwise poor health. Its all right though and hopefully in the next week we'll see some serious progress.

A little progress has been made. The base is painted, the first leak test has been performed. Unfortunately the first seizure hit before the post documenting those things. We will remedy that in the next post and possibly give some more progress to boot.

A little more patience with your old friend Fuzzy and we'll be back rolling again. I did get to go see the progress down at Travis Hughey's place since we last spoke. It is absolutely awesome. I hope to have a digital camera with me on the next visit and I will do a special post covering his goals for the system and whatever else I can. Travis is a really cool guy. He is a great mentor and friend and I am glad that I met him.

Until next time

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Watching paint dry

2009-07-10T00:53:00.000-07:00

Lately, progress on the aquaponics system has seemed like watching paint dry. Actually, that is what I have been doing. I bought some mismixed exterior porch paint at Home Depot for $5.00 and painted the wooden portions of the stand. It is a coral pink, absolutely lovely, mmmm, yeah. Well, the difference between $5.00 and over $20 is enough to make me tolerate pink. No offense intended to anyone out there who happens to love that color. My favorite color happens to be purple, my least favorite is pink, but money is tight and I want the wood in the aquaponics stand to last as long as possible.

I wanted to post this to let you all know I hadn't forgotten you. I have been working putting up horse fence and building gates. I will try to return to faithful picture posting by tommorow. I'm sure you all want to see the lovely pink stand.

Until then,

be safe, build smart and shop wisely (tm)

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2009-07-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

A little while back, as many of you know we had quite a large amount of rain around here. I'll be glad to get my greenhouse built this fall. We had severe thunderstorms with enough rain/hail that it filled up a previously dry wheelbarrow in only one rainfall. My dirt garden squash and strawberries looked like someone beat them with a stick. I was about 15 miles away getting gravel in an old truck with no radio when it blew in. I knew my knee had been hurting more than usual. Not far from here, the trees were twisted off about 20 feet above the ground.

Well, we've had nothing but rainstorm after rainstorm until just recently. If my squash hadn't died I was considering buying them their own little umbrellas. The watermelon don't seem to mind and are doing well. I am figuring which hardwood trees I absolutely need to cut to get full sun to the greenhouse I hope to have finished this fall.

I found a supplier here in the states which has had good reviews that sells little wooden plugs that you drive into pre drilled holes in hardwood logs. These wooden plugs have been innoculated with specific kinds of edible mushrooms. I am hoping they will be just the ticket and a good way to take the trees back into the life cycle.

A thought occured to me as I looked at all the wild mushrooms popping up from damp soil, whether or not anyone had tried to grow mushrooms on filtered out composted fish waste and ground up vegetable stalks at the end of growing season? I have seen adverts in the back of magazines where you can order kits for shitakke, button and others.

I have Been doin some research and found cool weather and warm weather mushrooms. Since I am plannin on not pumping too much heat into my greenhouse that will work out well. (I don't have a basement) You could rotate types of mushrooms for the seasons, enokitake will grow decently in temps as low as 41 degrees F, other types like higher temps. I did a web search and found a bunch of places that sell kits. It looks like I may be doing some experiments a little later on. I'll post some pics if I get any positive results and I'll let everyone know if it fails.

I was wondering, those mushroom garden in a box people must get their starts somehow. So I did some more research. It turns out that mushrooms are a little more complex than they seem to be. The part that we see above the ground is pretty much like an apple or other fruit hanging on a tree. The rest of the plant is in the ground. There are some "mushroom" plants which are up to 17 miles wide. In order to reproduce, they either send up mushrooms which when mature send out spores having 1/2 of the stuff needed for a new fungi plant or they send out these tendrils called hyphae which has 1/2 in them. The spores or the hyphae have to run into another counterpart which has a compatible other half. If it does, it makes a new fungi. This can then send out mushrooms when the conditions are right.

I am thinking then, that if a person ordered mushrooms boxes or spikes from two different suppliers that they could let a few of the mushrooms "go to seed" and combine the spores in a bunch of bags of composted wheat straw and manure and let the mycelia establish itself. When you buy them at the grocery store they haven't reached the stage where the spores are mature but if you got one of the kits and let some go to "seed" you could tap them into bags with holes cut in them for the mushrooms to grow out of and put them in dark places. Combining composted wheat straw with composted manure and all of the organic waste from the garden might give a really good growing medium. I don't know how smart it would be to intentionally grow fungus under shades tacked around grow beds but it might be worth a try in a separate smaller system to see if it did well before introduction into a greenhouse/aquaponics setup.

My little cousin (she's 38) told me a couple of days ago that a new organic dairy farm just started near her. That may be a decent source of chemical free fertilizer to compost and organic butter for all dem mushrooms to be sauteed in.

I'm still trying to find out a decent list of all that is compatible with each other but right now I am thinking that the stalks and stems can first go to the BSF (black soldier fly) larvae, then to be mixed in with other materials and used to grow mushrooms. I am doing the research and will update on this as I find out more.

I hope to have some aquaponics progress pics early this coming week. For everyone who is in the states, may the 4th be a happy and safe one for you. God Bless.

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The reason its called Fuzzy Wolf's Howl

2009-07-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

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Many who drop by to read may have wondered if "Fuzzy Wolf's Howl" was just some name I came up with. Well, yes and no. I originally came up with the name because I had first intended this blog to be a place where I could "howl" about some of the things I see in this world which seem horribly wrong with the world and either other people aren't speaking up about them or they aren't noticing. Things which seem to mock common sense or that are cruel or just plain idiotic tend to make me fume. At some point I decided that it would be more constructive to spend the majority of my time sharing positive things so the name might seem a little out of place to some.

If any of my readers has a good understanding of wolves then they will know that wolves and wolf packs howl for many reasons. Once reason they howl is to let other wolves know, "We are here!". And sometimes to let stragglers know, "This is where the pack is". They also howl to keep in touch with each other over long distances, to find mates, to gather the pack together and many other subtle forms of communications. When an Alpha wolf howls lesser members of the pack will come to it giving greeting.

Dogs can be seen to exhibit some behaviors which echo a common ancestry. Many behavioral problems in dogs can be traced back to the owner. In a wolf pack, the alpha eats first, and it gets it's choice of heart, liver and kidneys. The rest of the pack are allowed to eat as their social order permits with the omega, the lowest wolf, sometimes not being allowed to eat with the others or if the pack is large enough or the kill is small enough possibly not at all. Now, I realize it may be hard to look at a chihuahua or a pug and imagine that there is much wolf anywhere in there. The instincts are there though, however deeply buried.

Now, I am not condemning anyone for the way they treat their dogs. I realize that to many a dog is much like their baby, a full fledged member of the family. I don't scoff at this as some do. One reason I don't is that is exactly the way the dog feels regardless of how the owner feels in this regard. It instinctively feels after a while that it is a member of the "pack". We call that pack a family.

Okay, if we go a little deeper into the instincts of a dog and combine them with many common "pack" family behaviors of humans, we will get a little insight into the mind of a dog. I cant count how many families I have seen feed their dogs first to keep them from whining all through dinner. Remember the wolf packs and who ate first? The Alpha ate first. Now, the "pack" family expects the dog to obey. In a dog's mind this equates to "submit". Can you see how confusing that would be? The dog wants to do something besides what the "owner" wants them to, the dog has just been fed first, its instincts are telling it that it has been promoted, the owner is now giving it commands to which it needs to "submit" to in order to please the pack. It is a stage which has been set and the play is titled "Confusion".

Many lap dogs are also fed dog food containing beef liver, beef kidney and "real beef" which often contains beef heart since that is a part of the cow humans often don't eat. The dogs palate registers these flavors and somewhere inside them it triggers an instinct which again says, "Woo Hoo! I've been promoted to Alpha Dog!" Then they are left in the house alone while the "pack" family goes elsewhere. The dog isn't allowed to lead his or her "Pack" even though a part of the brain is saying I am alpha that is what I should be doing. The family gets very upset when they come home and the dog not being able to do what it is instinctually knowing it is supposed to do or at least instictually knowing it is supposed to be doing something and it cant do it. This causes frustration, and the dog takes it out on some inanimate (hopefully) object in the house.

This is where the howling comes in. I was asked by a family member to help fix something in their home. I arrived and was greeted by snarling dogs. I usually don't have a problem with dogs. I don't like certain breeds but even then I don't have problems with them. I do tend to unsettle some dogs since I understand a little of their language. Usually though with a well mannered dog, after a few minutes I am a tolerated presence. The daughter of the family member told her mother, the owner of the dogs that I was there.

The family member yelled out, "Tell him to come in and sit down somewhere or he is gonna get bit." At no point is this acceptable. In no way is this even close to a situation in which I will again willingly put myself. I refused to enter the house, got my property and left. Until the dogs are gone, I will not return, and most likely not then since the true source of the problem will still be there. The answer to the request for help is a resounding and unapologetic, "No".

I have been around possibly some of the most vicious dogs in America. It was a near daily experience. I also know that these dogs were properly trained and at a word from their keeper they were harmless as long as they were not touched. I was taught how to defend myself against similar dogs belonging to other people who would not be so inclined to call them down. I love animals so don't get me wrong, I would never hurt an animal intentionally if I did not feel that my or my family's or possibly a helpless person or a child's personal well being did not depend on it.

However, I come from a different time and have different training than most people. If an animal is intent on hurting a human then that animal is not a safe factor and should be treated as such. Certain dogs have to be trained to do battle. They are the working dogs in the police forces, the militaries of this world. I met dogs which had higher rank than I did in the military. I met dogs who had received more medals and awards than I had. I hold them in utmost respect. I also have a portion of my heart which goes out to all mistreated animals who have been abused and even ruined by humans.

There are breeds of dogs which once they have tasted human blood seem to always be more likely to turn on humans. This too may be traceable to their ancestry. In a wolf pack, the omega, the lowest wolf can sometimes work its way upwards in the pack. Once it has caused another to cower in fear the instincts urge it onward to work higher and higher in the pack. The metallic tang of blood seems to trigger some basic instinct. When it is the blood of another is associated with rising to a higher status, it is nature, combined with the meddling of man which is the dog's downfall.

As in aquaponics, the closer we get to a natural design the better things work. When we work too hard against nature, we eventually see something bad come from it. In my belief, we were given the command to subdue the earth. Notice I did not say, conquer or destroy, also notice I did not say beat it down and kill it. Perhaps growing up with a farm as a portion of my childhood, seeing a stubborn animal balk at being harnessed, but then the natural strength of the animal working to help man. Perhaps seeing these things gave me a different outlook on the subdue thing. The farmers who got the most done were the ones who got their animals pointed in the right direction and only used the barest minimum of effort to keep them on that track. The farmers who had the best crops were the ones who grew what the soils of their lands were suited for in the seasons in which the crops were suited. Much like a man and woman are spoken of as being united or sometimes yoked together. The farmer had to go along with the animals and the land. In working with nature whether it be the nature of the animal or the nature of the soil the farmer had "subdued" it to produce for him without destroying its purpose or design. People work better too when they are pointed in a direction which they are suited for. Why is it then such a hard step for some people to understand that a dog who shares instincts with wolves would be a better animal if we worked with those instincts instead of muddling them up so?

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Aquaponics: The Waiting

2009-07-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I picked up a 4 cu. ft. bag of perlite today. I have an idea for using it in the grow beds with a system which will make gardening much easier for the disabled. For that matter it will make gardening much easier for anybody. I also am planning on using it in my strawberry towers. I figure it will make them much lighter so that hanging them from the top of the greenhouse won't be such a concern. 4 cu. ft. of perlite only weighs 20 pounds. The gravel I am using weighs 82 pounds per cu. ft. perlite only 5.

A while back, I picked up a book on how to achieve a super memory. The only problem is, I keep forgetting to read it... Yeah, I know, old joke. Sadly, I'm not kidding. When I was in what would now be called middle school, and later in high school, I could read 4 books in addition to my school books and keep track of the story lines of all of them. Now, if I want to do well at something I have to focus solely on just that. This tends to be an irritation to those around me. Inevitably someone will want me to do something which is outside of the realm of what I am trying to stay focused on. In those cases, something suffers.

We have been forced by circumstance to finish a move from our old house. Moving is never convenient as far as I know. Consequently, we are going to have to get new doctors, a new pharmacy, do without insurance for a month while in this modern age of computers someone who sits behind a desk all day in an air conditioned office making a minimum of 5 times what I do, looks at a piece of dead tree with marks made on it using a liquid made from dead dinosaurs, sees whether I am supposed to be going to doctors in the area where I am living now or not. Ahh, the wonders of science.

Anyway, the house is going to need fixing up a bit before we can leave it altogether. What does this boil down to? Well basically the same thing as sitting in an office anywhere does, Waiting... In the mean time, I am still going over greenhouse designs in my head when there is enough mental bandwidth. I am calculating which trees need to come down for the big system. I am researching sources of mushroom starters for the couple of hardwoods which I bemoan having to fell. I and the local wildlife love them. They also provide shade for the house in the evening which reduces my overall cooling load of the house. And in that lies the problem. The same shade which I love for the house the little vegetable plants will not. The whole area where I plan to position the greenhouse is fairly flat so it is mostly a matter of picking a spot where I can provide full sun while removing as few trees as possible. Minimal impact. The sheer volume of plant life which has evidenced itself in my aquaponics trip should ofset any negative impact overall, especially since the greenhouse will have foliage for a longer period than the deciduous trees do.

The waiting though is extrememly frustrating. I wants to see fishes. I wants to see plants. I wants to see the whole system up and running. I wants to stop talking like Smeagol from lord of the Rings. I get the feeling you do too, want to see the system up and running that is. Maybe you wants me to stop talking like Smeagol. I will do everything I can to make the running system come true for us. Stops it Precious.

In the meantime, keep checking your suppliers, Follow this blog, post comments. Show your interest of this blog to others by using one of the buttons below or over to the side, if any of the delicious, dig or other buttons don't work, comment and tell me. If you know of another similar service which you prefer, comment and tell me.

Take care, be safe, come back often.

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Greenhouse Designs

2009-06-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

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I have been looking at many different greenhouse designs. It is becoming evident that there almost as many greenhouse designs as there are aquaponics designs. I came to a point then that I had to get a better definition of just what I needed in a greenhouse. I will look at existing greenhouse designs if there is not an existing design which meets or comes as close as possible to the list requirements I will compose one using the closest match, adding the features needed to reach the desired end.

A rough list of points follows:

It needs to:

fall within my severe budget limitations.
be able to be assembled by one person, keeping my physical limitations in mind or at least with limited help.
be easily maintained by one person.
not require constant care and adjustment.
be easily accessible should either my disabilities grow worse or one of my more severely disabled friends wish to visit.
made of either durable materials (preferable) or cheaply replaceable ones or a combination of the two when possible.
have as many automatic systems as required should there be periods of poor health or the necessity of travel
make use of recycled materials as much as budget and all other limitations allow.
able to provide a healthy plant and fish environment during weather which on average reaches down into the 20's (F) in January and February and 90's (F) in June, July and August. This would need to include some form of heat on a thermostat and fans on a separate thermostat. There would need to be enough "play" in the settings so that the heat would not turn on the fans, thereby wasting energy.
have backup systems for the regular swings which are considerably lower and higher than these.
be of a construction which would withstand or could be easily protected from fairly frequent hail storms.
Have sun shades to limit daytime temps in extreme temperatures. (may also be combined with hail protection)
be possible to relocate.
have enough square footage to meet my needs and provide either extra room or be easily expandable.
Have an insulated north wall.
be as reasonably protected from high winds as possible.
by design, limit pest infestations if this be possible.
make use of solar energy to cool the greenhouse during the summer.
make use of geothermal damping to pre cool/warm air as needed.
be bee friendly, having whatever systems necessary to keep honey bees out of ventilators.
be tall enough to allow unrestricted growth of taller plants.
have a clear southern wall to allow as much sunlight in winter months.
have a means to collect, store, and release during colder nighttime hours any unused solar energy. (passive if possible)
have an area which could be partitioned off by insulated reflective panels during winter months to add additional light to shorter daylight hours for the few non-seasonal vegetables which may be desired to grow to provide variety and possible additional winter income.
be compatible with all needed points of aquaponics, including strawberry towers hanging from the roof.

My first thought is, "Yeah right". Well, maybe, but I don't give much weight to my "inner voice of doubt". It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Well, that may be so, but if it is then wisdom, creativity, compassion, and hope are its grandparents and laziness is its illegitimate father.

Wisdom knows that there has to be a better way. Creativity looks at the way it is done and figures out another way to do it. Compassion cares enough to ease another's burden. Hope gets them all through to the end. Laziness just doesn't want to keep doing it the "old hard way".

So, I will continue to pour over greenhouse designs. I will research every greenhouse building supplier I see. I have already found a supplier for greenhouse skin that is half average price. Why haven't I listed them here? Well first off, I'm hoping that you'll find someone even cheaper than I have. If, after searching for a supplier for a reasonable amount of time, leave a comment that you haven't been able to find anyone who supplies it as reasonably as I found.

I believe the concept of co-op works. A group of commonly minded people all working together for a common goal. Well, if enough people work together to find the best price on everything needed for a system like this then everyone benefits. If through comments they say to me, "Hey, I found a better deal than you did over at, ...". I won't be mad. I'll be glad that they had a successful savings hunt. If enough people were to do this then we'd have a regular grass roots savings movement going on.

Check out every supplier you can and find your own best deal. Good luck!

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Providence (no not Rhode Island)

2009-06-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

This past week, has been a very busy one. I realize it doesn't seem so looking at the blog posts. As many of you already know, finances on this front are very tight. I am not whining, just stating a fact. Many times I have to get things done in ways which are much more time consuming than if I had more money. Again, not whining, it is just a fact of economics. I do hope, that in some way my successes here will inspire someone else in dire financial situations to know that there are ways to get things done without much, or sometimes any, cash flow. In my failures also, I hope that others will learn routes to avoid.

The week ahead also is not looking very conducive to progress in the aquaponics sector. However, progress is being made. The tadpoles are doing their part in the two small pools towards beginning a decent nitrogen cycle. I spoke with my nephew and it may be possible to borrow one of his filters to inoculate my system with his already established beneficial bacteria from his "green" decorative water feature. No, I don't mean that he has an algae problem, he doesn't use harsh chemicals in his system. He also informed me that he has aquired a number of fingerling sized catfish which will be ideal as a next step after the feeder goldfish. There are no permits required where I am to keep a few channel catfish. Once I have a "Fuzzy" proof of concept up and running and am well on the way to having aquired much of the materials for the larger system, I will need a number of permits. I will scratch, claw, and climb over those hurdles as they come.

In another installment, I will discuss my choices for tanks for the larger system. I have been doing as I have mentioned earlier and checking out Every supplier I see for everything I think I might possibly need. Once I find a few suppliers, I bookmark/favorite them under a subcategory of aquaponics. Specific areas are further categorized into things like plumbing, tanks, fish, plants, greenhouse, pumps ...

I had also been seeing the need for an air compressor. My old one quit working, the one I bought around Christmas wasn't up to all I needed it for. I needed a larger compressor. Well, this weekend while I was taking care of some out of town business, I stopped at a yard sale. There was a non-working compressor of the size I needed for $5 U.S. 30 minutes of tinkering, and I now have a working compressor. Providence. Some might call it luck, others coincidence. I call it Providence : The care, guardianship, and control exercised by God. Call it what you wish, but the only things that stand out which I have ever won in my almost 43 years, was a Tony the Tiger coloring contest when I was little, and a chili cook off. I wish I still had that Tony the Tiger bicycle license plate, "They're Grrrrrreat!"

It also appears that when the time comes I will have a reliable, economical and more importantly honorable source for Tilapia whom I trust. I will share that source with you all in a later post. I will also share the results of the seeds I use, rating them on several areas. That will be at least one post in itself. As I have said before, I plan on using heirloom seed as much as possible. I know that some hybrids have better performance in some areas. So, if an heirloom seed will do the job reasonably as well considering factors like pest and disease resistance, vigour, tolerance of the aquaponic/greenhouse environment, production, taste etc ... then why should I not use it?

I am still looking for a greenhouse to recycle. There are 7 which I have found which haven't been used in a minimum of 3 years. Right now, they look like some sort of fallen dinosaur, it's ribs exposed to the elements, shredded plastic looking like, well, you get the picture. So far, not much headway. I am forced by finances to be patient. I continue to see evidences like my cinder block, compressor, and many other examples of Providence, so I wait with hope and faith.

See you again next post! Don't forget to Follow ----->

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Family before Aquaponics: or blood is thicker than water.

2009-06-24T19:02:00.003-07:00

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Well, as I said, I probably wont get a lot done on the aquaponics system this week. I appologize to my readers for the delay, but not really anyone else. I didn't really get to know my own brother growing up. I did have a first cousin though. We grew up together. When his parents hit hard times, he lived with us. When I hit hard times, I lived with them. We are closer than some brothers end up being. He needed my help with something. I did what I could.

Benefit did come to the long term aquaponics project though. I found a place which is not on the internet which sells perlite for less than $17 U.S. for 4 cubic feet. In case you don't know, perlite is a mineral which when heated to a fairly high temperature puffs up sort of like popcorn. It doesn't absorb water after it has been processed. It is used in agriculture to loosen soils. It is used in hydroponics as a growing medium. It's light weight makes it useful in hydroponics because grow beds don't need to be as heavy duty as they would with a growing medium like gravel. It does have problems, it tends to float, it can get sucked into pumps and screens and clog them, it can break down over time and infiltrate other areas of the system. Because of my disabilities and the knowledge that they can grow worse over time, and also because of my concern for others with greater disabilities than myself, I have considered different ways of using it.
If I have figured it correctly, for every 12 barrel halves, it would take 11 bags of perlite. That would figure out roughly to about $180 U.S. for every twelve barrels or about $15 dollars a barrel half. Since the large system I am hoping to build would have a 3300 gallon tank that would take about 120 barrel half grow beds. So, that would round out to about $1800, just for the perlite. That is not going to be a possibility for a while.

I have shopped around for the tank and have managed to get the price for a 3300 gallon tank down to less than $500 U.S. for one I build myself, or $1100 for a ready made one. The descision will largely depend on availability of funds, time constraints and physical limitations.

Plumbing will more than likely be the largest expense. However, the cost per square foot of growing space goes down above a certain point. Say for instance in the small barrel-ponics system, I might need one particular fitting which bought singly will cost $1.19. If however, I buy it as part of a contractor pack containing 10 of them, I can get the same fitting for 99 cents a piece. If I buy 6 contractors packs then I have just saved $1.20 just on that one type of fitting.

It might also be the case, that a larger system may use one larger fitting to service say 10 growbeds instead of 5 smaller fittings to service each pair. That one larger fitting might cost $3.50 but the smaller fittings might cost around $1 each. So over 120 grow beds that would come to a savings of $18 dollars.

As you can see, overall the larger system will be cheaper for each square foot of growing space. The trick is going to be getting the system supplies for the larger system and staying within a very fixed budget. It should prove to be interesting.

I have a second type of tadpole in the inflatable pool I was checking out for leaks. I still plan on setting up a tank just for frogs. I don't want to eat frog's legs before anyone asks. I just like frogs.

Keep checking back, post comments, I'll be adding some bells and whistles soon.

On a humorous note, I was reminded today of when a local video store first got DVDs. I'll try to find the picture of the DVD case which had a sticker on it that said, "Be Kind, Please Rewind".

Time

2009-06-21T17:12:00.000-07:00

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Depending on how things go over the next few days, the barrel-ponics system may not see much progress. Don't let this discourage you though. As soon as things smooth out again we will get right back to it. In the meantime, read! Do a Google search on aquaponics university study pdf. Then possibly do one on aquaponics UVI and see what comes up. Check out hydroponics suppliers for prices of components and start figuring out the cost. If nothing else it can give you ideas for your system.

Search your local craigslist for people with barrels. Check out pump prices. Marine pumps, bilge pumps, bait well pumps. You can also look at hydroton suppliers or if you plan to use gravel like me check out local quarries and landscape suppliers. If you live in a really hot or cold area, you may want to look into prices on heat pumps for your fish tank. There are also a lot of good deals on greenhouse components if you check out all of the suppliers you can.

Gravel in Grow Beds

2009-06-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

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It has been in the news recently that granite may contain dangerous substances. I had been considering using granite gravel in my grow beds because of how much cheaper it is than the "white rock" pea gravel. This brought up a serious issue. One of the main reasons that people grow their own food next to cost is health concerns.

Something I learned in the military is that in a recirculating system, any contaminant is much more dangerous. In a normal day, the average city dweller is exposed to numerous toxins. One factor which keeps them all from dropping like flies is the concentration of the toxins. There are toxins in every breath we take. The human body however, does not absorb all of the toxins in each breath. So, as long as the concentration is below a certain point, we survive, more or less.

Now, lets say that we are put into an air tight room. Inside that room is something to take out just the carbon dioxide and replace it with oxygen. The air that is in the room gets breathed over and over again. Each time it enters our lungs it has a chance to depart its impurities into our bodies. Effectively, every time the air is breathed, it multiplies the chances of absorbing the toxins contained within that breath.

In a closed loop system like aquaponics, the fish and plants in the system will be exposed to any contaminants in the system over and over again. The question then arises, "Should we practice closed loop cibatic systems?". The chances of a large portion of any contaminants becoming concentrated in the food produced in such a system would seem dangerous.

IMHO, which probably isn't worth much, but anyway, I would say that it probably is. When plants are grown in soil they sit in that spot absorbing contaminants. Sunflowers have been used to decontaminate soil. That leaves the fish. With the condition of most natural waterways, and taking into consideration the manner in which many commercial venues raise fish, it is likely that a conscientious home gardener would be more careful with their own health.

As far as the material used for gravel in the grow beds, fertilizer used in agriculture contains much the same dangerous elements as granite. The plants are often grown in soil contaminated by pesticides and other chemicals. At least in an aquaponics system, the person running the system has some control over possible contamination.

I use well water. In order to reach the aquifer, the person who drilled the well had to drill through granite. Every time a take a drink of water, I am drinking water exposed to the same granite that I would have in my system. I periodically have to clean out granite dust from filter screens. I feel that I am improving my lot by controlling what goes into my system. I don't feel that granite is terribly dangerous. I will probably use a dual layer bed in my grow beds. The actual upper section of the plants in "white rock" pea gravel and the lower sections of the grow beds being granite. From what I have read on the subject, I probably get exposed to more radiation crawling under the house *(radon) to run new plumbing than I will from a couple of hundred pounds of granite gravel in my system.

Aquaponics: June 18 Progress

2009-06-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

(Please note, I've worked around dangerous stuff for years, power tools can maim or kill you, stuff can fall on you and flashing can slice you open like a steak knife, please be careful if you try any of this and use proper safety procedures and gear, if you don't know what those are don't do it until you do. I'd like to keep my readers, but I can't be responsible for your safety, only you can do that.)

Well, in the previous post I said that I would try to do a recap of what I did yesterday with some photos since it was raining and I didn't want to take the camera out. So, here goes. I replaced the rims with cinderblock.

I fixed the base so that the barrels sat correctly. I extended the rear of the two bottom "sleepers" so that they were far enough out to mount the dump tank.

I did this by running three 3/4 inch wooden dowels all the way across and bolting them in place with 2 bolts each side.

That pretty much brings us up to date. Oh, in the wider shot above of the "sleeper" extensions, at the bottom of the photo in between the extensions, that is a castellated block or at least that is what I call them.

So, now we are up to today. First off, I wanted to put a cap made of flashing material on top of the cinder blocks. I cut the flashing material a little longer than the cinder blocks and bent it into a sort of pan. Then using metal foil tape I attached the copper mesh along the edge of the pan.

This was repeated for each block then inverted and placed over the top of the cinder blocks. We'll see how it works to deter slugs and garden snails.

I then placed the stand back on the newly capped cinder blocks and placed the grow beds in place. It now seemed like a good time to install the rest of the bulkhead and siphon hose inside the grow bed. Since I couldn't find a female 1/2 inch hose barb, I had to make do. I cut the 1/2 inch aquarium tubing so that it came to the center of the grow bed. A little heat applied to the aquarium tubing makes it slip on the hose barb easier. I do mean a little, this stuff will melt, char and catch fire dripping burning molten vinyl all over the place. A heat gun on low would easily do the job. Unfortunately mine grew legs and I haven't gotten a replacement.

So, there it is all assembled, looks like it is just going for that water doesn't it?

I then prepped and cemented the fittings that needed to be cemented on the fish tank. I dug through my salvage pile and found the two pumps I scrounged. I knew that one of them I had found on the side of the road after someone had moved and it at least turned under power. I hooked it up to see if it would pump water.

I think it will work well enough until I can get a replacement. If it is still working I will keep it as a spare. I had an air leak on the suction side at first that kept it from pumping well. I fixed that and it seemed to do well enough. I will only be putting feeder goldfish in the tank at first so they can get the system going.

Aquaponics: Progress, a little at a time

2009-06-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Well, progress may not be rapid but it is progress. That is part of the beauty of aquaponics. Whether you are scrunched for time, or physically not able to work for long periods, or like me with a bit of both, you can move at your own pace. Admittedly, I will need to build some sort of temporary greenhouse to extend my growing season. But a simple hoop style greenhouse will be good practice for the larger system I am planning for later.

I worked on the base some more today. I got rid of the aluminum alloy mags that I was using to support the whole thing. I replaced them with the cinder blocks. The overall result is much better. I am sure it will settle some but they don't sink under weight. I have decided to install a skirt of metal flashing on top of each block. The skirt will keep water from being wicked up from the ground to the wood which should slow decay. It should also prevent insects from having easy access to the wood. I have some copper screen left over from a previous project. Snails and slugs don't like copper. It creates a galvanic response when they start to crawl over it. Since it won't be in contact with the water of the system it will be okay. According to what I have read, copper is a serious no-no. If you use copper in the system it can kill your fish. Anyway, a narrow strip of copper screen under the flashing should provide an effective barrier to snails and slugs.

Another note of interest, earthworms don't like copper either. A copper screen over drain holes in a vermiculture system can keep your "livestock" in their proper container while still allowing water to drain. Just don't forget the "no copper in aquaponics" rule.

I found out something else that is pretty interesting, irritating, but interesting. Mosquitoes seem to be drawn to certain blue barrels. At first I thought it was just the rainwater, but then I noticed a few around a piece which had been cut from one of the blue barrels I am using in the system. As of right now, I don't know if it is some particular spectrum of light or the food additive that was in the barrel. I have several blue barrels now. I am thinking of building a possibly improved version of a bug catcher that a retired military guy showed me when I lived up north.

Back to the barrel-ponics system. I extended the ends of the base so that the barrels don't interfere with each other. So far, the base is about 90 percent salvaged, reclaimed or recycled wood. I would have liked to use decking screws but I've already discussed the current finance problems. I found some double hot dipped galvanized ring shank nails left over from a building project a couple of years ago. My wrist is letting me know that it would much rather I use decking screws and a drill driver than nails with speed bumps on them. Oh well, life goes on and over the counter pain medicince stock goes up.

The main supports were not long enough to match the measurements in the Barrelponics manual by Travis Hughey, so I extended them. I will support the extensions with cinder block as well. The extensions are joined to the main supports by three, 3/4 inch wooden dowels going all the way across and through each side and two 3/8 inch bolts on each side with 1 1/2 inch washers to spread the load of tightening the bolts.

So, the portion of the base that supports the growbeds is structurally finished. Another couple of hours and the flood tank support will be finished. I bought a gallon of miss tinted porch paint that should extend the life of the wood for $5 from Home Depot. Ideally, pressure treated wood would be best, but the budget would not allow it.

It was raining off and on a lot today. I didn't mind getting wet, but I didn't want the camera to. So, I appologize to the followers of this blog and to the people who read it but don't "follow" it for the lack of photos. I will do my best to make it up next blog. I'll try to start the blog with a short recap of todays blog with pictures and then any progress I make beyond today.

Aquaponics: Future plans cont.

2009-06-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

Aquaponics is a recirculating system. If the aquaponics system has a diverse enough polyculture, almost everything gets used. The aquaponics farmer feeds the fish. The fish feed the nitrifying bacteria. The nitrifying bacteria feed the plants. The plants clean the water for the fish. Other flora and fauna in the system such as phytoplankton and zoo plankton make use of some of the byproducts of the fish's life cycle. Still other animals in a polycultured aquaponics system make use of other byproducts. A well operating polycultured aquaponics system does a pretty good job of mimicking nature.

So, where do I want to go with this? Well, first off, I want to provide more wholesome food for my family. When you buy things at the grocery store, you really don't know whats been put on it or what it has been exposed to. When you grow things yourself, you know what your putting on them. When you grow them in an aquaponics system with carefully selected components you know there aren't any pesticide residues in soil to worry about.

I want to find heirloom species of plants which grow well in aquaponics systems and use them whenever possible. I respect science, it was my favorite subject in school. I don't discount it. I do tend to hesitate to want to buy, grow or eat genetically altered vegetables. Hybrids are fine but, I also know that the hype about hybrids being so superior is often just so much advertising. I know this isn't true in all cases but it often is. I have grown a number of locally obtained heirloom seed and had wonderful results.

I want to reach a level of self sufficiency that I can not only provide all the food my family eats but also have enough extra to sell to provide for other needs. This would require that the system produce enough quantity that it paid for all required input and maintenance, plus enough above that to provide additional income.

I need the system to be accessible to persons more disabled than myself. My disabilities have grown worse over the years. I can really tell a difference in what I can do now compared to five years ago. And I have gotten better at getting around the things I cannot do. So, the system will need to be easily accessed as well as easily maintained.

The system will need to include enough redundancy to be able to continue operation in the event of subsystem malfunction. In addition to this, the system will need to be able to have sections isolated from the main system under operational and non-operations conditions.

We will need the system to produce items that not only grow well, but also that we will eat. While I could eat brussel sprouts two to three times a week, history has proven that my family will not. The produce of the system needs to be varied enough to provide an interesting diet but not varied enough to cause undue complications or difficulties in crop maintenance. The system will also need to produce salable product.

It would be nice if the system were also configured to allow it to be easily demonstrated should the desire to teach on site arise. Insurance and other legal concerns will need to be addressed before they become an issue.

Pest control will need to be addressed. As I have stated before, I prefer, well no, I will only settle for all natural options and if a plant is so susceptible to pests that it requires more than that then it will be considered non-viable and not grown again.

Honey bees would be a positive addition to the overall system. There are difficulties which would need to be addressed. Powered ventilation is one of them. The pollination of flowers by bees would greatly reduce required attention in that area. Possibly using passive solar ventilation would alleviate the danger to the bees.

Image by cramsay23 via Flickr

Additional recovery of system waste could be achieved by BSF
(black soldier fly) and growth of aquatic plants. Other species of animal which have a salable end product could also be added. Red claw and prawn are two possibilities. Both have a positive impact on overall system polyculture balance.

Hopefully, in the next installment we can get some progress on the barrel ponics system. Any suggestions on ecofriendly solutions that you are familiar with would be appreciated. See you next time...

As Kermit says,"It isn't easy being green"

2009-06-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

In my dirt garden this year, I have been doing my best to go completely green. I haven't used any pesticides at all man made or otherwise. I have been carefully catching beneficial insects and placing them in my garden. Most of them fly off but a few have decided it is a nice neighborhood. Right now I have a good many lady bugs and a few one inch long preying mantis. Aphid farming ants drive me insane. They will take young aphids from a plant infested with them to another plant and place them on it. They herd them like sheep. They are brilliant but extremely bothersome.

I did use a small amount of a commercial lime product to adjust my PH. It is called Solucal. According to the manufacturer, it is 4 times more effective in adjusting soil PH than standard lime. I have very acidic soil on most of my property and very little organic matter. I have been composting now for 4 years, but it will take some time to overcome 40+ years of the previous resident removing every scrap of organic matter from the property. I realize those two many times don't seem to go together. But without certain organic acids calcium just washes out of the soil without ever doing it's job. The insoluable calcium just can't get to the form which becomes available for effectively combating soil acidity. The solucal seems to be working.

I added just short of a ton of a mix of composted cow manure, composted leaves and wood chips to my garden area. I placed them in a raised bed configuration without sides. Each bed is about 4 feet wide. Some of them are square others are longer, depending on what I am growing. Overall, the growth has been good compared to previous years. My snow peas did very well. The carrots are a definate keeper. The broccoli was so good that my youngest said it tasted better than the kind with the cheese on it.

I also started something this year which was practiced by South American natives for thousands of years. The addition of charcoal to the soil. I'm not talking about the kind you get in the store. That stuff has chemicals and heavy metals in it. Yeah, I was surprised too. We have a lot of trees around here. every year we get limb falls during winter ice storms and during wind storms in other parts of the year. While there was still snow on the ground, I dug a shallow pit in my garden. after breaking the limbs up into manageable pieces I placed them in the shallow pit. I set them on fire. Once the fire was burning well, I piled more on top of this. Once it had all burned to hot coals, I threw dirt on top of it. This is similar to the process for making charcoal. It took 3 days to burn out. Once it had, I hand tilled it. There was a nice layer of high grade hardwood charcoal lining the pit. I put my compost mix on top of this. According to studies, the charcoal absorbs and neutralizes toxins in the soil, provides a surface for beneficial bacteria to grow on, and holds water for the plants. It also fosters the tendency of the soil to hold onto nutrients.

The rain which is happening right now is wonderful for my dirt garden. It kind of throws a wrench into progress on the aquaponics project. If it dries up a little later today, I will get out there and finish my stand and make some more headway. I also wanted to buy gravel today, but you would be surprised at how much weight the water ads to the gravel. I don't want to pay $40 a ton for water. I would also offer this wisdom to you. If you are going to buy gravel, if at all possible wait until it has been dry for a while so that you are getting more gravel for your money. If you go to buy gravel and it has just been raining, lets say you buy a half ton. You could be paying for 50 or a 100 pounds of water at gravel prices. Just something to think about.

Sustainability extends to your bank account as well. Green technology is often expensive and the more wisely you invest your money in it the quicker you will see a return. This will allow you to invest in even more green technology sooner. Its just smart money with a green twist.

Aquaponics and Need

2009-06-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

Image by el clinto via Flickr

As I have recently mentioned, finances are extremely tight right now. I will post pics of the stand design that worked and descriptions of what didn't. I had planned on recycling four bent aluminum alloy rims to use as the base for the barrelponics stand. I thought they would be more stable than cement blocks. They proved however to be more difficult to level and appeared to have a tendency to sink under weight.

Through this I figured out that an ideal solution would be the castellated block used as decking supports. I still think these would be a good solution but with all of the difficulties of life recently, finances would not allow any more purchases. They may have proven to have problems of their own which I do not currently foresee. I do know that standard eight inch cement blocks or cinder block work. Well, I fully believe that my God provided for this need. I was driving home and there was a fellow setting cinder blocks out to the curb for trash pickup. I asked for them and he gave them to me. Not only that, but it was exactly the number of block that I need.

I don't generally include my beliefs on this blog. For one thing, I know that some people are easily offended on matters of belief. I have known other people who would ridicule the provision of cinderblocks or that in many of their cases and beliefs a theoretical being powerful enough to create an entire universe would not be concerned with a person needing a few cinder blocks. It is my belief that my God is concerned with all need. If that is offensive to anyone, I do not apologize, I feel that the reason this system works as well as it does is that it comes closer to copying the design made by the Creator. That is my belief.

I plan on documenting step by step my process of getting my barrel ponics system up and running. I post this blog in the hopes that others will learn from my mistakes and benefit by not having to make those same mistakes. It is also my hope that others will find interest and answers.

Keep following, join the blog, participate by leaving comments. Try to be positive. If you know of a better way share it so others can benefit. I don't pretend to be all knowing. I am documenting this project to give others a reference. I do have a good bit of proficiency in tool use but I am new to aquaponics. Jump in, take a look, join and comment.

Aquaponics: Plans for the Future

2009-06-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

It may be that readers are wondering just where I am going with all of this. I have explained some of the benefits of aquaponics. It is really just a logical step forward from either hydroponics or aquatics. In stepping forward, embracing the two technologies and taking the best of both, the benefits of the two together show a greater return than either alone.

In a hydroponics system, any nutrients have to be provided for the plants. When the nutrient solution reaches the end of its usefulness, it has to be disposed of. Throughout the period of time the nutrient solution is used more and more nutrients have to be added to the solution. As time passes substances which the plants cannot process build up in the solution. In some cases the solution is more acidic than acid rain. There are methods to extent the usefulness of the solution, and some use organic nutrients. I am not knocking hydroponics, I just feel that aquaponics is a better application of the technology.

In aquatics, waste buildup in the water has to be dealt with. In heavily stocked situations the outflow from aquaculture is causing imbalance to natural systems. Recirculating aquaculture takes care of some of these problems. Lightly stocking the waters in aquatics systems helps as well. Do a Google search on university and independent studies on aquaculture or fish farm waste water. You will find articles discussing contaminants. One of the contaminants is a portion of the food. In non-recirculating systems this goes into either municipal waste water treatment or it goes into the ecosystem. Again, I am not attacking anyone or any particular process.

This post will continue at a later date.

Expect Delays

2009-06-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

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I ought to have learned by now to expect delays. I spent the whole day running errands for other people. Most of it I didn't mind, it is just frustrating to lose a whole day of decent weather. I drove a little over 200 miles.

The system is out there, waiting on me. I figured out a way to fix yesterday's screw up. I believe I have all of the stuff I need to do it too. Well, everything except the castellated block. I'll have to check prices to see if I can scratch together enough to cover them. Once I get past the embarrassing part of having screwed up the stand, I'll take some pictures of it.

I did manage to do away with some unfriendly ecosystems today. No, don't get out your ecofriendly baseball bats. I went around and found most of the little items holding water where mosquitoes could breed. I left the little inflatable pool. I may even set up a separate 55 gallon "fish tank" with an air stone and transfer the tadpoles over to it. I think I may have figured out why I have so many frogs. The development contractor building the nearby subdivision, drained three 90 year old ponds at the end of the road and the frogs are looking for a new habitat. I love the frogs and my city girl wife will eventually get used to "Screep, Screep, Screep" at all hours. Now if only we could bring the whippoorwills back. Oh well, maybe if I can ever afford that place in the country.

I do need to make headway, there are 1200 pounds of gravel sitting in the back of the old 66 ford pickup. I don't want to leave it there for too long, its hard on the springs just sitting. Besides I am going to need it when the ground dries out a little so that I can get to the picture windows I bought for 5 dollars 25 years ago. They are only single glazed but if I am careful I can cut them, get some aluminum and butyl sealant and make my own double glazed out of them.

While I am making progress, funds are extremely slim. I have had two offers of some fairly light labor temporary work. I may need to take them on so that I can speed the progress along. I don't want to overdo it and screw myself up worse than I am so I always have to be careful. I tend to be my own worst boss man.

Well, hopefully there will be some impressive progress on monday. If you want to post comments, please do so. See you Monday.

Scrounged parts can lead to headaches.

2009-06-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
Well, I don't know if I would count today as a productive one as far as barrel ponics goes. The budget right now is a whopping $15.oo. Because of that, I was using scrounged wood to make the stand for the system. I figured the couple of inches that the 2x4s I found wouldn't make a whole lot of difference. Well, I was wrong. I made the mistake of trying the fit of the V's made by screwing together a 2x6 and a 2x10 with only one barrel. When I went to put both barrels in the system, they wouldn't fit. I tried heating and reshaping the barrels to miss each other and that didn't work. I had planned on using 4 ford mustang mags and tires that were damaged in a wreck for my base. Also didn't work. I found one castelated cinderblock and it looks like it will be the best to use. Now I just need 4 more. I think I can make what I have work but I may need to pull it apart and do some really creative woodworking to stretch my 2x4s.
Blue plastic barrels are pretty forgiving things to work with but they don't like to be crowded. I also need to be sure I have the whole thing stable and solid since in addition to the weight of the basic

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

system, I will be adding about 600 pounds of gravel and I don't know how many pounds of water that will be moving around.

I did notice that I have a nice little bioculture living in the little inflatable swimming pool. There a ton of little tadpoles flitting around eating algae. There are also a few mosquito larva frantically trying to get away from a little boatman bug. I may go to the pet store and shell out a buck or two for some fish that will eat the mosquito larvae. I love the frogs, they eat bugs once they are bigger. It is nothing like the pool in the picture, the little tadpoles are gulping down the green stuff. It truly amazes me how quick they showed up. The pool was set up only a week ago to test it for leaks. It leaked, air and water. I figured I might be able to use the water for a sort of starter culture. That and some unwashed gravel from a fairly healthy stream.

So, tomorrow, if I have time I'll see about stretching those 2x4s and getting some block to set the system up on. I guess the aluminum alloy mags will just have to get recycled with the rest of the aluminum scrap I have been saving. If I can get it all worked out, I'll paint the wood with some $5 mistint porch paint from Home Depot. It is a really ugly color but it was next best thing to free.

aquaculture and hydroponics vs. aquaponics

2009-06-11T06:30:00.000-07:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I thought I would take some time to explain why I chose aquaponics over hydroponics. I've already explained that aquaponics is the logical marriage of aquaculture and hydroponics.

Hydroponics require anything the plants need to be added to the nutrient solution. At the end of the process, what is left over is considered hazardous waste. In some cases the end product can be more acidic than acid rain.

Fish farms utilize high density stocking techniques to obtain maximum yield of end product, fish. They either have to filter their water using bioligical or chemical methods to keep water consumption as low as possible or do very frequent water changes. Another method is deep water aquaculture which raises fish in a net cage in a large body of water. This method basically uses the old adage, "The solution to pollution is dilution". Well, this manner of dealing with pollution has been used for years and as we are now finding out it is not all that great. Pollution has a tendency to undilute itself.

Now enters aquaponics. Aquaponics could be looked at as either hydroponics with an all natural nutrient supply or aquaculture with a living filter and waste product management system. Either way it is a better balance. The fish eat and produce ammonia, the biological filter converts the ammonia first to nitrites, then to nitrates. The plants consume the nitrates and keep the water clean for the fish. It is a method of farming which mimics nature.

Having spent time living in the Appalacian mountains of Virginia, I grew to appreciate nature. The beauty of streams in balance and woodlands untouched by urbanization. The more we hear about dead zones in our waterways, the more we hear about our environment becoming unstable, the more I think we need to step back and rethink our current approach.

When I found aquaponics, it addressed so many of my concerns I had to learn more. After doing research for about 6 months, I met Travis Hughey of fastonline.org . With his mentorship I began building the system designe by him. You see, Travis' barrel ponics system not only has the benefits of aquaponics, it also makes use of recycled materials. It uses off the shelf easy to find components and doesn't require a large outlay of capitol to get started.

Aquaponics also has the benefit that in addition to being kinder to the environment than straight hydroponics it also provides fish in addition to the vegetables. For our vegan friends a system can be adapted which utilizes a koi pond as a nutient source and the fish will enjoy a system which mimics nature in it's filtration of the water.

The closer we get to the way nature does it the better off we are.

Over did it.

2009-06-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well, as you may know, got quite a lot done yesterday, among other things I managed to over do it. That is often how it is now. I get good days when my pain is a little less, my mood improves and I feel more like getting stuff done. I push myself to start. I push myself to keep going. Sometimes I just don't stop pushing soon enough. One might ask the question why I do this. simply put, I have to push myself to do anything. When just about anything I do hurts. I am weaker than I have been for most of my life, and I have chronic depression anyway, just getting up in the morning can be a challenge.

I still got a few things done. I got my 1 inch pipe that I needed. I picked up a few more fittings. It was difficult as usual finding the right ones. I ended up having to buy threaded adapters which will be assembled with a piece of 1/2 inch pipe in between them. These could have been just one part, but they didn't have a 1/2 inch hose barb with 1/2 inch female threads.

The stand for the system is going to be interesting. It may also be ugly. I picked up a can of miss tinted exterior porch paint to paint the wood with since I am using scrounged and recycled wood. None of it is pressure treated. I also could not find an 8 inch board for the braces for the grow beds. I had to use a 10 inch wide board.

I am still working on deciding a few things. One thing I did decide was that I wasn't going to be all that detailed with the woodworking for the stand. For one thing, it will be pretty much cobbled together in whatever way presents itself because of the materials I was able to get.

Hopefully, I will get more done tomorrow.

Aquaponics Progress

2009-06-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

It has been a productive day. I just finished the pencil portion of my first aquaponic comic (c) and/or tm , . I will see if time allows to do the lettering and inking tomorrow. I already have an idea for the next edition. I am afraid that it will only make sense to A.P.ers, but that niche is growing. Besides, it will be nice for the aquaponics sub-culture to have their own comic.

Oh yeah, I said it had been a productive day. Well, it has. The fishing poles that the ferrel cat knocked down when it collapsed part of my shop ceiling are now securely resting in their own rubber coated hooks mounted to the ceiling sleepers. They are my dads old rods and even though I don't get out fishing like I used to, I don't want anything to happen to them. I bet though, that isn't the kind of progress you want to hear about.

Well, I made some really decent headway on the basic barrel ponics system. First off, I finally found my spade bits to make the holes for the fittings in the grow beds and the fish tank. Well, I found my old ones actually. I still don't know what happened to the brand new ones I bought just for the project. So, I finished double checking my measurements and marked the spot to drill. That is 1 inch *(25 mm) in from the edge of the side of the barrel on either half and then drilled the 3/4 inch hole *(that is about 19 mm so if you use metric pipe I think your choices are 18 or 20mm).

Let me take a moment here to say something, my grandfather started teaching me how to use hand tools when I was 3. The U.S. military spent a large portion of my training time teaching me hand and power tool safety. I have worked around high voltage, metal working machines, and generally hazardous machinery equipment and chemicals for over half of my life and I'm currently 42. If you are not familiar with the use and safety of hand and/or power tools, I don't want anyone hurt. There are classes in metal working, welding, machining, and general shop safety classes offered at many community colleges, there are experienced craftsmen and women who will share their wisdom with you. I have been practicing safety for so long it is second nature and I still get an occasional nick or cut when something does something it isn't supposed to. You care enough about what I am saying to read it, I care about you enough to tell you that I am sharing how I did something and I don't want you hurt doing it yourself. I am also not taking responsibility for other people not being safe and ending up getting hurt. As much as I care about others, it is their responsibility to ensure their own safety.

Alright, where was I? Oh yeah, barrel ponics progress. The next step was to follow the mold line of the barrel and cut it in half. I used a jigsaw, also called a saber saw to cut the barrel. Cutting the blue plastic or white plastic barrels leaves a fuzzy crust like edge where you cut. I scraped this off with a knife and will sand it later for a more finished appearance and also so that there won't be any rough edges to damage tender plants. They are starting to look like grow beds!

Now I was ready to install the fittings for the grow bed drains. I used silicone sealant. They have aquarium grade which does dry a little more stiff but my budget wont allow it right now. I have heard that this type is fine to use. You will get to find out without having to do it. Just keep checking back and find out. I applied a little ring shape of the sealant to the threads right up next to the part of the fitting that looks like a bolt. Next I pressed the fitting against the hole with the palm of my hand and turned it clockwise to thread it into the blue plastic. Once it was snugged up tight, I wet my finger with a little non detergent soapy water and smoothed the sealant out, allowing the excess to build up further up my finger. A quick dab of extra silicone sealant on the inside around the threads up next to the blue plastic. I carefully threaded the locking ring onto the threads inside the grow bed and coated it with sealant. I smoothed it out again with the finger covered in soapy water. This gives a smoother finish so that you can see any air bubbles and also it just looks more professional.

It was time to move back to the fish tank. Now though, before I go on I have to tell you about something so that you will know what it is I am working with. I found a neat little gadget, it is called The Wedge. It is meant to keep leaves and other debris out of your gutter downspouts. It looks like it would do a wonderful job of that. The Wedge, is manufactured by Alvis Products, inc. I saw it and thought, "What a wonderful way to keep stuff out of my pump!".

It comes with some assembly required. No sweat, its just snap together. I found several places on the web that sell it so it is readily available. I will figure out later if I need to put anything inside of it for more filtration but I doubt it, this thing is made to keep large chunks from gutter downspouts. Even though I know this was not the application that the manufacturer intended it for and if it had any warranty I was getting ready to void it to kingdom come I think it was a nice find. Stuff specifically for aquaculture and hydroponics has a habit of being ridiculously expensive in comparison to other stuff. The cheapest I found this on the web was around $4 U.S. a piece. I paid less than that.

The next step was to figure out how to attach it to my fish tank outlet/pump inlet. I varied my design from Travis Hughey's basic design a little for my fish tank. I used one of my barrel bungs for my drain/pump inlet. I took the bung and the downspout portion of "The Wedge" around with me through my shop test fitting different things. I found a section of cheap plastic sink drain plumbing that looked like it would work. I cut it off so that it had a small lip that would fit inside the part from "The Wedge". I had noticed that the downspout section had tabs on it. I realized that I would not be able to turn the filter screen portion very far once it was installed so I tested how far it took to take it off and how far it had to be turned to provide a fairly decent lock. The tabs on "The Wedge" had to be at 11:00 o'clock and 5:00 o'clock. I matched these up with the tabs on the sink drain portion and drilled a small pilot hole. I temporarily screwed in one of the stainless steel screws that would be used to hold it and then drilled the other side. This is the best way to make sure your holes will line up. I took it apart and applied a small amount of silicone sealant to everything.

Then I reassembled it. Next I had to attach it to the bung. In order to make sure I installed it at the right angle I next installed the bung in the barrel. Oh, a note here. The bungs are different, at least the ones on the barrels I have. One has fine threads and the other has course threads. In my barrels the ones with the course threads has a pre-threaded hole in the middle of it for a barrel tap. That is a sort of spigot. When I was marking my barrel, I made sure this one was on the bottom so that I could use it to connect my tank drain/pump inlet to.

I used my one inch spade bit to drill out the stopper that the barrel tap would normally knock out when it is screwed in. Extreme care should be taken at this point, and I mean over and above being careful all the rest of the time. I have worked with more people who have lost fingers using power tools on small parts. I threaded mine into its hole to drill it out. A thin ring shape of sealant to the 3/4 inch PVC pipe adapter and it screwed right into the barrel tap hole. I applied a light coating of silicon sealant to the threads of the bung and a ring shape of sealant to the top edge of the threads in the barrel that will be the fish tank. Then I applied more sealant over the top and smoothed it out. I knocked over my soapy water so please forgive the rough appearance of the "smoothing" job.

The bung protrudes through on the inside when properly seated. I drilled a small pilot hole at the uppermost point, filled the recessed portion with sealant and just started a stainless steel sheet metal screw into the pilot hole. I assembled the home made coupling with "The Wedge" and made sure that I wouldn't have to turn it more than about 30 degrees to get it off for cleaning. Then I inserted it in the recessed portion of the underside of the bung. A few turns with a screwdriver and the stainless steel sheet metal screw locked it in place for the sealant to cure out. Here it is all assembled, and look, its already doing its job. See how it kept that piece of leaf out of the tank drain?

"ALVIS" and "THE WEDGE" are registered trademarks of their fine company. I thank them for making such a useful product. In fact, after having used their product for this, I have decided to pick up four more to actually use in my gutters. They also have other worthy products, but if your interested I'll let you Google them.

Aquaponics Progress

2009-06-09T06:19:00.000-07:00

Well, its time. The air conditioner is working, most of the other things I had on my plate are in a holding pattern, its time to make some progress. I found out that Home Depot has better prices on 4 inch PVC elbows than Lowe's Home Improvement, so that is where I'll be headed this evening. I may pick them up, stop by Lowe's and see if they still do the match price and beat it by 10% thing. If they do, I can either keep the elbows from Home Depot and use them later or go back and switch them out for something else I need.

The fish tank is sitting in front of my shop waiting to be assembled. As I mentioned before, I am making a slight change to Travis Hughey's wonderful design. I'm not doing that because it needed changing, I'm doing that because I love to tinker and experiment with things. I will be adding a 4 inch deep channel growing area to my fish tank. It will provide some shade during the hot months. I can foresee some difficulties with access to the fish so I will need to be careful what I choose to grow. Since some fish also forage, I will need to choose a plant that is beneficial to the fishes.

In case you are just joining, we are talking about aquaponics. Specifically barrel ponics is the branch of aquaponics which I am pursuing at the moment. Aquaponics is the logical marriage of aquaculture, which is the growing of aquatic animals and hydroponics which is the growing of plants in a soil-less medium using a nutrient solution. When my grandmother used to have an aquarium, every once in a while she would do a partial water change. All of the water she took out of the aquarium she would use to water her plants. I thought she was just being frugal. It turns out that she was fertilizing her plants.

When fish eat, they produce ammonia. Ammonia is a molecule that consists of one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms. Ammonia is toxic to fish. In a well set up aquarium or really any aquatic system beneficial bacteria will take up residence that will convert this ammonia to nitrites. Nitrites are slightly less toxic to fish than ammonia, but still can reach toxic levels very quickly. Another beneficial bacteria will take up residence which then converts the nitrites to nitrates which are a lot less toxic to fish. These can reach toxic levels though. That is why my grandmother had to do partial water changes in her aquarium.

If aquatic plants are present in the system, they are fertilized directly by these nitrates and the system comes closer to a balance. There aren't many aquatic plants which we eat on a regular basis. In comes hydroponics. Since hydroponics is the growing of plants in a soil-less medium using a nutrient solution, some very smart people got the idea that it might be possible to use water in which fish were living as the nutrient. It worked.

Over the years, much research has been done and the system has gone through some changes but basically it is just a tank in which the fish are raised, a way to get the water to the soil-less medium to deliver the nutrients so the plants can grow. There are all sorts of systems out there, and sometimes it seems difficult to choose which route to follow. I set out on this to help provide food for my family. At first I was looking at hydroponics, I found a link to aquaponics during this search and it piqued my interest. There were all sorts of systems but they shared a lot of common elements. I wasn't sure which one would be best. I discovered Travis Hughey's barrel-ponics manual.

My requirement for a system were, it needs to be; fairly easy to set up, attainable on the budget of a partially disabled displaced worker, forgiving, not extremely demanding, not requiring of too much bending or crawling, not require testing using expensive equipment, expandable, sustainable, constructed of as many recycled materials as possible, buildable in stages. With those criteria I searched through tons of materials, I read every university research project relating to it as possible, I looked at other people's successes and failures. Two main ones stood out. Travis Hughey's barrel-ponics and a project done in Hawaii. Of the two, Travis' system was the more attainable.

A scroll back through my blog will show you Travis' system. My uncle once told me, perfect toast is made by putting bread in the toaster, cooking it until it burns and then 20 seconds less. Another very smart individual told me that the best design is created by designing until the thing will do everything you want, not break down under any foreseeable circumstances and keep running even when it isn't maintained, then you take out stuff it didn't need to do all that. Same basic principle, same basic wisdom. Travis' system meets that too. It is eloquent simplicity.

If you haven't done it already, you need to download a copy of Travis' book/manual. Its free but doesn't look like it should be. It is better written and more nicely put together than some e-books I have paid for. In case you missed the previous post and are wondering what kind of results Travis' is getting ...

Well, If you folks want to actually get to see some pictures of what I have manage to do, I need to get out and do it. Check back frequently.

Take care, be safe, be blessed

Fuzzy

Health

2009-06-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

It is hard to go from being able to do pretty much you decide to do to having what you can do decide what you do. Health has been an issue for some years now. Between seizures, bad knee, messed up wrist, and general health quality it makes a lot difficult. I do keep at it though. Sometimes a little more than I should. I push myself sometimes like day before yesterday and a pay for it for days. Anyone who reads this with intermittent health problems will know what I mean. One day you feel like your getting better so you say, "Alright!" and go at things to start catching up on all the stuff you fell behind on and then you overdo it.

Well, day before yesterday was one of those days. I was at it from about 8:00 am until 1:00 am trying to get the air conditioner to work. The temps are supposed to be close to 90 degrees. I am getting ready to go get the correct plug for the air conditioner, which will be the last step in the process. Then we will have air again.

I still love the quote, "The only failure is the one who stops trying, and a true failure is the one who never tries at all."

Keep going, keep trying, get up when you fall down, if you can't get up, then find something productive to do while your down there.

A new day.

2009-06-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well, Its a new day. I have a little over 1200 pounds *(about 550 kilos) of gravel in the back of the truck. The first of the grow bed barrels is marked for drain plugs. I don't know how the new gravel is going to do for grow bed media. It is a lot larger than I thought it was going to be. If it is too large I will use it in the bottom of the barrels and get some smaller for further up. I can use the 1/4 inch *(6 mm)mesh to keep the smaller gravel from filtering down into the larger.

The gravel is pretty rough and should provide good surface for the beneficial bacteria. The torrential rain yesterday did a good job of starting the washing process. I know it washed a good portion of my yard toward the road. I still need to thoroughly wash the gravel to make sure I don't start out my system with contaminants. Then I will install it in the grow beds.

I still need to slit the corrugated pipe. Travis cautioned me on how jumpy the stuff can be when cutting so I will be even more cautious than usual. In case you are wondering why I am having to slit the pipe, its because I got a "good" deal on some non-slitted corrugated pipe. We will see if it is a good deal or not by the time I slit 20 + feet *( a little over 6 meters) of the stuff. The pipe is installed in the bottom of the grow beds for the water to drain through. The slits are of course for the water to pass through.

Well, I hear the national weather warning buzzing so I better go see if my poor dirt garden is getting ready to take another beating. I hope you all are well.

Fuzzy

Irritation

2009-06-03T21:17:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, we had severe thunderstorms today. My poor squash and strawberries look like somebody beat them with a stick. Oh well, will try to be more positive tomorrow.

Fuzzy

Today

2009-06-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

Didn't get anything done on the aquaponics system today. I had to run a 110v line for the new washing machine. The old one was an over under system and ran off of the dryer 220v feed. The new set is Amana *(Maytag) front loaders. So far I am pleased. I can already tell it uses a ton less water. On medium spin speed the clothes are a bit dryer coming out of the washer than they were from the old machine.

Installation was included so we let them install the set. We got a bit of a chuckle as the guy went through some of the same stuff I had to the last time *(before my disabilities were as bad as they are now) but his partner was no exception, he was snapping photos with a camera phone to show the guys in their shop. The younger guy seemed to be a real trooper.

Later

Fuzzy

Invite

2009-06-01T17:13:00.000-07:00

Just got invited to David's graduation/birthday party at 1:00 at Fred's. He is a good young man and I am proud to be able to be a positive influence in his life.

In the Garden

2009-05-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

Didn't get much done today on the aquaponics system. Did get my first carrot today. Yeah, it was only three inches long but it was still great to get a carrot from my own garden. Noticed some tiny little strawberries yesterday. I will have to water them when it gets hot. As if 88 isn't hot.

Am going to try to pick up some needed stuff tomorrow for the aquaponics system and progress should continue after that. The one tomato plant that survived the upside down planting in the wrong soil is still hanging in there, no pun intended, well maybe just a little pun intended. I will need to pick the snow peas again tomorrow. I need to get the others planted or it will be too hot to get many more out of them.

I have the cantaloupes and the watermelons in but I don't know if they are going to survive my largest garden pest. It is about two feet long, black and furry and thinks that freshly planted melon vines are a wonderful playground. I love animals, even ones that aren't mine but this is getting irritating. I already had to put up little reverse playpens to keep the thing out. unfortunately those seem to provide a wonderful ladder for garden slugs which decimated my kohl rabi.

I have inch and a half long straight neck squash all pretty and yellow peeking through the leaves. I'm looking forward to those. I am looking for someone who has a decent kind of okra already sprouted to plant a staggered row of about 15 feet should keep us in all the okra we could want. I have great hopes for the aquaponics system.

I need to figure out which trees need to be gone to make way for the greenhouse. The sweet gum is already on the slate. It shades my grapevine and has broken limbs hanging over my kid's playhouse. One or both of the Japanese cherry trees in the front yard will have to come down. They have reached the end of their life expectancy and large limbs are dying. They are a hazard. At least two more in addition to those will have to come down if not three. I just hate to do it. But if I want the sun to hit my greenhouse I will have to do it. I know that one of them is going to have to be a hardwood.

I think on that one I will save all of the sections and use them to grow mushrooms. I have found several dealers online. My favorites are shitake and button. Although I have heard there are others out of my usual price range which are excellent. If I were to grow those I might be able to generate extra income. I have found out also that there are hot and cool weather mushrooms and will follow Travis' advice on going with the seasons.

You really ought to check out my albums over at Picasa. The aquaponics trip shows just what aquaponics can do. http://picasaweb.google.com/fuzvulf

enjoy!

Aquaponics and interuptions

2009-05-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I got a little more done today on my Travis Hughey barrel-ponics system. The fish tank is mostly ready to be plumbed. I also got my growbed barrel ready to cut. As I said before, I'm just wired to tinker with stuff. I'm keeping it simple on this first one and only making a small change of adding a deep channel grow area right at the tank. I'm thinking that this will help by shading it.

I believe I have found a pallet that will work perfectly for a growbed base. This will increase my already green project rating by recycling a pallet that was headed for the shredder to become mulch. On the surface that may not seem like I did much, but think of it this way. Mulch rots, that is why we have to keep replacing it. Eventually, my growbed stand will rot too but by the time it does it will have given a few more years of use. I don't generally use mulch of the sort most people think of. More about that in a later blogpost.

About midway through working on the barrels, my drill completely quit. It has been on its last legs for over a year now so it was not a surprise. I had another drill which had a bad chuck. A little techie rigging and I had a working drill and extra parts. Unfortunately this took about an hour and a half of my tinker time tm. I decided to use what I had left to do something for my family so I set up a pool I salvaged. It has a leak but I think I will be able to fix it.

Fish Tank

2009-05-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I started construction on the fish tank. As usual I have to tinker with things. Travis Hughey's design is beautiful in its functionality and utilitarian approach. There is really nothing lacking in the design, its just that I am wired to tinker with things. Up from say four years until I was sixteen, I don't think I ever got a present that I didn't take apart to see what made it tick. I was always building something, mostly out of the parts left over from things I had taken apart and decided they weren't necessary. Don't get me wrong, it isn't like the guy who puts together the kit car with one bolt left over only to have the whole thing fall apart. Usually I found a more efficient way of assembly. I used to do the same thing when I worked for Strandberg labratories.

Travis' design however was a challenge, he already has worked through it much as I would have. So what do you do when something has been made as efficiently as possible? You add something to it. I am adding a deep channel to the fish tank. I will have the grow beds empty into the channel and then into the fish tank. I'll work the design details out as I go. Wish me blessings.

Later

Fuzzy

Barrel Ponics

2009-05-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

Had a great time going to learn more about barrel-ponics. It is nice to meet Christians who live what they believe. I got to see barrel-ponics in action and I got to see possible next steps for after I get fully comfortable with the small system.

I have spent a lot of time studying aquaponics over the past few months and I'm ready to get my hands wet. It is really great to have a mentor in all of this.

What would be the characteristics of a perfect society

2009-05-11T03:04:00.001-07:00

-Separate but aware.
-Creativity tempered by wisdom not foolhardiness.
-Wisdom, for intelligence by itself is good only for impressing the simple, The wise quietly seek to broaden their knowledge but the intellectual often loudly avoids wisdom at all cost.
-Compassion without susceptibility to parasitism.
-Sufficiency with enough excess to provide those things which cannot be provided from within and for calamity.
-Potential beyond sufficiency.
-Preparedness to make use of additional potential.
-Adaptability.
-Caution to survive but not enough to cripple with hesitation.
-Willingness to do ...
-Strength, not necessarily to fend off failure, but definately enough to get back up, accept that failure has happened and try something different until it doesn't.

Aquaponics

2009-05-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've caught it. No not the flu, the aquaponics bug. I was looking for a different way to garden. The soil on my property is not the best. It grows grass but not very well. I figured I had a choice, do like my father did and build my soil up over years of hard work or find another way. I still plan to build my soil up but the finding another way seemed interesting.
Research, I had to know what there was out there. Hydroponics cam to mind. I had heard of it, seen it, and to some extent experienced it. I wondered if it was the answer. I began to focus research in that area. I found out that it was not that hard to get started in hydroponics. What I did find out though was that, possibly due to the drugheads a lot of the stuff was darn expensive. I'm partially disabled physically and often highly disabled financially.
Along the way, I discovered aquaponics. "What is aquaponics?" one might ask. Well it is the combination of aquaculture, the act of raising water based life in an at least partially man made system, with hydroponics, the act of raising plants in a soiless medium using nutrient solution ot feed the plants. In aquaponics the two mesh quite well.
The fish eat, they produce waste that must be filtered from the water. Benificial bacteria convert the amonia in the waste to nitrites and nitrates. The plants use these as their food to grow and clean the water for the fish. Some fish are filter feeders which eat the microscopic plants and animals that grow in the water. Some folks raise plants to feed their fish to balance their diet.
I found a really nice step by step how to book in pdf format that explains how to build a barrel based system. Right now I am still collecting the parts needed to put this together. The book can be found on the website of the author, Travis Hughey. The website is www.fastonline.org . I will be posting updates here as I make progress.

Fuzzy

People

2009-05-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

People!
I try to do what I am supposed to do. I try to be nice to people. It often seems that the more I try the worse they behave. I have put up with people talking during my study session for the entire semester. It is often impossible for me to concentrate. I have listened to people's life stories while I was trying to relearn math until I could probably write a biography about them.

Today, the subject of relationships came up. After listening to the others stories to the point where I figured out it would be just another day in which I wouldn't get to make use of the extended study time I joined in. I mentioned a friend of mine who got married to a girl a year older than him when he turned 15 since she and he had a baby. The person who sits to my left who I think of as Patti Petri Dish since she is sick more than anyone her age should be said that it wasn't fair to the girl since she didn't get to test the waters. This was anoying since she was a year older than my friend from school and he has faithfully been providing for her and his little family for over 25 years now.

Patti Petri Dish who sits to my left started bashing men again. I realize she has not had the best experience with them. Mr. Karloff who sits to my left rear was sharing the extra effort that he went to in making his wife feel special. Patti Petri Dish made the statement that the only thing men were good for was a child support check.

This incensed me. For one thing, I have seen the kids who come from situations like this and their situation is often not great. For another, there is a point where a woman's choices stop just being bad taste in men and start being a business. Birth control is widely available and to bring a child into a home where multiple other children are from water testing, it seems that at some point someone should mention using a raincoat. It is not my place to decide where the point is when it stops being bad taste and starts being entrepenuership but to be told that the only thing men are good for is a child support check simply infuriated me. I have been married to my wife for 22 years. I care for her when she is sick, I put aside my desires for hers. I have taken money from my pocket to give to her family when in need.

The point at which I really had to leave though, was when our SI leader did something I have only heard her do twice before in a whole semester of loud unconducive study sessions. She called someone down. The problem was that person was me.

I have sat and struggled to memorize formulae with a cacaphony of racket going on behind me and she just lets it go on and on. I sat today with it going on until I gave up trying to memorize anything for the final and joined in figuring I would study tonight. That is why I was so disappointed so shocked when she called me down. Rather than call her on her poor performance all semester and possibly ruin any chance of anyone learning I left.

It has been bothering me since. My mood has been soured and I cannot concentrate on my studies. I already have enough problems with putting math back into my head, I don't need this. Especially during finals. Last semester, our SI leader was fair and would call down anyone who was disruptive. Overall, I got a lot done. This semester has not been so great. My math professor is excellent. The same cannot be said for the SI person though. As is the case with any childish person, they will test to see what their boundaries are. The only boundary the childish members of the class have found for this SI person seems to be that they show her a completed assignment before they leave so if they fail its not her fault. That is only my interpretation of her actions, I do not know it for sure. She always seemed helpful. I have thought that possibly she was afraid of the others, and because I have always been nice she felt I was "safe" to call down. After a whole semester of putting up with noise and basically wasting about half of my SI times while she made 10 dollars an hour I was not a "Safe" person to call down.

I realize the job is difficult in places but to call down one who supports you in order to make yourself appear more powerful is not something I adhere to. Msgt. Daily and before that my father taught me to treat everyone the same, treat positions with respect even when the person holding them do not deserve it and to always do your best. I feel that is a good pattern to live by.

Fish feed improvement

2009-05-04T18:50:00.001-07:00

My grandmother used to dry her own grain and grind it in a livestock grain mill powered by the PTO on my youngest uncle's tractor, mix it with low grade molasses for sweet feed, mix it with dried alfalfa for healthier feed. She and a neighbor would mix it with a little water and corn meal which had gone off that they would heat in the oven on cooking sheets and run it through an old meat grinder with a plate with holes in it to make something like rabbit pellets and spread them on sheets and empty flour sacks to dry in the sun. They didn't have a vehicle and only got shipments of stuff from the store once a month. They didn't even have electric utilities running to her farm until 1963 and her "indoor plumbing" was a hand pump with a pipe from the spring house and another from the bottom of the basin to the gravel field from where the creek changed course. That is until 1970 when all her sons and my dad and his father got together and built her a new house with indoor plumbing and electricity. She also used to press her own apple cider. A combination of those activities might work for algae and other nutrients extracted from the water. Allowed to drain, pressed in something like a cider mill but with a more appropriate mesh than coarse weave linen and cheese cloth, and ran through something similar to that old meat grinder with some sort of natural binding agent might just produce a better fish chow substitute.

Dr. Who fans and English attitude

2009-03-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

Have you ever noticed the attitude of the English towards Americans. It's not mentioned outright in the Harry Potter series. However, if you will notice there are no witches our wizards mentioned that are from America. There are other schools of magic mentioned but never from America. There were no actors in the movies who were from America. I realize part of this may be that American actors are paid ridiculously high salaries.

I have heard from people who have traveled to the UK, that in Ireland and Scotland the people treated them wonderfully but the people in England tended to to be more rude. Could it be, that there are still hard feelings that the Colonies broke away from England so long ago? If so, get over it! If not, what's your problem? I'm beginning to think they have more in common with the French than I originally thought.

I have been a Dr. Who fan, since the show began airing on PBS. In my youth, I dreamed of being a companion.*(if you don't know the show, and don't know what that means there's nothing nasty about it.) Being disabled, my income is shoddy at best. I don't have cable. And you can't get the show in over the air transmissions. I can afford the 15 bucks a month for Internet. There are many sites where you can watch full episodes online. I wouldn't mind watching a show that had commercials. I realize the commercials which would be included on the BBC website if there are any would be for products and services which would not be applicable to Americans. However, there shouldn't be any reason why American advertisers shouldn't be able to come to an agreement. American television is often piss poor at best.

One of the hallmarks of Dr. Who is that it fosters imagination. This trait, seems to be sorely lacking in many if not most American television shows. I don't know if this is a sign of the times, or if it is part of something larger. Having held many positions and having seen many different aspects of life in America, I don't generally think along the lines of conspiracy theories. I feel that either something is or it is not. There has been much in the news lately about people breaking laws and doing things which involves secrecy. There probably always has been and always will be some one planning to do something which if many people knew would not get done. But enough of that.

Today, I went online to view the Christmas special of Dr. Who. This is the one entitled "The New Doctor " I went to the BBC official web site and it told me I could not view episodes online from my country. If you haven't figured it out by now, this pissed to me off.

Excellent Food

2009-02-28T07:14:00.000-08:00

I've discovered a new favorite restaurant. The name of the place? Its the Mellow Mushroom, specifically the one on Elm street in Greensboro North Carolina. It has an interesting ambiance. The stained glass windows are bordering on hallucinogenic. I suppose that is the whole point of their decorating scheme.
The point of the restaurant though is truly excellent food. So far, I have sampled their calzones, and their pizza creation called the Caesar Caesar. It has no relation to that other restaurant chain that pumps out pizza in an assembly line fashion. These are truly hand made, hand tossed*(actually by hand not a hand tossing machine that rolls the dough flat) and individually prepared with attention to detail. If you eat Italian food you probably know what a calzone is. What is a Caesar Caesar though? This had to be thought up by a couple of stoners. In my imagination I see a smoke filled basement...

Hey dude, I'm hungry.
Yeah man, I could really go for some pizza.
Aw dude, I want a salad.

Man, lets combine em.

It doesn't sound that appetizing, but wait. Hand tossed pizza dough, with pieces of lean chicken breast covered in a perfect layer of mozarella cheese all baked in the oven to perfection. Next, once the pizza portion is done it is brought out hot and a carefully placed layer of cool crisp romaine lettuce and fresh sliced tomatoes is placed on the hot melted cheese. The perfect amount of Italian spices and an olive oil based dressing is then added to perfect this munchie masterpiece. I grew up eating pizza. I lived in New York for five and a half years. I have travelled all over this country. In my opinion I have never had a better pizza.

The wait staff, mostly college students or at least that age range. I am a medium high maintenence*(though polite) customer and I have no complaints. About the only thing is that there may be a slight difference in service if your vagabonding.

The restrooms, if you have ever been in a restaurant and the restroom floors had a slight slippery feel to them, it means that they mopped the floor with the same mop they use in the food preparation area, next day repeat. I case your cringing now, good, but that was not the case with the "Mellow Flushrooms" They were spotless, pretty too.

A personal note, if you don't know me, you need some history. If there is a dirty fork in a restaurant, I will get it. If a hair has fallen off of someone's head, it fell in my food. If there is a cook/chef who thinks that cooking meat well enough to kill bacteria ruins the flavor, they prepare my food. And yet, I had no complaints with The Mellow Mushroom. The food was excellent, done but not overdone, the drinks were served in clean glasses and kept full. The portion size was generous but not leaning toward inducing glutony. Everything was delivered as ordered and quickly and the staff was attentive but not hovering. Awesome eating experience.

A change of pace

2009-02-28T06:45:00.000-08:00

For the last, oh, I don't know how many years, I have had health problems. The medical history starts when I and my general doctor thought I had a stroke. It turned out to be something different. It has a lot of the same effects. I lost memories. I lost strength in my right side. I had trouble forming sentences. I couldn't find words. I lost what math ability I had. My once excellent spacial reasoning became shoddy at best. What was it? Of all things, migraines with a link to the seizures I had as a child. They were a strange form of seizure all mixed in with a migraine. That was the first I had heard of it.
I had made it through calculus in college. That was gone all the way down to basic math. Keeping a running tally of prices in the grocery store compared to what I did at work wasn't much, now it was like figuring out string theory or calculating the trajectories of all the objects in the solar system. I was always a little attention deficit, now however I was doing well not to forget what I was doing on the way to the bathroom.
For a number of years now I have been going to Johnson Neurological. I don't recommend them. At first they did a number of tests, but then the appointments got to be kind of ridiculous. Basically they consist of walking in, waiting, the doctor walks in, asks how many migraines I am having a week, increases my prescription of topomax, tells me to do my hands like this, *(closing and opening fingers), pat both of my thighs, look left, look right, see you in six months.
Topomax is supposedly a wonderful drug. It helps with migraines. It helps with seizures. It also can make your hair fall out and in some cases make you stupid. Some people have absolutely no problems on it and it seems it is the best thing since the invention of oxygen. I don't think I am one of these people. I don't think doctors like it when you're not one of those people.
I guess we can just keep hoping for healthcare reform.

Trying to Toon

2009-02-23T17:53:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been trying online "Post your own cartoon" sites. They are fun, but lacking. Most of the ones I have found to date seem to be aimed at either the artistically inept or middle school and below. I mean this as no insult to either group. I know there are people whose gifts lie elsewhere besides art that have wonderful ideas for cartoons. I have seen some of them, and they are great. Others are like the knock-knock joke a child once told me.

Knock-Knock

Who's there?

Can of beans.

At which point the child ran giggling intently happy with the joke they had just told, or possibly happy that they had managed to get an adult to listen to them say can of beans. Anyway, hopefully you get the idea. I was looking for something with a little more beef to it. Something where you could design your basic characters and then save them, pulling them and props out for individual frames of your comic. haven't had much luck so far.

I got some really good news from a friend today. Now I am going to pull out my vagueness cloak and wear it, but I just had to say that.

Life paths are an interesting thing. Some peoples life path seem like super highways. Other people's seem like an ant crawling along a fallen spaghetti noodle whose ends are touching. Right now I think I'm the ant but the spaghetti noodle is in the food processor and it is on stir. Okay, enough ant and spaghetti noodle analogies. I have a condition which causes me to lose certain memories and thought processes. I had thought that it was a one time condition. I found out recently that it can repeat and am having to rethink my life plan. I had returned to school to relearn math. I spent two weeks learning a new concept and then it was totally erased as if I had waved a really strong bar magnet too close to my head. I really would like to upgrade to high speed non volatile memory.

A number of things have been bothering me of late. Race relations is near the top. Things just start to heal just a little and some idiot draws a chimp and associates it with Obama. I realize that under the Constitution he has the right to speak his views but when his views being spoken hurts not only those he is speaking against but others whose skin is similar to his own then is that right? Honestly, I would have thought that a syndicated paper with circulation as large as the NY times would have better sense. I guess not. Maybe it is a good thing they are going under slowly and having a slow agonizing death in an economic way, if they don't have any more social sense than that. If that had appeared in a school newspaper drawn by a student there would have been an uproar to have the student expelled.

nuf42day

A changing world

2009-02-19T16:22:00.000-08:00

Being a disabled veteran, is an honor in title only. In actuality it is a constant source of pain in more than just the physical realm. I realize that I don't have a badge or a placard that says, "disabled veteran". Then again, I feel it would make no difference to most. Now there are a few. For instance, most of the announcers on FM talk radio always take the time to thank veterans for their service to the country. Let me tell you, it is refreshing to hear.

Why are doctors so different?

2009-02-17T16:26:00.000-08:00

Why is it that doctors vary so much? I really wonder this. You go to a mechanic and there isn't that much difference. Doctors though, whew! My daughter has been going to the same neurologist for going on 6 years. Today we took her to a new one. In the first meeting, this one did everything the other one has ever done and scheduled stuff the other one has never even suggested.

Once doctors get out of medical school, is there any system to keep check on them other than malpractice? Is there anything which makes them stay up to date on the latest medical advances? I haven't heard of anything.

For one thing I think cutting up dead people may mess with them. From the ones I've had I think they learned their bedside manner from dealing with a cadaver. I know that is macabre but so is cutting up a cadaver. We have advanced enough technology now that it could be simulated to a large extent and with some of the special effects they could have medical patient manikins. They could even have them interactive with voice, heartbeat, breathing, blood, nerves, all sorts of things.

See you next time.

First post

2009-02-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

The all important first post. Its supposed to capture attention, draw you in, make you feel like you'd want to come back. Some advisers say to to be a little quirky, different somehow, something to stand out from the crowd. Well, on the first two points, I've been living it baby. On the third point though, I don't know. I tend to be invisible in most cases.
Its not because I dress like everyone else. I dress in whatever is comfortable. I don't generally care what people think about what I am wearing, unless it has to do with a point I would like to make. The old adage about the clothes making the man is total bunk. My dad put it best when he said "You could take about anything and wrap it up nice and somebody would want it, simply because people are lazy and want to figure something out in a second or two." One year he truly taught me this point. He wrapped up two presents. Now dad's wrapping skills weren't fantastic but he did a great job on one. It had two bows and beautiful paper. The other was wrapped in a cut apart brown grocery bag. He told me I could have one of the two presents, the other would be given to my cousin. He let me choose which one. I chose the pretty one. It was a broken truck. The other one was a brand new electric car that would bump into a wall, back up and turn then speed on it's way in another direction. I was very disappointed. I however have never forgotten that lesson. You might have heard that one called, "Don't judge a book by it's cover."

I have found that through the years it has been right. A person only has so much time in a day. Now, I am not talking about being a slob, but after a certain point, time spent on appearance has to be taken from something else. Say a person spends 7 hours asleep, that leaves 17 hours awake. If a person spends 8 hours at work, that leaves 9. Lets say a thirty minute commute to and from work and we're down to 8 hours. Lets say that three meals takes a total of 2 hours, we are now down to 6. Of that six, how much is spent on self improvement and how much is spent on putting a pretty package on a broken truck?