The Enobling Journey

10k Interval Training – On to Week 4

2009-07-06T18:22:00.001-07:00

Just wrapped up Week 3 of the Podrunner Freeway to 10k. I did this interval routine four times; once two weeks ago and three times last week, all on treadmill as that’s just how my schedule worked out.

The first attempt was, by far, the most difficult. When I stepped down from the machine, I was dizzy and my vision was going. I recognized that I was about to pass out. Got some water, sat down, and all was well. Finished that interval once more that week, but without nearly passing out. In fact, I was a bit surprised; it went much better than the previous attempt.

That weekend, the family went on a river rafting trip on the Deschutes River out of Maupin, OR. We took the half-day trip and had an excellent time. Kudos to River Drifters. There’s a reason why I bring this up, though. Heading into the very first set of rapids, I took a moment to look back and see that the boys were secure. Bump went the raft and out went I while looking back. The raft swept over me and I went into the rocks. Luckily, it was only my legs banged up, and we were able to proceed on for the 15 mile trip. Once we were done and I was able to start walking around a bit, I began to notice the knots forming in my thighs from where the rocks hit. It’s a week and a half later and it still looks like somebody painted an eggplant on my leg.

Thus, I was a little nervous to resume the intervals. Rested on Monday, and gave it a try on Tuesday. Luckily, no pain for lateral motion; it only hurt on the stairs.

So, did the two other runs for Week 3, and then on to the first interval for Week 4.

This was Saturday morning, on the 4th. I was at home, so this one was going to be a road run and not treadmill.

I really have a bad memory when it comes to how hilly my neighborhood can be. Sure, it’s no Nob Hill, but there aren’t any stretches that are just, plain flat. Courtesy of MapMyRun, here are the changes in elevation. Looking at it, I’d go uphill in either direction to get home.

I will make the next attempt of Week 4 on the treadmill. But I also need to do road running, since my objective is the Pints to Pasta 10k in September. (Just a bit more than two months to go.)

On the plus side, here is an elevation map for the Pints to Pasta 10k (assuming the route doesn’t change). Mostly downhill.

Link Love

The Ultimate Weight Loss Guide by a Calorie Counter
21 Reasons to Exercise by eMedExpert
That’s Fit on how to boost your mood with exercise.
Frequent walks as the transition to running a marothon, via Lifehacker.

Gardening Update for June

2009-06-18T23:22:00.001-07:00

Cover of North by Northwest [Region 2]

For the original nine lettuce starts I picked up from the store, for or five are left. But with those, the three or four nights of the week we’re actually home, we have been having huge salads. It’s a butter crunch lettuce, and I just break off 20 or 30 leaves at a time, letting it continue to grow. You can see, to the right, how the stalks have been cleared.

That, along with some fresh spinach and some tender pea pods. It’s been great.

Looking forward to the next crops.

Corn:

Two batches planted. The first batch, I followed the planting directions, not reading far enough ahead to the “thinning” part. But rather than pull out some growing plants, I replanted them until they were all a foot apart. I’ve since put in a second planting, so should have at least two harvests. Not sure how long this will take, though. And definitely not enough room to recreate the plane chase from North by Northwest.

Here’s the kicker. It’s not planted in the square foot gardening frame I’ve put together, it’s in my front yard.

Tomatoes :

I’ve suspended a tomato net from my raingutter. The net is eight feet tall, and I hope to train a cucumber and loofa vine into the netting, as well. It has the Sweet 100 tomato from the back corner spot in the garden bed.

The tomato plants from my own starts are just starting to bud. But, when I was at the market the other day, they had a hanging basket with tomato plant with a lot of fruit on it for only $5. So, I grabbed it, anxious to start getting some tomatoes on the dinner table.

Treadmill v Outdoor Running

2009-06-15T23:17:00.001-07:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

A few quick thoughts to share.

Outdoors is, well…outdoors. Fresh air, blue sky, bugs, and rain.

Treadmills are indoors. Protected from the weather, the gym may have TVs or monitors up for display. I don’t know where the controls are; at the time of day that I run, it’s either market analysis on CNBC and monster truck competitions on some sports channel.

Outdoors, you can set your pace and your stride to match your energy level without thinking. It just happens. Speed up, stretch out your stride, or vice versa.

On the treadmill, you may think you feel it’s a 5.2 mph day, but a few minutes into it, have to maintain your balance while you press the buttons to a different speed. And repeat, possibly a few times, until you find what works. But, I can keep on eye on the timer. At first, when I started running again, that was dreadful; Dear Lord, not another two minutes to finish this sprint. But now, it’s a measure and a goal.

Finished my last of three runs in the first week of the Freeway to 10k program. Sticking with it.

Running Title

2009-05-29T22:58:00.001-07:00

I’ve been training with the Couch to 5k (c25k) program from coolrunning.com for several weeks using the podcasts created for the program by Robert Ullrey. Although some of those weeks extended to two weeks while I either needed some extra conditioning to get through the routines or didn’t have enough time to squeeze in the three runs a week.

I find it helpful to have a program, a routine, a plan for working out; something to follow. I have created my own in the past, but if someone has already done the work, why duplicate the effort.

That’s the first part. The second is having an objective. While there are many people I know, admire, and respect that enjoy running for running’s sake, but I’m not there. Having an objective, something to work toward is helpful. A few people I know that have tried and completed the couch to 5k program did exactly that. They completed it, then stopped. End of story.

So, I checked several websites looking for 5k events in the area around the end of June. Nothing. Nothing in July. August.

While I was at Portland Running Co. getting analyzed for the right running shoe, I picked up a flyer for the Pints to Pasta 10k.

It’s a bigger challenge, but the podcast training workouts I found, the Freeway to 10K, start at about the level I’m running currently. So, I’ll give it a shot.

Square Foot Gardening Is Even Easier Than I Thought

2009-05-11T22:53:00.001-07:00

I built the frame in in February.

I updated with some pics a month ago. In that time, the Brussels sprouts plants are three feet tall. No sprouts growing from them, yet. But considering that the winter snows left my cruciferous plants as nothing more than stubs, I think that speaks pretty well to the quality of the soil.

The spinach I started from seed, and the buttercrunch lettuce starts that I picked up from the market are ready to start pruning back for salads.

In fact, since writing the above last night, I was able to cut off several leaves of spinach and a bunch of lettuce. We had it for dinner with fettuccini alfredo. The boys love spinach.

But, back to being easy. The plants and seeds have been out there for three months. In all that time, there have been three weeds. 3. Tres. Troi. Drei. Some slugs. I’ve captured a few in a beer trap, but I haven’t yet placed out any slug poison. I’d like to get buy without doing so.

That frame is surrounded by a jungle of weeds. I can’t take two steps without kicking dozens of seeds around.

Who Else is Square Foot Gardening

I was chatting with my sister-in-law the other night who shared with me that she had put together three frames after buying the book on my recommendation. Here are some shots from her yard. Awesome work, Sara!! These look fantastic.

Latest Steps for Fitness

2009-04-30T23:24:00.001-07:00

A quick look through my past posts will show that I’ve tried a lot, both in the year and a half that I’ve been posting and in the years before.

Despite my lack of stick-to-it-iveness, I’m always game for a new plan.

That, in itself, is part of the problem. “Hey, that looks neat, maybe I should be doing that instead!”

Well, what now? My latest plan is not based on a spontaneous decision. I’ve hemmed and hawed over this idea for a few years. In fact, as I review my bookmarks on running, the couch to 5k on Coolrunnings.com was bookmarked three years ago.

The Couch to 5k plan, on it’s face, seems pretty simple. If you look at the workout for the first week, it’s a five minute warmup, five intervals of 60 minutes running and 90 minutes walking briskly, and then a five minute warm down.

Not a problem, right? I’m sure there are thousands and thousands of people who were able to follow the plan relatively easily. My difficulty, though, is clock-watching. If I’m running outdoors, and if it’s not light enough to see my watch, can’t do it.

Robert Ullrey comes along and creates podcasts for the Couch to 5k. One file for each week in the program. He uses high-tempo music at different tempos for walking and running with a periodic voice-over to announce when to run or walk.

I’m in week 3, having repeated week 2 because of a vacation interruption. But the first run of week 3 went really well.

It’s a nine-week program, which has me wrapping up mid-June. I’ve been checking the local events calendars and haven’t seen a 5k yet, but I’ll keep going at it.

Use Run.com to find or map local running routes.
Running helps mental health
Running extends life spans.

Image: Footfall by tangywolf via flickr.

In 1 Week, 2 Major Post-Debt Tests

2009-04-27T22:34:00.001-07:00

It has been about six weeks since paying off our credit cards leaving the mortgage as our only debt.

We had a little bit of a honeymoon afterwards, a little extra spending here and there. Nothing extravagant, just loosened the purse strings for a little while.

But would it last?

When we first met nearly 16 years ago, we were individually in debt. We graduated with debt, student loans and credit cards. When I first got cards in college, I remember believing that I was free to wrack up the charges since it was obvious that I’d be making a lot of money after graduating.

Surprisingly, working at a gas station wasn’t as financially rewarding as you’d imagine. Nor did working sales at Egghead software. Nor did teaching high school while trying to rent an apartment in Los Angeles.

15 years of monthly credit card bills becomes habit, almost a tradition. To quote Garth Algar (from Wayne’s World).

It's like a new pair of underwear. At first it's constrictive, but after a while it becomes a part of you.

Test 1

Four days visiting Washington D.C. As far as tourist attractions go, D.C. is pretty inexpensive; the monuments and most of the museums are free. We stayed with family. The airfare was paid last year. The only expenses were for food, and most of that was back in Virginia, away from the city. The only credit expense was on the flight home; in order to eat on the plane (United) you need to buy a box of snack products to avoid starving, and I went through several cards before the flight attendant’s wireless card reader could read one. Anything else spent came from our checking account.

Test 2

Since paying the card balances and getting our tax refund, we’d been sitting on a nice cushion in our accounts. This generated a lot of family discussion. What to spend, what to set aside. Furniture, upgrades to the house, a car. No easy decision.

An opportunity presented itself with a liquidation sale of yet another local business. On the way home from work, C stopped in to look at the furniture and check on the deals. She had me leave work early so we could go back together.

Before going over, we looked at the accounts, and came up with a number that would be our maximum.

Since the store is in liquidation, it wasn’t the previous retail staff, but a group brought in specifically for store close-outs. Each furniture item was marked with it’s retail price, and the salespeople then had some set rules on how they could cut the prices. They were very eager to make clear that they operate on volume; so the more items purchased, the better the deal. To sweeten the deal, they offer 0%, $0 down.

We asked them to work up the numbers for a couple of different combinations of furniture; couches, ottomans, etc. With two rooms to furnish, there were several possibilities. They left for a few minutes, then came back. The price they offered for everything was three times the number we went in willing to spend. They offered 0% financing for a year to try and get us to take the deal.

They left us alone to talk for a few minutes, we looked at each other, and at the same time said we don’t want to go into debt again. We broke the news to the salesman and his manager. We did spend a little bit more than our original number, but still without credit.

We Passed the Tests!!

We walked away without regret, without second thoughts. We ARE happy with the decision. The first two pieces, a sectional and ottoman, were delivered the next day.

Now, if we can just keep the kids from jumping up and down on them.

April ‘09 Gardening Update

2009-04-14T22:42:00.001-07:00

I am, all too often, an eager gardener.

Seed catalogs start arriving in the mail right after Christmas. Seed packets are available at the market at almost the same time. So I spent much of my free time, starting in January. I built my square foot gardening (sfg) frame in January. A week into March, I had the SFG soil mixed after tracking down the materials; got the vermiculite at an hydroponics shop, Canadian peat moss, and retail mixed compost. One of the boys helped me roll out a tarp and use Mel’s suggestion to mix the three, then poured into the frame.

Once the soil was in, and the frame segmented into 1 foot squares, the first things to be planted were the few broccoli and brussel sprouts that survived the three weeks of snow before Christmas. They are doing very well, one of them has grown two feet.

Still cold, most nights in the 40’s, sometimes the high 30’s. So everything is starting a little slow.

Two squares were planted with sweet pea, some carrot, some spinach, and one tomato, a Sweet 100 hybrid. The tomato has gotten a slow start, mainly due to my eagerness to get it outside and placing too much hope on the intermittently warm days we’ve had over the past few weeks.

Here are the pea sprouts. So far, about 60% germination. The (former) dog and a neighborhood cat have disturbed some of the planting.

Brussel sprouts, doing quite nicely. Better than the broccoli.

Some butterleaf lettuce. I cheated here. I tried start a few from seed, but they didn’t really thrive. So I picked up a pack at the market.

And here is the teeny, tiny tomato plant.

Some Related Links

The Garden Helper’s Calendar of Monthly Gardening Tasks
Low Impact Living’s Building a Rain Garden
Curbly’s Hints to a Vegetable Garden
Mr Brown Thumb’s Homemade Seed Pots
GreenDaily’s Growing Butterfly Garden

We’re out from under the credit cards. Now what?

2009-04-02T22:54:00.001-07:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

At the same time as our great big mortgage refi / credit card pay-off, I’ve also been changing our finance software from MS Money to Quicken. So, it’s been a few weeks of re-entering, re-balancing, and setting up the accounts again.

Now that’s pretty much taken care of, I have three months of spending to try and build a budget.

But, we did make one step in the right direction, to get our future years in order. We started a 529 with the Oregon College Savings Plan.

I haven’t cranked the numbers yet, haven’t looked at the forecasts for tuition costs to know how much we’ll need to save. That along with our budget will be our next financial tasks.

Watt’s a kilowhat?

2009-03-18T22:39:00.001-07:00

There is a lot to absorb and understand when discussing a home’s energy consumption.

Kilowatts, kilowatt hours, Watts.

How much or how little does my electricity use affect those kilowatts and kilowatt hours.

What do I really save by changing a 100W incandescent light bulb with a 23W compact fluorescent?

The watt is a unit of power. A kilowatt is 1000 watts. A megawatt is 1,000,000 watts. A gigawatt is 100,000,000 watts.

If you’re walking up some stairs, you are doing work at a certain rate of power. In an incandescent lightbulb, the electrons (electricity is moving electrons) travel through the filament, but the filament resists the electricity. The electrons perform work. Just as you get hot working in the yard, the filament emits heat as the electrons work to travel across. The filament gets so hot, it emits light, as well.

You then multiply the power by time to get energy. A 100W bulb burning for 10 hours would be 1 kWh. When you look at your electrical bill, you see the number of kilowatt hours of electrical energy consumed by your home.

So Watt?

Ha ha, get it, see what I did there?

Well, I’ve purchased two devices.

I plan to analyze the house, our electrical use and look for improvements using the whole house meter. Also, using the Kill-A-Watt, I’ll look at certain groups of hardware, like the computer or the entertainment center, to look at more optimal ways to configure them. And, of course, I’ll update you along the way. My goal is to recoup the cost of the two devices by the end of the year.

Image: Light Bulb by thomasbrightbill via flickr

2nd Annual Sunflower Seed Give-Away

2009-03-17T22:50:00.001-07:00

I gave away hundreds of seeds last year, and was happy to do so. Although the blooms last season weren’t as grand as the year before, I still have a bucket of seeds to distribute.

Here's a shot from a year and a half ago.

That flower on the right got to about 15 feet tall before the weight of the bloom started weighing it down from the top.

How can you avail yourself?

This year, I only ask that you subscribe or be a current subscriber. Enter your email address at the top left. Then, use that same email address to send me a message with the address to mail the seeds to.

That’s it.

If you’re one of the few readers that recently replied to last year’s post, I have your addresses, and will get them in the mail shortly.

Carnival of the Green # 171!

2009-03-15T16:44:00.001-07:00

It's great to finally get the nod to host Carnival of the Green. I signed up over a year ago. Treehugger.com has all the dirt on hosting the Carnival on your own site, as well as a list of the weekly updates going back to 2005. And at what better time than when we should all be “wearing green”. (Corny, I know, but that’s how I roll.)

Sláinte!

Last week's was hosted by The Natural Patriot, and I'll be followed next Monday by The Evangelical Ecologist.

In no particular order, here’s what people have been talking about this week.

I live in the burbs around a lot of farms, and it can be pretty disheartening to see the road by a fruit tree covered in the run-over goo of the unclaimed and unharvested. Darren at Green-Change gets our mouths watering with some peachy pastries made with roadside fruit. If you have any such trees in your area, let your local foodbank know. They may be able to broker an agreement with the owner.
Bless me fake plastic fish, for I have eco-sinned. It has been 3 weeks since my last confession. Read Beth’s recent sin and post your own for a bit of communal absolution. You can decide your own penance.
Kate, at GreenThinking Blog, is impressed with the numerous greening projects seen around town in a recent visit to New York. This trip coincided with the Climate Change exhibition at The American Museum of Natural History. If you can’t make the exhibit, visit theirwebsite.
At Organic Family Circle, Julian gives us his take on the benefits or organic clothing; benefits for you and your family. He includes several shopping hints to help ensure your purchases are truly green, and not just green-washed.
Another feather is gone in humanity’s cap of superiority over all creatures; Capuchin monkeys have been shown capable of “symbolic thought”. Quoting Sally Kneidel,

In behavioral experiments, capuchins have learned to regard arbitrary tokens as symbols for different foods, according to primatologist Elsa Addessi of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies in Rome. These capuchins then spontaneously choose certain tokens over others in ways that correspond to how they choose particular foods over others.

Trying to cut cord on your mobile phones? That anchor that keeps your phone docked on the kitchen counter to charge? Michal at Energy Saving Gadgets presents a phone with a kinetic charger built in. The battery is charged by the motion of the phone as it is carried.
My next step in greening the household; an audit of the out-going recycling. Mrs Green at My Zero Waste used a rubbish log for a week, and reduced their output from 10kgs to 100gms; that’s 99% less trash.
Frugal for Life’s Dawn tries to green her produce shopping by creating a chart of various fruits and veggies and their seasons. Has anyone else noticed that we’re already getting flats of California strawberries in MARCH?!?! (At least here in the Portland area). Buying in season cuts down on the resources necessary to recreate the conditions indoors that a plant usually grows in outdoors or cuts down on the costs of transporting non-seasonal food from more tropical climates.
Is there a correlation between global climate change and declining shark populations? whysharksmatter at Southern Fried Science uses his grad school cred to consider two possible connection schemes, but leaves us with one inarguable conclusion. Caring for the environment isn’t just about global warming.
LED lighting. The next great thing. I’ve been reading about it for years, and am eager to pay less than $40 a bulb. Incandescent bulbs use too much power. CFL bulbs have mercury. KuleKat provides a pretty good comparison of bulb cons, and explains why LED lighting should be worth the wait.
Do you wear glasses? How many back-up pair do you have? You know, your old prescription or old frames that you keep around “just in case” something happens to your main specs. Holly at WomenTribune reminds readers that those frames could find new life through donation programs.
Julena, of Organic Makeup and Skin Care, reviews Pai Chamomile and Rosehip Sensitive Skin Cream. Speaking to the quality of the ingredients, the bottle needs to be kept in the fridge. (fewer preservatives)
Julie, in her quest for the best Organic Lipstick in the world, tries to shine some light on some of the lesser known organic lipstick brands.
How great is it that the new administration in Washington has not only created a Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, but has filled the position with Van Jones. Audrey Khuner at triplepundit brings us up to speed on the background and transition.
If avoiding excessive movement saves energy, and saving energy is green, and if the basic meaning of Kung Fu is skillful movement, then is Kung Fu green?
Tracey at ooffoo tells us how to pitch yourself to radio shows as a green commenter.
Corporate responsibility. Does it lead to better opportunities for the average investor? Read Ann Logue’s take at triple pundit.

Image: Go Irish! Go Green by Flipped Out, via Flickr.

Not worth the trouble

2009-03-12T23:01:00.001-07:00

It seems like something always gets in the way. I’m getting a little better at getting past the obstacles.. What was it this time? What wasn’t it?

Project at work was busy
The holidays
Staying up too late so sleeping too late.
Oh, and that herniated disk.

If it’s a priority, it’s should get done. But it’s a balance game. If I’m working out, then maybe I’m not practicing guitar or piano, not reading, maybe cutting a little time from work.

On the plus side, I’ve made it through the past several months, including the holidays, and have gained a few pounds, not the five or ten often associated with the holidays.

So, I’m getting back in the groove. I’ve been hitting the Bowflex a few days a week. Need to step up the cardio a
nd the flexibility.

Still enjoying the W
ii Fit; it’s fun to play the games with the boys. We’ve also picked up My Fitness Coach for the Wii. Assessments, measuring progress toward goals, after setting goals. Speaking of which, my butt is sore from too many donkey kicks.

If you feel better with a plan and don’t know where to start RunFatBoy will create one for you.
That’s Fit offers 5 reasons you must exercise; reduces need for medication, boosts energy, and slows aging.
Life Learning Today goes into detail of how exercise is good for you; heart, blood vessels, red blood cells.
Dumb Little Man lists 13 proven exercise benefits, including longevity, brain development, fights depression, helps cholesterol, better sleep, help with diabetes.

Brushed the debt under the rug

2009-02-24T23:09:00.001-08:00

We didn’t pack up the car and head to a small town under assumed identities.
We didn’t abandon everything and head to a country to avoid extradition laws.
We didn’t start a meth lab in one of the spare bathrooms.

We’d been paying $2,000 a month on payments for two mortgages. The primary was $1,300 and change, after having been refinanced once before, with 15 years to go. The second was $600 and change each month; we took this one on to cover some student loans for nursing school.

Add our credit card payments, where I’d been trying to pay $2000 a month. This became an issue the past few months. While it’s true that nurses are in pretty high demand, those who work in places such as a neonatal unit only work when there are enough babies to fill the beds. So there’ve been a couple of lean months.

Luckily, I’d socked away a few thousand dollars, in one of those “emergency savings accounts” people are talking so much about. Those totals have dropped a bit, accordingly.

We’ve been in our house for eight years. For each new year since, our original mortgage agent has sent us a little calendar that we stick up on the fridge.

So I called her. We wanted to combine the two mortgages and add on enough to knock off the credit card. She came up with a few scenarios.

We were lucky. We would not have made it through the door if either of our credit scores was below 720 (just before they changed the scale). We also needed to have enough home equity; the house was re-appraised to confirm.

We got in at 5% (a drop on both counts). Got back nearly enough to pay the cards off; the rest will be knocked off with our tax refunds. (Hopefully. Who knows if they’ll pay them out.)

In The Bullpen

Once the dust settles, we’ll need a new budget. Much to my loving wife’s chagrin, I’ve been pretty tight with the purse strings for several years. We haven’t always been perfectly frugal, but it has spared us from some incidental spending.

We also need a new set of priorities. College savings for the kids, update our retirement plans, look for safer investment opportunities, furniture and appliances, home improvements, etc.

The unfortunate aspect of our new mortgage is the stretch from 13 to 30 years for payback. We almost walked away from the deal over this. If we play our cards right, and it will be part of our new budget, we can pay ahead on it. In the meantime, we have a few hundred extra per month to set aside.

A Difference of Opinion

The wife and I need to come to consensus on how to prioritize. But there is one point I know we’re stuck on, and another I think we will be.

We both agree that this is a turning point. While I look forward to the change in our finances, it’s not that I’m not optimistic, but I’m focused getting a new plan in place and on the effort it will take to keep from falling back into the pit.
Learning to to save first, then buy. It will be a change for us, but with some conflict, at first.

No Credit Needed’s Preparing for Freedom
Wisebread’s take on mortgage assistance in the new stimulus plan.
Get Rich Slowly’s similar story of a refi (noting that they made the same choice to refi to a longer term with more flexibility)
Fivecentnickle on calculating your refi payback period.
Bargaineering on researching your refi.

Large Student Loan Debt's Place In Debt Snowball Plan (frugaldad.com)
Run the Refinancing Numbers, Then Run Them Again (nytimes.com)

image MmHnCnChBkMt courtesy of Turkey Toe via flickr

Joe's First Square Foot Garden Bed

2009-02-13T21:56:00.000-08:00

A Christmas gift a year ago was the book, " All New Square Foot Gardening ", by Mel Bartholomew. The premise of the book is backyard gardens can be more productive, efficient, and enjoyable by using a raised bed, the right soil mix, and a good plan. I always recommend checking the book at the library first. See if it's too your liking and if so, and if it's needed for additional reference, then buy it.

There are few varieties on the theme, such as cubed foot, or square inch. I haven't read them and can't comment on them.

Square Foot Gardening is a pretty quick read, easy to understand, and leaves you eager to break ground, even mid-January.

I've assembled a schedule along with the seeds/plants I plan to start. I will share that separately.

Framed

Although the concept allows for configuring the boxes as much as the user would like, the default design is a 4' x 4' square, broken up into 16 squares. Mel, the author, advocates using scrap and recycled materials where possible. With that intent (that's the way I roll, anyway) I headed to The ReBuilding Center, on N. Mississippi, here in Portland. They deal in reclaimed materials. A piece of advice to potential visitors; it's not like a visit to Home Depot. Not a heater in the place. So if you're going in early February, bundle up, have a warm drink, and don't let the kids get too chilly.

I was browsing around the center to get some ideas for materials; boards to frame the boxes and poles to support tomato and squash plants mainly.

Approaching hyporthermia, I quickly laid claim to four pieces of tongue and groove cedar 2x6's, splattered with plaster and cement. At fifty cents a foot, it's hard to complain. I had to borrow a tape measure so that I could measure Nolan's height, and have him stand against the boards so I could make sure everything was longer than four feet.

These sat in the car for another week. Over the course of a few evenings, I cut them to length, pre-drilled the ends, and built a square. Come to find out that this is some really tough wood; I sheared the points from two Phillips bits getting those screws in.

Each piece was cut to 49.5 inches. Each corner was then framed as a flush corner joint, each board has an end exposed and one covered. This leaves a four foot square on the inside.

The last step I've taken is to staple the weed barrier to the frame. Not part of plan in the book, I just thought it would be easier to drop it in place.

Then, cleared out a spot in garden to place it.

What's Next

Acquire the materials for "Mel's Mix", equal parts compost, peat moss, and vermiculite. Mel advises a mix of different composts. He concedes that there are environmental issues with peat moss, but suggests that you end up using fewer resources following this method. (I will still consider other fillers.) And that vermiculite is not to be feared. The asbestos controversy is long resolved. It is difficult to track down in any quantity though, but I think I'll be able to get some at a local hydroponics shop, that just happens to be decorated with rasta colors.

A few other posts online:

J.D. at Get Rich Slowly provides an intro to square foot gardening.
Being Frugal on Building a Square Foot Garden
Farmer Brown's Page on SFG
Wired.com's how-to site on SFG.
Frugal Dad on SFG.

I'm Baaaaaaaack

2009-02-11T21:49:00.000-08:00

I had not planned on a two month hiatus. Holidays and work and, well, stuff.

If you're still interested, I'll still be writing.

In the meantime, here are a few links I've come across recently.

J.D. at Get Rick Slowly discusses the "checkbook sweep" process his wife follows to improve their savings.
At The Unclutterer, the plans to get a household notebook together; contacts, menus, essential health information, etc.
Do you have your rainy day fund? What about a sunny day fund?

A Big Pile Of....

2008-11-23T22:01:00.000-08:00

Compost! I was going to say compost!.

It was a bit less than a year ago that I first received a yard composting bin (Thanks Bryn!!). I loaded it up with the leaves and yard debris that remained after the fall cleanup, and have been steadily feeding it kitchen waste, grass clippings, the weeding, shredded receipts and bills, and torn up newspaper.

Each Autumn, Portland and its suburbs provide a street sweeping service to vacuum up the massive amount of leaves. Homeowners rake their leaves into piles on the street for one of three chances to have them picked up.

This year, though, I didn't need to. All of the leaves from the front yard made it into the composters, along with most from the back yard. What remained in the back yard was swept over the garden beds for winter coverage, and as additional cover to the bins as I add kitchen scraps.

The End Result
Dark and dry. Pine cones still intact. Thicker twigs and sticks, as well. It should not be that dry, though. I need to get more water in there; that facilitates the worms and microbes that help break down the tissues and fibers in the plants.

Took out a few buckets worth to cover some of the winter vegetables, which are still recovering from slug feasting.

The white is a complete layer of shredded paper; bills, receipts, financial documents. The brown is the layer of compost I just spread out on top.

What Does It Look Like On Top?
Thanksgiving scraps, some potatoes we didn't get to in time, squash rinds. You can see all of the flies in there. I do need to cover it.

Why Compost?

It's easy.
It can be free. A bin isn't required. A pile and a shovel or pitchfork will get the job done.
It can be done indoors. RSVP International Stainless Steel Compost Pail 11x7.25-in. or the Norpro Ceramic Compost Keeper can be kept in the kitchen or utility room.
There's worm composting, or vermicomposting, which can also be done indoors, such as with the 4 Tray - Compost Worm Bin System - The Worm Factory, or the All Food Recycling Compost Kit with Bokashi.
It can really cut down on the amount of trash you send out each week.
It can improve the quality of your garden.

A bunch of stuff you didn't think you could compost.
A Life Less Plastic has compile a list of composting resources.
Build your own compost tumbler. (I may try to do this next summer.) Search craigslist for plastic barrels. It's pretty common for businesses to offload these.
A number of books on the subject. Check your library.

Passive Declutter with Craigslist Items Wanted

2008-11-18T21:44:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd try something new in our attempts to get rid of stuff.
Much as I'd subscribed to certain sections or keywords from Craigslist with my news reader, I thought I'd try going the other direction with the subscription.

Craigslist Items Wanted
Items for sale on Craigslist are categorized, such as Electronics, Sporting Goods, Books, etc. But that list of categories also includes Items Wanted. People can post a request for something they're looking for, hoping that some reader will have it and be willing to sell it.

There are the obvious things that people want to get rid of; the old TV being stored in the garage, the bag of shirts that the kids have outgrown, the old Bibles handed down generation after generation and otherwise just sitting in a box in the back of a closet.

The Process
Add the Items Wanted list to your newsreader. Click the RSS button at the bottom of the Craigslist web page and select the reader you use.

Then, just read the feed. Be prepared. There are a lot of heart wrenching stories posted; people looking for fire wood, food, Christmas presents for poor families, etc.

There has been a request for apples, and I've got a tree full of apples that are only making the dog sick.
I have been hesitant to act on the many, many requests for charitable hand-outs; we try to funnel our donations through established organizations.
Someone looking for old Mac equipment. I don't have any, but that's a perfect example of something that might be sitting around.
A collector of WWII era postcards, and I know I have some around here somewhere.

Here in Portland, there are two to three hundred posts a day. With Google Reader, it's pretty easy to scan the post title and quickly skip to the next with the J key.

The Conclusion
I'm not expecting to clear out the garage this way, but there's no harm in keeping an eye out. In fact, I may do the same thing with the Craigslist Barter section.

Year End Gardening Update

2008-11-05T22:43:00.000-08:00

With a few exceptions, the output from the garden has been pretty disappointing.

On the plus side

Pumpkins. 2 of them, at about 20 lbs each. One I carved as my "Vote" Jack-o-Lantern.
Strawberries. Loads and loads of strawberries. Haven't touched bags of frozen berries, yet. I may use them to try and make some freezer jam.
A few dozen tomatoes. Few things better than sun ripened, sun warmed tomatoes fresh from the vine, just a touch of salt, or with some vinegar and fresh basil.
I think there's a cucumber or two to pick
A few good sunflowers.

Flat or negative.

JD over at Get Rich Slowly did a detailed audit of his gardening harvest compared with their expenses and effort. That might prove a worthwhile effort if my efforts were more "fruitful", so to speak.

There were a few dozen tomatoes, but there were hundreds left on the vine. Soooo many of them failed to ripen before the rains started. So they cracked and rotted.
No blueberries to speak of; plus one of the four plants withered. Not sure if it was too wet or too dry.
From two dozen beet sprouts, half a dozen that big enough to eat. I broughts those to the Oregon Food Bank. Some are still in the ground, so I may have a shot.
Only one of the pumpkin vines was productive. The others withered.
One green pepper. Just one.

What Next

Well, this is a work in progress and a learning process. Except for one small plot along the back of the house, unless it grows in the shade, it's not going to grow in the back yard. I have too often been optimistic on the lighting on certain parts of the ground, but then the leaves for the maples come in, and I'm like "Oh. Yeah. That's right."

I picked up some cauliflower and broccoli sprouts; will try for a few winter vegetables.

I've been hesitant to use the front and side yards to garden for any food product, but it looks like I need to reconsider. But, I don't want to become "that" neighbor. I just need to make it attractive.

Unless the winds this Autumn knock down the row of 50 foot pines next door, there will never be enough light to grow much in the backyard. So, I will try to get some wisteria, something that I can cultivate and groom to make a nice shaded area out back.

So, Why Garden??

Growing grass is a huge drain of resources; water, chemicals, and the energy to mow, aerate, de-moss, etc.
Gardening is relaxing, therapeutic, etc.
$1.50 seed pack vs $2 a pound for tomatoes.
Watching your kids watch the pumpkins grow.
Strolling around the yard, picking a handful of strawberries, and sharing them with your wife.
Calluses and dirty fingernails.

Teaching My Kids To Handle Their Debt, Lesson 1

2008-10-25T00:48:00.001-07:00

Here's the little bit about finance and debt passed on by my parents.

A college degree is a guarantee to success.
Keep the bills away from your father.
Don't pay the same bill late two months in a row.
Grandma can only handle two mortgages at a time to cover everyone else's bills.

Didn't have much of an allowance, and the ten dollars my brothers and I earned each month mowing my grandmother's lawns got a few sodas and snacks, but didn't leave much room for building up our college savings.

My first real job was a summer at McDonald's. At $3.65 an hour, I netted about $1500. I banked about a third of it, and the rest was spent on comic books (most of which I still have) and clothing. (I'd had enough of wearing hand-me-downs from my cousins and JC Penney's knock-offs.) When the school year started, I "loaned" the savings to my Mom to pay our high school tuition.

Earn, spend. Earn, spend.

Then college. Just enough financial aide to get by, and all those stands by the cafeteria offering really easy credit cards. I got three cards right away, and since I've carried a balance for nearly the entire 20 years since, I'm essentially still paying for that first charge. (Probably text books.) At the time, I assumed I'd graduate right into a well paying job. But pumping gas, even with a Physics degree, didn't cut it.

Lesson No. 1

In no particular order, it's just what's on my mind.

Pay as you go.

N lost a library book once, and we had to pay up to replace it. So, a freeze on the allowance until that was paid off.

M just "had to have", a Nintendo game or something. So, the agreement at the time was that we'd split it and he'd pay us back. He was more than a little upset to find that we would hold him to it.

I'd been tracking their allowances on a note board in the kitchen. ( I dock them nickles when I need to repeat myself.) Each week, their totals would decrease by two dollars (or a little less). Finally, last weekend, they both hit zero. M edged ahead, as we'd been offering him $.25 a pile when he scoops up dog poop.

The rules for their allowance are going to change a bit with time, but there are no free rides, here. (At least, not too many rides.)

Related articles I've recently read

Although geared toward older children, FrugalDad discusses several ways for kids to save.
Over at Wisebread, 6 random things she taught her kids about money.
Fivecentnickle on 10 things kids should know about money.
FrugalDad again, Kids and Money Matters.
Blogging Away Debt, Let Kids Make Money Mistakes.
The Dough Roller, Teaching Kids About Money
How to Make 7 Million in 7 Years on Smarty Pig and kids' learning money management.
Milk Your Money on Insufficient Financial Literacy
FrugalDad, Are Parents (as role models) To Blame For Financial Problems

Finances and Election Information

2008-10-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

Tracking job growth over the course of two two-term presidents, apparently, job growth was much higher in the 90's
On a related note, how has the national debt waxed and waned over the past 32 years?
Some analysis in the proposed cuts in Medicare under a McCain presidency.
McCain's tax cuts for the middle class really for the wealthy?
I've mentioned this before, but half of all home foreclosures are caused by overwhelming medical expenses.
Bush's MBA supposedly at work, tax-money squandered on Iraq Reconstruction, Katrina, and no-bid defense contracts.
An analysis on how SEC exemptions led to the collapse of AIG.
Just how small are earmarks compared to the budget and the national debt?

October Debt Update

2008-10-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like the first piece of pumpkin pie in the fall. That hit the spot.
Image via Wikipedia
Here's the debt sitch.

I've been following a snowflake-like program to address our credit card debt. Snowflaking is addressed in more detail at Paid Twice Already and Get Rich Slowly, but in a nutshell, you list your debts, pay minimums to all but one, and throw all of your available resources at that last one. There is some debate as to whether that should be the lowest balance or the highest interest rate, but you get the idea. Once that card is paid off, you move to the next debt in line, and add what you were paying on the first to the minimum you've been paying to the second card. And so on, until you've worked your way through all of them.

The good news is that I've now got things down to one credit card. We no longer are shelling out $800/month for daycare, and the buffer I've built up in the checking account has allowed us to pay immediately for some higher-cost items that we would have charged in the past. (A car repair of $400, initial payment to the orthodontist of $400, $200 in vet bills.)
The bad news is that our overall debt has increased by about $1500 since last report; back-to-school expenses, and someone needed a bunch of new clothes, new glasses, and I needed a crown on a tooth.

Now that it's all on one card and we're no longer paying for child-care, I'm hoping to make some decent progress against the balance in short order.

Savings and Interest
While doing this, I've also been working to build up our savings. At one point, about two years ago, we only had a few hundred dollars in savings. That's just crazy.

So, since posting in August, our savings account seems to have dipped to $4800, down about $160. I think that's misleading, though, as I believe I was counting something that I'm not now.

We've made some positive efforts in our savings plans. In August, I posted about starting an online savings accout with ING direct. Well, at the last minute, I went with etrade instead. No reason, I just felt better going that route at the time. Christie and I have since arranged direct deposits to that account from our paychecks, for a total of $100 a month. This will go toward a family trip next summer. I'm not sure if it will cover all of the expense, but it will certainly prevent a big jump in credit debt.

The account at Prosper.com is doing well; for about $200 invested, I've earned about $9 in the past few months. They've just gone into a quiet period, with limits placed on lending. Lending Tree recently came out of their quiet period, which lasted several months. Hopefully, by the time Prosper resumes normal lending, the payments I will have received will be enough to meet the minimum on another investment. My goal with that account is to use the payments and earned interest to go right back into new investments, get it to be self-sustaining.

Like everyone else in the country, my retirement accounts have taken a huge hit. Luckily, I wasn't retiring soon.

A few purchases out of savings the past few months also. The hard drive on our desktop PC, 5 years old, was maxing out. We couldn't install anything without removing something else. As I started looking into a new hard drive and seeing costs of around $80 if I did the work myself, I found a new PC on Craigslist, with a larger hard drive, for $150. Now I just need to prep the old system to sell. With the expectation that I'd be biking to work more often, I found a waterproof Timbuk2 messenger bag for $50, also on Craigslist. Now I need to find some time and get my ads posted.

Angry McCain Scares the Bejeesus Out of Me

2008-10-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

Senator McCain's temper has already received quite a bit of attention. He refers to it himself when he tries to crack wise about losing the Miss Congeniality contests.

He's a hot-head, and it's no secret.

And that is truly frightening.

Never mind his age. Never mind the four melanomas. Never mind getting into the Naval academy as a legacy, finishing fourth from the bottom of the class, and crashing four or five planes.

I've lived with a hothead; was raised by one. My dad could go from nothing to complete rage in nothing flat. One of the jobs my brothers and I had growing up was to get home before Dad, so we could get the mail and remove the bills. He was not allowed to see them They almost always caused him to flip out. Anything got his nose out of joint; worse than worrying about him getting angry was worrying about how angry he would get. Was it going to be glowering, yelling, or hitting, kicking, ripping the phone out and then denting the wall with it? You never could tell.

I know our perceptions are both shaped and clouded by our experiences. But what I've read about the Senator's outbursts lead me to believe that he is as bad as, if not worse than, my Dad.

When you're president, it is not acceptable to seek forgiveness with an ice cream cone. The stakes are too high.

Rolling Stone magazine recently published an article on him. The entire article is worth the read, but here are a few quotes that stood out

...When they laughed at him, he cursed them so vilely that he was hauled into court on a profanity charge.
...Back on campus, McCain's short fuse was legend. "We'd hear this thunderous screaming and yelling between him and his roommate — ...It was a regular occurrence."
...When McCain was not shown the pampering to which he was accustomed, he grew petulant — even abusive. He repeatedly blew up in the face of his commanding officer.
... McCain admits to an "immature and unprofessional reaction to slights" that is "little changed from the reactions to such provocations I had as a schoolboy

I don't want this man's hand on the proverbial button. I don't trust him.

Recovering from an oil petro roblem

2008-10-07T22:08:00.001-07:00

So, I thought I would be clever in a follow-up the other day on my post on oil addiction. Started looking at the 12 steps, thinking about ways to apply each of the steps to things that I have done and can do to cut oil. But it turns out, it's been done, and done, and done, and done.

So, On With the Show

There is no 28-day program to clean this mess up. Half of the electricity consumed by Americans is generated by coal. One percent of the energy produced in the US is used to manufacture drywall. The US has a fraction of the world's oil supply, but uses a quarter of the world's oil. Like a junkie needs a dealer, the US needs Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Venezuela.

If they decide to cut our supply, we're going to get a hell of a jonesing. Those of us who have already made some accommodation will be better off.

There's cold turkey. You could go off-grid like Jackson Browne, Brian Liloila, or like the BBC sit-com in the 70's about a couple that went the self-sustaining way, "The Good Life". (A bit of urban homesteading.) But, getting up at 4am, milking the cows, gathering the eggs, slaughter the pig, then having ham and eggs for breakfast just isn't my thing.

Steps We've Taken So Far

With our household, it's one step at a time.

Replaced all bulbs but a few with CFLs or LED lights.
Power-strips to completely turn-off some appliances except when in use.
Smart power strips on the computer and the entertainment center, to cut power to the surrounding devices when the primary device turns off.
Started line-drying about half of our clothes.
Keep the cars maintained and the tires properly inflated.
Insulated the ceiling of the garage, to keep the bedrooms above a bit warmer.
Cut our purchases of plastic products.
Cut our purchases of Chinese made products.
High-efficiency furnace and heat pump.
Insulated windows installed as soon as we moved in.
Foam sealant behind all of the electrical sockets.
Electric lawn-mower.
Lower thermostat and sweaters during the winter. We use an electric blanket, and the boys have a space heater, since they are completely incapable of keeping the covers on.
Eating much less meat, especially beef.
Showers instead of baths, and shorter showers, at that.
Programmable thermostat.
Eating locally grown and seasonal food.

What's Left To Do

I'd like to further insulate the attic.
Finish insulating the ceiling of the garage.
At a green expo a few months ago, I chatted with an insulation guy who suggested sealing off the tops and/or bottoms of the wall seams in the attic and garage. A lot of heat gets sucked up through the walls via the chimney-affect, or so he says.
We're talking to an electrician about a solar panel installation; the effectiveness will be hampered by the height of our neighbors trees. But, I know a guy that knows how to sneak up trees when nobody is looking, and "clean them up".
Improve the shading on the house during the summer.
Maybe cutting back to one car. The combined mileage of the two cars is 253,000. So, one is bound to die soon enough.
See if we can get rid of the second fridge in the garage.
Cut back on the number of TVs and other appliances in the house, especially older ones.
Focus efforts on reducing usage and purchases.
Get my butt on my bike to get to work or telecommute more.

Some articles for reference

I need to heartily and vocally disagree with Sarah Palin's comment that while climate change is a real problem, it doesn't matter what causes it. To me, that's the equivalent of treating pneumonia with prayer.

Register to vote, dammit!!

2008-10-02T22:57:00.001-07:00

I don't care what your party affiliation is, just get it done.

Google.com will help you find the closest/fastest way to get your registration taken care of.

On a personal note, if you, sitting there, are absolutely terrified at the prospect of "President Palin", you had better be registered, and you had better ask everyone you know if they are registered, as well.

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What's Next

I'm Baaaaaaaack

A Big Pile Of....

Passive Declutter with Craigslist Items Wanted

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Lesson No. 1

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Finances and Election Information

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Register to vote, dammit!!