Quoth Corey to the cat, "Curiosity killed y'all."

I'm signed up for Basic Carpentry at Yestermorrow for May 5-9, camping onsite, and hopefully some nature time before and/or after. Who's in??? They're also offering Sustainable Treehouse Design and Construction that week. C'mon, I do everything by myself. You should come. Then we can rip apart the back of my house and rebuild it super pretty and maybe strawbailey or something because I'M GONNA LEARN HOW TO FRAME A MFKN HOUSE. In May. In the mountains of Vermont. In a tent. You know you want to take a potentially chilly solar shower in this:

Anyone have a tent one-person tent I can borrow? I can lend you a HIGH-QUALITY KITTY CAT as collateral.

My AIRQUOTES work boots AIRQUOTES are in the process of biting the dust. What are good and affordable big-girl work boots? How do you properly escape html characters to make fake tags for comedic value? I'll bet it's easy but I've used up my 2 minute quota, cuz it ain't 3 minutes worth of funny.

stupid and/or unworkable idea? Discuss.

Besides that it's from MSN?

My pants love the earth.

Pics from Solar Decathlon, a competition where universities bring model solar homes to the Mall in DC. Still going on if you're interested, ends this weekend.

Pokemans do not have :-( but I made and remixed some shirts, and also that-time-o-the-month skivvies, including an Instructable.



( blue quadrangle shirt )
( brown flowered shirt )
( shirt from Mr. Rogers sweater and fugly pants )
( Maya shirt )
( make your own moon pad undies in like 5 minutes )

I had houseguests from far off this week! They are top secret so that's all I'll say except that they were super fun to have around, got along great with the kitties, and made me a hammock! Highlights included an Aztec dance performance, eating dinner from the garden, hiking on a dolostone diabase intrusion into shale, minor personal injury which was deftly handled by our "Safety Third!" officer Dave, an unreasonable veggie stromboli, and gesticulating wildly at the river's edge after an evening at a breakcore show, wherein I appear to be a rejected Russ Meyer extra, and my friend seems to be scratching his ass.

More:

Holy hell, Tank made me this:




for no particular reason other than she is awesome. She's posting it to me from London, and when it gets here, I will frame it and hang it next to the hand-printed black and white photo that M gave me, which looks fantastic in its frame. And my house is really starting to fill in with art that is special to me.

Nonanonymous, I wonder if we really will follow up on the idea of me making some paper for your hand-cut wood blocks for solstice? I think I have some time in August...??

Just finished my papers on stormawater management in Chester County, PA. I learned lots, including:
- stormwater is one of the single biggest environmental problems in the midatlantic because:
- high-velocity runoff sweeps pullution into watersheds, including motor oil, lead, mercury, nasty stuff on roads, and tons and tons of agricultural runoff, just brimming with e-coli and other tasty treats
- high-velocity runoff stirs up toxic sediment
- high-velocity runoff causes some monster floods
- low rates of infiltration means that groundwater and surface water resources are not recharged at the natural rate. A recent USGS (US Geological Survey) study shows this not to be a problem for this region, but I am skeptical b/c scientists have made charges that the fed govt is changing data.
- sprawl = watershed degradation because:
- watershed degradation begins at 10% impervious cover (some say you can see effects at as low as 5%)
- sprawl means lots of impervious cover including:
- grass in developments! Because of topsoil removal for grading and compaction by heavy construction equipment, non-paved areas in developments can be AS IMPERVIOUS AS PAVEMENT! (scary)

What's cool, however, is the trend in Best Managemen Practices (BMPs) that mimick natural systems. It makes sense...if your goal is to acheive pre-development measures, then using methods that either restore or imitate how nature does it, is probably going to help.
( Read more... )

For a mere 30% pay cut, YOU TOO can learn to use phrases like "fluvial geomorphology" (the way streams move earth around) in a sentence.

Exhibit A: "Fluvial geomorphology is cool!"
Exhibit B: "Emerging research in fluvial geomorphology shows that the now-extinct mills in the Delaware Valley of yesteryear have produced some unexpected problems with inorganic dissolved toxics in contemporary sediment loads. Remnants of the old mill sites formed natural dams where sediment accumulated over the years, including highly polluted loads, which have continuously flowed with the streams carrying the toxins along and elevating the level of pollution in the region's watersheds."
Exhibit C: "Fluvial geomorphology is awesome!"

Act now, and also get: the shocking discovery that stormwater management is actually very interesting!

I.e., stuff to try on the house:

- graywater collection from reverse osmosis water filter
- green roof over back bedroom (after raising ceiling?), add to graywater collection
- Make green roof enclosable (greenhouse) for the winter, and open for the summer?
- test for lead in soil and remediate. Try phyto/extraction in one place, burying/iron/phosphorus/reduced bioavailability in another? Collab and/or share results with Anne?
- look into fruit tree to replace black walnut
- freecycle or recover from garbage some kind of garden edging
- harvest rosehips
- learn to can
- veggie grease/biodiesel house heater. Masonry mass? Project with Dave? Use existing radiator system or supplement with foreced air???
- when time comes to redo kitchen, building materials made from recyclables
- trombe wall? solar forced air? Since south-facing wall space is limited, would passive solar work better? (greenhouse)
- write up lead remediation for dummies
- fix windows and doors!!!! This should be first!
- grants for altfuels/solar, write up findings, successes, failures
- composting toilet (methane harvesting?)