wishful Wednesday - return of the rain

in which our plucky heroine is a little damp...

I am always wishing for the kind of grey damp days that are considered characteristic of the PNW, though missing for months and months of long hot sunny summertime. Today, we got rain, for the second time this month. Not just the usual soft misty-moisty rain, but great thumping beat-on-the-ground fill-up-the-street rain, complete with thunder and everything!

I actually got soaked to the skin walking home from the bus stop. Still very glad that we got the rain, we need it, the plants need it, and  the world feels more balanced when water falls from the sky.

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a threefold cord is not easily broken

Infrastructure is the third leg of my intended structure for 2010, co-equal to kindness and handicraft.

I have been realising the need to devote my resources to creating and acquiring the structures needed to have life here at Acorn Cottage continue to move in a direction of greater sustainability and ease. One of the fun but "junk-food" activities I have been spending money on is textile stuff, not to excess, but not essential either. I have all the yarn I need right now, and all the fabric I will need for at least several years. I will be using my stash for any of these activities this year, and being very very thoughtful about where my money and time is spent.

Aside from necessaries utilities and foodstuffs, it really needs to be for tools and materials; to build the things that will help in the future as well as now. Things like plumbing parts and concrete block to actually get the rainwater harvesting happening, and maybe another load of compost. There will be things that just require mental effort, things like contacting some of the tree crews to see if I can get some chipper waste for mulch, and getting my act together to sell my old car, if possible. And of course there is the physical work of the outdoor garden, and all the myriad indoor tasks to repair and improve Acorn Cottage.

Not to make it sound like all work and no play; "the work of the world is as common as mud"*... and needs doing

*from To be of use by Marge Piercy,
you can hear her reading this poem here

Wishful Wednesday - rainwater handling

My intention is to (over time) set up a convenient way to gather, store, and access rainwater, so as to be able to thoroughly water the food-growing plants here at Acorn Cottage. I've made a bit of a start, with several food-grade plastic barrels. I've not yet been able to make much progress on improving the convenience factor however.

I've a kludgey setup on two of the downspouts, that enables me to channel roof runoff through tubes and funnels into some of the barrels. (once they are full, I replace the barrel cap and run the water out away from the house itself) To remove the water, I have a self-starting siphon, and carry the water to the garden in a 5 gallon bucket. The drawback to this is that I cannot easily get more than about half of the water out of a barrel.

There are various ways to improve this situation. A few blocks away, one of the houses has barrels from the Rainbarrel Man, which not only raise the barrels up on wooden platforms, but cover the exterior of the plastic with a decorative "scrim" of narrow cedar boards. So building wooden platforms would work, but requires handling pressure treated chemicalised wood. One simple thing would be to use concrete blocks, and raise the barrels up a bit. Much less toxic, but hard to transport concrete without a truck.

The other thing I'd like is to have a better way of getting the water from the downspout into the barrel. There are various kinds of diverters that attach to your downspout and allow a choice as to where the water gets sent. There are some interesting ones here and here, as well as other sorts of diverters that require you to use a sealed barrel.

I'm also intending to eventually add a rain chain to Acorn Cottage. I was charmed by the funky handmade one (*see picture above) made from olive oil tins and speaker wire, which I saw while walking down the street behind the ReBuilding Center. I've already been gifted with a roll of speaker wire thanks to my friend Hrafnir, some of which is earmarked for this project.

So I'm wishing for somewhere between 21 and 50 concrete blocks, and some empty olive oil tins.

And if the container fairy decides to visit, one of these 275 gallon "totes" would be a Really Good Thing. It could live on the stupid deck in the backyard, and be connected to the nearby downspout, and be really convenient to water the garden...

No more boring organ recitals…have some random movie goodness, and more~

I found The Cave of the Yellow Dog on the library DVD shelf. What a gem. Although I've missed seeing the other film by this director (The Story of the Weeping Camel), after watching this film I shall certainly track down that one as well. Daily life of a contemporary Mongolian nomad family, a sweet story, and beautiful scenery, not to mention the disassembling-the-yurt sequence. This film is now added to my (very small) list of films I want to own.

Yesterday I was silly on the bus home. There was a young family across the aisle, all terribly cute in that urban hipster mode. Pictogram Mom, in a sundress that really showed off her body art, had a little baby in a front wrap, septum-pierced Dad was keeping the folded stroller from escaping into the aisle, and there were two little curlyhaired boys, in jeans with bright shirts and felted vests. The older boy, who looked about five, had a black flat cap. When I looked over at him and smiled, he took his hat off, and put it back on upside down. I couldn't resist… I reached into my canvas bag, and pulled out my black Goretex rainhat, turned it round in my hands, then flattened it and put it on my head upside down. His grin got wider, and we spent the next thirty blocks taking turns putting our hats on sideways, or hanging off an ear, or covering our faces…all silently. I have no idea what the other people on the crowded bus thought; when leaving the bus, the boy quietly told me "it was fun playing with you"

The forecast is for more rain. Ran about this morning kludging together my downspout parts to direct the raingutter water into two additional waterbarrels. I've already managed to fill up three barrels. While I haven't had time to actually set up a "proper" rainwater system, I'd be foolish not to try and catch some of this somehow. If this odd June weather eventually turns into a more usual (no rain) summer, I'll have gallons of water for the garden.

Very soon I won't need to go to the Library to go online. If all goes well, after tomorrow evening. I need a DSL filter for my kitchen phone, which is attached to the wall. The filters they provided don’t work on that kind of phone. I did spend a hour yesterday talking to a young man named "Pain" in the Qwest service center, who managed to find out that yes, they did have such filters; yes, the phone filters are included as part of the set-up, and no, they cannot send me any until my account becomes activated. I had hoped to have all the needed bits and bobs on hand before setting it all up tomorrow, but will, instead, have to disconnect my kitchen phone. O well.

I'm thinking about looking into Flylady once I am on-line at home. Various friends have been quite successful with that system for decluttering and smoothing out the homekeeping, and I could use a different approach than my current one…

odd duck me

I am so happy that the weather changed. Unlike many, I love it when the sky is grey and it is damp and cool; I have been this way my whole life. (I remember not liking to go out in the bright summer sun when I was young, probably 'cos no one gets perscription sunglasses for children.)

Happy - happy. I talked with my artist friend who is going to make the sink , and he likes my design, and is still interested in working with me on this project. Also suggested some possible ways to un-chrome the faucet... which would make it be better friends with the eventual copper sink with forged iron brackets. I really like the shape and design of the salvaged faucet that I found, but the shiney chrome, not so much...would like nice black-bronze maybe...

The back yard is mowed. With the heat, it had gotten over a foot high, I hate mowing anyhow, someday will all be garden beds and nice woodchip pathways. Someday.

During the brief rain yesterday, I managed to disconnect one of my downspouts and direct the water into the new 55 gallon barrel that was a kindly gift last week. So I now have somewhat more than 100 gallons, evven if i haven't yet set up any proper plumbing for them, i can still use the trusty shake-siphon to access the water.

Well, off to pack for Egils. Finally was able to get Smokey-rabies-paperwork faxed down here from Olympia...

everything put together sooner or later falls apart

I am getting better, slowly. Yay! can get through the night without major coughing attacks...

Yesterday saw the acquisition of four more 55 gallon plastic barrels, to become part of the water-harvesting scene. Once I get them scrubbed, and can find the time for dealing with the plumbing of said raincatching devices. I took pictures of a clever rainbarrel setup I saw in Sellwood, that shouldn't bee too difficult to create. Need to get some concrete blocks to raise the level of the barrels. Yeah yeah, just one thing after another...

Speaking of which, the dang bathroom fan just quit working. And those of you who have been to Acorn Cottage know that the bathroom has no window, so the fan is IT for ventilation. (at least for now, Someday I shall rip out the plastic shower surround, and put back in a window where the window was originally, and put real tile on the wall...) but now I need to read up my fixit book about testing the wall switch, and the fan, and probably will end up needing to replace the dratted thing. Slow and careful, as always,

a field trip down near Mississippi...

Thank you to my dear friends who sent me good wishes. I am feeling quite cheerful, but this dang cough means I am still sick, able to do about a half day work before being so tired that I need to rest and sleep. Today I almost fell asleep while riding the Max, (not a good idea).

Yesterday I acquired two painted porcelain wasabi dishes from a local artist (at the ceramics shindig) , both with waterlily leaves, one with a black catfish and one with a spotted jumping frog. They are now hanging on the bathroom wall, alongside the Japanese postcard of the woman bathing, which is now in a better frame from Goodwill. Eventually Acorn Cottage will be closer to the house in my head, and as it is now warm enough to open windows and paint, that will begin happening soonish.

As we are having a non-rainy day, I decided to get a closer look at the house where I saw the interesting rain-chain… There are a group of tiny houses near the ReBuilding center, with lots of handmade and re-purposed details. Interesting rafter ends, an underwindow flowerbox made from a bracket-hung upturned range hood, a chunk of wall pattern-sided with tincan parts…

but the thing I am most interested in is the crafty rain chain. Which seems to be made from parts of olive oil cans, and electrical wire.

This might be good for adding to the Acorn Cottage waterbarrel project, as rain-chains do not get clogged like downspouts. Hmmm…anybody out there have some empty olive oil tins?

recovering slowly

(sigh) I am not well enough to travel to Midwinters, though I did go to work today for a half day. I am now really tired, and will probably fall asleep after dinner, but almost a whole week without work is bad for the piggybank. I like being self-employed, never handled the whole subordinate thing very well, but it sure would be nice to have a few "sick-days" that did not automatically mean no income.

Well, enough grousing, at least I will hopefully continue to feel better, and can visit Adiantum sometime later in the year...

This morning the folks from the Downspout Disconnection program came to my house (as I had requested last month) and talked with me about which downspouts they could re-route. I will be getting two re-routes complete with new gutters; one along the front walkway (roof drainage over the former garage), and one along the north side of the house( drainage from the north half of the house roof). The gutters and downspouts will be blue, similar to the trim already on the house.

The one downspout that I already disconnected qualifies, so once the work is done, probably next week, I can apply for the "Clean River Rewards" program, though not for the full discount, since the downspout from the north garage roof is, as I suspected, too weirdly located to re-route. But...if I can route it into a water-barrel setup that also meets the criteria of both programs, I will be eligible for the full discount, though the inspector this morning said that the difference between full and partial would be less that $2 per month, so I don't have to do it ASAP.

I am arranging this not only because sending clean rainwater through the sewers is a stupid idea, but because the water/sewer bill is my most expensive utility, and anything that will help lower it is good, and this will lower my bill a little bit for at least the next ten years.

Anyway the library is closing soon, so I'll sign off