Trying to take care of my little piece of the planet
Not much to report from last weekend, mostly site preparation for the post-tank filtration units and ultraviolet water sanitizing unit. They’ll all be located inside a refrigerator-sized cabinet and my first job was to construct an insulated frame since I’m most worried about freeze-proofing the whole set-up. What’s seen below is a newly-constructed 2×4 frame. [...]
Posted on January 31st, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rainwater Collection | No Comments »
Recently I exchanged brief emails with an old acquaintance that I met years ago while sailing. His name is Jerry Landay and when we met in the early ’80s I remembered his face from television, where he had been a foreign correspondent for ABC News during the ’60s and ’70s. At the time we met [...]
Posted on January 31st, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Books/Movies/Podcasts, etc. | No Comments »
I actually have taken a college course in economics, and I still rely on being able to recall the professor’s lectures – typically when I’m having a particularly hard time falling asleep. But nonetheless I expressed an opinion in an earlier post: “Economics For Dummies? Nahh! Economics From Dummies” written after the Fed dropped the [...]
Posted on January 30th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 2 Comments »
As a man made paranoid by the last seven years, I apologize for over-reacting and stand corrected. There is indeed a history of multiple State of the Union addresses, though it is the exception. As is explained at the American Presidency Project, Truman initiated the idea of an additional State of the Union on the [...]
Posted on January 29th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
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Perusing the news this Monday morning, I came across this quote from an article in the Washington Post referring to tonight’s Sate of the Union speech. “That is the problem Bush faces as he prepares to deliver his seventh and probably final State of the Union address tonight.”
Probably?
PROBABLY?
Under what circumstances other than suspension of the [...]
Posted on January 28th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 2 Comments »
A gorgeous day here, sunny with a high of 54 degrees. Spent the day playing catch-up outside. Started by finally putting out some homemade deer repellent (under the watchful eye of a small herd of whitetails….). I’ve made it before and it seems to work to keep them out of the flower beds, where [...]
Posted on January 27th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Books/Movies/Podcasts, etc., Nature Diary | 2 Comments »
Now in this time of drought, here’s a story that’s received almost NO coverage by the mainstream media: the massive use of water in the southeast US by nuclear power plants. Two things to note, not only do nearby plants like Shearon Harris evaporate 17,000,000 gallons of potential drinking water a day, but if [...]
Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rainwater Collection, Rants and Musings | 1 Comment »
I confess that don’t get it. Now, I’m not particularly savvy about money. In fact, I stink. But knowing that I stink, I try to adhere to proven, time-tested strategies to avoid bankruptcy. Those strategies include things like trying to save more and borrow less, trying to be as self-sufficient as possible, trying not to [...]
Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 2 Comments »
I haven’t made much progress lately on completing the rainwater collection system. An out-of-town weekend, January weather (down to twelve degrees) and a lingering cold have all gotten in the way. But we are collecting rain – the Wisy WFF 150 pre-filter is amazing! I crawled up on the to of the tank during a [...]
Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rainwater Collection | 2 Comments »
Thanks to the efforts of wife and friends, by mid-afternoon today we’re ready to catch and store rain. I’m very pleased to have gotten this far before winter rears its head (if it does this year), since the rest of the work is mostly indoors, with little ladder work remaining.
This shows the two four-inch (white) [...]
Posted on January 13th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rainwater Collection | 1 Comment »