Trying to take care of my little piece of the planet
Late last night after a visit to mom’s, I sat in front of the laptop and surfed a handful of political blogs. In one of my favorites, “My History Can Beat Up Your Politics”, I left a comment regarding his recent podcast on disastrous vice-presidential picks. I responded to some other comments with the following:
I [...]
Posted on July 31st, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Books/Movies/Podcasts, etc., Rants and Musings | 5 Comments »
I like to listen to smart people. Especially those that realize that the rest of us need to be provided with a primer that includes history and context, as well as their own analysis. The problem is that such conversations take time, and I’m not inclined to sit at my computer, or television or radio [...]
Posted on July 30th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Books/Movies/Podcasts, etc., Rants and Musings | 5 Comments »
It’s time for bed, and rather than trying to sleep with images of John McCain and Richard Burr in my head (from the day’s earlier posts), I figured I’d share some garden shots from the past two weeks. The black-eyed susans and coneflowers are perennials, while the zinnias are volunteers from last year’s volunteers that [...]
Posted on July 28th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Gardening | 1 Comment »
Rather than make an attempt at writing something worth reading, I’ll just recommend a thoughtful and thought-provoking read over at Arsenal and Grand. It touches on a question I suspect all of us have asked ourselves about the endless stream of solicitations we receive every week from non-profit groups. Her post addresses how we got [...]
Posted on July 24th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 1 Comment »
It’s been another few weeks of watching the rain go south of us. Or north of us. Or quite commonly, both at the same time, with banks of clouds splitting in two and pushing past us on both sides. Last night I went to bed after watching the local news, confident that the mass of [...]
Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Books/Movies/Podcasts, etc., Nature Diary, Rainwater Collection | 1 Comment »
Marc, at ‘Le Trash Whisperer’ has an interesting take on why a significant chunk of Americans, (especially older white Americans), are able to be convinced that Barack Obama is a Muslim extremist, or some such similar rubbish. Rather than paraphrase Marc’s analysis, I’ve just excepted the bulk of it below. But check out Marc’s site [...]
Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 2 Comments »
In all my years of being a science geek, beginning at age eight with getting my dad the First Sergeant to reluctantly make me a butterfly net, I’ve never seen what I just saw on my front deck. On the last dog walk of the night, I photographed a praying mantis that had just shed [...]
Posted on July 21st, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Nature Diary | 1 Comment »
I’m a firm believer that we’re all biased, seeing things not as they are, but rather as we are (to mangle the words of Anais Nin). So in my blogroll I try to mix it up a little; getting the view from a few different perspectives. A new addition is a site that I’ve followed [...]
Posted on July 21st, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 2 Comments »
I received an email from a friend about collecting rainwater for the vegetable garden. Such considerations are increasingly common in our drought-prone area. Her question seemed simple: “Is it safe to water my tomatoes with rainwater from my asphalt shingle roof?” I almost responded with an immediate ‘yes’. After all, I knew the roof to [...]
Posted on July 21st, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rainwater Collection | 15 Comments »
Since Alan asked for an update on our solar food dryer, I’m happy to announce that it’s ready. After two more partial days of work, painting the beast, covering top roof with tar paper, and most importantly building the thirteen trays that hold the food to be dried, “The Dehydrinator” is ready for business. It [...]
Posted on July 20th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Gardening | 4 Comments »