ComposTumbler

My dad bought me a full-sized ComposTumbler that was delivered while he was visiting, so he helped me by assembling it yesterday. I have three composts going already (one open-ish pile in chicken wire and 2×4’s and two black plastic cube ones) which are producing fairly well, although the open-ish one is hard to manage. I’m thinking about transferring a lot of the material from the open-ish pile to the new tumbler. It has a whole manual about how to get 14 day compost but I do not have the correct ratios right now nor the interest to temp it, use activator, etc. so I’ll have slower compost but that’s not a big deal to me. It’s a batch composter, which means you have to stop adding material and let it “cook” to get the finished product, but that’s ok b/c I’ll still have the other composts to put my kitchen scraps in, etc.

WaterFurnace

I found a reference to the WaterFurnace on a different blog and was intrigued by the fact that that homeowner said one of the benefits of her system is during the summer, when the system is removing heat from her home, it redirects it to their water furnace so they get “free” hot water in the summers.

Under sink greywater system

I was originally looking at peddlerswagon.com site for these olla pottery jugs that are buried underground and use capillary action to wick water to plants’ roots. There doesn’t seem to be any information currently available about them, so I was poking around the site and found this Aqus under sink greywater system. It captures water used in the sink and uses it to fill the toilet instead of drinking water. Unfortunately it doesn’t currently work with dual-flush toilets, which I have my heart set on, but hopefully they’ll develop that soon. Great idea.

Started a new blog on all-white flower gardening

Hoping to gather some of my thoughts and dreams regarding a future all-white flower garden: White Desert Dreams

Another one bites the dust…

Today in the mail I got a postcard saying that the Green Guide, which I blogged about here, is discontinuing their print and online magazine. I thought it was a great and well-researched magazine. This economy is affecting so many things and I’m sorry to see worthy publications like the Green Guide and Smart HomeOwner disappear as well as the jobs supported by them.

Pic of the Land

 

Here is a pic of the land we’re going to be building on next year. I’ll try to take a better one sometime so you can get a sense of the layout, etc. It’s a pie-shaped lot on a cul-de-sac, about 0.18 acre.

Touchless/Motion Sensor Faucets

I keep looking for touchless bathroom or kitchen faucets, like the ones I’m starting to see in commercial applications. I like the concept a lot. I found one at Kohler and will keep an eye out for others: Wellspring Touchless Faucet

I like the Contemporary version the best, I think.

Rainwater HOG

Neat product for water conservation, but pretty spendy at about $450 per unit: Rainwater HOG

Smart HomeOwner (formerly Green HomeOwner)

I was just finishing up my Jan/Feb issue of Smart HomeOwner magazine and noticed a little blurb on the last page that said it’s going to be published exclusively online from now on. I went to the site and it said that due to economic reasons they are suspending print editions indefinitely. I emailed a couple of different contact emails that they have on the site but they both came back. Frustrating, b/c I just started subbing to the magazine and now I have no idea what’s up with my subscription. Anyone know anything? I understand economic difficulties, but putting something up on the website and having valid emails would be a nice start to communicating with your subscribers. I suppose I will contact them by mail.

Geothermal Study

This article was really interesting! Several of the industrial applications are local to me, so that was especially helpful. It is an older article – 1998 – but still very informative. I saw a trend of two things:

1) Check your materials (there were a lot of problems with deterioration of parts b/c the fluid was incompatible with tape, fixtures, etc. and so caused leaks), and, 

2) Have someone experienced with geothermal systems do the installation.