Q2 2007 Report

Well, I'm back, so this might be a good time to put out a report. Here's the scoop on April 1 to June 30:

Cycling:
1612 total miles

I don't have a detailed breakdown, but something like 400 on the Woodpecker, 300 on the Trucker, 150 on my Trek 400 roadie and the balance on Xtracycles and whatnot. The weather has been just about perfect most days, and I've only been rained on twice (and lucked out about 5 times...)

Hoping to do a solo tour into the Driftless Area about the middle of July.


Gardening:

This has been going rather well. I've almost completed the Master Gardener program through our county extension office.

Much of the work I did bringing compost into the garden last fall paid off this season. Pretty healthy, as you can see. The bad news is that I'll have to move out of this plot because the city wants to put a street in its current location. I have another spot picked out and have begun to work on it for next season.

Given a little more notice, I could have planned a bigger garden at my parents' house out in the country. I'll be better prepared next year. I'm also thinking about trying to start a couple of permaculture guilds there. We'll see.

I've also completed the course work, but not the volunteer time, for the county extension's Master Composter program. Believe me, there's no title I want more. I've also got quite the composting operation going, but that's a topic for another post.

Resolutions:
I posted a list of resolutions in the Q1 Report,where they were listed and reviewed. I won't re-hash all of them here, but here are a few worth mentioning:

2. Retrofit your home for energy conservation. The insulation projects I mentioned in April won't happen until late summer or early fall, but I think we may also add more insulation to the attic. In fact, I've been considering removing most of the stuff stored up there and piling on a lot of insulation. Another suggestion I might try is to remove the current attic access door (it's a trap panel in the ceiling) and replace it with a panel screwed in place and caulked, with insulation piled on top. We're not keeping anything of any importance up there and the energy savings might well be worth the trouble.

Also, the new fridge seems to be drawing less electricity. We're still getting by on no air conditioning and with no dishwasher. Yes, we're roughing it.

3. Cut back on your gasoline consumption. Between January 1 and June 30, we've put just over 3,000 miles on our car. We're on track to cut back significantly on our usual 11,000 miles for a normal year, in no small part because the Missus has committed to cycling, bussing or walking for almost every trip under 4 miles. Hooray for the Missus!

4. Plant an organic vegetable garden. I planted 3, which may well qualify me for freakdom.

5. Compost your food waste. Mine, my family's, waste from a local coffee shop and chicken poo from some city chickens. More in a future post.

Not much on the other resolutions for now. I made a list of topics for future posts today, so stand by for more...