Our dog-powered clothes dryer

Earlier this year, I signed up for a "30-day sustainability challenge".  This challenge was the brainchild of a student at my college.  The idea is that everyone who signs up gets an email each day during November, and this email contains an "easy" and a "hard" sustainability challenge that we're supposed to attempt.

Except that for me, well, the challenges would kind of push me in the wrong direction.  As one example, the email one day encouraged us:

"Easy:  carpool to the grocery store.  Hard: take the bus to the mall".

The issue for me is that I don't go to the grocery store or the mall; when I do go to our farmer's market, I bike.  Yeah, so that wasn't the hint for me.

Another pair of challenges more recently included this:

"Easy: wash your clothes in cold water.  Hard: make your own reusable dryer sheets."

So, the cold-water wash, we've got down.  But the dryer-sheet-thing doesn't work so well with our dog-powered clothes dryer.  Observe:




About two decades ago, I bought for my husband (aka, "The Lord of the Laundry") some very sturdy, large, Amish-made wooden drying racks.  He asked for them, he really did.  This man loves doing laundry.  He also loves the electric dryer.  But apparently, he loves me even more, because he's become more and more willing to air-dry more and more of our laundry, especially in the summer when outdoor temperatures rise and he can bake the clothes thoroughly. 

And I love when he hangs clothes instead of tossing them in a machine.  Indeed, the difference between using the dryer can easily mean $20-$30 swings in our monthly electric bill. 

In the winter, he's been more likely to resort to the electric dryer.  He recently told me that the reason is that clothes just don't dry quickly in our basement.  So I suggested moving the racks upstairs to a bedroom that is almost empty -- the only other thing in that room these days is the dog crate (and because of that, often the dog). 

Heat rises, of course, and the dry winter air means that clothes upstairs actually do dry fairly quickly, much to my husband's delight.   But my husband and I like to think that the body heat of the dog hastens the drying process. 



And that's how we managed to acquire our dog-powered clothes dryer, no dryer sheets required.  

Miser family update: abounding

Well, life continues to be rich and full in the Miser Family, with celebrations abounding, and also with abounding red ink, knee fluid, toddler energy, and heating gas.  

The final celebration of the week was at our city's annual Tuba Christmas, one of my favorite events of the year.  My husband somehow managed to find something else to do (kill joy), but a bunch of my kids braved the icy winter weather with me, and we oompahhed with a large crowd of well-insulated revelers to Jingle Bells and Silent Night and Good King Wenceslas.  

The night before Tuba Christmas, we had a dozen people in the house for Thanksgiving, including students from the far-off countries of Iran, Vietnam, and Florida.   Also 2/3 (= 4/6) of my children, 100% of my grandchildren, and my dad and step mom.  Oh, my goodness, I ate until I got cramps!  (But fortunately, the chocolate-pecan pie cured the cramps!)

The grandchild has been thriving in her gymnastics classes, and she tried out some of her wiggliest moves on her buff uncle J-son, who somehow managed to kind of keep up with her.  They make a great pair.

And with the cold snap moving in, gifting us with the coldest Thanksgiving in recent history, I-daughter decided it might be about time to turn on the heat in her home this week.  Apparently, if the temps inside the house get down into the low 50's, her fingers get too cold for knitting.  But unfortunately, the local utility company had done some gas line work and shut off the gas to her home, so she had a few frigid showers and knitting-free days before she could warm up  the home to a balmy 64°. 

I-daughter reading a book about knitting gifts
to A-child.  K-daughter and N-son listen in.

On Monday of this week, my husband decided that the swelling in his recently repaired knee ought to be looked at, and the physicians agreed, and drained some fluid via a needle.  (Answers to questions his bike buddies asked: no, it didn't hurt because novocaine; about 2 ounces; yellow-greenish). 

I gave midterms to my 75 students on Monday, which was draining in a different sort of a way.  Then I graded it, draining ink via a pen.  (could have used novocaine; about 1/2 pen worth; red as blood). 

Backing up further, the celebration that kicked off the week was N-son's 19th birthday party.  Whoop!  We had pizza and brownie cake and presents.  I love watching this kid become a young man.

Scullery help.

The week ended softly, with rain moving in and warming the air outdoors.   I spent the day putting finishing touches on a paper I'd promised an editor I'd finish soon, and also canning a dozen or so quarts of turkey stock.  I love how these jars act like lava lamps when I pull them out of the pressure canner, and their "blurps" kept me company as I polished up the bibliography and hammered the abstract into shape. 

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures and bodily fluids.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.

Goldilocks and the five chairs

I might have mentioned a time or two that my neighbors, on garbage-collection days,  often put out things that aren't really what I'd call garbage.  It kind of astounds me:  so much perfectly good stuff gets left at the curb, just because its owners got tired of it.

For example, speaking solely of chairs: within the last year alone, I've trash-picked five different chairs within a radius of 3 blocks of my house.

• There's a cute wooden chair that kind-of matches the style of chair at our dining room table.  Since we often have a bazillion guests coming over for dinners, it's lovely having an extra dining-room chair at the ready.
• There's an antique-looking, low chair.  This one serves wonderfully for reading the paper in the morning, because it's so low that I don't even need a foot stool. Since I'd been looking for a comfy reading chair for my sewing room for a while now, I was stoked to find this for free next to my neighbor's overflowing garbage can.
• There have also been three (3!) different office chairs at three different neighbor's curbs.  One had two semi-kinky wheels; a second was getting a little worn, but was in perfectly serviceable shape, and the third is practically new.  (It has the lever that whooshes the seat up and down, five rolling wheels, shiny chrome, . . . it's fab, really).  It floors me that someone left that for a garbage truck:  why not Goodwill?  Yard sale?  NextDoor.com?  Refugee resettlement?  

I can't save the entire world from becoming an assemblage of one-way conveyor belts between shopping malls and landfills.  But, seriously, what's with this mode of thinking that the best thing to do with a bicycle (or chair or ladder) that you no longer need is to bury it?  Sheesh!

So while Goldilocks went into the bears' home to sit in their chairs and break them, I've gone on walks  that ended with carting home 5 new-to-me chairs this year.  And four of those chairs continue to work out great.  And one of them (the office chair that was getting a little worn) finally developed a kink in the back-support piece.    Which meant that, like the chair's previous owners, I no longer wanted it (and guessed that no one else would, either, because it didn't seem to be repairable).

So I played Goldilocks again:  I was sitting in that chair, and then I broke the chair into pieces. I really love taking things apart -- it's kind of therapeutic, I think.   

• I unscrewed bolts and tossed the metal pieces in one pile.  The metal from the chair will go to a scrap dealer.  
• I snipped strings and tossed the fabric and foam in another pile.  The foam will get posted on Freecycle, for crafters or package-shippers to use.  
• There are a few inevitable plastic pieces that will, alas, go to the landfill.   Darn it.  

As much as I love taking things apart, I love even more using the stuff that I take apart to fix other things -- a win all around.  So the last thing I did was, I pulled off the wheels, and used those to replace the kinky wheels on office chair #1, so now that chair is essentially perfect.   Just right.   

Baby Bear would be pleased, I think.

Miser Family/Not Family update

The past two weeks have been a plethora of full richness in the Miser Family.   There's been drumming at church (N-son), canvassing and poll-watching (my husband), exam giving (me), doctor-attending (a bunch of us), new job starting (K-daughter), plus a bunch of travel.  Oog, travel.  More on that later.

N-son voted for the second time. 


In fact, we went as a family, and voted together.  This is me, showing that I still haven't mastered the selfie, because I meant to get all three "I voted" stickers in the picture.  Ah, well.


I mentioned that K-daughter started a new job, doing production of stuff, and significantly upping her hourly wage.  She was very worried that it would be boring, repetitive, and overly egg-heady.   But she's sent me excited texts full of exclamation points several days this week.  For example:

Mom! Mom! I am learning ALL KINDS OF COOL THINGS at work!! Yesterday I helped operate our robot that essentially glues our HVAC units together (5 different pieces) today, I learned how to use an angle grinder and cut steel apart! It was so awesome!

and
Mom! Today I learned how to caulk (?) Stuff! And I used drills! I am also helping one of the younger engineers build stuff and he really loves my suggestions and finds them helpful! It may even help out our entire design! I'm having so much fun at work :D


Toward the end of the week, I hopped on a plane to go see my nephew get married, all the way across the country.  The weather was beautiful, and I had a gorgeous day for flying and a bunch of lovely mathematics to write about. I made the first leg beautifully, and then my flight from Chicago to San Diego was delayed 15 minutes for maintenance issues. Then a half hour more.  Then another hour. Then . . . after waiting 3 hours, they announced another plane would be coming soon, but by then, I'd have missed the wedding.  So I hopped back on an eastbound plane and headed back home instead.  I missed the wedding and my family and dancing.   Here's the picture that I took as all the dancing began.  

Baggage claim.  

Without me.  But I did get a bunch of math done.

This Veteran's Day, my husband and Nigel went to a ceremony at our State Capital, and my husband gave the main address.  (He explained that since he'd been enlisted during four different wars, they were getting a four-for-one deal with his talk).  Compared to what these men and women have been through, my little airplane-maintenance adventure seems pretty tame, doesn't it?  So thank you, veterans!

And that's the news from our family, currently on two different coasts, but still wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.

Miser family update: Thing-making version

Can your kid do this?  N-son texted me earlier this week to say:

I made these in building maintenance

A thing that N-son made.
The other thing looks just like this thing.

I texted back to say, "ooh, I want one!"  -- (even though I don't know if that's actually true).  At any rate, when I got N-son on the phone, he said, "I feel like I've found my famil--er, I mean . . . Mom, I don't mean this to sound rude, but in building maintenance, I feel like I found my family."  Aww, heart-warming.  N-son returned home later in the week from his orientation/evaluation, all jazzed up for the program.  Fingers crossed that he gets to start full-time in January!

Elsewhere in our world, Prewash now has a fan-club among the guys who are working on the house.  She wore her best bow while they were here, and they went gaga over her and rubbed her belly and told her she was a good dog.  Unfortunately, the roofers who told us they fixed the leaky roof appear to be wrong: the latest rain storm blew in today and there's water coming in right in front of Prewash's crate.  Fortunately (?), we caught it two days before the contractors were supposed to put up a new drywall ceiling, so at least we can postpone that project until we have another round of roof-fixing attempts. 

And also . . .

• K-daughter accepted a job offer at a new job, and starts there next week.  It has regular hours and higher pay, and she's a bit nervous and excited about it.
• I-daughter was spotted in New York at the Sheep-and-Wool Festival by my running buddy.  Rumor has it, she's looking good, but I can't personally confirm that, because I haven't seen her for almost two weeks.  [That's totally a snarky mom comment!]
• My husband's knee recovery is erratic.  The physical therapist he works with told him, "Just listen to your bod--- ah, . . . Just remember to take it EASY."   So he's only ridden 25 miles with his bike buddies.  His knee still kinda hurts, surprisingly.  
• And me?  My students keep giving me lots and lots of papers to grade. It's not fair of them, really. But I muddle through.  It's darned nice to have the book manuscript done,  and I do keep reminding myself of that and then being a little bit floaty happy.

And that's the news from our family, where life is rich with things we make and full of things to do.  May your and yours be similarly prosperous.

The one-year Compost Bin Experiment update

It was a year ago that I took down my old wooden-pallet compost bins and started a metal-fencing system (here's the post where I describe how and why).    And now, a year later, what do I think?  I think, two thumbs up.   Probably green thumbs up, in fact!

If you're as into compost as I am, here's the dirt (heh-heh) on how the first year of a new compost era has gone.

Basically, ever since I moved to this city about a quarter century ago, I've been honing my skills at turning plants into dirt.  I am generally much better at turning plants into dirt than the other way around, in fact (although as the decades pass, I have occasionally had success at the dirt-->plant version of this process).  The basic method for composting is (1) put plants and food scraps on the ground, and (2) wait.  That's about where I was, oh, 25 years ago, and you'd better believe that I was amazed at myself for having my own compost pile.  My three-year-old daughter bragged to my friends, "My mom has a PhD AND a compost pile!".  Yes.

Moving up a notch is having a structure that encloses the pile.  When my husband and I moved to this house, I built two wooden pens out of old fencing.   One pen held the "new scraps" pile, and one pen held the "cooking" pile --- at least in theory, that's how it worked.  Every so often, I'd head out with the pitchfork and "stir" the piles.   But "stir" is in quotes because compost is kinda heavy, so this was a lot more like digging ditches as far as muscle and activity goes.  When the plants-and-food-scraps had sufficiently decomposed---usually after about  a year---I'd  use more muscle to shovel the compost from the piles into a wheelbarrow and move the dirt over to the garden. 

But then my neighbor Morgan ---who has an actual certificate designating her a "Master Composter" --- recommended another method.  This uses portable circles of metal fencing: one circle for the active, lasagna-style pile, and one circle as a holding pen for leaves.  I clip the metal fencing into circles using binder clips, which makes removing the fencing from the dirt as easy as undoing binder clips.    THIS is the method I've been trying out this year, and THIS is a new level of composting awesomeness for me.  I tell you, I'm better than ever at turning plants into dirt now. 

My "active" bin, about three feet in diameter
and three feet tall. 
The compost-makings are about a foot high right now.

This picture on the right is the latest "active" bin, and if you look super carefully, you'll see an almost-empty "holding" bin behind it, with the leaves almost gone.  The bin in front has a bunch of food on top; I'm about to grab leaves from the holding bin and put them on top. 

So, what's great about this system?

First, the layering thing *really* works.  Food and green stuff goes in, and then I toss leaves on top.  More food and/or green stuff goes in, then I toss in another layer of leaves.  I never once stirred this stuff, and yet it happily decomposed down into dirt way more quickly than in the past.

Second, because I put the active bins right there in the garden, I don't have to use a wheelbarrow and muscle to get the compost to the right place.  Once I have dirt, I open up the circle, move the fence to another place, and the compost is right there, in the right place.  I've done this twice now -- twice in one year.   This is really almost like magic here!

A nearly empty bin that used to be full of leaves.
This is about 4 feet in diameter and 3 feet high.  

Third, I really like having a giant bin to hold all those leaves I rake up in the fall.  It's nice thinking of these leaves as "fuel" to add to the top of a pile of food.  Somehow, for my large yard, the ratio worked out beautifully; this holding bin just finally, magically, emptied out right now -- just as fall has started tingeing the leaves that are hanging on the trees in our yard.  We won't start raking again for another few weeks, but when we do, I have empty bins ready to hold those leaves to make the next round of compost. 


No matter what style of compost bins I use, I love the fact that composting reduces the amount of stuff we send to landfills -- less gasoline for garbage trucks, less stuff in the landfill overall.   I also appreciate that, because my food scraps go into the ground instead of the trash can, my garbage doesn't stink.  We can (and do) leave a garbage can in the garage for a couple of months, slowly filling up with stuff from our home, and we don't have to put it out at the curb early because of bad odors. 

Whereas compost piles, in contrast, are happy living places.  Squirrels, birds, and bunnies visit my compost piles more often even than I do.  I really love walking by these bins in the morning and seeing the flurry of activity happening there. 

And that's my October homage to compost bins, with a thank-you to Master Composter Morgan for bumping me up to a new level, for cluing me into the notion that Fence Circles are the new Black Gold. 

Miser Family update: Bar Mitts, Books, and Conservation of Sons

Warm hands on a cold morning, biking home from
our rescue mission and the market.

In spite of the stock market ups-and-downs, life in the Miser Family household continues to be rich and full.  Just last week, we were basking and baking in 80+ degree temperatures, but the cold front that blew last Friday in changed everything, overnight.   We spent the weekend closing doors and windows, pulling out our puffy down comforter and winter-weather clothes, and dressing my bike in its "Bar Mitts".   The change in weather has been dramatic, and also more than a little beautiful. 

Speaking of warm clothes, here's a cute photo my step-daughter sent me of her dogs playing with the neighbor dogs in their matching "outfits".  Adorable!

My husband had surgery on his left knee this past Tuesday.  Can we pause for a moment to remember how incredibly awesome modern surgery is?  I mean, really, he should have died -- or at least been paralyzed -- a dozen years ago when he crashed his bike a dozen years ago and broke his neck in three places. But his neck is all better, and he's still biking like crazy.  So, this Tuesday he got operated on to put two of his ligaments back in the right places.  And later that very same day, he was walking around on that recently-repaired knee.  He mentioned he might drive to the drug store to pick up his pain meds, which he didn't actually seem to need at the moment, and I made noises about don't-get-in-the-CAR-because-I-could-just-walk-there, so he changed his mind and biked to the drug store.  Huzzah for doctors, I say.

N-son is still off having a blast at his school and will be gone there for another week yet; J-son is still doing well at his school and came to visit this weekend, so it's kind of like conservations of sons.  K-daughter took some big chances and has applied for jobs that would bring a big bump in her salary.  I-daughter traveled to New York to visit the Sheep and Wool festival there, but she sent some of her friends in her place to help me can applesauce (we put up 40 jars of various sizes).

And as for me, the big, happy happening of the week is that . . . the Book is In!  I sent the manuscript off to my editor, and I'm Dee-Oh-En-EEE Done!  Yay! Picture me, gonzo-style hands waving in the air while I run in circles!!! Woooooo!

Oooh, man, just writing that makes me want to run in circles some more.  So I'll end with that news of being wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.