As a tenant of a residence, rather than an owner, I’ve often wondered what are some decisions that I can make around the house in an effort to stave off rising energy bills as well as just to do whatever bit I can to reduce my footprint. Without incurring costs to do so. We do pretty well with our energy, there are a few more cuts we could make so that the meter will slow to a creep, but all in all we’re doing fairly well. I’m actually more concerned with how, I specifically, utilize our water resource. I never take it for granted, the realization that I can just turn on a tap and out it comes, where in some countries they don’t even have that luxury. I believe, or want to believe, that I’m mindful of that resource, so I’ve done some research on ways I can cut back on my water usage and I thought I’d share the results. They are in no specific order.
— Put plastic bottles or float booster in the toilet water tank
I’m not so sure on this one, but I figure it can’t hurt. I’ve read mixed reviews on this practice. The goal though is to reduce the amount of water it takes to flush.
— Check your toilet for leaks
Add food coloring to the water tank, wait 30 min. without flushing and if the color is showing in the bowl, you’ve got a leak. Should be an easy and cheap fix.
— Take a shorter shower
I’m guilty. I love showers, it’s like being in a rain-forest with warm water. If I were to evaluate I think I will stop shaving in the shower in order to reduce the length of time. Four minutes is the goal.
— Rinse you razor in the sink
Fill the sink with a few inches of warm water. This will rinse your razor just as well as running water, with far less waste.
— Turn off the water after you wet your toothbrush
— Wash veggies/fruit in a bowl of water vs. keeping the water running to rinse.
— When washing dishes by hand, don’t leave the water running for rinsing.
If your have a double-basin, fill one with soapy water and one with rinse water. If you have a single-basin sink, gather washed dishes in a dish rack and rinse them with a spray device or a panful of hot water.
— If it’s yellow let it mellow, and if it’s brown send it down.
This is one practice we already use, but it’s just still so much fun to say.
It’s difficult around our apartment, since we share water for the building and we are only responsible for 2/5’s of the water usage. The goal though is to reduce the usage & if we do our part, then the bill should still go down. I very much live a plugged in life and a dream of living unplugged. It’s a difficult task as I try to unburden us with all those things that shackle us. We are trying to find a balance between living independent and not becoming recluses in the woods. These are all steps in the direction that I want to live my life.
Four years is one term for a president, then he gets reviewed and depending on his performance maybe he’ll get another four years. It takes four years to move through the rankings of high school. It takes another 4 years to finish university with your undergrad. I’ve also never kept a job for more than 4 years. I started brewing and taking it seriously four years ago. My introductory year of 30 was coming to an end four years ago. Yet, my life was up to that point was a series of experiences and yet I still was so much an infant in my own mind.
It was four years ago, that I married my bride. The fateful day of “I Do’s” and taking stock of the definition of “Forever.” Both of those words not only do I remember, but I cherish. Not to be getting to cheesy here, I just very much count my blessings everyday. Navigating life side-by-side while laughing is so wonderful. A lot has happened, it’s not always been perfect, there’s been challenges that have been tough and pretty heavy. Yet we’ve made it through and found strength in so doing.
On 12:34:56 7/8/9 I was celebrating my four-year old marriage. I’ve come to the realization that four years is not enough time to be judged by. I believe that we’ve just begun to hit our stride as a married couple, the best is even yet to come!
Over the course of the past two years, or so, I’ve really been reading up on food both through books and via the web. Trying to understand how the food is processed that I’m putting into my body. Maybe it’s because I really enjoy cooking, and I’m by no means a chef. I do believe that I’m pretty mindful of what I put into my body, but where that food comes from is what I’ve been looking into. It’s also why in previous posts i’ve talked about the idea of trying to grow my own veggies, why I want to learn to pickle, partly why I took up fishing again. I do my best to support my local farmers and shop at my farmer’s market for my produce. Buy Fresh, Buy Local. Still I find that during these lean economic times, the more I can do at home, the better.
I’ve had an idea from a film that was going to look into food, from family farms to factory farms. I didn’t want to go for shock value of slaughter house imagery, but I did want to investigate if organic is really all it’s cracked up to be, or the idea of cage free for example. The project seemed so daunting and my head would spin as I tried to figure out the best way to distill down the research into something that would be informative and entertaining. Well, as usual, someone else had the same idea and beat me to the finish line. At the very least it validates my own idea. The name of the movie is called Food Inc. Their website is a great resource for action and it best describes the film:
“In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.”
I haven’t seen the film yet, and am waiting to go see it, unfortunately it’s not showing in my area as of yet. If you do get the opportunity to see it, please post a comment and let me know what you thought of it or of this topic in general.
Over this past weekend, Sus and I went to a beer pairing event at one of the grocery stores we shop at. This was a kick off event because this gourmet grocery, Wegman’s, has battled PA and won the right to sell 6 packs of beer to go. They invited in 6 local breweries and had chef’s pairing food with each individual style of beers that were offered. It was a great event and we had a good time. The beer selection there was fantastic, not huge by any means, but I can tell it was carefully thought out. The craft beer was on prominent display, while that yellow fizz that passes as so called beer was stuck in a corner for once.
After we traversed through the various six stations, we ended up in the craft beer section. As I took my time examining all of Wegman’s offerings. I was looking at a few of the Belgian selections when I overheard a woman say, “Wow! for $11, I’d buy a bottle of wine!”
I thought to myself a bit about this, kept my mouth shut, and now I need to retort. First off an $11 bottle of wine, won’t be bad, but it definitely won’t be the best. I must also admit that this bottle of belgian beer was also a 750ml bottle, so as far as pure volume is concerned we are comparing the same amount. Secondly, I’m a wine drinker, and enjoy wine, but over the course of the last three years or so, I’ve been exploring beers more and more. What I’ve found out, is that with beer, there are so many more styles and variations within each style, that may not necessarily exist in wines. Yellow fizz has cheapened the idea of beer so much, that by default wine is considered a better choice. So I guess basically what I’m saying is that although a greatly crafted wine is excellent. What makes wine more expensive? I guess this woman would just prefer to buy a mediocre bottle of wine vs. an excellent craft beer because she’s …. well……you fill in the blank to this ending.
Last Sunday evening I photographed the Phish reunion tour in Camden, NJ. It was a great show, with great light. They opened the show with Chalkdust Torture, next was Fee and then onto Wolfman’s Brother. When one photographs a concert the rules typically are the same, you are only allowed to photograph the first 3 songs, no flash. I’m escorted into the pit area, between the stage and the front row, where all the bouncers are. When I photographed the Grateful Dead last month we were alloted the first 15 minutes, due to their long improvisational jams. I was expecting the same thing with Phish but they actually let us shoot the first 3 songs, which was cool, gave us a bit more time to make some great images.
If you’d like to see some highlights of the show, click on the Sportsshooter link in the blogroll on the right, and enjoy!yu
It was a calm leisure mid-morning weekend kind of day. I packed my lunch, two tall boys of PBR (a guilty pleasure), loaded up the cooler, grabbed the camp chair, tackle bag and my fishing rod, kissed the Mrs. for good luck and headed out the door for an afternoon of fishing on a local lake. When I arrived, the lake was packed given that the temperature for the day was a mild 80ºF. There were people fishing on the lake from bass boats, kayakers, windsurfers, and people just picnicking and enjoying the day. I unloaded my car, grab my gear and walked into the woods along the west side trail system to go find a fishing hole that I could set up as my base camp. After about 10 or 15 min. I came across an opening and I don’t know if it was because I was thirsty, or just ready to fish, but it felt “right,” so I set up camp.
Before even leaving the house I geeked out that morning, watched a couple of fishing shows I had on Tivo and pre-rigged up my rod. I chose a drop-shot set up for the early morning, with a green/pumpkin plastic worm on it. Well after settling into camp, I cracked open the first beer, and made my first cast of the day. It took a bit of getting used to with the drop shot rigging, the weight at the bottom was affecting my cast…probably because I’m still working on my casting skills, but never the less I wasn’t going to give up. So I fished this way for the first half hour or so. I then decided to change out my rigging and try something different, but I also had decided to stick with soft plastics that day as my choice in lures.
The second rigging was a 2/0 weighted barbless hook, with a chartreuse Zoom fluke rigged up Texas style. I did a few casts off to my right and then did a casts off to my left, varying the speed and style of return. On about my third cast to the left I felt something and thought that I had become tangled in some weed grass, so I gave the rod a hook set action, figuring I’d clear that grass off the lure, but instead I set the hook on a largemouth bass!! Once I realized I had my Fish On, I started playing and wrangling it in, then as I realized I was going to land the fish, another thought crept into my mind. Let’s see the last time I probably caught a fish was about 25 years ago when I was 10 and my Dad always did the hook removal. Not that it’s rocket science, and again I press my barbs down for minimal damage to the fish, I realized I was going to finally do it myself. I just hoped that the fish didn’t fully attack my lure. Of course, once I had him in my hands, I went to work to remove the hook and realized that my lure was about half way down his gullet. Great. I started to remove it and was experiencing a bit of difficulty and the fish went limp on me. Not wanting to harm let alone kill the bass I put him back in the water so that it could get some air, once it kicked back to life, I pulled it out of the water again, and this time was successful at removing the hook. I promptly put it back in the water, wished it well being and sent it back into the depths.
It was wild actually catching a fish this time. It has sparked a renewed since of energy around fishing while also increasing a sense of confidence. The peaceful and calming qualities of being in/near or on water, always renews my spirits.
Yesterday, my local homebrew club, BUZZ (Brewers Unlimited Zany Zymurgists) hosted their annual Buzz Off beer competition. This year I decided to submit two beers: Spaz Stout an oatmeal coffee stout, and Big Bad Leory an indian brown ale. The stout received a score of 36.5/50 and I believe first the category received a 41. Still pending full results. The brown ale did poorly but the comments received are extremely helpful so I may adjust my recipes and continue to grow as a brewer. One of the judges is an AHA (American Homebrew Association) Grand Master Judge III, which means he has a ton of experience and the feedback on the stout was fantastic and it looks like I will be able to tweak the recipe a slight amount for next year’s competition.
On the day of the completion I also participated as a steward, or basically a waiter, who fetched flights of beer from the walk-in cooler to give to the judges, made sure they had enough cups, etc. The benefit of doing this was that I also sat at my assigned judges table and could listen in on the comments/conversation between the two judges as well as they offered my tastes so I too would know what they were talking about. It was a great experience! and I look forward to becoming more active with this group of brewers.
Each beer that wins first place in each category then advances to the best of show, this aspect of the competition is each judge receives a taste from all the beers and then they have a table talk discussion to narrow down to the best of show. This was fascinating to watch and listen to. Very comical as well as you can imagine that the best of show doesn’t get judge till the end of the day and many of these judges have been tasting since 9 am.
There’s been a lot of happenings around our casa as of late and I figured we might be due for an update. Sus has finished grad school with her Masters of Science in Counseling with a k-12 certification. What that means is that she can work as a counselor from K-University. Nobody in her program has ever accomplished this, let alone with a perfect gpa. Normally one selects a track and then tackles just that and they end up with a Masters of Education. It pretty amazing, the mere fact that she took every course offered in her program. I mean I could go on and on, but let’s just say I’m super proud of her.
We’ve also been enjoying the kayaks whenever the weather is in our favor. Mostly paddling on creeks and lakes, but we’ve got a camping trip planned for mid-July to go down to MD and paddle across the Potomoc to Mallow’s Bay. It is there that a bunch of old WW1 wooden warships have been left to rot and you can paddle around and check things out. We are going to be going with a kayak group that we’ve recently become involved with.
We had a great day yesterday, full of activities, from morning yoga to a two hour gym weightlifting work out, a visit to the dog park with Chloe and then a 1 hr paddle on a lake. Ending up with a great dinner of mussels, burgers and pints with our great family friends the Always. It was a great day!! Now, I’m a bit sore, but nothing to much.
Let’s see what else…our summer is filling up pretty fast though, we’ve got a few camping trips on the books and a couple of weddings to attend, no brisks though. I’m still fishing and at this point not even a nibble. Don’t know if it’s something I’m doing wrong or if it’s the damn fish! Either way it’s still a ton of fun. Once I get a bit more comfortable in my ‘yak I plan to do some fishing from it. Maybe that’ll help to increase the chances. We’ll see.
Lastly, if any of my loyal readers, know of any counselor work in any school districts or with any universities/community colleges, please give me a heads up.
If you haven’t already checked out my Grateful Dead photos from the recent show here, then please check out my sportsshooter page, link on the left.
One last thing to mention, it has been officially a year since we quit smoking. Just thought I’d share that as well. It’s just another something something that we’ve accomplished that wasn’t easy. Ozzy Osbourne once said something like quitting smoking was harder than quitting some of the hard core drugs I’ve done in my life. It’s been a wild road.
Chasing down an elusive dream can sometimes wear one down, yet the passion is the fuel to keep it going. Many times we find ourselves in a place in time that runs perpendicularly to the direction we believe we should be. Mix in a bit of rapid fire tangents and a world you once knew will shift the continuum. We can learn to deal with it, or learn to accept it with the later of the more difficult. There also comes the self actualization that destiny does not manifest itself in a sense of utter lack of control, or rather we can affect our outcome, based on decisions we make. Sure there are things I’ve or we’ve needed to learn along the way, but each time life does what it does, we have a choice.
Life really isn’t difficult, if we break it down to it’s essentials. Really. Examine your own and search within. I think you’ll see it’s clear. The problem lies within our minds which cloud judgment and complicate things. I’ve really been living in a fog, feeling battered down mostly by my method of earning an income. It’s unfortunate that so much of how we as a society define ourselves is through what we do. I don’t have a career, what I do have is a job and I treat it as such. Now, the way I can control what it is that I need to do is explore various avenues because my head is filled with so many ideas and I tend to over think these ideas, thereby making them seem unattainable.
I’m a farmer in some ways. I cultivate ideas, nurture them and hope that one of them grows to fruition. Many times though I find myself spraying my own ideas with verbal pesticides in an effort to keep the weeds of doubt down to a minimum. When in reality I may have already killed off a perfectly good idea. There are two things I believe are going on here; a lack of permission from myself to explore an idea because it may not be the ‘perfect’ idea, and the other is due to as of late I’ve hit a stint of blockage. The perverbally plateau known as a slump.
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If you’ve just got done reading the above post on our recent updates, I must say that the one yoga class we attended really helps with a general sense of cleansing and calming. I’ve never really practiced it before and figured I’d give it a shot. I will try it again, if anything it’ll help my body get a bit more in shape and help with my paddling skills. The mind/soul part will be an added bonus.
I also must admit, that the slump I’ve been in has been a struggle for me, from a creative and working standpoint. I’m not going to harp on that again, if you’ve read any of these posts you’ll get the gist, but I’ve been fortunate enough to start two new activities in my life, one is for me and the other is for us. Fishing and kayaking. Both are water activities and I’m a cancer so it just seems to make sense. The calming qualities of water and playing in and around it, help me to relax and find my center. I work hard each and every day to plow ahead, never giving up and always seeking out new opportunities to explore myself, my relationships, my craft and from those opportunities I grown and learn. I guess that’s where the whole wisdom thing comes from.
