The Demo Site

They, the cashiers at the Feed Bin, said it couldn’t be done. “NO WAY” could I shove a fifty pound bag of chicken feed into my backpack and bike away. I would have to buy my lay pellets in one-pound-bag increments, they told me emphatically. They were wrong. On my second attempt, I was able to slide the clumsy sack into my super-sized “bike bag.” Years ago, I’d stuck an entire case of beer in the thing, so I fully expected the feed to squeeze in somehow or other.

“Now, what’s gonna happen when you gotta turn?” asked one of the still-skeptical cashiers as she eyed the bag-within-in-a-bag protruding 6 or 8 inches out of the top of my wide-open satchel.

“It’s not goin’ anywhere,” I replied as I attempted to prove my point by swinging my shoulders back and forth. By her quizzical gaze, I instantly realized that she wasn’t worried about me spilling 50 lbs. of lay pellets in the middle of St. Francis Drive. She was worried about me losing control of the excess weight on my back and spilling my ass over my elbow in the middle of St. Francis Drive. “Don’t worry about us. We'll be fine,” I smiled, headed for the door, and barked, “Let’s go Liam!”

Fortunately, we were fine and made it back with my son riding bravely along side. The only time we had to hop off of our bikes was on the last steep stretch of dirt road right around the corner from home. When we got to the top and turned, it was a thrill to see our newly replanted “We Support Bike-to-Work Week” banner that the late Gail Ryba had given us years ago. (We typically leave it up for two weeks before and after bike-to-work week.)

Sure, our chicken feed came to Santa Fe by truck from 450 miles away but at least we got our lay pellets home without the aid of fossil fuels. Hopefully, Gail is looking down at us with pride tonight because (as I said a post or two ago) her successful work on bike issues was a major motivating factor in getting us out on our gas-free and Gulf friendly vehicles today.

Thanks to our friend Jobyl, our compost pile currently contains, according to Sun Chips, “The world’s first 100% compostable chip bag of its kind.” If we’re not home, Jobyl, who lives in a downtown apartment with no room to park, let alone compost, sometimes leaves leftover salad and moldy bread at our door. The other day we were home, so she hand delivered the aforementioned bag. While turning my pile today, I came across the two-day old experiment and almost detected a slightly lackluster sheen off the thing.

Although our entire food system is currently placed in the dangerous hands of companies that own crap like Sun Chips, I must say I was delighted and inspired by Jobyl’s gift. Sun Chips even says they’ll teach you how to compost if you go to their website. In my upcoming book, Harvest the Rain, you’ll find a chapter about composting, but in the meantime, I’d encourage you to get this kind of info wherever you can. Composting is great fun and great exercise, too! But don’t forget to check back for reasonably regular reports on the decaying process of the bag.

I took to the streets thanks to Gail Ryba. If it had not been for her, I might never have gotten off of my ass and into my bike. Today, when there isn’t a foot of snow on the calles and by ways of Santa Fe, I ride to work, stores, schools, potlucks, and pretty much anything this side of Pojoaque. I love taking the bike on the train to Albuquerque, hopping off, getting in a quick ride, doing a landscape consultation, and then turning right around and making it back up to Santa Fe in the same day. (Someday, I’ll have to relate my epic trip to Atlanta by bike, train, bus, plane, train, bike, and back, but now is not the day.)

Without Gail, who worked in Albuquerque and lived in Santa Fe, this would never have happened. Without her, I’d probably be 20 pounds heavier and 20% less happy. Did you know that biking to any place where you would normally drive is not only fun and exhilarating, it’s also spiritually enlightening? Why not get into it in honor of Gail, who died yesterday after a tough bout with cancer. Survived by her husband Tom Robey, their young daughter, Lynn, her mother, and three siblings, Gail was 47.

Nate --

I just got back from southern Arizona where I saw those tall, 3' wide, metal, spiraled, water "barrels" that I had also seen in slides from Brad Lancaster's presentation (also AZ). Does anyone use those here? If so, do you know who makes them? Should we be worried about freezing at this elevation?

Thanks so much.

Christi Newhall

Thanks for asking, Christi! I’ve never tried the vertical culvert trick, but I’m aware of success stories as well as legendary failures. The basic problem is the seam created at the bottom of the culvert. Cisterns function best if they are made of one seamless material. The majority of successful culvert systems will probably prove to be those that have a plastic bladder inside of them. The problem is that these mega water balloons leach out many more toxins than their more popular hard-plastic relatives.

You do have to worry about freeze/thaw effects at the bond between culvert and concrete slab. If you bury the thing to reduce these negative effects, you run the risk of a leak that you don’t notice for a long time and then the prospect of having to remove a failed water storage tank. I’ve never had to do this, and I hope I never will. I’ve heard of culvert-style cistern systems lasting a long time underground when a waterproof coating has been liberally slapped along the seam between culvert and  concrete base. Unfortunately, my friend who swore by these tanks is no longer with us, so I can no longer vouch for their longevity.

My knee-jerk reaction has always been to avoid culverts for water storage. I’m all for innovation, but I’m not into experimenting with thousands of gallons of water in some nice client’s backyard. Unless you are working with a research grant, better to go with proven and tested materials when it comes to storing something as heavy and pervasive as water.

The fun part about HGTV’s Bang for Your Buck is the third part when the contestants (in this case Melissa and me) get to rebut the criticisms of the “talent.” We were very lucky insofar as one of the expert critics was from Australia, and the other was from Boulder. Both really understood the importance of water conservation, backyard chicken tending, and sustainability in general. Jamie Durie, the Aussie, even raved about how our bunny lives elevated above our compost pile, so his poops can land right where we want them. Fontella, the dynamic real-estate agent, was pretty concerned about whether or not we will ever recoup our investment in our underground cistern, but with every season of a homegrown veggies in the desert, we believe the question is almost moot.

Stay tuned! When they tell us when the show will air (in about 8 weeks, they said), we’ll let you know!

I ‘m sitting out on the front porch chatting with Josh, a production assistant with Bang for Your Buck. Melissa is inside getting made up, while the talent is out in the backyard planning their critique. Ooops, gotta go get made up now. ... WOW! Melissa looks GREAT! Let’s see what Candace can do with my age spots! …. SHEEESH! She’s GOOD. Melissa says I look 10 years younger… Now it’s show time, the part where we watch our critics criticize us. I’ll let you know how that went tomorrow.

When the crew from Home and Garden Television (HGTV) showed up yesterday afternoon, it had already snowed three times, but due to our high and dry climate and the fact that it was May, the white stuff only stuck around for about 15 minutes in between each minor onslaught. Just when we were all set to get started, a bigger epicycle of light, puffy hail (or was it sleet?) rained down on us. The way the little balls bounced off our ersatz-grass lawn, if they had filmed the event, people would have thought it was a lame Hollywood attempt at making fake snow. But it was real, and unlike the other events of the day, it kept coming, so they took some fun family-in-action shots of the four of us eating a backyard-egg breakfast, but soon everyone realized that we were going to run of daylight for the shoot.

Fortunately, with plenty of sunshine in the forecast, HGTV (or should it now be SGTV for “Snow in Garden Television”?) are scheduled to come back today for another take. This is great for us because with no cold fronts in the 10-day and our last frost date coming up in 12 days, we’ll get out and plant more (and more diverse) eye candy for the camera!