Archive for May, 2009
Farmers Market Diary 3
Saturday, May 23, was our third week under the new $30 farmers market plan. As I outlined in our first post, we’re now venturing to the Hollywood Farmers Market each week with a pre-set $30 budget that we have to spend –not just a budget that we can spend. Guided by this plan, we’re forcing [...]
Carrier Pigeon Diary 31
Our experience with the box bikes continues to impress and satisfy…There’s very little to report in the world of the box bike as both our bikes continue to operate with little whine, creak or groan. The SRAM transmissions are working flawlessly and the FSA Gamma cranksets are just as pleasing as when I first rode the bikes –they’re super smooth, powerful and very lightweight when compared to a stock steel crank. Additionally, the 70mm drum brake on the Sturmey-Archer XRD-C freehub is strong, smooth and consistent…
Farmers Market Diary 2
Last Saturday, May 16, was our second week under the new $30 farmers market plan. As I outlined in our first post, we’re now venturing to the Holly Farmers Market each week with a pre-set $30 budget that we ‘have’ to spend –not just a budget that we ‘can’ spend. In the photo in this post, you’ll see last Saturday’s $30 farmers market haul, which includes…
Garden Diary 8
The weekend of May 15-17 was another very busy and sunny weekend in the Towsey-French garden. We planted 19 onion starts, which were all germinated from seed in our basement this winter; unfortunately, due to poor planning on my part, I failed to properly organize them in a manner that I could readily tell which [...]
Garden Diary 7
…I built the Gardenfort floor out of spare 2x4s and a bundle of 1×3 pine slats. After measuring and cutting the wood, I screwed the frame together with deck screws and then used floor-finish nails to attach the slats to the frame… The ‘main event’ for me was carrot planting. First, we made the decision to plant two rows of carrots (11 row feet each), with the first planting preceding the second by a few weeks to help step-out the harvest…
Farmers Market Diary 1
I’ve considered building out a plan for what we’d purchase from the market, but this isn’t terribly realistic as we don’t always know what’s going to be available, thereby making a pre-packaged menu a bit unreliable. This is where Keri’s great idea came into play: she suggested that we go to the market each week with a pre-set budget that we have to spend –not just a budget that we can spend. This is the key difference: we are forcing ourselves to purchase goods at a set dollar amount ($30) each week –so we have to come home broke…
Low-Car Lifestyle Clinic @ Portland Farmers Market
The recent shift to sunnier skies has many Portlanders dreaming of cruising down stumptown’s tree-lined boulevards on a bike. For many, these visions might also be accompanied by questions about how to best take advantage of a bicycle to meet the needs of everyday life –like a simple trip to the grocery store, or a [...]
Garden Diary 6
…I’m a big fan of the Garden Claw; it enabled me to very easily blend-in the Black Forest soil conditioner to a tomato plot while breaking up less-desirable chunks of soil… The reason the Claw works so well is that it lets you accomplish a relatively high degree of tilling without a gas-powered rototiller –all while standing. Additionally, the Claw offers much more control over where and how deeply you till. For urban gardens, I think this key benefit is essential. A gas-powered rototiller is ideal for preparing large plots –trust me, if I had a 50′ by 100′ plot, I’d rent a gas-powered rototiller to save time. As it is, we don’t have a garden plot anywhere near that large, so the finer control potential of the Garden Claw make it ideally suited to our garden….
Photos (view gallery)
