Green Rascal Design

Suddenly the chickens are in full egg production mode. It seems like the little windows we put in their new house were quite appreciated on cold mornings when we've kept them inside until after breakky... and the warm weather has allowed their door to be open much earlier for most of the year so far...

In the last week of January we slowly started accumulating eggs. I think this is about a month ahead of last year! Now on the 10th day of February we have gotten 31 eggs since they started laying on 1-25-12. Our cost per egg is under $1 for the first time in two and a half months, and it seems that soon I'll have to start selling them.

By the way, if you're interested in buying:

Things Mom Did That Made Me Go Hmmmm.... 01/31/2012

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My grandparents waited a long time before my mom and dad came along. Their lives were very difficult, and most of them were long gone before Mom and Dad had me. So the theme of today's blogoff, "My grandmother always said..." strikes me a different way... My only surviving genetic grandparent was very ill when I knew him, and I don't think he spoke English at the time.

So there were things that Mom did that I thought were a bit strange.

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Small Updates 01/24/2012

We've been making some small changes around here; I dunno if you noticed.

First there is the Drawing Board. It's something I decided to toy with after seeing it on another blogger's site. Basically it is an accountability group for gettin' stuff done. Everyone's workload is different, so no judgements!

Then there are the Rascal's friends, who we decided to add there on the right hand side for anybody who wants to know about the kind of people we scratch and peck with all the time.

We've also gone into garden arts professionally. So I'm working on how to word that and get it up in the services list. The services list needs an overhaul.

That's about all that we're working "On the business." I better get back to working "In the business," and crash on my AZ house plans. Yay!

The Hands of Time 01/17/2012

I feel like I'm about to step into an old Cher song or Days of Our Lives or something, but today's blogoff seemed like a worthy topic despite my serious lack of said time today. The editors simply asked "What would you change if you could turn back time?"

There are lots of things I can think of that are regrettable in my past, but when I think about going back and changing them I realize that any change I made would alter myself as I am. And I like myself as I am. (Even though I have serious flaws, my mom says everybody has always been totally impressed with me, but she's my mom.) But I would like to have been less sensitive as a young person.

Being a highly sensitive person causes a lot of problems. My family has struggled with this condition as long as I can remember, or so my mom tells me. It has lead to a lot of anguish over such insignificant things that you would probably find it laughable. If I wasn't such a sensitive person I'd laugh too! But anyway, that is the one thing I wish I could go back and change.

I would go back to when I was 6 and sitting on the steps outside my house crying because I "had no friends," or "nobody likes me," and put an arm around my shoulder and say something to make me feel better. No idea what that might sound like... But I was always upset because kids were mean and I cried easily so they found it amusing to pick on me. Of course my mom tried to help, but...

Maybe I'd have to go back farther and somehow change whatever gene controls hyper-sensitivity somehow. Being not a scientist, I'm not sure how that would work. But if that would have made the difference between being timid and normal, I think I'd do it. Now, naturally, things are better. But I could do without such things as "call reluctance," "holiday depression," "post-holiday stress disorder," low self-esteem, and being easily overwhelmed...

I wonder what everybody else would change:

Thanks for reading, and you guys rock!

Garden Resources 01/10/2012

We're making a small addition to the Green Rascal Design list of services. Over the weekend we went around our little borough and plastered some fliers on power poles - strategically placed where 1) lots of people pass by or 2) some edible plants would be a nice addition to a yard. Yes, we're on a mission to help people in our neighborhood grow their own food.

Everyone always says they don't have time to garden and it's so much work. Even after we've gone through the calculations to show how worthwhile it is from a financial standpoint to garden, I still get this complaint. So today I'll try and provide some resources...

High Expectations 01/03/2012

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Happy New Year!

I haven't done a blog off post in a while, but I'm back! I'm really interested in what 2012 has in store. The Green Rascal has seen some good luck in recent weeks. Every time I talk about the work we do here I seem to win a door prize. It's awesome. Even as I write this I'm enjoying one of them. It's a massage pad with heat. I put it on my office chair, and even without the heat portion it's way warmer at my desk! I've also won a floral arrangement and a membership to Philly Barter or Barter Philly, and 1$ on a scratch-off Christmas gift.

So I expect 2012 to be awesome.

Architecture seems to be coming back a little bit. (just as I was about to post my "Missing: Profession of Architecture" flier from Coffee with an Architect) I posted my first Green Rascal flier at a local cafe where I like to meet people. And the universe seems to be smiling at anything Green Rascal related. Everyone loves the business cards. Everyone loves the idea of living greener and growing their own food, etc. Everyone loves the chickens and their eggs. I'm really hoping this keeps going!

My networking group, 422 ARCH, is having its first happy hour of the year at Rock Bottom (Brewery). There's nowhere to go but up! 422 has been doing really well for a little meetup group. We routinely get around 20 people at our events. Some are regulars and some are new. I expect this to continue. We've got lots of fun ideas for places to get together and chillax with building pros.

I haven't been teaching lately, but perhaps there are other ways to pass on knowledge. I have been thinking more and more about this, and perhaps in 2012 I'll put some of that into action!

The garden is doing awesome. We expect large amounts of fruit to harvest this year, assuming the weather is at least survivable. Everything we have planted seems to be doing really really well despite all the wackiness of 2011. We got 50+ pounds of tomatoes when our farmer at the CSA was lamenting how all their tomatoes died. That's just one example. We're thinking that we will save hundreds of dollars on certain foods this year - and well into the future also because we plan on planting even more!

Savings are up. We still haven't felt the need to turn on the oil burner. The oil company backed down and gave us a break on our monthly bill.

The only thing that isn't bright and shiny is the student loan thing. I could really use a break when it comes to the student loans. They are the only thing holding me back at this point.

But with all this other good stuff going on, I have nothing but good vibrations for the new year! Rock on!

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Fermentation Experimentation 12/30/2011

I mentioned quite a while ago here that we harvested too many berries and had started making raspberry vodka and strawberry wine. Well we recently broke out the wine for my big birthday bash.

our first real taste of the strawberry wine

For our first attempt it is not bad. It has a funny after-taste which can be attributed to a couple different things.

Nature vs Wall St. 12/28/2011

Today my better half, Chris, decided he wanted to share some insights about how good of an investment fruits and vegetables are. I've already shared some of these ideas, but hubby's take on things is a bit more monetary and might appeal to you if you're one of those 'show me the money' peeps.

A note on Chris; he's an IT nerd with a love for investing. With his brother he started and ran a small hedge fund for several years, investing money for their family and several friends and doing quite well until the market tanked in '08. Since then his more conservative investing has nearly made back all of what the hedge fund lost. So his understanding of ROIs is pretty good, I think. Without further adieu:

A good return on your investment is usually between 10%-15%. Nature laughs at these returns. In the following paragraphs I will examine the kinds of returns on investment that investors in nature can expect these days.

the Cold House 12/27/2011

We haven't turned on our oil heat yet, and it's all this guy's fault. Ok, maybe not ALL his fault. Hubby started reading the Cold House Journal earlier this year. And normally each year the oil company shows up around mid November to end of November to deliver a full tank of oil or roughly there abouts. Last year they gave us 195 gallons in November. This year that would cost $653 because oil is $3.35-$3.50 a gallon, but when they showed up they could only pump in $35 in oil!

We did this by, first of all, using the heat pump we installed for much of our needs. In November it cost us all of $30 to run. It keeps the kitchen, office, bathroom, dining room and master bedroom warm enough to be tolerable in that order. I accept this performance. Given that we have a hundred year old house and no insulation, it's fine with me.

The only other warming appliance we have turned on is the space heater in the family room when we go to watch our couple hours of tv a night after dinner. It's electric and costs us about 15 cents per hour I think. It's not bad. And I feel like we shouldn't have to punish ourselves or work ourselves to the bone and abstain from all tv watching. Plus, Peet, the little dove, is in there and I'm sure he appreciates the company.

Secondly, we've employed the Smart Wool technique. That is to say we're always wearing it. This is new for 2011 for us. We spent $329 on smartwool. We started with the light weight wool, and now we've upgraded to mid weight, and we're still not planning on turning the oil heat on until well into January. Smart Wool has accessories too, so we got big fat wool socks from them and are happy as clams.

Thirdly, we re-employed the bubble wrap window technique. In some cases the windows are actually WARMER than the walls are now because I added some of that shrink wrap they sell in big box retail stores. It wasn't too terribly difficult to put up, and looks surprisingly okay.

Also it has been a pretty mild fall and winter so far. We're really surprised.

So all in all we saved about $300 off heating so far. Of course that would be with a 1 year amortization of our wool. I'm sure our wool will last more than 1 year. The oil company was projecting that we would need roughly $3000 worth of oil to make it through the winter this year. Unless it turns brutally cold in Jan-Feb I fail to see how we're going to use anywhere near that amount of oil. Each gallon of heating oil not burned has saved 22 lbs of carbon dioxide being released!

Go us!

Also, if you check out the Cold House Journal you'll see a good argument for keeping it cooler in the winter in terms of humidity. We have found it to be much more humid - and therefore tolerable - in here this year than it was last year when we kept it warmer. Thanks CHJ!