Groceries and Little Man

As you can see here, Tal and I went on a grocery run, to Dollar Tree and Mal Wart.  This is probably the maximum amount I can carry with his 30+ pounds on the back.  I had to put him on first, then load the groceries around him.  I have a special bungie cord I carry along now to keep the front wheel straight while I load the front rack.  This is the load.  Those are 3 litre bottles, a little heavier than I am used-to.  The bird seed will be mixed with scratch feed for the chickies. 

It feels a little strange, pulling out onto Crawfordville Highway with a bicycle loaded to bear with groceries and my son, with huge pickup trucks and SUV’s all around us.  We aren’t the only ones here that use alternative transportation means, but there certainly aren’t many.  One elderly lady has an electric-powered three-wheel bicycle, and rides all over the county with it.  That thing can book!  I don’t think I could keep-up with her if I were to try.  She appears to cruise along at about 20mph.  I can attain 21mph, but with a good tailwind in third gear.  I have seen one family walk to the store with their wagon and park it at the bike rack.  Otherwise, it’s just the odd person on foot.

I know that attitudes are changing in this country about our fuel usage and folks are wising up to alternative transportation, but being in a small town in Northern Florida, it’s hard to tell by looking around.  I know that auto and truck traffic on Crawfordville Highway hasn’t lessened any that I can see.  People will tell us that it’s so good that we ride our bikes everywhere, but they don’t want to try it themselves.  Since when did people get so lazy?

Green Living Expo

Saturday we decided to head out to the 3rd annual Green Living Expo. It was held at the Riversprings Middle School which was about 5 miles away. Little man got into the spirit by having his hair done:

I used green food coloring to dye it and green sparkling decorating gel to make it sparkle and stand up (I told him the gel was to make him taste good). He received several complements on his green Mohawk. The flyer stated that there was to be several activities, vendors, food and workshops. One of the events that caught our eyes was the Bike Rodeo. This left us with a dilemma…how to get little man’s bike there since we were going by bike. Give hubby a few minutes to chew on a problem and voila:

With little man riding Dutch Style on the back of hubby’s bike we were able to fold down the trailer and plop the bike on top. Then attached the trailer to my bike and we were ready to roll. It was windy and I managed to forget my purse, so it took a longer to get there than would have normally. Though when we finally all got together (hubby and little man went back for my purse) the first item on our agenda was getting little man into the bike rodeo.

He learned to make sure to look for cars and here in the picture he is learning the correct way to make a left turn. He did well, only thing he was unable to do is let go of the the handle to signal left. One thing is that the chopper style bicycle is hard to handle and second he is only 5, so multi-tasking is still quite a hard thing to do. While he was participating, I went and registered us and receive a reusable shopping bag and some information.

 We were starting to get hungry, so we bought a bag of Kettle Korn and decided to see what they had to offer. First we signed up for a chance to win a compost bin and then went and did a couple of children’s activities. Using a cookie cutter shaped like a train, some wet shredded newspaper, and some native flower seeds, little man made a neat seed cake. He first took the cookie cutter and filled the bottom with the wet newspaper. He then sprinkled seeds on top of the newspaper and then covered the seeds with another layer of newspaper. He then took a sponge and soaked the cake, after which was placed in a bag to take home with instructions to take it out of the bag to let completely dry. Once dry he was able to dig a hole and plant it. He also picked up a wildflower poster and a pamphlet about the seed he planted which is called Coreopsis or Tickseed.

The finished product of activity two using yarn, toilet paper roll, peanut butter and bird seeds. I have not seen anyone actually visit, but someone must be because there is some missing at the top. Upon completing this activity we then went to look at the vendors and informational areas. We did not go to the workshops because we had other plans for the evening and needed to get home. There were some really good booths and we got a whole load of goodies.

Little Man's goodies: pencils, tattoo, shopping bag

Hubby’s and mine shirts, seeds, information

Some of the highlights were:

• We tried goat meat for the first time. It was really good, but at $6 a pound we were unable to afford any.
• We met a pelican that had been rescued and now served as a surrogate for other rescued pelican babies.
• I got pinched by a crab…I was told that I had been the only one brave enough to stick my hand in the tank…I starting to think brave wasn’t the correct word.
• We met a gentleman who has been car free for about 13 years now. Through him we learned about a community bike shop in Tallahassee that we are planning to visit soon.

We enjoyed ourselves and are on the right track to using our cloth bags for purchases instead of plastic bags. Hopefully, next year we will have more time and will be able to attend some of the workshops.

Splitting Wood

I like to grill out using real wood instead of charcoal.  Not only is it cheaper that way, as I can almost always find wood for free, but I think the food tastes better, and cooking with wood appeals to my outdoorsy side.  I really don’t have the money for a dedicated wood splitter, so I use an old axe head and a large hammer.I first tap the head in just enough to stay, making sure I go with the grain.I then begin hammering in earnest.  Wish I had a bigger hammer, but this one does a respectable job.  First time I did this, it did not appear I was making progress, but then I heard crackling deep inside the wood, and before I knew it, there was two pieces on the ground and the axe head between them.This piece decided to be stubborn,so, I used the handle from the broken axe to drive the head further in.I got it far enough down to pull the pieces apart by hand and retrieve the axe head.  This method works for as many times as you want to split the same pieces, although the smaller you get them, the harder it is for them to stand up on their own.

Grocery Run

This is the headlamp I am currently using on the Beast.  A little aggravating to attach and aim, but definitely bright enough to see by.This lamp came with a Rigid 18v drill and sawzall set I purchased from Home Depot back when I was doing alot of A/C installs and duct work.  It has been very handy, especially for home projects that go longer than expected and are finished in the dark.  The hand towel keeps the light from moving around over bumps and also aims it.  I put more folds in the back than front to get the beam on the ground several yards in front of me.  The battery has a 2 hour run time, and charges within 30 or so minutes.  One thing I don’t like about this lamp is that the batteries have to be run down in order to recharge, and the quality of light is good right up until it peters-out, so I have to carry a spare battery with me if I go out at night.  There is a Lithium Ion battery available now, but I have other things needing purchase right now, so it’s on my to-buy list.I decided to go to Mal Wart this evening to purchase some groceries, so I thought I would show a typical haul.  I hadn’t anticipated it, but this photo also shows the reflective signal arrows I sewed to the backs of my riding gloves.  Those are kevlar work gloves, normally used by meat cutters and sheetmetal workers.  They have rubber nubs that are grippy, breath well, have all the abrasion resistance I could need, and are durable, going on their second season (first season was commuting on the scooter).  I have tried a number of cycling and motorcycling-specific gloves over the years, and have found most of them wanting in the area of durability.  Such gloves just seem to be made of too thin materials and thread.  Two gallons of milk, chips, banannas, and a half-gallon of ice cream.  This is typical for me.  We generally get small quantities at a time.  After looking at this picture, I realized that I really should purchase some reusable shopping bags.  Sure, we use the plastic bags for all kinds of things and also bring them back to the store for recycling, but it would be better to not use them in the first place.  Also on my to-purchase list…

Ant Killers

Meet Te’ (chay, Irish for hot), our Red Sex Link pullet and chief pest control officer.   Te’ Te’ really likes ants.  She gobbles them right up, whether they are fire ants or not.  Lives up to her name, no?We have used many methods for ant removal, some environmentally sound, most not.  We hit on this idea when we were raising our first batch of pullets.  We would bring them out in the yard on nice days and put all of them in this cage, which we call a tractor because it’s movable and there’s no bottum to it.  They absolutely loved being outside and being able to scratch the ground, but they even more loved it when they could catch insects.  We decided to try putting them over an ant hill, and they tore that thing up. It doesn’t take much scratching over a hole from a chicken or several of them, and the ants decide to move elsewhere.  We are only too happy to use chickens as ant control, as we are opposed to using pesticides and chemicals on our lawn.  Te’ isn’t the only one who gets to have all the fun, she’s just the most fond of ants.  Here, Buffy and Mercedes, Buff Orpinton hens, go to town on the ants in our driveway.  Chickens are very good weed control officers, also.  That will be in a later post.