Instant Rain Update

I'm sure you're all dying to hear the numbers, so here they are.

Hilo airport recorded 1.16" of rain in the last 48 hours, and here at home my super hi-tech rain gauge (it's real nice, I got it on sale for $2) read just a sliver under 2".

I know what you're saying. You're saying, "Cameron! Two days worth of rain data is clearly enough to determine that you get almost twice as much rain as Hilo does." And I agree. But I'm going to keep collecting data for my own amusement, and for use on the farm. I will, however, cease boring you with the updates.

And now, here's a picture of something.

Hilo: Where Rain Reigns

About three weeks after I got here, Kalewa and I were in town and saw a car with a bumper sticker which I basically paraphrased as the title of this post. And it's no joke. It has rained here a lot. Now, I'm aware of all of the usual agruements, including but not limited to:

"You're from Colorado, which is technically a desert, so any rain will seem like a lot of rain."

"You knew it was rainy before you moved here."

"The rain is just God crying becase you make him sad."

and the ever-popular:

"Everyone knows that condensation occurs on the windward side of an island because the rising air cools by adiabatic expansion, so the air becomes saturated and the water vapor condenses, thus forming precipitation."

Yeah yeah yeah. Enough with your superstitions!

Still, everyone here up the road has said that it has been an unusally rainy year. And the numbers support them. The weather station at the Hilo Airport had recorded nearly 60" of rain in 2009 by the end of April, which is almost a third again more than the usual 45.5" for that time of year. Add that to the fact that there are not many sunny days here on the farm where I look down on a rainy Hilo, but there have been several rainy days here when Hilo is nice and sunny. Per the numbers, Hilo has only had another 7" of rain since the end of April, but I'm guessing we had 7" of rain here in just the last three weeks.

"That's a lot of guessing," I can hear you saying already, so I decided to set up my rain guage again, and to start keeping track. I bought it a few months ago, but stopped using it when, without fail, every time I checked it it was overflowing it's 5" guage capacity. I think now that the rain has slowed some, I should have a better chance of staying on top of it.

Funny though....it was raining again this morning, and then off and on through midday, but as soon as I put that stupid rain guage out there, I could almost hear the squeaky spigot as God turned off the rain, as if to say "How dare you quantify my good works! I'll show you!" but I guess the Big Cheese is over it, because I can hear the pitter-patter of raindrops on the yurt roof as I'm typing.

And no, I'm not complaining about the rain. I still really enjoy it. But I think some numbers about how much rain we're getting would be handy.

Anyway, here are some pictures I've taken since of been here that are kinda rain oriented. Enjoy.

End of an Era

Today Joe Sakic announced his retirement from the NHL at the age of 40.

For a complete, actually professional story, see this link.

For me, though, it marks the end of the Colorado Avalanche "Chapter One." Sure, for some people that chapter may have ended when Deadmarsh, Forsberg, Roy, or some other player left the team. For others, it may have been at the end of the 11th season in Colorado when the Avs failed to win the Division (and, if I recall correctly, even missed the playoffs). But for me the Colorado Avalanche has always centered around it's leader and captain, #19. Well, that and the guy on the third level who used to pour Matt and I these amazing gin and tonics that were 99.9% gin, and a squeeze of lime. That guy was pretty inspirational too.

But as far as "on the ice" goes.....although the g-and-t's had ice too.....

Ok.... as far as anything with skates goes, the Avalanche has always had Joe at the heart of the team since they moved to Colorado in 1995. In fact, the only hockey sweater I own is a #19 Joe Sakic.

Super Joe, you will be missed.

Note: One important stat left out of the linked article. Joe holds the all-time NHL record for most playoff overtime goals at 8. The next closest (shared by Drury, Jagr, Roenick, Lagenbrunner, Muller and Murphy) is 4.

To conclude, I'm adding some clips of great Joe Sakic moments (my favorite is the rare fight, announced my Mike Haynes)

This one really shows of that crazy-quick wrist shot

And for those of you who are confused because you were searching for Sinan Sakic, here's a rockin' video for you as well. (I'm really intrigued by the boys at 0:09 to 0:12 - it's reminicent of the girls in Elvis concert footage.....only they were girls swooning or whatever. What are these guys so excited about?)

Several Small Items

Well, look who finally got off of his butt and decided to write a new blog entry! (Of course I'm referring to Kilzer's up-and-coming "My Detailed Description of my Great Visit to Moab (complete with photos and drunken videos)") And since that epic tome is on it's way, I thought I should do some catching up as well.

I've got a few blogs started, but I've been waiting for the right photos to post with them (we all like those pretty colors). Nonetheless, I've been slacking in my blogging duties, although with good reason (in my mind, they're good, but I've talked myself out of them). First of all, we've had a run of good weather lately, so I've either been working on the farm or playing in the ocean during the days. We've got a lot of pineapple to plant still, but we also had a summer swell that made for some really great waves (and by "great", I mean "they kicked my butt all over the place"). Finding a balance hasn't been difficult, though, because any time in the ocean is time well spent, and some days you're just too beat up or sore to even consider going to the beach, so work really sounds like a pleasant break from the abuse. Back to the blog-slacking though, no matter what the day's activities, I'm always really worn out and have very little energy in the evening.

"So why don't you blog anyway? It doesn't take that much energy to type!" (that's what I can hear everyone thinking right now, because I know you all wait with bated breath for my every word - ha ha ha) Well, the truth is, I found a bit of an escape though Netflix. I've fired the account back up, and while the DVDs are good, I've lately become sucked into the instant online viewing feature. It doesn't have all of the best movies ever, but it can be really handy. For example, last week Skye and I watched "Mad Max," which I own. I've always dug that movie. Afterwards, though, I really wanted to watch the other two in the series. And wouldn't you know it? Both "The Road Warrior" and "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" were available to watch online. And yes, I did spend the entire next day saying either "Two men enter, one man leaves," or "Bust a deal, face the wheel" or "Master Blaster runs Bartertown!" I'm sure it was hell for everyone involved, and I should have just written a blog instead of melting my brain with post-apocalyptic pre-Braveheart Mel Gibson drivel.

Another overtone to my blog-crastination is my complete and total lack of anything to say which would or should have any value to anyone else. I've been following some blogs, from FBIBlogs and from other places, and the main thread is that these people have a lot to say about things they're really passionate about. Things with meaning. Politics, the local economy, current films, etc. And here I am, with gems like "I'm gardening!" and "Oooo Spinal Tap!" But that's just how I roll. I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.

But I've gotten over all of that. I'm done worrying about it, and I'm done slacking off (only because Netflix doesn't have Season 2 of The IT Crowd available for online viewing). So I've decided to share a few things with you today that aren't quite important to make a whole blog entry about, but are worth mentioning (as far as anything I have to say is):

"we could go for a walk and you could kiss me on the..."

That's right... I've built a "veranda" (don't worry....no one else got the Three Amigos reference either). And to be fair, I haven't built a veranda at all, because as we all know, a veranda is a large, open porch, usually roofed and partly enclosed, as by a railing, often extending across the front and sides of a house. And what I've built is a small porch off of the back door out of palettes and scrap lumber laying around the yard, and then covered it with a tarp held up by some thick bamboo. It's a little flappy on top yet, but I think this evening I'm going to try and get my hands on some long, thin, flexible bamboo and make a kind of support like a dome tent pole to help hold the back of the thing up. If that works out, I'll post some photos. Still, it's a nice place to sit, out of the sun, and, more importantly, it's a porch I can pee off of and not get rained on. :)

Freakbook is at it again....

That's right. You heard me. Facebook has pissed me off yet again, even though I don't really use it.

Stupid Facebook....

I've been kicking around the idea of reviving my old website: cameronwalter.com It's like the Six Million Dollar Website - I can rebuild it......I have the technology. At least until Facebook messed it all up a couple of weeks ago.

Stupid Facebook.....

I had this great idea to create a site that was more interactive than the original, boring cameronwalter.com (that one was all black and white...the new one would be white and black..WITH some gray!). I figured it'd be like a mix between a blog and an RSS reader and a forum like the board we all used to like years and years ago. One of the elements would be a real-time update of everyone's status, like updates from my blog, as well as Kilzer's and Jo's, twitter updates from Dan and myself, and Facebook status updates from those folks who use that, being Jen and Kilzer (since he'd rather post there than on his blog :P ) All was well and good, until about two weeks ago when Facebook pulled the RSS feed option (basically a way to post that info to another website or reader program) from it's site on the grounds that it's a breach of their privacy policy. Ok... fine. I kinda get that. But what's really strange is that they've pulled the option for RSS feeds, but they haven't stopped making the feeds. They still give feed access to application developers (aka: people trying to figure out how to use your info to present you with the best possible advertising). So the logic is it's a breach of privacy for people who know you to use your status updates, but it's not for people you don't know to try and sell you something.

Stupid Facebook.....

On the flip-side, they'll still let you add other feeds to Facebook. For example, Kilzer could add a feed to his Facebook page, so that every time he writes something on his blog, it shows up on Facebook. But now it's a one way street only. Adding to Facebook is fine, but taking from Facebook is not fine.

Stupid Facebook.....

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a fan of Facebook. I see the appeal and the utility to a point, but...well...let's just say there are things I don't like about it *self-editing to not offend any one*. So I thought I had the problem all solved so that I could see Kilzer and Jen's status updates without having to log on to Facebook and wade through the mire of...well.... stuff...that's there.... and all.... with the what-have-you and the whoozawhatsit. *more self-editing, to not offend my mother or younger readers* But whatever. For now, the website and and it's wonderful goodness is on hold until I figure out something else that excites me as much as my last idea did (until stupid Facebook killed it). And all I've got to hold on to, the only light at the end of the tunnel, is that word on the virtual street is that Facebook is on its way out, even if it's not in its death throes just yet.

That's enough for today.

(jeez, I'm long-winded for a guy who has nothing to say)

This Blog Goes to Eleven!

Dang! How did I miss this?!? SPINAL TAP is playing the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien tonight! Apparently, they've found someone to brave the drum kit for them (from which he'll certainly catch a bad case of rabbit flu and die instantly or something) and tonight they're going to rock it (tonight they're going to rock it) tonight they're going to rock it TONIGHT!

And this brings us to a crazy quirk of time and space.

I find this out too late to inform any of my friends back home, and early enough for me to wonder what time that show is on here, look it up, and then remember that I don't have a TV anyway, and then impatiently wait for a video of it to pop up on the internet sometime tomorrow.

*sigh*
To quote David St. Hubbins, "Well, I'm sure I'd feel much worse if I weren't under such heavy sedation."

I'm a Twit...er.............er

That's right. Any of you use Twitter? I never really saw much point in dealing with it, given the short post length, and kinda chaotic interface. Then I heard about the role it's been playing globally, and more specifically lately in Iran. Frankly, I find that amazing. Granted, the linked article is certainly more commentary than fact, and there's a lot of speculation as to exactly how much of a role Twitter played in uniting people in Iran, but the concept is so very very intriguing.

So I had to sign up to see what it's all about. To be honest, I've got all kinds of suspicions (in the neighborhood of 14) that this is going to be a short-lived experiment. It appears that it's basically the format of the update/comment section of Facebook or MySpace, beefed up to be more public and available for anyone to see.

Since I'm the type that doesn't feel the need to tell everyone I know what I'm doing or thinking at every moment of the day (but instead prefer to save it all up for one long diatribe a week, complete with photos, dialog, and bad puns), it's difficult for me to wrap my mind around how this will be a good thing for me.



Although maybe it's not all bad...... :)

So if you tweet, and wanna meet, take a seat and tweet tout de suite. @cam3ron42

The Revolution may (but probably won't) be Twittered.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I know, I know, you're reading that title thinking this is going to be a post about Better Than Ezra. While I do enjoy their music, and I think that particular album was very good (although not many people have ever heard of it), this post is actually about my garden.

I say "my" garden, but of course it's the garden that Kalewa, Kaleo and I have started and are currently working on. Although I've already talked on the phone with most of the people who will actually care about this, I figure this is a good way to add some photos to the discussion, as well as keep track of things that work for us, and things that don't. Also, I hope that through comments, and other blogs (namely Jo's and the one Jen's going to start up about her garden *hint hint*) we can create an ongoing conversation that will benefit us all.

That's what I hope for. In reality, I figure this is going to be the "before" post of the garden, followed sometime this fall with the "after" post.

Let me start off by saying that I'm a novice gardener at best. I planted some flower last year at the house in Ft. Collins, and they did pretty well, for the most part. I also tilled and amended the soil for a portion of the yard that Liz used as a garden last summer, but as we both got busy, the garden may have been a little neglected. So with this process, I'm learning. I feel I know the basics, but as the devil is in the details, I realize that I have a lot to learn.

I know there are a nearly infinite number of resources out there, either through books or the internet or neighbors or friends, that are full of advice for general or specific issues. I've read some stuff, and talked with some people, and I figure I'm just going to throw out what we're doing here for people to see.

To begin, we decided to go with supported raised beds.

We built 5'x12'x8" boxes out of Hardy siding boards. While this material is evil to cut, it will be safe for the plants, and it'll last for decades. We tilled the soil under the beds, added the boxes, and then filled the beds with more loose soil, some black cinder, and some leaf mulch. As you can see from the photos, we built four of these beds to start with. For now, we're only using one of them as a vegetable/herb garden. The other three are for when we're feeling more confident that we'll be able to manage more beds. For the bed we planted veggies and herbs in, we also added a bit of chicken manure to help kick-start the beds with a little fertilizer. We mixed everything together, and then let the beds sit for a few days.

Prior to this, I'd started some herbs up in trays with a cinder and promix mixture.

This was a mistake. Next time I'll start them in separate pots, or in trays that have the separate cells for each plant. When planting time came, it was very difficult to separate the individual plants out. I was very worried about transplant shock. Also, I think for some of the herbs, I may have transplanted them too early. But, as the other plants were ready, the soil they were in was disturbed, and I felt I had to transplant them too. Other than the thyme (which I'm faithful will come along soon enough), everything seems to be doing ok now. Still....lesson learned.

So what we started with was two kinds of basil, thyme, parsley, dill, pole beans, some green onions we grew from some some we had cut to use in the kitchen, a couple of carrots (salvaged the same way as the onions),and a couple of sunflowers. We also planted some flower seeds along the edges of the bed. After everything was planted, we put a straw mulch down on the beds to help preserve the moisture in the soil, and hopefully keep the birds and such from eating any seeds.

The same day we planted in the bed, I started some tomatoes, hot peppers, bell peppers, squash, and eggplant in some starter pots. They've sprouted (mostly) and I think I'll be putting them into the garden in the next two to three weeks.

Two days ago, I direct planted some broccoli, chard, collards, spinach, and lettuce seeds. Those should be starting to come up this week. I also started some other flowers in some starter pots, as well as a tray of salad mix lettuce. I'm hoping to plant all of them in the garden at about the same time as the tomatoes and peppers.

So what about the other three beds? Well, we put down "green manures", or plants that are quick to grow and will aerate the soil, and we're going to chop them down before they seed and simply work the whole plant back into the soil, where it will add nutrients and organic material for future plants.

Lessons I've learned so far:

• Plant in separate cells (already discussed)
  
• When you buy straw, it's not just straw. It's also got straw seeds in there. Had to pull all of that out by hand. On the upside, we're thinking that now maybe we can grow our own straw instead of having to buy it.
  
• Some seeds can be left in an oven that's preheating to 350 degrees in order to bake a rhubarb crunch, and most of those seeds will still be (amazingly enough) viable.
  
• A potato rake is a super handy tool for mixing in leaf mulch.
  
• You don't need a sprinkler system in Hilo. (I'm guessing I'll learn later that it's more important to find a way to keep some of the rain off of some of the plants)
  
• Those beach balls hanging in the air around the garden? They do a GREAT job of scaring away the birds......for about three days (cardinals, especially). Then they're just gaudy decorations.
  
• Jen needs to start a blog about her garden.

That's all for now. More to come later.