Natural Pest Control

A natural pepper spray to deter animals and, it is reported, two-spotted spider mites and other insects.

1. puree two chile peppers (the hotter, the better) & some water in a blender
2. strain out solids
3. add water to make 1 gallon

Mix 1/4 cup of concentrate per gallon of fresh water in a sprayer. Add one tablespoon of liquid soap to help spray stick to your plants.

From Organic Gardening magazine, 2007, v. 54, No. 6

Solar Decathlon

Every other year, twenty universities from around the world compete in the solar decathlon in (surprise!) 10 categories

• Architecture
• Engineering
• Market Viability
• Communications
• Comfort Zone
• Appliances
• Hot Water
• Lighting
• Energy Balance and
• Getting Around

the homes are limited to 800 sq. ft., for transport by truck or shipping container and, while designed for grid-tied electricity, are built off-grid on the Mall.

I've created a couple of video tours:

Introduction (win 2:12)
House by House (win 23:45)

Introduction (apple 2:12)
House by House (apple 23:45)


If you have a slow connection, right click the link, select "Save Target As", and play from the downloaded file later.
--

Dump the Junk, Save a Tree

The average American receives 41 pounds of unsolicited mail each year, mostly junk mail. It's not just annoying but bad for the ecosystem. That 41 pounds per year represents:

• more energy in production, delivery and landfill costs than 2.8 million cars do.
• requires 100 million trees to supply the paper
• bulk up landfills (44% of the junk is never even opened)
• wastes your time sorting and recycling
• costs you a lot of money, if you buy something you don't need.

You can help stop most of it from ever finding its way to your mailbox:

• www.DMAConsumer.org ($1 fee, but contacts the majority of the Direct Marketing companies)
• www.OptOutPrescreen.com (targets credit card and insurance companies)
• when buying online, be sure to check the box that DOES NOT mailings to your house.
• support Junk Mail legislation that allows all people to opt out ( www.NewDream.org/JunkMail ).

From Natural Home Magazine

Don't Bug Me

The federal Do Not Call list expires next year, www.dontcall.gov or 1-888-382-1222

The Good Citizen Dog Walker Kit

After Sydney's sorta bad black and tan adventure, I thought I'd share my dog walking kit (click image to enlarge):

• cell phone with camera
• Bags on Board container (15 ct. per roll) emergency poop bag
• Gerber lock blade pocket knife # 05842 has belt clip and opens with one hand
• HeatWave 17% pepper spray with UV marker (for ID later by police) & leather carrier
  
• 1 aluminum carabiner, for belt (never a belt loop) to hold extra bags and pepper spray as well as to tether dog to waist
• 1 aluminum spare carabiner, to tether dogs to fence or post
• 6' leash and chain collar, makes a pretty stinging weapon if the dogs are off leash. Also, it's difficult for the dogs to slip their collars when excited
• plastic shopping bags, 5 per trip out. Recycle those bags and save the expensive emergency bags (If you're not picking up your dog poop on a walk, you're a bad, bad owner).
  

Green Festival Comes to DC, 6-7 October

Sustainable Economy | Ecological Balance | Social Justice

At the Washington Convention Center map

• $15 / Day (discounts available--see site)
• 400 booths and exhibits
• 150 speakers
• 8 pavilions
  

This event has the expected organic and farming booths, natural health, etc. But several categories and events caught my eye:

• Green Building (11 booths)
  
• Green Careers and Education (11 booths)
• Renewable Energy (9 booths)
• Socially Responsible Investing (3 booths)
• New Green Businesses (2 booths)
• Green Pets (3 booths)
• Building Green Economy (Sat 4 pm)
• Jim Hightower (just because he's a hoot, Sunday 3 pm)

Green Home Series (40-min. each, continuously both days)

• Energy-Efficient Lighting
• Living with Solar
• Solar Hot Water & Photovoltaics
• Is Your Home a Hummer?
  
• Top 10 Steps to Green Remodling
• Planning a Self-Sufficient Solar Home
• You and Your Employer Going Green Together

Green Careers

• Landing Your Dream Green Job
• Green Multimedia
• Possibilities in Green Government
• Careers in Alternative Transportation

So, if you're in the DC area, you might be interested in spending a day or two at the convention center.

Click-N-Ship

One of the best kept secrets in the government is the new USPS Click-N-Ship services. Advantages are listed below, and USPS offers a lot of shipping materials for FREE!

So if you love to hate the "backwards" U.S. Post Office, it's time for you to give it another look. That's particularly true if you, your small business, or home business are shipping small to medium sized packages on a regular basis.

The USPS's new online system, Click-N-Ship, offers these features:

• No Stamps--print professional looking barcoded shipping labels WITH paid postage on your inkjet or laser printer
• No Standing in Line--FREE USPS residential or business carrier pick-up, scheduled online (for unattended pick-up, just tell the carrier online where to find the package-- e.g. front porch under chair, watch out for spider) For added security, you may also drop your package in any mailbox or at any post office
  
• print barcoded mailing labels using plain paper (tape to package) or buy custom USPS self-adhesive labels online
  
• pay online using secure credit card processing technology
• pay cash--if you don't pay by credit card you can print the label and then deliver the package and label to a post office to pay cash
  
• buy additional parcel insurance online or request delivery signature confirmation
  
• multiple mailing options presented online and their costs. Just select the one that suits your needs.
  
• FREE online address book for routine correspondents (with USPS database generated address and zip code checking, correcting and formatting for machine scanning)
  
• FREE online package tracking and shipping history
  
• FREE e-mail notification of shipping (to recipient) and delivery (for you)
  
• FREE USPS Priority/Express Mail boxes, envelopes, and tubes delivered to your house
  
• FREE USPS Express and Priority Mail stickers and tape
  
• Flate Rate envelopes and boxes will ship up to 70 pounds for a single rate
• e-mail receipt for every charge to your credit card
• Batch Orders, print several shipping labels at a time, and have only one credit card charge for the batch
  

Of course, you can use your own boxes, but the USPS boxes give your merchandise a very professional look that your customers will notice. Order FREE and for fee items online here: USPS Store.

You don't need an official USPS scale, but you will need a fairly accurate scale of some sort. If you don't have an accurate scale, you can purchase an electronic USPS scale for very little--NOTE: under postage packages will be either returned for more postage or delivered postage due, depending on the amount underpaid. Neither makes your operation appear professional to your customer, so accuracy is important to avoid embarrassment.

There are a few downsides, but not many:

• if you elect unattended pick-up, you are responsible for the package until the postal delivery folks actually have the package in their hands (they'll leave a hand receipt in your post box)
  
• this service is for domestic deliveries, mostly. There is little support for international deliveries, where the rules are much different
  
• I screwed up and forgot my USPS account password and couldn't, after several requests, have the problem resolved on-line. I ended up creating a new account under my wife's name

So give Click-N-Ship a try. I found it most competitive when compared against the prices of UPS and FedEx. The FREE (did I mention most of the boxes and envelopes were FREE?) shipping materials helped make it cost effective and easy to use.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Whole House Fans

Whole House Fans are:

• inexpensive to buy ($150-250)
• energy saving (we saved $158.63 during the first spring of operation. Payback less than one year)
  
• easy to install
• cool well
• allow you to direct cooling breezes throughout the house
  
• significantly reduce energy bills
• add to feeling of being a part of nature
• Utility Company Rebates (google "whole house fan" rebate )
  

September marks the end of the hot, muggy and windless Chesapeake summers and the beginning of our wonderful and quite long fall season here in the mid-Atlantic, a perfect time to turn off that energy hogging AC and open those windows for night time cooling.

Our single story ranch, however, is difficult to cool using the natural passive "cooling chimney" techniques available to two-story home owners. That's why I installed a Whole House Fan last winter to reduce our home cooling bills during the long spring and fall months (see Energy Usage chart at left to compare March-July 2006 to 2007 after the fan was installed).

Normally installed in the ceiling of a hallway, these fans and automatic louvers come in two models: direct drive and belt drive, and in two sizes: 24x24 inch and 30x30 inch. Cost starts under $200 at the home improvement stores. Installation only takes an hour or two, depending on your abilities, but is well within the do-it-yourselfer's skills.

While some models require the homeowner to cut a ceiling joist to box in the fan, at least one brand (Air Vent) has bracket hardware to allow the fan to sit atop the joist. The installer then fits stiff cardboard (included) between the fan box and the ceiling below to seal the air flow. (note: click image to enlarge and inspect the bracket placement on top of joist and staples holding the cardboard in place to seal airflow. Not shown: I scored the cardboard on one side and folded it into an "L" shape, and then stapled the short leg of the "L" to the ceiling and the long side to the fan box.)

All that remains is to wire the motor for regular household current (120 volts), cut the sheet rock inlet hole, and install the automatic louvers. This particular fan is controlled by a pull chain and has two speeds, but wall mount controllers are available.

To begin enjoying the joys of your cooler seasons, turn on the whole house fan, open windows in living areas or bedrooms to control air flow. If we only open windows on the shaded side of our home, we are usually comfortable inside the house using the whole house fan alone in temperatures up to 85 degrees.


Considerations:

• before you cut into your ceiling, be sure you have enough attic room above the fan (the attic space above my hallways was blocked where roof supports joined the ceiling joists)
  
• direct drive fans are reported to be somewhat more noisy than belt drive fans. However, direct drive fans are not prone to the belt noise of some belt driven fans.
  
• if you are not comfortable with 120 volt connections, hire an electrician for this part
  
• a 30x30 inch whole house fan operating on high requires about 7 sq. feet of exhaust vent from your attic. You may have to add a bit of exterior venting in the form of passive gable or rooftop vents. Don't forget to calculate in the area of soffit vents under the eaves and ridgeline vents on the roof, if you have them. (Note: for exit vent calculations, screening over vents reduces air flow by about half the area). Ignore this warning and you may blow down a weak section of ceiling when you over-pressurize the attic--I did, fortunately it was in the garage and easy to repair.
  

A bit odd, but it works:

I mentioned that whole house fans are usually installed in hallways, but we couldn't find a place inside the house where it was easy to get to from above and below. So we installed our whole house fan in the attached garage. Of course, the connecting door has to be open between the house and the garage for the fan to work.

Advantages of installing in the garage:

• less noisy
• usually no itchy blown-in insulation over the garage to fool with
  
• with AC on and the house buttoned up, the whole house fan vents and cools the garage while I'm working on a project
• removes paint and varnish fumes from garage
  
• removes heat from parked cars and vents it out the attic
  
• with AC on in the house and the garage bay door open, the whole house fan will force super heated air out of the attic and replace it with cooler air from the garage, reducing the load on my AC system (my ducting is in the attic).
  

Disadvantages of installing in the garage:

• door open between garage and house. We use a pet gate to keep the dogs in the house and out of dangerous substances in the garage.
  
• mice can crawl into the house through the pet gate (this has not happened yet, and in any event, our three cairn terriers would count a mouse in the house as a bonus, not a disadvantage. The seem to recognize this and sleep in shifts watching the gate at night, hopeful for a critter incursion)

We love laying in bed together on a cool fall night, snuggled together under our comforter. We listen to the splashy fountain outside our window and the nocturnal sounds of nature being drawn into our bedroom on the breeze from our whole house fan.

Sock'em

I was sitting in an early morning breakfast meeting with a potential client, noshing pastries around one of those itty-bitty glass cocktail tables in the hotel lobby, when I looked down at my ankle crossed over my knee.

I was embarrassed to see at least 3-inches of my somewhat hairy but all too fish-belly-white calf shining out beyond the cuff, the sock gathered around my ankle like an old snake skin. I don't know if the client noticed, but I sure felt self conscious and awkward for the rest of the meeting. To make things only slightly worse, when I glanced down at the other foot I realized that I had dressed with one short blue sock and one medium length black.

Cheap socks in a $400 suit ruined the image I was trying to project and ruined my presentation because I became self conscious.

I didn't get the work, but I did fix the problem. I went home and took stock of my sock collection:

• 24 pair of socks + 5 socks with no matching mate
• short black socks
• short brown socks
• short blue socks
• long over the calf beige socks
• medium black socks
• medium brown socks
• one pair Argyle socks
  
• one pair Christmas novelty socks

(I didn't count the white athletic socks or the white footlets that go with my--euphemistically named--"running" shoes.)

This is crazy, I thought. Who cares what kind of socks a 54 year old guy wears as long as you don't have to look at his calves?

So I took all the "dress" socks, put them in a bag, put the bag in the car and drove to J.C. Penney's where I bought eight 3-pair packages of reinforced toe and heal, over-the-calf, basic black ribbed socks.

Splurge a bit and get the the cotton/stretch nylon/spandex blend for long life and calf hugging abilities (cheap socks will eventually stretch out and fall down, so buy quality:
It's the cheap man who pays the most

• No more pairing socks after laundry
• No more matching colors
• No more matching styles
• No more pulling up short socks
• No more exposed fish-belly white calves
• No more sock problems, period

Look at the socks on the next homeless guy you see, odds are they're too short and miss-matched because I dropped that bag of old socks off at the Salvation Army drop box on the way home

Life's too short to worry about socks.

Natural Round-Up

natural round-up from Mother Earth News

1 qt vinegar
2 TBLS canola oil
1 TBLS dish soap

Put in sprayer

Organic Insecticidal Soap

Natural Insecticide Soap from Mother Earth News


1" Fels-Naptha Soap
1 qt water
Boil to dissolve; put in lidded jar

1 tbl mixture : 1 qt water
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol

Put in sprayer