Part One: Going Vegan? Already One? There's an App for That!

First I will lay out the back story and the rules for this idea. To avoid making this post too long, I am splitting this experiment into several parts. I recently posted a blog entry about vegan Halloween candy and received many comments. A commenter mentioned that they would like to see a blog entry about the app that tells a person what is and isn't vegan. So I took the challenge and got on my iPhone.

I should warn anyone who hasn't already done this that just typing the word "vegan" into the search bar in the app store gets you 170 results. Many of the apps that come up after typing "vegan" are not even relevant to the subject, but isn't that true of many things you search for in the app store?

My rules were simple. I only looked at apps that seemed the most useful at a glance. I would gloss the description or base my decision solely off the title. I did not look at ratings or the number of stars an app received since I would be rating them myself. I went down the list until I got to a place where very few of the apps had anything to do with my intended goal.

Orcish Librarian was the first app that hinted I'd gone too far. As soon as I saw the title Animal Kill Counter, I quit looking.

Here are a couple of statistics and factoids that I found in my search:

• Ten of the first 25 apps are vegan/vegetarian recipe apps.
• Five of the first 25 apps are vegan/vegetarian restaurant finders.
• PETA has an app that pushes their ridiculous agenda right to your iPhone every day!
• There are three apps under the vegan search that run $9.99. The most I paid was $3.99 for Food Additives 2, one of the apps I was originally looking for.
• One of my favorite vegan cookbooks is for sale in its entirety for only $7.99.

My next installment will have my top rated apps and the final chapter of the trilogy will have the apps I found to be most useless or insulting to me as a vegan.

A new vocab word

I recently found an interesting article on this blog. The word "permaculture" came up and, of course, it made me a little more than curious. I suppose this is what I am striving for, even though I never knew there was a word for it. The idea that we all need to build structures and agricultural systems that are based on nature. When you look at the way America grows its food and builds its cities, there is very little "natural" influence. It's almost as if we are trying to ignore nature because of its asymmetry or chaotic habits.

Asymmetry and chaos are the reasons I love the natural world! Check out the post and let me know what you think.

P.S. I hate wikipedia because it is impossible to verify the factual content of the information, but it is often the easiest place to find great info...its a paradox.

A new direction...

  I haven't done very well keeping up with this blog since the Summer ended. Hell, I didn't do that great of a job while the Summer was still here! I intend on rectifying this issue.

  Since I cannot garden in Michigan during the next 7 months, I will be updating with good and bad vegan recipes that I will be attempting during the Holidays as well as the rest of the Winter. I'm not set up to can anything quite yet, but I have been doing a bit of baking and even more cooking lately. I also started blogging for the Ferndale Patch website and my latest blog there dealt mainly with veganism and technology. I will post the three part series here following this update.

  I recently tried a new recipe from Vegan Yum Yum that turned out great! They were vegan pumpkin whoopie pies and, while I normally am skeptical of new vegan recipes, these were a breeze and they turned out exactly how they should have, delicious!

  I am adding the blog link to my favorites in the side bar, so go to the source for the recipe. Just know that I fully endorse it! Here is a picture of how mine came out:

From Food I Made

  I also uploaded a few other pictures of food I've recently made to the Food I Made album. I will include a recipe of my own soon!

Rain barrel #2, almost complete...

I had a bit of free time in the last few days so I was able to complete construction on the rain barrel stand for one of the two 58 gal. barrels I'm installing. I also was able to get the lid completed on this barrel and get the gutter attached properly to dump off into the barrel. My one big problem is that the spout is leaking. I think it is because the rubber washer I used on the outside of the barrel isn't sealing the hole properly. I will most likely have to get an O ring and metal washer assembly in place to make it stop. Here are a few pictures:

From Stuff I Made

From Stuff I Made

As you can see, I built a 2x4 base and topped it with some wolmanized plywood for the barrel to sit on. Since one gallon of water is 8 pounds and these barrels will hold approximately 58 gallons, I needed to build something sturdy enough to hold the 464 pounds that a full barrel will weigh. I think this stand should hold up. I plan on attaching another section with the same dimensions next to this one. The only difference will be that the second barrel will sit about 2 inches below the first for gravity to work. The stand that is currently there is 30 inches up and the platform is 21x21. Here is a picture of it close up:

From Stuff I Made

And here is what the lid looks like before the gravel goes in to slow the water flow and filter out large debris:

From Stuff I Made

You will notice that I am using black fiberglass screen to filter small debris and to keep insects out. When finished, the lid will be covered with stone and the top of the barrel will be just under the fenceline.

The blue garden barrel is the next one on the list. I need to install new gutter and downspout for that one so it will take a bit longer since I can't do that kind of thing myself easily.

The garden is getting crazy. I need to get in and intervene. The cucumber plants are beginning to shadow the peppers and kill them. The bean plants went out of control and are ruining the brussel sprouts. The one tomato plant that I bought has taken over the corner of the garden. I really need to take the power back! Here are a couple pictures:

From Food I Made

From Food I Made

From Food I Made

Pictures of rain barrel #1

Here are a couple of pictures of the first of 3 rain barrels I will install soon. This one is very unlike the others since my father gave me his old water softener tank to convert. After scrubbing it out, drilling some holes and assembling the accessories, it makes a pretty handsome conversion. I think I may buy a can of brown spray paint for it, but for now, it will do just fine as it is.

From Stuff I Made

I used a simple brass hose bib for the bottom and a 1/2-3/4 threaded coupler for the overflow on the top. This part took me about 15 minutes to assemble.

From Stuff I Made

Now I have to build the 2x4 stand it will sit on and install the gutter to fill it. My other 2 barrels are cleaned out and ready to be assembled but the shape of the barrel is causing me trouble. The bottom of the barrel is angled in such a way that the hose bib would point downward when I finish. If I try to put the spout higher on the barrel I won't be able to effectively empty it. I'm thinking about a few options and I will definitely update with the finished product when I decide what to do.