The goings on of our family.
Emerald Evergreen Tomato
Emerald Evergreen Tomatoes
Thai Pink Egg Tomatoes
We’re still waiting for the tomatoes to ripen. The Emerald Evergreen has quite a few now and they’re growing quickly. The Thai Pink Egg plants have bunches. Hopefully they’ll rippen soon!
Yesterday I noticed several more tomatoes had set on the emerald evergreen plants. Our porch is bursting with vegetation! Can’t wait until some of these tomatoes ripen.
Our Emerald Evergreen actually has a tomato now! Just the one so far that I’ve seen. I’ll be watching for more. The plant has grown large — too large for the space. We’ve tied it up but I think that’s not making the plants too happy. Of course they’re sending up new branches that are free from the twine. Oh well, I’ll give it a chance. I’d considered taking it out since it wasn’t producing anything.
The Thai Pink Egg tomato has lots of tomatoes on it. I’m looking forward to trying them once they ripen. Our remaining zucchini is filling out but otherwise hasn’t done much.
I’ve never owned a car. Kate did for a few years as a teenager, but gave it up when she went to college. Ordinarily we get around by the most pollution-free method available: walking. We walk to the store, work, movies, and just for the fun of it. On occasion we’ll catch a bus and once in a great while we’ve rented a car to take a vacation.
Recently, however, we’ve been wanting a car for several reasons. Many of them tied to homesteading. It didn’t seem likely that we’d be able to easily do the things we want without a vehicle. Transporting animals, tools, feed, etc., it starts to be more than we can comfortably do walking. Plus we want to be a bit further out of town because otherwise they don’t let you keep animals — at least not the scale we want.
But with a car comes more pollution and expense. Over at Path to Freedom they have been brewing biodiesel. That sounded like a good possibility. Then I read about Mother Earth News: An Amazing 75-MPG Hybrid Electric Car — back in 1979. A search turned up several follow-up articles as well. Basically they were talking about an electric car with an onboard gasoline or diesel engine and generator. I don’t really want to use gasoline but a diesel engine opens up the possibility of biodiesel or SVO. I started to get excited about the idea.
Then it occurred to me, why not supplement this system with solar panels. When I read Solo I was thrilled that he had solar panels. Of course his were rigid and I was interested in the flexible thin-film panels (which at the end of the book Perrin mentions the Solectria vehicles using the same idea). I need to do more research but it seems like most conversions don’t include solar panels. I’m not sure why at this point. There is a cost, of course, but I think it might be worthwhile.
After reading those articles and a bunch of others I also looked at several websites covering the conversion process. I started thinking more seriously about doing a conversion. Why not? We’re planning to build an off-grid house which is both more expensive and complicated. It seems to me that working on our transportation would be a good first step.
So the plan, as it stands now, is to convert a gas-powered vehicle into a hybrid biodiesel/SVO solar electric vehicle with regenerative braking. We’ve managed without a vehicle for a long time and even if the range were as limited as Solo (I hope to do better) it would still expand our range a great deal. In fact, as a hybrid it shouldn’t have a limit to the range. Although that may not be entirely accurate. The generator might, for example, be able to keep the vehicle going if the batteries were drained but perhaps not at freeway speeds.
Before this can happen there are a number of obstacles. The first is knowledge. I’ve read a bunch of articles and websites but I need more detailed information now. To that end I’ve ordered the three books in the side-bar. Once they arrive I’ll begin studying. If we’re still in the apartment when I start we’ll need to rent a garage. There’s a car auction nearby where I can pick up a donor vehicle inexpensively. There will also be tools that we need to purchase (investment for the future) and other skills to learn. Like welding.
As I work on this project I’ll update the blog. It’ll take time but we’ll get there.
Noel Perrin, Dartmouth college professor and farmer, decides to switch from his gas-guzzling truck to an electric car for his daily commute. Not being inclined to convert a vehicle himself he turns to Solar Electric to buy a car. This book tells his story as he takes “Solo” across the country from California to Vermont. Initially he’d planned to drive Solo across the country but soon learns that his plan isn’t going to work the way he thought. He ends up spending much of the time towing Solo behind a pickup. At each stop he’s able to take Solo out to explore the town. It’s an enjoyable book to read. Once back in Vermont he talks about how Solo works as a commuter car and looks at the pollution savings. Along the way he also talks about the history of electric cars.
I really like this book. There’s a newer edition from 1994 that’s supposed to update things a bit — but of course it’s ten years out of date now. I also discovered that Perrin has several books on farming starting with First Person Rural that I’d like to read one of these days. Most of the books seem to be out-of-print but are available used.
Largest zucchini yet
Yesterday we harvested the largest zucchini yet. 1 lb. 7.7 oz.! Usually we harvest them smaller but this one didn’t fit into the menu earlier and they grow so fast!
We also made a drastic change yesterday. The Earthbox with the Cocozella di Napoli and Early Prolific Straightneck squash was simply overgrown. Out of the box, across a huge section of the porch. It was cutting off our way out plus intruding onto the lawn. Not that the gardeners minded — they just plowed through anyway. We tried moving it back and that was fine but then sliding it forward was difficult to do because the leaves had gone down to the ground and would catch and break. Plus the squash were forming down on the concrete and were getting damaged if the box was moved. On top of that the first Napoli we planted had overgrown and smothered several of the other plants. That big zucchini came from the one Napoli that wasn’t squashed. 🙂
Short story: we took out most of the squash. The smaller Napoli that has been producing we kept but the rest came out. I’m going to try to see if we can get one more up and producing before the weather gets cool. The other produced so quickly that I think we might be able to have a second crop. As long as the remaining plant continues to do well I’ll keep it around.
The Emerald Evergreens have the same problem as the squash box. They were overgrowing out towards the lawn despite our efforts to tie them up. We really need a cage or more room to let them go. We always used cages when I was growing up. Maybe next year. We tried untying them and then retying the plants back up but I don’t know how well it’ll work. I’ll give them some more time to set tomatoes but I may have to give up on them this year.
The Thai continues to grow and spread but fortunately it’s growing around the post further onto the porch rather than out towards the lawn. Of course it’s growing right across the basil box but the basil hasn’t done that much anyway. And the Thai does have a bunch of tomatoes so we’ll give it some leeway.
When we got the Earthboxes we followed the directions. The instructions were very clear “follow my instructions exactly and resist the temptation to second guess the system.”. We’d ordered the complete kit so we did just what they said. We followed the planting chart, set everything up as indicated. For the next go around this is what I’d do differently:
I like the Earthboxes. They do work well. Now that we’ve seen how it works I feel more comfortable trying something different with them. I still hope to do some Fall/Winter gardening too and may convert the boxes over to organic when we start that project.
