Mountaingirl's Musings

Evernote!

mountaingirl — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 01:02:15 +0000

I just downloaded Evernote and while playing around tonight with it, I am uber excited about all the potential to organize my life! iCal has already saved my sanity since the Fall semester started, and with lots on my plate now, this Evernote program is totally awesome. Check it out here: www.evernote.com

Road to Nowhere

mountaingirl — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 07:57:13 +0000

I have been thinking a lot lately about population and the collective demands that humans are having on the Earth and its resources. With the population of Earth showing no real signs of leveling out any time soon, I am wondering how on EARTH (pun intended) we are going to continue with all of our demands. Living in the United States, obviously, our concept of Necessary Goods, is much much longer than some other places on the globe. And students are brought up here assuming that everyone wants to be Just Like Us. I think that is Bogus. I think that is just a ploy to keep capitalism afloat and keep us quiet and dumb in the presence of catastrophic global FAILURE. Call me a radical, but I really don’t think we need as much stuff as we think we do. I would like a new camera, bc mine is on the fritz. But buying a new one requires a lot a lot a lot of energy and mining of resources that I might would rather not happen. Of course, if I am this thoughtful? Is everyone else? Maybe. Maybe not. But suffice it to say that people will continue to buy cameras, TVs, legal pads, furniture, cars, plastic toys, clothes, stuff you see on TV, fertilizers, etc, and so forth and so on into the indefinite future. And is it really my place to tell one not to. Maybe. Maybe not. So what do I do? Not buy the camera, on principle? Or buy the camera, knowing that it won’t make any difference if I do, since the majority around me will anyways. And, if I do buy the camera then would the uses I get from it counter any of the negatives borne from producing the camera (like taking photos of mountain top removal and sharing with friends, family, and internets). Wishful thinking? All the things listed above : fertilizers, cars, furniture, etc, if you think about the lifecycle of these things, its astronomical all the processes that go into making them. And are their true costs really reflected in the price? And are those whose lands were mined in order to make said object REALLY compensated in full? Can you ever compensate someone for destroying their habitat? The trouble is, and I am guilty of this, is that we seem to think “oh, so sad, they are destroying that land OVER THERE in order to mine coal, uranium, rare earth metals, or fell trees. We need to help/stand in solidarity/organize” But what I think is happening is that we are slowly destroying our OWN local habitats and maybe not even noticing, because we are so focused on what is happening “over there”. The old adage rings true to Think Globally Act Locally. But turning that on it’s head and Thinking Locally and Acting Globally, well that’s a little different. (I know I’m not the first one to have thought of this.) Don’t get me wrong, it is impossible in this day in age, being so interconnected, to ignore what is happening “over there” (i.e. Mountain Top Removal in Appalachia, Tar Sands in Canada, Mining in Black Mesa, gross urban sprawl in the Southwest, hypoxic zones in the Gulf, trash gyres in the Pacific) and it is relatively easy to support these causes and hold solidarity with those working for justice in these areas. I do think though, as an “activist” whatever that means, that it’s important to put down some roots (both literally and figuratively) and do some real work in one place and get to know the people and the community. This is the only way to build trust and the only way to create lasting change, in my opinion. A few years ago, I was slightly starry eyed and wanted to travel here and there, bouncing from campaign house to action camp to protest, feeling as though I was doing some good. And perhaps I was. But looking back I think I was also a bit nieve and now that I am settled again back in my hometown, I am feeling the strength that comes from staying in one place and having goals and dreams and concrete ideas that will be put into motion, but only if we focus and build it here ourselves. This is why I think the Transition Town initiative is so attractive to many folks. Only those of us in this place knows the best way to solve our problems here. Each locale with its own climate and geography and agriculture and imports/exports, etc is going to need to address different issues. But the beauty is, the solutions are already here among us! I wish I had a simple answer for how to put these solutions into action, and most likely this blog will help me to vocalize more of this. But for now, thinking Locally is a great first step. Sorry for the rambly nature, and any harshness that may have come across Buenas noches amigas/os.

Car-Free Tuesdays?

mountaingirl — Wed, 25 May 2011 18:41:05 +0000

Tuesdays tend to be spent around the house, since my daughter Caroline doesn’t have a babysitter scheduled on this day, so we play, go to the park, tend the garden etc. Yesterday was a Tuesday and there were many events vying for my attention, all which required the use of my car. First, the MOMs Club that I recently joined (and love!) were meeting out at Grits and Groceries in Belton. Quite the haul, and there are goats which Caroline loves to feed. I talked myself out of it. Next up, my friend Ellen out at the Rensing Center was hosting their once monthly Live Deliberately session on READ (next month: TRAVEL). This is a much further drive and I was still debating by the afternoon whether or not to go. Finally, I thought, “I can make this a car-free day if I just decide not to go and run the few errands I need to by foot!” Caroline and I packed up the stroller and headed for the pharmacy to pick up her medicines and even stopped by the park for a ride on the swingset on the way home. My plan was also to walk to the vegetable/fruit stand near my house for ingredients for a strawberry rhubarb pie but the sun was brutal and Caroline wasn’t in the mood to go back out. Once my sister came home, I caved and drove to the market to buy strawberries, rhubarb and butter. Even with gas prices beginning to fall, I am still trying to drive less and walk more. Where I used to live in VA, I didn’t have a car for over a year and a half and walked or biked anywhere I needed to go, even after Caroline was born! Anderson is not as walkable, but it might just be my state of mind, and I’m trying to change that. Even making one day a week car-free will not only save gas but also slow us down a bit and have more energy to give to our small garden or playing at the park with friends who live close by. Many days of the week I trek to Clemson (25 miles round trip) so to offset the rest of the week is a short term goal of mine. AND to get back in the habit of taking the CATbus to Clemson more often. Now that I have a bike again, I will be able to get around in Clemson once I’m there more quickly. Yesterday wasn’t a fail, but rather a step in the right direction!

Peak Oil and Transition

mountaingirl — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:16:53 +0000

It seems like the world is running amuck lately and much more so than ever before. With the situation in Libya, the ongoing crisis in Japan, the rioting in London, and Americans becoming more and more disillusioned with their government, somethings got to give. This here entry is inspired by my new friend and fellow activist, Feather, who said this in a recent meeting in Rabun Co. Georgia:

I would like to talk about The Transition Movement. I have been listening to people talk about the situation that this country, and for that matter, the world, seems to be in. I have noticed two things. First, almost everyone agrees that something has got to change, “the system” just doesn’t seem to be working for most of us. Second, is an attitude that “they” should fix it, they being the government or the car companies etc. I really started getting tired of all the talk. I felt that we should be doing something. But where do you start? My research lead me to The Transition Movement. My goal here is to introduce this idea and inspire some folks to work with me to help spread the word and get the ball rolling in Rabun County.

The Transition Movement was initially aimed at dealing with Peak Oil, and as you will see it came to encompass a lot more. Oil production has grown, with a couple brief exceptions, every year since it was discovered. Peak Oil is the point where oil production stops growing and starts declining. Peak Oil is not about running out of oil, it is about running out of cheap oil.Most experts say that oil will peak sometime between 2006 and 2012. The first half of the oil we found was easy to get to, and of high quality. Now it is getting harder to get to the oil and the quality is lower, so yields are less. This means the price of oil will continue to go up. In the 1930′s for every barrels worth of energy we put into finding and refining oil we got over 100 barrels in return. By 1970 it had dropped to 30:1, and is now somewhere between 18:1 and 11:1. We will never be out of oil, but in the next 15 – 20 years it could take more than 1 barrels worth of energy to get a barrel out.

Some of us in Clemson, SC, have begun to talk about Transition Towns and what that would look like for our area. Feather is a bit more ambitious and has started the Tri-State Transition Hub, encompassing NC, GA and SC, in the region where they all touch. Asheville and Hendersonville, SC already have a Transition movement afoot. I was recently re-appointed to the Green Ribbon Committee in Clemson by the mayor and also as a media intern for our group, some of which overlaps with the Transition Town Initiative. More to come on this. In the meantime, check out www.transitionus.org for more information than you could shake a stick at.

Nuclear Reactors

mountaingirl — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:47:02 +0000

They represent the most dangerous way to boil water ever devised.

Nuff said.

Nuclear Emergency in Japan on Huffington Post

Walkable Anderson

mountaingirl — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:05:21 +0000

I’ve been running for several months now and have traced a pretty good route that I like. Today was the first warm day that I didn’t have school, and so Caroline and I took to the streets in her stroller (para gratis, gracias MaryAnn!) The goal of the trek was to return some books to the library, which is a little more than 3 miles from home. We started off pretty early in the morning and after about 2 miles, stopped at The Bagel Shop for breakfast. I used to take Caroline in there last fall, but that was before she could walk. We enjoyed our veggie omlet (sp?) and bagel with cream cheese.

We took the scenic route from there, going all the way down Boulevard and cutting over. I went down some streets I’d never even been on before (well maybe when I was little, but only in the car). I was happy to find sidewalks all the way to the library, because I was nervous at first being on the street with the stroller. Caroline thoroughly enjoyed herself, pointing at cats and tweeting like the birds (“Teet teet!”) We got to the library, dropped off the books and started back home.

It was amazing to me, on the way home, how few people I saw. I mean, there were plenty of people around me, but they were all in cars. (Near the hospital, there are usually a lot of folks walking around, which was true today). But parts of the walk home seemed really desolate. I was reminded of my walks, almost daily, in Harrisonburg, where everything seemed within 2 miles of you at all times. (When I say everything, I mean, my friends, my job, the library, the bank, the post office, church and foodstuffs). Now that I think about it, all of those things are also within about 2 miles of my house here too! It only takes a mental shift, and more importantly, a commitment to not drive and take the TIME to get somewhere more slowly. I think the reason more people don’t walk to their errands is that they’ve crammed so much stuff into their schedule (myself included) that there is no time left for TRANSIT. You’d have to cancel two meetings in order to give yourself the hour or more needed to walk from point A to B to C to D to A.

I’ve also started taking the Catbus to school on Mondays, since gas has gone up recently. It is actually very cool, because I am able to read for an entire hour (30 min each way) and listen to my headphones. And it’s free! Did I mention its free? Cuz it’s free I suspect though that if and when gas prices go higher, or continue to stay where they are that folks will likely factor walking and other alternative forms of transportation into their lifestyles. I saw a poll on tonight’s news that 82% of people were doing something to conserve gasoline nowadays. Once again the economy has begun to create a shift en masse in our culture. The good news is, hopefully, this will also mean less pollution and CO2 going into the atmosphere.

Adios Internet (until Thursday :)

mountaingirl — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:11:48 +0000

I’ve been stuck in a rut lately of staying up way past midnight. I’ve been trying to figure out ways of not doing so, but it’s not going so well. I’ve also been thinking about taking an internet fast for a few days. I’m already cell phoneless for awhile (to save money) and the next logical step is to sign off the internet for a few days. I know there would be so many things I’ve been meaning to do that would bubble to the surface if I wasn’t distracted by the internet. Perhaps I will allot myself 15 min a day to check my email, and intentionally not check Facebook. I really think I may be addicted. But it’s not an enjoyable addiction. It’s just mindnumbing at this point, where I read a few neat news stories and see a few cool pics of my friend’s new babies and then proceed to scroll and veg out for like an hour. Anyhoo, I did take a computer break tonight and study for my exam on Thursday. It’s on 8 chapters of Solid Waste Management, so I need to start now to get it all looked over by Wednesday night. Perhaps I’ll take my internet fast now, and sign back on after my exam is done on Thursday. It might ensure that I make an A on the test AND I’ll see what else I could get done in that span of time. Clean my room, take Caroline to the library or for a jog in the stroller, cook something I’ve been meaning to try, finish the last 100 pages of Hot, Flat and Crowded, keep working on my felting project, even learn to make a video with iMovie with some pics of Caroline set to music OR I could find the lost camera bag with the extra battery inside! Ah, so much to do! But first, SLEEP! Adios, internet!

We will miss you, Jacob

mountaingirl — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:38:57 +0000

One of my close friend’s brothers passed away yesterday. He was only 23 years old. We grew up together, going over to each other’s houses to play, attending church and youth group together. Jacob was accidentally shot when a gun went off that his friend picked up off the coffee table. Everyone who was close to them has felt like the last two days have been a dream. It is such a horrible accident to happen to such a sweet and precious family. I know he is with the Lord now and that gives us peace moving forward, though the sadness will always linger. It also give me pause to think about Caroline and her heart and how the rest of our life will play out. Since she has been diagnosed with dialated cardiomyopathy and the doctors tell us she will likely need a heart transplant someday, I can only think that we are not promised tomorrow, and that all the squabbaling we do isn’t really worth it. Death used to scare me more than it does now, though it’s always a hard topic to fathom. I guess I can only put my faith in God and trust that He is guiding us on this journey together.

Biodiesel Days

mountaingirl — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 05:32:39 +0000

After two weeks of not meeting formally, my research group is back in action this semester (and just in time for the weather to warm up!) This afternoon we met up for 3 hours (my time commitment each week) and got down to business. First we did a 327 test, which is a quick and cheap way to find out if you have biodiesel or not and it’s relative purity. You take 27 mL of methanol and add 3 mL of the fluid in question. Shake vigorously and let sit for 10 minutes. If anything has settled out at the bottom, you likely have biodiesel that did not go to completion (the things sitting on the bottom are unreacted di and triglycerides). Monoglycerides and methyl esters are completely soluable in meOH.

Next, after we determined that two carboys were in fact good biodiesel and ready for the ion exchange column, we got a lesson on how to use the pilot plant, well, how to pump oil into the reactor at least We ended up with about 32.5 gallons of oil, some which have been sitting around FOREVER from the dining hall 2 years ago. David showed us the manifold, which is the system of valves and plumbing that moves everything through the system with the pump. We closed all the valves, and then David showed us what each one did, and which ones to open in order to load the reactor. There were valves for an atomizer (to spray fluids into the reactor) a valve to allow fluid to flow through a heater in case we need to add more heat to the reaction, a valve to sample the fluid flowing through, and one for the sight tube, so we can see the fluid level inside the reactor. First he showed us how to start up the generator, which runs on 100% pure biodiesel made onsite and then we each took turns loading a carboy of oil into the reactor. We mixed it for awhile and then took a sample.

Before you can react the oil to make biodiesel, you first have to titrate and find the acid number/free fatty acid percentag (not exactly the same thing). We each did a titration and turned out we had about 1.75% FFA in the oil. Then we did a moisture test with this funny little contraption called a sandy brae. I think it’s just the name of the lab it comes from. We put some mineral spirits and oil in one side of the chamber, then Reagent A into the other smaller chamber, being so careful not to let them mix. We screwed on the cap and then shook it up! The little gauge on the top measures the pressure inside the vessel as it reacts and from that you can determine the ppm of water. Ours was 4100 ppm. It needs to be under 5000ppm in order to run the reaction.

So, we are all set up and ready for tomorrow’s Environmental Teach-In at the Hendrix Center. The mobile pilot plant will be parked there doing demos all day and educating folks about biofuels! Next up, a blog about algal oils. It’s the future of biofuels, fo sho. And more pics soon too

Loooong time no see!

mountaingirl — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 05:30:21 +0000

Hello friendly friends, it seems I forgot all about my blog, but alas, I did not. I have been meaning to update it for quite sometime, and I’m not sure why I have not. Sooo very much has happened in my life, since writing my last post about chickens. For one thing, I am a mother! Yes, a mother to a beautiful and sweet and totally cute one year old, Caroline She is the light of my world. Second, I no longer live in Virginia anymore, which is where the chicken coop was I have moved back to South Carolina and will be here for a good while I think. I have also started back at Clemson, in hopes of completing my Masters by this time next year. Clemson’s SEA group is very awesome and I’m a member, helping and participating when I can. Most of my time is spent with Caroline and now that she is getting older, she is sleeping less and eating, walking, talking, climbing more! So my work is cut out for me I’m glad I finally posted, and will hopefully get back in this groove again soon, keeping the blog more up to date. Until then….peace!