Casey broke her leg in July of this year and it was a little scary because Christy and I have never broken any bones up to this point. We didn’t know what this would be like and we were kind of dreading having a toddler with a cast. She rolled with it and was walking on it with a great amount of confidence in just a few days. The big lesson we learned in this was that you should always ask questions when you are visiting a doctor or nurse practitioner. They are human and can miss things like anyone else. In our case, the urgent care we took Casey to the day after her fall missed the break even though they took several X-rays of the effected area. It wasn’t until 2 days later that I got a call that the radiologist found a fracture. In the mean time, Casey was completely unwilling to put any weight on her leg and understandably so.
Here is the original X-ray from the urgent care. I cropped the image and added the yellow arrows to help you spot the fracture. You can click on it to get a full rez image. Its possible that if I had asked to see the film that day at the urgent care I might have seen the fracture and asked what it was. Just keep that in mind the next time you visit any health care pro, any mechanic, anybody that comes into do work on your home. Ask lots of questions.
Posted in Family & Fun.
Tagged with broken leg, Casey, doctors, x-ray.
There are dozens of ways to build a compost bin and this is the way I made mine. To buy all the material new would be just shy of $100. This is a 2-bin system to help manage the large amount of material my kitchen and yard will produce.
My material list:
(2) 2x6x12′ REDWOOD
(2) 2x4x12′ REDWOOD
(21) 5/4×5.5×6′ DOGEAR CEDAR FENCE BOARDS
2″ and 3″ gold wood screws
I built a 3′x6′ rectangle out of the 2×6 as a footing. 2×4 boards were used as corner and center posts and the panels were screwed on with 1/2″ to 3/4″ gaps for air. The front has 2×4 boards on the inside of the footer frame and on the outside to make channels for the front cedar boards to slide into. This is so I can pull them out when its time to unload the bins. I keep a pitchfork nearby to stir the contents from time to time. Don’t forget to consider a nearby water source. From time to time you’ll want to water down the mixture.
Posted in Projects & Work.
Tagged with compost, DIY, Gardening, waste reduction.
Not that the yard renovation is anywhere near complete at our place. But, things are taking shape in a way that allows me to back off a little and get distracted a little. Since its still technically April we decided to take on a vegetable garden. Actually, we are going to take one at least 2, maybe 3.
We will have a ‘kitchen garden’ just off the back patio where we intend to grow herbs. Its a perfect spot where the sun hits it about 8 hours a day and the rocks keep the soil warm. Its also 10 or 12 steps from the kitchen sink.
We will have a ‘produce garden’ a little ways up the hill. Still visible from the patio, but a little more than 10 or 12 steps from the patio. Its a much larger area that was cut into the slope once upon a time. Its 3 tiers. The top is the smallest and the bottom the largest as it fans out radially from a center point just behind the top tier. We’ll put in peppers, tomatoes, and about 16 other staples we enjoy. We’ll put 4 or 5 varieties of fruit near this garden as well.
We’ll have an ‘orchard’. The North-most part of our property is on an awkwardly steep hill. I can climb up and down it but its really too steep to do anything with. So we’re going to plan fruit trees on it. There is room to comfortably put 8 trees there, 10 if we really want it. We’ll shoot for the dwarf variety so we don’t get overwhelmed with any one crop. Also means more room for variety.
Finally we’ll have a ‘super sun’ garden. This area probably has the longest daily exposure to the sun and is very visible from the street…its in the front yard! Our house faces South, the solar exposure means there is no better location for a vegetable garden. I’d like to discover some showy edibles for this space. Anything that produces nice color will be some of my first picks for this area. We’ll finish off the front yard with a citrus tree.
Big ambition. I may fail at a good amount of it but I expect to learn something in the process. Hopefully when my kids are old enough to help prepare food they will know right where to get the freshes ingredients and will be able to run out and grab them.
Posted in Projects & Work.
Tagged with Food, fruits, garden, Gardening, trees, vegetables.
I helped a friend move today. While carrying stuff around the topic of Comcast buying NBC came up. Here’s the story on NPR. Comcast, who is quickly becoming one of the largest cable and internet companies in the land is in the process exchanging blows with the FCC over the legality of this merger. Looks like the courts are not seeing things eye to eye with the FCC, who does not want to allow the merge.
This isn’t an issue of good or bad customer service. This is an issue of those creating the content and those distributing the content becoming the same players. When this happens it is tempting to throttle access to the competitor. The implications are large. News content being filtered through company policy and evaluated for how it will effect company profits before it is approved to be released to the customers and the citizenry.
This and other battles for net neutrality will not play out on your television. Though it is in YOUR best interest to watch these debates, it is NOT in the best interest of your data provider.
Posted in Thoughts & Ramblings.
Tagged with antitrust, comcast, monopoly, NBC, net neutrality.
Caught this post on wired.com. I imagine this is another defensive maneuver on the part of the networks to retain control over when people consume which media. It’s not about controlling us, its about controlling ad revenue. Until the networks figure out that its inevitable they will retain their scheduled cable programs, poorly programmed DVR’s with limited space and no portability of the media we consume.
Meantime, with services like Hulu, Netflix and Slacker I am certainly thinking about canceling my cable.
Posted in Thoughts & Ramblings.
Tagged with Cable, Entertainment, home media, internet.
