Happy Green Beings

While reading Michael Perry’s book Coop, it struck me that our goal to grow blueberry pies in our yard may require much more work than I’m willing to do for that far off benefit. No, I don’t think that genetic engineers can produce a bush that fruits whole wheat pie crusts sprinkled with sweetener and stuffed with blueberries. I prefer my ingredients from heritage versions of plants anyway. But the growing of blueberries appears to require not only clearing of our overgrown landscaping, but bed prep to boot.

I’m mostly fine with the clearing part other than the fact that it will leave far too little vegetation between myself and the road noise rising from pavement both near and not so far. The ash trees that shade the area are destined to fall prey to the emerald ash bore anyway, so they may as well become a source of firewood or full dimension lumber before infestation. That’s part of why the solar hot water panels to their North and West made sense in spite of what the solar site assessment showed. The question for me is, how can I avoid all of that bending and digging that creates good fertile ground. Thanks to recent wanderings across the pages of Mr. Perry’s most recent book, I’m reconsidering the use of chickens as weeders and tillers of soil in the form of a chicken tractor. I see a road trip to the Restore in my near future.

Now before you go and contact your animal rights persons to let them know I’ve gone bonkers, what Mr. Perry describes is a mobile cage in which young chickens do their natural foraging for worms, insects, and vegetation. Their scratching effectively tills the soil while they get a fresh plot of ground to feed from. The chickens fertilize the soil, doing what comes naturally following their consumption of worms, insects and vegetation. The entire prospect is a win-win. The tricky part is for the chickens to visit long enough to effectively do the garden prep. So, by building a chicken “tractor” cage that will keep them safe, and then sliding it along the ground into positions where garden beds are to be formed, one can avoid the tilling of soil “man”ually.

There is some risk here, since it involves the use of chickens. Somewhere, one has to come by a number of chickens for a long enough period of time to do the square footage required for the bed. Our customary dimensions are 5 feet wide so we can do most of the weeding and harvesting without trampling upon roots. But then again, there is the care of the chickens, and what you do with them once they have dug your blueberry beds…

One of the concurrent story lines in Coop involves the construction of a chicken coop during the acquisition of chicks and construction of the chicken tractor. I defer to our poultry expert, Kirk on the startup of urban chicken rearing. He’s on his second year. Send encouragement, and perhaps he’ll share some of his expertise. Now, what do they have at that Restore that could become a chicken tractor?

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Since I began going to work without a car again, I’ve been able to do it with a bike and the bus system in comfort and without any major concerns. I even made a couple of bus commuting rookie mistakes without any significant loss of time thanks to a friendly bus driver’s advice. Planning for the commute took time, and going completely car-light will undoubtedly require a changed mindset, but using public transit is now far simpler in Wisconsin’s Fox River Valley.

Valley Transit has joined the ranks of Google Maps Transit. You go on Google Maps, put in your starting and destination address just like you do for a car trip, and select public transit from the drop-down menu. You can get directions, a map, and an itinerary including transfers and fare prices for many transit systems around the world. How awesome is that for planning a vacation and skipping the car rental? (Click the link above to see a demonstration of how it works.) What is great for a bike commuter is that it makes it easy to try out various bus stops. Honestly, the rack and ride option speeds things up substantially if you explore boarding options and are willing to ride a bit farther. If I take the first option offered by Google Maps from my home to my workplace, nearly door to door service is over 2 hours by bus alone. By riding to points farther from my home and workplace, I have that same trip down to less than an hour each way.

I had spent a lot of time second guessing myself and learning the bus schedule. But once they completed the process of joining Google Maps, trips on Valley Transit have become quick and easy to plan. I hope that ridership goes up as a result because funding for all transit systems is going down. They need more riders to fill their trips and help to fund the system. It makes it possible for them to continue serving those who depend upon the system as their only means of transportation.

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During the crazy month that we’ve had with news of banks and bailouts, a piece of legislation was slipped into the bill that encourages employers who provide benefits reimbursing employees for their use of public transportation to also include bicycle commuting expenses as part of their benefit package. Since the legislation tagged this benefit on, and because many companies hire a benefits administrator service, employees may begin seeing this included in their benefits in the near future.

I just want to say, if it helps with the motivation to cycle to work, more power to everyone who pulls their bike out of the garage as a result. In the past three months, I’ve saved 936 pounds of carbon from gasoline emissions, and I’m proud of that. My employer doesn’t have to pay federal taxes, so I won’t be seeing any reimbursement of my related expenses unless the wellness committee talks them into it. But the idea that people are being given this incentive is a positive step, even if it is a small one in terms of economics.

One of the contributers to bikeforums.com provided the following sample letter to his HR department to request that they consider supporting this addition to the tax code…

Human Resources Department,

As I’m sure you are aware, the Congress just passed H.R. 1424 “The Bail-Out Bill” on Capitol Hill. Although this legislation deals primarily with the housing market, there were several other unrelated provisions added to the bill. Among these was a tax incentive for employers who promote the use of bicycles for commuting. The specifics of this tax break are laid out in Sec. 211, “Transportation
fringe benefit to bicycle commuters” under the Transportation and Domestic Fuel Security Provision section but the change is pretty basic. The bill offers a $20 a month tax relief per bicycle commuting employee to cover the cost of any employer reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee “for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.”

I am interested in finding a way that [Company Name] could implement a program that would allow employees who cyclo-commute to expense less than $20 a month in bike related expenses.

The benefits of an expense reimbursement program for cyclo-commuters include:
• Lower fuel costs on company owned vehicles
• Less required maintenance on company owned vehicles
• Ability of [Company Name] to claim a full $20 per month per eligible employee
when actual expenses are likely to be far less
• Improved employee health which in turn increases employee productivity
• Creates a progressive and environmentally conscious image for the
company

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information about this recent tax code change.

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The curb side discount electric lawn mower has died. The bearings are gone on the electric motor, so no point in repair. The battery was loosing it’s ability to make it half way around the yard anyway. So out with the rotory mower, and back in with the reel mower. Eugene Klein, who fished our local waters, and kept a garden next door, had a reel mower that he used well into his 50’s. At some point it broke and he finally joined everyone else and purchased a Lawnboy gas mower, so the sound of cutting grass finally changed in his part of our neighborhood. All of the sudden, the late evening lawn mowing was no longer an option. City ordinances had already addressed complaints between neighbors across the region. Soon, their language would be generalized to address the use of their string trimmers, wood chippers, and other noisy two cycle motor driven power tools. Ultimately, power washers, and leaf blowers would fall under their authority as well. Instead of rakes edgers, and leaf sweepers powered by muscle, everything had either an electric or small gas powered element to it.

Mr. Klein never turned to the rototiller. He had long established a well aerated soil structure, composting his fish remains along with yard waste. My brother’s dog so loved to excavate and roll around in that stuff when I tried it in mom’s flower garden. And did he ever have the tomato and green bean crops. We always had plenty of fish in our freezer, fresh tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers on our table, followed by rhubarb for mom’s pies. Friday evenings during the summer, we ate like kings even though dad’s business was in start-up. And they were all thanks to Mr. Klein’s habitual use of a garden fork and skill with his spinning rod. The Lawn-boy and the garden fork used for traditional vegetable and flower gardening seem at odds in this time of global warming, but were completely compatible to a guy who grew up in Northern Wisconsin’s logging camps. Pick the right tool for the job and maintain it until it can’t be fixed. Fishing on Lake Winnebago from a wooden boat with an old Evinrude Motor and a pair of oars, Mr. Kline showed me how to use the wind while drift fishing for walleye pike on early mornings or overcast days, depending upon which shift he worked. He motored out until we lined up the center Elm tree with the radio tower, and another elm tree with a silo, and low and behold, the depth of the anchor went from 15 feet to 7 when he had me drop it in. We were right over the rock pile off of Garlic Island which the walleyes used like a corner hangout. He took me out to further his limit, but I was the one who took home the fillets those summer days. We used his home made jigs, poured from a piece of lead that he found at the army surplus store, and tied with care from buck tails that he brought home from deer camp.

A few weeks before he passed away, Eugene and I sat with my daughter while we visited in his living room. The house still smelled the same as it had when I was growing up. He asked about my children, and talked about his children and grandchildren. The garden was still there, though not as many vegetable plants were in residence as when I lived at home. He ordered a single box of girls scout cookies, and we said farewell for the last time. Taking out the reel mower reminds me of Eugene Klein, his care for his friends, family, and his home. I just purchased a garden fork last evening, so I’ll be thinking of him as I use it to turn the soil for our new vegetable garden plot. I only hope I can prepare the soil as well.

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