Arte De Timo

Posts

  • The economics of a rain barrel

    My water company charges $2.99 for a unit of water, which is defined as 100 cubic feet, or 748.5 gallons. This breaks down to just under 4 tenths of one cent per gallon of water that comes through the pipes. So what do we get for that 0.4 cents? We get water from a local well, possibly mixed with some surface water from a nearby reservoir, some chlorine, some dissolved minerals, and a little bit of organic matter.

    A rain barrel is typically about 50-60 gallons, so every time it fills up you are accumulating about 20-23 cents worth of water at the water utility rate. What do you get?

    If a rain barrel costs about $80+ to make or buy you would have to fill it up and empty it 400 times to break even. And, if you get around 20-40 chances a year to fill it up, we are talking 10 to 20 years ROI for a rain barrel. Yikes! That is not a good investment!

    So why do it? Why spend the money and time? Is it that feeling of freedom and independence of “going off the grid?” Maybe a bit of nostalgia for how our farming forefathers and foremothers used to do things? I would say it is a little of all of this, and a little more.

    Setting up a rain barrel has a bit of that DIY feeling that gardening, canning, sewing, etc. have. There is no immediate need to do any of it, but there are enough little good reasons, and enough little pleasures in doing it, that it is worth it. A wine barrel just looks neat around the house, particularly one from France.

    A big part of this sort of project for most people is a sense of connection. Like growing a tomato out in the yard, there is something wonderful about being a part of the whole cycle of providing sustenance for one’s family. I would say the majority of people never get a chance (nor are interested) in seeing how their water gets to them. Turn on the faucet and water comes out. Harvesting some rain water lets us see and feel where our water is coming from. It is a reattachment to the seasons, and to the nature of rain. We are so sheltered from the atmosphere and weather, this sort of project is a way to get us thinking about how the seasons affect us again. Rain harvesting is a lesson on what the rainy season used to mean. Is it a green season, or a white season? Will it have an impact on you this year? How should I plan for the coming months?

    A rain barrel is a sort of slow motion alarm clock that is controlled by nature, and can’t be set by our hands. It will fill according to some other system that we have all too often forgotten and disconnected from. In that relationship, the ROI has already been met.

    I now have 50 gallons of murky water in this thing to use, and return to nature. It sits there to be used before the next rain. It sits there outside waiting for use. It is also waiting in my mind as a reminder that the Green season is approaching, and that the grasses are growing; that the natural cycle still affects us even if we often choose not to see it.

     

  • Wooden Bike Saddle??


    I think the MFA program did something to my head, because somewhere in the processes of dreaming this up I concluded it was a good idea to actually do it…

  • Finds from the yard

    I posted a couple of things I found in the attic of our tiny little house. Here are a few things that we have run into in the yard.

    The white disk is a piece of glass. My original guess was that it is from a bike or motorcycle light.  But, under perfect light and with a magnifying glass, I made out some lettering around the edge. The letters are spaced off center and unevenly, with several almost rubbed off, making me think it is pretty old and not made from a machine molding process. It says, “GENUINE BOYD CAP  FOR MASON JARS.” I didn’t know they made jar lids out of glass. Kinda interesting. Amazing that it is still in tact after being in the dirt and hit by a shovel.

    The two coins are a little less of a mystery, and pretty easy to date. I found them over the summer, with my brother-in-law’s metal detector. They visited in July and he brought it with him. He had to turn the sensitivity way down because it was beeping ever foot or so. He dug up a few of the beeps at first and found all sorts of nails and bits of rusted out who-knows-what. ON the higher settings it detected coin metals a little better. After he found a few pennies and dimes, I finally got these two together, known as a spill. One of the other holes we dug revealed a rusted through huge iron pipe with bits of glass and ceramics in it. Maybe it was the catch in an old drain, or maybe just some junk someone buried. It was interesting experience seeing how much junk is buried in our yard. The place is really old as I have posted, so who knows what some of that buried stuff is.  I have found lots of terracotta bits and a jade doughnut (which I have now misplaced,) so maybe there is a treasure waiting to be found.

  • A Global Bike (a longer post)

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    Globalization. For many it has been a contentious issue the last decade or two. For others, it has been a boon to business, and merely the next step in our economic evolution. In any case, it is hard to deny that we now feel the extreme consequences of globalization, good or bad. The truth is that globalization has been a fact of western life, and therefore its colonies and conquests for hundreds of years. It has only been the recent (maybe 30-40 years) industrially scaled globalization and hyper application of outsourcing  that globalization has had the extreme effects we feel. This system of  commodities, markets, raw materials and labor (i.e. Capital systems)  have a wide range of outcomes when applied, but like everything else, how it is carried out and to what ends determines the results.

    When I got my old English (?) bike it had parts from literally around the world. Handle bars from Japan, end caps  and kick stand from the USA, hubs from Austria/germany, brakes from England, cargo rack from Switzerland and pulley, cables from who know where. And now, I continued that history  by “importing” a few more vintage parts from England to complete it. So in the case of my old 1954 English bike, maybe globalization has been a birthing ground for a solid piece of transport. Globalization produced a bike that has been used and appreciated  for over 60 years (though, seemingly not cared for in the last 10-20 years.).. Maybe this is a little romantic, because it is just a bike that could have been made anywhere at any time and done the same job; but you get my point.

    I am the first in line to claim that globalization with its underlying capital systems is out of control. It is a Frankenstein that is slow killing us, but as William McDonough (One of the originators of Cradle-to-Cradle design) talked about in a little video I recently watched, the detrimental effects of business are design problems, where regulations are symptom. In his view, governmental regulation is necessary to stop these effects, but it will take a proper re-design to fix the error. He talks about how pollution is not in a companies best interest. Hurting customers, facing law suits, lower productivity from works, are all costs, that can be lowered or erased by removing the pollutant in most cases. IN the Cradle-to-Cradle design process, that is what they do, and the result is that the companies cut costs, increase productivity, and therefore make more money. Clean environments and healthy workers and customers makes for good business? Who would have thunk?

    So is an international old bike really all that meaningful? Maybe a little, but probably just a object of vanity. Philosophically, though, some important the lessons are built into what I am doing with that old bike. A 60 year old bike that promises to once again be a utility (and maybe a beauty) for (wo)man kind, shows us what good deign and forethought can accomplish. If all our objects can become as much, I think our global society would be in a bit of a better place.

  • Timo Lantern

    In preparation for Halloween; The Timo’Lantern!

  • Remember these?

    They’re out of a box of toys from when I was a kid. Amazing how strong the memories and emotions attached to those little things are even after a couple decades of other life to get in the way. Anyone who says nostalgia isn’t a powerful emotion probably isn’t human, or has some sort of mental block.

    Now these originals are moving on to another generation. Fun for now.

  • A couple things from the attic

    I finally made space on my kitchen desk for my scanner, so now for some fun scans of odds and ends I have found. Here are a couple things I found up in the attic when I was rewiring up there last year. There was lots of gross stuff up there (more about that later) but these are the ones I kept. When I get back up there for the other half the house I am sure I will find more stuff.

  • Clearing away some bike grime

    I’ve been doing a little digging online and cleaning on the bike in search of clues as to what the old orange bike used to be. I’ll add pics later.

    Bicycle Parts Info:

    The bike is from 1954 an was probably a Raleigh Sports or maybe a Club. Or, maybe it was a Speedwell from Australia or CCM from Canada (due to the fact that it has a Williams chainset.) It’s lost all of it accessories, so I may never know.

    Brakes. Made in England, Phillips style pre 1970’s side pull caliper brakes.

    Chainset: Williams steel 5-pin inch-pitch chainset – B100

    Wheels: Dunlop 26 x 1 3/8 Made in England – Endrick style – one original tyre.

    Hubs: Sturmey-Archer AW  July 1954 3 speed hub, with 3 speed deraileur for 9 total speeds.

  • An odd old road bike.

    I picked this up a few weeks ago off The classified site. Not really sure what it is, but has some high end parts and oddities. Not super rare and not in great shape, but the gearing, even with all that goop and dust all over it is smooth. The frame has lost it’s original paint, so that will be repainted, but everything else looks like it just needs to be cleaned up and lubed. The Saddle is an old leather Brooks, and might not be salvageable, but considering the value of those saddles, I am going to give it a try. Should be fun getting this looking and riding well again.

  • My Tiny Really Old House


    Since we moved in to our house a little over two years ago, I have been on a quest to figure out how to live well in our tiny old house. The house is from the 1880’s or 1890’s as best I can tell, and was added on to in the 1920’s or 30’s. It is around 890 sqft but 170 of that is in an out building. Just imagine, the original house didn’t have either that out building or our kitchen room, nor basement. It must have been 500 sqft and I am sure a family lived here. If they lived OK in this house over 100 years ago, we surely must be able to right?

    Since we moved in, Ive dug around into just about every nook and cranny, trying to figure it out, so I can update what we need to, stabilize what is unsure, and otherwise just understand our abode. The original part of the house is made of old growth redwood, and it was constructed way before it seems they had building standards. Joists and studs have no common center, nor is it anywhere near what we consider a safely built structure, but here it is 120+ years later and still sound (for the most part.)

    The first bunch of work was up in the attic rewiring and insulating. That is why I know as much as I do about the place. I found old sales tags for the nob and tube system, hand cut nails, exterior painted walls inside, along with a whole bunch of other stuff I will post about later. Below the house a lot of the wood has been replaced with modern 3rd growth over harvested wood (more on that later too.) Strangely the original parts underneath are much more coherent. It’s the same old growth redwood, but the structure looks to have been made by a professional. I found some neat stuff down there, too. the most interesting being a foot long femur bone. Hopefully it was from a large animal and not great uncle Frank, but in any case, I left it there in peace.

    To say that our house has been a DIY project for 120 years is probably accurate from what I have found. There are parts that make sense and look like time was put into doing things well, but there are other parts that have just left me scratching my head. I intend to post about these various discoveries in the future as I slowly replace, upgrade, repair and marvel at the character of our house.

    Beyond the structure of our little house, though, what has been the biggest challenge has been the limited space. Moving here we halved our living space and lost a lot of storage. It has been a challenge to say the least, but we are slowly coming to terms with it, making important decisions; green, and sustainable decision in many cases. We have learned a lot in the last two years, about ourselves, our habits, and our lifestyle. We have learned what a footprint really means in a direct sense, and also in the global symbolic sense.

    Now that I have finished my MFA I have slowly wound down into the next phase of my life; family man, father, artist, entrepreneur,  and mini house adventurer. I hope you will visit this site and share my efforts to move forward, editing my life and becoming better for it. I intend to make this a media blog too, so look forward to videos audio and pictures of my house projects, garden, creative work and more.