HunterTrek.com

I love the Seattle Public Library (SPL).  I’m not sure if Seattle just spends more money than Austin, but the library is so much better considering the cities have similar populations that I still use SPL more than Austin.  Being a few thousand miles away I mostly make use of SPL’s online databases.  Through a little magic I’ve been able to retain my SPL card to keep access to things like Safari Tech Books Online.  Recently I came across a couple of new (or at least new to me) online resources that I connect to through SPL.

Tumblebooks.com is a great site for kids of preschool to elementary school age.  They take books and give them simple flash animation and narration.  Wesley loves these things.  The animated books remind me a lot of these movies we had as kids.  They were, I think, Little Critters movies.  The animation was very simple with movement suggested by backgrounds shaking and the characters slid across the screen rather than actually walking.  It is enough to maintain your interest, but doesn’t really distract from the story.  And significantly cheaper than actually animating it like a cartoon which I suspect is the real reason behind it.

For some reason, and I’m guessing it is a fluke, you don’t actually need a SPL card to reach this site which is normally about $400 a year.  Simply follow this link from the SPL site and enjoy.  They have other items, but the books I’m talking about are under the “Story Books” button.   If you have small kids or work with small kids give it a try.  There are some great stories on there.  I’ll write more about one of them later.

Epicurious has released a neat little interactive map that shows you what is in season for each month of the year for each state.  A handy little tool when we get produce that looks good, but tastes like cardboard filling our supermarkets yearround.  It is especially helpful when you say, I don’t know, move across the country to Texas and you don’t have a clue when anything is actually ripe.  It isn’t perfect, for instance it never lists Strawberries in Washington despite the fact that I have many friends who picked these summer after summer, but it is worth a look.

Epicurious “Peak-Season Map”

It may sound silly, but the song “Hush Little Baby” has always made me a little uncomfortable.  The lyrics have always seemed so commercial (even as a kid I thought so).  I hated singing this to my kids too.  It is all I’m going to BUY you this and then I’ll BUY you this and then I’ll BUY you that.  As in “Hush little baby, don’t say a word, Mama/Papa is going to buy you a mockingbird”.

But then a while back I was reading a book to Wesley and I found the answer to my problem.  The book If You Were My Bunny by Kate McMullan takes a bunch of lullabies and gives them new animal appropriate lyrics.  It is a very sweet book.  In this book the Mama bunny doesn’t BUY her baby anything she BRINGs the baby a carrot top and clover quilt among other things.  It may seem like a small, silly little thing, but it makes me feel a lot better.

I now sing the song to Wesley and Jillian like this:

Hush, little baby, don’t say a word,
Papa’s gonna bring you a mockingbird.

And if that mockingbird don’t sing,
Papa’s gonna bring you a diamond ring.

And if that diamond ring turn brass,
Papa’s gonna bring you a looking glass.

And if that looking glass gets broke,
Papa’s gonna bring you a billy goat.

And if that billy goat don’t pull,
Papa’s gonna bring you a cart and bull.

And if that cart and bull turn over,
Papa’s gonna bring you a dog named Rover.

And if that dog named Rover won’t bark.
Papa’s gonna to bring you and horse and cart.

And if that horse and cart fall down,
Well you’ll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

Summer has arrived in Texas.  A bit early even by Texas standards.  Apparently it is a La Nina year which is associated with hot and dry.  Boy are we excited.

Last year we had lots of rain.  Record levels of rain.  I didn’t water anything and most things survived.  Even so some of the smaller plants did die.  With this year’s expected heat and lack of rainfall I decided we needed to do something about the landscape so I’ve started putting in a drip irrigation system.  I’m pretty pleased with it so far.  There are a lot of options and I was a bit overwhelmed with all the little pieces.

I started with, get this, a starter kit from Dig Irrigation Systems that I picked up at Home Depot.  The kit has nearly everything I need.  I’ll need to pick up a pressure regulator and some more tubing to expand beyond our flower bed near the house, but otherwise I got the priority areas done for less than $20.  I also picked up a timer kit from Costco that will water the plants on a set schedule so I don’t have to be up in the early morning hours.

I actually had a lot of fun setting this up.  From the hose spigot I connected 1/2″ poly tubing which makes up the backbone of the system.  From there I used a punch that came with the kit to make small holes in the large tubing.  I then insert little barbs that act as adapters for the 1/4″ rubbery tubing that feeds the plants.  At the end of each small tube you can attach a bunch of different watering devices.  I mostly used little 1 gallon per hour drip buttons.  But I’ve also got some little sprayers to cover some larger plants.  The technology is actually really neat with a ton of different options.  None of them cost much and if you screw up you just stick in a “goof plug” to fill the hole.

It may not be as flashy as the pop-up underground sprinkler systems that you see in some homes and parks.  But it is much, much less expensive.  You can easily change the setup with only a few minutes work to accomodate new plants.  And the best part, it uses much less water.  The drip system only waters the areas you want watered.  You waste less water and get less weeds.  It is just too dry between the plants for much to grow.  If you water like I will, in the early morning, you’ll get almost no loss to evaporation compared with the big spray water all over the place systems that are so impressive to watch in action.