Normal, IL - Food Forest

Normal, IL has a Food Forest, which you can read more about here:

 http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/public-food-forest-to-be-planted-at-one-normal-plaza/article_82ab5f36-5072-53a1-97f5-6880fdfd4472.html

I thought this was a cool idea and checked it out. So far the plantings are small, so it will be fun to track the forests progression over time.

And without further ado, I present to you Normal, Illinois' Food Forest as of Spring 2016:

Ryan Gets Overambitious: The Sequel

We decided to buy a butt ton more plants again this year. Just sticking with one 72 count seed starter. This is our layout:

We just planted them on Saturday and we already some have some sprouts

Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk Review

It seems like there's a near constant stream of evidence coming out saying that sitting all day is really harmful to your long term health. For those of us that sit all day at work, and do a fair amount of sitting at home, this is bad news!

We recently got standing desks at work which was nice, but they were kind of crummy and just sit on top of our existing desks (http://www.varidesk.com/standing-desk-pro-plus-36). They're also lacking in surface area and a little unstable it seems. I did however appreciate the ability to transition between standing and sitting pretty easily throughout the day. After giving it a try at work, I decided I wanted to replace my own desk at home with a standing model. I did a bunch of research and settled on the Jarvis Bamboo standing desk from ErgoDepot. I got the 60" rectangular model and so far am loving it!

 

Pictured above is the desk in its "sitting" position. As you can see, it has space for both of my 24" monitors, my tower and my mousepad with room to spare! I often put my laptop on the left side of the desk and plug it into the primary monitor. My biggest gripe at the moment is cable management, but that's more on me than on the desk. They sell a "cable management" package which I got and it has all manner of trays, tie downs, and straps that you can use to tame the mess. Its just a little tricky when some of the cables have to be able to transition from sitting to standing seamlessly.

One of the other things research is showing is that standing all day isn't a panacea either - it comes with its own share of problems. The key is to change from standing to sitting throughout the day, and to take breaks to walk around. You basically don't want to spend all your time doing any one sedentary thing. As such, I wanted to make sure it was easy to transition from standing and sitting and back again so that I would actually do it. All the reviews I found of this desk consistently mentioned it was worth the extra money to get the digital controls with the memory presets, so I went ahead and did that as well:

The controls allow you to adjust the height of the desk down to within a tenth of an inch of accuracy and store up to four different preset heights. Once you've got it set up, it only takes a single button press to move your desk from one position to the next - and it always returns to exactly the position you want. This is one of my biggest gripes about my non-motorized one at work. When I move it, its hard to ever get back exactly where I want it and I end up spending a couple of minutes each time trying to get it exactly right. This leads to less frequent transitions between sitting and standing. With the digital controls on the other hand, there's basically zero friction. Hit a button and the desk goes exactly where you want.

Pictured above is the desk in the "standing" position. The height I have it configured actually allows the chair to sit neatly underneath which is a nice bonus! One thing that consistently comes up in reviews of standing desks is that they can be wobbly at standing heights, fortunately, that is not the case here. The Jarvis Bamboos feels rock solid even at its maximum setting (which is even higher than I have it set here). You can really see what I'm talking about with cable management in this photo. Its kind of gross, so that will be my next big project.

Anyways, I've really enjoyed having a standing desk at home so far and, while they can be a bit pricey, I feel like its a wise long-term investment in my health.

Compost Update

First major withdrawal from the compost bank. Just smells like dirt.

AeroGarden update #1

So after a month or so, only three of the six initial pods grew. I blame the water. Totally should've used distilled water. Oh well, you live and learn. Anyway, the mint, cilantro, and Thai basil are thriving but they don't seem to want to stand up on their own very well. I think I'm going to see how they do over the next week and then maybe toss em and start a new set.

Water in a carton

Update, July 3rd, 2016: Target stores with a grocery section are also carrying this. Also seen in a multi-pack. ~1.80 a carton. Have not quaffed.

Seen tonight at Meijer Superstote.
I like when i get to drink something bottled in glass vs. less expensive packaging sometimes.
I'd like to try it out. I was curious.
If this was a half gallon or more, i'd consider it more. $1.50 was a lillte steep. I'd take a Pellegrino in a heartbeat.

Hamburger Helper...

...put forward a mixtape.


Here it is on Soundcloud.com: https://soundcloud.com/HAMBURGERHELPER

A thing I wish I had made:

Retro fighter using great historic scientists


http://super.abril.com.br/jogo-science-kombat

Landscaping

Worked with my brother over at www.sutterscape.com this weekend to increase the curb appeal at the ole foxhole.

It's hard to see, but we actually planted three different blueberry plants.