I am not a big fan of my lawn.  It’s actually pretty tiny, but it still seems like a waste of valuable space.  And then there’s the mowing and the watering.

Interestingly enough, here in the Pacific Northwest, where it rains most of the year, summers are dry.  I can’t recall the last measurable rain we’ve had.  Many people here let their grass die in summer and it returns when the rains begin (usually mixed with a healthy dose of moss).

We have a built-in sprinkler system in the backyard, so it’s easy to turn it on and let it go for awhile.  But how do you know how much water you’re using or what your lawn really even needs?

The Regional Water Providers Consortium offered some free rain gauges and a kit to let me know.  All I had to do, was set up the two cups they sent (and I hear you can use tuna cans too), turn on my sprinklers, set a timer, and do some simple math.

It turns out that I wasn’t watering my lawn enough.  Each week, the consortium lets you enter your zipcode and find out your water needs in inches for that week, based on rainfall.  It takes the guesswork out of watering.  So while I was underwatering, probably most people tend to overwater.  This free kit could save you money and help the environment.

If you’re outside of this area, but know of other similar programs where you live, please let me know in the comments.

I’ll post about the party itself soon.

North American Organic Brewers Festival, 2008 from Alison Grayson on Vimeo.

Buns on the Run serves up homemade sausages.  I’ve never eaten there, as I don’t consume chicken or pork.  My wife, Kathleen,  swears by the chicken ones and they only went up a modest twenty-five cents this year.  Meanwhile, TOK, a friend affectionatley known as The Other Kathleen, writes at Good Stuff Northwest about Blooming Goodies.  But TOK didn’t mention my big find last weekend: they have morning glory (the Asian variety).  I didn’t buy any from them, because I’d recently found it at a Thai grocery and cooked it up, but I did get pea shoots.  The morning glory is the slender plant in this photo I took at the Blooming Goodies booth last weekend.  I wonder what those colorful leaves to the left taste like?

To locate other Farmers’ Markets in the Portland area, visit the EcoMetro website.  They produce the Chinook Book, which is sort of an Entertainment Book for people with standards.  I picked up three this year: two I purchased and one that EcoMetro generously sent to me.

This morning I popped outside to check on their progress as they devour the aphids and noticed two unusual ones. I think they’re albino.  Here’s one of ‘em, along with a “larva of color” in the background.

Still, the four of us managed to pick up rapini, chilies, clams, pears, and some homemade ice cream sandwiches.  Kingsley and I had our eyes on wild-caught salmon and talked to the Native American vendor for awhile.  But then our wives reminded us that we already had some salmon in our respective homes.  So next time I’m going to buy a whole fish from the fellow and grill it.

The King Market is nice, not just for the proximity (and the noticeable diversity compared to — say — the Hollywood Market), but also because many of the vendors are favorites from the other markets.  I got my clams at good old Linda Brand.  A full list of vendors is available at the official Portland Farmers’ Market site.

If you’re in Portland, check out the King Market some Sunday morning this season.  Here’s the map.

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This is just one of the bins. Josh and his team have already built several from recycled wood. He thinks they’ll switch to plastic, though. Our climate is not suited for wood bins (as I recently found with my own, which I’ll describe in a future post).

Another cool thing at my campus is that these bins are located within the Learning Garden and any group can apply for a plot or get involved in some way. I’m a librarian and trying to think of a library-themed spot or some way to get the library involved. Do you have any ideas?

That’s me with one of the bikes we cleaned, greased, de-rusted, and prepped for one of the CCC’s main missions: to give bikes to needy kids.  Looks brand new, doesn’t it?

And while cleaning was somewhat satisfying, I got a bigger thrill out of destroying kiddie bikes.  Some of the donations are too beat out to clean up, so we learned to deconstruct them, saving parts like tires, rims, and inner tubes.  We also spared a few chains, seats, horns, etc. from the landfills.

If you’re in the Portland area, and would like to volunteer, check out the opportunities.  And there are plenty of other ways to support if you don’t like to get dirty.