The Bells of Mindfulness at Montalvo Arts Center

July 30, 2013 dstsai Leave a comment

I happened to stop by Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California at the end of my daughter’s summer camp when this exhibit and performance took place. It’s called “The Bells of Mindfulness” by Tiffany Singh, the artist who elegantly hung all the bells and origami cranes on a persimmon tree inside the Italianate Garden inside the Montalvo Arts Center.

After a conversation with the artist, people gathered in front of the persimmon tree and watched the “Activation of The Bells of Mindfulness – An Offering for Ending and Beginning” performance by Lauren Baine, followed by the giving of the bells to the public.

The tree was beautifully decorated and the performance mesmerizing. The was no music – just the resonances of the bells as the dancer flowed and danced through the “forest” of bells and paper cranes. We managed to pick up 4 bells of different sizes at the end when all the bells were freely removed and taken home by the audience.

It’s a very refreshing and rewarding experience.

Travels

Bears Wrestling One Another at the Fortress of the Bear, Sitka, Alaska

July 29, 2013 dstsai 1 Comment

I recently came back from the cruise trip to Alaska. One of the more memorable excursions my family took was at the Fortress of the Bear in Sitka, Alaska. I recorded the below video to share with you. Yes, two brother bears do horse (or bear) around like two human kids except kids probably don’t trample tires like the bears do. There are 5 bears in the two sides of the fortress. Enjoy!

Gardening

Digging “Black Gold” from the Community Compost Site in Cupertino

July 28, 2013 dstsai Leave a comment

When it comes to organic gardening, nothing beats the good old compost, considered by many gardener to be the “black gold.” After reading the book, “Teaming with Microbes,” I have come to appreciate how critical compost is to growing organic vegetables.

I heard from others a while ago about the “free” compost in Cupertino, California where I live. After spending more than $7 on a 2-cubic-feet bag of organic compost at Home Depot last week and failed attempt to do traditional compost, I decided to check out this Cupertino compost site last week. I videotaped the entire experience. If you live in Cupertino, by all means, check out the place and bring home some compost for your garden. I have even gone back a second time to grab more this week! For those who don’t live in Cupertino, be sure to check if you city offers a similar service, perhaps not free but at a less expensive price tag than you can get from Home Depot.

This compost site is located in the Steven Creek Quarry Factory or 12100 Quarry Road, Cupertino. You would need to bring your ID to show you’re a Cupertino resident and bring lots of buckets and a shovel to start digging!

Gardening, Tips

Making Bokashi Bran with Shredded Newspaper

July 23, 2013 dstsai 4 Comments

For the last 6 months or so, I have embarked on a journey to finding that closed “system” that allows me and my family to reduce our garbage volume while enriching/fertilizing my vegetable garden which in turn feeds my family and reduces our grocery bill. Who wouldn’t like that?

I started out with traditional composting – my second attempt with lots of research and efforts. And boy, the compost piles really stunk probably due to neglects and ignorance! Most of the homes in our area simply are not large enough to create enough of a critical mass/pile (3’x3’x3′) or ~1 cubic yard to be successful with the traditional compost. I have yet to find a foolproof way to do traditional compost without creating a big mess and smell.

I stumbled on Bokashi composting as an alternative to the traditional composting, thanks for many video channels on youtube and other reference sites. Initially, I bought a Bokashi compost kit that includes a special bin and a bag of Bokashi bran for me to sprinkle over the kitchen waste. It works really well in composting continuous stream of kitchen waste without the bad smell. This was fine until I found out that each bag of Bokashi bran costs about $10. Each bag lasts about 2 months or so. It might be cheaper to just buy 3 cubic feet of compost!

So I decided to find out how to make my own Bokashi bran and made a how-to video.

Bokashi bran are usually made of wheat bran inoculated with the beneficial bacteria – cultured in “EM”. Wheat bran works well but is hard to find in bulk and relatively expensive compared to shredded old newspaper. Here I show you how to make Bokashi “Bran” with shredded newspaper instead of wheat bran.

The EM can be purchased here. 12oz bottle should be sufficient and good for a couple of years for most families.

Tips

DIY Curb Ramp for Cars

July 21, 2013 dstsai Leave a comment

I have an extra car that’s parked on a RV (Recreational Vehicle) spot that doesn’t have a driveway (ramp). To save my cars’ shock absorber, I needed to get a car ramp. The cheapest plastic ramp I could get costs upward of $45 at Amazon (RhinoGear 11909). I thought it would be fun to make one.

At first, I made one with cement, the same one used to make fence post. It cost about $5. But structurally it’s brittle (I broke one of them because it didn’t mix the cement well) and heavy (40+ lbs, difficult to store away when not used, instead of 10 lbs when made of wood). So I came up with this idea of using a 8′ long 2×4 when it was on sale at Home Depot for less than $3. I cut the 2×4 (1.5″x3 3/8″x8′) into the following segments:

3x 16″ = 48″ (for the parallel-to-curb pieces)
4x 12″ = 48″ (for the orthogonal-to-curb pieces)

Then I stacked them like match sticks. Next I drilled them using spade drill bits:
3/8″ first to drill through the stack. Then I use 5/8″ spade drill for just 1/2″ deep for the hex nut side (so the hex doesn’t stick out) (top side of the ramp) and use 3/4″ spade drill for just 1/2″ deep on the nut/bottom side for just 1/2″ so it’s easier to tighten the nuts on the bottom. The final pictures are here:

Bottom View:

Now, here’s the final test:

Update:
Check out how I made it again here.

Gardening

My Favorite Gardening Youtube Channels – And You’ll Learn A Lot Too

June 27, 2013 dstsai 5 Comments

After catching the gardening bug, I’ve been busy reading AND watching lots of Youtube gardening help videos. Here are my favorite YouTube gardening channels:

1. Grow You Green by John Koeler: Growyourgreen. John Koeler is passionate about growing your green at home. He goes on field trips to visit stores, gardens, conferences and bring back lots of new, interesting things to the self-made gardeners/audiences. His videos are often long with good entertainment value if you don’t mind the occasional “preaching.”

2. MphGardener Mr. MphGardener taught me so much about hydroponic gardening and somewhat fact-based tricks behind it. Very informative and down to earth if you don’t mind the religious lean.

3. Gary Pilarchik’s Rusted Garden and his Rusted Garden blog. Gary gives very concise tips and instructions on gardening. You can learn a lot within a short time.

4. Praxxus55712: Ray fashioned an easy-going, happy gardening method. He raised turkeys, chickens and a wonderful co-host, Rascal, the dog. It’s so relaxing to watch him and learn from him.

5. LDSpepper: LDSpepper also gives lots of good gardening tips and setting up the garden. He promotes the Mittleider Gardening Method, which seems a bit dogmatic to me. Informative but corny at times.

6. Grow Organic Peaceful Valley or their website: Professionally-done videos hosted by ??. Excellent videos to teach organic gardening. Some of the videos are designed to promote things they sell – informative, nevertheless.

I hope to seen share some of gardening experience on this site. Stay tuned…

Book Reviews, Gardening

Book Review: Container Gardening for Dummies by Bill Marken, Suzzane DeJohn

May 28, 2013 dstsai Leave a comment

Decided to read this book after reading the “Gardening Basics for Dummies” as I have been getting hot and heavy into raised-bed container gardening.

There are pros and cons of gardening in containers. I like the portability and the modular nature of containers (less prone to normal soil diseases) but dislike the time consuming, manual watering. For lots of people living in high rise, this may be the only choice. Like most for-dummies books, it’s a good basic book that cover the basic but I think it’s probably good enough for most people who live in the city and small gardening space. The unique challenges of the container gardening are highlighted to be overcome.

Part 1 is about getting ready for potting. Pros and Cons are discussed in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 covers the climate. I learned that pots are exposed to more temperature extremes due to its small mass. How to pick the pots is considered in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 gets the soil right. The author recommends 1/2 cubic yard of sphagnum peat moss, 1/2 cubic yard of vermiculite, plus 10 lbs bone meal, 5 lbs, dolomitic limestone, 5 lbs, blood meal. Then Chapter 5 gives you all you need to plant it into the pot.

Part 2 covers the annuals, plants, vegetables, herbs, and bulbs.

Part 3 covers the perennials and indoor gardening.

Part 4 helps you maintain the plants’ health on watering, fertilizing, repotting, pests and diseases.

Part 5 goes into the designing and decoration with the container plants.

Part 6 contains the part of ten or the top 10 ways to make gardening more accessible, 10+ categories of plants for easy annual flowers, easy vegetables and herbs, to start from seeds, attractive & edible plants, fragrant plants, deer-resistant plants, gift plants. There are more plants you can’t go wrong with for full sun, and part shade, and shade, and annual flowers by shape (tall, shrubby, and trailing).

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