Kickbike & Kettlebell : Dave Riley Lifestyle

Ipadery biziness

Commenting on my everyday use of the iPad is becoming almost de rigeur. The device may not be a great way to create content but it sure makes consuming it a lot easier.

...and exciting. This month the VLC media player was launched as an iPad app so the warhorse of multimedia -- the player that can play anything you may throw at it -- is now iPadded.

Watching videos on the iPad size screen with a pair of earphones plugged in begs a lifestyle change. So I can shift by two clicks from web surfing to ebook reading to video watching on the same tablet....to now writing a blog post.

My favorite apps are the ebook readers, especially Stanza; the Atomic Browser; Goodreader for reading PDF and txt; Reeder for all my feeds; and the VLC media player app.d

I spend my this and that computer time on the iPad and only need to go to my standalone PC to edit and create content.Even though I'm not taking the iPad out and about, I still get great utility moving about the house -- at tables, desks, abed, on a lounge,for kitchen based referencing,etc.

I'm afraid I'm an ipadoholic already.

This post is not about the iPad or the cup of tea or the china ware or the bowl of soup. This post is about the bread.

The soughdough bread.

A good lunch is made a great lunch.

Sourdough starter is made with a small amount of old dough saved from a prior batch, and is sometimes called mother dough orchef. This small amount of old-dough starter contains the culture, and its weight is increased by additions of new dough and mixing or kneading followed by rest or leavening periods. A small amount of the resulting dough is then saved to use as old-dough starter for the next batch. As long as this starter culture is fed flour and water weekly....Sourdough bread is made by combining the increased amount of starter with another new-dough addition, along with any other desired ingredients to make the final dough. ... This final dough may be divided and shaped, then is allowed to rise, and is followed by baking.
It is not uncommon for a baker's starter dough to have years of history, from many hundreds of previous batches. As a result, each bakery's sourdough has a distinct taste. The combination of starter processes, refreshment ratios and rest times, culture and air temperature, humidity, and elevation also makes each batch of sourdough different.

My best recipe so far

My leaven is a wet mix made up from around 150 ml (my reserve starter volume which I keep refrigerated) to one litre and kept in the refrigerator overnight and for a part of the next day.All I do is add water and flour to the starter along with a teaspoon of Diastatic Malt and mix it up. We're talking at least 12 hours of allowing the yeast to get going. It becomes effervescent and sweet smelling and looks like porridge.

I then scoop most of that mix (I keep about 150 ml in reserve for next time) into 1 kilogram of flour mixed with salt (a teaspoon plus) and another teaspoon of Diastatic Malt. I blend this with 700 ml of water. at for now about 3 tablespoons of olive oil ( not essential but I love the taste). I used to use 500 ml of water but find I get the bread I'm after -- a Ciabatta style loaf -- by using a very wet dough. I knead this dough by also folding it a lot as Ciabatta, being so wet, is traditionally folded. It's like wrapping a Christmas present.

I raise the dough for at least another 12 hours (in my oven but with the heat off) , divide it into baking tins and bake at 250 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, remove the bread from the tins and bake for another 15 minutes or until I am happy with the crust and hollowness of the sound I get when I tap the crust. When I remember I place a small bowl of water in the oven when I bake the bread.

Is this the best sourdough baking process? I know of sourdough bakers who approach their baking with even more complex methods than this and I can understand the obsessiveness of the quest.

It's like creating Adam out of clay. Gumby for eating. It's alive!

I am God. Adore me. Eat my bread. And He gave it to his apostles saying ,"take thee and eat,for this is my bread."

Dietary note: I find that if I keep to a procedure like this I create loaves that are lower in carbohydrate content (and no doubt with a lower Glycemic Index) -- but still have enough gluten flex in them to rise well -- than if I deployed a faster baking process. You get warned about 'exhausting' the yeast but I find I can run these long rising times successfully perhaps because I start with such a small proportion of starter culture and utilize an initial rising by relying on refrigeration. If you are diabetic, reducing the carbohydrate content and raising the acidity is a dietary plus. The suggestion is that the yeasts pre-digest the dough before you get your choppers on it. [I can test these elements by taking blood sugar readings 2 hours after consuming the bread.]

I have been a keen user of delicious -- an online social bookmarking and tagging platform . The biziness of bookmarking is quintessential Web 2.0 best practice . But delicious stumbled when it was integrated with Yahoo and dumb buggers like me followed the prompts and integrated their Yahoo account with my delicious one.

Not only am I now locked out of delicious directly but I can no longer sign in using mobile devices like the iPad.

This glitch throws up in sharp relief the other issues I've had with delicious -- such as the crude tagging methodology of being restricted to one word tags and the cumbersome almost non existent search options.

So now I'm saying; stuff this/stuff delicious -- I'm going out on my own.

The extension/bookmarklet blogthis! is a very simple and easy way to bookmark a url and save it to a Blogger blog. Since I am a keen Blogger blogger -- and hacker hobbyist -- the attributes of Blogger are some things I can trust and rely on in this crazy mixed up world much more than I have remaining confidence in delicious.

Blogger is a better bookmarking option than delicious because...

you can compose tags longer than one word and simply separate the completed tag/label with a comma. On Blogger the tag "Social Networking" can be used as is. But on delicious it would have to be written "Social_networking" or using a similar one word squish.
Blogger has an inbuilt search function that not only will search tags, headers, but also bookmarked content that is published as part of the blogthis! post.
you can play around with page layout to customize your preferences. I like to keep all tags in front of me no matter where I go so that I have all search options at my fingertips. So I've moved the label/tag widget to the top of the page and keep the past archive on the side panel .
since I've deployed the great Whiteness template design by QUITE RANDOM all my posts are automatically published with a 'jump break' (a 'read more...' hack). This means they get listed as short posts --rather than full ones --on the top or search and label pages.
Blogger also enables me to post enclosures like images or media so that I can selectively arrange the elements I want to include in my bookmark.I can also edit bookmarks easily, taking out and adding elements and notes as well as altering and adding tags/labels.
Blogger's tag/label editing function is much more powerful and user friendly than that on delicious (above right).
You can integrate your bookmark blog with your other blog presence and of course use the same account to post to it.
Blogger also gives you the option of creating an email address which will enable you to post content to the blog -- bookmark content if you include a url -- by sending an email to it (below). I am exploring the email option as a means to post content from my iPad.

Even in situations where I don't have access to blogthis! most share buttons on websites will enable you to post the link as a Blogger post. If you want to then later forward these bookmarked urls to either Facebook or Twitter you can do that manually or rig up an automatic process using the blog's feed.
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Since I use Google Chrome as my preferred browser --and I'm sure this is also on offer in Firefox -- I use the Add toAny extension for all my bookmarking, including to Blogger.

If using a mobile device like the iPad it is easy to rig up your browser for posting content and links via email. I use Atomic Browser on the iPad and emailing bookmarked content works fine. The only drawback is the iPad's cumbersome copy/paste functionality.

The three major handicaps with Blogger as a bookmarking tool are:

If you have several blogs, as I do, you can accidentally post content to the wrong blog
When you post using bookmarking tools like buttons or blogthis! you cannot add a label/tag with the post. You need to edit that in later.
If you don't use BlogThis! your post header won't be the bookmarked url -- that will be located in the body of the post.

That said, here's the site so far: Dave Riley's bookmarks -- bookmarketed.blogspot.com.

Still under construction..

Posting via email tip:

If you supply hyperlink html syntax in the email subject line your post will be published with the link as a header (although this may vary with email programs)The HTML code for a link is a simple a href exercise

Hack notes

If you switch on Show link fields (Blogger/Settings/Formatting) so you can add and customize links to the header if you want.
And while the header of the blog post will be a link back to the bookmarked url the "Read more.." link will take you to the rest of your published post.
If you want to group labels/tags Blogger allows you to create any number of label widgets and select which labels you want included in each one. If you use the drop down label hack you can get some snazzy groupings down your side column without taking up a lot of space. See bookmarketed.blogspot.com. for examples.

I had been discussing my paddleski options -- musing , contemplating. When last I addressed the topic I praised the Finn Gadget .

The Gadget is a little boat -- length 2.40 metres ;beam 0.90 metres -- with straight lines and a catamaran style hull. I call these things 'paddleskis' but they get promoted as sit on top kayaks. With the sort of design it has I'm not reminded of Inuit travel at all.

Small and light -- 18kgm -- this video shows you the way the Gadget comes together for water use. If you like looking at edges and holes or handles and contours, and people dragging boats about ... this is the video for you.

Previously in regard to handline fishing I have waffled on about my various experiments with fishing rigs -- the irony being that handline fishing is supposedly about travelling lite.

My last few times out the creel I made up for carrying my wares -- and catches -- is proving a real drag on my shoulders.

After my last handline fishing expedition I scooted back from Nudgee Beach on my wee Mibo which has no carrying shelf or basket and the creel road very uncomfortably upon my person.

So after contemplating my problem, I decided that what I needed was a fishing vest upon which I could load my stuff rather than rely upon a bag I draped over my person. But bona fide fishing vests don't come cheap. The archetypal fly fisherman's costume is a wardrobe item for hanging fishing paraphenalia. If you want to keep your chest ware simple , thought I, maybe I could approach this creatively.

If you don't want all that opens and shuts (like the $80 Plano at right or hundreds of dollars more for more expensive vests) you can get the MTI Calcutta Kayak Fishing Unisex PFD --pictured above left -- (see descriptive video) for around the same price. As well as being a vest it is also a Type 3 PFD.

More than just a life jacket, the USCG Type III approved Calcutta is prepped for fishing. It features five pockets: one mesh exterior pocket, two big tackle-box pockets and two interior pouches. There's even holders built in for pliers and a pin-on retractable to hold line clippers or nippers. D-rings on front and back are convenient attachments for motor kill switches. Hook-resistant shell. Three-buckle front closure. One size fits all.

So with a mesh bag for my catch (I'm still experimenting with meshes and bags ) I'm now no longer burdened with carrying gear for the sake of it.

And when I do finally get a paddleski -- I'm already water safe with my already worn in PFD.

So unless I land something really big (huh!), getting to and from the water's edge on a scooter is going to be an easier business, and wading the sandbanks will no longer be a cause for sore shoulders.

Next time I'll show you how I rig up my new vest. (Mine's red).

I bake bread 2-3 times each week. It's a routine. It may be a domestic chore but it is also a glorious quest. You can do a lot with flour and water.

if you add home sourdough
and salt
and a squish of olive oil

When and how you do all this, in what amounts, and in conjunction with what mixing and kneading activity will determine the qualities of your final loaf.

Here in Australia you need to add Diastatic Malt to local flours if you are going to use sourdough for the yeasting. The rest is up to you...

And being up to me, this week I baked the sort of loaf I've always aspired to.

I'm chasing a Ciabatta style loaf but one that is higher and more easily sliced vertically. Ciabatta is chewy with a ready penchant to be holey with a firm crust. It's the sort of bread, in my estimation, that improves with age. Handmade, well made, three day old Ciabatta should be delicious and can be eaten without accompaniment -- like butter.

Such is the bread I baked three days ago (pictured above).

I am on a winner.

Bread like this takes time to create.

I feed my sourdough starter and allow it to enliven and rise overnight -- at least 12 hours -- in the refrigerator.
I then mix the sourdough with more flour, water, salt and a little olive oil before kneading it. The feel and texture of the dough, its elasticity, is the main skill with kneading. You need to stretch the gluten out and play with it. Tease it.
I let the dough rise for a good part of a day. (Contrary to what some of my peers have suggested I do not exhaust the yeast by deploying this long rise.)
I then bake the loaves at very high temperatures to encourage rise and bounce in an oven with a bowl of water placed on its floor before reducing the temperature so that the crust will firm up. I bake for at least 45 minutes...I say 'at least' because I always check the loaf for its drum like hollow sound. That decides when the loaf is ready.

When you are working with a wet dough -- and Ciabatta requires a wet dough -- you need to ensure that you don't end up with a loaf that is too moist. So you can't make it too wet or bake it so that the rising is still squelchy. There's a skill involved. The end result depends not only on your mix and your knead, but also how you navigate the oven temperature and time...and your oven's quirks.

I'd like to be definitive and specify quantities and times exactly but beside spoiling some of the fun and personal challenge involved, there are so many variables en route to the final baked loaf that it is hard to make a ruling.

While I may sound a tad obsessive -- but I do like to cook -- my passion for sourdough is also foundered on the wonderful attribute that what I bake and later eat does not impact greatly on my blood sugar levels. I can eat this stuff without a major spike in my carbohydrate issues.

Other breads -- commercial breads, alternative whole grain breads -- will cause my blood sugar level to rise sharply by 1-2 mmol. With this stuff I bake I'm more in control.

Even when it's made from white flour, sourdough bread has a relatively mild effect on blood sugar compared to other white breads and even whole grain breads.The acid in sourdough slows the emptying of the stomach, thereby slowing the delivery of glucose to the bloodstream.This anti-glycemic effect can last through to the next meal, slowing the emptying of the stomach even a few hours later.Researchers in Sweden noted that the fermentation process that’s involved in the creation of sourdough utilizes carbohydrates, lowering the carbohydrate level in the dough as it’s transformed to lactic acid.

Since I am indeed hooked on the iPad experience I thought an update was warranted...You'll get one anyway.

I use the iPad around the house -- preferring it to being sentenced to the one computer desk.I use it in bed, on a lounge chair, at the kitchen table or work bench...if I was careless, I could bathe with it.

That mobility means that I can lay out my torso in a lot of difference ergonomic options -- move around -- even locate the tablet at different locations on my body or at varying distances from my eyes.

It's computer grazing as distinct from browsing.

I've got myself some books on the iPad --starting with the standard approach level stuff: iPad for Dummies -- and each day I skill up.

I am still delighted with what it offers in way of reading text . I'm now also using another excellent free ebook reading app -- Stanza -- which also offers an eclectic range of free titles drawn from several libraries. Stanza is not as intuitive as iBook -- Apples' own ebook reader -- but once you master the interface it has all the attributes you need to plow through any volume.

The sheer ease and convenience these eBook readers offer you make me wonder about the future of print and hard copy. When I was a young'un my preferred quest was to own my own extensive library and over the years I carted around from one rental accommodation to the next an ever growing number (and weight!) of books (and records). Ah biblioholia! I'd always be out and about with at least one paperback in my pocket or bag -- and read , read, read on trains, trams and buses, at cafes and at any spare moment.

Now I have a world of books -- many more than I could have physically collected -- at my fingertips on the iPad screen anywhere anytime. And for free or cheaper than the shops.

I ceased to haunt bookshops long ago when I became library savvy and my hard copy collection would now number maybe a few dozen cherished texts which I re-read time and time again.

On top of this, sites I use a lot like Scribd not only offer a massive pdf collection of contributed books and other literature items in pdf -- self publishers will soon be able to sell their works through Scribd store and Stanza also has a category dedicated to self published works and small publishers: SmashWords:

Smashwords is a free service that helps you publish, promote, distribute and sell your masterpiece as a multi-format ebook, ready for immediate sale online at a price you determine. Because we publish your book in multiple ebook formats, your book is readable on any e-reading device, including the Amazon Kindle, the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, the Sony Reader, the Barnes & Noble nook, your personal computer, Android devices, and others. As a Smashwords author, you gain access to free, do-it-yourself sales and marketing tools to help you promote your book. You receive 85 percent of the net sales proceeds from your titles (70.5% for affiliate sales)....If you're the exclusive publisher of two or more different authors, and you want to list and control your authors' titles on Smashwords, then upgrade your account for free to Publisher status. This allows you to list and publish all your authors and their titles as multi-format, DRM-free ebooks. Each publisher is provided a custom-branded online bookstore, and the ability to list an unlimited number of ebook titles from an unlimited number of authors

So while the youth may be wetting themselves over the iPad's multimedia attributes --and it is a iPod /iTunes like device with superb HD video -- the humble line of text jumps out of the tablet in a new and very creative way.

Nonetheless, before iPading as your chosen (and only) eBookery option, it is worth while considering other ebook reader platforms.

eBooks compared (Wikipedia)
eBooks: Tipping or Vanishing Point?

The New York Kickscooter group published a piece back in 2007 which addressed the question: Why buy a footbike, push or kick scooter?

Why indeed...

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Buy a Footbike, Push or Kick Scooter
Simplicity: Fun and easy way of exercise and transportation.

Portability: Kick scooters can easily be folded and carried, while footbikes are light and easy to carry.

Ease of Use: You can hop off, walk or stop and browse shops any time you like.

Clean: No messy chains to grease your clothing. You can wear your working clothes without having to worry about stains or snags.

Low Maintenance: The absence of chains, derailleurs and fewer moving parts minimize the chances of disrepair.

Painless: No pedals to hurt your shins and no more saddle injuries.

Urban-friendly: Allowed on streets, sidewalks and footpaths.

Environmentally-friendly: Foot-powered and does not require gasoline.

Cheap Transportation Alternative: Avoid the rising cost of gas, because push scooters do not need a motor to run.

Pleasurable Commute: An easy ride on a Kickbike takes about 5 to 8 minutes per mile. On a Xootr you can also go fast and cover ground, because its wheels are three times as large as skate wheels.

Is there anything else that needs to be said? Is some updating required?

Since then the big wheel scooter -- the much faster 'kickbike' -- has taken footage and today fewer scooters fold. If you want small wheels my view is that the Xootr is the smallest you should go for commute use; but really you won't experience scooter touring on micro wheels.

The table published by Xootr (above) however may be a bit misleading as it compares the 200 mm/8 inch pneumatic wheel to other low kickboard vehicles.

Personally I'd not get on anything smaller than 12.5 inches and preferably with pneumatic tires under me primarily because the terrain and surfaces you'll scoot can be unforgiving. If your mindset is skateboard you are going to miss the big picture.

The problem is that never region between really small wheels and the really big ones, at least in the front. If you check out some of the videos I have shared here on kickbiking, you may get a feel for a very different scooter culture -- one that is not held hostage to a competitive athleticism akin to the Tour de France or the rather oppressive gillet and jersey bike culture that seems to be descending across urban Australia.

Anyone can scoot. Anyone should scoot at any time if fancy takes them. No formalities of dress or style or 'fitness' are required.

When you consider the Dutch Steprace or the way the Czech scooter culture is Slav pervasive, you need to consider the 10 good reasons to scoot on their own very tangible merits.

Although I may not actually launch myself upon the waters because of all those factors I touched on in my last paddleski post , I am still fascinated by the option of -- or the chance to -- mess about in boats.

I haven't owned a boat since I was a teenager. Nothing big mind you -- a lumbering wooden paddleski -- but I loved paddling the thing, surfing with it, touring and spending my Summers atop its hard flat wooden surface.

And now, I want to relive my youth but with certain caveats in place....My backside is much older... and more worn... and (let's be nautical) beamier for instance.

Here on this blog you'll find a lot of discussion about the Thuyền thúng Coracle which I'd be constructing now if I wasn't moving house. The thing is that while the Vietnamese coracle may suit the Nudgee inlet on Moreton Bay near here-- it won't suit the two main environments I have in mind to boat about in at Beachmere -- the river and the tidal mud flats.

While any old boat would do, any second hand sit on, I reckon there's a boating niche there that warrants my utmost engagement.

This is where the Finn Gadget comes into the navigational picture.

The Finn Gadget

The Finn Gadget is a 'sit on top' kayak. -- at least that's its classification. But in shape, beaminess, broad catamaran like hull, the Gadget reminds me more of a coracle than a kayak (to be precise, the Ironbridge Coracle. With a great carrying capacity -- 130 kgm -- and short length -- 2.4 metres -- it's a well engineered boat!

As the folk at Finn Kayaks tell me, " to sit around in comfort and stability (in all conditions – we’ve tried it extensively) it really is comfortable."

Ah, comfort....

If you partake of the (sea) kayaking milieu -- and it's a big deal here in South East Qld -- you can go high tech, high price and craft-long very quickly in ratcheting $100 segments.

But I'm after limited use window, very specific -- shallow waters , river mouth and upstream with a preference for getting to places I can't walk to and keeping my appendages free of the pearly whites of any passing Bull Shark.

Sailing, Flat Bottoms... and Leeboards?

The more I contemplate the Gadget -- terrible name isn't it? -- the more interesting is its design. I think I can also look forward to sailing it -- perhaps initially by umbrella! This option has also revived my ongoing interest in leeboards., but with its cat hull the Gadget may not need to be leeboarded.

More's the engineering pity!

But leeboards are ideal for sailing acraft in shallow waters so that it won't capsize and Beachmere does its waters really shallow. (And if you run over a Dugong, the boards swing back as a leeboard pivots.)

The other features of the Gadget that excited me are its flat bottom -- handy if you are dragging the beast over mudflats -- and its lightness -- 18 kgm. I'm imagining myself also using it like some river barg dragging it behind me as a cart while I wade the shallows fishing for Whiting, Bream and Flathead. Porting the boat the 700 metres from home to the beach should be easy -- so long as the tide is in when I get there..

I already have a very large bike cart.

Then when I board I get myself a roomy seat and maybe I can even raise that seat's profile a bit with some interior redesign. I can store my box of fishing stuff in the boot -- it's like a car hatch back -- and paddle off into the big blue.

The Gadget aint gonna track as well as a longer and less beamier kayak or surfski but if I don't want to be in a hurry -- and a little bit of waddling is OK -- I reckon the Gadget and me will hit it off. Thats' the kickbiker in me talkling:' The more hurry the less speed”

Great design job, Finn.

I aint got me one yet, but my thoughts are as you see...and I keep on thinking them.

I am experiencing the iPad at first hand -- as I am using what is , for now, my daughter's iPad.

And I love it!

I am going through a revolution in my computer interfacery.

The irony is that I most value the iPad because it is such a useful eBook reader -- but then it is much easier to read the web on the iPad than on a standard computer screen with clickity mouse moves.

I don't have access to a iMac so I cannot sync between machines -- and an iPad is engineered to force you to Mac up -- so my experience is limited.

I was very disappointed with the web access I got via Safari. I'm a keen user of Google Chrome and I may be waiting some months before Chrome is made available (if at all,as not at all is more likely) as an iPad app. Nonetheless, I purchased a Google reader app -- Reeder -- which has completely changed my access to the feeds I subscribe to. What a dream read it is! I'm still stuck with a less than serviceable access to Google Mail inside Safari but another app -- GoodReader -- has greatly enhanced my iPad access to online files, especially those in pdf format -- and any archive I may have on Google Docs. Without GoodReader, pdf is a pain on iPad.

The only significant drawbacks with the iPad are:

It doesn't support flash. However, many sites are converting their multimedia to accomodate this quirk of the iPad.
The 'pop up' keyboard can be cumbersome to use especially when entering text for some online sites(eg: Blogger and facebook comments)
It's engineered to screw you for money. iPad is set up as an emporium funded by your credit card.

But hey! I'm hooked. I suspect that this little gadget formats the future for personal computing. eBooking rather than hard copy publishing too seems the way ahead. That I can switch between reading a free novel and checking on my facebook profile or the latest news online via text or video, while being located anywhere I may be at, suggests that we are in a new era.

'tis one that I appreciate.

Update: I solved some of my browser issues by using the 'Atomic Web browser app. 'Tis a much better browser than Safari esp for those who prefer tabs and like to play around with bookmarks.

I was also asked about Kindle vs iPad. ...Well, you get Kindle with iPad, along with iBooks and Borders ebook readers. The programs are more or less similar but the big difference is that with iPad you also get web access so you also get to read the web with a much better digital text experience .

Above left is an online LINKS article as it appears on the iPad with a little touch screen formatting -- and that's merely a single hand gesture --opening a hand -- and with 'scrolling' like stroking a kitten.

Online reading is a totally new experience.

Compare that presentation to the way it appears on a standard computer screen (image left) at some distance from your nose.

I'm reading Dickens' Tale of Two Cities on iBooks at the moment and the past 400 pages have been a great joy to read. I prefer these eBook offerings to holding and visually scanning hard copy.

Reading is a totally new experience.

You can get a combination in-your-hand and eBook reader that also offer web access by using a netbook. But a netbook aint gonna be as comfortable to hold as the iPad or a dedicated eBook reader.Even when you pivot the text, holding the thing for any length of time is going to be cumbersome.

If you check out JB Hi Fi you'll see some cheaper eBook readers than either Kindle or iPad and, you should note that the Wink was launched in India last month . If you are after an eBook reader and only that -- why pay big bucks?

In a few months, Google is set to launch its own tablet to compete with the iPad.

Tablets are go. This may indeed be the end of hard copy.

So would I get a dedicated eBook reader and miss out on 'reading' the web the way I can do now with the iPad? No way. I want my eCake and I want to eat it too.

Nonetheless, the iPad is designed to be codependent with an iMac especially the way content is synced . It Apple-izes you because the best way to experience the iPad as a adjunct to the iMac.

You become part of the Steve Jobs business plan.

Since I will indeed be moving I can begin to focus my attention on the new abode. A major feature of my proposed new existence will be to prospect to harness a north/south aspect for the growing of consumables.

The soil is gardening bad -- both sandy and boggy with a lot of clay in the mix. -- so I'm thinking I'll import my soil by:

collecting manures from local horse, cow and goat farms

mixing in seaweeds-- sea grasses -- collected from the shore line

prevailing upon local lawnmower folk to dump their grass clippings at my place. These I will blend into my new DIY soil.

run the house garbage through a compost bin.

The pH will be high -- so I get to lime.

But my major interest was deciding what I'd keep my new soil in for growing and harvesting purposes.-- and raise it above the wetness.

EarthBag agriculture.

Earthbag construction is a building walls with 'sand' (or other aggregate) bags (see pic top left). I'm not planning to build a whole house, just garden walls. The process of constructing earthbag garden beds is rather simple and inexpensive especially if you make do with materials to hand.

I'm planning on using what bagging I can locate, 'sowing' the bags to shape with staples; and linking the rows with barbed wire.

The bags can be draped with either burlap or chicken wire mesh (image above right) before rendering.

If you don't render, the plastic would deteriorate in the UV light....

Layout and Design

There are many tips on how to design your vegetable garden for best effect, but in studying this contribution -- How to build raise garden beds (and below)-- its' logical approach was very appealing.

The images ( at left) give you an idea of the concept. These raised bed walls are made of concrete -- so they are not availing themselves of my low carbon shortcut.

But the addition of the frames makes so much good sense in my climate. In Summer here in Queensland you need to shade your crop and maybe protect it from rain and moisture. What a great solution -- permanent frame you use to support shade cloth or whatever.In Winter you can cover the frames with sheet plastic and make mini greenhouses.

As for shape and size I was much taken with this article: Block style layout in raised bed vegetable gardens. The layout concepts, developed by Colorado State University, are very persuasive -- as they adjust size in order to make function and access more flexible.

So them's my notes for now...but first I gotta move.

How to build raise garden beds

FastFoot is the largest amateur cross and downhill race scooters in the Czech Republic. This year he played in Celadna in partnership with tan Ski Resort. There were prepared 7 km track.The race was attended by 55 participants. In the category of Extreme falling speed records (Vlasta Matýsek with an average speed of 96 km / h). Thanks to all competitors and spectators!We look forward to FastFoot 2011!

More FastFoot here...

Ipadery biziness

Baking sourdough bread for the soup of the day : the obsessive quest

Using Blogger for internet bookmarking and social tagging -- delicious not.

Finn Gadget : the Movie

Fishing Vest for Handline Fishing Out and About

Bread, cheese, and kisses: baking sourdough

More iPadery : computer grazing

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Ride a Footbike, Push or Kick Scooter

Paddleski options: the Finn Gadget -- stability and function

Some quick thoughts on Ipad-ery

Some design notes for a raised bed vegetable garden

VIDEO The Czechs and their scooters

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