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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Sat, 31 May 2008I decided, around the same time that I decided I wanted to grow some edible plants, that I should get a rain barrel for irrigating. Water isn't that expensive around here, but it rains a lot, and paying for stuff that falls out of the sky for free seemed a little goofy, when it doesn't need to be carefully treated to help out plants. So, yesterday, I rode the Xtracycle up to 172nd and Aurora, where there's a nursery which also sells rain barrels. These are actually fairly fancy barrels, with spigots attached and everything. I'm sure I paid more than I had to, at $55 before tax, but I'm picking my battles here. Getting it home was no great feat, and I actually picked up the barrel on the way up to Jesse's house, to retrieve something I'd forgotten earlier in the day. The barrel is this great big black thing, 57 gallons and made of plastic. It looked really impressive on the back of the bike, but weighing in at 10-15 lbs, wasn't much of a load to worry about (other than a brief bout of side-wind, which was more exciting than I'd anticipated). The advice I'd gotten at the nursery was to make a good, solid foundation for the barrel -- 57 gallons at 8 lbs per gallon is 456 pounds, which is nothing to sneeze at. Since the barrel was to go where a downspout has been discharging its contents for years, who knew how soggy the ground would be. So, I resolved to head out to the nearby Lowes, and pick up some foundation stuff. I thought ahead somewhat, but not really enough. My plan was to get a bag of paving sand and some cinderblocks. Of course, when I prepped the house for sale last year, I got rid of a big stack of cinderblocks, but there was nothing for that now. I loaded a plastic crate on the deck of the Xtracycle, to keep the blocks from scratching up the plywood, and headed out. At the store, I picked up three cinderblocks (I'd forgotten how very heavy cinderblocks are), and a bag of sand. The thought of riding unbalanced again was disquieting, so I wheeled my cart around to the garden section, and picked up another bag of compost, as much for ballast as anything else. As long as I was there, I grabbed a few other things I needed: a short section of hose for the barrel, a new hose nozzle to replace the one that'd fallen apart recently, some tomato stakes, a section of flexible downspout, etc. Nothing else of any weight. Loading the bike, however, was challenging. The stuff that went in the sidebags was fine, if a little over-stuffed. The really hard part was the cinderblocks. I'd eyeballed things, and figured that I could fit three blocks in my crate. I was wrong. No matter how I stacked them, I could really only fit two in. I briefly considered leaving one stashed somewhere, and coming back for it -- I probably should have done that. Instead, I worked out a "clever" system whereby I got the whole, 100+ pound load on the bike. The third cinderblock was causing me a fair deal of worry -- the bike would no longer stand on its kickstand, and the whole thing nearly went over as I was trying to get things secured. Finally, I got everything lashed down, and tried to get on the bike. It almost went over again, and it was only by dint of a lot of grunting and swearing that I got it back upright, and my leg over the frame. It was ok for a moment, but the prospect of actually moving filled me with a certain amount of dread. This was way more weight than I'd dealt with before, and it wasn't behaving nicely. It was the way that the bike kept trying to pivot up and over that clued me in. Very gingerly, I set off. I figured I'd either make it home, or come to my senses, and stash a cinderblock or three along the way. The bike swayed with the slightest provocation: the top cinderblock was nearly 4 feet in the air, and about 3 feet from the nearest torsional support. It swayed like a drunk sailor. Possibly a distracted drunk sailor. Pedalling made it worse. I realized that it would be a very slow trip back home. I made the mistake, once, of getting over 10 MPH, and thought for sure the oscillations would have me on the ground. So, through dilligent use of brakes and attempting to time my steering inputs to kill the oscillation instead of feed it (which was hard to do, and which I only got right some of the time), I slowly made my way home. The trip normally only takes 5 minutes, but I'm also not normally trying to balance 50-odd pounds of cinderblock on top of a two-foot lever about which I'm also attempting to balance, steer and accelerate. I think it took 20 minutes to get home, but I'm not sure; I was concentrating too hard on not capsizing. I finally got home, and said to myself, I've got to take a picture of this! But... the bike wouldn't stand on its kickstand, and I ended up having to lean it against the bannister to keep it from crashing over (and probably destroying the disturbingly brittle cinderblocks). I grabbed my camera, and took a couple of fairly unimpressive shots:
They're unimpressive because, although the load was mighty, it doesn't look like much. It would have been a lot more impressive to have video of myself wobbling down the street, trying not to make any sudden moves. You'll just have to trust that it was sufficiently frightening that I won't be doing anything like that again. I felt my body continue swaying for the rest of the night, as if a ghostly load were still cantilevered off my bum. Sort of like having your sea legs. Anyway. Today, I spent a couple of hours digging, pouring sand, levelling sand, installing blocks, pulling up blocks, re-levelling sand (lather, rinse, repeat), and finally stacking my rain barrel in place:
And, as if the universe were rewarding me for my hard work, it rained enough today to deposit an inch or two of water in the bottom of the barrel. It works! Still nowhere near the level of the drain spigot, but it was pleasing that a couple hours of light rain produced such a tangible effect. A couple more days like this one, and I'll actually be able to water plants without spending a cent on water. We'll just ignore the nearly $90 I spent on setting up the barrel... Posted at 19:27 permanent link category: /misc Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |
