Best of AM Sustainable Saturday - Hybrids and Lifts

This post is from May of last year.  This New York Heritage Weekend did not seem to repeat this year but there will be something even better this June 1-2 and 8-9.  It involves beer and technology - old and new. (Binghamton itself never had a commercial brewing industry "way back", at least any that I know of, but other New York state cities did.)  Should be interesting.

Please enjoy this post about what happened in May of 2012 in the meantime.

Today, as part of the New York Heritage Weekend, venues all across New York State held open houses or festivals.  Since it was Sustainable Saturday, I visited a venue called the Center for Technology and Innovation.

This center is located just outside of downtown Binghamton, New York, in an industrial area.  They hold, I found out, several open houses each year.

One of the missions of this center is to preserve and restore technology that was developed in our local area.  (Did you know, for example, that innovative car companies operated in upstate New York during the early 20th century?) I will feature more about their mission in a future blog post.

Today, as part of Heritage NY, the Center was demonstrating the technology of tomorrow.  This included several types of hybrid or  vehicles and a hybrid lift that uses the downward motion of the lift to generate power back to the unit.

I have talked about BAE Systems, late of my neighborhood, and relocated in nearby Endicott (ironically, on the former IBM campus - IBM having originated in Binghamton, NY as a time machine manufacturer and then moved to Endicott and eventually the world) due to flooding caused by Tropical Storm Lee in September 2011 that destroyed their Westover facility.  This is one of the items that they manufacture - a hybrid truck

Another product they manufacture is hybrid buses - they used to test these in my neighborhood and I would see them sometimes on my way to work.

There were several electric cars on display:  a Chevy Volt (not made here but it was a local dealer displaying them) which is not a true hybrid; and an electric car that was once a regular "gas guzzler" 87 Dodge Daytona until modified by its owner, Jason Horak..  He explained the modification cost about $25,000. (not too cost effective, admittedly) but he can go 100 miles on a charge, which currently costs him about $2.00.  Here is an explanatory poster, and a picture of the back batteries.

Jason explained to us that although it appears that the batteries appear to take up most of the hatchback, in reality they are set pretty far down and he carries luggage, groceries, etc. in the back (with a cover, of course) easily.

This is a picture of the Chevy Volt, which, again, is not a true "hybrid" but does have a gasoline engine in addition to being able to run on electricity.

And finally, the lift, which is manufactured by local Raymond Corporation, a manufacturer of forklifts.

( here is a video demonstrating the lift in action).

Do you think a hybrid vehicle is in your future?  Does your home town use hybrid mass transit vehicles?  Or manufacture hybrid equipment?

Like Christmas in May

My spouse and I have cut way back on starting plants from seed for a number of reasons (time and energy being a major reason.  Perhaps, laziness is another.)  I suspect that when we retire, we will get back to starting plants from seed.

We generally purchase plants from a couple of local nurseries who grow their own plants, Nanticoke Gardens  and Tioga Gardens. We also buy (too much!) from the Ithaca area annual extension sale, which I will blog about in June.  Thankfully, my spouse and I are both working right now, and can afford this obsession.

But sometimes, we find ourselves mail ordering some types of plants we find hard to get locally.

It's fun when that package arrives - almost like Christmas in May, except (unless you are forgetful like me and forget what you ordered!) you know what you are getting.


This year, I decided to treat myself to some flowers from Burpees-an impatien that is a Burpees exclusive.  I also ordered a type of basil, Cardinal basil, that I've grown the last several years (except last year, when I skipped my annual Burpees order due to extreme disappointment- a rarity - with my order of 2011).

The plants arrived yesterday, in a plain cardboard box with some ventilation holes.  I've ordered plants from several mail order growers and it is my observation that Burpees provides the best shipping of them all.

 Impatiens are a gamble this year.  A nasty downy mildew threatens to imperil the commercial production of impatiens.  (Thank you, Kathy Purdy, for giving me a heads up about this condition earlier this year.) I decided to buy these plants, nevertheless, and will see what happens.  We have ideal impatien conditions in our yard, and impatiens are one of my favorite flower.

Impatiens tend to survive shipment in good shape, and these came in the box, protected mainly by some cardboard and some paper placed on top of the plants to make sure they stayed damp.

Here are my Salmon Splash plants, taken out of the box.  They look good now but the trip they take does stress them, and they need about 48 hours to recover before they can be planted.

The Cardinal basil is another matter.  The plants come encased in a protective green container (beneath the plants, in this picture).  I will give them their 48 hour rest and perhaps even wait until Memorial Day to plant them.

What is so great about Cardinal basil?  They have thick leaves, bush up nice, are slow to bolt, and when they do bolt, the flowers are red - yes, this is one of the most ornamental basils I've ever seen.

I am still, in a way, amazed that non-dormant plants can be sent in the mail.  Like Christmas in May, the gardener can't wait for the growing season, and the goodies that await.

Do you start your own plants?  Do you travel miles to buy them?

There's No Place Like Gnome

I truly wish I had this kind of imagination.

Near to where we parked our car for our exercise walk on the West Side of Binghamton, New York, we found this little scene close to the ground.

I couldn't get the whole picture framed in my iPhone, but this gives you a taste of what we saw.  I hope you can see the little sign on the little door built into this tree so perfectly.

This isn't in a garden but was rather in a street tree.

I'm still groaning!

Spring Things - Invasion of the Aliens

They can be beautiful. They can be fragrant.

They are also deadly.

It's the invasion of the aliens - the alien plants, the invasives.  If you have a back yard, chances are you have one invasive species in it.  These invaders crowd out native plants and change our environment.  They can have adverse impacts on wildlife.  They tend to be fast growers.  The most famous invasive may be kudzu but there are lot of other aliens lurking out there in a backyard or vacant lot near you.

Some examples of invasives now blooming here in upstate New York:

Russian Olive. (taken on the Vestal Rail Trail, our local rail trail. That is far from the only invasive species on that trail - soon enough, the rugosa roses will be in bloom.  Yes, another invasive.)

Honeysuckle (taken on banks of Susquehanna River, downtown Binghamton, New York.)

A different honeysuckle (same location).

And finally, wisteria.  Not all wisterias are invasive, but Japanese wisteria is invasive in a lot of the East Coast of the United States.  In March, you can see this beautiful purple bloom up in trees in parts of South Carolina and Georgia. Problem is, it also kills the trees, as does Chinese wiseria.  I found this specimen of wisteria today on the West Side of Binghamton in an ornamental situation, and this may not be one of the invasive species.  I certainly hope it is.

What invasive plants are a problem in your area?

Forty Minutes to a Changed Life

Forty minutes was all it took for a massive tornado to sweep through Moore and Newcastle, Oklahoma, yesterday afternoon.  Forty minutes that changed many lives forever.  Forty minutes that took at least 91 lives, as of this writing. 

Tornadoes are a fact of life in that part of the United States we call Tornado Alley.  I lived in that area of the country (Iowa, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas) for almost 10 years.  In fact, last night, the county where I lived in Arkansas was under a tornado warning for awhile. (A tornado warning is issued when a tornado has been spotted - vs. a tornado watch, which simply means conditions are favorable for formation of a tornado.)

When I lived in Kansas, I met people who had survived tornadoes.  It is a traumatic experience none of us would want to go through.  In this tornado, two elementary schools suffered direct hits and the survivors will live with that memory for the rest of their lives.  A horse farm was hit and, in part of the live coverage, you could see horses that survived wandering around near what used to be a residential neighborhood and was now a pile of debris.

It was surreal, this live coverage, which would have been impossible when I was growing up.

All you had to do is go to Twitter to find out the latest.  You saw photos and videos from the scene.  And, you read worse.  It was heartbreaking - simply heartbreaking - if you read some of the other hashtags that were trending, you saw tweets from people whose relatives are in the affected area of Moore, or Newcastle, Oklahoma.  At least one tweet came from a woman whose cousin attended one of the destroyed elementary schools.  Her cousin was missing.

If you didn't have a Twitter account, you could try the New York Times website, which was streaming live video from the various scenes.  You saw emergency workers, with yellow helmets, swarming over the debris that had been one of the schools.  The only way you could have survived this tornado was to have been underground, in a reenforced concrete bunker.

Google?  You can Google a city or county and if it is under a tornado warning you will see it in a box at the top of the search result.

People continue to live in what we call the "tornado belt". Many grew up there, and their families have been there for generations. When I lived there, we had tornado sirens to warn us.  Now, things are a lot more high tech, but sometimes you only get several seconds of warning.  You can not look out the window and see a tornado coming. And, these storms don't always strike in the afternoon.  Sometimes they strike in the middle of the night.

I saw some of the coverage live, from KFOR-TV, channel 4 in Oklahoma City, yesterday, as a weather helicopter filmed a tornado in action.  When you see the power of those storms close up, you know that your life is so much less in your control than you think.

When dealing with nature, control is an illusion.  All we can hope for is to spend our lives without ever feeling the full force of nature's power.  Especially if you live in Tornado Alley.

Today, the storms are expected to return.

WordCount Blogathon 2013

I'm going to participate in the WordCount Blogathon 2013 and you should, too.

It's as simple as that. 

I hope you will join me and several hundred other bloggers.  You will never regret it.

Three years ago this past April 30, a woman who has been in the life of one of my cousins for many years sent me an email encouraging me to join a blogging challenge called the WordCount Blogathon. She's a published writer and she had signed up.  At that time, I had been blogging for a little over two years, posted sporadically, and had no idea what I wanted to do with my blog.

I knew I wanted to write.  I've written all of my life - well, ever since I learned to read and write.  As a child, I wrote (bad) comics and (bad) stories. I was on my junior high school's yearbook staff.  I stopped creative type writing as an adult, but always wrote as part of my jobs-even if it was only letters to customers or business clients of my employer. 

Blogging was a natural for me because it ties in with photography, another interest I had never -um, developed.

I liked blogging but I didn't know where to go with it.

On April 30, hours before the sign up deadline for the May annual challenge, I took a leap of faith and signed up for the WordCount Blogathon challenge.  The challenge sounds simple but is possibly the hardest thing you will ever do in blogging - post each and every day, no exceptions, no make up days, no excuses, for 31 days straight.

There were possible prizes if you made it through the 31 days, and I admit that was part of the reason why I completed it.  It was hard.  As we say in the Binghamton area of upstate New York, it was WICKED hard.  But then, several months later, I realized I had kept posting every day, and decided I would keep posting daily-for my personal satisfaction.  As of today, I haven't stopped the daily blogging.

So, what about the WordCount Blogathon?  I did it again in 2012, and I am doing it again this year.  Last year, I even won a prize! (and then, I joined another blogging challenge and won prizes - perhaps I should have purchased lottery tickets, too, because I'm one of those people who never win anything.)  Not anything big. But, if I ever seriously decide to take up non-blog writing again, my prizes will be valuable.

In 2013 the Blogathon moved to June but the challenge is the same - blog every day for a month.

If you join this challenge, what can you expect?
-You will be able to blog what you want.  There will be several theme days, but they are strictly optional.  If it is like past years, there will be a Haiku day. There will also be an opportunity to find a kindred spirit in the Blogathon, and guest post on each others' blogs.  Unlike some blog challenges, there are no direct prompts.  But you won't be left without support.  No, far from it.
-You will be stretched to your creative limit
-You will have the chance to discuss blogging with fellow bloggers, and learn from them.
-You will be participating in a professionally run challenge - Michelle Rafter, the founder, is a professional journalist and she knows what she is doing.
-You will have fun.  Yes, really!
-You will meet new people.
-You will find fame and fortune.

No, the fame and fortune part may not happen.  Not right away, anyway.  That will have to depend on you.

Me? It's time to refresh my blog, and I am going to use the 2013 Blogathon to make some needed changes.  What changes? I don't know yet, but by the end of the Blogathon, I will know.

Don't be afraid.
Just Do It.

Civil War Sunday - The Women in the Caves

I first became interested in the Civil War because of a drawing in a textbook.  I don't know how old I was - it may have been 5th grade.

The drawing was of women living in a cave, trying to cook their dinner, in the middle of a naval bombardment.  It fascinated me.  I had to know more.

When we think of the Civil War we think of blue against gray, of battles, of naval engagements, of the glory of battle.  The truth, of course, is far different.  The Civil War was brutal for most of its participants.  Soldiers weren't the only ones to suffer, either.  The 150th anniversary of extreme suffering by a civilian population caught in the cross fire of war is about to begin.

On April 30, 1863,  General Grant and his Union Army of the Tennessee crossed over the Mississippi River into Mississippi, a Confederate state.  This long, mighty river, still a major route of transporting goods in our country, was of strategic importance to both the United States and the Confederate States of America.  It was urgent, for both sides in this war, to maintain control of the Mississippi River.

Five major battles in 17 days resulted, with the Federals winning all five.  The Confederate troops were pushed back, after the last of these battles, Big Black River on May 17, 1863, to the city of Vicksburg, on the banks of the Mississippi River.

The Confederate commander, Lt. General John C. Pemberton, ordered civilians out of the city, but many refused to go.

Late on May 18, Grant and his troops arrived at the city.  Grant decided to attack Vicksburg, feeling the demoralized Confederate troops would soon surrender.

He was wrong.

Grant made two attacks, on May 19 (150 years ago today) and May 22.  His troops were repelled.

General Grant decided to lay siege to Vicksburg.  In the bluffs I remember from the drawing in my elementary school textbook, the civilians dug caves into the yellow clay soil - easy to dig, but firm enough not to collapse.  Some six weeks of terror followed, as some 22,000 shells rained down on the city and its citizens while they awaited reinforcements.  Food became scarce, which is the point of any siege.

Some of these civilians wrote letters and diaries, including Emma Balfour.  It is grim reading.

On the evening of July 3, Lt. General John Pemberton made the decision to surrender Vicksburg. His men were weak with hunger and relief hadn't been able to reach his army.   On July 4, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered.  July 4 is Independence Day in our country.  In a year of peace, there would have been parades, patriotic speeches, and fireworks.  In a year of war.....

Their memory of suffering was so strong that Vicksburg refused to celebrate Independence Day until 1945.  They do celebrate it today.

And then the civilian casualties (some 20 dead, officially) faded into history.  As for Pemberton and Grant:

Lt. General Pemberton was labeled a traitor for surrendering to the Federals. He died, in Philadelphia, in 1881. (and, no, he did not invent Coca-Cola. That was a different John Pemberton.)

General Grant - went on to other victories, eventually becoming the General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, and, after the war, became President of the United States.  And yes, he is entombed in Grant's Tomb.

Are you descended from any of the civilians of Vicksburg, or have you ever visited? I never have, and I hope to do so one day.