The Weed - Update
In a previous post, on June 20, I mentioned The "Weed". It is an inkberry/pokeberry plant (phytolacca americana), and the reason that I have posted pictures of it in the photo blog is just because it has been able to persist and grow so large without anyone cutting it or pulling it out. The thing even tipped over and continued to grow.
The berries are now mature, and the stems have gained a very nice magenta color.
![The Weed](javascript:imgviewer('/images/pblog/summer2005/theweed-sept7.jpg','The "weed"');)
Most people call this species a weed and have many problems with getting rid of it. The plant actually looks good, especially when the berries are mature and the stems are red. People spend so much time and effort trying to keep ornamental plants healthy. This one takes care of itself and grows to be about 7 feet tall in the worst clay soil imaginable, and goes without rain or water for weeks at a time. It also acts as a good bird feeder...
Squirrel Laying Down
I happened to get this picture of this squirrel laying on the railing of the deck.
;)
It is rare to see this kind of thing, sice squirrels generally are very active. It was very hot weather, so maybe it was trying to cool off...
Sunset
Here is a nice picture of this evening's sunset.
;)
Nice reds and oranges - one of those "fire in the sky" sunsets. Usually, in this particular spot, the summer sunrises and sunsets are usually a bit less than spectactular (since the sun gets down below a large hill and line of trees when it sets, and it is the autumn rises/sets that are amazing), but tonight was an exception.
To run all of those air conditioners, what do we do? We burn coal!
Thursday was one of the hottest days of the summer for the Northeast U.S., and seems as if I have said that before. The electricity load on the PJM - the world's largest centrally-controlled electricity grid - peaked at over 130 billion watts yesterday. The PJM grid is what feeds energy to the web server which served this page to you. (although since it is so close to the power plant, the energy never really gets on the grid)
Every building must be refrigerated down to below 75°F, and to do that we burn lots and lots of coal. Ironically, burning coal emits more global warming causing greenhouse gases than any other method of electricity generation! I think that most air conditioning is excessive...far colder than it really needs to be.
In some places, such as Japan, homes are limited to a 5 kilowatt electricity supply. That's not enough to run even a clothes drier, water heater, or a large central air conditioner. In the U.S. most people have a 200 amp breaker and 120/240 volt service, so theoretically we have 48 kilowatts to burn. The transformers that supply power though are usually only 15-50 kW and they may be shared between 2-5 other homes. I have seen two houses on a 10kW transformer once...that's pushing it.
A Gardener's Nightmare
We have a "garden", consisting of pumpkins, gourds, melons, and tomato plants. No, I did not plant any of these things on purpose...it is the result of composting combined with sub-zero temperatures last winter. When I compost food waste, the heat of the composting process normally destroys the seeds and they do not germinate. When your compost pile freezes solid and never reheats in the spring, things get hairy. I mixed the compost with some barren soil at the beginning of the summer, and I did not screen it due to the fact that nothing was going to be planted there. Now every plant imaginable is growing in it. There are a lot of weeds, and vegetable plants.
;)
;)
I did have a heater for the compost pile to help it along, it was a 60 watt heater made from an old toaster heating element. 12 volt AC current was supplied to it via a 14 gauge cable from a transformer ripped out of an old HP Plotter. It worked, but it didn't make sense to burn 11 cents worth of electricity from coal each day when it wouldn't hurt to just store the waste in the bin over the winter.