The Importance of Proper Drainage

When it rains, it pours. An inch and a half of rain over a 24 hour period. Come to find out, I had a couple of planters that don't have holes for drainage. We lost a small container of sage seedlings as well as a planter (trough style) of scallion seedlings. Not the biggest deal in the world, but it did remind me the importance of proper drainage for all of our plants. Funny enough, I assumed the planter with the onions had holes in the bottom. It's the same brand as the other pots I've been using for my vegetable plants, but zero drainage. I guess the assumption is either that flower planters don't need drainage at all, or that the purchaser should be able to decide how many holes there are in the planter. Either way, I lost some plants, gained some rain water for the survivors, and now know that I should check a planter before using it. Other than that, it looks like all of my other vegetables survived, my habanero plant was the only one that was a bit droopy. A few hours in the sun and she perked right up. Also, it looks like it's starting to flower, habanero pickles will soon follow.

The Hypocracy of Green Tote Bags

At this point, everyone's at least seen the tote bags that the grocery store is pushing on people. They are better for the environment and people are buying them up. One of my co-workers has to have about a dozen or so of them from all over the place. So now he has a bunch of these bags, uses them, and is helping the environment. One day I had a bug up my ass about those bags and we had a little dialog, it went like this:

Me: "But what do you put your garbage in?"
CW: "Garbage bags"
Me: "Like plastic ones, tall kitchen bags?"
CW: "Yeah!"
Me: "And you buy those at the store?"
CW: "Yeah"
Me: "So you're supporting the industry that makes the plastic bags by giving them money?"
CW: "Wow, I never thought about it that way"

Yep, supporting the enemy so to speak. I've since asked many tote using folks that same question, and the answer is always the same. Personally speaking, I reuse the plastic bags exclusively for garbage. The diaper pail, the kitchen and bathroom, and even one hanging behind the door in the office. I know the plastic bags are bad for the environment, and I'm even starting to think I need a tote or two for my "bumper" trips to the store during the week, but switching to them exclusively would result in me not having anything to put my non-compostable waste in. And so the vicious cycle would continue. If only the stores I frequent provided the compostable starch bags.

Life in Moderation

So I started writing my first post for this blog, and it got pretty long winded. Seemed like it defeated the mantra of the name, Life in Moderation.

My original intention for the domain was to set up a site to address my aversion to people that [insert verb] too much and then wonder why they are dealing with the after effects. If you eat more calories than your body burns in a day, you're going to gain weight. If you spend all your money on clothes and shoes and stop paying your mortgage, the bank's going to foreclose all over your parade. Aside from all the B&Ming there may have been some healthy recipes or something, who knows. I came to realize that the site would have majorly lacked content, so I waited.

Three months late and I finally came to realize what I should do with the domain name. After my family's trip to the farmer's market in Ybor City and part of the afternoon spent setting up my wife's herb garden, it hit me like a sack of potatoes! Life in Moderation is going to be a blog documenting me and my family's adventures (and misadventures) of getting into shape (physically and mentally) and attempting to live off the land as much as possible in the middle of the Tampa Bay Area.

Just to clarify, I'm not big on this whole "green" thing that's been creeping into everyone's vocabulary lately. It's too damn trendy for me and I have mixed feelings about certain facets of the lifestyle (expect a post on those grocery store "green" bags eventually). So don't expect me to give up on my charcoal grill to lower my carbon footprint or giving up meat for the good of the planet or anything like that. My greater purpose here is to stick it to the grocery stores. Far too long have I overpaid for under-caliber fruits and vegetables.