Our Place in the World

I recently spent an evening listening (I didn't feel like she needed advice just then) to a friend lament her lack of place in this world. She feels she has no meaningful job, no permanent place to stay, and as such, doesn't feel like she contributes. She expressed envy that I get to go to work everyday and do something to save the earth. She felt useless because she spent one day in bed, unable to get up and shoo the ants away.

It got me thinking. What is important, nowadays? Is it important to go to work everyday? Certainly. Is it important to ensure that your kids have an active interesting social life? Absolutely. But it is also equally important to recognize a body's need to stop periodically, to reflect, to weep. From the devil's advocate point of view, I could argue that she did less damage to the earth yesterday, than I did driving to work, then school, then to soccer practice, then home again.

But more importantly, she spent the day reflecting. Today, she will be more sure and aware of who she is and where she belongs. I hope the little things she does everyday to make the world a better place for her, me, and anyone she runs into are as clear to her today as they always are to me.

At Soilutions, the nature of what we do allows us to come into contact everyday with people who are trying to do their part to make our world a better place. The impact a small urban garden has on the world (I know I am sounding overly dramatic here, but it's true) is immense. But there are other ways to impact positively our world. For those that don't or can't garden, just being kind, courteous, and considerate has an equal impact on this world we call home.

Peace.

This is where I work

Jealous yet?





The drive in was so pretty, I had to call and wake Kim to tell her (not recommended by the way).

The New Face of Soilutions, part 2

For a look at what it takes to re-do a "simple" sign, go to: http://www.actualcreative.com/presentations/soilutions/


The original sign was a "Bates Lumber" sign (we are situated on the same property as the old Bates Lumber Mill), so the structure itself is probably 30-40 years old. You know us: re-use when ever possible.

The first question I had for Danny was how quickly it would get "tagged" by the local graffiti-ists. He said that the culture among the artists prohibited covering up or tagging a well-done mural: honor among thieves so to speak.

I suppose that last comment is unfair, at least to Danny. Here in Albuquerque, spray paint is considered a blight to communities performed by thugs and deadbeats. Obviously, to others outside our area, i.e., New york City, it is an art performed by artists.

Once again, I am enlightened by a customer.

Poem

Winter, and Christmas time in particular, brings out the sentimentalist in me. So here's a poem I wrote the other day to celebrate the tenacity of nature.

-----

This Tuesday morning is as cold as Monday
Swept up in a drift of three days uninhabited
The smell of a barn long vacated

I swing around the corner in a white Ford
Looking for signs of weekend hooliganism
None to see, just piles of leaves

Piles of leaves shaped like a mini Kilimanjaro
Her head amid gusty clouds
Except here its restless leaves rustling

And I stop to reconnect with the first heap
Not the most important heap we have
Just the first one I see on this Tuesday morning

To see if it’s steaming, water vapor rather,
To see if it’s vaporing away like it should
Like it did yesterday morning

It is my rock, my one true thing, my Kilimanjaro
This first pile of compost I see
Decomposing because I came to work, once

Regardless of how my weekend went

-----

Happy Holiday.
Be safe.
Make Compost

Wreath Making Materials

We seem to be getting a lot of evergreen cuttings lately. I don't fancy myself a genus/species wank so I can't tell you what kind of evergreens, only that there are some short needled boughs and some long needled boughs and some blue spruce-y boughs.





We have juniper branches, too. I even saw some holly branches with berries!

Come on down and browse our brush pile. Take some fire wood home with you.

I never have the gumption or know how to make craft things like wreaths and garlands, but I know that there are plenty of people who do. It's a great time of year to be working with this aromatic material. Sitting by the fireside lacing popcorn and berries through the needles for the birds. How festive.

Don't forget to recycle you Christmas trees here when the time comes.

Recycling in New Mexico

It's difficult being in the recycling business in New Mexico. We often feel 30 years behind everyone else. We hear of $70-150 landfill tip fees on the coasts; ours is $3.85/cubic yard residential. California has goals to reduce waste going to landfills by %75 by 2010 but we as a state have a 12% recycling rate. We read of innovative uses for carpet, tires, glass in other parts of the country while it seems the only use in New Mexico for these types of materials is to line the sides of roads and ditches. There IS a lot of local enthusiasm for the "green movement", for recycling, etc. just not a lot of will shown by our lawmakers.

However, in the latest issue of BioCycle, there is an article about a yard waste recycling and composting facility in Kansas City, Missouri. I have roots in KC going back all of my 42 years and then some. One thing that always startled me on visits to the area was a skepticism toward recycling. I have a cousin who actually asked me "why should I recycle." When an Uncle from the area heard I was in this business, he turned me on to Missouri Organic Recycling (MOR); his friend started it years ago with his dad, or some such. Last time I was out there, I dragged my parents out to their (MOR) facility. I might just be the only person who visits dumps on their vacation. Anyway, I haven't felt so at home. With the exception of standing water, the facility looks very similar to ours.

Now back to the article in BioCyle. On the cover is a picture of food waste that looks very similar to large loads of food waste we get here on a regular basis. When I opened the magazine to the article, sure enough, MOR was the featured facility. Change the name from MOR to Soilutions, and ignore all the stuff about the state and all sorts of agencies throwing money at them from both sides to get the food waste collection program running,the article could be about Soilutions. They have the same challenges, the same goals, the same successes. MOR is just 10 years ahead of Soilutions.
So it gives me hope to see that we at Soilutions are developing innovative programs that, while they may not be avant-garde in relation to the rest of the world, they are on the right track to be on a par with the heavy hitting composters of the country.

A Good Day Ruined

The other day was one of ups and downs. The first good thing to happen to me was commencement on a project that I had been putting off for quite some time. I am building a work bench. Sounds simple but it has proven not so. Most of the difficulty comes from the importance of the project; once I get the work bench built, then I can effectively use my planer and router, allowing me to build my gates to the south courtyard. Once the gates are built, it will be winter so I can focus on making and eventually installing my recycled pine flooring. I determined that I can work on the bench in the morning before I go to work. The garage is far enough away from sleeping quarters that the noise won't disturb the sleeping members of my family. But I digress.
So I got to the compost site feeling satisfied with a good mornings' work already. I haven't figured out how to work in the morning on the building projects and still keep up with work on the garden but I wasn't letting that bother me just then.
A good cup of coffee and an extra spirited future planning meeting at the office bode well for the day.
I should have known things were brewing, but we never do, do we?
"The boys" showed up to work. On their way in they had hit a hawk by car. Evidently the bird swooped down in front of the vehicle leaving no time to avoid it. It was a beautiful bird, one that we had all watched grow up with his siblings over the last couple of years.
Then, we decided that Misch should do some meet-and-greets while the weather was hot and business was slow. So we plotted his route and sent him on his way. (With some trepidation, I might add. Everytime Misch leaves, some piece of equipment goes on the fritz.) Without much phone traffic in the office, and the computer tied up, I decided to tour the ditch that borders our property. We battle thieves down here routinely and like to monitor suspicious activity when we can. Driving down the ditch, I noticed some large tractor tires, used to build up the ditch bankas a barrier, had been moved to create a passageway for a small vehicle. It looked like there were tire tracks going into the yard. I determined which company was affected and went over to notify them. (As a side note: have you ever noticed the reaction of people when confronted with someone that wants nothing from them, just to help them out, unasked?)Once they realized I wasn't trying to sell them land in Florida, they were very appreciative and had the breach repaired by the end of the day.
But by the time I got half way down the return road, things started to unravel.
I got a call from the office asking about a commercial tipper; what's their billing routine, etc. I thought they were a reliable customer, and explained it as such, but by the time I pulled in they had tipped and gone with out payment. The driver was not able to communicate with our office, so we were left holding the bag until I track down someone with authorization to pay.
While dealing with that, Phillip comes into the office to state that the our delivery truck is broken. "What do you mean broken?" I ask. Apparently, they broke the clutch (or the transmission, or the axle) trying to pull a full load out of the loading pit.
Within the following hour, our water pump quit. Just stopped. It had been leaking oil and we've had issues with the pull-cord but we could always nurse it back to operational. Not so today.
Before noon that day, we were completely incapacitated, dead in the water. Without our screen (down for regularly scheduled maintenance) we can't process product for sale. Without our delivery truck we can't deliver our products. Without our pump, we can't make product.
I like to say that in the compost business, if it gets done in six month, it is fast-tracked. Small hiccups here and ther are not really a problem in the long term scheme of things. If we can't get to it today, then we'll find something else to do and get back at it next week. Equipment fails, that's a fact of materials production. But there is something unnerving about being stopped suddenly on so many fronts.
So we all had a long lunch and will look forward to a better week forthcoming.