Fall Break with a Hint of Dave Barry

Well, this past Thursday I had fall break up here at App, so I went back down to Asheville to finalize some Eagle Scout Ceremony plans, and also finish a couple green projects. One of my main accomplishments was the construction of my coin clock. This a clock made from recycled paper, which was put into a waffle iron over Labor Day Weekend; this weekend I was actually able to finsh it. It was a lot of fun to make with the help of my mom, and an enjoyable way to spend a couple of my days down in Asheville.

I also was hoping to find a chest/cabinet for my room to house my arsenal of snacks. We (Me and my Mom) headed out Saturday to go yard sale-ing around Asheville to find one and were not able to find a reasonably priced unit, so we headed over to the great Target--> (Pronounce this the way France would) to see what type of chests they had. As it turned out, they had a nice variety of drawers and cabinets, you just had to make them yourself. So, becoming Trilingual for a couple hours, I read the instructions forwards, backwards, upside down, and sideways, trying to make head or tail of anything they were trying to convey. (My big gratitude to China here for making this easier for me...) But I digress--I eventually put the dang chest together, and I eventually screwed something up with the directions, and inevitably I had to fix the problem later on down the line. However, challenging as this project was, it got me to thinking about the average consumer in America, and whether or not they consider factors that go into making pre-made products, versus the do-it-yourself kits, such as the one I attempted.

How much energy does the manufacturer save by making the consumer put the chest of drawers together, rather than a machine, or underpaid worker? Should all products be this way? Or, if not all products, just a few of them? I can see it now: "General Motors introduces the latest in their line of car products, the: Car in A Box. Buy it now for only ten easy payments of 19.99!! Tools not included. Item subject to frequent technical difficulties such as, but not limited to: broken axles, missing wheels, engine misfires, squeaky fan belts, missing windshields, entire frame of car not in box, and spontaneous combustion." Father: "Gee kids look! Now you can have a car when you turn 16, who wants to help me build it?" The kids, jumping up and down excitedly, wave their arms in the air, ecstatic for their newly acquired possession.

Needless to say, some aspects of the idea would be more ridiculous than others, but I feel that we could minimize the energy output on a majority of our products if we would put together more, do-it-yourself kits.

Yosef and the Fruit on the Bottom of the Viaduct

Well lately I've been in hyperdrive trying to complete our residence hall's float for the theme Solid gold. For this, our pitch was a 100% recyclable, reusable, compostable float; as per Kevin's suggestion at hall council last week, we built our 7 foot tall Yosef out of a classically Scout-built framework comprised of logs and lashings. Tyler on the third floor generously donated his yellow and black striped overalls for the occasion, making Yosef look quite distinguished. For Yosef's upper clothing, I set out in search of a black XXL long sleeved shirt, for his abnormally large arms. Unfortunately, Goodwill only had XL shirts, so I settled with two XL navy blue shirts.

Next was the construction of Yosef's head. This was a tricky one seeing as it had to be light, but sturdy at the same time. Settling on paper mache using flour, water, and sugar instead of glue, I slowly but surely watched my eco-friendly fellow grow before my eyes. By Friday, all that needed completing was the final sawing of his various nubs, sewing up of his special shirt, painting and mounting of his head, and final assembly. With all of these parts nearing completion, my inner clock started to tick louder every waking second that I wasn'y in the second floor study, working on my creation. Fortunately, I had Alex help me with the building of Yosef's solid gold with brown specks vest; for this we collected yellow Rhododendron leaves on Thursday, which, by the time Saturday rolled around, were starting to look like week old bananas. Nevertheless, the effect and message was still the same. Also in construction during this time period was a disco ball for Yosef to hold made out of newspaper and crumpled up aluminum cans. (I won't say soda cans because that wouldn't be entirely true.)

Staying up til two on Friday night, Yosef finally stood before me, a finished man...as was I! Physically exhausted from the ordeal, I went to bed for four hours, only to have to wake up and go take Yosef from a rainy Stadium parking lot to Raley Lot--we didn't want Charlie's truck to get towed! Taking a raincoat to throw over Yosef's doughy head, I lay him down in the trailer, praying the rain would go away at least until the judging. Getting back up at 8:30, I dashed over to Raley Lot to inspect our small float. The rain held off, much to our good fortune, and allowed the judges to inspect our Disco-Ball-Holding-Yosef long enough to decide we were FIRST PLACE!!! After many rounds of hoorahs, hoorays, and I-can't-beleieve-its, we trudged off onto Rivers street to start the parade.

After that, I went to the football game where we beat North Carolina Central, 55 to 21!! Go Mountaineers!! Then, with a raspy voice and a tired body, I went to bed early to get a good nights sleep. Today I awoke to a pleasant temperature outside with fog topping the mountains. When I went to exclaim my staisfaction, I merely uttered a wheeze; my voice had been taken from me in the middle of the night. So, every time I talked to someone today, they thought I was sharing a secret, or just plain nuts. By eleven, I set out on the good ol' Blue Ridge Parkway in hopes of getting my first glimpse of the Viaduct. Much to my dismay however, there were clouds everywhere, blanketing the mountains and road in a thick fog. So I hiked up to Rough Ridge to get a nicer view of the fog, and found lots of neat new areas to hike and show other people. I even spotted some Wintergreen in full fruit so I walked along munching the minty fruit of the wonderful plant. I then went down to a stream after narrowly avoiding some idiot tourists taking photos in the middle of the road!!

While on this pleasant little hike, the sun finally decided to come out, so I scrambled back up to my car in hopes of finally getting a view of the Viaduct and what a view it was! PErsonally, I feel today was the peak of the leaf season, as nearly every tree in sight was in full color--they were absolutely spectacular!! Finding a rock where others were taking photos of the Viaduct, I stood where professional photographers have stood while capturing this beautiful part of the parkway in the fall.

Coming back from my wonderful day on the parkway, I stopped by Ingles to do a little shopping and thinking. Seeing Fruit on the Bottom yogurt got me to thinking about the production of foods and how simple things could save energy in ways not thought of before. Fruit on the Bottom yogurt, for example, does not use machinery to mix the fruit with the yogurt; this most likely saves the company a good deal of money, and requires less energy use on their part. So, I got to thinking, what if other products were treated the same way. Could we have frozen meals that you could assemble yourself at home? Or how about a station to bag your own ice--heck, you could even bring your own reusable bag for that, save packaging and money! Because it seems to me that we are reverting back to a time early in the world's history where fresh markets were abundant and items such as packaging were not even heard of. So, basically, what I'm trying to say, is that in order for our world to sustain the populations being reached, we must first revert back to the ways of our ancestors. It seems the only logical way.

Water and the Road Unintentionally Taken

This past weekend I spent the rare lovely days of Fall outside by hiking and metal detecting. At a house I had hoped would yield some silver coins, I only managed to pull some pennies from the 70s and 60s... To cheer myself up, I took a hike behind my residence hall, and marveled at the emerging fall color. The maples in their reds, yellows, and oranges, and the sourwood in their vivid red livened up the forest, dotting the mountains like beacons.

Then, to tie in my new duty to a sustainable life, I did my laundry. One might be thinking, how is doing the laundry sustainable? And the answer is: By waiting for the full load! You see, I let it go for a few days longer than I normally do, and so, I was saving water by doing a fuller load now, than a regular load later. I also have been monitoring my shower length; by cutting a minute or two off of the entire time, I can save around 5 gallons of water per minute taken off. That would average out to around 1500 gallons a year!

On Sunday, I took a 6 hour hike with one of my friends to Hebron and the Flat Top Mountain Home. The vistas were great and the colors still like they were from Saturday. We hiked a total of 5 miles...even though we didn't mean to. It was quite a workout, but definitely well worth it! Here are some photos from our journey: