La Casa Grande Colectiva

Year: 2009

  • fruit fruit everywhere

    Today as I biked through Champaign running some errands, I decided to be leisurely and leave room to notice what fruit trees I could.  To my delight I found serviceberry trees in several places, as well as mulberry bushes and trees, two cherry trees I didn’t know about, and even a plum tree!

    I was eager to update the Urbana-Champaign Fruit Map before I forgot the locations.  The UC Fruit Map is a community map on Google Maps, which anyone can add to.  Here’s what we got so far:

    Serviceberries, a.k.a. juneberries, marked with blue circle-dots, are turning purple in some places, seeing as it’s June already.  They are roughly like blueberries but have larger seeds which might taste like almonds.  Some call them even tastier than blueberries, but not me!  We have some in our garden, but they’re also found around town in droves, especially in landscaped areas around town in droves.

    Mulberries, marked in cyan circle-dots, are just coming in now. They tend to grow on the edges of lots, fortunately for sidewalk harvesters. Later in the season you can find them by the dark purple stains of fallen fruit on the sidewalks.

    Urbana-Champaign dwellers past and future, please enjoy the map and add what you know!

    UPDATE: I exported the kml file of the fruit map. KML is way of storing geographic data in XML. I’m trying to find a way to get the Fruit map on my handheld device, and this is a step towards that. Also its a way to get to the data on the fruit map without going through Google’s server each time. Link just tested it and it works!

  • bees are the new chickens

    cute bee

  • blogaloon target practice

    The blogaloons, collecting dust in my room, made themselves useful once more.

  • Hi house.  Andrew & I have just arrived home from an 11-day stint in the Bay Area, mostly as part of the ensemble An Exciting Event, which got its name from our habit of putting everything together in a few days of very intense rehearsing.  In a week we worked up the Moondog Madrigal Puppet Show, a 90-minute extravaganza involving stick/shadow puppets, projections, 20 rounds by Moondog, and about 30 instruments juggled between 8 players.

    I was delighted to bring along the extra digital camera Heather loaned me recently.  Not only did I not lose the camera, but I even remembered to take some pictures with it!

    Bonny DoonOur first leg of rehearsals happened in this lovely house in Bonnie Doon.  It was a little cramped, but then again, An Exciting Event has a way of expanding to completely fill any space it occupies.

    We were fairly good remembering to break up rehearsing with run-around time, at one point playing pickup ultimate at UCSC’s Field on the Edge of the Universe:

    don't fall off!We shopped at a nearby farmer’s market and traded off making delicious meals:

    bean burgers in bonnie doon
    Dan, Robin, Jacob, Lembit, AndR

    Later in the week, we rehearsed at our performing space, a beautiful hall at the SF Community Music Center that Dizzy Gillespie reputedly held in high esteem, and we stayed in the immensely spacious basement of an office space being renovated (also very good for frisbee).

    Paul and AndR in dungeon

    One couldn’t be sure if the deterioration of our health and wellbeing had more to do with sleeping in “The Dungeon” or with our hectic practicing, but somehow we were able to muster up the wherewithal to give one heckuva performance Friday night, which was well attended and very well received.  Just ask Heather!

    On Saturday we were off to the Maker Faire, where we were shuffled around confusedly before getting into a nice roundsinging groove and making a number of udderbots to demonstrate.

    Sunday and Monday were filled with more informal activities and explorings and friend-meetings, including a Cybernetics/Somatics dinner party and a meeting with Tyson Ayers, musical healer and creator of such things as the Piano Cave:

    the piano caveThe top and sides of the cave are made up of the innards of upright pianos which are tuned to (among other things) harmonic series based on the sub-audible tone emitted by the earth when struck with a lightning bolt (!)

    That’s pretty much it.  Now we’re back.  So much to do.  My plan with the camera is to start a roadkill photoblog–we saw 19 roadkill on the trip from the Indianapolis airport–keep your eyes peeled!

  • praying mantis pods

    praying mantis pod

    A bunch of praying mantis pods were recovered from the burn pile yesterday.  The pods were attached to last year’s bamboo growth and were cutout when the grove was thinned.  Ronna found them in the brush pile and saved them because she thinks they’re beautiful.  They’re now nicely displayed on our kitchen table as an interesting conversation piece.

    praying mantis pods

    We got to talking about them and wondered if there were still mantis babies inside.  This caused Don and I to search for information online about praying mantis lifecycles.  We found this short video on youtube:

  • Honeybees arrive

    We installed two hives of honeybees today at La Casa.  Fellow co-oper, Robby from across town will be using our yard (and pollen) to raise honeybees.  Robby got his hive boxes from his grandfather who was a beekeeper.  Robby’s been taking classes from the Central Illinois Beekeeper’s Association: CEIBA.  Last night we picked up the bees from a queen breeder near Danville.  They were sealed in boxes for transport in the van.

    About 10,000 bees came with each queen.  Five frames from a two healthy colonies, along with a two queens were put into boxes.  Today we tranported the frames into the hives.  Robby moved the first colony, and I moved the second.  We had to wear full bee suits otherwise the bees would have stung us many times.  It was quite a rush carrying the frames full of bees and being careful not to disturb them too much.  We took a bunch of photos, and I’m just going to go ahead and post most of them.
    opening up the transport boxes
    Robby tried to calm the bees down with sugar water. There were hundreds flying around us as we were working.
    sugar water
    frame in the hive
    This is what frames look like installed in the hive. There are ten frames in each section of the hive. We mixed the five frames full of honey and brood (developing bees) in with 5 clean frames.
    moving the frames over
    most of the frames in now
    Most of the frames are installed. Just a few more to squeeze in.
    Queen bee spotted (green dot)
    You can see the queen crawling around in this photo. There’s a little green dot on her back. Try this hi-res version if you want to see her up close. She has a longer body and smaller wings.
    smoking the second hive
    I suited up and moved the second set of frames while Robby took photos. This time we tried the smoker instead of sugar water. The smoke calms them down and confuses their communication.
    holding up a frame full of bees
    Robby snapped this nice photo.
    more smoke to calm them down
    Calming them with more smoke. Only two frames left to move.
    Queen bee 2 (green dot)
    The other queen. Look for the green dot. Hi-res.
    bee work done, hives ready
    All put back together. Bees installed. The next move is to put more boxes with clean frames on top. The hives are designed to be modular, building up from the bottom box. Two big boxes at the base are where the queen builds up her colony. Then at some point smaller boxes are placed on top with a screen that lets only the workers past. Since only the worker can access the top boxes, no eggs are laid and they become full of honey. Since we’re starting this hive pretty late in the season, we might not get much honey this year. But its still a worthwhile project and if the hives survive the winter, we’ll have plenty of honey next year.

  • Adventures of Sophie, May 28, 2009

    soph1Sophie’s been home for like a day, in the care and keeping of her human’s fellow LaCasans, and namely me in this case because I’m the only one home at the moment. I rather promptly lost her. Don’t worry, I found her and have already paid my Karmic debt for losing her to begin with.

    I came home from a root canal this morning (Karmic payment for something else) and had some groceries, so I propped the back door open to ease bringing them in and then spaced it out. Sophie came to visit me in my room at one point and she was a bit wet. I figured JP had taken her for a walk before he left and she was still damp from the rain wet grass. Considerably later I decided to eat something as my mouth was losing it’s numbness and I figured I could eat without choking or biting my tongue off without noticing. So, I’m fixing my food and start wondering where Sophie is. She rarely, or never, misses out on any kind of food preparation. I called for her and then noticed the back door, still propped open. Crap. I went out to the back yard and called and called to no avail. So, I got her leash, hopped on my bike and began a loosely systematic search of the neighborhood while all the worst case scenarios swirled through my mind, getting my mental knickers in a twist.

    I’d searched half the neighborhood when fortune seemed to smile on me. I noticed a Sophie-sized and beagle-shaped dog just across Maple Street. But, no, it was the wrong color. I called, “Sophieeee!” and it almost looked up from whatever it was intently rooting around in. Oh, it was Sophie. Hmmm. I called a couple more times and finally she came home with me. BUT! Really, she was the wrong color. Much more of a solid shit brown than the tri-colored pretty pup she usually is. And not only that, but didn’t smell like Sophie, even on a bad day. She smelled much more like the lower intestine of a bovine than a dog. I have no doubt in my mind that it was one of the greatest moments of her life to find someones manure pile. She showed her delight and excitement by grinding manure deep, deep, deeeeeep into every single inch of her little dog body. Not a spot was unsullied by poop. And I don’t mean the well composted stuff that doesn’t stink that much.

    So, yeah,I gave her a bath. Frankly one bath did not do it. She’s still slightly unSophie colored and definitely still has a powerful odiferousness, but for chrissake, I just had a freakin’ root canal, so I’m not overly excited about bathing her repeatedly. But I might.

    She’s bummed. I’ve washed some of the stinky goodness from her that she so assiduously collected and now I won’t let her lie on my bed. I’m letting her lie on Andrew’s, though (please forgive me whilst I inexplicably snicker here). Sorry Andrew. Hopefully it’ll all air out by the time you and Jacob get home. I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you, though. Or I guess I would.

  • Wot?

    IMG_1023b

    Tired feet after the May 13th House Concert VII.

  • Jajka Faszerowane

    There was a potluck here at the house last week. I made Polish style deviled eggs.
    deviled_eggs1

    1. Hardboil a bunch of eggs. Make sure you cool them down a lot before proceeding. (run them under cold water, then let them sit for a while)
    2. Using a clean sharp serrated knife, cut the eggs in half. This takes practice, so boil some extra eggs to practice on. I’ve found that going in one direction once you’ve cut through the top surface helps.
    3. Gently scoop out the innards of the eggs. Put in a bowl and mash it up.
    4. Add dill (or parsley if you would like), salt, pepper, mayonnaise, butter and stir it all together.
    5. Spoon the mixture into the empty egg shells.
    6. Top with bread crumbs and place down onto a hot skillet. (add butter to skillet)
    7. Use a spoon to eat. Don’t eat the shells! Unless you need extra calcium.

    deviled_eggs2

    Our chicken eggs are perfect for this because they have hard shells, especially the darker ones. Hard shells are easier to cut through and don’t completely fall apart. However, I’ve noticed that the shells aren’t as hard as they were in the winter time when the hens were laying less.

  • “Backyard Coops Make Chicks Chic”

    NPR has an article about chickens!
    The comments on the article are an interesting mix of support and opposition.

    The article also linked to The Chicken Whisperer. He has a blog and a radio show.

    “When we go to cities, a lot of times we’ll ask them, ‘Why don’t you want your citizens to lead a more self-sustaining lifestyle? Why don’t you want your citizens to save some money in this hard economic time by allowing them to raise backyard poultry?’” Schneider says. “And I’m telling you, Animal Control, I’m sure, gets way more calls from barking dogs and dogs running loose and cats than they ever have from backyard poultry.”

  • house concert – This Must Be The Place

    Last Wednesday, May 13, we put on House Concert VII (seventh in “recent memory”), the final act of which was all of us La Casans covering the Talking Heads, This Must Be The Place.  Heather got the whole thing on her point-and-shoot; thanks Heather!

    More videos from Heather’s youtube:
    A New Inspired Poem, by Snow Leopard.
    This is the Title of the Story, read by Michael Phelps.
    Hoprock, by Jacob Barton.
    5 songs of fish (but in this instance, four), by Nodal Nim.

  • Radishes from the Garden!

    radishes
    Grown right in our garden. They taste great. Real radishes have a great spicy taste to them. (they are similar to horseradish, after all)