A lot of produce available in UK supermarkets is grown in the Almeria region of Spain, inside a collection of greenhouses so large it can be seen from space. While these greenhouses used to be owned by various small growers, most of the greenhouses now belong to large agricultural companies.
I was wondering why this region is so successful. It turns out that because it's located at the south-eastern tip of Spain, it's close enough for Moroccan and East African migrants to work there. These migrants may not have the necessary work permits, so are not paid minimum wage or provided with any government-mandated benefits. It also turns out that even for the legal workers, their hours are under-reported, enabling the companies to greenwash their facilities. Most unions are also not interested in supporting these workers, for various reasons including racism and xenophobia.
So even if you think you think your certified produce from Spain is ethically grown, it may not be. Thanks to modern-day supply chains there is just no way of knowing the conditions in which your imported food was grown. Maybe it's time to try and grow your own?
I received a Seed Pantry Grow Pod 2 as a Christmas gift. It came with a packet of Sweet n Neat cherry tomato seeds which I planted just after Christmas. On 6 January I started seeing the first seedlings.
The grow lights are on a simple timer that is on for 16 hours and then off for 8 hours. It also has a sensor to detect the water level, and beeps until you fill it up with more water. So it's really low maintenance until the plants start flowering. That's when you have to start giving it some liquid fertiliser once a week.
I planted some basil recently in the other pod and the seedlings just started appearing. Overall I think this is a very easy way of growing things, but maybe a bit expensive for what it is. I transplanted two tomato plants from the pod into regular pots, so it will be interesting to compare them to the two that are still in the pod.
This past couple of weeks I have been converting my bicycle into an e-bike using a conversion kit. This afternoon I rode my e-bike for the first time. Installing this kit was a much bigger challenge than I at first expected, so I wanted to write down my experiences.
I ordered the conversion kit from Cyclotricity on 25 February and it arrived earlier than expected, only two days later. Unfortunately there were no instruction manuals or tools included with the kit, but I found the installation instructions online.
If you're looking for yesterday's blog entry, I wrote it on write.as. I used my phone to write the entry, and write.as works great on mobile, while the Ghost editor does not work well at all.
I'm going to take a break from writing blog entries over the Christmas break, apart from maybe posting a couple of “best of 2018” entries. I want to take the time to refocus and think through what I want to do with this blog in future. Thanks for reading!
Before I fell asleep last night, I was mulling over the options I've been considering for writing a blog. I've been using Ghost for most of last year, but Write.as, Plume, Scuttlebutt and TiddlyWiki are starting to look like better options. The Ghost editor is not very mobile-friendly, and I'd also rather support a platform that better aligns with my values.
It seems that if I want to use my phone or iPad to write, using Write.as is a no-brainer. ScuttleButt is awesome, but the barrier of entry for non-technical users is still too high. It can take a long time to get everything installed and set up correctly. It also takes some getting used to.
Compare that with the peer-to-peer Beaker browser, which works very similar to any other web browser, even allowing you to browse regular web sites. Maybe Beaker is a better gateway drug into the P2P world? TiddlyWiki works great on Beaker browser, but cannot be accessed from a mobile device. Then again, there is nothing that prevents me from having both a blog and a personal wiki.
I guess I can just experiment with all of them for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.
Update 12 March 2019: I've decided to give write.as a try!
The house we recently moved into has a built-in dishwasher. This is the first time I've owned a dishwasher in all my adult life. I remember that as a kid it was still a lot of work loading and unloading the dishwasher, so I always figured I might as well wash and dry them myself. What I now realise is that they do have several advantages:
You can use them to store unwashed dishes so that they don't clutter up the counter top.
If you pack things into the dishwasher immediately after you use them, loading the dishwasher doesn't feel like work.
Unloading a dishwasher when the plates are still slightly warm is strangely satisfying.
Unloading a dishwasher takes a lot less time than washing the dishes, and can be done at your convenience.
If you're doing a couple of dishes that don't go in the dishwasher, and you have the dishwasher running at the same time, it feels like you have a little robot helping you out.
It also helps having a small dishwasher, so that you don't have to wait until you've used every plate and cup in the cupboard before you can turn it on.
I have owned this multi-meter for over ten years, always storing it in the cardboard box that it came in to keep the wires from getting tangled or losing the test leads. Today for the first time I noticed there are slots on the back for storing the test leads. It turns out with the right technique it's possible to neatly wrap the wires around the meter and then tuck the test leads into the slots. Nice!
I'm taking the afternoon off today to take my son to forest school. I have never been there before, but it sounds like fun. Apparently we will be making Christmas wreaths, and there will be a fire with (non-alcoholic) mulled wine and mince pies. I know they usually make and eat soup when he's there, and there's also a mud kitchen for him to play in. The only thing I know for sure is that we'll be getting dirty!
So the double-decker bus I mentioned yesterday is a success! It printed without any issues, and the trickiest part was to find the right diameter metal pins to use as axles for the wheels. I ended up using a couple of nails that I shortened a bit, and then used a gel-based super glue to hold them in place. I think it looks pretty good!
So far they've been single prints. I want to try something a little bit more ambitious. My son's really into buses at the moment, and I just came across this double-decker bus with a separate shell, chassis and wheels. I'm busy printing the bus shell in blue PLA at the moment, and will switch to grey PLA for the chassis and the wheels. Then I'll have to assemble it and will let you know how it turns out in another post.
