What is Lithium?

by | Mar 10, 2022 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Energy Efficiency

Only a few years ago few people had heard of lithium. Now almost everyone relies on this odd metal in their phone, laptop, and tools. It’s a world-changing element.

Metal?????  Lithium is a truly odd metal.  Iron, lead, and other common metals are heavy. Not lithium. It’s near the upper left corner of the periodic chart near hydrogen, the lightest element. Lithium is light, volatile, and scarce. Argentina and Chile, Australia, and China form the “lithium triangle” and hold the world’s greatest reserves. Smaller amounts are mined in the United States and other countries.

Many Uses

Lithium can jump. At least lithium-ion batteries can make a car jump. We experienced it when we drove a Chevy Bolt from Cedar Rapids to Dubuque. It’s an amazing car powered by energy stored in a lithium-ion battery, rather than gas. While driving on four-lane US 151 we stepped on the “gas” pedal and the Bolt jumped forward, swooping us around a sluggish car.

Lithium can also calm people down. For years it’s been an ingredient in drugs used to treat depression and bipolar disorder. The metal that makes a car jump can calm a person.

It’s also added to grease to make it even slicker.

Lithium Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries store plenty of energy, recharge quickly, and are making a huge change in American life. It started in 1991 when Sony used the first lithium-ion battery in camcorders. Since then, phones, tools, electronics, and even cars and trucks are powered by energy stored in these batteries.

We went “lithium-ion” a while back when we purchased Milwaukee Tool brand circular saws and drills. We were needlessly worried they wouldn’t be powerful and would run out of charge quickly. They were false fears. We love our battery tools and now have Milwaukee inflators, (i.e., to pump up tires), fans, and a pole saw. We also have EGO brand battery power lawn mowers, a trimmer, and a snowblower. They’re easy to use, quiet, and powerful. We love our battery-powered tools and can see a battery-energized car in our future.

Pros and Cons

There are environmental and health benefits when using battery, or cordless, tools.   They are quiet and don’t emit fumes. No need to pull a starter rope on the mower or blower anymore. Just flip a switch and vrrrooom! they go.  Recharging batteries costs less than buying a comparable energy equivalent of gas, and there’s no flammable gas to lug home and store. It’s all good. There are downsides to lithium mining but the environmental positives outweigh them. Mining can be done responsibly.

Care of Lithium Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries are expensive but last a long time if given good care. Gerry Barnaby of EGO gave us these tips for battery care:

  • Take the battery off the tool when it’s not in use.
  • Protect batteries from extreme heat and cold. It’s a good idea to store them inside. EGO batteries are designed to discharge to 30% if not used for a few months at a stretch. It’s called “auto discharge” and light may flash, but this is normal. Just recharge the battery before using it.
  • EGO batteries are designed to last for 1000 charges. To calculate the battery life divide 1000 by the times it’s used per year. So, if a battery is used 30 times a year it conceivably could last 33 years. But if you don’t believe it, cut those 33 years in half and cut it in half again and the end result is an eight-year life.
  • When a battery is nearing the end of its life the run time will lessen. Then read a label on the side of the battery that gives a phone number. Call to learn where it can be recycled.

We’ll continue to invest in our battery-energized tools that are so easy to use.

How Can Backpacking Meals Save the Day?

by | Mar 3, 2022 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Preparedness

Research Yields a Find

Part of our Winding Pathways business is writing travel and outdoor adventure articles for the Cedar Rapids GAZETTE and other publications. Preparedness blogs on our website encourage people to prepare for emergencies by keeping non-perishable food and other supplies on hand in a big plastic “preparedness” bin. So, we occasionally buy and try new products to test.

Good to Go Dried Foods

We found the meals tasty and filling.

While writing an article on Iowa backpacking, we bought a pouch of dehydrated food at SOKO in Czech Village. The brand was new to us. Backpackers know that dehydrated meals have a long shelf life, weigh little, and only need boiling water to prepare. They’re nutritious and even taste good. We keep about two weeks’ worth of dehydrated food in a storage bin just in case we have an extended power outage or emergency when we can’t access fresher food. We also sometimes take several meals with us when camping.

Busy Schedules

But we recently found a new value of dehydrated meals. We’d been busy. Very busy and had to skip a routine visit to the grocery store. Late one afternoon it was time to prepare dinner, but the refrigerator was bare. Because we’d just bought a pouch of Good to-Go brand dehydrated Chicken Gumbo to photograph for our article it was on the kitchen counter. We cooked it and enjoyed a pleasant backpacking meal while sitting at home.

Chef Jennifer Scism

Good To-Go chef Jennifer Scism creates delicious meals.

“Backpacking meals have come a long way since MRE (meals ready to eat) and there are options for diets ranging from gluten-free to keto and beyond. Good To-Go chef Jennifer Scism creates meals that are delicious and use only recognizable and pronounceable ingredients,” said Kate Ketschek of Revolution House Media and communications representative for Good To-Go meals.

The YUM Factor

We appreciated our recent meal simply because we hadn’t gotten to the grocery store and were hungry. The Chicken Gumbo tasted great on a cold snowy evening and was oh so convenient. Dehydrated meals have value beyond backpacking.

What’s a Nor’Easter?

by | Feb 17, 2022 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Geology/Weather, Reflections/Profiles

New England’s Nor’easter January 29-20, 2022
by Susan Fellows, guest blogger

What is a Nor-easter?

Dover, NH, 4:00 a.m. Temperature 5 degrees. The wind chill is probably close to -10 degrees. Wind gusts 40-45 mph throughout the day. What is a blizzard?  Wind gusts more than 35 mph. Snow blowing and drifting. Visibility less than 1/4 mile.  All more than three hours. We grew up with blizzards, know them well, and call them Nor’easters.

The description above is what I saw outside my living room window all day on January 29, 2022, in excess of eight hours. There is a large green space next to my apartment building with a stand of pine trees at the far end, where there is no snow. An area just outside my apartment going out about 20-30 feet where the wind blew the snow off all day long made it look like we had only a dusting of snow.  Beyond that, snow accumulated up to 1″-2″ per hour for several hours.  Most of the day, I could not see the trees which are less than a 1/4 mile away.

Following the Progress of the Storm

The well-predicted storm made its way up the coast from South Carolina, past Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York to New England. Snowfall reported in Bridgewater, MA, totaled 32″!  Out at Wellfleet on the south side of Cape Cod, wind gusts reached 82 mph. Fortunately, in Dover, NH, we weren’t hit with as much snow and wind gusts were in the 40 mph range. Most of the day and into the evening I watched snow blowing horizontally past the windows. Whiteout! An all-day blizzard.

Venturing Out

Snow on security door.

Opening the door was difficult

7:30 p.m. I decided to get my mail if there was any. True to the USPO motto, through rain, wind, snow, and dark of night the Post Office did deliver the mail! Getting out my door was difficult as the snow had accumulated to about three feet. So, it was hard to open the door.  Along the sidewall of the building I trudged. Not as much snow there.  But, once I reached the lobby door, I had to get to the security post to swipe my key fob to open that door. Snow spilled into my boots and I had to shove the door open about a foot to squeeze through. After picking up my mail, I made my way back to my apartment.

 

 

 

Manager & Snow Crews Respond to Safety Concern

The snowfall seemed to be easing up but it was hard to tell as the wind still picked up and carried snow horizontally past my window. Remembering that some Eastern big cities had had fires in apartments recently, I was concerned with conditions by the exit doors. So, I called the answering service of the apartment complex. Shortly our maintenance supervisor returned my call.  I explained the situation and my concern that in case of an emergency requiring evacuation of the building the other residents might not be able to get safely out. He replied that the snow removal team would return the next morning. After some discussion, with the supervisor being unrelenting with his statement that the team would be back in the morning, I simply asked who would be liable if an evacuation were needed and people could not safely get out. Then, I hung up.

Soon after the property manager called, respected the fact that I was observing the conditions and he wasn’t.  He called the supervisor of the snow removal team.  Within the hour they arrived!  I was relieved!

Blindingly Beautiful

Sunday, January 30, 2022. The day dawned bright and beautiful! What a change from not being able to see because of the blizzard!  People were out with their pets and children enjoying the light, fluffy snow. The snow removal team cleared the overflow lots and residents moved their cars so the parking log could be properly cleared.  Gigantic piles of snow were all over the place and sidewalks, doorways, and cars cleared of the eight inches of reported snow.  One town, right on the ocean about 12 miles away, got the state’s grand total of 13.5″. The wind, she kept on blowing and the temperatures were bitterly, brutally cold.

The next day, in appreciation, I called the supervisor to thank the crews for coming out in the storm and making sure residents were safe.

Prior to the storm, everyone had been told to stay off the roads, which they did.  All-day Saturday, I had watched a storm tracker show from a Boston station. Indeed except for plows and utility crews restoring power, the roadways were clear of vehicles.

I LOVE SNOW and this was quite an event!

 

 

 

 

Chickadees Never Go the the Dentist – But Have to Eat Rocks

by | Feb 3, 2022 | Birds, Garden/Yard, Nature, Uncategorized

Millions of families love watching chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers visit backyard feeders. A joyful daily task is bringing them a day’s supply of sunflower seeds, millet, or even cracked corn. But, often an important part of their diet is ignored.

Birds lack teeth so never need dental care. Instead, they must eat rocks! Small rocks humans call sand. Often birds forage along snowy roads gleaning grit spread to give cars traction. It goes into their gizzard where powerful muscles grind seeds into a digestible slurry that then moves on to the stomach.

During most of the year, birds find all the grit they need on their own, but when snow and ice seal off the soil they can’t find it. People sometimes scatter sand on slippery spots to provide human traction. Birds will glean some of it.

It’s helpful to sprinkle a handful of sand around feeders once a week during the snowy season. At Winding Pathways, we buy a 50-pound bag of chick grit at a local store that sells chicken feed. It’s fine ground hard rock that is ideal for both traction and bird digestion but plain old sand works.

Wild Turkeys often visit our feeders, so once in a while, we toss out large-sized grit, designed for laying hens. It helps their gizzards grind up hard corn kernels that they love snacking on.

An outstanding source of bird information is the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology.

EGO-centric!

by | Jan 20, 2022 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Energy Efficiency, Garden/Yard

Back in October, we took a gamble. We bought an electric snowblower. Our driveway at Winding Pathways is about 440 feet long, and Iowa gets plenty of snow. It’s too much to shovel, so years ago we bought a gas snow blower. It worked for the first winter but then it started throwing belts off the drive wheels. Fixing was tedious and tenuous. So, we sold the beast and bought an EGO battery-powered two-stage snowblower.

We hoped it was a good decision. Would the blower be up to clearing such a long driveway? Would it hold up to hard use?

A  heavy wet snowfall on December 28, 2021, gave us a chance to test the new machine. It did just fine. After clearing the entire driveway, the batteries still had charge to them. We could have done more.

It’s our prediction that gasoline-powered lawnmowers, hedge trimmers, blowers, chainsaws, and snow blowers are becoming obsolete. They’ve already been banned in California because they pollute the air more than cars.

Here are aspects of battery tools we like:

  • They run quietly and are lightweight.
  • No need to risk shoulder injury by pulling a rope to start it up. Just push a switch.
  • No need to store gasoline.
  • Maintenance is easy. No filters or spark plug to change.
  • No fumes.
  • Inexpensive to run. It costs less to recharge the battery than to buy an energy equivalent amount of gas.

It looks like our decision will pay off. We’ve now replaced all our gas-burning outdoor equipment with battery equivalents……except for one chainsaw. That may go soon.

Note:  Winding Pathways paid the full retail price for this machine.  

Woman using EGO battery snowblower

The EGO snowblower cut through the heavy snow easily.

Harvesting Snow

by | Jan 5, 2022 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Flowers/Grasses, Garden/Yard, Garden/Yard, Nature

A raging blizzard roaring over Winding Pathways just before Christmas 2022 showed us the power of HARVESTING SNOW. We love catching it. Other parts of the country endure blizzards, especially Nor’ Easters

Well, we didn’t really catch the snow, but our prairie did. It has a talent for harvesting snow and other forms of moisture. It taught us how prairie and other taller plants – grasses, forbs, shrubs, vines, and trees – help themselves grow next summer.

Our prairie has a thick growth of two-foot-tall dead stems from last summer’s growth.  Each stalk is brittle, but thousands of them working together slowed the wind just enough for it to drop the snow it had swept off nearby lawns and roads.

The deep drift that settled on our prairie will melt and give next spring’s plants a jumpstart in moist soil. Nearby shortly sheared lawns can’t catch snow and will start the spring on dryer soil. Nature delivered irrigation water to our yard for free!

Sharing Nature’s Wisdom

In dry regions of the country, snow also helps next summer’s vegetables. During college, Rich worked weekends at an Idaho ranch. He was surprised one January when Lucille Pratt, part owner of the land and an outstanding vegetable gardener, asked him to shovel a snow drift from nearby onto the garden.

For a Jersey boy, this seemed like a weird request. He did as asked and learned that melting snow oozed water into the soil. That helped get the vegetables going come spring and sustained them through the dry north Idaho summers.   

Snow may be a bother to some, but it’s also a blessing to dry soil and the plants it sustains.

Over two blizzardy days, our prairie gently caught snowflake after snowflake. We already are looking forward to bright prairie flowers dancing in next summer’s breeze. Thanks, prairie for harvesting snow. Nature’s wisdom to catch winter’s snow and help next summer’s growth is amazing.