Archive for January, 2008

A Good Solid Start

Fitness Challenge | Posted by Dean
Jan 22 2008

Today I finally braved the scales to weigh myself after the first week of the Go Smell the Flowers Weight Loss contest that has kick started my road to a healthier weight. I was expecting some loss, although I am sure I have gained some muscle mass. However, significant lifestyle changes have been implemented.

The first of these changes has been the elimination of a large percentage of the unhealthy beverages from my diet. In the first week I have seen a significant reduction in the amount of coffee I am consuming. I have replaced it, except the morning cob web cleaner, with an organically grown Rooibos tea. Rooibos is an African tea made from the Rooibos bush. It is great tasting tea and is much the same taste as you standard Lipton from the supermarket, but I enjoy it more. For those of us that drink Lipton Ice Tea it is the tea in the Red Tea variety.

On the Red Tea ice tea I am using that and water to replace the consumption of soft drinks and energy drinks. I still have to odd soft drink, but am choosing Coke Zero or Sprite Zero. I can not stomach the Diet varieties with the exception of good old Bundaberg Ginger Beer. The others taste like strained compost, but less healthy to consume.

On the diet front I have been eating much healthier. We have all been eatting healthier with much more cooking going on within the home, which is fantastic. When it was not practical for us to cook I have been opting for a healthier option in a six inch six grams of fat or less Subway sandwich with no dressing. I have also walked to the store to obtain my sandwich so am getting exercise just getting my bodies fuel.

As documented in the A Change is as Good as a Holiday post we have been looking, and found, some new digs. This lead to a celebration on Friday night of Chinese food at our favourite, soon not to be, local restaurant. I restrained myself rather well, certainly much more than I normally would.

I have also managed to introduce a regular walking regime into my routine. I went for a 20 minute walk which quickly stepped up to 30 minutes. Then all of a sudden I was walking for an hour or more. Since the last of those big walks it has rained pretty much solid and limited my regime. Tonight was the first night that it has not rained, and as luck would have it work got busy and confined me to home. Also, I had to pack and clean the house.

This week is going to be a bit of a loss in terms of organised exercise, however incidental exercise will increase. We will be moving a lot of our belongings from Thursday, hence I will be quite active moving boxes, fridges and couches for the weekend. I expect that will compensate for the loss of some of the organised exercise. I will be compensating from next week though I expect as I will be keen to explore the new area.

So now you no doubt want to know what all that has achieved. Well I have managed to increase muscle mass and stamina for sure. I have also dropped 7 kilos to 137.4 kilograms (302.915 pounds). So I am a stilly definately a fatty, however I believe I have made the crucial first steps in becoming a much leaner and meaner individual. Only time will tell.

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Another Attempt

Gardening, Herb, Fruit and Vegetables, Worm Farm/Vermiculture | Posted by Dean
Jan 20 2008

Well today I found a number of very healthy looking Blackjack Zucchini seedlings. My head said walk away you know that is your nemesis plant. However, my heart said you can grow these. So I now have another lot of Blackjack Zucchini to try my hand at. I have decided that I will be potting them in some temporary pots tomorrow.

The temporary pots are recycled pots for larger plants in the garden. This will give the plants something to grow in and prevent getting root bound in the current seedling tray. It will also the easy transportation of the plants to Wollongong next week. Once in the Gong I will be performing another recycling tub conversion to a planter.

In order to make a few changes to this attempt I have bought a bag of Debco Organic potting mix. The reason for going with this alternative planting medium is that I wish to eliminate the RichGro Pro Mix from being a potential contributor to my previous disastrous attempts to grow this plant. This medium is coarser and does not contain the soil wetting agents or slow release fertiliser that the Rich Gro does, however given that I will have an abundance of worm juice and vermi compost that should not be a problem.

Why will I have an abundance of the worm produce? I will be deploying a second worm farm in Wollongong. In fact I am seriously considering going larger and marketing the worm juice and compost. That does need a considerable amount more investigation. However, a second farm is a certainty. The construction of that farm is yet to be decided. I am considering the Cheap Worm Farm Construction idea, but that is largely dependent on the above plans.

From this article there are two things that are certain:

  1. All attempts will be made to grow these plants successfully, I am sick of having a nemesis, especially one that I enjoy.
  2. I am yet again in need of more worms.

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Preparing for the Move

Gardening, Herb, Fruit and Vegetables, Worm Farm/Vermiculture | Posted by Dean
Jan 19 2008

This week and weekend has been very wet in Sydney. It is basically miserable and is preventing me from doing a number of things, including gardening. As a result there has been a devout lack of gardening posts on the site of late. Today is no different in terms of the weather as it has been steadily raining all day.

This is a bit of a bonanza for the garden in preparation for the move with all my plants receiving a monumental soak. The plants were struggling at times with an extended dry period prior to this rain setting in. The plants have now had an extended soak and are looking healthy once more successfully recovering from their heat stroke or other dilemmas.

Generally the garden was coping, however as happens with container gardening the combination of thirsty plants and evaporation the moisture was leeching quickly. Those plants that I had mulched in the two sessions I mentioned in my Mulching Day post were doing better than the others. However, it is fair to say that most of the plants were spending the day starved of moisture and looked forward to a daily drink.

On this problem I have some products to try and fix this that will deliver moisture, and liquid fertiliser directly to the roots of the plants in a truly recyclable manner. That said given our impending relocation to Wollongong I am holding off implementing these measures until the plants are settled once more. Back to the plants.

The plants that have benefited the most seem to be the 2 varieties of lettuce and spinach. The Green Coral lettuce was suffering due to its transplanting. This would not have been a major issue, except the heat caused it to continually dry out and struggle. Now it has regained its former vigourous growth and green foliage.

The Red Coral Lettuce was already struggling prior to its transplant. Remember this is the lettuce that looked like a Christmas tree. I had to free it from its previous dilemma, and then it was struck by the heat extremes and the constant lack of moisture. It is now looking very good and finally beginning to spread and look more like a lettuce than a Christmas tree. I am happy for that as I have been unable to havest anything from this plant to date due to it being a runt when bought, then crowded by the Green Coral lettuce in the shared accommodations.

My perennial Spinach was also struggling with the heat. The paradox of this plant is that it loves full sun, however that means that it dries out constantly and then wilts. This plant was starting to benefit from the rather deep mulch that I had placed around it on Mulching Day, however the constant soaking has turned the plant right around. It has once again resumed vigorous growth.

The only plants that a really struggling are a number of very immature sun flower seedlings. They are struggling not through a lack of care, but because something has pecked off their leaves. The stalks are thus back in the home made green houses and are remaining green. With luck they may produce some new leaves and grow, however that is more hope than anything.

So all in all the garden is very healthy, which is good news given that in less than 10 days time they will be facing a new challenge in a new post code. The weather in Wollongong will be reasonably similar to Sydney at this time of year, if anything a bit milder. That is a good thing for both the garden and the gardener in my opinion. As such I do not expect much of a culture shock for the traveling plants. The plants will have some months to adjust to the area, prior to winters onset that will be a few degrees cooler than Sydney.

In terms of moving the plants we shall be using a truck and ensuring there will not be wind shock on the journey. So I expect the plants to travel well and simply assume a new position in the yard of the new digs. The thing that I will need to prepare for transport with much more care is my worm farm.

I have been trying Google over the past few days, however drawing a rather large and consistent blank on the subject. I am thus thinking that I will drain the worm juice, remove any usable vermicompost to some storage containers (to use at the other end), and then tether the three layers together. The tethering should keep the layers in place and reduce the chances of the farm separating in transit. If anyone has experience, or knows someone who has had experience, in relocating a worm farm please let me know of any ideas.

Fingers crossed I will get a shot at the garden tomorrow as I need to dig out my black mondo grass from the front garden bed and plant it in some pots. I am buggered if I am leaving the plants that first kindled my interest in gardening behind. They are good to look at and drought resistant, and thus need to come.

Thats it for now, and please any fellow vermiculturalists with experience relocating worms please contact me via a comment to this post.

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I Won An Award

Geek, Web Sites and Social Networking | Posted by Dean
Jan 18 2008

Commenting on others blogs is a good way to participate in the blogosphere. Most of the time you get some return traffic from an often thankful fellow blogger.

Recently though I participated in a discussion at Space of Reality around whether or not there is a valid reason for white lies. Today I was shocked and thankful to see that this fellow blogger has gone to the extreme of handing out rewards for the commentary. I have thus won an Honest Blogger Award, which is the badge below.

Certified Honest Blogger

This is a great incentive to continue returning to Space of Reality as it demonstrates the willingness of Hye to facilitate a discussion. Thanks Hye.

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How I Managed To Get Traffic

Geek, Web Sites and Social Networking | Posted by Dean
Jan 18 2008

Recently my little blog that was incredibly poorly trafficked and lurked in the mid 5 millions for internet reach in Alexa has made a large jump through the charts. At the time of writing this post it was at 496, 274 and improving steadily as shown by the graph available here. Now without dwelling on the validity of the Alexa measures I can say that based on similar evidence in Google Analytics that this site is exponentially better off than 2 months ago. So how did I turn this traffic strapped lemon into a site that is trafficked?

Transformation of SCHWOIT from a general run of the mill social commentary site that was infrequently updated, to a frequently updated and niche focussed blog was the beginning of turning the blog around. I went from discussing many subjects that enthused me for a week or so, and then they faded into the distance. Now I have a passion for gardening and am more than happy to share my experiences in my developing passion. Whilst I am not an expert by any stretch, I am willing to learn and research. So sharing my experiences, and nifty inexpensive ideas is giving me a constant content source. Content is after all king in the blogging game.

Another part of the transition was to a new clean skin for the site. The new skin is a complete departure from the old scheme that had a black background. The new skin is much more readable and complementary to the content. The old black site was one that I liked and was around for many months, however I am much happier with the new skin.

The second part, and the bit that has seen the traffic numbers is my embracing of some social networking sites. The first being Blog Catalog. A great social networking site that has made many people aware of the sites existence. It is important to be a regular contributor to be seen in the forums. There are a great number of really knowledgeable and helpful people there from around the entire globe. Many topics are discussed from religion (ugh), blogging tips and development, and general idle chit chat. I have found many a useful tip or had a good chuckle.

Site number two is a forum for Aussie Bloggers at Aussie Bloggers Forum. The forums again reward active members that involve themselves in constant communication. Many of the members of the forum are very knowledgeable in the blogging fraternity, and all are friendly. Many of my regular readership are now from the forums and I am happy they are.

The third site is Entrecard. Entrecard is a site that allows bloggers to advertise for free by exchanging Entrecard Credits. A bloggers 125 x 125 banner is displayed on a fellow bloggers site for a 24 hour period. This allows for other people to discover your site. Primarily fellow Entrecard users, but other curious people also can click through to your site. Of late many sites have been discussing the validity of the traffic and the service. However, Entrecard has brought SCHWOIT many new readers and participants. In fact I will credit it with the majority of the credit. I will discuss my strategy for success in a subsequent post.

Another site that I am about to begin partaking in heavily soon is Blotanical. This is a site for gardening bloggers to discover one another and share tips. I have not been too active yet, however will with time permitting be starting to leverage its offerings. If nothing more than to research what others out there are growing and how. I believe it will be a stellar information source that will enrich my own sites content, and thus help keep the interest of the readership that I have built up.

All this took less than a month to achieve and it does require working at. However, this and similar strategies are rewarding for bloggers as we like to know there is other people out there that are listening. I fully appreciate all the traffic, even the chain dropping Entrecard users that many whinge about. The reason is that if I can convert 2% of those users to a regular visitor and contributor then my efforts are worth it.

So now I have done my geek post for the week I will get back to gardening. Time to research the best way to prepare and move worms and plants from the big smoke to the Illawarra. On that the sites tag line will remain, the Gong is still an urban jungle. It is just not an old growth forest!

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