I decided to invest in my first hybrid vehicle, well electric vehicle that can be pedaled. I don't drive enough to even remotely justify investing in a hybrid car, but after my housemate got an electric bike kit and I got to try it out, I decided to get one myself. I can easily say its the most fun I've had on two wheels. Currently its powered by a 12AH 36V lead/gel cell battery pack which weighs about 35 pounds. I haven't been able to calculate range very well yet since I haven't done a trip that has exhausted the batteries, but I did the 7 mile commute plus another 2 miles of errands in town and I still had a green power light on my battery meter. Justin has gotten just under 14 miles I think on his and he has about 100lbs on me so I should be able to get more than 14 miles on a charge depending on hills and how hard I push the throttle. Of course if I actually bothered to pedal I could get more range.

I did my first commute on the bike yesterday, unfortunately Boston is a bit ambitious given the condition of the bike paths and the dangers of riding in traffic, however I may try it one of these days, however our Data center is a short 7 mile ride on mostly light traffic, nice neighborhood roads, much more fun than driving on the highway and only about 30-40 minutes instead of 15 minutes by car.

So far cars have been surprisingly courteous, and I think they've been caught off guard when I'm able to keep pace coming out of a red light without pedaling.



Currently the battery pack is removed for these pictures since I didn't want to carry it down to the basement with my camera, its a standard looking bike rack bag though with fold down pannier packs for cargo.

Plants took a pounding today, a hailstorm whipped through with up to pea sized hail...I think things will be okay but there was ripped foliage everywhere.

Hailstorm video

I followed the plans on instructables for a simple hydroponics rig to grow herbs in, this is small enough that I should be able to bring it inside during the winter and keep herbs going all winter.



The rest of the garden is coming along, so far the plants I purchased from home depot are doing just fine so far, and I just did my first major solution change over the weekend. It seems to be much easier not having to do any weeding and only needing to do occasional checks on water levels.

Despite some dark days and cooler weather, the tomato I left outside looks much better than the ones I left inside. I moved 3 more out to the deck before I ran out of expanded clay medium, I need to get some more of it before I plant the other two. The mixed greens are doing quite well, I actually had to prune back a couple leaves to make room for the standard lettuce I have in that pot.

I picked up my hydroponics equipment today: Buckets, strainers, growing medium (expanded clay pellets), air pump, tubing, air stones and a nutrient starter kit. I'm hedging my bets as I think theres still a chance we could get weather too cold to grow so I transferred a few plants to their buckets and leaving the rest in the sprouting trays.

The whole system is running on solar power, which basically means the air pump is running on solar power. I should be getting all of the plants transferred in the next few weeks, once i'm sure the good weather is here to stay.