04/30/10

Finally made my compost bin!! Ive been wanting to do it for a long time but I really wanted to make a good space for it instead of building it and then having to landscape around it. Its actually a special kind of compost bin called a thermophilic compost bin. Thermophilic compost bins take a secret ingredient which Ill share in a future post, maybe even make a video out of it. Still got lots more to do on the hillside but I feel a lot more optimistic since I actually made something tangible instead of just digging all the time.

My hanging plants have actually been done for a while. I tried making a how-to video but my video editing skills suck so it was too much work. Also theres lots of how-to resources out there.

As mentioned in the video I harvested some of my lettuce and spinach. I took them to work with me and had them with some cucumber ranch. The lettuce was actually really good. Very flavorful and a very silky texture as opposed to crunchy like iceberg or romaine. Im thinking I need to get some more spinach and lettuce plants because i read that its good to have them growing close together. Need to double check that first.

04/26/10

My mom got started cleaning the house out. In the TV room she took a bunch of shelves out and this is what the wall looks like. It's pretty much like this all around the room (and in other parts of the house I'm sure). Hopefully seeing this people understand why I don't live in the house. There was so much junk all over the walls that this wasn't visible. Luckily it seems like my mom is finally ready to change things for real. We've been spending a lot of time talking which has been nice. It seems like she understands the problem she just needs to change her habits. And she doesn't get any support from anyone else in the house. So I'm taking it upon myself to support her and pull her toward living the way she really wants to live.

Still working on the hillside. I started digging out the space where I'm gonna put one of the compost bins. I'm also gonna put a rainwater barrel right next to the compost bin below the downspout on the gutter. Turns out I need a lot more space then I needed so I've got a lot of digging to do. I'm hoping I'll have some buff back muscles from all the digging :)

Ive been finding a lot of worms (I'm trying not to kill them) while digging and I found this GIANT worm. It's actually shrunken because it's scared. When it got comfortable and stretched out and started crawling it was at least a foot long!

I've been in the process of building Greta (my girlfriend) a moped for a few months. Then I found this bike on Craigslist which is exactly the same as my moped just black (mine is white). The guy wanted $50 for it, but when I called he said someone was already supposed to come get it. I told him I have a spare engine for one and could get it running right away so I'd be willing to give him $75. He called back the other guy that wanted it and the other guy said that he'd rather see me get it (and I'll bet he didn't want to spend the extra $25).

So I got the motor off and took the engine apart and it's pretty much not worth saving. Luckily the two pieces that I'm missing, piston and head, look salvageable. Should have her up and running in no time (of course time being relative to all the other projects I'm working on).

04/23/10

My uncle finished working on my sister's new bike, a Suzuki GS500. It's a 1990 but we got a 2004 motor with 4,000 motor with 4,000 miles for it. It's STUPID fast. I'm kind of scared to teach people on it. My first bike was a '83 Yamaha XV500 which was nothing like this. But it was a cruiser not a sports bike. Anyways, I'm riding it for a few days just to make sure everything is running good on it. I think I'm getting attached to it. It's not as useful as my bike. But damn it sure is fun!

Not sure if you can tell in the picture but there's a pretty abrupt step. That's where I've dug it up. I've gone about a foot down. It's about good now. Just have to make it level. Trying to make it level with the ground that the deck sits on. Then I'm gonna put 4in of pea gravel down.

Ever since we lived in my house the "yard"/land has been shit. My parents never took the time to make it nice. Well technically there were a few times (in 15 years) that they did clean it up but then it went back to shit. Well now that the house is in my name I'm taking it upon myself to change all that. So I'm starting with the hillside because it's the only place that isn't covered in car engines and such. Also, my big sister started working on it over 15 years ago but without the help of my parents it never got anywhere. When I'm out digging, I still get that image of her, excited, driven, ambitious, trying to make a part of our lives a little more pleasant. Part of me is trying to help her do that.

My little sister Evelyn helped me one night. I hesitantly let her handle the pickax to break up the dirt so I could dig it. She's pretty good at it, and she really likes doing it. If I get home before she's in bed she comes and asks me what she can help me with. We make a pretty good team :)

I bought supplies months ago to get water hooked up to the clubhouse. I'm just gonna run it off the spigot that's outside the house. Most of it I could figure out but I couldn't figure out how to hook the plumbing up to the spigot. I was actually at Lowes looking for something completely different but I happened to walk by the plumbing section. An employee walked by and said "what are you looking for?". I found it odd that he didn't ask if I was looking for something. He could tell I was looking for something and was direct. I really prefer that approach. Luckily he knew exactly what I was talking about and got me set up with what I needed. This project has been on hold for over 4 months because I couldn't figure that little part out. Now in one night, it's done. Now all I have to do is hang the rest of the plumbing which is easy.

Please start by telling the class your name......

I'll start off by explaining the title of this blog. Vibrant Light Of The Source is my name. For a few years I felt very apprehensive, perhaps self-conscious, of using or even mentioning the name Vibrant Light to refer to myself. I suppose most of it is the fear of coming off as arrogant. Also, it's a religious name and my religious views are not something I'm very open about.

The name Vibrant Light of the Source was given to me in November (I believe it was the 4th) of 2003 by my teacher when I was ordained in the 42nd generation of the Lam Te Dhyana school of Buddhism. The technical term is "receiving the precepts".

The precepts are basically:

1. Respect the life of all beings.

2. Be aware of the relationship between your possessions and the suffering of all beings.

3. Be aware of the relationship between your sexual conduct and the suffering of all beings.

4. Be aware of the relationship between your speech and the suffering of all beings.

5. Be aware of the relationship between your mental and physical consumption and the suffering of all beings.

For the first couple of years it didn't really mean much to me. But as time passed I came to identify with the name and the implications of each word as they related to my spiritual practice. Eventually it just made sense. I felt/feel like I have the potential to truly live up to the name.

"Hey what was the name of that friend of yours that was at the party the other day? I didn't catch his name. The white brown haired kid on the motorcycle."

"Oh, that's Vibrant Light of the Source."

"Vibrant Light of the Source huh? Yeah I can see that, he comes off like a Vibrant Light of the Source."

Not that I would ever use it in place of my familial name, Joey. I am of the strong belief that being Buddhist does not imply that you turn into a hippie that would do something like that.

"Oh, I'm not Joey anymore, I've received transmission of the enlightened teachings of the Buddha Shakyamuni. Please refer to me by my true name Vibrant Light Of The Source." That kind of crap annoys the shit out of me.

I'm Joey, but I'm also Vibrant Light Of The Source. I only mention it to give anyone that cares to know a little perspective as to why I do some of the things I do. Things that I'll be sharing by way of this blog.