I was awoken this morning at 5:37am by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in southern Illinois. Nothing appears to be broken and everyone is ok.

This was the first time I have every been able to feel an earthquake and it was very cool (because no one was hurt). The bed vibrated rhythmically with enough force to wake me up (though oddly not enough to disturb Libby). It was as if the house was on top of a clothes dryer. I could hear a constant grumbling sound, like a mellow clap of thunder lasting for about 20 seconds. Then it was over and everything was silent again.

UPDATE: Early this afternoon I (and my co-workers) felt another aftershock. It was milder and shorter than the initial tremor, but still surprisingly strong for how far away the epicenter was.

Well, I sat in the dark for an hour tonight and decided that I should report my findings:

• Libby’s bath lasted until 8:10, so my earth hour was shifted slightly.
• After about 5 minutes I could see very well (much better than I thought I would be able to).
• Sitting alone on a couch in a dark house drinking a beer is the following (in order): weird, relaxing, extremely boring.
• I was able to do the dishes and put away Libby’s toys, thanks to my neighbor’s outdoor lights. There was not much else I could do without using electricity (did I mention that I really miss Shannon?).

Here is a picture of me on the couch with my beer and baby monitor:

All in all I think this was an “ok” experience. I’ll do it again next year - hopefully start a trend. I was thinking that it would be really cool to be in a restaurant or pub for that hour - with candles lit and a bottle of red (maybe a bottle of white), and some live acoustic music playing? Sounds nice.

UPDATE: Looks like Google got in on the action too (see screenshot here).

Tonight (Saturday, March 29th) from 8pm to 9pm I will be celebrating Earth Hour by turning off all of my lights and electronics.

On it’s surface it appears to be such an insignificant action, and I acknowledge that it is. But ponder this: for an hour I will not be watching television or working on the computer. Now multiply that by the millions of households that are expected to celebrate Earth Hour and it begins to get significant.

At the very least it gets people thinking about how to reduce our energy footprint, and that is a good thing. Make sure to Sign Up if you plan to join (so they can get a good count of participants). Canada is kicking the ass of the United States in participation so far, so more people would be great.

I found this little critter on a red maple in our backyard tonight. He and a few thousand of his buddies are making mincemeat out of anything with purple or red leaves.

Shannon’s purple flowers are completely gone and our reddish trees and bushes are beginning to look like swiss cheese. I’ll be picking up some Sevin (carbaryl) on my way home from work tomorrow. The pesticide does not last for very long: I’ll need to re-spray every 7-10 days (or anytime it rains). I’ll also need to watch the aphid and mite populations because over-application of Sevin can lead to overpopulations of those pests.

Homeownership: Educational and Fun!

Either it’s just that time of the year, or the birds in our neighborhood are quite the swingers: I found another bird’s nest with babies!

I stumbled upon this new nest in our front yard today - three little chicks just screaming to be fed (actually, more like chirping). Their mother was hurriedly shoving their faces full of yummy bugs and, with the exception my little photo interruption, seemed to be doing a fine job.

The first nest I wrote about is still doing well: one of the eggs has hatched, the other is still pondering life as an egg.

About a week ago a robin had made a nest on the side of our swingset, but the nest promptly fell down due to weather or kids (we’re not sure which). I found her nest on the ground while mowing and wedged it back into place, and by the end of that same day she had laid her first egg:

We’ve roped off the area around her nest and made sure all the kids know not to mess with her eggs. Since then she has laid another egg (for a total of two) and so far seems to be doing well. Here’s hoping we have some baby birds soon!

My hosting service, DreamHost, just announced that they have gone green! They are now “carbon neutral,” which does not mean they have stopped producing carbon - it simply means that they “buy back” any carbon they do produce (i.e. while running this server) from other companies who are able to cut back their carbon production.

So the net effect, at least hypothetically, is zero carbon emissions. Anyone out there know if this is more than just a good PR stunt? Should I look into buying back carbon for our household, or is it a big scam?

Go, go gadget conservation!

Feeling stressed? The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society has a very soothing life-sized whale for you to watch swim by… perfect to calm the nerves for those late nights of feeding and burping

(via inkycircus)

I’m trying to clean out my “outbox” here at the blog, so you may be seeing some older-than-usual posts over the next few days. Most of these started out with such good intentions, but then got lost on the wayside. Sometimes I have the attention span of a small furry kitten, particularly when I am… uh… what’s that shiny thing over there?

Anyway, now that winter has it’s icy grip on us it’s important to talk about Micro-CHP’s. You can start with the original news story that peaked my interest, or just jump to the more comprehensive wiki article.

For those of you who don’t click: Micro-CHP’s are like mini power plants for your house. They burn a fuel to create electricity, then use the heat from that electricity-generating process to heat things like your water and living area. Three birds, one stone.

The result is an extremely efficient use of the fuel (up to three times more efficient), so as a consequence they are a great way to save money over the long term. Of course they are expensive to buy, but over time the investment pays for itself. Now I just need to scrounge up $15k. I guess I’ll go search between the couch cushions first…