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Green Hosting

For some time now I have decided not to have banner ads on this blog. I think sites with banner ads look cluttered, and for the small amount of money they could generate I think it’s nicer for the people who read this blog if I don’t have them. As a rule, I also don’t provide commercial links with places I don’t have some relationship with or places I don’t believe are good to do business with. With banner ads it’s hard to be this selective.

Today I put up my first ever ad, for my hosting provider. You can find the ad graphic on the bottom of the front page of this blog.

Apart from the food we eat, the cars we drive and heating our homes, probably one of the most energy intensive things we do is use our computers and the Internet. As a US based company, Dreamhost is not obliged to reduce their carbon emissions or purchase carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol.

As well as trying to reduce their energy consumption, Dreamhost has voluntarily chosen to purchase carbon credits with the intention of making their business carbon neutral. As I continue to look for ways to reduce my own energy consumption, I am pleased my hosting provider is doing the same thing. I hope many more companies all over the world start doing the same thing.

A hosting provider is a company that will ‘host’ an Internet domain for you. They normally handle your email and web site as well as provide you with things like blogs, photo galleries or online shops. These are things many Internet Service Providers do, or in the case of blogs or Internet sites you can find them other places online for free, but a hosting provider will let you have all of these things in one place on a personalized domain. In addition, you can change your Internet Service Provider and still keep your email address and domains. If you are unhappy with Dreamhost, it’s also not difficult to switch to a different hosting provider.

I wish I could say I was completely satisfied with Dreamhost, but I’m not. Especially the last few months have seen several frustrating and extended outages in service with them. Searching on the Internet will show many heated discussions between customers who were very upset with them. If you sign up for service with them, don’t expect it to be trouble free! At the same time, for the price I think the service is good. I also think their customer service is excellent, and when they have a problem they work around the clock until it’s solved. I have no reason to believe another similarly priced hosting company would provide a better level of service.

I think Dreamhost’s biggest problem is more that they have a few, loud, poorly behaved customers, rather than a serious problem with their level of service.

For all but the most power users, Dreamhost has virtually no limits on disk use or bandwidth. You can have as many domains or subdomains as you want. You are allowed a very generous number of mailboxes and email addresses. You are allowed unlimited blogs or other web site installations. For most people, the cheapest plan offered is enough, for as little as US$8 per month.

And, yes, if you follow the link on the front page of this blog and sign up for an account with them, I will get a little bit of money. It’s my intention to apply any money I get from this towards the cost of running this site, and if I have any left over donate it to charity.

Don’t sign up with Dreamhost for the sole purpose of supporting this site! If you were thinking of signing up with Dreamhost anyway, consider doing it by following the link on this blog.

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You Are What You Grow

Michael Pollan of Omnivore’s Dilemma fame explains just how important the upcoming debate on the Farm Bill is to all of us, here in this article for the New York Times Magazine.

The Farm Bill determines the subsidies and national priorities for food production in the US. To a large degree, it determines how half of the land in the US is used and if priority will be given to environmental issues or to high volume food production. It will determine where the massive farm subsidies go. For Americans who can’t afford to buy any food they want, regardless of price, it will to a large degree determine what they eat.

For those of us who live outside of the US, it is nearly as important, because what results from the Farm Bill will put pressure on governments all over the world who will need to harmonize their own food policies with those of the US.

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Lambing Time

It’s lambing season around my garden. Honestly, I’m not very fond of sheep, but they do make nice pictures sometimes. Here are some pictures Steph took the same day as the pictures from the last couple of posts.

Sheep in the grass

Lamb on Steps

Baby Sheep

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Pfälzer Dinkel Spelt

Pfälzer Dinkel Spelt

This is one of the plants I have growing in my garden at the moment. Spelt is an old variety of wheat, and at least around here is becoming popular again for making breads. In this case, it’s a variety used for making the original German pretzels. I got these seeds from a fellow Seed Savers Exchange member, who lives in Pennsylvania and is of Pennsylvania Dutch/German decent.

Many people don’t think about growing wheat or related grains in their garden, but I think it’s a very under rated plant. Of course it’s probably not for people just starting to garden, and not the only thing you should grow. This is the kind of plant for after you are growing all the usual vegetables, and are looking for something a bit different.

Wheat is not just for making bread! Many nice dishes can be made with the wheat berries right off the plant, in addition wheat can be sprouted for salads. Of course flour mills can be purchased for home use, and you can make your own bread too.

There are many different kinds of wheat available, and since they are nearly completely inbreeding plants many different kinds can be grown next to each other, and saving your own seeds is as simple as collecting the seeds off the plants.

An important consideration when growing wheat is choosing one that is easy to thresh (separate the seeds from the plant), and spelt in particular has a very difficult to remove seed husk. Spelt is also a very perishable grain. I am growing spelt now, because I tried several other kinds of wheat but they all failed to germinate. So far the spelt is doing very well, but I may encounter difficulties when it comes to threshing it, and in the long run I may have to look for other grains to grow.

For some reason there is not a lot of published information about growing wheat like plants in the garden. There are two main pitfalls with these plants. First is the young plants are almost indistinguishable from grass, and grassy weeds can easily choke off your plants. Make sure you don’t plant it in an area where grass is a problem weed. The other pitfall is these plants use a lot of water, and if you plant them too densely they can consume water so fast that they simply use everything available and die.

The first year it’s a good idea to plant it in rows, with a spacing of about 30cm (1ft) and seeds planted about 2.5cm (1″) apart. After the first year, when you have saved enough seeds, you can try broadcasting the seeds into an open area of your garden. Plant the seeds about a month before the first frost in your area. The idea is it should establish itself before winter starts, grow slowly through the winter then grow faster in the spring for an early summer harvest. It can also be spring planted, and some varieties are more suited for fall or spring planting. Really, when it comes down to it, it’s not a lot different from growing grass, and is very easy.