Hose 'em down.

Summer is in full swing and moving fast. Can you beleive that the 4th of July is next week? Here are the kids enjoying the warmer weather.

Funny things...

The other night I ran out to the store and while I was there my wife was going to give the kids a bath. Upon coming home, I was setting the groceries on the counter when I could hear our 6 year old yell to his little brother, "Smell my butt! It smells like a strawberry milkshake!!" What's stranger than his butt smelling like a strawberry milkshake is that I wasn't even surprised to hear a statement like that being made.

I was a little surprised tonight, however, when I opened the refrigerator door a while after we had finished dinner. Again, our 6 year old said that he wasn't hungry and that he'd eat his Mac n Cheese for lunch tomorrow. So, I told him, "Lets save it then. Take the spoon out, cover it with some tin foil, and stick it in the fridge." I guess we know he follows directions well.

Revolutionary Fuel???

Last night on the radio I heard an interview with J. C. Bell, the founder of Bell Bio Energy Inc. You will probably be hearing more about this company in the future as he may have solved our energy problems.

Oil, gasoline, and diesel fuel are made up of hydrocarbons. Bell has found a way to produce hydrocarbons and capture them to be used as fuel. The process is inspired by the digestion of a cow. What is one of the main byproducts of a cow's digestion? Methane; CH4. Methane is the simplest of the hydrocarbons and it is produced by the bacteria in the cows' stomach after consumption of grass and other biomass. Mr. Bell found that different bacteria can produce different hydrocarbons. Bacteria from the gut of Amazonian catfish, for instance, can make oil. For every ton of biomass 2 barrels of oil can be produced.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that there are 1.1 billion tons of biomass readily available every year, and they estimate that number can easily be doubled. I'd say that number could easily be tripled if there were programs for collecting grass clipping, banana peels, egg shells, etc.

He has already met with the government, has a contract with the military, and is in the process of setting up 5 plants throughout the United States. We should see some gas stations carrying this fuel in about a year. A fuel plant works like this... The biomass, (grass, wood, sawdust, any organic waste) is ground up into a sludge, water is added, it's put into a giant vat of hydrocarbon producing bacteria, the hydrocarbons are captured to be turned into fuel, and what is left over is compost which can then be sold to the public.

It will be interesting to see if this will be a viable solution to put a dent in our energy needs. I'm ready for it. I might have to get a new bumper sticker for my car though. This technology is going to ruin the joke.

Tornado!!!

Today I volunteered in the area that was hit hardest by the tornado. The devastation and wreckage is unlike anything I have ever seen. Even seeing all of it on t.v. is nothing compared to what it's like sifting through it and cleaning out people's houses. We canvassed the neighborhoods asking home owners if they'd like any help. I spent most of the day with a guy whose entire roof was blown off (top picture). His 90 year old mother sat in the living room, not knowing it was a tornado, and the roof was ripped off right above her head. We cleared his, and some of the neighbor's roof out of the backyard along with fallen trees and fences. Then we moved his belongings to moving trucks. What's remaining of the house is scheduled for demo in two days. And that is just one house. There are nearly 100 houses that are complete losses and hundreds more that have severe damage and will need some kind of major repair. I wasn't prepared for the amount of insulation that covers nearly every surface, inside and outside. Everything is peppered with insulation. Everybody is getting all of the debris out to their front yards where crane-dump-trucks then come by and pick it up.

Our house is fine and I feel bad even telling people about our broken windows and minor damage when there are homes that were blown off their foundation. I was taking a video of the hail when the tornado came. In the video you can watch the escalation in the size of the hail, the kids' anxiety level, and the wind speed at the very end. I stopped filming once I realized that what I was seeing was not normal and I needed to get everybody to the basement. Through the video, our patio furniture stays on the patio but in the end I was getting the chairs at the end of the block. Another thing to look at in the video are the holes that appear in the storage box on the left hand side of the patio.

Tornado video from across the lake

This is a link to a video shot from an office on the other side of the lake from where we live. From where he is standing, our house would be 3 houses in from the shore of the lake on the left hand side of the screen. I'm not sure how long the news channel will the link up. I'll upload some video of the hail that I took before I grabbed the kids and headed for the basement.

Warm weather has finally arrived.

We enjoyed the warmer weather this weekend at the soccer fields and on a hike with Chris and his daughter. It's the last week of school this week and the kids are getting an early start at staying home...all three of them had fevers this morning. Hope for a speedy recovery as they have Field Day and an ice cream party to round out the school year. Last game of the season!

Soccer fans.

Man Babies

I came across the website manbabies.com the other day and was inspired to make my own disturbing image.