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Wallyhood Calendar: Hemp, Andrew Lee, and Chickens

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Tonight the Meaningful Movies covers industrial hemp with the movie Bringing it Home. The movie dates to 2013 though, and apparently in 2014 the farm bill made it so industrial hemp is now somewhat legalized too. If I remember correctly from college, hemp is the hippie farmer wonder material, kind of like what carbon nanotubes are to the tech world.

Beyond that, Andrew Lee is performing piano on Friday at 8 PM and Saturday at 7 PM for the Wayward Music Series in Good Shepherd Center Chapel. Andrew will be performing the work of composer Randy Gibson, see if the cut below tickles you:

Finally, there’s chickens to consider! At 10 AM on Saturday Tilth is having a class to teach you how to raise chicks and hopefully keep them safe from raccoons and each other. Or you can go to the Portage Bay Grange down in the U-District and check out all the stuff for fun, including fresh chicks every week, ducks, coops, and all the trappings.

Our chicks start in a 20 gallon fish tank for 2 weeks, then graduate to our shower for 2 months, then graduate to the coop out back when summer is in full swing. An electric fence outside is great for keeping away the raccoons. We’ve been getting a fresh batch of chicks every 2 years for the past 14 years now, so we think it’s worth it, although we could probably rent out the coop now adays for $1,000 a month.

Here are the chicks we have now, one week ago when they were 8 days old:

Chicks 2015

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Eric

I've lived here since 1998. I spent 13 years at Microsoft as a developer and manager, concurrent with Ballmer's reign. I quit after seeing my third consecutive project cancelled, while my parents needed help, and my wife was getting stressed working at Seattle Public Schools. Since then, I have helped family and community while taking on side projects and volunteer work. I led the renovation of Meridian Playground, helped moderate the South Transfer Station design, helped advance the Green Lake Way road diet, and have guided several transportation and parks projects through neighborhood involvement. I wrote for Wallyhood for a while and was president of the Wallingford Community Council during the great recession, where thankfully, land use was not an issue. I'm an impatient moderate vegetarian who believes in practical win-win solutions.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. donn April 17, 2015

    Hemp is great – strong, durable fiber for paper, rope, cloth. Plus the seeds have very high food value, or can be pressed for vegetable oil. Hemp milk is (in my opinion) better than soy milk etc., but expensive, but if you have a heavy duty blender and an economical source for seeds, you can make your own without the emulsifiers etc. they put in the commercial stuff. Had some at breakfast, and also am wearing t-shirt and pants made partly of hemp to type this. It doesn’t need much in the way of pesticides or fertilizers, so it’s easier on the land and water, and the fiber strength approaches nylon.

    But the Canadians have to grow it for us, because we aren’t allowed. The farm bill only authorizes universities to grow it, i.e. ag schools like WSU. The Washington State legislature is working on it – I think – with Senate Bill 5012 passed without opposition and House Bill 1552 in the works.

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