For the Least of our Brothers 2008

For the 4th year in a row (3 for me) some friends and I distributed lunches and warm clothes to the homeless in Center City Phila. This year it was Ron Krier, Mike Volko, and myself. We did get quite a few donations which helped with our limited funds and special thanks go out to Pat, Jane, Arlene, Jim @ BCCC, ONeill Family, Boomer, Justin, Deb & Rich, Ken & Jill, and Wash Tyme. I hope I did not forget anyone.

We met up around 915 am and loaded up Rons van with jackets, hats, gloves, socks, underwear, sweatshirts, blankets, backpacks, pants, shoes, & sleeping bags and stopped by Silvio's Deli to pickup 40 brown bag lunches with a sub, chips, soda, and cookie in each. They bake their own rolls on premises and the subs are really good, and they give us a break on the price for charity.

Since we've been doing this a few years we have a good idea where to find these folks. At the end of the day we'll drop off the remaining items at a shelter but we find its more rewarding actually searching out people who need things the most and the 1 on 1 interaction is best. For the most part they are very respectful and only take what they really need knowing we only have so much to give. Sometimes people will start to crowd the van and we're not really sure if they are homeless but we try to use our best judgement. Just the interaction and asking their name helps their self-esteem.

One interesting thing that one of us noticed was watching the reaction of other people watching us giving the stuff out. I'm sure many just walk by these people all day long and don't stop to think about the situation someone who does not have a home is in. Hopefully we planted a seed for someone to stop thinking of themselves first and serve others in whatever small way they can.

So I'm sitting here in my warm house looking out the window at it snowing or is it freezing rain right now and can't help thinking about our brothers & sisters out there just trying to survive. If we all just do a little it adds up to a lot.

Matthew 25
34"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;
36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?
38'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?
39'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'
40"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

Do You know where Your Food Comes From?

Today I helped our friend Tom Colbaugh process some turkeys for the upcoming holiday. We've been getting a local farm raised bird for the past few years- once you have an organic farm raised bird you will never go back to a frozen boat anchor from your local supermarket.

The hardest part is catching them, I personally didn't bleed any but I did everything else, add another skillset to my toolbox! After putting the birds in a sack with their head sticking out, they are hung upside down and their carotid artery is cut. It takes about 3-4 minutes for them the peacefully bleed out. Then their legs are removed at the knee joint and they are put into a scalding water bath for about 30 seconds, then into the de-feathering machine. It spins them around and rubber fingers pluck most of the feathers. Then the neck and entrails are removed, the neck, heart, and liver are put into a bag and stuffed inside the cavity and then they are soaked in water and then bagged and put into cooler.

Doylestown Hospital Green Fair

Today Dorinda, Abby, & Andy took part in a Green Fair at Doylestown Hospital. It was for vendors of the hospital to showcase their 'green' side. Diane Pennington invited us after a meeting with Andy last week. Bucks County Freedom Fuel will be partnering with the hospital to recycle their used cooking oil to make biodiesel and Wash Tyme uses the vegetable glycerol left over from that process. It was open to hospital employees and volunteers from 12-2pm. We estimate there were 150-200 people that came through. We had a table right up front when you came in and got very positive response. We gave away small soap samples, answered questions, and got some good exposure for our soap and website. It was a lot of fun! Here are some photos:

Chicken update

We went away for a few days to be at my Godson Joel's baptism and Rob's sister Jena & Justin's wedding in Butler PA and we came home to our first egg! Since then another chicken started laying so we are getting about 2 per day and the other 3 will kick in soon we hope. I got the outdoor run finished and also the henhouse. All that is left is to get roof panels so I put up a tarp for the time being. Here are a few photos:

Announcing Wash Tyme!

Dorinda and her friend Abby are now officially in business! They are making and selling homemade glycerine soap from the by-product of making biodiesel from used cooking oil. So we are recycling 100% of this oil after it was used to fry food.


I met a local guy who helped us with the biodiesel process and him and his wife started making and selling the soap. They had too much on their plate so we bought the equipment and some soap they had made, we had bought some from them before and loved how well it worked and that it was a natural product from a recycled material.

The process works like this: We collect used fryer oil, let it settle and filter it for food particles and water. We then react it with a solution of methanol and caustic soda at 130F for 2 hours in a tank that is circulated with a pump and then allow it to settle overnight. It settles into 2 distinct layers- the top being biodiesel and the bottom layer is a vegetable glycerine. We drain off the glycerine and 'wash' the biodiesel before using it. Then it is necessary to recover residual methanol from the glycerine which is done by distillation up to 260F.

In the transesterification process described above much of the process of saponification has taken place. To finish the process we follow a recipe developed by a guy from Canada. We can make bar soap and liquid. Here are some photos of Dorinda and Abby making bar soap.


We're also working on making a gel type soap. The liquid works awesome as a degreaser, for laundry, washing pets, etc. For the bar soap we add only scents and shea butter or olive oil. None of the chemical additives found in commercial soaps. It not only works great at cleaning any type of organic stains but doesn't dry out your skin.



We are working on a new logo and updating the website http://www.washtyme.com/ , it has a fully functional shopping cart so please help support us and tell everyone you know!

Updates

Sorry for lack of content, we've been very busy since our vacation. We'll get some new photos up soon of the new chicken coop and our new soap business!

Stay tuned....

Rocky Mountain Vacation

We had a wonderful vacation out to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, see following album: you probably will want to pause the slideshow so you can read the descriptions at your own pace- just put the mouse over the album and click the pause button and then use the arrows to navigate.

I was looking for a specific car and found it in Houston of all places so I got a short visit with Melissa & family. Then I headed to Atlanta and met up with my friend John Cash. We drove up thru Smoky Mt National Park and stayed in Gaitlinburg TN and I drove home the next day. The car drives great and runs fantastic on B100- thats 100% biodiesel. Few minor issues but overall a great car that will hopefully last us many years and get us around in style.

Chickens!

Dorinda is now officially a chicken farmer! 6 new chicks arrived yesterday, hopefully by the end of the year they'll be supplying us 4-6 eggs per day. I'm going to build an outside run just off the back of the shed and cut a door through the wall. I also have to build the nest boxes and put some roosts in but I can work on that over the next few months.

Memorial Day weekend @ Elmcroft

We drove up Friday evening, Karen came over Saturday late morning and we cleaned up the outside and planted some annuals. Weather was beautiful. Left Sunday at noon and did some stuff at home today including starting on the chicken coop.

Golf Shenanigans

So myself and 7 friends hit the links this past Saturday. Tom & I were part of the first foursome and we got a little ahead of the 2nd group and decided to play a little joke on them by moving the flag on a green:


Then kharma caught up with me and they distracted me and switched out my ball on the back 9:


Then I got home to find a surprise party for my 40th which happens to be today. Thanks to Dorinda and my friends for pulling off a great day!

Biodiesel!

On Sunday I got to check out a local homebrew biodiesel setup. This guy has been making and using it for 2 years to heat his home and power his 2 vehicles for around .75 per gallon from waste vegetable oil (obtained for free from restaurants).

New Wisteria Arbor

This past weekend I took care of a project thats been floating around in my mind for awhile. My friend Jeff has many cedar trees on his property some of which are dead. I used some to construct an arbor, I still need to get some smaller pieces to add for cross-bracing. It should look real nice when it grows over which I predict will be before the end of the summer based on how many times I have to trim it

Politically Incorrect?

I've been pretty active in the grassroots campaign for Ron Paul here in PA. Getting petitions signed to get delegates on the ballot, doing literature drops in my voting precinct, putting up signs, etc. On April 15 I went with some other supporters to a Freedom Rally on the west lawn of the Capital. It was a beautiful day and there were some good speakers including Ron Paul. Some of the views expressed were of the 'fringe' type but the overall message was about how our government wastes our tax dollars. Here is a brief video I took with my Canon digital camera:


Here are some photos:

So our primary was last week. Our main goal was to get our delegates elected to the convention so they could vote for Ron Paul because they are unbound. We had 66 running but only 5 won slots. The GOP party did a good job manning the polls with their sample ballots, in every precinct that we had someone there with our sample ballots our delegates placed high and so did Dr Paul. In my district he got 35% of the vote!
I found out the night before that there was no one running for Committeman in my district so with little notice I ran as a write-in and won with 33 votes (needed 10). Committeeman is the lowest elected position in the party. I was at the poll most of the day and people loved the costume!

More Maya

I just weighed her and she is 31.5 lbs at a little over 6 months. When we got her at 9 weeks she was less than 9 lbs! She's doing terrific in spite of having some 'intestinal issues' this week which caused her spaying procedure to be put off until early March.

Here are some recent photos mostly playtime with her boyfriend Freedom who belongs to our friend John. He's 1.5 yrs old and even though he is more than 2x the size Maya doesn't take any grief from him and they get along great.

Visit to Florida

Last weekend we went down to Florida to visit Dorinda's grandparents on her dads side. Flew down Friday morning and came home Monday night via Southwest at $72 each way which is probably cheaper than gas to drive it.

We had a nice visit with them and got to hear alot of stories about them growing up, her grandpop is just recently suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder from his time spent in France during WWII as a heavy machine-gunner. On Sunday we drove down to Treasure Island beach and spent a night at a hotel on the beach. There was a group playing drums on the beach which was pretty cool!

Woke up Monday and spent a few hours at Fort DeSoto- checked out the historic fort and read on the beach for awhile before flying home.
Got to use the new GPS which was invaluable for getting around- no more maps and directions!

We brought home 40 pounds of fresh oranges and grapefruit from the trees in their yard!

Party for Mike's 40th

Last night we went to a surprise party for our good friend Mike thrown by his wife Erin. It was a casino night theme and was alot of fun. If you click on the album there are 2 videos

Post-Holiday Party

We had some friends over last Friday, here are some photos taken with the new Canon SD850IS camera.