Journal 2

This week, William and I really got down to work. We took an important step in documenting our progress through this very blog! The world can now watch as we develop our green thumbs (do dogs even have thumbs?)
William and I agreed that pictures were the best way to capture people's attention. We located a nice camera, learned how to use it, and documented ourselves in action. We tried to take pictures of both the physical objects and how they are used together. We hope that people will learn from our trials and errors so the pictures are not posed. We learned that we need to have the camera on hand at all times so that the photo story is not choppy with days of growth and development in between. Next William and I struggled with cords and memory chips to upload the pictures. This proved to be a challenge. But we persevered and our hours of work paid off. Then we pondered the many methods of sharing things digitally and decided on this blogger website. We discounted Facebook due to its many distractions, informal presentation, inaccessibility at school, and poor photo resolution. Uploading directly to the WindowFarms website was also disregarded as an option since the website has limited blogging capabilities. Once the blog is finished in its entirety, we will attach a link to the WindowsFarms website and create a smaller version of this blog on that site too. WindowFarms is an essential method of documentation because it allows us to connect directly with a population already absorbed in hydroponics gardening. William and I posted a few photos of our work thus far and dabbled with a little blogging. Creating the site itself was simple but since we are such perfectionists, we had to customize the page which got complicated quickly. We spent about three hours tweaking the blog bu the good news is that we are now professional bloggers. William is still having trouble with the concept of the mouse.
The seedlings are growing nicely. William has been watching them dutifully all day while Sophie goes to school and although he bugs her continuously when she returns home, she has been too absorbed in Green Flag shenanigans to pay attention to the gravity of what he is saying. While Sophie was out videotaping people for a PowerDown documentary and digging up plants for the rain garden, William noticed that the leaves were getting progressively yellower. He associated this color deprivation with a lack of nutrients. When he had some free time, he searched the house for anything he could use for plant nutrition. He considered mulch, compost, grow blocks, etc. but nothing seemed quite right. Then he happened upon a gold mine. In the garage he found a longforgotten bottle of Miracle Grow. It was a true miracle. William then asked Sophie to unscrew the cap and together they added 10 drops to the water. He will continue watching tonight and tomorrow to see if the plants regain their color.
In the meantime, Sophie really needs to get her act together searching for a good interview. Mr. Clinton would be excellent but since she already knows him personally, it would be nice to branch out a little.
Next step is completing the blog entries from the past week. Then Soph will find someone to interview. Then the dynamic duo can get down to the fun work of actually building the rest of the system. You can see from the pictures that we have the hollow outline but the lifeline (pun because theyre tubes) can get connected in and start pumping. They have a long way to go this vacation.
In an ideal world, we will expand upon the three bottle system and build a huge 12 bottle hanging device. In order to do this, William and I will need to invest approximately 12 hours in building time. We need to locate our structure and most importantly our pump!
Talking about pumps, I am getting a little worried about the physics side of things. Although I have not electrocuted myself as of yet, we also have not deduced how to get the water streaming up to the top of the 4 foot system... let alone the 6 foot triple split one! I also do not know if William will be able to find a strong enough pump for free. We really do not want to break our stingey record.