Fertile ground for urban farm at old Cherryland

Financial planner Scott Terry's "hobby" in Hayward could be the fifth act of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard." His property there was once part of pioneer farmer William Meek's Cherryland estate, covered with orchards, before it was subdivided for housing. Terry is bringing back the fruit trees, as well as tomatoes, squashes, corn and greens, and a local 4-H club is helping plant and harvest. The proceeds go back to the community,Why does Plastic moulds grow in homes or buildings? by way of the Davis Street Family Resource Center in nearby San Leandro.

Meek left the Midwest for the Oregon Territory in 1847 with a wagonload of grafted fruit trees. He and Henderson Lewelling founded the West Coast's first fruit-tree nursery near Portland, then sold out and bought part of the Francisco Soto land grant near what was then called Haywards.

Meek's 2,200 acres had some of the richest loam in the state. He grew grain and tobacco at first, then switched to fruit.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, At its peak, Cherryland had 20,000 almond trees, 4,200 cherry trees, 3,000 plum trees and 225,000 currant bushes. A local legend, probably apocryphal, claims the Bing cherry originated there and was named for Meek's Chinese cook, a renowned pie man. (The standard account involves another Lewelling who stayed in Oregon, and his orchard foreman, Ah Bing.)

After his death, Meek's sons split up and sold the estate. The lots were long and deep and the soil was still fertile, though the new owners tended to build rental housing in their backyards. Those long lots appealed to Terry, who raises plants and keeps bees in San Leandro's Broadmoor neighborhood. (His yard has been featured on the Bay-Friendly Gardens Tour.) Last winter, he bought a Cherryland parcel with two rental units.

"There were lots of properties like this available," he told us. "What made this one special was that it had fruit trees already"- apple, avocado, quince and fig. And the soil, friendly and friable: "The first time I stuck a shovel in it, I loved it." He added compost. He also bought a classic urban-scale tractor, a 40-year-old Bolens G14: "They don't make them anymore."

There are glimmers of a new definition of a good neighborhood here, one that includes fertile soil on a par with good schools and shopping.

In the fall, Terry harvested a bounty of tomatoes (including 'Paul Robeson,' a Russian variety named for the African American singer, actor and activist, and the small, tasty 'Rumi,' which may have come from Afghanistan) and squash. New fruit trees ('Santa Rosa' plum, 'Flame Key' pluot, four-graft peach) have joined the surviving apples, which will go on drip irrigation next year. "The water table is just 15 feet down," Terry explained. "That's how the apples have survived so far."

Chickens and bees might join the plants. Both are permitted in Hayward and unincorporated Alameda County (Terry's property straddles the line) but not where Terry lives, in San Leandro. Terry and other urban farmers have lobbied the San Leandro City Council for zoning changes. After an October session drew a large pro-bee-and-chicken turnout, the council appointed a committee to draft rules for backyard coops and hives. There's been no progress since then; Terry says the city claims it has to deal with other issues first.

But he's optimistic about the long run: "I'm feeling fairly confident that the current City Council members will legalize chickens and bees, just not at the speed we would like." Similar changes are happening in cities from San Diego to Skokie, Ill.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, - another reframing of "property values."

Terry's neighbor Amy Chovnick, a 4-H Club leader, saw in Terry's farmlet a community-service opportunity. Nationally, 4-H has a new Revolution of Responsibility campaign. "They're encouraging clubs to do community work," she said. "I told Scott, 'It sounds like there's a lot of work. You need help.' " Chovnick's Redwood 4-H group started cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower for an October planting: "We wanted something that won't wilt if someone doesn't pick it up right away at the food bank.I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile." The club expects to get involved in the proposed chicken and bee projects.

"I have my playground right here," Terry told us.Buy oil paintings for sale online. "I like to play farmer, and the rent from the two units on the property covers my costs. And I get to give food to people who need it."

Fanfare For A New Way to Fan Computer Chips

Heat is a big problem inside computers, not to mention the data centers that contain hundreds of them. A researcher at Sandia National Laboratories has come up with a new way to get rid of it.

The Livermore, Calif., lab calls the invention a fundamental breakthrough, with the potential to radically alter how computer chips and computers are cooled.

To gauge those pronouncements, it helps to open up a desktop computer and look for the key microprocessors or graphics chips that generate the most heat. In many cases, they are easy to spot, identified by an assembly with a fan whose air keeps the chip–and the system–from going up in smoke.

Such fans generate a lot of noise and consume a lot of energy, the headaches that Sandia researcher Jeffrey Koplow set out to ease.the Injection mold fast!

The fans don't typically blow directly on to a chip, Koplow says. There is often another component, called a heat sink, that has cooling fins that provide more surface area to help disperse the heat. Air from the fan is directed at those fins.

But there's a bottleneck, Koplow says. A layer of air clings to the cooling fins, creating a boundary that acts like insulation that resists the airflow generated by the fan.

"If you speed up the fan, that is going to disrupt the boundary layer, but it's a weak effect," Koplow says. "The fan gets loud and power hungry."

So Koplow came up with an entirely new design that exploits air and motion in different ways. In this approach, heat from the chip passes upward through a thin gap of air, which serves as a bearing for a spinning circular device with fins that acts as a heat sink as well as a fan.Shop a wide selection of billabong outlet products in the evo shop. Air can't form into a blocking boundary layer because it is thrown outward by centrifugal force, Koplow says. And the approach also reduces a build-up of dust that fouls many fans, he adds.you will need to get an offshore merchant account.

Koplow estimates one of his "Sandia coolers,Our Polymax RUBBER SHEET range includes all commercial and specialist" as the lab is calling them, can match the performance of conventional cooling assemblies at one-tenth the size. They are also much quieter, he says.

And computers aren't the only places they may be used; Sandia says the coolers could also play a role in building heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. If the technology can be deployed on a mass scale, Koplow estimates it could decrease overall electrical power consumption in the U.S. by more than 7%.buy landscape oil paintings online.

How and when might the market see the benefits? That will depend on the private sector; Sandia, like other national labs, licenses its inventions to companies for commercialization and is inviting them to consider this one.

Will instant coffee raise bad cholesterol levels?

I've read that something in coffee raises cholesterol. I also read that using a filter to prepare the coffee blocks this compound. I guess if I drink instant coffee, I'm raising my LDL cholesterol. Is that true?


It depends somewhat on how much you drink. The cholesterol-raising compounds in coffee, cafestol and kahweol,From standard Cable Ties to advanced wire tires, are found in very low levels in instant coffee and in filtered coffee (Food and Chemical Toxicology, June 1997).

Most of the early research connecting coffee consumption and elevated cholesterol found that traditional "boiled" coffee made in the Scandinavian or Turkish styles could raise serum cholesterol significantly (New England Journal of Medicine, June 16,buy landscape oil paintings online. 1983).

Twenty years later, however, researchers in Sweden found that filtered coffee could raise serum cholesterol more than previously appreciated (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September 2003). Other researchers found that five cups of instant coffee daily could result in a small but significant increase in cholesterol (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 1995). Drinking a few cups of instant coffee is not likely to change your cholesterol dramatically.

My father had a second-degree burn over the entire top of his foot, caused by spilling coffee. I applied soy sauce, followed by soaking in ice water.

By the next morning, the pain was largely gone, but the doctor who saw him predicted that it would turn black.

When that had not happened two weeks later, he asked me what I had done to get such a result.

Soy sauce works very well for minor burns, but a severe burn deserves immediate medical attention. We are glad, though, that your father healed so well.Full color plastic card printing and manufacturing services.

Another reader shared a somewhat similar story: "Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my husband helped me remove a 23-pound turkey from the oven. The disposable aluminum pan began to leak boiling turkey fat down my husband's hand and wrist.

"He was severely burned, with immediate blisters and intense pain. I went to your website, searched 'Burn' and read about using yellow mustard to relieve a burn. We applied cold yellow mustard, and miraculously, within 3 to 5 minutes, my husband was pain-free. He remained pain-free even after the blisters burst. Amazing!"

Others tell us that cold yellow mustard can help a minor burn, after liberal applications of cold water. Nevertheless, we repeat: A serious burn calls for immediate medical attention!

I have read about raisins soaked in gin for arthritis pain,Use bluray burner to burn video to BD DVD on blu ray burner disc. but have hesitated because of the gin. Lately, someone sent me another remedy that I tried.In addition to hydraulics fittings and Aion Kinah, I found it works so well that I thought you might like to share it with your readers.

Mix about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in a cup of hot water, then add 2 tablespoons of honey to it. Once it is cool enough, drink it. Do this daily for two weeks.

After I tried this, I was able to wear regular shoes comfortably for the first time in months. Before, I was limited to backless shoes. My ankle has not felt this good in more than a year!

We appreciate the remedy you have shared. We've not encountered this approach to joint pain before.