Calories and Growth

We finally got around to planting seeds in the Ants in your Plants garden today. We had a really great crowd! You can check out more photos here.

Now that we're well established, and that we have a regular schedule, there are a few projects I want to complete (...and start) at the garden before the end of the Spring. We need a rodent fence, maybe a live webcam, some picnic tables, composting, and a pizza oven!

But what's interesting is that we worked really hard to plant every thing today! I can hardly believe that humans can maintain a farm and still reap net positive calories from the land. It's especially relevant for me: tomorrow I am biking 200km (124 miles) around orange county tomorrow. On these long bike rides, your body is limited by the rate at which your body can digest calories. In fact - you have to be eating constantly - the average human body can only digest about 300 Calories an hour. Moderate biking is about 500 Calories an hour - see a problem there?

I want to give a shout out to my dad, who I'll be joining tomorrow morning on the tail end of his 600-km bike ride. Yes, it takes more than 24 hours to ride. Yes he sleeps - but not more than a couple of hours. Yes, he has to eat A LOT. Here's the route that I'll be joining him on. Feel free to him positive vibes.

Oh man that's cruel. He'll have finished this route before starting the one up there. No carbon fiber bike can make 600km even remotely easier. Most of the gear that they do have is to help carry food. The wife of the late Sheldon Brown (famous for his online bike articles) rode 1200km with an entire roasted chicken. Classy.

Anyway, as the garden grows, I'll keep posting photos of the seeds as they start sprouting. We planted over 50 varieties in all! That's so many!