Bike Panniers from Kitty Litter Buckets

By PAUL WHEATON

For all of you Missoulians enjoying the sun, this is a little slice of last summer.

I got an email  that there were some permaculture enthusiasts coming to Missoula and somebody suggested they should drop me a line.  So I agreed to meet them when they arrived.

Apparently their original plan was to not come to Missoula.  And they met somebody that talked them into adding a few days to their journey so they could include Missoula.

So they arrived.  And I met them.  And they were glowing about Missoula. Gushing. Charmed to the bone.  They universally agreed that out of three months of watching a big heap of the United States go slowly by … three months of visiting lots of cities, towns, villages and funky places … Missoula was THE best.

We’re number one!  🙂

And the video has some stuff about cobbled together bike gear too. Well … this video is supposed to be about the panniers (saddle bags) on their bicycles.   But they just had so many glowing things to say about Missoula, I couldn’t help but put that in there too.  And since my videos have a large international crowd, it is a way for me to brag “I live in Missoula and you don’t – neener, neener.”

The bicycle panniers are pretty cool.  Nothing more than plastic buckets attached to the bike rack. The important thing … the video worthy thing … is that they are holding up great after 3000 miles of heavy use.   And they have passed the water proof test.  Cheap, lightweight, easy and durable.  And re-uses something that is normally thrown in the garbage.

Maybe the Tidy Cat company is tickled to get the advertising that these folks are giving them.  Yesterday I heard that Kimmo from my cheese cave video was offered a lifetime warranty on the contraption shown in the video.  Hot dog!

There is one more cool thing in this video.  One of the fellas mentions wwoof.org and how awesome it is.  I think it is great too, so I left that in the video as well. WWOOF stands for “World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms”. Folks can go work on an organic farm for a few days and get free room and board in return.  And, of course, learn a thing or two about organic farms.

 

Mark your calendar!  At 6:30 on April 14th I’ll be presenting “Introduction to Permaculture” at the Library.   I’ll be talking about how you can have a garden that you don’t have to irrigate, fertilize or worry about pests.  Imagine a garden you don’t have to worry about when you go on vacation!

Earth day is coming!  And I might have a big wild surpise at the MUD event in Caras Park!

Click here to see Paul Wheaton’s blog archive.

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BIO: Paul Wheaton is is the tyrannical ruler of two on-line communities. One is about permaculture and one is about software engineering. There is even one for Missoula. Paul has written several permacutlure articles starting with one on lawn care that he presented at the MUD Project 17 years ago, including articles on raising chickenscast iron and diatomaceous earth. Paul also regularly uploadspermaculture videos and permaculture podcasts. In his spare time, Paul has plans for world domination and is currently shopping for a hollowed out volcano in the Missoula area, with good submarine access.

See all of Paul’s contributions to MakeitMissoula on this Blog Homepage here.