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Month 4

Hydrangea Manipulation

 

Ok now this one is going to take a little more patience than I think the average rv.com reader has woven into their DNA, but in the name of going green, I'm going to give it a shot anyway. As you probably well know, I've got a small kid farm at my house. As a result, we chew through a lot of batteries each month. AA's, AAA's, 9V's, and so on. If my kids want to play with it, it probably has a battery in it. Therefore, I've got a drawer full of dead ones just waiting for the next opportunity to dispose of them properly to come along. Which is exactly the problem! That never seems to happen. Seriously, when was the last time YOU disposed of a battery properly? Probably never. And what exactly is “properly”? They never really tell you. Instead, they just draw a pictogram of a trash can with a giant X scratched on top of it. And even IF I were to find a place to dispose properly, isn't that still disposing? So I started to think. Why not just recycle them?
 

Now April is one of my favorite months at the house. The yard starts to wake up, the kids and I plant a garden, and the mosquitos are not yet so thick that you can't go outside. In general, it’s just nice to be outside and in the back yard instead of just continuing to work on my winter plasma tan. One of the things that makes my backyard so enjoyable are all the hydrangea bushes. I have close to forty of them and it has always amazed me how in one part of the yard they will be pink, while in other places they will be blue. Why is that? Well apparently it has something to do with the acidity or alkalinity of the soil they are planted in. Eureka! Eureka! I've found month 4 of the VGI. (no... I did not run naked down Central Av)
 
Ever really looked at a battery? Most that you buy at the store these days consist of nothing more than an anode separated from cathode surrounded by a sleve with negative and positive caps at the end. To keep the whole thing from reacting to quickly, alkaline is introduced. This serves as nothing more than an electrolyte that decreases the rate of corrosion of the cell, and is why you can commit to buying that 18 pack of AA's without fear of them being dead before you get a chance to slap them into your Wii controller. This is also why you may have seen two distinctively different things happen to your dead batteries. They either do nothing, or they start oozing acid.
 
Here's why. If you use a brand new battery right away, chances are that there will still be alkaline on board when it's “dead”. However, if you keep that same battery around for a year or two before using it, it will probably start to corrode just prior to running out of current. Pretty interesting. Now for the purposes of this particular VGI, it is my plan to harness both ends of this reaction and, rather than just toss it into a landfill where it can harm our water supply, use it for a greener purpose - like manipulate the colors of my hydrangea bushes! Apparently, the blooms on a hydrangea bush are either pink or blue depending on the acidic/alkaline/neutral properties of the soil they are in.
 
So, in the name of going green, I'm going to start burying my dead batteries underneath all these bushes just to see what happens. And since it's already spring, I decided to Dremel my way through the outer layers of the batteries as so to accelerate the process. Will it work? I sure hope so. Just think of how cool it would be to have line alternating pink and blue bushes. That would have to make Better Homes & Gardens or something… right? The fact that it's just yet another creative way I've gone green is a bonus. Thanks for reading. I'll keep you posted as to the progress of this particular edition of the VGI as the summer progresses.
 
rvining RVPR Rank Location Staff Page Has Photo - 3/31/2009 9:47:11 PM
month 4 is in the books folks. read it. it will take your mind off Coach Cal leaving us... not for more money, but just for the sake of leaving us.
hankword RVPR Rank Location Staff Page Has Photo - 4/1/2009 1:53:48 PM
I bet a car battery would make the color change real fast.
aj RVPR Rank Location Has Photo - 4/2/2009 9:18:09 PM
hum...
wmartin RVPR Rank Location Staff Page Has Photo - 4/3/2009 6:07:46 AM
If it is any ok' acid why not use that muratic acid left over from your pool cleaning? It would solve your disposal issue in a green manner as well as protect the kids.

rvining RVPR Rank Location Staff Page Has Photo - 4/3/2009 7:56:53 AM
i could try that, but these batteries should work more like a time-release vitamin whereas the muratic acid I have left over would just soak away. i think... i could mix it with some used motor oil first and that should keep the water from washing it all away.
Gina RVPR Rank Location Has Photo - 4/8/2009 10:08:37 AM
Wow, battery acid and motor oil... I'm sure KC is thrilled at what is going on with the landscape! =)
aj RVPR Rank Location Has Photo - 5/25/2009 8:12:55 PM
where's month 5?
 

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