Post #2967123

Today's #SolarPunk update: I worked in the urban garden this morning. We had the most volunteers for a workday so far this year, got a lot of watering and fertilizing done, got rid of some invasives, and set up a cold frame for the peas. I took home a handful of oregano plus a potted oregano plant, along with some other herbs that I dropped off at the community pantry. We talked about doing some collaborations with the other urban garden that I met with on Friday, as well as some of the bicycle groups. After that, I went to the non-cis-men repair day at the bike garage, hoping to learn more about chains. The head mechanic walked me through checking the stretch on my chain and we decided it was time to replace it, so I got to try out the chain breaker, measure a new chain and cut it to length, get experience both with rivets and quick links, and relearn how chains go through derailleurs. Testing the new chain, we found it skipping in a spot, and it turned out one of the teeth on my sprocket was bent, so I bent it back with pliers and also adjusted the derailleur stops. I unbent the part of the chain guard that caught my pants the other day. I wanted to track down the rattle in the back half, and found a loose screw for the fender, mystery solved! But the screw was on the wheel side, so I had to learn how to disconnect the ebike motor and remove the rear wheel to get at it, and then put it all back together, and then adjust the rear brakes because the wheel didn't return to exactly the same spot in the frame. A new volunteer was shadowing me for the repairs, and I asked for assistance from the head mechanic a few times but mostly it was just me thinking out loud, which is pretty close to teaching. I also helped assess a few bikes that needed repairs, though most folks wanted to work indoors where it was hotter but shady. I feel like I'm ready to start helping out with basic repairs, and I'm getting a better sense of when I need to stop and ask for help. And the head mechanic is seeing that too, so we're going to look for opportunities for me to start helping others more. It felt really good. Next up, I got an introduction to someone who works at a bicycle-based food rescue, so I'm going to see if I can volunteer with them, and hopefully can funnel some of the produce from our urban garden into that program. And also can connect the bike riders doing that work with the repair garage. It's all coming together.