Saturday, December 28, 2013

Welcome to the family

Today we adopted 2 ducks, a drake and another chicken. The drake is called Jonathan. He's a beautiful bird. When we came home this afternoon we found him perched on the roof of the woodshed. He then proceeded to fly to the roof of the garage. When he finally decided to come down the edges of his wings made a beautiful angel in the soft new snow that fell yesterday. I wish I had a photo for you of the angel. Here is one of Jonathan at his former home. 
His original mom misses him already and is planning to come for a visit soon. He's such a handsome bird that I can't blame her. His two little girlfriends Tootsie and Fuji are settling in quite nicely with their new bunk mates Gladys and the Peeps, our original flock of 8 assorted hens. Pepper, the new chicken (gender yet to be determined), is working on figuring out the pecking order. We've decided that if she turns out to be a he it'll be Sgt. Pepper. 

Here is Tootsie with her sister BonBon, who was recently injured by a bird, possibly an owl. Our thoughts are with BonBon and we are hoping she is going to recover. 
We are so happy to add these four new feathered friends to our family. They will be great help in the garden come spring when it is time to root out slugs and beetle larva and the pesky shoots of new weeds. They should have the beds well turned, debugged and fertilized for us by the time we are ready to plant. And we'll have the added bonus of duck eggs and perhaps a clutch of ducklings before the summer is over. 

So welcome, welcome to Jonathan and friends. May you enjoy many happy seasons in Awen's Garden.


Thursday, December 26, 2013

Happy Holidays from the Homestead

Well folks, I'm sorry I missed you on Saturday the 21st and I'm a day late with this current post. I promise you that I have been a busy little sustainability bee in the mean time. On Saturday we had 23 friends old and new at the house for a Yuletide potluck. For fun we tore strips from some old shirts that were headed for the rag bag and we wrote New Year wishes on them and tied them to this giant wishing web that we constructed in the corner of our dining room. In the spring we will hang this garland from a tree or from the garden fence. 
I've also been very busy making posters for the Berwick Winter Farmers' Market! We are so thrilled that Berwick is going to finally have its own market. Markets will be held on Sundays from 10am to 2pm in the Berwick Town Hall Auditorium on January 19th, February 16th and March 16th. 

I was also busy making preparations for Christmas Eve dinner with the family featuring a local duck courtesy of our friend Tinuviel, and local veggies from our second winter CSA share. To round out my holiday celebration and preparations I made stockings for my son and homemade lavender and bay cologne for my husband and son with lavender from my own garden. We have right sized our Christmas so that we do only stockings and have set a $50 limit on total expense of stocking contents.  Home-made items help to fill up the stocking with more love at less expense. 

All in all it was a busy, friend and family filled, blessed and sustainable local holiday. I hope yours was blessed as well. 

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Let's tackle those sustainability goals!

One of my primary sustainability goals is reducing my energy consumption. While we are in the process of transitioning from a fossil fuel dependent energy system to more sustainable methods of energy production it is important to limit our energy consumption as much as possible. By doing so we will both reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses being emitted and the demand for fossil fuels which drives much of the environmentally disastrous extraction of these fuels.

There are many ways that we can reduce our energy consumption from the novel to the mundane. Since it is December and everyone is obsessed with top 10's and top 100's, I'll give you 10 ways to reduce energy consumption. Not that there aren't a hundred ways, but I do have to get some sleep tonight. So here we go:

1. Declare an electricity free day. This might be best planned for early summer here in the chilly north east. You can cook outside, go without showering (take a dip in the nearest pond if you really need to get wet) and sit around the camp fire late into the night telling ghost stories or having a drum circle (or both), instead of sitting around inside surfing the net, watching TV or going to the Movies. 

2. Winterize your house! This is a step that I have just personally taken. There are several things to be considered here: Placing insulating gaskets behind  your outlet and switch plates, winterizing the windows (if you cannot afford replacement windows this is an affordable option that is more than worth the investment of time and money) and Increasing the insulation in your attic. This past weekend we spent 300 dollars on 26 bags of Green Fiber insulation. With this purchase we got the rental of the blower free for the day. It took us about 4 hours all together including set up  and cleanup. We doubled the heat retention in the upstairs and the investment will probably pay itself back in less than a year. 

3. Declare one screen free day each week. You will not only save energy, you will reduce your stress and you will have more time to spend on other interests that you never seem to have time for. 

4. Never use the "small load" setting on your washing machine. While it uses less water, it does not use significantly less electricity. Wait until you have a full load.

5. During warm months hang laundry outside to dry (or even in cold months if you are one of those die hard types that doesn't mind a little bit of chapped skin and a frozen nose...)

6.Switch to LED light bulbs. They are even more energy efficient than CFL bulbs and don't have the disposal issues related to the toxic chemicals.

7. Eat more raw foods. They are better for you anyway. Raw foods retain more nutrients and are generally higher in fiber and lower in fat and simple carbohydrates. You may find your waistline likes your new low energy diet as much as the planet does.

8. Install motion sensor switches on your home lights where appropriate. Lights will come on as you enter and will turn off after a period without motion. These lights are particularly well suited to common areas such as kitchen's and dining rooms where folks often pass through briefly and may forget to turn off lights. They may be less appropriate for family rooms and bedrooms (for obvious reasons).

9. Watch out for phantom energy suckers. Any appliance that has a light or clock on it is drawing energy even when not in use. Consider installing a power strip in an accessible place in your kitchen and plugging small appliances into it. Turn the power strip on when using the small appliances and turn them all off with the flip of one switch. After all, do you really need to have a clock on the stove, the microwave and the coffee maker. And how often do you really program the coffee maker to start automatically. We have an automatic coffee maker that we set perhaps twice a month. It takes 5 minutes to start coffee in the morning and how much energy do I save by not having the coffee pot drawing power the other 23 hours a day that I'm not using it? I can't tell you exactly, but I can tell you it is well worth the 5 minutes it takes to make the coffee.

10. Shower less often (I bet that wasn't what  you thought I was going to say). Honestly folks, Americans are way too obsessed with cleanliness. We've cleansed ourselves into the advent of super bugs and who knows what else in the way of obsessive compulsive behaviors.  If we showered or bathed only every second or third day and used the wash bowl in between, we would be just as clean and use far less water, electricity and heating oil.

That's all I have for you today. I could go on and on, but I hope that you will take these suggestions and add many more of your own. Have fun with it. Make it a competition with yourself to see just how much energy you can save.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Apologies for the brief Hiatus & A New Schedule

Greetings all. My apologies for the brief hiatus. I've been nursing a bad shoulder and not up for much sitting at the computer typing. While I've been keeping you in the dark, I've been busy winterizing, taking delivery of some delicious local produce, gathering new resources for this blog and for the website www.sustainableme.me and signing up for a permaculture design certificate course, among other things. I will have all the details for you in future posts. 

I'm keeping this one short. I just want to let you all know that I will be back in full swing with a regular post tomorrow. I Also wanted to give you my new  planned posting schedule.  I plan to have scheduled posts going forward in order to allow myself time to collect and prepare my materials and give you a really worth while post. This way you wont be getting blasted with update messages in your inbox every day for a week and then hearing nothing from me for 10 days. I'm all about right sizing our lives, and that includes the amount of time we spend in front of our computer screens. So I'm going to try to bring you plenty of worth-while information in a clear concise manner (interspersed with my own brand of dry Yankee humor) on a twice weekly schedule. I'll post on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and we'll see how that works. 

Until we meet again, I leave you with this quote by Yogi Bhajan  "Travel light, live light, share the light, be the light."

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

A Bit of Inspiration or My Top 10 for 2013

It's that time of year again. The comedians and the pundits and every periodical still published will be running their top 10 lists this month. There will be lists of the most over paid movie stars, the most popular songs and the hottest men. While they are all quite interesting I'm sure, I will leave them to the TMZ set. 

I give you here my top 10 Documentaries. There is inspiration and motivation a plenty in this list. So with out further adieu - The films!

Dirt the Movie "Inspired by William Brayant Logan's acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Eart, Dir! The Movie takes a humorous and substantial look into the history and current state of the living organic matter that we come from and will later return to. Dirt! the Movie will make you want to get dirty." 


With One Voice " With One Voice brings together mystics from fourteen different spiritual traditions to share their perspectives on the unifying truth that transcends all religions." Honestly it is difficult for me to place this movie as number 2. I say they really both need to share the #1 spot. 

The rest of the list should be available or Netflix or by searching for the title in your favorite browser. 

Edens Lost and Found  This PBS series examines the prospects and potential for transforming depressed urban areas from economic junkyards into vital communities. Focusing on four major American cities, the film outlines the goals and rationale of sustainable development.

TEDTalks: Giving Adicts "Meet TED's super givers, who are championing the world's most daunting problems by showing what is possible when someone takes a stand. From Somalia to Mount Everest, from the Bronx to the North Pole, these amazing individuals share their stories."

Food Matters "With a staggering number of Americans suffering from obesity and other food-related maladies, this film takes a timely and hard-hitting look at how the food we eat is helping or hurting our health, and what we can do to live (and eat) better."

TEDTalks: Environment - Project Makeover  "Gas-guzzling addiction and our dying ecological lifeblood. Can we reverse the damage? These TED speakers are paving the road for sustainability. Here, they discuss a fungus-based packaging material, a new kind of recycling plant and much more."

I AM "In this reflective documentary, filmmaker Tom Shadyac chats with philosophers and spiritual leaders about what ails the world and how to improve it"

Happy Happy takes viewers on a journey from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy. Combining real-life stories and scientific interviews, the film explores the secrets behind our most valued emotion."

The Nature of Existence "Roger Nygard travels to the sources of the world's major philosophies and talks to everyone from physicist Leonard Susskind to Ultimate Christian Wrestling founder Rob Adonis to answer the questions, Why are we here and what are we supposed to do? Spiritual leaders, scholars, scientists, artists, pizza chefs and the guy next door inform this humorously enlightening documentary about the nature and meaning of life."

I hope you will enjoy and be inspired by these great films. I know that I was. 

Saturday, December 7, 2013

What's it all About? - Revolution Day 37 and A Call to Action

I have been struggling for a couple of weeks now to write a post that defines what this One Earth Revolution is really all about. Trying to distill the essential elements of my vision into a cohesive train of thought that I can share with others that will really get them thinking. But more than that, I want to inspire others to action. If we all start to think, it's a start, but It's not enough to just think. We have to act!

This week I have been privileged to share with several members of the Berwick community in putting on an exhibit of local artists, organizing and mobilizing individuals to support local art and business and planning a local farmers' market with the sustainability committee. I am so thrilled to see members of our community coming together to really make it a community, not just a place where we lie our heads at night.

This week I also applied to curate a Lexicon of Sustainability art exhibit for southern Maine, entered into talks with Hour Exchange Portland and have begun to lay the ground work for bringing an hour exchange to the Berwicks. There is so much to be done!

I started this post by mentioning that I've wanted to distill my vision into words that will motivate others to action. While I haven't been able to find the exact words myself to do this, I stumbled upon something this morning that really sums it up. This is an excerpt from the forward to Local Dollars Local Sense by Michael Shuman.

"The world is constantly changing. Revolution should not be a scary word. It has three basic definitions: rotation, rebellion, transformation. Great moments of history are written when what is usually just rotation-cycles of nature, repetitious-becomes transformative....The American Revolution did not happen in 1776. It took several decades, at least, to achieve the transformative qualities that we mark in that year...
As the saying goes, "when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Systems define the process. But if the nail changes, the hammer must eventually change too.
Ultimately this is...about changing nails. Lots of them. Because the hammer that is our socioeconomic structure (with a large dose of techno-cultural mash) cannot last. Nothing does. At some point the repetition becomes too much. And the opportunity for a new (r)evolution emerges.
Evolution: development, growth, advancement.
The fear of the idea of things being different-the end of the world as we know it-is joined by the accompanying realization that a revolution also brings certain core principles back around. Not the end of the world as we know it... but a return of fundamental aspects of human nature that have always existed: community, relationship, connection-connection to the impact  of our investments, to the source of our food, to our footprint on the planet." 
 Peter Buffett
I really appreciate all those of you who have commented and shared this blog. Knowing I've got you with me helps to keep me motivated. This post is a blatant call to action. I am asking each of you who have been reading this blog to share it in every way that you can and to please, please click the "follow" button. Every revolution needs an army and this army needs recruits.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

If You Slip Don't Give Up The Ship

So, a while back I made a WAG that I could source all of my "needs" "locally". By that I meant: 80% of food, goods, and services to be produced and purchased from within 50 miles, with the remaining 20% produced and purchased from within New England. Furthermore, I said, "I believe that if I cannot locate what I need or the materials with which to make it from within that area, then I don’t really NEED it, and I can live without it." If you have been following along here you know I have had some great successes. It turns out that I live in an area where the local organic food movement is in full swing and I'm able to get delicious nutritious local food year round. 

I have also had some challenges, and by the way the NJ facial tissue experiment was terminated at the request of Hubby who felt it just wasn't up to snuff. So it's back to the drawing board on that one. Anyone got any suggestions?

And well, some failures... Yesterday morning, in a rush, I left the house without a cup of coffee. Locally roasted coffee is already a compromise and yet I succumbed to the temptation of stopping at the drive-through! I know :-( 

My point in sharing this with you is this: if you slip, don't give up the ship. This isn't all or nothing folks. Because if it is we are in big trouble! We each just have to do the best we can, and so...Tomorrow I will go right back to striving for my goal to source my needs locally and I'll think a little harder about just exactly what is a "need". When confronted with the desire to purchase something that is not in keeping with my goals, hopefully I'll resist that temptation.

Now just over a month into this experience and I've had to make some adjustments.  At this point I think 75/20/5(that 5 being from sources outside of New England) is a reasonable goal. 

The reasons behind all of this localization are legion. I want to reduce my carbon footprint to 1.47 acres within 5 years. If you don't know what a challenge that is, please note that the average American's carbon footprint is over 24 acres and even a resident of Ithica's Eco Village is significantly higher than the goal I have set for myself. I want to encourage and promote a strong sustainable local economy and live my life in line with the permaculture principles: earth care, people care, fair share. And that's just for starters. It's going to be a long hard row to hoe, but every step will be worth it when I reach that goal.

Each of us has a goal, something that has motivated us to take the road toward sustainability. For many it is the specter of climate change. For some it is the desire for more self reliance, given the current unsure state of affairs in the world. Whatever it is that has us moving in this direction let's keep our eyes focused on the goal. We can overcome whatever setbacks we may encounter, even if they are of our own making, so long as we keep the goal in sight and keep moving toward the mark. 


Sunday, December 1, 2013

US Transition Movement

While doing research for another sustainability project that I am working on,  I came across some information on the Transition Town movement in the US. I have seen videos in the past on Transition Towns in the UK, but this is the first information I've found on the movement in the US. 

Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the Transition Primer:

Town Hall; Berwick, Maine
"Transition Initiatives make no claim to have all the answers, but by building on the wisdom of the past and unlocking the creative genius, skills and determination in our communities, the solutions can emerge.
Now is the time for us to take stock and to start re-creating our future in ways that are not based on cheap, plentiful and polluting oil but on localized food, renewable energy sources, resilient local economies and an enlivened sense of community well-being.
Local Transition Initiatives provide a process for relocalizing the essential elements that a community needs to sustain itself and thrive."

Because I agree wholeheartedly with these statements and with the concepts and precepts of the Transition Town movement I would like to share a couple of links here that you can refer to for more information on the movement. 

Transition US Home page can be found here.  And a primer for new groups can be found by following this link. I'm eager to put a pin on the map for an initiative in Berwick, Maine.  Let's all mobilize our communities!

Until next time, step lively.

Meet the Artists

Just a few of the fabulous pieces and people who participated in yesterday's Red Saturday art show at the Summit Church in Berwick, Maine. Everyone did such a lovely job with setting up their displays and showing their works. Thank you all for sharing your creative genius with the community.  There were so many wonderful artist, I wasn't able to get to spend time with everyone and take photo's.


You can see more at Red Saturday Facebook event page or from the Berwick Arts home page.

Above: Joel K. The elephants were mystical and everything was simply charming. You can find Joel on Facebook and Etsy.  Right Anne Vaughan in her jungle of color. Thanks Anne for sharing your beautiful visions.



Jane Lissner with her inspirational and meditative labyrinths. Thanks Jane for sharing your work with me. I really enjoyed chatting with you about the paths unwinding. 



Bob Farrell with his work "Oh That's Too Bad". Other works by Bob in the foreground.  Bob's works are often sculptural adding depth and texture that works with the image to create a unique artistic experience. You can find Bob on Facebook.

Erin Duquette surrounded by her works. Erin you are beautiful! Thank you for the beautiful works that you bring to life and all the many things you do. You are truly an inspiration to all of us both for your art and for the work that you do to encourage the growth of our local economy and community. 
Patrick Hartnett has his own unique style and a dry whit to match. Thanks Patrick for the fond memories of the Cookie Monster and Alistair Cookie's Monsterpiece Theatre and thank you for sharing your work with us. you can reach Patrick here
Isabella Mella's whimsical creations were a favorite of my son and his girlfriend. We loved the owl's. Thanks Isaella for the smiles! you can find Isabella's work on etsy. 

Many many thanks to all of the artists. It was a fabulous experience to share the day with all of you experiencing your art and talking with all of you on subjects far and near.  
Namaste!