Transition- A Reprise

Totnes, Devon, England: a transition town

In a post in December I mentioned the US Transition Movement. I recently came across a couple of great videos done by the founders of the Transition movement, which I will share with you at the end of the post. But first, what is "Transition"? What's all the hype? and why is it important? Transition is a grass roots movement of people taking action toward affecting positive change in our communities and our environment surrounding the most plaguing problems addressing the world and our societies today. Problems such as access to good healthy food and quality healthcare. Issues such as community development and of course climate change, peak oil,  and economic sustainability. These initiatives have been mobilizing and unifying communities around the world for the passed 9 years. Transition groups are taking action where action is needed, at the local level, without waiting for government intervention or government funding. This is exactly the kind of action we need in order to achieve the change necessary to rebuild, reshape and reform our societies and our economies into functioning systems that will be stable and sustainable over the next century or more as we deal with the end of cheap fossil energy. 

I hope that you will enjoy and be inspired by these videos. And after you have seen them a challenge you to answer this question? Transition New England anyone? How about Mid-Coast, South East, Mid-West, South Central, North West, South West; or how about just the town, block or street where you live? Every movement starts somewhere. Why not right there, right now, wherever you are?

This first is Rob Hopkins, the founder of the transition movement, speaking about the Transition experience of his home town of Totnes, at TEDxExeter. If that gets  you excited about the Transition Towns Movement, please what "In Transition 2.0" a more lengthy, but very worthwhile video which goes more deeply into the movement and the "Transition" process.

Cheers.

Start Up Nights - A Smash Hit

This week Hubby and I attended an event put on by a terrific new local business Leaven Beer and Bread House and the group Seacoast Local; a group that encourages people to shift their shopping to products that are local, green and fair. The event was called Start Up Nights and, like the graphic above suggests, it is a competition of great local innovative ideas. Events like this are really bringing fun and creativity to the localization movement.

It all starts with the pitch. Everyone is given a "pitch plate". You write out your idea for a business and try to encapsulate what it will be, why it is important (what is its niche),  how it will be funded, how it will function and profit. You then have 30 seconds to pitch your idea and the three best ideas are selected by voice vote of the crowd. The winners of the initial pitch contest get to select teams to help them develop their idea into a down and dirty, back of the napkin business plan. There are a series of challenges designed to help you refine your idea and it all wraps up with the judges selecting the winners and awarding prizes(but that is secondary). The real prize is the collaboration and camaraderie that develop throughout the evening. 

What really impressed me was the number of pitches that centered around local food, and all of them had a strong element of giving back to the community. There was not a single pitch that was purely individualist or profit driven. This event seemed to be a great example of the types of community and awareness building events that are vital for launching a transition town movement in our local area. I hope to see more events like this cropping up (pun intended). 

We definitely plan to attend the next event April 17th at 7pm. Hope to see you there!

A Little Dose of Inspiration

Photo from the lexicon of sustainability

For those of us who have been struggling through a long and difficult winter, and I think that is most of us, a little dose of inspiration sounds pretty good. I came across a great video on YouTube this morning that I will share with you. I also got an email from Hubby with a link to a Mother Earth News article about urban community gardens. I know you've heard urban community garden before, but this one is different. For those of you who are actually living in an urban setting this article is definitely a good read, but those of you living in the burbs or in the country should not disdain to read it as well. I live in what might be termed burban country (lol, yes you read that correctly,) and what really impressed me about this article was how much stronger the community ties became as a result of this project and how much more content and secure the people involved felt. They were actually building community where there had been one in name only, but not in reality. 

Click here to read the Mother Earth News Article

In the video "Permaculture, a Quiet Revolution" we are taken on a journey to the 8th International Permaculture Convergence in Brazil, where over 200 permaculture design course graduates and their mentors from over 43 countries have gathered to learn and to share their experience in order to prepare for and mitigate the looming global crisis. Their goal, to create sustainability now through self reliance. The only way this goal succeeds is if we all join the (r)evolution and share the message with as many people as possible as often as possible. I hope that you will be inspired and that you will catch the permaculture bug and spread it wherever you go.

Live light! 

For further reading and a helping of Link Soup

Sorry I missed you all yesterday. I was doing the final run through on my presentation and packing up all the things for the farmers' market. The market was a huge success and we even had a few people turn out for my talk on permaculture. Thanks to all those of you who were there. I'm just back from the talk and as promised I'm putting up my suggestions for further reading and links. Since I had already scheduled a serving of Link Soup for the post for this weekend I will append those additional links along with this and that should all come together quite nicely. Just the thing for relaxing in the easy chair with on a blustery Sunday afternoon. 


So here you go:

Suggestions for further reading:

–            Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability – David Holmgren
–            Introduction to Permaculture – Bill Mollison
–            Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture – Toby Henenway
–            The Resilient Farm and Homestead – Ben Falk

I should also add (though not strictly permaculture books): Deep Economy by Bill McKibben and Radical Simplicity by Jim Merkel

Link Soup:

–             Resilience Hub & Portland Maine Permaculture

–             SeacoastPermaculture Meetup

–             Whatifwechange.org

–             350.0rg

–             Sustainableme.me

–             One Earth (R)evolution (You are here)

-             Appropedia

-             Zones and Sectors Efficient Energy Planning

I'm updating this post to add  this great link that Hubby sent me. It gets you thinking.
-             What are we putting in our bodies?

So there you have them folks. Enjoy and I hope to see you all at a permablitz real soon. 

I found the Druid's Garden

Ben Law's Forest House

In searching for pictures to illustrate several points for my upcoming presentation, "Introduction to Permaculture, The Importance of Whole System Design", I came across this great blog- The Druid's Garden and one particular post that I felt was just so appropriate that I had to share it here. Click on the link below to go to the Druid's Garden and read the post. Happy wool gathering...

Introduction To Permaculture: Terminology And The Ethical Triad

A Day in the Life

Intersection repair. Community building event with Portland, OR City Repair

I''m going to walk you very briefly through a recent day in my life, in order to illustrate some very hopeful things that I see happening in my community and which I believe are starting to happen in many communities across America. Well it's really more like 28 hours, but I know you will forgive the artistic license in favor of a more catchy title. "28 Hours in the Life" just doesn't have the same ring to it. 

On Wednesday evening I attended a meeting of approximately 16 local artists. At this meeting many things were discussed including: coordinating with the local farmers' market to offer an art show in conjunction with the market, as we have been doing for the past couple of months, the opening of a new gallery and function space in a neighboring community which many of our artists are getting involved with and will be showing at, the establishment of an artists collaborative at the home and studio of one of our members which will help her to maintain and utilize the space and will give several artists space to work and to show their art, and.... It was a very productive and energetic event and it was great to see the network of relationships that is building between the folks in this group and how they are building a community within a community that helps and supports each other. Rather than competing for resources and customers, they help each other and generate buzz in the community which will attract enough customers for all.

Directly after the meeting, which was held in the public library, I spoke with the librarian and booked my second Lexicon of Sustainability popup art show! It will be at the Berwick Public Library during their 2014 Earth Day celebration. The event day has not been determined. It will either be on Earth Day (April 22) or it will be the Saturday before Earth Day. Stay tuned here for more details. I will also be giving my second introduction to permaculture presentation at that same event. 

On Thursday evening (we are now into hours 26-28) I attended a meeting of the Berwick Sustainability Committee. We had a guest speaker who came to talk with us about water protection. The meeting was very productive and we left with more knowledge about the need to protect our ground water and with a plan for how to go about starting. We are looking into resource protection ordinances of course, but we are also looking into community outreach, education and information. We plan to engage local businesses to begin rainwater collection and control projects which will set an example for the town and all residents and we already have our first test site chosen and the approval of the business owner. We will be installing a rainwater collection system and small permaculture herb garden for a local business which we can use as an example when we approach other local businesses. I'll keep you posted in the spring and share photos of the projects as they progress. Oh yes and we'll be involving those wonderful B.A.A artists in this project as well to help us design creative rain chains and other rain directing features and sculpture. So the community network grows and branches and a vibrant and active community begins to fruit and flourish. 

It is a good day ...28 hours.. to be alive and living in Berwick, Maine. I hope you see signs of a new sense of community where you live as well. 

Sustainable Me and One Earth Revolution Hit the Real World

I've been pretty quiet through the winter months, enjoying my CSA share and delving into research on sustainability and permaculture. Sharing with you when I found something worth the while.  As spring approaches Sustainable Me and One Earth Revolution are launching into high gear. We're taking our message out into the real world with presentations, art shows and more. Stay tuned here for more information and event calendar. Some things  you can expect: Introduction to permaculture speaking date(s), Lexicon of Sustainability Pop-up Art Show dates, and announcements surrounding the establishment of Hour Share of the Berwicks.

Here is the information on our first event:

Introduction to Permaculture speaking date: March 16th at 12:30 PM at the Berwick Town Hall. 11 Sullivan Street, Berwick, Maine 03901

This event will be held in conjunction with the Berwick Winter Farmers' Market. 

Hope to see you all there.

Waste Not Want Not - Made Pet Food Today

I said I was going to do it and I did. This evening in about a half an hour and with some leftover items that might otherwise have gone to waste I made enough pet food to feed these two little darlings for about a week. I had this half eaten duck that we had tossed in the freezer after Christmas dinner.  We figured we would do something with it before long. We had boiled the duck yesterday thinking we were going to make soup, but just weren't feeling like it last night and ended up making a simple vegetarian dinner. And then we had this casserole dish full of couscous that was a bit overcooked and mushy. So this evening I picked all the meat off the duck and pureed it in the food processor. I mixed this with the couscous and made a nice thick meat paste which I taste tested on both the cat and the dog. They lapped it up! Literally. So I figured it was a winner and proceeded to package it up in 1/4 cup servings using an ice cream scoop and some squares of wax paper. When I was all done I had about 32 patties in a gallon zip lock. 

Now I can just take a couple of patties out in the evening and put them in the refrigerator to defrost. They should be ready to go by the next morning. It will be a nice treat for the pets and will reduce my pet food bill while reducing my waste. I wouldn't give this to them every day, because I'm not sure that it would provide 100% balanced nutrition. I would recommend looking into well researched and recommended recipes on line or check with your vet, if you are planning to start providing all of your pet's food. 

This experiment just reminded me that when we use our creativity and think outside the box we can help to reduce waste and supply our own needs while saving money. I think I will probably try this again in the future with other leftovers.

Another great thing about this. Since we eat local meat and organic foods, I know that what I'm feeding my pets is just as healthy as what I'm eating myself, and that is something I can 't be assured of when I am feeding them pet food from the store or even from a local feed store for animals. 

Saving the Soul of the Earth

The magical work of artist Bruno Torfs is featured in the film. Please visit his website. 

Today I would like to share with you  a great independent film "Anima Mundi; peak oil, climate change, permaculture and Gaia theory."  "Anima Mundi" is an artistic, spiritual and hard hitting look at the current state of the spirit of the world and an introductory instruction manual for saving the soul of the Earth. 

Please watch this movie, please listen to the lesson and please, please, share this post with as many people as you can. We need to wake up. I speak to myself as well as to all of you. Americans especially need to wake up and realize that we can not go on using resources at our current levels. The message that we need to share is that we can live completely full, happy and satisfied lives without destroying the world (and we are destroying the world). In fact we can live much happier lives with fewer things. We need to stop listening to the voices in the system that tell us that happiness is found in more and more things. We need to start listening to the voices that remind us that we had a story before cheap energy permitted the growth of our current bloated consumer economy. It was a story that was full of imagination, that created some of the greatest art, and the greatest minds, knowledge and logic the world has known. A story that was peopled with families who lived full, contented lives that did not destroy their environment.  

The fact of the matter is that we cannot continue to live a good life if we do not make changes now. This isn't the first time in human history that we have tapped out our resource base leading to desertification, massive human migration and wars of conquest. The fertile crescent was after all once a fertile region filled with cities and farms until the combination of human activity and climate changed tipped it over the edge turning it into a desolate moonscape incapable of supporting human life.  Today there are probably more than 10 times as many people on the planet as there were then and we have already expanded into all the habitable regions of the world. The world is already tipping into the area of peak resources. Not just peak oil, but gold, copper, silver and other ores and resources. As these resources become more scarce we are going to have to learn how to utilize the resources that we have already mined by much higher levels of recycling. But we will not solve the problem of peak resources just by recycling. We are also going to have to reduce our overall demand on Earth's resources. If you agree, please join the (r)evolution.