Happy New Year Revolutionaries

Happy New Year, and welcome to a new revolution! One year ago today I began One Earth Revolution to see what could be accomplished for our planet in one year along with the help of my family and friends. I will be honest, it has been a slow start. There have been some personal and logistical challenges, but I also have a sense of real progress.  I have seen myself and my family begin to truly live by ethics and principles which we believe will help to sustain our community and our planet well into the future. We have become involved in many groups that are rebuilding the sense of community in our town and are actively working to create a future for our village which is both economically and environmentally sustainable, and not only sustainable but bountiful without being damaging to our ecology. This year has also seen the conversation of sustainability and a post carbon future really making inroads in the mainstream media. While there are still many naysayers and not a few people who staunchly refuse to remove their blinders and see the coming storm, we have begun to see real evidence that people are beginning to awaken  to the real dangers of climate change.  There is so much more to be done!

This weekend Hubby and I have spent two days in contemplation and meditation on our property, on our planet, and on  our personal feelings and goals surrounding both. We spent a day being grateful for the achievements and blessings of the past year and letting go of anything that happened during the past year that we do not want to bring forward with us. We spent today looking forward to the challenges and promises of the coming year. 

This year I finished my permaculture design certification and I'm now saving up for the advanced class. Meanwhile our homestead continues to take shape and we begin to see the real beginnings of the permaculture demonstration sight that we would eventually like to have here. In the coming year we plan to install cold frames, expand the plantings in our fledgling food forest, erect a greenhouse and so much more. Stay tuned for an Indiegogo campaign announcement early in the calendar year. 

And One Earth Revolution? We've got plans for you too. We'll be better than ever with field trips, regular feature pieces on the permaculture ethics and principles, recipe share, farm hacks and so much more. We may even have a podcast in store for you. So stay tuned here and you'll be in the know about everything that's happening on the farm and with The (R)evolution. 

Saving the Environment Starts at Home - Tips for Beating the Take-out Habit

Image from Maple and Spice 

Happy Sunday readers. It's a cloudy October morning here in southern Maine and I'm thinking about breakfast. It's kind of a tradition in our family to have a nice breakfast on Sunday. In the past we have often gone to a favorite restaurant close by our home, and still do occasionally, but lately we've started making that Sunday breakfast at home more often and incorporating things from our own garden and from local farmers into our meal. There are two reasons for this: 1) insuring that we are using local ingredients and 2) reducing the size of our food budget. If you are wondering how these two things tie in to protecting the environment, it is quite simple and comes down to transportation. The more local our food is, the fewer miles it had to be transported using fossil fuel burning planes, boats, trains and trucks. The fewer dollars we spend on food and the more often we eat at home the more we save and the less we commute to earn the money to pay for it. We also save the trip to to restaurant. These reduced trips also reduce wear and tear on our vehicle, further reducing our impact on the planet. 

So as I sat here thinking about breakfast, it reminded me that I had promised you some tips and recipes for beating the eating out and particularly the stopping for takeout habit that is so easy to fall into. 

The first and particularly timely tip is making ahead. Quiet Sundays are a good opportunity to do a little extra cooking that will make meal prep later in the week quicker and easier, reducing the temptation to just pick something up on the way home or hitting the drive through on the way into the office because you rushed out the door without eating breakfast AGAIN. Here are a couple of things that I like to do that are surprisingly helpful. I scramble up a batch of eggs and vegetarian sausage and wrap it up with a bit of cheese in a half dozen burrito wraps and freeze them. A couple of minutes in the microwave in the morning and I have a hot hearty home made breakfast. You could also defrost in the fridge over night and warm it in a skillet if you are not a big fan of the microwave. 

Another thing I like to do on Sunday is making up a pot of rice and a pot of pasta. I divide each into two containers and refrigerate one of each and freeze the others. I then have a base carbohydrate that I can build a meal on with a quick zap in the microwave or two minutes in hot water. You can make mashed potatoes ahead as well, but they are more of a challenge to reheat for those who prefer not to microwave. This generally shaves 5 to 10  minutes off of meal prep which doesn't sound like a lot, but can make a big difference when its late and you are tired and hungry.

One of the most challenging things about making dinner after a long tiring day is deciding what to make. This question taken at the end of the work day can often lead to decisions that we regret later, like the habit of eating a lot of prepackaged frozen food from the super market. This is probably as bad for the environment as the takeout given the damage that industrial agriculture and meat production do.   One way to get around this is plan ahead. While your pasta and rice are cooking, spend a few minutes to jot down a menu for the weeks evening meals. This will save time and frustration later and will allow you to be prepared and be sure that you have all the ingredients you need on hand. 

None of these things are rocket science, and you've probably heard them all before in the context of time management, but perhaps thinking about how these tips can help save the environment is a more compelling argument to get us to start employing them, or employing them more often. 

I also promised you a recipe. Here is one that we found recently that we really enjoyed and was quite simple. Start with leftovers and a recipe of "Quick and easy Pizza Crust". Divide in half and roll into two circles about 7 inches across. On one half of each put some diced leftover veg from your fridge anything like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms, etc. works, add some diced tomatoes and Italian seasoning, and sprinkle on some shredded cheese. Now fold the other half of the dough over and pinch it closed. Bake per the dough instructions (you might be able to shave a few minutes off the cook time, so watch them carefully) and voila! you have two tasty filling calzones in just minutes. They are a meal by themselves or pair with a small salad. 

All this writing about food has made me hungry. I think I'll go get that breakfast I was thinking about. And there is the vegan sausage recipe that I'm wanting to try out....

Unveiling the Seeming Convenience of our Modern Lives

These days, with our fast-paced work-a-day lives, we often do things that seem convenient at the time. That is they SEEM to save us time or money or energy. But often that seeming convenience is only on the surface. When we unpack these habits and look at their hidden cost we find a completely different story. This post is number one in series on revealing these hidden costs.  We'll explore various habits, look at the hidden costs and also look at developing new habits that can set us free to live a truly convenient and content life.

The first seeming convenience that we are going to look at and one that I fell into for a time myself some years ago is stopping for take-out on the way home from work. On the surface it seems to save us time and energy. What could be easier? You make a phone call (perhaps from  your cell, from the car), and you run in and pick up the food and you are off home to eat. But what are the hidden costs?

• Added dollars to your food budget (it's much more costly to eat out than cook at home)
• May take you out of your normal route on the way home adding time to your commute and cost of gas and wear and tear 
• Additional cost to the environment of the extra driving and the packaging of the food
• Negative health impact, as most take-out foods pack far more salt, fat and calories than food made at home.
• More hours at the gym to work off all those extra calories, and the cost of the gym membership
• More hours at work to pay for it all.

That take out meal sounds a lot less convenient now. Doesn't it?

Next time. Tips for breaking the take-out habit. 

Local food and Entertainment add Zest to Life

This past Saturday a trip to Wentworth Gardens in Dover, New Hampshire turned into a mini adventure. We went to see the greenhouse and pickup some local produce at the summer market that is held every Saturday from Mid-June to Mid-October. As anyone who regularly attends knows, a trip to the local farmer's market is more than just a grocery run. Our latest market excursion was an educational and entertaining experience.   We spent some time with Karen from Maine Herb Farm, learning about the various healing properties of herbs in her hand-crafted salves and lip balms. while enjoying a concert by Local artist James Gilmore,

Returning home we spent some time in our own garden reaping tomatoes and other tasty treats. A round of canning tomato sauce followed. As we have been harvesting our produce and fruits, putting them up for winter and experimenting with new vegetarian recipes, we have found that meal times are more enjoyable. The fare is more varied and wholesome and there is just a little something extra special about eating food that you grew and prepared yourself. The experience is so far beyond just opening cans or emptying boxes and warming something up. It really does add a bit of extra zest to life. 

Market Basket Madness

Delicious and made from local veg and dairy

This whole fiasco with Market Basket grocery stores being virtually shut down for more than a month has taught me to be very thankful for my garden, my pantry, and the farmer's market. When the whole thing first started I was concerned because my first thought was, "It is going to cost us so much more for basic food stuffs and things are already tight." But as the feud between the Demoulas cousins continued and we had to be more creative about where, what and how much we bought (because shopping at Shaw's or Hannaford was not an option I would take), I became very thankful for the wide variety of things my husband planted in the garden. I'm even thankful for the kolrabi and okra. They provide variety. We even started looking at the things that often get tossed on the compost pile, such as cauliflower leaves, as greens that can be steamed or put into soups. Our diet actually got more varied, interesting and probably more healthy. Particularly because we know that our garden is pesticide and chemical fertilizer free.

For the other things we need such as flour, rice, butter, milk and fruit we go to, the farmer's market, Nature's Way or  Fiddlehead Farms Market, or to the natural food store. To be completely honest I'm finding not fighting the crowds in the grocery store very refreshing. I also find that I meet more people and have actual pleasant social interactions in the smaller shops. Shopping this way feeds my mind and soul as well as my body. Because of this, and because it is one of our personal goals to support local businesses, we had already greatly reduced our reliance on Market Basket and my initial worry was really unfounded. We probably spent a little more on butter, milk and flour. But other than that I would say there were no great added expenses. 

Now that the crisis is over and the shelves are filling up again, we are taking stock of things and deciding if it makes sense to shop at the chain grocery store or if it makes more sense to continue to spread our patronage among smaller local businesses.  We are also thinking about steps that we can take to become even more self reliant. This was a minor blip. It's summer and we have our garden, our pantry was well stocked and after all, there are many other stores. If we really had to get something, we could. But what if....? What if this crisis was caused by war or disease-quarantine, or some other natural disaster that prevented supplies from getting delivered to our area at all, or kept us from getting out? What if it was winter and a blizzard? There would be no garden then. At that point I would be glad for summer's bounty that we had put away in canning jars and the freezer.  I'm not a paranoid person who thinks that you need to keep your basement stocked with 3 years worth of canned goods. But I do think it makes some sense to consider how we can make our lives a little less dependent upon the vagaries of the markets and the whims of the elite. I believe that having the ability to take care of your own basic needs, particularly food and water, is a wise investment in your time and money. 

People in our area are very fortunate. We don't always stop and think about these things. We have rarely seen shortages of food and other essentials of life that are more common in cities and in poorer nations. Shortages that can lead to deprivation, unrest and even violence. 

So I'm glad this little skirmish has ended, and I'm glad that it has made me think more deeply and in different ways about the issues of food supply, shortage, poverty and many other things that are tied up in taking care, not only of ourselves, but of others. For our part, we are planning to take a trip to our local Market Basket this weekend to purchase some food for the local food pantry. After that we'll see. I think likely we will still go there occasionally to stock up on butter, flour and sugar, but for the most part, it will not be our primary source of groceries. I think we will also double our canning and freezing efforts, taking advantage of all the resources that nature supplies during the summer, from the wild, from our own garden and from the gardens of local farmers who serve our community so well. 

What I Did for Mother's Day - Hugel Happiness

My son could not believe his ears. He had to ask me again just to be sure. "You really don't want me to buy you anything for Mother's Day? You're sure?" I assured him that agreeing to help me build a hugelkultur bed was going to be more than enough for a Mother's Day gift. I'm not sure he really believed me until he spent 4 hours in the 70 Degree sun this passed Sunday building my beautiful hugelkultur bed. 

First the base of the bed. In the fall we had laid down cardboard and topped that with our corn and sunflower stalks. Then we added our yard clippings and dried leaves. Over the winter we added our kitchen scraps. On top of all this we laid a lot of wood from standing dead trees that we had to take down for safety. Then we began to cover it with a load of loam that we had brought in. 

We haven't been  working our land long enough yet to have developed a large pile of well composted material for making top soil. My guys were handy carting all that soil. And this is when my son realized just what he'd got himself into. We were about 3 hours into the project at this point. I was in there wielding the shovel and hauling logs too, but I did have to pause occasionally to take the photos.

My Guys! They worked so hard!

In this last photo we are about half done with burying the woody debris. It's not quite finished yet, but we made a lot of progress. It still needs some top dressing with additional soil, compost and a good layer of straw mulch. We are going to plant medium bush blueberries on top of this mound. On the south facing side we will have sun loving strawberries, and on the north facing side we will grow shade loving greens. I can't wait to see what kind of yields we get. This and the fledgling orchard that you may notice to the right of the hugelkultur bed in some of these photos are some of our first steps toward our permaculture perennial food forest and garden. 

I will continue to post photos as the food forest progresses. Until next time - Live Light!

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!

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. 

One Man's Journey - Ben Falk TEDx Talk

Ben Falk's journey to a sustainable life takes an all too familiar route from growing up in the suburbs to some eye opening experiences in college and finally to a small farm in Vermont  were he is learning and teaching the use of  permaculture principles in creating a sustainable ecosystem on his 10 acre hillside lot. 

Ben's TEDx Talk takes you through those experiences and shares some of those eye openers. They are the reasons that we need to get in front of the movement for change and really start making some decisions in our daily lives that can have a positive impact on where things are going. It's not enough to just recycle a few things. It's not enough to car pool once or twice a week or take public transportation instead of driving. We need a radical cultural shift in the way we live and consume.

Please listen to Ben's talk and really let yourself hear the message. Don't take a jaded view or simply look away when he shows you pictures of the devastation wrought by factory farming and livestock feedlots. When you see pictures of tanks in the desert and when he talks about the desertification of the fertile crescent stop, really stop and think about what you are putting on your table. Think about your daily activities and about the things you buy. Think about the energy and resource demands that you as an individual make on the planet. I think many of us who are trying to be more environmentally conscious think "well at least I'm not as bad as that one. He's driving a huge SUV and lives in a 3000 square foot house." Well that may be true, but I would have to guess that the greater number of us could be doing way more than we are to make this a more just, healthy and equitable planet to live on. 

On God and Oil

The eye with which you see God, is the same eye with which God sees  you. (Adapted from M.  Eckhart)

I started out on this journey by saying that we need a revolution in ecology, economy, community and faith. I've touched a good deal in this blog on the ecology and the economy part. I've scratched the surface when it comes to community, but I don't think I've even skimmed it when it comes to faith. That has to change because this is a major area of concern in our current spiritual world climate where people are killing each other over questions of faith or using faith as an excuse for subjugating, disenfranchising or discriminating against others.  

While it is not my intention to offend anyone,  I have to speak to my convictions and my beliefs. I'm just going to lay this out there the way I see it. Everyone is free to make of it what they will and take from it what they will. So here it is folks. We need to wake up and realize that we are all like blind men fighting over the appearance of an elephant. Each one "sees" what he believes to be the whole, but his perception is limited and he does not see all. A comparative study of major religions will find that, on the key points and principles, there are more similarities than there are differences. While one group worships many gods, they see that these gods are all aspects of one God. While another group sees God as one, they recognize his roll as protector, redeemer, one who sustains you through your trials, avenger of wrongs, guiding light.....etc. and so on.  And we take it further, to the point where those who believe in one God must fight with each other because they disagree on how he should be worshiped. Have we completely missed the point of the message? When you boil it all down, isn't the message of all faiths that we should love God and love our neighbor as ourselves?  If  you truly believe that, how can you degrade, subjugate, disenfranchise, discriminate against and God forbid... harm or kill your neighbor? 

The truth is that while we hear that people are killing one another over their faith, this is only partially true. They are killing each other over power and access to power and much if not all of that is driven by wealth or access to wealth which in turn is driven by our oil saturated economy. This oil saturated economy is a global phenomena, so I feel justified in using "our". Demand for oil's outputs (fuel, fertilizer, plastics, clothing, food.....it seems like everything we touch these days is tainted with oil) may be highest in developed countries, but the negative impacts of this oil greedy culture are felt the most in the oil producing developing nations.

How many beauty pageant contestants and essayist have dreamed of "world peace". If so many people really want world peace why haven't we achieved it yet? Because we are putting the cart before the horse. Because we are treating the symptom rather than the disease. We have rampant poverty, social stratification and wealth disparity, between the first and third world and within each of these. We are not going to have peace while a minority of people grab power for themselves and step on the necks of everyone who gets in their way. We are not going to have peace while we continue to fight over an ever dwindling pool of resources. We are not going to have peace while some of us continue to take more than our fair share. 

So what can we do about it? We need to STOP and reassess our personal consumption habits. we need to do a true needs assessment and learn to live within our means, and I don't just mean within your personal household budgets. I mean we need to realize that on this finite planet there is a finite amount of everything that must be shared among all of us, and we need to look at what we are consuming and ask ourselves if it is really needed and if we are taking more than our share from the resources which belong to ALL of earth's creatures, not just to the ones with the biggest bank accounts and the most guns. We need to wake up to the fact that everything in our daily lives is saturated in fossil fuels, particularly oil, and we need to start looking for alternatives. It might help to stop and remember that we have been exploiting oil in the current fashion only for a little more than a hundred years. For the ten thousand years of recorded human history before that we survived and even thrived at times without it. And we need to remember that we will have to do so again, in a future that is far less distant than many of us think. Let's revive some of the tried and true method of human survival and invent some new less energy intensive methods to see us through the next ten thousand years.

Walk lightly, live lightly, shine brightly!

First Earth - Earth First

Greetings all. Sorry I missed you on Wednesday. But as revolutions can not be stopped by the flu, we are coming to you today from the couch. Very grateful for Hubby who has kept me supplied with plenty of fluids to help keep me hydrated and get me on the mend that much quicker. It is such a blessing to have a warm comfortable home in which to recouperate. There are many people in the world who do not have that. In addition to my warm comfortable home I am fortunate enough to be able to afford this computer on which I communicate with you and the electricity and internet connection with which to operate it. I am truly blessed.

Thinking about how blessed I am makes me think of the many people in the world who are not, and the future generations who certainly will not be blessed if we don't rein in our rampant resource destruction and develop gentler more sustainable methods of living on this planet. 

The embedded video. "First Earth" takes you on a journey around the world to meet people who are learning and teaching such methods. It also delves in the the very deep, personal and spiritual reasons for the importance of adopting natural building practices. In the interest of blogging etiquette, I will warn you that one person drops the f-bomb early on, but other than that I don't recall any explicit language. 

I hope you will enjoy and be impressed and inspired.

It's Time for a New Economy

So I have been thinking for some time now about doing a post on alternative exchange methods and a "New Economy." I  started to write something up about the need to return to more traditional methods of exchange. I'd even purchased a URL and taken other steps in order to start setting up Hour Exchange of the Berwicks.  In light of the recent data breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus, the constant fear of identity theft and concerns over financial insecurity, the time for this article seemed more than ripe. And then I saw this graphic! It bares a startling resemblance to my own list. Which got me thinking the time must be even more ripe than I thought. So.... here it is....

Source - https://www.facebook.com/foodisfree

Let's take it from the top:

Grow your own food or support a local CSA. Growing your own food is a great way to reduce food cost and increase the healthiness of  your diet. It is also one more way of bringing the production of our needs closer to home and increasing our security and sustainability in an uncertain world.

Make it yourself. If we make it ourselves, be it clothing or food or whatever, we have taken a big step toward local sourcing. Local sourcing helps to balance costs, prices and wages and reduces the impacts of production and distribution on the environment. Making things ourselves from local materials and ingredients also helps to build the LOCAL economy.  There are those who will use the argument that you shouldn't stop buying clothes from Bangladesh or coffee from Africa (etc and so on), because after all the countries that export those goods depend on selling to you for their economy. This is a justification on the part of the corporations who make their money on importing these goods at cut rate prices and selling them at huge mark ups. One of the first ways that we can help improve income equality and fair distribution of wealth is to advocate for higher wages for people who work in these factories. And one way to do that is to refuse to buy the products until the workers are paid a fare wage. 

Swap it! Borrowing and sharing really go together. How many of us have tools and other things that we use only very rarely? How many of us buy something because we need it today and we might only need it once or twice a year and perhaps not even that often. If we will share those things, we could reduce the demand for them. (Now watch how this dominoes.)  Neighbors begin sharing shovels and snow blowers and other tools. Fewer shovels and snow blowers and other tools are needed, fewer are produced. Environmental impact decreases. More people are sharing. They purchase fewer things. They need less space. They move to smaller homes. They need less money.  They work fewer hours or work from home. They commute less, the environmental impact decreases and decreases again.... and so on.  

Exchanging time for time (hour for hour) is one way of reducing income inequality and working toward a new economy.  Isn't it true that all of us are equally valuable and that all of our labor is equally valuable? But the monetary system that we have established leads people to feel that their worth is based on their income. Hogwash! Exchanging time for time allows us all to be on a level playing field, builds confidence and self worth, and eliminates roadblocks to success and improvement.

Reduce, Reuse, Repair, and Recycle I've already covered these here and here, and I will reiterate here that one of the primary and most important of these is reduce. Reduce, Simplify, Right-Size, work toward sustainability. 

What it all boils down to though is that we all need to learn a little something from the folks who have learned to do with less and not just 'make do' but live abundantly and be truly happy, happier perhaps than many of those who think they can only be happy if they have wealth, possessions and power.

Remember life is not in things but in experiences. So experience it and live light. 

Coffee, Tea or the Environment?

Just brewing up a cup of  "Not Coffee" as I sit down to write this blog

I've finally done it. After almost 2 years of trying and failing I have finally given up coffee. I've been coffee free for 2 whole days! And to be honest I don't really feel tired. I think that after a few more days I will be sleeping better and I will feel better than ever. 

I have often thought that giving up coffee would be a good idea for health reasons, but then after reading Radical Simplicity by Jim Merkel and learning just how many acres it takes to produce the coffee I drink, I was determined that I needed to give it up for environmental reasons. It was still  hard though. I would wake up in the morning exhausted after a long night of tossing and turning and say to myself  "I'm just so tired, I've got to have just one cup", then 3PM rolled around and I HAD to have a cup to get my through until 5PM and keep me alert on the long drive home. It was a vicious circle! 

This week, after a couple more sleepless nights staring at the ceiling and yet another article on the impact of coffee production and distribution on the environment I knew the time had finally come. I got up in the morning and brewed a cup of herbal tea. I'm not looking back. When I'm really in a pinch I can brew up a cup on my friend Dawnie's famous "not coffee" tea. If you'd like to get your hands on some, you can reach Dawn via her Facebook page Sun Moon Stars Herbals.

For those of you who say, "well that's all well and good for you, but I just can't give up my coffee and/or tea." Fret not! There is  a way that you can have your coffee and tea and reduce your impact on the environment. This article has some information about the impact and the options. And this one from the National Resource Defense Council has a more in depth discussion of the topic. And remember, every step you take, even the little ones, make an impact. If everyone who reads this reduces their coffee consumption by even 10% that will be positive impact for the planet. And the more you reduce the more positive the impact. 

I hope that you will find these resources informative and helpful. And until next time.... Travel Light!

Time for Tiny Houses

The Bodega from Tumbleweed Tiny Houses

My whole adventure in sustainability began with an article on tiny houses. Pictured first was one of the earliest and smallest of the tiny houses built by Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. Given that I might not have been here today writing this blog, if it had not been for that article, it seems appropriate that I should touch on the subject of tiny houses. In fact, it seems like I should have touched on it a lot sooner. 

For those of you who are curious, that article lead me to do a search on tiny houses and then I found "We the Tiny House People" a documentary about tiny homes and sustainable living. From there it just snowballed. About the same time I read "Midnights with the Mystic" by Cheryl Simone and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. Somehow the synergy of these two experiences close together launched me into my research on sustainability and permaculture.  But I digress. On to the tiny houses!

As we face a world that has less and less to offer in the way of resources to more and more people, we are all going to have to reevaluate the line between wants and needs. One of the major areas of discrepancy between want and need is in our choices of shelter. Here in the US, most of us live in homes that are far larger than what we need. And these homes contain far more stuff than can strictly (or perhaps even loosely) be described as needs. When we begin to really look at the energy that we put into purchasing and maintaining our homes we start to see that many of us have become wage slaves in order to maintain a standard of living that is far above what is necessary or sustainable. In so doing we have also shackled ourselves to a way of living that is neither ecologically friendly nor truly fulfilling for we have traded a life rich in experience for one that is full of crap (you thought I was going to say rich in stuff didn't you? Well, I'm just calling it like it is folks). 

I have personally embarked on a path toward what I call right-sizing. For many folks, particularly here in the US this will likely involve some down-sizing. While it is not just about the size of the home, (there is also: the amount and type of clothing we wear, the amount and type of food we eat, the number of hours we work and the distance we commute, just for starters) the size of the home is greatly impacted and does greatly impact many of the other aspects of our lives. With this in mind I thought it appropriate to share with you several links to resources on tiny houses and tiny living. I hope you will find them as inspirational and motivational as I have. 

Mortgage Free Tiny House
Honey I Shrunk the House
The Tiny House Blog
Review of Tiny Homes Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn
An article on tiny house bathrooms
Two articles from "The Tiny Life" one on tiny houses and sustainability here and another on the tiny house movement.
And finally one on "The Tiny House Film" in which you get to meet the characters that are featured in the film.

There are so many more great links that I could share with you, but I just have to leave it with these for now. 

Enjoy my friends and live small. Because living small is Living Large!

CSA #3 and the Wonders of Refrigeration and Heating

Our latest CSA arrived on Friday and wonder of wonders there were blueberries! Thanks to the wonders of modern refrigeration, I was able to make these fabulous blueberry scones with real local Maine blueberries in the dead of winter. Do I wish that these blueberries were refrigerated using renewable energy? Yes I do. Does this make me want to advocate for my utility company to divest from fossil fuels? Yes it does. It also encourages me to research and advocate for more solar and other alternative energy sources that we and other local food producers can use on our own properties to make our farms more sustainable.  

This same feeling applies to the fresh local tomatoes which I purchased today from the local market to go on my veggie burger. I know that the tomatoes are local and were grown in a greenhouse not more than 50 miles from my home, but I don't know where the energy came from that heated the greenhouse. I don't think I'm going to stop buying my fresh locally greenhouse grown tomatoes in February (unless I find that they are very far from sustainable). But I do think it makes sense for us all to keep in mind the total inputs of energy that go into producing, transporting, marketing and storing our food. Armed with this information we can begin to make informed food choices. Making those informed choices is how we are going to make the changes that we need to make in order to heal this planet and keep it going for the next generation and the next.... and the next. 

It's getting late and I want to post this so....stay tuned for the scone recipe (special bonus post tomorrow).

Man Power

There are plenty of people in the world, but only so much oil. For the past 125 years or so we have been replacing man power with oil power. Look where that has gotten us. We are currently residents of a planet whose ecosystems teeter on the brink of collapse. 

It is about time we started to realize that real wealth comes through the earth vicariously from the sun  and the way to sustainably harness that wealth is with MAN power. Man can and has sustained himself (fed, clothed, and housed himself) for thousands of years, without the benefit of fossil fuels. During that time he enjoyed much in the way of comfort, luxury, culture and joy. We are often lead to believe that life before fossil fuels was cold, dark and miserable. This is a gross exaggeration. The Romans had indoor plumbing, hot baths and mosaic tiles. And modern central heating predates the use of oil furnaces. 

I won't deny that it is nice to be able to come home and simply flip a switch and have light and heat. But there is much to be said for heating with wood, for the process of getting the wood warms you more than once and provides you with exercise unlike any that you can ever get in a gym. The fresh air and connection to nature can't be matched by half an hour on a tread mill.   

Sure if we feed ourselves and cloth our selves and warm ourselves with the labor of our backs and arms we will spend more time engaged in the process of taking care of ourselves. But we will also love ourselves more, be closer to nature, and more considerate of her needs and the needs of our own bodies and the needs of our families. And I'll bet you we'll be happier. We'll find more time for making music than for just listening to it. We'll find more time for telling stories than just being entertained by whatever crap is being broadcast over the airwaves. 

It is time to remember that we are men and women and that when we turn over the processes of making our food and clothing, shelter and warmth to machines we take something away from what it means to be human.
And when we treat other people like they are machines, and exploit them and don't give the fair exchange for their labor we take even more away from our humanity. It is time to regain our humanity by recovering our connection with the earth and with one another, by treating both mother nature and one another with respect and honor.  

It's time to remember that the power of man lies in manpower and that that power comes from the earth, therefore it is in our best interest to travel lightly.

Population Growth - Bit of a Rant

I have spent a good deal of time over the last couple of years ranting to my family, and the few friends who will listen to me rant, about the issue of population growth and the unsustainable rate at which it continues. This one may get me in trouble with a few folks, and I do beg your indulgence, if it comes off a bit harsh. It is not my intention to second guess the decisions that families have made in the past with regards to their personal choice on family size. It is my intention to suggest that folks who are currently starting families or considering starting families should do just that... consider. Take the time to really think about the impact that bringing another life into the world will have on your future, the future of the child, the future of your community and the future of the planet. And now stop and consider what impact that same decision has when multiplied by all the women of childbearing age and their partners. You can find information on world population trends and projections here: http://www.jsk.gov.in/world_population.asp 

I'm frustrated when I see our media showcasing large families with shows like Jon and Kate Plus 8 and The Duggars. We've even got reality TV about teenage moms. There is way too much attention being paid to the drama of the American family and way too little attention being paid to the impact of the resource hungry American family upon the planet. And it's not just American families either. It's the whole world. The developing world is booming when it comes to population. They are also developing a taste for all those material possessions we in the developed world have become so fond of. Who can blame them? And what can be done?

We need to get active and get involved. We need to support organizations that bring the word about the need for population control and the tools to affect it to the world. And we need to realize that we can do more in this country as well. More of us can make the decision to have small families, or not to have families.  More of us can make the decision to curtail the rampant consumption of precious resources that we have taken for granted for most of our lives, but which we are now beginning to realize simply can't continue indefinitely. And more of us can start making these decisions NOW. We can't leave it for our children or our children's children. The impact of the decisions made by today's mothers (or women who choose not to be mothers) will be felt for generations to come. 

One last little rant. We need to stop listening to slanted government studies that predict gloom and doom for our economies if growth rates drop while the percentage of the population that is deemed 'old' continues to increase. We are going to pay for the population boom one way or the other. We'll either pay it in higher costs of elder care and perhaps higher taxes to pay for that care, or we'll pay it in attempts to repair damaged ecosystems. Attempts which may or may not succeed. In the end the ultimate price may be paid in a planet which can no longer support human life as we know it. 

Please give this some thought, check out the resources and do some further research on the subject on your own. And then, please, please get involved in solving the problem in any way that you can.

Resources:
https://www.unfpa.org/worldwide/family-planning-arab-countries-2.pdf
ttp://www.jsk.gov.in/world_population.asp 
http://www.billmckibben.com/maybe-one.html 
http://www.billmckibben.com/index.html
http://www.radicalsimplicity.org/

Until next time, Live Light

New Year's Cleaning and Reflection

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you are ready for a year filled with adventure, personal growth and achievement. I know I am. 

As I look to the new year I often spend the day cleaning up the house and getting things in order for what the year will bring. Today as I tidied up my kitchen I was pondering on sustainable decorating and cleaning. While a nice tidy house always brings a sense of satisfaction, I'm sure that none of us is deeply in love with the cleaning process that it takes to get it there. A few thoughts crossed my mind, so I thought I would share them with you today. I give you fare warning that this may ramble a bit. 

Avoid dust collectors. I've decided that it is much nicer to add warmth and character to my home with things that are also useful rather than just things that collect dust. Warm colorful afghans draped over the back of the couch and chair add a little flare and they're handy one those cool Maine evenings. Teapots and vintage pitchers on the shelves are attractive and get used often enough to keep them free of dust. A basket full of knitting adds a homey touch and provides entertainment, amusement and useful items. Keeping library books in a basket is another homey touch that also keeps them organized and helps to be sure they get back to the library on time. 

Re-gift and give mathoms. You'd be surprised at how many folks would be just as happy with something of yours that they have often admired as with something you went out and bought. Anyone can spend money, but giving of your personal items takes a bit more sacrifice sometimes. Today isn't the first day that I've given thought to this. As I was getting the house ready for the holidays I noticed some decorative plates that were hanging on the wall. My mother has often admired these plates so, while they were quite attractive,  I took the plates down from the wall and gave them to my mother for Christmas. She was very happy to receive them and I was able to 'reuse' them. So it was a win for both of us and for the environment. In addition I have saved myself the chore of dusting them. Since Mom has a glass fronted hutch for her dishes she won't need to dust them either!

These musings lead me to thinking about other ways that we can make our decorating and house work more sustainable. For me this means; friendly to the environment and to the people who live in the home as well as the ones responsible for keeping the place clean. I'll  have more on this in a later post. Stay tuned and in the meantime live lightly.

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.

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.