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. 

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. 

Great Grand-Dad's Granny Square Afghan

It's Friday night after a long week at the office. I'm exhausted, really need to be working on the website, but just haven't got the energy for reading through pages of links and trying to make attractive and navigable pages with all the new information I've been compiling. I'll get those updates out to you just as soon as I can, but right now I'm curled up on my second hand sofa (which I got nearly brand new for about 25% of retail - very lucky find) wrapped up in an old afghan that my great grandfather crocheted back in the 1960's or it might have been the 50's. In either case, it was before I was born.  Have you ever seen one of these?

It is simply gorgeous and snuggly. And it gets me to thinking again about reusing and repairing things. This particular afghan that I'm snuggled up in was severely neglected and thread bare when I was a child. My mother rescued it and redid the stitching between the squares. When I bought my grandparents house, many years later,  Ma gave me the afghan. I've been in the house for 12 years now and here I am, still warming myself in the same old afghan. I've taken a few stitches to it myself over time.  I truly treasure it, even though my great grandfather is only a collection of stories to me. I have no memories of the man himself. Still, knowing this little blanket was made by loving hands and used and repaired by 4 generations of my family is a testament to the lasting quality of such things and to the fact that when cared for things don't have to be disposable. 

Local Arts and Entertainment

When we ask ourselves that age old question, what shall we do tonight, how many of us answer with the predictable "dinner at -insert your favorite chain restaurant here- and a movie at the nearest megaplex cinema"?  It's not that these restaurants are bad, it's just that as it is a chain or franchise you know that a large portion of the profits from your meal are being shipped directly out of your community to corporate share holders. You don't know where the ingredients in your meal came from or what their environmental impact is.  When you eat at a local mom-and-pop type restaurant your dollars stay in the community and continue to circulate in the community making it more vibrant and economically stable. You can also get a pretty good idea of if the owners support local farmers and if they select natural wholesome ingredients. 

The same goes for that movie at the megaplex. Once again your dollars are being shipped out of your community, but you probably haven't stopped to think about the impact you could have if you supported the arts locally by attending a local art show, local stage production or took in a second run movie at the refurbished theater in the next town. These businesses need our support if they are to survive and thrive. Unfortunately, so many of them have already gone by the way-side. Every time we loose one of these local businesses we loose a bit of our freedom of choice.  

One of the driving concepts behind One Earth Revolution is to get us all thinking and once we've started thinking to remind us that we have choices. We have choices in everything we do, in every purchase that we make and every service that we pay for. These choices, once made, have far reaching impacts on our lives, the lives of our children, our communities and our planet.  We don't all have to follow the same set of guidelines but we should all be thinking about what are the guidelines that direct our decisions, and we should stop and refer to them before making blind purchases without stopping to think about their overall impact. 

Since I've started this experiment, I stop to think about every purchase I make and after I've made my purchase, if I decide to purchase, I am very satisfied with the result. I can honestly say, that already, in just four days, I've seen an overall improvement in my general happiness level. So that I can answer the question posed by this great piece I picked up at a local art show. I know the direction I'm going and I'm certain it's a good one!

Lucky in Where I Live

When it comes to living locally, it doesn't get much better than this little corner of southern Maine. I've been impressed by just how lucky I am since I woke this morning. We have local goat's milk soap and even a factory that makes all-natural toiletries less then 30 miles from our home. We have one of the greatest little breakfast restaurants that serves the freshest gourmet breakfast at prices comparable to the big franchised places and we have great neighbors. Today just for crossing the street and asking we were blessed with the opportunity to pick our own apples for free. They are some of the sweetest most delicious apples I have ever tasted and they are completely organic. 

Here is my darling husband picking apples.

Here are those beautiful apples

And  here they are being prepared for a tasty pie that will be served at our fabulous banquet table. Actually there are two. The first obtained from the local Habitat for Humanity store (proceeds from sales go to support the work of HFH), the second came from the free-cycle shop at our local transfer station. They are a matched set! 

Yes we are truly fortunate in where we live. The great thing is that we can all be this lucky. It takes some effort and some time, but the rewards are more than worth the work and the sacrifice. The steps you take will vary depending on where you live, but the end result will be the same. You will never feel more fulfilled than when you are able to provide for the needs of yourself  and your family right in your own back yard and your community without spending a great deal of money and while meeting interesting new people, making new friends, reconnecting with old friends, and learning new skills. 

This has honestly been one of the most wonderful and blessed weekends I have spent in a long time. I'm looking forward to the new discoveries this coming week holds in store. 

Revolution Day 2: Bit of a Ramble

It is a beautiful day and I am happy to be alive and living local. Last evening we had some wonderful friends and neighbors over for dinner and enjoyed just sharing food and conversation. There are some big plans afoot in our town, things you don't read about in the newspapers, if there are still any newspapers in your area. It was good to learn about the things that we should be concerned about as a community and about opportunities to get involved and help our community evolve. Some interesting topics that came up that I will explore further in another post: How do you define what's Local? What criteria do you use when evaluating products to determine if they align with your principals? What resources  do we have as a group that we can mobilize to benefit our entire community. It was a great evening and the food was fabulous. I think I'm becoming one of those people...You know who I mean. Because I just can't resist....

sharing this picture of the glorious roasted squash and vegetables that one of our guests brought to share. It was fabulous! And today has been just as amazing. We started out by dropping by the popup art show put together by the Berwick Art Association and picked up a wonderful piece of art by local artist Erin Duquette. It was then on to Spruce Creek Farm in Eliot to pick up our locally farm raised turkey for our Thanksgiving feast. A stop at King Tut's Apple Cider Mill on the way home netted us some fresh cider and Macoun apples for the mince pie. 

A tasty lunch of leftovers from last-night's feast rounded off the afternoon and now it's out to the garden to finish putting it to bed for the winter. Then I plan to settle down for the evening, put on my toasty warm alpaca slippers crochet with wool from the friendly alpaca down the road and do something creative or just finish that pair of socks I started last week. 

Tomorrow I think there will be apple picking and turning the rest of those beautiful left-over veggies and rabbit into a pot-pie for dinner. Life truly doesn't get any better than this.