Hohenwald in Transition

This is what's happening in the ever-greening town of Hohenwald in middle Tennessee, where I currently reside....

Financial Permaculture:
Greening A Rural American Community

This video by Byron Palmer is 32 minutes long, and worth your time. It documents the happenings at the first ever Financial Permaculture Course, Oct 2008. Why should you care? During the Financial Permaculture course people from over 30 states and 3 countries gathered in this small town to learn tools and skills to address the economic and environmental challenges of 21st century America, designing real business proposals for the town of Hohenwald that would create green enterprises and localized, resilient economies.
In this video: permaculture, food and farming, ethanol, natural building, good music, Hopi nation, inspiration, good scenes,

A few months later, county lawmakers signed a proclamation that confirmed their interest in greening this American community...

"On Monday, March 16 a Transition Proclamation was presented to County Lawmakers. Connie Sharp, Debbie Landers and Jennifer Dauksha-English stood before County Commissioners, the County Mayor, the County Executive Director of Economic Development, and the public, explaining the proclamation. In summary, they stated that Lewis County and the City of Hohenwald proclaim to be a community interested in relocalizing its economy through energy conservation, applying Permaculture designs, and through the creation of more green businesses. The proclamation will build on Hohenwald and Lewis County’s efforts to make the town and county greener, safer and more economically viable. Members of the County Government gave an unexpected standing ovation after Ms. Sharp, Ms. Landers and Ms. English finished their presentation." Click here to read more.

What is a transition town?
Financial Permaculture Course
Financial Permaculture Blog with an emphasis on happenings in Hohenwald, TN

Compost Changed His Life...

Often referred to as 'black gold,' compost is a dark, nutrient-rich material that is vital to soil building.

To create great compost (from Patricia Lanza's book Lasagna Gardening):

1. Select a site on level, well-drained soil in full sun.

2. Plan on each completed pile being 3 to 4 feet on each side. You can make it free standing or build an enclosure using lumber, chicken or fence wire, or other readily available materials. If you build an enclosure be sure that air can circulate through the sides. Leave air space at the bottom by laying down a foot or so of heavy brush or a 6-inch layer of scrap wood in a grid pattern.

3. Feed you pile in a 4:1 high-carbon to high-nitrogen ratio. High-carbon ingredients include brown, dry material, such as leaves, straw, and hay. High-nitrogen ingredients include moist- and often green- material such as grass clippings, manure, and kitchen waste like leftovers, rinds, peels, crushed egg shells, used coffee grinds, tea bags, etc. You can also add cardboard, newspaper, and sawdust from your fireplace. If you don't have enough high-nitrogen material, use a thin layer of bloodmeal bought from a garden center. DO NOT add fats, meat, bones, oils, pine needles or wood, or cat or dog poop.

4. Chop or blend the materials into small pieces to speed up the compost process.

5. When the pile is about 3-4 ft high, its big enough to start heating up. When it cools off, let it sit for another week or two before using the somewhat chunky end product. For a finer, more crumbly material, stir or fluff the pile with a pitchfork, then let heat and cool again before adding to your garden.

Today I learned (3/23/09)

Today I learned that pipes, cigarettes, and cigars are all native american inventions. In Europe they had been smoking herbs (like coltsfoot) for medicinal reasons long before tobacco was introduced, however they inhaled smoke from the burning leaves in a more primitive manner.
(Euell Gibbons, Stalking the Healthful Herbs)

Obama turns the White House lawn into a Garden

For the first time in 60 years, the White House is turning a section of its finely trimmed lawn into an organic garden, setting a great example for those of us who are still stuck in useless lawn world.

In the Chicago Tribune: "This year, the vegetables served at the White House will be as locally grown as possible--right on the South Lawn..." read the rest of the article here.


(image- South Lawn, where the garden will be)

Efficient Cooking

Three topics:

Haybox
Solar Oven
Rocket Stove
plus instructions on how to make each...

"Haybox cooking
(also called retained-heat cooking) is an age-old method that can be used to conserve energy not only during times of crisis, but anytime. Depending on the food item and amount cooked, the use of a haybox or insulated cooker saves between 20% and 80% of the energy normally needed to cook a food...
The principle of retained-heat cooking is simple. In conventional cooking, any heat applied to the pot after it reaches boiling temperature is merely replacing heat lost to the air by the pot. In haybox cooking, food is brought to a boil, simmered for a few minutes depending on the particle size (5 minutes for rice or other grains, 15 minutes for large dry beans or whole potatoes), then put into the haybox to continue cooking. Since the insulated cooker prevents most of the heat in the food from escaping into the environment, no additional energy is needed to complete the cooking process."

read more about hayboxes, solar ovens, and rocket stoves on Lost Valley's site...

We used hayboxes almost every time we prepared a meal at Lost Valley Educational Center in Oregon. They are a must have...

From Holistic Economics:
A haybox is an insulated box that is used for cooking. Traditionally it was a wooden box lined with hay. Basically, the idea behind haybox cookery is. 1) Bring a pot of pre-soaked beans to a boil 2) Remove from heat and place inside haybox 3) Do whatever you want for the next few hours 4) Come back to a perfectly cooked pot of beans (or rice or whatever else you choose to slow cook).

read more about hayboxes and how to make one on Holistic Economics...

another blog on how to build a haybox, Home Matters Most

On Solar Ovens:

Solar ovens, aka solar cookers, use only sunlight as an energy source. They use no fuel, cost nothing to run, and can be made using inexpensive materials. I ate delicious pizza prepared by Frank Michael (of the Farm) on a solar oven at the Sonnenschein festival in Hohenwald Tennessee.

one example of a solar oven

Instructions on how to make your own solar oven on The Farm's site...


Rocket Stoves:
From wikipedia: "this stove operates on about half as much fuel, and produces substantially less smoke. Furthermore, the design of the stove requires small diameter lengths of wood, which can generally be satisfied with small branches. As such, sufficient fuel for cooking tasks can be gathered in less time, without the benefit of tools, and ideally without the destruction of forested areas. Because these qualities improve local air quality, and discourage deforestation, the rocket stove has attracted the attention of a number of Appropriate Technology concerns, which have deployed it in numerous third-world locales."




click here to view more videos on Aprovecho's advanced stove technologies.

Earth Art

Honoring Earth Artists...

A friend sent me this cool link:
42 Magnificent Works of Modern Earth Art
on Web Ecoist; Sustainable Living, Green Design, and Environmental Oddities

Natural Building

Natural Building flows like poetry, rhyming and singing and rising its natural forms out from the Earth, made of the Earth herself.

This is the building I slept in when living at the Ecovillage Training Center on The Farm.
It stayed cool in Tennessee's hot summers, and warm-ish in the cold of winter. Its living roof reminds me of how a hobbit would build. Lying in bed felt like being cradled in the womb of Gaia herself.

From the Natural Building Network...

“Natural Building is any building system which places the highest value on social and environmental sustainability. It assumes the need to minimize the environmental impact of our housing and other supporting systems while providing healthy, beautiful, comfortable and spiritually uplifting homes for everyone.” Michael G. Smith

Natural Building is about using the resources we need and leaving the rest. You can create beautiful buildings that are safe, renewable and healthy, often for much less money than you might think - sometimes without debt or a mortgage.

Some of the materials used in Natural Building include: Strawbale, Cob, Straw-Clay, Cordwood, Bamboo, Timber Frame, Stone, Roundwood, Adobe, Earthbags, Rammed Earth, Underground, Salvaging & Scrounging, Recycling & Repurposing, Retrofitting & Remodeling, Environmentally-Preferable Products, Passive & Active Solar, Rainwater, Graywater, Composting Toilets, Blacksmithing...There are as many ways to approach natural building as there are people approaching it.

The Heartwood Homesteads blog of fellow ecovillager Wade Austin is in the works. Heartwood Homestead looks like it will be this natural builder's enthusiastic and informative documentation of his building and teaching experiences as his new business grows.

A post from Heartwood Homesteads:

A song to build a house by...

http://www.solarhaven.org/FrankMeyer.htm (I definitely recommend listening to this. )

This song will help you absolve all your ties to high VOC paints and flooring while encouraging the sort of angst one needs to pursue the alternatives.

“I like straw and I like clay, make mine natural anyday…I want a house that’s poison free, don’t sell me nothing on no TV.”

Breath- our divine connection

Last night I arrived at the enchanting lands where I will be spending the next few months, living at a rustic yoga retreat center nestled in the hills of middle Tennessee, helping run the business, mostly cooking and cleaning but also assisting wherever help is needed. This morning's yoga practice reminded me to be present here, and to remember my breath as the moments turn into hours and the days turn into weeks. It is with our breath that we can truly live in the present moment, and the only way that we can experience the glory of our existence. Without being present, without completely immersing ourselves in our experience, it is like looking at another person's pictures. Sure, we can admire the pictures, we can rationalize that we have a good life, but we are like ghosts following in the shadows, never truly living.
I can't say that I follow more than 10 breaths a day. I've lost my daily meditation and yoga practice. It is not easy to keep up a daily practice. How foolish it would be of me to say, I want to practice being present, so I will meditate for an hour each day and an hour each night.... This would be setting myself up for failure! Instead I will say here and now, tomorrow morning when I wake up, I will sit quietly for 5 minutes, and try to be present with each inhale and every exhale as if I were listening intently to a child, as if I were face to face with God. And throughout the day, like Tich Nat Han and Eckhart Tolle suggest, if I remember while driving or doing the dishes my intention to follow my breath, I will then become aware of my breath- its depth or shallowness, its speed or slowness....
It is my experience that when I take the time to check in with my breath, I begin to sink into my body, and notice subtleties that I didn't notice before. I might notice that I am dehydrated. I might notice that I really need to eat some fresh greens. I might notice that I need to stop and stretch. I might realize that the altercation I had a few hours before was affecting my interactions with other people. I might remember my intense love for my parents. I might notice regret. I might connect with this feeling deep inside me known as intuition, which is our only compass, our only map.

2009 Polar Bear Plunge

When my brother and his finacee asked if I wanted to plunge with them into late February's almost freezing ocean waters of Seaside Heights, New Jersey, I said, why not?













This year was the 16th annual Polar Bear Plunge, a benefit for the Special Olympics where thousands of locals brave the cold windy beach to either run like mad people into crashing waves, or laugh from the sands and boardwalk.

Medical personal in yellow diving gear prepared for heart attacks. A police boat waited in the water. The countdown began, and we waited in our bathing suits for eminent doom.

One man ran in, and the rest followed...

I didn't linger for long, but rather ran like hell to get dressed and get warm...















The photos shown below are from "Report from a Polar Bear Plunge: Seaside Heights, NJ"






It was
Madness...