You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘With My Own Two Hands’ category.
This is my farewell blog. Earlier in the year, I talked about an elderly woman who lived behind me, who I had met because she saw me over in my yard planting plants. Well the other day I was outside getting something out of my car and she stopped me and said she had a paper of mine that had blown out of my yard and in to hers, she had seen my name on it and remembered me from the day we had spoken. We got to talking and soon enough I learned that she was taking care of her son who is going to die any day of pancreatic cancer. I told her if she needed anything to let me know and we parted ways. I’ve had a lot of people who have been close to me die from cancer, including my Grandma Jeanie, who I was unbelievably close to. I know the helpless feeling and to watch your son go has to be nearly unbearable. I got home and decided to cook some dinner for her and her son. My father had been doing this since I was a child, if someone had a problem he always brought them his famous rigatonis.
So I looked through my cabinets and decided to make some potatoes, give her a vegetable tray my Grandma had given me that was left over from Easter, a loaf of fresh bread, and some bow tie pasta with homeade red sauce. I cooked everything and carried it across the alley over to her yard. Needless to say, it was an emotional visit to her house. As an elderly woman on the college side of town, she doesn’t get a lot of respect from the people around her. She just kept thanking me and we ended the visit with a hug.
This is a prime example of why I love gardening and farming. I would have never met our neighbor if I would have been inside all day watching TV. Instead I got a chance to not only meet her but help her, this is something that a numeric value can never be placed upon. My plants might be dead (with the exception of the tomatoes) but I think that I’ve learned some really great lessons from this project regardless. Simple things are the most valuable. Watching the food that you eat grow from a seed, putting time and effort in to your basic needs, and a simple supper for a neighbor in need are all things that NEED to make their way back in to societal norms. Maybe that is why I am partial to communal living as an alternative living style. The thought of people working to help each other survive in a simple form is, for lack of a better word, absolutely beautiful.
My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant’s point of view. ~H. Fred Dale
The last of life has withered out of all of my plants but the tomatoes. I left them with my mom as galavanted off to Northwest Florida to go stay with my sister for a week for Spring Break and they didn’t make it. The tomatoes did though, which makes me think that they are pretty tough plants and can definitely be grown indoors. My mom, of course, blamed herself for them dying and went and bought me new ones. My replacements are ones that are already raised and ready for transplant and I think I am going to plant them in the garden in my backyard rather than try to keep them inside. One reason is because it is beautiful outside and it gives me a reason to go out there. Also, when my plants began to die my mom set out to do some research and the most common answer she got was that the plants needed to in fact be planted outside.
Another reason is that we have ants right now and they are getting bad. For the most part, bugs in my house really don’t bother me, I know that sounds gross or whatever but they exist whether we see them or not and I’m over it. Unfortunately yesterday when I was watering my plants about a million ants went scattering in every direction and they were coming from the plants. This is a problem. I hurried up and carried them all outside trying to get most of the ants safely outside, sadly a few lives were lost.
Since I will be going to Florida for the summer, I have some friends who are really excited about taking advantage of a planted garden for the summer and my roommate and I will still be paying rent at out house so this shouldn’t be a problem. I will post some pictures next week of the planted garden, I plan on getting it all done by Wednesday evening.
I’ve concentrated a lot of communal living as an alternative living style. I realize communal living is not for everyone, so I’d like to introduce everyone to a couple of other concepts that might better suit different people.
-
- http://earthfirst.com/7-amazing-handmade-eco-friendly-homes/
-
- http://earthfirst.com/7-amazing-handmade-eco-friendly-homes/
-
- http://earthfirst.com/7-amazing-handmade-eco-friendly-homes/
-
- http://earthfirst.com/7-amazing-handmade-eco-friendly-homes/
You all should also check out Earthships (http://earthship.org/). I am not even going to post pictures because they can’t do them justice, they are truly sensational.
I think that it is important to remember that while all of these houses are beyond awesome, we do have a lot of houses around the United States that are already built and there are ways to make them incredibly sustainable as well. Most of all we need to work with what we have a make that as environmentally friendly as we can first and then move beyond that.
My garden is slowly beginning to look worse and worse, I know that it isn’t getting enough light. I think now that the weather is getting better, I am going to start putting all of my plants outside during the day so they can get light until I find an affordable way to get light to them while they’re inside. I feel like they not only are they not growing as fast as they should, but they are just very long and weak. One thing that is a positive side of that they aren’t doing well is that they are still alive and green. That is one thing I love about nature and plants, when you mess up they give you a little leeway and let you have the option to keep them going and make them healthy again. I find plants very comforting, they allow you to screw up and redeem yourself constantly. You can let them get a little too big for their pots or you can forget to water them right when they need it sometimes, but once you give them what they need, they spring right back to life. This project has really reminded me of how much I love growing things, something I’d sort of forgotten. So the more I thought about how much I was enjoying myself, something I’d been wanting to do for about a year now kept popping in to my head and finally I made the decision that had already been in the back of my mind for a while now, I changed my major to horticulture. I had been scared to do it for the normal reasons. I’ve already switched three times and I am only a sophomore and when it comes to science, not a fan. But the more this semester goes on and the more I look at my garden in my window and think of when the time comes when I don’t live in Manhattan when I have classes, southeast Kansas about one weekend a month, and Florida for Christmas Break, Spring Break and Summer, and I actually have somewhere where I could start a huge garden, the more I want that to be my way of life, not just a hobby. So, I finally did it.
If you remember my first blog at all, I wrote a little bit about how I really like that community feel of farming communities and that is something that I feel a commune provides. Well, I got reminded the other day of how gardening can bring people together. This little old lady lives across the alley from me and prior to Thursday, we’d never spoken before. I was out transplanting my garlic on Thursday and planting some flowers for my mom’s garden that I could give her on Mother’s Day in May and I saw my neighbor come outside to take her trash can. She literally stopped at her tracks and stared at me. I waved and said “Hello” and she half heartidly waved back and continued to stare at me. Then she began to walk my way, when she got in to my yard she began to ask all about what I was planting. We had a nice talk and I told her if she needed any help starting her garden in the spring, I’d be more than happy to help and she told me to stop by anytime. Needless to say, I was smiling ear to ear the rest of the time I was transplanting.
For the rest of this blog, I thought it would be really informative to take you through a hypothetical day on a commune from information I’ve gathered from various websites. On my last blog someone commented they had rather negative thoughts about communes and I definitely want that to change! There are communes and ecovillages that are bad and there are ones that are good, just like everything else.
Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage – this is a link to Dancing Rabbit’s newspaper which keeps everyone updated on daily happenings. Online Tour of Dancing Rabbit
Everyone needs a vacation sometime or other. For me, it is necessary about once a month, I run myself ragged for about four weeks, then I pick up all my dirty clothes on my bedroom floor and throw them in to a mesh bag, throw on a jacket, and head for Southeast Kansas. I can hang out with Bright Eyes and Rebelution on the three hour both ways drive and when I get home I spend all my time with my parents, grandparents, and sister. My parents house isn’t exactly a five star resort, but it gets the job done. When last week ended, I knew I had to take a break from Manhattan, but what was I going to do with my plants? I thought about leaving them with my roommate and asking him to watch over them. But weekends at my house usually consist of some brain dead folks and I decided not to put them through that, so I put them in the back of the car and decided they were coming with me (porticulture, if you will).
I just used a lamp from home to provide them with light the first night I was there. The second day I was there, right when I woke up I took them over to my grandpa’s green house. After all, I was staying at the closest thing I could to a resort and spa, I figured they deserved the same treatment. I have some pictures of his greenhouse posted to my gallery. He built it himself out of scrap materials. Very inexpensive. I asked him to help me to transplant my seeds, as the radishes seemed to be getting too large for their pots. He explained to me that my plants were not in fact, just shooting up, they were stretching because they were not getting enough light, and that was the reason they were looking a little droopy. I decided that in order to provide them with the proper amount of light, and still be economical, I would have to make some changes.
First and foremost, they were too spread out. I had learned that they would grow in any of the containers that I had either bought or crafted. I went ahead and transplanted everything in to seed starters since my grandpa already had a bunch and it wouldn’t cost me anything. Grandpa makes his own potting soil, he mixes dirt, sand, and vermiculite (which is a mineral that absorbs many times its weight in water, can be found at West Side market in Manhattan). So everything is now transplanted and much more compact, I feel like they are growing a lot better already. I have also changed from switching the light all day to two lights that are on at all times (even when I sleep, which is sort of annoying but worth it) , hopefully this will supplement enough light so that they will grow properly.
Next, I found some really great quotes from searching multiple websites about communal living and why some people choose that route:
“I dont want to live out my days living by looking at the clock till the day I die. Rushing around, endless calls, endless appointments, endless stress. Its not just that im getting burnt out on the lifestyle im livng now, I have just never belonged in this lifestyle. It drains me.”
“I want something so much better than all this craziness.”
“The perfect commune would be a place of people living off the land with pastures, greenhouse, woodlot, orchards, animals and people of all ages who have common values and philosophy that they choose to live by each day. Decisions would be made by group conscious within the principles of the groups mission. The mission would be healing yourself and your world and becoming a better person and making your world better. The perfect commune would welcome, free of charge, anyone who pledged, or were willing, to follow the mission.”
“Gasoline:
The average Virginia resident uses about 530 gallons per year.(1)
Twin Oaks consumed about 15,267 gallons of gas in 2007.
With an adult & child population on average of population of 96, that would put our consumption at 159 gallons per person.
That is 70% less gas consumed!
Electricity:
The average Virginia resident uses 13,860 kWh of Electricity per year.(2)
Twin Oaks consumed 268,065 kWh in 2007.
With an adult & child population on average of 96, that would put our consumption at 2,792 kWh per person.
that is 80% less electricity consumed!
Natural Gas:
The average household in Virginia uses 767 therms of natural gas.(3)
Twin Oaks consumed 16,221 therms of natural gas in 2007.
With an adult population on average of 87 adults, that would put our consumption at 186 therms per person.
that is 76% less natural gas consumed!
Solid Waste:
The average American produces 1460 pounds of trash a year.
Twin Oaks produced 18,780.00 pounds of solid waste in 2007.
With an adult & child population on average of 96, that would put our production at 196 pounds per person.
that is 87% less solid waste produced!
“Being off-grid right now isn’t a top priority in my case. Working toward sustainability is. Knowing where my food comes from is. Using less is. Giving a damn about the mark I make on this planet is. Being prepared to live when the grid goes dark is.”
“We are trying to go back to a simpler way of living. Doesn’t mean it will be easy, but definitely more fulfilling. Bringing back the values of a time long gone. “
“With the ways things are going now a days with food and fuel shortages and global warming, it is about time we remember how to take care of ourselves.”
“Im soo sick of feeling like a failure because im not motivated enough to put on a suit and tie and go to a job that i hate. is that so wrong?
i dont think so. i think we are all who we are, and forcing ourselves to be anything else is not what living is all about. “
“In an effort to create a more sustainable community, we’ve incorporated a number of green features. We’ve clustered our homes to preserve more than ¾ of our property in its natural state. We’ve built adobe brick homes with metal roofs that are well insulated and energy efficient. We’ve oriented them to take advantage of passive solar principles and equipped them all with solar hot water heaters. Our landscaping features permaculture design and an emphasis on native plants. We utilize a wetlands and underground irrigation system for wastewater recycling. For more information on these and other environmental community design features, please see the links below.”
“We believe that the world is at a critical decision crossroads. The survival of our planet, indeed the human race, is at stake. Science has confirmed what we are witnessing first-hand. Global warming, resource depletion, escalating population growth, mass extinctions and other world-wide events demand that we adopt a more sustainable lifestyle as stewards of the world we all live in. Our personal decisions in daily living are the key to changing this destructive course. As Ecofarmers, we strive to be the change we want to see in the world by farming organically for local markets and home use, utlizing alternative technologies and permaculture, minimizing resource use and living in community. We’re also involved in helping others in finding more sustainable solutions for everyday living through education and demonstration of subjects such as native and edible landscaping, reuse, recycling, conservation, and more. As citizens in the Sunshine State, we place a strong emphasis on solar projects, such as solar heating, cooking and electricity.”
I’m going to start off this blog by telling you that patience is a virtue and normally, I do NOT have it. I am the least patient person ever. So naturally, when twenty four hours had passed since I planted my seeds and they weren’t poking their heads up through the potting soil, I began to sweat. I realize that plants do not germinate and grow in one day but if it were up to me they would look like a time lapse you see on youtube and I could just sit there for about ten minutes and watch them grow and then have them for dinner, or at least I thought this was the kind of person I am.
Right now, I have spinach, cilantro, carrots, and radishes all opening their eyes every morning to look at the sun. This experience is already changing me, I am a woman obsessed. I wake up every morning and rush to the window seal to say hello and give them a fresh drink of water. When I get home from class I throw my backpack on the floor (to my roommates dismay) and go check on them. It sounds ridiculous, but I really love these plants.
In order to take care of them, I water them right when I wake up in the morning (ranging from 8:30-11:00, so it isn’t really consistent) and that is when I turn the light on. Around 2:30 I change the light to the opposite side of the table, and then around 7:00 I switch it again and at 9:00 once again, then turn it off right before I go to bed. I haven’t used any sort of fertilizer or anything yet, just plain water. I may get some organic fertilizer soon though, so they can get all the nutrients that they need. Tonight is the first night I am leaving the light on all night, I feel like I am making them pull an all nighter. We’ll see how much they progress. I am only using one light right now, the plants are still small and when they get larger I will need all the light I can get.
I had the first two sprouts come up in the egg shell seed trays, I was really pumped about this as the egg shell is so much different from the other trays. First of all, they don’t have any form of drainage, which really worried me because my grandpa told me that the number one reasons starting seeds out inside doesn’t work is because of overwatering. So to ease my mind I went ahead and poked a hole in the bottom of each shell. Unilike all the other trays though, the shells have no way to absorb the water up from the water catcher underneath them. All the methods seem equally successful thus far and all of them are coming up within twelve hours of each other (ex. if carrots come up in one tray, they pop up in every tray that they are planted in within six hours).
I also decided to germinate a cucumber seed just for fun. I used the method of germinating the seed inside of a plastic bag. Though I am happy with the method I used of just directly planting the seed, germinating them in the bag was really cool too, because you can watch them as the seed cracks and sprouts. They started crack about six hours after I placed them inside of the bag and were ready to plant within twenty four hours.
We’ve had some really nice days lately and when I am outside I can’t help but feel a little pang of guilt for making my plants stay inside. In a short amount of time I already feel different. If you haven’t read the book Das Energi by Paul Williams, I strongly recommend it. It is a short read and will only take about an hour to get through. He wrote it after living in a commune in the seventies and it is basically a serious of thoughts. He says a couple things I really like;
“Our responsibility as individual cells of a living organism,
is to perform our individual functions as well as possible.
Our orders come from within…we are free to be ourselves…
Our lives will grow richer and richer as the health of the
total organism improves.
Our destiny is unimaginably high. “
“That organism, that creature of which we are each a part,
is the biosphere, the living surface of this planet Earth.
That stirring we all feel, that move towards group-consciousness,
is the biosphere of Earth becoming aware of its existence.
It is being born.
We are waking up. “
His book is a very good example of the mindset that people who lived on some of the first counterculture communes in the United States was. When I read these passages I feel so aware that everything around me is alive and that there is a ton of movement happening around me all the time. I feel a heightened sense of awareness, I think that is really important, to realize all the life that surrounds us. I’m going to leave you with a couple videos that really shed light on my project.
For my Lived Experience Project this semester, I have chosen to do a combination of Walking Your Talk and Informed Citizenship. For the hands on part of this, I am going to be experimenting with growing an indoor vegetable garden, that not only produces good produce, but is also economically conceivable for a college student’s budget (which last time I checked was next to nothing). For the research based part, I will be researching Intentional Communities (ie. communal living, ecovillages, coops, cohousing, etc.), which started to increase due to current the current economy as well as the current move toward green living. I’ll be studying and gathering information on communities that grow 20%+ of their own food.
I’ve been very interested in the idea of Intentional Communities for about 2 years now, I really love the idea of people coming together to make the world better and more sustainable. “Green” Intentional Communities aim not only to provide a more sustainable way of living, but they also aim to providing a loving neighborly like feel for those who live there.
I’ll go ahead and give you a little background on why I am so interested in both of these topics, in case you’d like to know. Gardening is really popular in my family, my mom grew up on a farm and my dad’s parents have about an acre of land behind their house where they grow multiple things. My great grandma was in her vegetable garden next to her house until she was over 90 years old ( I am not exaggerating at all) and my family always had a vegetable garden to provide fresh produce for us in the summer. Then, when I was a freshman in high school my dad decided to take on a new project to make some extra income, growing about 30 acres of sweet corn. Not only did my sisters and I get deemed “Children of the Corn” by all of Southeast Kansas, we also learned a lot about food and farming. We had to wake up every morning before the sun, get out to the field and hand pick all the sweet corn we were going to sell that day. Then, my younger sister and mom would sit in town and sell the corn and my dad and I would continue to pick in the fields to provide corn for when they ran out. Since I was the one who was out in the field with dad all day, I got to talk to all the old farmers and hang out with them when would take breaks, I always loved the community feeling, like when people would come help pick and just sitting around in the field talking about the happenings of the surrounding farms. I just really enjoyed the way these people live their lives, trading one type of fresh food for another, helping out with no expectations, and living to their means rather than consuming everything they could. I feel like urban agriculture and starting communities based around providing for yourselves rather than depending on huge corporations to provide for you is a great way to get back to this simple lifestyle.
So… where do I begin?
My seeds came in today, so tomorrow is planting day (meaning I’ll post pictures tomorrow)! I ordered heirloom seeds off the internet in a bundle and it cost me $10.00. I am growing:
- Bloomsdale Spinach
- Cherry Bell Radishes
- Little Finger Carrots
- Slow Bolt Cilantro
- Large Leaf Italian Basil
- Roma Paste Tomatoes
I am using a couple methods for seed trays to test which methods work best. These methods include egg cartons, egg shells, paper towel and toilet paper rolls, and regular seed trays from the store. Though I will be keeping the seeds by a window, I have chosen to purchase some grow lights, and since really nice grow lights are expensive, I purchased a lot of ten 50 watt plant light bulbs off Ebay, they cost me about $20 including shipping and handling. I purchased some organic seed starting soil from Walmart for about $5. I also placed a contained in my yard to catch rain water in order to water the plants.
So right now my running total is about $35.
To begin my research on Intentional Communities I’ve composed a list from the website for the Fellowship of Intentional Communities [http://directory.ic.org/] of places that grow 20% or more of their food, I plan on emailing each and hopefully getting some first hand information about not only the inspiration for the start of their homes but also why they believe it is important.
That is all I have for you right now.
In case you were wondering about the title, check this out:
