Local Thoughts

A couple of things I did this week got me to thinking a bit about how much plain old ordinary folks have to offer.

Monday evening I went to hear Wangari Maathai speak about the Greenbelt Movement, a now international movement to reforest central Africa. Dr. Maathai spoke about how she moved from a scientific study of the effects of ticks on cattle to a commonsense study of Kenyan women, their needs, and trees. The short of it is that she listened to and worked with these women to figure out how to heal their land through reforestation so that they themselves could be healthy.

She told many stories of how conventional science and forestry were trumped by the local knowledge and hard work of individual women.

Tonight, I went to see the film "Broken Limbs," which tells the stories of apple farmers in the Wenatchee Valley of central Washington. The film was sponsored by Farms Without Harm and the Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council.

The film explored the impacts of globalization and the current consumer-driven, industrial-scale food system on the livelihood of apple farmers. Not all doom and gloom, the film wrapped up by sharing the stories of some farmers who discovered how to operate in the face of such a seemingly all-powerful system. It also spoke of the non-farming folk that are an important part of the equation.

After the film, a man got up and spoke about his work as a local farmer. He spewed a bunch of half-baked philosophy about the "fundamental" solutions to health and the environment. But where his talk was as holey as Swiss cheese, his actions are to be admired. This farmer, along with some others, has made the connection between the food he grows and the health system that spends so much time fixing people who have been broken by the deficiencies of the dominant American food system and culture. Along with his peers at the Sweetwater Farmers Market, he has persuaded a local hospital to make the connection between food and health and to be an active partner in promoting the sale and consumption of local produce in their building lobby twice a month.

Lastly, when I came home tonight, I read an article online that was in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine. "Unhappy Meals" is written by Michael Pollan, the same guy that wrote "The Omnivore's Dilemma." In the article, Mr. Pollan wisely suggests that a commonsense approach to eating will probably make us all healthier. He explains in quite some detail how putting food under the microscope has caused us to focus too often on the wrong things for the wrong reasons.

In the end, he offers nine suggestions for how people can eat better; and not just for their own health, but for the health of those around them and the world at large. Pollan suggests:

1. Eat food.
2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims.
3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.
5. Pay more, eat less.
6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.
8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden.
9. Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet.

Each story got me thinking about how, one-by-one, it is our own small actions that can collectively lead to large scale change. Might this not be a good year to plant a native tree? Buy only local apples? Make it a habit to support your local farmers? Eat food...like a French omnivore?

Mount Washington

Here's my first summit of Mount Washington. I'm the one to the left pounding the rocks.

To my right are my brother Bill, sister Beth, and brother Rich.

Admittedly, we drove the first 6,280 feet up in the back of a green and tan 1960's VW microbus with a canvas sunroof. We had the bumper sticker to prove it!

In another four weeks, Julie and Abbey and I will be vacationing at the bottom of Mount Washington at Joe Dodge Lodge in Pinkham Notch. I'll be climbing some less exposed peaks during that visit.

New Life for an Old Waterbed

Like many people, twenty or so years ago I bought a water bed. About six years ago, I unplugged the thing, drained and dismantled it, threw out the giant bladder, then stashed all the wood up in the rafters of the garage.

This winter, I got to thinking about building a cold frame. So this noon, I went out in the garage to see what I had on hand and to prepare a list for the lumber yard. As I sifted through the rafters, I found the lumber from that old water bed. I also found an old storm door that I had been saving for a garage sale.

I pulled the stuff down, measured it up, and decided I had enough supplies on hand to make the cold frame without a run to the lumber yard.

I called my friend Eric Doyle to see if he had any interest in spending a somewhat chilly Sunday afternoon puttering around in the garage. While he was on his way over, I got started. Thirty minutes later and I had the top door fully constructed. I made it so that the glass from the storm door could be removed to make it easy to move the cold frame without breaking the glass.

When Eric arrived, we set aside the door and began working on the frame itself.

The first step was to join two boards together for the back of the cold frame. The back has to be higher than the front so that the frame collects maximum solar gain.

Then we built the sides. The sides had to be carefully cut so that the angle on both sides was the same.

The we fastened the whole box together. We laid the door on top, and it all sat together well, without too many gaps for the warm air to escape.

The biggest trick in building the cold frame was to get the hinges to work right. We tried three different approaches before getting them installed to work as needed.

I was glad that I also had a nice assortment of screws, two hefty hinges, and a nice door handle kicking around in the cabinet in the garage. Saving all these leftovers or salvage materials from previous projects saved me a trip to the hardware store.

After washing the glass, we moved the frame to its new home along the south side of our house on top of our oldest raised bed. The white siding of the house behind the frame will certainly help make this a bright spot for starting seedlings.

The frame is portable, so we can move it out of the garden in the summer, or use it to shade lettuce from the heat, and then place it over late crops to extend our fall growing season. Now I'm eager for a few sunny days to melt out the snow inside and for my 2007 seed order to arrive.

When we were done, all that was left from that old water bed, besides a new cold frame, were four or five small pieces of lumber less than a foot in length and a bunch of saw dust. Overall, this was a productive project for recycling useless junk into something of value.

I guess there was a little cost to the project. While waiting for Eric to arrive, I ran to the store and grabbed a six pack. So the total cost of the project was $5.49 plus tax and bottle deposit.

Run

One of the things I think I like best about the winter months is the slower pace of weekends, particularly Saturdays. In the spring, there is tons of trail work and gardening to do. When summer hits, the gardening is still heavy through the end of July, and home repairs need doing. Summer is also a good time to get the cars in tip-top shape. Then fall brings more trail work and getting things buttoned up for winter.

With our unusually mild winter, Saturdays have been good for getting in long urban hikes and some trail running. Today I was able to get out to the North Country Trail in the Lowell State Game Area for a nice six mile run.

Before and after I walked a little more than a half mile for warm-up and cool-down. All together, I travelled a little more than seven miles of trail and I didn't see a soul the whole time. The woods were peaceful, with a few chattering birds to keep me company (chickadees, juncos and blue jays).

The NCT in Lowell is a nice run. Most of the trail has good footing, and there are a few short but steep hills to build up a little leg muscle (and keep Siler from day dreaming too much). I've seen other runners out there when hiking in the past, so it appears I'm not the only one who likes to run there.

A nice PDF map of the Lowell NCTA can be downloaded here.

Raising Conservation

Yesterday's entry asked you to comment with your energy-saving resolutions for 2007. Here are some of mine and a link to an article about how people in Japan are saving energy.

My steps towards decreased energy consumption include:

Continuing to take the bus to work on days I do not have to travel out of the office, and managing my schedule so that my car days are fewer and bus days more;

Switching my food buying priorities from organic products to locally produced products. In Michael Pollan's most recent book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, he shares some shocking contradictions about the organic industry and how much of organic food production is anything but sound conservation (like shipping fresh organic raspberries from Chile to Michigan in January instead of just letting these goodies be a seasonal treat... or even shipping carrots from California in September when we have plenty of our own here in the upper Midwest);

Getting more calories and nutrition out of the garden this year;

Replacing the old fridge this spring (replacing an older refrigerator is usually the most productive way to reduce electric consumption in the average household, and can often pay for itself in five years or less);

And much to my family's chagrin, continuing to be the proverbial grumpy old man who wanders about the house turning off lights and muttering something about pennies.

In yesterday's World Business section, the New York Times featured an overview of Kiminobu Kimura's energy conservation habits. Mr. Kimura is a fairly typical middle-class citizen with a spouse and two children. Yet he probably uses a quarter of the energy in his daily life than the average American.

While Mr. Kimura has access to some of the world's most cutting edge energy conservation devices, much of his conservation comes not from stuff and gizmos, but from daily lifestyle and habits.

You can read more about Mr. Kimura's strategies in The Land of Rising Conservation in the January 6, 2007 New York Times.

And don't forget to share your own strategies.

What Are YOU Doing in 2007?

Check out this video and then leave me a comment about a couple of simple things you are doing in 2007 to reduce your impact on global warming (or energy use, or your wallet... depending upon your point of view). Consider emailing a friend the link to this entry (click on the envelop below) so that they can add their comments too.

What are YOU doing in 2007?

Bright Idea for a New Year

If you haven't made your New Year's resolution yet, here's a simple one for you. Consider replacing all standard sized light bulbs in your home to compact fluorescents.

I'm suggesting this resolution not to pontificate, but to share with you a time and cost savings trick that Julie and I discovered when we replaced eighteen light bulbs in our home with compact fluorescents more than a year ago. Since then, we have saved about 30% on our electric bill; more than $100 in the first year alone, which more than paid for those light bulbs. I also haven't had to replace a single bulb since then. If statistics hold true, I won't have to do so for another three or four years.

Today's New York Times features an article on how even Wal*Mart is getting into the act of encouraging consumers to make the switch. If Wal*Mart is doing it, you know the bottom line on making the switch has to be the penny pincher.

Here are the reasons why I think my friends and family should make the switch:

* They will save money.
* They will save time.
* They will reduce carbon emissions.
* Even though they have mercury in the bulbs (unlike incandescents), they use and burn less mercury (especially if you live in a state significantly fueled by coal like Michigan).

The only reason I can think about for not making the switch is aesthetics. But truthfully, after a few days, you won't notice the difference. If you do, spend some of your savings on a new lampshade.

Julie and I found the bulbs at $1.25 each after scouring about. I'll bet you can do the same. So it took us about $32 to retrofit our whole house (we had to spend a few more bucks for the outside lights, one of which burns all night).

So make your kids' and your grand kids' future a little brighter and make 2007 the year you switch your home to compact fluorescents. Just don't throw them in the trash (recycle them with your county hazardous waste), and don't buy them at Wal*Mart (shop local).