The concept of a Passive Solar greenhouse has intriqued me for quite some time.  According to this article They've been building them in China since the 70's.

It looks like I will be starting a class next year on Farming and Food Production in my role as a Pre-tech teacher for Biddeford Regional Center of Technology.  Building a Passive Solar Greenhouse as part of this class would be a fantastic achievement!

Spring 2019 Fedco group order with Porland Permies

Just ordered blueberries, a Chestnut tree, an Apple Tree (Honeycrips - yum!) and and elderberry from Fedco as part of a group order with the Portland Permies Group. The plants are coming in preparation for the Permablitz I am starting to plan for our place in the Spring.
For anyone else in the greater Portland area who is interested in saving some money by participating in the group order, the deadline is Jan 11!
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Here are more details from Kate at Portland Permies:
Hey Plant Lovers,

A New Year's Day reminder that the deadline for our Fedco Group Order is January 11. That's TEN days away! I know it feels like winter is just beginning, but spring will be here before we know it. The group order is a great way to have your plants delivered to Portland, get a sweet discount, and support the work of the Resilience Hub. Everyone wins.
For ordering instructions, see this link:
http://resiliencehub.org/2018/12/04/fedco-trees-group-order/
Here's to more perennial food in the landscape!!

Visioning for the Future Exercise

It has been awhile, but maybe this post will breathe new life into this blog:

While looking at Facebook this morning, it occurred to me that a visioning exercise could make an interesting blog post The idea is to share visions of what a low carbon and reasonably pleasant (vs Mad Max or The Road) future could look like, including how's and why's along with supporting evidence for the different aspects of your vision. Ways of doing things will be broken down into different categories such as food, transportation, clothing, shelter, etc. Anyone who would like to participate in this visioning exercise, please share your ideas in the comments below.  Hopefully this platform will work for the exercise.

Personal Resilience and the Maine Primitive Skills School

It's been awhile - my focus has been elsewhere, recently, but I think it is time to come back to this.

This morning I was reading a book that I recently obtained, "The Knowledge; How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch" by Lewis Darnell, and paused, thinking about what I had read.  To survive conditions that he imagines could arise (collapse resulting from a pandemic), I am thinking that the approach that Arthur Haines suggested could be the ticket.  In the event of a collapse scenario centered around failure of societal structures, (as opposed to an epidemic), the 'prepper' approach  - stockpiling supplies and planning to defend them with weapons- seems unlikely to lead to success (survival) - if the perception is that you have things that others want, the likelihood is that someone, or a group of someones will come along and take what you have (or at least give it a good try), leading to much unpleasantness.  Haines, a re-wilding advocate, suggests that carrying ultimately portable survival information and skills in your head would allow you to escape and get to an area where you can live off of the landscape.
With this in mind, I went to the Maine Primitive Skills school website. They have put up a great series of videos: Here is one that I just watched on the Winter Trees: The balsam fir.

Pickling get-together Saturday, August 15

At Dilly Fest, we'll be making Dilly Beans, as well as dill pickles and anything else folks would like to pickle. We'll be doing it Saturday, August 15 at Neverdun Farm (259 Log Cabin Rd.) In Arundel, starting at 9:00 and going until 1:00 with potluck at noon. We'll also have a brief update on the state of the Community Asset Mapping project on which we've also been working.

I was just talking with Noah at Neverdun this morning to work on details of the get together, and we were thinking it would be a good idea to get a sense of people's experience levels with pickling.  I've pickled cukes a couple of times but would would imagine some people within the group have done more with it than I have. Please let me know if you are planning to come, and if you are, I'd also like to know if you are willing to share what you know about the process at the get together.

If needed, Noah will have available beans, cukes,etc. for pickling at a special Dilly Fest price through the Frinkelpod farm.

Looking forward to seeing you again, sharing skills, socializing and putting up some food!

Asset Mapping Session in Kennebunk, Part I

On this day when students were gathering in Augusta to focus attention on the issue of climate change, a small group of us gathered in Kennebunk to begin to map out and make connections between some of the many efforts that we have going on in our area that are moving our community in the direction of sustainability, local self reliance and resilience.  Before starting the mapping work, we had some great discussion around the goals for the mapping; who it is for, and what we mean by community, as well as about the barriers that need to be overcome - or worked around -  that prevent society from becoming sustainable.  We came up with a fair number of leads that need further research to compile contact information and a description.  A good bit of information was compiled on clothing with just a bit of research ahead of time.  For next time, focusing similar attention on some of the other areas will move this effort ahead significantly.

Kennebunk Area Asset Mapping,  Part I

Over the next weeks, I will be working to research and compile contact information and descriptions based on our work today, and will be sharing the result at the followup Asset Mapping Session (date and time TBA)

I left the session today feeling hopeful, positive and energized and that it was a worthwhile way to spend a few hours taking a tangible step forward. Looking forward to continuing this work with you all!

Kennebunk Area Connections - 1st project!

As one of the first projects that the Connections group will be doing as we work towards greater community resilience, we will be holding a community Asset Mapping on March 14 - location TBA.  This session will be a springboard to creating a catalog/guide to locally based business, groups and projects that are deemed to be important in forming a locally resilient and locally self reliant economy.  Where we notice aspects that are missing, that will serve to identify areas that need additional research and further networking, and ultimately, may identify opportunities for an individual or group.

This coming Summer, we'll be working toward a Dilly Bean Festival as we work together to celebrate and put up some of our harvest this growing season!  Stay tuned for more information.