Anyway Project update

January has passed. Today is Ground Hog day and it is snowing heavily. Mark has a snow day from school. The house is clean and mostly tidy. How this happened, I have no idea;) So perhaps a snowshoe and some serious knitting to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader audio book. Gotta love a snow day.

As I post about my second full month of participating in the Anyway Project, I realized that having these small goals each month have really helped to make our homestead work a little better. In small ways and large ways we are refining systems. It is exciting to see that by small actions we are reducing our electric bill. Larger actions connect us to our community in a better way.

So on to the update..

Domestic Infrastructure: Mark was able to get a few more boards up on the shed. We have started stacking some of our really dry wood in the shed which means that it is burning much more efficiently and keeping us warmer. I have been giving each room a good cleaning. From Tristan's room I was able to get a whole bag of clothing to the Thrift store. I rearranged it and it seems to work much better for him. I rearranged Evan's room. We needed to put a dog crate in there because Cheddar, loyal friend, has had some anxiety issues since we moved and can not be trusted at home alone. The kitchen got a good cleaning. After being here for a few months I realized that even though the room is smaller than my last kitchen, the stuff in the kitchen was not placed in a way that worked best. Now everything that gets used often is easily in reach and no one needs a memo or a map to find it. For this coming month, I would like to continue with the room refinement. My sewing corner is a mess. I need to spend some time figuring out how to make this space work better but with little cost.

Household Economy: Well we did not track expenses. But we talked about it this morning and came up with a plan for entering our daily expenses into a spreadsheet. We did open the Christmas club. We also opened a small savings account for Evan where we automatically deposit a small amount. We would like to use this money for lessons. I would like to come up with a goal for how much food we could put up next year. In our attempt to become as self-sufficient as possible, I would like to learn to sew some of my own clothes. I have a few good pieces of fabric for a summer dress and a couple of skirts. This would definitely grow my sewing skills which are pretty primitive.

Cottage industry: Well, I paid for a day of advertising on Etsy. I need to explore more ways to draw traffic to the shop. I have an idea for a couple of smaller items to post in the shop. I am currently working on designing a sweater pattern that I hope to put up for sale on Ravelry. We need to finalize our seed order.

Resource Consumption: We did pretty well this month. We insulated the hot water heater which brought our electric bill down by 5.00. I did not get the big curtain made for our bedroom yet but that gets me back to the sewing corner thing. Once we start tracking our expenses I think it will be good to see how much gas we are using right now. One of cars has died and we are on the fence whether to replace it or not. But it might be worth our while to find a car that gets better gas mileage and not use our Subaru as much. With gas prices climbing again we need to be better tuned into condensing trips and maybe think about keeping the car off the road a day or two a week.

Outside work: I've been teaching kids to knit at Mark's school. This is a lot of fun. I am going to post a flyer at the local yarn shop for donations of needles and yarn. Right now all the kids are knitting small squares for a blanket or scarf that we will be donating to Nest Maine, an organization that donates hand knitted items to those in need. I have two separate groups and they share knitting. I would like them to have their own knitting needles that they may take home at the end of the year.I am still going to work on teaching a class for Adult Ed next fall.

Family and Community: Much has happened here. A couple of days a week I take Tristan into town for his GED class. This leaved Evan and myself a couple of hours to kill. We have been spending some time at the library. But even though we get a lot of time outside Evan doesn't have a good space to just run around. So I found that the local community center had a gym open for walking. I figured that I could walk and he could just run around. Well, just after the hour of walking we found out that there was a preschool playtime. So we stayed. He had a blast. I have been trying to connect with some local homeschoolers, so I told some of them about the preschool gym. But many of the kids are older. I was able to reserve some time at the community center for our homeschooling group for free. Also, we are still looking for a church. Many of the UU churches in our area are more than a half hour away from where we live. One of the reasons that we want to join a church is to feel connected to a community. But it is hard when it becomes a long drive. So we attended a UCC church in Farmington. It is a large congregation with a big Sunday School. There are many folks that we know that attend the church. I love being a UU. I love the way it is governed by committee ( I can hear Garrison Keillor cracking a UU joke right about now). I love the idea that there is more than one path, or book of faith that we can learn from. I love the liberal religious tradition. We'll see...

Time and Happiness: I have been taking long walks on my country road. I love snow covered hayfields, finding footprints of critters in the snow, clearing my head in the brisk air....

Gathering Community

First, I would like to profess my undying LOVE and ADORATION for Bill McKibben. If you have not read any of his books ..well..get thee to your library. There is a fair amount of doom and gloom in our world these days. Bill Mckibben is focused on LOCAL solutions. Yes, he recognizes the many challenges we face with resource depletion and climate change. But he also recognizes the extreme value in a "small group of thoughtful people" and how they can change the world. (thankyou Margaret Meade)

Second, I would like to direct you to this article.

I was fortunate to live in Portland Maine for 14 years. I moved there in the late 80's during the recession. The downtown area was dying. The mall area was growing. Several large department stores were closing downtown. We lost the 5 and 10. Soon, if you wanted to buy underwear you had to go to the mall.

Portland also had a great philanthropist in Elizabeth Noyes who bought several building downtown, brought an LL Bean outlet store to downtown, encouraged the construction and operation of a public market that featured local farms and local food purveyors. Not all these efforts were successful but they did serve to spur a renaissance in the downtown that is evident today.

Portland has, also, always had a farmer's market downtown on Wednesday mornings and Saturday mornings in a Public Park. Every spring, I would look for the first farmer to appear with apples from the prior season and pussy willows. By the time I had moved in 2003, one could get farm fresh eggs and CSA shares delivered to the market.

There were many other things about Portland that helped to create a sense of community. I had a community garden plot. I belonged to Maine Time Share Network. Portland still had a branch library footsteps from my door. I lived in a neighborhood with a great playground, and small local beach where I met other mothers and made friends with neighbors.

Moving to the country has been a vastly different experience. Not that I expected it to be the same as Portland, it is after all the country. But unlike a Dexter, a town 40 miles from here that has become a transition town, my little hamlet is a dying town. Our local library does not have a story hour for preschoolers. When a proposal to start a farmer's market was presented to the local development committee it was turned down because "we don't want the farmers to have to compete with hobby farms". We had a fire a couple of years ago that burned down the hardware store and several other small businesses. It devastated our downtown. The town was fortunate to win a significant block development grant. There was a special town meeting to decide on whether the town should purchase the land where the fire occurred. At that meeting there were comments made that would just get your head shaking such as,"since the fire, the traffic on main street is so much better why should we develop it?" I'll tell you why we should develop that land. Because, I only live 1.7 miles from down town. I can walk into town easily. but if I want something as simple as a rubber belt for my vacuum cleaner I have to get in my car and drive 20 miles to the nearest hardware store. A new hardware store has opened in town and the local lumber yard is not happy about it because he now has competition, again.

I think what gets missed when, as a community, we resist new ideas is the social fabric that gets woven and strengthened. When the library has a story hour, new mothers network, become friends, swap clothing and return the help to the library that serves them. Our children learn that they are nurtured by their community When we live in a rich agricultural region that grows mostly corn; not having a farmer's market means that local farmers would not even consider growing crops that could be brought to the local market but instead feel compelled to grown only commodity crops. When we have to leave our community for basic needs we do not build up relationships with the leaders of our community, keep much needed dollars in our own community, and insure that we are served by these businesses in the long term.

Matt Simmons believes that we reached peak oil production in 2005. Recent estimates predict that we will experience energy shortages by 2015. Building strong communities is not just a nice sentiment from a fringe movement but actually vital to insuring that our communities can weather the coming challenges that we all face.

Pruning

I just got back from a class, offered by our county cooperative extension, on Fruit tree pruning. Our new home has a dozen assorted fruit trees which are more than a decade old. I wanted to learn about how to take care of them so that we can make the best of what they have to offer. The cooperative offers many low cost or free classes...just perfect for the frugal homestead. About 75 folks attended today's class.

It was held at the commercial orchard that we go to every fall for our apples.. I love this orchard because he has a great variety of apples. They have a big sign hanging outside of their shop that tells the potential picker what sort of apples are ready at what time of the season. The sign also tells the picker what is the best use for each variety of apple. We often make several visits during apple picking season depending on what we are making or putting up. Their dog Rascal follows our car as we drive to our chosen variety for the day and then follows us back to the shop as we weigh our pickings. The man who presented the information was the owner who has owned the orchard for 60 years.

The class covered basic pruning of fruit trees from 1 year old trees to old overgrown trees that one might want to bring back to production. He lightly touch on Integrated Pest Management and how he employs it on his orchard. He discussed the management of deer. Apparently, they will only be deterred from an orchard and whatever aversion the farmers uses;until they are used to it. Then the farmer must try something new. He discussed how the different limbs of the tree should be managed in order to produce the most apple. Fruit bears on new growth. We went to the orchard and pruned various trees at different stages of growth. Most old trees need 5 years of pruning before being fully restored.

Alas, as the class was winding up our presenter shared that this year was the last year for the orchard. As with so many other farms, this farmer wants to retire. After 60 years who can blame him. If someone does not buy the farm then he will close it. Sure there are plenty of small orchards in my region of the state. And if the attendance at todays class is any indicator, many folks are hoping to provide more fruit for themselves. But when we lose one small farm, it means it is one less farm. For me, it feels like a tear in the fabric of my local food system.

Candles of Communion

I have been pondering our move recently.  

There is some excitement about our future community. It is younger and more vibrant. It is a college town. There are several bookstores, a farmer's market and many more organic farms. There is a good library. A good natural foods store. We have friends that live nearby.  There are great bike trails and skiing nearby.

There is also some stress and worry. Will we sell the house? Will we be a family divided until we sell the house? There is so much to do to sell the house.  Do we take the sheep if we have to rent? Do we thin the books out? How much is too much yarn stash?

And there is some sorrow. Although we have had some issues with our neighbors and the town we live in, we have also made some great friends and connected with the community in ways we only now realize when we are planning to leave. That may not be accurate...let's see if I can elaborate.

We moved here when the wee one was just 4 months old. We did not know any one. Our nearest friends were an hour away; which was difficult for a new mother with a homeschooling teenager. Winters are very long here and the snow falls deeply. The first 6 months were really difficult. Hubby was a vocalist-for- hire for a local church ;but gave up the gig, so we could attend the local Unitarian Universalist church.  We live in the reddest part of a purple state. This small congregation was a liberal refuge for us. They were concerned with social justice, local foods, and maintaining their aging historical building.

And it was much needed community.

Our first time attending was on Easter Sunday. The opening prelude was a rendition of the song Easter Bonnet sung by Linda and Jim. They had me at, " with all the frills upon it." Coffee hour was delightful and everyone was so pleased that we shared that day with them.. So...we joined the church. Hubby does the music for one service a month and I am the Religious Ed chair for the 4 kids that comprise our young souls. On occasion I stand in the pulpit and share my perspective.

We are a small congregation and an aging one.   But in the time since we joined, the congregation has found a part time minister, we have an RE program , we have hopes for the longevity of the church.  I speak in the first person plural because I am a part of that community and I realized, as I announced the changes our family is making to the congregation, that  although we are doing what is right for our family ( singular) , the larger family depended on us in ways that I never fully understood. I am part of something bigger. I care deeply for it and I will miss it greatly. 

I have never felt like this before for such an institution. I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school.  Fully indoctrinated.  I have attended other UU churches; much larger churches where it was easy to get lost in a crowd and not fully appreciate how one fits into the larger community.

During each service there is a time where members of the congregation can light a candle and share a joy or concern with everyone. It is one of the few rituals of the service. Often, someone will share something they witnessed in nature, a concern they have for the health of a loved one or a milestone that one of their adult children have reached.  I have lit many candles while attending.  But I will light several more over the next couple of months for the gratitude  I have for those kind folks and that sanctuary. I know that there will be others in my life but  this was one of the best.