Meeting Minutes

August 30, 2009 Minutes. Read on to hear about dinosaurs and potlucks

Leader: Stella Pfau

Recorder: Paul Dixon

• At the beginning of meeting everyone went around and said “the best thing that happened to them this weekend was . . .”
• Played pterodactyl game and Angie won.
• Pulled numbers and assigned chores/partners for the next month:

Angie and Maggie – Chickens

Paul and Stella – Leaders/recorders of meetings

Kate and Carson – Recycling

Compton and Keri – Kitchen

Chessie and Kallie – Emergency Cleanup Crew/ Weekly dinners

• For weekly dinners order from sewanee.locallygrown.net and use food from garden, and rest from the Pig. Professors and others invited to upcoming dinners include: Scott Maino (new Keith Davis), Kirk Zigler and his new wife, Julie Puttgen, Dixon, Darrel, Regina, Rocco, Shayne. Need to contact and confirm dates with these people pretty soon and alert greenhouse members what day and time they will be over for dinner. Chessie & Callie will organize.
  
• Celebrated Paul’s birthday!: yummy yummy cookie cake made by Kate in the shape of a heart. Carson tickling him was supposed to be a distraction. Ate ice cream as well, very soupy though.

• Talked about workshops: (need to partner with LLCs, ERs, Greeks, etc. to fund for some of these workshops)
1. Freshmen “Hang out at the Greenhouse” finalized: Friday at 8 pm at Greenhouse. Compton to get fire permit, Carson to make posters and send c-student, Stella to get smores supplies.
2. “Blessing the Chickens”: Keri, Callie, and Angie have that under control. Planned for Saturday the 26^th of September, 2:00pm.
3. Kate’s projects:

- fermentation and soap making Workshop– need to choose a date(s)

- Shed remodeling event at organic garden – need to choose a date

- Sewing day(s) – send c -student

4. Compton’s project: Canning Workshop – need to choose a date, maybe a Tuesday
5. Maggie’s project: Seed-paper/bookmark Workshop maybe led with your friend – need to choose a date
6. Angie’s project: Bread-making workshop, Zucchini and Sourdough – need to pick a date. Pumpkin pie/everything pumpkin event sometime in October, probably led by more people than just Angie.
7. Callie’s project: Old beer bottlecaps and soda bottlecaps collected in fraternities/sororities turned into beautiful quilt patterns and potentially hung up in the houses.
8. Stella’s project: Drying the gourds at the garden and contacting house on 41 that has the purple martin gourd bird house to see if they can help us make the bird houses . . . maybe invite elementary students to come help out. Date will be figured out once gourds dry.
9. Carson and Keri’s project: Haunted House!!!
• Other upcoming projects/to do list:
1. Community Garden Potluck organized by Stella, Deanna, and Chessie: Stella talk with Kirk to get list of neighbors and Deanna get another list of the rest of the gardeners. Make invitation and go door to door and invite them to Potluck. Figure out who needs to bring what, maybe by last name A-K main dishes, K-N beverage, etc. Do preferably by Wednesday.
2. Sustainability competition amongst frats/sororities. Can crusher? / garden plots (need to choose a fast growing veggie)
3. Compton and Keri get a white board out at the Garden so we can make a to-do list.
4. House expects everyone to get out to the garden at least for 1-2 hours/week. Times: Thursday- Deanna and Stella will be there from 2:00-5:00pm

Sunday- Angie and Deanna will be there from 1:00-5:00pm

5. Compton and Stella to check out house and make a proposal to PPS for water-catchment systems.
6. Angie get plaque that was at the Eco-house
7. Need to make a note for Regina
8. Thanksgiving dinner
9. Kate is the new Treasurer whoo hooo!
10. What are we going to do with screenporch?
11. Bio-diesel anyone?

Ladies of the Greenhouse get a haircut

All the lady chickens and even the rooster had a very big surprise this beautiful Sunday morning. With scissors in hand, greenhouse members snipped away at the primary feathers of the chickens to prevent them from flying away. Lately the chickens have been flying up and roosting on their fence, some taking the next step and actually taking little strolls around the yard. The Greenhouse decided, with Shayne's advice, to clip their feathers so we would not have dead chickens on Mitchell Avenue run over by cars or dead chickens in the mouths of Sewanee dogs or hawks. In less than 10 minutes the haircut of 11 hens and 1 rooster was completed . . . and hopefully they are not too ashamed of their new look.

Update from Mexico!

.

Hey guys-

I'm leaving in a few days to work in Chiapas, probably in the jungle, for three or four weeks, so I wanted to wish everyone a good end of the school year! And summer vacation, graduation, all that fun stuff.

I will be living in a community, not sure where yet, studying agriculture and self-sufficiency, not sure exactly what yet either. I hope to learn some Mayan medicine too! I'll be living with a family again, so I want to help out in the kitchen and learn how to make some of the food- like tortillas from scratch and tamales. Mmmm...

Here are some pictures: the first is the use of some bottles to line herb beds in a community we visited about 2 hours from Oaxaca City and the the second is some urban agriculture that we saw in Mexico city, planting in tires.

Take care everyone!

kate


Type rest of the post here

Meeting Minutes April 5

Solar installation went well.
We need to return the projector.

Need a list of everyone who has been to an event—just numbers

Not a second coffee house but a music night. Will advertise through word of mouth. This Friday the 10th. Emily would like to bake. Laura will get coffee from stirlings.

Chelsea will get egg dye and paul will get eggs from the farmers market so we can dye eggs this weekend.

During grad week sophomores will apply to stay—work in the garden.

We can work on the chicken coop during grad week too.

April 19 garden party- new house members will help. stay tuned for more information from Helen.

Bentley will talk to bands to see if they want to play on the 24th

Paul will talk to new house members about coming to meetings

On Tuesday there’s a gownsmen meeting where Paul and Elspeth are presenting a resolution regarding choosing the VC. Go to it!

Meeting Minutes March 29

Oreo Olympics
Combine with experience weekend bonfire
Jonathan will organize/ lead
Sarah butler has smores and drinks and will drop them off
Carson will get fire permit and make fire
Sunday at 8 pm
Helen will send out c-student

April 10 coffee house
Elspeth will send an e-mail to house members listing things she needs help with. Elspeth will register event.

April 19 garden party
Helen will ask new house members to help

April 24 concert
Bentley has contacted Chris and Wilson who can play if Swaneroo isn’t that weekend. More info soon.

Money? Helen will check to see how much we have in the account.

Garden
The compost is doing really well because it is disgusting.
Stuff is growing.
There is a really cool fungus. Carson will ask dean jones what it is.
Compost stays at the house this month.
Carson will keep sending e-mails. Thanks!

Carson and Paul planned the chicken house
They are going to buy supplies this week and will talk to us soon about building it.
Paul will talk to people in Monteagle to see if we can buy adult chickens from them and

Heidi-marie huber-feely wants to hold hypnosis classes here
Week of April 13-17
Elspeth will be contact person
Dinner with them on Wednesday- talk to Elspeth if you want to go.

Paul will send an e-mail to the new members soon with info for this spring. Let him know what worked and what didn’t last spring.

The Mysterious Garden Tunnels

We just installed a system of row covers to get a jump start on the spring. The 3-4ft wide tunnels are made from Agribon row cover fabric, PVC piping, and rebar stakes. It offers a temperature buffer of around 6 degrees Fahrenheit and shelter from wind, frost, and UV rays.
This makes for some pretty happy plants.

less manicured lawn at the White House!

The first family & a few school children are busying planting the White House vegetable garden, the first veggie garden at the White House in nearly 50 years. Cool.

Monteagle's effluent bath

Monteagle's sewage tank burst yesterday! Here's a brief article from the Chattanooga Times Free Press. That's almost 100,000 gallons of raw sewage flowing rampantly into the Elk River watershed. Several families in this area rely on well water, which is now seriously contaminated. Hopefully, there more information will be available soon.

In other news, Grundy County is requesting $1,000,000 to put in a pipeline connecting their water supply to the Tennessee River. They determined that the pipeline will have "no significant impact on the human environment." And so they claim that an Environmental Impact Statement is not required.

SUD proposes that funds be used "for studies that address regional water resource planning issues for the Southern Cumberland Plateau," which would be an astute choice before spending a million bucks hooking a city up to a river whose hydraulic load is already taxed by TVA’s twelve coal-fired thermal plants, two nuclear power plants at Sequoyah and Watts Bar and the three nuclear plants at Brown’s Ferry, each of which need about three billion gallons a day for thermal cooling purposes.

More information on SUD's water policy can be found here.

post-addendum: Another Times Free Press article.

A lengthier article, and a video from WRCB Channel 3 Chattanooga, updated on March 20.

Photos from Arm & Trout Coffeehouse

We had around 150-200 people! Thanks so much for coming!

Meeting Minutes, March 1

Laura flew the coop and is off to Costa Rica!

-wheelbarrow - backyard trash - tomorrow.
-Emily will call equestrian center re: poop
-Helen will call for leaves
-Need container for compost transport
-Jonathan is investigating bike trailer
-Bentley will purchase soil for starting seeds
-Please wash soiled dishtowels!
-Record shower times! (remind people w/ crayons?)

Compost Bucket
Emily will bring in mornings
6:30-8:00 pm pick up by anyone

Garden - everyone needs to pitch in!
Carson will send out work emails each week, will start garden email list
Becca & Jonathan will lead Garden hours thursday.

Becca is working on chicken care plans.

Improve communication
-stop being condescending
-be kind with each other
-let's not send last minute emails requesting help; plan in advance!

GH Spring Concert - Bentley & Chelsea
Garden Party - Sunday of party weekend, New GH'ers.
Application process is happening. Paul will keep everyone posted.
Meeting next week at garden, 4pm.
Breadbaking SkillShare next Tuesday?
Emily is coordinating a joint birthday party.

A greener urban sprawl?

An interesting way to do a housing development...

In the last five years, Serenbe’s first two high-density hamlets have risen, shaped like omegas to flow with the undulations of the land and constructed according to stringent environmental and conservation standards. They have a Main Street feel, with Arts and Crafts cottages sharing the winding lanes with loft-style town houses and sleek modern boxes. Front porches supplant front lawns, and the sidewalks are dotted with fanciful lampposts that seem to have been designed in Whoville.

...more on the NYT.

GreenHouse Application for 2009-2010

Application deadline extended to Thursday, March 5th at 11:59pm!

This is a paperless application. Please submit your application and resume as a single document to dixonpe0@sewanee.edu by Thursday. If you have questions, contact Elspeth at eiralu@sewanee.edu.

Name:
Class:
e-mail:
extension:
Major or Potential Major:
Faculty Reference:
Do you plan to study abroad during the 2009/2010 academic year?
If Yes, indicate which semester you will be abroad:

Please include your current resume.

From the following nine questions, pick six and write a short answer for each one:

1. Imagine you are planning a large scale Greenhouse sponsored event. What is the event? What are your goals for the event? What steps will you take to accomplish these goals?
2. If you could make one change to Sewanee, what would it be?
3. Tell us about the development of your environmental ethic. What changes have you made in your daily life in order to live according to this ethic?
4. As a member of the Greenhouse, what challenges do you think you might face?
5. Do you consider yourself an environmentalist? Justify your answer.
6. Tell us about a time in which you had a falling out with someone and describe how you overcame the problem.
7. What are your interests outside of environmental issues?
8. What do you see as the role of the Greenhouse? What do you think its role should be?
9. Write your own thought provoking question and answer it.

All current residents of the Greenhouse who wish to be considered for residency next year must reapply. Their applications must address the following additional questions:

Consider the past year in the Greenhouse:

1. What did you accomplish, both independently and as part of the community? How were you a leader?
2. How have you benefited from this experience?
3. What have been your greatest challenges as a Greenhouse resident?
4. What do you want to change in regards to your role in the house?
5. Regarding the changes you noted in question four, how will you enact those changes?

What's it like to live in the GreenHouse, anyways?

Think you might want to live in the GreenHouse (GH) next year but not sure if it's for you?
The GreenHousers try to make apparent two concepts: sustainable living & community engagement. We're passionate about people and the world we live in - we want to make a difference and make the world a better place. Here's what you should get excited about for next year:

• Each resident organizes at least one major event or event series (past examples include Haunted Houses & stream cleanups) per semester for the GreenHouse. You'll be responsible for thinking up the event, planning it & working with other groups/Greek organizations, advertising it, and co-coordinating how it actually happens.
  
• Many of us are active leaders in other groups on campus - we lead Housing Sewanee & other Outreach events/Trips, volunteer at the Farmer's Market or the Senior Citizens Center, and lead SOP trips.
  
• Next year, we'll be taking care of our very own flock of chickens. That means waking up to feed them in the morning, gather eggs, and then put them back in their coop at night. And then cleaning out the poop & soiled bedding each week.
• We get dirty in the garden every week. We expect each resident to spend one afternoon (3 hours) working in the garden each week.
  
• We place the compost buckets in McClurg every morning and then carrying them back to the GreenHouse compost pile every night.
• We have a house meeting (30 min to an hour) every Sunday night.
• We take the initiative on campus with regards to sustainability. We work with the administration, the student body & PPS to make life at Sewanee more sustainable.
• We work & live together, as a house. While we will do our best to be accommodating of friends who want to room together, we can not guarantee roommate preferences.
• We do chores around our house - cleaning the kitchen & family room, taking out the recycling, and exciting surprises for each other. And EVERYONE DOES THEIR DISHES!
  

And lastly, the goals of the GreenHouse are to:

• Develop students of all academic pursuits into creative and inquisitive servant leaders,
• Engage with the local community through active participation, and
• Promote involvement by faculty, their families and community so that we all may more fully
• Practice sustainable living here at Sewanee and in our global community as a means of
• Confronting a self-centered mindset that motivates local and global inequality.

Free Coffee

"Free Coffee!"

Boy in coat and tie: "No, really?!?"
Neighborhood photographer: "No thanks, coffee gives me the shakes."
Chem major: "You made my morning."
A desperate test taker: "How much?"
An incredulous prof: "How can you serve coffee if you don't have cream?"
A Nobel Peace prize winning physicist: "I don't drink coffee."
Angry Girl: "I'm already LATE!"
Girl on bike: "SWEET!"

This morning we served 84 cups of coffee to folks going to and from classes, breakfast, and the SPO.

Why? According to Laura, "because we're nice".
Or maybe it's just our subversive advertising technique to get you to attend the Arm (en) Trout Coffeehouse (this Friday at the GreenHouse from 9 P.M. to midnight). We'll be serving more Stirling's coffee and several elegant trout-shaped cakes. The entertainment will be provided by you and your friends.

Sunday, February 22nd meeting!!!

Meeting minutes...

Carson farts in Elspeth's general direction because she hasn't been using the shower timers.

Carson will do the time sheets.

Carson made a water resistant timer by putting it in a ziploc bag.

Bentley thinks that Carson should stop eating his hamburger to conserve water. That's what Bentley does.

Starting minutes at 8:00. A.K.A. don't be late.

Arm & Trout Coffee house. 9-12 this coming Friday (the 27th of Feb).

Caterers? Elspeth didn't want to call on the weekend. Will be taken care of... coffees and cakes, etc.

White sheets on walls? Dramatic lighting? Bentley say's strobe lights. Or Christmas lights, says Becca.

Becca will make coffee and refill it.

Laura will write a vagina monologue for Bentley to read.

Carson will not perform penis monologues, he will read a poem called "the void" while strobe lights are going.

We'll need to move furniture around for the coffee house.

Garden business:

We had garden hours today.

4 hoop houses in total. 2 were put up today.

Water catchment- use the water for watering plants. Buckets around the garden with water in them.

onion bulbs planted.

Lettuce will be put in.

We ordered potatoes. Cabbage. Greens. Peas.

Composting- we can't just put fruit scraps in the compost. We need to layer the fruit with leaves and newspaper and other compost.

We need a way of transporting bucket of compost out to the garden. Bike trailer? Jonathan is working on it.

Trying to get trash out of the garden.

You can sign in and edit the post that Paul put up about living in the Green House if you need to.

Chicken Meeting:

We split up into 2 groups before the chicken meeting and we need to use those groups now, says Becca.

Building the coop- important part.

We need a more specific proposal ready by the end of this week.

Coop design completed by the end of this week too. We need to turn in everything together and completed.

Meeting or multiple meetings to complete the coop design and chicken planning.

We already have the basic plans for the chicken coop, we just need to fully organize and explain the design.

Where are we going to get all the money from? Something to think about. Shouldn't be a problem.

Coop design should get together this week. Paul, Carson, Emily and Jonathan- meet at 1:30 at the bike shop on Wednesday for the coop design meeting. Jonathan may not be able to make it, but Becca and Bentley can stop by. Bring your graph paper, says Carson.

We need to start planning events. We had a lot last semester, but not so many this semester.

We should do something next week. What are we going to do this next week?

Maybe doing something with Beta and Lamda Chi? Saturday afternoon jam session with Lamda? Or even a week night.

Thursday night jam session with Beta? Carson can talk to them about that. Maybe convince Beta to do the advertising?

EVERYONE put the garden signs up all around campus before Helen gets back!!!

Helen did not go to Mardi Gras. She went to Chicago.

Put pictures of random students on posters for Arm and Trout advertisement.

Personal invitations for coffee house to the people that have secret talents.

Jonathan needs to move his desk.

Burn permit for fire a week from this Sunday.

Laura will be gone for a week starting on Saturday.

THE END!

Food & the Modern World (and where colleges fit in)

Sewanee has 13,000 acres. Perhaps we could spare a few & bring back the farm? Warren Wilson does it with 275 acres. Just saying...The article goes on to talk about the modern economy and how to change the food production paradigm.

Tucked into the rolling hills of North Carolina's Swannanoa Valley, Warren Wilson College is essentially surrounded by a farm. The school's 800 students not only tend the 275-acre farm -- which includes pastured livestock and vegetables -- they also provide the labor to run the campus. They do everything from accounting to plumbing to cooking in the cafeteria. I've had the privilege of hosting several Warren Wilson kids at Maverick Farms, and I've been amazed at how well those kids know how to work, and have plenty of fun while doing it.

Read on at grist

DIY: Sustainability

Learn from your neighbors!

Sponsored by the Sewanee GreenHouse and Students for an Environmentally Responsible Plateau, Sewanee senior Angie Langevin has started a gathering called D.I.Y.: Sustainability. Students, community members, and faculty will come together twice a month for a potluck and "skill-share"

The goals & vision are the following:
• To share skills or knowledge that will help us all live more simply,
sustainably, and closer to the land.
• To promote community on the Cumberland Plateau with Sewanee students,
activists, community members, faculty, and their families.
• To enjoy our time together through food, music, and conversation.

At each skill-share a community member, student or faculty member will share knowledge or teach a skill pertinent to sustainable living. We hope that food, friends, and music will accompany these gatherings, and we will encourage everyone to bring food to share and an
instrument to play.

We are calling on you to share your ideas.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic, or would you / a group like to lead a workshop?
Do you have a particular vocation, job, hobby, story, or craft you could share with us?
What would you like to learn?

We have come up with some ideas: permaculture, bread baking, cooking, animal husbandry, solar panel installation, solar oven construction, bike-power, cobb building, art and the environment, living locally, masonry, fermentation – but we want your input!

Post your ideas here or send them to redwoodraven@riseup.net.

Garden Allotments

Here's an interesting article about cooperative community gardens in the UK

Arm & Trout Coffeehouse

Arm and Trout dare you
to be weird, witty, creative, edgy, intrepid, humorous, schizophrenic, titillating, and groovy.

On the night of February 27th, the Greenhouse will become the Arm & Trout coffeehouse, an open mic opportunity for you to floor us with your creative wit. Even if you've buried your aspirations at becoming the next Wyatt Prunty, we invite you to step behind the microphone and give us your best shot. This is your chance to perform before a darkened, well-caffeinated audience, anything you so desire--acoustic, electric, poetry, prose, drama. We'll even showcase your artwork.

And if you aren't creatively inclined, come bring your deepest mug, swill your favorite caffeinated brew, and enjoy the company of those who are. You provide the entertainment. We'll provide coffee and sweets.

What: The Arm & Trout Coffeehouse, open mic night
When: Friday, February 27, 9 pm--midnight
Where: The Greenhouse

Tell us how you would like to participate. Post a comment or call Laura and Elspeth at extension 3171.

GreenHouse Poultry Initiative

GreenHouse Poultry Initiative
February 2009

The residents of the GreenHouse aim to initiate a student-led project of animal husbandry at Sewanee, bringing to light the relationships between academic study, lifestyle and the community at large. The project will fulfill the following objectives:

• Demonstrate the University’s commitment to sustainable living practice, education, and social justice (Strategic Plan for Environmental Education and Sustainable Living, October 2008)
• Serve as an experiential educational tool for LLCs, environmental studies courses, and general urban-derived student body
• Produce wholesome food for the University community and encourage dialogue regarding sustainable agricultural production in today’s world



Animal Management and Care

Students will be responsible for every aspect of the care of the animals. This will be done with advice from local community members, with the goal of encouraging student understanding of and involvement in food production and creating opportunity for positive community-student interactions.

• Students will purchase the chickens as soon as continual caretakers can be identified. This will likely be Summer or Fall 2009, depending on summer schedules.
• Chickens will spend their first 8 weeks in a small cage and then be moved into their coop.
• Caretakers will be identified for university vacations & breaks.
• Each week students will clean the coop and replace the bedding. They will compost used bedding at the Old Farm Road garden.
• Students will gather the eggs each day.
• Students will herd the chickens into their coop at night and release them into their pen each morning.
• Sewanee Elementary & St. Andrew’s teachers can use the chickens in their curriculum with their students
• Students, in collaboration with experienced farmers, will discretely butcher animals when deemed necessary.
• Chicken updates will be posted on the GreenHouse website (usgh.blogspot.com)

Equipment & Costs

The project has been designed to minimize costs at all levels. Total start up costs will be under $250. Operational costs will be approximately $25 a month. Funding will come from current GreenHouse budget, interested LLCs and academic departments.

• 12 chicks: $20
• Water dispenser & feeding dish for chicks: homemade from mason jars
• Small pen or cage: obtained from current supplies or classifieds
• Heat lamp: borrowed from LAL
• Bedding: pine needles from Domain
• Adult-sized feeder & water dispenser: $15
• Feed: $20/month (Feed will be organic if at all possible)
• Incidentals: $5/month
• Coop and Fence Construction: Second hand materials + $150 in new materials

Potential Concerns

The project has been discussed with all neighboring community members and the Assistant Dean of Students for Residential Life. The following addresses previously identified concerns with raising animals here at Sewanee. Further stakeholder input is encouraged.

• Appearance
o Small coop (8x6 ft, 4 ft tall) strategically located behind Greenhouse
o Fenced in area adjacent to coop (10x8 ft, 4 ft tall), constructed from chicken wire with net covering to protect from hawks and dogs
o Coop built to maximize aesthetics
o Hidden by trees & vegetation, not visible from Alabama or Mitchell Ave.
• Smell
o Minimized by well ventilated & maintained coop with fresh bedding
• Noise
o All-female flock, no roosters.
o Asleep at night; only active during daylight hours
o More quiet than current fraternity neighbors