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.