Hey check this out!

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Build_a_Green_Roof

This would be sweet on a roof- possibly the shed roof at the garden. Or we could turn the roof of the GreenHouse into a living roof- I'm sure the admin would love that.

Environmental Studies Potluck!

Saturday, October 11, 5:30 P.M.
At the Green House

Come hang out with the Environmental Studies faculty, majors, prospective majors, Environmental Residents, and Green Housers.

Meeting Minutes for 9-28-2008

These are the meeting minutes for September 28, 2008!

all present

Keener Farm
Ashley (ERs) & Caroline (waste not) can contribute $
date tbd (oct 25?)

Garden Time
Some ppl (Becca, Jonathon) think that it should be mandatory to work in the garden each week instead of a chore. There should be a chore list for the garden so that people could work on their own time.
buy chalkboards to make lists for the garden
Hartman said that he could buy us tools.
Garden work time went well this week.

Hartman's meeting:
Carson will call grounds manager about the ivy on trees
He gave us permission to do whatever we want as long as we're not cutting down a big tree or building something without a proposal and a plan to give to him & Mary Beth Walker.
No clothesline unless it's up high

last year's Chen Hall meeting: the point was to frighten people into not applying. Elspeth wants us to clarify the system of rules that we have here as a house. Elspeth wants to set up a system of self-evaluation & rules/mission statement for the house. Evaluation at least once or twice a semester, after fall break.

Kate wants to have another meeting to plant the back yard. Hartman gave us permission to expand it and that there would be money to pay for it. It should be an example garden - dif. types of compost piles, building materials, etc.
Fruit trees? Vineyard? Bentley stressed that Hartman wants us to have a plan and involve the community. Kate says that we should do this soon.

Hartman says that everything that we do should be an educational experience for us and the community.
How much energy are we using? -Carson talked to Kianka and she said that she could get a monthly report. She emailed Kate about acquiring a sign and a bike rack.

Halloween plans?
Haunted House? Bobbing for apples? We'll talk about this next meeting.

Envtl Studies potluck: Sid wants us to have it here next Thursday, oct. 9?

Helen will speak to Julie KingMurphy about money tomorrow.
Helen proposes that we have a game night during parents weekend. She will send out an email.

garbage can lid - put on work order list (Laura will do this & for light in the bathroom)

Fill out your houser info!
Hanna will send us our family photos
Allison wants an Invisible Children dinner next Thursday, but it might be the night of the Envtl Studies potluck.

Emily will write guidelines for (others) using the kitchen.

Recycling was not done this week. (it's picked up by Tuesday)

no minutes were posted from last week, but Becca will post them.
we agree to read the minutes from the previous week at the beginning of each meeting.

Chelsea will be going to greenlife. submit requests & money to Chelsea.

Paul sent Becca an email about chickens/ducks, suggesting we buy them locally.

Kate will update a garden schedule on the map white board in the hall. Emily will ask her parents to bring up another white board. Kate hasn't decided on garden hours.

Laura will ask Julie about people to form an art committee.

No meeting next weekend.

This Old Recyclable House

This Old Recyclable House

Check out his article on the New York Times magazine about using old houses to create new living spaces.

Meeting Minutes for 9-14-2008

GreenHouse Meeting Minutes
September 14, 2008

Meeting Leader: Jonathan
Minutes: Helen

Jonathan calls to order

Fourth grader at SES has started an environmental club. Exciting! Dr. McDonough told us about this and would like ideas from us. Becca will e-mail him and find out what needs to be done, and then she will take charge of this. We’ll help and we’d like to involve some other Sewanee students too.

GreenFest- bentley’s idea
It would be great if there was a weekend when going to the GreenHouse was the thing to do. But should it involve alcohol? Laura and Elspeth think it’s important to show that it is possible to have a sustainable party. We could get fraternities and sororities to co-sponsor. First we need to talk to Dean Hartman and see what he thinks.

We’re hosting lots of dinners!On Thursday with Emery at 5:30. GreenHouse will contribute meat and Emery will make side dishes. Chelsea will cook the meat on Thursday before dinner.
People who don’t live in either house are also invited.
We need to make sure this is okay with Emery.

On Tuesday with Dean Hartman. He will provide pizza. 5:30 again we think—but we need to make sure this is okay with him first. Elspeth will see what he says and send us an e-mail with what’s happening.

Emily—should we cook on Sunday nights? Or dessert? Kate loves cooking and will do it every Sunday. She will write the information on the chalkboard each week. If you want to help cook and if you plan to eat, write your name on the chalkboard so she knows what to expect.

Anyone cooking must wear the chef hat.

Emily and Fritsl Butler are coordinating a run to raise money for the school in Guatemala.
It’s Sept 27th. Register for $10. Emily would like us to participate if possible. We don’t have to run—we could walk or ride a unicycle.


Julie Putgen suggested having an art gallery in the living room to display student work. This is a cool idea especially since there aren’t many places on campus for students to display work. This means that the walls in living room would be covered with a special art-hanging up material, and the furniture will be moved for receptions. Everyone’s okay with this if the art department pays for it. Laura will head up this project and Hanna will help too.
It would also be really great to display a sculpture in the garden—we could have a contest and the winning work (out of recycled materials!) would be displayed for the year. This could be at the Breakfield garden or at the house. After all, we do have scary gargoyles here.

When will we have a garden party?
In the past it’s been on fall party Sunday

We had a Music Jam on Thursday—good job!
Do we want this every other Thursday (on the alternate weeks of the community center jam)?
Let’s plan to do this for the next few months and see how it works out. We’ll advertise through c-student e-mails.

EMS house wants to hang out too. We’re so popular. Maybe they can co-sponsor greenfest? Maybe a cookout? Laura can talk to Drew Mather.

Enviro studies potluck
1st week of October? Maybe. But there are birthdays, midterms, 150 mile bike rides around that time. We’ll keep in contact with Sid Brown and discuss this later.

Kate’s parents are coming in two weeks. She’ll cook dinner Friday and we’re all invited.

Wash your dishes.

We fried some fruit flies in the microwave, but we’re still battling them. Don’t leave crumbs, food matter, dishes out. Wipe down counters. We’ll take away one drying rack to prevent dishes building up there.

Love and joy—Carson and Chelsea deep cleaned the kitchen. Thanks!

Sustainablity on campus conference—in November. If you want more information, talk to Laura

We have newspaper and cardboard up in the kitchen. Write your favorite quotes there, draw pictures, tack things to the cardboard.

Mission statement. Elspeth will send out our compiled ideas tonight.

Projects update:
Carson and Elspeth wrote a proposal for ACS grant money, but it needs to be updated. The grant was to fund outreach stuff (community gardens, elementary school projects)—talk to them if you have more ideas.

Also Carson is growing shitake mushrooms under the porch, but they won’t be ready until spring.

Becca- chickens. These would be at the Garden. Cost? About $200. Online they come in sets of 25 chicks. Katherine Alvarez was allowed to keep her chickens, so the atmosphere is in our favor. But we need to talk to Dean Hartman before we plan any further.

Emily—events, dinners, jams—going well so far.
Right now we should focus on getting a diverse group of people here. We should co-sponsor events with many organizations—not just enviro ones.

Chelsea has updated her project to focus on green building with Housing Sewanee.

The garden chore is tricky right now because we’re not sure what to do. Once the garden in the backyard gets started things will be easier. Carson can help take charge of the backyard garden.

Can Emily’s bible study meet here on Fridays at noon? Sure! Put it on the calendar.

McClurg has green bananas right now. They match Emily’s jacket which is also green.

Meeting adjourned. Everyone in the GreenHouse picked a different room in Emery and we called them all at the same time. That was fun. Invitation extended for dinner on Thursday.

Bentley- can you show us how to not fill the entire blog with the minutes? link to the full text.

Summary:

Things to talk to Dean Hartman about:
Backyard garden/ compost bins
GreenFest party
Chickens

Ethos of the Garden

This is what we came up with last semester:

Ethos of the Garden
The Sewanee Organic Garden believes that the following values and farming practices be upheld and maintained throughout the garden's existence:
• Only non-genetically modified seeds and seedlings shall be planted.
• Pesticides and harmful industrial fertilizers shall not be used.
• The use of electrical and gas powered tools and machinery shall be kept to a minimum if used at all.
• Use recycled, scavenged, and prior materials as opposed to purchasing new ones.
• Transportation to and from the garden should be done only by means of walking and bicycling unless transporting heavy materials.


The Sewanee Organic Garden, through the implementation of the prior guidelines, hopes to achieve the following goals:
• The involvement of the community, student-body, faculty, and staff of Sewanee.
• A commitment to education and enlightenment of sustainable agricultural standards.
• The continual refinement of our gardening techniques in hopes of making them more ecologically sensitive.
• The initiation and sustainment of a community garden program in which any Sewanee community member who wants a garden is provided with the tools, manual labor, and passion to ensure that their garden is a success.
• Work with the local farmer's market and Aramark to provide the Sewanee community with locally and or student-grown foodstuffs.
• The implementation of any and all Sewanee gardens as a necessary learning tool into academic curriculum of the University.
• Encourage and provide the means for tours of local farms, agricultural communities, and conferences and workshops focused on sustainable practices.


I want to add:
To support local nurseries and stores as much as possible and using recycled and reused materials to avoid shopping at chain stores

To buy heirloom and unusual types of seeds from non-GM seed sellers and avoid buying from chain stores

To collect and save seeds from our own successful plants

To experiment and demonstrate different types of green manures and mulching techniques

Meeting Minutes 9/7/8

GreenHouse Meeting Minutes Sunday September 7, 2008

Kate: Meeting Director
Carson: Minute Man
The Party
enjoying different cultures and social groups coming together, Rebecca - introductions of house members - name tags? need to do a better job to explain who lives here, Chelsea - knowing a bit about the “greenness” of the house - what makes house special is something we need to know

The Treasurer and Scheduler Positions
a new leadership role? says Elspeth
in charge of reimbursement forms - keeping track of garden and house budget
also, a “go to” person for scheduling the house for events (ER meetings)

Chelsea takes the position! THE GREENSCHEMER!!!!!!
Helen jumps up to duty for the Treas. Helen “Money Bags”

Jono says green is also a colloquial term for cash money, someone says something inappropriate

Dishwasher use
Clean as we go would be better - do our dishes after we use them
duty of kitchen chore people to put away dishes?, says Kate - Emily is all like “lets put up the dishes ourselves after we use them”

Low Key Event - MUSIC JAM? - this week
adaptations of haskells food for thought?

Dr Miller, according to emily, not very scheduled would be great

what night asks kate?
a theme, maybe? no! we shall say ACOUSTIC

Becca “thursday night makes sense”
Helen remarks that choir is coming over at 7 and afterward we could jam acoustically
c-student email - elspeth jumps to duty

Greenschemer role
to use house, week ahead in advance
on the bill - tuesday (kairos), thurs (music jam)
emily talks of making delicious muffins
bently says he will walk in his undies

Annie A - Archives
says we can keep records of events in the archives
yes-elspeth, laura, others, general yes consensus

Sewanee Purple
ask to write article? asks Kate
editor - megan plummer

Yes - everybody

Kate’s Indy Study - Farm Tours
indy study - farm tours
kyle and jakes house
every 2-3 weeks - use greenhouse to advertise it
transportation - ok to use money of GH? everybody says heck yes

Jake and Kyle - wanting to teach, beer brewing workshop

GH Workshop
Ideas - jam making, paper making
should we put on the agenda?
compost teaching? worm bins?

lets find the worm lady - get in touch with the worm lady, a local worm expert
elspeth - compost 101
laura - advertise in the messenger to attract - asked by kate to do a paper making workshop - not yet she says

Clearance for back yard
Elspeth says to stop by admins office on wed to get the ok

Expansion Committees
Emily - we should have a meeting with the old list of people, including new people - we need to keep up with the most vocal, most excited of the crew like Dixon and Dr Coffee.
Elspeth - will bostwick also interested
Bentley - represents the Garden Committee, recounts meeting with 5 people, not many people went due to scheduling conflicts
Jono - in the dark, with Laura b/c came late
Elspeth explains... the official history of the GH
Bentley and Els - should people be on both committees
Bentley wants a co-leader for Garden Expansion - Carson jumps to duty
House Committee - look at green designs - green homes tour field trips

Individual Projects
Helen - bike stuff, generators, we already have a trainer, we need two more parts, it would be around 150-60, under two hundred, we need a battery, and a motor that generates, jono - need electrician to verify setup, elspeth answers - tom from pps - jim from woods basement - dr coffee - helen - good to sit down later this week

Chelsea - no house as of right now, working with housing sewanee to incorporate more green technology, inquires Kate - Chelsea kind of sees her project (right now) as a bad idea

Emily - talks about putting a garden in the middle of campus
Laura - Garden Expansion committee shoudl take care of it
Helen - asks Chels about her community engagement anthro class, maybe she could persue a greenhouse project for the class

Kates project - making a cobb shedd with tires and earth pack (sand clay straw), water collecting, building it where the shed is now, Chelsea asks that it usually is a place you live in, Jono offers help, need to ask permission from pps and lady who runs garden (name?)

Bentleys project - GH website, other-getting IFC and ISC spots to REPRESENT - getting spot would be difficult, Carson inquires about what they are all about

Laura - says we should save other half for next week

Buying seeds and Trees
kate - made list of garden tasks, we need to buy trees, is it ok to buy trees?
emily and chels - want a peach tree
carson offers to call buddy who owns a bunch of nurseries
jono - what phase of tree is it in when your buy it

Individual Garden Plots
Emily and jono support idea of having individual places to grow things rather that general tasks - a better way to be personally invested in the garden space

Garden Chores
three work days a week
try to have everybody come out would be excellent

Mint Tires and Cold Frames
kate wants to ok as long as movable
starting to build cold frames for windows

Mission Statement
elspeth will send out compiled documents


Flies
make a point to close containers - emily
chelsea - GROSSSSSSS - we dont want to be seen that way
dirty towel box - move to Tupperware container should fix the problem

Table Looking Better
maybe making a table cloth - cons are that it is hard to clean
glass with pictures, quilt a table cloth, a crazy quilt
bentley - maybe we should since it

Elspeth - white clothing needs to be washed
self explanatory

Killing bad vines

everybody is excited about it
kate - having garden work days
elspeth - changing work day to something appealing

chelsea - getting people to allow garden work to count as community service for bad kids

Recycling at Frat Houses
Emily - pps wont pick up recycling, maybe we could get them to recycle
bentley - get someone to talk to IFC ISC
someone could talk to ashley, the head ER

House Party
alcohol at the house? - maybe better to talk about this a little later
solo cups are #6 , and not recyclable, a sham

Love and Joy - hugs all around

CHELsea - “I Think that is the first time I have ever hugged bentley” “but not the first time I ever thought about it...”


the room clears, a good night at the greenhouse, people feeling warm inside

Green! House

Things that are green about our house:
Dual action, low water toliets
Low flow showerheads
Efficient, mercury free fire/smoke detectors and water sprinklers
VOC free paint
Green products used during carpet cleaning
CFL lights
Low odor varnish on floor
Energy *star* appliances

AND they are talking about putting in a water collection system for our garden.

Numbers of important PPS people and emails will be in the information hall.

Green House mentioned in paper

Here's the article we're mentioned in from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
I heard that there are different photos in the online and print versions.

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2008/sep/03/chattanooga-environmental-concern-grows-campuses/

Meeting Minutes for 9-1-08

Hello folks, here are the notes from our meeting on September 1, 2008!

Website for the GreenHouse: not tacky, maybe green. We haven't decided on anything definite as far as a website goes. Maybe we're still brainstorming.. any ideas?

GreenHouse picture: we talked about having a picture of all the members of the GreenHouse kind of "like a frat", which I think Elspeth said. Bentley's idea was to have "titles like alpha" and Helen wants us to have "nerdy info like in Woods", so maybe we can make all of that work out. When shall we have it you might ask.. Well, we're going to have it at 1:30 this coming Saturday (September 6th) which is 30 minutes before the housewarming party. Becca's going to ask Hanna if she will take the picture.

HOUSEWARMING PARTY!!: This coming Saturday (September 6th) from 2:00 to 5:00 pm, but everyone should know when it is by now. I'm just reminding you. Here are the jobs to get ready for the party and who volunteered for them AND what day they need to be done by. Tell me if I got something wrong.

• Salsa with fresh tomatoes - Laura and Elspeth, Saturday morning or sometime before the party
• Coolers from SOP (3 of them) - Bentley, sometime on Saturday or before
• Healthy cookies - Kate and Carson, Friday
• Unhealthy cookies - Emily, Friday
• Hummus (but we need tahini sauce) - Becca, Friday or Saturday? We didn't come up with a specific day for this one
• Chopping vegetables - Bentley and Jonathan, Saturday?
• Bread - Chelsea and Elspeth, Friday
• Grocery trip - Bentley, grocery list (which will be on fridge) needs to be finished by Thursday so we can get groceries by then at the earliest. SO, that means write down what we need at the grocery before Thursday.
• Tea - Helen and Elspeth, Saturday morning
• Ask PPS for folding chairs and a table - no one picked this one up.. we just talked about it, so we need to figure this out.
• Cleaning - Becca's in charge (because she's super clean and good at it too) and everyone is helping

Music for house warming party: mountain top musicians? Carson, will you see who is willing to play on Saturday? We're thinking more on the lines of background music rather than a concert.

House blessing (during house warming): Dr. Potter will play a song/give a talk. Ask Mae Wallace if she will give a talk (Bentley? I think you said you would do this.. tell me if I'm wrong). Elspeth will say a thank you/give a talk.

Invitations: haven't been sent out, so they need to be sent out as soon as possible. AND Bentley is going to send out a Cstudent e-mail about the housewarming because he is skilled in the art of creating creative cstudent e-mails. We need to send an invitation to the Sewanee local farmers and we need to make sure that we tell the Mountain Messenger about the party as well.

Other meeting news (in the order that we talked about them):

Kate's excited about the two large spools in front of Woods and so are Jonathan and Becca, SO, Kate, Laura, and Elspeth (but not Jonathan and Becca because they have class? I think that's what happened) will go get the spool tomorrow (for the house warming party)? Let me know if this is correct?

"Hippies use back door" was taken down because we didn't want there to be pictures of it in the Chattanooga newspaper. Unsure feelings about the Jackson Hole poster. I don't think people will mind if we take it down (I think that's what we decided).

Jonathan has a black flag with a birthday cake with an X through it.

As far as nails go.. use indoor nails?

Don't leave bikes out in the rain - really bad for bikes. Put them in the basement... preferably not the screened in porch because that room will get really crowded really quickly.

Chore wheel - instructions on the blog and on the fridge. We will rotate jobs after every meeting.

Everyone needs to load their own dishes into the dishwasher and whoever has kitchen duty for the week has to keep an eye on the dishwasher and start it whenever it gets full. Not hard.. oh and we will need dishwasher detergent.

Clean up after yourself in general (as far as shared spaces go... kitchen, living room, porch, etc.... so, it doesn't apply to your room.. clearly)

Meeting duty: 2 person duty. One person heads the meeting and the other one takes minutes. If anyone has anything they would like to have brought up at the meeting then find one of the 2 people that are on meeting duty.

Garden duty refers to the garden in our backyard, so right now whoever has garden duty will just plan for the garden in the future because right now we are only growing grass : (

WORK AT THE GARDEN THIS WEDNESDAY FROM 2-4!!! yea! (highly encouraged.. but not mandatory if you can't make it)

"I would like to direct your attention to the garden game." -Jonathan

Meeting with ERs: vines killing trees, mowing yard (that goes to PPS), everything yard-like that needs to be approved by Hartman

Compost bin in our backyard.. when is that going up?

BIRTHDAY AND CAKES! (no box cakes, they're lameee) and whoever memorizes all the birthdays and favorite desserts gets...... ... ... brownies.. made my me.. no joke. On a first to do it basis. We'll see if anyone actually reads this far into the blog anyway. You have to recite them to me.

• Jonathan: 10/5, chocolate cake, pumpkin cheesecake, summer berry pie
• Bentley: 11/22, pecan pie
• Becca: 2/13, red velvet
• Elspeth: 10/7, chocolate or carrot cake
• Carson: 2/24, red velvet
• Laura: 4/27, carrot cake and ice cream
• Kate: 12/11, oreo ice cream cake or chocolate cake
• Chelsea: 1/9, Fudge pie
• Emily: 3/7, chocolate cake with a whole lot of chocolate
  
• Helen: 3/12, Banana pudding
• Paul 8/28 or 29?, Paul, what's your favorite cake or dessert?

"I would like to direct your attention to the family creative workshop books." -Jonathan

Speakers to present to the lecture committee? Anyone have any ideas? I think this would be a great way to get people to the house for a small talk or dinner with the speaker after the talk and it would be sweet to get a great speaker here.

Glass bottles in the garden breaking? Not as long as you don't rake the soil or use any hard tools in the beds. We won't need to as long as we have good soil. No glass around main pathways, though, only raised beds.

DON'T WALK ON THE NEW GRASS IN OUR FRONT YARD.

Richie Hubbard's basic needs program.. we may not sponsor a kid as a house, but if you are interested in doing it yourself then go to Kate. Sounds like a great program.

IF YOU PICK UP TRASH IN THE BACK YARD BETWEEN HERE AND BETA THEN CARSON WILL GIVE YOU A BIG HUG!

Bringing classes over to the house? YES! But, I think we need to talk about it as we see it coming just so everyone knows what's going on. Calendar for all the events.. good idea. I think we have one up right now in the main hallway on the first floor.

Stopwatches for timing showers.. we need them right now.

We did have a hummingbird named Tetra last night, BUT, she is okay now! SO SHE FLEW AWAY!!!!! YEA! We'll forever remember her from those 27 hours we spent with her.

THE END.

Meeting lead by Bentley Cook

and minutes by Emily Ezell

House Work

Chores:

Done on a rotating basis.
You and your partner work together on each chore for one week.

Kitchen: Clean kitchen thoroughly by Sunday evening each week. Wash counters, dishes, dry and put away dishes. Wash top of stove. Clean out spoiled food from fridge and freezer. Sweep floor. Wash table (once we have it). Clean at least once a week and as needed (when kitchen is dirty and when it is needed for an event).

Living room: Tidy living room, screen porch and back porch thoroughly by Sunday evening each week. Put away games, books, art supplies, tools, and anything else. Adjust couch cushions, compost wilted flowers, and sweep floors. Tidy table tops and floor space where junk accumulates. (You may need to spend 5 minutes per day on this throughout the week.)

Garden: Varies week by week. Includes, compost duty, watering, mulching, building, planting, and weeding. Talk to Kate about what needs to be done.

Love and Joy: You and your partner do something nice for everyone else in the house.

Meeting: You and your partner must speak with each member of the house before the Sunday house meeting to find out what needs to be discussed at the upcoming meeting. Put together an agenda together. One person will lead the meeting and the other will take notes and post the notes on the blog by Tuesday night.

Programmable Thermostats!

Hello all,

I am just writing to encourage everyone to speak to their parents about installing programmable thermostats in their home. Me and my mom recently convinced ourselves that it was necessary, after about three years of discussing it as something that we ought to do. It cost forty dollars, and took about twenty minutes for us to install ourselves. I think it would be great if we could all commit to having one in our home, as well as making sure we do something similar at the Green House? 

The programmable thermostat that we purchased has an EPA energy star program on it (you can also make your own program.) The EPA program is as follows for the summer: From 6am to 8 am it is set at 78 degrees. From 8am to 6pm it is set at 85 degrees. From 6pm to 10pm it is set at 78 degrees, and from 10pm to 6am it is set at 82 degrees. There is a different setting for Winter months. I'm sure it will save us the forty dollars it cost us within a few months. I hope we can do something similar in the Green House?? Or just go sans air conditioning entirely.

I am soo soo excited about coming back to Sewanee in a few days!!

The Family Creative Workshop

I just wanted to let everyone know that on Monday morning i purchased the complete Family Creative Workshop 24 volume set. These books are so great. the titles are as follows:
#1 Acrylics to Batik
#2 Beachcombing to Bottle Gardens
#3 Boxes to Card Tricks
#4 Carryalls to Confections
#5 Cosmetics to Egg Decoration
#6 Embroidery to Lace
#7 Glass Working to Hibachi
#8 Hooked Rugs to Lace
#9 Lamps & Shades to Maps & Pathfinding
#10 Marmalades and Preserves to Mosaics
#11 Music Making to Paper Mache
#12 Parades & Festivals to Pinatas
#13 Pin Striping to Puzzles
#14 Quilting to Rope Knotting
#15 Rosemaling to Scrimshaw
#16 Sculpture to Silhouettes
#17 Silversmithing to Sprang
#18 Square Dancing to Sugar Shapes
#19 Sundials to Tatting
#20 Tea to Toys
#21 Knitting to Vegetable Dyes
#22 Vinegars to Winter Sculpture
#23 Wire Sculpture to Zoetrope Toys
#24 Index

There is so much stuff in here that will help in practical tasks for the Greenhouse (like marmalades, preserves, and Tea) as well as impractical things that will just be really fun to do! (like bonsai, glass cutting, square dancing, parades and festivals). The volumes are arranged in alphabetical order, so there are so so many things in between what the titles say. I am excited and you should be too.

If you want to know where you're living,

check your e-mail.

New House!!

Hey guys,

Bentley mentioned that he was going to bring some stuff from home to outfil the NEW ECOHOUSE!! Yay!!! I think this year we should make the house really unique, colorful, artsy, and beautiful, make it a place that is inviting and tasteful. So, while most everyone is home maybe if you have a picture, rug, bric-a-brac you don't really want anymore, or like Bentley, old kitchen stuff. You could add a comment onto this post so we can keep track of what all we have so we don't get 50 log cabin shaped bottles, for example.

Personally, I am bringing a ton of food that my mom was going to throw away and some old calender pictures that might look nice framed or collaged, some curtains, and probably some other stuff that I'll find and throw in.

This house is going to be amazing!!!

Goals to consider

Yesterday I gave veggies from our garden to Dean Hartman and Kay Brown and
talked to Dean Hartman for a while. We spent much of the spring telling
Dean Hartman what we want
and what he could do for us, so I asked what we could do for him.
Here's what he said:

1) Think about and talk with him about what students like us
want from college.

2) Share our ideas for programs and projects with him.

3) Think about how to make Sewanee a healthier place.

4) Work towards making the drinking scene less dominant
and overpowering.

5) Think about our house as a model for future
student residences, especiallythe student research house.
If we had a budget, how would we want it to be spent:
programming? technology? infrastructure?
is this representative of what other similar houses would need?

6) Keep the house and grounds looking nice.

7)Work with the Living Learning communities,
esp Our Planet, to make theLLCs a viable living learning situation.
Some people think that the LLC's "aren't Sewanee".
Let's help to make them "Sewanee".

8) Make our lives a "transparent living experience".
If a regent who owns a coal mine wants to know what sustainability is,
our lives should be examples of that. 
Everything we do should be perfectly visible and easy
for people to understand. Hartman described it as a pop up book.
What we do differently that makes our life and house sustainable
should be so obvious no one can miss it.
No one should have to ask: "What makes the greenhouse green?"
Think about what the tour guides would say about our house to
explain what we're about and how we live to people who have no
experience or understanding of the idea of sustainable living.

I think the last two are especially important. 
We need to bring the LLC folks over to our house
and get them to keep coming for our programs. I want to take a
trip to Keener's farm early on with a big group of students. 
The "transparent living experience" can be helped some
simply by putting up signs and notes about what we do.

Send and post your thoughts.

Meet Spunky

Wotcher!
(That is a highland cow who I meet on my walk everyday. I named him Spunky)

Here are some pictures of the farms I have stayed at recently and/or visited. To my left, you can see a thatched roof chicken coop.
That's right, that is for chickens.

Next, (this is for Helen) there is a bike electricity generator, being used as a demonstration piece for the Earthship house I went to near
Edinburgh. The house was completely self-sustainable, made out of bottles, tires, cans, and earth mixes, taking care of its own water, electricity and sewage. Surrounding the house were gardens, greenhouses made out of bottles, children play areas made of reused materials and willow sculpting, and a really scary scarecrow.

To my right, there is the wall that I helped to render (which is like cob but made with less straw and more clay and sand, and is put on in layers). There were two families that had four kids in total who were running a small box scheme and building their straw bale house using very few electrical tools or nails, so I got to learn how to mix up cob and apply plasters to walls. Very educational.




The next picture is from the large box scheme farm I stayed out right next to Edinburgh. This shows the walled garden. There was a large raspberry, tayberry and strawberry patch where we could eat as many berries as we wanted (which we often took full advantage of)

Also, 10 points to whoever can identify this cathedral (hint, its in England, not Scotland and the columns are a dead giveaway)
















Hey! It might be fun to have a slide show from all our summer adventures - remember when Angie did a powerpoint on Old Mill Farm?

Tasty Veggies

Hello Everybody,

Here are some pics of some delicious vegetables consumed right out of the garden. Look at me, I'm about to eat that garlic! Elspeth is all like, "woah, check out this carrot. this is the biggest carrot EVERRR!"

Wouldn't you like to know, Jonathan?

I've made a draft...but it's not official till we hear res life's two cents. Which I hope will be this week. Suffice to say, it's pretty close to the rooming plan we made last spring. Look, I promise I'll tell you soon, but not till after I've talked with Nicky Hamilton and Eric Hartman.

So Elspeth, any thoughts yet on who's rooming where/who's rooming with who?

i check this blog every day and theres hardly ever anything new anymore. thus, i will write a post. i hosted a yard sale for emily last saturday in order to raise money for eric's quest for $20,000 and we did pretty well. over 400 dollars well. emily got a bunch of people to donate stuff to the sale, and they brought it over to my house the day before. this gave me ample opportunity to rummage through the rubble and buy what i wanted before the sale happened, and i was quite pleased with what i found. in my living room was a 1960's Smith-Corona Super Sterling Typewriter in pristine condition!! i picked it up and i could tell that somehow it was smiling at me. i knew that we were meant to be. since then my mother has teached me the in's and out's, and the half-ways between in and out about using a typewriter. needless to say, i have used it nonstop for the last 2 days, and i would have used it to type out this post, but i was afraid the keys striking my computer screen might have damaged it, so i will type it using this new-age computing device instead. after discussing it, emily and i decided that on april fool's, or just whenever i wanted to, i had to go to the ATC and tack away loudly on a paper or some notes or something. And yes, i will be using it in the house, and yes you will probably get very annoyed, at which point i will go to the attic(which i discovered has a crudely carpeted floor/room, unless they removed it during construction) and finish(out of earshot) the beautiful poem or letter i am typing, maybe even for you, the person who expresses their annoyance. And then won't you feel bad about expressing that annoyance. that's right, being annoyed should have been a sacrifice in exchange for a beautiful gift, but you bastardized that gift in your unwillingness to be annoyed for a few measly hours. that is going to be great, and i hope all of you are looking forward to that in a month. i also purchased a bottle in the shape of a perching eagle, which i will be drinking water out of at the dinner table. and i also have a bottle that is shaped like a log cabin, if anyone would like to join me in that endevour. maybe we could have a club in which you have to drink out of an oddly shaped bottle at the dinner table, but then it just becomes so common and everyday that we forget it's a club. that would be cool. These are just some of the things you all can look forward to with longing, anticipation, maybe even groaning in the pains of yearning. i know i already do.
love,
jonathan