the online home of the folks who live in an intentional community at the university of the south focused on sustainable living and being infectiously joyful
Thanks to the Jump-Off boys, we've been propagating a native root, the Jerusalem Artichoke. Not from Israel and nowhere near an artichoke in taste, these are more related to the Sunflower. We recently dug these roots up as their vibrant yellow flowers wilted with the arrival of the brisk autumnal air. We found out the hard way that these tubers aren't digested properly by our enzymes and should be eaten with extreme moderation. They store energy as a inulin, not starch as we are used to consuming. In my internet perusing, I've found a great summary of the consequences of over consuming these accurately nick-named "fartichokes." Gerard's Herbal, printed in 1621, quotes the English planter John Goodyer on Jerusalem artichokes: "which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men." Perhaps chickens or rabbits would like them?
We have food to use up. Kate will make basil pasta sauce.
Here's a bread recipe:
3 c. HWW flour
1 t salt
1/3 c. milled flax seed
1 T yeast
1 ¾ c. water
2 T fat
3 T. sugar or honey
Who has been t o the garden? If you haven’t, do.
Carson wants us to go to the garden.
Katie’s badass.
April got a haircut.
Awkward people at frat parties are funny.
Carson also wants more people to do compost.
Callie says no.
Rabbit meeting at 7: Rabbit group will meet this week. Ask professors to come for moral support and useful info?
Library! Dr Potter has books, and we have some books already. We need to go through them and OK things—legal documents are in there. Info on grant writing and such.
Callie doesn’t like the book Women.
Do we accept books that may not be immediately pertinent to Greenhousey things? Yes
Thomas wants a stamp.
“I’d like the stamp to be handmade.”
Callie: “Yeah, you could make it out of a potato.”
“Or a piece of rubber.”
April wants to have a meeting about Armentrout food and such. Katie, April, Deanna.
How to grind coffee? Better if fresh-ground, but will we be able to use Stirling’s?
Who should be MC? Cain?
Armentrout is CLOSE! Invites should go out within 10 days of now.
Print services for invites.
Couchsurfers come next Wednesday.
Egg breakfast next Saturday. Kate and Pam will invite the CoHo. Pam will make invites, Kate will make casserole.
Callie 8:22—exciting events next week: Sat. Dead Poet’s Night—music, poetry readings, make a list of people who would be good to invite? Write names on the white board in the kitchen, Thomas to get people on the Mountain Goat. Send out a Sun. C-student email, Facebook event, put out the fliers.
Art Forum is showing Rocky Horror Picture show here. We need to tidy up the house, they will bring food and movie stuff and publicity.
Wed. Nov. 3 Rabbit discussion. Pam and Rowan need to make fliers. Rabbit Team (Kate, Katie, Sean, Rowan, Callie) meet in the morning for a discussion.
Carson 8:30—Rabbit books? Website? Some informational source for interested parties.
Sean 8:30—People need to get reimbursed for money spent. We have a $3000 budget left to spend, only spent $500.
Carson 8:32—Do not worry about the budget when there are things that need to be spent.
Armentrout dates? Two or three people to get people here, two to three people to organize the house and get it ready for the evening.
Working on the House: April, Deanna, Katie.
Need a projector. Sean to get one from the LAL.
Need to get coffee percolator and coffee. How much coffee? 10 pounds!!
Cake from the Blue Chair or Julia’s
ATS and ATC have sound equipment. Email them and ask them.
Getting people here: everyone needs to come up with five names of people who could come and email Carson. Carson, Thomas, Callie to create a schedule of people to play. Rob McCallister as the MC? Laura Candler? Elspeth Iralu?
April—We should make a calendar and put it on the wall so that we can see what people are doing and what events are happening in the house. Someone check out the attic and see if a white board is up there.
Kate 8:51—Nov. 10th couch surfers need a place to stay and a place to play a show. We will host them and make them dinner
Carson 8:54—No Impact Man Thursday night at GPS in Chattanooga. Callie is going with Chelsea. Anyone who wants to go talk to Callie (but be careful cause she is really mean. She cra- cra-)
The fireplace works! But make sure that the vent is open and that the doors are closed.
Found Beta’s composite in the woods. Looks like a skunk peed on it.
We should start unplugging stuff like vending machines and televisions.
Callie 9:04—Could we host people for Multi Cultural weekend? Nov. 4-6
It’s not too late to join Team Compost. Meeting tomorrow on the balcony of McClurg at 7. 600 pounds of compost per day!! Planning on going to other places around Sewanee.
Carson 9:11—How do we preserve things from the garden? We should start dating food in the fridge.
Turn off the lights dudes.
SSC still needs ideas to be contributed.
Come to the garden. It’s where we can love each other. It’s where life begins. And hopefully won’t end. When you’re there.
Cherry tomatoes are ready to pick. Basil is out there. Make pesto pronoto and put it in the freezer. Harvest most of it but leave some leaves.
We should start canning. Callie knows how to can. We should have a canning workshop!! Don’t be passive aggressive. Be aggressive aggressive.
Sean 9:20—We should do more things together. We should have pasta night with the basil pesto.
April—Could people be more sensitive to early and late hours in the kitchen. Katie and April can hear everything that people say and get woken up by people talking.
It’s Kate’s birthday on Tuesday! We should have dinner! Pam’s b-day on Nov. 6!
October 5th @ noon: Cider Making Workshop at the GreenHouse
October 6th @ 7:00pm: Environmental Studies Majors dinner at the GreenHouse
October 8th @ 7:00pm: Craft Night (co-sponsored by SPECE) at the GreenHouse
October 10th @ 12:00pm - 3:00pm: Community Garden Party (co-sponsored by Sustain Sewanee) in the Mary Sue Cushman Room / Organic Garden
October 11th - October 13th: Zero Waste Events during the VC Installation. Volunteers still needed. Contact Rocco Calandruccio (rwcaland@sewanee.edu) for more information.
Callie—look at something and turn it to stone/gold at will
Katie—shape shifter (Barbie in particular)
Kate—musical, speak all languages
Sean—breath under water
Thomas—control all metal (like Magnito), talking to animals, Dr. Manhattan, God
Carson—fly
April—run fast, be strong (run from the cops after she robs banks)
Pam—know everyone’s emotions
Stewart—telekinesis/influence things with emotions (Jedi Master)
Rowan—turn head 365 degrees
Deanna—read minds at will
Carson—kitchen gone astray, lots of dirtiness, not just one person’s job to clean up the messes in the kitchen, April doing a good job at being a kitchen manager, but people need to clean up their own dishes. People from the community do drop by, so we need to keep the rooms and commons area tidy. Keep lights off when not in use, fans off when not in use.
Someone please take the SNACKSTER. Carson HATES the Snackster.
Pam—email SPECE wants to help craft night on Oct. 8th at about 7, Deanna and Katie and Pam want to help. Anything that people think that could be used for crafts leave outside Pam’s door
Carson—Callie has been taking care of the worms, fertilizer is looking good, so black it absorbs light, surrounds everything in shadow
Katie—apple pressing, people need to collect apples and respond to a date for the cider. Mrs. Bowman wants to do it on a weekday. Send out an email on classifieds (Callie) to ask people if we can harvest their apples. Pressing would be in the afternoon, making cider in the evening, and make dinner for our guest. Open workshop! Need to advertise! Need to collect containers for the cider
20:30 Carson—Having McCardell over for dinner in November. MenuArmentrout in November. Jen Bachman wants to be involved in Armentrout as well, do the food part? Take a month to plan, huge commitment. Not going to do the Haunted House, high maintenance. Dead Poet’s night, light a thousand candles.
20:35 Michael—ERs need help to organize a garden work party, need a list of tasks for what needs to be done. 20-30 people will show. Oct. 10th at one o clock, gonna have food from Julia’s at the Women’s Center
Carson—some could work here, maybe not all in the garden, but some. Most in the breakfield garden. Build raised beds, plant garlic, make cold frames. Might not have everything, requires funds.
Sean—boosted compost at McClurg
Michael—keep in touch about tasks and tools, if need to borrow some from PPS
Carson—email about signing up for composting at a VC event, ensuring that every event is waste free, McClurg is almost all compost, if can’t deliver at either garden, dump behind PPS
Callie—team compost dedicating 2-3 hours a week moving compost getting started in October, ERs GreenHouse and others
Sean—garden managers need to meet about gardens tomorrow over breakfast, need to plant before temperature drops.
Pam—need to write the op-ed article soon, Thomas will get the journal tomorrow
Deanna—How Then Shall We Eat last Thursday, another on Oct. 7th with Bill Keener people should come
Box of wheat on porch should be threshed before it gets wet, tomorrow evening at 5
Favorite Things About Callie!
Stewart—when she tries to be mean or intense and she fails
Thomas—how excited she gets about little things
Kate—when she makes music
April—hair and laugh
Pam—bubbly in the morning, makes day better
Katie—when she smiles, how passionate and excited she is
Rowan—when Callie smiles I smile
Sean—how excited she gets about using her truck
Carson—I like Callie’s big ole cow eyes
Deanna—day she was going to dinner, saw chickens chasing another chicken, heard Callie playing her fiddle, and thought that life felt perfect.
"A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves."
We've had quite an eventful start for the school year here at the GreenHouse! Lots of exciting changes and new plans a'brewing--both in the house and in the University (composting team, anyone?).
First off, we added a couple of adorable new members to the household:
No, not those wieners. These furry and feathered cuties:
The rabbit proposal is slowly coming into fruition with the arrival of lady bunnies. The boy bunnies seem to be really excited about this. Katie has been doing a fair amount of research on bunny breeding, and yesterday, Professor Haskell came by the house to provide us with more information on the subject.
A handful of new chickens have arrived at the coop. The old hens are still adjusting to their new housemates (just like the rest of us), but we're hoping that it won't be long until the new arrivals will be integrated into the flock. For more info on the new chickens, a fantastic article by Waleska Solorzano just came out in this week's issue of the Sewanee Purple.
It was a busy weekend for the GreenHouse with two events back-to-back on Friday night and Saturday morning. Refusing to let the rain stop the fun, we relocated the tea/jam session scheduled for Friday into the living room. Not quite as fun as a backyard campfire, but everyone still made the best of the night with Bob Dylan/Neutral Milk Hotel/Joni Mitchell/Bright Eyes sing-a-longs and the infamous Oreo game.
We hosted this year's Environmental Residents for breakfast the following morning. It was a great way to start the day, with eggs courtesy of the hens, fruit salad from pilfered McClurg bananas and apples, and Callie's tasty bagels. Granted, the attendance from the ERs was a bit low, but everyone compensated by eating extra servings (not that anyone complained). We'll probably have to figure out a better way to boost attendance for Saturday Morning Breakfast for next time. I mean, who can resist a homemade herb bagel made with fresh ingredients and lots and lots of love?
Thomas—wants to be Wes Anderson/Rowan (to look at self naked)/Cormac McCarthy
Callie—Jenifer Aniston
20:10—Callie—Need to have a meeting about the rabbits: what to do with them, what to do about Big Mac, lunch meeting—Wednesday at 1:00 PM
20:12—April—Clean up mess in kitchen
20:15—Callie—Two activities over the weekend: Friday Night Jam, Saturday Morning Breakfast. FNJ—Facebook invite, more fliers, put it on the blog. SMB—Try and get the word out sooner to people.
Sean—Paul Farmer
Stewart—Fidel Castro/the guy out of Blow/April/Jesse Jackson/Lil’ Wayne/pretty girls for John Wayne
20:18—Callie—Cooking the bunny: rabbit stew, April, Rowan, Callie. NEXT Sunday Meeting.
(Bunny died from stress… Common occurrence.)
Bunny hide is still being soaked, soaked for 4 days, anyone who wants to help can help.
Is the rabbit dinner going to be public? Invite Rick?
Dr. Haskell coming over to discuss giving the rabbits better lives, unhappy with the way the situation with Big Mac transpired. Suggests that we buy books and read them and report on them to the rest of the hosue.
20:25—Thomas—Starting up the library with Dr. Potter, getting people to donate books, get a fund to buy books, magazine subscriptions.
20:26—Stewart—workshop to organize things in the dishwasher…
20:27—Deanna—Lending property of the greenhouse? Is that cool? … Need to keep good records of who has which books. Sign out system, going to build shelves.
20:28—Callie—Chicken and rabbits is the most important chore and people need to be very diligent, if you are gone get cover, it is a top priority for their livelihood. Need to get more food for rabbits and shavings for the chicken coop. Everyone needs to read the rabbit report, but should not base all knowledge on it.
20:32—Garden Managers—Garden hours, Tuesdays and Sundays 1-3 at Breakfield Garden. Need to get out advertisements in and around campus. Get chalks and go out and write! Weed pulling coming up, need to get things planted now. Winter plants: beets, carrots, wheat, kale, broccoli, pumpkins?
20:33—Thomas—GreenHouse Journal, everyone should write in it and record all the stories.
Katie—CEO of National Geogrphic
Deanna—Switch between Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon/Clint Eastwood
Kate—John Steinbeck
20:37—Deanna—Everyone needs to be on the food-working group. Sustainability master plan. Need to make cool stuff happen with McCardell, make proposals.
20:06—Waiting in the Family Room for Thomas Sanders to get his butt over here.
Things We’re Tired Of:
Carson—people screaming outside his window, loud noises at night
Stewart—soap, shampoo all over the bathroom, April not loving him
April—confusion, frustration, bitches not cleaning up their messes in the damn kitchen, Stewart not accepting that she’s gay
Sean—running out of tea, stealing Rowan’s tea
Rowan—tired of people thinking that he really doesn't care, mosquitos, wants them to die
Callie—bitches
Thomas—being awake, tired of being tired
Katie—bitches not composting their shit
Deanna—fake happy relationships, one in particular which is fake happy all the time and not happy any time
Kate—lacking the motivation for running
Pam—McClurg food
Victoria (guest)—being bruised easily
20:20—Pam’s chore line is up, starting on the chores tomorrow, switching on Sunday nights and starting on Monday
—Sunday nights=recycling nights
—Carson gives a speech—Friday, Sustainability Summit, meeting of the people on the Natural Resources Committee, Nan Jenks from Middlebury, environmentalism director, spoke of how Middlebury is the number 1 sustainable school in the country. How does Sewanee get act together?—Office of sustainability on campus. Good indications of Sewanee in the right spot: the garden, Dean Hartman mentioned the GH as an organization that represents a lot of sustainability on campus, the model for campus, Dr. Potter mentioned that students inspire faculty to work together, GH and CoHo good at asking permission to fail… We’re awethome.
20:33—Carson—Project for this year, living up to the expectations of us. Brining people, students, into the GreenHouse who do not have a home on campus. Bringing faculty here. VC McCardell is looking for ways to kick start sustainability on campus: funded position of a Farm Manager in the near future. How do we go about it? Natural sciences: agriculture, farming classes.
20:39—Katie—bike renting program where people who can’t afford a bike or cannot get their bikes to campus can check out a bike
20:40—Callie—need to start garden workdays; garden managers need to meet to decide workdays and what is going to be planted where. We need to get started with work this week.
—Carson—Managers need to build a group of people who can work in the garden, mass emails, posters, etc. Split up one of the garden spaces where we supply all the seeds and tools and anyone can start their own plot. NEED to get people out and working. Competitions to donate to the CAC. More work at the student garden so that people do not feel uncomfortable gardening our GH garden.
Gardening text? How to start your own space
20:47—Thomas—a collection of gardening reading material, build a library, Thomas wants to be the librarian. Email for donating books
20:49—Callie—next time there are new chickens they need to stay separated from others so that they can get used to each other so they do not fight
20:51—Callie—Katie starting breeding rabbits tomorrow morning, rabbit journal to track what they’re doing, naming the animals by cage so that we do not confuse the males
20:53—7:30 tomorrow morning house picture.
20:54—Stewart—profile questions for each person in the house:
1.Favorite combination predator?
2.Spirit animal?
3.Birthdays? (need to make a list of birthdays and what everyone wants)
4.Favorite vegetable?
5.Hometown?
6.Majors?
7.Favorite books?
8.Favorite hot beverages?
9.Favorite yoga positions?
10.Languages?
11.Instruments?
12.Car?
13.What would you’re role be in the house?
14.Make up a question?
21:00—Deanna—Grundy County Food Bank Monday Thursday Saturday 12:45-1:45, needs physical help. Gardening at The Bridge with seniors, when can we do it? Senior Center behind The Market quilting group Wednesday mornings, invite Lina to come and have a meal with us. Kat Odonahough Folks at Home, gardening for people, shitake logs, helping garden at the CAC, Stephanie Lauria recycling—plastic containers with bottle caps, cardboard most valuable
21:10—Carson—egg breakfast for the ERs, Rowan and April and Katie Qualls, need to make a Pig run, faculty/staff dinner?
On the Invasive Removal and Native Planting Day (IRNPD) Nathan Bourne helped take out the giant privet tree in our backyard and Becca painted a little poison on the stump to help it fully die. Callie Crider made a beautiful sign for the native wildflower area, which are all labeled with carved slate tiles, and Paul Dixon delegated the privet tree to the back woods.
Thanks to McCrady/LLC for the funding! We received $300 to buy native plants, which we purchased from the Sequachie Cove Farm including: Paw paws, serviceberries, beauty berries, native honeysuckle, witchhazel, spicebush, alternate leaf dogwood, buckeye, and lots of wildflowers like foamflower, firepink, shooting star, soloman's seal, colombine, and meadow rue.
Greenhouse Garden Party at Brakefield Garden. Lovely weather with wonderful people and yummy food: Quiches, Keener Hamburgers, Homemade Bread, and Apple Pie
Here is what is going on with McClurg: Chessie and I successfully completed the first fossil-fuel free compost transport today, by wheeling the bin of compost and crate of coffee to the backyard garden (and carrying it over the mud). Yay Chessie!! The bi-weekly compost pick-up of a full 55 gallon bin has been great- we have never missed a day and it is wonderful to talk to the workers in the back! A couple of crates of coffee is being composted every week as well.
Jack Nance is dropping off the egg cartons from McClurg on our porch, which are being used for our eggs, some for the compost (we have a TON), and eventually for starting seeds.
I am going to talk to Scott Maino, the director, tomorrow about how the Keener beef is going and what is the next step in composting at McClurg. Email me if you have any thoughts.
Eric sent us some pics of the cold frame and chicken tractor, which I am attaching. Maybe they will magically end up in our scrapbook?
Hello residents and ardent followers of the GreenHouse:
Leigh Lentile has passed on some valuable funding information- Fund for Innovative Teaching and Learning (FITL; pronounced Fightel) has a category within the fund dedicated for student initiated projects with learning outcomes. Robin Hille-Michaels, who is super sweet and has an office in the Outreach office- she is in charge of the Canale program, knows all about this fund and can hook you up.
SO if you have any cool projects that need funding- like the bike generator (I'm still working on it- don't ask or I will rant about it) - then talk to Robin. I'm also going to write this info in the GH diary, but thought you might need it now.
It is due by 5 PM on Friday, February 19. You will likely want to draft your short answer responses in Word so you can save and edit your work.
One required question on the application is to tell us which of the GreenHouse positions (excluding Los Jefes) you would excel at and find fulfilling. If none of the below positions appeal to you, define your own. While certainly not binding, your response will help us to craft a unique and diverse house. The positions are as follows:
I. Los Jefes (2) - the directors: Maintain the intentionality and house mission.
Seek to answer the following questions:
(1) Internal - How can the house residents live more durable, fulfilling, sustainable lifestyles, growing together as a family unit?
(1) External - How can the house implement the vision of sustainable living in Sewanee, while being goal driven and action oriented?
II. The Pen – the scribe: Details house activities in journal and online. Writes articles for the newspaper. Organizes and builds house library. Maintains the blog/Sustain Sewanee GH page. Photograph archiver. Makes house signage for sustainable/educational aspects.
III. Chick Magnet - chicken manager: Oversees the mental and physical well-being of the hens. Ensures Hen Hall is habitable, the purchase of food, and directing the chore of chicken care, including weekly check-list and egg count.
IV. Provost of the Compost - compost director: Monitors the garden compost, McClurg ambassador and Scott Maino's (McClurg director) best friend, coordinates the compost pick-up of the student and prep area compost, and investigates other sources of compost. Vermicomposting (worm composting).
V. Kid Coordinator – weekly elementary and middle school outreach: Continues the outreach program to teach children about gardening, composting, chickens, and other activities at the Green House. Coordinates with other organizations and houses (EMTs, Community Service House, Firefighters).
VI. Homesteader – education director: Gathers idea from housemates and works with them to coordinate logistics of DIY workshops, speakers, and documentaries. They will organize at least one major event every month and work on inviting a diverse group of students and community members.
VII. Garden Manager – Old Farm: Oversees the work of the garden, including bi-weekly garden work days open to the whole campus. Maintain the purpose of the old farm garden as supplying food for donation to the Community Action Committee or Grundy County Food Bank. Incorporate garden into curriculum (make it a PE or independent study) to teach garden workers Gardening 101/basics.
VIII. Garden Manager – New Farm: Oversees the house garden and land use at the Green House. Makes our land a teaching example of sustainable agricultural and living, including extending the growing season to feed the house and house events.
IX. Utility Witch – Measure consumed resources daily: gas, water, electric. estimates carbon footprint and living cost. Directs shower timing and appliance use. Evaluates house efficiency and appearance. Enacts practical solutions, emphasizing maintenance and consumption minimalization. Our ambassador to PPS. Also in charge of the maintenance and purchase of tools.
X. Checks and Balances - 'checks' = the house treasurer, reimbursements and account monitoring; 'balances' = coordinates with other organizations and houses on campus (EMTs, Community Service, Greek Organizations, Outreach Office). Volunteer coordinator for garden and huge projects. Advocates for maintaining an awesome relationship with local folk and farmers.
We need another GH interest email- cstudent about if people are still interested and didn't make it to the meeting- Compton is all over it like eggs on toast.
Eggs! We are getting about 70 eggs a week. 48 can be used for omelet breakfast one week and CAC the alternate week. The rest will be used by GH peeps. SOO start saving, for omelet this weekend. If we each have about two eggs a week, it should work out.
Positions: Still be thinking about what your GH position will be this semester- check out the list on the last blog. Callie wants to be New Farm garden manager. Becca and Hanna maybe want to work on a cool book about the GH history with pics, drawings, stories, etc.
Oreos and bonfire was fantastical.
Merit students are cool.
Craft night will have a facebook event. Twitter? Um maybe not yet.
this week:
think about what position you want for remainder of semester
think about potential people for next year and write their name on the google doc. (invite sent separately)
help kate with compost bucket rotation. empty them into bin!
events:
Monday 7pm: Band practice & picture followed by info session. bring your story to share.
Tues/Wed 6pm- Hosting session in Gailor
Tuesday- Carson is organizing Food Waste display
Thursday 7pm - Callie is organizing Farm Internship workshop in Spencer
Thursday post-8pm: No Light Night.
Friday noon - Lunch at 'Clurg with tablecloth
Saturday 8:30pm- GreenHouse Family Folk Band & Fire Eatin' & Smores & Oreos
tasks:
Callie & Carson are the new directors. (internal/external affairs)
Reed- closet removal
Callie (duchess of the fire)- fire permit
Paul- Annual report
Hanna, Keri, Kate - chick magnet T-shirt squad
Kate, chessie, compton, ??? - compost squad.
Mission statement task force made progress as well.
