Pro education... the best way to protect our environment is by knowing the world around us.

A group of my neighbours here at in Groundswell Cohousing have joined with other locals to form a group called "PIPE UP".  The group is working to sort out the complex issues around the Kinder Morgan Pipeline and its proposed twinning.

I admit.  This is one of those times where living in community has made me take pause and notice something that I would never normally take time for.  Not because I am a horrible person.  Just because I, like so many others, am busy keeping up with life as it swirls around me.

PIPE UP will be hosting a couple of documentary nights.  I'm sure there will a tons of information sharing and conversation about the pipeline that runs through the entire Fraser Valley's back yard.  Perhaps not exactly in your actual yard but- should there be an issue with it- believe me it will affect you in a very personal way.

Take a night to learn.  Its good for our brains, and good to get out!  Enjoy!

And if you'd like to get involved with PIPE UP let me know and I can forward your email to the right neighbours for that!

Raising the Roof

I have never done a barn raising before. Truth be told there are all sorts of things I hadn't done before moving to an ecovillage.

I've done some research now. And I can't wait to raise a barn!

The idea of a whole community coming together to bring alive something as big as a barn astounds me. To assemble walls- and then raise them into place? To support people in such an integral way as making a barn! I'll spare the rewrite- there is a good 10 minutes of wiki should you be interested in the olden day way of raising a barn. My favorite part is when they talk about how it was unheard of to skip a barn raising. The idea that every single person was expected to support their neighbour, their town, their community. Is that what is missing? Now days it is hardly taboo to skip voting, never mind helping a neighbour. What a different world we live in "nowadays".

We laughed today about the food it took to feed a barn raising.

Food for a Barn Raising

115 lemon pies

500 fat cakes (doughnuts)

15 large cakes

3 gallons applesauce

3 gallons rice pudding

3 gallons cornstarch pudding

16 chickens

3 hams

60 pounds roast beef

300 light rolls

16 loaves of bread

Red beet pickle and pickled eggs

Cucumber pickles

6 pounds dried prunes, stewed

I large crock stewed raisins

5 gallon stone jar white potatoes and the same amount of sweet potatoes

(Enough food for 175 men).

The reality is that I would never have even thought about a "barn raising" if it weren't for my neighbour Tam.

Let me tell you about Tam. (and then I pause for a good 15 minutes trying to find words for my amazing neighbour)

Tam is one of our farmers. She turns 30 in a few weeks. She has two beautiful sons, and a darn tootin' neat husband. The trick about Tam is that she is so versatile. The first time you meet her she'll probably be hauling a load of dirt, or sawing a piece of wood. The next time you see her she'll making that thrift store dress she found last week look beautiful. Two weeks later you'll learn she's also artistic AND she can use photo shop AND she can slop around in a stream looking at Tadpoles.

Truthfully I don't know very many people as versatile as Tam. She is a hard working, smiling, endeavourous creature. She is thoughtful. She is kind. She is a joy to have in our neighbourhood.

Speaking of endeavours... Tam really wants the community farm to have a barn. I don't know where she has found the time to put this little number together but here it is! A barn-raise-fund-raiser! I hope you'll be able to help us. Every penny counts. Every forward of the URL counts. Whatever you can do will be a string pulling up our barn!

Thankyou for reading!

(wiki post on barn raising linked below)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising

Garden Tips from Nevin

Hello aspiring green thumbs!

This time of year is perfect for those early seeds and early transplants. With low temperatures overnight now hovering above 6 degrees, most flowers, herbs etc can be transplanted into your garden. This is also a good time to start some early vegetables (direct seed) such as : Lettuce, Radish, Kale, Carrots, Beets, Arugula. Wildflower patches can be seeded directly now as well. Check the west coast seeds info sheet for planting this time of year, and you will notice the doors are opening for great possibilities!

Also as a note, with such a beautiful spring upon us, we are actually getting some dry periods! This is wonderful, but dont forget about those tiny seedlings you may have already planted, if they haven't sent out a root to get water, and the surface is dry as a bone, they are going to have a rough start! So just keep an eye on the weather and give them some h2o when you see them panting in the sun. Remember watering usages this time of year should be minimal, but a few sprinkles here and there can make all the difference early season, however we might also go back to rain and not need to think of that again till late May, only time will tell :) Also remember to consider mulching your surface areas after transplanting to retain moisture and make your garden lower maintenance!

Lastly, look at starting some seeds indoors in preparation for May, things such as : Summer squash, broccoli, cucumbers, winter squash, etc. These things can be started anytime between April 15th and the end of the month, for transplant mid to late may to your garden!

Nevin

Make your own Bow!

Raise the BARN!

COMING APRIL 21

Take Part in a Good Old Fashioned Barn Raising

In the past, when a barn was needed, communities came together in a fun and frantic weekend to build it. Now, you can take part in a barn raising yourself, at the Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farm in the Fraser Valley. The farmers at this Community Farm need a barn, and are using this need as an opportunity to invite everyone to take part in an amazing, community building event. All people, young and old, are invited to participate – the handiest people will be given the difficult jobs, and children and anyone uncomfortable with a hammer can pick fresh vegetables from the farm, and prepare a lunch for the crew.

So how can you take part? Well, before the actual barn raising, the Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farmers need to do some barn fundraising. They will be launching a peerbackers.com campaign from April 21^th to May 31st, and anyone who donates, even if it is just one penny, will be invited to take part in the barn raising fun. Those who donate more are eligible for all sorts of amazing rewards, such as organic produce, an invitation to a pumpkin picking party, or a fancy local food dinner for two. You can help by encouraging you friend network to donate when the time comes. Please email us at welcome@yarrowecovillage to be put on our campaign list.

The Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farm provides farmland to farmers who are committed to growing organic food for local markets. If you have shopped at a Vancouver Farmer’s Market, chances are you have bought something grown by one of the Community Farmers! Some of the produce grown by the different farms include salad mix, sweet baby carrots, heirloom tomatoes, and deluxe asian vegetables. The Community Farm is also expanding as a hub for local food and agriculture events, such as gardening workshops, local food dinners, and of course, barn dances once our barn is built!

For more information, a tour of the farm, or an interview, please contact

Tamara Bonnemaison,

Farm Manager, Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farm

Tamara.bonnemaison@gmail.com

778 374-0321

Garden Advice from Nevin

Heads up for the gardeners!

This coming weekend is an important time for your garden, as this will be the 1st sunny stretch of the year, of any good measure, and will be a great time to prepare your site. Many folks will be out creating pathways in the gardens on Saturday as well, so its going to be a great place of activity.

As well with the New Moon on Thursday the 22nd, the days following the new moon are the best time to start seeds, either in trays, or directly in the ground. Direct seeding of hearty green vegetables (arugula, kale, etc), and early flower mixes, along with root vegetables, are things that you can seed directly in the ground this time of year.

Happy Gardening!

Nevin

Muddy Buddies

Our mud-buddies, Tamara and Shauna, are working away at finishing the garden tool shed with a natural building technique that seems to include straw, clay, kids spraying each other with hoses, everyone getting elbow deep in mud and laughing a lot.  I think it's the last three activities that make this 'natural building'.   And these two gals , with their arms around each other? ( Tam's hands are too muddy to touch Shauna, but Tam's shirt is dirty enough and Shauna's hands clean enough to touch her :>) )  .... they are from two of the farming families here who produce so many vegetables my fridge door won't shut properly anymore without squishing the bags of green goodness  therein. They've been friends since grade eight in a small interior BC town.  Usually they're hauling bales, washing and bagging salad mix, or hand-tilling the weeds between the rows.  But in this moment, they turned to each other and said "  When we were in high school, did we have any idea that we end up here together???"
They look happy. 

Projects in the bunker silo

Cheryl and Ann work on artisan market fare while bikes are fixed in the background.

The weeds are growing , mushrooms too.

NutShell Niblets #23- - November 22nd, 2010

Ann's very personal, highly biased and incomplete guide to the ecovillage ... in a nutshell.

Stream Team

On Friday November 19th, two instructors Dan and Jeremy from Columbia Bible College, brought their class of Environmental Sustainability/Outdoors students to work on our Stream rehab project.

Workparty events ---from Shauna

I just wanted to update everyone on how the Work Party went with Dan and his class on Friday. We were a little worried about the sudden change in weather, but they arrived gung ho, & ready to go. So we all moseyed on over to the creek, talking about what we do here at YES the whole way. Once we got out there, Joe' took over and showed them what needed to be done, and we all went to it. And wow, they must have been really tired of sitting, because they pulled those canes faster than we could have ever anticipated. We had all the canes pulled, the willow pruned, the leaf mulch laid, and the logs moved away from the bridge, all within only 2 hours. AMAZING! We really didn't ask that much of them, but they were tackling anything we threw at them and were asking for more. lol.
After all the work was done, everybody came back and washed up for lunch in the Bunker Silo. After lunch we had a quick presentation regarding Stream Restoration, and about how the work they did helped. Many, many thanks to instructors Dan and Jeremy and their class of Quest sustainability students!
The day was a Huge Success, everyone. Thank you so much to Ann for lunch, Joe for hard work and energy, Michael for the tractor , Gerry for washing water
Editor's note: Shauna brought everyone together in a wonderful, enthusiastic way and pulled off a highly enjoyable and productive day. Thank you Shauna!
　
What's a CSA Box? .... Animal, Vegetable or Mineral ?

In the spring, when the first vegetables are ready for harvesting, we'll be able to buy fresh produce from our farmers on a weekly basis.
Community Shared Agriculture) (CSA) is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, in a vegetable box scheme, and sometimes includes dairy products and meat.(Wiki)
Lucky us!
　
We love TED http://www.ted.com/talks
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas worth spreading -- through TED.com, our annual conferences, the annual TED Prize
and TEDx which is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis
From Michael- Brene' Brown - connection and vulnerability- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Qm9cGRub0
from Britta- Jeremy Rifkin --- Empathetic Civilization http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReQ4iuTNYtA
From Liz - John Hardy off-the-grid school in Bali http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hardy_my_green_school_dream.html
from Cher - the Story of Stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM
　
November's Groundswell Community Meeting
Many, many of us gathered - residents and new buyers ... we're out-growing our meeting spaces!
In a nutshell...
To determine our Strata fees, we're going to go with a levy system that is combination of - household, person and and assessed value. For example- Snow-clearing would be per household, water use by #persons in household, and insurance by assessed value. Our Adhoc Strata Team of Beverly, Maureen and others will take the next steps and bring back their findings and recommendations to the next meeting for consensus.
Britta and Krishna presented their initiatives for counting Work Contribution Hours. We're learning from the experience of other cohousers that yes, hours do need to be counted so that we know who's doing what, what work is needed, workers are accountable and contributions are appreciated. Folks will either undertake a set minimum number of hours per month, or pay for someone else to do it. We're going for an easy-to-manage, no-hassle system of advance post-dated cheques for a dollar value of a minimum work requirement, to be refunded if work-hours are completed. And there'll be some sensible flexibility in there, too. We're not slave-drivers ready to crack a blaming whip.

February Work Party

We decided to spruce things up a bit in honour of the open house coming up on March 6. It was productive and fun: nice to meet new friends and have old members out as well. Lots of mud, kids got wet, tea tasted better by a campfire...