Holiday Gift Giving
Since I wrote the previous post, I've discussed my gift with my sister with the large organic garden. She suggests that I help her design and build a greenhouse to help overcome the extremely short growing season in the Adirondacks of NY.
Does anyone have good references to design of efficient and ecofriendly greenhouses (not "green" houses)? My carpentry skills are intermediate, and I have proficiency in CAD/3D visualization for the planning part of the project. I also have a methodology for determining insolation (amount of sunlight received) for a given site.
Peace,
Jim Zack, Sustainable Saratoga Springs
First, you could check your local library for books on building solar greenhouses.
I found that ours (Sacramento, CA) only had a 15-year-old Rodale's version. The materials used were conventional and IMO not "sustainable" enough: wood, glass, aluminum. Basically, such a structure would have to be rebuilt every 20 years or so--the constant humidity destroys the wood unless you use pressure treated (Ick!). Also, the maintenance of a year-round greenhouse is extensive and not something I would want to deal with. All the worries about clean (sterile) dirt, bacteria and mold problems, the lack of natural predator/prey relationships, no worms, etc.
On the other hand, we are blessed with a lengthy growing season and mild winters here in the Central Valley--so it's easy for me to "Pass" on all the expense and trouble of a greenhouse. Nonetheless, I highly recommend the book (or some other book about building greenhouses) because there was a lot of great info on siting. The whole idea of "solar south" was new to me.
As for better sustainability... I know someone up near Mount Shasta who built a straw bale greenhouse. He's a pretty serious bioneer/organics/permaculture practioneer for over twenty years. If you are interested, I can ask him if he has any advice and/or info resources to share.
If you space is limited, you might want to try cold frames or a hoop house, first, and see how those help extend your growing season. These are more temporary structures that can be stored in the rafters of your garage when not needed. You can move them around to suit your crop rotation, too. Pop up a hoop house over your tomatoes at the end of the season and see how far into the cold you can coax your harvest.
There are sites online about how to build a hoop house using PVC pipe, but I've always thought some long, flexible willow branches, or bamboo, would work even better. I can't think of an organic substitute for the clear vinyl you would use to cover the hoop house, but who knows: in a few years maybe they will be making corn-based plastics. The 6 mm plastic sheeting should last several seasons, according to the sites I've visited.
Cold frames can be made from salvaged two-by-fours and old window frames. If you have a Habitat for Humanity Restore in your area, check it out for CHEAP windows!
Hope this hasn't been just a bunch of stuff you already knew... **Denise**
Thanks for your comments Denise! I have checked out several books from the library on solar greenhouses since I posted. I am leaning toward a hoophouse with steel rafters and one or three perlins. Our main beds occupy 18' by 24' plot (6m x 8m). One of the members of our outpost (Sustainable Saratoga Springs) is an organic farmer, now doing research with NOFA and he has offered to help us plan our biointensive backyard operation.
There is a problem with sustainable materials as you point out. Polyethylene or polycarbonate? Both are plastic. PT-lumber or composite lumber (chemically treated or plastic mix)? But both last a long time and probably need not be replaced during the life of our structure.
As for your suggestion of mobile hoophouses, that sounds great. Plus it gets around zoning and permitting hassles. And it might let me keep the worms happy too!
More suggestions are always welcome!
OM Shanti,
Jim Zack
I hope you'll keep us posted on your progress, Jim.
Also, I'd like to know the titles of the other solar greenhouse books you've been reading. Our library has quite a few useful titles on alternative technologies, organic/biointensive gardening, etc., but nowhere near enough! I'm building my own reference library.
**Namaste, Denise**
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. (Plato)
The only book I've found at my library specifically aimed at solar gardening is the 1994 book Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way by Leandre Poisson and Gretchen Vogel Poisson, published by Real Goods Independent Living out of Ukiah, CA. "635.0483 Poi" in my library. ISBN 0-930031-69-5
There are no references to greenhouses, hoophouses or cold-frames, but ample info on solar pods and cones. They too are made of petro-plastic. But at least these materials aren't consumed in the process of growing.
I'm now leaning towards bio-intensive, hoophouse growing here in upstate NY. I'll let you know what my consultant on organic gardening suggests. -Jim
Hi Jim,
Thanks for posting your thoughts on gift giving this holiday season. I especially like how your gifts involve a lot of collaboration and participation on your part. It seems that for me at least, I only see much of my family and friends around the holiday break, and we tend to lose touch once work and school get underway again. Doing the types of activities you suggest would be a great way to stay in touch with family and friends - building and maintaining a close network of people you care about and who care about you is so important in healthy living.
To add to your suggestions, some gift ideas that I've come across that have worked well are enlarging and framing photos, cooking meals, giving tickets to a local performance, homemade wine (or other), putting together favorite recipes into a book.
I have one friend who is interested in film-making and every year he puts together a short film as a gift for his mother. Last year he tried claymation with an animated snowman!
People underestimate their skills! In fact, what you're suggesting relates very well to what Post Carbon Sweden is working on with their Local Gift Currency. Have a look at their pilot project Circle of Gifts (COGS) at http://cogs.avbp.net
cheers,
shelby
Thanks Shelby!
I like the concept of Circle of Gifts (COGS). I am amused, however, by the statement on their homepage "The aim of re-localisation is to provide inhabitants with the possibility of an acceptable quality of life to inhabitants when traditional [my emphasis] economic development fails, or their circumstances are against them."
I had thought that traditional economic development was basically a barter system and localized monetary systems, as was practiced by "traditional" societies prior to Bretton Woods, GATT, IMF, World Bank, and the perversion of compound interest in creating "money" out of nothing!
It reminds me of the use of the term "conventional" to describe non-organic production methods. Only since the "Green Revolution" [sic] of post-WWII has topsoil-eroding, water-depleting, genetic-modifying, toxic-releasing, monocultural agriculture become "conventional;" before that folk methods (basically similar to organic ones) were the norm, and what I consider conventional. I know these are just words, but the embedded connotation cannot be shrugged off. The collective unconsciousness is, IMHO, not so discerning. Why put a plasticized sticker on a piece of organic fruit, instead of on a "conventional" one?
Back to COGS, it reminds me of a program I saw back at the Boulder (CO) Co-op Market. There was a program that set up a table every so often called SkillShare that functions as "a 'time bank' that facilitates a 'time dollar' reciprocal exchange system." Using my time as input and giving my credit as a gift seems like a perfect way to promote true gift giving that is "win-win-win."
As for your other suggestions, I have purposely tried to steer clear of offering gifts that undoubtedly could not be produced prior to the petroleum interval. No plastics, nothing involving long-distance travel (although mailing things is not taboo, esp. since most of my family and friends are outside of my home state). I've also consider my "gifts" as "challenges" to both giver and recipient, as we both look for ways to share in Corporate Disobediance.
A Very Happy, Peaceful, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to All,
Jim Zack, Sustainable Saratoga Springs (NY)
Giving gifts this year was a difficult proposition for me. How do I simultaneously honor my commitments to Corporate Disobedience and my desire to give tribute to those who are closest to me? I'm sure there are as many ways as there are people in this forum. I'd like to share my method:
I became enrapt with the PCI and its notions of sustainability, awareness of Peak Oil, and relocalization only recently, and most of my friends and family members had no idea that I started a Post Carbon Outpost in upstate NY. So the first thing I did was to share with them the passion I feel for my new endeavor. I didn't try to persuade them, or scare them, or even ask for their graces. I just explained that I haven't felt so motivated to action since, well, hmmmm... I guess I never felt so motivated to action! I then explained to them, if they didn't already know, the concepts of self-sufficiency in the context of resource depletion and the effects of continuing on with the status quo. Again, no prosthelitizing, just emitting my worldview.
Then, I sprung my challenge to them as my gift: What could I do for them in the next year that would help them in their efforts to relocalize? For my sister, my suggestion was natural: she and her partner have a huge organic garden and I suggested that I could spend a whole day weeding/tilling/harvesting for them, so they could enjoy a day off and go hiking, kayaking, or stay home and read. For my parents, I suggested that I could prepare them a home-cooked vegetarian meal with locally-grown (my sister's garden or mine?) produce and use traditional means as much as possible. For my nieces in Ithaca and the SF Bay Area, I might see about donating to their local PC Outpost and introducing each to their local Outpost and the PC Institute. My other niece is considering a career as an urban planner, so I could consider getting her involved with PCI and also support her by giving a publication on planning from the bookstore, or get her involved in Peak Oil awareness at Bryn Mawr where she is enrolled.
Other friends and family members may be more challenging, but once I let them know I won't be buying them metal and plastic crap made 8000 miles away by children in a sweatshop, and shipped here on subsidized cheap oil, to be distributed by a transnational chain store that is eroding the fabric of their community, they may come around to accepting and even appreciating what I want to do for them, rather than what I might have given them in the "olden times," when I was sleepwalking into the future.
What shape would/do your gifts take on?
Peace,
Jim Zack, Sustainable Saratoga Springs