Summertime

The summer season is unofficially here. The traffic has noticeably increased on Fairmount Ave. and in Wegman's and the liquor store. Welcome tourists!

At the same time, we've moved almost instantly from cold and rainy to hot and steamy. What comes next is anybody's guess as "global weirding" continues. The record breaking storms and tornadoes that seem to be part of the the "new normal" have me wondering if we really want to add a second story to our little house. A storm cellar sounds like a better idea.  Moot, since we're still dealing with our two house problem and major renovations are delayed. We're working on small projects instead, to improve our outdoor living space.

                                                                            
Some parts of the perennial garden were drowned out this spring. I've been working through the drainage issues and replacing some plants, including the two butterfly bushes.

My William Baffin rose, on the other hand, is ecstatically happy, and the other roses will soon follow.

The peonies are looking their best ever.

Activity choices have exploded.  Chautauqua in June-- a countywide learning festival of classes in everything from gardening to sailing,  painting to yoga, wine pairing to birding--is currently in progress.

The farmers markets are opening for business.

The festivals are starting with the Celoron Ribfest & Classic Car Show, happening now, and a Strawberry Festival  this weekend at the Merritt Estate Winery in Forestville.

There are golf tournaments and sailboat races and dirt track auto racing.

 The very popular annual Book Sale at Prendergast Library is this weekend.

The Riverwalk Summer Concert Series is beginning--free concerts on the lawn (bring your own chair or blanket) every Wednesday evening from 6:30 - 8:30 in Riverwalk Park.
 
The Jamestown Jammers, our professional baseball team (Single A affiliate of the Florida Marlins) will open their 2011 season soon.

Seasonal restaurants and shops have opened their doors.  The Labyrinth is now serving Saturday brunches and has added a dinner menu from 5-9 pm Wed. thru Saturday.

Life is good.

Working towards zero waste

One of the goals I am pursuing is reduction of the amount of garbage we send to the landfill every week.

Living in a place where recycling is mandatory, and where beverage cans and bottles (aluminum, glass, and plastic) can be returned for a deposit has made for a good start. Metal, glass, and plastic food containers are washed and placed in their respective bins. Corrugated cardboard boxes have a bin. Ditto newspapers, junk mail, and magazines.

Another item has been reducing the amount of packaging we bring home, including plastic bags. We have gotten much better about taking our reusable shopping bags to the store with us. The next step is choosing items with minimal, or at least recyclable, packaging.  Best places to accomplish this are the produce department and bulk bins. But you still end up with plastic bags to dispose of, unless you have your own reusable produce bags. I am about to order some as we speak.

Yard waste goes into the compost pile behind the garden shed. This provides fertilizer for the garden. Coffee grounds go straight into the garden. We have not yet developed our composting skills to the point of including kitchen waste--which needs to be done right to avoid scavengers and unpleasant odors. After all, we have neighbors. But the amount of food that we discard is minimal, because of planned use of leftovers.

Some communities are turning to organic waste recycling, which involves large scale composting of  food scraps and yard clippings.  The technologies used not only produce fertilizers, but also biogas that can be used to produce electricity or be processed into compressed natural gas for transportation fuel.

When it comes to discarding non-organic things, the first question that must always be  asked is, "What else can this be used for?"   Unwanted clothing, furniture, housewares can be sold or donated to be used by others.  CFL lightbulbs can be dropped off at Home Depot for recycling. The Salvation Army accepts computer equipment and televisions for recycling. Most things can be broken down into reusable or recyclable parts, and if you don't want to do it, then there are people willing to do it for you. I will be adding a handy recycling resources page for your information. But--STOP! and think before you toss anything into the trash bin.

In a more evolved world, we would stop producing so many easily disposal items and instead create things with regard for their environmentally safe longterm use and reuse, designing "ecologically intelligent" products, industrial systems, buildings, even regional plans--a manifesto laid out in the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. The authors make our recycling efforts sound primitive and shortsighted. But since we are a long way from being the society they envision, we must make do with what we have.

Cycling in Chautauqua County

I have been made aware that May is National Bike Month. This is an actual event sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists, about whom I knew nothing (despite being married to a cyclist for 37 years), but the internet is an awesome place for learning new things.

In fact, last week was Bike to Work Week, but I doubt that many folks around here were participating, unless they were wearing water wings. Come to think of it, you just don't see too many people cycling for transportation in Jamestown, ever.  Kids have bikes (and I've seen lots of scooters), and there are the recreational cyclists.

But biking to work, to school, to the store? Not so much. The terrain around here can be a bit challenging, but there are routes that just about anybody can handle.

Rising gasoline prices and greater awareness of the environmental impact of fossil fuel use may be starting to change things.In crunchy, environmentally aware areas of the country like Portland, Oregon, they have bike trains--where kids and their parents participate in a group ride to school one morning a week along a pre-planned route. What a refreshingly healthy idea!

And if handling the hills is an issue, there are electric bikes to give you a little extra zip.  Available in both throttle and pedal assist versions, there are models ranging in price from several hundred to several thousand dollars. The eZip bike pictured retails for $499 and has a real rack-mounted rechargeable battery with a range of 15-20 miles. I have to tell you, this is looking pretty darned good to me.


Holly Loft has 4 basic group rides (depending on your riding ability) every Tuesday at 6 pm. They even have a racing team.  I understand that there are also Saturday 9 am rides that leave from Ryder's Cup coffee in Lakewood, but I don't know anything about the abilities of these riders, so if you're interested, you should probably inquire before you set out.  Just about all of them would leave me in the dust, I'm afraid. Unless I go electric.

Next time: REcycling.

If our young people ruled the world

I just finished reading the cover story in the current Chautauqua WORD, and I am encouraged.

WORD editor Steve Lafreniere surveyed a sample of people under 30 about their hopes and fears for the future and their opinions on what needs to be done locally "to remake Western New York into an economically sound and culturally attractive place to live and work." I'll give you some snippets of their responses, but you really should read the whole thing, no matter where you live. Some of the ideas are really spot on.

Q:  What would you like to see done differently locally?
A:  Successful/profitable businesses now housed in the mall should receive tax incentives for relocating to the downtown area...Look at avenues such as actual, real businesses that provide goods and services to people locally, instead of people coming into this area once a year, or once in a lifetime, and spending a few hundred dollars...buying locally grown and produced food...abandoned factories and houses should be torn down or sold at low prices with stipulation that they be fixed up within certain time limit... 


Q: What would you like to see on the increase locally?
A: Buying 60-70% of our food locally...opportunity, support for creativity, innovation, and entrepeneurship to keep young people from leaving the area...positive attitudes, people taking pride in the area...more support for local institutions, including libraries as centers for community events

Q:What is your biggest fear for the future?
A: A return to feudal-style anarchy...poor decision making with regard to transitioning to different forms of energy...climate change...being able to pay for medical expenses...permanent unemployment

Q: What is your greatest hope for the future?
A: Our great natural resources in close proximity...that people with ideas and real solutions will come to the forefront...human ingenuity and problem solving ability

These young people have got it going on. They already know things it took me an awful lot of years to learn. Maybe because our current problems are all they've ever known.  I hope they don't all pick up and move to bigger cities to seek their fortunes. We need them right here to lead the movement towards greater local sustainability, to make their hopes and dreams happen right here.  I really believe that if communities everywhere started looking after their own in a responsible and sustainable way, we would live in a radically improved world.

I do have a couple of random comments that came to mind as I read this article. I hear the complaints about the focus on tourism, but I think anything that improves the area can be turned into an asset for local residents as well as visitors. If tourism that motivates the local activity, it is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as someone picks up the ball when the tourists leave.  As a newcomer actively searching for what's going on in the community, I have found that there are lots of options, year-round. More than I have the time or desire to immerse myself in.  And those not satisfied with what's available are free to make something else happen!  Starting a new restaurant may not be an economically viable option, but you can organize your own Thai dinner party at any time. The Jamestown Unitarian Church has held a couple of dinners in the past year, open to the public, featuring fabulous foods of India. Just be open to every possibility for enriching the local culture and see what happens.

About the substandard houses, is it possible to create a small scale urban homesteading program in a city like Jamestown? Meaning, making vacant but repairable houses available, cheaply, to people willing and able to make the repairs and upgrades in a certain amount of time, and then I live in the property for a minimum of 5 years. It requires a commitment, not just an opportunity. I know this is done in larger cities, with mixed results. Seems to me it would  work best where the available properties occur in blocks, so that the whole neighborhood gets an upgrade. People are unlikely to jump at the chance to improve and live in one lonely property in a sea of decay, but if several properties in the same area are undergoing transformation, it changes the dynamics. I ran across this article online from several years ago and found it interesting, though I haven't yet really researched the topic.  But it fits with the idea of making your hopes and dreams happen right here. What are the possibilities?

Spring cleanup this weekend

Per the ad I've been sporting in the sidebar for several weeks, the second annual Hands-On Jamestown community cleanup will be taking place this Saturday. Organized by the Downtown Jamestown Development Corp. with sponsorship from local businesses and organizations, the event will draw volunteers to participate in keeping the streets, sidewalks, and parks clean and inviting places for residents and visitors alike.

Check in begins at 7:45 am in Tracy Plaza, where a continental breakfast will be served and volunteers will pick up their assignments. Garbage bags will be furnished, but it is suggested that volunteers bring their own gloves, rakes, brooms, weedeaters, etc.  After the work is finished, volunteers can return to Tracy Plaza for free hot dogs and drinks. Pre-registered volunteers will receive t-shirts.

Any individuals, groups, families, businesses, or organizations interested in volunteering are asked to contact DJDC at 664-2477.  Registration forms are also available online at www.discoverjamestown.com.  All volunteers will be assigned specific areas in the downtown to clean-up.

 DJDC also encourages home owners and businesses to clean-up around their own properties and establishments, citywide. Tom and I are planning to pick up cans and bottles in our neighborhood, which is actually outside the city limits. We have a few vacant wooded areas where kids toss out the evidence of their weekend drinking activities.

Tom has also organized another clean-up event this year with the Chautauqua Hiking Club (coincidentally on the same day, and fortunately Saturday's weather forecast looks good for outdoor activities). They are asking for volunteers to join them at 10 am at the Taylor Rd. access area for a cleanup (picking up trash) of the Chautauqua Gorge.

Wherever you'll be this Saturday, please leave the area better than you found it.

Apparently I spoke too soon

I knew the rain would be back. It is. I can almost hear the grass growing.

We had a nice time over the weekend, though. (Despite the rain.) One of the neighborhood "kids" that I  got to see growing up over those 22 years in Cleveland had a Big Fat Greek Wedding.  It was a joyful celebration with good friends, food, and drink. Those are the things most difficult to drag yourself away from when you decide to relocate.  But...

I'm amusing myself this morning by listening to rain songs on You Tube. I've added some of them to the Hypster playlist on this page. I'm amazed by the number of songs with the word "rain" in the title. Some of them are really good, too.

I'm also reading Farewell My Suburu, and my thoughts so far go something like this: Boy, this guy has a way with words. He is one engaging and witty writer. Also, it must be nice to launch your experiment in sustainable living with his kind of budget. And omg, he's raising goats! I'm jealous!  I'm not zoned for goats here. And even if I could have them, where would I get a goat sitter when we went to visit the grandkid?

I'll get back to you when I have some deeper thoughts.

The Merry Month of May

I have officially ended hibernation. The rain has stopped, the weather's been great, and my focus has shifted outdoors.  I just need to get the rabbit-proof fence in place and it will be safe to plant my veggie garden. (The wascally wabbits have been milling about in the yard, ready to queue up at the garden gate.) Tom is planning to construct a ground level deck from which we can view the action.

Okay, maybe we'll wait a couple of weeks just in case there's another frost. You never know at this time of year. There's obviously more rain on the way and a return to cooler temps.  I haven't started  Farewell My Suburu yet, but next week looks like a good one for reading.  And contemplation of questions like:

Can we count on well-stocked "big box" stores as supply chains become more expensive? Will truckers be able to afford to fuel their rigs? Can people adjust to planning menus around seasonal availability when we can no longer afford to fly in winter produce from South America?

How will all the people who become unemployed as a result of these changes meet their expenses?

Can schools that are already suffering financially continue busing students? Will trucks still offer curbside pickup and hauling of our garbage?  Where are we going to get replacement parts for our appliances and vehicles?

How do we keep large numbers of people from freezing to death when they can't afford to keep the heat on?

How secure is your water supply?

You know--just light mental gymnastics.

Switching over to more fun stuff. for those who won't be jetting off to the Caribbean for snorkeling or the Big Apple for the latest hit on Broadway-- local entertainment options abound this weekend.  (Yes, we can keep ourselves happily entertained without the rest of the world. And without television. It can be done.)  There's Annie and I Do! I Do!, the Buffalo Gay Mens Chorus, a music salon at the Unitarian Church, the Jordan World Circus at JSB arena, an antique auction at the Lake Chautauqua Auction Center, and the Spring Farm to Table Dinner at the Athenaeum Hotel, to name a handful of choices.

I check a lot of the local websites to find this information and I just want to make one suggestion: local businesses need to keep their websites updated with current information, or it kind of defeats the purpose of having the website.