More changes!

We've decided to go ahead and add some square footage to our house by raising the roof to create an attic that can later be finished into upstairs living space. And now, in preparation for the assault,  I am having to undo the (slight)  illusion of  order I've managed to create here, taking pictures off the walls and securing other breakables. I am resigning myself to life in a construction zone for the next several weeks and convincing myself that the end result will be worth the mess and inconvenience.

It occurs to me that I have gone several years now without being able to settle into a natural rhythm and routine, and I am hoping that something like that will finally happen when the crew packs up their ladders and leaves.

The house is currently fragrant with apples. I have shazammed (with the aid of my handy dandy corer/peeler/slicer gadget) our backyard bounty into applesauce, apple pie filling, apple pies, apple crisp, and dried apple rings. There's still plenty more of the fruit on the trees, but we would have to call in the fire department with their hook and ladder truck in order to reach them. Guess we'll leave those for the wildlife when they eventually fall.

Speaking of pies, this week we met the guy who, with his wife, owns Portage Pie.  They're up in Westfield, but they're a locally owned business that makes and sells yummy pies using only locally grown fruit, so they deserve a shout out, as well as your patronage if you happen to be in the area.

We expect to be spending more of our days hanging out in local coffee shops and other businesses while the work on our house proceeds. When the weather is nice, we'll also be out on the greenways, which is one of the top reasons for living in this county.

News you can use!

I'm working on those goals I said I'd be writing. At some point I will share them. It's humbling to realize what a novice I remain.

In the meantime, I've added a link (in the right hand column over there) to an upcoming event that is definitely worth a road trip to Buffalo.  Daemen College will be hosting the 8th Annual World on Your Plate Conference October 14-15.  Clicking on the graphic over there will take you to their website for more info, and you can register online (although pre-registration is not necessary).  Some of the workshops and speakers look outstanding, but I am especially excited about the screening and discussion of The Economics of Happiness and keynote speaker Judy Wicks, co-founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). 

So now it's apple time here. The Busti Apple Festival is this weekend, and we've harvested a couple of baskets full from our own trees (it doesn't get much more local than that!), which I'll be turning into applesauce and pie filling today.  We had planned a trip out to the farm to help dig up potatoes, but it looks like the weather has other ideas today.

Random thought: I've decided to start thinking of dandelions as food. I will even share recipes.

A year goes by

I've been away visiting the Massachusetts branch of the family tree and getting great advice from my three-year-old grandson on how to hide myself and keep safe from prowling lions and dinosaurs.

But we're back home now, and I wanted to take a look at where we are, a year after I started this blog, on our journey towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

The good news is that we're moving in the right direction. But I'm glad that we have the luxury of time. Recent events (tropical storms that cause damage far from the tropics) have highlighted vulnerabilities in infrastructure we (perilously) depend on. But our typical response is to slap on a few bandaids and get right back to business as usual. Till the next time. I'll say it again: we (myself included) should all be better prepared for emergencies that can cut off our electricity, our access to fresh water and food, medical care,  shelter from the elements. We can't assume that FEMA, State Farm, or Superman will be there for us.
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But, in seeking to find or build a sustainable community, we're looking for something beyond a disaster kit to see us through the next emergency. And there will be emergencies. Climate change, rising energy costs, and incompetent governments guarantee it.

So how far have we come towards our goal of positioning ourselves, our family, friends and neighbors to weather the storms and protect our common security?

NOT FAR ENOUGH.  To begin with, we've defined the goal in the most nebulous of terms. So, its time to clarify what exactly it is we're trying to do and come up with a task list for measuring our progress.

In a very general sense, we're moving along by downsizing our home and our stuff, thereby using less energy, creating less waste, recycling more, and driving less. We've located some local food sources (including growing some of our own) and local businesses and made them part of our habits. We're getting to know our neighbors and others in the greater community who share some of our concerns.

So, what if a cluster of storms or a major solar flare took out the power grid tomorrow? Oh man, would there be trouble.

Time to start writing those goals.

A Farm for the Future

Instead of your regularly scheduled program, please watch this stunning BBC special on the future of our food. It may terrify you, it may leave you hopeful, but most of all, it will leave you informed with powerful knowledge.

Fall is in the air

The neighborhood kids are going back to school this week. We've already had a couple of below-50 degrees mornings. The handwriting on the wall sez, summer is over.

Fortunately, autumn tends to be one glorious season here. September and October have always been my favorite months. We're hoping the nearly perfect weather we've been having lately decides to hang around for a while.

Last weekend, we held our garage sale and it turned out to be a lot of fun. It brings out all the neighbors and you get a chance to know each other better.  Plus, it's gratifying to rehome your unneeded stuff with people who have a use for it. And not because it's wildly profitable (though it's always nice to get a little spare cash), because we price things to sell. We marked the couch FREE and a neighbor snapped it up for his daughter who is starting out on her own and needs a helping hand.

I've already gotten two neighbors all in for a neighborhood garage sale next year, so I'm off and running with that idea.  We can all get together for a shared cookout in somebody's yard afterwards. I hope we get good participation. I'll be working on it!

With that in mind, Katy's latest blog post,  The Mini-Economy of a Neighborhood, was really nice to read.  I don't think of it as a mini-economy exactly, but I live on a street where neighbors share and help.  That's how you build friendship and community.  And that's the sane way to be prepared for emergencies and hard times. No need for bunkers and shotguns. Some of the people I heard on the radio yesterday, talking about emergency preparedness in the aftermath of Irene, were pretty scary.

Another sign of fall:

I love a parade

We've been having a parade of contractors here as it's getting down to decision time about how much we will or will not do in the short term to improve our living space. The economy has never been a scarier mess than it is now, and taking risks with our financial future seems like a very bad idea.

At the same time, the longer we live here, the better we like the smaller space.  We're letting go of those old ideas and images of what a home "should" look like, and we're learning how to live in an apartment-sized space.

Reading blogs like Simpler Living and The Non-Consumer Advocate is helpful because of the many useful tips offered up by the authors and their readers. Katy (of the latter blog) doesn't live in such a small space, but is nonetheless achieving a comfortable level of simplicity by giving up the costly consumer lifestyle and freeing herself and her family of useless stuff.

I'm becoming more organized than I have ever been. Baskets, bins, and drawer dividers are great things. Walls with shelves are amazing.

But I still need to get rid of more stuff. I have too many clothes that I rarely wear and they need to be weeded out.  (I'm no fashionista either, I dress for comfort.)  I have a lot of cookbooks that I no longer use because when I want a new recipe, I go googling for one. I really don't need three potato peelers, three graters, two hand mixers, or a panini grill that I've used twice in three years. And here's a real shocker for you--I may not need a microwave oven either. Mine fritzed out a couple of months ago and I haven't replaced it yet. I've remembered that there are other ways to thaw frozen meat and warm up leftovers. No more microwave entrees--oh well!  I may just cave when the weather gets cooler and I want baked potatoes. They cook so much faster in the microwave than in the oven. On the other hand, I may just plan my meals better and allow more time for cooking.

Speaking of food, the tomatoes have been producing so well that I've been able to share them with my neighbors.We've had fresh tomatoes in salads, on sandwiches, tuna-stuffed tomatoes, and lots of salsa.  I'm really looking forward to having a much bigger garden next year so I will have enough tomatoes for canning, and maybe even dehydrating.

Soon, the apples will be ready.

If this seems a little disjointed, it's because I've been writing it in bits and pieces over about four days. I've been busy out in the garage, sorting through things and trying to organize another sale before summer ends--all too soon.

For your reading enjoyment and "food for thought," I've posted a couple of new article links to the "Recent Articles" list over there. --->

German Village Achieves Energy Independence details the amazing results of effective local leadership, and I hope Americans (somewhere, somehow) can learn something from this example.

In "THE OILING OF NORTH AMERICA"  nutrition journalist and food historian Sally Fallon documents the politics behind the cholesterol theory of heart disease, and offers a detailed description of what fats and oils are good for us (and which aren't). I feel that this is essential reading for everyone who is interested in good health.  It certainly seems to validate the adage that "if your grandma wouldn't recognize it, it probably isn't food."

I hope you will read these and share your thoughts with me.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

We finally got a decent amount of rain here, and the heat wave is over. Tom is baking bread again and even  experimenting with bagels.  They were more like soft pretzels shaped like bagels, but they were good! I'm not sure what a real bagel tastes like anyway, being accustomed to the grocery store variety.

We're starting to get lots of fresh veggies. We got tomatillos and cilantro from our CSA this week, and I made my first-ever salsa verde, which was very easy and very tasty.   My tomatoes are looking good, and we're going to have a whole lot of them soon!  In another corner of the garden, it's a race to see how many more zucchini I can salvage  before the plants give up the ghost. They've been attacked by powdery mildew. I learned the other day, from a bit I noticed when leafing through the Jamestown Gazette (while waiting for my sub at Jumbroni's), that you can protect squash plants from mildew diseases by spraying them with a homemade mixture of baking soda, liquid soap, and water, when the weather is hot and humid. However, it doesn't do much good once the plants are already infected. Oh well--I'll tuck that  info away for next year.

The recent rainy weather provided an opportunity to get some more work done inside the house--now that we have this mountain of stuff from our other house in the garage, and we have to figure out what to do with it.

This is hard. It's like...culture shock. Nothing in my experience has prepared me for condensing my life into such a small space. The ever-pervasive media (magazines, TV shows and ads) bombard us with messages that we need MORE square footage to adorn with the latest, most fashionable paint colors, flooring and counter-top materials, appliances, cabinets, furniture, art, ACCESSORIES, you name it. These things improve your lifestyle and make your real estate more valuable! Stainless steel appliances, outdoor kitchens, water features, master suites, king size beds, BONUS ROOMS--all MUST HAVE! So our homes have become "investments," and our "success" is measured not by the content of our character, but by the amount of really cool stuff we can accumulate.

Which is nuts. Why do we buy this crap?

But, giving up those lemming-like ways is like learning how to live all over again, in such a way that functionality has more value than status, fashion, cachet, prestige, however you want to characterize what is basically "keeping up with the Joneses."  We don't even do it consciously, we're just running with the pack, going with the flow, until we reach the dawning awareness that life is finite, precious, and we waste so much of it in pursuit of what is JUST STUFF.  Stuff that we nonetheless manage to get emotionally invested in.

There's nothing wrong with creating living spaces that are comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. When I had too much space, I didn't have to think very much about how to arrange things and where to store things. There was always room. Now I am really challenging myself and often getting frustrated because old habits have become irrelevant in my new reality, and I can't fall back on them.  I'm uncomfortable because everything feels so transitory and unfinished, but I haven't yet figured out what "finished" is going to look like.

I just know that when it finally "gets there,"  it's going to make a lot more sense than the lifestyle I've been accustomed to for so long.