Frontenac ResilienceSustainable community and more

Are you interested in the big picture of what’s happening in the world, from financial uncertainty, to peak oil, and climate change . . . little things like that, and how we might respond to these mega-changes here in the Frontenacs?

How we might be more “resilient,” taking care of ourselves a bit better, growing a bit more community, having a few more skills to meet uncertainty – these are the things we give air time to at our monthly Futures Conversation, held the second Sunday of each month, 7:30 pm, currently at the Medical Centre at the south end of Sharbot Lake. (Downstairs, summer entry from ground level at the back facing the lake)

It’s not an intellectual discussion about what’s “really” happening since everyone will have their opinion. It’s more about what we can actually do locally to make ourselves and our community a bit stronger.

The first meeting was June of 2009, most often there’s 6-10 people, and there’s a sense that this will be increasing. There are quite a few who want to come but are busy.

If this sounds like something you’d like, come on along, or give a call if you have any questions. Andrew at 613.279.2288.

Due to a change in my (Andrew MacDonald’s) circumstances and not being sure where I’d be located, I put the Country Knowhow column (which appeared here as well as in the Frontenac News) on hold. I halted implementation of the Abundance Plot Community Garden concept as well. We’ll see what the future brings (also known as what we bring to it)!

I decided to disallow comments on the site. I’m getting a lot of spam coming to them. It’s time-consuming to take care of and I don’t know a good workaround for this.

If you do have something you’d like to say on the site, or want to put a “guest posting” up, drop me a line at andrewcartermacdonald / at / gmail / dot / com.

For the last twelve months a small group has met the second Sunday of each month to imagine the local future and how we might meet uncertain or hard times and do better than we might all on our own.

We meet with a format of sorts from 7:30 to 9:30 approximately . . . and they stick around till midnight talking. So far I’ve been the host and “space holder” for the evening’s first part. Long experience in groups have created or confirmed in me a strong desire to hold some form so that everyone can be heard and we stay focused on our subject. My experience has been that when we sit and chat with no focused question before us and no one driving, that the meeting wanders, people’s needs don’t get met and don’t come back.

Persistent themes come up, fade, come back again! Among them, the desire to have more young people round here and to support them, toot cellars (an in joke), a local trading circle (we do some of this informally and plans for a bulletin board are likely to tip over into happening shortly), helping with projects, marketing the area as a go-to place for sustainabilistas escaping Ottawa, Montreal, T.O.

The Country Know-how column came out of the Conversations as did friendships, a wild-rice expedition, threads of social cohesion, fun nights.

There will be much more. Now that we’re a year old there’s a sense that action will be more possible and wanted. We’ve grown a bit closer, learned a bit more about each other.

Consider coming along some time and checking us out. Contact me if you like by writing to countryknowhow at frontenac dot net.

Country Know-how is hosting Renewable Energy Information Night, an alternative energy information evening April 27th at Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake, 7:30 pm. This is a chance to ask an energy expert all the questions you want about your energy future. Cam Mather, from over near Tamworth, will speak and field questions. Cam is the author of Thriving During Challenging Times: the Energy, Food, and Financial Independence Handbook, and the publisher of The Renewable Energy Handbook. The evening is an opportunity to consider what long term options there might be for providing power to your property, some of them potential strong money earners too.

The three main reasons that people want to move to renewables are cost, (since energy prices are only going to go up), independence (whether a story or cascading failure takes out the grid, you have power), and being part of the necessary world-wide move to reduce our carbon footprint. The options competing for your attention include wind, solar from photo-voltaic panels, and solar power heaters; “systems” can range from a tiny photo-voltaic panel from Canadian Tire that powers your electric fence to a system that powers your whole house. You can mix and match power sources, with some of this and some of that. What you do depends on where you see energy prices going, how much you value doing it yourself, and the resources you have at hand. Efforts you make installing renewable energy are likely to be an ongoing source of pride and satisfaction. Cam enjoys watching the meter that measures the input from his wind turbine almost as much as he enjoys watching movies! Apparently it can get like that!

All systems that reduce your need for electricity will “make” you money eventually, once they’re paid for by savings. The Ontario Government’s MicroFIT program is a potential big earner. The government (actually the Ontario Power Authority) will pay you for producing a small (or micro) amount of power, less than 10 kW, and feeding it into the grid. They’ll pay .82 cents kW/hour – which is a lot since we buy it for under .10 cents kW/hr. They’ll continue to payfor twenty years; the panels will last quite a bit longer. (The OPA will also pay you for wind power, but not nearly as much.) Sounds great, but there is much to consider before putting serious money in a solar power project. The Renewable Energy Information Night is a place to explore your options. It’ll help you decide what you should do first with what you have to invest? (And yes, there are simple things we can do right now, with very little money that will provide short-term savings; those savings amount to money in your pocket. Cam will go into just what the economics are and you’ll come away with a better sense of what you can do. Because with some cost up front, you can permanently reduce your energy bill to one extent of another. You don’t need to be a fortune teller to know prices are only going up.

Although Cam will be the presenter on this evening, Central Frontenac has a first class provider / installer of renewable energy systems in Ron Kortekaas of EcoAlt Energy. I’m a big fan of Ron’s work – and am hoping to to get Ron to present at a Country Know-how workshop soon after Cam, as you might be closer to making a purchase. The Renewable Energy Information Night is to provide you with a fully independent source to question the entire gamut of questions. We might get members of the Wood Gas Club up for a moment or two to tell you how they’re doing with building prototypes for providing gas from specially designed stoves.

Like all Country Know-how workshops the evening is free. It’s 7:30 pm, Tuesday April 27th at Soldier’s Memorial Hall (Oso Hall) in Sharbot Lake.

Making Fire with Flint and Steel

Like a lot of kids, I was fascinated by primitive technologies . . . like making fire by flint and steel or by “rubbing two sticks together,” – as we called the bow and drill method. Mike Procter,one of a number of locals knowledgeable about ancient technologies, will be demonstrating the flint and steel method, and helping you prepare your own fire kit, at a free Country Know-how mini-workshop on April 17th at 10 am.
Making a fire with flint and steel requires striking a piece of hard quartz against steel and sending off a spark that can ignite some flammable material. It’s exactly how a lighter works, without the gas as ignition and fuel. A hard stone can be substituted for the steel and was used in ancient times; it needs to be less hard than the flint.
Flint and stone have been used for making fire since ancient times, and during much of the historic period, was the way it was done. It’s how Shakespeare lit his fire for example – or was Anne Hathaway the firekeeper? Around that time matches were introduced but they were dangerous devices: flaming meteors of broken off matchheads burned down houses.
Mike will help workshop participants create their own fire kit, the ingredients they’ll need to make fire when they want. He has some flint or some tips on finding your own. The tinder that the spark will ignite can be natural materials like dandelion fluff or birchbark (Mike hasn’t found bulrush seeds efficient though they’re in the literature), or something pre-prepared – a natural fibre like linen or cotton half-charred will catch easily. Workshop participants can bring a small tight-fitting tin can ) like the ones some lozenges come in) and make their own tinder – Mike provides the cloth.
A candle is another useful part of your fire kit. Start a candle with the burgeoning flame to provide back-up till things are really going. One great source of the steel that’s perfect for great sparks is a file melted down and hammered smooth.
Come to the workshop, rain or shine, April 27th at 10 am, 2657 Zealand Rd., (just north and east of Sharbot Lake). Afterwards, weather (and my technical skills permitting) we hope to make a wee video of Mike creating a fire on a street corner after someone stops him to ask for a light.

If you haven’t already, time to get on those spring seeds started – inside for now so you can put them outside later when the weather’s warmer. The advantage of starting indoors of course, is that you can extend your growing season by many a couple of months. Sprouts and seedlings don’t need much space to grow. Later when it’s time to plant them you can give them room. But for germinating and sprouting, you need very little space. We have ours in plastic 4-plex bedding plant pots sitting on clear plastic trays from the dollar store which are fitted into some slotted boards Lynn picked up for a dollar at Rona in the off-cuts cart.

My gardening mentor is local producer Tom Waller, a market gardener from Central Frontenac west. Tom and wife Allaine’s Elm Tree Farm is prolific producer of quality food to farmer’s markets. Tom and Allaine are setting up to make more of their produce available to locals, and to support local growers like you. Tom will host an spring “start” mini-workshop on April 10th from 2-4 pm. Call for directions, (613) 335-3361 or visit elmtreefarm.ca.

A strong advantage of planting indoors is that you can control the soil temperature and light. Your planting trays can be moved to take advantage of the sun. Generally plants that thrive in high heat also like starting out life warmer too – carrots for example. To learn the requirements of particular vegetables and vegetable varieties, Tom recommends Johnny’s Selected Seeds for all kinds of reasons – he “smacks his lips” after getting off the phone ordering. The catalog is one way you can check for plant hardiness, growing seasons, soil temperature requirements and more. Take advantage of the fact that lot of the learning has been done before you by other gardeners – the good news about gardening can only be kept under the ground so long.

Now is the time to plant your onions and leeks from seed. And peppers and tomatoes. Tomatoes will need eight weeks before being stuck in the ground; they’re easier to transplant if they’re not too old. If they get long and spindly from not being transplanted too long, they may never fully recover. If you put them outside you’ll also need to be able to protect them or cover them in the event of a frost, especially one that will last for a few days.

May first you can direct plant arugala, mizuna, and kohlrabi, kale, spring turnips and beets. An early frost won’t be likely to pick them off.

If you come out to Tom’s mini-workshop you can ask any questions you have, see his working greenhouse and get some ideas of your own. You’ll also know a place where you can go to buy produce during the summer, and maybe slip in a gardening question as you hand over your cash. Tom is also the mentor to the Abundance Garden project, in which growers grow a little extra for free trading with other project participants; registration info through Country Know-how.

Decorative painting, or folk art, has always been around to make our lives more beautiful and reflective of who we are. It encompasses a broad variety of painting styles and techniques passed down, and in some cases, forgotten and refound. It can be a response to a new technology too, as in the case of the original tole painting, which was painting on tin.

Local artist and art teacher Marlene Leeson is enthusiastic about decorative painting’s power to inspire and enrich the lives of people who don’t consider themselves artists, but who go on to do amazing things anyway. (I saw a motif painted on a primitive bow at the Heritage Festival in Crow Lake School House recently, painted by a certain C.J. Very nice!)

Marlene’s been teaching, sharing, and working teaching folk art techniques for some years now up in Plevna. (She will be doing a free Country Know-how mini-workshop on March 27th – details below.)

Marlene feels that the way to understand decorative painting is to do it, rather than talk about it. Accordingly folks who come to learn start right away putting paint on canvas, learning a half-dozen techniques, working with different size brushes and getting a feel for them – each brush has its purpose. Those who come to her mini-workshop will walk away with something in hand they’ve done!

Decorative painting can be a source of household pride, and carry a value that store-bought stuff doesn’t – I remember being inordinately proud of a certain lamp shade with simple house and sun on it. Outside things can be painted too, sap buckets and wheelbarrows, making them one of a kind. Wall painting with sponges and stencils is also decorative painting, though not what Marlene teaches.

It’s cheap to get into. Twenty-five dollars will buy acrylic paints (cheaper and quicker than oil), and basic brushes and with those you’re away. Like a lot of things, learning, practicing, and hanging out with others makes actually doing the work and continuing more likely. Marlene will lend what you need at her mini-workshop. You don’t have to be able to draw to do decorative painting, or do detailed work like painting from a photograph would entail. More women than men come to her workshops, but men do too, and have a good time.

To attend the mini-workshop with Marlene and learn about, or actually create something for your place, contact Marlene at (613) 479-0297.

Tiny House work bee meeting today!

Thirteen people, and agreements to build five structures under 108 sq. ft. Three hours, getting to know new neighbors, a sense that people are there to help each other do it!

One pre-party, five dates picked, one for a “focus day” actually building the houses. Those wanting “houses” (actually small legal structures with a variety of purposes) agreed to aim for helping three others build. Some other folks along as volunteers for this time round.

One excellent building resource person – thanks Eric for the early thinking and being solidly there.

I think it’s safe to say, we’re on our way. Great energy in the room and a sense that, not only can we do this, we want to do this.

Thanks to Rosie, who brought the gift of youth to us. She’ll be working as a gardening intern this summer. Here’s to her and many young people like her moving here . . . immigrating to Frontenac County, especially the wild northern region (yes, I just happen to live there!).

Here’s a twist on gardening that may interest non-gardeners too!

This particular idea arose when a group of folks were planning the 2010 Guide to Local Producers (you should get the Guide as a supplement in your news later this year). At the meeting, local commercial producer Tom Waller spoke of encouraging more local food production; pretty soon we were wondering how everyone could help us grow more stuff this season. We came up with this idea:

Everyone who wants is invited to grow a small extra plot this year – could be a single pot, a few square feet, or something more – it’s extra to trade or even give away during harvest time. This extra is your “Abundance Plot.” Imagine folks up and down Central and North Frontenac (and others close by) all growing their part of what is effectively a community garden, spread out all over.

The Abundance Plot is a way to extend the trading circle for vegetables that many gardeners already have – and that the early settlers used in order to help each other out. It’s not a farmer’s market but it’ll have some of the elements of that; it’s not a potlatch but it has some of that too. How we’ll trade the vegetables has yet to be finalized; it could be as simple as a few market days during harvest season, or a list of who has what. We’ll see. Those who register will have more fresh, local, pesticide-free veggies grown by people you’re getting to know, coming your way; how much more is up to us. I was out talking up the Abundance Plots at Heritage Festival at Crow Lake Schoolhouse last Saturday and a mess of people signed up already. You’re invited too. Details below. Future Country Know-how columns will discuss how to do the canning and preserving that will help you do more with more food. (Is it possible that giving away fresh produce could be overdone as in the joke: “Do you lock your car?” . . . “Not usually, only during zucchini season . . .”?)

The Abundance Plot is a non-contiguous community garden. The World’s First!

Everyone gets more stuff and has some fun – and hopefully some conversation with other gardeners. You give some produce away, you get some. Beginners will be welcome and Tom Waller will be available for a limited amount of gardening help, coordinated through Country Know-how to minimize stress on him.

If you want to take part, please declare yourself “in” TODAY to the Abundance Plot so you’ll be on the list, can get updates and information and so others can know how many people are in with them. I’m working on a neat little identifying sign for your Plot, for those who would like one.

To register, just let me know. Phone (613) 279-1966 or countryknowhow@frontenac.net, or on the website. I’ll post some gardening info there as well.

And upcoming, Don’t forget the Tiny House work bee meeting, 1:30 PM, Saturday March 6th at Soldiers Memorial Hall in Sharbot Lake. At this mini-workshop you can learn about and sign-up for a “bee” on making small structures on your property (and helping others do the same). Details on the Tiny Houses, and full progress reports on the Abundance Plots at www.FrontenacResilience.org.

Lastly, if you’re a gardener and willing to share what you know about early planting, or a musician willing to host a musical soiree, I’d love to speak with you.

My friend Carol’s indoor water lillies are stirring and sending out new shoots, indicating that some secret winter tide has shifted and we’re bound for spring. No doubt the plants can feel the increased sun and lengthening days and we can too. Which is all definitely a good thing and the right time for that annual celebration, the Heritage Days festival, a pack full of ways to honor where we came from and where we are. It’s a good time to acknowledge that we really do stand on the shoulders of pioneers who set the stage for us, and on the long experience, skill and generosity of local first nations people without whom nothing much could have happened.

Taking part in the Festival is a way to feel more connected and at home here, meeting your neighbours of today, just like the early settlers did in their time.

Although Heritage Festival events will be held all over, one centre is Crow Lake Schoolhouse, 1867 Crow Lake Rd. (Hmmm, nice heritage number). Stuff happens inside and out from 10 to 4 PM. For example, Tom Waller of Elm Tree farm, an experienced local commercial gardener, will answer your gardening questions and help you with early planting advice. He’ll talk about heritage and heirloom seeds and how you can get your own. Carol Pepper of the local gardening group GGG, will be there with seed catalogues and knowledgeable gardening help too.

I’ll be there, registering folks like you for a local gardening initiative we call “Abundance Plots.” Abundance Plotters will grow a small extra plot this year – could be just a few square feet – to trade or give away at harvest time. Doing this is a way to extend the trading circle for veggies that many gardeners already have – and that the pioneers certainly used. We’re hoping that those who register will have plenty of produce coming their way; future columns will discuss how to do the canning and preserving that will make more local food a reality. (Is it possible that giving away fresh produce could be overdone as in the joke: “Do you lock your car?” . . . “Not usually, only during zucchini season . . .”?)

Herbalist Cathy Martin will share about traditional herbal medicines, and I imagine she’ll have some with her.

Gerald Stinson who knows a lot about old tools will be at the schoolhouse to show how they work and John DeWagner will demonstrate owner-built bows. Outside Mike Procter and Bob Miller will show and tell some tricks from their wealth of old-time skills, bannock making, tomahawk throwing, rifle and bow making, making fire. I love it that we live in a community where a man who can build a fire from scratch, Mike Procter, is also the speaker at the business breakfast (Friday morning at 8:30 at the Sharbot Lake legion).

It’s the Heritage Festival with some seeds from the past and some of where we’re going. See you there. See event listings in this and last week’s News.