Frontenac ResilienceSustainable community and more

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.

Sharbot Lake is going to have a community garden this summer! You can be part of it even if you live way north of Plevna.

It’ll be official when it comes out with details in Frontenac News shortly but here’s your heads up on this home grown idea: Abundance Plots will be small additions to your garden where you grow a little extra of something for trade during the harvest season with other abundance plotters. It’s like a non-contiguous community garden. The World’s First! You give some produce away, you get some. Everyone gets more stuff and has some fun – and hopefully some conversation with other gardeners.

Beginners will be welcome and likely gardening help will be available too.

You’ll be encouraged to declare yourself “in” to the Abundance Plot so you’ll be on the map and others can see who’s trying to grow what. The first bunch get a neat little identifying sign for their Plot. Perhaps a local commercial producer will give free consultation to one registered Plotter.

The idea is to have some fun and grow more stuff. People who declare themselves in will get a l’il garden sign to stick in their Abundance Plot.

Really it’s a community garden, with bits of land (and they could be very small) all over.

Roll out coming soon!

I was reading Mother Earth News recently, from the Sharbot Lake library. The August/September ‘08 issue was on little known American communities that are favoured places to live. What they had in common was they’d built vibrant citizen response to the challenges of sustainability and in the process became places where quality of life and initiative was growing rather than shrinking.

Could this happen here in Central Frontenac? Sure!

What would it take? Vision and initiatives from us. We could wait a long time for someone else to do it for us, but don’t need to wait at all to move toward it ourselves. I’ve written about this here, but today want to point to these other communities and how a similar strategy has worked wonders elsewhere.

Generally the initiatives reduced energy consumption and created a sense of shared endeavour by doing so. Projects included home energy audits, edible yard projects and other local eco-activities (Berea, Kentucky); strong emphasis on land conservation (Bisbee, Arizona); strong emphasis on local food, restoration and preservation of regional trails (Bethel, Maine); becoming a stronghold of organic, sustainable agriculture and natural resource preservation (Viroqua, Wisconsin); restoration of prairie lands and native species (Moscow, Idaho); civic commitment to frugal lifestyle with a rich public life that makes large houses unnecessary (Greenbelt, Maryland).

We could portray ourselves as a go-to place for people seeking a sustainable escape from Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal. This doesn’t mark us as poor folks wanting to attract other poor folks but quite the opposite. Thinking “sustainable future” is smart thinking these days and smart and savvy folks throughout Ontario, including many whose resources include money will want to be here.

If we have the vision and the smarts ourselves.

I think we’re going to see a great deal of change in the decade ahead. Oil prices are set to rise and keep rising because we’ve passed the peak of what’s available for easy extraction. Peak oil will change our lives profoundly, as will climate change.

Frontenac residents are going to be impacted. The more we look backward and hope for someone to help us maintain the life we’re accustomed to the less we’ll be able to see what’s happening and respond.

What if Central and North Frontenac were to become a prime go-to location for people in southern Ontario seeking a sustainable future?

The writing’s on the wall that change is coming. Diminishing oil availability, global economic meltdowns, resource shortages, climate change, . . . even food and water are no longer the certainties they once were. Not right away most likely, but down the road.

It’s now apparent to increasing numbers of people that real and lasting change is coming. The changes coming are of a scale and interconnectedness that mean they’re very hard to identify and isolate. That’s one of many reasons we can’t easily see solutions and why we have few strategies to deal with coming change at any level of government.

Local areas are the key.

It’s unlikely that the most useful responses to future challenges will come from bureaucrats in Ottawa or Toronto. In a future of change these will be increasingly out of touch with what’s needed here on the ground. Nor will “they” necessarily be looking out for “us,” having their own concerns.

Is there a real opportunity here for Central and North Frontenac? I think so!

We’re in an excellent position itself to benefit right now from people’s real concern about the future. Central and North Frontenac could become a prime go-to location for southern Ontarions – younger and older – who are worried about a sustainable future. The anxiety is real and the people are there. In the process it would revitalize itself in a number of ways that would cost very little but would dramatically increase its social, economic and cultural base. The opportunity is here to welcome a new wave of sustainable homesteaders. .

The longer term future belongs to communities who can read wall writing and have taken steps.

We already have:

* relatively cheap land
* an excellent location within hours of 5 plus million people within the “golden triangle” of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal
* an educated and socially conscious citizenry, mainly older who would benefit from more young people here

Attracting new citizens means putting out a clear and unequivocal welcome mat that says we see your concerns and can help with them.

Among many possibilities:

* have a stated policy that newcomers are welcome and supported
* build a volunteer organization of teams involved in various aspects of sustainability: examples include supporting an Elder Eco-village, networking those already working with sustainable technologies, community gardens, a Healthy Community building where citizen activities take place (revitalize an existing building), a citizen’s council and charter for thinking about the future, a regular system of “building bees” for permaculture (homes that can do well with minimal outside inputs), fundraising and grant writing. These initiatives are attractive to people. If we create the blueprint, they will come to fulfill it.
* succession planning plan – link older farmers and properties with younger people who can work them (as is being done already [south of us I believe] through the NFU through Heifer International)
* contact people and accommodations where people stay while they check out the area
* a school for sustainability skills taught by local people. Young “interns” could build the physical school under the guidance of local craftsmen.
* identify sustainability resources in the community and make these available to newcomers “We’ll help you get situated here.”
* work on freeing land use requirements for innovative situations

Central and North Frontenac has the people and resources to do this and more. By moving toward a change like this we quickly become noticed as an answer to what many perceive as a very real problem. The benefits to our community could be considerable.

Bunkies, tiny houses, 10′ x 10′ structures, by whatever name received a lot of attention at the “Futures Conversation” last night. Although we were exploring possibilities that grasped our imagination during the evening, it wasn’t until we’d officially quit doing that that Tiny Houses strode onto the scene. They made a boisterous entrance and stayed a while.

We tended to see different advantages which suggested there were indeed a number of advantages from having Tiny Houses in our collective future. Lynn and I brainstormed a bunch of others after folks left. Must have been the coffee and home-made cheese from Suzanne’s cheese workshop!

I am dreaming in technicolour but let me count the ways Tiny Houses are cool:

• They could be the focus for a weekend course on building . . . Tiny Houses next summer. Folks could come from far and wide for cheap and learn how to build one . . . for one of us
• Local people have the skill to do the building, design the plans, provide the lumber
• They were deemed beautiful, like shipboard dwellings
• Folks who want a Tiny House could provide a mix of labour and money, with some elements of a community “bee” thrown in too with others who want a TH participating
• WOOFERS (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), or interns for doing farm work or land development could stay in the Tiny Houses while they help us with our work
• Folks who like non-conformist housing could build as wacky as they like, long as it’s tiny
• Tiny Houses would be natural resting perches for family or refugees from the city thinking of moving to Frontenac

This idea sprang from us collectively and we’ll explore it at the next Futures Conversation December 13th. If I were a betting man I’d bet Tiny Houses will have a role in our collective future.