Upcycling cabinets for the barn

There is a recycling center in the Bay Area called Urban Ore. I just mention this because I love the name.  The name speaks to the value that can be derived from upcycling from the waste stream, thus stopping the cycle of waste in our disposable culture.

Today we are installing 5 large cabinets in the barn procured from our recycle town. I found some that were obviously carpenter made out of good solid materials, good craftsmanship and no particle board.  They are finished clear to show the real wood grain beneath which matches the natural aesthetic of the barn. I feel lucky.

Pictoral Pit Bio Char Process

This is a link to a bio char pdf

Oasis may experiment with this type of kiln near the chicken area to burn the weedy mass and turn into a fertilizer and soil amendment. The free standing kon tiki is supposed to be more efficient but this is a more basic technology.  In addition the kon tiki is mobile reducing labor of moving the orchard trimmings.  Although it was my intention to burn the plywood I am advised against it as the process could concentrate toxins.  It would be better to chip them as the leaching and digestion of chips will be diluted more evenly across the landscape instead of in our vegetable patch.  The formaldehyde glue in this product is an antibacterial and thus is ill suited for compost and bio char but as a dilute layer I am certain it will digest over time in contact with the soil. This method will have less overall effect on the environment because it is kept local.  Additionally the areas covered are paths so that the modest antibacterial action of the chip will not matter much.  Over time as we eliminate plywood and chip board from use the microbial action in soils under the paths will recover as the planet is a giant digestion machine.

Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons

There is a good book in the amazon cue on this and also I see conflict in the problem historically that cities undermine sustainability and exploit the country side as.  Also long term there is the question that the high population of "cities are the future" may not be sustainable of the planet, see Toby Heminway.  This none the less is a very active debate and neither of us will turn out to be right.

"The concept of sharing cities is getting considerable traction with grassroots groups and city governments around the world. Seoul, Amsterdam, London and Milan are just four examples. While these efforts share commonalities, the sharing city concept is not well defined. This presents important opportunities (and risks) that are being addressed by communities large and small around the world. This presentation will highlight people, projects and policies working to create real equitable Sharing Cities. This presentation will highlight replicable projects and policies which are currently supporting city wide resiliency. The work that Shareable does focuses heavily on connecting people and projects working on similar things around the world to strengthen the movement as a whole.Tom Llewellyn will be available before and after (both the presentation and event) to answer questions and make connections on a global scale."

Friday Oct 6| 3:30pm| Hops Tipi

Tom Llewellyn is the Organizing Director at Shareable.net, and a lifelong sharer, commoner and story teller. He coordinates the global Sharing Cities Network, #MapJam, and other community sharing campaigns, in addition to collaborating on Shareable’s weekly publishing, co-editing the Shareable Guide to Sharing book series and speaking internationally about real, equitable sharing cities.

Previously, he was the Education and Activism Director for Sustainable Living Roadshowco-leading the touring organization across the U.S. for 5 years producing eco events and actions promoting environmental, social and economic sustainability. Tom has co-founded several community and sharing based initiatives including: A PLACE for Sustainable Living, Asheville Tool Library, REAL Cooperative (Regenerative Education, Action & Leadership) and the worker cooperative Critter Cafe.Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons:

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Compost toilets, parasites, and social change

The urgency of leaving water in our rivers means we need to rethink our flush toilets.Many of us are experimenting with homemade composting toilets.
Let’s compare notes about best practices in processing “the material” and get clear about what precautions are in order.
Come prepared to share about your own “research”–what has and hasn’t worked.
Let’s share best practices and precautions in the processing of homemade compost toilet “material”.
Water is a critical resource in CA and there’s not enough being left in the rivers.
Many premies are forgoing flush toilets and experimenting with composting toilets –and using a variety of methods to process the material to make it “safe” to put in the garden. This is important hands on research but also requires some responsibility.
This workshop would give us a chance to compare notes, learn from each other, and perhaps to self correct in case some methods are not recommended.

Sunday, Oct 8| 11am| Zocalo 

As a plumber Christina has earned the right to have an attitude about flush toilets! The nutrients in our excretions need to nourish the soil, not pollute our waterways! As an eco artist she creates artworks that spark awareness about environmental issues (and solutions), especially related to water. She believes wholeheartedly in the power of art to wake people up and stimulate change.
see some of her mischief at https://directory.weadartists.org/artist/christina-bertea As a water activist she has been teaching greywater and rainwater installation workshops (and directly doing installations) for almost 10 years.

Nik Bertulis wants to reinstate abundance for all life via empowering humanity’s intrinsic regenerative potential. He studied permaculture with Bill Mollison and is a certified permaculture teacher, wildlands firefighter and emergency medical technician with a B.A.S. degree in ecological design from Colorado College.

His professional accomplishments include helping develop and teaching permaculture and regenerative design programs at Merritt College in Oakland and the San Francisco Art Institute. As an artist he co-founded the award winning public arts collaborative Monsoon Arsenal and as a designer-builder he was cofounder and CFO of the successful permaculture design-build company the DIG Cooperative where he helped pioneer some of the first permitted constructed wetlands and rainwater recycling systems in the bay area. His clients have ranged from Mexico City’s Ministry of the Environment to Los Alamos National Laboratory. A deep love for non-profiteering led him to co-found several non-profits including Urban Biofilter, PLACE for Sustainable Living and most recently the California Center for Natural History. He also serves on the board of the Watershed Alliance of Marin and the Dietrich Institute for Applied Insect Ecology. He currently serves as CEO of the Oakleyville Cooperative in Oakland, CA.

Most of his free time is spent tinkering on regenerative living systems, transformative scenario planning and invertebrate macro-photography. More examples of his work can be seen at nikbertulis.com.Compost toilets, parasites, and social change:



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Food Forest Gardens

This is part of our mission

"Grow your own! It doesn’t get more local or fresh than your own yard. Want to create a personal Garden of Eden for you, your clients, or your community? Want to eat fresh, local, organic produce while reducing your environmental footprint? This workshop will focus on the how-to’s of creating a beautiful, functional and food-generating garden, no matter how much space you have. There will be an emphasis on incorporating ecological principles, such as soil building, using perennial edibles, and planting for habitat enhancement. The more food we grow at home and in our neighborhoods, the more food resilient we become, relying less on remote agribusiness and for-profit supermarkets. We reduce our environmental footprint by using less fossil fuel, less water, less fertilizer and fewer chemicals. There will be a power-point presentation, a group brain-storming session, and sample plants followed by a question-and- answer session as time allows."

Friday, Oct 6 | 12:30 PM – 1: 30 PM | Zocalo

Mike Boss is a plant ecologist and garden maker. He founded the award-winning company Rock & Rose Landscapes in 1989. His home garden is one of San Francisco’s oldest food forest gardens. He took his first PDC in 2014 at The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center and his second with Toby Hemenway and Daily Acts in 2016-7. He recently founded The Edible Nursery Project in San Francisco which makes available to San Francisco and Bay Area residents perennial plants that produce edible roots, fruits, and shoots.Food Forest Gardens:

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Beyond Diversity to Liberation: Intentional Communities as platforms for social justice

Very relevent to our families issues and clearly with all minorities

In this workshop, we will explore the historical roots of black intentional communities movement highlighted by Jessica Gordon Nembhard in her book Collective Courage, and The Arc of Justice, which chronicles the remarkable journey of black farmers and the first land trust that grew out of the Civil Rights movement. We will also highlight visionary present-day community & co-housing projects that are grasping at the root causes of racialized displacement, environmental racism, and wealth inequality by building cooperative and participatory housing models that are led by communities of color, indigenous peoples, LGBTQ-identified communities and low-income communities. Among those is the Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, a scalable model that can raise funds through investments and is designed by its members.

Saturday Oct 7| 2pm| Hops Tipi

Marissa Ashkar is from The People of Color Sustainable Housing Network (POCSHN) is a resource network for people of color interested in building intentional, healthy, and affordable housing communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Since starting in February 2015, it has grown to become an intergenerational network hosting quarterly potlucks, tours, study groups, and educational workshops. The network was established in response to extreme increases in housing costs, rapid gentrification, and the lack of socio-economic diversity among the intentional community movement across the United States.

Beyond Diversity to Liberation: Intentional Communities as platforms for social justice:



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Ecocentro Ipec and the Ecozoic Biofilter Toilets

"The Biofilter toilets used at the last Global Eclipse Gathering in Oregon, organised by Simbiosys Events, with 30,000+ attendees was the crowning of an experiment in mobile ecological sanitation that started in 1999, in Brazil.
Ecocentro Ipec is a multi award winning institution displaying more than 30,000 sq feet of natural buildings and 60 acres of gardens, food forests and sustainable technologies in the heart of South America. Ecocentro Ipec first started to develop composting technologies in 1999, and some of the sanitation solutions developed include the Bananaloo, an awarded technology and the Biofilter toilet for urban zones without sanitation infrastructure.
Composting toilets are not new technologies. In fact, the reuse of human waste for agricultural purposes has been part of our society almost as long as agriculture itself.
The technology of composting toilets is simple to reproduce within the scale of residential family life or small rural holdings. But the same cannot be said when we consider the scale of the metropolis or the intensity of large scale festivals such as the Eclipse Gathering, Burning Man and others.
The world is expected to have more than 40 megacities ( +10 million people) in the near future. When it comes to sanitation,  the reality of high density living is similar to the temporary reality of large scale music and art festivals: tens of thousands of people that need food, water and sanitation within limited space.
The Ecozoic Biofilter toilet uses the action of microbes to digest and process human waste without adding water or chemicals. By replicating the conditions of a healthy forest floor and without compromising on the comfort level to the public it is possible to offer a mobile technology that achieves a level of onsite treatment similar to tertiary centralised biological sewage treatment systems without expensive underground infrastructure.
The Ecozoic Biofilter toilet can potentially replace the dangerous and controversial sanitation technology used in large scale events: the infamous port a potty.
The final product is biofertilizer that could be applied to grow food or forests.
This workshop will tell the story of Ecocentro Ipec and the journey to develop Ecozoic Biofilter toilets as a Permaculture solution for ecological sanitation in high density populated areas, including festivals and mega events.
We will see some inspiring images and revisit the natural cycle of digestion and flow of nutrients to identify design patterns that apply to the requirements of such environments."

Ecocentro Ipec and the Ecozoic Biofilter Toilets:

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Closed Loop Designs with Green & Solar Tech for Greenhouses

We are going to build a model Green house and will use this workshop to help plan and get resources we need.

          "Solar and Energy Tech for Sustainable Greenhouses"
     Chaz Peling of SolSolutions will share some examples of how new appropriate technology and design can be used in greenhouse systems for year around food and herb gardening. Using the principles for closed loop system designs applied to greenhouse environmental systems, there are many new ways to use solar energy and super efficient applications for season extension of growing plants needing, cooling, air flow, lighting, heating and water, that can be created with a low earth and energy footprint. Local, clean and low energy year-round food supplies are the goal, for any location or climate.
     Expands some of the goals of permaculture and resilient communities. More ways to grow local food year around. Reducing carbon footprint and energy use for agriculture. Hooks up solar advocacy and energy efficiency with farming. Empowers folks to own the means of energy production. Will have sharing sessions to understand personal power footprints, and ways to self-install and design such systems.

“Chaz Peling founded and runs SolSolutions, focused on personal empowerment and education around solar, energy use, and efficient designs in homes, farms and communities. He has been involved in community building, environmental and social activism, and the transition movement for quite awhile as a call to passion, and also loves to keep gardening and getting his hands in the earth.”

Closed Loop Designs with Green & Solar Tech for Greenhouses:



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Decolonizing Our Resiliency Movements

This relates to the reparations article in Yes Magazine

"The effects of settler colonialism on these lands (Turtle Island) have created the dominant systems that now threaten our very survival, and have conditioned us to sever our ties to Mother Nature and to each other.  We will look at colonial systems of oppression, and then talk about how these show up in movements working towards climate & ecological resiliency such as Transition, Permaculture and Re-Skilling.  We will touch upon the unconscious cultural appropriation that sometimes happens in these fields.  We will also learn/share ways to be more just and inclusive in our resiliency work.  This is a continuation of a similar talk from last year’s convergence."

SusanJuniperPark

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Susan Juniper Park is an activist working at the cross-section of ecological, economic and social justice. She is also involved in urban farming, healing work, education and permaculture. She was a co-founding member of the Economic Development Without Displacement Coalition (Oakland-based anti-gentrification project), ran a food justice economic project at Phat Beets Produce (Oakland-based grassroots food justice organization), worked as a fundraiser for the Ruckus Society (a direct action training organization empowering frontline communities), and was an organizer with Occupy the Farm (Bay Area based land defense effort). These days you can find her subsitute teaching in Oakland K-12 schools, doing gardening gigs, and cultivating a healing justice practice. She is grateful and humbled to be an immigrant and permanent guest living on Ohlone territory.

Decolonizing Our Resiliency Movements:
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Sharing Cities | The MIT Press

Is there a relation to convergence topic?

     How cities can build on the "sharing economy" and smart technology to deliver a "sharing paradigm" that supports justice, solidarity, and sustainability.
     The future of humanity is urban, and the nature of urban space enables, and necessitates, sharing -- of resources, goods and services, experiences. Yet traditional forms of sharing have been undermined in modern cities by social fragmentation and commercialization of the public realm. In Sharing Cities, Duncan McLaren and Julian Agyeman argue that the intersection of cities' highly networked physical space with new digital technologies and new mediated forms of sharing offers cities the opportunity to connect smart technology to justice, solidarity, and sustainability. McLaren and Agyeman explore the opportunities and risks for sustainability, solidarity, and justice in the changing nature of sharing.
     McLaren and Agyeman propose a new "sharing paradigm," which goes beyond the faddish "sharing economy" -- seen in such ventures as Uber and TaskRabbit -- to envision models of sharing that are not always commercial but also communal, encouraging trust and collaboration. Detailed case studies of San Francisco, Seoul, Copenhagen, Medellín, Amsterdam, and Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) contextualize the authors' discussions of collaborative consumption and production; the shared public realm, both physical and virtual; the design of sharing to enhance equity and justice; and the prospects for scaling up the sharing paradigm though city governance. They show how sharing could shift values and norms, enable civic engagement and political activism, and rebuild a shared urban commons. Their case for sharing and solidarity offers a powerful alternative for urban futures to conventional "race-to-the-bottom" narratives of competition, enclosure, and division.

About the Authors

Duncan McLaren, former Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, is Director of McLaren Environmental Research and Consultancy.

Julian Agyeman is Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. He is the coeditor of Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World (MIT Press) and other books.

Sharing Cities | The MIT Press: "Sharing Cities
A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities"



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Meeting #2

Note: I made a spreadsheet, posted it and then made changes and yet another smaller list for purpose of  review, encouraging additions and sorting out the process

We agreed to have weekly short meetings using Arlo and Marina's model: They are of the quick, "sprint to completion" type and pull from a prioritized "Backlog" list to provide opportunities to plug into work beginning or in progress.  These meetings depend on pulling from existing rather than new work and sometimes in consultation with project leaders, innumerate and schedule work opportunities for the week.

As with our first meeting the work items should end up listed on a big sheet of paper and left posted for the week

Other meetings:  There will also need to be other, periodic meetings we may call "backlog grooming" meetings,  the purpose of which is to pull work items forward from the icebox list to a shorter and achievable backlog list.  It is uncertain how they are prioritized on this smaller list. Mostly they interconnect with ongoing work but sometimes will be they launch of a new project.

The analogy is that of 3x5 index cards that can be re-arranged and sorted to find and organize priority work.  We however agreed to put the list in a google sheet at this time although printed cards may be useful in future processes.

We also agreed to post a giant paper in the barn were people can add a description of a project or a job.  An example is "build a kid tree house" or "build a bench under the plum on the gardener's path".  Since there logically must be a moderator of the list, that moderator will move such items to the list.  Otherwise the list is shared and people may add an item to the end of it directly.  Please sign your work.

In lieu of Sunday meeting

Canning

• Would like to do canning tomato project soon Monday would be great for me because starting Tuesday I'm working on wood flooring

Farming

• Clearing for cover crop is nearly done and I would like to clear all the way to the asparagus
• Kitchen Garden has begun and I would like to move components from the existing hoop house and install them at the new location. In addition I will pick up more perlite today and more geopots so that we can continue
• Arlo suggested planting carrots and some other routes in this area and I agree but said some in the ground protection such as using wire would be required. We will also have to cut up some of the Redwood that came off the little house two raise the beds on the edge of the wire

Flooring

• Materials will be picked up Tuesday and upstairs bedroom and balcony will begin period after the meeting on Wednesday the main floor will begin. Duration of the job should be one week some help moving things about will be helpful at various points during the project and thus far although I have asked David for help I am pretty much doing this on my own so project could run over substantially

Grounds

• Trucking company has been arranged quantities of materials have been calculated and tractor equipment operator has been contacted however I am still hoping for one full-time labor to hire. I have contacted Lydia and they will call me back and arrange to move the bus to the location in front of Arlo and Marina's house temporarily while we compact the driveway

Events

• The climate change Lobby is meeting in the barn at 7 p.m. Wednesday. All tables are on call as I only have two in the barn and one I will bring up from the basement so if we have a force it would be good

Seating Plan

PDF

Farm Site Plan

PDF

Kitchen Garden

PDF

Weekly Meeting #1

Well our first meeting lacked structure and functioned pretty much like a report out for me.  Hope it was not a complete loss and OK as a first shot.  We will do better.  Arlo's observation is that there was little actionable. I said, I have a very long backlog of work to do that I have already forced into categories that may be useful. I include the list at the end as may be useful.  In addition we talked about the central problem of prioritizing the work, placing a partial list of categories and subs for critical areas as follows:

• Farming
• Cover crop
• Lower east side garden finished
• Lower west side needed (check with Wayne on seed broadcast and cultivator incorporation.)
• Upper garden top six rows needed next (I made some of this up and filled in after the fact)
• Winter garden
• Fava
• Garlic
• Repair hoop house #1 and remove hoop house #2
• Design plan and schedule greenhouse with ground to air heat transfer (gaht) system
• Construction
• Barn
• Floor (3 weeks out so order immediately)
•  Cabinets and shelves, (we need this to organize the kitchen but it is a secondary at this point)
• Shower grouting and curtain
• Finish the upper room barn doors for light and air
• Install kitchen fan for venting pollution from stove, (we have this temporarily handles so it is secondary.
• Seal and waterproof the stove pipe bonnet before winter
• Events
• Connie will work with Rama on known existing events and another event came through today for a "Healing" group lead by our friend Ellen.
• Much of the construction section below is in support of events as well as Rama's residency.
• Kitchen Garden
• Get compost (I will do this Monday)
• Set up 8) 45 gallon fiber pots and plant with chard and dino kale right outside barn above the basil (check with Wayne for formula for potting mix)
• Grounds
• clear wood from path by pizza oven and distribute chips from path to other locations
• purchase fabrics for road and watercourses
• Call lydia arrange for bus moving
• Schedule concrete guy labor and machines and truckers availability for hauling and rent steam roller from Hertz in preparation all earth work
• Dig all water courses by hand prior to delivery of rock and clay.  (Work with Wayne directly on this.  Perhaps we can do this together with Juan and Wayne on Tue, Wed and Thurs of the week.)
• Take delivery of concrete rip rap
• Take delivery of rock, gravel and clay (3 - tranfer truck full, approx 110-120 tons)
• Canning (Most of these project take many hours to complete)
• One more run of tomato for sauce (6hrs)
• One more run of plum for syrup and juice (6 hrs)
• Can roasted peppers and eggplant (4 hrs)
• Can Baba-Ganoush (This project uses the pizza oven for roasting and is kind of an experiment so is certain to take at least 6 hrs)
• Cloths line
• install a temporary line on the scaffolding behind the barn and clear the weeds for walking around and using it.
• Gather materials for installations (including repair of post hole digger)
• Mow/cultivate so we can walk around it and to the construction
• Install all in 2-4 hours

Other projects that were talked about but not prioritized include above:

Path light project:

I dislike the disposable crap and long term want a wired system but I am willing to install the existing crap lighting on metal posts so the don't just get knocked over all the time on their little, puny plastic stems.  This should actually improve visibility in the short term so I am OK with it.
Below is the actual project  which requires substantial investment and some installation cost.  It is best done after all of the water course and path work is complete as it is a permanent 22 year infrastructure.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Low-Voltage-Bronze-Outdoor-Integrated-LED-Light-Kit-8-Pack-IWV6628L/206265491These will require a solar dawn to dusk sensor that I would install on the ac box so that the transformer is switched off as well as the lights. Here is one that can run 3 sets from the little house to the big house and down to the driveway  http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Low-Voltage-Bronze-Outdoor-Integrated-LED-Light-Kit-8-Pack-IWV6628L/206265491 All plugged into the hoop house power supply.
Another transformer could be located at the side of the house and run three other sets up to the barn, around the path and down to the maple past the oven. so a total of  48 separate light and a total cost of $1000.  The lamps if used 6 hours daily have a life of 22 years. Transformers will last under 10 years.

Recycling:
This project need a leader as I have not been able to nail it down for interpersonal reasons. Outside input on location of the barrels, aesthetics etc and details of procedure are needed.  Interesting approaches include shredding aluminum, paper and soft plastics for stockpiles (sort of joking).  I am not surprised after all the dysfunction and failure in this country that this has proven as stupid problem for us as well.

Additional items for farming list

prune berries
Weed and extend raspberries
Trim the tree over the path
Weed the figs
Weed the Kitchen Garden

Project	Description
Barn	anchor pre rinse support
Barn	build 2 chair dollies
Barn	order oak
Barn	install flooring
Barn	Move fridge freezer and gumball machine to Barn
Barn	Moms art
Barn	scub rugs
Barn	make chair dolly
Barn	install shower curtain
Barn	finish insulation
Barn	install hood
Barn	paint rafters
Barn	paint walls
Barn	grout tile
Barn	install sprinklers
Barn	remove stove
Barn	install bonnet
Barn	install exhaust fan
Barn	plan pad for air handler with outlet and roof
Barn	finish plumb sink
Barn	repair toilet
Barn	secure sinks and counters
Barn	install doors and knobs and trim
Barn	build cabinets, bookshelves and wardrobes, repair wardrobe
Barn	finish barn door remodel
Basement	Clear basement fix office
bookkeeping	ouch 2016 pers
bookkeeping	account exit job
Events	Revenant July 29 at 8
Events	promote
Events	canning workshop
Events	chefs dinner, bring stuff and we cook it here dinner
Events	green screen studio or recording stage
Events	work day for lites
Events	buy and chalk parking
Farming	Roof potting garden shed
Farming	Remove old chicken pen at Barn
Farming	install fence at barn
Farming	repair middle drip
Farming	fence and gate at chicken barn
Farming	Install chicken Trench and drain
Farming	weed basil
Farming	harvest carrots clear and plant carrots
Farming	hoop greens
Farming	trellis tomato
Farming	kill gophers
Farming	majore buck wheat planting middle and upper
Farming	remove goat burr
Farming	Build Amish raised bed former
Grounds	Burn permits
Grounds	finish tent cabin order sides
Grounds	Cut up shed
Grounds	Clear drains fix grey water
Grounds	repair drain at Oak below Road
Grounds	Fix drainage behind rocket stove and build the Swale and keep it mowed
Grounds	Provide steps Bender retaining wall at crawl space path
Grounds	big mulch 40 yards
Grounds	big gravel
Grounds	mow and restore pastures
Grounds	major renovation of fig orchard
Grounds	renovate path at butterfly also install water
Grounds	repair rip rap at wash out
Grounds	pull fire permits
Grounds	remove dirt and grass from parking area at gate
house	patch roof
Meetup	Rethink the greenhouses see if John's Greenhouse can go here
Meetup	write up camp gear
Meetup	meet up with
Meetup	show and tell recycle
Meetup	develop site plan
Meetup	little house plan
Meetup	report on convergence

• Design new dog and cat poop disposal protocol
• Dog run
• landscape and rockscape behind little house
• Tent cabin finishing
• Recycling enclosure and possible bamboo forest
• Provide reflectors on all barn lights
• create a daily ongoing task list of ongoing jobs and a set of house rules
• Develop a permaculture plan begining with a planting of perenial hedgerow and wind break
• Clear out the lower shed and reconstruct it as a studio/office
• Repair golf cart
• Design and build an decorative iron front gate.  This is the beginning of our learn to weld project
• Design and build constructed wetlands for gray water recycling
• Build shade and hoop structure at propagation shed, perhaps out of old hoop material
• Finish the fire sprinklers in the barn
• purchase and plant more lavender and consider oregano or other perenial herbs in that location above figs
• New things for the Kitchen Garden
• Lemon grass (needs to be protected from frost) so a temporary hoop in winter is good
• chives
• garlic chives
• Malabar Spinach want trellesing (needs to be protected from frost)
• French sorrel
• Lovage tastes like celery but very strong
• Celery
• Parsley
• Cucumber
• Peppers (hot and sweet in pots that can be moved into the greenhouse for winter)
• Myer Lemon (needs to be protected from frost) perhaps a little get away tropical)

German open source electric assist bike trailer

About 400 pound load limit.  Cold be useful around the farm or in the orchard as well.
Building instructions Carla Cargo Crowd - postfossil mobile:



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Farm to Table Means Anything?

This is a just a taste of what's to come in the disturbing world of dumbing down ideas like "organic", "farm to table" and 'local".  In the universe of brands they mean what we are told they mean.

     Now that Amazon’s taken over Whole Foods, a natural foods grocery known for its high prices, the new owners have pledged to lower prices.
     I stopped by the store to see what had changed. In addition to a few discounts — organic apples went from $2.99 to $1.99 per pound — I noticed a big display in the middle of the produce section. “Farm Fresh,” it read. “Just Picked.”
     What agricultural product was this ad for? Amazon Echo — a wireless speaker.
Presumably Amazon grew the electronic devices on a nearby farm and, once ripe, harvested them off the vine and shipped them to the produce aisle in my local Whole Foods.

Well I guess they made you look. And, there will be more to come everywhere you look.  Amazon is not alone in this grand linguistic crusade of adding (and subtracting) meaning and value to our language.

     The same day, while browsing hiking socks online, I came across a brand I hadn’t seen before called Farm to Feet.     Seriously? Farm to Feet?     It’s true that wool — and the socks were mostly made of wool, in addition to a few synthetic fibers like spandex — comes from a sheep, and sheep are raised on a farm. The socks certainly had more of a connection to a farm than an Amazon Echo.  But I think we can officially say that “Farm to Table” has jumped the shark.

http://otherwords.org/farm-to-table-has-jumped-the-shark/

Woo-ee canning tomato season

This year at Oasis we planted four 75 foot rows of a variety of tomatoes. Berkeley Tie Dye an heirloom, Oregon Spring an open-pollinated Bush variety, a paste tomato and Coeur de Bouaf, a French variety often called ox heart. Most of them are staked and trellised and I'm loving my new system which has the tomatoes well under control.

My new kitchen full of stainless steel sinks counters and a big 8 burner stove is able to handle three or four big pots all at once. One of them is 38 quarts and it's full of tomato right now.

The first pot of Berkeley tie dye is 38 quarts full to the very top and then stomped down once or twice to make them fit.  I used to make this first cook short so that I could strain them out and get more in the pot but now with the bigger pots it makes more sense to cook them longer with skins on. This should make the sauce richer and more flavorful as well as imbue it with more of the beneficial from the skins. Each of the varieties was quite different in cook time the longest being over three hours.  My method on sauce I call the slump test -- just take a couple of ounces and put it on a plate and see if the center pile holds up a bit and the edges don't just run watery.  

Straining is always the hard part because strainers that are available to me are all small kitchen varieties and we're too small and operation to get anything commercial. I'm leaning towards inventing some sort of Amish apparatus.  All total in this batch I processed about 168 pound representing about 21 gallons of crush and netted 23 quarts of sauce (a ratio of 3.7 to 1).  About 6 hours turn around but worth it as the sauce is exceptionally tasty.

Agrarian Games Video for You

Doesn't that look like fun?  It is sponsored by Farmers Guild

A family moment

Granddaughter, Morgen Star doesn't come by much but we lover her and am proud of her work.  Listen!

https://t.co/QMUYterGzC

— wmorgenthaler (@wmorgenthaler2) August 5, 2017

Corporate Agricultural Dumping: Growing the Wealth Gap & Harming Farmers

Big Ag harms farmers all over the world and gets rich off of your tax dollars.  Although on its face it would seem obvious that you can't sell at a loss forever and stay in business.  However nobody cares if the farmers stay in business as long as there is money to be made in the highly financialized commodities market.  That's where this Big Ag move is played.  It has long been standard US foreign policy practice to harm the stability and sustainability for lesser countries and in this way creating opportunity for exploitation and lots of profits to be made off the misery.

     The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) has used World Trade Organization formulas to document the systematic dumping of US grown agricultural commodities (specifically wheat, soybeans, corn, cotton, and rice) for two decades. They found that in the wake of the volatile commodity markets that dominated in the period from 2007 to 2013, export prices largely exceeded production costs. In recent years, however, US agricultural commodity dumping has started again. According to IATP's calculations, in 2015 US wheat was exported at 32 percent less than the cost of production, soybeans at 10 percent less, corn at 12 percent less, and rice at 2 percent less.
     Dumping clearly increases inequality between farmers in the global North and South. Less visibly, dumping also worsens incomes and increases inequality within rural America.

Corporate Agricultural Dumping: Growing the Wealth Gap:



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Cultivate.Coop

Cultivate.Coop:

PDF  http://cdi.coop/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/start-up-packet-2015-web.pdf

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Degeneration Nation: Connecting the Dots Between Factory Farms, Roundup, GMOs, and Fake 'Natural' Foods

What's in that box of food on the grocery shelf you plan on feeding your family for dinner tonight? Maybe you can look on the label.  Maybe not!

And, that would include thanking your government.  And, every one's favorite, Obama for selling you down the toxic river that goes on and on with no end.

     After decades of trying to reform public policy on food and farming, including an intense four-year battle to force mandatory labeling of GMOs (rudely terminated in 2016 when Congress and the Obama administration rammed through the outrageous DARK Act), food activists and conscious consumers find ourselves wondering “what’s the use of lobbying the government?”
     Do we really think the Trump administration, the Republican Congress, and farm state and Establishment Democrats care about the toxicity, exploitation and environmental destruction of our food system?
     The culinary directive from Congress and the White House this summer goes something like this: Don’t worry. Shut up and eat your Frankenfoods, cheap junk foods, and factory-farm meat, dairy and poultry.  Don’t worry about Monsanto’s Roundup or Dow’s neonic residues in your food and water. Don’t worry about the dubious fare at your local supermarkets, including thousands of products fraudulently labeled or advertised as “natural.”--Ronnie  Cummins, Organic Consumers Assoc.

Does this look like a source of food?
I suggest you get to "Know Your Farmer"

(Note: This is the first post in an series of what will be original articles on the subject of "A Solution to the Food Crisis: Know Your Farmer".  It will be edited in the near future with an introduction and over arching framework that will stress that we already know the way and yet we must also know the colonizer.  Keep in touch and please comment or add content.)
Degeneration Nation: Connecting the Dots Between Factory Farms, Roundup, GMOs, and Fake 'Natural' Foods:



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Current Vegetable & Fruit List

Available now for u-pick  7/14/17

Genovesi Basil -- Row #14  -- $3/8oz bunch

Ovations greens -- Row #15  -- $3/12oz bunch

These are young, tender and make a wonderfully spicy salad mix.  We eat them more than lettuce.  We also chop them small and use them as a sauteed green with eggs and polenta.  They contain 2 types of mustard, tatsoi, arrugula

Arrugula -- Row #16  -- $3/12oz bunch

Long Green Pimento Peppers -- Row #19   -- $3/pound

Santa Rosa Plums -- in campground -- $4/pound

These are at their peak of tree ripe perfection 

Yellow "Candy" Storage Onions -- Basement -- $2/pound

Kiowa Blackberries -- Next to house -- $4/basket

Nearing the end of the season

Giant Black Figs -- near little house -- $4/pound

This crop is wonderful but will be gone soon.  We well have another in a couple of months

Kohlrabi -- Row #18  -- $3/pound

The greens make a wonderful green much like collard but sweeter and the globes are bright and crunchie julienned in salads or stir fried 

Fennel -- Row #18  -- $3/pound

I do not find this to be a mysterious vegetable like many do.  Just saute it as a substitute for celery and a fried of ours made a wonderful fennel frond pesto.  Of course you can shave it into salads for a bright aromatic accent. 

Bring your own bags, use the wash up sink and scale behind the house, leave the money in the cash box at the front driveway.  But, of course we would like it if you stop and visit a bit.

Long-time Iowa farm cartoonist fired after creating this cartoon

According to the article:

     Friday received an email from his editor at Farm New cutting off their relationship a day after the cartoon was published.
     Friday’s editor said a seed dealer pulled their advertisements with Farm News as a result of the cartoon, and others working at the paper disagreed with the jokes made about the agriculture corporations.
     “When it comes to altering someone’s opinion or someone’s voice for the purpose of wealth, I have a problem with that,” said Friday. “It’s our constitutional right to free speech and our constitutional right to free press.

Orrazz: Long-time Iowa farm cartoonist fired after creating this cartoon:



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This shipping-container farm could someday solve the food desert problem -- NOT!

The Washington Post strikes again.  A uniquely bad idea as a solution to hunger, although I have no problem with it as a research project.  Our neo liberal government of the past 35 years has been unwilling to give the poor the means to be independent (like a few acres and a mule or stable housing or free child care or a minimum wage, or voice and teeth on a community board,) The state seems happy enough doling out billion dollar contracts for Katrina emergency housing that never arrive, multi-million dollar settlements to the victim of its police abuse when they prevail in court, while letting the cops go free, and encouraging speculation and gentrification with dollar signs in their eyes but with no thought nor care of the displaced.  I am especially dismayed by the heroic tone of the quote by company spokesperson, “I think simply helicoptering a farm into a food desert could be part of the solution,” as if we don't already know how to run a food pantry, a soup kitchen or a farmers market, all of which put volunteers, local farmers and staff to rewarding work rather than making a million for a company to provide a high tech, high cost, unsustainable and possibly radioactive head of lettuce. (just kidding on this last one but just look at the photo.)


The media has an unhealthy appetite for technological miracles and is not grounded in critical thought.  In essence this is just a puff piece, promoting a new business, Local Roots passing as news or real solutions. Local Roots is a hot startup with more than a million dollars of seed money competing in a rapidly growing niche market with other modular competitors like PodPonics.  It has nothing to do with helping the poor with access to food.  Otherwise they would have asked the poor first, rather than the investors.

This shipping-container farm could someday solve the food desert problem - The Washington Post:



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Americans Favor Raising SNAP Benefits, But Not Allowing Them for Candy and Soda

An overwhelming majority of Americans support food stamps.  Although we think of this as a partisan issue, in truth....Republicans are actually out in front on candy, cookies, cake, doughnuts and Soda and a majority supports the program.

The survey found overwhelming bipartisan support for limiting what SNAP benefits can be used for. Seventy-six percent (Republicans 85 percent, Democrats 68 percent) favored disallowing the purchase of candy with SNAP benefits, while 73 percent (Republicans 82 percent, Democrats 67 percent) wanted to disallow sweetened soda. A majority overall (59 percent), but not a majority of Democrats, favored disallowing cookies, cakes and doughnuts. On the other hand, a majority favored allowing chips and snack crackers and ice cream.

One problem not addressed of course is that in the food deserts where poor minorities live don't sell anything but junk food so disallowing them is disallowing food.  Obviously another solution is needed.  I would go for community run non profit food distribution centers.

This article can be read in full here:
Americans Favor Raising SNAP Benefits, But Not Allowing Them for Candy and Soda | Voice Of the People | Campaign for a Citizen Cabinet:



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Heat and cool your greenhouse renewably using the soil | Ceres Greenhouse

This is what they designed in Sweden.  A GAHT™ system allows the greenhouse to provide its own heating and cooling using the energy of the sun, and the soil underground. The result is a renewable climate control system that both heats and cools the greenhouse at a fraction of the cost of traditional HVAC.

Heat and cool your greenhouse renewably using the soil | Ceres Greenhouse:

Below is the low tech passive version of a water heat sink but it lacks control.

Another issue is off course heat loss out the roof.  So it is recommended that the top of the greenhouse be better insulated and translucent to limit gain in the summer with directly overhead sun.  Light is less important in the summer and plants will appreciate the filtering.

We had been considering a standard greenhouse with a conventional design but if our plan is for efficiency the we should design it for the specific site.

A link to mother earth news article on green house is here: How to Design a Year-Round Solar Greenhouse - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS:

Rock Concert at Oasis' New "Barn"

Dear Friends who love a good dance PARTY! Please join us at Oasis Farm for a FREE concert

Saturday, July 29th, 8pm - on

Feel the past fade into a crimson dawn as the future speeds 

like a time machine. Embrace your past, present and future.  

Revenant, the spirit that never dies. 

Band leader, Jeff Purple, asks that we dress in 1950's or "glam rock" style to match the band!

We will be projecting a short film, Hey! Duck and cover! - on how to deal with Nukes in your neighborhood!  Join us back stage in the makeup & dressing room up stairs and bring costumes to help you get in the mood ... Need a break from too much excitement and sonic stimulation? You can still come and enjoy the fire in the cob oven or just hang out and survey the stars. 

Don't be caught sitting down -- Be prepared

We're excited to present Revenent, long time friends who played to a full house at the Phoenix recently. Let us know you're coming (RSVP), bring beverages and although not a potluck per se we will make 3 or 4 curries and farm made indian plum chutney to enjoy with fresh baked naan from our pizza oven -- bring a favorite curry much appreciated.  Help us celebrates next step in completion of our barn/hall for community events, house concerts, workshops and educational programs.

           If you don't think the end is neigh just listen to this!

                 -
Direction: 282 Skillman Lane, Petaluma (2nd driveway on the right past Lombardis) 707-789-9294


        Yours, Connie & Wayne
        Oasis Community Farm


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Mindfulness Practice

GUIDED MEDITATIONS MINDFULNESS VIDEOS WORKSHEETS SPOTIFY CHANNEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL TEACH MINDFULNESS

"Bouts of depression range from the mild and infrequent to the severe and chronic. For serious depression, you should seek qualified help. But for any level of depression, it helps to know that underlying the darkness is happiness—and our brain is equipped with the means to uncover it. When you hear the word antidepressant, you probably think of a pill: a medication used to treat your illness. Medications are one kind of antidepressant. But they’re not the only kind. Science is now showing that we also have natural antidepressants within our brains: mindsets (thoughts and behaviors) that build us up instead of tear us down and allow us to help ourselves improve our own moods. These natural antidepressants can be gathered into five main categories: mindfulness (the one I focus on in this piece), self-compassion, purpose, play, and mastery. By developing these natural antidepressants, you can strengthen your brain’s ability to act as its own antidepressant that can be as powerful as—or even more powerful than—the antidepressant medications." - Elisha Goldstein, Mindful.org As a friendly reminder, you can see each week's free mindfulness exercises here.  Check out our new mindfulness channels on Spotify and YouTube. Want to build your daily mindfulness habit? Join our 28-day mindfulness challenge here. Free Mindfulness Exercises SERENITY: A GUIDED MEDITATION - audio from Jack Kornfield MINDFULNESS FOR DEPRESSION - a thoughtful talk from Ronna Kabatznik MEDITATION FOR ANXIETY & DEPRESSION - a popular video meditation FOR SLEEP & DEPRESSION - a helpful guide for peaceful sleep WHY YOU ARE NOT DEPRESSED - Prince EA on paying attention to your labels REGULAR MEDITATION BETTER THAN VACATION - a landmark study BONUS: DON'T FORGET TO CELEBRATE & EVERY EMOTION IS USEFUL - helpful tips from Dr. Fred Kaufman Thank you for your mindfulness! Sean Fargo How To Treat Yourself & Others Who Struggle With Depression: Before we start, take a full breath in… and a long breath out....

Mindfulness For Lifting Depression: