Welcome to Going Green in Saratoga: Living sustainably one day at a time! My purpose with this blog is to share my efforts to live a more sustainable daily life - converting my yard to garden, biking more, buying local - while at the same time create a community forum to share ideas and resources on what others are doing to "relocalize" and lessen our impact on this earth. Please share your ideas and stories of inspiration on how you or someone you know is "going green".
I'm renting my house out this summer for the track season - so the past two weeks I was consumed with cleaning, packing and prepping to be out of my house for six weeks. This also means I'm posting from the road this summer, so to speak. Fortunately, I have some great friends and family who are opening up their homes and providing me a place to rest my head. Currently I'm up in Maine visiting my permaculture friends, Lisa and Dave. As often is the case, my visits to Maine usually combine some work and play. For the past 6-7 years Lisa and Dave have consciously been converting their suburban homesite to gardens. Visiting them is like going to permaculture school.
For years they've been growing garlic. This morning I helped Dave harvest the garlic tops - which form seed heads with individual bulbs that can be replantd.
I then harvested string beans while Dave pulled the garlic, prepped and hung it in the garage to dry.
Growing garlic or any garden is a lot of work. However, besides providing delicious nutritious food, there's a deep satisfaction that comes with growing a garden, and the ability to feed yourself with food grown right in your own back yard.
Fear not though. Besides work in the garden, and my own work writing and teaching - I am also having some fun and rest.
Next - hang the laundry on the line (so great when your friends share some of the same philosophy of living), then on my bike for a ride to the beach. Write again soon.
A few weeks ago I read somewhere that President Obama was holding a bi-partisan "summit" with legislators to talk about the BP oil spill and a new energy bill.
Our tech-savvy Presidential Administration has posted a video blog response to summarize some of the Administration's view points on this. (as a side not - wow- even Jimmy Carter wasn't this advanced technologically.)
So, I wanted to share this video. I think it's important for readers/citizens to be aware of what's being planned in the current administration with regards to energy.
I'd be curious to hear folks comments. While many of us are gearing up for track season or headed into vacation mode (myself included), these are important issues to continue to think about.
I just came back from a long weekend up in Maine at the Northeast Permculture Convergence. Yes, you could say it was a bunch of old and young hippies figuring out how to beat out Peak Oil. But it wasn't. It was an amazing gathering of over 300 people with diverse backgrounds, who are working in their communities, on their own land, with other land owners, to figure out how to really live in a harmonious, regenerative, restorative manner with the earth.
Sounds hoky, I know. But it's not. These are folks who are living in urban areas with greenhouses in their backyards, building neighborhood gardens with disadvantaged youth, raising chickens in the city, and yes, your small "eco-village" in the middle of nowhere Maine. But they're folks who care enough about their communities and future generations to look at how they can be part of the solution to our global energy crisis.
I'm going to post more on this later - what is permaculture, etc etc. But really, it's what I and many others are trying to do - living with less. Knowing when enough is enough. Using the resources and inputs available on your land, and growing and nurturing and designing your home, your garden, your farm, your neighborhood, in a way that is more sustainable and "closes the loop" on energy useage and waste.
Permaculture provides an alternative to the way we are living now, our consumerist model disconnected from our communities, the land and our natural resources. Granted, most of us would find it difficult to entirely disconnect from the "grid". But alternative energy is becoming more and more available. And, if we never run out of oil or fossil fuel and we don't boil the planet along the way, so be it. Implementing behavior changes like growing your own food, installing solar hot water, reducing your electricity useage, these are all still things that are good for the planet and save dollars. And, generally good for the soul too.
Below are a few videos on permaculture. The first a great permaculture 101, and the second is the video slideshow from the Convergence this past weekend. I'll post a 3rd video later by one of the founders of permaculture, on the role of permaculture in the post peak-oil world. I hope others will be inspired to learn more about this solutions-oriented approach. Enjoy.
