An English Shepherd Approach to Sustainability

Of all the breeds of dogs in the world, I have become attached to a fairly rare one – the English Shepherd.  These were dogs that came over with the immigrants to help with herding, guarding, babysitting, hunting, pest control and to be that companion that a person could lean on when they’re tired.  But their jobs were farmed out to Border Collies, Spaniels, Retrievers, Poodles, Terriers and other “specialist” breeds.  I love that all these traits are bound up in one creature, and I’ve had the distinct pleasure of being owned by three of them. Another one is probably come down the pike next year.  But for that to happen, I’ve got to find the right direction.

“What am I supposed to be doing?” has been rampaging through my head for the last year or two.  Almost 5 years ago I, along with a few others, started a non-profit to help people become more sustainable in our rural area of Massachusetts. We had the perfect site in mind, for sale, and people were pretty excited, but we weren’t able to raise enough money to make it work.  So we tried again, and again and again.  Nearly five years later we still don’t have a home, we have debts to pay off, but I still have the call to help people become more sustainable. And there’s still no money

My family and I farm on ten acres, with one of us working off farm to make ends meet, barely.  But now hay and grain prices are rising.   A main component in one of my soap recipes has been altered so that I won’t use it anymore, so I have to figure out how to survive with higher costs, while still trying to keep things affordable for my neighbors and customers. My farm is now faced with a natural gas pipeline coming underground, destroying my well, my forest neighbors, and continuing the stupidity of relying on fossil fuels.  So now I have to educate people about the difference between paid propaganda and true information, and empower people to stop this pipeline. Building self-reliance, not disaster preparation, is a much better way to prepare for the future, instead of continuing the sense of fear, selfishness and anger that pervades so many souls these days.

  I’ve been on the planet a little over a half a century and I’ve seen more that distresses me in the last five years than I’ve seen in all my previous life.  When people ask me what sustainability is, answer “Whatever it takes to keep living here.”  Why? Because it takes more than fresh air, food, water and money.  It takes community, a working government, a populace that remembers to use their heart as well as their brain when dealing with other people.  They also have to reminded of the values that can’t be found in their wallet.

If a person listens to the news these days they are missing some crucial information.  Rather than focus on the problems associated with planetary abuse, you’ll hear about air flights that might be disrupted because of a volcano in Iceland.  Instead of discussing blasts, fires and contamination from natural gas, oil and tar sands transport, we hear how we need “clean energy,” and commercials for more conventional furnaces.  Hundreds of wells around the nation are contaminated by fracking water, and we hear from the press about NIMBY-ism and energy needs.  The horrors in Ferguson were attributed to racism alone, when it’s as much as class as it is about race.  Answers aren’t always simple, but neither are the American people.  They will “get it,” if they are presented with whole story.

Our media tells us the economy is getting better, but that’s with more and more people working multiple jobs, and the money being earned going to the bosses, not the workers.  Who’s economy is getting better? Not mine. Probably not yours.  So what am I supposed to do?

I have thought about giving up on the sustainability center many times. It would make life easier for myself, my family and the board members. But it won’t make the problems go away.  Can I stand to see people buying inferior food for higher prices, because they don’t know where the fresh food is?  I actually heard a commentator on a major television show state that a processed product was more affordable than fresh lemon. Really? Have we gotten so far away from reality that we’ll pay $1.79 for a bottle of lemon juice rather than 50 cents for a lemon because squeeze for squeeze it’s cheaper!?  That juice can’t make lemon zest, be used to wipe down a greasy surface, or feed the soil in the compost.

My neighbors need  a place to learn about the real costs of their decisions. They need a location to find fresh food and the farmers who raise it.  They need a place to learn how to mend and create new clothes, find used ones, and maybe start a new income stream with their creativity.  We, as a body politic, have to learn how to listen to each other again, how to work together, and what we can expect from our government.  Many of these lessons in “sustainability” have gotten lost in translation. 

There are so many things that we, as Americans, have forgotten, ignored, or never learned, over the last few decades.  We need places like our Sustainability Hearth, where people can find the information they need.  They have in the Internet, true, but it isn’t three dimensional. It has little sense of humor, and it doesn’t build connections between people like a real human to human exchange.

There are few places like I’ve just described in our nation.  There are some who teach job skills; some who teach farming; some who teach sewing, but not in the holistic context  that we’re attempting to do.   But we can’t do it by ourselves. 

It’s been very hard to keep up any sense of optimism amidst the rancor, ISIS, racial conflicts, and climate change.  But when I think about what I should be doing I keep thinking I need to make this Hearth happen.  I will always want to help people make informed choices. People will always need this information, so it just makes sense to keep working on this project.

Since much of what we want to do takes away reliance on corporations, we can’t rely on those donations.  Grantors want a more specific ‘mission’ than “sustainability,” or they want it narrowed down to agriculture, economics or environmental activism.  But it’s just that specialization that got us into trouble.  We need to look at integrating many different aspects of life if we’re going to help rebuild the abilities, and the situation for America.  Please give to the NCSC Hearth, any amount will do, and spread the word about our project.  You’ll need one too, someday, and with your help, we’ll be there to help your neighborhood start theirs.   www.northcountrysustain.org

The Sustainability Knot

Local Food Link

This knot is a symbol for the future. It has traditionally met “friendship,” but it is also represents the integration of a variety of aspects in order to make our world sustainable. Our world is in trouble, and we need to fix it. Seems like an obvious statement, but sometimes you just need to say something flat out. It’s not up to politicians, or environmentalists, or engineers. We each played a part in allowing this mess up to happen, and now it’s up to all of us to do what we can to make it better. Some might feel that they have nothing to offer, but you do. If you have a brain, a back, a heart, an idea, you have a part to play.
Through the decades people have become accustomed to dealing with specialists, and along the way many have lost the basic information necessary to make informed decisions. This has led to fraud, corruption, and appeasement, rather than progress. If we are going to make progress toward a healthier economy, society, and planet, we need to take responsibility for learning those basic tenants and understanding the impact that we have on those around us.
At North Country Sustainability Center, we are asking everyone, (and I do mean everyone,) to send $1.00 to us, for every content area that matters to you. Here they are:
Red: Local Food
Green: Local Farms
Light Blue: Arts
Party Color: Autism
Argyle: Veterans
Green/Yellow: Dog Training
Purple: 4H
Maroon: Citizenry
Black: Skills
Gold: Community
Midnight Blue: Planet

These interests all work together in our sustainability plan, and hopefully will help others develop other integrated approaches. But this seems to a new approach. Repeatedly we have sought help through conventional avenues and are told “pare it down,” “be more specific in your geography.” Given our region’s demographics, one which is primarily rural with several small cities interspersed, being specific to a city/town makes us more dependent on long term grant support. Our plan works, every way we look at it, if people get involved in launching it, and using it. User fees support teachers. Teacher/rentals support programs and building, Program fees support everything. By integrating so many overlapping user groups, we keep things affordable in a region that hasn’t really seen much financial support or governmental interest for many decades.
What do you get for supporting NCSC if you don’t live in our area? First, a sense of pride in knowing that you are moving a community in the right direction. Secondly, our support through newsletters, websites and eventually publications that will help you build on our progress, so you can improve upon our plan. Lastly, the knowledge that there is SOMEONE looking at the world’s problems in a different way. We’re not just looking, we’re doing, and we’d like to do more. Please help us, and help the world.
You can get your “Local Link” in the colors that match your areas of interest, by visiting http://www.northcountrysustain.org/LocalLinks.html. Send your money to NCSC, PO Box 914, Ashburnham, MA 01430, or use PayPal to electronically send them to Hearth@northcountrysustain.org. For more information on NCSC or the Local Links program, please email Pat@northcountrysustain.org Together we can forge a tight Sustainability Knot to serve as a lift to other communities and address other problems. Thank you.

Local Links Everyone

Finding That Endangered Trait

This past few weeks have been a roller coaster, on the national level and the personal one. It was just over a month ago that Boston Marathon’s cheers of encouragement were drowned out with explosions.  Just a few months ago Sandy Hook’s daily activities were destroyed by a misguided young man who had given up any hope, and for “only he knew why” decided that those children needed to pay for his pain. In the world of natural disasters we’re seeing numerous storms and violent storms and floods, and through all of this we see that wonderful resilient American spirit of goodness; that inexplicable willingness to reach out to the neighbor in need, that generosity of sharing what little we have to give.
As the days of recovery reached on, the nation wondered why this aspect of American spirit can’t be retained without imminent destruction.  It’s a little like the Christmas spirit, though it doesn’t have a calendar to follow.  But because it doesn’t have that “date of expiration,” it is what has allowed us to grow our nation over the years.

At the same time that this was going on in the nation personally I was preparing for undergoing a hip replacement. This was a frightening time for me, as I am used to being the healthy one, helping others. To not be able to do anything to assist others at this time, and to in fact, to have to ask for help from others is a difficult thing for me to do. But I have had to learn that humility in recent weeks, which I think is an important thing for us all to remember.

With so much going on in my own home region, and in my home nation, I have had more than ample time to put my thoughts together, though not as coherently as I would normally do, thanks to the help of painkillers that have made my recovery bearable.  But I have had a hard time putting these thoughts together in a way that makes sense.  Why does it take a catastrophe for people to come together when we appreciate it so much once it happens?  If it is so uplifting to help others why is so hard to get people to do it more often?  How do we build that sense of community so that it becomes a major pattern in our national fabric?

While I was in the hospital I got a chance to spread the word about NCSC to more than just Ashburnham or Winchendon folks.  It was marvelous to see people make that leap from “what a great idea,”with a gentle, somewhat patronizing smile, to that full fledge gleam in their eyes when they realize how much sense it makes to we provide these facilities. That visible nod that person after person showed me when they “got it,” beyond the patronizing to the actual visualization of that impact. While at the same time I was trying to keep my spirits up, and those of others, the Center sat like stagnant leaf in a dammed up pond.  We have made an offer, but its trip to the final step has been bogged down in laborious negotiations.  Fundraising, programming and publicity say is quietly as I did, though with much more importance that my recovery.

So now I’m wondering personally that same question that is filling the air at so many picnics, parades and conversations this weekend – “If we as a people value this support, this positive energy and sense of community so much, why does it struggle so hard to grow?”  Is it is so temporal that it needs that constant clapping of Peter Pan’s “Tinkerbelle?”  I don’t think so. I just think we need to recognize how much each of us has to offer.

I may have mentioned my dogs before, or my horse.  The horse, Magi, is a cross bred Canadien, the once commonplace progenitor of the modern American Morgan horse. This breed was developed through nature and necessity to thrive on marginal feed at times, to be the Sunday carriage horse, the plow horse, the children’s mount and saddle horse for every day.  They were beloved, though not necessarily flashy. They did the work gladly, but were so commonplace they were overlooked and were nearly lost to our world’s genepool. Thankfully, Magi is here, and while she may not contribute to the gene pool she does educate people who may want to dedicate their energy toward that important conservation work.

My dogs, English Shepherds, nearly suffered that same fate.  These dogs were once so ubiquitous that they appear in countless photos and drawings of old farms around the country. They were the baby sitters, hunting dogs, vermin control, herding dogs, guardians and playmates that filled all the needs of settlers. Each nation has its own version of such a dog, with regional differences, but the focus was always on how the dogs did their jobs, not how well they showed off in the ring.  The rise of the specialized farm dog, Border Collie, Jack Russell, Anatolian Shepherd, and the ability to create these breeds as commercial entities literally chased the English shepherd to the edge of extinction.  They are safe now, though they are still in danger of losing that trait that made them such good work partners – they were willing to do whatever we needed them to do, just to make us happy.

When the United States Army sought to build its K-9 corps during World War II, they wanted to use English shepherds because they were smaller, quicker, smarter and more willing to please some of the other breeds, but they weren’t able to secure enough dogs to make it possible. So they settled for the German shepherd and other breeds, who did the job, but probably not in the same way as the English shepherds would have.

During World War II the American people worked together to support our soldiers and each other. We now face a different but real world threat – resource degradation and climate change. We need to find that thread of community that flares up in catastrophes and amplify its presence on a much wider weave. We need to identify those with the skills, and provide them with the incentives, tools and appreciate to share that knowledge with others.  Celebrating community bonds builds connections throughout the region, through shared interests and a stronger network of support.

But we can’t wait for another series of storms, bombings, and other events to develop these programs; doing so wastes time, talents and potential. We need to put our energy, not just our smiles and nods, to the work at hand.  I’m still not on my feet fully, but I’m back at work trying to focus people’s eyes on our work, but we are just one avenue, though I think it is an important one.  Though urban areas suffer somewhat different challenges than rural areas do, we bring both groups together, which will be necessary nationwide if our society and planet is to prosper. Each of us wants to see someone like us, physically, economically, racially, in order to hang our hats on support, we are all more alike than we are different, and sharing ideas, programs and approaches will benefit those similarities much more than building “prototypes like ours,” will.

Please, share this blog with others, and support NCSC if you can. Though the amount we need to raise is large for a poor region, it is small compared to sheer numbers that are put into a weekend of shopping, and supporting our temporary gratification at the malls and shopping areas.  Give us, or someone like us, $25 to put to work on our projects, and see what “gas tank worth,” gets to do when combined with others.  It’s not flashy or sexy, like the Canadien, the English shepherds or the farmers and explorers who built this land, but it is every bit as important as those contributions to building our present society, only this time it is for today and tomorrow.  Let’s carry that spirit of community work into the summer and beyond so we can all face future problems with a stronger set of tools to face whatever storm comes our way. Thanks,

Ideas Need Resources

I wish I had the words to adequately communicate the feelings that I experience when I think about the work we’re trying to do.  It is so filled with potential good, for so many people, in such a simple way, but very few people know about it.  I have to admit a sense of satisfaction when I speak to doubters, and listen to their voices shift from polite indifference to a smiling realization that this “good idea,” is feasible.

Food safety, crime, autism, veterans returning with invisible and visible injuries, failing schools, hungry families,  money being horded by corporations and a government that’s more worried about winning an election, than running a country; these are just some of the issues that we face. Add to that the specter of a changing climate, with corporations more concerned with profits than breathing, and who wouldn’t want to dig a hole and pull the door shut?

But if we’re going to survive as a culture, country and individuals, we need to muster our voices and strengths to fight the issues together.  If we want our children to have healthier lives and futures, we need to foster non-competitive connections between them, patience, responsibility, and cooperation. One answer to that is 4H, but that open arena can be used by others for animal training, farmer education, therapy for autistic people or returning veterans.  Agriculture not only raises food, but it requires physical activity, encourages science exploration, and builds practical math skills. It inspires arts, provides tool for creative exploration and opportunities for shared exploration and individual pride.

That same creative energy used to create clothes, bedding, housing, furniture, even sculptures and pottery, takes the fine arts into practical skills. But if we’re going to cut down on our individual energy use, and make these explorations possible, we need to share resources, from buildings to tools, networking to education.

If people have a place to follow their passions, build their dreams into businesses, and a resource to answer the question, “How do I start?” then our personal and community economy grows.  Those with skills prosper from teaching and students have destinations for where to seek those answers.  Frustration is funneled into following dreams, and community security and safety grows.  Providing those spaces, from studios to community kitchens, meeting space to hiking trails, answers that most frustrating barrier to success, access to legal, appropriate spaces.

Usually the answer to these needs is to have several groups compete for funding.  We are asking people to come together, share the load of making the space possible, for ALL of us to SHARE.  Though not all individuals will want to participate in all aspects of our program, the fact that someone else can, helps everyone follow their own passions. Though not all dog trainers will want to participate in animal assisted therapy, but they may want access to fresh ingredients for their pet’s diet, or for their own.  They may meet new friends and expand their own interests, or just find more people who share their own devotion to their dogs. Like an ecosystem, there are benefits for everyone, and costs to everyone, if this is to happen.

But because we are in a place that has been forgotten for more than a half a century, we don’t have big businesses, and a great deal of benefactors. We are trying everything we can think of to raise the funds to make this happen, but we need people to know about us, and help us.  We know that this is possible elsewhere, but not everyone wants to be that “test subject.” We do. And we are open to suggestions, and involvement from outside.  I’m tired of saying it, but there’s no other way. Can you help us with a few dollars? a few “shares” of the information? a call to a friend who might want to use our model?
Check us out at www.ncschearth.org or www.northcountrysustain.org.  Find us on YouTube at the hamesfarmer channel. We are an open book. Got a question? just ask.   Thanks. This is a chance to build a great future, with simple skills and existing resources. Can we include you in that toolkit for the future?

Describing A Future

There are so many problems to meet for the future, it can sometimes feel  overwhelming – climate change, increase in autism rates, obesity, hunger, gun violence, the economy… It makes me want to curl up and remember “the good old days,” – the ‘90’s.  But then I remember that those weren’t real.  That illusion of prosperity was just a facade that covered the reality of what was coming. If we’re going to continue to prosper in the future, we need to look at ways to multi-task these solutions.

I’m constantly amazed at what people take away from conversations about our “sustainability center.” Some people envision gardens on end, or dogs running amok, sheep grazing on the lawn, or cubicles of computers.  There are places that tackle the issues one at a time, but if we’re going to really make a difference, we need to look at how we combine spaces to solve multiple problems.

Preparing for an upcoming public meeting I’m trying to find the right image of our approach. So far, tapestry, quilt, and village haven’t worked, so how do I describe it? People usually start the conversation with “so what are you trying to do at NCSC?”  At this point, I make a big sigh and start explaining, “We want to provide facilities, such as a commercial kitchen and creamery, as well as studio space for practical skills and arts, so that our region’s residents can produce a saleable product.”  At this point there is a great pause as people try to envision such an endeavor.

Maybe I should make up a word. What would it need to be – community, kitchen, food, sales, arts, economy, dogs, sewing, carpentry, energy, environment, civics and youth. Taking those initials I come up with “C, K, F, S, A, E, D,S,C,E,E, C and Y.”  Got any suggestions?  But our efforts are not to try to solve any one of these problems.  It is to use these tools to address the needs of several groups.  Elders have knowledge that young people need, yet they are short on financial and spacial resources.  They often live in elder housing, with little space to teach, and they have downsized their belongs so that they have given away their tools, their sewing machines, their pots and pans.  By providing classroom space, appliances and equipment, they can make some money for themselves, meet other people, receive recognition while helping younger people learn  to save money, gain independence and possibly start a new venture themselves.  So who is the winner there?

People are unaware of the differences in fresh and store-bought food, and they have been raised to believe that someone else will do it better than they can, so they eat out, buy pre-packaged food, and gain weight and lose quality of nutrition.  But giving them access to fresh food, education about growing and preparing food, and empowering them to control their own diets saves their finances, increases their emotional and physical health, and promotes the local farms and economy. So, how do we label that?

The part that I love most, I have to confess, is the combination of 4H and dogs with sustainability.  Young people learn patience, business skills, community appreciation and gain confidence when they are involved agriculture and animals in particular.  I wanted to be in 4H when I was growing up, but there weren’t any clubs in suburban Detroit. That problem still exists in rural America, and the fairgrounds that promote them are being developed, so it’s getting harder to bring these valuable skills to our youth.

We also have a growing problem with autism in our young people. What are we going to do with these young people who look at the world so very differently?  Many of them benefit from fresh, organic or sustainably raised food, and from relationships with animals such as dogs and horses.  Can we put these populations together, or can’t we at least let them share a facility, and build a stronger future through those shared connections?  Who gets top billing?  We also need more people who are involved in animal-assisted therapy, or dog training and dog sports, to have locations where they can practice their skills?  By providing them with a location, we also increase the opportunity for exercise for people as they explore their connection with animals and have fun at the same time.  So is that physical education? therapy? agricultural education? or what?

These practical skills often grow into fine arts and amazing artistry.  We want to provide space and equipment for people to practice their craft and talent, educate others about their own talents and market the work of our region’s artists, on the same footprint of land where our cooking, animal, growing and other efforts all happen. Why not?  if the space is available, we can all help each other move to a better future.

How does climate change enter into all this? Because this facility can provide so many possibilities under one roof, or on one piece of land, we seriously put a dent into many family’s carbon footprints. By encouraging them to use natural alternatives to cleaning, growing, clothing, and more, we are increasing the number of informed consumers.  This space will also be a facility for education, environmental, economy, civic, culinary, as people from the region begin to recognize that a source exists for enrichment in their own region.  By being a model, people can travel to our facility, get inspired and take that knowledge back to their own communities and the movement grows.

What is the movement? To me it’s just a movement for the future. It’s more than environment, culture, even humanity. It’s a true holistic approach to the future. It is really what built this country. We aren’t trying to be everything to everyone. We want to provide spaces for others to follow their own dreams, whether it’s learning, or teaching, selling or buying.  Our funding will eventually come from the users, and we will increase their income as well. But we need to get that facility. We’ve lost out on four great facilities so far.  How do I explain this others so that they see the value in helping us? Suggestions? Donations? Thanks for participating in this amazing project.

Dear Grassroots Nation – How Patient Are You?

Dear Grassroots Nation:
How are we supposed to “change the world,” if all the funders want to see conventional approaches to a problem?  Conventional works, but if we are going to manifest substantial change quickly, I believe we need to “think out of the box.”
I know, everyone’s tired of hearing about fundraising, but living in a small town with a big idea, I usually feel like I’m talking to the wind.  Problem is, the wind doesn’t have any money either. So this time, I’m going to be direct, and talk to the “Internet wind.”  Please, if you see the vision, tell others and visit our “indiegogo.com” link which will be at the end of this blog post.
Rural areas are full of small farmers who know how to grow food, prepare food and many of them have great recipes that could be mass produced, but they don’t have access facilities to make it possible.  Farms have wells and septic systems which bureaucrats have decided are much more dangerous that municipal utilities. (As I type this, Worcester, MA is on its third day of “boil water,” order, due to a water line break.)
Dairy farmers, like myself, are faced with raising grain prices, and constant requests from people to allow them buy milk, cheese, yogurt or ice cream from us, but I can’t say yes. I can’t afford the equipment or the testing, to make that happen.  But if we could create a location that people could share, then it would be possible to grow these small businesses and meet the growing demand for our products.
One of our potential users makes a nearly allergen-free (98%) ice cream, using products from her own farm.  She has a long list of families and school districts who want her product, but she can’t afford the facilities, but she could use ours.
Speaking of kids with special needs,  many times they require special diets, or they benefit from hippo-therapy or other animal-assisted therapy.  Finding facilities that are available and affordable is a challenge, depending upon the concentration of population.  But the dogs that provide this assistance, and the people who love them, often participate in other dog activities that need large spaces, another premium in an urban area. What if we created a place where these provider dogs can serve their clients, and the owners could increase their income through training, clinics or just plain fun?
Looking at what else is needed in our area, we have discovered that young people lack the knowledge to know good meat from bad meat, to cook unless the directions are on the side of a box, or how to sew on a button.  These skills, and many others, were once taught by parents and grandparents, but as “country folk,” became more shamed for being rural, they focused more on the consumer skills that commercials promote – buy, buy, buy.  Instead of an economy based on the corner hardware store or mercantile where you could get the basic supplies to make into a finished product, consumers now look to someone else to build, bake or create a product for them.   They became reliant on contractors, rather than their own skills, to take care of their homes, their families and themselves.  What’s the problem with that? Nothing, if you are the contractor, tailor or caterer. But if you don’t have the money to purchase these services, and you don’t have the skills to complete the work yourself, what do you do?
Upon examining what else is needed in our region, we discovered a myriad of talented performers, musicians and artists who want the quality of life in the country, but lack a means of making a living.  We also find willing audience members driving 20 minutes to 2 hours to see a performance, or visit a museum, burning fossil fuels and supporting someone else’s economy, along their travels.  There’s room in our plan for the artists too, and others will come to them, if we make it worth their while to do so.
This big project has such potential, but it’s so big it doesn’t fit into the conventional funding model.  It’s feasible to reuse an antique mill building, with an existing water power source, to create this project. It’s possible for us to create a new economy based upon car-sharing, green transportation and enhanced mass transit, if we make it worthwhile for that to happen.  It’s also extremely viable to take this project to other places within the nation, not just in our area.
When asked “Where’s your audience?” I’m forced to say “Whoever wants to come.”  When asked where the “seed money” comes from, my answer is small donations and membership fees. We have a few larger donors, but they aren’t on the massive scale people in philanthropy think of, because there is no one like that in this area. These answers make the donors nervous because they sound like we haven’t thought this through – we have.
Do we have to wait for the government to think of this? If so, the building will be gone and the funding will be at the discretion of elected officials.  Do we wait for an urban area to treat these problems? They won’t deal with the same issues we will, because they don’t have the producers we have.  Do we give up? I can’t. Not with kids waiting for healthy food, 4H kids looking for a place to show and learn, artists seeking exhibit space, and curious neighbors seeking a place to learn.  It’s too good to give up on. But it needs the help of others who see the logic, the vision and understand that sometimes change comes from a different direction than you expect. But along with that new path comes great possibilities and wonderful discoveries.  How adventurous are you?
Do you know someone who needs special foods? a place to grow a food based business? a child on the “spectrum?” a friend who wants to learn to knit, crochet, sew, can or sell their crafts? Do you wonder how you’d rebuild your home if a “superstorm” hit your neighborhood? Would you like to be able to find locally produced, sustainably raised food in the same place you went to a concert, or told  a story?  If so, then give a dollar or two for each person you know that fits those questions.  If you fit those answers yourself, give with yourself in mind.   Forget about a minimum gift at http://www.indiegogo.com/NCSCTools?a=521984  , just give. Tell your friends, your twitter followers, the twitter folks you follow. Shout it to the hills, but help us get this project started so people don’t have to wait for someone else. We’ve all been waiting a long time, and I for one, am tired of watching people give up.
Global warming is here, but if we can share facilities, transportation,  and knowledge we can build a stronger future. The government can do some things, but education and community can do a lot too. North Country Sustainability Center is a tool in the climate change toolkit.  Help us make the tool kit stronger, so that others can build their own tool sets for their regions.  Please give and share.  Thank you.

Mission Impossible: A Place For Growing Hope

(Background Music:  Bum, bum, ba-bum, Bum, Bum, Ba-Bum, da-da-da…… )
(Scene: Light a match, put to a candle)

Our mission: To create a place that allows people to have a higher, more sustainable quality of life than they currently do. The future presents numerous challenges, and while some of the solutions are known, many are not easily accessible, or even recognized.

The Plan:  To create a place with room for sustainability skills to be shared among our neighbors.  To make wise use of our resources, and reconnect people with the skills that will make it easier to keep living in our area.

The Situation:  Rural America and many small cities are filled with creative people, full of ideas, but lack resources to bring those ideas to reality.  They don’t have “urban center” that’s big enough to bring people to their region, and the government’s attention to help create “enterprise zones.”

Solution:  Identify a space that is large enough to provide space for needed and under available activities, and make it available for people to use. Users will pay user fees, but be able to charge their own rates for people to participate in that activity ie: sewing instructors need space to spread out their fabric and patterns, yet they can rarely afford a personal studio.  They could teach sewing to novice needleworkers, earning money, teaching others self-reliance and help to pay the costs for the maintenance of the facility.

Characters: A non-profit, founded in 2010, developed to create a commercial kitchen, food hub and arts facility so that residents of the region could grow their local economy and sustainability.
A 1860 mill on more than 50 acres, in good condition.
Farmers who need markets and transport services to those markets
Artists of all type who appreciate rural life, but desire workspace and community arts programs to teach and share in.
Seniors citizens who have life skills such as sewing, cooking, woodworking, animal husbandry, who need incomes, but can’t travel far from home due to mobility concerns.
People of all ages who are seeking education, instruction and access to the knowledge and skills held by those listed above.
Young people and animal enthusiasts who have lost exhibition spaces, and though they want to learn about agriculture, or be active in pet based activities, they lack those opportunities.

Foes:  Apathy among neighbors who lack financial resources to create this project without outside help.
Corporations who have taught the public that they need short cuts and “extra time,” so that they can provide lower quality, higher priced products with negative effects on the users, the community and the Earth.
A sense of doom and gloom that people are inherently selfish and the environment is beyond the help of any individual.
A less than supportive town government who could not see that such a vision is not an overnight solution.

Assets:  An existing non-profit, North Country Sustainability Center,
An historical mill complex with ample space for all planned endeavors, with easy access to potential hydropower, solar power and interstate transportation
A willing and eager group of users who are currently struggling to build their businesses in isolation, but recognize that they could grow faster or in some cases, even begin, if they had access to such a facility.

You!

How can you help? 
If you live in New England, come to the John McCutcheon Concert in Fitchburg, a great fundraiser for North Country Sustainability Center, Inc.  The venue is right off Route 2, near the center of the Bay State. Tickets are $20 for adults $15 for students. Details at www.northcountrysustain.org/concert.html
Can’t attend the concert, donate to our nationwide fundraisers:   Crowdrise at North Country Sustainability Center,  or Indiegogo.com  at http://www.indiegogo.com/NCSCTools?a=521984  or donate directly to North Country Sustainability Center at PO Box 914, Ashburnham, MA 01430 or Pat@northcountrysustain.org at PayPal.
Share this message, retweet, reblog, or just forward it to everyone you know.  This is a model for a sustainable region, with shared use facilities, education for alternative energy and sustainable agriculture, and a celebration of our local arts, all of which builds local economies and quality of life.

Time Frame:  We have been evicted from our temporary home which did not allow us to address the most important needs of our community.  We need to finish paying the oil bill and we need to prove that our concept is feasible by raising the down payment for the mill in an adjacent town.  Lots of acreage, lots of space, and a town that understands that creativity needs nurturing, but is worth it in the long run. Our artists and crafters have lost a selling space just before the Holiday season. We don’t want them to miss another one.

If you look at the situation in New York and New Jersey, or what happened in Vermont last year, you sometimes see just the initial frustration and fear.  But the rebuilding is a long, onerous process that will need the skills that NCSC can teach. If it can happen there, it can happen in another way, anywhere. Help us create that “go to place” for our neighbors, and for yours.

Extra bonus:  Something positive to do while we all await the direction of this country based upon our Presidential choice.  All donations will be placed on our email list, so you will receive updates as to how NCSC is proceeding.  Be a team member and please accept this Mission: Possible.

Remember in the old television show, or the movie series, things always looked impossible, but they always succeeded. No need for disguises or CGI.  Just show the doubters that we can help each other, ourselves and the planet, if we just show each other the way. Help us be that light for you, and for others.

(Candle flame phases into a fire in a woodstove, )
(Overlay of phrase: Sustainability: Whatever it takes to keep living here.)

It’s Magic, Naturally

I’ve been struggling with how to “pitch” North Country Sustainability Center, and someone suggested that I try to explain the whole picture of what we’re trying to do. I’ll try, but if you see a hole in the logic, let me know.   If you share the vision, please donate at http://www.indiegogo.com/NCSCTools?a=521984

We started with the knowledge that we, like many other parts of the nation, have farmers who have food to sell, but no place to sell unless they leave their farm. That keeps them from getting their work done at home.  In addition, many of them have a chance to increase their income through value-added goods. But they can’t afford the equipment and the facilities to meet needed regulations. Rules are made with large operations in mind; not small ones where one person does all the work.   A food hub that allowed central collection of food for sale, and facilities to create value-added goods that will also be for sale, would make things very doable for our region.

Through years of experience it has become obvious that Americans in general have lost touch with their food comes from.  People asking where “the potato tree,” was[1].  Other asking how old a cow is when she starts giving milk? or children walking through lettuce patches looking for their salad greens. If people don’t know how their food is grown how can they make informed decisions about what to eat, what farms to support and what land to preserve?

By creating educational gardens, offering classes and developing a food hub and cooking/preserving classes, we encourage our region’s residents to be more active, to choose healthier food AND have a place to obtain it, and encouragement.

In addition, over recent years people have become dependent upon cheap goods, ie.  $10 blouses, $10 shoes, or hiring others to mow their lawns, fix their houses, or build a deck.  Knowing how to make things gives people a sense of accomplishment, an anchor to their neighbors, and tools to make more informed decisions, saving money in the long run.  Also, they build community as people are more visible in their neighborhoods, and lending a hand to each other.

When we saw the need for this information we looked at our neighbors and saw senior citizens, disabled people and stay at home parents who have these skills and could use a little extra income. They could be our teachers.  In fact, they could be their own bosses and just use our facilities! We get rent paid, they get assistance and space, and their students gain knowledge and mentors.

Looking at the needs of our farmers we also see children with passions for livestock, but no place to develop those interests.  We see fiber farmers who have fleeces to sell, but no access to markets. And we see a growing bunch of needleworkers, knitters, weavers and crochet wannabe’s, who are looking for a place to learn.  This opened the door to other artists, when we looked at how the land, food and community built our folklore, music and fine arts.  Artists need places to gather, work and show; we could be that place for them too.

People in small towns and rural areas value the arts just as much as city-folks, but they often have a long drive to get to them.  What if we offered a place for performances, studios, and other artistic endeavors, as well as top tier technology, so that our neighbors’ children can learn necessary skills for their future. They will then have more tools for their adult life, and our local economies are stronger for their knowledge and skill.

The 4H and other livestock groups need a big space, but they don’t need it all the time. Who else could use that space and still coincide with our mission of sustainability?  Dog sports enthusiasts, from those who show, to those who herd sheep, agility runners to water dog training. These people love their animals but are short of training and exhibition resources. They could use our space and help keep it available to our youth and farmer members.

Who else could use this facility?  As a person who has autism in the family, I know that there is a growing population of families who face this obstacle with little support.  We could offer our livestock folks a chance to learn animal-assisted therapy training. Our gardeners can learn and lead horticultural therapy programs, and our autism-burdened families can find each other, space to have therapy, and a place to just let kids by kids.

This is a successful recipe, but not for everyone. Each region has its own strengths and its own challenges. We have great resources, from buildings to teachers, to available land to use for gardens, classes and exercise.  But we have a 10% unemployment rate, no remaining industry, and an aging population with diminishing pocket books. That’s our biggest challenge.

The magic of our idea is simply “Who else can benefit?” and understanding that we are all richer for sharing our knowledge and facilities.  If our neighbors keep their knowledge to themselves, they may feel smarter, but they’ll miss out on the possibilities of additional income, and potential friends.  As a person from the midwest I learned – people help those who help them.  I also believe that people are fundamentally good, but we need to practice those values, or selfishness wins out.  It’s not rocket science.  Helping each other is kind of the American way.

Is that magic? That is up to you decide.  I think it’s magic when a community comes together to help each other.  We need to reach out to a further community, you, so that we can create this “magic lab,” for our neighbors.  Once we do, we’ll offer consulting, guidance, webinars and other educational opportunities so that this idea can grow “like a bean stalk.”

Can you be a magician and donate to our Indiegogo campaign?  Tell everyone you know about us. We are currently homeless because we weren’t able to raise enough money to pay the Town back for the furnace repair and oil bills. These were very high because the furnace wasn’t controlled in the end of the building we didn’t use, so we didn’t know. We must pay this bill, but we must also find a permanent home.  We’ll all get show that there are steps we can take to make our local economy stronger, without waiting for the government to rush.  Can you help us?  We’ll help you as soon as we get up and running.

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[1] potatos grow underground, cows give milk when they’ve had their first calf, and lettuce doesn’t grow with rubberbands.

Face Plant

Sometimes life imitates art, and one such time was last Monday.  Walking across the Farmer’s Market driveway last week I tripped over a rise in the road, and fell flat on my face.  That same day I discovered that the buildings we have been trying to purchase have been put under agreement to another entity.
Blargh!  Some days you just need to stay in bed.

But the next day I had to pick myself up.  I had to decide what we were going to do next.  After all, we had just been informed that we had no place to set up the Porch after November 30; the Town had decided to not renew our lease, and there is a movement afoot to tear the building down.  Two of our Board members resigned. The same day of the fall I discovered that two of our Porch vendors were pulling out immediately, and another informed me shortly thereafter that she was moving out too.  Is it worth it?

I had just sent out requests for partners, funders and collaborations.  Was this one of those really great ideas that’s just too good to be true?  My first, bruised instinct was to say yes.  Life would be much easier if I could stay at the farm and make soap, write and dream, except dreaming without action is actually very painful for me.

I looked at the bin of non-perishable food that sits at the foot of my desk, and thought “who would help them?”  I heard about the increase in the cost of corn, gasoline and general necessities, and thought “How do people with cope that?”  I looked at the people who have stood with me, and with NCSC, since the beginning.  Then I got a call from a person who not only wanted to join NCSC, but also wanted to lead fundraisers.  He could see the value of this project and really wants to support it.  So I decided to put away the pity towel and get back to work. Then I thought about people like Ann who has stood by this project with a smile on her face, and never asked for anything out of it except our best effort.  I thought about the farm families I’ve come to know who are struggling to keep their land when the price of grain and gas is making it so difficult.  NCSC can help them where others haven’t.

I’ve always said that I would consider other sites, and I have.  But sometimes it takes an anvil, or a roadbed, to teach you that you aren’t looking around enough.  So, we’re doing what we need to do – focus on the work, not the site.  We’re looking at other facilities, and trying to figure out how to phase our plans into those sites.  We won’t grow as fast as we had, but that’s a GREAT THING.  I had always worried that we were taking on too much at one time, but how do you stop positivity?

Now I know.  You make sure that positivity is linked to a clear understanding of the project.  NCSC has never been about one person prospering without others prospering.  The arts, the agriculture, the dog sportsmen and the region’s residents have to work together, if it’s going to work.  And that “it” is not NCSC, it’s our entire culture.

People have to start looking at how communities work. We all have to step up and take action to make things happen if we care about them.  We have to stop delegating to others, because in recent years, everyone has acted as if it was “someone’s job,” to make our lives easy. Honestly, it is everyone ‘s
business to make sure we each have the best country we can have.  This doesn’t mean giving things away, but it does mean making sure there are opportunities for people to better their lives, through tools, knowledge, or access.  That’s what we’re doing, and will keep doing.  By increasing opportunities, we inspire dreams, we facilitate family’s thriving and we build local economies by increasing access to customers, facilities and opportunities.   We do see ourselves as a model of a way forward that will work for rural and suburban communities and have a good deal to offer to urban areas.

I hope that it doesn’t take another ‘faceplant,” for me to keep my eyes on the goal, and not the shiny tool that will help me get there.  I know that on the way,  I won’t get there alone, because the future is based upon the foundations that built this country  –  a balance between self-reliance and inter-dependency.  Community and individuality are not mutually exclusive as long as compassion and respect are in the recipe too.  Now, if I can just keep that in mind when I meet another roadblock.