McKibben's eaarth - Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

     The tone of the first half of McKibben’s, eaarth, is one of frustration. For twenty years, McKibben has been trying to educate his readers to understand the inevitability of dramatic change to our earth if CO² was continually sent into the atmosphere.  He is obviously, and understandably,  frustrated at his inability to influence people and government enough to keep the predicted changes from taking place.

     His new book, eaarth, begins by reviewing the current realities.  He outlines the life changes we might consider to be able to cope with the new eaarth that we have created.  Since we have already set changes that will significantly impact the eaarth in motion—even if we dramatically change our current fossil fuel use—we will have to figure out how to live on this changed eaarth.

     He argues that we’ll need to get smaller and less centralized:  small scale agriculture (sustainably grown); banks (connected to the community and not “too large to fail”); energy (using varied abundant local sources—water, sun, wind—rather than creating a new central grid); and economy (perhaps using a local currency).

     The adjustment he predicts will be most difficult is a move away from viewing all growth as positive.  He proposes we change our focus from growth to maintenance.  He advocates that we return to a more traditional life style where community members depend on others in the community. This time we have the added benefit of the web.  This web presence will keep us all connected at the global level as we attempt to live sustainably at the local level. (It always surprises me that the audience for this blog on local, sustainable living is viewed by people around the world).  We can share our knowledge and help each other to move in a new direction—together—through our internet connections.  The bumper sticker I could easily imagine on his hybrid would read: “Connect Globally, Live Locally”.

Ten Reasons Taking My Bike to Town is Sustainable

      Riding my bike into town gives me such pleasure: watching the sun’s rays pushing through the morning mist over the Utter’s farm fields; hearing the avian and amphibian cacophony while rolling past the Great Swamp; and the physical exertion.  When I ride into town to do an errand instead of driving my car, there are many benefits beyond the obvious gas savings. 

    

     Here is a list ten reasons riding my bike into town is more sustainable than driving my car.

1.      Each round trip saves ¼ gallon of fuel; that’s over a dollar at today’s prices.
2.      The cardio-vascular (and weight bearing up Harmony Road’s hills) exercise sustains my health.
3.      I offset putting wear and tear on my car by adding the miles to my bike. When a car needs replacing, its production takes a tremendous amount more energy than the production of a bike.
4.      My bike takes up a small amount of space when “parked”, requiring less pavement in town. 
5.      My bike puts less stress on the roads than my car, requiring less road maintenance.
6.      I burn calories (good for my body), rather than petroleum (bad for the earth).
7.      I feel the wind as I roll effortlessly down hills and smell the powerful fragrance of flowers in bloom—currently honeysuckle.
8.      The leisurely pace offers opportunities to observe goldfinch flitting among the roadside vegetation.
9.      By exercising and doing errands at the same time, I save the 15 minutes it would normally take me to drive to and from town; it simply becomes included in the 40 minutes I would spend exercising anyway.
10.   I greet my neighbors, “Good morning,” and occasionally stop for a quick conversation, cultivating community connections.

Toads - Eating Machines

   

  Every day when I head down the hill to my garden, my dog, Maggie, bolts down the path and runs around the enclosed garden, chews sticks, dances with the butterflies, and chases anything I throw over the fence (weeds, mushrooms, twigs).  She’s great company while I garden. 

     Yesterday, I discovered that I have a new companion in the garden.  I was planting a row of carrots, trying hard to control the small seeds dropping too quickly from my hands, when I saw movement through my peripheral vision.  I looked at a pile of leaves and almost missed the toad completely; his camouflage was so effective.  This morning I discovered him among the squash plants.  His appetite for slugs, flies, grubs, and cutworms is welcome in my garden.   

     Rodale’s Encyclopedia states, “One toad will eat 10,000 to 20,000 insects a year (that’s 50 – 100 every night from spring until fall hibernation).” 

castteametsy.blogspot.com

     If you’d like to invite a toad to make its home in your garden, there are a plethora of commercial toad houses you can purchase. 

Or you can build your own.

      With my new companion, the feeling of connection to the natural world I’ve always felt while in my garden has just intensified.

Vegetable Garden Fencing

     There is nothing more discouraging than cultivating crops for months, only to discover them eaten or destroyed at harvest time.  Try these effective deterrents to keep critters out of your vegetable garden.

      To keep rabbits, wood chucks, moles, voles, squirrels, and chipmunks from entering the garden, cut chicken wire (or one square inch grid fencing) into two foot strips.   Dig a one foot trench around the garden perimeter; place the fencing down one foot; and refill the trench.

     If digging one foot down is not possible, dig a wider six inch deep trench; bend the bottom six inches out; and bury the chicken wire six inches down and six inches out from the garden.  In both cases, the chicken wire should continue up one foot above the ground.

     To discourage deer from browsing, attach 2” x 4” or 4” x 4” fencing to the chicken wire, bringing it up to a height of seven or eight feet.  (This fence also effectively protects the garden from rambunctious puppies.)

     If you (or a generous neighbor) have a cedar stand, it is an excellent source of lumber to give structure to this fencing.  Cedars often lean over in heavy snow or grow too close together, requiring thinning.  These thinned out trees make terrific posts because they are naturally decay resistant. 

     When I first constructed my garden fence I thought it was protected from all garden intruders, only to discover a flock of turkeys feasting on my young squash seedlings.  To give the garden an upper visual barrier without having to install overhead fencing, I hung copper wire across the garden as high as I could reach and attached recycled pieces of foil along the wire.  With wires spaced every ten feet, the turkeys, who roost in the nearby trees, haven't nibbled in the garden since.

     The initial effort to construct a fence was significant, yet the security of knowing my crops are  protected for years to come, makes it time well spent.

Capture the Moment with a Flower Press

     As spring flowers emerge from their swollen buds, it’s tempting to try to hold on to their beauty.  The process of pressing flowers to preserve delicate blossoms (and often the fond memories that go with them) has been carried out since Victorian times.  During recent generations people simply used a heavy book and pressed a special flower close to the binding.  Today, simple flower presses enable us to preserve hundreds of flowers to use for greeting cards, framed flowers, and memory books:

 

1.       After the morning dew has dried, collect flowers on a tray in a single layer.  Choose flawless flowers and leaves that are thin enough that they will be able to dry completely. 

2.        Place the flowers on an absorbent paper (blotter or construction) so that they are not touching each other—and will not touch when they are pressed onto the page.    

3.      Place another paper on top of the flowers; cover it with a piece of cardboard cut to size; and press.

4.      Stack layers of these sandwiched flowers between two pieces of smooth thin wood that is the same size as the paper, and clamp together with straps or woodworker’s clamps.

5.      Leave the flowers in the press for one month.

6.      Use a toothpick dipped in white glue to carefully glue the flower to the card or scrapbook, spreading the glue sparingly.

7.      Press the flower into position gently with your finger; cover it with wax paper; and place the card under a book, or close the flower into the scrap book, to keep the card from curling while the glue dries.

     When my daughter returned home from the prom last week, we placed her corsage flowers in the press, preserving the blossoms, and the evening's magic.

(Read, "Constructing a Flower Press" to build a simple, inexpensive press.) 

The Truly Great Swamp

     The Great Swamp is aptly named.  Erase all images of Shrek’s swamp from your mind, and replace it with a wonderland with swirling water reflecting the vegetation above it.  

     A gently moving stream winds through the larger body of water paralleling Route 22 for miles.  At times you'll hear the traffic on Route 22, yet the sounds of the 180 species of birds drowns out most other sounds.  The Swamp is a "birding" paradise; I marvel at the variety of birds I see there that I have never seen in my own yard just five minutes away. When you're gliding on the water, it’s hard to believe that you are so close to civilization, yet  totally engulfed by nature at the same time. 

    

     There is ample evidence of beaver activity: nibbled branches, lodges, and dams.  The beavers are often swimming nearby and sometimes, if you're lucky, scrambling over land in full sight.

     Access to The Great Swamp is just a few miles south of Pawling.  For directions, type: “Great Swamp, Patterson, NY” into Google maps for the Patterson access to the Great Swamp.  Drive approximately one mile on the dirt road to its ends.  You can launch a canoe or kayak in the shallow area.     

      You'll have a great adventure on The Great Swamp.