Exciting Day - Thursday, January 31, 2008
Sign of ContradictionToday I finally got to talk on the phone with Will Allen about the DMZ gardens and about the AIR project. He was a hard sell on both subjects but finally I got him to commit to a definite appointment in the near future. Using my best talk stuff about the AIR project (see yesterday’s posting) he could not understand what I was talking about and how air could save GP lots of money on energy cost. Finally he told me to bring along a model or example. So we will take a sunroom window insert to show him. The design for the GP greenhouses would be different but he may get the idea. John, my partner on the AIR project, is good at simply breaking it down. Also Will seems to be a visual learner, so seeing it will help. Talking about the value of ‘air’ reminded me of the Seinfeld sitcom were they created a TV series about ‘nothing.’ On the DMZ garden he told me that I did not have enough compost to do a garden on a vacant lot the right way, which is probably true. But once again when I told him that was another reason we needed his help, he was agreeable. For this sales pitch I will take Dawn and/or Marna with me. Getting this potential appointment with Will, a person I deeply respect and admire, made for an exciting day. A wiki web event also contributed to the excitement of the day.
Wasted Air - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Wasted AirIn this home model Growing Power Diary of a Worm I have talked a lot about waste and worms, two essential elements to this way of Growing. What I have learned about Growing Power has been from Will Allen and the good persons at Growing Power as well as by experience. In insulating my unheated sunroom, where sits our Growing Power Box, we have stumbled upon a simple and well known, if not always understood, insulating factor, air. We call it the Air Insulation Resource (AIR). Today my friend John, who really discovered how air could be used simply and affordably to heat sunrooms, houses or greenhouses like at Growing Power, paid a visit to Will Allen to share with him this discovery, as Will has shared with us and many others the power of worms in Growing Renewable Affordable Food (GRAF). Will is a very busy person and a hard person to reach. At the Growing Power tour on Monday I told him that I had a very simple method of saving Growing Power lots of money on their major cost, the heating bill. Also I wanted to talk to him about the DMZ Gardens. He told me to call some time, and if he was in just to come up there. I called a few times yesterday but he seemed too busy, but today was told that he was there and not in a meeting or on a phone call. John and I headed up to Growing Power. On the tour Monday I took the picture of the inside roof of a greenhouse that GP heats. I saw myself how simply we could use the AIR system to save on the heating bill.
DMZ Compost Piles Grow TogetherThis morning when I went to the coffee shop that had been collecting coffee grounds for DMZ gardens there was none outside. Inside I got a couple of bags. They said they stopped putting them outside in the barrel and started to throw them in the dumpster because they were not being picked up often enough. I asked them about how often I would need to stop by to keep up with the coffee grounds. They said about every two days. So if I want to maintain this good source this is what I will do. After going there I took the coffee grounds with some bags I had from home to the DMZ gardens compost piles. There with some help I put the grounds on the piles and covered them with wood chips from the pile we have stored there. I got this all done before it started to rain and turn cold and windy. With help the job was done.
Will & WormsToday from 3:30–8:30 pm my life moved from worms to nonviolence with a healthy meal in between. At 3:30 I went to my umpteenth tour of Growing Power at 55th and Silver Spring. Over the years the tours have changed, the crowds have become larger but they are always educational and I learn new things. Growing Power is becoming the organic growing food capitol of the world and the way of growing renewable affordable food (G.R.A.F.) has evolved. The basics are the ‘same old, same old’, but the method has been refined. However, the worm, as Will stated, is at the heart of Growing Power. My main purpose in going today was to ask Will, after the tour, for some time when I can explain to him the Air Insulation Resource (AIR) and request Growing Power help for the DMZ gardens. I did get from Will a way to reach him in the near future. I am excited about telling him about the AIR system, something Growing Power can easily use to save tons of money on energy costs. And of course we in the DMZ need the help of Growing Power to make our central city garden successful.
Pass It On - Sunday, January 27, 2008
I have been blessed with the knowledge of learning how to do Wiki web sites by Tegan Dowling and now it is my turn to pass on this knowledge to Marna of Mothers Against Gun Violence. I find that passing it on is just as difficult as learning it and requires more patience. But that is the thing about Wiki web sites like that of Milwaukee Renaissance and this one. The whole point of learning how to easily to do a web page is to pass on this knowledge and make it available to others. The power of the Wiki, like the power of Growing Power is that in its simplicity and ease to duplicate one can easily learn it and pass it on to someone else.
Amidst other things today I selected some seeds to order for the DMZ garden from a seed catalogue. There were just too many seeds to choose from, but choose I had to do. After checking with my two partners in the DMZ gardens I will need to order the seeds we selected and live with our choices.
Also in the next few days I need to order plants for the rain garden that I will plant, with a grant from the Milwaukee Sewer District this summer. Again there is a lot to choose from and I need to guess what plants will do best in the front of my house where the rain garden will be. I have a friend, wise in the ways of perennial plants, who said she would help, but again I need to live with my choices. Making choices like choosing seeds and plants is tough enough; living with the choices is even harder.
Reading & Walking
Back home today the first thing I did was sleep in. Actually I woke up early but was too tired to get out of bed. Staying up late and getting up early, along with my grandchildren and their dog, had worn me down. But it was in a pleasant way since as I resumed my ‘work’ today it was with much more vigor and peace. The ‘time out’ up north was hectic at times but refreshing. There seems to be a built-in slowness in country living even when you combine it with the busy lifestyle of today’s families. Listening powers are improved in the country or in nature. Also I was away from the media of TV, radio and newspaper the last few days. This helped the slowness of nature take over my body. Mass media is fast and nature is slow. Nature is like reading the book and allowing the imagination to work. Media is like watching the movie of the book, where not much is left to the imagination.
Blue Moon - Thursday, January 24, 2008
Full Moon & Blue MoonLast night after the grandchildren were in bed, my daughter-in–law told me that there was contest on a radio show for the best picture of the full moon. As it is not often I have the chance to view a full moon from the uncluttered skies of northern Wisconsin, I decided to take a look and a picture or two. To my surprise there appeared in the digital picture a blue moon, which could not be seen by the naked eye, next to the regular moon. I had always thought that ‘blue moon’ was a description of some type of mood or a kind of ice cream. Now I know it to be an optical sight only available to a digital camera. Is the ‘blue moon’ only in the country or can you see it in a digital picture of the moon in the city?
We might have seen the bumper sticker “Perform Random Acts of Kindness”. This morning I witnessed two such acts. The first one happened when my two grandsons, 10 and 7, were waiting in the garage looking out for a school bus that was not coming. My granddaughter, 3, was sitting at the kitchen table tired and fussy from staying up too late. Finally we decided the bus was not coming and that I would need to drive the two boys to school when I drove my granddaughter to pre-school at another school. We were trying to get everyone ready and in the car when my tired granddaughter made a fuss about wearing her plain stocking cap. Suddenly my 10 year grandson, who just about 20 minutes earlier had taken great pride in putting on his gold Green Bay Packers stocking cap, said to her “Would you like to wear my gold hat?” She said yes, and we were off. After I returned from driving the three to school, I checked my emails. There was one from the daughter of Will Allen — founder of Growing Power — who directs the Growing Power activities in Chicago. Hearing that there was a tour of Growing Power, 55th and Silver Spring, next Monday, January 28, 3:30 to about 5:00 pm, I had written to Will and to the local Growing Power staff, again requesting to talk about the DMZ gardens and how the AIR insulation system may help them save energy. Will’s daughter wrote me to say her dad was out of town and that the best way to reach him was by phone. I have been trying to contact Will about these two issues for a long time and found this email helpful. Both of these were small acts of kindness — unexpected or random, and helpful.
We prayed today at site of the first two of the eight homicide victims since January 17, 2008. There had been no reported homicides for the first 16 days of this year and now there are eight, with a couple of young children in critical condition. The madness of senseless killing, especially of young African American males by young African American males, continues. With the ever-increasing victims of the endless war in Iraq, death dominates my consciousness. Yet we can keep our faith and our hope and faith. For while violence deepens in our world, nonviolence, the power of love, continues to grow. There is a growing awareness that “Together we are Growing Power”, a force that can overcome senseless death and destruction.
Dancing on the RadioToday driving back from the frozen tundra of the Green Bay area I turned on Wisconsin public radio. At noon there was radio coverage of the oldest USA state tribute to Martin Luther King. It was from Madison, Wisconsin and featured some outstanding music and speakers. One of the performers at the State capitol was the Ko-Thi African American dance group. Listening to dance on radio takes a lot of imagination. The African drum sound made things a lot easier for me. I had to use my imagination. One of the speakers quoted the saying by Alfred Einstein that “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” That was simply true in listening to Ko-Thi dance group on radio.
It was very cold tonight as the Green Bay Packer Football team lost the championship game in overtime. However the sub-0 weather did not bother me much till after the game. I was so caught up in the tight game that I did not notice the cold much. However, walking out after the game I was suddenly very cold. Sometimes when we are caught up in something we do not notice other stuff. After the game Brett Favre, the Packer’s hall of fame quarterback, looking very sad and disappointed said something similar. All season teammates and family had told him to ‘believe’ that this season was magical and something meant to be. He said that he felt that during the game till the very end. After losing the game he felt deflated and knew the bubble had burst. As I felt the cold after the game, he felt the sense of defeat. He said he wanted to put the game out of his mind so as not to take away from the great season of the team. He was keeping the faith.
Baby, It is cold outside.The homicide rate in the city of Milwaukee was at 0 till Thursday, Jan. 17th. Than there were four homicides on Thursday, two more on Friday — both newborn infants — and now there are charges pending for two more. As the murder rate explodes, the cold weather deepens. Tomorrow it will be below 0. As the homicide rate increases, the temperature decreases. Like war, the homicide rate seems to know no borders of weather. The small heater in the sunroom struggles to keep the temperature in the 40’s and 50’s, since even the five-pane window inserts cannot keep out the cold. The cold, like death itself, seems unstoppable.
Green is Gold - Friday, January 18, 2008
Green & GoldMany persons are going green these days in food, shelter, vehicles and more. Going Green, respecting the environment and our bodies is a movement that has some momentum. In a way we are slowly going back to the respect Native Americans had and, for the most part, still have for the land. Going Green is gold, since many are making a living off our turn to the green way of life. However, going green has a long way to go to be worldwide or to catch up to the media making gold out of picking persons and events and making them a major focus of our attention. These days it is the Green of the Green Bay Packers that is making gold for many in the media and out. Our small town team, that wears green and gold uniforms, is once again the spotlight of national media attention.
There are many kinds of worms but they are one and the same. Cut a worm in half and the one worm will be two worms. Worms are unisex. One worm will lay eggs and become many worms. One worm can produce its own weight each day in rich castings. A pound of worms each day will produce a pound of castings each day. To work effectively worms need to work together. One worm is ineffective and valueless. Many worms are effective and valuable livestock. Individual worms of any one species look alike yet they are all individuals.
Rain GardenYesterday I received word that I had received a grant from the Lake Michigan Rain Garden Initiative (LMRGI) for a rain garden in part of my front yard. I had made the application for the grant, plants at ½ price, when I saw one of my neighbors plant one last summer. I had not heard a word and forgotten about it till yesterday. Now I need to, in the next few weeks, secure the permission of my neighbor who owns part of my front yard; convince my wife that it will look as good as, if not better than, the grass now there; order and pay for the plants. Personally I am excited about it, although it will mean more learning. The most difficult part will be picking the plants. Hopefully I can get some advice from someone about this task soon.
Martin Luther KingToday — my deceased dad’s and Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday — I think back on how these two great men have influenced my life and where I, father and grandfather, am today. Strangely enough what comes to my mind are worms. Why worms? Besides the fact that my mind works in a strange way, worms represent the quiet, hard working way of my father and the active, determined way of Martin Luther King. My dad was a hard worker. He was constantly working at work or at home. It was difficult for him to stop and just relax, watch TV or make small talk. Supporting his family by working hard was his way of being a good father. He was a quiet man. Martin Luther King was a man of the world. But he actively pursued his vision for America and articulated it well. Both men, my father and King, were kind and gentle men. Both were NOT what we call “worms of men” but were giants of men in my life. Yet today, the birthday of both, I am reminded of worms — quiet, determined creatures that deeply enrich our soil as these two men deeply enriched my life. One birthday, that of King, is celebrated worldwide, the other birthday, only a few family members remember. Both men made a difference in my life and for that I am eternally grateful.
Today I effective used and wasted time putting my son’s slide show called ach on the web. I had done an earlier one called z1 quite easily with another software program. It was a slick slide show of his digital art with each picture fading into the other one. I tried doing this with this ach slideshow but it did not work. I ended up, after a lot of frustrating time getting the slides in the right order using different software, which just shows the slides one after another. I felt like I wasted a lot of time doing this and still did get it right. This kind of waste, unlike the waste in the garden takes a lot of time and is frustrating.
by Carolee Graf (3)Today, my birthday, I officially became an elder. The first wisdom observation of life since being an elder was a realization that there is organic food and organic art. Remember the low, wrong kind of ‘slow’ feeling I had last night in this posting. Today, an active, alive day I still had a bad slowly turning stomach feeling. I realized that my feeling last night was physical and partially due to dinner last night. I had eaten too much of a beef roast that was already seasoned and processed. It tasted great but I should have known this kind of chemically treated food is not good for my stomach. I used to take some kind of medicine to offset the stomach problems of this non-organic food, but at the advice of one of my doctors I went off the medicine with the promise that I would watch what I was eating. Clearly I had not done this, and with two big helpings last night at dinner, had put my stomach over the top of its chemical balance. Organic food is good, non-organic food is okay in small helpings, bad in big helpings. The other part of the wisdom observation today has to do with the drawing (above) my granddaughter drew yesterday with markers.
Slow and Slow - Saturday, January 12, 2008
Today was a slow day watching football on TV, playing some video games with my grandson, walking my grandchildren’s dog and of course eating. Except for the walk with the dog this is not the kind of slow that I am talking about when I say I need to slow down my life. Sitting around passively and inactive is not being slow in my terms. The long walk with the dog was the kind of healthy slow I am seeking. The air was fresh and I got a chance to fulfill one of my new year’s resolutions to walk or run each day. Worms also are slow in the good sense. They move silently and slowing but as they move they are constantly digesting the waste in the soil and casting it out as enriched soil The type of slow day that I had today left me fairly not motivated and uninspired. When I have a good slow day, doing some reading, writing, reflecting, working in the garden, being with friends, and praying I feel motivated and inspired. My observation today is that there are two kinds of slow. One like today is a noisy slow making for an uninspired posting. Tomorrow I need to reactivate myself and go for a silent, healthy, active and slow day.
Relationship - Friday, January 11, 2008
John, Marna, Bob, DawnThe gathering today of the four us, presently involved with the DMZ garden, Marna, Dawn, John and myself, energized each of us and the DMZ garden. We discussed who would do what in contacting persons, what seeds to order and what we need to do next. Naturally our gathering was over a meal. The only home grown food was the salad greens from the GP box in the sunroom. What made the gathering most pleasant was not so much what we did, what we planned or even the meal we shared. What made the gathering good was the people present ranging from the young John, 36 to the soon to be near elder, myself. Having good friends is enjoyable and makes everything seem better.
DMZ 01/10/08In the dead of the winter the DMZ garden, now a vacant lot, begins to rise. The DMZ is a garden co-op that Marna, co-founder of Mothers Against Gun Violence, Dawn, founder of Foundation Dwellings housing for the disabled, and I started last summer. Together we are attempting to apply some of the gardening techniques of Growing Power to a garden in Milwaukee’s central city. This year we plan to build a garden near Dawn’s houses on a vacant lot across the street from an elementary school. With the help of the school children and the neighbors we hope to grow a garden that will provide organic affordable food for the three of the children, neighbors and us. All we have now is an empty lot and two large piles of compost in one of Dawn’s backyards to build the growing mounds. We built the mounds of waste last summer, of rotten vegetables and fruits, leaves, grass, coffee grounds and wood chips. Today I put some coffee grounds I had collected over the winter on the mounds and topped them with wood chips from the large mound we have on the lot. We had hoped last summer to build a worm condo to get some castings, but did not get around to it. We placed some worms from Growing Power on one of the mounds, but digging around today I noticed that worms were in both piles. We probably got some of the neighborhood worms in our nice warm piles of compost.
Garden Ingredients 01/10/08
No Sub For Sun - Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Green in GP Box TodayRecently I have been concerned about the greens growing in the GP box in the sunroom. They are doing okay but not living up to expectations. The soil is good, I have the right seeds this year, they are watered and I have a second fluorescent light fixture. Yet they are only growing okay, not great. Yesterday Dave at Amaranth Café mentioned that it has been a long time since the sun has appeared. This morning I looked at the greens in the box and noticed the sun was shining in through the windows. It struck me that maybe there is something about sunlight that no grow lights can substitute for. My friend John, who now lives in the apartment upstairs with my son, said he thought it was Vitamin D that only was in the sun. I am not sure how scientific these observations about the significance of sun on growth are, but certainly felt the plants were healthier today. Tonight’s salad contained a healthy amount of the GP box greens.
3 panes in 1 InsertToday at a meeting of a coalition of groups concerned about sustainability and green living we were asked to identify ourselves. I simply said I was there representing the nonviolent worm, and gave out the web site address, www.nonviolentworm.org. I got a laugh from the crowd but that was it. One could say the meeting was on the worm side of the nonviolent worm. I wanted to stay and meet and talk with other persons in the group but since the speaker went so long I was unable to. I needed to get home to make supper so I would be ready for our meeting tonight of our group that is trying to have Marquette Universality live up to its Gospel values and not host the school of military sciences that teaches values contrary to our faith and value system. You could say that this effort represents the nonviolent side of the nonviolent worm. Also on the worm side today I finished the piece for using Air as an insulation factor. You can find it at the Air Insulation Resource page. These days my life seems to go back and forth between the nonviolent side and worm side of life.
Garden 01/07/08I just came in from working in the garden, outside, and feel my normal sweat and thirst like I do in the summertime. Today the temperature outside shot up to 60 degrees and the great meltdown of all that snow we received this winter so far began. The melting snow exposed the garden. The dead flowers I did not cut down last fall were still in the middle of the garden around the water fountain. The only green, besides the evergreens, was the kale. Kale grows all year around and is ready to go whenever the weather is ripe. The worm depository, compost pile and worm condo were no longer covered with snow and ice. The work I did was mostly to empty some of the bags of coffee grounds I had collected in the winter over these three piles. I put some wood chips over the coffee grounds to provide a nice cover when and if these piles freeze again. While working on the worm depository, pile where worms can grow and reproduce, I could not help but dig into the pile to check on the worms. They are healthy, well, and doing their things, eating, casting and reproducing.
Epiphany - Sunday, January 06, 2008
Epiphany of a FlowerToday is Epiphany in our Church, the day we celebrate the three wise persons coming from far away to celebrate the birth of Jesus and give him gifts. In some parts of the world today is the celebration of Christmas. Christmas is the day Jesus the Christ was recognized by persons from afar. That first Christmas or Epiphany celebrates the fact that Jesus was the Messiah who came to show us the Way to God. Nowadays I wonder what Christmas means to most persons and if the gifts are not more important than the event we celebrate—God made human.
Today it was foggy, dark and dreary all day long. I just heard on the news about a 100-car pileup and crash on the Highway near Madison. The state trooper said there was hardly any visibility yet some drivers were going over 70 miles an hour crashing into the ones in front of them. Persons in cars and trucks were backed up for eight miles and had to wait over 7 hours for one side of the highway to open.
Walk The Talk - Saturday, January 05, 2008
Change is easy to talk about but difficult to do. For some creatures change is impossible. Try telling a worm not to eat waste in the ground, digesting it and casting it off. Try having them eat fresh healthy food. No way that will happen. As you move up the scale of life change seems easier. You can train a dog to come and stay or even a lion to jump through hoops of fire. But unless the change is reinforced, with some form of rewards and punishment, it will fade away. Humans with consciousness can change but not as easy as one would expect. We humans through education, experience and habits often become ingrained in our ways and resist change, even when it is for the good. For example, I always say I am going to exercise more but never really do. With humans there seems often to be gap between what we say and what we do. Simply said we do not walk the talk.
Change - Friday, January 04, 2008
Today we met a woman who grew up with strong American values of working hard and caring for her family and friends. A few months ago her troubled teenage granddaughter crushed her hand and sent her on a downward spiral. She had surgery, suffered from other illnesses, lost work, lost her place of living, lost her furniture in storage when she was unable to pay the bill. Now she sits in an almost empty apartment without enough food to eat and deeply depressed. Within a short period her whole life was turned upside down. She went from being the person that family and friends went to in times of need to being the needy one. Sadly this story of sudden loss is too common in our society. In nature there are sudden shifts but real change takes time. In the life of humans a small change, injury to a hand, can quickly turn around a person’s life.
Swift Birds - Thursday, January 03, 2008
Birds in the treeThe birds sitting silently in the tree next door do not look very swift or very warm. Today when I finally placed some seeds in the bird feeder they swiftly made it to the feeder, some hanging on it and some going to the seed on the snow below. But just as quickly they had gone to the bird feeder, in a few seconds, they were back in the tree. They would stay in the tree just a while and than head back to the feeder and the snow below. They repeated this pattern, I imagine, till the seed was gone. In the summer they sit in the tree, chirping, and head for the feeder after I fill it with seed. However, they are not so swift in flying back and forth to the tree. Why not chirp or sing in tree in the winter and why go back and forth so much? One theory I have come up with is that they are too cold to sing for their food in the winter and somehow sitting in the tree is warmer than sitting on the feeder or on the snow.
Cold Faith - Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Keep the FaithI do not like cold weather. Today it was cold but I liked it anyhow. Sometimes you can like something without liking the whole thing. Each day brings new challenges and new decisions on how to spend one’s time, be they cold, warm or hot choices. Choices of the day as well as past choices affect the whole day. However, like cold weather, there is something beyond our choices that makes or breaks our day. When things happen that are beyond our choices or control, we need faith or trust to survive and to believe that “All will be Well.”
Tomorrow - Tuesday, January 01, 2008
TomorrowThis morning in Church the pastor took the easy way of giving a homily sermon, by giving some sayings about time like the “The Time is Now” and than asking us for sayings about time. There were many of them, some persons contributing a number of sayings. My contribution was “There is a time for everything.” At the end of this first day of 2008 the phrase about time that rings in my mind is “There will be time tomorrow.” I say this since all the self-improvements I thought of working on the coming year, I probably did not keep today: watching less TV (did a lot today), eating too much (did a lot today) exercising more (did not do today) and on and on. Well there is always tomorrow but tomorrow will be built on today no matter how much I will it to be different. In my growing age, I have come to realize, if not always practice, that change comes slowly and there are many more forces behind what we do than will power. In fact in most changes, like in nature, we must let go, before we can change.
