product: determined

A little apprehensively, I decided what I really want to do for the rest of the project.

Building on the feelings of suppressed emotional drive to impact the larger community (which were egged on by the New Yorker article I talked about in the last post), I decided to take an initiative that has been rather constipated in the Environmental Committee, which was to start a small on-campus farm. Not necessarily with animals, but with a substantial garden that we could work to grow produce for the Ross Café. There has been a little garden on the south side of the Center for Well-Being for years, but it hasn't been in use for a while, so I thought that would be a pretty good spot (and you can SEE it from the café, which makes it even better). 

So I sent out a few e-mails proposing the idea, and I was met with positive responses from all corners (e.g. my mentor, the Café staff, the maintenance department).

Things I have to do this week:

1.   Look into zoning regulations about a greenhouse (and how I could work out funding for that/ whether that would be an Environmental Committee project or part of my senior project)

2.   Get the soil in the prospective area tested. (Ask Patty about that...)

3.   Meet with Liz Dobbs to learn about the initial designs for the small garden outside the Center for Well-Being (which has been defunct for some years now, and decide how to incorporate that into our design.)

4.   Contact Ross parents and farmers Scott Chaskey and Paul Hamilton (who have both professed interest in my project), and see if they are interested in being involved with this leg.

5.   Talk to Mr. Drossel: could student volunteers count hours spent working in the garden as community service?

6.   Talk to Sam Levin (my friend who started a farm at Monument Mountain Regional High School with his group, Project Sprout) about his experience/process...

7.   Continue with reading assignments, and print out e-mails for proc-folio.

CHICORY COFFEE (adapted from Euell Gibbons's Stalking the Wild Asparagus)

carefully uproot about 6 or 7 chicory plants (they break easily)

remove roots, scrub and soak them in warm water to remove dirt

roast them in a toaster oven for until crispy and browned, around 375 degrees

grind up with mortar and pestle

soak in boiling water with a french press (just like coffee grounds, but use greater water:grounds ratio, because chicory has a strong flavor)

add milk and sweeten to taste.

mmmm

tuned in, drops out

"breakfast date"     (an intimate moment captured by Michelle Claeys, head of school)

Right. So.

The research portion of this project is officially starting, and should continue until I have developed an idea of what my "product" is going to be.

My "product."

It's a little ironic, right? That I should be marketing my anti-consumer lifestyle?

I know what is implied... the term has a very elastic definition in the very elastic senior project dictionary of terms and implications. There is, on the other hand, a significantly less flexible schedule of due dates, which has kicked me back into gear with my process documentation... namely my actual blog... (Lots of introspection of late, not so much diary.)

By the way, I should point out that when my computer battery stopped holding charge about three weeks into August, my solar panel charger started shorting out when I plugged the laptop cord into the inverter, and I couldn't turn the laptop on for more than a few seconds before the screen would go black. At the time, I happened to be in one of the most fragile states I experienced throughout the entire project, and I couldn't believe I would have to plug the laptop into the wall socket and start grid-guzzling again before I'd thought I had to, so I resorted to taking notes in my journal and just etching every day into my memory as thoroughly as I could manage... and it was pretty interesting how meditative I became, and how aware of my surroundings I was at all times. But I always had some kind of inner blog going on... So here I am, back, and at this point I have to suck it all up and guzzle some grid... I have a deadline to make tomorrow.

(at least until I have a new battery and I can use the solar charger again!!)

But here I am.

And I just heard a replay of an NPR interview with "No Impact Man" that was recorded a few hours ago. I was actually going to call in and ask a question... I didn't really know what I wanted to say... I'd say I had some personal experience and then explain my project... and then maybe ask a really tough question about family and friends and community... But it was quarter to 10pm and I didn't really think there was any chance it was live... (it wasn't, I looked up the transcript)       http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9479796

His movie is coming out tomorrow night... I have seen mixed reviews about his project. It seems well founded to me, though the term "No Impact Man" is a bit of a misnomer once you hear his story (but so too is "off-the-grid" in my case, by some definitions). I did read the very critical and sometimes snide article in the New Yorker about Colin "No Impact Man" Beavan and his eco-activist contemporaries, which itself quoted some somewhat disreputable quotes from the subjects, but also had a pervasively bitter slant on the author's part... so... I don't really know. She emphasizes in the last paragraph of the article that the important changes have to be made in infrastructure, and that his book needs a sequel, in which he takes the lessons he learned as "No Impact Man" to the state government to instigate real changes.

"What’s required is perhaps a sequel. In one chapter, Beavan could take the elevator to visit other families in his apartment building. He could talk to them about how they all need to work together to install a more efficient heating system. In another, he could ride the subway to Penn Station and then get on a train to Albany. Once there, he could lobby state lawmakers for better mass transit. In a third chapter, Beavan could devote his blog to pushing for a carbon tax. Here’s a possible title for the book: “Impact Man.” ♦

(Kolbert, Elizabeth "Green Like Me" New Yorker Magazine Aug. 31 2009  http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2009/08/31/090831crat_atlarge_kolbert?currentPage=4)

This might the kick in the ass I have been looking for, frankly.

I have gotten nothing really other than positive feedback for this project (which, believe me, was essential in keeping me going during my moments of profound disparagement), but I have felt somewhat lost since the offset. True, I have grown tremendously, but I have a predisposition to consider what I have not yet accomplished before what I have, or criticize the latter within an inch of its life. It all feels too personal.

In the coming weeks I will try my best to post every day or two, and I have lots of photos and supplementary events to chronicle from the last weeks off-the-grid (including a video of Karen's dad and grandma (abuelita) killing, plucking, and disemboweling two of our chickens on our very last day in preparation for our feast!! (Let me tell you, THAT was an experience and a half... I'm not crying in the video, but it might sound like it. Karen and I were kind of overwhelmed. And if you never understood the magical formation of eggs, I'll explain that too, it's totally unbelievable.