What are you doing? What's working?

[Laura J Sellens]

My habit thus far in life is that I don't celebrate enough, and I want to change that.  So one thing I've done and I hope it helps this winter as I get seasonally down, is create a 'YAY! wall'  where I post achievements or actions that increased sustainability or were particularly moving somehow, on brightly colored paper in my room.  It's encouraging, especially as the wall starts to fill up, and it's changing my sense of self.  I'm starting to acknowledge my positive impacts, and I'm starting to expect that I do things worth celebrating.  Sometimes it's a bunch of little things that add up.  I'd like to recreate that here, for the collective purpose of sharing our brilliant solutions and celebrating even small achievements.  By posting here I do not necessarily need a pat-on-the back reply (although that would be great too), because the act of posting is me, giving myself a pat on the back, and I'm hoping this discussion could be a source of encouragement for us all as we practice the transition lifestyle.

What I'm burning to tell you now is, I bought a beautiful antique wash basin and pitcher today!  I expect to save many gallons of water by this mere $20 purchase, water that goes down the drain as I'm getting the soap to wash my hands, several times a day.  And perhaps even better, I made a point of telling the shopkeeper what I was doing and why, and I told her of my intention to keep my watering can for plants near the shower so I can collect the water that would otherwise be wasted while the water is heating up.

Also my job location changed, so for a while anyway, I'm walking to work, about a mile each way.

Oh, also, I wrote my first Transition Tale, which I posted on the group Music and Dancing and Stories, Oh My!  Special thanks to my housemate Sara for editing.  I hope you like it, it was really fun and made me cry.

And I am experimenting with a garden fertilizer made by soaking comfrey leaves in water until they decompose.

Hooray!  I'm doing something!!  I'd love to hear what you've been doing!

[lane parks]

I don't know, but I think this is the first Transition Tale I have ever heard. Enough theory, I like hearing about the practice!

[Laura J Sellens]

Danah, thanks!

Lane, maybe you'll dream up some Transition Tales of your own? The ones I remember from the Transition Handbook were written like newspaper articles from the future, describing what was going on at some future time, and they tended to describe more specific projects and undertakings, like "Today we cut the ribbon on a brand new development of 100% net-zero affordable houses complete with greywater, backyard gardens and ground floor shops to promote a walkable lifestyle. The Mayor commended us on all our hard work and promised to help clear the red tape for projects like this in the future." But I was just eager to start writing, so I went for heavy on the imagery and feeling, vague on the details.

And as for practice, my hand washing station is working just great! I don't have a good guess at the water I'm saving, but it's more than before. Also, yesterday I bought 2 Kill-A-Watt energy monitors and I'll be taking month long data surveys of different appliances in my apartment starting July 1 to start quantifying my energy use in order to prioritize which aspects get changed or powered-down first.

[Laura J Sellens]

Yesterday I made a huge batch of chana masala with my bolting spinach patch, and I needed to grind some coriander. Sure, I have an electric herb grinder, but in the spirit of powering down I got out the old suribachi and ground it myself. Pretty fun! For those of you who don't know, a suribachi is a Japanese style mortar and pestle that works much better due to it's grooved ceramic surface and angled rather than round walls of the bowl.

Also, I ordered a small, high pressure HAND CRANK clothes washer today! We'll see how that goes.

[Laura J Sellens]

Today I plugged in my computer, sound system, and phone to a new Belkin Conserve Power Strip (approx $35.00 online). Same surge protection but with the added feature of a button you can keep on your desk or mount to a wall, which kills the power to eliminate phantom loads when you're not using the item (a phantom load is energy that a device draws even though it's turned off). In the last month I've put a Kill-a-Watt energy use monitor on the 'normal' power strip, and now I'll compare the energy usage on the new power strip to calculate how much energy I've been wasting the last few years, just by phantom loads on my computer. These Kill-a-Watts are pretty exciting. Once I've cataloged all the appliances I use and how much energy they draw it will be easier to decide which I can live without most easily--they'll be the first to go. I think when my cell phone finally quits, I will not get a new one. Also, I've been weighing whether to trade out my electric coffee pot for a toddy coffee system or just--gulp--kick the habit altogether. Looking forward to celebrate a reduced energy consumption. How 'bout you? Does anyone out there want to play this game with me? I know some folks can get into an "I'm greener than you" sort of thing, but that's not what I'm about. I just want to acknowledge that little things add up, and they matter. And share some ideas so people can have something to mull over and maybe try out themselves. Maybe I should move this discussion to a different location?

[Angela MacLeod]

Hi Laura,

I love what you are doing here. You share your process with a nice balance of seriousness and light heartedness. It is a good example for others of how to bring self awareness to a change process with out a lot of negative self judgement. Taking small realistic steps with a goal in sight. David and I are doing similar things. I feel torn in that I want to respond to your discussion and share in writing on your topics, at the same time I am prioritizing action in the garden and doing other skill building activities. So I won't be writing more now. I did want to thank you and tell you that your writings are inspiring to me and it gives me more energy to do this transition work. When I read your writing I celebrate with you and feel unity in community. Something I am working on is posted in the gardening and permaculture forum on this ning site....regarding the current Herbicide problem showing up in manure and compost.

Angela MacLeod

[Laura J Sellens]

Lately I've had Sting's "Fragile" playing in my mind. Thanks for your encouragement, Angela. I have deep habits of feeling isolated which I'm trying to break. I have my bouts for sure, but I shall persevere.

And as it happens I had a moment of victory this morning! Walking down to the corner store, I saw a young fellow writing down something off of the community bulletin board. I started talking to him about supporting local businesses vs. bigger corporations, and from there moved toward building community in the neighborhood. I pointed out the demographic split between college students and historical register/homeowners in the York neighborhood, and asked if there were unfulfilled needs he could identify, or ways we could work together to build community (Thanks to Chris Wolf for the inspirational concept there). He was surprisingly open to the idea but didn't think of much, maybe a neighborhood party, so I told him some of the project ideas that had come up at a recent potluck. He liked them, and also the concept of envisioning our neighborhood in its ideal, and then taking action as private citizens. I got his phone number and a tentative promise to help build our stuff-trading kiosk down the street. The reason I tell this story is because I got some buy-in from a complete stranger in just a few minutes, without mentioning Transition Whatcom, peak oil or sustainability at all. Just, "how can we make this awesome place a better place?" was enough. How very cool.

[Heather K]

Yea Laura!! Glad you're going to be TWAG-ing with us all! I'm listening & visioning!

[Laura J Sellens]

It worked it worked it worked! The bike-power generator my Dad and I built (well, mostly my Dad) was a success! We took it to the Subdued Stringband Jamboree this last weekend and powered the lights on the side stage with it. Baby steps, yes, but no stumbles. We intended to run the entire side stage on it, and that might have been possible power-wise but we found that we'd bought the wrong kind of inverter (a modified sine wave) to run sound equipment on(requires a pure sine wave), so we just ran lights. We are now looking into swapping it out for the right kind of inverter in order to run future events (like the Unleashing was) on bike power (want to help pedal?). When it is ready to be used for sound equipment, I intend to offer it for use at TW functions. Likewise if you're interested in building one, I know something about that now.

Some victories:
-When I first got on and started to pedal, it was daylight still so people saw and just started meandering up, curious and wanting to take a turn, with no prompting from the emcee.
-The next day it was dark already so people didn't see the bike getting going, so we did need an announcement, but once they said, hey please come bike, there was a swarm! A line! of people waiting to help power the festival.
-The little boy, maybe 8 years old, panting as he pedaled, "I bet this is really helping the earth!"
-Walking up to my campsite and finding a man who had sought out our location to ask to rent or borrow the bike-power generator for a neighborhood association picnic, taking place soon.
-Talking to the parent who was inspired to hook up a bike to his son's X-box, so the boy would have to pedal in order to play video games.

Also, due to the generosity of Jeffrey Utter of Advanced Solar Energy and Eddie Pankow of Mac and Mac Electric, we had 4 loaned solar panels producing energy on those 2 hot, clear days to power the musicians' amplifiers on the side stage! That was brilliant and successful also! I spoke to a festival participant who said he'd overheard at least a half-dozen conversations about the alternative energy at the festival. I know alternative energy is old news, but it was a victory for me and well received and is a step in the right direction for the sustainability of the best festival in Whatcom County!

In addition, I made great strides toward calculating the overall carbon footprint of the festival, but I'm still waiting for some information to come in, so I'll tell you about that later.

P.S. Thanks Heather! I'll do my best.

[Heather K]

Yea Again! Laura, I love your good news stories & enthusiasm! I can imagine a fleet of these power bikes being built put on a flat trailor and hauled by a bicycle to the next event.

[Heather K]

Hi Laura! I was talking to Cynthia tonight about our shared interest in cob buildings!
I thought you might enjoy this Ted talk in regards to embodied energy:
http://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_mohr_builds_green.html

And I thought you might like this link to the Mud Girls Coop.
Maybe someday they'll come down to Whatcom for some of our community projects!
http://www.mudgirls.ca/Site/hire.html

[J. C. Walker,Jr.]

I had this idea so long ago, it's sad to say. I've installed a 240 volt timer on my hot water tank. It turns on at 6:30 PM off at 8:00 PM, on again at 4:00 AM off at 9:00 AM. No time(er) like the present. The tank has a blanket and I have something to cross off my procrastination list. Feel the joy.

[Laura J Sellens]

Heh, heh, nice pun. and nice work. Save energy, save money...what's not to like?