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Posts Tagged ‘learning’

Episode 3!

Posted in filmmaking, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

First, for those of you with RSS readers, I fixed the blog title so it shows up on the feeds again. (Thanks for the heads-up, Chris!)

And now, the next episode! It’s a  jam-packed one. My mom and I are really starting to get the hang of this—except maybe for the whole indoor lighting thing. You’ll see what I mean.

Wait until you see the garden! It’s insane how big the veggies (and the sunflowers) got. I mean it. Insane. We also get to the SLO Farmers Market, where I interview some of our local farmers (and a bee keeper). Logan and Kaia track down some lizards to show us, and my mom and I have a coffee and talk about the triple bottom line philosophy. Like I said, jam packed!

I’m totally stoked at the momentum we’re building for Hole in the Fence. There are great things happening here and I can feel the energy! I hope you do, too.

Let us know what you think in the comments. We love your feedback!

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An affirmation

Posted in community, philosophy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2009| 5 Comments »

Okay, so the environmental group I’m working with? The one I just blogged about? You might have guessed by now that it’s ECOSLO. Well, they’re taking part in Art After Dark, and last night they had Adam Hill, the new District 3 County Supervisor, as their guest. And I’m affirming that they are definitely doing good things. I met some very cool people there (in addition to Adam, of course).

However, the event was attended by about 45 people, max. I know, because I was there the whole night, lurking. (That’s me: I lurk). And the type of people who attended were the type you’d expect: the wonderful, the well-meaning, the converted.

Total mildly curious and/or drunk attendees? Zero.

Now, maybe I’m being totally unrealistic, but I would have liked to see three times that amount. I mean, it was a chance to meet with a supervisor (and for some of us, a former instructor)! Not only that, but he’s cool. Actually cool. A politician. I know.

I’m drifting. Back to my point. Which was…. If an organization wants to stay viable it has to practice a certain amount of openness and inclusiveness. This has always been a truism, but now, with the current green zeitgeist racing through our collective consciousness, the time is perfect for opening heretofore closed doors.

Have to you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, thinking certain things actually brings them into existence? (Some physicists do, but they’re crazy.) Or maybe because you’re thinking of something you are more aware of similar phenomena? Anyway, I had just written the last post about inclusivity when I came across this article, tweeted by one of our followers. In the wonderful article (that is now in my “special” folder on my laptop), the author, Andrew Outhwaite, lists common barriers to achieving effective, long-term change. This one REALLY nails my thesis on the head:

Barrier: Being too identified with your own profession/network/clique, and its language, symbols, models, paradigms and habits can seriously inhibit inter-network collaboration, even within the sustainability movement.

Community-Enabling Technology: Encouraging information Cross-Pollination. Universities (e.g. BTH, UTS and RMIT) are encouraging transdisciplinary research to enable innovation across departmental, sectoral and epistemological boundaries.

Time to broaden the horizons, methinks. And to prove that I’m not letting any grass grow under my observations, I’m off to meet with Chris McCann, a student a Cal Poly who’s part of the Empower Poly Coalition and the business community. Let the synergies begin!

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I am the Knit!

Posted in community, tagged , , , , , on January 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

When I was 12 (hey it was not THAT long ago!), I had an accident that pretty much confined me to my couch for a few months. I was a VERY active tomboy, so after about a week of watching television and reading I was going crazy.

Say it with me: CRAZY.

A friend of my mother’s offered to teach me how to crochet. As desperate as I was, I lunged at the opportunity. So a group of us pre-teen girls would get together and have classes. We crocheted, we talked, we laughed, which really helped distract me from the long recovery. Kathy, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU!

Time went by; friends started having babies; I started making blankets; but no matter how much I tried I just could not get past the “square ” crochet, so blankets was pretty much all anyone got.

After I had Logan I felt emboldened to try more complex knits. I mean, I was a MOM, and once I became a mom, long dormant genes had awakened. I figured one of them had to be the “knit” gene. So I took up a knitting book—the basic “teach yourself to knit” type. Success! I learned to make a hat!

By the time Kaia came along, I had advanced to booties, so she had the full outfit—hat, booties, blanket!—when she was born. And I had found a creative outlet that was portable, fun, and easy to start and stop—except for the starting and stopping part. You see, as the kids and their dexterity grew, projects were abandoned with increasing frequency as I found the needles in increasingly interesting places—and consequently not in my project. When Kaia was hitting her first birthday, I was hitting my limit. I put the needles down (more or less) permanently.

Then in November, the month after Kaia turned four, I came across knitting looms. At first I was unsure if the looms could give me the same satisfaction as my needles. Turns out not only am I satisfied, I am thrilled.

Say it with me: THRILLED.

I can leave my knitting for days, know exactly where I was when I left off, and the kids have not messed up one project. In the 8 weeks or so I have worked on the looms I have made over 30 hats, which was perfect for a Christmas where we chose to emphasize giving handmade gifts over purchased ones. I’ve also made a few cool scarves, and I’m in the process of doing a blanket with a stuffed teddy bear head for a baby shower. I have lots of other ideas turning in my head, too. I’m a knitting genius.

I have even inspired my brother-in-law and his kids to take up knitting.  Apparently he is using it in the place of a bad habit he is trying to kick……I expect a hat (or 20) soon!

I personally have the knifty knitters round and long looms; they come with basic instructions and you can watch demonstrations and get patterns or craft ideas online. Any fellow knitters reading this? Wanna share secrets and ideas?

Knit on!

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Episode 2!

Posted in community, filmmaking, recipes, sustainability, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 14, 2009| 2 Comments »

Okay, so The Moose is Up again! Unbelievably! I actually feel like I know what I’m doing with Final Cut, which is certainly a sign of the end of the world.

In this episode we get out and mingle with other people at a free faire and a bike kitchen. I also update you on the garden and the state of the compost. Oh, and I get to make some insalata caprese! Which is great, because then I also get to eat it.

Let us know what you think of the latest installment. And if you have any ideas for content, leave it in the comments.

Cheers!

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The Other Half Speaketh

Posted in philosophy, tagged , , , , , , , on December 20, 2008| 1 Comment »

I recently saw a special on PBS about how the brain works. It said to keep it in good working order it has to be constantly challenged and stimulated with new and different kinds of activity.  I thought at this stage of my life I would be retiring and taking it easy.  Instead, I am learning what OIS, SP, and 1600 other new switches and gadgets are on a DVX camera. Just figuring out the difference between DVD RW and R was a challenge. Then there is the How to Upgrade Firefox without losing all my tabs and coordinating 15 different emails accounts as another source of “stimulation.”  I should be a fricking genius. They say, “Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your kids,” but in this case I would go insane if Samson had not inherited a ‘nerd’ gene. Must have gotten it from his father.

How old am I, you ask?  How rude.  But, if you must ask…well, Samson is 30 something.  I had him when I was in my late 20 somethings.   I can remember when Eisenhower was elected and I am one of the original flower children.   My kids like to think I was roaming the earth about the same time flowers originated.  All I know is that I am now officially old enough to qualify for everything with a number attached to it.

Over the past 8 months I’ve discovered that filming is another fun-filled activity that keeps the mind in a constant state of panic.  Learning to go with the flow helps, and when my grandson, Logan, strolls onto the ‘set’ with a wiggly lizard tail in his hands, or when Kaia darts in and out of a frame chasing the family dog you just have to go with the flow. We’re all about reality here.

Making time is the real trick. Samson is juggling a full time job, raising a family, and starring in a 30 minute TV series every month.  Needless to say this requires a superhuman effort on everyone’s part.  I would like to especially thank my dear daughter-in-law, Denette, for ‘going with the flow’ (riding the rapids might better describe it) and allowing this ‘adventure’ to unfold, such as it is.  Thanks Love.

What, exactly is this ‘adventure’?  It’s mostly a “how to” series, and in the coming weeks you will watch us build a solar oven and worm bins, grow a winter garden, visit SLO farmers market and an organic farm in Paso, and, hopefully, have some personal interviews with interesting people who are actually being the change they want to see.  We will show the upside and downside by doing it. We’re not going to try to make it all shiny and pretty.   This is life!

We also hope to make this ‘adventure’ a focal point for information and networking that has to do with becoming self-sufficient, sustainable, and viable as a community.  There is a lot going on all around us and we hope to make Hole in the Fence grand central for these new ideas, which feel to me like old ideas revisited and revived.  Remember how old I said I might be.  But don’t you dare say anything!

Get this address to anyone you know who has something to share.  Look forward to meeting and talking with you all very soon!

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