Tiny Bubbles, Big Smiles

I am thrilled by the sound of the cabbage fermenting. I wasn’t sure it would actually work. I am making my first ever batch of sauerkraut.

The bubbling noise is the sound of bacteria feasting on the sugars in the cabbage and, well, passing gas. This is called lactofermentation.

I attended the recent Sandor Katz fermentation workshop at Pilgrim Church in Tremont. If this experiment works, I might try kimchi next. Learning fermentation and other food preservation techniques is part of my ongoing attempt to eat more locally year-round.

For the Children

The rising hills, the slopes,

of statistics

lie before us.

the steep climb

of everything, going up,

up, as we all

go down.

In the next century

or the one beyond that,

they say,

are valleys, pastures,

we can meet there in peace

if we make it.

To climb these coming crests

one word to you, to

you and your children:

stay together

learn the flowers

go light

-Gary Snyder

Like most people I am on the grid, complicit with the “system” and sometimes to my chagrin, very connected to the global economy. However, As a Schumacher fan (disciple?), I have been questioning the health of our super-global, feedback loop of an economy for a while and gradually opting out of certain transactions I deem unecessary.

It is becoming evident that economical and ecological choices can naturally intersect. I know we’re in an economic mess, but in some ways I feel like I have been preparing myself for this for a while.

I am mid-way through a yearlong fellowship program and I have started thinking about ways to save money in preparation for a potential gap in employment when it ends. Over the past few years, I have been making small changes to my lifestyle for mostly environmental reasons, but as I reflect, I see those changes are also distancing me from the culture of consumerism. 

Here are my favorite ways to save money:

Taking a walk/ riding my bike: I do this for transportation, fitness and meditation. I cancelled my gym membership in 2006.

Shopping at thrift and consignment stores: Apple Core in Rocky River is my favorite for work attire.

Open Air on Market Square: Saturdays in Ohio City, sunshine, music and people watching

Gardening: a good reason to be outdoors and growing food from seed saves money and reduces the carbon footprint of my diet.

Levin College Forums: Urban education for free!

Cleveland Public Library: Truly the peoples’ university and I've already paid for it with my tax dollars. About 2 years ago I essentially stopped buying books, dvds and cds. CPL has nearly everything I want and requesting a book online is as easy as ordering from Amazon.com. You may have to wait a little longer, but the library will send it to the nearest branch.

Tremont Artwalk: see art, eat hors doeuvres, drink wine, run into people you know with minimal planning and no expense--unless you buy the art.

Rockefeller Park Greenhouse: a free greenhouse. You can take a stroll outside in the gardens and inside of the greenhouse. 

City Fresh: Reasonably priced, fresh local produce. They offer a reduced rate for folks with lower incomes. 

At home facials: Steam face over a pot of hot water, exfoliate with sea salt and olive/coconut oil, wash with face soap, moisturize and you’ll radiate beauty.

Cobbler: I have started cobbling my shoes instead of treating them as disposable. The Italian Cobbler does a good job at a reasonable price.

Reducing my water bill with a simple greywater system and not paying to flush my toilet. 

And here are the ways I plan to start saving money in the future:

Cohabitation: splitting my utility bills in half 

Eat out less, cook more

Buy less coffee out, brew more at home. 

Attend more free cultural events instead of buying tickets to shows

Work on my home yoga practice and take less classes

Learn to make my own adult beverages: mead/wine/beer

Potlucks: host some potlucks instead of dinner parties where I do all the cooking

Urban Planning Hack

I submitted a Neighborhood Improvement Project Proposal to Ohio City Near West Development Corporation. The CDC is hosting a neighborhood competition and I decided to advocate for a beautification project South of Lorain.

As an amateur urban planner with limited Photoshop skills, I'm not sure how well received my proposal will be. The OCNW board of directors will pick the top 3, and then the OCNW membership will vote on the winner during the annual meeting in April.

The funds for the project will come from fundraising revenue OCNW earns throughtout the year. 

One of the reasons I chose to submit an idea is because many people don't consider my neighborhood to be part of Ohio City. In fact, my neighbors refer to Ohio City as the area to the North of them--they don't identify with that moniker.

My proposal is to commission a mural, painted rubbish cans and rain gardens created by the Building Bridges Mural Program's Summer Mural Institute. 

Making Tracks

I'll be driving from Cleveland to Columbus on March 3rd to attend the Passenger Rail Lobby Da y in our state's capital. If all goes well, my future trips will be spent reading or computing on a train instead of spewing carbon as I grip my steering wheel with eyes glued to Interstate 71.

I have never lobbyed for anything before, but the Lobby Day sponsored by the Sierra Club, Ohio Environmental Council and All Aboard Ohio is supposed to teach me how to effectively communicate the importance of passenger rail to my representatives .

The deadline to register is tomorrow, February 25th. Register for Rail Lobby Day

The Schedule is as follows:

8:45 am Arrive at Sierra Club Ohio Chapter Office (131 N. High St., Columbus 43215)

9:00 am Training and Educational Session

11:00 am Teams begin Ohio Senate visits

12:30 – 1:30 pm Lunch available

1:00 pm Teams begin Ohio House of Representatives visits

3:30 pm Teams report back to Sierra Club staff

Light breakfast, lunch, and materials will be provided at no cost to you.

For more information about passenger rail initiatives in Ohio, check out All Aboard Ohio.

Makin' Babies

During last Monday’s discussion/action group, which we are now unofficially calling Transition Cleveland, we discussed chapters 7 and 8 of the Transition Handbook. This part of the book transcends the typical fear, doom and gloom predictions for post-peak oil society. The author asks us to create a positive vision for the community. 

As a group, I think we struggled with this; we seem to be more comfortable talking about transition-ing rather than what life might be like after the transition.

We also learned how to ferment tea to make Kombucha. Jeff and I were given a “baby” (a symbiotic colony of yeast and bacteria)  to start our own batch. Each batch of tea has a “mother” (a colony of yeast and bacteria) and produces a baby colony that can be given away. Kombucha has a refreshing taste and is said to contain probiotics. Kate says she has been drinking it everyday and has never felt better. 

I am interested in learning more about fermentation to increase the nutritional properties of preserved food. 

DIY Plumbing

Yesterday I  converted my bathroom sink into a simple greywater system. It didn't take too long to accomplish, but I should have had the foresight to wear rubber gloves. There was a bit of an ick factor with the trap.

The way this works: The greywater in the sink drains into the bucket. The water from the bucket is re-used to flush the toilet. This prevents the flushing of drinking quality water. I should have the added benefit of a less expensive water bill. 

What am I really saying?

I created a Lustfelt Wordle--surprising to see which words I use the most.  

The first Wordle is from just the first page of my blog and the second is from the past 6 months of posting.