A Little Bit of Culture...

One of my favourite things to do when I have a little 'me' time, is to attend the Okanagan Institute talks on Thursday afternoons. Every week they have a variety of speakers on different topics. Last week I thoroughly enjoyed a presentation by four women on the topic of gardening - they discussed xeriscape methods, community gardens, native plants and therapeutic gardening. This week three local writers will be discussing the importance of writing communities.

Here is a little clip from their press release:

"Speaking of Which is the 84th event held since the Okanagan Institute Express Series launched in July 2007. This series of presentations feature dynamic individuals passionate about their work – from creative artistic pursuits to those with social impact.
The Okanagan Institute is a collection of local professionals interested in contributing to the quality of creative engagement in the Okanagan through publications, activities and special events."

A House Built From Local Materials for $250....

.... Now that is affordable housing.

I had never heard of 'The Sanctuary' - a 100 mile housing complex near Grand Forks, BC. This is definitely going on my list of places I would like to visit. Here are the details of the Home Dome as described by James MacKinnon, co-author of The 100 Mile Diet.

"The Home Dome has an interior of 450 square feet (including the loft), and the attached greenhouse has approximately 200 square feet for a total of 650 square feet of new construction. This is attached by bottle-and-cob hallways to the existing laundry and library structures to equal a grand total of over 1,800 square feet of connected, undercover space. The total construction cost to date is $250.00, which covers gas used in the truck for collecting the clay and new electrical materials such as wire, boxes and fixtures. The rest of the materials were free - with lots of healthy labour expended hauling dead or windfall trees, peeling poles, mixing cob and putting it all together. I think that comes out to a spot under 14 cents a square foot - THAT IS affordable housing.

Due to the exclusive use of our existing solar electric, wood heat and gravity feed water systems there are no further monthly expenses to consider. The walls are rock and cob (a mixture of local clay, sand and chopped straw) to the 4' level and sunk that same depth into the earth, topped with cordwood and cob walls. The final 8' diameter of domed roof is a recycled satellite dish covered in sawdust (collected from the last RCMP Musical Ride). Excluding the electrical components, everything used in the construction is either natural and indigenous or locally recycled and from within 100-miles of our site - actually, mostly within 2 miles."

I am so inspired by stories like this. Whenever I feel discouraged about the state of the environment I love to read about the people who really are making a difference and who are truly living out their values.

-- Thanks very much to Ryan for forwarding me this information.

The Journey to this Point

In October my son, who had been learning at home for 3 years, returned to school. All of a sudden I had some time and freedom to more actively pursue my career. I work as a business consultant doing mostly bookkeeping for small businesses. I was hoping to move into a different direction where I could support and develop a sustainable community.

My first idea was to put together a sustainable business directory for the Okanagan. I set to work on that path, but very quickly I ran into some obstacles. I got stuck on the questions of what is a sustainable business and who would decide whether a business qualified to be in the directory. I realized that one person's idea of sustainable or 'green' can be quite different from another person's. I ended up going around and around in circles wrestling with how to be fair to businesses while also maintaining the integrity of the directory.

A month or so after that, a friend approached me and told me about a business network that was doing great work in Bellingham, WA. After looking into Sustainable Connections in Washington I got really excited. They were not only producing a green business directory, but they were also a membership organization that was putting on events and running campaigns to promote the local economy. What was even better was that they had documented some of their projects and were selling a complete package to help other regions set up similar organizations.

This seemed like such a great plan, and yet even that didn't come together as I imagined it would. I was conflicted between wanting (and let's face it, needing) paid employment but also feeling strongly about creating the network for the good of the community. I didn't really see a way of doing both right from the start.

So, this project has been percolating in the back of my mind for months as I have been building up my consulting business. I love the Okanagan and I have such a strong desire to see it grow and prosper as a friendly, healthy and sustainable community. I would love to see it develop a truly unique culture with strong 'green' values. I also love being able to pay my bills and I am thankful for the accounting work that I do. This leaves me with only a small amount of time to devote to this tug that I feel in my heart to do something for the community.

I have been thinking about what I could do to at least make a start on this project. It occurred to me a few days ago that I could start this blog and that perhaps it will grow and others will feel called to join in and help this idea to take root.

So here it is - my first post. I welcome you to leave comments, make suggestions. Leave a comment if you would like to contribute an article or if you would like your organization to have a link on this site.