Full MOON ZOOM ~ June 5, 2023

Tis the season for things sprouting from the earth. As a longtime cultivator of things, I am experiencing a new stage of my life where I don’t have the opportunity to grow my own. How does a grower exist in that environment? I am at this moment in Ann Arbor. I came here about 4 years ago, shortly before the pandemic, which interrupted my usual networking. Foraging food is high on my list of things to do. Finding non-sprayed areas in a somewhat urban environment proves challenging.

I’m from the Detroit area originally. Got interested in intentional community: tried to start a women’s centric community. Explored existing communities. This being the place with the water. Maybe I could be part of the transition. As the industrial revolution dies now where it was born. Disheartened by corporate, profit-centric interests here in the Detroit area. Tried to join an intentional family… Cheerleader for people who question the status quo. Not all things, but most things. Mutual aid fairs: Opportunity for community to see a peak of how many of us there are. Too easy to feel alone and isolated. Create connections wherever I can. Past the stage of sharing resources, so instead I connect others.

Joy

I am a forager of all things, to be saving resources. I struggle with dispair, as many aware people do. Courageous people have given me support to come out – Ralph Nader. The documentary of Highland

Center. My parents met at Circle Pines! I started helping at the Food Pantry 1 day of the month, when we package and distribute it. I am looking at the bigger food justice. It’s evident that some don’t value every life. We can help keep people alive as we work toward a ust sustainable world.

Unreasonable Man quote: Home Grown Nation Park. The video is “What’s the Rush.”

“Models of Change”. We change things by creating new models. Bucky Fuller.

Thank you for sharing supper with me.

One of the reasons that I was rushing on to the call was to save my little baby sunflowers. 8 sunflowers last year, and 1 survived. This year 30 plants, and now down to 1 dozen. It’s a challenge to keep the critters at bay. Glad for the dozen still around, sorry for the ones that I’ve lost.

Very excited. Homegrown national park initiative. Turning away from manicured lawns, and turning towards one collective national park.

https://www.homegrownnationalpark.org/about/

Jim says:  Bonnie is removing some invasive plants at a friends’ house.

Have been working together on a food pantry. 140 families each month. Learning what a bit number 100 is! We give the families a LoT of food, and it takes a lot of energy from the team to do that.

My parents met at Circle Pines Center.

The days are so full, and they are too long for the amount of energy that I have not long enough to do all the things that I want to do. Spending a lot of time with my blueberries. Mower problems meant not enough time last year. Not maintaining the bushes themselves last year. Maintaining the areas between the rows last year and this year. Return visit of the destructive critter. Still getting used to the new computer and new programs. I have an appointment tomorrow with a massage therapist. I discovered that the directory with the health information has totally disappeared. What occupation? How to fit all the exercise that I do into a box *this small*?

I hesitated to buy the plants for the restoration project because it was meant to be done next spring as well.

Alternatives to violence project is going well, I offer what support I can.

Dog and cat are doing well. Chickens offer a tremendous amount of amusement and eggs.

Jubulient Jo: I wrote a poem about daisies (paraphrased by Deanne)

“The daiseis grew there along the childhood road…one here one there, then one day the field was white. I felt safe and content as I sat with my father. I remember he said “goodbye”.

Each petal by petal, loves me, loves me not. Every petal says “I love you”.

Until it seemed the whole earth said I love you.

Long night of leaving, sad, I ran to the tall trees, I ran trying not to feel, to understand.

And then, there were the daisies… singing with every petal I love you I love you, I love you. …”

Lawns: part of my day. Part of my childhood that anything but grass was to be exterminated on the lawn. Neighbor: I just want to offer, I can mow your lawn.

Diana: I have no lawn. I have moss and lichens and all kinds of things that feed the birds, squirrels, and bees.

Project that will impact dairy farms. Dairy manure turned into coal. Helps tremendously with emisions. Personally, alive in me this afternoon. MI state university (MSU) birding class. Merlin birding app. Going around holding the app up to identify the birds: a ruffled grouse.

Beaverton, Michigan before that Illinois and before that California. Originally from Akron, OH area. Criss-crossing the country to find medical care for my child with cystic fibrosis.

wildbluezyonder@gmail.com

Met Deanne at the original thatching workshop at the strawbale studio. Helped to build the strawbale studio. Built a passiv-haus (and finally got permissions to move into it). Also knew Deanne at upland hills? Before that even?

Instant water heater serves as heat for the house. Also works as an architect and passive haus certifier.

How much my elder generation is aging. How valuable it is. My husband’s step-parents are both aging in place here in Ann Arbor, struggling with dementia issues. My own mother has some health issues, but is looking forward to seeing exchange sister from Finland later this month. Brother’s place = renovated schoolhouse into bed and breakfast. Making sure mom has a walker to do all the sight-seeing safely and rest when she needs to. Recently rejoined a CSA: how to use all this food?! How to use the apples from last fall? Salad every day of the week is a difficulty and a delight

2 large multi-family projects in NYC. only 2 dozen people that do the work I do in North America.

A number of the projects are from the marshall fire. Incentivize people to make passive houses: fire proof, ventilation, filter out the smoke, etc.

RMI and regenesis? Haven’t really necessarily adopted passive house, but they are on a parallel track.

Chris One of my biggest inspiration is the young people. I’m thinking they have a lot more courage than I had. Students in Indiana, who had written a play, shut down, for some parents concerns. The students found another venue and it went viral on the internet. The students seem to feel very deeply and throw themselves into more risks. I have similar inspirations to others in the group. I was working on drawings for buildings for an intentional community before the 2007 housing crash. Now I know about the Sylvan Neighborwood. And Patrick got his own zoning ordinance.

Ann Arbor food gathers Pantry, I have a friend who worked there, and saw things gone to waste. He asked if he could take everything left at the end of the week, to get food to other people. He takes the unprocessed foods to those who still qualiy. And I’m inspired by the people I’m working with. They are doing inspiring projects, whole villages in Europe, doing passive solar homes.

Deanne

Feed ‘em free ‘em growers. The matriarch of this group of black women. So cool and happy! So nice to network. I love weaving people and ideas.

Stay in balance, take the time to figure that out, get support, keep weaving! Ethical imperative of our time: green building movement.

citizensclimatelobby.org Join a live informational session. Cclusa,org/intro Wed 8pm

“Working together” inspires me.