In September 2011 the nursery pond.

For the past two years we have been experiencing an extreme drought in Texas, according to the National Weather Service, the worst in over 50 years.  Here at the collective Hurricane Ike, in Sept 2008, was the third costliest Hurricane to have ever hit the United States and came straight over our little farm, leaving it in total devastation. We had three feet of saltwater covering our entire farm and destroying 30 some odd years of work. It totally killed our entire aquaculture system. We have three small ponds, a nursery pond in the back, an intermediate pond and our main pond closer up toward the main residence.  As you can imagine salt water did them in  totally.

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We have always been totally organic at our collective from the outset. We sought advice about how to heal our ponds and our soil to re-mediate the effects of the salt water.  Every where we turned we were told to add this chemical or that chemical, plant this gmo or the other. or JUST WAIT.  So we chose to wait. Slowly over the next several years, as evidenced by continuous monitoring, the salinity levels in the soil and ponds returned to normal. No chemicals used. Just patience and nature.

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By the end of 2010 the ponds were supporting life, albeit slowly, and the gardens were at least attempting to produce a bit.  Then the drought struck.  Above you see the nursery pond in Sept of 2011, below the condition of the same pond by October 2011. With a great deal of effort my son Christian had spent days moving each and every little fish to the intermediate pond, and then finally to the main pond. He has managed these ponds with love and devotion for almost their entire existence, since he was an adolescent, he is now 34. As children he and his sisters, Taryn and Kathryn (RIP) all learned to drive a bulldozer when we constructed them.  His love and care saved the lives of hundreds of small fish and intermediate sized young fish.  This is just how we do things here.  We respect all the things that nature provides and care for them in the best way we can as circumstances change.

In October 2011 the same nursery pond.

 This winter has been extremely mild, period of extreme cold, but overall mild and much wetter than normal.  When the rains returned they have really not stopped. Slowly but surely now the water table is back to normal and the ponds are healing again.  For years the back pond was adjacent to a constructed wetlands that we had worked on for years hoping to eventually construct elevated walk ways through for educational purposes. That project had been set aside the entire time we have waited for the salinity levels to normalize and then the drought to break.

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This afternoon we drove back to  the nursery pond to check on it after over about 10 inches of rain in the last few days.  What we encountered is shown below.  The blessing of patience and nature has not only restored the nursery pond but restored the constructed wetlands. It is such a pleasure to see.  My old tired eyes, the young mans eyes of my son and the youthful eyes of my Grand daughter Grace all were all blessed by a vision that had long been absent in our day to day care of our small piece of the mother earth.  It is truly a blessing.  You can see the pond, the top and bottom pictures are taken  from the same end of the pond because we would have gotten our little truck stuck had we driven to the same end as the middle image. The rains just stopped this morning.  You can see the area that was our constructed wetlands to the left of the image below. It is truly a thing of beauty to us here at the collective.

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  Hopefully the water table is restored enough that with the rainwater collections systems we are installing and the gray water systems we have underway we will make it through the next year without the devastation that the drought has wrought on our farm this past two years.   Peace and light be with you all.

The Nursery Pond and Constructed Wetlands Feb. 20 2012

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National Call for Action

On March 11th, let’s act together
to get rid of nuclear power

We look forward to seeing you at 13:30 on the various meeting places between Lyon and Avignon.

Register your group departure

Backed by enormous financial resources, the French nuclear lobby has launched a gigantic campaign to discredit the idea of a possible nuclear phase out in France. The nuclear representatives have been very active in the media in order to prevent any possibility of questioning our energy policy during the 2012 presidential election.

March 2011 saw the beginning of the terrible Fukushima catastrophe. To this day because of damaged reactors, millions of Japanese people are still being exposed to nuclear radiations and the whole country will continue to be contaminated for thousands of years.

Exactly one year later, on March 11th, 2012, let’s act and stand together to denounce the risk of a nuclear catastrophe in France and say aloud ’’A nuclear phase out IS possible’’. Other European countries are getting rid of nuclear power, so why can’t we? Let’s react to show our solidarity with the people of Japan and with the generations of future victims.

Let’s join to form a huge human chain from Lyon to Avignon in the European region with the highest number of nuclear plants

A large majority of French people are in favour of a nuclear phase out. Yet, a ballot paper won’t be enough to force our leaders to start the necessary energy transition to free ourselves from our dependence on nuclear energy and fossil fuels.

Even though the German chancellor is in favour of atomic power, the German people united, and demonstrated in their thousands to achieve the decision of a nuclear phase out by 2022.

We too must establish a power relationship with our ruling elite who are cut off from their citizens and who, facing the major 21st century environmental issues, impose on us this nuclear danger and a head-in-the-sand policy. We are infuriated but above all we must stand united; the more, the stronger.

You can become a strong link

Human chains have been organised monthly- every fourth Sunday- in various places in the Rhone Valley since May 2011. In Montélimar, Bourg Saint Andéol, Avignon, Die, Roman, Tournon, Aubagne, Valence, Lyon, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne, Roussillon … every single time hundreds of people from different backgrounds have joined together in a friendly, family atmosphere and are determined to make things change.

Let’s join us in the huge human chain between Avignon and Lyon on Sunday, March 11th, 2012.

EVERY PERSON COUNTS,
AND WE COUNT ON YOU

We appreciate sharing news of this sort from all over the world, please feel free to comment or to share with us at any time. We will be glad  to pass it along.  Namaste.

You can access this site directly by clicking here.

I sat a bit in the middle of a budding clover patch and just relaxed. Lo an behold,  just about 3 feet in front of me a  Monarch butterfly, who are migrating north this time of year,  landed in the clover and just sat looking at me. It was a moment where time stood still.  This flying flower hovered up a bit and moved a bit closer to me. I was completely transfixed. In awe of the beauty.

We pride ourselves on cultivating numerous “weeds” that are the favorite foods of various  butterflies and always have a yard full most of the year. The only time they are not here is the dead of winter.

When my oldest daughter Kathryn Nicole passed away almost 10 years ago she made the promise that any time we saw a butterfly come close and just visit with us it was her way of showing us that she is happy and in the dimension of pure light.  So today was particularly important. Further it is Valentines Day in the US and it was always my Mothers favorite holiday as well as the day she transformed into light.   For the two events to coincide simply was overwhelming.

I just wanted to share this with you all,  it is not often my heart is softened so completely and quickly. I miss both women very much every day and with every breath.  I am thankful to the entire universe for the blessing I received today,  I hope that some small thing caught your attention today and reminded you of the beauty of the cycles of life and the wonder of the universe. Peace and light be with you all. Namaste.

The bottom 3 journals are the last 16 years of my life. Its interesting to see how 16 years could be crammed into 3 books that I tuck away in my nightstand. The top smaller one is my new journal. I still get super excited about looking for a new journal and imagining what the pages will be filled with. I have been journal writing since I was 12, unfortunately many of those journals got lost through the years and my constant state of moving around didnt help either. I still look back and read pages from my past and it instantly takes me back to that time. Even when I didnt write down where I was in the house when I was writing that page, the lines I read take me back to that time and I remember it all. I notice when I read through my writing how much Ive changed, how much Ive grown and what life was like and where I thought it would be today. Along with journals I have written letters to my unborn child(ren) because I always had a feeling that my child would think the age gap between us would make him or her think I dont understand. So, when things happened in my life that had really impacted me I grabbed my pen and paper and started writing. I started that when I was 19. I only have 3..first time a boyfriend proposed, when my father passed and a really bad break up that I had… Its time for another letter. These days in my life lately are very impacting. Im reflecting (as I always do) and seeing everything before me. Life is beyond interesting right now. I feel a force I have never felt before. Fear, Excitement, Strength, the Green Light, Future, Reflection, Energy, Change, Power, Enlightenment……REALITY. NOW.

The greatest and most fulfilling emotion is to know you are good with who you are. Knowing who you are and seeing the different stages of yourself. When you are comfortable with being alone and not having the need to always be around many people it sets a calm inside you that feels so damn good. Call me crazy but I truly love spending time with by myself. Dont get me wrong, being with my friends is always a pleasure. Im usually in other peoples company with my work, naturally. However there is something so perfect to me about grabbing my keys, getting in my car and just going for a drive or heading to an antique shop and spending as much time as I want and not talking to anyone but just being with myself, my thoughts, my interests and my way. I also love creating new things around my house. I love crafts and using my hands, panting, sewing,building, sculpting. Im comfortable in my skin and I feel that has a lot to do with how Ive lived my life. Observing, documenting, and reflecting. This journey of mine has so far been amazing, yes, I do amaze myself…as funky as that sounds.Im super excited to fill the pages of my new journal. I bought a smaller one because I feel I will be carrying it around in my purse a lot this year…

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Greetings, we have a small request. Please consider joining our little site. We are currently working on our 501c Status and could use as many members as possible to show interest in what we are attempting to do. If you are an activist we have a number of pages and groups that may be of interest to you or you can set up your own.

If you are a member of a collective,and eco-village or a permaculture group anywhere on the planet we would love to link to you and to feature your work. It is the primary focus of what we are doing. We intend to serve as a comprehensive listing of gardening, sustainability and off grid information. Please help us achieve this goal

We promise that this site will always be app free and focused on the movement toward global sustainability and peace. We appreciate your help. Peace and light be with you.

© Fixers Collective

Collaboration is so widely and enthusiastically lauded that even the word “teamwork” feels like a cliché. How many motivational speeches, business proposals, and self-help books wax poetic about synergy and shared goals? Many hands make light work, two heads are better than one, power in numbers, there’s no “I” in team, and so on ad nauseam.

Yet, much repair ends up being a solitary experience: one repairperson, alone with some hardware and tools. I think it’s telling that the most famous repairperson is probably Maytag’s “lonely repairman.“ Ol’ Lonely was, of course, supposed to be lonely because Maytags don’t break, but the joke only works because we accept that repair is something you do alone.

If you’re looking for a more communal repair experience, a few groups scattered around the globe offer something of the sort. The Fixers Collective in New York is one of the largest and most established “fixerspaces” (a term they coined after “hackerspaces”/”makerspaces”), where repair experts and hobbyists gather once a month to fix stuff together.

Fixers Collective began as part of a 2008 exhibit called “Mend” at Proteus Gowanus, an art gallery and reading room in Brooklyn. The installation collected tools of repair, examined books and art about all kinds of fixing (including fixing the human body with surgery and fixing the country with social reform), and offered fixing sessions with the local community. People loved the fixing sessions enough that, when Mend ended, Proteus Gowanus became the more permanent home of the newly formed Fixers Collective. Now, on the third Thursday of every month, fixers and people who need stuff fixed gather together in a back room workshop at Proteus Gowanus, cracking open shorted-out coffee makers, darning holey socks, and teaching each other how to solder.

But their mission goes beyond socks and soldering irons. They see repair as a way to get to know your stuff more intimately and to find art and personality in a mass-manufactured world:

The Fixers Collective seeks to displace cultural patterns that alienate us from our things, by collectively learning the skills and patience necessary to care for them. Intentionally aligning itself with forces generated in reaction to the current economic crisis, the Fixers Collective promotes a counter-ethos that values functionality, simplicity, and ingenuity and that respects age, persistence and adequacy. The Collective also encourages participants to take liberties with designated forms and purposes, resulting in mended objects that may exist both as art and within a more limited, utilitarian context.

In addition to fixing sessions, Fixers Collective sometimes hosts special events and competitions, such as their Get Yr Fix Iron Chef-inspired repair competition, which was covered here on Treehugger a couple years ago.

Many of the members of Fixers Collective also work on their own repair projects in the time between fixing sessions. Vincent Lai, an advisor/organizer with Fixers Collective, told me about his own pet project, a computer reuse and recycling center. “My slant,” he explains, both regarding Fixers Collective and his recycling center, “leans heavily on empowerment and community. I’d like people to be able to fix this stuff themselves.”

This is the first in a series of posts highlighting fixerspaces around the globe. If you know of any others, tell me about them, and encourage them to create an iFixit Team page—we hope to build a worldwide fixerspace database.

One of the principle problems in Belize is the lack of sustainable housing and increased pressure on the indigenous Mayans by the gaming industry. Traditional village lands are being compressed by the gaming industry, the access of the native peoples is being limited by the expansion of the gaming interests.  This has exacerbated the pressure on some of the poorest people in Central America. They are trapped by circumstance of western development interests. It was with great pleasure that i reviewed the information Taryn had sent me and I would like to begin sharing it with you.

In this post you will find a number of images of the village of Chunox and some very dedicated philanthropists that are working globally to solve safe, secure housing for people in the position of the indigenous population of the residents of Chunox. We have requested permission to link directly to the site of this generous and kind group and will be creating pages following their work globally. Until then please follow their link by clicking on the logo at the top of this post  and consider whether or not this is an effort you would be willing to help support.  These gentle people need our help and this effort results in tangible changes in both the security of their homes and strengthens their ability to maintain their indigenous lifestyles. Please enjoy and let us know you

A Map of Belize

In Chunox, Adam Webb found very large families living in unsafe, unfinished, structurally unsound homes. These families are looking forward to moving into disaster-resistant, clean EcoShell homes. (Jeremy Baker)

The catch family are candidates for receiving a Monolithic Ecoshell. (Jeremy Baker)