Sustainable Crown Hill

I have an 18 lb spool of  1/16″, white, 100% cotton cording, which is basically, string.  I would be glad to share this with anyone who would like some.  Suggestions? - we are using it for our pole beans.  Use it if you do any sewing projects requiring cording.  Art projects.  Have your kids roll it up in smaller bundles and sell as a fund raiser.

How I came by this spool (and there are more spools for the asking):

The deliverer of compost for you gardeners, works at a well known local manufacturer of pillows and comforters. (Names are withheld in case someone cares about this.) They are now having their cording done in China.  She took 5 of these spools out of the garbage.  Each spool is probably 50 lifetimes supply of string. 

Just give me a call- there is plenty to go around.

Carol K.  206-781-4858

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Crown Hill Sustainable Group—Meeting Notes for 6-7-09

I Announcements of Upcoming Events

1. June 13^th —Solar energy workshop on photovoltaic’s offered by SPU being held at Carkeek Park environmental education center.

2. June 13^th —Fundraising walkathon organized by Seattle Teen Challenge.

3. June 14^th —Game night and potluck at the Journey Church from 4-8 pm. Bring games to play and potluck dish.

4. June 15^th —7-8:30 PM Safety meeting at Journey Church to discuss crime, graffiti, and other problems in neighborhood.

5. July 18^th—Fruit tree pruning workshop sponsored by Seattle Fruit Tree Society from 11:30-3 being held at Carkeek Park environmental education center; there is a cost to this workshop

6. July 25^th—Crown Hill garage sale.

7. Every Sunday—Bike ride to Ballard farmers market organized by Carol Barber.

8. Free horse manure with truck delivery can be arranged from People Helping Horses. Carol Kennedy will be posting the contact information.

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First strawberries of the season

Woohoo! The first strawberries of the season are now maturing in our yards thanks to the heat of the last few weeks. We can soon expect to see Washington state berries in our local supermarkets and farmer’s markets. The imported California strawberries have suffered long enough on their journey up here and are far from their prime by the time they reach our mouths.  Strawberries lose flavor pretty quickly after picking, so the ones from your garden can’t be beat. Though usually smaller than the monster berries from the supermarket, the flavor of those freshly picked from your garden trump all.

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Snail (Helix aspersa on Hosta leaf)

Caught this not so little snail (25 mm high, 35 mm diameter) in the garden this morning rapidly devouring a Hosta leaf. Looks like the snail found all over California brought to this continent for eating purposes.

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Hi All,

The Sustainable Crown Hill meeting is coming up this Sunday.  Bert will be giving his 2nd talk on permaculture starting at 3 PM, around 5:30 or 6 we will break for our potluck, and then start the meeting.

Location:
Heidi and Bert’s house
9524 - 1/2 12th Ave NW
(on the paved alley off 12th south of 96th St)

Please send any agenda items to me, Carol Kennedy.

See you this Sunday,

Carol K.

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I read Fresh Food from Small Space by RJ Ruppenthal while nursing a head cold.  I wish I’d been sitting at the computer because there are little website gems tucked throughout the book. Dennis, here’s a sustainable way (http://www.cowpots.com/) for you to do your starts without killing the peat bog!  I’ve always wanted to do sprouts - well, there’s a section on How-To and web references to get you started (http://www.sproutpeople.com/).  He covers fruit trees, bees, chickens, crop rotation, vertical growth, self-watering planter boxes, yogurt, mushrooms, etc.  I don’t want to give it back to the library!

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SCH Meeting Notes from 4-26-09

From this point forward, each meeting will have a host, facilitator and note taker. These jobs will rotate from month to month so that we all have the opportunity to be more active members of the group and to share the burden of responsibility more equitably.

Job Duties:

Host – emails the announcement that meeting is coming up, provides the meeting space

Facilitator – runs the meeting

Note Taker – takes notes and posts them or emails to someone else to post

Announcements:

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Thank you Martin and Mira for hosting the our Sustainable Meeting 2 months in a row. Our meal had a few theme ingredients avocados, potatoes, and salad. Yumm.

Announcements:

>Kitchen Party at the Galvin’s 5 PM. Bring food, songs, poems, stories, Full announcement later.

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For all of you Crown Hill gardeners out there, here’s a tip for improving your conditioning and reducing the chance of injury as you sprint out for the precious few available gardening hours between snow storms. This comes from Ann Lovejoy’s excellent article on the Ozette potato in the former PI. I don’t know how long it will be available online at the PI website:

I recently learned of another way to enjoy potatoes that doesn’t involve eating or growing them. A friend shared the following suggested exercise for seniors to build muscle strength in the arms and shoulders.

The original article suggested doing it three times a week. It’s so easy, I thought I’d pass it on.

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-pound potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, then relax. Each day, you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer.

After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-pound potato sacks. Then use 50-pound potato sacks, and eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-pound potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute.

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks.

And if you’re looking for music to memorialize the death of the PI,  former Seattle-ite Heidi Muller has this finely crafted contribution “Goodnight PI” to mark the passage.

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