Monday March 28th Meeting

Our next Transition meeting will be tomorrow Monday  March 28th from 6:30 to around 9 p.m..  It will be held in the community room of the Cub Foods located at 2050 Northdale Blvd in the Village 10 Center in Coon Rapids.  The community/conference room is located up the stairs located to the left of the checkout lanes as you enter the store. 

 

During the meeting we will be watching the third part of the film Permaculture Skills, A Cold Climate Applied Permaculture Design Course.  The film will cover:  herbal medicine, food forest fundamentals, whole systems design, homestead infrastructure, rope knots, seed saving, stone construction, wood splitting, and uncommon fruits. Length: about 2 hours.  No need to have seen the first films to understand the concepts covered in this one.  See the following link for more on the series https://www.permaskills.net/content/.  Thank to Sharon for sharing her DVD’s with us!  

Quote for the day

"I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that itself creates new potential."
 ― Vandana Shiva

Monday March 14 Meeting

Our next Transition meeting will be tomorrow Monday  March 14th from 6:30 to around 9 p.m..  It will be held in the community room of the Cub Foods located at 2050 Northdale Blvd in the Village 10 Center in Coon Rapids.  The community/conference room is located up the stairs located to the left of the checkout lanes as you enter the store. 

 

For this meeting how about we have a show and tell night.  Bring along an idea, book, event, project, practice, or something else related to how you have, will, or would like to transition to a more local/sustainable way of life.  This could be related to growing or obtaining local food, making or repairing items instead of purchasing new, energy saving practices, community creation events, spiritual practices that help you stay centered, etc. 

The 7 Guiding Principles of Transition

(As adapted from Transition United States available here.  )

1. Create Positive Visions.  Our primary focus is on creating positive, empowering possibilities and opportunities that go beyond dependence on fossil fuels. 

2. Provide People Good Information and Trust Them.  We raise awareness of peak oil, climate change, the downfalls of economic growth, and related issues in an enthusiastic, empowering, and honest way.  We respect each person’s ability to make a response that is appropriate to their situation.

3. Foster Inclusion and Openness.  We appreciate diversity and welcome all community members to join us. 

4. Enable Sharing and Networking.  We share our personal and communal successes, failures, insights abilities, and connections to build a collective body of experience.

5. Build Resilience.  We work towards increasing the capacity of our communities (which includes our ecosystem) to withstand and adapt to shock, and change as needed – in particular as it relates to our food, economy, and energy uses. 

6. Be Aware of Inner and Outer Transition.  We become more aware that the challenges we face are not just caused by our technologies but are a direct result of our world view and belief systems.  We journey together through the fear, grief, and denial that this awareness can create by following our passions. 

7. Encourage self‐organization.  Decision making is allowed to occur at the most appropriate, practical and empowering level, and in such a way that it models the ability of natural systems to self-organize.

Love to eat, eat to love

I absolutely LOVE to eat. Anything spicy, sweet, umami, salty, sour, maybe not always bitter, pretty much anything. Love to eat, eat to love, right? Food is our life source and food has life. Love is life, Life is love. Eat, Live, Love. Repeat.

I have a big flock of food in my backyard that I just love so much. My flock of ducks bring me so much joy and happiness, just to watch them waddle and splash around. When they beg for treats, I provide for them. In the dead of winter, I provide a bath for them. What a pleasure! They also provide me with delicious eggs and yes, a roast duck from culling. I recently learned how to render their fat! I respect and honor them by using every bit of "life" they can provide for me. I provide them with the best life I can give and in return I receive life.

Relaxing with my ducks this past summer.

Circle of life. Yes, I heard that mentioned in the Lion King. I get it, or so I thought. I heard the concept, I could understand it, but only to an extent. I was and am still not entirely aware of my circle of life and how I fit in, but now that I am trying to be a part of that circle, I am understanding much more. I  have been on a journey to understand and know my life source. To raise it, care for it, process it, and continue its circle of life. If I want to live to the fullest, what better way to understand life than to know your source of it? What gives me life? What gives you life?

Bones from stock drying to become bone meal for my garden, finished stock ready to be canned,
rendering fat in the small pot.

I once read Wendell Berry's poetic essay about the pleasures of eating. Beautifully written about what we can do. I highly recommend reading it if you haven't already. It is a very short 4 page essay with some pictures, so not really 4 pages.

http://www.ediblecommunities.com/dallasfortworth/pages/articles/spr09/edibleNation.pdf

Who is Transition North Twin Cities

We are a group of people in the Northern suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota who come together to share ideas and support each other as we transition to simpler lives in community with our neighbors and our ecosystem. We try to follow the Transition model and find the concepts of peak oil and climate change big motivators in driving us to change the way we live. 

We are currently in the “mulling” stage of trying to figure out if we want to become a formal Transition Initiative.  While we mull, we currently typically meet every other Monday evening, in members houses, local coffee shops, parks, and various community meeting places to get together and share ideas, watch movies, share the bounty from our gardens and our gardening knowledge, practice permaculture, talk about climate change and peak oil, share resources, learn to forage, and support each other to transition to a more conscious way of life. 

We have folks who have attended our gatherings from Coon Rapids, Blaine, Brooklyn Park, Shoreview, Andover, Anoka, Ramsey, East Bethel, Fridley, New Brighton, Stillwater, Minneapolis, and St. Paul - and folks from anywhere are always welcome!  Many of our gatherings are typically held in Coon Rapids or Blaine.  Because of the large area our members come from, we tend to focus more on connecting with the people that come to our gatherings than we do on connecting with the large number of institutions that exist in our communities.  We have been meeting since the Fall of 2013 and typically anywhere from 5 to 15 people will attend our gatherings. 

The best way to find out when and where we will meet would be to join the 40 people on our email list by sending Tom Jablonski a request to get on the list at Jablonski@usfamily.net.  We also have a Facebook page where we share information which is available here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/203339686518932/ and we also have a blog available here:  http://transitionnorthtc.blogspot.com/ .  And for those without access to the internet, feel free to give Tom a call at 763-807-3698 and he will be glad to give you telephone updates on our next gathering.

Permaculture Interview With David Holmgren

The link below is to an hour and a half interview of David Holmgren, one of the founders of the Permaculture movement.  Holmgren does an excellent job explaining such concepts at the energy decent (we are running out of cheap fossil fuels) and what the impacts on our society might be, some possible future scenarios we might face, what permaculture is, how it can be implemented in the suburbs, the importance of forming community, along with many other relevant topics.  I would encourage anyone in the Transition North Twin Cities network to invest some time and watch this interview.  I think you will find it time well spent.