West-Bound Train Connections

West-Bound Train Connections  August 9, 2013

Roaming around the country, I'm rubbing up against all kinds of conversations.  And there's something about the train that is more spacious and encourages human connections.  Most of us are here "for the long haul".  I'm on my way to Montana today and it's 26 hours for me.  Some of the Amish families I've talked with this morning are also going to Montana but have been traveling more straight through than I from both Pennsylvania and from Indiana.  Other folks were on the train before I joined in Minnesota last night and are going all the way to Portland, Oregon.

Our seats are quite roomy and I'm getting the hang of sleeping pretty well.  But during the day, the lounge/observation car is the best.  There are 4 person booths on each side of the aisle.  People share, since there are limited spaces.  Some play cards, or snack.  I'm not only writing this blog, but theoretically will finish up a dangling chart summarizing the energy and mechanical equipment design characteristics of the Salvation Army shelter in Raleigh that was my favorite energy model project.  And right now there is a young woman fiddling. 

She's from the Twin Cities and on her way out to Whitefish Mountain in Montana.  A mandolin player has joined her and they are jamming.  Their choice at the moment is the City of New Orleans- appropriately about a train!  It already seemed to be a friendly crowd and the music is expanding possibilities for strangers to connect across this shared pleasure.

~

An hour later and our fiddler inspired a young keyboardist (no piano in tow) to enter in.  His mix of full-on zest and enthusiasm with self-possession reminds me of Shane.  He has one song he knows with a cup.  Well…. he had so much fun, and so did the audience, that he offered an encore and suddenly there was an even younger percussionist in the aisle.  At first she just watched, but when her mom offered that she had learned the same song herself at camp, everyone encouraged and we suddenly had a duet.  I loved it! 

An Eco-village in the Midst of the City

An Eco-village in the Midst of the City  August 3, 2013

I found an amazing eco-village evolving within an old urban neighborhood of Cincinnati this week.  Its name is Enright Ridge Eco-village.  It's only a few miles from the city's center, and I was just astounded at the network of green-space and wholesome ecosystem nurtured along 2 residential streets of this old working-class neighborhood where most buildings date back 100 or 120 years.

There are warm, vital connections within the human community, along with farmers and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in a network of backyards.  Many of the lots are only 50 feet wide, but go back 600 feet or so behind the homes, with extensive backyards that link into wildlife corridors pieced carefully together over the years.  

This has been the patient work of my hosts Jim and Eileen Schenk, with many others.

Rather than building new homes, using additional resources, and settling previously undeveloped land, this eco-village is these older solid homes and the surrounding land brought to new life.  

Owners have made simple but valuable investments in native plants, compost, and rain gardens, with fruit trees and vegetable plots that provide food and habitat for humans and a rich diversity of wild creatures.  

All of this is nourishing stable and interconnected families who have multiple reasons to walk down the street and support each other.  A few chickens here, a couple of Angora goats there, and beehives in yet another yard fit within the city's designation for pets, and variously help to eat the extra foliage of various garden plants AND of invasive plants the residents are working to control, and/or provide eggs, organic fertilizer, fiber, milk, pollination and honey.  

The barn for the Angoras is part of an old garage, given a new purpose!

A cistern pond collects roof water, irrigates gardens below and offers aquaculture potential for edible water plants and fish.

What they are accomplishing is an inspiration to me and my homesteading/community heart, and can certainly inspire such community in other towns and cities.  Jim offers that they are available by phone or Skype, willing to have people visit, or willing to come to your neighborhood to talk about setting up an urban eco-village. 

Watch their website at enrightecovillage.org also for a resource manual on Urban CSA's and for a mid-West conference they are planning for next summer.