Some of my street kids are on the video on this new web site…check it out!~

New Web site links local energy efforts

 By RICHIE DAVIS Recorder Staff

There are so many great stories to be told about the ”greening” of Greenfield and other local towns, thought documentary filmmaker Carlyn Saltman, that she wanted to use her professional skills to spread the word.

Saltman mentioned the idea to Greenfield Web site designer Richard Roth at a meeting of a Greenfield-based ”creative cluster” she’s part of, and out of that was born EarthThrives.com — a Web site, dubbed ”a virtual neighborhood of the Pioneer Valley.”

On it, Anne Perkins tells about Greenfield’s planned Wisdom Way Solar Village and other sustainable-energy homes on Hillside Road in Montague, as well as how fly ash from coal-burning plants can be used in building foundations to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

In another video, Piyali Summer of Ashfield shows how she’s converting a one-third-acre lawn into a vegetable garden instead of burning gasoline and producing fumes by mowing it.

Then there are ”Webisodes” showing how Jonathan von Ranson builds his composting toilet, a video showing the ice cream social that the Greening Greenfield Energy Committee hosted in October to celebrate raising $12,000 for the New England Wind Fund, triggering matching money to the town.

”We want this to be a local gathering place,” said Saltman, a Turners Falls resident who has worked with Roth to build the site into a source of information and inspiration to show people around the Pioneer Valley and beyond that real people are already doing real things to reduce the region’s ”carbon footprint.”

Each town may be making its own efforts, through energy committees and through organizations like Perkins’ Rural Development Inc. and Greenfield-based Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, said Nancy Hazard, the former NESEA ”Tour do Sol” coordinator who is now working on the Greening Greenfield campaign.

But the site — acting as the county Renewable Energy Task Force did 25 years ago — brings those initiatives together in a patchwork to provide a boost for people who want to do likewise.

”There have been a lot of interesting examples I’ve heard about recently,” she said, ”of how other people doing things is more effective than the intelectual-ness of what you might do,” Hazard said. ”It goes beyond weird and just becomes mainstream.”

Saltman, who included on the site the ”Enjoy the Ride” video she co-produced for the Franklin Regional Council of Governments to promote bicycling — said that as the site expands and tells more real stories about local people, that should draw attention so that it isn’t simply a matter of ”preaching to the choir.”

”It gets the ball rolling,” she said. ”Having more local people on it, more people will want to tune in.”

EarthThrives.com includes a blog — with topics so far including ”building/housing,” and ”food/agriculture” — and invites people to ”tell us what you’re doing to make the earth thrive,” with their own video clips and stories, Saltman said. ”We want the site to be inspirational.”

Among the most compelling documentaries on the site — all of them three minutes or less — is an interview Saltman did with teenagers in front of Veterans Mall about environmental issues.

To questions about climate change, global warming and greenhouse gases, the teens admit they’re totally ignorant, while one responds that when it comes to doing anything to take care of the environment, that’s for ”hippies” and people with money.

Hazard, who now runs an environmental consulting business, EarthSustain, said she and Saltman hope to work with students in the Greenfield schools to help them make their own documentary films about how they think about and act on sustainability issues in their own lives.

Roth, whose Greenfield-based TnR Global firm helps provide data solutions for companies around the world, said his hope is for the site to help local communities make an impact in turning toward a more sustainable energy future.

”The strategy is that you can’t solve these problems with grand solutions,” said Roth, who has been funding the site so far but added that grants or sponsorships may be sought down the line to help defray costs. ”They have to piecemeal, incrementally. I think we can help in that arena, that’s our primary goal.”

With what they see as a leadership vacuum at the national level dealing with energy and environmental issues, Roth and Saltman believe community-building locally is the place to make a difference.

Building on the ”local hero” campaign of Deerfield-based Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, Roth said, ”We’re trying to contribute at the level we can. Just thinking about this is not enough. If we can get people to act on it, that will make a change.”

On the Web: www.earththrives.com

You can reach Richie Davis at: rdavis@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 269

At the fine Arts center in P’town:

I can’t find any of his art on the web, but seems interesting: Folklore with animsim and a dystopic mental landscape ???  dystopic as in misery ??

 Winter 2008 Readings & Events

All events are open to the public for a $5 suggested donation and held at 8pm in the Stanley Kunitz Common Room at 24 Pearl Street unless otherwise noted.

The Winter 2007-2008 events schedule is subject to change. We will do our best to keep the website updated, but if you have any questions, call 508-487-9960 or check local listings to verfy times & dates.

EXHIBITION: Robert Gutierrez, March 7–13

Opening reception: Friday, March 7, 6–8pm             

 Robert Gutierrez’s work integrates Filipino folklore and animism within a larger dystopic mental landscape. He has had solo exhibitions at Ratio3 in San Francisco; Sixtyseven Gallery in New York; and AMT Gallery in Como, Italy. His work is in the permanent collection of the New Museum in New York. In December, a solo exhibition of his work will open at Sister, in Los Angeles.

We are under yet again a signifigant snow storm.  This evening, out on the porch taking in each one of my sisters and brothers as they flurried by, occaisionally lifting my face to catch one or two on my nose or in my hair…I am reminded of what my Grandmother used to tell me about snowflakes.  I am  unsure whether it is an Indian  thing or the French..but she used to tell me that snowflakes are all the prayers that people said during the year, coming down to rest on the earth for the winter…to be answered with new life in the spring.  Each time I see a new snow I am comforted, nurtured, and in community with those whose prayers are falling from the sky.

Now Let me tell you about Rabbits. Long in the way time past time, rabbits looked very different than they did today. Long in the way time past time, rabbits had very short ears. They had even very long tails. They had long, straight arms and long straight legs. Very different than the way rabbits look today.

One day, Rabbit was out. It was Spring-time. Looking for something to do, and something to eat, as rabbits are always looking for something to eat, he came upon a willow tree that had fresh little shoots in it. It made him so hungry. He wanted to go and taste some of those shoots but it was high up in the willow tree and you know yourselves that rabbits are not good tree climbers!

So Rabbit decided to eat some of the grass and play around. But he thought to himself, ‘I would like to play in the snow’. He remembered that his grandmother told him that if you can wish for something hard enough it can happen. So Rabbit started to wish for it to snow, so he started to dance. He started to pray for it to snow and so he started to dance. And he started singing his song, ‘Oh how I wish it would snow; Oh how I wish it would snow’. And as Rabbit danced and prayed and sung his song, it started to snow a little bit. Oh, this made Rabbit so happy that he sung his song stronger and harder: ‘Oh how I wish it would snow; Oh how I wish it would snow’. And the snow started to come down. And Rabbit was so excited to see that snow coming down that he sung his song stronger. ‘Oh how I wish it would snow; Oh how I wish it would snow.’ And it started to snow so much. All that snow!

And because he wished for it to snow so much, the snow rose higher and higher, higher until it rose high into that willow tree. And now Rabbit played in the snow, and now it is so high he could eat some of those fresh shoots that are in the willow tree. Filled his stomach.

And now he wanted to go home, tired from all that dancing and eating. But when he looked, he saw that his home was covered with all that snow. Well, he decided he would rest in the crotch of the tree. And he fell asleep.

He awoke the next morning and the sun had come out and melted all that snow away. Now, Rabbit is high up in that willow tree, wondering how he is ever going to get down. Because as you know yourselves, rabbits are not good tree climbers!

So as he was holding onto those branches and looking and wondering how could he get down, how could he sing his song again, how could he make it snow? As he was leaning over, SNAP! His tail broke! And when his tail broke he went tumbling down out of that tree. And as he tumbled down out of that tree, his little short ears would get caught in the branches and stretch and stretch and pull and pull and stretch and stretch and pull, until they are as long as they are today!

And when Rabbit, when he fell out of that willow tree, he hit that ground so hard, he hit that ground so hard, his long straight arms shot into his body and became little short arms just like they are today!

And when that Rabbit fell out of that tree, and he hit that ground so hard, his long straight legs, they broke and bent just like they are today. And now you know what I’m telling you is true.

And when that Rabbit fell out of that tree, he hit that ground so hard, he smashed his face, and when he smashed his face, he split his lip. Now, you know what I’m telling you is a true lesson. Because if ever you were to look at that Rabbit today, or any of his grandchildren, you will see that they all have long ears, little short arms, bent rear legs, a split lip, no tail, and they have to hop everywhere they go.

Now you know what I’ve told you is a true lesson as we Native people see it. And you can prove the truth of this lesson to yourself very soon. Any Spring-time, you can go out into the park or into the woods and look up in that willow tree. And when you look up into that willow tree, you will see where Rabbit has left his tail. Because that willow tree has a very special look. And today that willow tree and Rabbit all look different.

And now, you know why rabbits look the way they do. And now you know why willows look the way they do. A ho! Thank you!

Omnivore’s Dilemma

Book Discussion

Wedensday, March 19th

6:30 -8:30 P.M.

at the

Carnegie Library

Join Librarian Linda Hickman for a group discussion of Michael Pollen’s fascinating book about our food and where it comes from.

Copies of the book are available at the Carnegie Library

This program is sponsored by Northfield Mountain Recreation and Environmental Center.

for more information contact the Carnegie Library, 201 Avenue A, Turners Falls, MA

413-863-3214

www.longestwalk.org/

On Feb. 11th, Longest Walk participants will embark on a 5 month journey from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11th. The Longest Walk south route is being led by AIM co-founder Dennis J. Banks. It is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth, sacred site issues, and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original longest walk.

If you´ve got yellow flowers popping up in your lawn, don´t get rid of them! They make a healthy tea.
Pop off the yellow heads, without any of the green parts, and steep around 4 of them in a cup of water for 20 minutes. You can eat the greens as a salad, dig up the roots,dry them out and pound them into a powder and use it as a beneficial coffee substitute.. and all are very healthy for you.

Cherokee healers have long used dandelion for liver and digestive problems.

Modern medical scientists conducting studies of dandelion’s beneficial effects on the liver have shown that the herb increases the production and flow of bile (a digestive aid) from the liver and gallbladder, helping to treat such conditions as gallstones, jaundice, and hepatitis. It is thought that the plant’s positive effect on various liver functions is probably related to its high content of the B vitamin choline.
Because it improves liver function, dandelion (in combination with other liver-strengthening nutrients) may be effective for relieving the pain and other symptoms of endometriosis. It also enhances the ability of the liver to remove excess estrogen from the body, thereby helping to restore a healthy balance of hormones in women who are afflicted with these disorders.Dandelion root acts as a mild laxative, so a tea made from it may provide a gentle remedy for constipation. The herb may also enhance the body’s ability to absorb iron from either food or supplements, which may help combat some cases of anemia. Some studies also indicate that dandelion may be of value in treating cancer. The Japanese have patented a freeze-dried extract of dandelion root to use against tumors; the Chinese are employing dandelion extracts in fighting breast cancer (a treatment supported by positive effects in animal studies). But additional studies need to be conducted in humans to determine the herb’s true effectiveness against specific types of cancer.
As for other medical applications, studies have found that dandelion can lower blood sugar levels in animals, suggesting it may have some role to play in the treatment of diabetes. It may also has some diuretic effects, so it is sometimes given for water retention and bloating.
I have used dandelion tea before but I found the taste not to my liking no matter how much honey I used..I went to the super market and bought some Celestial Seasonings Peppermint and mixed it with the dandelion tea and it made the taste acceptable.. .
From Running Fox Moss

The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests,
plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that
fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once
grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo
belonged….

Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense
and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and
principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide
to mundane relations.

Black Elk, Oglala Sioux Holy Man
1863-1950

This article is about Algonquian spirital beings. For other uses, see Manitou (disambiguation).  (Wikkipedia)

Manitou is a term used to designate the spirits among many Algonquian groups. It refers to the concept of one aspect of the interconnection and balance of nature/life, similar to the East Asian concept of qi; in simpler terms it can refer to a spirit. This spirit is seen as a (contactable) person as well as a concept. Everything has its own manitou—every plant, every stone and even machines. In the shamanistic traditions the manitous (or manidoog or manidoowag) are connected to achieve a desired effect, like plant manitous for healing or the buffalo manitou for a good hunt. In the Anishinaabeg tradition manidoowag are one aspect of the Great Connection. Related terms used by the Anishinaabeg are manidoowish for small animal manidoowag and manidoons for insects; both terms mean “little spirit”.

This Manitous do not exist in a hierarchy like European gods/goddesses, but are more akin to one part of the body interacting with another and the spirit of everything.

The name of the Canadian Province of Manitoba is etymologically related to the word “manitou”, and likely meant something like “narrows of the Manitou” or “strait of the Manitou” in Cree or Ojibwe.^[1] Also Manitoulin Island means “spirit island”.