Author: jennynazak

(For USA residents — everyone else please pardon the USA-centricness of this post, and of my blog in general. But hope even those of you outside the USA will find this post helpful somehow):

Are you getting a stimulus payment? If so, how are you investing it? Someone in the Socially Conscious FIRE group (on Facebook) just asked this question. My response:

I am investing my stimulus money in:

1) Purchases supporting things that will help my household & community become more resilient to pandemics, extreme weather, and other disasters. So: Rainwater collection, native plants, food plants. And most of all: investing in my continuing education in my field (permaculture design, community organizing). Most of the classes I’m taking (which are online) are either free or cheap. And I have already reduced my overhead expenses super low in order to devote many hours a week to classes and community work. But since my overhead is so low, the stimulus gives me a big boost!
It’s basically a month of free income for me.

And

2) Buying from friends’ micro-kitchens and other micro-businesses that they started in order to get free of dependence on a corporation for their livelihood.

And come to think of it, #2 is boosting my community’s disaster-resilience also!

Building local economies is essential. So is restoring the health of ecosystems. If we don’t take care of our communities, or the planet that is our only home, no amount of financial gain or stockpiled money can save us.

Additional notes: I do not invest in Wall Street stocks or other nonlocal financial instruments. In my opinion:

• Such investments have an unacceptably high opportunity cost, in that every dollar we invest on Wall Street is a dollar not being invested in our own local Main Street.

• It’s too hard for me to find, and keep track of, the impacts of faraway, centralized, impersonal investments. And according to my research, those unseen impacts tend to be very negative (both environmentally and socially) in comparison with any benefit they produce, either to me or to my community or to society as a whole.

• Direct investment in ecological restoration, disaster-resilience, and in supporting local people and local businesses, is a better bet than any mainstream financial instrument I know of. The monetary ROI may be less (or sometimes even zero), but it’s still a safer bet all-around.

A frequent theme in my writing (and in my life, and in many people’s lives, particularly in the USA and other places where people tend to accumulate more material stuff than they can use) is the dilemma, “Do I keep this around in case I might need it someday, but in the meantime I’m burdened with storing it; or do I pass it on to someone else and thus risk not having it when I need it?”

This dilemma is particularly pronounced among people who don’t have money to just rush out and buy something new. Or people who have ever experienced poverty, even though they are now living in material comfort. And maybe most of all, this dilemma is particularly pronounced among those of us who just hate wasting stuff, and recognize the ecological and moral disaster of constantly buying new stuff rather than reusing.

It is a dilemma for sure. And each person will resolve it differently (and we make different choices for different categories of stuff too. Clothing is more perishable than a pile of surplus metal. And surplus paper and art supplies may be moreperishable than clothing. There are also the “technologically perishable” items, such as the ancient phone-chargers and other dongles taking up space in people’s desk drawers.

One thing I am noticing for myself, though — and I’m sharing it in case it might ring true for you too — is that most often, the social capital I gain from giving away stuff I’m not using more than makes up for the potential cost of maybe needing to reaquire the same or similar item later.

Most often, I don’t end up having to acquire the item; I either don’t need it, or I find a used one discarded at curbside right when I need it. (The goddesses of curbside bounty are powerful, generous, and highly responsive; I highly recommend you cultivate a working relationship with said deities if you haven’t already! They take requests in all forms, even just a passing thought of the needed object will often suffice.)

By “social capital” in this case I simply mean a goodwill connection with a neighbor (“neighbor” could be either physically proximate, or proximate online even if they’re in a different geographic area from you).

This post came to me early this morning when I was in my garage doing garden-related tasks, and I happened to look up at my back deep-storage shelves and saw, for the umpteenth time, the never-opened boxes and boxes of metal flashing left by the previous owner of the house (I think he was into welding).

Metal is useful, and I guess I had been thinking I might fabricate something from it someday. But … I don’t do metal fabrication, nor do I plan to take classes in metal fabrication, welding, or suchlike. In the meantime, someone might really have use for that nice metal.

The metal does not seem to rust, even in our coastal climate which is rough on metals. It’s pretty darn near nonperishable from what I can tell. But, I get peace of mind from clearing away things I’m not using. And I’m a big believer in the idea that new good stuff, that we need right now, comes into our lives when we are willing to let go of stuff we’re not using.

On a related note, I once heard of a landlord who had 10 empty buildings, housing 17 storefronts. By “empty” I mean the buildings have no tenants. (Word has it that his asking rent is high.) He has been keeping the buildings to try to sell to one big buyer; he doesn’t want the hassle of trying to sell them to individual buyers.

Well, recently, his number of buildings dropped from 10 to 9, as a result of a strong storm that brought wind and hail. The building, already fallen into decay from not being in active use, was so damaged by the storm that he had to have it demolished. And, the contents of the building were irretrievable.

I mentioned the building was vacant — but I meant vacant in the sense of not having a tenant; not bringing in rent. The building was actually full — of stuff. Some of it historic; most of it probably very useful. All of which was a total loss, as the building was unsafe to enter for any of the stuff to be retrieved. It all got hauled away with the bricks and other rubble.

The owner had no insurance (building too old, etc.). So he has lost $100,000 or something. I imagine he’ll be able to write it off on his taxes, so it won’t be that bad for him financially.

Where I see his loss is social. He’s already incurred a lot of badwill over the years for keeping his buildings vacant and contributing to blight. And I have to wonder how much goodwill he might have built over the years by finding ways to get that building, and its contents, into circulation in the community. We’ll never know now, but I expect he could have built a significant amount of social capital — and probably made some money too!

I’m a strong believer in the flow. In permaculture design we talk about “stocks” and “flows.” A “stock” is a stash; a stockpile; a bank account; a pantry with canned goods in readiness for hurricane season; goodwill built up in one’s community over time. A “flow” is just what it sounds like. It’s what comes into our lives, and what we put out into our communities and the world.

Stocks are perishable. Even stainless steel, even money — are perishable on some level. Flows, on the other hand, are constant, dynamic, and lead to more stocks and flows.

Stocks are good and prudent to have, within reason.

If I had to pick between stocks and flows, I’d have to pick flows. The reality is, though, we never have to pick. We always have both, and they feed each other. As long as we don’t try to keep things around in a frozen state, stocks and flows will always be there for us in a fertile and self-multiplying interplay.

Too large a stock of something sucks one’s attention; stops the flow of one’s energy and creativity.

It’s time for me to post those boxes of nice shiny metal flashing on NextDoor — or just walk over to my neighbor’s and see if he wants it. Sure, some future housemate/co-owner of my sweet seaside urban permaculture micro-homestead could turn out to be a metalworking genius who will make us a super-awesome Rocket Stove or TLUD stove. But we can cross that bridge when we come to it!

Hi everyone! Just thought I’d share a snippet of my routine around laundry; hot-water use.

I have repurposed a wide-mouth plastic jar, which originally contained salty snacks, as a micro “washing-machine” for very small items. (“Small items” could be napkins, handkerchiefs, a pair or two of underwear. The other day it was a week’s worth of toilet-cloth squares. BTW I have found the best source of toilet-cloth squares is old bedsheets that have become too worn-out, such as having holes in them etc. The worn-outness gives them a nice soft texture that makes them ideal for TC.)

For washing, I use regular hand-soap, and sometimes baking soda with it for extra oomph. The other day I used part of a detergent pod that had been left by some past housemate. (The pods are super purple in color, really turn the water purple, and have a strong “artificial fragrance” smell even though I use just a portion of the pod! To be honest, I really don’t like artificial scents of any kind — and I know a lot of you are very allergic or otherwise sensitive to same. I’m looking forward to when the little stash of pods is used up. There’s actually only a pod and a half left; if it were more, I’d really feel a wish to get rid of them. Would probably give to a neighbor or something.)

Water temp: Sometimes I use just cold water; sometimes I add a bit of hot water (from the electric kettle that I typically boil in the morning) to make warm water.

Kettle: Any hot water from the electric kettle that’s not used right away for my morning coffee, or to add to the laundry or dish-washing tub, goes into a thermos so I have very-warm water for 24 hours without needing to boil another batch. The thermos is an old-fashioned metal one I bought for almost nothing at a yard sale. It looks cool and works great!!

The couple of liters of water I boil in the kettle are almost always the only hot water I need all day. Many times I don’t even need that much!

Once the laundry water cools, it can go outdoors around the shrubs, mulch-pile, etc.

Want to see photos? Visit the corresponding post on my DEEP GREEN Facebook page. (In case you are wondering why I don’t post photos here — I used to occasionally in the past, but have stopped — there are multiple reasons. First, I’m trying to keep this site as low-bandwidth as possible, not only to make it easy for anyone to load regardless of the quality of their internet connection, but also to keep my “online footprint” to a minimum by only posting photos in one location (usually Facebook or Twitter). Servers use significant bandwidth, and I’m trying to do my part to minimize our collective footprint there.

Also, I want to help you strengthen your mind’s eye. Being able to visualize from a written description is a valuable skill. (That said, I don’t wanna torture you, which is why I include a link to the FB post with photos.)

And finally, esteemed readers, I am trying to encourage you to engage in “inter-platform travel.” If you are willing to follow me on multiple channels, it greatly multiplies the quality and quantity of valuable resources I’m able to share with you.

Enjoy your day! And when in doubt, use the smallest container possible for the job you want to do — be it washing clothes or heating water or whatever!

Someone in one of the online permie groups* shared this article from PermacultureNews.org, about why one might want to take a Permaculture Design Certificate course.

An excerpt from the article by Jonathon Engels:

The concepts within permaculture design change the way you see the world. Looking from the window on a bus ride or walking through the park, the landscape becomes this vibrant piece of the planet thirsty for life. You’ll want to design it. You’ll want to fix mistakes you see in lawns and houses. You’ll have this enrapturing understanding of what trees, animals, streets, machines, and corporations are doing.

Rather than giving you a petition to sign or senator to call, as we see at the end of life-altering documentaries, permaculture texts give a blueprint for how to start making changes at home. In fact, they almost demand that you do so.

And my own experiene: I took my first PDC in 2005. Same as many other people who have taken Permaculture Design Certificate courses, I had a profound shift. For me, it was so profound that I immediately knew I’d found “what I wanted to do for real.” I immediately started a new career, helping my local permaculture teachers publicize and fill their classes. I also have co-taught parts of PDCs over the years.

AND — over the years, I have been a student at multiple PDCs, including ones that I helped organize. Each one brought me different layers of awareness and practical application, and each one formed its own community — and I still keep in touch with at least some of the fellow students from each class. We form a multi-layered, geographically decentralized network of resilience, shared skills, and emotional support.

Currently I am taking my fifth PDC! The online experience is very powerful and introduces a whole new dimension. The community I’ve met through the Transformative Adventures PDC feels like some sort of deep cosmic tribe. Soul-puppies, I call us!

And, I’m really looking forward to participating in the online PDC from my fellow Floridians at Grow Permaculture as well!

All of the time and money I’ve invested in PDCs and other non-mainstream education (most notably consciousness training) has come back to me many thousand-fold. Monetarily, AND socially. (And I consider the social capital far more valuable and durable than the monetary ROI, tho I certainly recognize the need for that monetary ROI in our current society!)

* Permaculture Money, Livelihoods, and Society via Transformative Adventures — that Facebook group I’m constantly raving about lately. It’s great to see so many of you joining the rich community we are weaving there!

Extremely astute and soulful observation from David at Raptitude (he’s one of my perennial favorites in the realm of mindfulness and mental wellness and “being human”; I often quote him on this blog):

But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work.

We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing.

And, my own add-on to David’s train of thought: AND, we pay the airline industry and hotels etc lots of money for “vacation” because we have built insanely hectic, noisy lives and a (non)-culture that we need to “escape” from. In the process of our invasion, we degrade ecosystems and economies and culture in other people’s lands too.

And – our lives may already have been designed. But we can take charge, and redesign them.

All of this is why I’m so passionate about leading a low-footprint, low-financial-overhead life, and helping you do the same. Not only does it reduce the burden on earth’s ecosystems, but also it gives us all more self-determination over my time and energy. Space to think and create, and be the humans we want to see in the world!

Further Exploration:

• Read David at Raptitude dot com’s full post “Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed“; it is an absolute gem, as his posts always are! My quote above is just the tip of the iceberg of its wonderfulness. He goes into many related topics such as why he spent far less money while backpack-traveling the world for months than he does at home, and enjoyed a better quality of life to boot.

• Join a group of people who are taking charge of redesigning our lives, and helping others do the same! Taking back our agency; changing the drab and soulless reality we have been enduring. It’s that Transformative Adventures group on Facebook that I keep telling you about! Several of you have already recently joined us over there, and I look forward to seeing more of you! Type into the Facebook search field “Permaculture Money, Livelihoods and Society via Transformative Adventures.” Sorry I don’t seem to be able to get a link for you to just click on, but the group is well worth that initial investment of your typing labor! The work you deep-down long to do most can energize you, revitalize your community, and help the planet.

Jars and bottles come in so many shapes and sizes. Short; tall; narrow-mouthed; wide-mouthed.

I have always liked to collect and save certain bottles (used mason jars because they are super handy and versatile, and the wide mouth makes them easy to wash; used wine and liquor bottles because they are often pretty, as well as handy for using as water bottles around the house; used salad-dressing bottles for mixing and dispensing my own salad dressing, since I dislike most store-bought salad dressing).

But it wasn’t until I got several months into my latest experiment of living without a fridge that it occurred to me that narrow-mouth containers are better at delaying spoilage (which I assume is because the narrow mouth reduces the surface area of the contents that’s exposed to air).

There is a tradeoff, however. Narrow-mouthed containers are much harder to clean, and also, they are not suitable for storing any substance that’s too thick and not easy to pour. (Way back in the 1960s-70s, Heinz ketchup based an entire ad campaign on this concept, that its product is hard to pour — presumably because it’s yummy and thick, not runny and thin.)

Glass containers are much easier to wash than plastic ones. I try to avoid storing dairy or anything else with much fat content in a plastic container. On the other hand, plastic containers are non-shattering and are much lighter in weight, making them great for picnics, travel, and errands.

If you want to see some super pretty and cool-shaped bottles, check out Damiana liqueur, Ocean organic vodka, and Porfidio tequila bottles. (The cactus sticking up stalagmite-like inside the bottle, like a mini desert-in-a-bottle, is just way super cool.)

Speaking of containers, the other week I went to get a dozen donuts for a friend’s birthday celebration. (Public-health note: There were just five of us in the party, and we met outdoors in a park by the beach.)

I went to the donut shop by bicycle. When I got the box, I realized something that I should have remembered from seeing many other dozen-donut boxes: The box was very wide and flat, which would make it impossible to carry while riding my bike. So, I ended up having to walk with the donut box in one hand and pushing the bike with the other hand, a distance of about a mile to the park.

If memory from the olden days serves me, a box of a dozen donuts used to be shaped more like a shoebox, making it much easier to carry. The donuts would be lined up sideways, which of course meant sometimes the toppings would get smeared.

I suppose the wide flat boxes were developed as an improvement to eliminate smeared toppings and allow prettier presentation of the donuts. But in making that improvement, the designers of donut-boxes created a box that (unless you happen to have super phenomenal balance and coordination) would be hard to carry any distance by hand or on a bicycle. Which probably didn’t seem like a big deal to the package design team, or didn’t even cross their minds, because the default assumption in the USA is that “people are getting around by car.”

(A longwinded tale about something that’s trivial on the surface but ended up creating food for thought.)

How about you: Are there any jars or bottles, or boxes or other containers, that you particularly love for their color, shape, or other qualities? And are there any containers you find extremely inconvenient?

Further Exploration:

• Fridgeless living: I’m not suggesting anyone needs to live without a fridge in order to be “green.” Refrigeration makes life a lot easier and in many cases safer. However, I like to push the envelope in my own life, as the findings are potentially useful for disaster-preparedness, freedom from sudden huge repair bills, and so on. Here is the page of search results from this blog, showing my posts that refer to my adventures in fridgeless living. My first such experiment was over a decade ago, when I lived without a fridge for a summer in Austin. My current experiment is my longest so far, about a year and a half and counting.

Starting a list of suggestions, in response to things I’ve seen in my community with nonprofits, citizen advisory boards, neighborhood association groups, grassroots organizations, and others.

• If no one wants to do it, maybe it doesn’t need to be done. Look into streamlining your processes and procedures. Eliminate unnecessary work.

• A whole separate category of unnecessary work is in-person meetings. Of all the real silver linings of the pandemic, the popularization of Zoom and other online platforms is high on the list. Keep using the vast array of freely available technology for meeting virtually (why would we stop, now that the gate has been opened!); save people including yourself time, money, and effort (while reducing carbon footprint).

• Maybe the work you’re asking volunteers to do is work that needs to be compensated in some way.

• Compensation can be money (or a gift card or similar), but think of compensation in wider terms as well. If someone has a stake in your organization or issue, they are in a sense getting paid to volunteer. Example: business bigwigs happy to serve on an advisory board related to downtown development. By serving on the board they are protecting and advancing their financial interests. Another example: If I volunteer to work a shift at the plant sale of our local native plant society, I’m getting “paid” because the work they are doing is supporting my occupation as a sustainability educator and permaculture-landscaping consultant. Also, it’s inherently delightful to be outdoors surrounded by beautiful plants.

• Which brings me to another point: If you’re having trouble attracting volunteers, add elements of fun and beauty to the work.

• Reach wider; don’t just keep tapping the “usual suspects” you know off the top of your head. “Board fatigue” is real.

• If you’re trying to get people to do work you’re not willing to do yourself, ask yourself why that is. Maybe this part of the work needs to be cut, streamlined, re-thought. For instance, if no one is willing to take detailed notes of a meeting, maybe you don’t need notes.

• As a rule, if you are starting an organization, don’t ask other people to do work you’re not willing to do yourself. It’s your organization; create it in the shape you want from the start. This is a version of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

• For nonprofits: If compliance with your nonprofit status requires more labor than you are able to find volunteers for, maybe you don’t need to be a nonprofit.

• If you yourself are getting paid (or seeking to get paid), but are looking to volunteers to support your organization, take a good long hard think about that.

• Citizens’ advisory boards: Don’t ask people to show up and give of their time if their ideas aren’t going to be listened to or taken seriously. These days it’s very easy for people to get their ideas out there via email, social media, etc., and a lot of government officials are making an effort to be more accessible. If you’re asking people to serve on an advisory board, they need some assurance that they will have a bigger impact by serving on this board than by simply communicating from the comfort of their own home, on their own time.

• But really my big tip is always, When in doubt, cut it out! Eliminate excess labor; convoluted processes; meetings about meetings; etc. Organizations that perennially have trouble attracting volunteers (which unfortunately is many volunteer-based organizations I know) are unsustainable. They suck resources and energy. If you’re having trouble attracting volunteers, stop fighting against the current, and instead look for the root cause of the difficulty.