blog

Many parts of the USA are in a massive cold snap, including heavy snow in places. Supposedly about 60% of the US population is under some sort of winter weather advisory or warning!

Here in my part of Florida we are having a cold snap that is unusual for us. Below-freezing temps have been forecast three nights in a row, with last night being the first night.

Yesterday afternoon I took the precaution of shutting off the watermain at the curb, and opening the taps inside the house as well as the outside tap. (We always have several days’ worth of drinking water stored in jugs inside the house. And of course the rainwater in the barrels.)

Rainbarrel prep: I took the lids off the rainbarrels, and also scooped out a few inches of water from each barrel to allow for expansion in case of a hard freeze so the expansion of the ice wouldn’t crack the barrels.

This morning I woke up toasty warm in bed. Went outside and indeed it’s very chilly out there but there’s not even a skim of ice on the public dog-water bowl I keep filled at the corner. No ice in the tubs on the south side of the house; I will go out and check the north side next.

North side all clear also.

(Later: Oops I spoke too soon, there is a skim of ice on the birdbath so obviously we had a freeze in at least some spots here last night. It’s on the west side of the house which is where the banana trees are. I watered all over the yard yesterday as best I could (by hand, from the rain tubs) so hopefully that’ll help protect some of the trees & plants. Tonight & tomorrow night are supposed to be colder than last night.)

Oftentimes here on beachside the temps are a few degrees warmer than the official reading. The weather station is over on the mainland by the airport.

Inside the house feels like the temp is in the high 50s or low 60s, very reasonable with layered clothing. In line with what I have written elsewhere on this topic, we keep the bedrooms and porch entry room closed off from the living room and kitchen, and that creates cozier pockets and minimizes drafts.

One housemate uses a space-heater in his room; one does not. For me, I think this is my 15th winter without using air-heat in my space. We are all comfortable.

I actually think the hot air coming out the back of the fridge may be helping to warm the living room. Other than that, the low-angled sunlight coming through the large window of this south-facing room is the main heat source for this room in winter.

(The fridge is in our living room because it’s one of those giant American fridges and won’t fit through the deeper interior doorways of our 1950 house. A neighbor gave it to us — either they were getting a new one or it was an extra they weren’t using. To even get the fridge inside our house, the fridge door had to be removed. I was on the verge of vetoing it — my usual house rule is nothing comes in here that I myself can’t carry in and out — but I really wanted it for my housemates’ benefit. Also, even though I had been living without a fridge for three years at that point (my longest “fridgeless living experiment” to date), I must admit I appreciate the convenience of refrigeration especially in summer.)

When those of us who consider ourselves environmentalists work to stop the development of an apartment building in an urban or suburban area, we are not being proper environmentalists; we are being NIMBYs.

Apartments are oftentimes a lot more eco-friendly than single-family homes. They share walls and other resources, and allow more people to live in a more compact area, leaving more space for trees and wildlife. And in many cases, apartment or condo residents don’t need to buy or store nearly as much “stuff” as people who live in stand-alone houses with their own yards.

Some ideas of what environmentalists could do instead of stopping an apartment building:

• Push the developer/builder to include rainwater gutters and cisterns, and use the rainwater on site for irrigation and maybe a natural swimming-pool.

• Push them to minimize manicured ornamental “landscaping” (and pledge to use no ‘cides or ferts on the landscape).

• Ask them to put in fruit trees and veggies instead of ornamental manicured landscaping.

• Ask them to leave as much of the landscape uncleared as possible. (I seem to be noticing more developers lately trying to maximize natural, uncleared area and even putting in nature trails.)

• Make sure the building is designed with ample roof overhangs, light-colored roofs, and other energy-smart passive features.

• Ask them to consider running a shuttle bus for residents, if the proposed complex is located in a suburban area with little or no public transport. I recently heard of one developer doing this as a way to cut down on traffic generated by their new large residential complex.

Any of the above could just as well be implemented for a nonresidential development too: a factory, a warehouse complex, big shopping center, or other industrial/commercial development.

What else can you think of? Let’s be real environmentalists, not NIMBYs.

Update: Saw a local headline, from a city not far from me, to the effect that parking issues and building style had caused a vote on a downtown apartment project to be postponed. This kind of thing irks me to no end.

One — I so hate to see a downtown apartment project get stalled for parking issues. This is an opportunity to reduce outdated parking requirements. The kind of residents who are drawn to live in such a complex will often be people who are choosing to live without a car.

Two — Re architecture style: There will always be people who love a building and people who hate it. Lush vegetation can help mitigate the visually jarring impact. Trees and native plants tend to mitigate/soften the visual impact of any building, making it look better and of course providing shade, stormwater absorption and other benefits.

Gathering testimonials by happy users of our services is helpful to new prospective clients. It’s also helpful to us personally! Sometimes I really need a shot in the arm and I stumble on a text or letter I’d forgotten about. I’m going to start putting these here.

“Dear Jenny, I wanted again to thank you for your wonderful presentation to our Garden Club, I was curious about ‘solving the problems of the world via your garden’ — well girl you knocked the topic out of the ball park!! Job well done … Warmest Regards”

Adding skills & certs is a great way to build your stacked income stream. Plus it’s fun!

This past month I started training to be a Certified End-of-Life Doula. We support patients and their families by providing information, emotional support, and nonmedical interventions.

And, I’m currently adding to my decluttering/organizing skills by taking a week-long webinar on Professional Organizing.

I’ll post links once I have completed my certs.

All of the above fit under my “green umbrella” of sustainability/permaculture educational services. (The other items under the umbrella include writing, teaching, speaking, consulting, art, and eco landscaping.)

Conceiving of an occupational stack is a great way to stay focused on one’s mission and be of maximum service. The mix of offerings in the stack can and does change over time.

Having an over-arching “umbrella” has made all the difference in my self-respect. I mean, I have always HAD the umbrella, but only in recent years began consciously articulating it to myself.

Not consciously having an umbrella made me vulnerable to snide comments and skepticism from naysayers who didn’t think I was doing anything serious or worthwhile because I seemed to be such a ragtag mix of occupations.

When I looked deeper I realized that my biggest naysayer and snide-commenter was myself. As passive-aggressively stealth-mean (or obvious-mean) as some people can be, I was even worse toward myself than they were. Good news: The better we address it in ourselves, the more we boost our immunity against other people’s demoralizing and debilitating attacks on our non-standard life-choices.

Having a stack makes us more resilient as in less economically vulnerable to ups and downs in our occupational sectors. (Also many of us not only like the occupational variety, but actually need it.)

Having an umbrella helps with self-respect and keeping everything organized.

What’s your occupational stack? And what’s your umbrella? (If you don’t have either or both yet, no worries! What are some work categories and umbrellas you might like to explore?)

One of my FREE colleagues, Eric, has an occupational stack that includes a photo booth and a costume rental business! Pretty cool combination huh!

Here’s the recording of the talk I gave yesterday at 1 Million Cups Daytona Beach. About how I, a bookish girl who grew up HATING yardwork, ended up starting a landscaping micro-business at age 55. It’s approximately a 20-minute talk followed by some really excellent questions from the 1MC community.

It was a great opportunity to plug community resilience, microbusiness ecosystems, the Beauty in Abundance book, and the FREE book.

I will be the speaker tomorrow, giving a 10-minute presentation followed by Q & A. You can attend in person or tune in via Facebook Live.

Looking forward to seeing you & answering any questions you might have. Note, “eco landscaping services” is NOT an actual business name (at least not mine), it’s just a descriptor of the type of landscaping services I offer. My business name for all my services including writing, art, speaking, teaching etc. is just my name. So you can easily find me!

How a bookish girly-girl who grew up HATING yardwork ended up starting a landscaping business at age 55!

“We have moved from Florida to New Mexico and want to start a permaculture design process. How would that look? What is the first thing we should do?”

(per Mollison) The first step! 1. *Close, protracted* OBSERVATION of the site. (Ref. Introduction to Permaculture, book by Bill Mollison with Reny Slay.)

And in the OBSERVATION, include the social landscape of your new place. Who are the nearby permie people and groups? mutual aid networks etc. And of course garden groups, forager groups, any nearby food forests, community meetups etc. Observe closely so you can tie into existing networks/energies and not reinvent the wheel. And also because your wonderful skills & energies, experiential capital, and social capital will surely be much needed & appreciated as new additions to the local ecosystems!

It’s great that you started going hiking around your new home right away. I bet you made many useful observations.

And, on your site right now immediately: start collecting water (condensation off the roof; condensation on rocks & metal tubs; of course and rainfall etc.) & putting it on the landscape. Collect greywater and put it outside on the land too; try not to let any water go down the drain.