Big Bus

It's been a busy summer for us, but things are calming down a bit now that fall is here. Don't think we're twiddling our thumbs, though, there's always something happening. Like the biggest house tour we ever had.

Thunder Bay's Rural 55+ Travel Club picked us for their fall outing and arrived here last Thursday with the biggest possible size bus this side of Detroit and 51 friendly folks inside of it (plus one very good driver). It was the biggest house tour we've had yet - and one of the most enjoyable ones, too, as these folks proved to be fun, interested and easy going.

For a casual passer-by it must have sounded like a wild party was going on inside, with one guest playing her favourite rag time tunes on our piano, mixed with happy conversation and laughter erupting frequently.

As we waved the group good-bye 2 hours later and watched the big bus just making it out of our driveway, it felt like we made new friends that afternoon. Yes, that was a good day.

Winds of Change

We get hundreds of visitors through the Eco Centre for house tours, and we always enjoy having them; some even become friends. We're in our third summer now, long enough to notice some shifts in the questions that get asked. Some questions will always be the same, but other questions emerge or disappear depending on what's in the news or is talked about.

This summer I noticed a new recurring question: "How come your wind turbine is so small?" At first it surprised me (after all, the tower is a solid 106 feet/33 metres tall), but then I realized these visitors were expecting a wind turbine big enough to power an entire village; you know, the type you see on the news and in glossy magazines. Those 250 feet tall monoliths dotting entire mountain ranges, their massive white wings gently wooshing along.

Small...?

So understandably, when see see our "little" turbine with its measly 6-feet wing span, well, some visitors may not be too impressed. Of course they understand when I explain that this turbine is only designed to help power 1 super-energy-efficient house, not an entire village or subdivision of power hogging homes.

But it made me realize how even over these past 3 years some conceptions have begun to change. When our Eco Centre just opened and our wind turbine went up, it made the regional media. It was something new, an inkling of green things to come. Since then, wind farms have gone up all over this part of the province, some highly successful, some hotly debated. And all of them much in the public eye.

That wasn't the case only 3 years back. And it makes me happy. Sure, there may be some misunderstandings about wind energy's different applications, but  I'm sure that'll change, too. Point is, things are a-changing.
Wind energy has become a household word; most of us now know what a wind turbine does and why. Most of us now "get it". And that's a good thing. Let's hope things keep changing in this direction, and who knows where we'll be 3 years from now!

Green Fiction and Good Food

A few weeks ago we were pleasantly surprised by a request for a book presentation here at the Eco Centre. Turns out that Kathy Ashby who just published her first novel "Carol, A Woman's Way", was visiting Thunder Bay and in the process of planning a book tour in the area where she grew up. That, together with her book's strong environmental slant, made our location a natural fit.

We felt this was a great opportunity to invite a select number of friends for a "literary potluck" with Kathy as our guest of honour. And that's how this past Saturday afternoon, about 15 people were introduced to Kathy's fictional heroine Carol, and her "one-woman's battle for all she holds dear - her husband, her son, her land and her inner peace" (quoted from the back cover).

The lively discussion that followed proved Kathy had piqued her audience's interest, and it was good to see a number of (autographed) books leave with new owners that evening.

"Carol, A Woman's Way" is published by Dream Catcher Publishing; Kathy can be reached at ashbykathy @ gmail.com (first remove the spaces in the email address - spam protection), or follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/awomansway.

As for us, we thoroughly enjoyed this format of friendship, food, fun and fabulous fiction and are open for similar intiatives, so stay tuned!

Sister Cities

Friday was a busy day for us - and for the Duluth/Thunder Bay Sister Cities delegation. It was Thunder Bay's turn to receive the Duluth Sister City folks who were touring a slew of "green" intitiatives in and around town for their very full 3-day stay.

We were pleasantly surprised and honoured to receive a phone call from Sarah Kerton, Thunder Bay's Community Environmental Action Plan Coordinator, to be included in this tour. Sarah was in charge of the program and responsible for making it all happen - not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.

The delegation's stop at the Eco Centre was scheduled at the end of a busy day that included visiting the harbour front development, Eco-Superior, the Water Filtration Plant - and the frozen solid Kakabeka Falls en route to the Eco Centre, of course.

We weren't sure what to expect, but what ever it was we expected, it wasn't this cheerful, almost giddy bunch of wonderful, warm and interested people. It was a treat to show them around, answer their many questions and see their enthusiasm grow by the minute.

Of course it helped there was some excellent food to be enjoyed (thanks to Jacomyn's excellent French carrot soup and some superb catering by the Metropolitan Moose). And the fact that they had brought their own wine & beer didn't hurt, either.
 
So here's to cross-border collaborations and inspirations, may we learn from each other on many more enjoyable visits!

Want More?

Well, the first trial series of Confederation College's Green Adult Education classes is behind us, and with a total of approx. 65 students attending we're very happy to report it was a success. Two of the 4 classes sold out, even.
We're also very happy to see the student evaluations ranging from positive to absolutely delighted with many asking for more; could we be on to something here?

"Please Sir, may I have some more?" (from the movie "Oliver Twist")

It looks like we'll be back for the spring session, and if that's even remotely successful as this winter series we may well become the "green fixture" on the Adult Education program.

This winter the classes were limited to "Living Off The Grid" and "Introduction To Solar Power". Our question to you: are there any other green topics you'd like to see us cover? Wind power? Energy Conservation? The Meaning Of Life? Other ideas, suggestions? Let us know, drop us an email, post a reply!

Looking forward to hearing (reading) from you - mabe see you this coming spring!

A Techno-Sceptic Converted (somewhat...)

I'm a techno-sceptic. It's not that I'm afraid of technology (in fact I often have to suppress these urges to buy the next must-have hi-tech toy), I just don't believe that technology is the silver bullet that'll deliver us from the environmental mess we've gotten ourselves into. Worse, I suspect it's partly thanks to technology we're finding ourselves in this current pickle, with not many graceful exits remaining. Even silver bullets kill...

Having said that, I was pleasantly suprised when I stepped into the room I was scheduled to teach our first "Living Off The Grid" evening class at Confederation College. Turns out we had a student (Tom) from Sioux Lookout, a town at about 375km away from the college. A long drive for a 3-hour class...

Buttons, screens, microphones, computers, keyboards - even students!

The solution: the only distance Tom had to travel was to Confederation College's local campus, find the room that was set up for videoconferencing and position himself in front of the screen & camera. He could see & hear us perfectly, we could perfectly see & hear him. And because his image was projected on a big screen it almost felt like he was physically present in the room with the 14 other students.

I like to use a lot of visuals for my classes (hello PowerPoint), and technology helped out again; want Tom to see what the class sees? Just press this button to go from camera (the class) to computer (the visuals), and press again if you want to go back. It worked like a charm and I loved it.

Very cool, very effective and environmentally helpful. Want to experience it for yourself? You still can! There's 3 more classes left (February 6, 17 and 20); just make sure you're somewhere far away from Thunder Bay and sign up. See ya on the big screen!

"Befriending the Earth"

Maybe I'm on an art streak after last week's installment (the hand-made necklace out of re-used materials), but I thought I'd share one of our favourite pieces of artwork on our wall. It was made by Marg Janick-Grayston, a United Church minister who works at Calling Lakes, an educational centre in Saskatachewan - but also a gifted textile artist.

"Befriending the Earth" (click to enlarge)

I had the privilege to participate in a 2-year course that Marg taught; she also spent some time with us here at the Eco Centre. That's how we became friends.

One time she brought this wonderful wall hanging she made just for us. It's based on a photograph (taken by her daughter) of a big soap bubble floating in the air, reflecting a peculiar view of the landscape all around it: our environment encapsulated in a fragile bubble. Marg called it "Befriending the Earth".

We love and cherish these very special gifts, they make our lives so rich. Our place has several other personal hand-made mementos, I may bring them up later this year.

The Eco Centre’s Coming To Town!

Maybe your life’s just too busy to make it to Nolalu to visit us. Maybe you’re afraid you won’t be able to find us (if your sense of direction is anywhere like mine). Or maybe you just hate winter driving. Whatever the reason, we’ve had numerous requests to “do something in town”.

So when Thunder Bay’s Confederation College approached us to do a series of courses for their Continued Education Program we were just tickled pink. Finally, the Nolalu Eco Centre will be coming to town this winter!

We’ll be offering 2 different courses: “Living Off the Grid” (on Wednesday Jan. 27 and Saturday Feb. 6) and “Introduction to Solar Power” (Wednesday Feb. 17 and Saturday Feb. 20).

Both are brief introductory courses that will give you a very practical bird’s eye view of what’s involved in a seriously greener life style, the challenges and rewards.
It’s practical, hands-on information from folks who live what they preach. And with a fee of only $36.00 it’s hard to go wrong.

If you live in Northwestern Ontario, check your free winter issue of The Key, and go to the brand-new “Living Green” section on page 71 for more information. The same information can be found online here.

It won’t replace the experience of visiting the Nolalu Eco Centre of course, but hey, at least you won’t get caught in a snow storm!

Green Wave or Green-washing...?

Halloween had hardly left the building or Santa lept on the stage. Judging by his zeal I'm sure he could hardly wait. Already we're surrounded by Christmas songs, Christmas decorations and Christmas advertising. After all, Christmas (the most important time of year for most retailers) is all about buying and selling and excessive consumption, isn't it? And with everyone jumping on the Eco bandwagon, expect to see a lot more "green gifts" and "eco presents".

A good example is this "Eco Dollhouse With Furniture" by Playwell, proud member of the Canadian Toy Association. Their ad claims "This eco-efficient dollhouse is made from chemical-free rubberwood and features replicas of alternative energy sources (including a windmill, solar panels & electric inverter), recycling bins & an adjustable blind to control sunlight & air circulation. It also includes 5 rooms of furniture made from organic cotton" (suggested retail: $269.95).

Why, it's a mini Eco Centre without solar hot water collectors (although they beat us on the organic cotton thing)...!

Only... I'm not so sure what to think of it. Okay, I guess it's better to have this house concept available as it represents a saner life style than the standard consumerism one, but still... I can't shake this feeling something's wrong with it. Maybe it's the whole political correctness-thing of it (forget the kids; their eco-conscious parents can't wait to show it off to their similar-minded friends). Or maybe the nagging feeling that it's very likely "made in China" - the other side of the world, burning oodles of fossil fuel to reach our toy stores' shelves, like 95% of our toys.

Christmas for me is not about $270-dollhouses, no matter how "eco" they may be. Christmas should be less about consuming and more about sharing & restoring. My verdict for now is this is an example of "green-washing", giving consumers the feeling they're helping the environment while conveniently not requiring to change their life style.

Oh, and just for the record: don't ever think of mounting your windmill onto your house - a recipe for disaster.

Morning Snow

Just a picture of two young bucks (that's male deer, for those who don't live up here) in our snow-dusted field this morning. The nights are getting colder, the days shorter, we've gone back from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time (Daylight Wasting Time...?), all sure signs that the cold season is closing in.

Pretty soon our fields will be permanently covered with snow, and wildlife (including ourselves) struggling through what promises to be another long cold winter. The wood stove is on most of the days now, just a small fire as our thick straw bale walls keep the house nice and warm.

The Nolalu Eco Centre will be going into hibernation mode, too. Workshops and the Eco Hero contest are done, house tours and presentations are slowing down for the winter, only the occasional B&B guest drops in. New plans and initiatives are in the works, though, there's always plenty to do.
And I just realized our snowshoes haven't even been touched up yet from last year's intensive use...!

Cutting It Pretty Close...

Our Eco Centre has thick straw bale walls that are plastered. Plastering is a tough job, especially if one section is out of reach of any conventional rental scaffolding, as was the case with our East gable. Perfectly tucked away out of anyone’s reach, this section been sitting there waiting to be plastered ever since we finished construction 3 years ago…

Of course this meant that whenever we had a serious rain or snow storm coming from the East, that wall would slowly erode and seep water in. Also the sun’s damaging ultra violet rays were beginning to leave their marks (thank you, hole in the ozone layer).

So this year we really had to get around to plastering that section from hell. Winter is lurking behind the fall-red maple bushes, and once it’s snowing you can forget about any plastering for the next 6 months. If only we knew how to get up there…

And just when we started to get slightly desperate: presto, our farmer neighbour Mo turns out to be a serious scaffolder with just the right equipment for this kind of job. Mo arrived with his truck full of bits and pieces, and 3 hours later we could get up there - finally!

Presto again, and our friend and neighbour Dan Bigelow offers to help us out with a paddle mixer and lots of plaster pointers. Heck, he even offers to do the plastering himself! Dan happens to be a concrete & plaster specialist, so what he says goes (plaster-wise that is).

Plastering away with Dan up top, Hubert as his Vanna White

And after 3 years of head scratching and finding excuses, the East gable finally got finished yesterday! Just in time, it appears, as this morning we woke up to this fall’s first snowstorm. Winter has moved in, the plastering season is officially over…

24 hours later: 3cm of snow and -6C...

A big shout out to Mo and Dan for helping us out just in time!

The Sweet Smell of... Hay?

For about a week the Nolalu Eco Centre could have passed for a working farm: around us cutters, balers and tractors were very busy clearing our fields of hay. With the poor summer we’d been having, many farmers didn’t have enough warm & sunny days to get their hay in on time.

Moe Thiboutot from Mile Hills Farms was one of them, until he saw our fields. And with the beautiful fall weather we’re experiencing, he didn’t wait long to get his equipment over and get hayin'. Pretty soon the air was filled with the intoxicating smell (and dust) of freshly harvested hay.

Our fields now look like they must have when this property was still a mixed farm. The original settlers who arrived here over a century ago cleared the dense forest of trees, an incredible job considering they only had a horse (two, if they were lucky), their own two hands and some very basic equipment.

It was sad to see the fields slowly growing back in, so we were more than happy to help Moe out. His cattle will have enough to eat this winter; and as things go around here, Moe will barter us something in return.

Announcing the 2009 Eco Heroes!

North Ontario’s first Eco Hero Contest has successfully wrapped! We received lots of wonderful nominations for lots of encouraging initiatives happening all over the region. The jury consisting of Graham Saunders, Kirstin Muth and ourselves had a pretty tough time selecting the winners, but finally came up with these 3 names:

1) Jeannie Gaudette (Murillo),
2) Laura Ogden (Thunder Bay), and
3) Gary Peacock (Neebing).

Congratulations to all, and a big warm thank-you to our sponsors and CBC Radio (Gerald Graham, who graciously gave us the the air time to kick the contest off earlier this summer and the opportunity to announce the winners yesterday, drum roll and all).

The winners have been notified and will receive their prizes at an informal get-together here at the Eco Centre, early October.

Missed out on nominating someone (or had hoped to get nominated)? No worries; this first contest generated so much positive response and was so much fun to organize (okay, and hard work, too...) that we decided to do this annually!

Check our website and click the Eco Hero button to learn more about the winners as well as the thoughtful folks who nominated them.

I Love My Chain Saw!

I never was much into doing guy things. I don't care about cars (or trucks, if you live in NW Ontario), I like classical and folk music, don't fish or hunt, am not particularly fond of working the BBQ, don't -dare I say it?- follow sports, and even less guy-like: I have no problem talking about feelings.

But something happened about 3 weeks ago: our grumpy old chain saw officially became a serious safety hazard. The big bloody gash in my upper leg told me loud and clear: don't use this tool ever again if you hope to live to a ripe old age. Or live, period.

New chain saws are expensive, though, until friends of ours told us about their Echo saw they picked up at Roslyn's Hardware Store. I now am the proud owner of a brand new saw, and I love it (thank you, Wendy & Kevin!).
Now I'm looking for excuses to fire her up and cut down stuff. I dream of felling trees, making them drop with uncanny precision. No more ear drum-piercing whining, no more foul smells, no more guzzling of gas & oil, no more struggling to get 'er goin', no more parts falling off, no more fretting if we have enough firewood for this winter, and especially: no more worries about safety and reliability. Ahhh...! Yup, life is all about balance.

Disclaimer: no live trees are being harmed in the process, only dead, sick or blown over ones. And for bucking, we're using a solar-powered electric chain saw. Hey, we're an Eco Centre!