As promised in yesterday’s post, here is what I sent to Joni McGary who is organizing the Brownstone Supper Clubs in Bloomington Indiana. She had asked me if I would present on Green Acres Village (she and her husband then visited, and were predictably floored by our “tiny (three home) paradise” inside a Bloomington neighborhood).
Today, November 5, just took some pics.
Earlier today, a rescheduled work party mulched some of the gardens.
The garden still flourishes with cover crops, greens and root crops. Need to cut off, dig up, and eat or preserve everything else before first freeze!
A typical wintertime Community Dinner scene:
My presentation had been scheduled for February, but then suddenly she had an opening for the December 9 Supper Club and wondered if I could move mine up. I said, “sure, I can wing it,” since she had told me meanwhile that new rules meant that the slide show I had been preparing would not be allowed.
She emailed me a few days ago asking for resume and presentation notes, to put them on Events section of the Brownstone.org site. (Not there yet; I just looked.)
I had told her to edit as she wished. But she had no edits, just said it was fine.
Here’s the text of what I sent her:
Resume: Ann Kreilkamp, PhD (philosophy, Boston University, 1972), then 60, moved to Bloomington (from a 20 foot diameter yurt in Jackson Hole Wyoming) in 2003, when her husband Jeff Joel decided to attend law school at IU; just prior to the start of the second semester she reluctantly joined him. Then, after only one evening together, he died of a heart attack while asleep, leaving her alone in a strange town.
She had lived both east and west, but had never even visited the midwest, viewing Indiana as a “flyover state.”
She had a choice. Stay or leave. She chose to stay. Why? She didn’t know. All she knew was that he had left her with a house and an inheritance, and how was she to utilize it?
Green Acres Village is the result. Three homes with attendant gardens, compost area, greenhouse, chicken coop, patio, and workshop, this tiny paradise grew naturally, organically, via what permaculturists call “emergent design.” One decision after another, little by little, “do this, see what happens. Aha! Okay, now do this . . .!” On and on, each tiny step bringing slow transformational change to both our own individual souls and the human and earthly soil in which we are embedded.
Our goal: to bridge the divides between humans, and the land beneath our feet.
Our motto: Growing Community from the Ground Up.
Our vision: to serve as a template for the transformation of suburban America.
To this end, we garden together in once-weekly Work Parties with neighbors near and far, and offer the surplus to those who walk or drive by. We meet for Community Dinners twice monthly and invite friends, neighbors and relatives.
For over 15 years now, we have been gradually “growing community from the ground up.”
Tomorrow, the dilemma even thinking about this presentation conjures up . . .
And yes, meanwhile the Taurus neck still festers, though much less dominating. (See posts Monday and Tuesday). I’m likely to be dealing with this Saturn/progressed Moon situation for the next several months. It’s teaching me to stay present, stay grounded (Taurus)!
More on that tomorrow, too.
