Food for Thought...

This weekend we put up insulation on first floor windows. Hopefully that will help keep us warm for the winter without turning up the heat!



Bored over break? No school work to do? Want to make some recycled craft projects? Make Stuff has a bunch of ways to use recycled products. If you make something neat teach the rest of us how to make it next semester ( I know I would love to make some recycled paper...)!

Next semester we'll be looking for folks to take on some products...so, think about it, if you have some time help us out!

We need someone to take on 'tech projects' - think making a list serve, blog design, photography.

We would love someone to head media relations - contacting local businesses for donations & writing articles for local newspapers.

Want to hep us apply for non-profit status or esf-club status? Advice and helping hands would be appreciated.

Practice your grant writing skills! Successfully acquiring grants for the ecoHouse will look great on your resume!

Our garden is thriving: as we add beds we will begin to have an excess of veggies. We could supply student grown food to the school cafe's and maybe even to the local coop and soup kitchens, but we will need a market manager to do that!

If you have something else you'd like to make happen at the ecohouse spring is the time to make it happen....Think about it! Though we can't offer you any money, its a great way to meet people in the community and local businesses. Any project would look nice on a resume too...

Best of luck to all with finals.
Enjoy winter break,
Elizabeth

Second Garden Journey's Segment

I think the clips turned out fantastic! Check out the second half of Garden Journey's featuring the Ecohouse cold frame:

Garden Journey's: Cold Weather Gardens

Good luck with the end of the semester everyone,

Elizabeth

Garden Journeys!

Thanks To Terry Ettinger from the ESF Greenhouses for featuring our fabulous cold frame on his News 10 program, Garden Journeys! Its a two part segment, so if you have television you can watch it on tv when it airs on Wednesdays and Sundays!

Garden Journeys: Outdoor Growing in Late Fall

Also, Brad and I would like to build at least one more raised bed structure before we leave for winter break. We'll send out an e-mail with when so you should come!

The EcoHouse made a trip to Cornell's Dilmun Hill Student Farm Season Wrap Up presentations the weekend before break and left with much inspiration. The program is extremely well managed and maintained and students are behind all the growing, research, and design going on which is awesome. Hopefully we will get to visit again during growing season :-) Also, if you haven't, you should take a trip down to Ithaca's farmers market. The beautiful venue on Cayuga lake is worth stopping by even if the market is closed.

Hope everyone had a pleasant break,
Elizabeth

Eco-House Plan

Meeting Recap

Hey Everyone,

Here are a few things we discussed at Sunday's meeting for those of you who couldn't make it:

Our Information Meeting will be held on Thursday, November 5th from 5-6 pm in Room 110 of Moon Library. We will be discussing our organization's purpose, achievements, visions, activities, and different ways to be involved.

We plan to continue clean-up and construction days in order to ready the lawn and gardens for next Spring. The dates will be announced later.

Our pending mission statement:
The EcoHouse is a community of individuals committed to a sustainable lifestyle. 821 Comstock is the focal point where the common goal is to reduce impact on the environment. This location is not only a residence but a demonstration area and a community resource.

-Brad

Getting ready for winter

Thanks to Ryan and Brad for building our cold frame this weekend! We used 1x12x8 pine boards to make the frame and laid some re-purposed windows and fiberglass atop the frames to keep the winter veggies warm. Right now we have three lettuces (red romain, green romain, and black seeded simpson), radish, and spinach (space). Our cold frame will make the garden bed at least a zone or two warmer than the actual temperatures and we should be able to grow cold tolerant veggies, like the leafy salad greens, throughout the winter here. This article by Eliot Coleman is chock full of cold frame info if you'd like to read more.



Also, some bulbs were planted this weekend. Big thanks to the Wescott Bulb Project for many Narcissus which hopefully will bloom by our stairs in the spring! Last weekend Jenny came by and brought us a bounty of plants that she split from her family's collection. These guys are overwintering in one of the garden beds right now before moving to their permanent homes next spring (unless we decided to like some of them where they are).

Last, but not least, a reminder that we have a meeting planned for sunday at 4:00 pm to discuss holding an information session on campus. If you happen to have any returnables you want to bring by the house when you come that would be swell. Hoping to see you all Sunday!

Live well & be well,
Elizabeth

Work & Alchemical Nursery

Fall is in full swing and the landscape club along with the ecohousers are working hard to get the yard ready for winter! If you are free this Sunday at 2:00 pm please come by the house to lend a hand. If you have a shovel, rake, trowel or handy garden tool you might want to bring that by. I think there are weeds to pull and plants and bulbs to plant!

Also, last weekend at the Wescott Center's Bulb Festival I happened to run into some pretty cool folks from an organization called Alchemical Nursery. They're based here in Syracuse and are strong advocates of permaculture, natural building technology and urban homesteading. They have a great website with lots of information and links to check out at http://www.alchemicalnursery.org/. Rumor has it that they are also starting an ecohouse on the westside and I, personally, am very interested in seeing what they do!

Hope your weekends are going well and that I will be seeing at least some of you tomorrow!

Be well & live well,

Elizabeth

Pictures!

Clean-Up Day, Sunday Oct. 4th 2-5pm

Hey Everyone,

This Sunday, we will be running a joint clean-up with the Landscaping Club to remove non-native and invasive plant species from the property. Clean-up will start at 2pm, food will be provided, but feel free to bring something to share.

Yard Planning Before Winter!

Hey Everyone!

We have been meeting with the Landscaping Club to make plans for the lawn. We will be having a joint clean-up day as well as a general work day. The clean-up day will consist of working through all parts of the lawn to gather leaf litter, remove non-native or unwanted plants, and to make the lawn look nicer in general. The work day will most likely consist of constructing more raised garden beds as well as solid compost bins.

We've planted seeds in our first raised garden bed for a fall garden. The first seedlings are just beginning to show!

Brad

Here are a few pictures from a Landscaping Club visit:

BOTTLE DRIVE! Monday Sept. 28th

http://rulesofawesomeness.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/recycle_cans_bottles_huge.jpg

The Syracuse EcoHouse will be running a bottle drive on September 28th. Members will be walking door to door between noon and 4 pm asking for refundable bottle donations.

The money raised will be used towards gardening supplies, landscaping, food preservation supplies, etc.

Feel free to drop off your refundables at 821 Comstock Ave. on the 28th if your household didn't receive a flyer.

Thanks!

A penny for your thoughts....

Lots of exciting things are happening this week!

Wednesday evening at 5:00 pm the landscape architecture group will be meeting us to start planning a new layout for our yard. If you'd like to come to the meeting with ideas, please do. If you can't come to the meeting but have ideas, please post them here!

I've recently found out that our group/organization/club doesn't have a mission statement. But we need one!!! Don't be shy, even if its just a sentence or a couple of words that sum up what you think we should be about...

I do believe we are looking to put on our fundraiser this weekend by collecting recycables and cashing them in. I'm hoping Hannah will perhaps post a little more about what she's got going on with that and what we need to do and when?

Looking forward to seeing you guys Weds, and hearing ideas before then!

Live well & be well,

Elizabeth

Having A Purpose

I think it is important for things we create to have a purpose, a goal, and a meaning. I think it is equally important for everyone involved with said creations to be aware of the purpose. And so, I think it is fitting to begin our blog by giving it a purpose. What will it do for us? What will it do for followers? Why are we maintaining it?

I have some big expectations for our blog. I see it as a meeting ground for discussion, a way to get folks involved, and place people can come to for information.

Our blog can be somewhere where new ideas and interesting thoughts can be shared with everyone. It is interactive - people can respond to suggested ideas and responses can be responded to. Conversations can be started. These ideas can be related to what we're doing at the house or just something you think is worth sharing with the community. They can be something you thought up, or an article or book you recently read. These ideas make great posts and, often times, great discussions.

Our blog should be something people can be involved in. Be it by responding to posts, finding out where we are meeting this week, what our next project is, or who we are going to have speaking next. This will be useful not only in keeping active members up to date, but also peripheral members and people who may be interested but aren't ready to jump in yet. It is also a good place to advertise events and/or sponsors with pictures, logos, etc. It should be viewed as a community builder!

And, lastly, I think its potential as a way for people to get information should be capitalized upon. These posts should answer the question of "How do I become a more sustainable student?" Someone who wants to know how to start a garden bed in their yard should think of coming here to find their answer. Everybody loves to do it yourself projects. Even if we haven't taken on a project here yet, if you know how to do it, share that information! This can be a great resource for students (or anyone) who is interested in making sustainable living a reality.

And now, with purpose, we can start posting to our blog!

Live well & be well,

Elizabeth