5/29/2013

Today is our last day at the farm. We woke up and helped with the animals. We helped with the chickens today. We feed and cleaned the chickens. They have peeps, pullets and adult hens.  The chickens are all free range and run around the farm as they with.  Seeing the chickens on the farm had me relating how i raise my chickens and the differences and similarities that we have.  After morning chores we decided to do another culture activity since we were parting ways. We gathered dried mud from the river to make mud masks.  We proceeded to grate the mud and mix it with a bit of warm water, once we got the mixture to a thick mud we spread it on our faces. We left the mud masks on for 30 minutes and removed it. Next we applied fresh cut aloe on our faces and our skin felt AMAZING! this was a great way to end our adventure at the farm.

05/28/2013

Today we looked at plant families. We had class for a good part of the morning talking about what plants belong to what families and why.  I enjoyed this part of the class, it is good to know what plants are similar and should not be planted in large amounts.  We also talked about plant nutrition. Macro and micro nutrition. These are the nutrients which are found in plants.  We went over plant deficiency and what problems to look for and how we would go about fixing them. We can add more of one nutrient  to solve the problem. we also talked about the pH scale and where we need the soil to be for specific plants. Some plants prefer alkaline and some like tomatoes like acidic soil.  We learned what materials give the soil more acid and what gives more alkaline. sulfur and gypsum gives acidity to the soil and ash and lime gives alkaline.

5/27/2013

We woke up to rain today. For almost all of our visit to Ecuador the weather has been great. In the morning we had class and we talked about crop association. We walked through the garden and saw all of the associated plants. There is a viney plant for ground cover, this helps keep moisture in and weeds out. at the farm they used peanut plants as ground coverage and  okra was planted in-between. Later in the afternoon we decided to do a cultural activity due to all of the rain. We would be making Tagua pendants. Tagua is a also referred to as vegetable ivory. The material is a palm nut. it is quite hard and has an ivory look to it. The nuts are harvested from the cattle yard after they have been passes through the cows system.  The nuts can be sliced into thick slabs which vary from 2 to 4 inches. We sanded the outer shell off to reveal the white inner part. once sanded until smooth we drilled a hole for attachment and finally polished them. I enjoyed this activity, it was nice to see how a raw material can be changed into something that many of the locals sell to tourists.  I was also surprised to learn that the plan that produces tagua also produces the thatching for all of the roofs, and in WWI they made buttons out of tagua.

Funding Woe's

June 7th I attended a contractors meeting hosted by ORE. Reminder-- ORE (Office for Resource Efficiency) is a nonprofit, so funding can get complicated. ORE has had a about a year of funding from Energy Smart. Energy Smart launched their green initiative only a little while ago and they did this in a number of ways. One way was to fund nonprofits like ORE to encourage contractors to not only do home energy audits, but obviously, to promote energy smart appliances. This is a pretty great idea if I must say. The downside of this is that funding stops. ORE’s funding will end in August. Energy Smart is one of two main programs they support the other is Local Farms First. So what does that mean for ORE?  

ORE’s original mission was to build a community of sustainable building professionals, so support for green building workshops and referrals to homeowners for energy audits will prevail. Is there something to worry about without the Energy Smart logo?  I say yes. If you live in Gunnison County it’s very likely that you know someone with this green white Energy Smart hat. The logo and ORE’s representation with that logo is synonymous. That’s good marketing. You see one logo and remember two companies. ORE managers do not seem worried, but they know more of what’s going on than I. ORE is not the bosses of the contractors or vice versa. They are a network. They help each other. For example, right now, if you wanted a energy audit for your home through ORE-- ORE because of Energy Smarts grant pays $200 of that audit and the homeowner pays $100. Not bad. When Energy Smart money is gone, most likely that deal will be too. Let’s say you as a homeowner who has now finished the audit wants to make some home improvements based off of that findings within that audit ORE or your auditor connects you to a contractor who can do it. It’s really a good system because I believe that the people on this network are not trying to screw you. They have no incentive and if they do, and a complaint is filed with ORE the contractors out of the loop, thus the contractor looses money. So the future is unclear and that’s the way the cookie crumbles for nonprofits, but the trust is there for the “customer”, and that’s the business I intend on being in on; win for the environment, win for the customer, win for the intern.  

Love the Lower Loop (and the rest of CB trails)

This week with the Land Trust I took a four hour bike ride with the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Assoc, Adaptive Sports, BLM, and Land Trust. We started at the Woods Walk trail on Kebbler Pass. From there we biked the Upper Upper Loop, the Lower Loop, the Bud Trail, and the KD trail. We scouted places for trail maintenance for the upcoming volunteer day Love the Lower Loop this Saturday June 8th. I was exhausted. I'm not a great mountain biker and I don't have a great mountain bike, but I survived. The scenery was beautiful. I couldn't believe that I had lived here for two years and I hadn't been on these trails... oh ya, I'm not a great mountain biker.

 Our priorities were to make it safe for beginners on beginners trails we call these "greens". Some of the greens were "double blacks" in areas- not exactly a good thing for tourists. Another priority was to make the trails wider for more trail for adaptive sports people. And lastly, prevent erosion and allow for drainage. This was a very helpful field day for me, and I am looking forward to Saturday's back-breaking work. 

I encourage everyone to join. Like my uncle says, "if you ride trails you better help fix one."  

My name is Michele Parenti and I am an intern for the Crested Butte Land Trust. The Crested Butte Land Trust is a nonprofit accredited land trust. Their mission is to preserve Crested Butte Lands that fit one of four of their goals. The CB Land Trust believes that lands should be preserved for scenery, education and recreation, ecosystem benefits, and agricultural use. They do this in two ways, they either purchase the land and they call this an acquisition, or they encourage landowners to enroll in a conservation easement. The lands that are purchased are ideally the best route for the land trust because they can manage and maintain it. A conservation easement requires the landowner to have minimal to no further building on the property and the landowner is to maintain that land is a beneficial way. The landowner gets tax credits for having an easement and has to follow federal laws regarding the easement. The land must be monitored every year to maintain the easement- this is what I will do as an intern. I will visit both acquisition lands and conservation easements, write a report, take pictures, and report my findings to my superiors. The things I look for are in the previous years report, noxious weeds, habitat health, and overall land condition.

Week 1

My name is Michele Parenti and I am an intern for The Office for Resource Efficiency out of Gunnison, CO. The Office for Resource Efficiency (ORE) is a nonprofit organization whose main object is to empower Gunnison County to be more sustainable. ORE does this through energy programs, outreach and education, and Local Farms First an online farmers market. ORE has helped 10% of Gunnison County households, over 70 local businesses and over 30 local contractors to reduce energy usage through Energy Smart programs. Energy smart focuses on renewable energies and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Local Farms First serves over 50 local farmers with one contingency- the food must be fresh and chemical free. Local foods is one of Gunnison Valleys greatest challenges; Gunnison has an average of a 52 day growing season which makes it so challenging to produce food for an entire community especially year round. Local Farms First connects farmers from other mountain towns that have longer growing seasons, places such as Grand Junction, Salida, and Paonia.

My position as an intern is to help the communications director with public outreach. Thus far I have signed ORE up to 12 local events this summer to set up a booth to spread the word about ORE and increase their member size. Non-profits rely heavily on grants, gifts, and members. There are twelve board members for ORE, 4 managers, and a number of energy advisors who assist the homeowner with information, rebates, and financing programs. I think that OREs two main projects are essential for building a sustainable local culture. If I were to add anything to this organization it would to inform the public more about water conservation in the Gunnison Valley and maybe make a Water Smart program included in the house assessment with energy.