Head Start Visit

On Wednesday, Happy Dancing Turtle hosted 17 youth from the Brainerd area Head Start. They were treated to a tour of our organic garden and were able to get up real close to the free-range chickens.

They were treated to several rounds of "Yum or Yuck", where they get to choose whether a food is good (yum) or bad (yuck) for their bodies.

The youth were shown the kitchen area, where Ellen was preparing the campus lunch, a tasty organic pizza with fresh vegetables from the campus hoop house.

Free Renewable Energy & Efficiency Training at CLC

Central Lakes College, working with Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment, Inc., is offering free training in renewable energy and energy efficiency.For dislocated workers and current business employees, the two-part series starts April 18 in the Business and Industry Center on the Brainerd campus. Space is limited, and there are eligibility requirements. Contact Kori Busho at (218) 855-8139 or kbusho@clcmn.edu for information.
There is no cost for attending due to grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and Minnesota Department of Commerce through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Governor’s Workforce Development Council. Funds are also provided by a Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development grant implemented by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.

Desert in MN

The front of the Mani Shop holds a large atrium that helps heat the building. It holds the heat from the day and slowly releases that heat during the night. This heat cycle most closely resembles a desert ecosystem (minus the animals, of course). It can get up to 90 degrees during the day (even in the winter!) and maintains a dry humidity.

However, certain plants love this, namely cacti. We have several species that are simply thriving.

This one reminds some people of a spider.

Spring has Sprung

The following is a write-up from resident bird-watcher and aviary expert, John van der Linden:

The birds are FLOCKING -- and I don't mean our campus chickens! The first migrant wild birds of spring are starting to arrive on campus. Several people have been noticing the feisty robins flying around and making noise!
Last week American woodcocks were doing their aerial displays at dusk just southwest of Old Main, near the new hoophouse. Also the red-winged blackbirds can now be heard, singing in a large group nearby.

And, to top it all off -- a phoebe was calling this morning from the dead tree south of the gardens! (If you stand in the gardens and listen you might hear it -- "free-bee, free-bee, free-biscuits" -- this is lower and more nasally than the high whistled "fee-bee" we've been hearing from the chickadees recently.)

Phoebes like to nest under eaves (maybe they'll choose one of our campus sheds!) AND they are very beneficial -- they're a type of "flycatcher" that eats LOTS of bugs on the wing.

I think it's nice to know when the spring migrants are coming in, so we can have hope that warm temps and thawed ground are almost here!

Who is Your Farmer?

On Monday, March 28, Happy Dancing Turtle hosted a kickoff meeting for the Food and Water Security Advisor Corps. Local farmers, permaculture experts and local educators were in attendance. The goal of the advisor corps is to be a sounding board for Happy Dancing Turtle in their endeavors to promote education and best practices surrounding sustainability.

Talks swirled from previous HDT events and their outcomes to possible future ventures that HDT should focus their attention on. The majority of the discussions gravitated around the possibility of an online organic gardening symposium. HDT's goal is not to enrich only those in the local area and hosting an online event would bring the ideas of sustainability and permaculture to many more people.
The final goal of fostering these ideas across a much larger geographical area was decided on being an attainable goal.

The main outcome of the meeting was the decision to embrace technology to foster these goals. An idea engaged in was to create an iPhone app to instruct what food was growing when and where. Another idea was to find a way to use Facebook to encourage outside learning. One of the most popular interactive games on Facebook, Farmville, has over 50 million active users. If HDT could promote sustainable practices through this same method, many more people, it was figured, would be open to the ideas of organic gardening or starting their own square foot garden.

But, regardless of how these sustainable ideas get out there, the main goal decided upon during this kickoff meeting was that education and action are the primary goals.

Best Practices Chosen for Pine River

The GreenStep Task Force met on Thursday to discuss and evaluate progress from last brainstorming meeting.

With six of the best practices mandated from the MN Pollution Control Agency, Pine River had the ability to hand pick six more best practices that they feel would benefit the city best.

The task force chose the following:

1) Establish a farmer's market and a community garden (Already Completed)

2) Install private and public-sector renewable energy systems

3) Make traffic signals and street lights more energy efficient

4) Improve the surface water quality

5) Create efficient highway-oriented development

6) Promote alternatives to single-occupancy car travel

There was also discussions of finding the energy use of public buildings (ie heat, water use). This would give the city a place to start looking at not only environmentally changing their practices, but to perhaps also save money.

Encouraging the city to change their 90 plus street lights from a mercury vapor lightbulb to a more energy efficient bulb (ie sodium vapor or metal halide) was discussed. The current practice is to change out the bulb if it needs replacing. It was suggested a report should be formed to show the cost and eventual cost savings of replacing the bulbs en masse.
The next meeting will be on April 21, 2011 at 8am at the HUG campus.

Back to Basics Pictures

It's been a while, but here are some long-awaited pics from Back to Basics!





So much information from such knowledgeable speakers!


Another tasty lunch from Brenda and her fabulous staff!


Healthy snacks class.


A sampling of some of the amazing wares for sale.


Fun was had by all ages!



Thanks again to all who participated in this year's Back to Basics!
We hope to see you all next year!