Others Are What We Eat

During the year that I studied at Regent College, we were treated to a guest lecture by William Rees in one of my classes. Rees is a professor in the School of Regional and Community Planning at the University of British Columbia and is a world renowned expert in sustainability issues. Heard anything about your “ecological footprint” lately? He’s the guy who came up with the concept.

Speaking of Green Building…

Spring isn’t the only reason South Dakota’s getting greener these days. The folks at Koch Hazard Architects in Sioux Falls have just inaugurated a new blog about sustainable building and renovation. Green Digs Blog promises to keep up the “discussions about going green, be it new or old buildings (mostly considering our point of view) developments, processes, happenings, what’s going on in our part of the world or how we can all make our environment a little better.”

Stay tuned to Green Digs for great information including details about the first Plain Green conference on sustainability in our region coming this September to Sioux Falls. The official website should have more details soon.

The Difference a Day Makes

4/24/2008 2:57 PM

4/25/2008 3:15 PM

New Food Co-op Forming

I just found the website of the newly forming food co-op in Brookings. If memory serves me, Brookings had a co-op way back when my family first moved to town in 1979. I have vague memories of my mom stopping there. But hey, I was only five, so things might be a little skewed in my memory. Can anyone else verify?

From the new Brookings Food Co-op’s site:

This cooperatively owned grocery will open in Brookings, South Dakota with your support. The co-op will have a significant focus on organic, natural and locally grown and produced items. We are committed to offering co-op members and our community the opportunity to purchase products which promote a healthy lifestyle, as well as support local growers and support practices which do not deplete our environment.

Looks like the co-op isn’t open quite yet; in the meantime, they have an online survey to help determine demand and level of support. If you’re in the Brookings area, be sure to head over to their site and take the survey! They’re also on Facebook here.

Weekend Diversions

Sunday and next week promise better weather, but for now we have a few new inches of heavy, wet snow to contend with. I won’t be back in the garden until everything melts and dries up a bit (clear and 63 degrees by Tuesday!). If you’re in the same boat or just happen to use your weekend for Internet surfing, here are a few links to keep you busy.

A Rapid City Journal article on a local resident who has transformed her garden into a great plains oasis:
“Through observation, research and her network of gardening friends, she began her journey in removing typical plants found in flower beds across America and replacing them with the flora and plants native to the plains and Black Hills.”

Be It Ever So Humble

South Dakota Magazine reported on April 9 that one of my favorite authors, Linda Hasselstrom, is returning to her ranch outside of Hermosa, SD, after living for a number of years in Wyoming. I’m one of the people who’s thrilled to hear it. I’m even happier to hear that she has a new book coming out called No Place Like Home.

I read through several of Hasselstrom’s books about a dozen years ago, and her writing, along with Kathleen Norris’s Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, played a fundamental role in forming my sense of place, as well as helping me come to terms with being a South Dakotan. Not just in the “yeah, I grew up here” sense but in the very deep down South-Dakota’s-in-my-DNA-and-I-just-can’t-get-it-out sense. Both Hasselstrom and Norris wrote primarily about the western part of the state, but what they said about rural places and people rang just as true for me here in East River. They encouraged me to be unapologetic about being from South Dakota, to honor my place while being honest about it. To appreciate its beauty and be content with its limitations, which sometimes turn out to be blessings.

The Greenest Building Is One That Already Exists

Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, recently explained why restoring this historic building in downtown Madison, SD, is more sustainable than tearing it down and starting from scratch (and no, that’s not an April Fool’s joke!).

Spring Thaw

I didn’t intend to give up blogging for Lent, but I inadvertently took a blog sabbatical for the past month. It was probably a combination of spending time on a few community activities and end-of-winter fatigue (will it ever be warm and sunny again??) that left me unmotivated to post lately.

Winter has hit me especially hard over the past couple of years. I’ve read that Seasonal Affective Disorder often affects women in their thirties. I suspect it’s a little of that in addition to adjusting to parenthood that have made recent winters a bit tougher than usual. Last winter was my first being home with a new baby and having a husband busy teaching high school and coaching speech activities in a town 25 miles away. This year was better. Since Cory’s a grad student at our local university, his schedule has allowed him much more home time, and the baby is now two years old (although, as one columnist in this month’s The Lutheran notes, “Mothers of small children are always tired.” Boy, do I know it). Still, this winter has been long, cold, and dark, and I guess I’m just not resilient enough to stave off its effects for the entire season.

Habitat Benefit Concert Sunday

I’m one of the newest board members for Habitat for Humanity of East Central South Dakota, so you can expect to see notices about Habitat activities here from time to time. Our big goal for this year is to build two homes, one each in Lake and Moody counties.

Our next fundraising event will take place this Sunday, February 24 at 2:00 p.m. at the Madison United Methodist Church. We’re having a community concert with freewill donations all going to Habitat. Thrivent will provide some matching funds, but we have to raise $2,250 in donations to get the Thrivent funds. So, come listen to your neighbors rock out (or at least choral out) and lend some financial support to Habitat!

Project Sustainability

“Project Sustainability @ SDSU,” South Dakota State’s new student organization dedicated to sustainability and social responsibility, has a website on the way. Until then, their main web presence is a Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, click here to locate them.

For those not yet on Facebook, here’s what the group posted for their upcoming events (tonight and tomorrow!):

Film on Peak Oil and the Cuban Experience to be shown:
A free public screening of The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil will take place at 6 pm on Wednesday, Feb. 20 in Rotunda C on the campus of South Dakota State University. The event is co-sponsored by the Office of International Affairs and Project Sustainability @ SDSU.

Online Seminar:
Project Sustainability @ SDSU is excited to bring you an online seminar targeted to student organizations and how they can take action towards a more sustainable future.

The seminar entitled Student Leaders: Action for a More Sustainable Future will take place Thursday, February 21, 2008 from 12:00 – 12:30pm in NFA 453.

“This exciting presentation will highlight the first steps a student organization can take to create a sustainability program on their campus. Through examples of current sustainability programs from campuses and communities across the U.S., Dr. Rowe will define some key components and strategies for the formation of a successful sustainability program.”