Good news is local news

Events of the past week have been a real eye opener for me. I must admit that all of this is taking a tremendous toll on my psyche, as I pour literally ever ounce of my soul, passion and creativity into finding solutions for this crisis -- not for the world, but for my little piece here instead. So far the steps we have taken:

Sustainablilty:
- Converted roof drainage to rainbarrel storage for watering crops
- Took out U pipe from one of the bathroom sinks and put a big bucket under it for grey water collection
- Tore up even more lawn and put in additional bales in front of the house
- Built another potato tower and planted it
- Planted even more crops at the co-op

Income Generation:
- Finished a completely virtual work environment for my company and all its employees
- Consolidated server functions so that non-essential equipment can be powered down (less energy and more time on-line during power outages)
- Learning other forms of engraving, steel for guns, improving general gunsmithing skills

Community:
- Started conversations with neighbors about a community food security alliance
- Began working with local churches (there are 4!) to convert large, grassy areas to food production (much more on this later!)
- Started "skills database" for the neighborhood (I found out a neighbor at the end of the block is an amateur blacksmith! And, there's a nurse, a masseuse, and a mechanic)
- Developing an approach that may work for other communities (look for a mission on this soon!)
- Convinced a few neighbors to replace hideous shrubs with easy-care heirloom veggies (I will write about heirloom/open-pollenated vs. hybrid soon!)

Each of these are small things, but they add up to a TON of positive change. The local city government has just successfully launched a public transportation system too! Yes, there's a lot of bad news, but there's just as much good -- you just have to make it yourself.

More soon...