Interview with Andy Holyoke, Straw Bale Builder

by Faith Morgan and Evan Schieber / Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions / January, 2014

Faith Morgan, Trustee of Community Solutions, and Antioch intern Evan Schieber interviewed Andy Holyoke, a local straw bale home builder earlier this year. We needed a little more information before posting the interview, so I biked a few blocks to the newest straw bale house being built in Yellow Springs to talk with the builders, Andy and his wife, Beth. Andy has been building straw bale homes since 1996. He has built nine straw bale structures to date--including homes, a commercial greenhouse, garage, retrofitted barn, and this current project. He builds with a crew, although homeowners often contribute labor, and the community will come together for bale stacking and plastering parties. Andy and Beth told me that walls can easily be retrofitted using straw bale because straw bales (standing on edge) fit into the standard 2 by 4 wall spacing of conventional homes. Andy and Beth don’t live in a straw bale home, but they have retrofitted some of their walls with straw. If one already owns a home, retrofitting is a good alternative to reconstruction. 

Interviewer: The focus of this interview is to understand what brought you to your environmental interests and what you’ve done with that interest - your lifestyle, your work. Where did your concern for the environment start.

  Andy: Well back when the first Earth Day happened, in 1976, I was thinking, “Oh, it’s about time everybody started paying attention,” because I was brought up in an environmentalist family. You might say in an environmentalist town, before we had that term, at least before I knew about it. My dad rode a bike you know: college professor, riding his bike to work. As long as I knew about it and probably before I was born, he was a biker, for transportation purposes. 

Another formative experience for me was heading off for college. I read an article that suggested, at least as far as cars go, if you take the amount of money you spend on your car, and the amount of money you spend to buy the car, keep the car up, buy the gasoline, you’ve got a dollar figure. And if you divide that by your hourly wage, you’ll get the number of hours the car cost you. And then if you add those hours to hours you actually spend in the car, and then divide it by the number of miles you go in the car, you get a true miles per hour. And they say, the article claimed that when you did all that math you’d end up at 5 miles per hour or something like it. And their suggestion was that you might as well skip the car and use an ox. 

So I took that to heart and have tried to avoid using the car; it’s not really helping you that much anyway when you count in everything. So for thriftiness purposes, I bike. And I always take into account how many people are in the car when I’m driving. Because of that article I say, well I’ve got four people in the car. I can go faster and reduce my gas mileage because with four of us we’re still getting a better people-miles per gallon then we would if it were just me. So, when I’m by myself I usually drive pretty slowly. 

Interviewer: I use that too. When we went down to Berea, I said to the two students with me: “We’re getting 150 people miles per gallon.”

  Andy: Right.

Interviewer: That’s very interesting; I grew up in town but I didn’t think about your family or your dad in that way. To some extent, in Yellow Springs, a lot of people were doing things like that.  

Andy: And it’s good exercise. One of the things that puzzles me is all the people who drive to some place to exercise. One of the things that bothers me is, you know, I like to mountain bike on the course out at John Bryan [Sate Park]. But there’s not a good way to bike to John Bryan unless you go through the Glen, which is not allowed. But there is a route through the Glen, which is a fire trail which they drive tractors on. So occasionally I ride through the Glen to go mountain biking in the park because I’m try to save the world! St. Rt. 343 is not a good way to bike there. Anyway, I should probably try to make that an accepted way to get to John Bryan. But I’m not sure I’ll be able to convince them that those of us on the mountain bikes will stay on that one path. 

Interviewer: So I don’t know what your age is, I know you’re a little bit younger than I am.

Andy: 61.

Interviewer: So as you’ve gone through your 61 years, how what has led you to what you’re doing in your life and how you’re supporting yourself? You build straw bale houses, but have you built houses with two-by-fours too? 

Andy: I’ve done lots of building with two-by-fours, including in the straw bale buildings, they have lots of two-by-fours in them. All building is a compromise, as you know. You have to choose between how much you want to spend and how good a product you’ll have versus how far it’s been shipped.

Interviewer: I think what you’re saying is, you try to take into account what the embodied energy in the building is and also so that of the products that are going into the building.

Andy: Yes, how much are you going to save by using something that’s been shipped from farther away? But certainly I was doing building before I heard about straw bale building, and I’ve given a lot of thought to materials and maintenance. One of the things that drives me crazy about buildings is that they always need work. With the perfect building, you wouldn’t have to mess with it unless you wanted to change the format, so to speak. When I first heard about straw bales I thought this is a really good idea: using a waste material, and the energy efficiency. So, yeah, I jumped right on that bandwagon. 

Interviewer: And were you doing anything special in the buildings you did before that? 

Andy: Nothing out of the ordinary. Just trying to make them well insulated. 

Interviewer: How long ago did you build your first straw bale house?

Andy: I built my mom and dad’s house in 1996. We finished it in the spring of ’97. 

Interviewer: Close to 20 years ago.

Andy: Well, it’s still just a young building. I think they should last 300 years. Straw will last forever if you keep it dry. They found straw in the pyramids. And straw bale houses have lasted more than 100 years out in Nebraska. So I’m confident that they’re a long-term solution. I’d like to see them more widespread. 

Interviewer: Tell us about some of the straw bale houses you’ve built, and what you’ve learned along the way. Maybe if you could run down also what a straw bale house is.

Andy: OK, well because I am building to building code, I have to please some other people. And for that reason, I have not tried building a load-bearing straw bale. So there’s two basic ways: there is load bearing, where the straw holds the roof up, and there is in-fill, in which you have a structure and the straw is filled in-between. I use the in-fill method because it’s a lot easier for the code officials to understand, and in many ways it makes a lot more sense here. That way you have a roof before you do the straw so that you’re not worried if you can protect it from rain, because rain is the big enemy. 

If you’re doing a load bearing, you have to get the bales up and the roof on without getting them wet. So basically I’m building a pole barn and then filling it in. I’ve been doing cement slab floors with radiant heat, which is one of those compromises, because cement is high embodied energy. But if I weren’t using a cement slab I’d have to have more digging done, then I’d use more wood for a flooring structure above the crawl space. I’m not sure which one would be less environmentally damaging. But that’s what I’m doing. 

This radiant cement slab is a good choice in terms of being a heat sink for solar gain, and it’s also good for being a heat sink for solar gain from solar collectors on the roof. Radiant heat is a good system for saving energy because you don’t have to keep the air in the house as warm as you would if you were using forced air. This means that, if you have lower air temperatures, you don’t lose as much heat when you lose air with the natural air exchange in the house.

Interviewer: I’ve noticed that in houses I’ve been in that have radiant floor heating, and their gas bills are lower than other people’s. 

Andy: If surfaces around you are warm, you feel warm, even if the air is cool. So in a warm room, if you stand next to a cold window you’ll feel colder even if the air is not colder. Because my straw bale buildings have radiant floors, they don’t have a ducting system, which means they don’t have central air conditioning. If they have any air conditioning at all, it’s a window air conditioner. One of our strategies is a common one: open the windows at night during the summer and close them during the day. Because the homes have a lot of thermal mass and they’re well insulated, it works fine, as long as the homeowner is willing to open the windows during the night and close them during the day. 

Interviewer: You’ve renovated the house you live in, which is not straw bale.

Andy: Yeah.

Interviewer: Have you done anything special in that renovation? 

Andy: Well this house is an old barn, so the walls are about six inches thick. We put in six inches of cellulose insulation, some blown in high density cellulose and some blown on wet cellulose. And then we’ve got about R-40 or so in the attic. We’ve got our wood stove, fairly centrally located. During the winter we shut off the unused bedrooms, and our bedroom is right above the wood stove. And life contracts in the winter, to the space heated by the wood stove. We don’t use this room as much in the winter and every morning when I get up in the dead of winter it’s down to 58 degrees and that’s when I go and start the wood stove up. My goal for when it gets cold, is to get through the winter with one match. So you try to bank the stove down for the night so that you’ve got a few coals for the morning, and you use those to start the next fire. So generally we go for weeks without starting a fire from scratch. 

I’ve thought about what I do to lower my carbon footprint. It seems to me that burning wood isn’t adding carbon to the environment any more than when wood rots, it’s the same process as burning, only slower. You’re releasing carbon, but it’s the same carbon that would be released anyway when the wood rots. So I claim that I’m not adding to my carbon footprint by burning wood; I’m just adding particulates to the air. 

Interviewer: One of my concerns with burning wood is that if a whole lot of people wanted to burn wood, we could start deforestation. I forget where I was reading about this, where they were doing just that, where people were burning just about everything they could get their hands on. 

Andy: Personally I think in the eastern United States, we’re getting more forest rather than less forest. 

While we’re on the subject of energy usage of the house, I wanted to say that I have a pet peeve about clothes dryers. I’ve got gas service here. I’ve got a gas furnace, I’ve got a gas stove. I do not have a gas dryer. We do have solar collectors on the room, providing most of the energy for our hot water usage. We have gas on the main water heater too. But we don’t use a lot of natural gas. I would like to convince more people that hang drying clothes is a valid alternative. You have to hang them up and then it takes a little while. You can’t just throw them in the dryer. But in the winter it adds moisture to the house, which I think is a healthy thing. You’re using the heat you’ve got anyway to dry them. It seems crazy to spend all that energy on clothes drying.

The Straw Bale Home

by Julia Navaro / Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions / August 28, 2014

            Straw bale home construction is a highly energy efficient construction method that has been around since the 1890s. It was not originally designed to be energy-efficient per se. Settlers in the Nebraska prairie had little access to timber for building homes and were not close to a railroad that could transport building materials to them. Straw, however, was plentiful; and with the development of the baling machine, settlers found they could use bales like bricks to build homes, churches, school houses, and grocery stores. They stacked the bales on top of each other and covered the structure with a sloped roof, a building style now called “load bearing” or “Nebraskan. ”The buildings provided a cool environment for the summers, and insulated the home in the winter. They also protected inhabitants from the harsh and loud winds on the prairie. Straw bale design dissipated in Nebraska around 1940 with World War II and the introduction of cement. However, the building style was rediscovered in the 1970s as environmentalists sought ways to build more energy-efficient and natural homes (Amazon Nails).

Today, the straw bale home has gained popularity worldwide and has been embraced as an energy-efficient building alternative to conventional homes. It is estimated that 1,000 new straw bale homes are built each year (Amazon Nails). Straw bale is an appealing building material for various reasons. It is a renewable resource with low embodied energy and straw is also a waste product from wheat, oats, or rice production that is frequently discarded due to excess production (Owens). It can be purchased cheaply—the overall cost of the wall unit could be 10–15% what it would be in a conventional home. Straw bale provides excellent insulation—with an R-value of 30–35 or higher—requiring minimal need for an air conditioner or heater (Owens). Furthermore, straw bales are surprisingly fire resistant, free from any toxic building substances, and form thick, aesthetically pleasing walls (Amazon Nails). In contrast, fiberglass insulation has high embodied energy and can be toxic, expensive, and is not biodegradable (Owens).

The original load-bearing or Nebraskan structure was the most popular method practiced initially, but several other building methods have developed with time and building experience.  Common straw bale building methods used today include the load-bearing and lightweight frame (post and beam), infill, and the hybrid method of these two. These new methods differ from load-bearing in that a frame and roof can be built before stacking the bale walls, which ensures that the bales stay dry throughout the building process and also provides greater support for windows and doors. However, the frame methods require more time, expertise, timber, and cost to build (Amazon Nails). Building with straw requires a foundation to keep the straw well off the ground and away from water. 

Posts and beams up

Adding the straw bales

 Along with the inherent insulation that comes with straw bales, such buildings can be made more energy efficient if designed in relationship to the local environment and climate. To achieve greatest heat gain in the winter, windows in the major living spaces such as the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms should be south-facing. Trees and shrubs can be planted to shelter the building from prevailing wind. In the summer, the home can be kept cool by adequate overhangs and by placing windows and vents in the shadier sides of the house (Keefe). 

Straw bales in

            Construction cost comparison between a straw bale or a conventional home are roughly equal. However, building costs could be substantially less if owners invest sweat equity in the construction process and volunteers help. Besides the basic wall structure of straw bales, the other construction and materials are nearly identical to conventional homes (Magwood).

The biggest disadvantage of straw bales is their susceptibility to water damage. Water damage can be avoided by incorporating appropriate building techniques. Damage from rainfall and splash back can be prevented by roof overhangs and gutters. Placing the bales on a wooden curb on the foundation prevents damage from floods and water spills. Plastic or tar paper can be fixed along the top of the straw walls to prevent water damage from roof leakage. Also, the walls should be coated with plaster and the ceiling and floor should be lined with a vapor barrier to prevent damage from condensation (Magwood). 

Applying the stucco exterior

Completing the stucco

Other potential challenges when building a straw bale home could include difficult access to straw bales and unfriendly building codes. If you live in a region where straw is neither produced nor baled, the financial and pollution cost of shipping them should be considered. Since the reappearance of straw bale construction is rather recent, it is not always incorporated into building codes and a building plan would need to be approved by local architects or engineers if not (Owens). 

Completed house, with solar panels

Literature Cited

Amazon Nails. "Information Guide to Straw Bale Building for Self-Builders and the Construction Industry. " 2001. (Feb. 18, 2008)
http://mauglee. kitox. com/files/strawbaleguide. pdf

Geiger, Owen. "Strawbale Questions and Answers. " Greenhomebuilding. com. (Feb. 18, 2008) )

http://www. greenhomebuilding. com/QandA/strawbaleQandA. htm

Keefe, Chris. "Straw Bale Design and Site Evaluation. " StrawBale. com. (Feb. 18, 2008)
http://www. strawbale. com/straw-bale-design-site-evaluation/

Magwood, Chris, Peter Mack, and Tina Therrien. "Expert Advice on Straw Bale Building. " The Mother Earth News Guide to Homes. Summer 2007 (Feb. 18, 2008)
http://www. motherearthnews. com/Green-Homes/2006-02-01/Expert-Advice-
on-Straw-Bale-Building. aspx

Owens, Ted. “The Pros and Cons of Building a Straw Bale Wall Construction in Green Building. ” Buildingwitha Awareness. com (Apr. 26, 2009)

http://www. buildingwithawareness. com/blog/2009/04/the-pros-and-cons-of-straw-bale-wall-construction-in-green-building/

Yellow Springs City Council Meeting June 2013

Yellow Springs City Council Meeting June 2013

By: Julia Navaro

I attended my first ever Yellow Springs City Council meeting yesterday with Pat and Faith. In the front of the room sat the City Council, including the four folks who vote to pass or fail proposed amendments to the code. The rest of the room was filled with anyone who wanted to attend the meeting, which happened to be about 30 villagers. They were a fiery community sample who would share their opinions and influence the decisions of the council and also help shape the way I understand democratic decision-making that affects a large population of people.  

Once the meeting started, the roll was called, announcements were shared, and the floor was open for questions and comments. I was immediately struck by how influential the attendees are to these meetings, and how beneficial it would be to have as many people from as many backgrounds and perspectives as possible. Everyone who attends is welcome to walk up to the microphone and share their opinion about the issues being discussed before a change to the code is voted on. This is particularly important in a town with interests like low-energy living and self-sufficiency, which challenge the common ways of approaching things like design and home construction. And because of this interest in Yellow Springs, insightful opinions were shared—opinions that very much challenged and inspired the way I look at city and residential policies.  

The issue that stuck out the most to me was addressed by a young couple who came forward and shared their desire to live in a unique and diverse village such as Yellow Springs and their plans to build a low-energy Passive Home. But they have had struggles with the current policy to live in the 250-square-foot temporary home they are in until the Passive Home is built.  

Technically, the way they were living was not permitted due to a code about accessory building and structures only allowed on the side of or behind the building. This code was put in place to prevent homeowners from building garages in the front of their homes and to minimize confusion about postal addresses for firemen, police officers, and mailmen.  

Several villagers stood up to defend the young couple’s cause, including Pat and Faith. One villager stated that they “commend these young people for what they’re doing…many young people can’t afford large housing and the ability to build small housing would bring young adults into the village.” Another villager, in relation to ‘sustainable’ building practices, commented that “the code dictates that the homes are facing the street and set up against the street, which is restrictive and short-sighted. Those who are interested in sustainability might want the front of their home to face where the sun rises, or put it in the back of the lot so they aren’t so close to the street sounds.” Many other villagers agreed with these comments and applauded in favor of seeing this young couple being able to live as sustainably as possible. The amendment passed on a conditional basis. It would have been nice to see it pass on a permitted basis, but it was clear that there is still too much governmental red tape to cut through before that’s possible.  

I was encouraged by my experience because I saw how abundantly the villagers and council members care about the policies and the peoples’ well-being. There will be more opportunities to attend city council meetings and hash out the right way to approach these complex situations. I look forward to attending more council meetings in the future and hopefully bringing in other students and faculty from Antioch to attend as well. It’s clear that Antioch’s voice is both needed and influential at these meetings, especially as we seek to strengthen our connection with the town. I see it as an ideal platform for Antioch to understand the main issues being addressed in the village, and also a way for Antioch to share its goals and stance in relation to these issues.   

The Completion of Co-op, Part II

Julia Navaro, Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions | June 28, 2013

Well, it’s my last day working here at Community Solutions before I start school again in a week. We all spent lunch together at the Wind’s downtown and exchanged cards and gifts good-bye. It’s hard for me to say good-bye to people and an organization that have truly shaped me and influenced how I see the world. Yet, I know it’s not really the end of my time with them. I will be visiting the office to catch up and say hello. Hopefully I will come back and put in more work into the garden and see it through to its completion. I will likely continue attending energy board meetings and Community Solutions film screenings. No, it is certainly not the end of my time with Community Solutions; I’ll be coming around often even if it is just to say hello, catch up about classes and their film projects, and putter around in the garden.

My final month has included several projects. The procedures manual has been in constant work. I have been searching for Film Festivals and applying to the ones we qualify for. These last two weeks I have been training the next Office Manager, John, who will cover my position until a full time office manager starts working. It’s surprising how much fun we’ve had learning and teaching the ins and outs of the position. He has learned oh-so-quickly and I feel quite confident that the office will be well taken care of while Jeanna and I are gone. He has also offered to give the Procedures Manual a test run and has used it to help complete some of his tasks. With this, we have found areas that need work. Although this was a disappointment, I’m glad we ran across the missing pieces before I left. This past week, we have also met with some folks from Antioch to discuss how Community Solutions and Antioch could work together. This is exciting to me because both are so dear to my heart and are doing such valuable things. There is an awful lot of potential in that relationship. Lastly, Faith and I have been working in the garden every few days this month and Faith has been sharing her usual gardening wisdom with me while we work. We have put up trellises for the tomatoes, mulched, pruned plants, and planted potatoes, amongst some other things.

This co-op has been challenging for me because of the office setting. Yet the challenge has served as a valuable learning opportunity. The difficulty is in my resistance to working in an office, and having to face my undeveloped ‘office’ skills. To be completely honest, I have had to battle that side of me most days at work. Sitting in an office for several hours makes me antsy. Organizational skills and attention to details are far from my natural strengths. Yet I definitely see the value in offices and office work, and a lot of incredible work comes out of this office--so if I could chose an office to work in, I’m glad I was able to work in this one. But I still have those sides of me that are uncomfortable around an office and the tasks it entails, so I had to learn to get past this and let myself grow. With time, growth happened. It was good for me to look at my weaknesses in the face every day and force those weaker areas to develop. With trial and error and counsel from everyone working in the office, I began developing new ways of approaching the things that I naturally struggle with. I grew a lot this past quarter. I have developed more organizational skills through the tasks and office organization I was assigned. I have also become more time conscious and time efficient, thanks to Pat’s good advice. And I have become more comfortable in an office environment in general. Those are only a few examples of the many things I learned this quarter. And I was able to grow more because I was lucky enough to work with caring individuals who were gracious and helpful despite my inherent difficulties in an office setting. That made a huge difference.

I know I am leaving Community Solutions in an exciting place. They are at the brink of finishing the Passive House film. The Electric Vehicle film is well under way. The garden is in full bloom. There is an excellent new Office Manager in my place for the time being. And a relationship with Antioch is in development. Not only that, but the bright minds at work at Community Solutions are always at work creating powerful ideas and plans. It has been a blessing to be a part of their work for the time I have been there and to contribute to what they offer. I am excited to see what the organization will do next, as I am sure it will be a hopeful and creative step toward a solution to the climate change and inequity problems at work in the world. I don’t know how to thank you, Community Solutions, for the amazing opportunities you have provided me and the invaluable counsel you have made available to me. I hope to somehow give back all you have given me in the way I live my life, and applying what I have learned to the direction I choose to take.

The Completion of Co-op

               Trinica Sampson, Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions | June 20, 2013

Sooner than I could have imagined, I have reached the end of my first co-op. It is difficult to put into words the amount of knowledge I have gained from working at Community Solutions for the past two and a half months. The experiences I have had here have made me a better worker, a better person, and a more informed citizen, and for that, I am incredibly grateful, to both CS and Antioch College. At most other universities, I most likely would not have had the opportunity to learn and grow as I have at Antioch and through my work at Community Solutions.

My time at Community Solutions might best be summed up with the word “collaboration.” Although everyone in the office had several individual projects they have been working on over the course of the past months, we have all been involved in each others’ work. Everyone has read Pat’s script and edited it several times, everyone has read through the Procedures manual that Julia has been spearheading, everyone comments on the proposals and letters Faith sends out, and Faith, Pat, and I have been in constant communication about my upcoming New Solutions report. This technique of constant communication and feedback was extremely helpful and reassuring, particularly while I was writing New Solutions #21, which involved a subject and style of writing very different from the creative writing I am familiar with. With the input and suggestions I am receiving from the other members of the office, I am confident that the final product will be the best it can be when it is ready for the public to read. This confidence in writing is something I lacked before beginning work at Community Solutions, and I am so glad that constant exposure to the writing and editing process in this office has given me the ability to give and receive critiques with far more ease than I was able to before.

In general, working at CS has made me a more confident person, not only in my writing, but in my day-to-day activities. On the student evaluation required as part of the co-op program at Antioch, Faith wrote that I took awhile to open up. This has been true of me for years, but it is my hope that my time with this organization has helped me in this regard. Making phone calls was an activity I used to dread, but after both answering and making phone calls for the past months, I have become accustomed to it. Interviews were another territory that normally would make me extremely nervous, but working with Faith and Pat has gotten me in touch with several members of the Yellow Springs community and made me much more comfortable meeting and speaking with new people.

I have been able to see a straw bale house, witness the creation of an urban demonstration garden, and attend a meeting of the Yellow Springs Energy Board, opening the door for more students and faculty of Antioch to attend and possibly join the board. The connections I have made through the network of people involved with Community Solutions have and will be invaluable as I continue my education at Antioch and in Yellow Springs.

My work at Community Solutions has also exposed me to information on climate change, peak oil, electric vehicles, CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions, and other energy-related topics that I likely would not have learned about if I had not worked here. This information is important for any citizen of Earth, and being more knowledgeable on these subjects has already been beneficial to me in terms of the choices I make on a daily basis.

My tasks at Community Solutions have included general office maintenance (taking phone calls and messages, sending orders to CS members, logging orders and donations in the database, maintaining an updated office calendar and reminding office members about upcoming tasks), editing/proofreading (Pat’s script, the Procedures manual, and various emails, blog posts, letters, and other documents), writing (blog posts, book reviews, film treatments, summaries of scripts and live streams, member newsletters, information for film screening flyers, and a New Solutions report), and creating a Power Point presentation for an upcoming documentary. I have also learned about the nuances that go into running a small, non-profit organization. Faith and Pat were wonderful at finding tasks that matched my interest in writing and editing, as well as tasks that challenged my comfort zone in creative ways. Although they often make quips about the lack of organization, in the past months, we have come so far in terms of organizing the office and implementing systems to keep it running smoothly and efficiently. For their parts, Pat and Faith were always available to answer questions or give feedback, but they also gave me the space and opportunity to work and set priorities at my own discretion. The freedom I have been given at Community Solutions has been wonderful and allowed me to really come into my own, both as an employee and as a person.

I have had a wonderful and valuable experience at Community Solutions, and although I wish I did not have to leave so soon, I know that I will return to my studies at Antioch as a new person, with new knowledge under my belt. I am also excited to play a part in strengthening the relationship between Antioch College and Community Solutions. I have a feeling that my time at CS will often be reflected upon as I continue my education and begin new co-op jobs in the future.

Month 2 Wrap-Up!

          Julia Navaro, Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions | June 5, 2013

Another month at Community Solutions has passed already! This month has been filled with various events and happenings. Faith is finishing up the Passive House film, Trinica has been interviewing folks for the next ‘New Solutions Report’ issue, Pat has been working diligently on his film about electric vehicles, Faith and I have made much progress in the garden, and all of us have been contributing to the work that needs to be done in the office since Jeanna went on maternity leave. Time seems to go by so quickly here. It feels like yesterday I was digging out old garden fence posts with Jenny and John and talking to Jeanna about what she’s going to name her baby. Now there’s a precious little Zander Pacheco Breza in the world and a whole new set of fence posts in the ground! Oh, how things change beautifully.

Community Solutions continues to provide an ideal place for one such as me to work. I am able to have the opportunity to meet others who are passionate about the health of the environment and humanity; and to learn how they are creatively responding to climate change and an energy crisis in the ways they live their lives. I was able to join Trinica in an interview with a Yellow Springs local and Professor at University of Dayton, Bob Brecha, at his straw bale house. We learned about his philosophy and beliefs that inspire his low energy lifestyle. Through various articles I review for our Facebook and Twitter, sent to me, I also learn how communities across the country seek to remedy environmental and social injustice through the way they live together. And as always, I get to learn how Pat and Faith spread the word about viable solutions to climate change such as the Passive House.

Some of the highlights of this month for me include a meeting about the electric vehicle film Pat and I had with the managers at a local Toyota dealership, harvesting some of the first vegetables and herbs from the garden, and reading several interesting articles about energy and climate change (including this gem by Kurt Cobb at resilience.org). In the meantime, much of my time has gone into the office tasks Jeanna prepared us for before she had her baby—responding to emails and inquiries, getting orders and donations processed with Trinica, sending out updates, and managing our database.

I will close out this monthly update with news about the garden. I have an avid interest in gardening and it has been invaluable for me to garden with Faith, an expert gardener, who offers me gardening wisdom whenever she gets a chance. This past month, our main gardening project was putting up the deer fence—which was completed by some local friends. Other projects have included planting cauliflower, kale, collards, broccoli, and onions; weeding and mulching the beds, and harvesting some of the veggies and herbs.

I truly value what I am learning in the garden because I view gardening as one of the best things one can do for both your soul and for the environment. Not only is growing one’s own food a way to depart from unsustainable food practices, but it is also very empowering. I hope the garden we are building will be an inspiration for others to practice gardening, as well, and to see in it all the beauty that a garden can bestow.

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          Trinica Sampson, Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions | June 5, 2013

It’s that time again! The end of the month is upon us sooner than I expected. Yesterday, Julia, Faith, and I spent some time marveling at how fast the time has gone by. It seems like just yesterday that we were posting about our first completed month, and it seems that only a few days before that, I was walking into Community Solutions for my first day on the job. Time truly does fly when you’re having fun, and I will be incredibly sad to see this month come and go, marking the end of my co-op internship with the wonderful folks at 114 East Whiteman Street.

This past month has been all about settling into my stride. With Jeanna on maternity leave, Julia and I met to discuss which duties we would each be taking on in order to keep the office running as smoothly as possible. Having another person with which to share duties and ask questions has been wonderful. Working together, we have been able to keep track of orders and donations and manage the daily tasks that come with working at Community Solutions.

Spring is truly upon us now; albeit a much more humid and temperamental spring than I am used to in California! On the whole, the weather has been beautiful, allowing Julia and Faith to do more gardening without the oppressive rain getting in the way. They recently harvested a bushel of marjoram and ten pounds of rhubarb, which I bestowed upon the Antioch College kitchen last week, much to the excitement from students and chefs who saw me bringing the vegetables in. The inner office has undergone some spring cleaning in the past couple of weeks, with extraneous furniture moved out of the room and a file system implemented to help keep desktops clear. Other signs of spring include copious amounts of pollen-induced sneezing and the increased need for office fans and opened windows.

We have been working on a variety of tasks for the past couple of weeks, including creating flyers for Passive House: A Building Renovation film screenings, registering for conferences at which to show the film, proofreading the credits and subtitles for the film, researching and writing a newsletter to send CS members, and presenting the early stages of Pat’s upcoming film to various members of the community who have given invaluable comments. My main project at the moment is writing an upcoming New Solutions report, using information from interviews I have been conducting with Faith throughout this month. We have all definitely been keeping busy!

In this last month of working here, I am excited to finish the New Solutions report and begin the editing process with it. I am also excited to sit in on a Community Solutions Executive Board meeting on June 7th, as well as a meeting of the Yellow Springs Energy Board on June 11th. The longer I work here, the more connections I can see between Community Solutions, Yellow Springs, and the members of the Antioch College community. I am excited to see what opportunities these connections will bring in the future!

"Harvesting Justice: Transforming Food, Land, and Agricultural Systems in the Americas" by Tory Field and Beverly Bell

Book Review

Julia Navaro, Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions | May 10, 2013

This book provides first-hand stories from struggling farmers, exploited indigenous peoples, and many people affected by current, unjust food practices fighting for a fair system. It also does an excellent job of connecting important issues in the existing food system such as corporate influence, government policies, the power of local food systems, good food accessibility, food worker justice, indigenous peoples' rights and values, and land reform. All of these topics are explained and supplemented with research, interviews, pictures, quotes, and stories. Harvesting Justice empowers us as consumers to influence the existing, unsustainable food system in America by making informed decisions about what we buy and how we approach food, land, and all people. It is an interesting and stimulating read as it exposes the truth about the food system we are involved in, and offers tips on how we can promote a positive food revolution. It lists Community Solutions and the film The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (Community Solutions, 2006) as a resource about food sovereignty in the appendix.