Practice of Sustainable Agriculture

September - December, 2010



In September I began the Practice of Sustainable Agriculture Program. This program was the original reason I moved here in the first place. It is an intense program requiring a lot of time and dedication but it is the perfect finish to my sustainability and environmental studies because it incorporates all the elements of ecology and environmental sustainability in the most crucial of real world scenarios - the production of soil and the food that grows there.

October was a flurry of activity as we harvested the crops and prepared them for our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and our small but excellent Farm Stand

In October we visited Burnt Ridge Nursery and were treated to a day long tour and talk by the owner, Mike Dolan, covering every aspect of orchard fruit and nut production.

PSA team members gather around Dolan's market van as he goes over the finer points of fruit and nut harvest and marketing.















A member of the Wendell Berry Community Garden treated us to a seed-saving workshop at the Harvest Festival in October

November, 2010. PSA pays a visit to Nash's Farm. Here Vanessa Hoy
demonstrates the size of their windrow compost turning machine.

Curious pigs run out to see us
during our tour of Nash's Farm.

The  Washington Tilth Conference
took place in
November so we all took our tents and
tarps and camped out at Fort Worden State Park.
I was pretty
impressed with my
classmates.

On previous
trips like this
in other
programs
only a few
of us camped
out.

My little
tent is on
the right.
I was happy
to be able
to use it
again.

One ongoing task throughout the year is to make high quality organic compost to continue to improve our soils fertility. We do it the old fashioned way - one wheelbarrow at a time.

The Farm Office.

The sun breaks through during the afternoon work.

Finally made it to the treatment plant in Arcata, California

September, 2010

Since phytoremediation is one of my main interests I have wanted to

check out the phyto-treatment plant in Arcata. It was very impressive.

They use a series of channels, pools and plants to settle out and then sequester waste products in the water until all that is left is fresh, clean water.

Large ponds of water hyacinth, grasses, cattails, etc... take up
organic waste and are periodically harvested and composted or dried.





I got to do a little rain forest camping during the trip. "Rain" being the key word in September.

And on the way back I spent a little time in Portland. I love Portland. Here is the famous Voodoo Donut Shop. An almost constant line around the block attests to it's popularity. Must be one heck of a donut.

Bluegrass Roadtrip!

August, 2010


Took a little road trip to the Bluegrass Festival at
Medical Lake, Washington. Along the way I
followed a friends recommendation and camped at Beverly Campground in Wenatchee National Forest. I had an excellent campsite but the overall condition of the forest was scary. Bone dry and looking haggard. There were a ton of ripe huckleberries though.









I got to do a little more camping at the Festival. Look how close some guy set his tent up to mine the second night. Crazy.

There were a lot of good acts at the festival but the headliner was Dan Tyminski.
Dan was the voice of George Clooney singing "Man of Constant Sorrow".
Here is a clip I took from the festival:

The Republic of Georgia and Armenia.

July, 2010


"The Mother of Georgia", a statue from the Soviet era stands stern guard over the capitol city of Tbilisi. The cup of wine is for those who would befriend Georgia and the sword is for her enemies. There is a similar style statue in the capitol of Armenia.

Sasha with Tbilisi behind her.

The city of Tbilisi. We wandered many back streets like the one on the left. It is a wonderful city.

Crossing the border from Georgia into Armenia.

Our beloved Armenian guide, Irina Astvatsatouryants showed us around her country. She was a wonderful woman.

"The Mother of Armenia"

A very important place to the Armenian people, the Genocide Memorial. This has sadly fallen off the radar of the average American.

An Armenian woman selling her handmade wares at a graveyard.

At the border of Georgia and Azerbaijan









Kind of spooky, old Soviet-era schoolhouse where we spent the night with the permission of the villagers, to take refuge from the heavy rain. Some thought the old house was haunted and that ghosts wandered the halls in the dark of night...but that was just me trying to be quiet as I went outside to use the bathroom.

Images of the dictator, Josef Stalin are still displayed in some parts of Georgia.

The mighty Caucasus. This is where we hiked. To the left was a village near the site of our first campsite.

Oh, and my ten-ton backpack.

The train car where Winston Churchill
met with Josef Stalin. On display at a
bizarre, pro-Stalin museum in Gori, Georgia.

One of our final campsites as we prepared to leave the Caucasus Mountains.

Georgia border guards keep vigilant watch at the border of Georgia and Chechnya.

For more pictures, here is a slide show. They move pretty fast
so make use of the "Pause" button.

Copenhagen, Denmark!! Yeah!

June, 2010

My friend Meg and I made it to Denmark. That is by far the longest flight I have ever been on, but so worth it. I have been wanting to check out Copenhagen for a very long time. What a great city. We stayed with a woman named Pernille who rented us each a room in her 7th floor apartment.

One of the things I loved the most was how many people ride bicycles there. Large groups of cyclists are everywhere and the cars accommodate them in a mostly friendly manner

We stayed in the Nørregade part of the city, which was in easy walking distance to the Botanical Garden

So many plants! I could have spend a week there. I don't remember this species but it was almost prehistoric seeming because of its huge leaves.

Beautiful art floating on the pond.

I enjoyed this sculpture in one of the plazas.

They told us no photographs were allowed in a part of town called
Christianhavn (possibly because hashish is sold out in the open),
but here is some of the graffiti that adorns the entrance.

Vertical gardening added a touch of beauty and punctuated the overwhelming
sense of sanity that pervaded the town.

The buskers of Copenhagen filled the
streets with great music.

We made a side trip to Malmö, Sweden.
I'm glad we did, but we really needed more time to do it right. We went to a park near the water and saw this funky tower. Turns out it's a famous art-itechcure called The Turning Torso.

We made dinner one evening and ate it on the roof of Pernille's apartment building. Great view from up there. (PS. It was one of the most delicious dinners we had there).

And the last day in Denmark I sat in a coffee shop reflecting over the entire 

experience when this played on the sound system. The perfect song.

May, 2010

Gearing up for my trip overseas. This pack was good but I actually took it back two days later and got a Gregory Baltoro 70.

It's a great pack but I am not a great packer. Somehow my pack was 10 to 15 pounds heavier than everyone else's and oh boy did I pay the price. Next time I'm taking next to nothing.

It stands to reason that the boots I liked best were Assholos.