Learning how to Weld

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Inside the metal-roofed barn, stale with hot air accumulated from the Sunday sun, stood ten participants of a welding workshop listening ardently to the information their instructor, Derek Newland, was giving to them. “There is more to welding than just knowing how to weld,” said Derek, a twenty-seven year old Bellaire local. Derek got his start when he moved to Canada six years ago and since has had experience from production to military welding. “For instance, you can use cardboard as a shield against flammable objects if you soak it in water first,” Derek continued.

The July 22nd event at Derek’s family home marked the second success for an ISLAND welding workshop. ISLAND is an arts and ecology institute in Bellaire dedicated to connecting people with skills and resources to help build a strong local community. “Today we are going to be working in two groups,” instructed Derek, “Those who want to use welding for farming purposes and the artsy folk.” The group looked around at each other heedfully; with some it was easy to tell which application they would choose, yet others were harder to place. Derek continued to explain that generally everybody would continue to work together in one group but there would be two separate focus projects. For those with a desire to work on farm equipment, the days project would be to build a broadfork, a sort of pitch fork that uses one’s body weight to dig into the ground and loosen soil; for those wanting to create art, well, the day would start by uncovering lost treasures in various piles of rusty scrap metal. 
As the group separated into individuals—some digging through and discovering old-turned-new pieces of scrap, others huddling around a large piece of paper telling tales of how to construct a simple yet valuable tool—Derek rolled out a small red Lincoln Electric welder. “Gather round please,” Derek was preparing to give the class a demo.“Today we are going to learn about MIG welding.” Derek proceeded to talk about some basic safety measures, metal preparation and handling, all the while preparing himself for the first weld of the day. He slipped on a worn yellow leather jacket to protect his arms from the heat and fly away sparks; on his head he wore a backwards baseball cap covered in american flags, “By wearing your hat backwards you are able to protect your head and your neck at the same time,” he advised.
With a slight breeze from the lone rickety fan in the corner, Derek bent over two pieces of metal and demonstrated how to make a tack weld. When he was finished, one by one each student was able to have a turn at making their own tack weld. Derek waited patiently beside each person as they made their attempt. He gave them each personal pointers and let them try as many times as they needed until they felt comfortable with the process. Throughout the next few hours this rotation continued between one-on-one instruction and group discussion. By the end of the day, though worn from heat, smiles sparked the air congratulating one another on the progress the group made together on their various projects. “Welding is the ultimate skill for a do-it-yourselfer,” exclaimed Brad Kik, co-director of ISLAND and workshop attendee, “I’ve been working with wood for a decade, but there are some projects that are just meant for metal-working.”
Join us for the 3rd ISLAND Welding Workshop with Derek Newland on Sunday September 30th. Preregistration is required. For more information call (231) 622-5252 or email mary@artmeetsearth.org

Art Schoolmaster welding part of a broadfork
 
Brad Kik welding part of a broadfork   Julie Martinson grinding scrap metal in preparation for welding  

From Farm to Frame: Ripe Moments Through the Le

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From Farm to Frame: Ripe Moments Through the Lensfrom the farmfrom the marketfrom the tableFrom Farm to Frame: Ripe Moments Through the Lens is a photo contest that will showcase the beauty of small farms and local food through three different categories: from the farm, from the table, and from the markets. Awards reception October 23, 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the Carnegie Building Exhibition October 23 to November 25, 2012 at Crooked Tree Arts Center CALL TO ARTISTS: All photographs must have been taken in Emmet or Charlevoix Counties and must not have been previously exhibited at Crooked Tree Arts Center. Jury selected photographs will hang in an exhibition at Crooked Tree Arts Center in the Lower Level Gallery; cash and prizes will be awarded to all winning entrants. Top prize also includes publication in Edible Grande Traverse. Submit work online at www.crookedtree.org. Deadline: September 14, 2012. For more information: Visit www.artmeetsearth.org, or call (231) 622-5252 Many thanks to our sponsors and partners: American Spoon Bear Cub Outfitters Blackbird Gardens Coveyou Scenic Farm Crooked Tree Arts Center Edible Grande Traverse Fleming Feirm The Grain Train Jolly’s Cookies and Café Julienne Tomatoes Institute for Sustainable Living, Art & Natural Design (ISLAND) Lake Street Market Local Eats Magnum Hospitality: Café Santé & Red Mesa Grill Michigan’s Guide to Local Cooking No Boundaries Northern Copy Express Palette Bistro Petoskey Community Victory Garden/ Farming For Our Future Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation Pond Hill Farm Stafford’s Hospitality SweetGrass Framing Toski Sands Twisted Olive Café

Vote for the Food Preservation Trailer!

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Food Preservation on Wheels—a canning, curing, fermenting kitchen in a trailerVOTE HERE

Awesome Food, the Food Chapter of the Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences is offering a grant for $1,000 to an organization that will make our food more awesome. Our idea? Food preservation on wheels!Ideas are open to public voting from August 23 to September 6. All submissions with 50 votes or more will advance to the final round of judging by Awesome Food’s Trustees for a chance to win a $1,000 grant.

Picture a small enclosed trailer that can be pulled onto any one of a hundred small farms at the peak of produce ripeness. Folks gather, the trailer doors open, and in about 30 minutes everyone is getting to work in a three-season high-efficiency food preservation kitchen. A tent keeps wind, sun or rain off of a bank of high-BTU burners, boiling away at hot water baths and pressure canners. Inside the trailer, a sink and food prep station allows up to six people to work at prepping produce. With a few small modifications, the same trailer can be outfitted to ferment kimchi or sauerkraut, or make yogurt, or even demonstrate the slaughter of small livestock like goats, sheep or pigs.

With this trailer we can:
1) make food preservation a party. Folks can come to learn, or to update their skills, or they can come to meet new folks, hang out with friends and keep the drudgery away.
2) close the gap between a small farm's surplus and the cellar pantry for scores of families.
3) connect the dots between food preservation and the economy, culture and ecology of our small places.

VOTE TODAY!


Think this idea is so awesome that you'd like to support it with dollars and votes? Click the link below to donate online.

Storing Root Vegetables

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Saturday, September 22 from 2 - 4 p.m.
Grace Episcopal Church, 341 Washington Street, Traverse CityLearn to store root vegetables straight through the long winters of our part of the world with a panel of community experts who practice a range of models for winter food storage—from ancient methods like burying vegetables below the frost line to new technologies like CoolBot and time-honored, future-proof systems for storing food without electric inputs.

Suggested donation $5-10. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. For more information call (231) 622-5252 or email mary@artmeetsearth.org. Sponsored by ISLAND and supported by Grace Episcopal Church, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service,  Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference, Bay Area Recycling for Charities, Oryana, and Rising Star Wellness Center.

Radical Homemaking in October

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Food Preservation: Canning ApplesauceMonday, October 1 from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm
at the Martha Wagbo Farm and Education Center, 5745 Michigan 66, East JordanCome learn how to can and freeze applesauce from organic apples; or if you know how, come join in the fun of a community canning party. Organic produce, organic sugar, canning jars and lids will be provided. Each participant will prepare and can applesauce hands-on, and take home a share of the jars at the end of the class. There will also be take-home info and resources available. Class size is limited.Cost is $15-25, sliding scale. Preregistration is required. A partnership of ISLAND, the Martha Wagbo Farm and Education Center, Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.For more information call 231-622-5252 or email mary@artmeetsearth.org

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Hand Tool SharpeningThursday, October 4 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
at the Bellaire Community Hall, 202 North Bridge Street, BellaireFrustrated with the quality of edge tools Nick Carlson, of Carlson Tree Service, took it upon himself to learn, "the best way to create a durable, and sharp edge. This creates a safer tool to work with. Once you work with a well tuned hand tool, there is no going back!" In this workshop, Nick will cover edge tool sharpening systems, both in shop and in the field, the theory behind a sharp edge, as well as how to bring an old tool back for use once again, from junk shop to tool bench.TBA. A partnership of ISLAND, Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.For more information call (231) 622-5252 or email mary@artmeetsearth.org

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Radical Homemaking Skill SwapSunday, October 7 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
at the Ware Farm, 9014 Alkire Road, Bear LakeFill your home with the simple luxuries of delicious food, spirited evenings, and a clean home the way they did 100 years ago—and might still again—with this all-day workshop on the lost arts of real home economics. Community experts from herbalists to backyard chicken farmers revive grandparent knowledge of days gone by with classes on breadmaking, natural cleaning, fermentation, and more. Cost is $15 for anyone registered before September 30, $20 for walk-ins and late registrants.

For more information call (231) 622-5252 or email mary@artmeetsearth.orgCo-sponsored by ISLAND, Great Lakes Bioneers and Ware Farm, and supported by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference, Bay Area Recycling for Charities, Oryana, and Rising Star Wellness Center.

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2nd Annual Hog Breakdown and Charcuterie WorkshopSaturday, October 13 and Sunday, October 14
at Epicure Catering, 5530 N West Bayshore Drive, Omena, MIThis is a two-day event led by Chef Steven Grostick of Toasted Oak Grill and Market, Novi. The workshop will start with a hands-on hog breakdown. Then, learn how to use simple techniques to preserve meat in your own home through salting, smoking and curing. Techniques will be discussed in detail, you will get hands-on experience and fresh take home pork to preserve. Gourmet lunch by Epicure Catering. Bring your own boning knife.The cost to attend this two-day workshop is $300-400, sliding scale. The rate for couples is $550-$650.For more information call (231) 622-5252 or email mary@artmeetsearth.org

A partnership of ISLAND, Epicure Catering, Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

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Saving Seeds from the Farm and GardenTuesday, October 23 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
at Michigan Works (south entrance of the building), 1209 S. Garfield, Traverse City, MIFarmers and gardeners that save seeds benefit in a number of ways—not only do they preserve rare varieties and develop new ones suited to particular growing conditions, they save money, preserve heritage, and support a more secure local food system. In this workshop, seed-saving enthusiast Craig Schaaf provides some basic techniques for saving seeds on farms and in home gardens, including tips and tricks for propagating many common vegetable species.Suggested donation $15. Space is limited and pre-registration required. For more information call (231) 622-5252 or email mary@artmeetsearth.org.For more information call 231-622-5252 or email mary@artmeetsearth.org

A partnership of ISLAND, the Michigan Land Use Institute, Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
 

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Mitt Tries To Change The Subject

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So, let's get everyone's mind off the 47% comment:

That's right. Mitt Romney has had such a bad week—again—that he's now trying to change the subject to his taxes. You know, those taxes that "you people" don't need to know about. That's how bad things are for Romney now.

By next week, he'll be trying to change the subject to that one time he strapped his dog Seamus on the roof of the car ...

Exasperation With The GOP

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There is so much good writing coming out now about the problems of the GOP it will take librarians to sort through it all.

First, there is this article, talking about all the things that should be happening, but aren't:

So broken are the information outlets Tea Partiers in particular use to assess reality that for months they took Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich seriously as potential or actual presidential contenders. They had every opportunity to see the respective character flaws of these figures; they were mostly self-evident, and persuasively described in great detail by the political press. Ah, but that's the liberal media talking. With that phrase, any huckster can short-circuit the Tea Party reality-assessing apparatus for months. And while movement conservatism has failed for decades to shrink government, it has succeeded spectacularly in creating jobs for hucksters in the private sector.

...On the right today, they are so numerous, prominent and shameless, their pathologies so ingrained in right-wing media and politics, their wealth so corrupting to young talent, and their pathologies so seldom challenged by those who know better, that Republicans are operating at a persistent information disadvantage. (Too many believe even their own bullshit.) The Bush Administration showed that it's possible to win at the ballot box anyway -- but that the victory isn't worth much, save an ill-conceived war in the desert, exploding deficits, and a financial crisis.

Then this article notes something new in this year's campaign, and maybe even hopeful about the future (if not mismanaged, like it was in the 1930's, and almost certainly will be this time too):

McCain, speaking on his 76th birthday, all but apologized for bringing up the subject in the first place: “It is said that this election will turn on domestic and economic issues. But what Mitt Romney knows, and what we know, is, is”—he stumbled over the words, nervous, like he knew he was entering the lion’s den—“that our success at home also depends on our leadership in the world.” The crowd’s tepid response suggested they did not know that at all.

Soaring rhetoric about “our willingness to shape world events,” leading “shoulder to shoulder with steadfast friends and allies,” “giving voice to the voiceless, insisting that every human life has dignity,” got little reaction; McCain only coaxed real noise out of the crowd through references to the sacrifices of the troops, gratuitous slams on Obama and mentions of the glories of supporting Israel. His call to “renew the foundations of our power and leadership in the world” sounded like an applause line—but it got no applause. Likewise, “By committing to withdraw from Afghanistan before peace can be achieved and sustained, our president has discouraged our friends and emboldened our enemies.” By the time he got to “In other times, when other courageous people fought for their freedom against sworn enemies of the United States, American presidents, both Republicans and Democrats, have acted to help them prevail,” I felt like the crowd thought this old man would ramble on forever. McCain seemed to sense it, too. “An American president always, always, always stands up for the rights, and freedoms, and justice, of all people,” he said. You only repeat a word three times when you fear people aren’t going to hear it.

...So what happened? The Republicans used to love their wars so lustily! Don’t call the change “moderation”: given that the crowd’s indifference was in response to calls to mitigate human suffering, it better resembled the morally indifferent isolationism of the late 1930s and early ’40s, when the right opposed rearming the nation to fight Hitler.

And maybe the GOP doesn't even have the will to rule:

So even if he’s sputtering out now, Mitt nevertheless has the best of both worlds: he has vindicated his father before the people who count, and he wouldn’t have to actually govern. He can avoid the years of “gaffes” and words “not elegantly stated” and “you people” prying into his finances that his presidency would surely entail. And as Michelle Obama said: the office doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are.

Anyway, Romney’s nomination has already done something very real for one of the few American institutions he truly seems to care about: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He helped to finally establish Mormonism as a legitimate part of the Republican Party hierarchy, not to mention American political history. Maybe he won’t be invited to speak at the 2016 GOP convention, but he did get Christians to at least nominally accept his once-persecuted faith.