Hallow Eve - Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tonight is Halloween, which started many years ago as mockery of All Saints Day, which the Church observes tomorrow, Nov. 1st. Now it has a life of its own, and as we are constantly reminded, it is the beginning of the two-month shopping and buying spree known as the “holidays” in America.
Tomorrow I will attend Church and pray for the intersession of all the saints to God for all of us, especially family and friends and my country.
In the world of the GP garden there is no Halloween. Life goes on and the dying of the plants and leaves continues, affected by the weather but not by the date.
GP garden 10/27/07 Together,
Clear & ConsistentToday I used a Gandhi quote in one of my emails: It said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” The email was to someone who complains a lot about the ineffectiveness of protesting against the war in Iraq and other political issues but offers no practical ideas of what to do. I agree with my friend that 60’s type of protesting is ineffective but we need to do something except complain. My friend’s point was that the media do not cover protest, like they did in the 60’s. That is true. The media is now part of the “powers that be” that manipulate our society, so we should not expect press coverage. This brings me to one of the major concerns of the day, how community groups and organizations are so splintered in working for the same causes and at times even compete against each other. I think the Growing Power Garden has something to say about this concern.
The deed is done. With the help of wikignome Tegan this new domain, Nonviolent Worm, is born on the World Wide Web. On this domain I hope to put together the power of Growing Power, represented by the worm, and the Power of Peace represented by nonviolence. The worm is one of the lowest creatures on earth but its creative power, like nonviolence, is one of the greatest. A worm can take waste — compost — eat it, and turn it into the “black gold” of castings, a rich soil for growing. With the power of creative nonviolence and the blessing of God, we can change the world for the good, no matter how lowly or marginalized we are.
Gutter Leaves - Sunday, October 28, 2007
You know that you are really into growing your own soil when you are driving home from church and eye a pile of leaves in the road with desire. This afternoon when I was working on the garden one of the first things I did was to take the wheel barrow to the road in front of my house and rake up the leaves from the gutter. Most people rake their leaves into the gutter for city pick up. I rake my leaves out of the gutter for making compost.
GP Box In GreenhouseMy friend John finished today installing the last of the 12 5-pane window inserts in the sunroom. We purchased some weather-watch equipment and can now tell the weather of the three spaces — the house, greenhouse (formerly known as sunroom), and outside. It is presently 67.5 degrees in the house, 52.5 in the sunroom and 42.8 degrees outside. Soon we will do a scientific test measuring the exact amount of energy savings in dollars that we save with the five-pane windows. More about this fascinating new Growing Renewable Affordable Food (GRAF) technology will come.
Consumed - Friday, October 26, 2007
Attach:Main/HomePage/MUIsTheWarJust-250.jpg Δ | Is the War in Iraq a Just War?
My day today, like a wild fire, was consumed by an creative nonviolent action at Marquette University. Check this web site out on the new nonviolent worm domain to read more about this event which planted the seeds of a question that hopefully will grow into a flower of peace. NonviolentWorm.org/Main/News
Gandhi, Sustainability and
Creative NonviolenceYou probably heard the phrase that for every action there is a reaction. This is so true for working in the garden. You take action and make a pile of leaves and coffee grounds and the reaction from the mix makes compost. You take action and put worms into a box of compost and the reaction is castings.
Today finishing the brochure for the creative nonviolent action tomorrow I find this theory is also true in creating brochures. Last night one of the team suggested I put the word “Iraq” before a statement saying, “War is Immoral and Unjust.” I took the action and was careful to check that any words in the paragraph below were not eliminated. What I did not check was the line above this heading. The reaction of this action of adding this word was the dropping of the last line in the paragraph above. Of course my wife noticed this tonight after I had 500 copies of the brochure printed.
Today a technician spent over 4 hours at my house upgrading my TV and Internet system. It turns out the newer high tech, high quality, fast speed systems cost less than my former TV and Internet system. So sometimes more technology can mean a savings. But with the new TV system comes more TV, which can be good or bad, depending on use. With the new Internet connection comes faster speed, which can be nice.
Dawn’s Lot - Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Dawn’s LotSome of you might have heard of Dawn’s Porch, the porch on the vacant house that my friend Dawn is rebuilding to house more persons with disabilities. Now Dawn, the D in DMZ, is offering the vacant lot she purchased from the city for the DMZ community Growing Power garden next year. With the support of neighbors, the school across the street Robert LaFollette K-5 and Growing Power, we hope to build a community garden using the principles of the home model of Growing power that this site, Diary of the Worm, has promoted for almost two years.
Touch test - Monday, October 22, 2007
Four Five-pane window insertsToday I put one hand on one of the five-pane window inserts and the other hand on the regular widow without an insert. The hand on the plastic was warm to the touch and the one of the glass cold to the touch. This is not the scientific test I promised you, but the hand touch test is a good gauge of what is to come. The touch sense makes sense.
Tonight I went to a gathering of family members of victims of police brutality. A few of the stories I was familiar with, but one from a mother and her daughter from Kenosha, WI was shocking. They actually witnessed the beating and shooting of their innocent son and brother. Despite their witness and evidence, including a police car camera recording of the event, the police involved were not only not prosecuted but received a honor awarded for the death. The sense of loss was evident tonight.
Grandson receiving 4-H
award for aerospaceToday I attended at the Rustic Inn on a lake in Clover, WI, a Shawano County 4-H Awards lunch. My grandson, 9, won a 4-H Junior Member Project Award for Aerospace. Now this event was a real mix of urban and rural, agriculture and science, horses and rockets. If you need any other proof that the world is coming together and getting smaller, urban and rural, nature and science, I really cannot help you.
At the lunch I was talking with my other grandson, 7, a clover bud 4-H member, too young to be a junior member, about using some of my son’s, his father’s, land for growing sweet corn next year. When we got back to their house I was a refereeing a one-on-one basketball game between the two boys.
Filling the Worm CondoFinally today I did some work on the GP outside garden. One of the first things I did was drill a few more holes in the bottom of the worm condo to replace the ones that were plugged up. As regular readers of the this diary know one of the essential ingredients of a GP Home Model Garden is a Worm Condo. It is the place where worms can eat all the finely cooked compost they desire and leave the condo, when they are finished, full of the black gold of worm castings. After drilling the holes, I started to fill the box with leaves and some coffee grounds.
Grow the DMZ! - Friday, October 19, 2007
GP Garden Near A SchoolDMZ is the name of the growing power co-op that Dawn, Marna and I started last summer. The D is for Dawn, the M is for Marna, and the Z made more sense than B for Bob. The DMZ grew out of my attempts to apply the Growing Power way of growing to a home model. My friends Marna, co-founder of Mothers Against Gun Violence and Dawn, who operates houses for persons with disabilities, share my interest in and love for gardening. They were too busy to do gardens in their own yards but this method gave them an easy way to grow renewable affordable food (GRAF). At first they did not know each other, although they had lived close by for many years, but once they found each other they became close friends.
Today at lunch over a delicious meal at the Amaranth Cafe, Marna, Dawn and I discussed our plans for the DMZ garden co-op. We had healthy food while talking about growing healthy food.
Tonight some friends and I gathered here to discuss an act of creative nonviolence for Oct. 26th at the School of Military Science at Marquette University. This is the day Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector in World War II, will be made blessed in the Church. Good friends talking about a good guy.
Today my friend finished the first five-pane window insert for the sunroom. I learned very dramatically that the effectiveness of insulation is not due to the thickness of glass or plastic but in the pockets of air between the outside and inside of the window. A two-pane window offers a greater insulating factor than normal windows not so much because of the extra layer of glass but because of the pocket of between the two pieces of glass.
(Originally posted on the MilwaukeeRenaissance website)
What started as a tour of Growing Power is now moving into a new worldwide web domain called www.nonviolentworm.org. This new site when he gets set up will try to combine the two areas of interest in my life’s work at present, Creative Nonviolence and Growing Power. Tegan, the wikignome for the Milwaukee Renaissance domain, wrote something for the “About this site” section of this new domain. I rewrote it and sent it back to her for final editing and placement. You can find it below.
Green Courts? - Monday, October 15, 2007
We need to make our courts green! I spent this morning in the County Court building waiting to testify as a character witness at my friend’s sentencing. But we never got that far. After having the first charge dropped for lack of evidence and witnesses, my friend, on the advice of a lawyer, decided to plead guilty to the second charge, resisting arrest in the police station after he was brought there on charges for the arrest that was dropped. He knew it was his word against a bunch of police officers’, and in the present legal system his word would not be believed.
Some of us feel dreary on dark days. I do not remember the name of the medical condition that my Dad had, I have, and now affects my son, but I know its effects. Medication or exposure to bright light can mask it some but not really eliminate it. Only a bright sunny day or bright light environment can really help alleviate it.
Four of us from the DMZ garden co-op went to visit Growing Power today. At the headquarters, after some introductions, Will Allen took us on a tour of the facility. The basics of growing power are the “same old, same old” but some of the ways have changed. For example now the planters are most filled with compost and worms with some castings on top with the seeds. Coir is no longer used in the planters except for the seedlings and sprouts. The compost pile is now a 75% carbon and 50 % nitrogen rather than 50/50.
Today a graduate student at Marquette University from India interviewed me for two hours on my beliefs and attitudes on Justice and Peace. I have been interviewed before about issues of peace and justice but in this one I really felt comfortable. I think it is because the young man interviewing me was from India. There is a certainly comfort level that I found with persons raised in this culture that I do not find with others, even those of American descent.
Final Harvest? - Thursday, October 11, 2007
Harvest 10/11/07Today working outside in the cool weather, I decided that the plants in the garden, except for the kale, were done growing and to make one last final harvest. It was quite a load of tomatoes, herbs, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant and more. Besides the kale there is probably some more to harvest but this was the final big harvest for outside. I brought the planter frame in and will keep some of the same plants in it for a while and replace them soon with more hardy ones.
I do not know when time began or when it will end. I do know, however, it is running out. The saying goes “There is a time for everything under the sun.” But I do not feel there is enough time to do what I want to do.
Old and New - Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Today was a mixture of the old and the new. Despite the weatherman’s prediction, it was the same old same, old warm fall weather. Now they say tomorrow fall will begin.
Tonight two friends from the past spoke on the role of the military and the CIA from the 50’s in Guatemala till today. It was a new and fresh message but had a lot of the old news how the USA government suppresses democracies that care about their own people.
Before the fallThe last few days have been especially warm for October with temperatures in the 80’s. The weatherman says that is going to change soon with temperature dropping to 50’s. Summer is passing this Oct. 8th and Fall is finally arriving.
At church today we heard how with just a tiny mustard seed of faith we can do wondrous deeds.
Before working in the garden today I had my doubts about this saying. But after putting some coffee grounds on the worm depository and checking it out, I had a glimpse of understanding. The worms, the lowliest of creatures, were eating the waste of compost and turning it into the black gold of castings.
At the start of the new television series year I took the time to watch a few of the dramas we have watched for years. I always thought they were a little mindless and worthless but now I really feel upset after watching them. Once I start them I feel compelled to watch them but afterwards feel I have wasted my time.
The cry goes over the land: “Trees let your leaves die so you can bear the burden of winter and live”October 4 and October 5, 2007
Tonight I give you one picture for two days. Last night coming home I was too tired to write and today too busy. However today I did create a new domain on the web www.nonviolentworm.org that will soon be the new home of the “Diary of the Worm.” Be patient with us during the change. However, tomorrow the Diary of the Worm will continue on this same domain of the Milwaukee Renaissance.
Today the slow rhythm of nature contrasted with the fast pace of life. This contrast really comes home when I am with my grandchildren in the county as I am today. On one hand we have the cow pastures across the road, acres of land, a huge compost pile we added to today and fall color in the trees. It is a very peaceful scene.
I have talked about my two main goals in my work these days, advocating for creative nonviolence and Growing Power, where the worm is king. Today illustrated this shift in focus.
Go on a journey from self to self, my friend…
Such a journey transforms the earth into a mine of gold.
The above quote is from Rumi, a 13th century poet from what we today call Afghanistan. Today I went on Journey with my friend Dawn to a place that sells leftover food to low-income groups. We went there to seek some ripe produce that they were giving away free, but discovered all the produce in a certain area was free. Some of it was overripe and good only for the compost or worm depository piles at Dawn’s house, but some was just good food that can be used to eat now. Looking for waste we found a gold mine for the worms, for making compost and to feed persons at Dawn’s houses.
