17 May Austin Green Art Re-brand Update

Thanks to all of you who emailed ideas and came to participate at the farm.  We've got a great start re-defining our mission, programming and name for the educational work that has out-grown the label "art."

What follows is the amalgamation of VALUES, EDUCATION IDEAS and possible NEW NAMES that have come from that discussion.

We'd love to hear from the rest of you by emailing randy@resolutiongardens.com or check out the discussion on www.facebook.com/5MileFarms.

Of course, we ultimately expect some of you to PARTICIPATE in the development of this endeavor and SUPPORT its REALIZATION!!

VALUES   
 
— every organism has the birthright to live as part of a natural community  (We know that we do NOT currently have the culture, skills, economy or community (including rootedness in our regional landbase) to fulfill our responsibility as members of a natural community, BUT we can commit to LEARN.  We will learn-by-doing (experiential/participatory). Part of that commitment is to JUSTICE (social, economic,environmental) that we KNOW is threatening our community. Working for justice addresses REAL political power and establishes DIRECTLY DEMOCRATIC structure.)
   
— life is a miracle, not a commodity (see below from Wendell Berry)  (We are anti-extraction (oil AND technological resources) and consumption.  We are pro-hyper local production and supply (self-sufficiency).)
   
— the fundamental building block of our applied learning to be members of natural community is FOOD  (Because we can.  Because agricultural practice generates rootedness in place, exchange (social/economic/environmental) and a tangible experience of meaning and authenticity that is our birthright.  From this practice we will generate tendrils that allow us to address: the built environment, transportation, waste, water management, wildlife habitat, environmental restoration, cultural practice and economic structure).
   
— we seek strong, meaningful, committed relationship with a few hundred people  (We know that the scale of natural, directly democratic community is not possible with more than this.  Once we pass this threshold, we establish new communities.)     
 
Each of the world's innumerable creatures is unique, and each of the world's innumerable places is unique.  Creatures survive in their places by local adaptation.  To believe these things is to see that we must not separate ourselves too far from nature.  We must learn to live a given life in a given world.  Our ability to change either our life or our place is limited.  To transgress those limits is to put ourselves and our places in danger.  Now we are faced with a choice between life as defined by the corporate economy and its client institutions, including governments, and life as defined by our own nature and the nature of our home landscapes — between life as a commodity and life as an unreproducible gift, as what I think is properly called a miracle.  Life is a gift to be accepted.  Its acceptance implicates us in gratitude, and in a responsibility of care that is fearful, difficult, and yet pleasing.  This is the only antidote I know to the ideas of life as commodity, as property, or as subject.
– Wendell Berry, 2002
 
WORKSHOPS
hyperlocal health – taking care of yourself – first aid, homeopathic
bike building
car shares
natural building
rain collection
Build a palette garden
http://lifeonthebalcony.com/how-to-turn-a-pallet-into-a-garden/
fight the squash-vine borer
Urban Farming/Gardening Water Conference
Sauerkraut!!
Soap-making
Cooking (various)
Urban Beekeeping 101
Sprouting for Beginners
Edible Mushrooms (yep)
Building a cob oven (multi day – probably 3) – plus later – baking bread or pizza in your cob oven
Make your own raised bed
Making your own compost tea
You can "humanely" kill a chicken too
Vermiculture
Massage Therapy
Canning 101
Pickling
Water collection and irrigation
How pale is your ale? Beer brew 101
Soil
Cheese
Raising Chickens in an Urban Backyard
Simple Lacto-Fermentation
Community Youth, Community Farms
Knot Tying 101 (half hitch, clove hitch, square knot, truckers hitch, rolling hitch, double sheet bend, bowline, etc., etc. – for tying tomatoes, to securing that lumber and wheelbarrow, etc.)
definitely sauerkraut!
herbal teas/elixirs/tinctures
seed harvesting/planting
hugelkulture
companion planting
individual/group specific plant design focus
(finding new ways to arrange space efficiently)
language of plants
youth friendly workshops
tanning hide
hunting/cleaning/cooking small game (squirrels, possums, rabbit)
wild edible plant workshop
farm tour
frontyard gardens tour
lunch-n-learn weekly workshops
 
The workshops I have been thinking about are more of a slow build, holistic design- multiple workshops relating to the same project. It sounds like the farm could use an outdoor kitchen. By combining the cob oven w/ water collection/ irrigation we can filter and purify that water as well as possibly reuse steam created from the oven. Adding thermal mass to the exhaust system of the oven (with versatile duct work for winter/summer) could provide extra warmth through seating or a possible future chicken coop. Within this one project there are several possible workshops based on the overall design possibilities, ex.- cob, a variety of finishes, mosaics/ natural mosaics, sculpting Texas limestone, masonry, building with wine bottles and earth, free form concrete sculpture, basics of metal working- could be a variety of metals workshops, mold making, tool making, wood working, solar workshops- build your own panel, solar oven, re-using broken solar cells, and on and on. Building a palette garden could be part. The point is the amount of workshops relating to a single ongoing project are nearly endless. Let me know what you all think, I have a number of possible designs able to adapt to any goals of the Garden.
 
NAME IDEAS
Grow First
5 Mile Living
Hyper-local Living Applied
Green Without Envy
Creative Urban Growth
Feeding Creative Community
Feeding Creative Growth
Feeding Strong Communities
Creating Strong Community
Community Strength
Creative Growth
Growing Creative Community
Self-Reliant
Creative Self-Reliance
Feeding Community
Expression
Learning Community
Applied Natural Living
project green Austin
link green
green combine
united green
integrated lifestyle group
green harbours
urban solutions
green path groups
together green    
Austin ReSkill   
ReSkill Austin   
CENTER FOR URBAN NEIGHBORHOOD HOMESTEADING  GreenCityStewards — Austin's center for growing food, community, and creativity
Austin Green Art
Austin Urban Pharms for Sustainable Living  
Center for Responsible Living — gardening, cooking, land stewardship, art-making, and other basic skills
 
"Synergistic Living" — "gardening, cooking, land stewardship, art-making, and other basic life skills"
 
Creating Art with Synergistic Living
 Synergy through Artful Living

perennial
revisionist (or just vision)
harmony, symmetry, symbiosis (symbiotic, mutialism, etc.).
Revision Austin Art
perennial Austinculture/polyculture
 
"reclaiming the commons", "coming home", "land/landbase"