April 19, straw bales, snow

There always seems to be one final "snow dump" late in the spring up here. It feels like it's usually in March. Well, yes, with one final day left in March, the outside world is a powdery blue-gray of precipitation this morning. Tomorrow morning I will make my first (of many, I hope) 5-minute-walking commute to Alaska Feed to help out in the chick barn with the spring fuzzies. Wear boots and prepare for anything <--I wonder if that adage could be the mantra for Alaska? Could we translate that into Latin and have the University put it on their logo?

APRIL 19, Saturday, SAVE THE DATE for SCAN Fairbanks' (Sustainable Community Action Network) first annual EarthDinner. I'll announce the time and place on this blog. This will be a community potluck featuring local foods. Friends will be asked to bring a dish to share that has at least one ingredient that was grown locally. At this time of year, that may mean the salmon you caught last year in Seward, the moose from last fall, it may mean the culinary herbs you grew on your porch and froze or dried, the eggs your chickens laid, the cabbage you canned yourself. We'll have some facilitated discussion, and we're still waiting to hear on financial support from Organic Valley, which may let us sponsor some speakers and do other cool things. We have eighteen days to "beef this up" and suggestions are welcome.

At yesterday's meeting we had an excellent speaker who'd built his own straw bale house. With some minor adjustments (like vapor barriers, spray-in cellulose, and 'quick-dry' concrete for our abbreviated building season) these are wonderful homes for the Interior. Ask me more if interested.