One easy change and an Easter weekend proposition

The easy thing: Make a stack of all the catalogs you get and set a day (even Saturday afteroon, consmer customer service is even open on Sunday to take your call!) and call and cancel further catalog service!!! In calling at least 30 of these vendors, I've never had a single one be anything other than happy to get me off the mailing list. Recycling is great-- but start at the source, REDUCE. When you actually NEED something from Coldwater Creek, Lands' End, See's Candies, and on and on, you can use the I-net or whatever. Even the ink in the colored adds is a petroleum product. Cancel the trash catalogs. DO IT

Sustainable ag conference (Good) Friday, March 21 and Saturday March 22 at the
Princess Hotel in Fairbank, AK. 50$ for both days, 30$ for one, contact UAF Coop Ext. service at 474-1530 or ffmah@uaf.edu.

I readily carpool!!

8:00 - 8:30 Registration
8:30 - 9:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks,
Michele Hébert, UAF Cooperative
Extension Service-Tanana District
9:00 - 10:00 Extending the Season with Hoop
Houses, Lynn Byczynski, Growing for
Market
10:00 - 10:30 Break
10:30 - 11:00 An Update on Horticulture Research,
Jeff Smeenk, UAF Cooperative Exten-
sion Service/Palmer Research and Ex-
tension Center
11:00 - 12:00 Wind Power for Residential and
Small Business Settings, Dan Nagen-
gast, Kansas Rural Center
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch on Site
1:00 - 1:30 Alaska Division of Agriculture Update:
Opportunities for Marketing, Grants
and More, Amy Pettit, Alaska Division
of Agriculture
1:30 - 2:30 Cut Flower Production, Lynn Byczyn-
ski, Growing for Market
2:30 - 3:00 Break
3:00 - 3:30 Weed Control and Ecology
TBA
3:30 - 4:30 A Cooperative Model for Supporting
Small Farms, Lynn Byczynski, Growing
for Market, and Dan Nagengast, Kansas
Rural Center
4:30 - 5:00 Closing Remarks, Announcements
Friday, March 21
~ Agenda ~
8:30 - 9:00 Registration
9:00 - 9:30 Opening Remarks and Announce-
ments, Michele Hébert, UAF Coopera-
tive Extension Service-Tanana District
9:30 - 10:30 Farm to Cafeteria and Restaurant
Programs, Dan Nagengast, Kansas
Rural Center
10:30 - 11:00 Break
11:00 - 12:00 Overview of Direct Marketing Op-
portunities for Small Farms, Lynn
Byczynski, Growing for Market
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch on Site
1:00 - 2:00 Is Solar Energy for Farm Business?,
Greg Egan, Remote Power Inc.
2:00 - 2:30 Opportunities as a Cooperator with
the Fairbanks Soil and Water Conser-
vation District, George Hitz, Fairbanks
Soil and Water Conservation District
2:30 - 3:00 Break
3:00 - 4:00 Economics of Scale: The Right Size
for Your Farm and Your Life, Lynn
Byczynski, Growing for Market
4:00 - 4:45 Growers Panel
4:45 - 5:00 Closing Remarks and Workshop
Evaluation

Yaklings, cheese, and the DEC

I'm scrambling to leave for North Carolina for a week this evening. With layovers and all it's 24 hours of travelling. I haven't clarified with some of my contacts yet about linking to their businesses; I want to make triple sure they approve of this blog format. But I will be travelling with 80 pages of dairy regulations from he Department of Environmental Conservation, and a large chip on my shoulder about the USDA. Fortunately there are enough good souls out there keeping local ag alive that it almost balances out the failure of the system.
TBC . . .
and until then, be sure to google-up photos of yak calves. They look like Newfie puppies.

Welcome Back, Cat

It's been almost a year since I was at Overlook Farm. The other blog I've been on all year has taken on the tone of the literary and spiritual struggles of someone growing into herself. It won't be an easy division, but I'll try and keep "farmy" news to this blog and that uber-reflective stuff on the "Goldfinch" blog. I plan on adding links to local businesses and telling you more than you ever wanted to know about yaks, goats, chickens, sheep, dairy science and cheesmaking, eggs and layers/broilers, hand fiber-processing, vermiculture, meat processing and production, how to buy all this in Interior Alaska and how to spread the word. I currently substitute teach, so lesson plans and "Rethinking School Lunch" have also been downloaded on my computer. I have an intense interest in gettting kids and teens into farming, so any info you can throw my way would be great, any local organizations I could help with like FFA and 4-H.
The "ag" season is coming out of hibernation; let's go!