SEG : Smart Energy Group

I recently had the opportunity to attend a wonderful celebration hosted by the T'Sou-ke Nation on the South end of Vancouver Island. This celebration marked the completion of their 75 KW solar photo-voltaic and solar hot water installations. It was a beautiful sunny day and you could actually watch the electric meters spinning backwards as the tribe sold clean, renewable electrical power to BC Hydro for the rest of us to use. In addition to a tour of the solar installations, the T'Sou-ke band provided visitors with a feast of salmon from their native fishery and vegetables from their organic farm.

From project conception to completion took less than 1 year. To put this in perspective, it has taken me 8 months to connect our first solar panel and a community group in Duncan has been working for 2 years on a project that would provide solar hot water for 25 households. Currently they are still in negotiations and no systems have been installed. Members of the T'Sou-ke nation were trained in the installation and operation of the alternative energy systems and they performed most of the installations. This included all the band offices and more than half (over 40 homes if I remember correctly) of the houses in the community. The other half should be completed soon. They have now formed the Smart Energy Group to provide assistance and education on issues related to energy conservation, energy security and alternative energy to other native bands - and to the rest of us.

All in all, it is an amazing success story. Clean energy, energy security, green-collar employment, economic development, income from power sales and so on.

As the free Smart Energy Group T-shirts remind us, the T'Sou-ke people have been "Providing Environmental Education to Southern Vancouver Island since 10,000 BCE.

First Solar-Powered blog update

Finally getting around to some long-delayed projects.

Last February we ordered a solar panel kit from our Visa card points catalogue and when it arrived I promptly placed it in a storage shed. There it has set, right where I put it, until yesterday. Finally I made the time to unpack the kit, read the scanty installation guide and set the panel up.

Our EnerG+ 43 Watt solar power kit came complete with a solar panel, overcharge protector, deep cycle battery and an inverter. The most difficult part of the installation was finding a stand for the panel - I chose and old stationary bicycle stand - and deciding where to set things up. Then it was a simple matter of connecting a few cables to get the whole thing running.

I suppose it's fair but after enjoying weeks of bright sunshine, today turned out to be cloudy and cool. Nevertheless, the panel is still producing current. This has given me the opportunity to run an extension cord into the house and use the "free" electricity. So far, I have connected a power bar that supports my desktop computer, LCD monitor, a laptop computer and a few accessories. In spite of the cloudy weather, I have been running for 3 hours or so and the battery is maintaining its' charge.

While a 43 watt panel will not do much to offset our total electricity consumption, it does give us a good opportunity to experiment with solar power. By monitoring power usage at various points in the house, we should learn alot about our overall power usage and find the most effective way to utilize solar power. The construction of our log house also provides us with a great deal of flexibility in running solar power from outside the house to various points inside. If things continue to go well, I expect we will invest in additional panels and batteries to power strategic points around the house.

In addition to this, solar panel kits are a cost effective way to bring electricity to our "off-grid" workshop. and solar power provides us with some additional energy security for the power disruptions that commonly occur on Vancouver Island in the Winter.

All those concrete benefits AND I can honestly say that this blog update is completely carbon- free.

Feasting from the Garden

We visited the eco-village on Thursday and Kailee gave us a wonderful complement. She was chatting with her team-mates from the garden crew and she told them that we have a small garden, but it's so full that it's like a jungle. It is a pretty accurate description.

Not only are we over-run with vines and leaves from all the squash, zuchinni, cukes, peas, beans and tomatoes, - the garden is actually producing food at an amazing rate. We had our first ripe tomatoes about a week ago. Now we are harvesting about 12 ripe tomatoes a day. Zuchinni, cukes and squash seem to appear out of no-where in the oddest places. Peas and salad greens are always in need of harvesting.

Our last 3 meals have been directly from the garden. Squash, beets, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes and zuchinni in various combinations and recipes.

We are truly enjoying the benefits of the 100 meter diet.

Progress in the Garden

We are fully enjoying the amazing blessing of a Vancouver Island Summer. The long days and warm weather are truly wonderful. The weather also seems to have brought an intense level of activity in all areas of our life - and the garden is certainly providing one level of incredible busyness.

Things really grow on Vancouver Island, and this growth is an active and incessant process - almost seeming desperate at times. Certainly this has to do with the warm sunny days. The sun provides about 1000 watts of energy per square meter and the plants are eager to transform this energy into roots, stems, leaves and ultimately fruit. More and bigger leaves translate into more area for collecting solar energy and in turn this gives additional energy to the plant for the uptake of water and soil nutrients and the organization of these nutrients, along with CO2 from the air, into the complex carbohydrate and protein chains that are stored in the fruit and vegetables that we eat. The warm evenings on the Island allow the plants to sustain the growing process, unlike the Calgary area where the plunging temperature send plants into a state of shock almost every night.

All this growth provides a new set of challenges for gardening. First, the weeds are just as eager to grow as the plants we want to nurture. Daily weeding is required to prevent blackberries, thistles, grass and other assorted weeds from choking out the desired growth. Second, our warm and dry Summer weather means we have to provide a thorough watering every day. While these requirements are standard for most gardens, there are a couple of extra things we have learned about our West Coast home. While tomatoes will grow here at a spectacular rate, it turns out that they are highly susceptible to a soil or airborne blight that can destroy your crop just as you are preparing for harvest. It seems this blight can be prevented by keeping the plants dry and clean so we need to cover the plants with plastic, trim all the lower leaves and branches from the plant and water the plants at ground level. Cucumbers, zuchinni and other squash related plants are also susceptible to blight but their insane growth rates make it very difficult to cover the plants. Currently we are hoping that careful watering and the dry weather will be enough to keep the plants healthy - however we also have plans for implementing plastic covered tunnels to provide shelter for these plants. In addition to these challenges, we have to keep up with the incredible growth of the lentils, beans and peas. These plants invest tremendous energy into climbing vines that give their leaves better access to the sunlight. If left untended, these plants can collapse into a dense mat of tangled leaves and stems. However, when supports are provided, they cover the available structures with incredible speed.

While I want to emphasize that the garden doesn't tend itself, I also don't want to sound like I am complaining. The obvious by-product of this growth is a steady supply of fresh and delicious food. So far we have enjoyed a steady diet of salad made from several varieties of lettuce and spinach - supplemented with wild berries. Last week we experienced the incredible flavor of our first vine ripened tomatoes. Early pea pods can already be eaten whole - and the peas should be coming strong in the next few days. Potatoes and beets will be added to next week's menu. Squash and zuchinni should be ready for early August.

The 100 meter diet is an incredible blessing.

Garden Growing

Sorry for lack of updates lately. Life here is hectic, somewhat stressful and tremendously rewarding. The garden is growing well and the cherries are full on - more details later. In the meantime, here's a recent photo.

Garden salad

You have to love Vancouver Island! While Calgary has been struggling with snowfall in June, we are enjoying a beautiful springtime on the Island. For the past week or so, Krista has been making salad from the garden. Tonight Jan and I did the same. There is something about fresh greens -spinach and several varieties of heirloom lettuce- that you just can't buy in plastic from the store.

The wild salmon berries are already ripe and the summer promises to bring an abundance of vegetables and fruit from our small acreage. What an amazing difference from the Calgary region!

Back on the Island - and thanks to all the BCC supporters!

We had a pleasant weekend in Calgary. It was wonderful to see so many family members and friends. The BCC Clean Water Fiesta was amazing. There had to be more than 100 people in attendance at the La Pachanga restaurant for a program that included presentations, a buffet meal, live music and dancing. We don't know how much money was raised in total, but thanks to the generousity of friends at the Community of Christ in Calgary and family members, the evening fund-rasing was already off to an excellent start. With some of the money from ticket sales and the proceeds from the silent auction, there should be enough funding to install quite a few filters!

It was gratifying to see that the entire event was organized and completed while Trevor and Janaki were in Peru and Mexico respectively. The organizers deserve a great deal of credit and it is very satisfying that the Canadian end of the organization has grown so large!

Thanks to everyone who generously supported BCC, came to the Fiesta and to all those who played a role in organizing and running the event!

BCC fund raiser in Calgary Sunday Night

Jan and I are getting ready to leave for Calgary. We are fortunate to be able to attend the first annual fund raiser for Trevor and Janaki's Bolivia Canada Clean Water Network. Sadly, Trevor and Janaki are not able to come to the event. Trevor is working on his master's project in Peru, which is trying to minimize ground-water contamination from a Canadian mining operation. Janaki is working on her master's project, which is a public health study in Mexico city. Interestingly, I just read on the CBC today that Mexico city is also facing a water crisis.

I feel truly blessed to go to this event. When Trevor and Janaki went to Bolivia in 2006, I never imagined how they would impact that country and how Bolivia would impact them. They went out with the intention of helping to start a project for a new Canadian NGO and ended up founding a brand-new organization. It was not easy for them.

At one point, after they had been in Bolivia for about 6 months, Trevor phoned us and expressed tremendous discouragement about the way things had gone. The fledgling NGO was out of money and they were not only covering their own costs (as they had from the beginning) but Trevor and Janaki were also paying for the project costs. Even with that, it appeared the project was doomed because of poor organization, family politics in the NGO and a very high failure rate in casting the concrete filter boxes.

At the end of the conversation, I encouraged Trevor to give up. I logically explained to him that they had less than 3 months left in Bolivia and they had not done any travelling yet. Why didn't they just leave Ascension behind and go see South America?

Trevor patiently explained to me that they felt an obligation to the people of Ascension and he wasn't going to walk away from them. They had promised them clean water and they didn't want to leave until it was done. Then he told me that somehow he knew that if they just kept trying, something good was going to happen soon.

Well, Trevor couldn't have been more right. Trevor and Janaki started a new NGO along with pastor Ernesto of the local pentecostal church. Then they got plans for new filter molds from CAWST and went to a local welder to get the molds constructed. In doing this, they learned the previous organization had built their molds incorrectly and that was the cause of much of their earlier problems. Then another amazing thing happened. People started showing up to help. First Roberto, the assistant pastor stepped forward. Then Philippe, a native of the highlands came by and offered to work for them. Finally Angel, a lowland native came to watch their work and finally came for a job. Then this little group, with somewhat reluctant help from the local municipality, started making water filters to benefit the poorest of the families in Ascension.

I had the privilege of visiting them in Bolivia during April of 2007. They were just getting ready to install their very first filters. Somehow this unlikely group had cut across the deep divides of Bolivian politics, culture and classes to form an organization committed to the common good. When Trevor and Janaki returned to Canada in late May of 2007 there were about 20 filters completed and installed. Today, thanks to the generous donations from family and friends, there must be close to 300 families who are benefiting from clean water.

And to add to that, a wonderful group of people have come together in Calgary to volunteer their time and talents for a fund-raiser to help keep the organization together. It is truly a blessing to be associated with this group of people.

Hope you can all come and support the event!

Sunday May 24 5:00 PM La Pachanga Restaurant 918 12 Ave SW Calgary

The Garden is In!

It has been quite a bit of work, and there were a couple of false starts, but the garden is officially planted. The previous owner of our property in Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island had built a fantastic area for gardening. It is even finished with 8 foot fencing to keep out the deer. Unfortunately, the garden plot had not been worked for the last year or maybe longer and it was badly overgrown.

We got rid of the grass, invasive blackberry bushes and general weeds. Then we terraced the garden and put in raised beds. Finally conditioned the soil and put in the seeds.

Now it is up to the sunshine and the rain. Over to the Creator and the living systems of Creation.

Environmental Preservation- A Matter of Faith

Faith communities are increasingly speaking out about the spiritual dimensions of environmental conservation. This stands to reason - Are you honoring the Creator by destroying the Creation?

Last February, we attended a Shabbaton Sedar at Kolot Mayim - Victoria's Reform Jewish Congregation. This Sedar marked the Jewish Holy Day - Tu B'Shvat - traditionally the New Year for Trees. Increasingly this event has become a focal point for environmental awareness in the Jewish Faith.

At the end of the Sedar, Kolot Mayim invited a young woman from the local Sierra Club to speak about environmental conservation. During the discussion, she related that the local Anglican Congregation had hosted a workshop on the environment last year. During that event, congregation members were invited to fill out a carbon footprint survey. Not surprizingly, the congregation members averaged 11 tons of CO2/person/yr. This is right on the Canadian average for CO2 emissions and it also equates directly to an annual oil consumption of 24 bbls/person/year - right on the Canadian average.

Congregation members decided to look at ways they could reduce their environmental impact and took this as their spiritual duty for the next year. The Sierra Club representative had just met with the congregation and found that the average Carbon Footprint had fallen from 11 tons to 6 tons/person/year. This equates to a decrease in oil consumption from 24 to 13 bbls/person/year.

How was this accomplished?

Some improvements were made by individuals. Each family had done a home energy audit (and followed the recommendations) and personal habits were changed (using more public transit, walking rather than driving, etc). In addition to this, a major contribution was made by car-pooling,buying more local food and grocery shopping as a group etc. The group efforts required more planning and caused some inconvenience. However, they had a major unexpected benefit as well. The congregation had become much closer and began to experience a true sense of community.

It is also interesting to note that a similar Carbon Footprint analysis was done at Koinonia. This survey revealed that the average person at Koinonia was responsible for 3 tons of CO2/yr. That equates to about 6 bbls of oil/person/year. That is about 25% of the American average.

Whenever we think about reducing our energy consumption or our impact on the environment we generally think about all the things that we have to give up. The Victoria Anglican congregation and the people of Koinonia would be quick to point out that we also need to consider what we get in return.

How do you assign a value on closer friendships, a genuine sense of belonging, a simpler life and greater harmony with the rest of Creation?