Friends of KP,
When was the last time your hopes relied on a candle successfully burning through the night? What, you’ve never depended on the warmth of candles to ensure the survival of your livelihood? No? Well, you must not be running an Ex-homeless #farming project on a shoestring budget. But you know what: it’s glorious!
Yes, we made it through the recent horrendous weather. And with a few exceptions, we made it through remarkably unaffected. This was not what I expected when I was told last week that record cold temperatures were going to settle in our area for a multi-day period.
When a typical farmer hears this kind of news, it’s terrible. But they get to work, taking down massive bundles of row cover that have been carefully stowed away for just such occasions. When a distributed-farming project, run by the formerly homeless, spread across multiple climate zones hears such news... well, I didn’t go up into the loft, I went down on my knees. And then I did what the #homeless always do when they face such emergencies: I got creative! By last Wednesday evening, our gardens across Central Austin and the Hill Country were being protected from the brutal cold with everything from garbage bags, to tent covers, to a patchwork quilt of stock piled sheets and blankets, and more! I even tried – albeit unsuccessfully– to make my water-filled crock pot a portable heater for our garden in the RV park. Alas, the extension chords wouldn't reach. I settled instead for a ceramic bowl of boiling hot water (100% ice the next morning). But “The Most Innovative Heating Arrangement” award went to our “simple-tech-horticulturist-in-residence, Sam, who valiantly weathered three consecutive 10-15 degree nights in long johns and a camping tent to ensure the survival of three of our community’s gardens in East Austin.
A native son of the freezing cold, Sam comes to the Habitat on Wheels community from Maine where he helped run a nursery before his long journey onto and off of the streets here in Austin. Sam is the kind of guy who grows his own citronella plants for mosquito repellant and constructed a cow-rumen out of two buckets and the right combinationof natural acids to create an artificial manured fertilizer for his #gardens. After exhausting every heating and covering contraption in a multi-household search, it was to Sam I turned. His response to my enquiry surprised me. “Use candles!” He instructed me to place glass enclosed candles [the kind that have religious pictures on the sides of them] underneath overturned clay pots. And then, he instructed me to put those underneath what row-cover we could muster up. He said this would create a miniature infrared oven next to the plants that would keep the temperatures above freezing and the humidity high. That is, so long as the candles kept burning. I felt unsafe about the arrangement until he amazed me by saying he would camp out to keep an eye on the candles throughout the entire cold stretch. He even volunteered– when temp dropped to their nighttime lowest– to spray a layer of water on the plants we weren’t able to find cover for.
Friends, with the help of Sam and God’s grace we made it! The Karpophoreō Project will be letting the plants rest an extra week this cycle but we will be back at the Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market next Saturday (January 23rd). You might even get a chance to ask Sam about his experience as he has begun to join us, selling his awe-inspiring matted photographs taken on bicycle trips across our city and state (Check out this link for examples of Sam's work). If you’re really into biology, and ready to talk for a while, you might also ask him how his rumen works;)
Grace upon grace continues to abound for KP as we are also currently prepping for our first, of what we hope to be many, Backyard Farms in the coming weeks and months. Upcoming events include the Big Dig and Planting for this BF, an info session for those interested in the BF Program, and a live taping of our first KP Podcast featuring our own Mississippi Stiffit. Contact me for more information about these events.
Until then, check out the pictures below, and keep it green and growing...
Steven
P.S. the candles burned out sometime on the third night. Just long enough, Sam informs me, to keep the air temperature ever dropping lower than 34 degrees... ;)
When was the last time your hopes relied on a candle successfully burning through the night? What, you’ve never depended on the warmth of candles to ensure the survival of your livelihood? No? Well, you must not be running an Ex-homeless #farming project on a shoestring budget. But you know what: it’s glorious!
Yes, we made it through the recent horrendous weather. And with a few exceptions, we made it through remarkably unaffected. This was not what I expected when I was told last week that record cold temperatures were going to settle in our area for a multi-day period.
When a typical farmer hears this kind of news, it’s terrible. But they get to work, taking down massive bundles of row cover that have been carefully stowed away for just such occasions. When a distributed-farming project, run by the formerly homeless, spread across multiple climate zones hears such news... well, I didn’t go up into the loft, I went down on my knees. And then I did what the #homeless always do when they face such emergencies: I got creative! By last Wednesday evening, our gardens across Central Austin and the Hill Country were being protected from the brutal cold with everything from garbage bags, to tent covers, to a patchwork quilt of stock piled sheets and blankets, and more! I even tried – albeit unsuccessfully– to make my water-filled crock pot a portable heater for our garden in the RV park. Alas, the extension chords wouldn't reach. I settled instead for a ceramic bowl of boiling hot water (100% ice the next morning). But “The Most Innovative Heating Arrangement” award went to our “simple-tech-horticulturist-in-residence, Sam, who valiantly weathered three consecutive 10-15 degree nights in long johns and a camping tent to ensure the survival of three of our community’s gardens in East Austin.
A native son of the freezing cold, Sam comes to the Habitat on Wheels community from Maine where he helped run a nursery before his long journey onto and off of the streets here in Austin. Sam is the kind of guy who grows his own citronella plants for mosquito repellant and constructed a cow-rumen out of two buckets and the right combinationof natural acids to create an artificial manured fertilizer for his #gardens. After exhausting every heating and covering contraption in a multi-household search, it was to Sam I turned. His response to my enquiry surprised me. “Use candles!” He instructed me to place glass enclosed candles [the kind that have religious pictures on the sides of them] underneath overturned clay pots. And then, he instructed me to put those underneath what row-cover we could muster up. He said this would create a miniature infrared oven next to the plants that would keep the temperatures above freezing and the humidity high. That is, so long as the candles kept burning. I felt unsafe about the arrangement until he amazed me by saying he would camp out to keep an eye on the candles throughout the entire cold stretch. He even volunteered– when temp dropped to their nighttime lowest– to spray a layer of water on the plants we weren’t able to find cover for.
Friends, with the help of Sam and God’s grace we made it! The Karpophoreō Project will be letting the plants rest an extra week this cycle but we will be back at the Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market next Saturday (January 23rd). You might even get a chance to ask Sam about his experience as he has begun to join us, selling his awe-inspiring matted photographs taken on bicycle trips across our city and state (Check out this link for examples of Sam's work). If you’re really into biology, and ready to talk for a while, you might also ask him how his rumen works;)
Grace upon grace continues to abound for KP as we are also currently prepping for our first, of what we hope to be many, Backyard Farms in the coming weeks and months. Upcoming events include the Big Dig and Planting for this BF, an info session for those interested in the BF Program, and a live taping of our first KP Podcast featuring our own Mississippi Stiffit. Contact me for more information about these events.
Until then, check out the pictures below, and keep it green and growing...
Steven
P.S. the candles burned out sometime on the third night. Just long enough, Sam informs me, to keep the air temperature ever dropping lower than 34 degrees... ;)
that is my Flintstones cellphone Skype and mini notebook PC
the mic is at the top of the screen and the screen is faced down and the center of the keyboard is the speaker so the computer doubles as a WIFI enabled cellphone
remember the First cell phones how big and bulky they were well those days are back as you can see in my photo here
Posted by: sam | January 24, 2010 at 08:29 PM