Mother Earth News Fair

When I asked Arthur one day to list the top 10 things he liked about me number 7 on the list was that I recycle.  How recycling made it on the list in front of my legs (in high school one of my nicknames was "Hot Legs Hildebrand") I will never know.  Actually I didn't even recycle before I married Arthur- I'm glad he didn't know that before hand or he might have found another gal.  Anyway, both of us have developed an interest in sustainable living over the past few years.  Much of this has to do with stewardship of the resources that God has blessed us with- whether it be financial sustainability, staying healthy, or more natural resources like reducing energy use or decreasing what we throw away.  Recently we were able to attend the Mother Earth News Fair in Topeka to learn even more about sustainability.  

We first read about the fair in a farming/homesteading magazine that Arthur's grandparents got us for Christmas.  There were three across the country this past year and one happened to be in our backyard- how could we pass up that opportunity?  The seminars on gardening and renewable energy really caught our eye.  We ordered our tickets and waited eagerly.  I mentioned the conference to my mom who is an avid gardener and my parents decided to join us.  My dad may have thought we were all off our rockers at first but it was him who made sure we were on the road by 7am and then strategically planned what exhibits and seminars to attend at what times to get the most out of the day.  Throughout the day there were 6 different hour long seminars.  In between the seminars different exhibitors had booths with their products or information.  Some of these included manufacturers of wind generators or  solar panels, companies with gardening tools or seed, a company that makes portable chicken coops, and a demonstration of a mini lumber mill.  

The seminars were the best part of the day.  We all thought the speakers were great and very knowledgeable on their material.  I attended several gardening presentations throughout the day which was great.  One speaker was a French-Canadian who has a farmers' market garden on 1.5 acres of land and he discussed how the set up of his operation has been key in making it a successful business.  Another lady presented about permaculture which is the study of designing self-sustaining landscapes and environments based off of nature.  For example, in her yard she has a small vegetable garden she plants each year but most of her crops come from perennials such as fruit and nut trees, shrubs, berry bushes, and other edible plants. Two of the other talks were on how to use or preserve your garden bounty to eat it throughout the year.  

The first seminar I (Arthur) attended was on building a home without a mortgage.  The solution advocated by our speaker was to build with mud.  While this probably sounds absurd to most of our readers, take this in hand with the steps it takes to build an energy efficient home (which another speaker spoke to): proper ventilation, closing out all draft areas, allowing for pressure balancing, sealed ductworks (on average, 30% of the energy put towards conditioning air passing through ducts is lost).  A lot of those problems go away when building with mud.  The major drawback that my father-in-law was sure to stress was that such homes are near impossible to insure.
I then attended a lecture on carbon ranching; basically it was a talk about how to see cattle grazing, fire, and river management to better sustain pastureland.  Then it was off to to French -Canadian Alex was talking about.  I would add to her statement that this gentleman was about to produce $140000 worth of revenue per year off of that 1.5 acres.  After that was the speaker on home energy efficiency mentioned above.
The talk that most captivated me, by far, was a discourse on aquaponics.  Aquaponics is a technique for growing food where fish waste is used as fertilizer for plants, which in turn filter the water for the fish.  The idea of creating an ecosystem where all waste is recycled and things abide in complementary fashion is something I find fascinating; Alex and I have already begun talking about such a system for ourselves, so do not be surprised, dear reader, if this is not the last you hear of the subject.
I finished up the day's festivities with a presentation by a man who converted his gas-powered car into an electric one.  A fascinating talk showing what almost anyone can accomplish, unfortunately, battery life still drastically prohibits the pragmatism of the endeavor, especially when one commutes 40 minutes one way.  I have heard of some promising work being done with technology originally contrived by Thomas Edison, appropriately called Edison batteries, but unfortunately my lovely wife doesn't want me playing with any corrosive acids in our basement, so I suppose we're going to wait until electric charging stations become mainstay.

Leading up to attending the fair we really weren't sure what types of people would be there.  We thought it might be a rather eclectic crowd.  Let's just say we probably were not the only people in this crowd who keep worms in their basement.  Most people appeared to be hobby farmers, avid gardeners, or homesteaders.  I loved that the conversation behind me in one line included tips about how to keep free-range chickens from eating everything in the garden. 

 In between seminars I (Alex) met a lady from Minnesota who was in her mid-70s.  She and her husband were planning on installing rain barrels to water their garden.  They would like to put in solar panels or a wind generator but aren't sure how much longer they will be able to live on their farm to make it worth the cost.  In talking to her I realized that Arthur and I are in a unique place right now.  We are in the beginning stages of deciding what "adult life" is going to look like for us. Essentially we have a blank slate to decide what sustainable practices we want to make apart of our life.  But even more than that we are in the "dream" phase.  We don't really know what any aspect of our lives might look like in 10, 20, or 30 years but are just now setting the framework for "us"-- our traditions, values, priorities, etc.  It is kind of a fun place to be- full of possibilities.  Omnia Vincit Amor.