Saturday, February 23.

9:30 to 3 at the First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive

Please join us!

January 18 – Friday, 19 – Saturday and 20 – Sunday at the Fairgrounds

Check the Home Show website for more info

Schedule below is the final schedule.

356 Horn Lane in the River Road Neighborhood

This is the second of a once a month series at Dharmalaya that describe various aspects of transforming suburbia.  Check back to the COS website for December, January, February and March presentations.

A panel of three home owners who live in the River Road Neighborhood are making big changes to their properties.

Nick bought a duplex house less than a year ago and is already well on his way.  Most of the property is in the back yard where he plans myco remediation, a hugel culture and water feature, green house, trellises, screening for privacy, fruit and nut trees.  The front yard garden is taking shape.

Liz and Aaron have also started their project in the past year.  They have chickens, raised beds, a cob wood fired pizza oven and plans for cultivating the smaller front yard.

Mark has been going full bore for 3 years on his one acre property.  A year ago, he took out the “U” part of the driveway making a much larger part of his front yard productive with winter squash, corn, sun chokes and small chestnut trees.  In the back is a large green house, chickens, a sheltered work area, storage space, expanding garden beds, “industrial scale” worm composting and a lot more happening.

All three will show and tell what they are doing with their properties, why they are making these changes and what they are learning.

This is a great chance to meet home owners in the act of transforming their properties and learn from their experiences.

Feel free to invite others to the companion presentations.  Each $5 donation to the talks will receive a choice of three different colorful and educational posters about greening suburbia. Everyone is welcome to attend.

This presentation the third in a once a month series at Dharmalaya.  Check back to the COS website for upcoming presentations for December, January, February and March.

Wednesday, November 21, 7 PM at Dharmalaya, 356 Horn Lane, River Road Neighborhood

Stan teaches Environmental Politics at LCC.  He is a great educator and includes teaching about permaculture in his classes.  Stan and his wife, Ruth, were part of a Eugene affinity group during the remarkable demonstrations at the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999.  He and others are also currently involved in the effort to depersonalize corporations.

In the November 21 presentation, Stan will describe current events, particularly global financial disarray, from a permaculture perspective. He will touch on environmental trends, the World Bank, IMF, World Trade Organization and more. Understanding global trends and relations is an important part of understanding why neighborhood permaculture is so timely and important.

Feel free to invite others to the companion presentations.  Each $5 donation to the talk will receive a choice of three different colorful and educational posters about greening suburbia. Everyone is welcome to attend.

The Amazon Bee C0-Op will be building a new round of top-bar hives in the coming weeks.  Last year we built and installed 10 hives in the Amazon neighborhood.  We’re anticipating a similar number of new hives this year.

We work together to build top-bar hives (both Warre and Kenya style this year) for the cost of materials, about $70 per hive.

If you’re interested in building a hive for yourself for this year’s bee-season, please contact amazonbees@gmail.com for more information.  We’ll be building very soon…so don’t wait!

Fri. Jan. 21, 6:30pm-7:20pm                 Herbs at Home – Rene Minz
Fri. Jan. 21, 7:30pm-8:20pm                 Victory Gardens For All – Charlotte Anthony

Sat. Jan. 22, 11:00am-11:50am              Raising Urban Chickens – Teresa Damron
Sat. Jan. 22, 12:00pm-12:50pm            Transition Towns – Denise Christine
Sat. Jan. 22, 1:00pm-1:50pm                 Preserving Pickled Foods – Master Food Preservers
Sat. Jan. 22, 2:00pm-2:50pm               Beekeeping – Morris Ostrofsky
Sat. Jan. 22, 3:00pm-3:50pm               Green Living;Getting Children Involved – Mary Wood
Sat. Jan. 22, 4:00pm-4:50pm               Transforming a Suburban Property – Jan Spencer
Sat. Jan. 22, 5:00pm-5:50pm               Finding Free Software – Craig Topham
Sat. Jan. 22, 6:00pm-6:50pm              Worm Composting – Rodney Bloom

Sun. Jan 23, 11:00am-11:50am             Compost Basics – Master Composters
Sun. Jan 23, 12:00pm-12:50pm           Solar Cooking – Carlos Barrera
Sun. Jan 23, 1:00pm-1:50pm                Creating Neighborhood Gardens – Anne Donahue
Sun. Jan 23, 2:00pm-2:50pm               Intersecting Green Living and Green Transport – Doug Black, Tracy Smith, LTD’s Point 2 Point Solutions, Jim Wilcox, BikeLane Coalition
Sun. Jan 23, 3:00pm-3:50pm               Back to Basics: Local Food Initiatives in Bethel Neighborhood – Aleta Miller

What do we need
— to think about
— to know
— to do
in order to build a resilient, green, self-reliant Eugene?

What excites you about creating a truly green Eugene?

What thoughts, questions, resources, knowledge, expertise, gifts and challenges do you want to contribute as we build a resilient Eugene together?

This Saturday’s unconference will tackle questions and issues that have heart and meaning for YOU — and for the other special people coming together to make life in Eugene increasingly green and local.

YOU SHOULD ONLY COME TO THIS EVENT IF YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS TOPIC. If you just have a vague interest, this is not the event for you. Whether we have four people or forty, this unconference will buzz with the passion of its attendees.

A number of folks have already told us topics they want to explore with others, including:

* How can we support each other in taking initiative — and surviving in our lives at the same time?
* What are the next steps in creating a potent Transition Eugene program?
* What organizations already exist and how can they be brought into sync to help create change on a broader level?
* Transforming properties – transforming culture – transforming our economy

Since this unconference will be created by the diverse passionate good people who come, be prepared to be surprised! Bring a lunch and a seatbelt.

Process: Open Space (conferencing co-created by participants)
Facilitator/Host: Tom Atlee

Note: This event is a follow-up to last Saturday’s 10/30/10 Local and Green Eugene conference — and a new beginning to ongoing dialogue and co-creativity among people seeking and working for a more sustainable, resilient local community.

7 PM Harris Hall, County Building 8th and Oak

Slide Assisted Presentation by Jan Spencer

Suburbia is an icon of the American Experience. Half of all Americans live in suburbia.  It provides employment for tens of millions of people.  Its also one of the leading causes of economic disruption, environmental decline, resource depletion and climate change. It is well known for its anonymous culture of not knowing your neighbors landscaped by untold thousands of acres of grassy front and back yards.

The presentation will touch on several creative approaches for transforming suburbia.  Far more of our daily needs can be taken care of at home and closer to where we live.  Many needs that require money can be met with less money or even no money at all by creating home and neighborhood economies.  There are models and examples of these approaches we can learn from and adapt to specific sites and locations.

Transforming suburbia can lead to a remarkable set of benefits such as improving neighborhood safety and security; the environment; economics; human potential; positive culture; global relations and spirituality.

Key words – property conversion, grass to garden, voluntary simplicity, human potential, making time, work parties, existing models, multiple benefits,,,,,,

Join us for a fascinating look at what suburbia can become.  Indeed, what suburbia already has become in an increasing number of places.

Here are a few things Kathy McMahon says, “Is there a sane space between ‘Deadly Doom’ and ‘Doris Day Denial?’ Is there a place for wit when we examine the major challenges of our lifetime: economic depression, environmental degradation, and energy depletion? Is blind optimism itself, a diagnosable mental disorder?
With humor and insight clinical psychologist Kathy McMahon addresses a few of the major challenges of our time and discusses why “all or nothing” thinking is cutting short a more serious conversation about human dilemmas which are utterly hopeless, but not serious.
She’ll introduce Panglossian Disorder with subtypes such as:
• Rhett-Butlerism – (“Peak Oil? Planetary and economic collapse? Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn…”)
• Scarlet O’Hara-ism- (“I’ll just have to think about that tomorrow…”) and
• Frank Zappa-ism: (“As soon as things get really bad, they’ll come up with something”- a belief that necessity is the mother of invention.)
…and other ineffective psychological strategies for handling bad news. What we face aren’t simple problems with clear cut solutions, but are complicated dilemmas that require good humor, mature thinking and the ability to tolerate both unpleasant emotions and joy in the ridiculous. Come join us as we search for a space where we can all be more human than otherwise.

Sponsored by the City of Eugene, NLC Committee on Sustainability and the Whiteaker Community Council.

For more info contact Anand at eekley@efn.org