Mapmakers

Both Joe and Greg have been making maps of the land. I love to see what they discover. Here's a map Greg made based on GPS readings. He intends to update it periodically.   To get the best view, click on the image and zoom in. 

When I get Joe's big, colorful map scanned in, I'll post it here.

2 Kids + 1 Kid = Effortless

My friend is pregnant with her third child.  Sometimes I wonder if she has completely lost her mind.  How will she do all the work of having three kids and not go postal someday?  Last night, though, I started to think she's onto something.

Dmitri and Sylvanna have been traveling to each other's houses to play.  Both households have noticed that a third child seems to make everything easier.  They're so absorbed in each other that we get to be absorbed in something else for a change.  How refreshing!  I love my children, and I love it when they're not asking me for something.

I just realized an error in my mathematics.  I did not count in my own dear Sue, making the child total four.  As she is nearly always fused to my hip, I forget that we're different people.

At the Woinoski's house, though, it's irresistible. She has to get down and explore. She wants to participate!

Last night Steve called me to report that Dmitri had fallen asleep.  All I had to do was trot over there, pick up my adorable guy, and carry him home to our bed.  Life without carseats is grand!

White Hawk Information Session & Tour

Isn't it time you came for a visit?  Drop by Sunday, March 21, between 11am and 4pm.  Tour our homes, walk the land, and sample fresh maple sap.  To find us, google 1704 Danby Rd., Ithaca, NY  14850.  Head up White Hawk Lane, parking on the left at the top of the hill.  See you soon!

Connections

I think many of us coming to community are looking for connections, so it's especially delicious when new connections pop up for me.

Amanda Jaros contacted me about a wonderful new website called Parents for a Peaceful Planet. I used to think I'd choke on a group like this because I was so darned tired of trying, but she creates such a wonderful vibe on her site that I joined right up.

And more connections!

Our sweet home was built by Amanda's partner, Rob, of Creative Constructions. The best way to sum up the experience with Rob is that he builds a house with love. He knows what he's doing and really cares. Feels like the whole house is infused with the good feeling with which it was built. Rob, quite literally, is a Champion. (That's his last name.)

Laura and Steve adopted a chicken from Rob, the very sweet Spooky.

Unfortunately, I only have a picture of her butt. All the way to the left! That Buster (the rooster) is always front and center. It's appropriate that she has her head down to eat because Joe(this guy)

has made a special favorite of her and loves to give her snacks.

So there you go. How many degrees of connection is that? It's starting to feel cozier at White Hawk. :)

Rich's Eye for Design

No, this children's fireplace is not at White Hawk, but wouldn't it be neat if it were?

Rich, a future White Hawker and sustainable designer, let us know about this outdoor playspace built from leftover construction materials in Trondheim, Norway.  Certainly gives us ideas for future projects...

Coming to White Hawk: A Coppice Grove

At the January meeting, we approved a proposal by Greg and Marty for a coppice grove. Here's their proposal:

BACKGROUND

Our heating systems use natural gas, which has become a battleground issue in NY because of hydrofracking. Greg & I have elected to heat with wood almost exclusively as part of our protest against the proposed lack of regulation in that industry. Also, as fossil fuels grow more expensive over the coming years, natural gas heat will become harder for all of us to afford. Wood heat is the simplest alternative to fossil fuels, so we can predict that many people will convert to wood as fossil fuel prices rise. Currently wood is readily available in our region, but as more people start using it we can expect its price to rise along with fossil fuel prices.

We would like to plan ahead for this situation by establishing a coppice grove to supply firewood for Greg's home. Coppicing differs from conventional woodlot management in that trees are selected that will regrow from the root stumps after cutting. Each stump sends up several new shoots that will be allowed to mature to harvestable size and cut again. Trees that are managed in this way can regenerate indefinitely, and the established root system produces more rapid growth than replanting with seeds or saplings.

BENEFITS

* We would eventually become self-sufficient in meeting our heating needs.
* We would develop expertise in coppice management for others to draw on.
* A coppice grove would diversify our ecological environment. In England, where coppice groves have been established for millennia, they form a unique ecosystem that is distinct from either forest or meadow.
* Woodlands provide a more stable climate than cleared areas. They are less affected by global warming, with the potential to diminish the impact of winter winds and summer heat and drought.
* The grove will help to offset our carbon emissions. The standing biomass, even after we begin harvesting, will be much greater than what is currently present in the cleared areas, and the root systems will continue to grow.
* As the trees mature, the shaded area under them will be available for others who wish to grow shade-tolerant crops (e.g. medicinal herbs, mushrooms.)
* Some firewood species also have other uses, such as food for humans or wildlife, wood for other uses, or living fences.

GROVE SIZE

How much firewood can a coppice grove produce? For a sustainably managed conventional woodlot, I've heard numbers ranging from half a cord to a cord of firewood per acre per year. Coppice groves are reputed to produce up to five times as much. If this productivity is actually realized, we should be able to heat Greg's house on half to one acre. However, younger trees may produce lower yields, and some trees may die due to weather extremes or pests or disease (such as emerald ash borer or oak blight.) We would like to allocate at least two acres, both as a buffer against potentially lower yields, and to make it possible to expand the grove to accommodate additional households.

SPECIES SELECTION

Tree species will be selected based on the following properties:

* Quality of firewood (high heat, low smoke, ease of use)
* Growth rate
* Ability to regrow after coppicing
* Tolerance for wet and clay soils
* Suitability for our bioregion (native trees preferred)
* Resistance to known pests and diseases, including deer and rabbits
* Variety (polyculture, not monoculture)

The following species are currently on our list of possibilities:
Sweet birch, river birch, red maple, silver maple, red oak, pin oak, white oak, swamp white oak, osage orange, crabapple, mountain ash, walnut, mulberry, wild black cherry, black locust, honeylocust, sycamore.

This list may change as we learn more about the different species. Trees will be purchased from local and regional sources, for example the Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District annual tree sale, Musser Forests in Pennsylvania, or St. Lawrence Nursery.

PREFERRED LOCATION

The grove should be accessible enough to manage and harvest, but away from areas that are most suitable for agriculture and orchards. We need a ready source of water for new saplings. We would like to use land that is likely to be retained in the event of a partial land sale.

The spot that comes to mind is SW of the existing homes, in the meadow between the topsoil pile and the deer stand. In that location it could function as an extension of the permaculture belt, connecting the area around the village with the woods along the stream.

One of the species we are considering is Osage Orange, which has a long history of use as a windbreak and living fence. Osage orange is a bear to work with because of its thorny nature, but it provides more heat per cord than any other wood, and it grows rapidly, coppices readily, and tolerates a wide range of soil types and weather conditions. We might want to establish a hedgerow of osage orange around the perimeter of the potential orchard site east of the parking lot, between it and the stream.

We are willing to consider other suggestions.

TIMELINE

We would like to select a site and plant an initial group of trees this spring. We will add trees each year for the first decade, at which point the first group of trees should be ready to begin harvesting. Most trees will be harvested every 10 to 20 years, though kindling wood may be harvested more often.

Chickens!

This just in from Rich:

"Andreas, my teaching partner at Yestermorrow, is getting pretty good press for his chicken coops, the result of much research into what makes chickens 'happy': modern: Modern living for the birds. They are in production in CA where raising chickens has become all the rage in Berkeley and other urban settings."  

Who is Rich?  He'd like to live here one day, and I'm working on a profile of him to share soon.

And because I like photos, here's Buster, another resident of White Hawk.