Holiday Moments...

So, we just passed a big milestone! On November 30th, while my parents were visiting me here in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving, this little guy celebrated his fifth adoptiversary! (You can read about how his adoption came to be here.) He was utterly spoiled by his grandparents with yummy food and treats as you can see.

It's so hard to believe we've had him so long. That would put him around 15 years old as best we can tell.

So as I've been in deep with finishing up the final deliverable for the fall quarter at school whilst shoveling snow... I thought I would take a moment. In honor of the Christmas season, because I love them and because I miss the Sing-Off show where they debuted, I'm sharing a video of Pentatonix singing Little Drummer Boy... enjoy!

Moved...

Once again I am moved to tears about the power of many at the climate march that happened just over a month ago. You can read all about my experience here. This video is so awesome. To see everyone coming together with one goal in mind, coming together to say what is going on is not okay and we need to make a change. Everyone taking a stand for our earth. It was and is amazing. Just as we paused for a moment, all 400,000 of us, we took a moment to recognize the fight, the loss and the magnitude of what is happening. And then to hear a collective sound that was almost deafening... amazing. Just think of what we can do if we all come together. My hope is this inspires all of us to do at least one thing in support of our climate.

Living Machine...

As school has started, I am a little behind in all the things I wanted to blog about. So, I thought I'd take a moment to look back and cover some cool things that have happened.

The first week of school we went on an orientation trip all over Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. We saw so many cool things and continue to learn a bunch every day. As my year progresses, I am committing to sharing all the amazing things I'm learning so we can all join in the process of being more earth-friendly.

On our last day of the orientation trip, we went to see a living machine in Grafton, Massachusetts called the Living Systems Laboratory. A living machine is defined as a form of ecological wastewater treatment designed to mimic the cleansing functions of wetlands. You can read all about this specific one here and here. The story of this site is based on the industrial history of the river.  There was a mill located upstream that produced various types of things over the 150+ years it was in operation on the Blackstone River. It was closed in 1986 and the structure subsequently burned down in 1999 leaving a toxic rubble. Since then the mill site has leeched oils and contaminants into the ground, heavily polluting the river.

In response to this issue, John Todd Ecological Design built a living machine to help with the cleansing of the river. Here's how it works:

First, the water is skimmed and cleansed by passing through these floating islands of vegetation. At this part of the river, the water is murky and when the temperature outside increases, you can see the oils in the river bed rise to the surface creating a nasty film.

They are made to float on the buoyant material below and planted with water-loving plants and fungi that help take up the harmful toxins in the water through their roots, thereby starting the cleansing process.

The water then moves through piping at the bottom of the river and is pumped into the main core of the living machine in this greenhouse.

When it's pumped in, the first station is the fungi station. Water is pumped successively through these fungi-inoculated trays.

Here's a close-up of the fungi in action!

The water then moves to a series of large planted vats resembling ponds. They too are planted with various water-loving plants and fungi. Most of the greenhouse is filled with these large vats containing water and filtering plants/fungi.

  

Here's a close-up of the plant life in the containers.

Just like the fungi trays, the water is successively pumped from vat to vat where it is moved further along the cleansing spectrum.

After the water moves through all these stages, it is pumped back into the river, better than when it came in. This living machine is constantly in motion which is very cool. The plants and fungi that were originally placed in every stage of the machine have changed and other plants have taken over. That is the beauty of nature - it changes and adapts to best work with the situation.

The best thing about this project is that they have measured a considerable reduction in toxins downstream from the living machine. How amazing plants and fungi are. Just think how our world could be improved if we incorporated more of this technology into our everyday lives. It's out there. People have systems even in their own homes where all their grey water is filtered and cleansed so that it can be re-used. Water is a limited resource, something that is hard for especially those of us in the Northwest to comprehend. It should be treated as the precious commodity that it is. I'm so glad places like this living machine are out there doing the hard work to repair what damage humans have done every day.

A little country...

Since moving to the countryside in Massachusetts, I have seen this as an opportunity to take a break from hip-hop-ish music to delve into country again and I love it. I love country because the songs always tell a story and often make me tear up.  I have found a couple songs recently that make me very happy when I hear them so I thought I would share.

Dirt - Florida Georgia Line

Video's a little cheesy but what a great song!


Perfect Storm - Brad Paisley

Enjoy!

Today, I made a statement...

Today I marched in the Peoples Climate March in New York City.  This march, along with other sister marches done in solidarity around the world, was done to bring change and communicate the urgency just days before a UN climate summit.  In New York alone, it was estimated the march brought around 400,000 people.  If you want to read more about it and see lots of photos, click here.

As I sit here, very tired, head and whole body hurting from a long day, I am overwhelmed with emotion in realization of the magnitude of what was done today.  I was a part of a movement making a statement that we are willing to fight for our world.  We're not willing to accept that our children may have a future earth akin to the likes of Mars.  We're not willing to accept plants/species dying, sea levels rising, contaminated water/air and continuous addiction to fossil fuels.  The time for drastic change has come.

I remember this last spring in my low-impact design class my teacher mentioning this march.  I thought to myself... well I will be over there...  Today it became a reality and I marched for a better planet. And even though I'm just one person, each of us together today created a movement, a march.  Just like it's been said before, a rainstorm starts with just one drop.  What are you doing for the earth today?

Changes will come from the power of many; but only when the many come together to form that which is invincible, the power of one.

My View

This is my view.

I am pretty blessed.  The matron of the yard is the biggest sugar maple I have ever seen.  I have chosen to call her Bea.  (This of course would be in honor of Bea Arthur of the Golden Girls, a lady and show I hold dear.)  Bea has pins holding her multiple trunks together so the limbs don't fail and I believe she has a hose that may have once been used to tap sugar.  Her canopy stretches across half of the back yard.  She's quite impressive.

I am now a resident of Ashfield, Massachusetts.  I have a downstairs apartment which is just the basement of a home referred to as a "cape" style.  The back yard feels like my own private oasis when the owner's family isn't here.  It's peaceful.  Ashfield is a rural community that is mostly farms.  Most of western Massachusetts consists of long winding roads dotted with farms, small towns and homes with stands on the front lawn selling harvested vegetables.  It's lovely.  It's a bit humid but completely tolerable which makes for a nice comfortable feeling to lounge in.  At the moment, it's great to be able to take advantage of all the local produce at the mini stands or at farmers' markets as they are just lovely.

I am here to go to the Conway School of Landscape Design which is 20 minutes away.  School starts tomorrow so I thought I would take stock and prepare for what is ahead.  Today my girlfriend of 7 years returned back to Seattle after moving me over and helping me get settled.  This is devastating.  At the moment, it's hard as I think of being alone this year and not having my girl Fynn as well.  The amount of changes that have occurred within the past couple of months, the amount of trials has just been unbelievable but I have come out on the other side.  And at the moment, I have the rare luxury of enjoying the summer warmth while not having anything to do besides put bug spray on and read an assigned book that should be done by now (oops).  It's beautiful, peaceful, and difficult all at the same time.  But how could we not appreciate that beauty if we didn't have the struggle?  So tomorrow starts a new chapter officially, as I move forward in achieving my dreams.  Scary, depressing and exciting all at the same time.


<breathe>

Happy National Dog Day!

Yesterday was National Dog Day so in honor of that, I would like to call out the two important kids in my life, my dogs.

Milo

This brave little guy just accompanied us on our trip across the United States as I just moved to western Massachusetts for a year of graduate school.  On a side note, to describe the last couple of months, it has been very stressful emotionally in our home as we were dealing with moving and dog issues.  So to add the change in home dynamic to driving for 6 days straight and staying somewhere new each night, it definitely was difficult for him.  But he managed it with a bit of ease and is now an east coast dog.  He's settling in, misses me during the day but is maintaining his good guard dog status as he warns us of any potential intruders.  What a trooper, Milo!

Fynn

The other dog in my life is Fynn.  She's my baby, if you haven't noticed, but this past month and a half has proven to be a difficult journey.  For a long time now, Fynn has been having a lot of mobility issues.  Her back legs were giving out and making it harder for her to walk, especially up the few stairs we have to get into the yard.  Her quality of life was suffering incredibly, so on August 8th we put Fynn down.  It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life.  In the end, she knew what was happening and showed us that she had been fighting to move and work through the pain more than we knew.  There are so many things that would not have been possible like moving across the country with a dog that could no longer get into the car on her own.  The important thing is that now she is no longer in pain and is able to be with her mom and pops, running on the beaches of heaven.

I miss her every day.  Every day things get easier but there is still a large hole in my heart.  She was such a big part of my life, my baby girl.  She always knew when I was sad and would get up and come and check in with me.  She was a comfort, a friend, and the best dog a girl could ever ask for.

Your mama loves you, Fynn.