Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Design Course and Roof Work

Hello.  Apologies for the long lapse in posts.  My only excuses are that I've been busy and I am trying to minimize my screen time.   But there is a lot of news and much to share.   

First, I've begun a Permaculture Design Certificate Course at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in Wappingers Falls, NY.  This course is unique in that it meets for two days every other month over a 14 month period, whereas most courses meet everyday for two weeks at that’s it.   It’s taught by Delvin Solkinson.  Delvin has studied with most of the permaculture elders and has combined their teachings into his own unique version of permaculture.  We had our first meeting in October and it was fantastic.   There was a lot of introductory course logistical stuff, but we did start getting into some content, and we took a field trip to Dina Falconi's site in Accord, NY.  Her place was super inspiring.  Check out her book Foraging and Feasting.   It's deep.   It was nice to get to know the other classmates.   It's a great group and I think we're really going to learn a lot together.   This course will certify me as a permaculture designer and allow me to use the permaculture name in what I do.   I see is as the opening of a door.  Once completed there are many opportunities to continue if I want to.  My first objective however is to get some knowledge and experience and "get my house in order", meaning to get the design of our property going.   

Second, October was a bit nuts with the rebuilding the roof of our garage.  It's a great big garage that was the previous owners workshop.   We want to build it into a piano teaching and practicing studio.   But you could literally see through the roof in spots and it leaked terribly.   It was obvious when we bought the place in July 2015 that this roof wasn't going to last much longer.  But we only now felt like we could afford to fix it.  We had some framers tear off the old roof, replace the rafters and ridge pole, put plywood decking on, put a couple skylights in, and put felt paper on.  Then my brother Jake and I with the help of our wife's and my friend Justin put sheet metal roofing on ourselves.   It was a huge job.  Jake and Liz were visiting from MN during Columbus weekend, and that's when we got most of the work done.   The skylights were not in yet though - we had to wait a couple weeks for them, so we finished the roofing with just Akiko and I with a little help from Akiko's sister's boyfriend Erik and his brother Zachary.  There were many helping hands which we were grateful for.   

After getting the roof finished, I immediately went to work repairing the broken windows, a condition that our home insurance company required before including the garage on our policy.   I definitely wanted to get that new roof covered as soon as possible.   The garage has these really awesome factory-like windows with iron or steel grids.  There were a dozen broken panes that I replaced.  I cut glass to the appropriate sizes and installed the using a special putty.   It's called window glazing.  The job would be quite fun if the putty was easier to work with.   It's not as sticky as you'd like it to be.  After that I reconfigured the gutters and rain water collection to complete the first phase of the garage to studio project.  It took a lot of resources to do, but now we can take our time, design the building and slowly build it into our piano studio.   

Permaculture is not just gardening, although I will primarily be blogging about gardening.  “People Care” is one of the ethics of permaculture and the studio in the garage is an important part of us doing what we do here.  We hope to enrich the lives of many students in that space, while providing ourselves with a modest income.  Also, the choice of metal roofing fits into the “Earth Care” ethic.  It is good for reducing cooling needs in the summer as the metal reflects away a lot of the heat.  And it lasts longer than shingles so less resources will be needed in the future.   

Over the past weekend, we did some serious gardening work that I think merits a separate post, so I'll be sharing it with you soon.  

I’d like to take a moment to thank some friends for some needed encouragement.  One of my student’s parents, Ellen, found this blog and sent me a nice email of encouragement.  She said that I seem to be a perpetual learner.  I would agree with that.  Thanks, Ellen.  Also I spent Thanksgiving with some friends and one of them, Lionella, a friend from Brooklyn, mentioned that she and her husband Carlo have discussed how I become dedicated to various disciplines and become good at them.  She was referencing my bread baking, among other things.  Thanks for mentioning that, Lio.  

The encouragement is appreciated.  I have a very good life with a lot of privileges that I try not to take for granted.  It’s true that I like to study and I like to go very in depth with things.  My wife says I get obsessed, and I can’t really argue with her on that.  It’s true and I know my obsessions get annoying to friends sometime.  I like being a learner and I like doing things hands on.  I started with playing the piano.  That was the most serious I’ve ever studied anything, and it’s really the backbone of my life.  All the other disciplines I’ve studied really aim to serve that, and it will probably remain that way until we have kids.  I studied yoga seriously for many years, the idea being that a healthy body and mind would make my piano playing and composing better.  The same goes for food and macrobiotic study, which I also went quite in depth with.  Better health makes for more productivity and more enjoyment out of life.  Bread baking grew out of that.  And permaculture studies fit right into everything too.  Now having acquired some land - even if it’s just a suburban lot - I’ve been given the opportunity to grow some of my own food, and that food will be the highest quality of anything I can get.  I can do this while making the lot a better habitat for all of life from the soil microbes to our neighbors.  And that all feeds into having a rich, happy, healthy life that serves my personal artistic adventures, while striving to make the community around me a better place.  A permaculture aim is to interact with the earth so that your needs as a human are met, while improving the ecosystem instead of depleting it - beyond sustainability to regeneration.  There’s an interesting parallel there.  

Learning to play jazz piano on a high level takes an incredible amount of time and energy.  It’s a lifelong discipline.  I spent years doing nothing but practicing piano, listening, living, breathing jazz.  For me there was no other way of going about it.  It feels that with the study of the other disciplines that I mentioned above, my dedication to music has waned a bit.  Some of my friends have continued to be directly dedicated to their craft.  My dedication has been somewhat indirect over the last several years.  However all of the other disciplines give me something to write music about.  They enrich my life and the artistic journey.  For me art is better when it’s informed by other disciplines.  And I have continued to strive for things as a musician.  My latest home project is called 24 Standards - please check it out.  But when I spend several hours a day in the yard instead of at the piano like I used to, I sometimes question my direction.  So some encouragement, like what Ellen and Lio shared, is appreciated.  I’ll keep moving forward in a multitude of ways….  

Some garage photos:

BEFORE:


Daylight showing through.  

DURING:


Didn't sleep very well that night:

It takes a village:



 AFTER:


Windows fixed.  


Thanks for reading!