Volunteer Voices: Working on the Solar Warrior Farm and Loving Every Bit!

by Patrick Hall, TWP’s Solar Warrior Farm Intern 
What an exciting season it’s been! The farm seems to have a life of its own. I’ve been surrounded by farming my whole life, I’ve seen bits and pieces throughout the seasons, and I’ve studied a little and talked about it with friends, but I haven’t actually done farming myself. So in a way, this has been a very new and experimental opportunity for me. I’ve grown and learned so much just by listening to the winds and watching nature.

The Solar Warrior Farm is thriving despite some setbacks earlier in the season, thanks to the hard work of Patrick Hall!

One difficulty I had early in the season was that the truck we use for hauling things and making store runs broke down, so I’ve been unable to get a lot of the supplies that I would like. However, that allowed me to focus on what I DO have and how I can utilize those things to reach my end goal. This season’s theme has been success and failure. Two steps forward, one step back. We started off with a late frost killing ALL of the transplants. Ouch. But with determination, we grew enough seedlings and talked to enough organizations in Fort Collins, CO to resupply.

However, I had never worked with irrigation before. So during this lag time between extermination and revitalization, I began experimenting and learning. Even after the plants came into the ground, I was still puzzled about certain aspects of irrigation. I still play around with it, trying to maximize the amount of water the plants are getting, only to realize I need a lot more emitters. So I bought some more — they were the wrong type. So I bought some others from somewhere else — they didn’t work. And we were buying hundreds at a time, so I really hope I can get some emitters that do WORK because these plants need more water!

Patrick Hall (left) works with volunteers to produce local food on the Solar Warrior Farm on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Something I truly appreciate is the magic of this place. Listening to stories of the elders, reading books written by medicine men, visiting sacred sites and hearing the spirits’ call, this has been a beautiful place to reside. I’ve left the farm a few times to go to a sweat lodge or go hiking with a friend, but for the most part, I’ve been staying right here. We even had a local mama turtle lay her eggs in one of the garden beds! Good turtle medicine, showing signs of fortitude and persistence, which was really helpful for me at the time. Tankashila (Grandfather Spirit) blesses me with what is needed, not just what I want. I’ve had a friendly face show up just as I begin to get lonely; a volunteer engineer shows up on the day that I was determined to put together the irrigation system and much more.

Trees, Water & People is a unique nonprofit working to find solutions to some major issues on the Pine Ridge Reservation. If you like the work they’re doing, show it by supporting projects like the Solar Warrior Farm.

 

Indigenous Permaculture: Creating Space for Others in Our World

Instructor Shannon Francis facilitated a 3-day workshop about Indigenous permaculture and food sovereignty.

by Jamie Folsom, National Director

We’ve just concluded our first food sovereignty workshop at the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center. Students participated in hands-on projects around the Solar Warrior Farm – renewed the compost bins, created a long-row of sheet mulching that will be a great home for seedlings next spring, and made some wonderful food to share. But meanwhile, we also talked about those bigger issues of community organizing, advocating on the national level across tribes, starting shared garden spaces in cities, and integrating solar technologies into the farm. These discussions were why we titled this event “More Than Food: An Indigenous Food Sovereignty Workshop.”

Students learned about food sovereignty from growing to cooking local, organic foods.

Shannon Francis (Hopi/Dineh) facilitated our three days together, walking us through not only contemporary permaculture, but permaculture that begins with the values and principles of our ancestors, brought forward to today’s world.

One lesson I took away from the workshop was how to create spaces that allow us to grow food we need for our families that also allow, welcome, make use of, and feed other animals and plants. Besides putting up fences to keep our food safe from larger animals, we can also create areas where animals – butterflies, turtles, rabbits, elk, etc. – are also fed and housed. We can take another look at “weeds” and see them as the medicines, the indicators of soil health, the food for us and others. They are related to us, and we are related to them.

Care for the land and the land will care for us.

This way of making a garden or farm comes directly from our traditions about thinking of others, sharing what we have, and providing for our community. I believe these values are the basis of the indigenous permaculture movement, and can take us from growing better food, to growing better relationships. Thank you, Shannon and all those who participated for bringing your knowledge and experience to this workshop!

Local, organic food for the soul

Solar Water Pump at Solar Warrior Farm

Eat fresh food!

Workin’ the compost!

Volunteer Trip to Pine Ridge: Sept. 11-14

Take this opportunity to travel to our Tribal Renewable Energy Program’s headquarters on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Although it is only a five hour drive from the Trees, Water & People office in Fort Collins, Colorado, a trip to Pine Ridge will offer volunteers an unforgettable cultural experience and an opportunity to help complete sustainable building projects at the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center (RCREC). Plus, we will be getting our hands dirty at Solar Warrior Farm! This is a wonderful way to give back, make new friends, and learn about the Lakota culture.

Volunteer Trip – Strawbales and Harvest Time

Where: Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, Pine Ridge Reservation, SD
When: Thursday, Sept. 11 – Sunday, Sept. 14
Who: Flexible volunteers who like adventure, hard work, lots of fun, and all kinds of weather. Volunteers 14-18 are welcome with adult companions.
Why: To help complete two of our strawbale demonstration houses, put a finish coat on the LSE office building and help bring in the harvest from the Solar Warrior Farm
Volunteers are invited to arrive any time on Thursday, Sept. 11. We will host full work days on Friday and Saturday and a half day on Sunday. Projects will end by 1:00 pm on Sunday, and volunteers are welcome to head home any time on Sunday, Sept. 14 or stay longer and help us put a final coat on our strawbale houses and compressed earth block offices!

Food:
• TWP will provide volunteers with meals and snacks during the trip.
• Food purchased by TWP will be simple and tasty, but feel free to bring any food you desire. We will send out a meal plan as the date comes near.
• TWP cooking equipment and utensils will be available for use.
• Volunteers will help in preparing all meals and with cleaning up afterwards.

Transportation:
• All volunteers are responsible for their own transportation and related costs getting to Pine Ridge.
• We will be happy to coordinate carpools where possible.
• Our facility is located down a short dirt road. Many sedans have traveled it without any problems.

Lodging:
• Beds will be available for volunteers at the Sacred Earth Lodge. Camping is also a great option during this time of year1 Campers on the Red Cloud Renewable Energy campus must bring their own camping equipment (tent, sleeping bag and pad, etc.). Weather is unpredictable, so only those comfortable in the outdoors should camp.

Sacred Earth Lodge

To volunteer, please email the following information to Assistant National Director, John Motley, at john@treeswaterpeople.org:
1. Name of all people in your volunteer party
2. Email addresses for all people in your volunteer party
3. Your cell phone number
4. Which days you have available to travel to and work in Pine Ridge
5. Where you will be coming from and returning to (e.g. many people will be coming from Fort Collins, CO)
6. Whether you will be camping or require a bunk in our loft (first come, first served!)
7. Do you need a ride?
8. Can you offer a ride – if so, to how many people?
9. Any other questions you may have?
Once I have confirmed your spot, I will email you directions to the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center and provide you with additional details.

For more information and to register as a volunteer, please contact John Motley via email at john@treeswaterpeople.org or by phone at 970-484-3678.

Bonus Day – Donations matched 50% today!

Today is a Bonus Day at GlobalGiving.org! When you donate to one of our projects on GlobalGiving today, your donation will be matched 50%. Plus, the organization with the most individual donors will receive a $1,000 bonus!

DONATE to one of the following projects that support renewable energy and economic development on tribal lands:

There is only $130,000 in matching funds available, so please don’t delay in making your gift!

Food for Thought: Food Security vs. Food Sovereignty

by Jamie Folsom, National Director

Most of us know the story of teaching someone to fish. But the fight against hunger has shifted greatly in the last decade. We are telling a new story – a story about sharing skills and knowledge back and forth, respecting and valuing tradition, and recognizing a great opportunity when we see it.

The difference is in the language we use and what we mean when we say “sovereignty” versus “security.” When we hear “security” many of us think of a one-way interaction – I am giving food to you. It is the way government food subsidy programs have typically been designed, particularly in Tribal communities. The focus is often on access to food, no matter where that food came from or how it was produced.

Support Food Sovereignty on the Pine Ridge Reservation! VOTE for Solar Warrior Farm in the Gardens for Good contest.

Food sovereignty refers to people determining for themselves who, how and where food is produced for their families and communities. To do this, they must draw upon traditional strengths and ways of knowing, as well as integrate new technologies and new opportunities. This is powerful stuff not only for those communities, but for those who hope to help them.

This is no longer a one-way street, but a call to learn from young people, elders, warriors and mothers. Native people have been successfully producing, preparing, storing food in creative and effective ways for eons. Native people connect with that legacy, and so food sovereignty means more than just getting healthier food on the table. It is reclaiming traditions and teaching others because in the current era, we are all in jeopardy of losing control of the where-how-who of our basic food/water needs.

Trees, Water & People (TWP) fully supports the rights of Native communities to self-determination through food sovereignty. We changed the name of our program to reflect our commitment to the bigger picture and the realities of the families we work with. We’re not only giving or teaching people to fish, we are working together with them to find better ways to fish so we all benefit in the long run. Yakoke!

To learn more about TWP’s Food Sovereignty Program click here.

Notes from the Field: A New Growing Season at Solar Warrior Farm

We love our volunteers!

Not even a Mother’s Day snow storm could hold back the early plantings at the Solar Warrior Farm (SWF) and Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center. Hardy cabbages survived and are ready to greet the next sets as they arrive. May is a funny month in Zone 4, but many of the gardeners on the Pine Ridge Reservation are happy to see the last frost behind them and they are ready to start more of those early crops of spinach, cabbage, carrots, radishes and raspberries.

Anna and Caroline share gardening stories in the sun.

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Lakota elder and seasoned garden expert Caroline Cuny. She helped us welcome our new Solar Warrior Farm Coordinator for the season – Anna Dunlap, a student from Berea College in Kentucky. A lifetime organic gardener, Anna still had many questions about what works best in the particular microclimates on Pine Ridge. It really takes knowledge and experience to sense what the season might be like this year, and we are very thankful that Ms. Cuny could spend a day, have some lunch and share her time and talents with our crew.

And about those other tasks… The SWF needed some TLC. The beds are tilled, the plantings mapped out and visions of big, juicy tomatoes danced in our heads, as we mucked out the solar powered water tank, weeded the cabbages and cleaned out a space for work tables and starters in the greenhouse. Thanks to Uma Black Hawk-Wilkinson from the Cheyenne River community for helping with those efforts.

It just seems when help is needed, people show up. Trees, Water & People likes to be able to show up for others as well. In 2014, we plan on sharing more veggies and sharing knowledge through more workshops on gardening – focusing on traditional Lakota recipes and healthy eating. Gardening is a perfect time to bring young people and elders together, and helps keep Native communities strong.

We hope you will donate to this important project and consider visiting RCREC and Solar Warrior Farm in 2014. Stay tuned and watch us grow!

Notes from the Field: Always plant extra for the animals!

by Jamie Folsom, National Director

Sharing knowledge about gardening with Lakota elders. (L to R: Jamie Folsom, Caroline Cuny, Henry Red Cloud, and Ivan Looking Horse)

Sometimes the best lessons come in very short stories, especially in the middle of a very busy work day.

The busy work day was during my recent trip to Pine Ridge with a group of volunteers – mixing mud, plastering, gathering clay and hauling it back to the worksite – all to repair one of the demonstration straw bale houses at the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center.  We were very lucky to have Henry take a break from his work to spend a few minutes sharing his ideas and advice over some fresh tea.

Talking about the Solar Warrior Farm project, he said they always plant more than they need. He described watching the rabbits, horses, deer and other animals munching away in the garden with a certain fondness and joy. Not the most typical attitude toward animals in the garden (think Farmer McGregor and poor Peter Rabbit).

Hailey, a Lakota teenager, works on mudding the straw bale home at the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center.

But then he said, “It’s OK for them to eat food that’s right there in their house. That’s still their house even if it’s part my house, too. I know if I went in my house and saw free food, I’d eat it, you know? So, I always plant extra food for the animals!”

Thank you Henry for sharing what you do and what you have with others around you, and helping remind me of how we can do this every day in our homes, our relationships and our work.  Yakoke!

Bonus Day – 30% match on donations!

Today is a Bonus Day at GlobalGiving.org! Make your donations go even farther. When you support one of our projects on GlobalGiving today, your donation will be matched by 30%. Plus, the organization with the most individual donors will receive a $1,000 bonus.

Support one of the following projects that help both people and the planet:

P.S. There are only $75,000 in matching funds available, so don’t delay in making your gift today. 

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities at the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center!

Volunteer power!

Take an opportunity to travel to our Tribal Renewable Energy Program’s headquarters on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  Although it is only a five hour drive from the Trees, Water & People office in Fort Collins, Colorado, a trip to Pine Ridge will offer volunteers an unforgettable cultural experience and an opportunity to help get the land and Solar Warrior Farm ready for another season and to make progress on completing our three straw bale houses! This is a wonderful way to give back, make new friends, and learn about the Lakota culture.

Volunteer Trip #1 – Lakota Journey of Fire and Service

Where: Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, Pine Ridge, South Dakota
When: Thursday, April 24 – Sunday, April 27
Who: Flexible volunteers who like adventure, hard work, lots of fun, and all kinds of weather. Volunteers 14-18 are welcome with adult companions.
Why: To help clean up the land and get the Solar Warrior Farm ready for another season

This trip will be very special as it is when we bring up a team of fire dancers who will work during the day and spin fire at night in an amazing cross-cultural experience!

Volunteers are invited to arrive any time on Thursday, April 24. We will host full work days on Friday and Saturday and a half day on Sunday. Projects will end by 1:00 pm on Sunday, and volunteers are welcome to head home any time on Sunday, April 27 or stay longer and help us work on our Strawbale houses (see below). Projects will vary and will not take place in a climate-controlled environment, so be prepared for any weather!

Volunteer Trip #2 – Building Affordable and Energy Efficient Tribal Housing

Where: Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota
When: Thursday, May 1 – Sunday, May 4
Who: Flexible volunteers who like adventure, hard work, lots of fun, and all kinds of weather. Volunteers 14-18 are welcome with adult companions.
Why: To continue our work on our three Strawbale homes.  A great helping and learning experience!

Projects will vary and will not take place in a climate-controlled environment!

Food:

• TWP will provide volunteers with meals and snacks during the trip.
• Food purchased by TWP will be simple and tasty, but feel free to bring any food you desire. We will send out a meal plan as the date comes near.
• TWP cooking equipment and utensils will be available for use.
• Volunteers will help in preparing all meals and with cleaning up afterwards.

 
Transportation:

• All volunteers are responsible for their own transportation and related costs getting to Pine Ridge.
• We will be happy to coordinate carpools where possible.
• Our facility is located down a short dirt road. Many sedans have traveled it without any problems.

 
Lodging:

• Campers on the Red Cloud Renewable Energy campus must bring their own camping equipment (tent, sleeping bag and pad, etc.). Weather is unpredictable, so only those comfortable in the outdoors should camp.
• There will be a variety of bunks available in Quonset #1, but please bring your own bedding (sheets, blanket, pillow, etc.). The room may be co-ed and may have up to 10 people per room.

Please email the following information:

1. Name of all people in your volunteer party
2. Email addresses for all people in your volunteer party
3. Your cell phone number
4. Which days you have available to travel to and work in Pine Ridge
5. Where you will be coming from and returning to (e.g. many people will be coming from Fort Collins, CO)
6. Whether you will be camping or require a bunk in our loft (first come, first served!)
7. Do you need a ride?
8. Can you offer a ride – if so, to how many people?
9. Any other questions you may have.

Once we have confirmed your spot, he will email you directions to the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center and provide you with additional details.

For more information and to register as a volunteer for trip #1, please email Mariah at nonsequitur47@yahoo.com.

For more information and to register as a volunteer for trip #2, please email Jeff Hargis at jeff@treeswaterpeople.org.

Notes from the Field: The Lakota Adventure Continues

by Teague Walsh-Felz

It’s September which means two things: First, I’ve now been living in Pine Ridge for two months and am reaching the halfway point of my Lakota Adventure. Second, it means that we are now less than two months away from the opening of the Sacred Earth Lodge (SEL). I’ve been splitting my time between working on the construction and finishing of the Sacred Earth Lodge and working at Solar Warrior Farm. We have been having back to back volunteer weekends, which pretty much eliminates my own weekends while I help manage crews of volunteers. The internet at the compound has been down for almost a month now so my communication has been limited to a weekly trip to the coffee shop.

Life on the Rez picked right back up after returning from a relaxing weekend spent in Sturgis for the bike festival. Immediately, I was thrust back into the swing of things and was working both the garden and working on the Sacred Earth Lodge. Rez life is not for everyone. If you aren’t okay with scabbed and bitten ankles, regular brushes with poison ivy, stinging nettle, spiders, ticks, and plenty of paint fumes then it’s gonna be a rough time here.

Two weeks ago we had our first ever Native American Green Business Development training here at the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center. It coincided perfectly with a septic problem that required the entire sewage line to be dug up. I spent the first two days of that week digging and searching for breaks in the line with Paul, one of Henry’s regular workers.  We ended up finding two separate breaks in the sewage line, repairing them and then burying them back up. As soon as we finished up that job I got hit by an unfriendly stomach bug that made it impossible to hold down anything I ate. I wont go into much detail about that but while that was going on I facilitated a canning class – another first for us. As part of our Food Security Program, we hosted this course, offered by the amazing Teresa Holbrook. Earlier in the week I met with two women from Colorado Aquaponics and visited a woman’s home garden to give advice. The two women from Colorado Aquaponics gave me advice on getting the greenhouse running. I think I’ll wait to tackle that after the 11th of October.

Keeping the volunteers busy!

After the business class finished and I got my health back I was at it again. This time networking with a woman in Porcupine who has been running a small greenhouse and garden as a side project from the college to show the financial gains/losses of growing food. I helped her lay 14 foot fence poles in order to create an outdoor chicken coop and gave some advice on planning for next year. When I got back to the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center I found one of my bosses, Richard, showing a group of volunteers around. A few more volunteers trickled throughout the weekend (including an old CSU classmate of mine) and we got a lot done at the Sacred Earth Lodge. We are finishing up the electric and getting ready to hook up the toilets, sinks, washer, dryer, and water heaters. We have a little bit of drywall to finish up and a wall to extend before this weekend when another volunteer group shows up.

Tonight I’ll be passing out close to 100 lbs of fresh veggies with Henry. Most of the recipients are local Lakota artists who gather every Wednesday to sell their wares. Last week I did the same with close to 60 lbs of cucumbers and squash. It’s great to sit and talk with different community members about their stories and about their life. The garden has been exploding with cucumbers and squash. The tomatoes are just starting to give red fruits, and the corn is tall and strong. Some stalks are over 10 feet tall. The lettuce is about to be harvested and the onions will be ready soon. The drip irrigation is working wonderfully and there has been plenty of rain for extra growth, which is both a blessing and a curse for me as more rain = more weeds, and there are already plenty of weeds.

All in all there is only more work to be done now, with the deadline approaching for the Sacred Earth Lodge, and bigger harvests just around the corner, I’m surprised I have time to sleep. Officially, I am not expected to work more than 40 hours a week, but how can I expect myself to stick to a standard work week when I can see how much needs to be done and how much I can help?