From now until August 1, Ryan will be taking on projects completely of his choosing related to his passions for sustainability, public policy, ways to “make things easier” for folks to live sustainably, and also spending valuable “unstructured time” in nature! You could call it a “self-designed sustainability camp” of sorts. All of his research and projects will go forward with him on his path of leadership, and he will share it all through his own blog and through our organization.

Apart from his activities on sustainability, he is joining eight other students this summer, living in a St. Olaf honor house in a community. These nine students will be preparing meals together, reflecting on their experiences, and will have the opportunity to engage in retreats and leadership programming throughout the summer.

All of us with the CSL have recognized for some time now that many of us lead busy lives full of “tasks” that have little to do with our passions, or the interaction with nature - much less finding ways to live a more sustainable life. And, in much the same spirit as the former Village School (which the Center for Sustainable Living had a hand in helping with visioning and bylaws for this former charter school), Ryan will be guided to form his own learning and research plan, engaging in projects and activities of his choosing.

His experiences and findings can be an invitation to others on how a person might take a journey into exploring the issues they care about. Stay tuned as we’ll journey with him!

You can check out Ryan’s Blog from time to time to see what he’s up to! We’ve added a link to it on our sidebar as well. Enjoy!

Here are some interesting local blogs that we thought we’d highlight that have a sustainability or grassroots community organizing “bent” to them. This list is not inclusive, so if you have others, please share them with everyone in the comments!

• Living in Northfield is a blog by Marcea Frasier, who takes long bike rides, works at Valley Creek Community Farm, makes her own soap, and home schools her children.
• Olivia Frey, our secretary for CSL, has a new blog called Make/Do, where she shares insights and sustainable tips about living more simply. Every post she has a “make/do” tip!
• In Penelopedia, Penny Hilleman talks about her adventures in gardening, bird watching, finding abandoned wasp nests, and living lightly in the world.
• Bruce Anderson hosts a blog on his site, Sustainable Community Solutions. He’s been very busy organizing folks around the issue of cohousing in Northfield.
• Bill Ostrem’s blog, Northern Letter, discusses topics of sustainability, bicycling, energy, and climate change.
• Scott Schumacher (yours truly), has moved his blog to a new site entitled A River Between, where he speaks about unschooling, holistic healing, sustainable living, and raising a more natural dog, Junebug.

If there are more blogs out there, please let us know! We hope you enjoy peeking into the lives of a few Northfielders who are taking steps to live a more sustainable life.

You can view all of the details of this request, plus post your own ad for anything you’re looking for, willing to trade, or willing to give away on our new Community Bulletin Board!

As well as a place for free exchanges and trades, you can continue discussions with regard to Permaculture and the Northfield Commons Café!

Click here to join our bulletin board, or click the link on our sidebar!

Many thanks go out to Northfield Tractor and Equipment for donating tilling services to the Greenvale Park Community Garden! After much wet and rainy conditions, the soil was finally ready to be tilled.

Let the planting begin!

Pictures will be coming soon of the event!

Here are the questions that came out, all unedited. In our next café, we will wrench through these questions, and begin talking about how we might go about answering them. If you would like to join the discussion, these questions will also be posted on our new Bulletin Board - just register and start the discussion!

Our Questions:

• What are initial steps we can take to make our vision come true?
• Which ideas should we concentrate on first?
• What are our current resources and how can we share those resources now?
• How can we not seem isolated from the rest of the community? Are we just talking to ourselves?
• How will we elect good leaders?
• Could this group serve as a source of reliable information that could help us build community? (Including information about forces that threaten community)
• How can we engage farmers in the conversation on economic sustainability of farm land?
• How do we convert Ag Land to Farm Land, and how do we distinguish between them?
• How can we influence the creation of future urban co-housing at a city planning and development perspective (including self-reliance, sustainability, diversity, animal friendly, edible landscape, permaculture)?
• How can we strengthen the true feeling of community within our community?
• What can we do next - besides meeting and talking?
• How do we get from our visions to reality?
• What are the small (or big) steps we can make NOW?
• How do we (well meaning, idealistic people with many separate visions of what would be good to work on) come together and settle on ONE doable plan?
• How do we determine what is doable (practical, within the range of the possible)?
• How do we fund any concrete plans we put into play?

Please join us tonight for our first of many Northfield Commons Café discussions. In these cafés, we will come together - ALL as leaders, to envision and create the community we wish to see - from the grassroots up!

We’d love for you to be a part of something we are very excited about!

Northfield Commons Café #1
“Drawing out our critical questions”
Thursday, May 15, 2008
7pm - 9pm
Tiny’s Hotdogs on Division Street
(Come early for great food!)

After hearing citizen concerns, in the end, the Park Board voted unanimously to consider other site locations for an archery range. Of the notable concerns, Park Board members were in agreement that their perceptions of the size of the range proposed by the Cannon Valley Sportsmen’s Club were not accurate, based on seeing the area in person at the park. Neighbors voiced their concerns of not receiving adequate (if any) notification from the City to build an archery range in the middle of this nearby park.

Many history lessons were told during the evening - the community organizing to obtain grants and donations of approximately $150,000 to establish the park, as well as the history of the Lashbrook family, who in the 1920s raised prized holsteins, marketed and sold across the country. The Lashbrooks were the “Cows” of Northfield’s motto of “Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.”

Because of citizen action, Lashbrook Park, a prairie park with grasses that grow six feet high by fall, was saved from extinction. As one participant stated, “Archery is an admirable sport for all ages, and there may be many locations to create a range - but there is only ONE Lashbrook Park.”

For more information, you can read the article in the Northfield News which recounts the Park Board meeting and results.

Thank you to all who shared their voices to save this treasure of wild prairie land!

We hope you will join us for the first of many of what we are calling the Northfield Commons Café Discussions. In these open-space circle-based discussions, all are leaders and all are learners. As part of an emerging broader effort by the Center for Sustainable Living, we are building upon the idea of creating a “Local Learning Commons” - where citizens and neighbors learn from each other, engage in creative and compelling conversations, and ultimately create their own visions and manifestations for the kind of community they wish to see.

Café Discussion - “Exploring Our Questions that Matter”
Thursday, May 15 - 7pm - 9pm
Tiny’s Hotdogs - 321 Division Street (downtown)
(come early for great food!)

Using art and conversation as a medium, we will begin to draw out that which “we care about deeply” and our “dreams of community” to form the questions that matter - those questions we must address, in the hopes of creating a more sustainable, inclusive, and desirable future community. The questions that will emerge will be the basis for future conversations and cafés. Everyone is welcome. Come as you are.

Everyone is a leader.
Everyone is a learner.

For more information, please email us! info@centerforsustainableliving.org