On Martin Luther King Day, we woke up to snow on our pastures and drove from Floyd, VA, through the stunning Grayson Highlands, laced with beautiful rock walls blanketed in ice sculptures like these.
Our drive along highway 58 kept us almost always creekside as we passed through Jefferson National Forest.
We crossed the Appalachian Trail three times, and the third time was in "Trail Town USA", othrerwise known as Damascus, Virginia. (photo below found online)
The Appalachian Trail runs right through the heart of Damascus, home of the annual Trail Days Festival held at the end of May. Each year the Trail Days Festival draws in excess of 20,000 tourists and current and past AT hikers (more than twice the town's population), making it the largest single gathering of Appalachian Trail hikers anywhere. Here are a couple Trail Days images from previous years (not taken by us):
While there we stopped of at one of the town's many outfitter/hiking supply/outdoors-centered shops and chatted with an older-generation Damascus native for an unplanned hour. I'd say, beyond getting more info on area trails, the most valuable thing we learned from our new friend is that we can visit the area in early summer and pick wild blueberries to our hearts delight -- looking forward to that one!We stayed the night in a hotel in Knoxville, TN, and on inaguration morning we visited an internationally renowned organization that was instrumental in building the civil rights movement: Highlander Center, which just celebrated its 75th anniversary last year.
Highlander recently purchased a neighboring 500-tree orchard (mostly apple and some peach). They plan to transition the orchard to organic and are in the process of hiring an intern to assist with that work. Dan and I put our hearts into the application, but accepted jobs elsewhere last week having thought that Highlander had already filled the position.
We visited anyway, and during our tour were shown images of Rosa Parks (who trained in activism there), Martin Luther King, and Woody Guthrie sitting next to the founder of Highlander, as well as articles written about Highlander’s (then) highly controversial mixed-race events where blacks and whites are seen dancing together and enjoying it! How you can spin this in a negative angle is beyond my understanding.
While we were at Highlander, the U.S. swore in its first ever mixed-race president. We drove away listening to the radio broadcast of Obama’s speech and were deeply moved by our day's experience. Change may be slow, but change does happen. Let us hope for similar change in our country’s economic patterns. Let us hope that this administration sticks to an agenda of creating more sustainable, localized economies and food systems for the health and well being of Americans, and for the health and well-being of people in countries currently oppressed by unsustainable and exploitative patterns of hyper-globalized consumption.
We spent the next 5 days in Chattanooga, participating in the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG) Conference. I attended a 2-day class on Pricing and Profits for Small Farms and Dan attended a 2-day class on Growing and Marketing Cut Flowers. We then separately attended back-to-back 1 ½ hour sessions for the next two days of the conference covering topics as broad ranging as Growing Gormet and Medicinal Mushrooms, Multi-species Grazing, Hoophouses for Season Extension, Taxes, Cover Cropping to Balance Soil Nutrients, Record Keeping for Organic Certification, and Creating and Meeting Local Demand. It was all very educational, but in my opinion no sessions were quite as fun as the facilitated networking sessions where we met other farmers from Virginia and made some really valuable and meaningful connections with folks.
After the first networking session we got together a crew of 18 young Southern farmers (new friends and old) and went out for Mexican food, mob-style:
We took the following photo of all the former CASFS (UCSC Farm & Garden) apprentices who attended this conference.
From the top left: Mike (06&07), Noah (07), Katie (07&08), Me (honorary 07&08), Dan (07&08)…
From the bottom left: Kelsey (07), Josh (07), Beth (08), Catherine (06&07), Brendan (02), and Mark (82). What a crew!
I was so immersed in the conference, I didn't take any other photos besides this one of our incredibly impassioned closing-night speaker, John Ikerd, self labeled "Ordained Economist" who made a moving presentation on "Why Sustainable Farming is Critical to the Future of the World." He focused on how our national food security and the future of humanity depend on the sustainability of family farms. He went on for a half hour and had us feeling like we were in church. I will try to send a short clip of his speech to folks on our email update list.
One of the biggest highlights of our time in Chattanooga was our visit to William’s Island Farm. Last November (07), I returned from Peace Corps and joined Dan and his co-apprentices Noah, Ryan, and Kelsey, on a cross-country roadtrip from Santa Cruz, CA, to Chattanooga, TN. The “Tennessee Three,” as we called them then, were invited by the Tennessee River Gorge Trust to start an organic farm on William's Island, and offered start up funds for the project. William’s Island is a 450 acre island in the middle of the Tennessee river. There are no roads leading to the island, to get there you must go by boat, and until the start of the William’s Island Farm no one was living there either. Useable conventional/coal-powered electricity does not exist on the island, nor does plumbing, or any other such amenities. It was basically a blank slate when we went with the boys to visit it for the first time last winter.
The following series of photos show the island one year after Noah, Ryan, Kelsey, and their local farming partner Ashley arrived on the scene and began building it into a farm.
Here is a photo of Noah taking Dan and I to the island via canoe (we were the first of the day’s 9 visitors to arrive):
After a brief wooded hike, we were greeted by this fine furry farm residents, Malaki and Butternut:
Then, from their tent, came Kelsey and Ashley to greet us – both natives of eastern Tennessee (Noah and Ryan are from California).
Dan presented Kelsey and Noah with their belated holiday gifts, “Sow Your Wild Oats” shirts that Dan designed and silkscreened himself.
While waiting for the rest of our friends to arrive, Kelsey prepared tea from herbs grown on William’s Island, and Dan and Ashley prepared an almost entirely William’s Island grown breakfast for twelve:
Here’s the crew together in the unfinished kitchen made of mostly recycled materials, digging into the delicious breakfast of grits with scrambled eggs and purple cabbage:
Despite being separated on all side from the mainland, the William’s Island farmers have access to the valuable marketing tool of high speed internet. Their basic electronic needs are met with solar power. They have an outhouse, but for now have to use off-farm bathing facilites.
Our tour of the farm began with a walk into the cozy warm greenhouse. Most of the year the structure is entirely heated by passive solar, but there is also a wood-burning stove installed for surprise freeze nights or periods of time with little sunlight. The bottom sides of the greenhouse prop open for ventilation. The corn on the floor is for the consumption of the MANY varieties of laying chickens living on the farm.
Next, we stopped by the sheep pen to visit the island farm's baby Polar Bear… errr, uhh, I mean Great Pyrenees puppy. As painfully cute as this fur-ball is though, it’s necessary to minimize human cuddling and play with him, as he is a farm worker “Livestock Protection Dog," not a pet. He's been put in with the sheep at a young age so that he can begin to bond with them, see them as his pack, and develop the desire to protect them from any predators that may come.
William’s Island Farm has two goats they milk for personal dairy consumption, and a couple dozen sheep that they raise for meat to sell at market.
Awww!
I can’t even list all the different varieties of chicken that produce eggs on the farm… there’s got to be somewhere between 6 and 10 I’d guess. The mobile coop is home-made from recycled materials… speaking of recyclables, note the steel reclamation plant visible on the mainland in the background.
Though the island is physically separated from the rest of Chattanooga, the sounds of urban life are oft-present. There are houses on the hillsides and a high school right along the banks that have near-full views of all goings on on the island. The William’s Island Farmers always get a kick out of meeting the folks on the mainland that watch them work daily. One family even uses a telescope for such purposes!
To gain some privacy, farmer housing was built under the cover of thick trees out of view of locals.
Here is Noah’s open structure home (burrrr!):
Ryan’s open structure home is below. He was visiting family in California while we were in Chattanooga, but will return to the island in a month or so with his ladyfriend and the soon-to-be fifth member of the William’s Island collaborative, our dear friend Felicja!
Ashley and her gentlemanfriend Kelsey share this canvas tent, which has the added benefit of being heated by a wood stove:
We continued on a walking tour of part of the island… .
Below, our new friends from Louden County Virginia, Rob and Stephen, play around at the wetland area of the island, which has a healthy beaver population. The bridge was whiped out by rising waters years ago, and here Stephen balances on an unattached portion of the bridge while Rob tries to reach for it and draw it toward land. 
Before ending our tour we circled up in the field where, perhaps unbeknownst to the folks who put a CONSERVATION easement on the island, GMO (genetically modified) conventionally grown corn is produced – fertilized by human sludge. "Human sludge" (or "night soil") is not to be mistaken for safer, more thoroughly composted "Humanure" that one might get from a composting toilet. Human sludge is a much more dangerous and toxic material that includes not only raw human feces but also other substances found in sewers. YUCK! For the sake of the development of this “sustainable island” I hope these toxic practices end soon.
One of the biggest highlights of our time in Chattanooga was our visit to William’s Island Farm. Last November (07), I returned from Peace Corps and joined Dan and his co-apprentices Noah, Ryan, and Kelsey, on a cross-country roadtrip from Santa Cruz, CA, to Chattanooga, TN. The “Tennessee Three,” as we called them then, were invited by the Tennessee River Gorge Trust to start an organic farm on William's Island, and offered start up funds for the project. William’s Island is a 450 acre island in the middle of the Tennessee river. There are no roads leading to the island, to get there you must go by boat, and until the start of the William’s Island Farm no one was living there either. Useable conventional/coal-powered electricity does not exist on the island, nor does plumbing, or any other such amenities. It was basically a blank slate when we went with the boys to visit it for the first time last winter.
The following series of photos show the island one year after Noah, Ryan, Kelsey, and their local farming partner Ashley arrived on the scene and began building it into a farm.
Here is a photo of Noah taking Dan and I to the island via canoe (we were the first of the day’s 9 visitors to arrive):
After a brief wooded hike, we were greeted by this fine furry farm residents, Malaki and Butternut:
Then, from their tent, came Kelsey and Ashley to greet us – both natives of eastern Tennessee (Noah and Ryan are from California).
Dan presented Kelsey and Noah with their belated holiday gifts, “Sow Your Wild Oats” shirts that Dan designed and silkscreened himself.
While waiting for the rest of our friends to arrive, Kelsey prepared tea from herbs grown on William’s Island, and Dan and Ashley prepared an almost entirely William’s Island grown breakfast for twelve:
Here’s the crew together in the unfinished kitchen made of mostly recycled materials, digging into the delicious breakfast of grits with scrambled eggs and purple cabbage:
Despite being separated on all side from the mainland, the William’s Island farmers have access to the valuable marketing tool of high speed internet. Their basic electronic needs are met with solar power. They have an outhouse, but for now have to use off-farm bathing facilites.
Our tour of the farm began with a walk into the cozy warm greenhouse. Most of the year the structure is entirely heated by passive solar, but there is also a wood-burning stove installed for surprise freeze nights or periods of time with little sunlight. The bottom sides of the greenhouse prop open for ventilation. The corn on the floor is for the consumption of the MANY varieties of laying chickens living on the farm.
Next, we stopped by the sheep pen to visit the island farm's baby Polar Bear… errr, uhh, I mean Great Pyrenees puppy. As painfully cute as this fur-ball is though, it’s necessary to minimize human cuddling and play with him, as he is a farm worker “Livestock Protection Dog," not a pet. He's been put in with the sheep at a young age so that he can begin to bond with them, see them as his pack, and develop the desire to protect them from any predators that may come.
William’s Island Farm has two goats they milk for personal dairy consumption, and a couple dozen sheep that they raise for meat to sell at market.
Awww!
I can’t even list all the different varieties of chicken that produce eggs on the farm… there’s got to be somewhere between 6 and 10 I’d guess. The mobile coop is home-made from recycled materials… speaking of recyclables, note the steel reclamation plant visible on the mainland in the background.
Though the island is physically separated from the rest of Chattanooga, the sounds of urban life are oft-present. There are houses on the hillsides and a high school right along the banks that have near-full views of all goings on on the island. The William’s Island Farmers always get a kick out of meeting the folks on the mainland that watch them work daily. One family even uses a telescope for such purposes!
To gain some privacy, farmer housing was built under the cover of thick trees out of view of locals.
Here is Noah’s open structure home (burrrr!):
Ryan’s open structure home is below. He was visiting family in California while we were in Chattanooga, but will return to the island in a month or so with his ladyfriend and the soon-to-be fifth member of the William’s Island collaborative, our dear friend Felicja!
Ashley and her gentlemanfriend Kelsey share this canvas tent, which has the added benefit of being heated by a wood stove:
We continued on a walking tour of part of the island… .
Below, our new friends from Louden County Virginia, Rob and Stephen, play around at the wetland area of the island, which has a healthy beaver population. The bridge was whiped out by rising waters years ago, and here Stephen balances on an unattached portion of the bridge while Rob tries to reach for it and draw it toward land. 
Before ending our tour we circled up in the field where, perhaps unbeknownst to the folks who put a CONSERVATION easement on the island, GMO (genetically modified) conventionally grown corn is produced – fertilized by human sludge. "Human sludge" (or "night soil") is not to be mistaken for safer, more thoroughly composted "Humanure" that one might get from a composting toilet. Human sludge is a much more dangerous and toxic material that includes not only raw human feces but also other substances found in sewers. YUCK! For the sake of the development of this “sustainable island” I hope these toxic practices end soon.Here are a couple links if you'd like to learn more about the differences between toxic "Human Sludge/Night Soil" and non-toxic "Humanure".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanure
After a lovely couple of hours, we piled into a motorboat (lacking a working motor) with our fearless leader Kelsey…
…and rowed our way across the calm waters of the Tennessee river and back to the mainland.
For those up to date on news about the 1.6 billion tons of toxic sludge spilled out from a northeast Tennessee Coal Plant in late December that covered 300 acres of land, was up to 6 feet deep in some areas, damaged 15 houses, condemned at least three houses, carried one house straight off its foundation, and leaked large amounts of toxins such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, uranium, and mercury into a tributary of the Tennessee river – the water that you see us boating in is downstream from that spill and thus strongly effected by the spread of the "fly ash" toxins.
For those not up to date, here are a couple articles written on the topic around the time of the spill:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/26/tennessee.sludge/index.html?eref=rss_us
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst_case_scenarios/4297384.html
http://www.greenpeace.org/mediterranean/news/toxic-sludge-leaks-expose-true
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst_case_scenarios/4297384.html
http://www.greenpeace.org/mediterranean/news/toxic-sludge-leaks-expose-true
Here's a quote about the toxins, found in the second article:
"Mercury exposure is especially dangerous for unborn children, who are susceptible to neurological damage if their mothers have a buildup of mercury in the bloodstream... (In adults) continued exposure to mercury can lead to health problems such as chronic tremors and a variety of mood disorders... Besides the mercury, however, trace amounts of arsenic, uranium, nickel, cadmium and toxic chemicals makes this a nasty substance to have in the waterways—one that is difficult to test for and remove... Tennessee Valley Authority representatives said that early tests of nearby rivers showed elevated levels of lead (which in high doses can also lead to developmental disorders) and thallium (used in rat poisons and insecticides)"
"Mercury exposure is especially dangerous for unborn children, who are susceptible to neurological damage if their mothers have a buildup of mercury in the bloodstream... (In adults) continued exposure to mercury can lead to health problems such as chronic tremors and a variety of mood disorders... Besides the mercury, however, trace amounts of arsenic, uranium, nickel, cadmium and toxic chemicals makes this a nasty substance to have in the waterways—one that is difficult to test for and remove... Tennessee Valley Authority representatives said that early tests of nearby rivers showed elevated levels of lead (which in high doses can also lead to developmental disorders) and thallium (used in rat poisons and insecticides)"
Despite this, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), who owns this plant and others in Tennessee, along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who seem to represent the opposite interests of their title, have deemed that the amount of these chemicals dumped into the landscape and waterways of the region (including groundwater and a tributary of the Tennessee river) are "safe," or at least "within legal limits." I don't know about you all, but I don't want ANY of that stuff in my water. For our own health and safety, Dan and I did not drink any of the local tap water while we were visiting Chattanooga.
This spill covered an area 48 times larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, but news reports on the topic have been mostly untouched by mainstream media. Most coal plants across the country (even so-called “clean” coal plants) have the same earthen holding facilities that busted open and spilled from the Kingston, Tennessee, coal plant this winter.
One month later, there was another accident at a coal plant run by the Tennessee Valley Authority. 10,000 gallons of slurry spilled from a retention pond at the Widows Creek Fossil Plant in Alabama. Some of this waste also escaped into the Tennessee River, and is most certainly in the ground water... There are many other instances like this, they're just not publicized.
Several states have their own initiatives responding to this issue. To get involved, you can look up your local environmental group. Here's what West Virgini is doing:
http://sludgesafety.org/how_to_help/index.html
And here's a letter to governers being circulated by several state environmental groups:
http://action.1sky.org/t/1981/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=872
Several states have their own initiatives responding to this issue. To get involved, you can look up your local environmental group. Here's what West Virgini is doing:
http://sludgesafety.org/how_to_help/index.html
And here's a letter to governers being circulated by several state environmental groups:
http://action.1sky.org/t/1981/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=872
Thanks for letting me get all environmental. I applaud anyone who kept reading through my rant. Being informed and informing others seems just as important an avenue as any.
Stay tuned... in a week or two we hope to have more Floyd updates, hopefully with photos of our future home and jobsite.
Many blessings to all.
