Salad Garden Update Everything is almost ready!

Hello Bloggers,

I am back with a garden update. I have had some interesting battles over the last month and a half with whiteflies and to no avail with the treatments I have tried. I lost most of my big boy hybrid tomatoes and have had all the peppers stunted also. The pepper sprays and cleaning leaves daily is not effective enough. I am about to harvest my lettuce for the salad and could do it now but waiting on the second round of tomatoes from early girls to finish up and maybe a few okra will be ready as well. My cilatro has been growing like a weed, but choreander not so much. The carrots have finally taken off but are very small and from seed is a longer process to harvest so probably will not have carrots for a months or so. The hawaiian gourd plant is getting big and doing well. Sweet potatoe is going crazy its taking over but is going to be a great harvest for this plant. Parsley is starting to wilt but still big and watermelleons are just starting to fruit. the garden oberall was successful so far and I only lost cucumber,big boy tomatoes, and most of the carrots. I have gotten more seeds so wil be adding to the garden soon several sqaush types, eggplant, peppers and cantelope. Thanks for reading Jon M Ellison

KanuHawaii Extra Credit post

Hello bloggers,

Its Jon here and wanted to tell everyone about this website and its positive impacts for communities in Hawaii. heres the link http://www.kanuhawaii.org/

The site is nice and well put together and has a wealth of info on Hawaii and sustainability. One thing that caught my eye when looking through the links and content was the campaign tab with all there current and past campaign's to make Hawaii more sustainable and green. The eat local challenge was cool and is simular to the planet green channels' tv show called 100miles. The idea here is to eat only things from local producers of vegetables, meats, and products. I have been slowly trying to do this entirely for a month to see if I could but am haviung trouble finding all the outlets for island produced local kine grinds to buy. I have only bought maui beef, maui grown veggies, and reduced my frozen food intake which have huge carbon loads getting them here. I have not turned on my oven in seriously 3 months and has made a huge difference in costs, carbon footprint, and health for my family. I would like to eventually make it completely Hawaii produced goods once I have all the places selling, seasons things are available, and with a cost effective manor and my personal garden going with more of a variety then my current salad garden going now. With these processes in line I will break free from the jet fuel for food situation we all have if we eat something not from Hawaii. I like the website hasd so many other ideas and cool stuff I would have never thought of thats easy to do and woudl truly help us all like carpooling and how much is saves annually or maybe to just get your voice heard and how to get yourself and your green messages out through local and state gov. agency and these are just a taste of whats going on inside their site so check it out! good stuff and even if you do not live in Hawaii the info is good for anyone world wide so cheak it out and see what Hawaii is doing to save the PLANET! Go Green Hawaii
Aloha for Reading Jon M Ellison

Jon Ellison: Contribution Green Power Science

Hello bloggers

I want to tell eveyone about a cool youtube channel I subscribe to that has a wealth of cool green stuff to build and use. heres the link--> http://www.youtube.com/user/GREENPOWERSCIENCE



This video is a cool ideafor a suntracker for your solar panels DIY style to save money and resources getting one made and shipped in to Hawaii.It can be made from old car parts for free in a little time. He has so many cool videos I have watched them all and will be trying some of his ideas soon. I recently got an old satalite dish I will make into a parabolic mirror to mess with free hot water ideas and maybe a solar cooker for food! heres the solar dish video.



Well just wanted to share this with you guys since these projects are green and really cool to do for free or very inexpensive to reduce.

APA- Site Author Dan Roughhaus and has a website also www.greenpowerscience.com he has had this channel may 27, 2007 and has 17,000+ subscribers to his youtube channel.

Communication, Media, and Social Change

Hello Bloggers,

My post today will talk about the links off the module in this post. The first link was http://broweryouthawards.org/ a website about young people trying to make a positive change around the world with New Leaders Initiative supported by Earth Island Institute a global organization for making change for tomorrow. This site was nicely done and had lots of stuff and interviews with young people around the world doing their part to make our World a better place. I thought Robin Bryan and his mission to save boreal rainforest was amazing and impressive how much he has done. He has saved over 1 million acres from industrial logging which is amazing at the age of 21. I next looked at http://mediastudy.com/media.html which was a kind of plain website that had some interesting stuff about media and eye opening stuff about television programming and its effects on people. I read about the society of TV eradication and they said an hour of violent TV watched can cause violent behavior in its viewer a very disturbing and interesting study. The GO video was cool and had a lot of questions about GMO that they answered and talked about I feel really bad that GMO's could and have already begun to destroy the purity of seed stocks of certain plant species and that they threaten to contaminate the rest of natural genetics out in the wild from stray pollens.

~Sacred Demise *Extra Credit*

The interview with the author Carol Baker of her book Sacred Demise has been a eye opening interview for sure. The lady talks about our collapse of indutrialism supported society and an economic change for supplies globally. she said she thought it began july of 2008 and now its going to become more exspensive and less available for world resources. The perspective is a little excessive to me personally although I do agree with alot of what she says. I do not think we will become starved and collapsed civilization but rather transform our consumptions perspective and norms to accomidate these resource availability changes. Ideally we would need to figure out transportation first because each person who fly's produces 2.5 tons of carbon each way, making Hawaii the most non-green economic engine driven state probably in the US. We can and will change our ways to acert earth's systems to preserve ourselves. The world is a global village and we have to make changes to make our world survivable for humanity to grow. She talks about the denial in modern peoples society of America today with the perspective of a global system collapse. I think that this is probably the most important issue she covers and is a very interesting question to ask ourselves. What would happen to the people in cities and urban areas if we did have a serious supply reduction in resources? People in these settings are not as able to become sustainable where they live. I like the video overall after viewing the interview. I have lived in inner cities and rural areas throughout my childhood giving me a insight to both sides of life in America and will say I see the people in cities being in real trouble if this scenario ever did unfold for America. I like how she talks about taking responsibility for these outcomes from her generation. I feel she was pretty humble for admitting wrong for her generation and the story about her saying sorry to a young person for be apart of what has been done to our world. She says to them you may not realize now but later you will for sure and that she was sorry was really humbling and made me feel for her. I was shocked she admitted that her generation created alot of todays problems. I would recomend this video to watch and take in for your own choice. If you would like to watch it here's the video below from youtube enjoy and thanks for reading my post.

Aloha Jon M Ellison

Social and Environmental Justice in Hawaii

Hello Bloggers

I looked at the video links posted the other Hawaii and the video about Kahoolawe. The first video was so sad about the homeless and misplaced people of a sovereign nation. The video talks about the people who were homeless and have issues with western society perspectives. The video shows some of the homeless from Maui across from our harbor here in Kahului. The good update to that film is that there are no more homeless people there because the state helped them relocate into shelters, homes and apartments. The Maui news said only 2 of the 80+ people relocated from the harbor jetty refused help and remain homeless. The video talks about the problem with real estate prices being higher by five times the national average. The clip talks about tent city on Oahu which is apparently real bad and they interview some people living there. The people talked about the forcing of Hawaiians from all beaches systematically due to law changes and perspectives of these people and their way of life. The historical info was cool and had pictures of the annexation and talked about the overthrow and how Hawaii became a state mentioning the apology bill recently created from this.

I feel that Hawaii was unfairly changed and now had irreparable damage from this and is all from greed and consumption and resource. Until we as a society see that our lands and plants and animals among us are we truly have and when they are gone we will surely go after. I saw one of my professors from MCC Kalei and he talked about the military presence and affects briefly. That man does a talk about the affects and problems the military have and still cause for Hawaii in his class that's insane and shocking. He knows more than most if not anyone else non military about their presence and affects on the Hawaiian Islands. He is very knowledgeable and if you can check out a class from him.

I agree with the film that things need to change to better the people and create understanding between different minds so we can all live and be ourselves safely and comfortably. The link about Kahoolawe was good also and talked about the military impacts and history of the island. The impacts on the island after it were returned from the military. The clean-up effort being done and anti-erosion tactics to try and restore the biota to a healthier state are ongoing a expensive not to mention dangerous. This is a typical retard maneuver by our government back when people knew nothing and based their actions of a finite amount of knowledge. The army has always acted before they think properly about most things hence the national budget is 51% for the Military. I am glad we are still free in the USA but I feel we could have probably done it without ruining atolls and islands along the way. I would bet on it if we could go back and try again. The links were good and got me in touch with some serious issues right here in our own backyard not some far away city or plant that's needs help, but ourselves right here in Hawaii.

I hope we all help and heal this great place for our future generations to experience and learn from to be conscious and aware of our affects and change to influence everyone to be green and healthy for a better life for us all.

Thanks for reading my post Jon M Ellison

Sustainability and Education

I read the links and info for this section and learned a lot. I was interested in the website Children and Nature network. This site was cool and made well. I looked through the links and stuff in their website and learned about all the different social programs they are a part of to reconnect children with nature. The project for urban children and gardening what they called a learning garden that's interesting to read about it and its positive effects on the communities that participate. They are partnered up with the National Parks and do lots of activities. The video on their home page was interesting and talked about the education program within the Rocky Mt. National Parks and why it's important to preserve these things for future generations. I have personally been to that park and loved the visit and experience I had there. The park apparently has a worry that the future generations may not accept stewardship and could cause us to lose it forever. The junior ranger program is too cool right? I wish I could have done that when I was a kid. The internship programs are something that's great and they talk about the program and interview a girl getting her PHD from a fellowship and internship at the park. That would be so cool to go to a national park and get a grade for it. The girl was apparently a junior ranger when she was eight so the program does have a lasting positive affect through these social programs and learning opportunities. I have been inspired by this video and will definitely donate to the box next time I take my children to the national park here on Maui. We have a responsibility to ourselves to take care of our creator mother nature.

I also clicked through Dragons Eye and this was a great site and I wish it was on Maui for my kids because I would sign them up, but we do not have that here. The place is a great idea and really has a focus in the right direction for the future. They teach everything green it seems like. They talk about events, talks, and programs from solar power to microorganisms in the soil. The fact that it's a facility that truly is sustainable and off the grid making a great practice what you preach example for showing young people it can be done and is actually better for you and everyone around you. They are a working agriculture business that I found very interesting and how its can be a teaching tool as well as a means of sustaining the facility itself financially. I like this place and wish I knew about it when I live on Hawaii, but this inspires me to encourage a similar place to develop on Maui for a green learning outlet for kids that's not a expensive option like Waldorf. The club is great and seems to have a lot of community service related activities like their Earth day booth, or the service learning projects. The site is good and has lots of cool links and videos and would recommend anyone to check it out and get involved if you live on the island of Hawaii.

Greencollartech.com was the last site I will talk about in this post this is an ok site. I did not like the navigation style but did like the snapshot features to preview a links page before clicking it. The site has some information but not as much as I would have liked to read about. They have a green jobs section I clicked in hopes of seeing a job listing but there were none. There was a link that I read about the sustainable future for Honokaa NHERC. This looks like a cool class to take for a few days to learn more about sustainability in your area not just in general. After learning more about sustainability I have realized that what's good for one man is not necessarily good for another! The sun exposure times, wind speed averages, soil conditions, native plants and so on all affect ones' ability to create or maintain sustainable practices in some ways or another. The ability to learn from a professional perspective about your specific area is so lucky for the people of Honokaa. I have read about people having to pay money for assessments and studies to see more about a specific area, its opportunities and pitfalls, for resource availability. The website has a blog also I click through it and read some of the announcements and posts had some interesting stuff but mostly related to Hawaii so was nit as interested in all the content I reviewed but very informative posts definitely. The internship link was cool I like it but could not take it from Maui so was cool to read what you do and what's expected and looks like a good internship.

Thanks for reading my post Jon M Ellison

Gardening (Salad) Update

Hello Bloggers,

I have another garden update today. The early girl hybrids are about done fruiting with a pretty good harvest from start to finish I got about 12 tomatoes per plant and had 3 plants total.

The plants are being eaten by whiteflies and have taken ACTION! I am using some Hawaiian Chile peppers and water to spray the underside of the leaves and it seems to be working so far but they are getting pretty bad. The plant that seems to be fueling them is my purple sweet potato plant (Uala). Hopefully it will work, and will post update later on. The Okra is getting bigger and strawberries are running all over.

The Cilantro is growing well, but the Coriander is growing but does not seem to be getting bigger as quick as the other plants. I have also noticed there are aphids and the ants seem to be milking them because they protect them when I try to spray them. I wish the ants would eat them but no such luck. The big boy hybrids are doing well, but have been a little wilted on their tops and eaten on the bottom branches. I recently got my gourd seed to germinate and is doing great. The lettuce is finally taking off fancy green romaine is getting bushy and the fancy red leaf is also doing well, but the potted plants are still small and the plants recently put into the ground are still recovering from root shock and have had little growth since transplant. Watermelon vine is running like crazy and have a few blooms. I got advice from local farmer to cover the melons in panty hose to keep them from being stung by a wasp we have here.

The pepper plants that are still a mistery to what variety they are are starting to bloom on 3 of the 4 plants and have whitefly problem but pepper solution is working wel for these little guys.

The garden overall is doing well and I have only had problems with carrots sprouting due to old seeds resulting in only three carrots and whiteflies. Thanks for eading my update and go garden

Aloha Jon M Ellison

Personal Story

I read our professor Dr. Becker's blog post #3 and was moved by her perseverance to make it here in Hawaii with the rats, centipedes and boars. The Finger Lakes workshop is pretty cool looking. I went to the website and looked at the stuff and watched some of the videos and they looked super eco neat for kids. I am a parent and wish I could take my kids to this workshop. The fee is only 30 bucks which is so cheap and looks like there's tons of stuff to do. I was shocked and impressed that it would be an event not for only the wealthy but everyone because of supporters absorbing costs to hold the event. I was thinking about how all this relates to my own story of life and would like to share with whoever is reading this my eco story.

I was a typical American kid growing up in a suburban town and played sports and actively involved with activities throughout my childhood. I became a senior in High school and was thinking about trying out for college baseball teams around the country and maybe even a track team in Europe if the baseball thing did not work out. I had applied at Pepperdine, Ohio state, Indianan State for baseball. I then had been in a fight with a childhood friend and became seriously injured from him assaulting me and then a car passing by, running over me during the fight! It was an unfortunate accident but sparked a change in me for the better. I had to be disabled and wheelchair bound for some time. The process was about a 2 year ordeal and during that I had a lot of time to think about myself and the world around me. I became more interested in life and learning. This road brought me to Hawaii on a scholarship from the Chickasaw Nation and has helped me to see the world with a better informed view about it in certain light. After being in school for some time now I did not need the eco class but, had been drawn to want to learn more about this topic and related studies. I have learned enough to know now that this is our only permanent solution for the global biota. I have always loved nature and have always respected life from when I was a boy scout and cub scout on campouts to being involved in restoration groups in college currently. The more I learned about nature, through Hawaiian Biology, Ethno Botany, Marine Science, Hawaiian Studies classes, the more I was being driven towards eco thinking to preserve, prevent and change our systems to save our animals, plants, habitats and diversity of all life. I would like to never experience species extinction for the rest of my life and everyone that follows after me. I have felt from my experience that life is very short and we should cherish every moment we have been given to really examine our true goals in life and where we want to get to for tomorrow. I will spend my life I know in my soul trying to fix our broken planet for the sake of life itself and all of us having the right to survive. I hope we could all change really quickly and safely to preserve what we still have left from our own ignorance. Please if you have read this respect life, make changes, and go green, do not just sya it or do it for a trend or fad but because it's the only way we will save anything if we have not taken it too far already.

Aloha for Readin Jon M Ellison

Systems Theory prt. 2

I went through the links in the 4,5,6 part and watched the talk with William McDonough the Architect, I also looked at the Management Systems link as well. The video is below for the TED talk about systems integration and intelegent green design. I agree with him we need to rethink how we are living and our current systems of support for society today. His model is so cool and is completely self sustainable for 500 million people with farms on the roof-tops and water plant and solar farm. An interesting thing learned was that their waste treatment plant is actually and natural gas and fertilizer production plant. The city would profit from toilets flushing amazing! Well watch it for yourself It was very informative and interesting. The only question I have after watching the video is if China keeps doing all these groundbreaking things in an eco perspective will they set the trends for the world to model for eco living and integration or pollute us all to death making the stuff to sell us while they make profits to fuel their green growth? We need a solution fast if China keeps growing and integrating Tech into its population. If eveyone in China had a large house and a car they drove daily we would all die probably from natural systems collapse from pollution and waste and lets not forget natural resources consumption. We would be out of oil world wide in a few years probably. Watch it Now......



The link about Systems Management was very interesting it has so much info talk about information overload OMG this site has so much you could spend years to read it all. I did however spend a little time there and looked at information on casual loop diagrams and how to create them: http://www.thesystemsthinker.com/tstgdlines.html Good stuff and very interesting thanks for reading.

Jon M Ellison

Systems Theory

I watched the movie The Story of Stuff recently and was surprised at how much we have designed our systems to ruin everything. The flick was cool had these little cartoon people to show the different scenario's making it not so negative focused on the information even though it was disheartening. The point was great and 10 years of work thats alot of work we learned about in a few minutes very cool. The recycle extra credit website is a perfect beginning for changing our perception of stuff and being responsible for it when it's gone. I am going to use it myself and write a post later about it.

The Cornell website talks about three main views that are their pursuits toward a better future for everyone. These 3 main systems are subcategorized by a breakdown of each system. Here they are right from their website: http://www.sustainablefuture.cornell.edu/about/ · Energyo New Sources, Efficiency and Conservation, Global Climate Change, Mitigation, New Businesses· Environmento Biodiversity, Water, Resource Management, Agriculture, Buildings to Cities, Adaptation· Economic Developmento Poverty, Sustainable Development, Water and Food Systems, Infrastructure, Education

The correlation to culture for me when I watched this movie was easily identifiable seeing that America has no culture and so this behavior seems to be logical for filling that void of being cultureless. According to an earlier communication class I learned about how America is made of all cultures among the world and that they all come here and shed a majority of their culture after a few generations of Americanization. This results in a void in the American mind that has to be filled by something and this something is partly consumerism like the film indicated and a perception of value based on this behavior.

I see Americans evolving away from this system and becoming health driven for benefits to our natural systems and our own physical system as a person. Until then each of us have a responsibility to change because we know we should and can. With ultimate knowledge comes ultimate responsibility.

The slideshow clip was kind of cool and a neat way to get people to read something instead of using dialogue. I feel the same about our current systems perspectives and regulation mechanisms we have in place currently. The pesticide stats were surprising and scary because those are sprayed on our food, community’s and even in our homes! I never use any form of bug spray or chemical to advert natures little pests. I use a natural mechanism if available or just deal with it, because I see the stress from the bugs of whatever are less then stress from cancer or a debilitating illness latter in life from exposures. We have to wake up and change for ourselves and all other life on this earth a responsible stewards of this planet.

Thanks for reading

Jon M Ellison

Part A Conflict

Passive Conflict Resolution is what I wanted to talk about from the links and other sources I have read through. I think that using passive means to create a change for eco movements through the encouragement and recognition of peace. This will make people have a behavioral change for recognition of other living things and have a greater value for our interconnectedness and codependency we have on each other in the world. This perspective will according to gaia reading help people develop a sense of freedom to think and reduce stress that inhibits our true self being from fear and stress from making choices. We would in affect be able to truly choose without being punished like buying an EV car for 35k and a gas car for 8k both new because of the manufacturer's choice to only supply gas cars for cheap. These things would change and we could be able to freely make a collective choice to embrace all things living by doing something to prevent damage to our natural systems. We would use passive conflict resolution to achieve a more collective among people. Sweden and Switzerland are both really good countries to look at for eco modeling. I think open forums would be more popular and egalitarianism would be normal. We would not have crime and other stresses that change our societal behavior negatively inducing stress. Thanks for reading my post Jon M Ellison

Group 3 Minutes #2

COM494: Sustainability, Culture, and Communication
Group 3 Project
Hawaii Eco Village Network (HEVA)
Minutes
October 15, 2009

Members present:
Jon Ellison
Ashley Ann Meija
Jesse Potter

Called to order: 8:30 P.M.

Discussion:

The group further discussed it’s intention to make on online hub of sustainability through three different internet sites. Jon is going to go through with creating a web page specifically for the group. Ashley is going to create a MySpace page that will allow users to join as and stay connected with updates and resources we post on the page through “announcements” and such. Jesse will create a facebook page similar to Ashley’s MySpace page with more updates and resources.
Through these three pages, information pertaining to sustainability in Hawai’i and co-living will provided to users and site visitors. Articles, information resources, links, videos, and any other information possible will be posted and updated to users through Facebook and MySpace. Especially on Facebook, we hope users will join as a friend and comment on anything posted.

Contract Group 3

COM 494
Assignment 3.3:
Group 3 Contract

Our main mission is to spread “green” through a variety of communication channels, such as MySpace and YouTube. Our goal is to educate the public on sustainability and bring awareness that it is possible to contribute and start making changes, and that it starts with the individual. Our project will include a brief history on how the ancient Hawaiian’s way of living In order to stay on task and make sure that each group member is doing their part, we agreed to meet online on Thursday nights. Also, we have agreed to keep an open communication between all members so that we can succeed at achieving our project goals. Members:

Jon EllisonJesse PotterAshley Mejia

Group 3 Minutes #1

Minutes for Group 3, Meeting #1Meeting called to order at 8:30 p.m., October 13, 2009.

Present were: Jon Ellison (group leader) and Ashley M.

Ÿ Our group project is about sustainability in Hawaii and the Hawaiian culture, and the Economy.

Ÿ Ashley shared her idea on incorporating the ‘aha moku system into the project. Her idea will be presented through MySpace. It will focus on how Hawaiians came together as a community and lived pono. How each community used their resources wisely: mahi’ai, lawai’a, and la’au lapa’au. Building this project on MySpace will allow other members of group 3 to include their own personal story of their connections to Hawai’i or talk about their culture on the blogs. This site will display pictures to enhance the quality and creativity of our project.
Ÿ Jon likes the idea of social networking via the internet, such as using MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. He would like our group to develop a website with connectivity through multiple IT communication channels, as it would be informative to people who finds our site. It’ll be like an “ecospace”. Jon will work on a YouTube channel.
Ÿ Other members are encouraged to start work on their topic using Facebook, blog, or other means of communication channels. Please keep our leader informed and contact him if you have any questions. It’s important to keep an open communication.

Ÿ Next meeting will be on Thursday, October 15, at 8:30 p.m.
Ø At our next meeting we will present the progress of our assignments we’ve each made so far and discuss the next steps for our project.
Ø We will discuss further actions we need to take in order to achieve our project goals.
Ÿ Meeting adjourned at 9:33 p.m.

Ashley says:
a hui hou e malama pono.
jon says:
thats sounds sensible to show findings and discuss further actions towards our goals.
aloha

Leadership

I watched the Bill gates talk on TED.com and he talks about the education systems in America and cures for Malaria worldwide. A valuable thing learned from watching his lecture was that our current state of being can always be improved to create a better tomorrow even when it seems unlikely to affect us immediately. He talks about world problems that indirectly affect us on a level concerning all humanity. The idea that malaria is not in our country and so we should ignore it or let others solve the dilemma was his focus and how infections rise and fall over time and to help us ultimately we have to help everyone to eradicate malaria to assure we will never have to deal with it again. Bill Gates also talked about education and what makes upper cortile teachers and lower cortile teachers and what is the difference between the two. HE said that if we could make all teachers the best we could effectively rise above poverty and a lot of social problems related to education in people of our society. The talk was interesting and really made me feel drawn in and want to help through feelings of inspiration.

A community goal of mine that's eco related requiring leadership is to start the first electric vehicle conversion business in Hawaii. The goal is a realistic goal and to take a stretch further maybe after establishing a business then trying to develop a industry for this type of work. With these processes then lobby the state for law changes to make gasoline powered transportation illegal in Hawaii. This could truly make Hawaii an independent state from all imported energy requirements to sustainability for itself.

Barriers I see would be the existing petroleum businesses power hold and influence to prevent oil from being outlawed in Hawaii for everything but airplanes which I would like to be electric but probably won't happen soon. I see shipping materials a huge challenge and requiring a lot of energy to help change to a renewable energy source. I am not sure if the carbon footprint created to get everyone here off gasoline would be able to be countered by the effects of no fossil fuels in a short period of time. This problem is a serious issue for residents of Hawaii and the environment here. We have to start somewhere and why not here first to start a movement or set a example for others to follow.

I see allies with green and eco related organizations and state support concerning aid to community and our biological systems from federal funded programs as well as community support to become sustainable and cleaner for life here in Hawaii. I also see alignment with world organizations to create a model for the world with Hawaii for sustainability and independency. We could easily get aide from others worldwide who believe in our cause and want to offer advice knowledge and energy contribution and not in the form of oil! We can make changes for a better tomorrow if we apply ourselves to the problems and work through them to see the other side.

Thanks for reading,

Jon M Ellison

Garden Update growing a salad!

The garden is in full swing and things are looking good! I have harvested several tomatoes from the early girl hybrids and everything else is thriving! I have added a few additions to our garden with a coreander cutting and some green onions I bought from the store I threw in the ground. The okra has been put into the ground and is perking up and the carrots are just starting to sprout up. The strawberries are looking vigor and the lettuce in ground is starting to get bigger and the potted are getting bushier and turing red but not getting larger. I may put them all in gorund to get a bigger crop still waiting to see hwat happens over time.



Well thanks for reading the update. Go gardening!

Other emerging efforts

I want to write about the possibility of co-housing in Hilo. I think it would be the easier of the movements listed to get going in Hilo. We could easily start canvassing residents in neighborhoods in Hilo to gain popularity and support for a co-housing project. We could get an election to change a neighborhood through its association and regulating bodies with residents demanding it. Once we get people on board and a view of agreement established we would then be able to modify the rules for a neighborhood to serve a co-housing movement. We need to get people to support whatever movement we choose to do or nothing will ever work. We could use the benefits of others doing so to gain creditability and sway views. People are the reason for anything happening and what drives a movement. People will do what they think is right and if the movement for a co-housing is not presented In a way that appeals to everyone in some way we will have hard times doing anything. Hilo has a huge potential to make changes for itself if it is aware they can and should. Communication channels of all types will be needed to get it going. We could use the local and state news corporations, newspapers, internet, schools, colleges and public hearings. Together we could do it we just need time and resources and maybe a little bit of donations and support financially, but we could do it!

When Cultures Meet

I chose to write my perspective of the encounters with Native American people and the Western European cultures in the late 1700's. I am on a Chickasaw scholarship and will share my knowledge of our unique history as a people and a nation. The Chickasaw tribe made its first encounter with the European explorer Hernando De Soto in 1540 in what is now the Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Kentucky area of the United States. The first encounters were friendly and had good relations since the meeting of cultures and communication had no influences from De Soto just a contact through passing. In the later part of the 17^th century the first Euro-settlements within the Chickasaw Nation of prehistoric times habitation areas took place. The outside communication influence was definitely negative and created new perspectives for the Chickasaw people of their views of land ownership and materialism. We as a people had sophisticated laws, religion, and hierarchical power structure and were previously to western contact agrarian people similar to Hawaiians. We have facial tattooed warriors and restrictions of natural resources based on cyclic events and had a balance between what we needed for ourselves and what nature needed to grow simultaneously like Hawaiians did during the Kapu system. The Chickasaw people came to rely more on European supply and tools for society and less on their own passed down information of the environment and its secrets to life through prejudices, restrictions and racism and theft. The information passing of these valuable skill sets slowly deteriorated over passing generations and in that we lost our tradition and oral history and information passing leaving us with a shell of a culture now being rebuilt from pieces of stories through families over time. We also from the cultural meeting of another culture adopted ways of another society and tried to integrate them into our own and it did not work well. Chickasaw Native Americans became completely dependent on western society for survival and have been ever since. The exposures of other cultures presented disease and illness that ravaged our people and its culture and we were captured and forced to walk the trail of tears to Oklahoma. The Chickasaw people are now residing in Oklahoma not anywhere near our real homelands and had the Mississippi river taken and several other valuable natural resources. We have been exploited for our honey from the Tupelo blossoms of the Mississippi for its rich honey. We as a nation have suffered for being exposed to European culture without knowledge to save ourselves from their ways and technology. Today we as a nation are growing in size and strength but weakening in our bloodlines and maybe a few thousand pure Chickasaws still exist today and will probably decline until we only exist in quanta of blood and not as ourselves. I hope we will learn from this story about a people being forgotten and lost to save the ones left that are savable. We have to be conscious of our advertisement and exposure to another culture when encountering them and sharing information to change the views of each other. Seems like over looking or missing the higher information contained within that is not being seen about nature, humanity, society, and values with understanding got lost in translation or were not considered. The world is now a global village and we have, as information holders, the responsibility of doing what is right and needed to protect and save ourselves as cultures, people, and societies for our children of tomorrow and look at everything and most of all listen. I will close this with a cool saying I have heard: "You can use a ounce of prevention, or a pound of cure" I will assure you curing is much harder then preventing look at our history and you decide for yourself….

exploitation of Native Americans was terrible and we are still recovering from such dehumanization.
Thanks for reading Jon Ellison (Wolf Clan)

Other Traditional Cultures

I read about Borneo and the Penan cultures who have inhabited Borneo since 350 BCE. The link to the website is www.borneoproject.org which was in the Best Indigenous Cultures webpage. The Penan culture stood out to me when trying to decide because I loved the Borneo Planet Earth special they did and how they were worried about the species and cultures survival in the series. The Penan Culture has been based on rain forest survival and included plants, trees, fish, birds, and animals for their way of life traditionally. They have been driven further to the interior of Borneo due to logging, and farming. The government apparently recognizes the culture as having indigenous rights to survival from the resources of their native's lands, but must be recognized by maps, zoning and paperwork declaring this. The problem is the people are not able to access these resources to file or claim their land tenure. The government from bribes and other means of extortion allow companies to harvest and over farm lands where no representation can be produced for land control and rights. The people are being pushed aside and their means of life stolen. The Penan culture has nowhere to go, and have resorted to violence, protest, and blockades to entry of their last remaining rainforest resources and natural systems. The Penan culture has a right to life and I hope the world and their government will recognize this and save what's left of their once pristine rain forest and the animals that live among them!

 

The Penan culture has a strong means to communicate outside their home and culture. The Penan people have recently been protesting to humanitarian groups for an effort to save themselves and their remaining ecosystem and animal diversity for the future of their existence for their way of life. The website talks about shopping smart to avoid exploitation goods produced in Borneo to reduce the economic drive to exploit natural systems for more resource. Some organizations involved with saving the Penan and their forests are Berkley, Earth Island Institute, and the Penan people. The Penan people have sought outside influence to communicate more effectively with their governments and the corporations exploiting their resources to stop harvesting and deforestation or land for goods and farming crop production. The people are currently protesting destructive damn building projects going on right now. The Borneo steering committees have formed and stepped in to control all outside influence and financial help for these causes to be appropriately allocated in efforts to make a difference. A recent article published by Bloomberg talks about the corruption and cronyism and displacement of Borneo people and their resources. The communication efforts are showing signs of effective change and influence. I hope these forests and their inhabitants both animals and people can be saved and restored for the world to enjoy. For more information please goto their website and read about their plans and current actions to save Borneo and the Penan culture.

Broadening the Ecovillage Movement

Hello bloggers,

I read more of the Gaia Readings and hers the link www.gaiaeducation.org/docs/Beyond%20You%20&%20Me%20Ebook.pdf

For this assignment I had to look at a incredible range and wide spectrum of Ecovillage effects that are rippling through societies worldwide. The sheer magnitude I had no idea was on a scope of that magnitude. The articles talk about local and community effects and benefits in all forms. Nationally the Ecovillage movement is growing and truly impressive in size. I had never considered that it would be organized on a scope of the entire planet, but had know that the main goal is to make the planet sustainable and healthy to promote better living and growth for humanity. The ability to become intertwined into politics and world view are to me a truly great view of potential for this lifestyle and choice of living to become a standard and base model for living worldwide for a infinite growth potential for humanity being sustainable societies of tomorrow. I also learned about the problems with particular views of our society and perceptions of our culture in other peoples perspectives. I think it's a difficult thing to get people to see America for what it is truly without being confused in translation for others. The idea we never work or have machines do everything for us is nice to hear but totally insane! People are taking what the article talked about that's called Reality Tours which are tours designed to take people from underdeveloped countries and show them more developed nations and how they have neg/pos aspects of their societies as well and that people are similar and also have problems. Utopian society would be nice but the reality is that we are far from there as of currently and more people are needed to help repair, relearn, rethink and reinvent our current world to a sustainable world for tomorrow for our kids and community members of our global village. The political views are interesting to knowing that they are concerned with quality of life for outcomes of votes and backing for their goals of creating a healthier and more sustainable earth and community for everyone to benefit from. This reading was a little slow but interesting none the less and especially about their global movement and communication diffusion through global societies. The unique perspective they drive outward to change our world is amazing and I had never know about really any of it until this reading. The idea of never worrying about life sustainability would be amazing to have no rent, no food bill, no utility bills and not worry about these life stresses we all experience on some level in our lives. Go Green or Go HOME! Lol

Thanks for Reading my post and Mahalo Jon M Ellison

Virtual Visit to an Ecovillage

I looked at several of the Ecovillage locations and decided to look at Ithaca Ecovillage since I had read into the book and there were several videos and sources online to check out. I think that I would like to visit this Eco-village to see more about the actual lifestyle. I would love to get a more intimate detail and experiences you can only get by doing them. The experience would be great and would likely inspire me to create one here in Hawaii to live on. I feel the sense of connection with earth and the importance it play on our quality of life. Ecovillage at Ithaca is a pretty impressive size for its affect on earth to be sustainable.

The most intriguing thing about the Ecovillage at Ithaca is the farming and food production. I think its very interesting to be able to produce most of your food consumed. The quality and taste is a lot better than the store and leaves you knowing where your food came from and what it was grown in. China has fruit orchards and the industrial pollution is so bad they have to bag or wrap each individual fruit on the tree to prevent them from being polluted and ruined. I fear these types of things. Or round-up ready crops are another scary issue with agriculture. I would like to know where my food comes from and how it's grown before I consume it and for now that's not an option I have, but I plan to do something like this for my own sustainability agriculture for my family. I would like to also incorporate their sense of community and trust. I think of the fifty's generation when I look at the Ecovillage model and see a great sense of relaxation. To not lock your house and not worry about your car or anything like that for that matter is amazing and would be a amazing experience.

Thanks for Reading Jon M Ellison

Salad garden Update: New Sprouts and Fruiting Early Girls

Hello Green thumb bloggers

The garden is looking good today. The sprouts are finally coming up and the early girl hybrid tomatoes are finally ripening after about 70+days even though the package says 60 or less. I have them in a not fully exposed place leaving them I think a little smaller then normal and ripening a little bit later due to lack of light. Here's some photos of the garden today and yes I know I need to weed it out a little.



So the bad news so far for the garden project is that my sprouts of cucumber have all been eaten by mice so will try those again in the germination box until they are better established. I hope they will stay after I get them a little older than putting them into the ground. I started this first batch in the ground so maybe they will make it after they are more established in pots first. The lettuce never came up and had to start over and this time I got some fancy red starts from my friend in trade for some okra and watermelon starts. I am doing a experiment to see what is best for the lettuce and to reduce possibility I will not have lettuce to make my salad! I have 2 plants In the ground, 2plants in pots I put in the germ box, and 2 plants in pots I leave outside. I will see what method works best for my location, climate, and pest problems. I will see if they taste sweeter or not and compare size to determine the best method along the journey. Here are the pics! The last pic you can barely see the lettuce starts just down from the strawberries in bottom right corner of the photo.

The new additions to talk about are the peppers and cilantro cutting and sprouts of Okra and Cilantro from seeds I planted.


They all seem to be adjusting and is looking good. The peppers are fom starts and not sure what they are its from a mix seed bach from a friend and consisted of jalapeno, cayenne, habanero, chili here's the pics. The starters of okra are being tried to ways in ground seeds and germination box from seed, the pests have eaten one of the in ground starts but the other seems fine but they are both smaller then the ones in the box. This is all I have for todays updates hope you enjoyed and go gardening eat free!

starts peppers & Okra & Cilantro

Thanks for Reading Jon M Ellison

“Beyond you and me: Reading Response 1.”

Hello Eco bloggers.

I read the Gaia Education PDF www.gaiaeducation.org/docs/Beyond%20You%20&%20Me%20Ebook.pdf online from the link listed here. The article was interesting and informed about several institutions that are involved with Eco villages. Gaia Education is a project of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), which consists of a international team of teachers developing curriculum and education courses on the Sustainable Development of Urban and Rural Settlements in the US currently.

The Ecovillage Design Curriculum or (EDE) is also indorsed by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and is an official contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). I did not know or had even heard of these groups until this reading. Hildur Jackson of the Gaia Institute is the main coordinator and organizer. She has been involved with this project since 1987 with her husband and actively involved with GAIA since 1993 and has also been serving the Danish Ecovillage Network also. She originally designed GAIA for healing and then later changed toward Ecovillage direction in drive for change after living and building a permaculture organic farm. Here's the link where her bio is listed http://www.gaia.org/gaia/gaiatrust/hildurjackson/ . Co-Housing is another new thing I learned about in the reading and found it interesting that it is less expensive and more effective in dealing with community social problems and also teaches conflict resolution and community interdependency with raising children. This amazed me that children with more than one person helping raise them resulted in better problems solving skills then their single household counterparts. I also learned about other cultures that have always embraced the idea of group living and Ecovillage mindset. Trust was also an amazing surprise to me because I figured with more people around would create less trust like NYC for example, but I read that this style of living creates more intrapersonal interaction between community members allowing for a relational bond to develop leading towards more trust between its members. This whole article was an eye opener for me and has changed my perspective on living closely among other people and sharing most everything within the community. I see the huge amount of work and struggle Mrs. Jackson has endured over the decades to get where she is today. The world is lucky we have such people out there that sacrifice for our benefit to learn for a better tomorrow.

Thanks for Reading Jon M Ellison

Salad Garden Update....Sprouts

Hello Everyone its Jon

Today I went out to the garden for a quick water before I start my day and saw that alot of plants are sprounting and took some pics. The garden is coming along nicely and has been a great experience so far. I have gotten some strawberry starters which I feel is kind of cheating but felt it would be easier then waiting a very long time for seeds to sprout and mature, either way we have three 4" starters of strawberry from Kula. I also got my watermelon going and will be thinning out the mound for proper spacing in a few days. My cucmbers are slow to sprout and only just today have I even seen signs of life with a few little sprouts just breaking ground. The tomoatoes are going nicely for tyhe early-girl hybrids that I had going already, but the big boy hybrids are just sprouting as well and will need thinning soon. I also have carrots, okra, lettuce(fancy)that have yet to rear their heads. I wanted to just stop in and give an update and upload a few pics to see the progress, thanks for reading Jon M Ellison

“Scavenger Hunt Answers”


1) Who grows plants for laau lapaau? Mercedes Ritte
2) Whose dream is it to get an MFA? Alohi
3) Who survived an accident? Jessica Raphholz4) Whose a hula instructor? Robbie
5) Who was on "Hawai'i 5.0"? Anita Tupein
6) Who is taking the course from the island of Molaki? Mercedes Ritte
7) Describe one thing you read in someone's profiles that impressed or inspired you (include the name of the person whose profile it is).

Mercedes Ritte has an impressive intro man she has had experience in all sorts of green practice and was a very impressive and motivating read through. Gardening and off grid living farming and live stock she has done it on all ends seems like. That is very cool and I hope to be able to get a couple of those skills under my belt sooner than later.

Thanks for the post and for reading everyone, Jon

Gaia Experiential Learning Activity

Gaia, Experiential Learning Activity -- Page 86

I looked at I thought the gardening activity sounded good and easy to do with a little effort! I have a small space in my backyard we have already started a garden on. We have tomatoes just starting to fruit but that’s it. I plan now from this assignment to plant some more tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber and watermelon. The activity talked about making a garden to set a goal to harvest and make a salad and eat it. I have never done this so should be a challenge to make sure my crops are tended and protected from bugs and rodents. I have planted gardens previously but always never worried about making sure it survived and finished. I have grown a lot of stuff throughout my life but always seemed to have a mishap of some kind every time. I will need to get some manure and some soil and then I will make mounds for the vine variety and till the soil for the rest of the seeds. This should be fun will update my post with pics and stuff along the growth to share with fellow bloggers. Enjoy and

“Life’s a Garden, Dig it man”

Thanks for Reading Jon

After the Crash

I have finished the Course Chapters which by the way are on youtube also. I feel like I have been hyper-informed after the videos. I did not realize how messed up we were economically and its connection to oil. I would definitely change other behaviors after learning about our system from the Crash Course. I would first change my perspective on saving and preparing for shortage and disruption for food and transportation. I am currently managing a small garden now and will be expanding it to to reduce my food dependancy from the markets. I plan to covert a car to electric and use solar to charge it effectively instead of grid use. These are steps to ensure I will lower my foot print while preparing for high prices and shortages of oil and food as a result in the fuuture. I will continue to reduce use and lower my usage to do my part while preparing for what could be a seriously society change according to the video and check list. I have a lifestyle that is pretty prepared by learning about survivalism in my environment and learning about making and fixing things, building solar, wind, and water power systems. I have a tripple set of camping gear and have lots of survival tools, books, and equipment from enjoying the outdoors. I would like to add that the video and checklist are both marketing gold from their websites showing that they are using fear tactics to buy gold and also gives incentive to selectively mine data to fit their perspective and money to drive for. I do believe their is a little truth in all that's said but I also think he has not factored in all the elements that are unseen or unknown. He seems real but also mentions his data sets are reliant on thousands of ressearchers who all of which have their own agendas for grant money and jobs ect. Ect. I would hope he is very wrong but feel there are some concerns. I heard a good saying I live by "a pund of cure or an ounce of prevention" I will prepare and hope it was in vein. Thanks for reading Jon

Behavioral Change

I can change my behavior during this term by eating less meat weekly while limiting my driving for un-neccesary things like cruising and eating fast food. I know that being more aware of shower time and leaving lights on when not needed could use a little work. I think staying aware of my consumption will be the best change because I do not want to waste and would  avoid it if I were aware during the times I actually am wasting resources. I hope to change because my calculation for carbon footprint says I use 14 global acres and would like to see it reduce permanently. Thanks for reading Jon

Hello Eco Villagers

My name is Jon Ellison and welcome to my Eco-Blog. I will talk about all green related subjects and sustainabiltyplease feel fee to add my blog to your list and discussion is encouraged in this forum. Thanks Jon