[Sviannouncements] Sequatchie Valley Institute - Newsletter available, including a review of 2009 activities and events

Mon May 17 14:47:27 EDT 2010

2009-2010 Newsletter and Review of SVI Events and Activities

Our newsletter is available now... Download by clicking the image or  
link below...

Earth Matters 2009-2010 – download now

2009 Review of SVI Events and Activities

Our tours on the third Saturday of each month have been very  
successful with many happy visitors.  Thanks to Alex Fear and Chris  
Gilligan for conducting the tours.
Ulinawi
Ulinawi, the neighboring community started by our former interns, Nada  
and Bradley Jones, is becoming well established now, with some great  
people helping out.  An impressive earth bag and pole framed home is  
moving upwards, and several other temporary and permanent structures  
have been built.  Projects include gardens, chickens, goats, and a  
gravity-fed water supply.  SVI building workshops are now being  
conducted at Ulinawi, which has more in-progress structures than SVI  
at this time.
Barking Beetle Conference Center
This beautiful three-floored structure, built in part with a grant  
from the Community Foundation of Chattanooga, is becoming a vortex for  
SVI events.  It provides a unique shelter high in the trees when rain  
prevents outdoor programs.   The structure also provides room for  
large groups.  Moonshadow is a beautiful venue for meetings and  
workshops, but has been bursting at the seams when numbers reach 30 to  
60 people.  Now we easily have capabilities for over 50 people who can  
meet in comfort under shelter.  We have even used it as a “campground”  
for scouts and students when the weather was too inclement to stay in  
tents.
Plans for the Conference Center
Retreats, conferences, non-profit meetings, workshops, parties, and  
more.  A current idea is to host weddings.  The Wedding Rocks, where  
Joel and Michelle were married, is a beautiful outdoor site, and the  
Conference Center provides an alternate location in case of rain as  
well as an excellent reception area.
One of our restrictions for large groups is our small parking area, so  
we are considering establishing a new location for parking.
January
January 10.  Webb School Outdoor Class Visits
January 26. Home School Day at the Tennessee Aquarium
January 30.  Johnny and Carol celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary  
by traveling to New Zealand and Australia for three months, hiking,  
camping, and learning about new bioregions, leaving SVI in the capable  
hands of Asha, Patrick, and Chris.
February
February 24.  UTC Sociology class field trip.
February 27.  Sewanee Creek Community representative visits.
The Board visioning workshop helped determine SVI goals and activities  
for the year.
A seed exchange and spring celebration was led by Cerulean.
Randall, our gardener for 2008, was joined by Trish for the beginning  
of Spring gardening .
March
March 9.  Tour group visits. Mountain Justice Spring Break Program  
with 27 student activists visit and help out with projects here.  This  
group came to discuss strategy and planning for the upcoming year in  
the struggle to stop the use of mountain top removal for coal mining  
in Appalachia.
March 28.  Spring Wildflower Hike.
March 29.  Shiitake Mushroom Workshop with 15 participants who worked  
enthusiastically to inoculate over 40 logs.  Each person took home a  
lovely inoculated log and enjoyed a delicious shiitake-filled luncheon.
April
April 7.  Class from University of the South visits for a tour.
April 12.  Second Spring Wildflower Hike.
April 15.  Visit from 6th-8th graders from Chattanooga Montessori  
School, including a 3-hr tour, lunch, and a hike.
UTC Earth Day presentation.
April 21.  David Brainerd School Senior Class visited for hike and tour
April 25.  Party for the Planet at the Tennessee Aquarium.
April 27.  Co-Sponsor of the Beehive Collective’s Presentation in  
Chattanooga about the Mountaintop Removal Poster.
Trish worked with the Bethlehem Center for children in Chattanooga  
from April to June helping to plant a garden with the children.
SVI joined the Buy Fresh Buy Localorganization in Chattanooga with  
participation in the Buy Fresh, Buy Local Food Guide.
May
May 14.  Collegedale Academy Senior Ecology Class Visit.
May 17. Patrick taught a workshop on Fermentation in Chattanooga.
May 21-31.  Food For Life had 96 participants. Programs and workshops  
were presented by 23 great speakers, including Sandor’s fermentation  
workshop and Carol’s food preservation and native edibles and  
medicinal plant hike, a shiitake inoculation workshop, and more.
Appalachian Voices, a story and portrait project about Appalachia,  
interviewed and drew portraits of the SVI staff and Food For Life  
participants.
June
June 1-5.  The Warren County School Honors Summer Program.  Fifty kids  
from Grades 1-6 came to us each day for 5 days for a three-hour hike  
and tour.  We broke them into 3 groups, each with an experienced  
guide, and took them up separate trails.  The kids were great!  We  
hope they will be able to come back next year.
June 9-15. Bonnaroo.  SVI again participated in Planet Roo, the  
ecovillage section of Bonnaroo. We built a lovely straw-bale house, as  
usual, with very elegant clay slip designs.  See our website for  
photographs. We shared our love of sustainable building with over  
90,000 music lovers, many of whom were entranced with our goals and  
our unique building skills.  We’re fond of telling the story about the  
young man who left Bonnaroo early.  According to his girl friend, he  
went home to start building a clay house!   Asha and friends performed  
on the solar stage.   Our staff sold their handmade crafts.  This  
provided much-appreciated income, as none of us are salaried.
June 23.  Creative Discovery Museum Scientist in Residence Program.   
Carol and Johnny took buckets of clay, sand, and straw to the Museum  
and, with the help of passing kids, built a cob house!  See the web  
for pictures of this exciting and educational event.
Gardens. Our interns, staff, and gardeners were busy planting,  
weeding, and harvesting.  We shared our knowledge of the enduring  
skills of canning, drying, and freezing, producing lots of delicious  
healthful products, including apple & pear butter, apple & pear cider,  
dried shiitake mushrooms, grape and muscadine juice, mead, wine, and  
tomato sauce.
July- August
Building Workshop at Ulinawi sponsored by SVI.
Gardening and food preservation projects continue.
September
Sept. 26.  Tennessee Environmental Education Association Annual  
Conference, Nashville, TN. Session:  Use Mud to Build Green-Inside or  
Out!  Carol and Johnny presented a workshop for SVI on use of cob  
building in the classroom and schoolyard, to encourage creative  
thinking and understanding of green sustainable building.  See  
pictures on our website.
October
October 3.  National Solar Tour. Thanks to Chris for organizing the  
tour this year.  More and more people each year are interested in  
alternative energy systems.
October  30.  Wine in the Woods. Over 40 people attended our yearly  
fundraiser, this year with a Halloween costume theme.  We were honored  
by seven donors with donations of wine from Tennessee vineyards.  Of  
course, our own wines, champagnes, and meads were featured.   Over 40  
people had an excellent evening, with lots of wine and food.  Our new  
conference center, Barking Beetle, provided plenty of space for  
tasting sessions, accompanied by an excellent band from Chattanooga.   
A number of people spent the night with us, and awoke to discover that  
heavy rains had brought down our creek.  People who parked on the SVI  
side of the creek were trapped till the next day!  Not many wine  
tastings end like this.  We provided meals and our unexpected visitors  
helped with clean up and hiked on our trails.
Potlucks. We began joining with our neighboring friends and  
communities in the Sequatchie Valley for monthly get-togethers and  
potluck dinners.
November-December
December  11-13.  Solstice Party and Open Studio. This annual event  
attracted many revelers.  We combined the party with a work day to  
begin raising the roof beams for the new wood-fired kiln shed in  
Sassafras Flats.  Artists in our community displayed their work in  
Barking Beetle.  Carol presented an Open Studio event at Sweetgum,  
with her pottery on display, and provided hot herb teas, cider, and  
Johnny’s famous fudge to visitors.

Chris Gilligan
Board of Directors
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sequatchie Valley Institute
1233 Cartwright Loop
Whitwell, TN 37397
(423) 949-5922 tel
svionline.org

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