Jenny Nazak

Love this Riona! I have similarly issued invitations for gatherings that no one ended up attending. It seems to be a common thing. But, I hope you never stop your efforts. I plan to keep trying as well. Doing it within your apartment complex and posting on the bulletin board sounds like a very good idea. I look forward to hearing how that goes!

Those of us who are of this mind, I'd like to think we are setting up the infrastructure for future community, when people don't have so many distractions and need their neighbors more.

Riona Abhainn wrote:Good for you Kena!  I think your ideas are wonderful and I'm glad you are off to a good start!

I wanted to do similar in my apartment so tried to have a gathering, and no one came.  All my friends had excuses.  So I think next time I'll post on the apartment bullatin board instead, and try again that way.  I'll try in early Jan. once most holiday stuff is finished.  I think once I ever get to have a house it will be better, because the address and finding it will be easier, leading to more people wanting to make the effort to come.  But for now it could be fun to build community in my complex since owning a house is so far out of reach for us for now.

This is absolutely wonderful! Wish you were my neighbor! At my place, I have a similar vision and have the physical infrastructure in place similar to what you mention. Central front living room etc. At one point I hosted a stitching group but it's sort of faded out.

I also have outdoor "porous property" on the corner of the yard. Benches, a little free library, 'zine library, etc.

Thanks for sharing, this is very inspiring. I look forward to reading the rest of your thread to see the updates.

Kena Landry wrote:
...we ended up with the idea of turning our living spaces in a "public house", in the spirit of British villages where the person who brewed the best beer in the place would open up their front-room to their neighbours.

We don't necessarily want to brew or serve alcohol (we're barely drinkers ourselves), but we'd like to use our space to host all kinds of small-scale semi-public informal community events.

Love this thread and thank you for starting it!
Back in 2010 I moved to super humid Florida. Love the beach and all that. However, the coastal climate seems to be very rough on the zippers.

Like other people in this thread, I have inherited a huge stash of buttons and threads from multiple generations of sewing kits belonging to the multiple generations of women in my family. One bag had a huge stash of Velcro.

Over the years I have managed to use the Velcro in various projects, from household curtains and screens, to rain-tub covers to, yes, replacing zippers on garments.

I inherited a huge stash of zippers along with all that, and have replaced many zippers with these zippers, until they get corroded as well and have to be replaced with other zippers. Or Velcro.

Sewing is something I enjoy a lot. And fortunately, I tend to prefer an aesthetic that is somewhat rustic and asymmetrical, so that makes things easier for me!

I love this idea and I've had similar thoughts. Ideally everybody within walking/horse-riding/wheelchair/mobility scooter distance of each other.

Ruth Jerome wrote:You know, community doesn't have to be all on one piece of land. A couple of years ago I put forth the idea of Distributed Community. In my model, like-minded people with similar goals move into a general area and meetup every weekend for group activities. It can be a garden club, or a religious thing or whatever those goals and ideas are. In a permies sense, we can create new communities in a locality without all moving to the same farm, and share ideas and help out with big projects like barn raisings.

I love this quote! Thank you for sharing.

Examples in my life include: For a few years I was housing-insecure. For most of my life I had always been able to find super cheap places to rent, which allowed me to engage in work I found fulfilling even though the work did not pay well.

but then the cheap apartments and other cheap rentals started to go away. I spent some years being very housing insecure, always worried that I might not be able to keep a roof over my head.

But I "enlarged the problem" by becoming a housing activist, pushing for more types of rental housing options.

Even after my circumstances changed and I was able to buy a house, I have never stopped being an activist for greater varieties of low-priced rental housing.

Certain options that always used to be part of the landscape, such as single room occupancy units and mobile home parks, have started disappearing, so I began being an advocate for re-introducing those types of housing. In many cases it's zoning and NIMBYism that keeps those options from being reintroduced.

Has my advocacy necessarily been effective? No immediate results in my city, but by "enlarging the problem" I joined a larger conversation, and tapped into a growing movement of people and resources. We will make a difference. People are already making a difference in some cities and towns.

If this topic interest you, you might like to check out the YIMBY movement. Yes In My Backyard.

Kenneth Elwell wrote:I'm reminded on the one hand of this quote: "If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it." - Dwight D. Eisenhower.

What a great thread!

This is a topic I've given a lot of thought to, as a single person with no children. A couple years back I had an attorney (who is also a neighbor!) draw up a living will, Last Will & Testament, and power of attorney documents for me. It only cost about US$500 which I felt was a very worthwhile investment.

My lifestyle is very different from that of my siblings. I dropped out of the middle class many years ago, and my income has been at or well below the poverty level for some years now. I don't believe in keeping a lot of money around; I don't invest in Wall Street or other funds etc.

I am a huge believer in the eight forms of capital. The idea that there are so many different kinds of capital other than money, and that they are in many ways much more stable. Examples include buildings, tools, and social capital.

Because my financial path has been very different from that of my siblings, who have regular jobs and 401(k)s and that kind of thing, I felt it was particularly important to try to make sure they don't get stuck with some kind of financial burden should I die before them. The fact that I live geographically distant from the rest of my family makes this even more important; I don't want them to have to mess with a lot of administrative stuff from several hundred miles away.

Most of my wealth is in the form of my house, which is mortgage-free. I also have a fractional ownership in a permaculture farm/learning center in another part of the state, and I keep a bit of money in the bank for home repairs and such.

Mainly I try to keep my money flowing in the local economy. Which is beneficial to me and to the local economy, but my siblings are not going to see financial benefit from that.

One thing I haven't done yet, but plan to do, is write up a letter about my philosophy of finances and life. So that if I die suddenly, they might not agree with my unconventional money choices but they will at least know that I gave respectful thought and loving care to how I spent and used my portion of the inheritance that we got from our parents.

Rachel, I love that you brought up the concept of "using money less". In my first Permaculture class, one of the things we learned early on that stuck with me was "Reduce your need to earn." I realized that that was what I had been doing for years, and it's very powerful; gives a person a lot of flexibility and freedom.

By the way, thank you Rachel for your lovely review of our book! 💚

Also thanks for the reference to Hemenway's _Permaculture City_; I haven't yet read that but you reminded me it needs to be on my list!


"I bring this up often, but it's because I love the idea: in Hemenway's Permaculture City, he discusses how people are used to thinking of being thrifty as "using less money" which is good, but it's even better to "use money less"

I *LOVE* finding so many fellow stitchers on this forum! Am really appreciating all the "threads" related to sewing.

Myself, I am mainly a hand-sewing person. It started with me not having the mechanical aptitude (or any nearby repair person) to keep a sewing machine in working order -- even my grandmother's old pedal-powered one which I started learning on at age 8 thanks to Grandma, and inherited some years back.

But, hand-stitching soon became my preferred mode because it is so easy and portable and because I have been quite pleasantly surprised at how well the repairs I do hold up!

Thank you everyone. I particularly love the pink "tick pants"!

Typing on phone, can't always see the names of who I'm responding to while I type, and my short-term memory isnot the best 😂😂😂

but really appreciate you all and look forward to many more THREADS! 💚🌏🦋

The climate where I live (coastal Florida) is so salty & humid that even thick tin cans decompose quickly. I use some as rainwater scoops, some as windchimes, some as candleholders, and some as containers for screws & other hardware, some as pencil & paintbrush holders.

Once they are rusted beyond a certain point, I add them to the "midden" hill at the back of my yard. They disappear quickly.

YES! I take a similar approach. Also I usually use the same stainless-steel dish & spoon for every meal. It doesn't need to bewashed everytime (for example, if I ate a sandwich and only dry bread crumbs are left in the dish).

Dishes that are greasy, I will often put them outside and let the ants clean off the grease. Washing is then easy.  

Jan White wrote:I've gotten good at minimizing dishes. ...
If we use a cutting board to prepare something, we'll often eat off of it, too. I don't wash a cutting board unless it's actually dirty. Brushing off crumbs or giving it a quick wipe is usually all it needs. I cut up some beets for lunch today. The cutting board is still pink. That doesn't bother me.
We reuse drinking jars many times before washing.